IV.
The race of men is a long and wondrous evolution;
The patient soul who kens, and God’s great goal,
Is benefactor best, the man of resolution
To mark and void each shoal,
Like pilots good of worthy ships,
Whose eyes are used far more than lips.
He counter vessels must prevent,
And every vexing accident,
By night and day upon the deep.
Men’s revolutions, small or great, and why,
The leader must discern and know,
And records old, aye currents vital passing by,
To make them rightly flow.
And never was the pregnant day, nor hour,
When one of such transcendent power
Was needed by the race,
With more than human grace.
Let men in church and state be confident,
He was the man of men pre-eminent.