Ere You Censure, Look Within (poetry)

1895

Ere You Censure, Look Within

Should you feel inclined to censure
Faults you may in others view,
Ask your own heart, 'ere you venture,
If that has not failings too.

Let no friendly vows be broken,
Rather strive a friend to gain;
Many a word in anger spoken,
Finds its passage home again.

Do not, then, in idle pleasure,
Trifle with a brother's fame;
Guard it as valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.

Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends;
Those of whom we thought unkindly,
Oft become our warmest friends.