Let past failures be our beacon through the breakers spread
around us,
To show where danger meets us on life's rough and troubled
main--
Where earth's joys like billows meeting, on the rock's care
are beating,
And we see them dashed and shattered where they can not
rise again.

Let me wake, and cease repining; let me learn life's sternest
lesson--
Joys when born of earth are earthy, and must therefore fade
and die;
Let me feel new knowledge glowing, on my opening eye
bestowing
The experience that will lead me to a fairer, by-and-by.

'Tis our past has made our present, so our present makes our
future,
Let us work, and cease of wishing--let us _do_, not
_dream_ through life;
Ever mindful, never straying, with our earnest hearts still
praying
For the guerdon of the worker, and the winner in the
strife.




LIFE.