Now must the man be summoned forth
     To discover himself, his dual reality: 
     His world, ten thousand fathoms deep,
     His star-vault, ten thousand spaces high;
     And come to his own like a king.

THE CULTURE OF COURAGE.

THE NEW DAWN.

“The dawn of a New Day!”
Never an Aryan felt the flare of this electric Fact,
Nor any, or priest at his worship or earth-toiler swarming the land,
Till Zarathustra discovered Ahura Mazda,
Till Buddha discovered himself, the Thou of that, brahma,
Till the Christ-mind assumed it to be the I am that I am.

(The flare—­the ghostly breath of the long-coming Dawn—­
Had passed o’er the Nature-Face, had kissed the swart Human,
Ages and ages, with never a conscious start
In the Man-Soul, till these had upsprung as if gods.—­
For, whosoever kens the flare, kens that and knows the one
only who is).

So, thrice have men ventured the Word: 
“Comes now a full Day that is New!”

Since these giant Men-Types, what times of the Small
Have opened and set on poor mouthings of Truth! 
What Night for a thousand years twice told! 
With Fear, and the fierce Stars, and no Sun in the Void! 
Shadows—­and Fear—­and Death!

A fourth time man whispers:  “The Dawn!”
We live!  And behold a New Day!”
Does the Flare of its Flood-Tide winds stir you? 
Does the light of its splendoring Sun thrill you? 
Does the marvelous Life of it stimulate you
To a birth of the self and the kingship of that?

You live!  The New Day is for each: 
For the hitherto Common Man, slave,
For the Women, no longer a Thing,
For the Child, now escaped from the animal lair. 
Dawn’s here! 
(With Opportunity leading “captivity captive,”
(And the stars urging on to achievement,
(And the Sun, breeding life triumphant);
With heart courageous and faith almighty
To fare forth and possess the whole world! 
Soul of you, awaken!  The New Day is yours.

—­The author.

THE CULTURE OF COURAGE.

CHAPTER I.

The world’s new dawn.

“Let us not look at ourselves but onwards, and take strength from the leaf and the signs of the field.  He is indeed despicable who cannot look onwards to the ideal life of man.  Not to do so is to deny our birthright of mind.”—­Thomas Coke Watkins.

I am often asked, “Do you think the world is really becoming better?”

My inmost self—­the self I trust and try to assist—­is sure that the world is growing better, whatever the hampered intellect may from time to time aver.