With words of sympathy or song
To cheer the dreary march along
Of the great army of the poor,
O'er desert sand, o'er dangerous moor.
Nor to thyself the task shall be
Without reward; for thou shalt learn
The wisdom early to discern

True beauty in utility.

LONGFELLOW (To a Child).

"Choose well, your choice is
Brief, and yet endless

"Here eyes do regard you

In Eternity's stillness;
Here is all fulness,

Ye brave! to reward you;

Work, and despair not!"

GOETHE, translated by CARLYLE (Symbolum).

36

OOKING Within myself, I note how thin

LOOK

A plank of station, chance, or prosperous fate

Doth fence me from the clutching waves of

sin:

In my own heart I find the worst man's

mate,

And see not dimly the smooth-hingèd gate

That opes to those abysses

Where ye grope darkly,-ye who never knew On your young hearts love's consecrating dew, Or felt a mother's kisses,

Or home's restraining tendrils round you curled.

Ah, side by side with heart's-ease in this world The fatal nightshade grows, and bitter rue!

LOWELL (Si Descendero in Infernum, Ades).

37

ERHAPS in this neglected spot is laid

Psome heart once

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;

Hands that the rod of empire might have

swayed,

Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

GRAY (Elegy in a Country Churchyard).