ER LAW

Man was not made for forms, but forms for man,
And there are times when law itself must bend
To that clear spirit always in the van,
Outspeeding human justice. In the end
Potentates, not humanity, must fall.
Water will find its level, fire will burn,
The winds must blow around the earthly ball,
The earthly ball by day and night must turn;
Freedom is typed in every element,
Man must be free, if not through law, why then
Above the law, until its force be spent
And justice brings a better. But, O, when,
Father of Light, when shall the reckoning come
To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb.

--Christopher Pearse Cranch.

What I am, what I am not, in the eye
Of the world, is what I never cared for much.

--Robert Browning.

I RESOLVE

To keep my health;
To do my work;
To live;
To see to it that I grow and gain and give;
Never to look behind me for an hour;
To wait in meekness, and to walk in power;
But always fronting onward, to the light,
Always and always facing toward the right.
Robbed, starved, defeated, fallen, wide-astray--
On, with what strength I have--
Back to the way.

--Charlotte Perkins Stetson.

IN MYSELF

I do not ask for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.
Be thou my guide until I find
Led by a tender hand,
The happy kingdom in myself
And dare to take command.

--Louisa May Alcott.

HIDE NOT THY HEART

This is my creed,
This is my deed:
"Hide not thy heart!"
Soon we depart;
Mortals are all;
A breath, then the pall;
A flash on the dark--
All's done--stiff and stark.
No time for a lie;
The truth, and then die.
Hide not thy heart!

Forth with thy thought!
Soon 'twill be naught,
And thou in thy tomb.
Now is air, now is room.
Down with false shame;
Reck not of fame;
Dread not man's spite;
Quench not thy light.
This be thy creed,
This be thy deed:
"Hide not thy heart!"

If God is, he made
Sunshine and shade,
Heaven and hell;
This we know well.
Dost thou believe?
Do not deceive;
Scorn not thy faith--
If 'tis a wraith
Soon it will fly.
Thou who must die,
Hide not thy heart!

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