The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.

More from The Ladder of St. Augustine (1858)

• A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.
• And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend.
• Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day’s occupation, That is known as the Children’s Hour.
• But the great Master said, “I see No best in kind, but in degree; I gave a various gift to each, To charm, to strengthen, and to teach.
• God sent his Singers upon earth With songs of sadness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men, And bring them back to heaven again.
• If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.