composed. In reply, Walter Malone wrote the second selection:
I
Master of human destinies am I,
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock, unbidden, once at every gate:
If sleeping, wake—if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who follow me, reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury, and wo;
Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore:
I answer not, and I return no more.
II
They do me wrong who say I come no more,
When once I knock and fail to find you in;
For every day I stand outside your door,
And bid you wake to ride, to fight, and win.
Wail not for precious chances passed away,
Weep not for golden ages on the wane!
Each night I burn the records of the day,
At sunrise every soul is born again.
Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped,
To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb;
My judgment seal the dead past with its dead,
But never bind a moment yet to come.
Tho deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep:
I lend my arm to all who say, "I can!"
No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep,
But yet might rise and be again a man.
Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast?
Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow?
Then turn from blotted archives of the past,
And find the future's pages white as snow.
Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell!
Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven.
Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell,
Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven.
(2254)
The importance of seizing opportunities as they pass by is realized by astronomers who study the sun's corona:
The study of the corona of the sun is
limited to the few brief moments of total
solar eclipse; to some five or six minutes
every few years. For this purpose expeditions
are fitted out and sent to the most
favorable locations; and the astro-physicist
utilizes every moment of totality in obtaining
photographs and spectographs for measurements
and study.—Charles Lane Poor,
"The Solar System."
(2255)
Howard B. Gross, pleading for better conditions for the "submerged" classes, says:
The other day, after Easter, I took a lily
which I had bought for my wife—it had
withered and grown yellow—I took the ugly
thing and threw it into the back yard, and
as I threw it the pot broke, and I saw a
thousand little rootlets beating against the
pot, hungry for air and moisture, and I
planted that ugly thing in the soft and tender
soil, where the morning sun could smile upon
it, and the noonday sun not smite it, and the
fairest thing which ever grew in the garden
grew out of that despised and dried thing
which had no chance to grow. All these
people need is the full, free, fair chance
that we have had.
(2256)
Single acts and moments are fraught with destiny.
Esau filled his life with regret for trifling
one day; Esther's was full of glory for one
day's courage. Peter slept one hour and lost
a matchless opportunity; Mary's name is
fragrant forever for the loving deed of a
day. Do your best now. (Text.)—Maltbie
Babcock.
(2257)
Some men make their opportunities.
Less than sixteen years ago a clergyman
was called to two New York parishes. One
was thriving, the other was standing still,
the duty of existence growing heavier with
each year of inactivity. He chose the latter
church, because, as he said, "there was more
work to do." At that time his congregation
was never large and bad weather often made
it very small. It had a Sunday-school of less
than fifty members and the Sunday services
were practically the end of the week's labor.
People were moving rapidly farther uptown;
the churches were going with them, and St.
