Page:Episodes-before-thirty.djvu/51

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Episodes before Thirty

that original fiery energy is gone. A dreadful doggerel I wrote at this time, Haultain used in his paper, and its revealing betrayal of inner tendencies is the excuse for its reproduction here. It appeared the same week its author bought the Hub Hotel and started business with Kay, as "The Hub Wine Company."

LINES TO A DREAMER

O change all this thinking, imagining, hoping to be;
Change dreaming to action and work; there's a God in your will.
Self-mastery and courage and confidence make a man free,
And doing is stronger than dreaming for good or for ill.

Then make a beginning; don't lie like an infant and weep.
Begin with the dearest and crush some delight-giving sin
Right out of your life, with a purpose of death before sleep;
A passion controlled is an index of power within.

Some hard self-denial; let no one suspect it at all.
With ruthless self-torture continue, nor half an inch yield,
Step fearless and bravely; hold on and believe--you won't fall;
Companions you've none but the best on this grim battle-*field.

Stagnation means death. If you cannot advance you retreat;
Steel purpose maintain; let it be the first aim of your life;
Beware of those mushroom resolves as impulsive as fleet,
And remember, the nobler the end the more deadly the strife.

For the hope that another may save you is coward and vain,
And the ladder, by which you must climb to yon far starry height,
Is of cast-iron rungs from the furnace of suffering and pain.
Then forward; and courage! from darkness to truth's golden light.