What Might Be Done

What Might Be Done

What might be done if men were wise—
What glorious deeds, my suffering brother,

Would they unite,

In love and right,

And cease their scorn of one another?

Oppression's heart might be imbued
With kindling drops of loving kindness;

And knowledge pour

From shore to shore

Light on the eyes of mental blindness.

All slavery, warfare, lies, and wrongs,
All vice and crime might die together;

And milk and corn,

To each man born,

Be free as warmth in summer weather.

The meanest wretch that ever trod,
The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow.

Might stand erect,

In self-respect,

And share the teeming world to-morrow.

What might be done? This might be done,
And more than this, my suffering brother—

More than the tongue

E'er said or sung,

If men were wise and loved each other.

Charles MacKay

1:11, p. 1

10.1.1859