Chapter 163
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. It Can Be Done by Joseph Morris and St. Clair Adams. A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A Psalm of Life We must be up and doing in the present. Time is short, and mastery in any field of human activity
is so long a process that it forbids us to waste our moments, yet we must learn also how to wait and endure. In short, we must not become slaves to either indifference or impatience, but must make it our business to play a man's part in life. Tell me not in mournful numbers life is but an empty dream. For the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem. Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, is our destined end or way, But to act, that each tomorrow find us further than today. Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of life, Be not dumb, driven cattle, Be a hero in the strife.
Trust no future, how e'er pleasant Let the dead past bury its dead Act, act in the living present Heart within, and God, or head Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time 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 in doing With a heart for any fate Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait Henry Wadsworth Longfellow End of section 163 We'll see you next time.
