The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[131] If to the master's plea he gave
     The vast contempt his manhood felt,
He saw a brother in the slave,—
     With man as equal man he dealt.

Proud was he? If his presence kept
     Its grandeur wheresoe'er he trod,
As if from Plutarch's gallery stepped
     The hero and the demigod,

None failed, at least, to reach his ear,
     Nor want nor woe appealed in vain;
The homesick soldier knew his cheer,
     And blessed him from his ward of pain.

Safely his dearest friends may own
     The slight defects he never hid,
The surface-blemish in the stone
     Of the tall, stately pyramid.

Suffice it that he never brought
     His conscience to the public mart;
But lived himself the truth he taught,
     White-souled, clean-handed, pure of heart.

What if he felt the natural pride
     Of power in noble use, too true
With thin humilities to hide
     The work he did, the lore he knew?

Was he not just? Was any wronged
     By that assured self-estimate?
He took but what to him belonged,
     Unenvious of another's state.