Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/93

62 The offspring of her bowels with her life If need should be, that she might teach them, grown To wolf's estate, the duties of a wolf; To suffer without shrinking hunger's pangs, Never to enter into terms with man, (Such as exist between him and the tribes Of servile animals that bear his yoke, Or chase the first possessors of the woods And rocks before him, to obtain a place To sleep in, and a pittance from his hand,) And to hold freedom dearer far than life.

Alas! I thought, in despite of the name, Believed so great, the lofty name of man, How weak we are, how abject! And I felt A shame for all our race. Life to forsake, And all its weight of sorrows and of ills, With dignity, mute, touching and sublime, Is known alone to animals contemned. To see what man, their lord, achieves on earth And what he leaves untouched, inspires this thought, —Silence is great alone, and all the rest Is vanity and weakness here below. Ah! I have learnt the lesson thou hast taught, Thou savage denizen of the forests wild, And thy last look has entered to my heart; It said:—'If thou canst do it, mortal, strive So that thy soul attain, through constant thought And patient study, to the lofty height Of stoic pride that cares not for events;