Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/242

216 WORDS.

" are the coin of fools," so spake the sage;

"But tables of the wise, whereon they count

The golden gems of thought, and keep the page

Of reckoning." So, brother, be the amount

Of all thou sayest or shalt say to men

The product of a pure, truth-seeking mind,

And symbols of deep thought, tried and refined,

Won from the mine of rich experience; then

Shall all thy words be gold, and will outlast

The eating rust of Time, and men will say,

When thou art dead—looking upon thy past—

"This man hath earned him a fair name for aye!"

And in the inmost shrine of memory

They'll rear a precious monument for thee.

"Kappa."