THE REFORMERS
Notin the camp his victory liesOr triumph in the market-place,Who is his Nation’s sacrificeTo turn the judgment from his race.Happy is he who, bred and taughtBy sleek, sufficing Circumstance—Whose Gospel was the apparelled thought,Whose Gods were Luxury and Chance—Sees, on the threshold of his days,The old life shrivel like a scroll,And to unheralded dismaysSubmits his body and his soul;The fatted shows wherein he stoodForegoing, and the idiot pride,That he may prove with his own bloodAll that his easy sires denied—Ultimate issues, primal springs,Demands, abasements, penalties—The imperishable plinth of thingsSeen and unseen, that touch our peace.For, though ensnaring ritual dimHis vision through the after-years,Yet virtue shall go out of him:Example profiting his peers.With great things charged he shall not holdAloof till great occasion rise,But serve, full-harnessed, as of old,The days that are the destinies.He shall forswear and put awayThe idols of his sheltered house;And to Necessity shall payUnflinching tribute of his vows.He shall not plead another’s act,Nor bind him in another’s oathTo weigh the Word above the Fact,Or make or take excuse for sloth.The yoke he bore shall press him still,And long-ingrained effort goadTo find, to fashion, and fulfilThe cleaner life, the sterner code.Not in the camp his victory lies—The world (unheeding his return)Shall see it in his children’s eyesAnd from his grandson’s lips shall learn!
Notin the camp his victory liesOr triumph in the market-place,Who is his Nation’s sacrificeTo turn the judgment from his race.Happy is he who, bred and taughtBy sleek, sufficing Circumstance—Whose Gospel was the apparelled thought,Whose Gods were Luxury and Chance—Sees, on the threshold of his days,The old life shrivel like a scroll,And to unheralded dismaysSubmits his body and his soul;The fatted shows wherein he stoodForegoing, and the idiot pride,That he may prove with his own bloodAll that his easy sires denied—Ultimate issues, primal springs,Demands, abasements, penalties—The imperishable plinth of thingsSeen and unseen, that touch our peace.For, though ensnaring ritual dimHis vision through the after-years,Yet virtue shall go out of him:Example profiting his peers.With great things charged he shall not holdAloof till great occasion rise,But serve, full-harnessed, as of old,The days that are the destinies.He shall forswear and put awayThe idols of his sheltered house;And to Necessity shall payUnflinching tribute of his vows.He shall not plead another’s act,Nor bind him in another’s oathTo weigh the Word above the Fact,Or make or take excuse for sloth.The yoke he bore shall press him still,And long-ingrained effort goadTo find, to fashion, and fulfilThe cleaner life, the sterner code.Not in the camp his victory lies—The world (unheeding his return)Shall see it in his children’s eyesAnd from his grandson’s lips shall learn!
Notin the camp his victory liesOr triumph in the market-place,Who is his Nation’s sacrificeTo turn the judgment from his race.
Happy is he who, bred and taughtBy sleek, sufficing Circumstance—Whose Gospel was the apparelled thought,Whose Gods were Luxury and Chance—
Sees, on the threshold of his days,The old life shrivel like a scroll,And to unheralded dismaysSubmits his body and his soul;
The fatted shows wherein he stoodForegoing, and the idiot pride,That he may prove with his own bloodAll that his easy sires denied—
Ultimate issues, primal springs,Demands, abasements, penalties—The imperishable plinth of thingsSeen and unseen, that touch our peace.
For, though ensnaring ritual dimHis vision through the after-years,Yet virtue shall go out of him:Example profiting his peers.
With great things charged he shall not holdAloof till great occasion rise,But serve, full-harnessed, as of old,The days that are the destinies.
He shall forswear and put awayThe idols of his sheltered house;And to Necessity shall payUnflinching tribute of his vows.
He shall not plead another’s act,Nor bind him in another’s oathTo weigh the Word above the Fact,Or make or take excuse for sloth.
The yoke he bore shall press him still,And long-ingrained effort goadTo find, to fashion, and fulfilThe cleaner life, the sterner code.
Not in the camp his victory lies—The world (unheeding his return)Shall see it in his children’s eyesAnd from his grandson’s lips shall learn!