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| ALL are architects of Fate, | |
| Working in these walls of Time; | |
| Some with massive deeds and great, | |
| Some with ornaments of rhyme. | |
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| Nothing useless is, or low; | 5 |
| Each thing in its place is best; | |
| And what seems but idle show | |
| Strengthens and supports the rest. | |
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| For the structure that we raise, | |
| Time is with materials filled; | 10 |
| Our to-days and yesterdays | |
| Are the blocks with which we build. | |
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| Truly shape and fashion these; | |
| Leave no yawning gaps between; | |
| Think not, because no man sees, | 15 |
| Such things will remain unseen. | |
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| In the elder days of Art, | |
| Builders wrought with greatest care | |
| Each minute and unseen part; | |
| For the Gods see everywhere. | 20 |
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| Let us do our work as well, | |
| Both the unseen and the seen; | |
| Make the house, where Gods may dwell, | |
| Beautiful, entire, and clean. | |
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| Else our lives are incomplete, | 25 |
| Standing in these walls of Time, | |
| Broken stairways, where the feet | |
| Stumble as they seek to climb. | |
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| Build to-day, then, strong and sure, | |
| With a firm and ample base; | 30 |
| And ascending and secure | |
| Shall to-morrow find its place. | |
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| Thus alone can we attain | |
| To those turrets, where the eye | |
| Sees the world as one vast plain, | 35 |
| And one boundless reach of sky. | |
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