Long fed on boundless hopes, O race of man, <br />How angrily thou spurn'st all simpler fare! <br />'Christ,' some one says, 'was human as we are; <br />No judge eyes us from Heaven, our sin to scan; <br />We live no more when we have done our span.'-- <br />'Well, then, for Christ,' thou answerest, 'who can care? <br />From sin, which Heaven records not, why forbear? <br />Live we like brutes our life without a plan!' <br />So answerest thou; but why not rather say, <br />'Hath man no second life?--Pitch this one high! <br />Sits there no judge in Heaven our sin to see?-- <br />More strictly, then, the inward judge obey! <br />Was Christ a man like us?--Ah! let us try <br />If we then, too, can be such men as he!'<br /><br />Matthew Arnold<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-better-part-2/
