Who art thou that complainest of thy life of toil? Complain not. Look
up, my wearied brother; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God's Eternity;
surviving there, they alone surviving; sacred band of the Immortals,
celestial body-guard of the empire of mankind. To thee Heaven, though
severe, is _not_ unkind; Heaven is kind,--as a noble mother; as that
Spartan mother, saying while she gave her son his shield, "With it, my son,
or upon it." Thou too shall return _home_ in honor; to thy far-distant
Home, in honor; doubt it not,--if in the battle thou keep thy shield!
Thou, in the Eternities and deepest death-kingdoms art not an alien; thou
everywhere art a denizen. Complain not.
T. CARLYLE. |