The Cost of Worth

From “Bitter Sweet” THUS is it all over the earth!   That which we call the fairest, And prize for its surpassing worth,             Is always rarest. Iron is heaped in mountain piles,   And gluts the laggard forges; But gold-flakes gleam in dim defiles             And lonely gorges. The snowy marble flecks the land   With heaped and rounded ledges, But diamonds hide within the sand             Their starry edges. The finny armies clog the twine   That sweeps the lazy river, But pearls come singly from the brine             With the pale diver. God gives no value unto men   Unmatched by meed of labor; And Cost of Worth has ever been             The closest neighbor.*        *        *        *        * All common good has common price;   Exceeding good, exceeding; Christ bought the keys of Paradise             By cruel bleeding; And every soul that wins a place   Upon its hills of pleasure, Must give it all, and beg for grace             To fill the measure.*        *        *        *        * Up the broad stairs that Value rears   Stand motives beck’ning earthward, To summon men to nobler spheres,             And lead them worthward.