Thus he dwells in all

From life's minute beginnings, up at last

To man—the consummation of this scheme

Of  being, the completion of this sphere

Of life: whose attributes had here and there

Been scattered o'er the visible world before,

Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant

To be united in some wondrous whole,

Imperfect qualities throughout creation,

Suggesting some one creature yet to make,

Some point where all those scattered rays should meet

Convergent in the faculties of man.

When all the race is perfected alike

As man, that is; all tended to mankind,

And, man produced, all has its end thus far:

But in completed man begins anew

A tendency to God. Prognostics told

Man's near approach; so in man's self arise

August anticipations, symbols, types

Of a dim splendor ever on before

In that eternal circle life pursues.

For men begin to pass their nature's bound,

And find new hopes and cares which fast supplant

Their proper joys and griefs; they grow too great

For narrow creeds of right and wrong, which fade

Before the unmeasured thirst for good: while peace

Rises within them ever more and more.

Such men are even now upon the earth,

Serene amid the half-formed creatures round

Who should be saved by them and joined with them.