Be noble, humankind,
Merciful and good!
For that alone
Marks him off
From all beings
That we know.
Hail to those unknown
Higher beings
We can only guess!
In man’s image and likeness,
By their example
We are taught to believe.
Because Nature
Is all-unfeeling;
The sun gives light
To the good and the wicked,
And on the best man
So on the felon
Shine the moon and the stars.
Winds and storms,
Thunder and hail
Rumble on their way
And careless in their haste
They catch in their grip
One man with another.
*
Gropes among the crowd,
Seizes now the boy’s
Curled innocence,
Now the bald pate
Of the guilty man.
By great eternal
Immutable laws
Must we fulfill
The natural cycles
Of our being.
But man alone
May do the impossible:
He makes distinctions,
Chooses, judges;
He can to the moment
Grant permanence.
He alone may
Reward the good,
Punish the evil,
Heal and save
All that’s in error,
Use and connect.
And so we honor
Those the undying ones
As if they were human
Acting in great things
As the best man in small things
Does, or desires to do.
Noble humanity
Be good and merciful!
Create untiringly
The useful, the righteous,
Be for us an image
Of those guessed beings!
Early 1780s