What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me.
Ambition is not what man does... but what man would do.
All service ranks the same with God,- With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first.
Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things. The honest thief, the tender murderer, the superstitious atheist.
The body sprang At once to the height, and stayed; but the soul,-no!
Lose who may-I still can say, Those who win heaven, blest are they!