Nobility

True worth is in being, not seeming, --
   In doing, each day that goes by,
Some little good--not in dreaming
   Of great things to do by and by.

For whatever men say in their blindness,
   And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
   And nothing so royal as truth.

We get back our mete as we measure --
   We cannot do wrong and feel right,
Nor can we give pain and gain pleasure,
   For justice avenges each slight.

We cannot make bargains for blisses,
   Nor catch them like fishes in nets;
And sometimes the thing our life misses
   Helps more than the thing which it gets.

For good lieth not in pursuing,
   Nor gaining of great nor of small,
But just in the doing, and doing
  As we would be done by, is all.

                              ~ Alice Cary