Gain

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T HE deepest truths we hope to gain, are found along a
     higher plane;
The purest air the heavens distil, may touch the brow of
     highest hill;
The deepest river, down the vale, speaks not of pebbles,
     tells no tale--
It smoothly moves above them all, not quick to rise, nor
     quick to fall,
But even tenure in its ways, fills gold-bound books with
     deepest praise,
As master penmen in our time seek harmony in word and line.
And thus life's summers come and go, and thus the sun-
     kissed fruitage show
Where golden beams had loved to cling and tell the pleasure
     of the spring;
So fair the picture as I see--it may not come again to me,
But so it be, I fondly look, on lovely blossoms in a book
Which once I pressed in spring-day time, for autumn, when
     perchance were mine
A faded leaf, a, tale to tell, which all our books record so well
And take us back through years, so plain, to clover-fields and
     springs again,
Where dancing butterflies would come, likewise the busy
     bees would hum;
All in their sweetness showed to me, that spring was charming
     as could be,
And now that early book I read; it seems exactly what I
     need
To fit me for the winter's day, and then the faith-bridge
      leads to May.