Our Profession and Other Poems | Page 6

so sad a ruin
As the wreck of one human mind.
The voice, the eye, and the manner
Are all unlocked by a key
That
has for its great attraction
A confiding sympathy.

The knowledge of books is essential
To those who youth would guide,

But the grace of earnest endeavor
Excels all else beside.
Truth in its plainness is beauty,
Science itself is a charm,
But the
frown of a tyrant tutor
Puts both in constant alarm.
To receive a healthful impression,
Mind must be free from fear,

Will must be held by attraction,
Soul, by a soul sincere.
MIRRORS.
Some persons in mind are but mirrors
Reflecting what others have
thought,
That make no original errors,
They are only able to quote.

You may ask their opinion on matters
That pertain to affairs of the
day,
Their minds are but shreds and tatters
Of what all their
neighbors say.
We respect the man who is careful
With others his mind to compare,

But who of himself is not fearful
His honest opinion to share

With men, when some public measure
Upon the State has been
thrown,--
Who proves his mind a rich treasure
He uses and calls his
own.
MANY.
Many a grand ambition
Had birth and died in a day,
From lack of
vigorous nursing
To keep it from decay.
Many a hope has faded
And sunk in deepest despair,
Through lack
of careful pruning
That fruitage it might bear.
Many a mind is ruined
And becomes chaotic mass,
Through want
of systematic
Training in the class.
Many a song of sweetness
Has lost its harmony,
Because at its
beginning
It had not the proper key.

Many a field most fertile
Bears vile and noxious weeds,
Through
failure of the tiller
To sow some worthy seeds.
Many a flower of beauty
And sweetness blooms unseen,
And dies
in its seclusion
On a bed of mossy green.
Better to have no talent,
No excellence to give,
Than permit vice to
destroy
The talent we may have.

No dam can restrain the water
When leaks receive no care,
When
the tempest in wild fury
Doth chafe and gnaw and tear,
And no
hand is raised to succor,
No effort to repair,
Till the torrent bursts in
fury
And fills us with despair.
'Tis too late then for repining,
Too
late, for work or prayer.
DUTY DONE.
A duty done is victory won,
E'en though in the doing,
Efforts may
fail to bring avail
In lines we are pursuing.
Nothing is lost whate'er the cost,
When efforts made are noble,

Beyond the sky acts never die,
And honor's crown is double.
Right cannot fail, but must prevail,
If noble be the motive;
Heaven
is nigher if we aspire
With hearts sincere and votive.
Much strength we gain when we maintain
A truth for truth's sake
solely;
A mighty power guides effort's hour
And stamps its cause as
holy.
If honest heart act well its part,
And ask the aid of heaven
Its
feeblest word will be so heard
That succor will be given.
It matters not how low our lot
We rise by honest trial;
No effort

made for needed aid
E'er met complete denial.
The soul expands when it demands
A right for self and others,
And
darkest night has ray of light
For honest helpful brothers.
A noble soul spurns the control
Would bind in servile fetters;
No
chains can bind God-given mind
Inspired by love and letters.
An earnest will can ne'er be still
Though oft its hopes be baffled,
It
will succeed though victims bleed
And die upon the scaffold.
Loud shout and sing, "Crown Effort King,"
And let the watchword be

This earnest prayer heard everywhere,
"God and Humanity."
A duty done is victory won,
For strength comes by the doing;

There's no retreat, there's no defeat,
If right we are pursuing.
THE SENSES.
THE EYE.
Some eyes are trained to scan large field
Till instantaneous glance
may yield
A knowledge full and plenty;
While others keep a narrow
ken
And view the ways of active men
With satisfaction scanty.
The optic nerve has power so keen,
That ev'ry object by it seen
Is
stamped upon the brain;
But they of sluggish mental mold
No vivid
photograph will hold,
And scarce a scene retain.
THE EAR
The tympanum with perfect drum
Hears not the sound when armies
come
With clarion notes and song,
Unless its stimulated nerve

Has fully learned to humbly serve
In stations which belong
To those which God designed should live
For special duties, He

might give
To move mankind along
Upon the road toward perfect
man,
That He might thus reveal His plan,
And happiness prolong.
THE TONGUE.
The power that lies in perfect speech
Dwells with the few who only
reach
That art through toil and care;
A faulty tongue perverts the
ear,
Destroys the sense, augments the fear,
And feeds on empty air.
A nation's destinies have hung
Upon the influence of a tongue

Whose magic eloquence
Has swayed the thoughts of men, whose
word
Was mightier than the glittering sword
Of armies most
immense.
THE HAND.
The manual touch when guided by
The magic power of sympathy

That animates the soul,
May lead to fields of cultured art
And cast
an influence on the heart
May through all ages roll.
The canvass and the stone may speak
To more than Roman and to
Greek
Though in a foreign land;
They show the might of cultured
skill
Directed by an iron will
That guides a master's hand.
THE NOSE.
The perfumed fields