OPTIMUS. HERE is a deep and subtle snare Which, just because it looks so fair, Only a noble heart assails. So all the more we need be strong When duties unfulfilled remain, Then will a seeming Angel speak:"The hours are fleeting-great the need— If thou art strong and others weak, Thine be the effort and the deed. "Deaf are their ears who ought to hear; "Sort thou the tangled web aright; Take thou the toil-take thou the pain: For fear the hour begin its flight, While Right and Duty plead in vain." And now it is I bid thee pause, Nor let this Tempter bend thy will: There are diviner, truer laws That teach a nobler lesson still. Learn that each duty makes its claim Upon one soul: not each on all. How, if God speaks thy Brother's name, Dare thou make answer to the call? The greater peril in the strife, The less this evil should be done; For as in battle, so in life, Danger and honour still are one. Arouse him then :-this is thy part: Smooth thou his path ere it is trod; Burnish the arms that he must wield; And pray, with all thy strength, that God May crown him Victor of the field. And then, I think, thy soul shall feel Had seized a crown for others meant. And even that very deed shall shine A LOST CHORD, EATED one day at the Organ, I was weary and ill at ease, And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys. I do not know what I was playing, It flooded the crimson twilight, Like the close of an Angel's Psalm, And it lay on my fevered spirit With a touch of infinite calm. It quieted pain and sorrow, D It linked all perplexed meanings And trembled away into silence I have sought, but I seek it vainly, That came from the soul of the Organ, It may be that Death's bright angel It may be that only in Heaven. I shall hear that grand Amen. |