"PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING ARE NO MORE; THE HOMELY BEAUTY OF THE GOOD OLD CAUSE IS GONE;

“MEN ARE WE, AND MUST Grieve when e'en the shade (wordsworth)

Of all that is most beauteous—unagèd there
In happier beauty; more pellucid streams,
An ampler ether, a diviner air,

And fields invested with purpureal gleams;
Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day
Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey.

Yet there the soul shall enter which hath earned
That privilege by virtue.—“Ill,” said he,

"The end of man's existence I discerned,
Who from ignoble games and revelry

Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight,
While tears were thy best pastime, day and night;
"And while my youthful peers before my eyes
(Each hero following his peculiar bent)
Prepared themselves for glorious enterprise
By martial sports, or, seated in the tent,
Chieftains and kings in council were detained;

What time the fleet at Aulis lay enchained.

"The wished-for wind was given: I then revolved
The oracle, upon the silent sea;

And, if no worthier led the way, resolved
That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be
The foremost prow in pressing to the strand,-
Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.
"Yet bitter, ofttimes bitter, was the pang
When of thy loss I thought, belovèd Wife !
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life,—

OF THAT WHICH ONCE WAS GREAT HAS PASSED AWAY."-W. Wordsworth.

OUR PEACE, OUR PERFECT INNOCENCE, AND PURE RELIGION BREATHING HOUSEHOLD LAWS."-w. WORDSWORTH.

"EVERY GIFT OF NOBLE ORIGIN IS BREATHED UPON BY HOPE'S PERPETUAL BREATH;

"TO THINK OUR LIFE IS ONLY DREST FOR SHOW!"-WORDSWORTH.

The paths which we had trod—these fountains, flowers;

My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers.
"But should suspense permit the Foe to cry,

'Behold they tremble! haughty their array,
Yet of their number no one dares to die!'
In soul I swept the indignity away:

Old frailties then recurred :-but lofty thought,
In act embodied, my deliverance wrought.

“And Thou, though strong in love, art all too weak

66

In reason, in self-government too slow;

I counsel thee by fortitude to seek

Our blest reunion in the shades below.

The invisible world with thee hath sympathized;

Be thy affections raised and solemnized.

Learn, by a mortal yearning, to ascend—
Seeking a higher object. Love was given,
Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end;
For this the passion to excess was driven-
That self might be annulled: her bondage prove
The fetters of a dream, opposed to love."

Aloud she shrieked! for Hermes reappears!
Round the dear shade she would have clung—'tis vain :
The hours are past-too brief had they been years;
And him no mortal effort can detain.

Swift toward the realms that know not earthly day,
He through the portal takes his silent way,
And on the palace floor a lifeless corse she lay.

Thus all in vain exhorted and reproved,
She perished; and, as for a wilful crime,
By the just gods, whom no weak pity moved,
Was doomed to wear out her appointed time,

66 MEAN HANDIWORK OF CRAFTSMAN, COOK, OR GROOM!"-IBID.

AND RICHES ARE AKIN TO FEAR, TO CHANGE, TO COWARDICE, AND DEATH."-WORDSWORTH.

"THE MARTIAL COURAGE OF A DAY IS VAIN, AN EMPTY NOISE OF DEATH THE BATTLE'S ROAR,

"TIS IN OURSELVES OUR SAFETY MUST BE SOUGHT WORDSWORTH)

502

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers

Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

Yet tears to human suffering are due;

And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown,
Are mourned by man, and not by man alone,
As fondly he believes.*-Upon the side

Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
A knot of spiry trees for ages grew

From out the tomb of him for whom she died;
And ever when such stature they had gained,
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
The trees' tall summits withered at the sight;
A constant interchange of growth and blight!

[From "Poems of Imagination and Fancy."]

ODE.

INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF
EARLY CHILDHOOD.

I.

HERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore ;—

* This may remind us of the following passage from Scott :

"Call it not vain :-they do not err,

Who say, that when the poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies."

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto v.

'TIS BY OUR OWN RIGHT HANDS IT MUST BE WROUGHT."-WORDSWORTH.

IF VITAL HOPE BE WANTING TO RESTORE, OR FORTITUDE BE WANTING TO SUSTAIN."-WORDSWORTH.

"AVAUNT ALL SPECIOUS PLIANCY OF MIND IN MEN OF LOW DEGREE, ALL SMOOTH PRETENCE (WORDSWORTH)

SAY, WHAT IS HONOUR? 'TIS THE FINEST SENSE-(WORDSWORTH)

["The birds thus sing..
.... the young lambs bound."]

Turn whereso'er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

OF JUSTICE THAT THE HUMAN MIND CAN FRAME."-WORDSWORTH.

I BETTER LIKE A SELF-RESPECTING SLOWNESS, DISINCLINED TO WIN ONE AT FIRST SIGHT."-W. WORDSWORTH.

"IF THOUGHT AND LOVE Desert us, frOM THAT DAY-(WORDSWORth)

506

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

While Earth herself is adorning,

This sweet May-morning,
And the children are culling

On every side,

In a thousand valleys far and wide,

Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,
And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's arm:--

I hear, I hear, with joy I hear !—
But there's a Tree, of many, one,

A single Field which I have looked upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone:

The Pansy at my feet

Doth the same tale repeat:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

"WITH THOUGHT AND LOVE COMPANIONS OF OUR WAY, WHATE'ER THE SENSES TAKE OR MAY REFUSE,-(WORDSWORTH)

THE MIND'S INTERNAL HEAVEN SHALll shed her LAWS OF INSPIRATION ON THE HUMBLEST LAY."-w. WORDSWORTH.

*This doctrine of the pre-existence of human souls before their investment in mortal bodies is of Eastern origin. It seems to have been familiar to Plato. Of late it has been revived in Germany by the younger Fichte. See, too, its exposition in Julius Muller's "Die Christliche Lehre von der Sünde."

LET US BREAK OFF ALL COMMERCE WITH THE MUSE."-WORDSWORTH.