Ralph Waldo Emerson: Suum Cuique

Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill?
Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.



If curses be the wage of love,
Hide in thy skies, thou fruitless Jove,
Not to be named:
It is clear
Why the gods will not appear;
They are ashamed.



When wrath and terror changed Jove's regal port,
And the rash-leaping thunderbolt fell short.



Shun passion, fold the hands of thrift,
Sit still and Truth is near:
Suddenly it will uplift
Your eyelids to the sphere:
Wait a little, you shall see
The portraiture of things to be.



The rules to men made evident
By Him who built the day,
The columns of the firmament
Not firmer based than they.



On bravely through the sunshine and the showers!
Time hath his work to do and we have ours.