Life's school has many tasks we all must learn,
Lessons of faith and patience, hope and love;
Knowledge of bitter taste, and wisdom.stern
Of fires, the temper of our steel to prove;
Much of forbearance gathering years must teach,
And charity, with her angelic face,
Gentling the judgment, softening the speech,
Gives time its surest aid, and grief its grace.
Hardest of all the masters we must hear,
Experience, with cold eyes and measured voice,
Bids us, who hold young lives supremely dear,
Beware, ere moulding them to suit our choice;
Warning: "The sky smiles blue, smooth shows the path,
Promise no sunshine, guide no wavering foot;
The loveliest valley hides the seeds of death,
The poison lurks deep in the fairest fruit."
Leave the young hearts to nature and to God.
Leave the young tendrils where they will to twine;
Where violets blossom, and white snowdrops nod,
Fall April dews where April's sunlights shine;
Gather the ripened corn, if yet some ears
Are left for faltering hand and patient care;
But for the darlings of decaying years,
Leave them alone, in all save love and prayer.
