Explore "Stars and the Soul (Lyrics, Dramatic and Personal)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Two things," the wise man said, "fill me with awe: / The starry heavens and the moral law."
Nay, add another wonder to thy roll, -- / The living marvel of the human soul!
Born in the dust and cradled in the dark, / It feels the fire of an immortal spark, / And learns to read, with patient, searching eyes, / The splendid secret of the unconscious skies.
For God thought Light before He spoke the word; / The darkness understood not, though it heard: / But man looks up to where the planets swim, / And thinks God's thoughts of glory after Him.
What knows the star that guides the sailor's way, / Or lights the lover's bower with liquid ray, / Of toil and passion, danger and distress, / Brave hope, true love, and utter faithfulness?
But human hearts that suffer good and ill, / And hold to virtue with a loyal will, / Adorn the law that rules our mortal strife / With star-surpassing victories of life.
So take our thanks, dear reader of the skies, / Devout astronomer, most humbly wise, / For lessons brighter than the stars can give, / And inward light that helps us all to live.