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Noble be man,

Helpful and good!

For that alone

Distinguisheth him

From all the beings

Unto us known.

Hail to the beings,

Unknown and glorious,

Whom we forebode!

From his example Learn we to know them!

For unfeeling

Nature is ever

On bad and on good

The sun alike shineth;

And on the wicked,

As on the best,

The moon and stars gleam.

Tempest and torrent,

Thunder and hail,

Roar on their path,

Seizing the while,

As they haste onward,

One after another.

Even so, fortune

Gropes 'mid the throng—

Innocent boyhood's

Curly head seizing—

Seizing the hoary

Head of the sinner.

After laws mighty,

Brazen, eternal,

Must all we mortals

Finish the circuit

Of our existence.

Man, and man only

Can do the impossible

He 'tis distinguisheth,

Chooseth and judgeth;

He to the moment

Endurance can lend.

He and he only

The good can reward,

The bad can he punish,

Can heal and can save;

All that wanders and strays

Can usefully blend.

And we pay homage

To the immortals

As though they were men,

And did in the great,

What the best, in the small,

Does or might do.

Be the man that is noble,

Both helpful and good,

Unweariedly forming

The right and the useful,

A type of those beings

Our mind hath foreshadow'd!