Individuality Poem by Martin Farquhar Tupper

Measure not thyself with others,-
Heed the work thou hast to do;
Each man's duty, not his brother's,
Is his goal to keep in view:
Nature, circumstance, and station,
With what God from each exacts
As his tribute to Creation,
These decide our aims and acts.

Every creature fitly fashion'd
Hath its being's final cause;
And our minds and hearts impassion'd
Beat with individual laws:
All are various, differing measures
Fill us each with power to work,
And the spirit's special treasures
Latent in each bosom lurk.

How shouldst thou declare the causes
That have wrought thy brother thus?
Plastic Wisdom never pauses
In such modelling of us:
How canst thou suggest the reasons
For his baser life or lot?
Matter has its changing seasons,
Why should spirit vary not?

Shall the Arctic blame the Torrid?
Shall the East defame the West?
Shall the foot rebuke the forehead
That it thinks in lazy rest?
Every creature to its mission,
Every bullet to its mark,
Every man in his condition
Wanted for the Church's Ark!

Scorn not,- envy not,- and judge not:
Scorn is Folly's cruel wife;
And for Envy,- Churl, begrudge not
Some poor brother's luck in life;
And, for Judgment,- to our Master
Singly we must stand or fall;
Life's Foreknower, and Forecaster,
Wills and weighs, and shapes it all!