I live for those who love me;
For those I know are true;
For the heaven that smiles above me
And awaits my spirit too;
For all human ties that bind me,
For the task my God assigned me,
For the bright hope left behind me,
And the good that I can do.
I live to learn their story
Who suffered for my sake,
To emulate their glory
And follow in their wake;
Bards, martyrs, patriots, sages,
The nobles of all ages.
Whose deeds crown History's pages
And time's great volume make.
I live to hail the season--
By gifted minds foretold--
When man shall live by reason,
And not alone for gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.
I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel that there is union
'Twixt nature's heart and mine;
To profit by affliction,
Reap truth from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
Fulfilling God's design.
I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the heaven that smiles above me
And awaits my spirit too;
For the wrongs that need resistance,
For the cause that needs assistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.
--George Linnaeus Banks.