From day to day. Do thou as seemeth best,

Nor fear mysterious warnings of the powers.

But, if my voice can reckon with thee at all,

I’ll tell thee what myself I have grown to think:

That the best life is oft inglorious.

Since the perfecting of ourselves, which seems

Our noblest task, may closelier be pursued

Away from camps and cities and the mart

Of men, where fame, as it is called, is won,

By strife, ambition, competition, fashion,