True Philanthropy

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Title:     True Philanthropy
Author: J. C. Manning [More Titles by Manning]

Written on hearing that J. D. Llewelyn, Esq., of Penllergare, had refused a public Testimonial, the offer of which was evoked by his unbounded charity and unostentatious acts of philanthropy, which recognition it was desired to inaugurate in the shape of a statue of himself, placed in front of the Swansea hospital--an institution which owes so much to his munificent liberality.

MARCH 6th, 1876.

Friend of the poor, for whom thy ceaseless thought
Is as the sun, that warms the earthy clod
Into a flush of blossom beauty-fraught,
Waking in hearts by poverty distraught
Glimpses in life of Heaven and of God.

And as the sun sends forth his golden beams
In silence, all unweeting of their worth,
So from thy life in silent beauty streams
That Heaven-born charity which never seems
To know itself--and blushes at its birth.

No sculptor's art thy goodness need proclaim:
The knowledge lives in hearts that feel its power--
A love more lasting than a marbled fame:
Brooding in silence o'er thy cherished name,
As light is worshipped by the voiceless flower.

[The end]
J. C. Manning's poem: True Philanthropy

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