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GOOD 
 
 AND 
 
 TRUE THOUGHT: 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING 
 
 Life means learning- 
 
 to abhor 
 The false and love 
 
 the true. — 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 N?W YORK 
 COPYRIGHT, ISS8 BY 
 
 nxmiCK A. STOKES & BROTH5R 
 18SJ 
 
 /b6</ 
 
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GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING. 
 
 — Into the truth of things, — 
 
 Out of their falseness rise, and reach 
 thou and remain ! 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 God's gift was, that man should 
 
 conceive of truth 
 And yearn to gain it, catching at 
 
 mistake, 
 As midway help, till he reach fact 
 
 indeed. 
 
 A Death in the Desert. 
 
 — There's nothing in nor out 
 
 o' the world 
 Good, except truth. 
 
 . The Ring and the Book, 
 
 Hear the truth, and bear the truth, 
 
 And bring the truth to bear on all you are, 
 
 And do, assured that only good comes 
 
 thence 
 Whate'er the shape good take ! 
 
 Prince Hohenstiel Schivangau. 
 
GOOD AND TR UE THO UGH TS. 3 
 
 Learn life's lesson : hate of evil, 
 love of good. 
 
 La Sazsi'as. 
 
 And consequent upon the learning how 
 
 from strife 
 Grew peace, — from evil, good, — came 
 
 knowledge, that to get 
 Acquaintance with the way o' the world, 
 
 we must nor fret 
 Nor fume on altitudes of self-sufficiency, 
 But bid a frank farewell to what — we 
 
 think — should be — 
 And with as good a grace, welcome 
 
 what is — we find. 
 
 Fifine at the Faz'r. 
 
 Man's work is to labor and leaven — 
 As best he may — earth here with heaven ; 
 'Tis work for work's sake that he's needing : 
 Let him work on and on as if speeding 
 Work's end, but not dream of succeeding ! 
 Because if success were intended, 
 Why heaven would begin ere earth ended. 
 Of Pacchiarotto. 
 
 ■:V 
 
GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS. 
 
 — A man's reach should exceed his grasp. 
 Or what's a heaven for ? 
 
 Andrea del Sartu. 
 
 — This world's no blot for us, 
 Nor blank — it means intensely, and 
 means good. 
 
 Lippo Lippi. 
 
 The common problem, yours, mine, 
 
 every one's, 
 Is not to fancy what were fair in life 
 Provided it could be— but finding first 
 What may be, then find how to make it 
 
 fair 
 Up to our means — a very different thing ! 
 BisJi op Blougra m . 
 
 — I count life just a stuff 
 To try the soul's strength on, educe 
 the man. 
 
 In a Balcony. 
 
 
GOOD AND TR UE THO UGHTS. 5 
 
 Poor vaunt of life indeed, 
 
 Were man but formed to feed 
 
 On joy, to solely seek and find and feast ; 
 
 Such feasting ended, then, 
 
 As sure an end to men ; — 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 
 Who knows what's fit for us ? Had fate 
 Proposed bliss here should sublimate 
 My being; had I signed the bond — 
 Still one must lead some life beyond 
 — Have a bliss to die with, dim-descried. 
 This foot once planted on the goal, 
 This glory-garland round my soul, 
 Could I descry such ? Try and test ! 
 I sink back shuddering from the quest. 
 Earth being so good, would Heaven seem 
 best? 
 
 The Last Ride Together. 
 
 This life is brief, and troubles die with it : 
 Where were the prick to soar up 
 homeward, else? 
 
 The Ring; aiid the Book. 
 
 
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6 GOOD AND TR UE THO UGHTS. 
 
 Then welcome each rebuff, 
 
 That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
 
 Each sting, that bids nor sit nor stand, 
 
 but go ! 
 Be our joys three parts pain, 
 Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 
 Learn, nor account the pang; dare, 
 
 never grudge the throe ! 
 
 Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 
 The man taught enough by life's 
 
 dream, of the rest to make sure, 
 
 By the pain-throb, triumphantly 
 winning intensified bliss, 
 
 And the next world's reward and 
 
 repose, by the struggle in this. 
 
 Saul. 
 
 Through the outward sign, the inward 
 
 grace allures, 
 And sparks from heaven transpierce 
 
 earth's coarsest covertures. 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 
8 GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS. 
 
 There shall never be one lost good ! 
 
 What was, shall live as before ; 
 The evil is null, is naught, is silence 
 
 implying sound ; 
 What was good, shall be good, with, 
 
 for evil, so much good more ; 
 On the earth the broken arcs ; in the 
 
 Heaven, a perfect round. 
 
 | All we have willed or hoped or dreamed 
 
 *? ' of good, shall exist ; 
 
 Not its likeness, but itself ; no beauty, 
 
 nor good, nor power 
 
 Whose voice has gone forth, but each 
 
 ^ ) survives for the melodist, 
 
 When eternity affirms the conception 
 
 of an hour. 
 
 Abt Vogler. 
 
 I trust in God — The Right shall be 
 
 the Right. 
 And other than the Wrong, while He 
 
 endures — 
 I trust in my own soul, that can perceive 
 The outward and the inward, nature's good, 
 
 And God's 
 
 A SouVs Tragedy. 
 
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GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS. 
 
 So absolutely good is truth, truth never 
 
 hurts 
 The teller, whose worst crime gets 
 
 somehow grace, avowed. 
 
 Fifine at the Fair. 
 
 Aspire, break bounds ! I say 
 
 Endeavor to be good, and better still, 
 And best ! success is naught, endeavor's all. 
 Turf and Towers. 
 
 It's wiser being good than bad ; 
 
 It's safer being meek than fierce : 
 It's fitter being sane than mad. 
 
 My own hope is, a sun will pierce 
 The thickest cloud earth ever stretched ; 
 
 That, after Last, returns the First, 
 Though a wide compass round be fetched ; 
 That what began best, can't end worst, 
 Nor what God blest once, prove accurst. 
 Apparent Failure. 
 
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io GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS. 
 
 Why stay we on the earth unless 
 to grow ? 
 
 Cleon. 
 
 Tis a life-long toil till our lump be 
 
 leaven — 
 The better ! what's come to perfection 
 
 perishes. 
 Things learned on earth, we shall 
 
 practice in heaven. 
 Works done least rapidly, Art most 
 
 cherishes. 
 
 Old Pictures in Florence. 
 
 What were life 
 
 Did soul stand still therein, forego her 
 
 strife 
 Through the ambiguous Present, to the 
 
 goal 
 Of some all-reconciling Future ? 
 
 Soul, 
 Nothing has been, which shall not 
 
 bettered be, 
 Hereafter,— Gerard de Lairesse. 
 
GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS, it 
 
 Was it not great ? did he not throw- 
 on God, 
 (He loves the burthen) — 
 
 God's task to make the heavenly period 
 perfect the earthen ? 
 
 The Grammarian's Funeral. 
 
 Of Wrong make Right, and turn 111 
 Good, below. 
 
 Sordetto. 
 
 Let things be — not seem, 
 counsel rather, — do, and nowise dream. 
 
 Gerard de Lat'resse. 
 
 — From the beginning love is whole 
 And true ; if sure of naught beside, 
 
 most sure 
 Of its own truth at least ; — 
 
 Sorddlo. 
 
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12 GOOD AND TRUE THOUGHTS. 
 
 Love bids touch truth, endure truth, 
 
 and embrace 
 Truth, though, embracing truth, love 
 
 crush itself. 
 
 Turf and Towers. 
 
 To have to do with nothing but the true, 
 The good, the eternal. 
 
 The Ring and the Book. 
 
 Such was my rule of life : I worked 
 
 my best, 
 Subject to ultimate judgment, — God's 
 
 not man's. 
 
 Prince Hoheustiel Schwangan. 
 
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