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INDIVIDUALITY.
Let it be remembered that, if individual life is short, the life of the human species is not short; its indefinite duration is practically equivalent to endlessness; and, being combined with indefinite capability of improvement, it offers to the imagination and sympathies a large enough object to satisfy any reasonable demand for grandeur of aspiration.—
John Stuart Mill.
Reading of radiant change, divine advance,
Through all humanity's immense expanse,
At end of unknown ages vast in length,
With keen prophetic look I seemed to see
The miracle man's future fate would be,
His lordly knowledge and transcendent strength!
Through all humanity's immense expanse,
At end of unknown ages vast in length,
With keen prophetic look I seemed to see
The miracle man's future fate would be,
His lordly knowledge and transcendent strength!
I watched the race whence I myself had sprung
In vaguely distant days, while time was young,
Now walk the astonished earth with godlike ease.
Nature, once ruling them, now owned their power,
And Science, pointing toward her proudest tower,
Dropped humbly at their feet her golden keys!
In vaguely distant days, while time was young,
Now walk the astonished earth with godlike ease.
Nature, once ruling them, now owned their power,
And Science, pointing toward her proudest tower,
Dropped humbly at their feet her golden keys!
I watched all varied tribes beneath the sun
Gather with lovely grandeur into one,
And serve the nobler patriotism aright;
I saw the august unnavigable air
Wide-sown with buoyant barges everywhere,
Majestic shapes by day, new stars by night!
Gather with lovely grandeur into one,
And serve the nobler patriotism aright;
I saw the august unnavigable air
Wide-sown with buoyant barges everywhere,
Majestic shapes by day, new stars by night!
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Sly statecraft, greeds malign, hates lurid-eyed,
Crawled lamely into secret lairs and died,
Blessing the wearied world with sweet release;
Dark broods of savage evils, near and far,
Cowered low at wisdom's gaze, and scowling war
Wreathed her black guns with dewy blooms of peace!
Crawled lamely into secret lairs and died,
Blessing the wearied world with sweet release;
Dark broods of savage evils, near and far,
Cowered low at wisdom's gaze, and scowling war
Wreathed her black guns with dewy blooms of peace!
I marked how some large purpose was fulfilled
That power supernal had sublimely willed;
I marked, in thrilling vision, while I read,
How the full flower of manhood backward bore
From the white splendor of its dazzling core
The last rich petal, and was perfected!
That power supernal had sublimely willed;
I marked, in thrilling vision, while I read,
How the full flower of manhood backward bore
From the white splendor of its dazzling core
The last rich petal, and was perfected!
But through this dream of marvels that should be,
One strange sardonic thought came haunting me
With the mute pathos of weak yearning tears:
In all such halcyon times what joy or pain
For him whose dust inertly shall have lain
A nothingness through millions of slow years?
One strange sardonic thought came haunting me
With the mute pathos of weak yearning tears:
In all such halcyon times what joy or pain
For him whose dust inertly shall have lain
A nothingness through millions of slow years?
What message in this lofty cheerless creed
Aids personality's commandant need?
What comfort in this cold imperious plan,
Where all men, whether ill or nobly wrought
Lie crushed beneath one awful Juggernaut,
The universal commonweal of man!
Aids personality's commandant need?
What comfort in this cold imperious plan,
Where all men, whether ill or nobly wrought
Lie crushed beneath one awful Juggernaut,
The universal commonweal of man!
The love, hate, hope, fear, passion that is I,
The throbbing self that loathes to wholly die,
Disdains a future where it holds no place,
As one with lot beside the Euphrates cast
Might carelessly disdain that stately past
When Babylon's domes dared heaven, in mighty grace!
The throbbing self that loathes to wholly die,
Disdains a future where it holds no place,
As one with lot beside the Euphrates cast
Might carelessly disdain that stately past
When Babylon's domes dared heaven, in mighty grace!
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