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 new-hearted force, As at old games the 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 sat 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 who 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 Stagirite
Your rivals throng, the sages: here stand you! Whatever you may protest, knowledge is not Paramount in your love; or for her sake You would collect all help from every source- Rival, assistant, friend, foe, all would merge
In the broad class of those who showed her haunts, And those who showed them not.
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 I 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
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 light
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 everlasting concourse of mankind!
Believe that ere I joined them, ere I knew The purpose of the pageant, or the place Consigned me in its ranks-while, just awake, Wonder was freshest and delight most pure- "T was 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!
No more about your nature, "which first shrank "From all that marked you out apart from men!"
Paracelsus. I touch on that; these words but analyse The first mad impulse: 't was 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 counts A marvel, but was all-sufficient, strong, Or staggered only at his own vast 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
« AnteriorContinuar » |