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

For the counsels that turned from the follies of youth;
     For the beauty of patience, the whiteness of truth;
For the wounds of rebuke, when love tempered its edge;
     For the household's restraint, and the discipline's hedge;

For the lessons of kindness vouchsafed to the Least
     Of the creatures of God, whether human or beast,
Bringing hope to the poor, lending strength to the frail,
     In the lanes of the city, the slave-hut, and jail;

For a womanhood higher and holier, by all
     Her knowledge of good, than was Eve ere her fall,—
Whose task-work of duty moves lightly as play,
     Serene as the moonlight and warm as the day;

And, yet more, for the faith which embraces the whole,
     Of the creeds of the ages the life and the soul,
Wherein letter and spirit the same channel run,
     And man has not severed what God has made one!

For a sense of the Goodness revealed everywhere,
     As sunshine impartial, and free as the air;