19 DECEMBER 1896, Page 16

POETRY.

FAITH AND THE UNIVERSE. A TREMBLING Star that steals along, Vast Night's belated wanderer, A pale ghost by the splendour strong Of Venus and of Jupiter ;

A world forlorn with one sad moon To light, across the unsounded deep, Her clouded orbit, and the swoon Of her dream-shaken, shuddering sleep :— Is this the place where one should say Was found a creed for all the spheres— That Truth's sole San is the weak ray That flits thro' our embarrassed years ?

No thought of God august, benign, Born of hope's, reason's puzzled strife May fully the veiled force define Which feeds the roots of boundless life.

JOSEPH TRUMAN.