Macmillan's Reading Books. Book V

John Stuart Mill · en
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
       That every man in arms should wish to be?
       --It is the generous Spirit, who when brought
       Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
       Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
       Whose high endeavours are an inward light
       That makes the path before him always bright:
       Who, with a natural instinct to discern
       What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn:
       Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
       But makes his moral being his prime care;
       Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
       And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
       Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
       In face of these doth exercise a power
       Which is our human nature's highest dower;
       Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
       Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
       By objects, which might force the soul to abate
       Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
       Is placable--because occasions rise
       So often that demand such sacrifice;
       More skilful in self knowledge, even more pure,
       As tempted more; more able to endure,
       As more exposed to suffering and distress;
       Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
       --Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
       Upon that law as on the best of friends;
       Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
       To evil for a guard against worse ill,
       And what in quality or act is best
       Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
       He labours good on good to fix, and owes
       To virtue every triumph that he knows:
       --Who, if he rise to station of command,
       Rises by open means; and there will stand
       On honourable terms, or else retire,
       And in himself possess his own desire;
       Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
       Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
       And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
       For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state:
       Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
       Like showers of manna, if they come at all;
       Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
       Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
       A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
       But who, if he be called upon to face
       Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
       Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
       Is happy as a Lover; and attired
       With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
       And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
       In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw:
       Or if an unexpected call succeed,
       Come when it will, is equal to the need:
       --He who, though thus endued as with a sense
       And faculty for storm and turbulence,
       Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
       To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
       Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,