Fest.
Such the aim, then.
God sets before you: and 'tis doubtless need
That he appoint no less the way of praise
Than the desire to praise; for, though I hold
With you, the setting forth such praise to be
The natural end and service of a man,

And think such praise is best attained when man
Attains the general welfare of his kind-
Yet, this, the end, is not the instrument.
Presume not to serve God apart from such
Appointed channel as He wills shall gather
Imperfect tributes-for that sole obedience
Valued, perchance. He seeks not that his altars
Blaze-careless how, so that they do but blaze.
Suppose this, then that God selected you
TO KNOW (heed well your answers, for my faith
Shall meet implicitly what they affirm)
I cannot think you dare annex to such
Selection aught beyond a steadfast will,
An intense hope, nor let your gifts create
Scorn or neglect of ordinary means
Conducive to success-make destiny

Dispense with man's endeavour. Now, dare you search
Your inmost heart, and candidly avow

Whether you have not rather wild desire

For this distinction, than security

Of its existence; whether you discern

"The path to the fulfilment of your purpose

Clear as that purpose-and again, that purpose

Clear as your yearning to be singled out

For its pursuer. Dare you answer this?

Par. (After a pause.) No, I have nought to fear! Who well may know

The secret'st workings of my soul.

It be so ?-if indeed the strong desire

What though

Eclipse the aim in me ?-if splendour break
Upon the outset of my path alone,
And duskest shade succeed?

What fairer seal

Shall I require to my authentic mission

Than this fierce energy?—this instinct striving
Because its nature is to strive ?-enticed

By the security of no broad course,
With no success forever in its eyes!

How know I else such glorious fate my own,
But in the restless irresistible force

"That works within me ? Is it for human will
To institute such impulses ?-still less,

To disregard their promptings? What should I

Do, kept among you all; your loves, your cares,
Your life-all to be mine? Be sure that God

Ne'er dooms to waste the strength He deigns impart !
Ask the gier-eagle why she stoops at once
Into the vast and unexplored abyss,

What full-grown power informs her from the first,
Why she not marvels, strenuously beating
The silent boundless regions of the sky!

Be sure they sleep not whom God needs! Nor fear
Their holding light His charge, when every hour
That finds that charge delayed, is a new death.
This for the faith in which I trust; and hence
I can abjure so well the idle arts

These pedants strive to learn and teach; Black Arts,
Great Works, the Secret and Sublime, forsooth-
Let others prize: too intimate a tie

Connects me with our God! A sullen fiend
To do my bidding, fallen and hateful sprites
To help me what are these, at best, beside
God helping, God directing everywhere,
So that the earth shall yield her secrets up,
And every object shall be charged to strike,
Teach, gratify, her master God appoints ?
And I am young, my Festus, happy and free!
I can devote myself; I have a life

To give; I, singled out for this, the One!

Think, think; the wide east, where old Wisdom sprung⚫
The bright south, where she dwelt; the hopeful north,
All are passed o'er-it lights on me! 'Tis time
New hopes should animate the world, new light
Should dawn from new revealings to a race

Weighed down so long, forgotten so long; so shall
The heaven reserved for us, at last receive
Creatures whom no unwonted splendours blind,
But ardent to confront the unclouded blaze

Whose beams not seldom blessed their pilgrimage,

Not seldom glorified their life below.

Fest. My words have their old fate and make faint stand Against your glowing periods. Call this, truth

Why not pursue it in a fast retreat,

Some one of Learning's many palaces,

After approved example; seeking there

Calm converse with the great dead, soul to soul,
Who laid up treasure with the like intent?
-So lift yourself into their airy place,
And fill out full their unfulfilled careers,
Unravelling the knots their baffled skill
Pronounced inextricable, true!—but left

Far less confused? A fresh eye, a fresh hand,
Might do much at their vigour's waning-point;
Succeeding with new-breathed and earnest force,
As at old games a runner snatched the torch
From runner still: this way success might be.
But you have coupled with your enterprise
An arbitrary self-repugnant scheme

Of seeking it in strange and untried paths.
What books are in the desert? writes the sea
The secret of her yearning in vast caves
Where yours will fall the first of human feet ?
Has Wisdom sate there and recorded aught
You press to read? Why turn aside from her
To visit, where her vesture never glanced,
Now-solitudes consigned to barrenness

By God's decree, which who shall dare impugn?
Now-ruins where she paused but would not stay.
Old ravaged cities that, renouncing her,

She called an endless curse on, so it came-
Or, worst of all, now-men you visit, men,
Ignoblest troops that never heard her voice,
Or hate it, men without one gift from Rome
Or Athens, these shall Aureole's teachers be!
Rejecting past example, practice, precept,
Aidless 'mid these he thinks to stand alone:
Thick like a glory round the Stagyrite
Your rivals throng, the sages: here stand you!
Whate'er you may protest, knowledge is not
Paramount in your love; or for her sake

You would collect all help from every source-
Rival or helper, friend, foe, all would merge

In the broad class of those who show ed her haunts,
And those who showed them not.

Par. What shall I say? Festus, from childhood I have been possessed By a fire-by a true fire, or faint or fierce, As from without some master, so it seemed, Repressed or urged its current: this but ill Expresses what would convey-but rather I will believe an angel ruled me thus,

Than that my soul's own workings, own high nature,
So became manifest. I knew not then

What whispered in the evening, and spoke out
At midnight. If some mortal, born too soon,
Were laid away in some great trance-the ages
Coming and going all the while-till dawned
His true time's advent, and could then record
The words they spoke who kept watch by his bed,--

Then I might tell more of the breath so light
Upon my eyelids, and the fingers warm
Among my hair. Youth is confused; yet never
So dull was I but, when that spirit passed,
I turned to him, scarce consciously, as turns
A water-snake when fairies cross his sleep.
And having this within me and about me
While Einsiedeln, its mountains, lakes, and woods
Confined me-what oppressive joy was mine

When life grew plain, and I first viewed the thronged,
The ever-moving concourse of mankind!
Believe that ere I joined them-ere I knew
The purpose of the pageant, or the place
Consigned to me within its ranks-while yet
Wonder was freshest and delight most pure-
'Twas then that least supportable appeared
A station with the brightest of the crowd,
A portion with the proudest of them all!
And from the tumult in my breast, this only
Could I collect-that I must thenceforth die,
Or elevate myself far, far above

The gorgeous spectacle. I seemed to long
At once to trample on, yet save mankind-
To make some unexampled sacrifice

In their behalf-to wring some wondrous good
From heaven or earth for them-to perish, winning
Eternal weal in the act as who should dare
Pluck out the angry thunder from its cloud,
That, all its gathered flame discharged on him,
No storm might threaten summer's azure sleep :
Yet never to be mixed with men so much
As to have part even in my own work-share
In my own largess. Once the feat achieved,
I would withdraw from their officious praise,
Would gently put aside their profuse thanks⚫
Like some knight traversing a wilderness,
Who, on his way, may chance to free a tribe
Of desert-people from their dragon-foe;
When all the swarthy race press round to kiss
His feet, and choose him for their king, and yield
Their poor tents, pitched among the sand-hills, for
His realm; and he points, smiling, to his scarf,
Heavy with riveled gold, his burgonet,

Gay set with twinkling stones-and to the east,
Where these must be displayed!

Good let us hear

Fest. No more about your nature, "which first shrank "From all that marked you out apart from men!"

Par. I touch on that; these words but analyse That first mad impulse-'twas as brief as fond; For as I gazed again upon the show,

I soon distinguished here and there a shape
Palm-wreathed and radiant, forehead and full eye.
Well pleased was I their state should thus at once
Interpret my own thoughts :-"Behold the clue
"To all," I rashly said, " and what I pine
"To do, these have accomplished: we are peers!
"They know, and therefore rule: I, too, will know!"
You were beside me, Festus, as you say;

You saw me plunge in their pursuits whom Fame
Is lavish to attest the lords of mind;

Not pausing to make sure the prize in view
Would satiate my cravings when obtained-

But since they strove I strove. Then came a slow
And strangling failure. We aspired alike,
Yet not the meanest plodder Tritheim sch ools
But faced me, all-sufficient, all-content,
Or staggered only at his own strong wits;
While I was restless, nothing satisfied,

Distrustful, most perplexed. I would slur over
That struggle; suffice it, that I loathed myself
As weak compared with them, yet felt somehow
A mighty power was brooding, taking shape
Within me and this lasted till one night
When, as I sate revolving it and more,

A still voice from without said -"See'st thou not,
"Desponding child, whence came defeat and loss?

"Even from thy strength. Consider: hast thou gazed Presumptuously on Wisdom's countenance,

"No veil between; and can thy hands which falter Unguided by thy brain the mighty sight

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"Continues to absorb, pursue their task

"On earth like these around thee-what their sense

"Which radiance ne'er distracted, clear descries?

"If thou wouldst share their fortune, choose their life, “Unfed by splendour. Let each task present

"Its petty good to thee. Waste not thy gifts
"In profitless waiting for the gods' descent,
"But have some idol of thine own to dress

"With their array. Know, not for knowing's sake,
"But to become a star to men for ever.

"Know, for the gain it gets, the praise it brings,
"The wonder it inspires, the love it breeds.
"Look one step onward, and secure that step."
And I smiled as one never smiles but once;
Then first discovering my own aim's extent,