| 
 XXIV. WHAT I LIVE FOR. 
 
 1. I LIVE for those who love me,
 Whose hearts are kind and true;
 For the heaven that smiles above me,
 And awaits my spirit, too;
 For all human ties that bind me,
 For the task my God assigned me,
 For the bright hopes left behind me,
 And the good that I can do.
2. I live to learn their story,
 Who suffered for my sake;
 To emulate their glory,
 And follow in their wake;
 Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
 The noble of all ages,
 Whose deeds crown History's pages,
 And Time's great volume make.
 
  
 92 ECLECTIC SERIES.
3. I live to hail that season,
 By gifted minds foretold,
 When man shall live by reason,
 And not alone by gold;
 When man to man united,
 And every wrong thing righted,
 The whole world shall be lighted
 As Eden was of old.
 4. I live for those who love me,
 For those who know me true;
 For the heaven that smiles above me,
 And awaits my spirit, too;
 For the cause that needs assistance,
 For the wrongs that need resistance,
 For the future in the distance,
 And the good that I can do.
    
 
DEFINITIONS.    1. As signed' (pro. as sind'), allotted,
marked out. 2. Em' u late, to strive to equal or excel, to rival. Wake,
the track left by a vessel in the water, hence,  figuratively, in
the train of. Bard, a poet. Mar'tyr, one who sacrifices what is of great
value to him for the sake of principle. Sage, a wise man. 3. Hail, to salute.
 The text and graphics of this reader were scanned for
this site 
 by John Bradshaw in Sydney, Australia.
 |