The Hymn of Evolution.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 4

The Hymn of Evolution.

I. Hail to tile spring of eternal renewal Of life and of deaih ! Hail to the God who is kind and is ornel In the same breath ! Rousing in earth and in watery regions Creaturen that sleep; Spying and plunging the quivering legions Into the deep. 11. Sweet is the beautiful ferment, the vernal Foaming an! stir ; When the dim life-germ awakes and the kernel Bursts through the bur ; Sweet is the yearning, the troubled detire, The exquisite pain That kindles the blood with ft flickering fire When spring comes again. nr. BeuutifuJ, too, is tho Bhcdow that hovers Over the spring ; Not with a scythe, bat with kiss like a lover’s, And whispering wing, Gathers the breath that Is weary of breathing Into the air ; ' Quenches the life-spark, the tumult, the seething Toil and despair. IV. • AII that is born, be it high, be it lowly, Preys on its kind; ; ’ 11 ' Slays with each pulse-beat—now swiftly, now slowly— Struggles with blind Upward endeavour for ampler existence. Lifting its he if], Tramples a path from Silurian distance Strewn with the d“ad, .• V. ’ Brief though the span of the day that is grinted Unto all flesh, All the good seel in each life that is planted Blossoms afresh. Increase of strength and ennobling.of spirit— Righteousness’ wage— /. 1;; Children of children from sires inherit, i Age after age. VI, ' 1 Therefore, though dying, we live, and reposing' 1 On the broad breast Of our great mother, the weary lids closing Swoon into rest; And, litre the flower that droops, and dissolving . ( Crumbles to earth, Mingle with dust and with air in revolving ; Birth after birth. ! VH. , I Endlessly dying, re-born, re-arisen, , Eternity’s seed ■* " ' Bursts evermore from mortality’s prison. Flower and weed, , Sunward aspire as they grow from earth’s bosom, Rise from the sod ; Barbour tho life-germ divine that must blossom Upward to God. .