Chronicles and Characters By Robert Lytton (Owen Meredith): In Two Volumes |
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IX. |
A GREAT MAN. |
Chronicles and Characters | ||
336
A GREAT MAN.
1
That man is great, and he alone,Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:
Content to know, and be unknown:
Whole in himself.
2
Strong is that man, he only strong,To whose well-order'd will belong,
For service and delight,
All powers that, in the face of Wrong,
Establish Right.
3
And free he is, and only he,Who, from his tyrant passions free,
By Fortune undismay'd,
Hath power upon himself, to be
By himself obey'd.
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4
If such a man there be, where'erBeneath the sun and moon he fare,
He cannot fare amiss.
Great Nature hath him in her care
Her cause is his:
5
Who holds by everlasting lawWhich neither chance nor change can flaw:
Whose steadfast course is one
With whatsoever forces draw
The ages on:
6
Who hath not bow'd his honest headTo base Occasion: nor, in dread
Of Duty, shunn'd her eye:
Nor truckled to loud times: nor wed
His heart to a lie:
7
Nor fear'd to follow, in the offenceOf false opinion, his own sense
Of justice unsubdued:
Nor shrunk from any consequence
Of doing good.
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8
He looks his Angel in the faceWithout a blush: nor heeds disgrace,
Whom nought disgraceful done
Disgraces. Who knows nothing base
Fears nothing known.
9
Not morsell'd out from day to dayIn feverish wishes, nor the prey
Of hours that have no plan,
His life is whole, to give away
To God and man.
10
For tho' he live aloof from ken,The world's unwitness'd denizen,
The love within him stirs
Abroad, and with the hearts of men
His own confers:
11
The judge upon the justice-seat:The brown-back'd beggar in the street:
The spinner in the sun:
The reapers reaping in the wheat:
The wan-cheek'd nun
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12
In cloister cold: the prisoner leanIn lightless den: the robèd Queen:
Even the youth who waits,
Hiding the knife, to glide unseen
Between the gates:—
13
He nothing human alien deemsUnto himself, nor disesteems
Man's meanest claim upon him:
And, where he walks, the mere sunbeams
Drop blessings on him:
14
Because they know him Nature's friend,On whom she doth delight to tend
With loving-kindness ever,
Helping and heartening to the end
His high endeavour.
15
Therefore, tho' mortal made, he canWork miracles. The uncommon man
Leaves nothing commonplace.
He is the marvellous. To span
The abyss of space,
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16
The orb of time, is his by faith,And his, whilst breathing human breath,
To taste, before he dies,
The deep eventual calm of death,
Life's latest prize.
17
If such a man there be, where'erBeneath the sun and moon he fare,
He doth not fare alone.
He goeth girt with cohorts, powers,
The monarch of his manful hours,
Whose mind's his throne:
18
He owes no homage to the sun:There's nothing he need seek or shun:
All things are his by right:
He is his own posterity:
His future in himself doth lie:
His soul's his light:
19
Lord of a lofty life is he,Loftily living, tho' he be
Of lowly birth: tho' poor,
He lacks not wealth: nor high degree
In state obscure.
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20
The merely great are, all in all,No more than what the merely small
Esteem them. Man's opinion
Neither conferr'd, nor can recall,
This man's dominion.
Chronicles and Characters | ||