"'Tis Best to Do Right" (1868)
Words by Sanford Fillmore Bennett, 1836-1898
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875

Chicago, IL: Lyon & Healy, 116 Washington St.
Boston, MA: O. Ditson & Co.
Philadelphia, PA: C. W. A. Trumpler
New York, NY: C. H. Ditson & Co.
Chicago, IL: Western News Co.
[Source: p. 22-23 from "The Signet Ring"]

1. 'Tis best to do right-- do you know it, my boys?
'Tis always best to do right!
'Twill fill your young hearts with the sweetest of joys,
And flood all your pathway with light!
If others should walk in the ways of the bad,
And list to the promptings of sin,
Don't make your hearts worse and the good angels sad,
By walking that pathway within.

2. 'Tis best to do right-- do you know it, my girls?
'Tis always the best to do right!
A kind loving heart is the whitest of pearls--
How few have a treasure so bright!
To do for the right be the aim of your life,
And Earth will be better for you,
The fruitage of innocence gladden your sight,
And blessings your pathway bestrew.

3. 'Tis best to do right, for the great and the small--
'Tis always the best to do right!
There's pleasure in action when duty may call,
In waging for justice the fight;
The life that is honest and noble and true
Whose light by love' sunlight is fed,
Is best life for me and the best life for you,
A life it is grand to have led.