Fortitude

Fortitude. [No. 39]

In a Good Cause, be Firm; for Fortitude
Is a Masonic Virtue. Every Age
Has honoured it: it glows upon the page
Of History; for Nations, from the rude
Barbarian, to most Civilised, have seen 5
It can subdue the Passions, when applied
In Virtue’s cause; but when it is allied
With Vice, becomes Stupidity, I ween,
Losing its very Name. Oh, ye who seek
To raise the Fallen and uphold the Good— 10
To banish Vice from Earth, so that it should
Become an Eden!—be ye ever Meek
And Innocent as Doves; but also Firm
As yonder Rock, alike in Calm or Storm.

by George Markham Tweddell  1st published 1887