why not look forward far as plato looked

and see the beauty of our coming life,

as he saw that which might be ours to-day?

if his soul, then, could rise so far beyond

the brutal average of that old time,

when icy peaks of art stood sheer and high

in fat black valleys where the helot toiled;

if he, from that, could see so far ahead,

could forecast days when love and justice both

should watch the cradle of a healthy child,

and wisdom walk with beauty and pure joy

in all the common ways of daily life,—

then may not we, from great heights hardly won,

bright hills of liberty, broad plains of peace,

and flower-sweet valleys of warm human love,

still broken by the chasms of despair

where poverty and ignorance and sin

pollute the air of all,—why not, from this,

look on as plato looked, and see the day

when his republic and our heaven, joined,

shall make life what god meant it?

ay, we do!