Cannes, 1881.

"In this world the knowledge of Thy truth, and in the world to come Life Everlasting". 22 A prayer of S. Chrysostom.

I

Thy truth, O Lord, Thy truth which we behold
Darkly, as in a mirror, he unveiled
With dauntless hand that neither flinched nor failed
Before the awful vision it unrolled,
And with undounted voice, rose up and told
The oracle. But that which he beheld
Shone in his face and in his utterance swelled
And even touching in his hand's strong hold.

For him life had no purposeless delay
And age was but the perfecting of youth.
He found a linked grace in every day
Since each one led him to a higher growth.
And, when the call came, smiled and passed away,
Contented in the knowledge of Thy truth.

II

His life lived upward, till it passed and found
New spheres of being, fresh ascents to climb,
From whence, above the battlements of Time
He leans, perchance, toward the battleground
Where, in the forefront, breathing every wound,
He fought and suffered in one cause sublime,
Strong-armed to strike at ignorance and crime
With gentle hands to help the meimed and bound.

And yet, O God, the air about us here,
Close burdened with the cloud of human strife
Stifled him as his spirit grew more clear.
He breathed it with us till his time was rife,
Then rose to a diviner atmosphere
And found in Thee the Everlasting Life.

Edith Wharton.