<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=118831" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Friends to Virtue</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">"The gods whom we all belong to are the gods we belong to whether we will or no."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Into the theatre they came—<br>"Motley 's the only wear!"<br>Children of poverty, of shame,<br>Of folly, of despair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Elbowing rudely, Jill and Jack,<br>A nearer view to win,<br>Youths, men, and women, white and black,<br>Pell-mell, they jostled in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A wretched place of poor resort,<br>Far from the world polite,<br>Few pennies bought the meagre sport<br>So fruitful of delight,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And gazing there, each brutish face,<br>The godlike stamp resigned,<br>A tablet seemed whereon disgrace<br>Had written thoughts unkind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"And what," I mused, "will now be fed<br>To cater to their mood<br>Who, as their looks bespeak, have said,—<br>'Evil, be thou my good'?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Order will surely be reversed,<br>Judgment will disappear,<br>The tricks of knaves will be rehearsed<br>To catch the plaudits here!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet as I watched the varied throng,<br>My theories took flight,<br>For, lo, they still condemned the wrong,<br>They still approved the right!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The "villain" by his better art<br>Surprised from them no praise;<br>They frankly took the hero's part,<br>Awarding him the bays;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For they, unlike the wise of earth,<br>Slight tribute paid to skill,—<br>Anhungered for a higher worth,<br>Lovers of virtue still!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Florence+Earle+Coates">Florence Earle Coates</a> from <i>Poems</i><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=118831" data-title="Friends to Virtue de Florence Earle Coates" data-description=""The gods whom we all belong to are the gods we belong to whether we will or no."/Into the theatre they came—/"Motley 's the only wear!"/Children of poverty, of shame,/Of folly, of despair./Elbowing rudely, Jill and Jack,/A nearer view to win,/Y..."></div> </div> </div>

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