The path of the fierce tornado,
Overstrewn with wild debris
Of fallen habitations
And uprooted forest tree;
The wreck of a world of matter
That transforms revolving spheres,
Which have gathered all their greatness
Through the lapse of a million years;
The snow-clad mountain terror—
The fearful avalanche—
Whose thunders are heard in valleys
Where imploring faces blanch;
The mouth of a raging Etna
With its stifling breath of fire,
Wherein the pride of a city
In a moment may expire;
The trembling of the mountains
When an earthquake passes by,
And the terror of the people
Struck dumb in their agony;
The rage of a foaming torrent,
After the bursting cloud
Has poured its liquid fury
In destruction wild and loud;
Are but the potent protests
Of Nature's elements
Against some ill arrangement
That brings them discontents.
But these in separate actions,
Or in forces all combined,
Leave not so sad a ruin
As the wreck of one human mind.
The voice, the eye, and the manner
Are all unlocked by a key
That has for its great attraction
A confiding sympathy.
The knowledge of books is essential
To those who youth would guide,
But the grace of earnest endeavor
Excels all else beside.