Sooner or late--in earnest or in jest-- <br />(But the stakes are no jest) Ithuriel's Hour <br />Will spring on us, for the first time, the test <br />Of our sole unbacked competence and power <br />Up to the limit of our years and dower <br />Of judgment--or beyond. But here we have <br />Prepared long since our garland or our grave. <br /> <br />For, at that hour, the sum of all our past, <br />Act, habit, thought, and passion, shall be cast <br />In one addition, be it more or less, <br />And as that reading runs so shall we do; <br />Meeting, astounded, victory at the last, <br />Or, first and last, our own unworthiness. <br />And none can change us though they die to save!<br /><br />Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-hour-of-the-angel/
