NOBLE be man, Helpful and good!
For that alone Distinguisheth him From all the beings Unto us known.
Hail to the beings, Unknown and glorious, Whom we forebode!
From his example Learn we to know them!
For unfeeling Nature is ever:
On bad and on good The sun alike shineth;And on the wicked, As on the best, The moon and stars gleam.
Tempest and torrent, Thunder and hail, Roar on their path, Seizing the while, As they haste onward, One after another.
Even so, fortune Gropes 'mid the throng--Innocent boyhood's Curly head seizing,--Seizing the hoary Head of the sinner.
After laws mighty, Brazen, eternal, Must all we mortals Finish the circuit Of our existence.
Man, and man only Can do the impossible;He 'tis distinguisheth, Chooseth and judgeth;He to the moment Endurance can lend.
He and he only The good can reward, The bad can he punish, Can heal and can save;All that wanders and strays Can usefully blend.
And we pay homage To the immortals As though they were men, And did in the great, What the best, in the small, Does or might do.
Be the man that is noble, Both helpful and good.
Unweariedly forming The right and the useful, A type of those beings Our mind hath foreshadow'd!
1782.
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