Nothing to do but work,
Nothing to eat but food,
Nothing to wear but clothes
To keep one from going nude.
The work of the world must still be done,
And minds are many though truth be one.
When Earth's last picture is painted, and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it--lie down for an æon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall set us to work anew!
And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the God of Things as They Are!
Note 15.In the Preface to Mr. Nichols's work on Autographs, among other albums noticed by him as being in the British Museum is that of David Krieg, with James Bobart's autograph (Dec. 8, 1697) and the verses,--
Virtus sui gloria.
"Think that day lost whose descending sun
Views from thy hand no noble action done."
Bobart died about 1726. He was a son of the celebrated botanist of that name. The verses are given as an early instance of their use.
For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.
The morn, look you, furthers a man on his road, and furthers him too in his work.
Try first thyself, and after call in God;
For to the worker God himself lends aid.
In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.
Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill,--the same that are still known as the Quintian Meadows,--when the messenger brought him the dictatorship, finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other,--a practice which has now passed into a proverb. It was also a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by in his studio, while he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms.... Under these circumstances, they say that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one latchet too few. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticise the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head out and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes, --a piece of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters, Agesilaus said, "I do not think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot."
It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,--nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; "I am rising to a man's work."
The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.
The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.
The charging of his enemy was but the work of a moment.
By the work one knows the workman.
We read of a certain Roman emperor who built a magnificent palace. In digging the foundation, the workmen discovered a golden sarcophagus ornamented with three circlets, on which were inscribed, "I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have."
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
The night cometh when no man can work.
Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.