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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 614

 
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1803–1882)
 
6233
    Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor’s creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
          Each and All.
6234
    I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore,
With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.
          Each and All.
6235
    I like a church; I like a cowl;
I like a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowléd churchman be.
          The Problem.
6236
    Not from a vain or shallow thought
His awful Jove young Phidias brought.
          The Problem.
6237
    Out from the heart of Nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old.
          The Problem.
6238
    The hand that rounded Peter’s dome,
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome,
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew:
The conscious stone to beauty grew.
          The Problem.
6239
    Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
As the best gem upon her zone.
          The Problem.
6240
    Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but can not steer their feet
Clear of the grave.
          Hamatreya.