CHAPTER XVIII.--MOTHER EARTH.

Ho! Comrade, our planet! Behold thou the glorious and inspiring sight, Illumined thus in the solar orb’s grand light! And how his mighty seas and oceans gleam and glow, And the summits of his mountains crowned with snow; His rivers and his streams, like threads of silver gleam; His hills and lovely valleys are fair as poet’s dreams. And his undulating plains are rife with golden wains Of summer’s gladness, that in peace and sunshine reigns.

But the night hath closed around us fair and sweet; Our world in hazy, rosy dreaming’s at our feet. A scintillating glory illuminates the sky, By star worlds glowing in the firmament on high. Suddenly, from the shadowy splendor of night, Bursts a shower of meteors in phosphorescent light; And darting from the deep abysses far away, They illuminate our pathway as bright as day-- Fitting escort to our aerial journey nearly o’er. Lone deeps and starry oceans, adieu, for evermore!

Gently, Time! Let thy car settle slowly to the earth again. Say, has not our far quest for knowledge been in vain? We sought the mighty planets, systems, voids that chill, But the mystery of creation ’s a mystery still. But with enlarged ideas we seek the solid ground, And leave to solve the problem wisdom more profound.

Ah! at last ’Tis done! we alight safely from the car of Time, And we give thanks for the protecting Hand Divine. Welcome, _terra firma_! Mother Earth, we welcome thee, Our terrestrial home. We hail! we hail and bless thee! And now, comrade Time, temporarily adieu! Leave me and go thy way until my hour is due. I’ve mark’d thee well, thou scourge, and thy cold looks of scorn; Thou hast no sympathy for man’s lot all forlorn. I saw thy derisive smile when dangers round us fell; And I suffered in doubt and fear, and knew well Of thy indifference as to what became of me In life, in death, and even in eternity!

Hast thou not e’er since thy repellent course began Been the dread foe of nations and the fate of man? In vain the pleading prayer to stay thy ruthless hand For a moment longer of life at thy command: A mother for her son--a child ’tis hard to spare-- And poverty and wrong aboundeth everywhere. Oh, the red fatal fields thy cruel feet have trod, And the millions of ghastly slain beneath the sod, And the graves of nations thy savage hands have made, And the tomb of friendship, and hope by thee betrayed! What is the fate of nations, man’s calamity, to thee? From vague dread and uncertainty none, none is free. Thy mandates mar all life, driving man’s joys away; The shadow of thy wing appals the fairest day.