THE vital truths are old and gray; they're old because they're true; the vital truth we spring today, old Father Noah knew. If any man comes up, forsooth, and says that he can show a truly modern vital truth, oh, lay the faker low. A man might rustle up a lie that bears the signs of youth, but never, friend, will you descry a strictly recent truth. The vital truth is that which leads the sons of men aright, to useful lives and goodly deeds, and records clean and white. We know that industry will pay, that honesty is great; and truths like these however gray, are never out of date. Old Adam knew them as he wrought among the first green trees, and he rehearsed them as he sought his missing swarm of bees. Oh, every blessed rule of life, that's likely to exalt, was old when Lot's devoted wife became a chunk of salt. The vital truths are but a few, and easy to adopt; the truths which seem grotesquely new don't count, and may be dropped. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO BAYARD TAYLOR by SIDNEY LANIER STUDY FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL TRAIL; 3. WASHINGTON, D.C. by CLARENCE MAJOR A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 19. TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE GRAPE-VINE SWING by WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS PSALM 84 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |