THE KASÎDAH IX, 105, 116

Pluck the old woman from thy breast:
 Be stout in woe, be stark in weal;
Do good for Good is good to do:
 Spurn bribe of Heav’en and threat of Hell.

To seek the True, to glad the heart,
 such is of life the HIGHER LAW,
Whose differ’ence is the Man’s degree,
 the Man of gold, the Man of straw.

See not that something in Mankind
 that rouses hate or scorn or strife,
Better the worm of Izrâil
 than Death that walks in form of life.

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 65, 80

Reply: mankind obeys a law
 that bids him labour, struggle, strain;
The Sage well knowing its unworth,
 the Fool a-dreaming foolish gain.

And who, ’mid e’en the Fools, but feels
 that half the joy is in the race
For wealth and fame and place, nor sighs
 when comes success to crown the chase?

Again: in Hind, Chîn, Franguestân
 that accident of birth befell,
Without our choice, our will, our voice:
 Faith is an accident as well.

What to the Hindu saith the Frank:
 “Denier of the Laws divine!
“However godly-good thy Life,
 Hell is the home for thee and thine.”

THE KASÎDAH VIII, 33, 48

“Have mercy, man!” the Zâhid cries,
 “of our best visions rob us not!
“Mankind a future life must have
 to balance life’s unequal lot.”

“Nay,” quoth the Magian, “’tis not so;
 I draw my wine for one and all,
“A cup for this, a score for that,
 e’en as his measure’s great or small:

“Who drinks one bowl hath scant delight;
 to poorest passion he was born;
“Who drains the score must e’er expect
 to rue the headache of the morn.”

Safely he jogs along the way
 which ‘Golden Mean’ the sages call;
Who scales the brow of frowning Alp
 must face full many a slip and fall.