Footprints, that perhaps another,
    Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
  A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
    Seeing, shall take heart again.

  Let us, then, be up and doing,
    With a heart for any fate;
  Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A CREED

Men may seem sundered from each other; but the soul that each possesses, and the destiny common to all, invest them with a basic brotherhood.

  There is a destiny that makes us brothers: 
    None goes his way alone: 
  All that we send into the lives of others
    Comes back into our own.

  I care not what his temples or his creeds,
    One thing holds firm and fast—­
  That into his fateful heap of days and deeds
    The soul of a man is cast.

Edwin Markham

From “Lincoln, and Other Poems.”

BATTLE CRY

We should win if we can.  But in any case we should prove our manhood by fighting.

  More than half beaten, but fearless,
  Facing the storm and the night;
  Breathless and reeling but tearless,
  Here in the lull of the fight,
  I who bow not but before thee,
  God of the fighting Clan,
  Lifting my fists, I implore Thee,
  Give me the heart of a Man!

  What though I live with the winners
  Or perish with those who fall? 
  Only the cowards are sinners,
  Fighting the fight is all. 
  Strong is my foe—­he advances! 
  Snapt is my blade, O Lord! 
  See the proud banners and lances! 
  Oh, spare me this stub of a sword!

  Give me no pity, nor spare me;
  Calm not the wrath of my Foe. 
  See where he beckons to dare me! 
  Bleeding, half beaten—­I go. 
  Not for the glory of winning,
  Not for the fear of the night;
  Shunning the battle is sinning—­
  Oh, spare me the heart to fight!

  Red is the mist about me;
  Deep is the wound in my side;
  “Coward” thou criest to flout me? 
  O terrible Foe, thou hast lied! 
  Here with my battle before me,
  God of the fighting Clan,
  Grant that the woman who bore me
  Suffered to suckle a Man!

John G. Neihardt.

From “The Quest” (collected lyrics).

THE HAPPY HEART

One of our objects in life should be to find happiness, contentment.  The means of happiness are surprisingly simple.  We need not be rich or high-placed or powerful in order to be content.  In fact the lowly are often the best satisfied.  Izaak Walton lived the simple life and thanked God that there were so many things in the world of which he had no need.