Around this rolling sphere of Man There lies a vast Unknown, Beyond the space that he can scan With tracts of starlight sown. Beneath the shadow of th' Unknown From age to age he stands, And to the Void in wavering hope He stretches praying hands. But in the Void no signs appear, It stands unbroken still, And from the void no word of cheer, But silence deep and chill. And when the upstart race of men Has ceased from all this earth, When past is their brave strife with Fate, When past are Death and Birth; When lifeless, sightless, blank and cold The home of man's poor breath; Still will this ball through space be rolled, In Silence deep as death. PART II REGINALD BATEMAN SOLDIER [Illustration: Reginald Bateman] THE WAR _This address, which aroused much criticism in the press, is compiled from a newspaper report and some notes found among Professor Bateman's papers. It is probably incomplete, but is included because of the interest attaching to it._ _The address was delivered before the University Y.M.C.A. on Sunday, 25 October 1914, on the eve of the departure of Professor Bateman's battalion. This was in the early days of the war, before the magnitude of the struggle had been generally realized, and there were those who had tried to persuade Professor Bateman that his higher duty lay at home. His address was prompted in part by this circumstance, and was a vindication of his enlisting. It was also prompted by a colleague's address from the same platform contrasting Samuel, who "hewed Agag in pieces," with Christ, Who commanded Peter to "put up the sword"--a plea for the peaceful settlement of personal and national disputes. Professor Bateman had for several years declined to address the University Y.M.C.A., because he had never before felt that he had a message for them._ _So, although there is here much of the young man glorying in his strength and rejoicing to run the race, the address was not penned without thought and consideration._ We hear much, perhaps too much, at the present time of the horrors of war; I wish to-day to speak to you of its blessings. Far be it from me to minimize the dark side of war. Only those who have actually experienced warfare can form an adequate idea of the horrors of campaigns and battlefields. But I wish to impress on you to-day the fact that war has compensations, and that it is by no means an unmitigated evil.