Society and the World

Such is the patriot’s boast, where’er we roam, His first, best country ever is, at home.

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheldt, or wandering Po.

Iron sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darken’d air.

Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! Confusion on thy banners wait, Though fann’d by Conquest’s crimson wing They mock the air with idle state.

Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray; Along the cool sequester’d vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land, And read their hist’ry in a nation’s eyes.

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.

But knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne’er unroll; Chill penury repress’d their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor.

Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the wat’ry glade.

As with my hat 7 upon my head I walk’d along the Strand, I there did meet another man With his hat in his hand. 8

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail— Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind, from China to Peru. 2

Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind, from China to Peru. 2

Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

For we that live to please must please to live.

For we that live to please must please to live.

Cold approbation gave the ling’ring bays, For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.

Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years, Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.