MacMillan's Reading Books Part 5

In the world's broad field of battle, In the Bivouac of life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act--act in the living Present!

Heart within, and G.o.d o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;--

Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait.

H.W. LONGFELLOW.

[Notes:_Art is long, and time is fleeting_. A translation from the Latin, _Ars longa, vita brevis est._

The metaphor in the last two stanzas in this page is strangely mixed.

Footprints could hardly be seen by those sailing over the main.]

BOYHOOD'S WORK.

In no place in the world has individual character more weight than at a public school. Remember this, I beseech you, all you boys who are getting into the upper forms. Now is the time in all your lives, probably, when you may have more wide influence for good or evil in the society you live in than you ever can have again. Quit yourselves like men, then; speak up, and strike out, if necessary, for whatsoever is true, and manly, and lovely, and of good report; never try to be popular, but only to do your duty, and help others to do theirs, and you may leave the tone of feeling in the school higher than you found it, and so be doing good, which no living soul can measure, to generations of your countrymen yet unborn. For boys follow one another in herds like sheep, for good or evil; they hate thinking, and have rarely any settled principles. Every school, indeed, has its own traditionary standard of right and wrong, which cannot be transgressed with impunity, marking certain things as low and blackguard, and certain others as lawful and right. This standard is ever varying, though it changes only slowly, and little by little; and, subject only to such standard, it is the leading boys for the time being who give the tone to all the rest, and make the school either a n.o.ble inst.i.tution for the training of Christian Englishmen, or a place where a young boy will get more evil than he would if he were turned out to make his way in London streets, or anything between these two extremes.

WORK IN THE WORLD.

"I want to be at work in the world," said Tom, "and not dawdling away three years at Oxford."

"What do you mean by 'at work in the world?'" said the master, pausing, with his lips close to his saucerful of tea, and peering at Tom over it.

"Well, I mean real work; one's profession, whatever one will have really to do, and make one's living by. I want to be doing some real good, feeling that I am not only at play in the world," answered Tom, rather puzzled to find out himself what he really did mean.

"You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I think, Brown," said the master, putting down the empty saucer, "and you ought to get clear about them. You talk of 'working to get your living,' and 'doing some real good in the world,' in the same breath. Now, you may be getting a very good living in a profession, and yet doing no good at all in the world, but quite the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter before you as your one object, and you will be right, whether you make a living or not; but if you dwell on the other, you'll very likely drop into mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself, for good or evil. Don't be in a hurry about finding your work in the world for yourself; you are not old enough to judge for yourself yet, but just look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try to make things a little better and honester there. You'll find plenty to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And don't be led away to think this part of the world important, and that unimportant. Every corner of the world is important. No man knows whether this part or that is most so, but every man may do some honest work in his own corner."

_Tom Brown's School Days_.

THE ANT AND THE CATERPILLAR

As an ant, of his talents superiorly vain, Was trotting, with consequence, over the plain, A worm, in his progress remarkably slow, Cried--"Bless your good worship wherever you go; I hope your great mightiness won't take it ill, I pay my respects with a hearty good-will."

With a look of contempt, and impertinent pride, "Begone, you vile reptile," his antship replied; "Go--go, and lament your contemptible state, But first--look at me--see my limbs how complete; I guide all my motions with freedom and ease, Run backward and forward, and turn when I please; Of nature (grown weary) you shocking essay!

I spurn you thus from me--crawl out of my way."

The reptile, insulted and vex'd to the soul, Crept onwards, and hid himself close in his hole; But nature, determined to end his distress, Soon sent him abroad in a b.u.t.terfly's dress.

Erelong the proud ant, as repa.s.sing the road, (Fatigued from the harvest, and tugging his load), The beau on a violet-bank he beheld, Whose vesture, in glory, a monarch's excelled; His plumage expanded--'twas rare to behold So lovely a mixture of purple and gold.

The ant, quite amazed at a figure so gay, Bow'd low with respect, and was trudging away.

"Stop, friend," says the b.u.t.terfly; "don't be surprised, I once was the reptile you spurn'd and despised; But now I can mount, in the sunbeams I play, While you must for ever drudge on in your way."

CUNNINGHAM.

[Note: _Of nature (grown weary) you shocking essay_ = you wretched attempt (= essay) by nature, when she had grown weary.]

REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS.

Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose.

The spectacles set them unhappily wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause, With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning, While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws, So fam'd for his talent in nicely discerning.

In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear, And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find, That the nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind.

Then holding the spectacles up to the court-- Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle, As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.