Classic Poem

The Mind that made the zygote bud,
Till the vague embryo began
To take the shape of flesh and blood,
Of living babe, and boy, and man,

Conceived the body as a thought
Ere body was, and by the art
Of will and thought It subtly wrought
My seeing eyes and beating heart.

As moving pen can make the ink
Take shape as thought in word and line,
So prescient Mind and Will could think
The atoms of this body of mine

Into their places, heart or brain—
Into the body They foresaw;
And all achieve and all attain
By Will co-operate with Law.

Life is no mere unwinding spring,
Unwound by its intrinsic force:
The Idea lives before the thing
In Spirit body has its source.

There is no magic in the germ
To evolve it into living shape,
No microcosm in the worm
To blossom into man or ape.

The plastic mind and whirling wheel
Must still the Potter's Hand obey,
Ere they embody and reveal
His Beauty latent in His Clay.