Those counsels only age can give,
He taught him how to pass through life —
To live as only good men live.
And then he sent him forth. The youth
Sprung lightly on his Orient way,
Saluting the arising sun,
Bird-like, with many a matin lay;
Behind him lay the shrouded dead,
Before, Sahara-like, was space;
But, like a man, the boy strode on,