The Godlike.

Noble be man,     Helpful and good!     For that alone     Distinguisheth him     From all the beings     Unto us known.     Hail to the beings,     Unknown and glorious,     Whom we forebode!     From his example     Learn we to know them!     For unfeeling     Nature is ever:     On bad and on good     The sun alike shineth;     And on the wicked,     As on the best,     The moon and stars gleam.     Tempest and torrent,     Thunder and hail,     Roar on their path,     Seizing the while,     As they haste onward,     One after another.     Even so, fortune     Gropes 'mid the throng     Innocent boyhood's     Curly head seizing,     Seizing the hoary     Head of the sinner.     After laws mighty,     Brazen, eternal,     Must all we mortals     Finish the circuit     Of our existence.     Man, and man only     Can do the impossible;     He 'tis distinguisheth,     Chooseth and judgeth;     He to the moment     Endurance can lend.     He and he only     The good can reward,     The bad can he punish,     Can heal and can save;     All that wanders and strays     Can usefully blend.     And we pay homage     To the immortals     As though they were men,     And did in the great,     What the best, in the small,     Does or might do.     Be the man that is noble,     Both helpful and good.     Unweariedly forming     The right and the useful,     A type of those beings     Our mind hath foreshadow'd!