MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 115
charger, is setting out from his castle to s eek The Holy Grail.
On his shield gleams the cross, the symbol of the benignity
and tenderness of Our Savior, the meek and lowly One, but
the knight's heart is filled with pride and haughty disdain for
the poor and needy. He meets a lep er asking alms and with a
contemptuous frown throws him a coin, as one might cast a
bone to a hungry cur, but
The leper raised not the gold from the dust,
“Better to me the poor man's crust,
Better the blessing of the poor,
Though I turn empty from his door.”
That is not true alms which the hand can hold;
He gives only worthless gold
Who gives from a sense of duty;
But he who gives from a slender mite
And gives to that which is out of sight—
That thread of all-sustaining Beauty
Which runs through all and doth all unite,—
The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms,
The heart outstretches its eager palms,
For a god goes with it and makes it store
To the soul that was starving in darkness before.
On his return Sir Launfal finds another in possession of
his castle, and is driven from the gate.
An old bent man, worn out and frail,
He came back from seeking the Holy Grail;
Little he recked of his earldom's loss,
No more on his surcoat was blazoned the cross,
But deep in his heart the sign he wore,
The badge of the suffering and the poor.
Again he meets the leper, who again asks alms. This
time the knight responds differently.
And Sir Launfal said: “I behold in thee
An image of Him Who died on the tree;
Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,