* 82 * THE BUILDERS. ALL are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme. Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show Strengthens and supports the rest. For the structure that we raise, Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. Truly shape and fashion these ; Leave no yawning gaps between : Think not, because no man sees, Such things will remain unseen. In the elder days of Art Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute 1 and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere. 1 minute', very small or little. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen, Make the house, where Gods may dwell. Else our lives are incomplete, Build to-day, then, strong and sure, Thus alone can we attain To those turrets, where the eye Sees the world as one vast plain, And one boundless reach of sky. H. W. LONGFELLOW. * 83 * THE NOBLY BORN. WHO counts himself as nobly born And honors are but brands to one Who wears them not with nature's grace. The prince may sit with clown or churl, But he who has but small esteem Then, be thou peasant, be thou peer, Count it still more thou art thine own: Stand on a larger heraldry 1 Than that of nation or of zone.2 What though not bid to knightly halls? Those halls have missed a courtly guest; That mansion is not privileged,3 Which is not open to the best. Give honor due when custom asks, To have the thing without the name. Then dost thou come of gentle blood, If lowly born, so bear thyself That gentle blood may come of thee. Strive not with pain to scale the height E. S. H. 1 that is, be a true man, free from narrow prejudices. 2 zone, a great division of the earth's surface. s privileged, granted some benefit. * 84 * DIVINE CARE. THE insect that with puny wing E'en from the glories of his throne He bends to view this wandering ball; Sees all, as if that all were one; Loves one, as if that one were all; Rolls the swift planets in their spheres, And counts the sinner's lonely tears. * 85 * THE CORAL GROVE. DEEP in the wave is a coral grove, The floor is of sand, like the mountain drift; Their boughs where the tides and billows flow. The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there; And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air. There, with its waving blade of green, The sea-flag streams through the silent water; The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea; And when the ship from his fury flies, The purple mullet and gold-fish rove, Through the bending twigs of the coral grove. J. G. PERCIVAL. 1 dulse, a sea-weed of a reddish-brown color. |