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 showed 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 I 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 teil 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!

Fest.

Good: let us hear

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 analyze

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 schools
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 SS Unguided by thy brain the mighty sight "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 forever.

"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,
Which sought to compreherd the works of God,
And God himself, and all God's intercourse
With the human mind; I understood, no less,
My fellow's studies, whose true worth I saw,
But smiled not, well aware who stood by me
And softer came the voice-" There is a way—
'Tis hard for flesh to tread therein, imbued
With frailty-hopeless, if indulgence first
Have ripened inborn germs of sin to strength:
Wilt thou adventure for my sake and man's,
"Apart from all reward?" And last it breathed-