| For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, |
| Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; |
| Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, |
| Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; |
| Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew |
| From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue; |
| Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, |
| With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunderstorm; |
| Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battleflags were furl'd |
| In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. |
| There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, |
| And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. |
| |
| Tennyson, "Locksley Hall," 1842. |
