Classic Poem

We , “Social Readers,” meet to-night,
As we are wont to meet,
Nor to the magic circle came
With slow, unwilling feet;
For we have learned to love the band
Who pledge to wisdom heart and hand.

To greet our president we all
With right good will have come,
And wish her every joy within
Her new and pleasant home:
Here may she peace and plenty know!
Here may her soul in wisdom grow!

Now let me tell in simple words
A dream I had to-day.
True visions come at midnight hours;
But waking dreams, they say,
May be enjoyed at any time,
And oft a record find in rhyme.

I saw a mansion, fairer e'en
Than this where we have met:
An angel with serenest air
Gave welcome at the gate;
And soft and low he whispered, “See,
God has been guiding thee to me!”

I entered at the door; and lo!
Before my gladdened eyes
Appeared the forms of valued friends,
(I gazed in sweet surprise!)
The “Social Readers” all were there,
As now the band is gathered here.

And some were there I never knew,—
Some wisdom-loving souls
Who left our circle long ago,
And, where Life's river rolls,
Had waited for our lingering feet
To echo on the golden street.

They gathered round me as I stood
Anear my angel-guide,
And welcomed me, to learn with them
The lessons we had tried
In vain to study while on earth,
Where wisdom-longings had their birth.

On every brow a radiant star
Shone in that wondrous hour:
My spirit felt a holier joy
Than e'er it knew before;
And from my eyes a veil seemed drawn,
As the kind angel led us on.

From room to room the angel passed;
We followed, learning still.
Smiles told how willingly we all
Obeyed the angel's will.
And soon we learned the angel's name:
'Twas “Progress;” and from God he came.

So we in Wisdom's palace dwelt
With happy hearts the while,
And sipped the nectar only found
On earth by weary toil.
All gladly by the angel fed,
And strengthened by the heavenly bread.

I woke: and, as a bubble bright
With brilliant rainbow hues,
My vision fled, but memory caught
Some fragments; and I muse
To-night on what the dream hath taught,
Which seemed with joy prophetic fraught.

One lesson only now I tell:
This,—that there comes a day
When all who wisdom truly seek
Will enter wisdom's way,
And at her palace-gate will stand,
And take that angel's welcome hand.