An Old Man’s Thought of School

3Now only do I know you!

4O fair auroral skies! O morning dew upon the grass!

5And these I see—these sparkling eyes,

6These stores of mystic meaning—these young lives,

7Building, equipping, like a fleet of ships—immortal ships!

8Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,

9On the Soul’s voyage.

10Only a lot of boys and girls?

11Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?

12Only a Public School?

13Ah more—infinitely more;

14(As George Fox rais’d his warning cry, “Is it this pile of brick and

15 mortar—these dead floors, windows, rails—you call the church?

16Why this is not the church at all—the Church is living, ever living Souls.”)

17And you, America,

18Cast you the real reckoning for your present?

19The lights and shadows of your future—good or evil?

20To girlhood, boyhood look—the Teacher and the School.