And still increasing to this night, which ends My further stay at Würzburg . . . Oh, one day You shall be very proud! Say on, dear friends!
Fest. In truth? "Tis for my proper peace, indeed, Rather than yours; for vain all projects seem To stay your course: I said my latest hope Is fading even now. A story tells
Of some far embassy despatched to buy The favour of an eastern king, and how The gifts they offered proved but dazzling dust Shed from the ore-beds native to his clime: Just so, the value of repose and love,
I meant should tempt you, better far than 1 You seem to comprehend-and yet desist No whit from projects where repose nor love Have part.
Par. Once more? Alas! as I forbode ! Fest. A solitary briar the bank puts forth To save our swan's nest floating out to sea. Par. Dear Festus, hear me. What is it you wish! That I should lay aside my heart's pursuit, Abandon the sole ends for which I live, Reject God's great commission—and so die! You bid me listen for your true love's sake: Yet how has grown that love? Even in a long And patient cherishing of the selfsame spirit It now would quell; as though a mother hoped To stay the lusty manhood of the child Once weak upon her knees. I was not born
Informed and fearless from the first, but shrank
From aught which marked me out apart from men▾ I would have lived their life, and died their death, Lost in their ranks, eluding destiny:
But you first guided me through doubt and fear, Taught me to know mankind and know myself; And now that I am strong and full of hope, That, from my soul, I can reject all aims Save those your earnest words made plain to me; Now, that I touch the brink of my design,
When I would have a triumph in their eyes, A glad cheer in their voices-Michal weeps, And Festus ponders gravely!
Beforehand all this evening's conference! 'Tis this way, Michal, that he uses: first, Or he declares, or I, the leading points
Of our best scheme of life, what is man's end, And what God's will-no two faiths e'er agreed As his with mine: next, each of us allows Faith should be acted on as best we may : Accordingly, I venture to submit
A plan, in lack of better, for pursuing The path which God's will seems to authorize : Well-he discerns much good in it, avows This motive worthy, that hope plausible, A danger here, to be avoided-there,
An oversight to be repaired: at last Our two minds go together-all the good Approved by him, I gladly recognize ; All he counts bad, I thankfully discard; And nought forbids my looking up at last For some stray comfort in his cautious brow- When, lo! I learn that, spite of all, there lurks Some innate and inexplicable germ
Of failure in my schemes; so that at last It all amounts to this the sovereign proof That we devote ourselves to God, is seen In living just as though there were no God; A-life which, prompted by the sad and blind Lusts of the world, Festus abhors the most- But which these tenets sanctify at once; Though to less subtle wits it seems the same, Consider it how they may.
He speaks so calmly and kindly-is it so?
Par. Reject those glorious visions of God's love And man's design; laugh loud that God should send Vast longings to direct us; say how soon
Power satiates these, or lust, or gold; I know The world's cry well, and how to answer it! But this ambiguous warfare
That you will grant no last leave to your friend
urge it?for his sake, not yours? I wish To send my soul in good hopes after you;
Never to sorrow that uncertain words, Erringly apprehended-a new creed,
Ill understood-begot rash trust in you, And shared in your undoing.
Hold or renounce: but meanwhile blame me not
Because I dare to act on your own views, Nor shrink when they point onward, nor espy
A peril where they most insure success.
Fest. Prove that to me-but that! Within their warrant, nor presumptuous boast God's labour laid on you; prove, all you covet
A mortal may expect; and, most of all
Prove the strange course you now affect, will lead To its attainment-and I bid you speed,
Nay, count the minutes till you venture forth!
You smile; but I had gathered from slow thought- Much musing on the fortunes of my friend- Matter I deemed could not be urged in vain: But it all leaves me at my need: in shreds And fragments I must venture what remains. Mich. Ask at once, Festus, wherefore he should
Fest. Stay, Michal: Aureole, I speak guardedly And gravely, knowing well, whate'er your error, This is no ill-considered choice of yours-
No sudden fancy of an ardent boy. Not from your own confiding words alone Am I aware your passionate heart long since
Gave birth to, nourished, and at length matures This scheme. I will not speak of Einsiedeln, Where I was born your elder by some years Only to watch you fully from the first:
In all beside, our mutual tasks were fixed Even then-'twas mine to have you in my view As you had your own soul and those intents Which filled it when, to crown your dearest wish, With a tumultuous heart, you left with me Our childhood's home to join the favoured few Whom, here at Würzburg, Tritheim deigns to teach A portion of his lore: and not the best Of those so favoured, whom you now despise, Came earnest as you came; resolved, like you, To grasp all, and retain all, and deserve By patient toil a wide renown like his. And this new ardour which supplants the old, I watched, too; 'twas significant and strange, In one matched to his soul's content at length With rivals in the search for Wisdom's prize, To see the sudden pause, the total change; From contest, the transition to repose— From pressing onward as his fellows pressed, To a blank idleness; yet most unlike The dull stagnation of a soul, content, Once foiled, to leave betimes a thriveless quest. That careless bearing, free from all pretence Even of contempt for what it ceased to seek— Smiling humility, praising much, yet waiving
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