Its passion teaches us, as it urges into action all our powers, what we can and what we cannot do.

That is, it teaches us, through the action it engenders, what our limits are; and when we know them, the main duties of life rise clear.

The first of these is, to work patiently within our limits; and the second is the apparent contradiction of the first, never to be satisfied with our limits, or with the results we attain within them.

Then, having worked within them, but always looked beyond them, we, as life closes, learn the secret.

The failures of earth prove the victory beyond: "For-- what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence For the fulness of the days?
Have we withered or agonised?
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?
Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should be prized?
Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear.
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and the woe: But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear; The rest may reason, and welcome: 'tis we musicians know." _Abt Vogler_.
Finally, the root and flower of this patient but uncontented work is Love for man because of his being in God, because of his high and immortal destiny.