Or, if thou claimest merit, thy sin shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Yet again: consider them of old, the good, the great, the learned,
Who have blessed the world by wisdom, and glorified their God by purity.
Did those speed in favour? were they the loved and the admired?
Was every prophet had in honour? and every deserving one remembered to his praise?
What shall I say of yonder band, a glorious cloud of witnesses,
The scorned, defamed, insulted,—but the excellent of earth?
It were weariness to count up noble names, neglected in their lives,
Whom none esteemed, nor cared to love, till death had sealed them his.
For good men are the health of the world, valued only when it perisheth,