What shall I do lest life in silence pass?
"And if it do,
And never prompt the bray of noisy brass,
What need'st thou rue?
Remember, aye the ocean-deeps are mute--
The shallows roar;
Worth is the ocean--fame is but the bruit
Along the shore."
What shall I do to be forever known?
"Thy duty ever!"
This did full many who yet slept unknown.
"O never, never!
Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown
Whom thou know'st not?
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown--
Divine their lot."
What shall I do, an heir of endless life?
"Discharge aright
The simple dues with which each day is rife,
Yea, with thy might.
Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise
Will life be fled,
While he who ever acts as conscience cries,
Shall live, though dead."
--Johann C. F. Schiller.