Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/Be Kind ("…to the old man…")

Be Kind.

Be kind to the old man, while strong in thy youth—Be kind, not in seeming alone, but in truth;He once was as young and as hopeful as thou,With a bosom as light, as unwrinkled a brow!

Be kind to the poor man and give of thy bread,With shelter and pillow to comfort his head;His lot and thine own may be one ere he dieth.Or neighbour to thine the low grave where he lieth!

Be kind to the crooked, the lame, and the blind;What's lacked in the body they feel in the mind;And while virtue through trial and pain cometh forth.In the mind, not the body, is man's truest worth.

Be kind to the fallen who lives but to mourn;Be kind to the outcast who seeks to return;Be kind to the hardened who never hath prayed;Be kind to the timid who still is afraid!

The injured who down by oppression is borne;The slighted who withers; the victim of scorn;The flattered who topples aloft but to fall;The wronger and wronged—oh, be kindly to all!

Bor vast is the world of the generous mind,And narrow the sphere to the selfish assigned;And clear is the path of the warm and the true—Of the haughty and vain, how delusive the view!

Then unto the old show respect while thou mayest—The poor, while to Him who gives all things thou prayest—The weak or the lost, 'neath the load of his sorrow—And thine own cup of joy shall o'erflow ere the morrow!