Responsibility

Why are our ideals hid from hostile eyes
As boys in school hide toys from master's view?
Let them be real as we believe them true —
Real as our chartered laws and liberties.
All precious rights that we possess and prize
Were ideals once, unshaped, unripe, and new,
The wild delusions of the crack- brained few,
The trifles mocked at by the worldly- wise.

Some must be first; and every coward blights
His brother's hope, and spreading Truth arrests;
While every brave man helps the world, and lights
The flame of courage in a thousand breasts.
So let us bear our meed of vulgar scorn,
And wait the judgment of the years unborn.