The World's All Right

Be honest, kindly, simple, true;             Seek good in all, scorn but pretence;             Whatever sorrow come to you,             Believe in Life's Beneficence!         The World's all right; serene I sit,         And cease to puzzle over it.         There's much that's mighty strange, no doubt;         But Nature knows what she's about;         And in a million years or so         We'll know more than to-day we know.         Old Evolution's under way -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         Could things be other than they are?         All's in its place, from mote to star.         The thistledown that flits and flies         Could drift no hair-breadth otherwise.         What is, must be; with rhythmic laws         All Nature chimes, Effect and Cause.         The sand-grain and the sun obey -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         Just try to get the Cosmic touch,         The sense that "you" don't matter much.         A million stars are in the sky;         A million planets plunge and die;         A million million men are sped;         A million million wait ahead.         Each plays his part and has his day -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         Just try to get the Chemic view:         A million million lives made "you".         In lives a million you will be         Immortal down Eternity;         Immortal on this earth to range,         With never death, but ever change.         You always were, and will be aye -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         Be glad! And do not blindly grope         For Truth that lies beyond our scope:         A sober plot informeth all         Of Life's uproarious carnival.         Your day is such a little one,         A gnat that lives from sun to sun;         Yet gnat and you have parts to play -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         And though it's written from the start,         Just act your best your little part.         Just be as happy as you can,         And serve your kind, and die - a man.         Just live the good that in you lies,         And seek no guerdon of the skies;         Just make your Heaven here, to-day -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         Remember! in Creation's swing         The Race and not the man's the thing.         There's battle, murder, sudden death,         And pestilence, with poisoned breath.         Yet quick forgotten are such woes;         On, on the stream of Being flows.         Truth, Beauty, Love uphold their sway -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.         The World's all right; serene I sit,         And joy that I am part of it;         And put my trust in Nature's plan,         And try to aid her all I can;         Content to pass, if in my place         I've served the uplift of the Race.         Truth! Beauty! Love! O Radiant Day -          What ho! the World's all right, I say.