The living Heaven thy prayers respect,

House at once and architect,

Quarrying man’s rejected hours,

Builds therewith eternal towers;

Sole and self-commanded works,

Fears not undermining days,

Grows by decays,

And, by the famous might that lurks

In reaction and recoil,

Males flame to freeze, and ice to boil;

Forging, through swart arms of Offense,

The silver seat of Innocence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson