Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/46

Rh —The life that walketh without rule,

The life that is a tyrant's fool,

Thou shalt not praise.

O'er all man's striving variously

God looketh, but, where'er it be,

Gives to the Mean his victory.

And therefore know I and confess,

The doomèd child of Godlessness

Is Pride of Man, and Pride's excess;

Only from health of heart shall spring

What men desire, what poets sing,

Stormless days.

—Whate'er befall, the Throne of Right

Fear thou, and let no lucre bright

Seen suddenly,

To spurn that Altar make thee blind;

For chastisement is hid behind,

And the End waiteth, and shall bind.

Wherefore I charge thee, through all stress

Thy mother and thy father bless:

Herein, O Man, lies holiness.

And next, of all within thy fold,

The stranger and the friendless hold

In sanctity.

—He that is righteous uncompelled and free

His life's way taketh

Not without happiness; and utterly

Cast to destruction shall he never be.

But he who laugheth and is bold in sin,

From every port great gain he gathers in,