Our Profession and Other Poems | Page 8

of pluck,
Or fate by fairies bidden.
The human eye cannot descry
All workings of the brain;
At silent
night, it gains a might
Which bears a mental train
Whose lucid glow may thrones o'erthrow,
Or bid new nations rise,

May prove some plan whereby proud man
May ransack earth and
skies.
Think not such power a fairy's dower,
Or influence from some star,

It did not spring from anything
Beyond what mortals are.
To man is given the keys of heaven
If they be rightly used;
No
being born but must be shorn
If blessings are abused.
Keep well the trust! Guard it we must,
From in and outward foes,

Strength will be gained, might be attained
By efforts to oppose
The secret vice that doth entice
To ruin and despair;
But he who
will hath power to kill
Such vice within its lair.
Let habits grand the life command
And Eden is regained;
No future
bliss need surpass this
If habits are unstained.
Let smiling face your presence grace
And earth will smile on you,

Let from the tongue a song be sung,
Its echo will be true,
And sing again the same refrain
Upon the selfsame key,
Till airs
elate, reverberate,
Heaven's sweetest minstrelsy.
If we extend a hand to friend
Who needs a brother's care,
Though it
may hold no purse of gold
The act he will revere.
Scarce do we know whence comes the glow
That duty done e'er gives,


Its altar-fire cannot expire--
Here and hereafter lives.
Such habits then, for gods and men,
Are but the means whereby

They may prepare to gain their share
To mansions in the sky.
Sing then a song, its notes prolong,
In praise of Habit's power;
Let
custom be from evil free
And it will blessings shower.
EVIL HABITS.
How habit grows no one e'er knows,
And yet he is a giant
That has
a will and subtle skill
That never yet was pliant.
'Tis very plain that he has slain
More than the sword and spear,

With wily art he charms the heart
And quells the greatest fear.
His artful eye is wondrous sly
And has bewitching glance,
Where'er
he moves his victim loves
To see his powers advance.
He makes no noise 'mong girls and boys
Whom he would call his
own,
His spell is cast, he holds them fast
Till they are overthrown.
When this is done the field is won,
And they are all his own,
He
heeds no cry, no choking sigh,
No plea, no prayer, no groan.
If you would be forever free
From tyrant so severe,
Watch every
thought before you're caught,
For he is hovering near.
Your every word guard with the sword
Of truth, which never fails,

Its honor's sung in every tongue,
Its power e'er prevails.
Act well your part, and keep your heart
Free from the tares he sows,

For at the end like traitor friend
He leaves you with your woes.
Thus Habit mars with wounds and scars
The favored of our race,

Transforms the mind that God designed
Should be the dwelling place

Of noble thought with heaven fraught
Into a sterile plain,
Whose
atmosphere is dank and drear--
A wild chaotic brain.
Man scarce may be entirely free
From wiles and tricks and snares,

Whose stealthy forms and subtle charms
Approach us unawares.
Our eyes are blind or not inclined
To see that powerful hand,
That
silently, yet forcibly
Gives us its strong command.
LIFE'S EMERGENCIES.
How strangely dark are the vapors
That sometimes obscure the way,

Ere the light of truth advances
To the noon of a perfect day.
As the unforeseen approaches
In stealth from ambushed retreat,
The
mettle of soul is summoned
Its emergencies to meet.
To shrink by its sudden coming,
To surrender our control
Without a
struggle for vantage,
Betrays a weakness of soul.
The conflicts with emergencies
We meet in our daily call,
Give
strength or death to moral worth
As we conquer them or fall.
To meet at once with valor true
The attack from an ambuscade,
In
moral strife, or bloody war,
Hath many a hero made.
Who has not trained himself to meet
The vicissitudes that arise

Upon the course of life's stern race,
Must fail to secure its prize.

To hold a pessimistic view,
And see the world as darkly "blue,"

And feel mankind is false, untrue,
Is not a just conclusion;
But
Truth demands that Hope shall wear
No false rose in her silken hair,

To hide Deceit, Fraud, and Despair,
That feed on wild Delusion.

STRAND DESPAIR.
The wrecks that lie on Strand Despair,
Should serve as buoys on life's
stern seas
To guide the voyager safely, where
He may escape the
tides and breeze
That drive to whirlpools, bars, and rocks,
Where
human vessels oft impinge
And leave a ruin that but mocks
The
pleadings of persuasion's hinge.
An idle mind, companions base,
A shrinking from a duty known,
A
sly deceit, a brazen face,
A lying tongue, a sullen tone,
Lead toward
a wreck on Strand Despair,
And none but self can move the helm

To change the course for scenes more fair,
To save from storms that
overwhelm.
INDULGENCE.
An alarm is sounding through the land
That tells of a stronger foe

Than that which marched on Lexington,
To strike a fatal blow
At
the liberties our sires did claim
For themselves and all mankind,
For
this foe is a product of deceit
And sophistry combined.
Its victims fall by the