And whatever the height you yearn to climb,
Though it never was trod by the foot of man,
And no matter how steep--I say you CAN,
If you will be patient--and use your time.
WHAT THEY SAW
Sad man, Sad man, tell me, pray,
What did you see to-day?
I saw the unloved and unhappy old, waiting for slow delinquent death to
come;
Pale little children toiling for the rich, in rooms where sunlight is
ashamed to go;
The awful almshouse, where the living dead rot slowly in their hideous open
graves.
And there were shameful things.
Soldiers and forts, and industries of death, and devil-ships, and loud-
winged devil-birds,
All bent on slaughter and destruction. These and yet more shameful things
mine eyes beheld:
Old men upon lascivious conquest bent, and young men living with no thought
of God,
And half-clothed women puffing at a weed, aping the vices of the
underworld,
Engrossed in shallow pleasures and intent on being barren wives.
These things I saw.
(How God must loathe His earth!)
Glad man, Glad man, tell me, pray.
What did you see to-day?
I saw an aged couple, in whose eyes
Shone that deep light of mingled love and faith,
Which makes the earth one room of paradise,
And leaves no sting in death.
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