Page:Lalla Rookh - Moore - 1817.djvu/67



"Is this, then," thought the youth, "is this the way "To free man's spirit from the deadening sway "Of worldly sloth,--to teach him while he lives "To know no bliss but that which virtue gives, "And when he dies to leave his lofty name "A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame? "It was not so, Land of the generous thought "And daring deed, thy god-like sages taught; "It was not thus in bowers of wanton ease "Thy Freedom nurst her sacred energies; "Oh! not beneath the enfeebling, withering glow "Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow "With which she wreathed her sword when she would dare "Immortal deeds; but in the bracing air "Of toil,--of temperance,--of that high, rare, "Ethereal virtue, which alone can breathe "Life, health, and lustre into Freedom's wreath. "Who that surveys this span of earth we press.-- "This speck of life in time's great wilderness, "This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, "The past, the future, two eternities!-- "