Who have held to their faith unseduced by the prize that the world holds on high;
Who have dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, fight—if need be to die.”
Speak, History! Who are life’s victors? Unroll thy long annals, and say—
Are they those whom the world called the victors who won the success of the day?
The martyrs, or Nero? The Spartans who fell at Thermopylæ’s tryst,
Or the Persians of Xerxes? His judges, or Socrates? Pilate, or Christ?
The Amen of the Rocks.
Christian Gellert.
The Venerable Bede, with age grown blind,