The dews, the flowers, and every gentler thing;

Some learn my lesson in the paths of peace;

Some con it low at desolation's knee;

Only the fool hath said: "There is no God!"

[14]

[14]

A SONG FOR THE HILLS.

Here is the freedom men die for,—die for but never know;

Here is the peace they pray for shrined in eternal snow;

Down on the plain the city moans with a human cry,

But here there is naught but silence,—peace, and the wide, wide sky.

Here are the dawn's first footfalls, and the twilight's last farewell,

The benediction of starlight, and the moon's sweet canticle;

Here is one spot as God made it, far from the plainsman's range,

Or the march of the cycling seasons with their everlasting change.

Down on the plain the city moans with a human cry,

And the man-gnomes delve and burrow for gold till they drop and die;

But here there is naught for conquest and the spoiler stands at bay,

For God still keeps one playground where He and His whirlwinds play.

[15]

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