TRUTH: Beauty is not wasted ; though it endure but for a moment. The jewels of the night are eternal. Who beheld their lighting, or who will see their light
grow dim? But they shall vanish even as the flowers vanish. The loveliness of the flowers is as eternal as the stars. When shall it pass away?
POET: I have sought to commune with the stars, But they will not answer.
Yet they seem to me not so eternal as I, myself. And not so beautiful as mine own longings.
TRUTH: Is there any flaw in the beauty of Nature, Or any w^art upon her excellence?
POET: I know not at what time.
For Nature regards not the clock of the heavens, And keeps no calendar,
But I know she will not scatter all this wonder abroad. Out of her treasure-house, in vain.
And endure the ugliness with which Man has befouled her.
TRUTH: Shall her child destroy her house of eternity, Or shall he pass into oblivion and the palace of ecstasy remain?
POET: How infinite are the riches of the palace of light. Not only the over-arching skies, the wide-spreading seas And the engirdling mountains. But the carefully painted wild-cat, The striped skunk, the spotted fawn, kittens and puppies,
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