Couldst thou boast, O child of weakness,
O'er the sons of wrong and strife,
Were their strong temptations planted
In thy path of life?
He alone whose hand is bounding
Human power and human will,
Looking through each soul's surrounding,
Knows its good or ill.
Earnest words must needs be spoken
When the warm heart bleeds or burns
With its scorn of wrong, or pity
For the wronged, by turns.
But, by all thy nature's weakness,
Hidden faults and follies known,
Be thou, in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thine own.
Not the less shall stern-eyed Duty
To thy lips her trumpet set,
But with harsher blasts shall mingle
Wailings of regret.
So when thoughts of evil-doers
Waken scorn or hatred move,
Shall a mournful fellow-feeling
Temper all with love.
--John Greenleaf Whittier.
'Tis the Almighty's gracious plan,
That man shall be the joy of man.
--From the Scandinavian, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin.