Our Profession and Other Poems Part 2

Then, students, beauty shall receive Instead of ashes that deceive, Their days and nights of earnest toil, Their struggles by the midnight oil Give recompense complete, refined.

FACT VERSUS FORM.

As shadows are to material forms, As mists to the copious shower As dead calms are to tornado storms That in tropical region lower So are educational fallacies That ignore and decry as naught The value and power that ever lie In the scope of original thought.

No smooth device with a soulless form Should obscure the living thought; It smothers the mind, destroys the charm That comes to him who has wrought To discover new truth, by a truth well known, On which he may safely build, Till his mental strength by use has grown To a giant strong and skilled.

When thought is secure, the reason clear, And the language to tell is pure, Abridgement comes like a friend sincere, For it cannot the mind obscure.

The wasted time on a form-clad task Steals gems from youth's precious years, Leaves a wreck on life's sh.o.r.e, we cannot mask With our sorrows and sighs and tears.

If what we have learned has given no power To acquire what yet we must learn, If all our past struggles leave not a dower To which we may joyously turn And feel that a strength within us is given Through efforts already bestowed, In vain have we lived, in vain have we striven, Each task is the same weary load.

If task of to-day shall not lighten th' one May come upon us to-morrow, It is but a proof our work was ill done, And bodes to us grief and sorrow.

Ev'ry effort of mind applied aright Augments the mental perception, For G.o.d aids the brave, and giveth a light To s.h.i.+ne away imperfection.

There's a magic power in a task well done, There's a charm in solid reason, There's a mighty force in a victory won, Which an alert mind will seize on, And with giant strength that is thus acquired March on till the fields of science And the zones of thought wherein man aspired Shall be won by self-reliance.

INTEREST.

Who has not seen the inert mind, Bowed down and sore oppressed, Start into life, and vigor find At touch of interest Some sympathetic soul has shown, By look in kindness given, Or word whose accent, cadence, tone, Gave joy akin to heaven?

No emanation from the heart Has greater power to win, Than that which lays aside all art And quietly steps in To soothe through sympathy, the cares And sorrows, one by one, Of timorous soul who scarcely dares Go forward all alone,

But needs some word of magic power To give him life and zest, Some animating heart-given dower Whose wealth is interest.

Few, few there are who know the force That dormant lies in many a brain, Who trace inertia to its source Or see how mind o'er mind may reign.

MEMORY AND REASON.

Who stores the mind with richest truth Gathered from sages of all lands, May toil through days of sunny youth, And on till Death gives his commands, But fails to call to him the aid Of Reason, Judgment, and Good Sense, Will find himself at last dismayed At smallness of his consequence.

The choicest gems must polish bear, And metals must be purged from earth, Before a l.u.s.tre they can wear That tells of their intrinsic worth.

The brain requires friction of thought, Obtained through contact with the world, With which may skillfully be wrought The mental gems research unfurled.

Who builds alone on Memory Will find he lacks a needed force To fire and set the spirit free, And move him onward in the course That tends to lead him by a way Whose goal is sure, complete success, But wanting such, can but display Chaotic ma.s.s of nothingness.

Let Memory and Reason wed, Their product then may fully know The food on which great minds are fed, The founts from which great actions flow; Each holds its share of honored meed, But each requires the other's aid To stimulate the urgent need By which great genius is displayed.

Many a brave resolution Is formed on New Year's Day To annihilate some vices That on our morals prey; But before the year is ended They go so far astray We find our lives are pursuing The old, accustomed way.

THE DESIRABLE UNDEFINED.

I have often thought there's a power Unknown to science or art, That opens and closes the portals That lead to the human heart.

I have learned there's a secret something That remains yet undefined, That touches the springs and pulleys That open the human mind.

I have watched the glow of faces, As a light from this occult source Has touched some inert nature With an energizing force.

The effect was so magnetic, It seemed like creative skill From the hand of the Great Master, To give pa.s.sive being _will_.

Sometimes its power seemed but presence, Sometimes, a soft, mild tone, Sometimes, a look of decision, Ofttimes, from a source unknown.

There's a something wrapped in th' nature Of those most adapted to teach That charms and holds the attention Of those whom its powers reach.

There's a sound from some vibration Within the human voice That arouses the latent spirit And makes the soul rejoice.

Its tone has a magic power Whereby the heart is impressed With the weight of its n.o.ble mission And unselfish interest.

There's a mystic charm most winsome In th' glance of a speaking eye Whose light s.h.i.+nes in dark recesses And explores them in pa.s.sing by.

It illumines the page of the student As his soul warms by its fire, And stirs him to greater action, And lifts aspirations higher.

Every word and look and action Has weight on trustful youth, That needs no sage to interpret Or explain its vital truth.

They are fully comprehended Through the instinct, every one, And need no labored searching In a ma.s.sive lexicon.

Some call this power attraction, Some term it affinity, But all recognize its existence And wonderful potency.

There's also a power of repulsion That breathes with abated breath, Whose presence is best betokened By ominous signs of death.

No word has an inspiration, No look has a sign of cheer, Each act reveals that a burden Must be borne in sorrow and fear.

The wrecks that are made by its presence Have filled almshouses and jails With the deepest of lamentations, The saddest of human wails.

A selfish, terrible monster That drives away honor and truth Is the cold-blooded fiend Repulsion, The destroyer of tender youth.

The sea in its frenzy and fury, When lashed by the wintry gales Casts on the rocks its vessels Bereft of their spars and sails;

The path of the fierce tornado, Overstrewn with wild debris Of fallen habitations And uprooted forest tree;

The wreck of a world of matter That transforms revolving spheres, Which have gathered all their greatness Through the lapse of a million years;