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<h2>WHAT THEY SAW</h2> Sad man, Sad man, tell me, pray, What did you see to-day? I saw the unloved and unhappy old, waiting for slow delinquent death to come; Pale little children toiling for the rich, in rooms where sunlight is ashamed to go; The awful almshouse, where the living dead rot slowly in their hideous open graves. And there were shameful things. Soldiers and forts, and industries of death, and devil-ships, and loud-winged devil-birds, All bent on slaughter and destruction.  These and yet more shameful things mine eyes beheld: Old men upon lascivious conquest bent, and young men living with no thought of God, And half-clothed women puffing at a weed, aping the vices of the underworld, Engrossed in shallow pleasures and intent on being barren wives. These things I saw. (How God must loathe His earth!) Glad man, Glad man, tell me, pray. What did you see to-day? I saw an agèd couple, in whose eyes    Shone that deep light of mingled love and faith, Which makes the earth one room of paradise,    And leaves no sting in death. I saw vast regiments of children pour, Rank after rank, out of the schoolroom door By Progress mobilised.  They seemed to say: ‘Let ignorance make way. We are the heralds of a better day.’ I saw the college and the church that stood For all things sane and good. I saw God’s helpers in the shop and slum Blazing a path for health and hope to come, And True Religion, from the grave of creeds, Springing to meet man’s needs. I saw great Science reverently stand And listen for a sound from Border-land,    No longer arrogant with unbelief—    Holding itself aloof— But drawing near, and searching high and low    For that complete and all-convincing proof    Which shall permit its voice to comfort grief, Saying, ‘We know.’ I saw fair women in their radiance rise    And trample old traditions in the dust. Looking in their clear eyes, I seemed to hear these words as from the skies:    ‘He who would father our sweet children must    Be worthy of the trust.’ Against the rosy dawn, I saw unfurled    The banner of the race we usher in, The supermen and women of the world,    Who make no code of sex to cover sin; Before they till the soil of parenthood, They look to it that seed and soil are good. p. 31And I saw, too, that old, old sight, and best— Pure mothers, with dear babies at the breast. These things I saw. (How God must love His earth!) <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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