ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 77
The Heights by Great Men
Reached and Kept
SAINT AUGUSTINE ! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame !
All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.
All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The action of the nobler will,
All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.
We have not wings, we cannot soar ;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
From Longfellow's Ladder ofSt Augustine
Retribution
THOUGH the mills of God grind slowly
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting,
With exactness grinds he all.
Translated by Longfellow
Build Thee More Stately Mansions,
0 My Soul
BUILD thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea I
Oliver Wendell Holmes