Crushed fools that cried defeat...

Crushed fools that cried defeat

Lie dead amid the dust they prophesied —

Ye doubters of man's larger destiny,

Ye that despair,

Look backward down the vistaed years,

And all is battle — and all victory!

Man fought, to be a man!

Through painful centuries the slow beast fought,

Blinded and baffled, fought to gain his soul;—

Wild, hairy, shag, and feared of shadows,

Yet the clouds

Made him strange signals that he puzzled o'er;—

Beast, child, and ape,

And yet the winds harped to him, and the sea

Rolled in upon his consciousness

Its tides of wonder and romance;—

Uncouth and caked with mire,

And yet the stars said something to him, and the sun

Declared itself a god;—

The lagging cycles turned at last

The pictures into thought,

Thought flowered in soul;—

But, oh, the myriad weary years

Ere Caliban was Shakespeare's self

And Darwin's ape had Darwin's brain!—

The battling, battling, and the steep ascent,

The fight to hold the little gained,

The loss, the doubt, the shaken heart,

The stubborn, groping slow recovery!—

But looking backward toward the dim beginnings,

You that despair,

Hath he not climbed and conquered?

Look backward and all's Victory!

What coward looks forward and foresees defeat?