Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/43

Rh That sympathy, which aureoles itself To superfluity from you and me, May stand against the soul for five or six Persistent and indubitable streaks Of irritating brilliance, out of which A man may read, if he have knowledge in him, Proportionate attest of ignorance, Hypocrisy, good-heartedness, conceit, Indifference,—with all of these out-hued By the spiritual inactivity Which more than often is identified With individual intensity, And is the parent of that selfishness Whereof no end of lesser tions and isms Are querulously born. But there are things To be considered here, or your machine May never justify the purchase of it; For if you fail to gauge the difference Between self-sacrifice and self-contempt, Your light will be all devil and your faith Diseased,—whatever courage you have left: Courage is not enough to make men glad For laughter when that laughter is itself The tribute of recriminating groans; Nor are the shapes of obsolescent creeds Much longer to flit near enough to make Men glad for living in a world like this;