A Reformer.

When I was young, my heart elate         With ardent notions warm,     I thirsted to inaugurate         A spirit of reform;     The universe was all awry,         Philosophy despite,     And mundane things disjointed I         Was bound to set aright.     My mind conceived a million plans,         For Hope was brave and strong,     But dared not with unaided hands         Combat a giant wrong;     So with caress I sought to coax         Those who had humored me     In infancy - the dear old folks -         And gain their sympathy.     But quarreling with extant laws         They would have deemed a shame     Who clung to error, just because         Their fathers did the same.     I sought in Pleasure's gilded halls,         Where grace and beauty stirred     At revelry's impetuous calls,         To make my projects heard.     Then turned to stately palaces         Of luxury and ease,     Where wealth's absorbing object was         The master's whim to please;     And spoke of evils unredressed,         Of danger yet to be -     They only answered, like the rest:         "But what is that to me?"     And even pious devotes         Whom sacred walls immure     Condemned me (as by feeble praise) -         What more could I endure?     Down by the stream, so pure and clear         That sunbeams paused to drink,     In loneliness and grief sincere         I pressed its grassy brink.     Thick darkness seemed to veil the day;         Beyond a realm of tears     Utopia's land of promise lay;         And not till later years     I learned this lesson - that to win         Results from labor sure,     "Reformers" always must begin         Among the lowly poor.     For they whose lot privation is         And whose delights are few,     Whose aggregate of miseries         Is want of something new,     The measure of whose happiness         Is but an empty cup,     For every novelty will press         Alert to fill it up.