University of Virginia Library

There is an outward life of act and speech,
A palpable existence, which doth find
Its home upon the highways of the land,
And works with men and things, amid the throng
Who keep the great world moving: from the first
It grasps at knowledge everywise, and wrings
From Science and her thousand sprites, and from
The army of the Ancients, worthy boons
Of light and learning: why? ‘They are most fair,
And shall be useful:’ thus advantaged
It ripens up to act, and ever sets
And cools its massive spirit to the mould
It should assume: then, on its chosen track
O'er the great waters (chosen with a prompt
Undoubting fiat) bears its treasures forth
Of crude material, ready for the touch
Of Need to perfect,—with skill'd steps and sure
From phase to phase of changeful circumstance
Moving; and slowly gathers as it goes
A household round it, in the which it stands
A noble centre,—not untinged with love,
But knit and braced for nervous deeds: and thus
Wheel round its fruitful periods, and it dies.

This is the life, which having largest kin
Among the people,—being like to theirs
Save in degree—a hedge-row flower, but changed
By fuller bloom and richness of the soil,
Bears on its forehead all clear gems of praise,
And on its breast the cordons of renown;
And marches grandly up to the topmost ridge
Where queened Glory sits and portions out
Her motley guerdons to the sons of men;
And carves immortal letters of its own
Deep in the soft young Future, with herself
To grow, and widen into fame; and wears
The sombre splendours of the schools, and wins
To fairer seeming and to nobler ends
The Majesty of Law,—or where the old
Dark pulpit by some frosted pillar clings
Among the serried aisles, doth stand and preach
God's great perennial gospel to the poor;
Or loftier strains, and settled nigh the helm,
Doth float the nation into better times
And broader schemes, and sunnier zones of Thought—
Doth sweep the dead leaves from the path of Truth,
And scoop a niche for Freedom and for Love
In all degraded souls; doth point its eyes
To track imperial Knowledge as she moves;
And from the electric index of men's thoughts
And widening opinions, learns the laws
Of happy change; but chiefly looks above,
And scans the white undying stars, and makes
Its lightest motions twin to them,—for they
If seen, are ever true.

Thus amid praise
Of all beside it and above, and awe
Of those below, it walks: and women gaze
Enrapt, or melt through reverence into love;
And the hoar ancients of the people speak—
‘Behold, oh youths, and follow as ye may!’