Science

Alone I climb the steep ascending path     Which leads to knowledge.    In the babbling throngs     That hurry after, shouting to the world     Small fragments of large truths, there is not one     Who comprehends my purpose, or who sees     The ultimate great goal.    Why, even she,     My heaven intended Spouse, my other self,     Religion, turns her beauteous face on me     With hatred in the eyes, where love should dwell.     While those who call me Master blindly run,     Wounding the ear of Faith with blasphemies,     And making useless slaughter in my name.     Mine is the difficult slow task to blaze     A road of Facts, through labyrinths of dreams     To tear down Maybe and establish IS:     And substitute I Know for I Believe.     I follow closely where the Seers have led:     But that intangible dim path of theirs,     Which may be trodden but by other Seers,     I seek to render solid for the feet     Of all mankind.    With reverent hands I lift     The mask from Mystery:    and show the face     Of Reason, smiling bravely on the world.     The visions of the prophets, one by one,     Grew visible beneath my tireless touch:     And the white secrets of elusive stars     I tell aloud, to listening multitudes.     To fit the better world my toil ensures,     Time will impregnate with a better race     The Future's womb:    and when the hour is ripe,     To ready eyes of men, the alien spheres     Shall seem as friendly neighbours:    and my skill     Shall make their music audible to ears     Which will be tuned to those high harmonies.     Mine is the work to fashion, step by step,     The shining Way that leads from man to God.     Though I demolish obstacles of creeds     And blast tradition, from the face of earth,     My hand shall open wide the door of Truth,     Whose other name is Faith:    and at the end     Of this most holy labour, I shall turn     To see Religion, with enlightened eyes,     Seeking the welcome of my outstretched arms.     While all the world stands hushed and awed before     The proven splendour of the Fact Supreme.