ALAS! what boots the long laborious quest <br />Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill; <br />Or pains abstruse-to elevate the will, <br />And lead us on to that transcendent rest <br />Where every passion shall the sway attest <br />Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill; <br />What is it but a vain and curious skill, <br />If sapient Germany must lie deprest, <br />Beneath the brutal sword?-Her haughty Schools <br />Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say- <br />A few strong instincts and a few plain rules, <br />Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought <br />More for mankind at this unhappy day <br />Then all the pride of intellect and thought?<br /><br />William Wordsworth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/alas-what-boots-the-long-laborious-quest/
