There are who ask not if thine eye Upon the genial sense of youth: They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And they a blissful course may hold Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried; Too blindly have reposed my trust: Thy timely mandate, I deferred The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong compunction in me wrought, My hopes no more must change their name, Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear As is the smile upon thy face: ANT ROYAL OF HIGH VIRTUE o lives in suit of armor pent, y Lenten fast or Ramazan, , in his Palace resident For harlot and for publican. And by that rood where He was bent Cyrus the Great and Hannibal, Virtue is that beseems a Man! Had tall Achilles lounged in tent For aye, and Xanthus neighed in stall, One lesson learn, one sentence scan, One title and one colophon Virtue is that beseems a Man! High Virtue's hest is eloquent With spur and not with martingall: Sufficeth not thou'rt continent: BE COURTEOUS, BRAVE, AND LIBERAL. God fashioned thee of chosen clay For service, nor did ever say “Deny thee this," ""Abstain from yon," Save to inure thee, thew and bone, To be confirmèd of the clan That made immortal MarathonVirtue is that beseems a Man! ENVOY Young Knight, the lists are set to-day: In sepulture with hands of stone. The Splendid Spur And gaily dinging down the van arge with a cheer-Set on! Set on! Virtue is that beseems a Man! Arthur T. Quiller-Couch [1863 2819 THE SPLENDID SPUR on the neck of prince or hound, or on a woman's finger twined, gold from the deriding ground eep sacred that we sacred bind: Only the heel Of splendid steel hall stand secure on sliding fate, scarlet hat, the laureled stave re measures, not the springs, of worth; wife's lap, as in a grave, Ian's airy notions mix with earth. Seek other spur Bravely to stir 'he dust in this loud world, and tread lp-high among the whispering dead. st in thyself, then spur amain: o shall Charybdis wear a grace, n Ætna laugh, the Libyan plain ake roses to her shriveled face. This orb-this round Of sight and sound ount it the lists that God hath built or haughty hearts to ride a-tilt. Arthur T. Quiller-Couch [1863 THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS CONSCIENCE From "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers CONSCIENCE is instinct bred in the house, Into the moors. I love a life whose plot is simple, And does not thicken with every pimple, A soul so sound no sickly conscience binds it, That makes the universe no worse than 't finds it. I love an earnest soul, Whose mighty joy and sorrow Are not drowned in a bowl, And brought to life to-morrow; A conscience worth keeping, Laughing not weeping; A conscience wise and steady, And forever ready; Not changing with events, A conscience exercised about Large things, which one may doubt. Predestined to be good, But true to the backbone Unto itself alone, And false to none; Born to its own affairs, Its own joys and own cares; By whom the work which God begun Is finished, and not undone; |