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Title: Science
Author: Hannah S. Battersby [
More Titles by Battersby]
Science! thou mirror of celestial type
Wherein e'en mortals may discerning see,
If they with steady perseverance seek,
The will and purpose of Deity.
By the effulgence of Thy affluent light
Men learn the hidden mysteries of earth,
Unlock the secrets of the starry heavens
And solve the problem of each dewdrop's birth.
Thou art the magic key that opens wide
Sources of knowledge, beauty, wealth and grace,
Which teach man how to help his brother man,
And benefit and elevate the race.
Beneath thy guidance men have found the stone
Philosophers long sought but rarely found,
Whose lesson is that the Great God helps those
Who feel to help themselves and others bound.
What blest results are following in thy train,
To physical as well as mental wealth,
Through sanitation, in its myriad forms,
By which it now promotes the nation's health.
Well regulated physical as mental work
Opens rich sources of enjoyment sweet;
And mind and body strengthened, thus delight
New difficulties to withstand and greet.
Few know how strengthening is resisting power,
In mind and body as in physics too,
And what accumulating force it lends
To man his life work daily to renew.
The richest happiness comes from within,
From duties well accomplished blessings flow,
And precious fruits of action, thought and deed
That will not give rude switch grass place to grow.
Thou teachest that a form to be a square
Must have its lines of length, breadth, depth, exact,
Without the least divergence right or left,
And with its due proportions clear, compact.
What helpful lessons might not this form teach,
If testing thus the lines of motives, thought,
Which make the sum of action square or false,
Each would discern the application taught.
When truth as the soul's standard is set up,
Making the inner life exact and square,
With love to God producing love, to all,
What will not man for man and duty dare?
True brotherhood consists in making each,
As far as may be, just another self;
The priceless sequence of such action would
Exceed the greatest riches men call wealth.
Then might the blest commandment, do to all
As to ourselves we would that they should do,
Flow as a natural sequence, and such act
Would bring its own reward and comfort, too.
For truest happiness is known to those
Who learn to know themselves through struggles brave.
Such conquerors steer serenely o'er the calm,
Clear sea of life, as o'er its troubled wave.
Knowing that the Great Father wills that man
Should, through much strife and suffering win that prize,
Whose precious fruits of knowledge wait for all
Who use full well each moment as it flies.
Then let us strive to form each thought, word, deed,
On the exact, undeviating square,
Seeking to learn and discipline ourselves,
And win rewards which all who will may share.
[The end]
Hannah S. Battersby's poem: Science
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