“In our flesh grows the branch of this life, in our soul it bears fruit. Thou hast marked the slow rise of the tree,--how its stem trembled first Till it passed the kid’s lip, the stag’s antler; then safely outburst The fan-branches all round; and thou mindest when these, too, in turn Broke a-bloom and the palm-tree seemed perfect; yet more was to learn, E’en the good that comes in with the palm-fruit. Our dates shall we slight, When their juice brings a cure for all sorrow? or care for the plight Of the palm’s self whose slow growth produced them? Not so! stem and branch Shall decay, nor be known in their place, while the palm-wine shall staunch Every wound of man’s spirit in winter. I pour thee such wine. Leave the flesh to the fate it was fit for! the spirit be thine! By the spirit, when age shall o’ercome thee, thou still shalt enjoy More indeed, than at first when, inconscious, the life of a boy. Crush that life, and behold its wine running! each deed thou hast done Dies, revives, goes to work in the world; until e’en as the sun Looking down on the earth, though clouds spoil him, though tempests efface, Can find nothing his own deed produced not, must everywhere trace The results of his past summer-prime,--SO, EACH RAY OF THY WILL, EVERY FLASH OF THY PASSION AND PROWESS, LONG OVER, SHALL THRILL THY WHOLE PEOPLE, THE COUNTLESS, WITH ARDOUR, TILL THEY TOO GIVE FORTH A LIKE CHEER TO THEIR SONS: WHO IN TURN, FILL THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH WITH THE RADIANCE THY DEED WAS THE GERM OF.” In the concluding lines is set forth what might be characterized as the apostolic succession of a great personality--the succession of those “who in turn fill the South and the North with the radiance his deed was the germ of.” What follows in David’s song gives expression to the other mode of transmitting a great personality--that is, through records that “give unborn generations their due and their part in his being”, and also to what those records owe their effectiveness, and are saved from becoming a dead letter.