Today is your day and mine, the only day we have, the day in which we
play our part. What our part may signify in the great whole, we may not
understand, but we are here to play it, and now is our time. This we
know, it is a part of action, not of whining. It is a part of love, not
cynicism. It is for us to express love in terms of human helpfulness.
This we know, for we have learned from sad experience that any other
course of life leads toward decay and waste.



The Philosophy of Despair



The Bubbles of Sáki.



From Fitzgerald's exquisite version of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, I
take the following quatrains which may serve as a text for what I have
to say:

So when the angel of the darker Drink
At last shall find you by the river-brink,
And offering you his cup, invite your Soul
Forth to your lips to quaff, you shall not shrink.

Why, if the soul can fling the Dust aside,
And naked on the air of Heaven ride,
Wert not a shame - wert not a shame for him