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16 | In This Our World But, for Heaven’s sake, if you are ahead, Don’t dawdle at your ease! You set the pace for the man behind; Step faster, please! A New Year’s Reminder Better have a tender conscience for the record of your house, And your own share in the work which they have done, Though your private conscience aches With your personal mistakes, And you don’t amount to very much alone, Than to be yourself as spotless as a baby one year old, Your domestic habits wholly free from blame, While the company you stand with Is a thing to curse a land with, And your public life is undiluted shame. For the deeds men do together are what saves the world to-day By our common public work we stand or fall— And your fraction of the sin Of the office you are in Is the sin that’s going to damn you, after all! Out of Place Cell, poor little cell, Distended with pain, Torn with the pressure Of currents of effort Resisted in vain; Feeling sweep by you The stream of nutrition, Unable to take; Crushed flat and inactive, While shudder across you Great forces that wake; Alone—while far voices Across all the shouting Call you to your own; Held fast, fastened close, Surrounded, enveloped, How you starve there alone! Cell, poor little cell, Let the pain pass—don’t hold it! Let the effort pass through you! Let go! And give way! T H E WOR L D | 17 You will find your own place; You will join your own people; See the light of your day! Little Cell Little Cell! Little Cell! with a heart as big as heaven, Remember that you are but a part! This great longing in your soul Is the longing of the whole, And your work is not done with your heart! Don’t imagine, Little Cell, That the work you do so well Is the only work the world needs to do! You are wanted in your place For the growing of the race, But the growing does not all depend on you! Little Cell! Little Cell! with a race’s whole ambition, Remember there are others growing, too! You’ve been noble, you’ve been strong; Rest a while and come along; Let the world take a turn and carry you! The Child Speaks Get back! Give me air! Give me freedom and room, The warm earth and bright water, the crowding sweet bloom Of the flowers, and the measureless, marvelous sky,— All of these all the time, and a shelter close by Where silence and beauty and peace are my own In a chamber alone. Then bring me the others! “A child” is a crime; It is “children” who grow through the beautiful time Of their childhood up into the age you are in. “A child” must needs suffer and sicken and sin; The life of a child needs the life of its kind, O ye stupid and blind! Then the best of your heart and the best of your brain! The face of all beauty! The soul without stain! Your noblest! Your wisest! With us is the place To consecrate life to the good of the race! That our childhood may pass with the best you can give, And our manhood so live! The wisdom of years, the experience deep That shall laugh with our waking and watch with our sleep, ...

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