I scanned wise words in a book to-day;
this was the message, they seemed to say:
Keep moving ahead!
You can't stand still unless you really are very ill;
for if you stop, like an unwound clock,
you're bound to suffer a fearful shock,
for something will happen to give you a shake,
and say to your conscience, "Move on, awake."
Keep moving ahead, or your soul will die,
and beauty evade your heart and eye.
No matter at all that your pace be slow
so long as you upward, upward go,
into a finer atmosphere, where ideals live and visions clear,
and Goodness and Truth have taken firm stand,
and folks to folks stretch a loving hand.
For this be the measure of our success,
the measure of all life's happiness:
just how well we have moved ahead;
or just how early our soul was dead!
