1897-]
deeply practical side for all of us. The immensity of actual
knowledge may astound us; the enormousness of possible knowl
edge may appal us, but they should teach us humility; should
teach us the absurd folly of a “completed” education; should
teach us that, however industrious, however studious we may
have been thus far. in life, what we actually knoiv may not com
pare to the first line of the first paragraph of the first page of this
wonderful book; should teach us that man should realize that his
highest duties, his most lofty obligations—both to himself and to
his fellow men—are not fulfilled unless he devote his entire life to
the study, investigation, and observance of this great book of
Nature’s laws.
Then when his work on this earth is finished; when his time in
the fitting school of life will have run its source; when for him,
the sun shall set to rise no more; when the moon shall wane
to come no more; when the stars shall fade from the sky to
shine no more; when all the shining brightness and illumination
of this space, with its brilliant galaxies of whirling worlds shall
fade into darkness and blackness, and he shall fall asleep to wake
no more—then, then , may his entrance into that heavenly institu
tion of highest learning be made easier, safer, and surer because
of those splendid truths, those divine and God-given precepts,
which he has learned from that most wonderful book of all books,
given by God to man, written within and sealed with seals.
O, blithe the beautiful mouth of May,
When laughing youth are seen,
When woods are gay with the gleeful lay
Of birds in their bowers of green,
And blithe the hours when by star-eyed flowers
Are their wavering steps beguiled;
But, O, blither far than the flower-strewn bowers
Is the heart of a happy child.
Full fair the glorious summer time,
By lakes or sylvan streams,
When hearts beat high in a rythmic rhyme
To the music of long day dreams;
And fuir the sheen on the mosses green
Of the light through the vistas wild;
But, O, fairer far than a woodland scene
Is the life of a happy child.
The Woodland.
THE WOODLAND.