THE CHAIN.
MEN have outgrown the worthless creed,
Which bade them deem it God's good will,
That labor sweat and starve to fill,
And glut the purse of idle greed.
They have outgrown the poor content
That breeds oppression. Forged by pain,
Mind links with mind in one great chain
Of protest and of argument.
And by the hand of progress hurled,
This mighty chain of human thought,
In silence and in anguish wrought,
Encompasses the pulsing world.
And he who will not form a link
Of new conditions soon to be,
Ere long must stand aghast to see,
Old systems toppling down the brink.
They cannot and they shall not last.
The broader impulse of the day
Will gain and grow and sweep away
The rank injustice of the past.
The purport of the hour is vast.
The world needs justice. It demands