Life of John Boyle O'Reilly — Chapter 18

They had on servile order, no dumb throat;They trusted first the universal vote;The first were they to practice and instillThe rule of law and not the rule of will;They lived one noble test: who would be freedMust give up all to follow duty's lead.They made no revolution based on blows,But taught one truth that all the planet knows,That all men think of, looking on a throne—The people may be trusted with their own.

******The past is theirs—the future ours; and weMust learn and teach. Oh, may our records beLike theirs, a glory symboled in a stone.To speak as this speaks, of our labors done,They had no model; but they left us one.

Useless? Ay,—for measure:Roses die,But their breath gives pleasure—God knows why!

A man may wound a brother with a hiss;A woman stabs a sister with a kiss.

I judged a man by his speaking;His nature I could not tell;I judged him by his silence.And then I knew him well.