Will the world ever learn what true religion is? Will it ever learn that mercy and pity and charity are more in the sight of the Infinite than all the creeds and dogmas of the earth? Will it ever learn to believe this beautiful verse of Robert Burns: But deep this truth impressed my mind, Through all his works abroad; The heart benevolent and kind, The most resembles God. Will the world ever learn when it prays to pray with Robert Burns, as man has seldom spoken to the Infinite, in whose unknown hands, we are as bubbles on the sea; to the great power, which sends us forth into the darkness to stagger through a tangled maze for a little time and then calls us back to sleep within its all-embracing heart. O thou, unknown, Almighty Cause Of all my hope and fear! In whose dread presence, ere an hour, Perhaps I must appear! If I have wandered in those paths Of life I ought to shun;— As something loudly in my breast Remonstrates I have done;— Thou know’st that Thou hast formed me With passion wild and strong; And list’ning to their witching voice Has often led me wrong. Where human weakness has come short, Or frailty step aside, Do thou, All Good?—for such thou art In shades of darkness hide. Where with intention I have err’d, No other plea I have But, Thou art good! and goodness still Delighteth to forgive! Dear Robert Burns, to place one flower upon your grave, or add one garland to your fame is a privilege indeed. A noble man you were, knighted not by King or Queen, but titled by the Infinite Maker of us all. You loved the world; you loved all life; you were gentle, kind and true. Your works, your words, your deeds, will live and shine to teach the brotherhood of man, the kinship of all breathing things, and make the world a brighter, gentler, kindlier place because you lived and loved and sung. [Illustration] REALISM IN · LITERATURE AND · ART [Illustration] REALISM IN LITERATURE AND ART Man is nature’s last and most perfect work, but, however high his development or great his achievements, he is yet a child of the earth and the rude forces that have formed all the life that exists thereon. He cannot separate himself from the environment that gave him birth, and a thousand ties of nature bind him back to the long forgotten past and prove his kinship to all the lower forms of life that have sprung from that great universal mother, Earth.