Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/147

The great companions leagued, though only given
One to another by the eyes of faith.
"Comrade," he murmured, "is it thou, indeed?
Yet in the very flower of thy sweet age,
Who bringest the light of unknown loveliness?"
"But not to thee unknown, or any man
Who seeks the beam of beauty in the soul,"
Came the quick answer: "beauty there shines most
And charms men's bosoms; and, implanting thus
The seeds of awful reverence and desire,
Frees the soul's nature; it hath precious friends;
There virtue comes, and mirrors in her shield
Sweet images of virgin purity
In the heavenly mind; there godlike patience bends
The spirit of man to its unending task,
And courage feedeth it with deathless fire;
And hope, the common breath of all men's days,
Lifts over it the universal sky;
Last, honor, the best earthly friend that Love
Warms in his breast, hath in the soul itself
A sacred chapel, pure, inviolable,
Where the young spirit watches till his doom
Comes on him, and he passes to the field,
Where only Love, our lord, is sovereign;
He takes the fair soul into his embrace,

And speeds him to the combat glorious,