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Not for ourselves alone!
The universal tone
Of Nature thus our poor self-seeking chideth.
There lives no blossom that in chalice hideth
Her scent, no star but his faint gleam divideth
With leaf and wayside stone.
Not for ourselves alone!

Not for ourselves alone!
Beneath God's burning throne
The ethereal soul was clothed with form and feeling
To work some earthly task of cheer or healing,
Strike out some spark of noble deeds, revealing
The flame whence all are blown.
Not for ourselves alone!

Not for ourselves alone!
The seeds our hands have sown
Shall yield their harvest to a younger reaper.
We battle, heirs of many a churchyard sleeper,
For scions to come, whose sworded thoughts strike deeper
Than any we have known.
Not for ourselves alone!

Not for ourselves alone!
O spirit, overgrown
With tangled wrongs and strange confusions, bruising
The wings of thy first faith, take courage, losing
Thyself to find thyself, in patience choosing
This watchword as thine own, —
Not for ourselves alone!
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