Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/358

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AURORA LEIGH.
As competent to sorrow for mankindAnd even their odds. A man may well despair,Who counts himself so needful to success.I failed. I throw the remedy back on God,And sit down here beside you, in good hope.'
'And yet, take heed,' I answered, 'lest we leanToo dangerously on the other side,And so fail twice. Be sure, no earnest workOf any honest creature, howbeit weak,Imperfect, ill-adapted, fails so much,It is not gathered as a grain of sandTo enlarge the sum of human action usedFor carrying out God's end. No creature worksSo ill, observe, that therefore he's cashiered.The honest earnest man must stand and work:The woman also; otherwise she dropsAt once below the dignity of man,Accepting serfdom. Free men freely work:Whoever fears God, fears to sit at ease.'
He cried, 'True. After Adam, work was curse;The natural creature labours, sweats and frets.But, after Christ, work turns to privilege;And henceforth one with our humanity,The Six-day Worker, working still in us,Has called us freely to work on with HimIn high companionship. So happiest!I count that Heaven itself is only workTo a surer issue. Let us work, indeed,—
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