Three words will I name thee-around
and about,
From the lip to the lip, full
of meaning, they flee;
But they had not their birth in
the being without,
And the heart, not the lip,
must their oracle be!
And all worth in the man shall forever
be oer
When in those three words he believes
no more.
Man is made free!-Man
by birthright is free,
Though the tyrant may deem
him but born for his tool.
Whatever the shout of the rabble
may be-
Whatever the ranting misuse
of the fool-
Still fear not the slave, when he
breaks from his chain,
For the man made a freeman grows
safe in his gain.
And virtue is more than a shade
or a sound,
And man may her voice, in
this being, obey;
And though ever he slip on the stony
ground,
Yet ever again to the godlike
way,
To the science of good though the
wise may be blind,
Yet the practice is plain to the
childlike mind.
And a God there is!-over
space, over time,
While the human will rocks,
like a reed, to and fro,
Lives the will of the holy-a
purpose sublime,
A thought woven over creation
below;
Changing and shifting the all we
inherit,
But changeless through all one immutable
spirit
Hold fast the three words of belief-though
about
From the lip to the lip, full
of meaning, they flee;
Yet they take not their birth from
the being without-
But a voice from within must
their oracle be;
And never all worth in the man can
be oer,
Till in those three words he believes
no more.
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