It is easy enough to be virtuous, When nothing tempts you to stray, When without or within no voice of sin Is luring your soul away! But it’s only a negative virtue Until it is tried by fire, And the life that is worth honor on earth Is the one that resists desire. By the cynic, the sad, the fallen, Who had no strength for the strife, The world’s highway is cumbered today. They make up the sum of life. But the virtue that conquers passion, And the sorrow that hides in a smile, It is these that are worth the homage on earth For we find them but once in a while.