LIFE'S GREAT QUESTION
1886
1886
Like a rushing Alpine torrent
Fed by springs of melting snow,
Pouring downward from the distance
To the pasture-lands below,
Pours the tide of life's great questions.
Seething, foaming, as they go,
Ever changing, as they thunder
Downward from the long ago.
Science, with her vaunted wisdom,
Utters forth her mighty voice;
And the clang of war and discord,
Boasts of theories their choice;
Fed by springs of melting snow,
Pouring downward from the distance
To the pasture-lands below,
Pours the tide of life's great questions.
Seething, foaming, as they go,
Ever changing, as they thunder
Downward from the long ago.
Science, with her vaunted wisdom,
Utters forth her mighty voice;
And the clang of war and discord,
Boasts of theories their choice;
While persuasion, calm and gentle,
Mingles with the tumult's roar;
As, adown through time-worn channels,
Life's great themes and problems pour;
Till the traveler, faint and dizzy,
Gazing on the shapeless mass,
Looks in vain for truth's bright crystal
In the waters as they pass.
Looks in vain in creeds and doctrines
For that one unsullied stone,
Looks in vain in church and temple
For the truth enshrined alone.
Mingles with the tumult's roar;
As, adown through time-worn channels,
Life's great themes and problems pour;
Till the traveler, faint and dizzy,
Gazing on the shapeless mass,
Looks in vain for truth's bright crystal
In the waters as they pass.
Looks in vain in creeds and doctrines
For that one unsullied stone,
Looks in vain in church and temple
For the truth enshrined alone.
Looks in vain amid the tumult
For one attribute of God,
That has stood unshaken—never
By false doctrine downward trod.
Looks in vain to find the solving
Of the soul's immortal end;
For one attribute of God,
That has stood unshaken—never
By false doctrine downward trod.
Looks in vain to find the solving
Of the soul's immortal end;
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