It appears that if I were perfect, I could not be perfect. For with whoever is perfect, there is nothing more to be done. But if there were nothing more to do, I would be very sorry: that is, I would not be perfect. Therefore it appears that I would not be perfect if I were perfect. [_Credo, and Other Poems_] We know more than we know. That the Lord is all, I know: That I am part, I know. But how shall we settle our provinces and diplomacies and boundaries, the Lord and I? Let us talk of this matter, dear Lord, I talking in silence. _But the corruption, the rascality, the &c., &c._, I am not afraid. _But the stock broker, the whiskey ring_, I am not afraid. _Nay, but the war in the East_, I am not afraid. I see God about his godly affairs, The cat-bird sits in the tree and sings While the boy kills the &c. beneath. The mocking-bird hanging over the street sings, though robbery, murder, fire, &c., go on. WATER AT DAWN Gray iris of the eyeball earth, Limpid Intelligence. It is the easiest thing in the world to make one falsehood out of two truths. O Science, wilt thou take my Christ, Oh, wilt thou crucify him o'er Betwixt false thieves with thieves' own pain, Never to rise again? Leave me this love, O cool-eyed One, Leave me this Saviour. _Science_: Down at the base of a statue, A flower of strange hue I dug, that I might see and know the root thereof, And lo, the statue is prone, fallen. They did but crucify the godhead of Christ, (_My God, my God_, He said, _why hast thou forsaken me?_) The manhood rose and lives forever, The Leader, the Friend, the Beloved of all men and women, The strongest, the wisest, the dearest, the sweetest.