of Heaven.
The noblest service comes from nameless hands,
And the best servant does his work unseen.
Who found the seeds of fire and made them shoot,
Fed by his breath, in buds and flowers of flame?
Who forged in roaring flames the ponderous stone,
And shaped the moulded metal to his need?
Who gave the dragging car its rolling wheel,
And tamed the steed that whirls its circling round?
All these have left their work and not their names,
Why should I murmur at a fate like theirs?
This is the heavenly light; the pearly stain
Was but a wind-cloud drifting oer the stars!
VI
I find I have so many things in common with the old Master of Arts, that
I do not always know whether a thought was originally his or mine. That
is what always happens where two persons of a similar cast of mind talk
much together. And both of them often gain by the interchange. Many
ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one
where they sprang up. That which was a weed in one intelligence becomes
a flower in the other. A flower, on the other hand, may dwindle down to
a mere weed by the same change. Healthy growths may become poisonous by
falling upon the wrong mental soil, and what seemed a night-shade in one
mind unfold as a morning-glory in the other.
--I thank God,--the Master said,--that a great many people believe a
great deal more than I do. I think, when it comes to serious matters,
I like those who believe more than I do better than those who believe
less.
--Why,--said I,--you have got hold of one of my own working axioms. I
should like to hear you develop it.
The Member of the Haouse said he should be glad to listen to the debate.
The gentleman had the floor. The Scarabee rose from his chair and
departed;--I thought his joints creaked as he straightened himself.
The Young Girl made a slight movement; it was a purely accidental
coincidence, no doubt, but I saw That Boy put his hand in his pocket
and pull out his popgun, and begin loading it. It cannot be that our
Scheherezade, who looks so quiet and proper at the table, can make use
of That Boy and his catapult to control the course of conversation and
change it to suit herself! She certainly looks innocent enough; but what
does a blush prove, and what does its absence prove, on one of these
innocent faces? There is nothing in all this world that can lie and
cheat like the face and the tong
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