Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul. Various

himself obeyed.

      If such a man there be, where'er

      Beneath the sun and moon he fare,

      He cannot fare amiss;

      Great Nature hath him in her care,

      Her cause is his;

      Who holds by everlasting law

      Which neither chance nor change can flaw,

      Whose steadfast course is one

      With whatsoever forces draw

      The ages on;

      Who hath not bowed his honest head

      To base Occasion; nor, in dread

      Of Duty, shunned her eye;

      Nor truckled to loud times; nor wed

      His heart to a lie;

      Nor feared to follow, in the offense

      Of false opinion, his own sense

      Of justice unsubdued;

      Nor shrunk from any consequence

      Of doing good;

      He looks his Angel in the face

      Without a blush; nor heeds disgrace

      Whom naught disgraceful done

      Disgraces. Who knows nothing base

      Fears nothing known.

      Not morseled out from day to day

      In feverish wishes, nor the prey

      Of hours that have no plan,

      His life is whole, to give away

      To God and man.

      For though he live aloof from ken,

      The world's unwitnessed denizen,

      The love within him stirs

      Abroad, and with the hearts of men

      His own confers.

      The judge upon the justice-seat;

      The brown-backed beggar in the street;

      The spinner in the sun;

      The reapers reaping in the wheat;

      The wan-cheeked nun

      In cloisters cold; the prisoner lean

      In lightless den, the robèd queen;

      Even the youth who waits,

      Hiding the knife, to glide unseen

      Between the gates—

      He nothing human alien deems

      Unto himself, nor disesteems

      Man's meanest claim upon him.

      And where he walks the mere sunbeams

      Drop blessings on him.

      Because they know him Nature's friend,

      One whom she doth delight to tend

      With loving kindness ever:

      Helping and heartening to the end

      His high endeavor.

      —Edward Bulwer Lytton.

      ———

      FAME AND DUTY

      What shall I do lest life in silence pass?

      "And if it do,

      And never prompt the bray of noisy brass,

      What need'st thou rue?

      Remember, aye the ocean-deeps are mute—

      The shallows roar;

      Worth is the ocean—fame is but the bruit

      Along the shore."

      What shall I do to be forever known?

      "Thy duty ever!"

      This did full many who yet slept unknown.

      "O never, never!

      Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown

      Whom thou know'st not?

      By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown—

      Divine their lot."

      What shall I do, an heir of endless life?

      "Discharge aright

      The simple dues with which each day is rife,

      Yea, with thy might.

      Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise

      Will life be fled,

      While he who ever acts as conscience cries,

      Shall live, though dead."

      —Johann C. F. Schiller.

      ———

      NOBLE LIVES

      There are hearts which never falter

      In the battle for the right;

      There are ranks which never alter

      Watching through the darkest night;

      And the agony of sharing

      In the fiercest of the strife

      Only gives a nobler daring,

      Only makes a grander life.

      There are those who never weary

      Bearing suffering and wrong;

      Though the way is long and dreary

      It is vocal with their song,

      While their spirits in God's furnace,

      Bending to His gracious will,

      Are fashioned in a purer mold

      By His loving, matchless skill.

      There are those whose loving mission

      'Tis to bind the bleeding heart;

      And to teach a calm submission

      When the pain and sorrow smart.

      They are angels, bearing to us

      Love's rich ministry of peace,

      While the night is nearing to us

      When life's bitter trials cease.

      There are those who battle slander,

      Envy, jealousy and hate;

      Who would rather die than pander

      To the passions of earth's great;

      No earthly power can ever crush them,

      They dread not the tyrant's frown;

      Fear or favor cannot hush them,

      Nothing bind their spirits down.

      These, these alone are truly great;

      These are the conquerors of fate;

      These truly live, they never die;

      But, clothed with immortality,

      When they lay their armor down

      Shall enter and receive the crown.

      ———

THE HIGHER LIFE