Little by little all tasks are done;

So are the crowns of the faithful won,

So is heaven in our hearts begun.

With work and with weeping, with laughter and play

Little by little, the longest day

And the longest life are passing away;

Passing without return—while so

The new years come and the old years go.

GRADATIM.

HEAVEN is not reached by a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

I can count these things to be grandly true;
That a noble deed is a step towards God—
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.

We rise by the things that are under our feet,
By what we have mastered of greed and gain,
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ill that we hourly meet.

GRADATIM.

We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we trust,
When the morning calls to life and light,

I I

But our hearts grow weary, and ere the night Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.

Wings for the angels, but feet for men!

We must borrow the wings to find the wayWe may hope, and resolve, and aspire, and pray, But our feet must rise or we fall again.

Only in dreams is the ladder thrown

From the weary earth to the sapphire walls; But the dreams depart, and the vision falls, And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.

Heaven is not reached by a single bound;

But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to its summit round by round. J. C. HOLLAND.

12

THE HOLY NAME.

THE HOLY NAME.

'Tis said when pious Moslems walk abroad,
If on the path they spy a floating bit.
Of paper, reverently they turn aside

And shun the scrap, nor set a foot on it,
Lest haply thereupon the awful name

Of mighty Allah should by chance be writ.

We smile at the vain dread; but blind and dull The soul that only smiles, and cannot see

A thought of perfect beauty folded in

The zealot's reverent fear, as in some free And flaunting flower-cup may be hived and held One drop of precious honey for the bee.

Small wind-blown things there are, which any day
Float by in air or on our pathway lie,
Swift-winged moments speeding on their way;
Brief opportunities, which we pass by
Heedless and smiling, little subtle threads
Of influence-intimations soft and sly.

Careless we tread them down, as pressing on,
Our
eager inconsiderate feet we set

On the unvalued treasures where they lie.

13

THE IDEAL IS THE REAL.

We are too blind to prize or to regret, Too dull to recognize the mystic name

Graven upon them as on an amulet.

Ah! dears, let us no longer do this thing,
And thus the sweeter life lose and let fall;
But with anointed eyes and reverent feet

Pass on our way, noting and prizing all,
Knowing that God's great token-sign is set
Not on the large things only, but the small.

SUSAN Coolidge.

THE IDEAL IS THE REAL.

MEN take the pure ideals of their souls,
And lock them fast away,

And never dream that things so beautiful
Are fit for every day.

So, counterfeits pass current in their lives,
And stones they give for bread;

And starvingly and fearingly they walk
Through life among the dead;

Though never yet was pure ideal

Too fair for them to make their real.

14

THE IDEAL IS THE REAL.

The thoughts of beauty dawning on the soul
Are glorious Heaven-gleams,

And God's eternal truth lies folded deep

In all man's lofty dreams!

'Twas first in Thought's clear world that Kepler

saw

What ties the planets bound,

And through long years he searched the spheres, and there

The answering law he found!

Men said he sought a wild ideal,

The stars made answer, "It is real."

Paul, Luther, Howard, all the crowned ones,
Who starlike gleam through time,

Lived boldly out before the clear-eved sun,
Their inmost thought sublime.

These truths, to them more beautiful than day,
They knew would quicken men,

And deeds at which the blinded gazers sneered,
They dared to practice then;

Till those who mocked their young ideal,

In meekness owned it was the real.

Thine early dreams, which came in "shapes of light,"

Came bearing prophecy