As We View it.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 4

As We View it.

Yonder landscape, regal in Us splendour. Smiling with a look half proud, l half tender, S’etn3 a shrouded corpse when dene;-fogs roll. Life is glorious when the rays of duty Shine upon it from a loving BPttl ; - , But its hills and giades are ro ibeil of beauty If a selfish mist hangs o’er tha whole. Scorning this great fact, the base man loses Truth's best diamond, priceless if lie knew it : Life is good or bad, a 3 each one chooses ; Life is as we view it. Wanting wealth of heart, the miser s treasure, Now too small to purchase lofty pleasure, Soon will he a death-bed pang, or worse Love, contentment, goodness, liopss ethereal, Make thepiasant, slender though his purse. Vastly richer than the whole material, Star-illumed, unconscious universe. Mental wealth, whose very touch entrances, Boundless lies for all whose minds pursue it; Man is rich or poor, just as he fancies t Wealth is as we view it. Life’s flame, flickering feebly in tbe strongest, Oft blown out, is soon burnt at the longest; Frail iyvo live, we’re nothing .in our graves. Almost awful now, yet daily heightening Is our power, that rides the foaming waves, Weighs the p'anets, grasps the leaping lightning, Changes fire and air to docile slaves Man can humble Nature if she dares him, Set her some hard ta?k and make her do it: Man is weaker than the steed that boars him : Power is as we view it. A * Knowing not .where Truth’s first step com nencos. Since the sages say our very senses Teach but Actions, dark we live ’and die. Priceless thoughts that time in its long travels Through past ages gathered./ open lie ; Science shows the cypher that unravels Nature’s secrets, writ on earth j and sky, But the wondrous volume spread before us Needs eternity to read right through it. All is darkness ! Floo Is of light float oorus ! Truth is asjwe]vicw it. One faint gasp, and then the low death rattle ! Thus we end it, beaten in the battle, Losing all things with our parting breath. Life has glories, but intensely brighter Is the glory of a noble death. When the soul, its load each moment lighter, Heedless now of what the vain world-Saith, Seeing visions, pain sublimely scorniug, Feels the Icy hand, yet dare 3 to woo it ; Death is starless night, or radiant morning; Death is as we view it. —J. T. Chapman, in. The Academy.