When those good men of earnest souls dwelt with us here below;
Large was their faith in human kind; their mission seemed to be
To teach man all his duties here—Love, Faith and Energy,
To link each man to brother man, with links of firmest steel;
Then touch the spark of sympathy, and all the shock will feel;
Stamp the nobility of truth upon each deathless soul;
Oh! was not the world beautiful beneath such pure control?
This world of ours was beautiful, and still is so to me;
Since boyish days I’ve clung to it, with wildness and with glee;
Have laughed when others talked of wo beneath so fair a sky,