E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Ian Crann, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/quartzfromupland00turn
Published by the Anti-Pessimist Society 1905 Piermont, N. Y.
DEDICATED TO THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Copyrighted 1905 by Anti-Pessimist Society
Who Say? “All songs have been sung; All tales have been told; Live tongues are still’d-- Worn smooth by precedent!”
In the fullness of the soul There lives--strong bound-- Only to be unloos’d by greater deed and action; An unfathomable wealth From which to draw forever-- Never to be wholly used.
Is it for you To stand at the bier of the dead past Mute--to consent, that: “All! has been sung and writ”?
No! Insistingly, Persistently beat loud upon the temple door--steeled well to hear the mock and din and laughter and deriding, doubting shouts of those within, That you may full awake the throng without-- Those who sleep, work, hope and pray. You must proclaim again, again, This Truth! The multitude at last will stand aghast, amazed, ashamed; Thy liberty deny, Yea, crucify.
To them:--What is, is; and what is, is to remain unchanged forever.
To learn the lesson, to equip and grade thy purging fire; Go forth to some unfrequented spot And reason with thyself, comparing notes with Nature.
See it. Feel it. Hear it. The all-prevailing, pervading, constant, ever changing. From Winter’s silence, breathing, sighing, sleeping, creeping on to Spring with sap, with shoot, with bud and flower, hour on hour playing, plying gentleness and power for Summer’s rest to temper strength for birth in Autumn, with crowning brilliancy and rich rewards untaxed to bird, to beast, to insect and to man, gift on gift for full contentment, sustenance and labor.
From this you will accumulate a store so full, That every thought’s a prayer; The simplest acts of things are miracles-- The whole a revelation, To guide thy way and being.
Kill not, dissect not, nor rend or tear, But see and feel and hear.
The earth, the air and sea abound With righteous living creatures, Intent upon some full purpose;-- Aside from man’s estate, Aside from his designing selfishness, intensely useless graspings, destruction, purposeless desire, For his good use and keeping, The forest, field and sea And all that lies beneath.