Be true to Right: let Justice still

Her even balance claim;

Unawed, unbribed, through good or ill,
Make rectitude your aim,

Unswayed by prejudice, your mind
Each day submitted claims will find
To champion or deny;

Then cast, according to your light,
Your influence on the side of right,
Though all the world goes by.

Be true to Truth: the proudest name
That sterling worthy may win
Is soiled and tarnished past reclaim
Where falsehood enters in.

No

gem that arduous toil may find
In learning's field, adorns the mind
Like truth's pure shining ray;
And from her presence error's crowds
Of worshippers disperse like clouds
Before the rising day.

Be true to Reason: let her light

Be ever glorified,

And make through life her beacon bright

A fixed, enduring guide.

False views of life young faith may blind,

False creeds allure the youthful mind

And its adherence win;

But reason's steady light to thee

An oracle of truth shall be,—

A monitor within.

Be true to Self-Respect: the world
May judge thy motives wrong,
And slander's poisoned shafts be hurled
Where virtue moves along;

Keep thou the upright ways that find
Th'approval of thine own good mind—
To thine own self be true";
So shalt thou proudly walk erect,
And conscious of thine own respect,
Make others' honor due.

These are the virtues, these the ways,
That bring their own reward;
And to observe them all thy days
Keep constant watch and guard.
He who from these his guidance takes
Gives to the race the hope that makes
The march of man sublime;

And each good deed, each wrong withstood,
Lives in its influence for the good

Throughout all coming time!

ANONYMOUS

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,

Makes that and th'action fine.

178

GEORGE HERBERT

OUR OWN

If I had known, in the morning,

How wearily all the day

The words unkind would trouble my mind

I spoke when you went away,

I had been more careful, darling,

Nor given you needless pain;

But we vex our own with look and tone
We might never take back again.

For though in the quiet evening,

You may give me the kiss of peace, Yet it well might be that never for me The pain of the heart should cease!

How many go forth at morning

Who never come home at night;

And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken That sorrow can ne'er set right.

We have careful thought for the stranger,
And smiles for the sometime guest,
But oft for our own the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best.
Ah, lip with the curve impatient,

Ah, brow with the shade of scorn,

'Twere a cruel fate were the night too late To undo the work of the morn.

ANONYMOUS

179

THE UPRIGHT MAN

The man of life upright, whose guiltless heart is free

From all dishonest deeds and thoughts of vanity; The man whose silent days in harmless joys are spent,

Whom hopes cannot delude, nor fortune discontent; That man needs neither towers nor armor for de

fence,

Nor secret vaults to fly from thunder's violence;
He, only, can behold with unaffrighted eyes

The horrors of the deep and terrors of the skies;

Thus scorning all the care that fate or fortune

brings,

He makes the heaven his book, his wisdom heavenly

things;

Good thoughts his only friends, his wealth a well

spent age,

The earth his sober inn and quiet pilgrimage.

180

FRANCIS BACON

THE ANSWER

"Allah, Allah!" cried the sick man, racked with pain the long night through;

Till with prayer his heart grew tender, till his lips like honey grew.

But at morning came the Tempter; said, "Call louder, child of Pain!

See if Allah ever hears, or answers 'Here am I' again."

Like a stab the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went;

To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness sent.

Then before him stands Elias; says, " My child, why thus dismayed?

Dost repent thy former fervor? Is thy soul of prayer afraid?"