The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap,

The herdsman who climbed with his goats to the steep, The beggar who wandered in search of his bread, Have faded away like the grass that we tread.

The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven,
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

So the multitude goes, like the flower and the weed,
That wither away to let others succeed;

So the multitude comes, like those we behold,
To repeat every tale that hath often been told.

For we are the things our fathers have been;
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen,—
We drink the same stream, we feel the same sun,
And run the same course that our fathers have run.

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would think; From the death we are shrinking, they, too, would shrink; To the life we are clinging to, they too would cling; But it speeds from the earth like a bird on the wing.

They loved, but their story we cannot unfold;
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers will come;
They joyed, but the voice of their gladness is dumb.

They died,-ay, they died; and we things that are now, Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow, Who make in their dwellings a transient abode, Meet the changes they met on their pilgrimage road.

Yea, hope and despondence, and pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, and the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud,Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

5. Opportunity

TODAY

THOMAS CARLYLE

So here hath been dawning
Another blue day;
Think wilt thou let it

Slip useless away?

Out of eternity

This new day is born;
Into Eternity

At night will return.

Behold it afore time,

No eye ever did:
So soon it forever

From all eyes is hid.

Here hath been dawning
Another blue day:

Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?

THE WATER MILL

SARA DOUDNEY

Listen to the water mill,

Through the live-long day,

How the clanking of the wheels
Wears the hours away!

Languidly the autumn wind

Stirs the greenwood leaves;
From the fields the reapers sing,
Binding up the sheaves;
And a proverb haunts my mind,
As a spell is cast:

"The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed."

Take the lesson to thyself,

Living heart and true; Golden years are fleeting by,

Youth is passing, too;

Learn to make the most of life,

Lose no happy day;

Time will never bring thee back

Chances swept away.
Leave no tender word unsaid,

Love while life shall last-
"The mill will never grind
With the water that has passed."

Work while the daylight shines,
Man of strength and will,
Never does the streamlet glide
Useless by the mill.

Wait not till tomorrow's sun

Beams upon the way;
All thou canst call thine own
Lies in thy today.
Power, intellect and health

May not, cannot last;

"The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed."

Oh, the wasted hours of life

That have drifted by,

Oh, the good we might have done,

Lost without a sigh;

Love that we might once have saved

By a single word;

Thoughts conceived but never penned,
Perishing unheard.

Take the proverb to thine heart,

Take! oh, hold it fast!

"The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed."

IRREVOCABLE

MARY WRIGHT PLUMMER

What thou hast done thou hast done; for the heavenly horses are swift.

Think not their flight to o'ertake,—they stand at the throne even

now.

Ere thou canst compass the thought, the immortals in just hands

shall lift,

Poise, and weigh surely thy deed, and its weight shall be laid on thy brow;

For what thou hast done thou hast done.

What thou hast not done remains; and the heavenly horses are kind.

Till thou hast pondered thy choice, they will patiently wait at

thy door.

Do a brave deed, and behold! they are farther away than the

wind.

Returning, they bring thee a crown, to shine on thy brow ever

more;

For what thou hast done thou hast done.

OPPORTUNITY

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

This I beheld, or dreamed it as a dream:-
There spread a cloud of dust along a rolling plain;

And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged

A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords

Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge,

And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel-
That blue blade which the king's son bears,-

But this blunt thing-!" he snapped and flung it from his hand,

And lowering crept away and left the field.

Then came the king's son, wounded, and sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,

Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,

And ran and snatched it, and with a battle shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,

And saved a great cause that heroic day.

6. Loyalty to Your Best Self

HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON

ARTHUR COLTON

The harps hung up in Babylon,
Their loosened strings rang on, sang on,
And cast their murmurs forth upon
The roll and the roar of Babylon:

"Forget me, Lord, if I forget
Jerusalem for Babylon:
If I forget the vision set
High as the head of Lebanon
Is lifted over Syria yet,
If I forget and bow me down
To brutish Gods of Babylon."

Two rivers to each other run
In the very midst of Babylon,
And swifter than their current fleets
The restless river of the streets