II
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Iqbal, Muhammad, Sir and Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne
All these are weapons devised for self-preservation 305
By him that rides into the battle of Life.
The object of science and art is not knowledge,
The object of the garden is not the bud and the flower.
Science is an instrument for the preservation of Life,
Science is a means of establishing the Self. 310
Science and art are servants of Life,
Slaves born and bred in its house.
Rise, O thou who art strange to Life’s mystery,
Rise intoxicated with the wine of an ideal!
If thou art an ideal, thou wilt shine as the dawn 315
And be to all else as a blazing fire.
If thou art an ideal, thou art higher than Heaven—
Winning, captivating, enchanting men’s hearts;
A destroyer of ancient falsehood,
Fraught with turmoil, an embodiment of the Last Day. 320
We live by forming ideals,
We glow with the sunbeams of desire!