WORLDLY PLACE

"Even in a palace, life may be led well!"

So spoke the imperial sage, purest of men,

Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den

Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,

Our freedom for a little bread we sell,

And drudge under some foolish master's ken,

Who rates us if we peer outside our pen—

Matched with a palace, is not this a hell?

"Even in a palace!" On his truth sincere,