Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/153

 Trade, nigh extinct, again bestirs its craft; Our Catholic faith, almost ignored, despised, Anew has triumphed over heresy. So tutored, disciplined and educated, Our people will be free—not otherwise. And yet your school's first principle is this: That one may do what others are forbidden. That one can do what others can not do. This is no law of mine—throughout the realm Of nature, on the sky, upon the earth, Uncommon strength and talent vault the bounds By which the mean, the weak are hedged around. As goes the radiant comet's flaming path Athwart the planets' even orbits,—so A great mind will not brook the narrow lists Of every day's constraint and common usage. This is quite true, but tell: what mind is great? Is he, who mocking and despising all That is esteemed as venerable and holy, Lays his bold hand on mankind's choicest treasures And desecrates its feelings' sanctuary? Can he be great, who, like a tempest-blast, Draws his ambition's chariot o'er the nations.