Society and the World

Blessed are the horny hands of toil!

They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.

They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.

They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.

O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence.

No graven images may be Worshipped, except the currency.

No graven images may be Worshipped, except the currency.

Thou shalt not covet, but tradition Approves all forms of competition.

Thou shalt not covet, but tradition Approves all forms of competition.

Grace is given of God, but knowledge is bought in the market.

A solitary sail that rises White in the blue mist on the foam— What is it in far lands it prizes? What does it leave behind at home?

Oh let us love our occupations, Bless the squire and his relations, Live upon our daily rations, And always know our proper stations.

Oh let us love our occupations, Bless the squire and his relations, Live upon our daily rations, And always know our proper stations.

A minute’s success pays the failure of years.

But little do or can the best of us: That little is achieved through Liberty.

But little do or can the best of us: That little is achieved through Liberty.

Ignorance is not innocence but sin.

A man in armor is his armor’s slave.

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good Compensate bad in man, absolve him so: Life’s business being just the terrible choice.

The curious crime, the fine Felicity and flower of wickedness.

That’s all we may expect of man, this side The grave: his good is—knowing he is bad.

’Twas a thief said the last kind word to Christ: Christ took the kindness and forgave the theft.

Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone, Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are; Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.

That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it; This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one, His hundred’s soon hit; This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit. That, has the world here—should he need the next, Let the world mind him! This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed Seeking shall find Him.