^^'\ '^^ >p^^ '^b '^^ '^0' ^0 V- o * ' A V • .0 .,- o " o ^ <' '"<^ '^>?^77^^_/. ^ 4 o " £. « a ' The doubt so sure to paralyze the sense Through which such revelations reach the soul! The father's touch was never felt again; But there was as a consciousness of him In presence, when the son would hear, as oft > f 14 HOPE UNDEFERRED He did, relations from the earnest lips Of others, which recalled the father's touch — The memory as vivid as the fact Remembered — surely fact — though it might be That it was but a passing breath of air Through open window — thought which always drove The father, or a sense of him, away, Leaving the filial spirit cold and void — Till came to him another story of The Fourth Dimension — ^by the father staged? — Only sometimes from those who, by the font, Through confirmation, had the altar's right, Or of that sacred right advantage took; And always unexpectedly they came: As when, in weariness of constant form And stiff conventionality — the need Of which none better knew — abroad, awheel. In toggery befitting, having topped A hill, dismounting 'neath some mighty elms. He, seating him at road-house table, called For glass refreshing, to be served by one, By manner, form and beaming featured told To be by right proprietor of such a place — Fully a man of Three Dimensions, all Complete — no evidence that he had sense For Fourth Dimension — save in dreamy eye And bright — ^by glint in which 'twas seen that he His customer was estimating at His value — seeing he was not of Three Dimensions only — that he had to do. In some capacity, with things of Fourth Dimension — using other v^^ords in thought, No doubt. Invited him to come again. Again. And still again. And when the time Was ripe, and circumstances fitted, led The way to upper floors, and there, before The portrait of a lovely foreign dame, "With streaming eyes and choking voice, told how. Before the day of wireless, or the flash Of information else, before the day Of rapid transit, he, a wayward boy, HOPE UNDEFERRED 15 Was sorely wounded, in the lonely bush Of far Australia — bodily — to death? — And, mentally, by thought that he might die His family not knowing ; but there came A letter from the mother, saying she Had present been and seen the "accident,'' Enclosing money for his passage home; Which reached, described she, in detail minute, i The incident, occurrences therewith, In all material surroundings framed, Of growths, of sandy spot, dim stars above ; And still related how, in later yearSj He, ever restless, crossed another sea, And how, in New World's chief metropolis, He, one day, stood in conversation with Another, over ordinary point Of business, when : ' ' My mother 's dead ! " he cried. In starting back. He'd seen her dear old face. As plainly as the one on canvas, there ; And she had smiled a smile, not of the Three Dimensions, but, supremely, of the Fourth! Repeating these relations, I was asked, By friend, a veteran : * ' Have ever told 'How I attained my captaincy?" Had not. 'On eve of battle of the Wilderness^ 'I found me lounging in my captain's tent. 'A look of deep solemnity upon 'His rugged face, his eyelids drooped, he said: ' 'Lieutenant, where I've never marched, I see ' 'A field, in undulations, with a draw, ' ' Through which is running-water from a spring, ' 'Upon the banks of which are berry- vines. ' ' 'Mong these, this way, I fall tomorrow noon — > ' 'A bit before! .... Yes, yes, I'm coming!' " . . . . *'Who 'Apostrophized?"! . ... "I do not know! . . . . But this ' Is sure : It came as he had prophesied ! .... 'And in his pocket found a letter, which ' Related how his fiancee was gone ! " .... 16 HOPE XJNDEFERRED ''What more connections there may be," I said, ''Between the Three Dimensions and the Fourth "May be unknown; but, surely, one is Love!" And then I told of how, at service close. There came a man to me and asked if he Might see me in my study, and, we there. Told how, when he a boy, an uncle came On visit from a distant land, how he, From semicircle, lighted by a fire In open grate, sprang to his feet, with cry: * * Marie ! My child ! ' ' — to subsequently say, He'd seen a daughter rise upon her bed. Extend her arm, and force her working lips fo: " 'Father!' " .... Features set, while others smiled. He marked the hour 'Twas then the daughter died, And died exactly as he 'd seen her die — At home — with thought of father far abroad ! .... These incidents, and more of kindred stamp, I told, one evening, in a circle sure, My "pearls not casting to the swine" — ^though I Confess I ever joy in doing so, And further joy in saving what they'd "tread," And further still in breaking renders' "teeth;" These joys a salve to what of "rends" I get — Simply because there were no porkers there — Remembering, He, also, sent the Twelve To preach the Gospel wheresoe'er they went—* That universal are the human "swine" — And that another, under Him, advised: "Out season be thou instant, well as in!" And of the incidents the one which brought A "pearl" was that of Fourth Dimension band Between the mother and the wand 'ring son. Uniting them wide oceans o'er and in And through the lands antipodal — the word Australia the connection of events : Two Irish boys their fortunes thought to seek Beyond the seas. Australia was their choice. HOPE UNDETERRED 17 The years went by. The one the father wrote. That he was well and doing well. More years Went by. He wrote again — that he was rich — Copartnershiping with his Irish mate. More years were gone. The father had a — dream ? It seemed not that. He came to consciousness From deepest sleep. Was wide awake. And in The room there was a person. 'Twas his son ! A point on which he never had a doubt, And said the son : * ' I 'm drowned ! .... In well ! . . . . And by **My mate!" .... The father said no single word. Another lapse of years. The other of The two adventurers returned to land Of birth. He called upon the father of the one. The father said the word : * * You drowned my son ! **And — when?" The father gave the date. **And — where ? ' ' The father named the well. And after this. In court, he said: **What I have seen, I've seen! **What I have heard I've heard! The prison has **No terror! All the world's a prison since **I lost my boy — through him!— Thejnurderer!" — Transfixing with his index-finger, then, The one whom he accused — most fatally! A ** pearl" — though black! .... Take one of richest glow — Noiess experience, 'twould seem, of Fourth Dimension : Where Ohio 's crystal flood Flowed through the stately woods in elden day, Later, by grassy valleys, meadowed hills, And, now, 'tween shores by factories oppressed, A very home of Three Dimensions, there I sat, the guest of one who lorded well A mighty enterprise of soot and smoke, And, the occasion rising, sneered my sneer At what is not of our dull senses five. To be reproved, to my surprise, from such A source: *' Young man, I charge you cease to hold **A thing impossible because you've not 18 HOPE UNDEFERRED * Experienced it, or something similar! *No equal evidence of lack of mind, * Or mind unused ! . . . . Excuse the plainness ! . , . . But * 'Tis for your good, and out of bitterness *That I was once a senseless sneerer at 'The possibility of what we call 'Things of the spirit — of the Spirit Land — 'Of Fourth Dimension — put it as one may — 'The richest speech too poor to put it well — 'Or so that they of Three Dimensions catch 'The meaning — 'spiritually discerned,' 'The Bible says — to which we turn, and must, 'In trying to convey that which is of 'The Fourth Dimension. Sneering ceased with me, 'My daughter dead, just blooming into more 'Than maidenhood. The ass I'd been to sneer! 'When all my pride was crushed, my prejudice, 'When callouses were on my knees, when came 'The tears, when I was 'as a weaned child,' 'Once, in the twilight, came my daughter back! 'She came again! .... Again! .... And still she comes ! "Would sneer if such experience you had?" .... Offended ? .... No ! .... Convinced that he had seen His daughter in substantial body ? .... That His claim was honest ! .... And it flashed on me, How asinine to say another has Not sensed that which objector has not sensed, E 'en in the region of Dimensions Three ! — An universal asininity? — I tell of having seen, in deep Southwest, A sunflower-stalk so large and very firm That it was used to hold the chain w^hich held Impatient cow while she was being milked — I tell this in another region, where The sunflower's cherished as an ornament — I tell it seriously, as simple truth — And smile to hide my irritation at HOPE UNDEFERRED 19 Reception — with equestrian laugh ! — And may not things of Fourth Dimension be As real as those of Three — more real, indeed? — - Hast heard of Bayard Taylor charming tale? — He walked with grammar of the Greek in hand. Bothered, distraughtly fumbling in his hair, As though he were a school-boy, though he'd come To be a man of over fifty. — ''What — ** Cramming a language dead?" a passer asked. — **Why not?" — "You don't expect to use it here?" — ■ **If not, I'll use it — There!" — "And you believe **In immortality?" — "More sure of it * * Than of the life I now am living, or, * * It may be, I am dreaming ! ' ' — If an ass To question what I have not sensed myself In Three Dimensions, double ass am I To question the reality of dreams. And triple ass to question those who tell Of Fourth Dimensional experiences, Quadrupal ass to sneer at anything Contingent on the accident, or on Discovery, or on superior sense ! Lost in the depths of what was then the Great Mid-Continental Desert, first I saw. In sheet blown from a passing caravan, A squibby notice of the phonograph, And muttered : * ' Nonsense ! ' ' — Weary, weak, oppressed, Upon my bed in hospital, I lay, When word was brought that, — ^bird-like, — gasless ship Had sailed the air : " It can not be ! " I said, — Cable defective, I had failed to reach My correspondent on the other shore, And wondered if the "wireless" e'er would come, And shook my head, contemptuous of the thought! — But soon I heard the ' ' record " of a voice ; And, then, I saw a biplane mount and soar ; And, later, on the Seventh Sea, our boat About to founder, there was sent the "S. 0. S." — Are there not "records" of the voices of Those from the Fourth Dimension here awhile ? — 20 HOPE UNDEFERRED Have they not mastered Three Dimension's laws — Impulsively — with spontaneity ? — Are not relations possible to be Between the Three Dimensions and the Fourth ? — Question suggesting aged gentleman, Religious outcast by the most supposed. I but a boy, he called me to him once, And told a story which he 'd seldom told : He had a business friend, when young, who held To what he saw not — immortality — A life in Fourth Dimension — that of Three Dimensions, or its fever-dream, at end. They entered into compact, that the first To go — if going proved not last of him — Should come, to let the other know that still He was. The filling of the compact fell Upon the friend — it to be filled. And filled It was. The other lay, one night, awake — Thinking, so far as, in his drowsiness, He thought, of ordinary things — the things Of Three Dimensions — duties of the day To come — occurrences of day last past — In all their dusty, sweaty dreariness — Their disappointments and their gleams of hope — *'When, suddenly, I blinked, and dodged, and jouked, **And drew the covers over head and ears!'* The gentleman assured me, with a laugh. **Over the footboard of my bed my friend * * Was leaning — with his dear old, quizzing smile ! ' ' . . And, as I sing, there comes a history Of master warned to stay a backward step. Or there 'd be hurting of a dog — described, — Though never seen by warner — dog, which, late, Had left the master's heel. — For life Unseen? — In Fourth Dimension? — There to welcome him? — How thrilled by such a greeting he would be ! . . . « In death is liberation from the cell Of criminality — or real or trumped; From thatj with treadmill of the ordered task; HOPE UNDEFERRED 21 From that of duty, which should be performed ; From that of love of Three Dimension things ; From that whose walls Ambition's pinions break, And Faith's, and Hope's, and ''greatest" Charity *s; And from the prison which the cells contains — From Matter's Three Dimensions, dark and hard. — To what? Oblivion? The cell of cells, To normal mind, to be preferred to that — For self as for the other ! Can it be. When Ealeigh's head rolled on the thither side The block, his body in the hither dust — The Three Dimensions head, and body worn — That Fourth Dimension Raleigh suffered hurt? — -'^ Reason, as well as broken-pinioned Faith, And Hope, and Charity reject the thought! — Q No, no ! In Fourth Dimension liberty, In concentration void of effort, pain. He knows the secrets of the Past, the Now; In memory he lives again the whole Of what he lived in Three Dimensions, with But smiles — regarding as indifferent The things the most important to him there. With priv 'leges of pardoning, divine. Of begging pardon, far diviner still, And, joyous, wings the future, knowing what Shall be, for him, his nation, and his race. Accompanied by folk he loved in Three Dimensions, women, children, men, and dogs; For freedom in the Fourth Dimension is For all who in the Three Dimensions have A consciousness of self, in joy and pain. ' * In Him we being have, and live and move ! ' ' ''And who are 'we?' " "Without your Father not "A sparrow falls!" Who cares for "you," He cares For it ! With Him is neither great nor small ! In Three Dimensions, we "together groan!" In Fourth Dimension shall we not enjoy? 22 HAS EVER MORTAL DONE BETTER ? HAS EVER MORTAL DONE BETTER? A WREN warbles under my window ; From top of a neighboring tree, A thrasher is flooding the region With wonderful melody ; To tangle of branches, a-blooming, Which crawl o'er the casement and spill, A humming-bird darts, iridescent — At flower is buzzingly still; A cat-bird is scolding in thicket, With occasional sweetness of tone. Suggesting a possible singing, Which equals the thrasher alone. Through song and through form and through feather, As well as through bloom and through scent, I'm charmed to a sensuous pleasure. To something like active content ; So charmed that my thinking's suspended Till I hear a ' * Chip-chippy-chip-chip ! ' ' From being, with thumb to be measured, On a paling, at top of the tip, A bit of a plain little creature. With crown of a brick-powder red ; Its plumage at throat all a-ruf9e, So up that tips backwards its head ! No opera-singer, surely. Could ever more confident be Of power, inherited, cultured. Than chippy, so common and wee ! And, chippy, to thee I uncover : It is certainly fitting I should ; Has ever a mortal done better Than best, very best, that he could ? OF ONE WHO HAS THOUGHT 23 OF ONE WHO HAS THOUGHT (75 the reclining statue of the late Bishop Potter in the Potter Memorial Chapel in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine too exactly a likeness, too little an idealiza- tion?) In shaking my head, in chapel alone, I think of the dead, whose monument prone My fancies confine to things of the earth— = Till musings combine in giving a birth To vision sublime, wide-founded and high, Immenser than time and fending the sky. This vision to me from prophecies fine Of what shall be St. John the Divine,. Uploomingly grand, metropolis o'gr, Regarding the land and sea-fondled shorg*— A symbol supreme that man-to-man-dear Is more than a dream. Hereafter and here. The chapel but niche, the prone to contain^ In great spaces which America's Fane Shall cover, embrace, enfloor and endome. For each of our race a refuge and home : Both chapel and prone so modestly small I have to be shown to find them at all ; But large in the thought, in hope, in the trust That back shall be brought the on^e who is dust^ In form, to the throngs of ages unborn. Not knowing of wrongs, of selfishness shorn, Ascending to where St. John the Divine Bulks large in the air, to visit their shrine; For nobler than fane constructed by man Is home of the brain empowered to plan. 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