The stellar drift, the solar storm,
The protoplasmic shiver, each
Little or great, determinate
In law from Fate, the Ultimate.
If this be meaningless, much more
Vacant your speech and sophic skill
(My feminine and fair Escobar!)
To prove mere circumstance is no bar
Against the freedom of the will.
However this may be, we are
Here and not otherwhere, star to star !
Hence then act thou! Restrain the ‘‘ Damn!”
Evoked by “I am that I am.”
Perpend! (Hark back to Hamlet!) If
You stand thus poised upon the cliff
Freewill—I await that will; (One) laughter;
(Two) the old kiss ; (Three) silence after.
No? Then vacate the laboratory!
Psychology must crown the event,
And sociology content,
Ethics suffice, the simple story!
(Oh! that a woman ever went
Through course of science, full and whole,
Without the loss of beauty’s scent,
And grace, and subtlety of soul.
Ah God! this Law maketh hearts ache,
“Who eateth shall not have his cake.”)
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