XXVIII.
So, when our children turn the page,
To ask what triumphs marked our age,
What we achieved to challenge praise,
Through the long line of future days,
[p21]
This let them read, and hence instruction draw:
“Here were the Many blessed,
Here found the virtues rest,
Faith linked with love and liberty with law;
Here industry to comfort led,
Her book of light here learning spread;
Here the warm heart of youth
Was wooed to temperance and to truth;
Here hoary age was found,
By wisdom and by reverence crowned.
No great, but guilty fame
Here kindled pride, that should have kindled shame;
These chose the better, happier part,
That poured its sunlight o’er the heart;
That crowned their homes with peace and health,
And weighed Heaven’s smile beyond earth’s wealth;
Far from the thorny paths of life
They stood, a living lesson to their race,
Rich in the charities of life,
Man in his strength, and Woman in her grace;
In purity and love their pilgrim road they trod,
And when they served their neighbor felt they served their God.”