The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-07-18
THE CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR
POEM BY WORDSWORTH. READ BY Rev. DIR.
HENRY VAN DYKE, OF PRINCETON. IN
LIEU OF EULOGY AT Ex-PRESIDENT
CLEVELANDS FUNERAL.

Who is the happy warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be P
1t is the generous spirit who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought
Whose high endeavors are an inward light,
That makes the path before him always bright
Who, with 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:
And Y Fear % and B BleodsheS eis misesrabe T train;
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise power
Which is our human natures highest dover;
Controls them, and subdues, transmutes, be-
Of their bad influence. and their good receives
BY objects which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
Is placahle, 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 state where men are tempted still
To evil for guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best .-...
Doth seldom on right foundation rest,
He fixes good on good alone, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knOws;-
Who, If he rise to station of command,
Rises by open terms, or else retire
And 1n IN himself possess mis- own desire:
Keeps faithful with singleness of aim,
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honors, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must
fall,
Like showers of mamma, 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 humankind,
Is happy as lover, and attired
With sudden brightness, like 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 1t will. Is equal to the need
He who, though thus endued, as with sense
And faculty for storm and turbulence,
Is yet soul whose master-bias leans
To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images; which, whOsoe'er he be,
Are at his heart and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve;
More brave for this. that he hath much to love-
'Tis, finally, the man who lifted high,
Conspicuous object in nations eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,-
Prosnerous i Z or r. adverse Sc to his wish or not
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what he most doth value must be won;
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray:
Who, not content with former worth stands fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From we'll to better, daily self-surpassed;
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must go to dust without his fame,
And leave dead, Improbable name,-
Finds comfort in himself and in the causes
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of fHeaven'sapplause:-
This 1s the happy warrior; this is he
Whom every man In arms should wish to be.