Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/451

Rh Surely, has not been left vain!

Somewhere, surely, afar,

In the sounding labor-house vast

Of being, is practised that strength,

Zealous, beneficent, firm!

Yes, in some far-shining sphere,

Conscious or not of the past,

Still thou performest the word

Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live,

Prompt, unwearied, as here.

Still thou upraisest with zeal

The humble good from the ground,

Sternly repressest the bad;

Still, like a trumpet, dost rouse

Those who with half-open eyes

Tread the border-land dim

'Twixt vice and virtue; reviv'st,

Succorest. This was thy work,

This was thy life upon earth.

What is the course of the life

Of mortal men on the earth?

Most men eddy about

Here and there, eat and drink,

Chatter and love and hate,

Gather and squander, are raised

Aloft, are hurled in the dust,

Striving blindly, achieving

Nothing; and then they die,—

Perish; and no one asks

Who or what they have been,

More than he asks what waves,

In the moonlit solitudes mild