completion, and behold Their darlings flourish in the tempered air Of comfort till themselves become the springs Of a yet milder race: all are not born To touch majestic eminence and shine Directing spirits in their nations’ sight And radiate unformed posterity: But through transcendent mercy all are born To enter on a nobler heritage Than these, if each but wills to choose aright In serving Duty, man’s prerogative: Which is far pleasanter than paths of flowers, p. 170Than warmest clustering of household joys, And prouder than the proudest shouts of fame That follow action not in conscience wrought. p. 169 p. 170 Fair Duty, most unlike the blight of death, Whose dismal presence levels men to ruin, Lifts up his nature into rarer life. Hers is a broad estate open to poor And rich alike: here rudest peasant may Move as their equal with baronial lords, And those who serve be great as those who rule: Here a smirched artisan who merely bolts The plates of iron fortress, breathes the pride Of that trained chieftain who commands its guns; And one that points or fires a single piece Claims honour with the mind who planned the war. Fair Duty, hard and perilous to serve, Exacts devotion that is absolute, Ere she reveal the heaven of her smile; p. 171And gnaws with misery the traitor slave Who having known her countenance and moved At her behest relapses into sloth, Or drudges serf to his own base desires:— Sworn knight, and armed with mail and sword of proof, But coaxing brutish ignorance with praise, And with the wasted hearts of honest men Gorging the monster he went forth to slay. But whoso faithfully reveres her law As primal, and of every want supreme, Making edged danger discipline his strength, That changes hindrance into past delight, Fair Duty dowers with her celestial love, From which the mystic blessing glory grows: And glory born of Duty is a crown Of light. p. 171 And all thus crowned illume their work In splendour that no earthly eye may pierce, And know that every seed they set, and stone p. 172They fix, and truth they reach, unite to found A well-planned city in a governed land That rising babes high a Temple built Firm in its centre to the praise of God. And each beholds his labours glorified, Alike the toiler at the desk, a king Upon his throne, or builder of the bridge: The desk in lustre shines a kingly throne, The throne diffuses radiance like a sun, The bridge spans death—a pathway to the stars. p. 172
Prev.
Back
Top