From “Pippa Passes”
ALL service ranks the same with God:
If now, as formerly he trod
Paradise, his presence fills
Our earth, each only as God wills
Can work—God’s puppets, best and worst,
Are we; there is no last nor first.
Say not “a small event”! Why “small”?
Costs it more pain than this, ye call
A “great event,” should...
Si après quarante ans de fidèle service
Que celui que je sers a fait en divers lieux,
Employant, libéral, tout son plus et son mieux
Aux affaires qui sont de plus digne exercice,
D'un haineux étranger l'envieuse malice
Exerce contre lui son courage odieux,
Et sans avoir souci des hommes ni des dieux,
Oppose à la vertu l'ignorance et le vice,
...
J'aime la liberté, et languis en service,
Je n'aime point la cour, et me faut courtiser,
Je n'aime la feintise, et me faut déguiser,
J'aime simplicité, et n'apprends que malice ;
Je n'adore les biens, et sers à l'avarice,
Je n'aime les honneurs, et me les faut priser,
Je veux garder ma foi, et me la faut briser,
Je cherche la vertu, et ne trouve que...
Severer Service of myself
I — hastened to demand
To fill the awful Vacuum
Your life had left behind —
I worried Nature with my Wheels
When Hers had ceased to run —
When she had put away Her Work
My own had just begun.
I strove to weary Brain and Bone —
To...
The Service without Hope —
Is tenderest, I think —
Because 'tis unsustained
By stint — Rewarded Work —
Has impetus of Gain —
And impetus of Goal —
There is no Diligence like that
That knows not an Until —
