The Two Armies
As life’s unending column pours,
Two marshalled hosts are seen,—
Two armies on the trampled shores
That death flows black between.
One marches to the drumbeat’s roll,
The wide-mouthed clarion’s bray,
And bears, upon a crimson scroll,
“Our glory is to slay.”
One moves in silence by the stream,
With sad, yet watchful eyes,
Calm as the patient planet’s gleam
That walks the clouded skies.
Along its front no sabers shine,
No blood-red pennons wave;
Its banner bears the single line,
“Our duty is to save.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Achievement of Health
Finally, I have one advice which is of very great importance. You are to consider that health is a thing to be attended to continually, as the very highest of all temporal things. There is no kind of an achievement equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets or millions?
—Thomas Carlyle.
Alternate Reading: I Samuel 3.