Abides by this resolve, and stops not there, II. Who, doomed to go in company with Pain, In face of these doth exercise a power So often that demand such sacrifice; More skillful in self-knowledge, even more pure, III. "Tis he whose law is reason; who depends IV. Who, if he rise to station of command, V. Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, Or mild concerns of ordinary life, A constant influence, a peculiar grace; But who, if he be called upon to face Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined With sudden brightness, like a man inspired; Come when it will, is equal to the need: VI. He who, though thus endued as with a sense It is his darling passion to approve; More brave for this, that he hath much to love: VII. "T is finally the Man, who, lifted high, From well to better, daily self-surpassed: VIII. Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth, Forever, and to noble deeds give birth, --- Or he must go to dust without his fame, XXXV. THE GODDESS OF POVERTY. FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME DUDEVANT. Give the full sound of e, as in her, to e in POVERTY, TRAVERSE, &c. Sound short e in TRAVEL. For MASTER, PASS, see § 22; PATHS, § 19; CURSE, FIRST, NURSE, § 16. See in Index, DEXTEROUS or DEXTROUS, NEITHER, PLOW or PLOUGH, RAVINE, SABRE or SABER, TRAVELED or TRAVELLED, WANDERING JEw, PRAGUE, DUDevant. Delivery. This beautiful prose lyric will be spoilt if read tamely or with a lack of enthusiasm. The tone should be pure, animated, elastic, and chiefly in the middle pitch; time almost quick; pauses generally short, except at the grammatical dash; force moderate. In the fourteenth and fifteenth paragraphs the time should be slow; and at the sixteenth the voice should rise to an expressive orotund with quickened time and added force. 1. PATHS sanded with gold, verdant wastes, ravines which the wild-goat loves, great mountains crowned with stars, tumbling torrents, impenetrable forests, let the good goddess pass, the goddess of Poverty! 2. Since the world has existed, since men were in it, she traverses the world, she dwells among men; singing she travels, or working she sings, the goddess, the good goddess of Poverty! 3. Some men assembled to curse her; but they found her too beautiful and too glad, too agile and too strong. "Strip off her wings!" said they; "give her chains, give her stripes, crush her, let her perish, the goddess of Poverty !" 4. They have chained the good goddess; they have beaten her, and persecuted; but they cannot debase her! She has taken refuge in the souls of poets, of peasants, of artists, of martyrs, and of saints, — the good goddess, the goddess of Poverty! - 5. She has walked more than the Wandering Jew; she has traveled more than the swallow; she is older than the cathedral of Prague; she is younger than the egg of the wren; she has increased more than the strawberry in Bohemian forests, the goddess, the good goddess of Poverty ! 6. Many children has she had, and many a divine secret has she taught them; she knows more than all the doctors and all the lawyers, the good goddess of Poverty ! 7. She does all the greatest and most beautiful things that are done in the world: it is she who cultivates the fields and prunes the trees; it is she who drives the herds to pasture, singing the while all sweet songs; it is she who sees the day break, and catches the sun's first smile, — the good goddess of Poverty! 8. It is she who builds of green boughs the woodman's cabin, and makes the hunter's eye like that of the eagle; it is she who brings up the handsomest children, and who leaves the plow and the spade light in the hands of the old man, the good goddess of Poverty! 9. It is she who inspires the poet, and makes eloquent the violin, the guitar, and the flute, under the fingers of the wandering artist; it is she who crowns his hair with pearls of the dew, and who makes the stars shine for him larger and more clear, the goddess, the good goddess of Poverty! 10. It is she who instructs the dexterous artisan, and teaches him to hew stone, to carve marble, to fashion gold and silver, copper and iron; it is she who makes the flax flexible and fine as hair, under the hands of the old wife and the young girl, the good goddess of Poverty! 11. It is she who sustains the cottage shaken by the storm; it is she who saves rosin for the torch and oil for the lamp; it is she who kneads bread for the family, and who weaves garments for them, summer and winter; it is she who maintains and feeds the world, the good goddess of Poverty! 12. It is she who has built the great castles and the old cathedrals; it is she who builds and navigates all the ships; it is she who carries the sabre and the musket; it is she who makes war and conquests; it is she who buries the dead, cares for the wounded, and shelters the vanquished, the good goddess of Poverty! 13. Thou art all gentleness, all patience, all strength, and all compassion, O good goddess! it is thou whỏ dost reünite all thy children in a holy love, givest them charity, faith, hope, O goddess of Poverty! 14. Thy children will one day cease to bear the world on their shoulders; they will be recompensed for all their pains and labors. The time shall come when there shall be neither rich nor poor on the earth; but when all men shall partake of its fruits, and enjoy equally the bounties of Providence; but thou shalt not be forgotten in their hymns, O good goddess of Poverty ! 15. They will remember that thou wert their fruitful mother and their robust nurse. They will pour balm into thy wounds; and, of the fragrant and rejuvenated earth, they will make for thee a couch, where thou canst at length repose, O good goddess of Poverty ! 16. Until that day of the Lord, torrents and woods, mountains and valleys, wastes swarming with little flowers and little birds, paths sanded with gold, without a master, let pass the goddess, the good goddess of Poverty! |