Read "The Eternal Will" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There is no thing we cannot overcome / Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, / Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, / And calls down punishment that is not merited.
Back of thy parents and grandparents lies / The Great Eternal Will. That, too, is thine / Inheritance; strong, beautiful, divine, / Sure lever of success for one who tries.
Pry up thy faults with this great lever, Will. / However deeply bedded in propensity, / However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet / Is that vast power that comes from Truth's immensity.
Thou art a part of that strange world, I say. / Its forces lie within thee, stronger far / Than all thy mortal sins and frailties are, / Believe thyself divine, and watch, and pray.
There is no noble height thou canst not climb. / All triumphs may be thine in Time's futurity, / If whatso'er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt, / But lean upon the staff of God's security.
Earth has no claim the soul can not contest. / Know thyself part of that Eternal Source, / And naught can stand before thy spirit's force. / The soul's divine inheritance is best.