Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/515

Rh It is the sole unconquerable power In this world's history. Servility and pride are idle straws A passing breath may sweep to nothingness.

Oh, learn to know thyself! Seek not to grow Omnipotent, like Him who is in Heaven! Ne'er give consent to bend thee like a brute, Knowing no good save some fat pasture-land! This side the tomb, ere breaks the distant dawn Of Resurrection, be thou constant Will, Immovable though worlds should crash around! Be tireless Patience which, amid misfortune, Can slowly rear from naught the edifice, And which, unshaken by defeat, prepares The future, certain, final victory! Be thou TranquillityTranquility [sic] amid the storm; Order in chaos; Harmony in discord; Amid the eternal combat of this life. Be thou the eternal Beauty!

For cowards and for Pharisees, be Wrath And Menace, or the Silence of contempt! Angelic Inspiration be for men; The Nourishment that nourishes the heart! A Sister's Tear be for the suffering; A Manly Voice, when long-tried courage reels! For wandering exiles be their Home of Birth; Be Hope for the despairing, Thunder to wake The drowsy souls lulled in a corpse's sleep; Always and everywhere be thou the Force That reconciles,—the force of Self-devotion, Stronger than death: and in the unending strife Against the abyss of this mad world of Hate, Be thou the Abyss of Love! Ne'er cease to give Thyself unto thy brethren under form Of teaching and example. Still multiply Thyself by living acts; and thus alone Thou shalt outweigh thousands of other men! Even in irons never cease to act!