 | Vigil and vision |  |
78
WORK.
OFT have I marvelled, in my sadder mood,At reading, in the Scriptures of the Jew,
—The race that never yet set hand to do
That which of others done procure they could,
Drawers of water hewers nor of wood,
—Work worst set down of all that makes us rue,
For primal curse that men is born unto
Branded, for chiefest ill life's chiefest good.
Yet that the dictum of the Therapeut,
Of Paul, the Essenian doctor and adépt,
Whose speech for Christ, professing, we accept,
In these our days of vain hysteric heat,
I marvel more, hath borne such scanty fruit,
“Who will not labour, neither let him eat!”
| Vigil and vision | |