Asia deemed our woe decreed, Brahm nor Buddha heard our cry, Europe heard with sullen heed, Prince and Pontiff mocked our need, Making Christ a bitter lie. Demagogue nor Demigod Shall again control the World; _Man_ awoke! disdained the rod, Spurned the despot whip and prod, To the dust his rider hurled. Man has come unto his own; Broken are his bands and bars; Faith’s futurity foreknown Domes a sky of promise sown Thick with happy-omened stars. Zealous, not iconoclast, We would spare the ancient true; Life in death is rooted fast; And the fruitage of the Past Is the Passing,--is the New. Azure blood and haughty crest, Blazon of heraldic scroll, Coin in coffer, star on breast,-- These are good, but better, best, Is the rank, the wealth, of soul. Earth grows better growing old, Still by happier races trod; Plato’s iron men are gold; Large humanities unfold; Evolution’s law is--God. We the People, We the State, Subject, Sovereign, both in one, Trust in Highest Potentate. Trust, O World, in Us and wait. God has willed our will be done. EIGHTY-SEVEN. As a mighty heart in a giant’s breast With rhythmic beat Sends marching from brain to feet The crimson vigor of creative blood, So, in the bosom of the brawny West, So, in the stalwart breast of the Nation, Throbs the Great Ordinance,--a heart, A vital and organic part, Propelling by its strong pulsation The unremitting stream and flood Of wholesome influences that give Unto the body politic The elements and virtues quick Whereby Republics live. THE FOUNDERS OF OHIO. APRIL, 1888. The footsteps of a hundred years Have echoed, since o’er Braddock’s Road Bold Putnam and the Pioneers Led History the way they strode. On wild Monongahela stream They launched the Mayflower of the West, A perfect State their civic dream, A new New World their pilgrim quest. When April robed the Buckeye trees Muskingum’s bosky shore they trod; They pitched their tents and to the breeze Flung freedom’s star-flag, thanking God. As glides the Oyo’s solemn flood So fleeted their eventful years; Resurgent in their children’s blood, They still live on--the Pioneers. Their fame shrinks not to names and dates On votive stone, the prey of time;-- Behold where monumental States Immortalize their lives sublime! FOREST SONG. Read at the first meeting of the American Forestry Congress, in Music Hall, Cincinnati, April 19, 1882.