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been where i the things have seen o things without compare such sights again cannot be found i in any place on english ground i be it at wake or fair at cross hard by the way where we thou know st do sell our hay i there is a house with stairs and there did i see coming down such folk as are not in our town forty at least in pairs amongst the rest one fine his beard no bigger though than thine walked on before the rest our landlord looks like nothing to him the king god bless him undo him should he go still so at course a park without all doubt he should have first been taken out by all the maids town though there had been or little george upon the green or of the crown but you what the youth was going to make an end of all his the parson for him d yet by his leave for all his haste he did not so much wish all past perchance as did the maid the wedding was that of lord afterwards earl of with lady margaret mr thinks that the ballad is addressed to john the maid and thereby hangs a tale for such a maid no ale could ever yet produce no that s kindly ripe could be so round so plump so soft as she nor half so full of her finger was so small the ring would not stay on which they did bring it was too wide a and to say truth for out it must it looked like the great collar just about our young s neck her feet beneath her like little stole in and out as if they fear d the light but o she dances such a no sun upon an day is half so fine a sight her cheeks so rare a white was on no makes comparison who sees them is undone for streaks of red were mingled there such as are on a the side that s next the sun her lips were red and one was thin d to that was next her chin some bee had stung it newly but dick her eyes so guard her face i no more upon them gaze than on the sun in july her mouth so small when she does speak thou swear her teeth her words did break that they might passage get but she so handled still the matter they came as good as ours or better and are not spent a whit the english poets just in the nick the cook knocked thrice and all the in a his summons did obey each serving man with dish in hand marched boldly up like our trained band presented and away when all the meat was on the table what man of knife or teeth was able to stay to be and this the very reason was before the parson could say grace the company was seated the business of the kitchen s great for it is fit that men should eat nor was it there denied passion o me how i run on i there s that that would be thought upon i besides the bride now hats fly off and youths first go round and then the house the bride s came thick and thick and when twas d another s health perhaps he made it hers by and who could help it dick on the sudden up they rise and dance then sit again and sigh and glance then dance again and kiss thus several ways the time did pass whilst ev ry woman wished her place and every man wished his john truth in love of thee kind boy i ask no red and white to make up my delight no odd becoming graces black eyes or little know not in faces make me but mad enough give me good store of love for her i court i ask no more love in love that makes the sport there s no such thing as that we beauty call it is mere all for though some long ago liked certain colours mingled so and so that doth not tie me now from choosing new if i a fancy take to black and blue that fancy doth it beauty make not the meat but tis the appetite makes eating a delight and if i like one dish more than another that a is what in our watches that in us is found so to the height and nick we up be wound no matter by what hand or trick the dance love reason hate did once three mates to play at break love folly took and reason fancy and hate with pride so dance they love coupled last and so it fell that love and folly were in hell vol ii n english ts they break and love would reason meet but hate was on her feet fancy looks for pride and thither and they two together yet this new still doth tell that love and folly were in hell the rest do break again and pride hath now got reason on her side hate and fancy meet and stand untouched by love in folly s hand folly was dull but love ran well so love and folly were in hell song in why so pale and wan fond lover why so pale will when looking well can t move her looking ill prevail why so pale why so dull and mute young sinner why so mute will when speaking well can t win her saying nothing dot why so mute quit quit for shame this will not move this cannot take her if of herself she will not love nothing can make her the devil take s john song i send me back my heart since i cannot have thine for if from yours you will not part	45
why then thou have mine yet now i think on let it lie to find it were in vain for th hast a thief in either eye would steal it back again why should two hearts in one breast lie and yet not lodge together o love where is thy sympathy if thus our breasts thou but love is such a mystery i cannot find it out for when i think i m best d i then am in most doubt then farewell care and farewell woe i will no longer pine for believe i have her heart as much as she hath mine the song in the sad one hast thou seen the down in the air when wanton have tossed it or the ship on the sea when winds have crossed it hast thou marked the s weeping or the fox s sleeping or hast viewed the in his pride or the dove by his bride when he courts for his o so o so vain o so false so false is she n l o the english poets constancy out upon it i have loved three whole days together and am like to love three more if it prove fair weather time shall away his wings ere he shall discover in the whole wide world again such a constant lover but the spite on t is no praise is due at all to me love with me had made no stays had it any been but she had it any been but she and that very face there had been at least ere this a dozen dozen in her place i richard richard was bom at in he died in powder alley near shoe lane london in april his was published in poems in he was the author of scholar a comedy written in soldier a tragedy written in but these are lost it may safely be said that of all the has been the most as has been the most neglected the reason of this is not hard to find was a poet of great art and study whose pieces reach a high but comparatively uniform standard while was an who wrote two of the best songs in the language by accident and whose other work is of much inferior quality a more poet than it would be difficult to find his verses have reached us in the condition of proofs sent out by a careless but it is plain that not to the only is due the and irregular form of the poems it did not always occur to to find a rhyme or to persist in a measure and his ear seems to have been singularly to these faults he added a radical of fancy and an excess of the tendency of all his to dwell on the surroundings of a subject rather than on the subject itself his verses on s glove must have been remarkable even in an age of the poet by calling the glove a snowy farm with five he has visited there to pay his daily to the white mistress of the farm who has gone into the meadows to gather flowers and hearts he then changes his image and calls the glove an cabinet whose lady will soon come home since any other tenant would himself by finding the rooms too narrow to contain him the poet therefore leaves his rent kisses at the door observing with another change of the english poets figure that though the is too high for him yet like a servant he is allowed to fiddle with the case such as these were brought into fashion by the genius of and continued in long enough to betray the youth of in we find the fashion in its most extravagance yet there are high qualities in the verses of though he rarely allows us to see them his language has an heroic ring about it he fine and gallant phrases two at least of which have secured the popular ear and become part of our common speech going to the wars his best poem contains no line or part of a line that could by any possibility be improved to is less perfect but belongs to a higher order of poetry the first and fourth of this exquisite would do honour to the most illustrious name and form one of the treasures of our literature it is surprising that a poet so obscure could for once be so and that the of could contrive to be so tenderly sincere the romantic circumstances under which wrote these lines have given to them a popular charm the imprisonment under which he was suffering was brought upon him in the unselfish performance of duty he had been chosen by the whole body of the county of to deliver the petition to the house of the result was doubtless what he expected the petition being burned by the common and he himself on the th of april thrown into the prison the romantic career of must be taken into consideration when we blame the defects of his poems he was bom to wealth and station he was generously educated and he became a favourite with the royal family while he was but a youth during the brief period of his prosperity he lived the life of a spoiled child he was the man of his generation he was addressed under the name of and he spent his time in reading greek poetry in playing and singing and in of arms his manners were we are told graceful yet bom into that iron age his career closed in the most tragic way it being reported that he was killed his married another man and after wasting all his substance in the of despair this darling of the graces died in extreme want and in a cellar a life of only it is curious however that the beautiful figure of	45
the first is to be found in to roses in the bosom of see p richard forty years spent in such gave little opportunity for that retirement from the world which and art require his hasty verses were thrown off at a heat and the genius in them is often rather a spark than a steady flame in the curious verses entitled the of which we shall presently quote all that is intelligible we seem to possess an instance of his hurried and mode of composition he by addressing the in lines of unusual dignity and but he presently forgets this and without any sign of transition thou best of men and friends this time plainly addressing the friend charles cotton to whom the was sent it is difficult to believe that he ever himself read over his lines for it could not fail to occur to him had he done so that the same object could not be spoken to as poor fool and as thou best of men and friends but when we consider with what the poets of the century composed and then neglected their the surprising thing is not that these have reached us in so and a form but that they have reached us at all w the english poets going to the wars tell me not sweet i am that from the of thy breast and quiet mind to war and arms i fly true a new mistress now i chase the first foe in the field and with a stronger faith embrace a sword a horse a shield yet this is such as you too shall i could not love thee dear so much loved i not honour more the rose sweet serene sky like flower haste to adorn her bower from thy long cloudy bed shoot forth thy head new startled blush of the grief of pale who will contest no more haste haste to her floor i ball that s given from lip to lip in heaven love s couch s haste haste to make her bed dear offspring of pleased and jolly plump haste haste to deck the hair o the only sweetly fair i see rosy is her bower her floor is all this flower her bed a rosy nest by a bed of roses pressed richard to from prison when love with wings within my gates and my divine brings to whisper at the when i lie tangled in her hair and to her eye the birds that wanton in the air know no such liberty when flowing cups run swiftly round with no thames our careless heads with roses bound our hearts with loyal flames when thirsty grief in wine we steep when and draughts go free fishes that in the deep know no such liberty when like committed i with throat shall sing the sweetness mercy majesty and glories of my king when i shall voice aloud how good he is how great should be enlarged winds that curl the flood know no such liberty stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage minds innocent and quiet take that for an if i have freedom in my love and in my soul am free angels alone that above enjoy such liberty l the poets the to mr charles cotton oh thou that upon the waving ear of some well filled beard drunk every night with a delicious tear thee from heaven where thou reared the joys of earth and air are thine entire that with thy feet and wings dost hop and fly and when thy works thou dost retire to thy carved bed to lie up with the day the sun thou then sport st in the gilt of his beams and all these merry days st merry men and melancholy streams but ah the golden ears are and bid good night sharp frosty fingers all your flowers have and what spared winds off quite thou best of men and friends we will create a genuine in each other s breast and spite of this cold time and frozen fate us a warm seat for our rest our sacred shall bum as flames the north wind he shall strike his frost stretched wings and fly this i in night as clear shall our whip from the light where we play and the dark from her black mantle strip and stick there everlasting day thus richer than kings are we that asking nothing nothing need though lord of all that seas embrace yet he that wants himself is poor indeed richard to frown and let me die but smile and see i live the sad indifference of your eye both and doth you hide our fate within its screen we feel our judgment e er we hear so in one picture i have seen an angel here the devil there lord of edward lord of elder brother of the poet george was born in and closed a life full of incident and interest in queen street london august ao the world has long done justice to lord s famous de to his admirable life of henry viii to his singularly interesting but no one has yet been found to his claim to a place among english poets his poems first appeared in a little volume which was published in nearly eighteen years after his death and as we gather from the preface were collected by henry uncle to the second lord of to whom they are they consist of and in various measures is like his more distinguished brother a of the school though his poems unlike those of george are not of a religious character with much of that extravagance which the poetry of his lord has in a large measure grace sweetness and originality he never vigour and freshness his place is with all his faults beside and his is indeed as a rule far superior to theirs	45
and example but though was the of that literature of which travelled over europe his poem on the of the is continually surpassed by who always the english poets a fancy when is content for a moment to be plain here are one or two specimens from those collected by and he saw n blossom with a new bom light on which as on a glorious stranger gazed the golden eyes of night literally in he sees also shining from heaven with ray the wondrous star when rises the fields fair eyes saw her and said no more but shut their for ever in the flowers all round and the appears to feel the strength of the plague the anger of winter such does not tax invention one can put eyes everywhere and turn eyes into everything we have only to turn to the a poem upon st mary which pope read with interest the saint s eyes are heavens of ever falling stars again again angels with crystal come and draw from those eyes of their master s water their own wine when sorrow would be seen la her brightest majesty for she is a queen then is she by none but thee then and only then she wears her pearls i mean thy tears i in the next we get something better nowhere but here did ever meet sweetness so sad sadness so sweet gladness itself would be more glad j to be made so sweetly sad i even meant these for but he likes to linger he the rd into three dozen the is very far from being the of j crash aw hymns but there is an in s own title for his a on the devout plain song of the church as though he were a performing variations upon a classical air he at ease in his rooms at then the college of cambridge like he was a piece of a but he did not go to court to seek his fortune he found nothing there but materials for a sketch of the supposed mistress who never disturbed his pious of the three he is the only one who seems to have known no inward struggles he passes from to as pass from one chapel to another in the church of the holy there is no substantial difference between the tone of the poem to st written before his change of profession and the two which he wrote after if anything the earlier poem is more serious and the wonderful close of the poem on the flaming heart is more wonderful because it comes an and prolonged conceit to the effect that the saint s heart would not be by the arrow of the but was fit to that and all creatures beside only began to be a poet when s career was over and he did not continue to be a poet to any purpose long every thing he wrote before or after the two parts of might be spared he is a mystic as is an and a s temptation is the world s temptation is the flesh the special service that does him is to lift his mind from profane love to sacred he is quite pathetic in the preface to about his early loose love poetry he suppressed the worst of it and his reader to leave the sufficiently harmless collection which escaped him when he was seven and twenty years older he would not have thought wiser he collected some more of his love verses equally innocent and rather insignificant and are less interesting than and and perhaps s name that she was good to love for a year and no longer the long interval of twenty two years between the second part of and is filled mainly by little of works of and a few original prayers the prayers are rather too like sermons and the title that his heart was a stone from which sparks might be struck now and then he is as full as of the of his own feelings and as ready to interpret any failure of power as a judgment as ready too to lecture upon his spiritual the english poets experience for the instruction of his reader in both the lesson is the same that external disappointments are good for the inner life for too against his circumstances after oxford and a holiday in london it was dull to settle down at the world had not so much to him as to but it performed even less the reminds us of the collar as rules and remind us of the church porch the tempest providence and in sundays the coincidence is even closer again the queer as we should now say the riddle is obviously suggested by the even the complaint that men themselves with a or glove is borrowed from who knew the world better than and gives pointed counsel and criticism where va at the poverty of poets weight of a cloak on the other hand he knows nature much better has no feeling for anything but the sweetness of flowers and sunshine feels the awe of the freshness of morning among the mountains it is in morning walks that he meets god early rising is the one original recommendation in rules and the and insight of childhood are more to him than even to many religious writers speak of this life as an exile carries the through we are not only from the home we seek but from the home we have left he even the stars may have something to do with the misfortune of birth into a world of time and sense his twin brother thomas studied not as a means to the of but as a key to the hidden unity of nature in his own henry uses quite as familiarly as his prose is rich and musical his few latin poems mostly insignificant more	45
thy ancient which when i was foul and knew it not yet me english poets i took a time when thou sleep great waves of trouble my breast i thought it brave to praise thee then yet then i found that thou creep into my heart with joy giving more rest than flesh did lend thee back again let me but once the conquest have upon the matter thy conquest prove if thou subdue thou dost no more than doth the grave whereas if i overcome thee and thy love hell death and devil come short of me the when god at first made man having a glass of blessing standing by let us said he pour on him all we can let the world s riches which dispersed lie contract into a span so strength first made a way then beauty flowed then wisdom honour pleasure when almost all was out god made a stay perceiving that alone of all his treasure rest in the bottom lay for if i should said he bestow this jewel also on my creature he would my gifts instead of me and rest in nature not the god of nature so both should be yet let him keep the rest but keep them with restlessness let him be rich and weary that at least if goodness lead him not yet weariness may toss him to my breast george employment he that is weary let him sit my soul would stir and trade in and wit the fur to cold it man is no star but a quick coal of mortal fire who blows it not nor doth control a faint desire lets his own ashes choke his soul oh that i were an orange tree that busy plant then should i ever laden be and never want some fruit for him that dressed me but we are still too young or old the man is gone before we do our wares so we on until the grave increase our cold the world love built a stately house where fortune came and spinning fancies she was heard to say that her fine did support the frame whereas they were supported by the same but wisdom quickly swept them all away then pleasure came who liking not the fashion began to make till she had weakened all by alteration but rev laws and many a all at length with the english poets then enter d sin and with that whose leaves first sheltered man from and d w working and winding the inward walls and and tore but grace d these and cut that as it grew then sin d with death in a firm band to the building to the very floor which they effected none could them withstand but love took grace and glory by the hand and built a palace than before wishes to his supposed mistress er she be that not impossible she that shall command my heart and me where er she lie lock d up from eye in shady leaves of destiny till that ripe birth of studied fate stand forth and teach her fair steps tread our earth till that divine idea take a shrine of crystal flesh through which to shine meet you her my wishes her to my and be ye call d my absent kisses i wish her beauty that owes not all its duty to gaudy tire or shoe tie richard crash aw a face that s best by its own beauty and can alone commend the rest a cheek where youth and blood with pen of truth write what their reader sweetly ru th lips where all da a lover s kiss may play yet carry nothing thence away eyes that the neighbour diamond and out face that sunshine by their own sweet grace that wear jewels but to declare how much themselves more precious are days that need borrow no part of their good morrow from a night of sorrow life that dares send a challenge to his end and when it comes say welcome friend i wish her store of worth may leave her poor of wishes and i wish no more now if time knows that her whose radiant brows them a of my vows her that dares be what these lines wish to see i seek no further it is she o the english poets the flaming heart upon the book and picture of the saint as she is usually expressed with a beside her o thou daughter of desires by all thy of lights and fires by all the eagle in thee all the dove by all thy lives and deaths of love by thy large draughts of intellectual day and by thy of love more large than they by all thy brim of fierce desire by thy last morning s draught of liquid fire by the full kingdom of that fin kiss that d thy parting soul and seal d thee his by all the n thou hast in him fair sister of the by all of him we have in thee leave nothing of myself in me let me so read thy life that i unto all life of mine may die description of a religious house no roofs of gold o er tables shining whole days and devoured with endless dining no sails of silk proud sweeping nor ivory slumber keeping false lights of gems tumultuous joys halls full of flattering men and boys er false shows of short and slippery good mix the mad sons of men in mutual blood but walks and woods and souls just so d and genuine but not shady though our lodgings hard and homely as our fare that and cheap as the few clothes we wear richard crash a ik those coarse and as the natural locks of these loose groves rough as th t rocks a hasty portion of prescribed sleep obedient that can wake	45
and weep and sing and sigh and work and sleep again still rolling a round sphere of still returning pain hands full of hasty labours pains that pay and prize themselves do much that more they may and work for work not wages let to morrow s new drops wash off the sweat of this day s sorrows a long and daily dying life which breathes a of deaths but neither are there those that the blossom of the world s best things and lash earth souls no cruel guard of cares that keep crown d woes awake as things too wise for sleep but discipline and religious fear and soft obedience find sweet here silence and sacred rest peace and pure joys kind loves keep house lie close and make no noise and room enough for while none beyond the of the self soul sweetly her kindred with the stars not below but her immortal way home to the original source of light and intellectual day vol i io the english poets the retreat happy those early days when i d in my angel infancy before i understood this place appointed for my second race or taught my soul to fancy ought but a white celestial thought when yet i had not walk d above a mile or two from my first love and looking back at that short space could see a glimpse of his bright face when on some gilded cloud or flower my gazing soul would dwell an hour and in those weaker glories spy some shadows of eternity before i taught my tongue to wound my conscience with a sinful sound or had the black art to dispense a several sin to ev ry sense but felt through all this dress bright shoots of o how i long to travel back and tread again that ancient track that i might once more reach that plain where first i left my glorious train from whence th enlightened spirit sees that shady city of palm trees but ah my soul with too much stay is drunk and in the way some men a forward motion love but i by backward steps will move and when this dust falls to the urn in that state j came return henry h the burial of an infant infant bud whose blossom life did only look about and fall wearied out in a harmless strife of tears and milk the food of all sweetly thou thy soul flew home d by his new kin for ere thou knew st how to be foul death d thee from the world and sin softly rest all thy virgin in the sweets of thy young breath expecting till thy comes to dress them and death i the world i saw eternity the other night like a great ring of pure and endless light all calm as it was bright and round beneath it time in hours days years n by the like a vast shadow d in which the world and all her train were the lover in his strain did there complain near him his his fancy and his sour delights with gloves and knots the silly of pleasure yet his dear treasure all scatter d lay while he his eyes did pour upon a flower p the english poets the hung with and woe like a thick midnight fog d there so slow he did not stay nor go thoughts like sad upon his soul and clouds of crying witnesses without pursued him with one shout yet d the and lest his ways be found worked under ground where he did clutch his prey but one did see that policy churches and fed him were and flies it rain d about him blood and but he drank them as free the fearful on a heap of all his life there did scarce trust his own hands with the dust yet would not place one piece alone but lives in fear of thieves thousands there were as frantic as himself and d each one his the downright d n in sense and d pretence while others into a wide excess said little less the weaker sort slight trivial wares who think them brave and poor despised truth counting by their victory yet some who all this while did weep and sing and sing and weep d up into the ring but most would use no wing o fools said i thus to prefer dark night before true light henry to live m and and hate the day because it the way the way which from this dead and dark abode leads up to god a way where you might tread the sun and be more bright than he but as i did their madness so discuss one whisper d thus this ring the bridegroom did for none provide but for his bride beyond the they are all gone into the world of light i and i alone sit lingering here their very memory is fair and bright and my sad thoughts doth clear it and in my cloudy breast like stars upon some gloomy grove or those faint beams in which this hill is after the sun s remove i see them walking in an air of glory whose light doth on my days my days which are at best but dull and mere glimmering and o holy hope and high humility high as the heavens above these are your walks and you have d them me to my cold love dear death the jewel of the just shining no where but in the dark what mysteries do lie beyond thy dust could man outlook that mark the english poets he that hath found some d birds nest may know at first sight if the bird be flown but what fair well or grove he sings in now that is to him unknown and yet as angels in some	45
was printed in a the remainder of his works appeared in it seems probable that in the premature death of english literature a very heavy loss he died unexpectedly when he was only twenty nine leaving behind him a mass of writing at once very imperfect and very promising the patronage of ben it would seem rather than any very special bias to the stage led him to undertake dramatic composition and though he left six plays behind him it is by no means certain that he would have ended as a his knowledge of stage is very small indeed it would be impossible to revive any of his pieces on the modem boards on account of the essential of the movement the length of the and the of the plot his three best are by a vigorous and of language and by frequent passages of admirable quality but they are hardly plays at all in the ordinary sense his piece looking glass is a moral essay in a series of happily set in a of comedy the jealous lovers is full indeed of ridiculous and brisk humorous but it has no of plot while is a beautiful holiday dream and picturesque and ringing with of laughter but not a play that any mortal company of actors could intellect and imagination possessed in full measure but as he does not seem to have been bom to in play writing or in song writing and as he died too early to set his own mark on literature we are left to down what such brilliant and energetic g as his would finally have the english poets proceeded had he lived longer his massive intelligence might have made him a dangerous rival or a master to and as he shows no inclination towards the french manner of poetry he might have delayed or altogether off the of the classical taste he showed no of genius he was gradually gathering his singing robes about him having already studied much yet having still much to learn there is no poet whose works so tempt the critic to ask what was the next step in his development he died just too soon to impress his name on history besides his composed a considerable number of and occasional poems of these the beautiful te master to hasten him into the country s the best in this he is more free and graceful in his than usual he was a deep student of the roman poets and most of his non dramatic pieces are exercises performed in a hard though stately style after martial and it cannot be said that these have much charm except to the student of poetry who with interest the zeal and energy with which prepared himself for triumphs which were never to be achieved in pastoral poetry he had attained more ease than in any other and some of his are performed the glowing verses entitled a courtship remind the reader of the twenty seventh of on which they were probably the which originally appeared in a very curious book entitled is one of the best which we possess in english but in the fragments of the work of the critic is ever confronted by the of his growing talent the of what exists to account for the personal weight that carried in his lifetime and for the intense regret felt at his early death had he lived he might have over with a strong popular poetry the abyss between the old romantic and the new school for he had a little of the spirit of each as it is he holds a better place in english literature than or gray or would have held had they died before they were thirty w thomas to master come spur away i have no patience for a longer stay but must go down and leave the noise of this great town i will the country see where old simplicity though hid in grey doth look more gay than in and scarlet clad farewell you city wits that are almost at civil war tis time that i grow wise when all the world grows mad more of my days i will not spend to gain an idiot s praise or to make sport for some slight of the of court then worthy say how shall we spend the day with what delights the nights when from this tumult we are got secure where mirth with all her freedom goes yet shall no finger lose where every word is thought and every thought is pure there from the tree well pluck and pick the and every day go see the wholesome country girls make hay whose brown hath grate than any painted face that i do know park can show where i had rather gain a kiss than meet though some of them in greater state might court my love with plate the beauties of the cheap and iv of street the poets but think upon some other pleasures these to me are none why did i of women that are things against my fate i never mean to wed that torture to my bed my muse is she my love shall be let get wealth and when i am gone and the great death shall take this idle breath if i a poem leave that poem is my son of this no more well rather taste the bright s store no fruit shall our from the to the then well seek a shade and hear what music s made how her tale doth tell and how the other birds do fill the the and lend their throats melodious notes we will all sports enjoy which others but desire ours is the sky what fowl we please our hawk shall fly nor will we spare to hunt the fox or hare but let our hounds run loose in any ground they ll choose the buck shall	45
fall the and all our pleasures must from their own for to my muse if not to me tm sure all game is free heaven earth all are but parts of her great thomas and when we mean to taste of blessings now and then and drink by a cup or two to noble s healthy i take my pipe and try the melody which he that hears lets through his ears a madness to all the then i another pipe will take and music make to with graver notes our wits again from the early in may up got the jolly call d by the lark and spread the fields about one for to breathe himself would be from this same to yonder a second leap d his to try a third was his melody this a new was footing others were busied at or to throw the bar ambitious which should bear the bell away and kiss the nut brown lady of the may this d em up a jolly was he whom and after victory crown d with a they had made beset with and many a violet and rewards though small encourage virtue but if none at all meet her she and dies as now where worth s d the honour of a bough and this the cause i read to be of such a dull and general the that did their mirth i wolves haunt his flocks that took those sports away the poets some melancholy about have gone to teach all zeal their own complexion they will admit sometimes i see but and sanguine no be these teach that dancing is a and break the ready way to hell the can be but profane relics of a these in a zeal t express how much they do the organs hate have d too and harmless all are rail d upon as if they were the towers f some think not fit there should be any sport r th country tis a dish proper to th court mirth not becomes em let the eat beef and bacon and go sweat again besides what sport can in the be when all is but ridiculous a pastoral courtship behold these woods and mark my sweet how all the boughs together meet the his fair arms and branches with the the lofty pine to descend and sturdy oaks do gently bend one with another into one loom their various leaves as all ambitious were to be mine and my let s enter and discourse our loves these are my dear no tell tale groves i there dwell no nor there to again the words they hear nor echo that will tell the neighbouring hills one syllable i thomas now let me sit and fix mine eyes on thee that art my paradise thou art my all my spring remains in the fair of thy veins and that you are my summer s day ripe in thy lips display and when for autumn i would seek tis in the apples of thy cheek but that which only moves my smart is to see winter in thy heart strange when at once in one appear all the four seasons of the year clasp that neck where should be set a rich and but are poor admit of then more natural chains the arms of men to ben i was not bom to nor dare presume to think myself a muse s heir i have no title to hill nor any acre of it by the will of a dead nor could i be ought but a tenant unto poetry but thy me of all fear and makes me challenge a child s portion there i am akin to heroes being thine and part of my alliance is divine too beside thy brothers by the roman mother s side as and the latin that is so like thee the whole of poets are by thy all my thou hast given me power to call himself my by this grant each sister of the nine is made my aunt vol ii q the poets go you that reckon from a large descent your honours and are well content to glory in the age of your great name though on a herald s faith you build the same i do not envy you nor think you though you may bear a on your crest by direct line from i will boast no further than my father that s the most i can or should be proud of and i were unworthy his if that here i should be modest william born according to one authority at in august i th according to another at in in september from he chiefly resided at oxford where he died of the camp disease november th his plays and poems were collected and published in whom his and literary regarded as a phenomenon is to us chiefly interesting as a type if it be to regard as extravagant the tendencies represented by him in both his life and his poetry he may justly be remembered by a sufficiently prominent title among english poets that of the extravagant oxford resident of his period he was a most enthusiastic in the most city and community of the kingdom and in a sense he died a martyr to his political sentiment in an age of and this was attached to the youthful of cathedral and junior of the university it is therefore but natural that among the poets of an age given to s efforts in this direction should have remained his muse devoted herself with that which has often our old to singing the praises of the king the queen their fourth child their sixth child and all the royal family as occasion might demand invite or suggest when our happy charles recovered from the terrible of his times in the first of the poems given here	45
was at hand with an exercise of flattery which in its central conceit was afterwards but hardly equalled by the youthful other events belonging to the sphere of the court prompted longer and strains returns from journeys across the border or abroad marriages and above all occasions sacred to the favourite deity and indeed the q the english poets safest inspiration of poets in of these there were the deaths of and and the of promising vice to be sung or the merits of brother past or present a or a to be and there was the living father of poets ben to be by his pious son and yet ben himself among whose it was not to even friends and followers was not in error when he proclaimed of his son that he wrote all like a man though his study of and martial had failed to teach him the grace of simplicity was a sure and a ripe scholar and he moves among classical illustrations and allusions with an almost alarming ease his fetched from far and near and one another in their mark him out as a genuine member of the fantastic school of poets in his lines to tke memory of ben he his fellow who into one piece do throw all that they can say and their friends too themselves for one term s noise so as if they made their wills in poetry among non dramatic poets at all events is as amen able to this very charge of too visible effort as any other member of the school to which he belongs of the higher imaginative power and grace to be found in some of the members of that school has but few traces but he possessed a real and an extraordinary felicity of expression these gifts he was able to display on occasions of the most opposite and character great and small public and private from the occurrence of an frost to the publication of a on the art of yet even with a poet of the fantastic school the relations between his theme and his own tastes and sentiments are of the highest importance in ingenuity can hardly be said to have elsewhere surpassed the longest of the three following pieces congenial to himself in its subject though singular in treatment for it may safely be asserted that this poem its object of being altogether unique without being altogether on the other hand there could be no more common theme for verse than a premature death but the lines on an occasion of the kind here are out of the common william i ii m ml i i though by no means whether had lived beyond early manhood he would have fulfilled or exceeded the promise of his youth it is useless to he was more successful as a writer of occasional and than as a perhaps the seriousness of the epoch at the opening of which he died might have turned his efforts to religious poetry in which the fantastic school of english poetry achieved its noblest results and to which this preacher s and poet s mind must have had a natural bias what he actually accomplished in this direction was but little though not altogether unworthy of being associated with the music of milton s friend and favourite a w ward the english poets on his majesty s recovery from the small i do confess the over forward tongue of public duty turns into a wrong and after ages which could ne er conceive our happy charles so frail as to receive such a disease will know it by the noise which we have made in shouting forth our joys and our informing duty only be a well meant spite or loyal injury let then the name be alter d let us say they were small stars fix d in a way or faithful which heaven sent for a discovery not a punishment to show the ill not make it and to tell by their pale looks the bearer was not well let the disease forgotten be but may the joy return us yearly as the day let there be new let reckoning be solemnly made from his recovery let not the kingdom s acts hereafter run from his though happy but from his health as in a better strain that d him on his throne this makes him reign william a new year s gift to lord bishop of upon the s entering into holy orders now that the village reverence doth lie hid as egypt s wisdom did in birds and beasts and that the tenant s soul goes with his new year s fowl so that the cock and hen speak more now than in heretofore and that the feather d things truly make love have wings though we no flying present have to pay a yet snatch d from thence may sign the day but being the bars me wit and wine the true vine being the must yield unto the cross and all be now one loss so that my are to steal and knit themselves in one pure zeal and that my each day s breath must be a daily death without all strain or fury i must than tell you this new year brings you a new man new not as th year to run the same course o er which it hath run before lest in the man himself there be a round as in his humour s found and that return seem to make good of actions as of blood motion as in a mill is busy standing still and by such we but thus prevail to make the serpent swallow his own tail then moisture i e the blood the poets nor new by toys and with less noise taking the flag and trumpet from the sin so to offend within as some men silence	45
loud and draw them into shorter rooms this will be understood more wary not more good sins too may be severe and so no doubt the vice but only sour d not rooted out but new by th using of each part aright changing both step and sight that false direction come not from the eye nor the foot tread that neither thai the way which doth toward fame or profit nor tread that path which is not the right but rich that thus the foot being fix d thus led the pitch my walk low but my prospect high new too to teach opinions not t submit to favour or to wit nor yet to walk on edges where they may run safe in broader way nor to search out for new paths where nor tracks nor footsteps do appear knowing that are ways where no impression stays nor thus nor curious may i then approve my faith to heaven my life to men so as to william but i who thus present myself as new am thus made new by you had not your rays dwelt on me one long night had shut me up from sight your beams me from among things tumbling in the common throng who thus with your fire now gives not but returns to others then be this a day of they do receive but you sir make the gift on a virtuous young that died suddenly when the old flaming prophet climb d the sky who at one glimpse did vanish and not die he made more preface to a death than this so far from sick she did not breathe amiss she who to heaven more heaven doth whose lowest thought was above all our sex accounted nothing death but t be and died as free from sickness as she d others are d away or must be driven she only saw her time and d to heaven where view all her glories o er as one d that had been there before for while she did this lower world adorn her body seem d rather d than bom so advanced so pure and whole that body might have been another s soul and equally a miracle it were that she could die or that she could live here was the son of a london and was born in the latter part of the year he was educated at westminster school and college cambridge where he remained from to he took the side during the civil war and helped the king s cause both at oxford and afterwards as secretary to the queen in her exile in paris in he returned to england where he remained under strict till s death then he rejoined his friends in france at the restoration he came back and lived in retirement at and till his death in his poems were in the following order poetical lovers riddle a comedy the mistress the guardian published the first edition of the works other of the same followed with the addition of such new poems and essays as he produced from time to time the most complete of his works are those which appeared in and the history of s reputation offers an easy text for a discourse on the variations of the standard of taste a marvel of widely known as a poet at fifteen the poetical wonder of cambridge so famous at thirty that and made free with his name on their title pages while he was serving the queen issuing in self defence at thirty eight a of his poems which was destined to pass through eight in a generation accepted by his literary men of cultivated intelligence as not only the greatest among themselves but greater than all that had gone before buried in state at westminster by the side of and and by his a sober critic as equal not only to them but to the authors of that true antiquity the best of the and in thirty years he had sunk out of notice and his name had become a mere memory mentioned but no more though co y he must always be thought a great poet he is no longer esteemed a good writer said in a praised him with even more two of his works appeared early in the century but in pope was able to ask who now reads then followed johnson s celebrated life which has for almost every one the works of its subject except for a few students like lamb and sir s verse is in this century and not even the curiosity of an age which and has yet availed to present him in a new edition the reasons of this extraordinary decline in a poetical reputation are not difficult to find absorbed all that was best in and him for the readers of the century and the nineteenth century which reads little naturally reads less yet criticism has to justify great names there must be something in a man who was regarded by his age and that an age which boasted of having all illusions as the most profound and ingenious of its writers a rapid review of s work will help us to judge between the estimate of his time and the estimate of posterity with the volume of poetical which he published at fifteen when he was a at westminster we are not further concerned than to note its vast superiority to the verses of most clever boys if like had died before manhood these verses might perhaps have kept his name alive but as it is he soon them and in his mature writings he valued them justly as extravagance in a boy but declined to give them a place in the permanent collection of his poems some from the wish he quoting them in his pleasant essay of myself verses oi which i should hardly now be ashamed	45
he wrote them at thirteen he says and our may fairly begin with them but in the main we shall be right in ourselves to the mature poems of the of with the additions that were made to it during his lifetime he meant it to be a edition of his poems he excluded much from it deliberately and he intended to add nothing to it in as he says in his most interesting preface a class of writing which he raised to a new importance in he felt in no mood for making poetry the times were against it his own health of body and mind were against it a warlike various and age is best to write of but worst to the english poets write in living as a political suspect with scanty means and no prospects he had no encouragement to write the soul must be filled with bright and delightful ideas when it to communicate delight to others which is the main end of he was seriously turning his thoughts away from england planning an obscure retreat in the american and the book was to be a to the world to which he would soon be dead as every one knows times changed and he did not go to america the restoration brought him not success indeed his failure to obtain the of the was by him but relief from all pressing necessities and a quiet home first at and then at not beyond the reach of visits from and dean and other friends in such surroundings he made his peace with the muse and wrote during the years that remained to him some of his best poems the divisions of the are i including the mistress a collection of love poems an heroic poem of the troubles of david and in the later issues verses on various occasions and several by way of essays in verse and prose the he tells us are poems preserved by chance from a much larger number some of them the works of his early youth and some like the celebrated on belonging to his best years what we notice in these pages as in all that published is his curious inability to distinguish good from bad he prints rubbish like the intolerable here s to thee dick side by side with the touching verses on the death of his friend mr william he poem after poem with some absurdity or comparison drawn from a science that has nothing to do with poetry the fine lines on for example that we should prize if only as a memorial of the friendship between two such interesting men these lines are ruined speaking by s science is gone on the expedition against the and the poet addresses the north great is thy charge o north be wise and just england her to thy trust return him safe learning would rather choose her or her to lose all things that are but writ or printed there in his unbounded breast are so r the conceit may pass but what are we to say of the tions by which would show us the order that in the crowded mind of his hero so thousand divers species fill the air yet neither crowd nor mix there what are we to say of the political image under which with humour he to complain of s too great learning how could he answer t if the state saw fit to question a of f it is a painful but inevitable thought that was better pleased with his species and his than with the noble lines which follow lines whose force dignity and have hardly been surpassed by himself such is the man whom we require the same we lent the north untouched as is his fame he is too good for war and ought to be as far from danger as from fear he s free those men alone and they are useful too whose is the only art they know were for sad war and bloody battles bom let them the state defend and he adorn the mistress which had been printed in is a collection of about a hundred love poems explained by the author in the preface to the as being mere feigned addresses to some fair creature of the fancy so it is that poets are scarce thought of the company without paying some duties and obliging themselves to be true to love the apology even if true was hardly required even by for with two or three exceptions the poems are as cold as icy can make them johnson s characteristic judgment is hardly too severe the are such as might have been written for penance by a or for hire by a philosophical who had only heard of another sex it is as though in the course of a hundred years the worst fancies which had borrowed from had become and were yet brought out by to do duty for living thoughts what is love he seems to ask it is an of hearts a flame a worship a river to be frozen by disdain he has a hundred such physical and images of it and the poetry consists in taking the images one by one and developing them in merciless disregard of taste and truth of feeling is love the english poets fire we may give two or three of his illustrations even after s page long summary another from my mistress door saw me with eyes all watery come nor could the hidden cause explore but thought some smoke was in the room such ignorance from came he knew tears made by smoke but not by flame the lover writes his love letters in that the fire of his mistress eyes may bring the letters to light at another time he pictures his heart as not	45
only but woe to her stubborn heart if once mine come into the room tear and blow up all within like a shot into a magazine at another the story of his love cut in the bark has burnt and withered up the tree again if love is worship his mistress who has proved is like the of old who against light so the vain when they left t one deity could not stop at thousands more ah fair could st thou think to flee from truth and goodness yet keep unity or again is his mistress dressed out for conquest then her beauty which had been a civil government before becomes a tyranny but we have said enough the mistress s most elaborate and sustained effort is clearly a failure nothing of what we require of love poetry is there neither grace nor glow nor tenderness nor the passion is neither deeply felt nor lightly uttered we cannot judge so simply the a form of composition of which was the and which found universal favour in england down to the time of gray he was well aware that in writing in this way which he thought to be an imitation of he was making a questionable i am in great doubt he says whether they will be understood by most readers nay even by very many who are well enough acquainted with the common roads and ordinary tracks of the are many and sudden and sometimes long according to the fashion of all and of above all men living the figures are unusual and bold even to and co k such as i not have to do withal in any other kind of poetry the numbers are various and irregular and sometimes especially some of the long ones seem harsh and uncouth if the just measures and be not observed in the so that almost all their sweetness and which is to be found if i mistake not in the if rightly repeated lies in a manner wholly at the of the reader for himself however he had no doubts about the value of the new style of poetry nay he found a pleasure in comparing the of the with the moral liberty of which he was always a if life should a well ordered poem be in which he only the white who true profit with the best delight the more heroic way let others take mine the way til make the matter shall be grave the numbers loose and free but the was a very imperfect one with him for while the moral liberty which he enjoyed led him to a life of great simplicity and charm his liberty of verse led him too often into mere intellectual and display that for which i think this of number is chiefly to be preferred says dr with great is its with prose and that no doubt was the reason which induced the and the samuel of the next generation to choose that mode of dress for their but with the of the seems to have been the wealth of opportunity which it afforded for what he called bold figures that is for such as could and would have occurred to no one else than to himself only and he only in an could have paused in the midst of a solemn address to the muse and her rein her closely in for an and a hard mouthed horse only and he only in an could have set the same muse in her chariot with eloquence and wit and memory and invention in the traces and the airy of to run by her side and then have suddenly turned to compare this muse with the creator where never yet did the busy morning s curious eye the wheels of thy bold coach pass quick and free and all s an open road to thee the english poets whatever god did say is all thy plain and smooth way nay even beyond his works thy voyages are known st thousand worlds too of thine own thou speak st great queen in the same style as he and a new world leaps forth when thou say st let it be the very apparatus of notes with which it was to issue the enlarged the poet s opportunities in the praise of for example we so does new words and figures roll his impetuous tide which in no channel to abide which neither banks nor control on which the note is banks natural artificial it will neither be bounded nor by nature nor by art with such a means of interpretation at hand what limit need the poet set on his invention and yet when the subject is one that interests him has something to say that we should not wish or said differently counts for something after all in the treatment of such as the future of knowledge or the fate of a hero and a cause the two which we have chosen for quotation that to mr and that called are rightly and are therefore successful like the other leading spirits of his age looked across the passing troubles of the day to the new world to which bacon had pointed and which bacon s followers were hastening to occupy and of this feeling the to mr is the best expression again the dominant fact in contemporary history the were published in was the success of the new conscientious like such at least as were men of contemplation not of action threw themselves back on history and philosophy and if they could not explain the evil they it with other evils from which good had seemed to flow the of caesar the of his country s murder is himself slain but what then virtue is for all that not an idol or a name hold noble and restrain the	45
bold voice of thy generous disdain these mighty are yet too deep for all thy judgment and thy wit the two are brilliant examples of what could do when he left what he was expected to feel for what he really felt about the the of whose twelve books fortunately only four came to the birth perhaps the less said the better we do not altogether wish it away on account of the vigorous pages which it inspired in the preface the pages which contain s eloquent and almost plea for sacred poetry it is not without grief and indignation that i behold that divine science all her inexhaustible riches of wit and eloquence either in the wicked and flattery of great persons or the of foolish women or the wretched affectation of laughter or at best on the confused dreams of senseless and amongst all holy and consecrated things which the devil ever stole and from the service of the deity as temples sacrifices prayers and the like there is none that he so universally and so long as poetry it is time to recover it out of the tyrant s hands and to restore it to the kingdom of god who is the father of it it is time to it in for it will never become dean by bathing in the water of but if we ask how his aspirations how he succeeded in rather than divinity the answer must be the is a school exercise no it is at least no injustice to take as a specimen the most famous of the descriptive passages the picture of hell beneath the silent chambers of the earth where the sun s fruitful beams give birth where he the growth of fatal gold doth see gold which above more influence has than he beneath the where and infant winds their tender voices try beneath the mighty ocean s wealthy beneath th eternal fountain of all waves where their vast court the mother waters keep and undisturbed by in silence sleep there is a place deep wondrous deep below which genuine night and horror does no bound th space but hell endless as those dire pains that in it dwell here no dear glimpse of the sun s lovely face strikes through the solid darkness of the vol ij r the english poets no dawning mom does her kind display one slight weak would here be thought the day no gentle stars with their fair gems of light offend the and night here the mighty captive proud midst his woes and tyrant in his chains we are driven in sheer despair to milton he views the dismal situation waste and wild a horrible on all sides round as one great furnace yet from those flames no light but rather darkness visible served only to discover sights of woe regions of sorrow shades here are two nearly contemporary pictures the one full of gloom terror all coming directly from milton s simple handling of simple elements fire and darkness these are the physical materials of his hell and they are left to produce effect upon the reader by their own intensity and while the spiritual side of hell is presented in that ceaseless note of woe regions of sorrow shades in milton in effect we have that union of simplicity with greatness that marks the true but s hell is shown to us as lying piled with imaginary lumber under the where are bred under the nests of the crying under the court of the waters he cannot take us to it except through a of details on each of which he would dwell for a moment losing sight of the end infant winds tender voices the vast court of the mother waters the influence of gold the cause of tides and what have these to do with hell that is with the deepest conception of dread and darkness which the mind can form but it is a consolation to be able to believe that was dissatisfied with the and that in his maturity he regarded it as merely indicating to others the poetical of the bible history i shall be ambitious of no other fruit from this weak and imperfect attempt of mine he says at the end of the preface but the opening of a way to the courage and industry of some other persons who may be better able to perform it and successfully eleven years after these words were written appeared paradise lost the subsequent of the contain other writings both verse and prose that published in his later years and some of the verse we give in our there are no general features however by which we can distinguish these poems from the rest of his work sometimes as in the beautiful which we quote from the hymn to lights or in the verses which close the essay on solitude or in the on the royal society he rises to his highest point sometimes as in what he wrote on the death of the and in the poem on the garden he sinks to his lowest s essay and johnson s life have said the last word on s mixed wit or and we need hardly dwell at any greater on what is the first most obvious and most disastrous quality of his muse he owes to it his poetical with posterity as he owed to it his first success with his and it would be as well as to fasten our attention solely upon that of his style he lived at the end of one intellectual epoch and at the beginning of another he held of both and he was by the vices of the as much as but no more than he was by the dawning of the new age what had been the extravagance of a young and imagination in and became the of ingenuity in the	45
lie alas my treasure s gone why do i stay the english poets he was my friend the truest friend on earth a strong and mighty influence join d our birth nor did we envy the most sounding name by friendship n of old to fame none but his brethren he and sisters knew whom the kind youth d to me and ev n in that we did agree for much above myself i d them too say for you saw us ye immortal lights how oft have we spent the nights till the stars so d for love wondered at us from above we spent them not in toys in or wine but search of deep philosophy wit eloquence and poetry arts which i d for they my friend were thine ye fields of cambridge our dear cambridge say have ye not seen us walking every day was there a tree about which did not know the love us two henceforth ye gentle trees for ever fade or your sad branches thicker join and into shades combine dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid henceforth no learned youths beneath you sing till all the birds t your boughs they bring no birds play with their cheer and call the learned youths to hear no whistling winds through the glad branches fly but all with sad solemnity mute and unmoved be mute as the grave wherein my friend does lie to him my muse made haste with every strain whilst it was new and warm yet from the brain he d my worthless and like a friend would find out something to commend hence now my muse thou not me delight be this my latest verse with which i now adorn his and this my grief without thy help shall writer had i a wreath of about my brow i should that flourishing honour now condemn it to the fire and joy to hear it rage and there instead of crown with sad me which does not d so much as i for him who first was made that mournful tree large was his soul as large a soul as e er submitted to inform a body here high as the place twas shortly in n to have but low and humble as his grave so high that all the virtues there did come as to their seat conspicuous and great so low that for me too it made a room he this busy world below and all that we mistaken mortals pleasure call was filled with innocent gallantry and truth triumphant o er the sins of youth he like the stars to which he now is gone that shine with beams like flame yet bum not with the same had all the light of youth of the fire none knowledge he only sought and so soon caught as if for him knowledge had rather sought nor did more learning ever crowded lie in such a short when e er the skilful youth or writ still did the notions throng about his eloquent tongue nor could his ink flow faster than his wit the english poets so strong a wit did nature to him frame as all things but his judgment overcame his judgment like the moon did show that mighty sea below oh had he lived in learning s world what bound would have been able to control his overpowering soul we have lost in him arts that not yet are found his mirth was the pure spirits of various wit yet never did his god or friends forget and when deep talk and wisdom came in view d and gave to them their due for the rich help of books he always took though his own searching mind before was so with notions written o er as if wise nature had made that her book so many virtues joined in him as we can scarce pick here and there in history more than old writers practice e er could reach as much as they could ever teach these did religion queen of virtues sway and all their sacred motions steer t just like the first and highest sphere which wheels about and turns all n one way with as much zeal devotion piety he always d as other saints do die still with his soul severe account he kept weeping all debts out ere he slept then down in peace and innocence he lay like the sun s laborious light which still in water sets at night with his journey of the day wondrous young man why thou made so good to be snatched hence ere better understood snatched before half of thee enough was seen i thou ripe and yet thy life but green i nor could thy friends take their last sad farewell but danger and death d on that breath where life spirit pleasure always us d to dwell but happy thou ta en from this frantic age where ignorance and does rage a time for heaven no soul ere chose the place now only free from those there the thou dost for ever shine and thou cast thy view upon that white and radiant crew see st not a soul cloth d with more light than thine and if the glorious saints cease not to know their wretched friends who fight with life below thy flame to me does still the same abide only more pure and there whilst immortal hymns thou dost thou dost with holy pity see our dull and earthly where grief and misery can be joined with verse the chronicle a ballad first if i remember well my breast first of all but when awhile the wanton maid with my restless heart had played took the flying ball soon did it resign to the gave place though loth and angry she to part with the possession of my heart to s conquering face the english poets till this	45
hour might reign had she not evil counsels ta en laws she broke and still new she chose till up in arms my passions rose and cast away her yoke mary then and gentle ann both to reign at once began alternately they sway d and sometimes mary was the fair and sometimes ann the crown did wear and sometimes both i obey d another mary then arose and did laws impose a mighty tyrant she long alas should i have been under that iron queen had not set me free when fair set me free twas then a golden time with me but soon those pleasures fled for the gracious princess died in her youth and beauty s pride and reigned in her stead one month three days and half an hour held the sovereign power wondrous beautiful her face but so weak and small her wit that she to govern was unfit and so took her place but when came arm d with a flame and th of her eye whilst she proudly marched about greater to find out she beat out by the by but in her place i then obeyed black ey d her maid to whom d a thousand worse passions then the of my breast bless me from such an i gentle then and a third mary next began then and jane and and then a pretty and then another and then a long et but should i now to you relate the strength and riches of their state the powder patches and the pins the ribbons jewels and the rings the lace the paint and warlike things that make up all their magazines if i should tell the arts to take and keep men s hearts the letters and the and smiles and the quarrels tears and nameless mysteries i and all the little lime twigs laid by the waiting maid i more should grow chiefly if i like them should tell all change of that than or but i will with them be since few of them were long with me an higher and a nobler strain my present dost claim first o the name whom god grant long to reign i english poets on the death of mil poet and saint to thee alone are given the two most sacred names of earth and the hard and union which can be next that of with humanity long did the banish d slaves abide and built vain to mortal pride like moses thou though and charms withstand hast brought them nobly home back to their holy land ah wretched we poets of earth but thou living the same poet which thou rt now whilst angels sing to thee their airs divine and joy in an applause so great as thine equal society with them to hold thou need st not make new songs but say the old and they kind spirits shall all rejoice to see how little less than they exalted man may be still the old heathen gods in numbers dwell the thing on earth still keeps up hell nor have we yet quite d the christian land still here like at stand and though pan s death long since all broke yet still in rhyme the spoke nay with the worst of heathen we vain men the monster woman find stars and tie our there in a face and paradise in them by whom we lost it place what different faults corrupt our thus wanton as girls as old wives thy muse like mary did contain the boundless she did well disdain that her eternal verse employed should be on a less subject than eternity and for a sacred d to take but her whom god himself d not his to make it in a kind her miracle did do a fruitful mother was and virgin too how well swan did fate contrive thy death and make thee render up thy breath in thy great mistress arms thou most divine and richest offering of s shrine where like some holy sacrifice t a fever thee and love lights the fire angels they say brought the chapel there and bore the sacred load in triumph through the air tis much they brought thee there and they and thou their charge went singing all the way pardon my mother church if i consent that angels led him when from thee he went for even in error sure no danger is when join d with so much piety as his ah mighty god with shame i speak t and ah that our greatest faults were in belief and our weak reason were even weaker yet rather than thus our wills too strong for it his faith perhaps in some nice might be wrong his life i m sure was in the right and i myself a catholic will be so far at least great saint to pray to thee hail bard triumphant and some care bestow on us the poets below opposed by our old enemy adverse chance attacked by envy and by ignorance d by beauty tortured by desires exposed by tyrant love to savage beasts and fires thou from low earth in nobler flames rise and like mount alive the skies like but with a wish much less more fit thy greatness and my lo here i beg i whom thou once prove so humble to esteem so good to love not that thy spirit might on me doubled be i ask but half thy mighty spirit for me and when my muse with so strong a wing learn of things divine and first of thee to sing became a roman catholic and died a of the english poets a drinking the thirsty earth up the rain and drinks and for drink again the plants in the earth and are with constant drinking fresh and fair the sea itself which one would think should have but little need of	45
drink drinks ten thousand rivers up so d that they the cup the busy sun and one would guess by its drunken fiery face no less drinks up the sea and when he s done the moon and stars drink up the sun they drink and dance by their own light they drink and all the night nothing in nature s sober found but an eternal health goes round fill up the bowl then fill it high fill all the glasses there for why should every creature drink but i why ma of morals tell me why the swallow foolish what dost thou so early at my window do with thy well t had been had made thee as dumb as there his knife had done but well in thy nest thou dost all the winter rest and o er thy joys free from the stormy season s noise free from th ill thou st done to me who or seeks out thee thou all the charming notes of the wood s poetic throats all thy art could never pay what thou st ta en from me away cruel bird thou st ta en away a dream out of my arms to day a dream that ne er must d be by all that waking eyes may see thou this damage to repair nothing half so sweet or fair nothing half so good bring though men say thou bring st the spring from th the spring though you be absent here i needs must say the trees as are and flowers as gay as ever they were wont to be nay the birds rural music too is as melodious and free as if they sung to pleasure you i saw a rose bud this mom i ll swear the blushing morning open d not more fair how could it be so fair and you away how could the trees be flowers so gay could they remember but last year how you did them they you delight the leaves which saw you here and call d their fellows to the sight would looking round for the same sight in creep back into their silent again s the english poets where er you walk d trees were as reverend made as when of old gods dwelt in every shade is t possible they should not know what loss of honour they sustain that thus they smile and flourish now and still their former pride retain dull creatures tis not without cause that she who fled the god of wit was made a tree in ancient times sure they much wiser were when they d the verse to hear in vain did nature bid them stay when had his song begun they call d their wondering roots away and bade them silent to him run how would those learned trees have followed you you would have drawn them and their poet too but who can blame them now for since you re gone they re here the only fair and shine alone you did their natural rights where ever you did walk or sit the boughs could make no shade although the sun had granted it the fairest flowers could please no more near you than painted flowers set next to could do when e er then you come hither that shall be the time which this to others is to me the little joys which here are now the name of do bear when by their sight they let us know how we d of greater are tis you the best of seasons with you bring this is for beasts and that for men the spring the wish well then i now do plainly see this busy world and i shall ne er agree the very honey of all earthly joy does of all the and they deserve my pity who for it can endure the the crowd and and of this great hive the city ah yet ere i descend to th grave may i a small house and large garden have and a few friends and many books both true both wise and both delightful too and since love ne er will from me flee a mistress fair and good as guardian angels are only d and loving me o fountains when in you shall i myself of thoughts o fields o woods when when shall i be made the happy tenant of your shade here s the spring head of pleasure s flood where all the riches lie that she has coin d and stamp d for good pride and ambition here only in far fetched appear here but winds can murmurs scatter and but echo flatter the gods when they descended hither from n did always choose their way and therefore we may boldly say that tis the way too thither s o the english poets how y here should i and one dear she live and embracing die t she who is all the world and can in deserts solitude i should have then this only fear lest men when they my pleasures see should hither throng to live like me and make a city here from to mr vast bodies of philosophy i oft have seen and read but all are bodies dead or bodies by art fashioned i never yet the living soul could see but in thy books and thee tis only god can know whether the fair idea thou dost show agree entirely with his own or no this i dare boldly tell tis so like truth serve our turn as well just as in nature thy proportions be as full of their variety as firm the parts upon their centre rest and all so solid are that they at least as much as nature long did the mighty retain the universal intellectual reign saw his own country s short lived slain the stronger roman eagle did oftener renewed his age and saw	45
that die itself in spite of possessed and d by a wild from the east his new planted in the west the empire see the on daniel ch but as in time each great imperial race and gives some new one place so did this noble empire waste sunk by degrees from glories past and in the school men s hands it perished quite at last then but words it grew and those all barbarous too it perished and it vanished there the life and soul breath d out became but empty air the fields which answer d well the plough spent and return no harvest now in barren age wild and lie and boast of past the poor relief of present poverty food and fruit we now must want unless new lands we plant we break up with hands old rubbish we remove to walk in ruins like vain ghosts we love and with fond we search among the dead for treasures buried whilst still the liberal earth does hold so many virgin mines of gold the and the and slender seem narrow to thee and only fit for the poor wretched boats of wit thy nobler vessel the vast ocean tries and nothing sees but seas and skies till unknown regions it thou great of the golden lands of new thy task was harder much than his for thy d america is not only found out first by thee and rudely left to future industry but thy eloquence and thy wit has planted peopled built and d it the english poets i little thought before nor being my own self so poor could comprehend so vast a store that all the wardrobe of rich eloquence could have afforded half enough of bright of new and lasting stuff to clothe the mighty limbs of thy gigantic sense thy solid reason like the shield from heaven to the hero given too strong to take a mark from any mortal dart yet shines with gold and gems in every part and wonders on it by the d hand of art a shield that gives delight even to the enemies sight then when they re sure to lose the combat by t nor can the snow which now cold age does shed upon thy reverend head or the noble fires within but all which thou hast been and all that youth can be thou rt yet so fully still dost thou enjoy the manhood and the bloom of wit and all the natural heat but not the fever too so on i s top here and by them breaks out fire a secure peace the faithful neighbours keep th snow next to the flame does sleep and if we weigh like thee nature and causes we shall see that thus it needs must be to things immortal time can do no wrong and that which never is to die for ever must be young excellent of all human race the best till nature was improved by grace till men above themselves faith raised more than reason above beasts before virtue was thy life s centre and from thence did silently and constantly dispense the gentle vigorous influence to all the wide and fair and all the parts upon it lean d so easily obey d the mighty force so willingly that none could discord or disorder see in all their each had his motion natural and free and the whole no more moved than the whole world could be from thy strict rule some think that thou mistaken honest men in caesar s blood what mercy could the tyrant s life deserve from him who himself rather than serve th heroic of good are so far from understood count them vice alas our sight s so ill that things which move seem to stand still we look not upon virtue in her height on her supreme idea brave and bright in the original light but as her beams reflected pass through our own nature or ill custom s glass and tis no wonder so if with dejected eye in standing pools we seek the sky that stars so high above should seem to us below the english poets can we stand by and see our mother d and bound and d be yet not to her assistance stir d with the strength and beauty of the or shall we fear to kill him if before the d name of friend he bore ungrateful do they call ungrateful caesar who could rome an act more barbarous and unnatural in th exact balance of true virtue tried than his successor s there s none but could deserve that all men else should wish to serve and caesar s place to him should none can deserve t but he who would refuse the offer fate assumed a body thee t and wrapped itself i th terrors of the night meet thee at said the meet thee there thou with such a voice and such a brow as put the trembling ghost to sudden flight it vanished as a s light goes out when spirits appear in sight one would have thought t had heard the morning crow or seen her well appointed star come marching up the eastern hill afar nor it in s field appear but unseen attacked thee there had it presumed in any shape thee to oppose thou have forced it back upon thy foes or slain t like caesar though it be a conqueror and a monarch far than he what joy can human things to us afford when we see perish thus by odd events men and wretched accidents the best cause and best man that ever drew a sword when we see the false and wild conquer thee what can we say but thine own tragic word that virtue which had worshipped been by thee as the most solid good and greatest deity by this fatal proof became	45
an idol only and a name hold noble and restrain the bold voice of thy generous disdain these mighty are yet too deep for all thy judgment and thy wit the time s set forth already which shall stiff reason when it offers to rebel which these great secrets shall and new reveal a few years more so soon thou not died would have confounded human virtue s pride and d thee a god from verses written on several from the hymn to light thou in the moon s bright chariot proud and gay dost thy bright wood of stars survey and all the year dost with thee bring of thousand flow ry lights thine own spring thou like dost round thy lands above the sun s gilt tent for ever move and still as thou in pomp dost go the shining of the world attend thy show nor amidst all these triumphs dost thou scorn the humble glow worms to adorn and with those living o greatness without pride the bushes of the field t the english poets night and her ugly subjects thou dost fright and sleep the lazy owl of night ashamed and fearful to appear they screen their horrid shapes with the black with them there and wildly takes the alarm of painted dreams a busy at the first opening of thine eye the various clusters break the fly the guilty and beasts creep conscious to their secret rests nature to thee does reverence pay and ill sights out of thy way at thy appearance grief itself is said to shake his wings and rouse his head and cloudy care has often took a gentle smile reflected from thy look at thy appearance fear itself grows bold thy sunshine away his cold d at the sight of thee to the cheek colour comes and firmness to the knee when goddess thou st up thy d head out of the morning s purple bed thy of birds about thee play and all the joyful world the rising day all the world s bravery that delights our eyes is but thy thou the rich on them thy pencil this landscape as thou a crimson garment in the rose thou wear st a crown of studded gold thou bear st the virgin lilies in their white are but with the lawn of almost naked light t j from the to the royal society from words which are but pictures of the thought though we our thoughts from them drew to things the mind s right object he it brought like foolish birds to painted grapes we flew he sought and gather d for our use the true and when on heaps the chosen lay he them wisely the way till all their did in one vessel join into a nourishment divine the thirsty soul s refreshing wine who to the life an exact piece would make must not from others work a copy take no not from or much less content himself to make it like th ideas and the images which lie in his own fancy or his memory no he before his sight must place the natural and living face the real object must each judgment of his eye and motion of his hand from these and all long errors of the way in which our wandering went and like th old many years did stray in deserts but of small extent bacon like moses led us forth at last the barren wilderness he past did on the very border stand of the d land and from the mountain s top of his exalted wit saw it himself and d us it but life did never to one man allow time to discover worlds and conquer too nor can so short a line sufficient be to the vast depths of nature s sea lord bacon the english poets the work he did we ought t admire and were unjust if we should more require from his few years divided th excess of low affliction and high happiness for who on things remote can fix his sight that s always in a triumph or a fight from the by way of essays on solitude hail old trees so great and good hail ye where the poetic birds rejoice and for their quiet nests and food pay with their grateful voice hail the poor muse s richest seat i ye country houses and retreat which all the happy gods so love that for you oft they quit their bright and great metropolis above here nature does a house for me erect nature the wisest who those fond artists does despise that can the fair and living trees neglect yet the dead timber prize here let me careless and lying hear the soft winds above me flying with all their wanton boughs dispute and the more birds to both replying nor be myself too mute a silver stream shall roll his waters near gilt with the here and there on whose bank i ll walk and see how prettily they smile and hear how prettily they talk ah wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company hell feel the weight of t many a day unless he call in sin or vanity to help to bear t away o solitude first state of human kind which remained till man did find even his own s company as soon as two alas together join d the serpent made up three the god himself through countless ages thee his sole companion chose to be thee sacred solitude alone before the head of number s tree sprang from the trunk of one thou though men think thine an part dost break and tame th heart which else would know no settled pace making it more well d by thy art with swiftness and with grace thou the faint beams of reason s scatter d light dost like a burning	45
glass unite dost the feeble heat and the strength till thou dost bright and noble fires whilst this hard truth i teach i see the monster london laugh at me i should at thee too foolish city if it were fit to laugh at misery but thy estate i pity let but thy wicked men from out thee go and all the fools that crowd thee so even thou who dost thy millions a village less than wilt grow a solitude almost was born march at in at seventeen years of age he was elected member of parliament for he married early and lost his wife soon after her death he paid court to lady daughter of the earl of he protracted his unsuccessful suit the lady under the title of until in married the earl of in he entered parliament again and made himself re by his opposition to th e king but when the civil war became imminent he took the side in he was arrested as one of the leaders of a plot against t e parliament and having with difficulty preserved his life proceeded to france on his release after some years he returned to england and made his peace with v the restoration he eagerly laid his homage at the feet of charles ii he was made of and sat in several after the restoration he died of at in on the st of october his poems first published in t frequently during his life time and always with additions the reputation of has suffered greater of fortune than that of any other english poet in his youth he was by the last great his during the civil wars he gradually rose to be considered second only to after the restoration and when that writer was in his grave found himself still more popular and when he died at a very great age the wits and critics with thomas at their head exalted him to the first place in the english until the end of the century it was admitted that was the greatest english poet the sense of and of pope these extravagant honours while leaving to the praise of sweetness in the hands of gray johnson and sank gradually back into the rank and file of poets while the critics of the beginning of our century went further still and denied him all merit of late even his historical position has been assailed and there is perhaps no famous writer at the present moment so little read or considered as but the scale has certainly descended too far on the side of and it is time to insist on the part filled by this poet in the progress of our literature it was who with his usual nice first observed the quality in which differed from all the writers of his time the preface to the rival ladies that great critic remarks the excellence and dignity of rhyme were never fully known till mr taught it first made writing easily an art first showed us to conclude the sense most commonly in which in the verse of those before him runs on for so many lines together that the reader is out of breath to overtake it half a century later and enlarged this criticism of s in language which has become more famous but which is far from being so or so exact it is not true as would teach us that sweetness of the art of liquid numbers was invented by but it is true as noted tha t was the first english poet to adopt the french fashion of in couple ts of he seems to have been born as neat a poet as he complimentary piece called his majesty s escape at st has the full character of verse and was written as early as we have given an extract from this poem in our selection not on account of its merit so much as on account of its extraordinary interest as the first note of in english poetry from this piece through pope johnson the chain of heroic writing passes unbroken down to english and scotch a progress of nearly two hundred years it was long before gained a single and the old system of continued in fashion until the restoration with its tide of thought setting from france swept it away the of and the and of were the last heroic poems in the old style and who had for years written alone in the french manner lived to see his experiment universally adopted if we consider this fact and moreover the satisfaction with which the new art of was regarded we shall not wonder at the immense reputation of it is the english poets moreover only to note that he twenty years in his new before he gained his first continued to polish his verses and to add to them for nearly sixty years yet they remained a slender collection to the last if we except his absurd dramatic efforts a of the tragedy in rhyme and a certain share in the holiday task set by to the wits of a play by the body of his poems does not much exceed five thousand lines in his youth he wrote a about the which he proposed to visit but did not this is the battle of the summer islands towards the close of his life he composed six very serious of divine love in the manner afterwards to become so fashionable of the remainder of his verse half is occupied with love addressed to the poetic name under which between the years and he lady who finally married the earl of married and was left a very early in life he was a man of fortune a country gentleman and a member of parliament on the side at least at that time and some of his have wondered that he did not secure the hand of	45
lady but the reader who studies the poems will doubt whether he was really very anxious to do so the is extremely elegant and ingenious but without passion and the ambition to be remembered through as through is a little too obvious but s love verses though are more manly than those of and if they do not take the heart by storm they it with great art and an infinite show of patience the ingenuity of is entirely distinct from that wit for which his were famous he does not strive to and the mind with like or to deck out one poor thought in gaudy of like the school of he is in a sense he his thoughts as he does his and in him first we detect that see saw of now up now down which was to become the crowning sin of the classic poetry his powers of though trifling in comparison with those of and pope and in his own last days equalled by such inferior writers as and were the wonder of his earlier and chiefly led to his great reputation for wit charles i i among whose faults neglect of polite letters has never been included early became aware of the polished style of and welcomed him to that he might secure his poetical services the poet proved only too easy a and his poems as published in his own lifetime display a singularly cynical indifference to political for a upon immediately a piece on the death of the late o c he appears however to have conceived a sincere regard for and even in calling him a he cannot refrain from the poetry of can never again be popular even with students it is hard dry and insignificant it fails to touch the heart and requires laborious attention to be understood not because it is obscure but because the argument lies outside the track of human interest from this condemnation all the world the celebrated song to a rose and the careful reader will also a few little pieces scarcely inferior to this in sincerity and simplicity english poetry is studded with the names of those who have possessed imagination and warmth of fancy but who have failed to survive in popular estimation through their lack of style on the other hand is a signal example of the converse law that a writer cannot on style alone the decay of reputation seems in the latter case to be less rapid but it is in the end more fatal for it is beyond the hope of w vol n the english poets on a that which her slender waist confined shall now my joyful temples bind no monarch but would give his crown his arms might do what this has done it was my heaven s sphere the pale which held that lovely deer my joy my grief my hope my love did all within this circle move a narrow compass and yet there dwelt all that s good and all that s fair give me but what this bound take all the rest the sun goes round go lovely rose tell her that her time and me that now she knows when i resemble her to thee how sweet and fair she seems to be tell her that s young and to have her graces that had st thou sprung in deserts where no men abide thou must have died small is the worth of beauty from the light retired bid her come forth suffer herself to be desired and not blush so to be admired then die that she the common fate of all things rare may read in thee how small a part of time they share who are so wondrous sweet and fair from his majesty s escape at st while to his harp divine sings the loves and of our kings of the fourth edward was his noble song fierce goodly beautiful and young he rent the crown from henry s head raised the white rose and trampled on the red till love o er the victor s pride brought and to the conquered side neglected whose bold hand like fate gives and the of our state for his and with double shame himself the dame the lady whom just anger burns and foreign war with civil rage returns ah i spare your sword where beauty is to blame love gave the and must repair the same when france shall boast of her whose conquering eyes have made the best of english hearts their prize have power to alter the of fate and change again the counsels of our state to one who wrote against a fair lady what fury has provoked thy wit to dare with to wound the queen of love thy mistress envy or thine own despair not the just in thy breast did move so blind a rage with such a different fate he honour won where thou hast purchased hate t a the english poets she gave assistance to his foe thou that without a rival thou ma st love dost to the beauty of this lady owe while after her the gazing world does move can st thou not be content to love alone or is thy mistress not content with one hast thou not read of fairy arthur s shield which but disclosed amazed the weaker eyes of foes and won the doubtful field so shall thy rebel wit become her prize should thy swell into a book all were with one radiant look heaven he obliged that placed her in the skies for inspiring so his noble brain by to those eyes his joyful beams but is thy foe and neither thy fancy nor thy sight so ill thou st against so fair a light the bud lately on yonder swelling bush big with many a coming rose this early bud began to blush and did but half	45
rules of than any other poem in the language but is at all times a singularly writer of his other long poems by far the best is the on which was written but a very few months before his own death and after a long attack of insanity in this poem he is brighter and more easy than in any other long composition and it contains some interesting critical matter was highly esteemed for his vein and his are not devoid of wit though brutal and coarse he is very unlike the poets of his age in this that he has left behind him not one copy of love verses and his best poem is written in of love among the there is but one who forms a connecting link between and the old school his and are closely allied to those of and he has something of the same cynical and defiant attitude of mind he adored literature with the worship of one who it late in life and without much ease his conception of the ideal dignity of the poet s function oddly with the matter that he puts forth as comic poetry there was nothing about him very original for s hill which was destined to inspire forest had been itself preceded by ben s but he forms an important link in the chain of transition and ranks second among our poets w s ii john view of london from s hill through ways and airy paths i fly more boundless in my fancy than my eye my eye which swift as thought the space that lies between and first the place crowned with that sacred pile so vast so high that whether tis a part of earth or sky uncertain seems and may be thought a proud mountain or descending cloud paul s the late theme of such a muse whose flight has bravely reached and above thy height now shalt thou stand though sword or time or fire or zeal more fierce than they thy fall secure while thee the best of poets sings preserved from ruin by the best of kings under his proud survey the city lies and like a mist beneath a hill doth rise whose state and wealth the business and the crowd seems at this distance but a darker cloud and is to him who rightly things no other in effect but what it seems where with like haste though several ways they run some to undo and some to be undone while luxury and wealth like war and peace are each the other s ruin and increase as rivers lost in seas some secret vein thence there to be lost again o happiness of sweet retired content i to be at once secure and innocent the english poets praise of the thames from s hill my eye descending from the hill where thames amongst the wanton valleys thames the most loved of all the ocean s sons by his old to his embraces runs to pay his tribute to the sea like mortal life to meet eternity though with those streams he no resemblance hold whose foam is and their gravel gold his genuine and less guilty wealth to explore search not his bottom but survey his shore o er which he kindly his spacious wing and plenty for th spring nor then it with too fond a stay like mothers which their nor with a sudden and impetuous wave like kings the wealth he gave no unexpected spoil the s hopes nor mock the s toil but his flows first loves to do then loves the good he does nor are his blessings to his banks confined but free and common as the sea or wind when he to boast or to his stores full of the of his grateful shores visits the world and in his flying towers brings home to us and makes both indies ours finds wealth where tis it where it wants cities in deserts woods in cities plants so that to us no thing no place is strange while his fair bosom is the world s exchange o could i flow like thee and make thy stream my great example as it is my theme though deep yet clear though gentle yet not dull strong without rage without o full sir john against love love making all things else his foes like a fierce torrent whatever doth his course oppose this was the cause the poets sung thy mother from the sea was sprung but they were mad to make thee young her father not her son art thou from our desires our actions grow and from the cause the effect must flow love is as old as place or time twas he the fatal tree did climb of father adam s crime love drowsy days and stormy nights makes and breaks friendship whose delights feed but not our how happy he that loves not lives him neither hope nor fear to fortune who no gives how in things to come if here he he finds at rome at paris or his home secure from low and private ends his life his zeal his wealth his prince his country and his friends song from r act v the humble god that dwells in cottages and smoky hates gilded roofs and beds of down and though he fears no prince s frown flies from the circle of a crown english poets come i say thou powerful god and thy leaden charming rod in the lake o er his temples shake lest he should sleep and never wake nature alas why art thou so to thy greatest foe sleep that is thy best yet of death it bears a taste and both are the same thing at last from the on old like the morning star to us day from far his light those mists and clouds dissolved which our dark nation long	45
home for the next twenty years his thoughts were diverted from poetry by the absorbing interest of the civil struggle his time was occupied partly by official duties as latin secretary to the council of the partly by the voluntary share he took in the of the time the public cause to which he had devoted himself being lost and the ruin of his party in milton to his long cherished poetical scheme during the twenty years of political agitation this scheme had never been wholly banished from his thoughts after much hesitation long choosing and beginning late both subject and form had been decided on the poem was to be an and was to treat of the fall and recovery of man he had begun to compose on this theme as early as and in paradise lost was completed owing to the plague and the fire it the english poets was not published till august it was originally in ten books which were afterwards made into twelve as the normal ber by books and the theme of the recovery of man had been dropped out of the plan at an early stage and was afterwards made the subject of a second poem paradise regained on a hint given by milton s young friend these years of disaster and distress were specially if as is probable both paradise and were written during them the two poems came out in i vol in and closed milton s second poetic period he lived three years longer during which he occupied himself with carrying through the press a new edition of his poems the ist ed was as well as several which furnished mental occupation without requiring power he died our earliest specimen of milton is a little poem which was first printed among the verses according to a custom then prevailing to the of where it is headed an on the admirable poet iv it was written in though not milton s earliest effort it is the first piece of which it can be said that its merit does not lie chiefly in its promise what he had written before this date was besides college exercises an on the morning of upon the the passion on the death of a fair infant c in all these early pieces is in that mental quality which became in his mature production his poetic characteristic this quality which the poverty of our language tries to express by the words solemnity gravity majesty nobility and which name it as we may we all feel in reading paradise lost is already conspicuous in the sixteen lines of the on this does not reside in the which is nor in the image presented these are as often in milton commonplace enough the elevation is communicated to us not by the or but by sympathy we catch the of the poet s mental attitude he makes us bow with him before the image of though there is not a single epithet to point out in what the greatness which we are made to feel consists an century poet would have offered some clever analysis or judicious criticism done d k was the of that age for prose and poetry alike to be sensible of the sudden john milton of poetry after we have only to compare with this tribute to shakespeare s lines on milton himself to the first of three poets in three distant ages bom c in milton s sixteen lines the lofty tone is so independent of the thought presented that we overlook the of the thought itself were we to suppress the feeling and look only at the logical sentence as criticism used to do we should be obliged to say that the is a conceit in the style of we the readers are turned into marble monuments to the memory of shakespeare a fancy which instead of awe and admiration the dates of the two pieces headed d and can only be given they are with great probability assigned to the early years of milton s residence at and following the italian titles show that they were written at a time when milton had already begun to learn italian while the form shows that he was only beginning v th cheerful man ii is intended to mean the thoughtful man but from the form is there was an old form but the italian do not acknowledge any as derived from it with whom milton must have been early acquainted habitually uses but always with the of sadness melancholy the two taken together present contrasted views of the scholar s life it is what the call an or development of an idea by its opposite or we may rather regard them as moods spirits and solemn succeeding and each other as in life they are milton s own moods and might be employed as his days in those years when he was forming his mind and wisdom but they are and not literally true just as the landscape of the is but not literally that of the neighbourhood of the joyous mood is the mood of beginning with the first flight of the lark before dawn and closing with music sleep the thoughtful mood is that of the same scholar studying through the night or meditating in his solitary moonlight walk for the the english poets country life of these is not the life of the native of the country peasant or proprietor but of the scholar to whose emotions all the country objects are milton does not set himself to tell us what rural objects are like but them by their bearing on the life lived among them by his youth whereas in s s with which milton was well acquainted there is generally the faintest possible breath of human interest in milton town and country are but scenery to the moods of the human agent milton like all poets of the	45
first order knew or rather felt that human action or passion is the only subject of poetry is no mere conventional rule established by the critics or nay custom it rests upon the truth that poetry must be a vehicle of emotion poetry is an address to the feelings and imagination not to the judgment and the understanding the world and its processes or nature and natural scenery are in themselves only objects of science they become matter for the poet only after they have been with the joys and the hopes and fears of man we receive but what we give this truth the foundation of any sufficient poetic is itself contained in the still wider law under which colour and form light itself are but affections of our human organs of perception the doctrine that human action and passion are the only material of poetic fiction was the first of greek but it had been lost sight of and was not introduced into modem criticism till its revival by in the practice both of our poets and of our english critics in the century had forgotten this capital distinction between the art of language and the art of design the english of that century had not the poetic impulse in sufficient intensity to feel the distinction and the johnson criticism which regarded a poem as made up of images and in verse could not teach the truth so the poets went to work to describe scenery and our are filled with verse and descriptive which with many merits of style and thought has no title to rank as poetry descriptive poetry is in fact a contradiction in terms a land can be represented to the eye by colours laid on a flat surface but it cannot be presented in words which being necessarily successive cannot render in space to exhibit in space is the privilege of the arts of design poetry john whose instrument is language succession in time and can only present that which comes to pass under one or other of its two forms action or passion milton was in possession of this secret not as a trick taught him by the critics but in virtue of the intensity of human passion which glowed in his bosom he has the principle in these two in them as in s best passages the is not there for its own sake it is the vehicle of the personal feelings of the man the composition its unity and its from his mental attitude as spectator it is then when these are spoken of as of description a at once in more than one minute touch that the poet is not an accurate observer of nature or thoroughly familiar with country life as a town bred youth in city pent milton missed that intimacy with rural sights and sounds which belongs like the mother tongue to those who have been bom and bred among them but the same want of familiarity which makes his notice of the object the emotion excited in him by the objects when he is first brought in contact with them nature has for milton the of novelty like other town poets he knows nature less but feels it more what he does exactly render for us is not nature but its effect upon the life of the student if milton is not descriptive still less is he the of a given scene that the locality of suggested the scenery of these is one thing that they describe that locality that the mountains are the and the towers and are is quite another it might seem hardly necessary to dwell upon this but that this confusion of poetical truth with historical truth is so widely spread even among the educated while are still found endeavouring to identify the sung by with some one site or other the critic must continue to repeat the lesson that poetry and does not describe fact and fiction are and each other truth of poetry may be called philosophical truth truth of fact historical so beauty in nature is one thing beauty of a work of art quite another thing and this is how it is that l and have the highest beauty as works of art while they may abound with the poets bears the title of a mask and may be described as a it was written as words to a musical composition by henry and intended to be performed by at an entertainment given by the earl of to his entry on his office as lord president of wales these shows in which the dramatic element was to the and the music had been popular at court in the beginning of the century but the gradual growth of sentiment throughout the nation was the taste for such the mask would have died out but for the publication in of a violent and against the stage in s this attack occasioned a reaction in favour of the drama and there was for a short time a revival of the mask in and circles it was during this brief revival that was written a chance thus making the future poet the last of a mask the extract we give from il in one continuous scene specimens of its i measures its and its dialogue for while was to be a mask after the model of those written by the of the previous age milton endeavoured to mould its parts on the pattern of those greek the perfection of whose form his pure taste had already recognised in the star that bids the shepherd fold c we have a close imitation of the of as in the brief dialogue between the lady and what chance good lady hath you thus we have the greek in single alternate lines exactly was followed by november which we give entire is an contributed by milton to a volume of memorial verse printed	45
at cambridge on the occasion of the death of one of the fellows of christ s college edward king had been a contemporary and companion of milton at christ s and in had been elected to a fellowship in that college in obedience to a royal and as it should seem over milton s head king who is described to us as a young man of great promise perished by on the passage from john milton to in the long of this piece in the whole range of english poetry and never again equalled by milton himself leaves all criticism behind indeed so high is the poetic note here reached that the common ear fails to catch it is the of taste the i th century criticism could not make anything of it the very form of the poem is a stumbling block to the common sense critic for while the and temperate emotion of l allowed of direct expression in the poet s own person the burning heat of passion in has to be transferred into the artificial of the conventional pastoral to make it at the same time it will be observed that this passion is not stirred by personal attachment such as its pathos to in it is obvious from the itself that milton s relation to edward king was not a specially tender relation the sorrow for his loss does not go beyond such regret as may have been generally excited at cambridge by the shock of such a it is when the poet passes on from the individual to as to the fortunes of the church that he to a grandeur of in the lines last came and last did go c in the suppressed passion of this prophecy first the milton of paradise lost and the effect of the passage is by the contrast of the quiet beauty of the pastoral in the preceding part of the poem accordingly marks the point of transition from the early milton the milton of mask pastoral and to the quite other milton who after twenty years of hot party struggle returned to poetry in another vein never to the woods and pastures of which he took a final leave in between the composition oi and the oi paradise a space of twenty years the course of milton s life and thoughts was such as did not admit of the abstraction necessary for a sustained poetical effort as latin secretary to the and as an ardent of the republican movement he was absorbed in the interests of the day occasionally during this interval his feeling found vent in a the as he calls it now first put to martial uses the are of two kinds personal or political our offer two examples of each the english poets kind the personal are not the expression of a mood or an occasional sentiment but of abiding governing mental states which pervaded either long periods of the poet s life or the whole of it the first how soon hath time c written proceeds from the uneasy sense that he himself was while others were already doing his still preparation of his powers growing wings the poet s education he was giving himself was a slow and invisible process it lasted into manhood he feels that an apology is due to others to his father to friends still more is he dissatisfied himself with the progress he has made the second in our when i consider c continues the strain of reproach which first found vent in the foregoing with this difference that in youth he excused himself to his friends in mature age he is only careful to present his true account to his maker this is remarkable for its direct assertion of the doctrine of living as against that of doing the subject of the third is the in of his own subjects by the duke of it gives voice to the horror and indignation which ran through england when the dreadful tidings reached our shores even at this distance of time the passion that dictated them still in milton s lines how must they have moved men s minds when the bloody deed was still recent it is to this that s lines are specially in his hands the thing became a trumpet whence he blew soul strains alas too few the fourth and last which we have selected is an appeal to in not to establish a paid one of the points of public policy on which milton felt most deeply and on which he differed from the policy adopted by the protector but all this while milton never lost sight of his fixed purpose to write a great poem this life aim was in not from a very early date this purpose had taken possession of his mind and governed his conduct he educated himself for it and even during the twenty years of seeming he was but making himself more fit in a written in he n john put in print a public pledge to execute his design of a great poem in english neither do i think it shame to with any knowing reader that for some few years yet i may go on trust with him toward the payment of what i am now indebted as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth or the of wine like that which flows at waste from the pen of some vulgar or the fury of a nor to be obtained by the of dame memory and her daughters but by devout prayer to that eternal spirit who can with all utterance and knowledge and sends out his with the fire of his altar to touch and the lips of whom he pleases to this must be added select reading steady observation insight into all and generous arts and affairs till which in some	45
measure be at mine own peril and cost i refuse not to sustain this expectation from as many as are not loth to hazard so much upon the best that i can give them it is material to a right judgment on paradise lost to come to the study of it with this knowledge of its origin for it is one of the most artificial poems in the world having this among other qualities in with the i it belongs to the class which the greek critics and all modem critics have adopted their called this division of poems into and dramatic is founded upon a prominent difference in their manner of recital both alike present to us a story or transaction in the the story is to us by a third person in the drama the personages of the story come themselves before us as speaking and acting this however though convenient for the purposes of a catalogue does not reach the essential poetic qualities of composition in verse such a division founded upon poetic quality we should obtain if we divided narrative poems into the and the artificial the poet may be wholly with his story bent upon preserving the memory of events to him by tradition or the story may be a secondary consideration and only used by him as a medium of producing a given mental impression and satisfying by choice of language and the demands of imagination and taste paradise lost is an of the latter class milton s mind was full to overflowing with vague of the lofty the vast and the sublime and he cast about for a transaction in which he could them he first thought of some con j the english poets event in english history in which shakespeare had found his dramatic material for in order to constitute a national the events must be of general national they must neither be foreign nor taken from the of history such a topic milton at first thought he had found in the legend the outlines of which are given in of s latin of he afterwards abandoned national history in favour of a subject as possessing more being every man s property and and having also the highest of truth among possible subjects his choice wavered for some time but settled at last upon the fall and restoration of man a subject the fortunes of the whole human race from before the world began to be the merits of this material for a work of art are that its interest extends to every human being and is the struggle of moral freedom against external temptation in combination with fate or divine decree presenting the still problem which is ever urging human speculation to fresh efforts the form in which milton adopted the theme the story as told in offers to a poet the further advantage of the eternal conflict of good and evil in two persons our ancestors upon whose behaviour the fortunes of us their descendants hang trembling in the balance it is not for or for that our sympathy is demanded it is our happiness or misery that is at stake the of the story for treatment are the of agents and the want of or in the events there are but two human beings in the twelve books and they are not entirely human till after the fall i e till after the tragic catastrophe of the plot the of personages or divine a demand upon the imagination greater than what any but poetic natures can supply the supernatural is a necessary of a history but to be in proportions it must always be mingled with the ordinary and probable course of events in a age constantly fed with fiction which dwells among the realities of domestic life it becomes difficult to the and devils of paradise lost and the heaven and hell their respective dwelling places the defects of the plot or fable have to be by poetic ornament language harmony and here milton is beyond com john milton the greatest artist who has yet employed our language in verse dr guest says he diligently an ear which nature had gifted with delicate sensibility his verse almost ever fits the subject and so does poetry with this the last beauty of exquisite that the reader may sometimes doubt whether it be the thought itself or merely the happiness of its expression which is the source of a gratification so deeply felt if the personages in the two poems are and the situations unnatural the art of exciting poetic emotion by the employment and of words has never been practised by any english writer with such refinement single lines are alive with feeling and there is a long swell which us even through the tame and dreary of the poem such as the th th and th books there are no such and avenues of verse as milton s in reading paradise lost one has a feeling of such as no other poet gives he showed from the first that larger style which was to be his peculiar distinction the heard in his earlier productions is of a higher mood as regards construction than anything that had thrilled the english ear before giving no uncertain of him who wa to show what metal lay silent till he touched the keys in the organ pipes of our various language that have never since felt the strain of such prevailing breath paradise regained was written in whole or in part during the poet s retirement to s from the great plague milton s young friend tells us that he himself was the person who first suggested this subject but without questioning the literal of s report of his conversation with milton it is probable that milton originally conceived the subject of his great work the fall and recovery of man in one and only when he	45
came to write found that the two parts of the drama of humanity must be separately treated he therefore contented himself with a prophetic reference to the recovery and the in an awkward book oi paradise lost from s suggestion too milton has taken no more than the title of his poem for though he calls it paradise regained the subject of the poem is the temptation and this would have been its proper title it is observed by the critics that the later has in every country a tendency to pass into the drama paradise regained thb english poets cannot be as an as not being full enough of person ages or events at the same time it is not a drama as the one transaction of which it consists is to us by the poet and not performed before us by the only two actors introduced the bulk of the poem consists of dialogue it is an astonishing feat of that more than lines should have been constructed out of some twenty verses of the without our anywhere having the sense of and weakened effect which ordinarily produce regained is undoubtedly inferior in interest to paradise lost this is owing to its the defects of the former poem which were too little action too few agents and the human character of those few the language of the later poem is also less less charged with subtle suggestion than was that of paradise lost but though barren of human interest and of all verbal ion the patient student of paradise regained will find himself impressed by it with a sense of power which all the more because it is latent tells us that the poet himself could not bear with patience to hear that it was inferior to paradise lost johnson with his habitual carelessness converted this statement into the different one that his last poetical offspring was his favourite this i not by the authority which johnson that of but it is remarkable that two poets of the early part of our century and have each given expression to a similar opinion says paradise regained s the most perfect in execution of anything written by milton that in its kind it is the most perfect poem though its kind may be inferior in interest with written published milton closed his as poet in this piece he fulfilled more than one cherished intention is a drama and though milton had after mature deliberation chosen the form for his chief work it was not without secretly the intention to repeat the experiment of a drama in which the greek model should be even more closely to than in milton s taste had been offended by the want of art and regularity of the english drama and he tried to give a specimen of a tragedy in with the type in not only are the of time and place observed but dialogue is varied by no division of act or scene is made but the are by the of a chorus of and how much in this piece milton s thoughts were occupied with the question of form is proved by his choosing to preface it by some remarks with a bearing on that point only he says nothing in this preface which could point the to his own fate and fortunes the remarks are and explain why he has adopted the dramatic form in spite of the objection of religious men to the stage and why he has his drama after the and besides the more correct form of drama milton s intention in is to offer one which in substance is free from the coarse of the restoration stage though taste and friendship forbade his or any living we see of whom he is thinking when he would tragedy from the small or rather which in the account of many it at this day with other common suffering through the poet s error of comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity or introducing trivial and vulgar persons which by all judicious hath been counted absurd arid brought in without discretion to gratify the people lastly under the story of as here presented the poet has his own fate the splendid promise of his youth in contrast with the tragic close in blind and forsaken age poor despised and if not a prisoner himself witness of the of his friends and the triumph of the foe all this is distinctly throughout this piece the resemblance is completed by the scene with in which we see how bitter even at the distance of five and twenty years is milton s remembrance of what he suffered in his first marriage with the daughter of a house when we remember that the line with fear of change in paradise lost had staggered a not we may wonder that the unmistakable allusion in their to dogs and fowls a prey or else d or to th unjust under change of times and condemnation of th multitude should have passed in mark vol il x o the english poets an on the admirable dramatic poet william shakespeare act what needs my shakespeare for his honour d bones the labour of an age in piled stones or that his relics should be hid under a star dear son of memory great heir of fame what need st thou such weak witness of thy name thou in our wonder and astonishment hast built a monument for whilst to the shame of slow endeavouring art thy easy numbers flow and that each heart hath from the leaves of thy book those lines with deep impression took then thou our fancy of itself dost make us marble with too much and so in such pomp dost lie that kings for such a tomb would wish to die l set hence melancholy of and midnight bom in cave forlorn horrid shapes and shrieks and sights find out	45
night hath better sweets to prove now wakes and love come let us our rites begin tis only day light that makes sin which these shades will ne er report hail goddess of sport dark to whom the secret flame of midnight mysterious dame that ne er art call d but when the of darkness her gloom and makes one blot of all the air stay thy cloudy chair wherein thou rid st with and us thy vow d priests till utmost end of all thy be done and none left out ere the eastern the nice mom on the indian steep from her cabin d peep and to the tell tale sun our conceal d solemnity john milton come knit hands and beat the ground in a light fantastic round the measure break oflf break off i feel the different pace of some footing near about this ground run to your within these and trees our number may some virgin sure for so i can distinguish by mine art in these woods now to my charms and to my trains i shall ere long be well with as fair a herd as d about my mother thus i my dazzling into the air of power to cheat the eye with illusion and give it false lest the place and my quaint habits breed astonishment and put the to suspicious flight which must not be for that s against my course i under fair pretence of friendly ends and well placed words of courtesy with reasons not wind me into the easy hearted man and him into when once her eye hath met the virtue of this magic dust i shall appear some harmless whom keeps up about his country gear but here she comes i fairly step aside and if i may her business hear the lady enters lady this way the noise was if mine ear be true my best guide now it was the sound of riot and ill d merriment such as the or pipe up among the loose d when for their flocks and full in wanton dance they praise the pan i the english poets and thank the gods amiss i should be loth to meet the and d insolence of such late yet o where else shall i inform my feet in the blind of this tangled wood my brothers when they saw me wearied out with this long way here to lodge under the spreading favour of these pines as they said to the next thicket side to bring me or such fruit as the kind hospitable woods provide they left me then when the grey even like a sad in s weed rose from the wheels of but where they are and why they came not back is now the labour of my thoughts tis they had engaged their wandering steps too far and envious darkness ere they could return had stole them from me else o night why thou but for some end in thy dark lantern thus close up the stars that nature hung in heaven and fill d their lamps with everlasting oil to give due light to the and lonely traveller this is the place as well as i may guess whence even now the tumult of loud mirth was and perfect in my listening ear yet but single darkness do i find what might this be a thousand begin to throng into my memory of calling shapes and shadows dire and airy tongues that syllable men s names on sands and shores and desert these thoughts may well but not the virtuous mind that ever walks attended by a strong champion conscience o welcome pure eyed faith white handed thou ring angel with golden wings and thou d form of john milton i see ye visibly and now believe that he the supreme good to whom all things ill are but as officers of vengeance would send a ring guardian if need were to keep my life and honour d was i deceived or did a cloud turn forth her silver on the night i did not there does a cloud turn forth her silver on the night and casts a gleam over this grove i cannot to my brothers but such noise as i can make to be heard farthest venture for my new d spirits prompt me and they perhaps are not far song sweet echo sweetest that unseen within thy airy shell by slow s green and in the violet d where the love nightly to thee her sad song well thou not tell me of a gentle pair that thy are o if thou have hid them in some cave tell me but where sweet queen of daughter of the sphere so may st thou be translated to the skies and give grace to all heaven s enter can any mortal mixture of earth s mould breathe such divine sure something holy in that breast and with these moves the air to testify his hidden residence the english poets how sweetly did they float upon the wings of silence through the empty night at every fall the down of darkness till it smiled i have oft heard my mother with the three amidst the their potent and who as they sung would take the soul and lap it in wept and her barking waves into attention and fell murmur d soft applause yet they in pleasing slumber lull d the sense and in sweet madness d it of itself but such a sacred and home felt delight such sober certainty of waking bliss i never heard till now i u speak to her and she shall be my queen hail foreign wonder whom certain these rough shades did never unless the goddess that in rural shrine here with pan or by song forbidding every bleak fog to touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood lady nay gentle shepherd ill is lost	45
that praise that is addressed to ears not any boast of skill but extreme shift how to regain my d company compelled me to awake the courteous echo to give me answer from her couch what chance good lady hath you thus lady dim darkness and this leafy could that divide you from near guides lady they left me weary on a grassy by falsehood or or why lady to seek i the valley some cool friendly spring and left your fair side all lady lady they were but twain and quick return john milton perhaps night prevented lady how easy my misfortune is to hit their loss beside the present need no less than if i should my brothers lose were they of manly prime or youthful bloom lady as smooth as s their d lips two such i saw what time the ox in his loose traces from the came and the d at his supper i saw them under a green vine that along the side of yon small hill ripe clusters from the tender shoots their port was more th human as they stood i took it for a fairy vision of some gay creatures of the element that in the colours of the rainbow live and play i the i was awe struck and as i past i if those you seek it were a journey like the path to heaven to help you find them lady gentle what way would bring me to that place due west it rises from this point lady to find out that good shepherd i suppose in such a scant allowance of star light would the best land pilot s art without the sure guess of well practised feet i know each lane and every alley green or of this wild wood and every from side to side my daily walks and ancient neighbourhood and if your stray attendance be yet lodged or within these limits i shall know ere morrow wake or the low lark from her d rouse if otherwise i can conduct you lady to a low vol il y the english poets but loyal where you may be safe till further quest lady shepherd i take thy word and trust thy honest offer d courtesy which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds with than in halls in courts of princes where it first was named and yet is most pretended in a place less than this or less secure i cannot be that i should fear to change it eye me providence and square my trial to my strength shepherd lead on set yet once more o and once more ye brown with ivy never i come to pluck your harsh and crude and with forced fingers rude your leaves before the year bitter and sad occasion dear me to disturb your season due for is dead dead ere his prime young and hath not left his peer who would not sing for he knew himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme he must not upon his watery and to the wind without the of some melodious tear begin then sisters of the sacred well that from beneath the seat of jove doth spring begin and somewhat loudly sweep the string hence with denial vain and excuse so may some gentle muse with lucky words favour my d urn and as he passes turn john milton and bid fair peace be to my for we were nursed upon the self same hill fed the same flock by fountain shade and together both ere the high under the opening eyelids of the mom we drove and both together heard what time the grey fly winds her our flocks with the fresh of night oft till the star that rose at evening bright toward heaven s descent had d his wheel meanwhile the rural were not mute tempered to the rough d and with heel from the glad sound would not be absent long and old loved to hear our but o the heavy change now thou art gone now thou art gone and must return thee shepherd thee the woods and desert with wild and the vine o and all their echoes mourn the and the g een shall row no more be seen their joyous leaves to thy soft lays as killing as the to the rose or taint worm to the herds that or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear when first the blows such thy loss to ear where were ye when the deep closed o er the head of your loved for neither were ye playing on the steep where your old the famous lie nor on the shaggy top of high nor yet where her stream ah me i fondly dream had ye been there for what could that have done what could the muse herself that bore the muse herself for her son whom universal nature did lament y the english poets when by the that made the hideous roar his down the stream was sent down the swift to the shore alas what boots it with incessant care to tend the homely shepherd s trade and strictly the muse were it not better done as others use to sport with in the shade or with the of s hair fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise that last infirmity of noble minds to scorn delights and live laborious days but the fair when we hope to find and think to burst out into sudden blaze comes the blind fury with the and the thin spun life but not the praise replied and touch d my trembling ears fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil nor in the foil set off to the world nor in broad rumour lies but lives and aloft by those pure eyes and perfect witness of all judging jove as he lastly on each	45
deed of so much fame in heaven expect thy o fountain and thou honoured flood smooth sliding crown d with that strain i heard was of a higher mood but now my oat proceeds and to the herald of the sea that came in s plea he ask d the waves and ask d the winds what hard hath doom d this gentle and questioned every gust of rugged wings that blows from off each they knew not of his story and sage their answer brings that not a blast was from his stray d the air was calm and on the level sleek with all her sisters played john milton it was that fatal and bark built in the and d with curses dark that sunk so low that sacred head of thine next reverend went footing slow his mantle hairy and his bonnet with figures dim and on the edge like to that sang flower inscribed with woe ah who hath he my dearest pledge last came and last did go the pilot of the lake two keys he bore of twain the golden the iron he shook his locks and stem how well could i have spared for thee young of such as for their sake creep and intrude and climb into the fold of other care they little make than how to scramble at the feast and away the worthy guest blind mouths that scarce themselves know how to hold a sheep hook or have learn d aught else the least that to the faithful s art belongs what it them what need they they are sped and when they list their lean and songs grate on their pipes of wretched straw the hungry sheep look up and are not fed but with wind and the rank mist they draw rot inwardly and foul spread besides what the grim wolf with daily and nothing said but that two handed engine at the stands ready to once and no more return the dread voice is past that shrunk thy streams return muse and call the and bid them hither cast their bells and of a thousand hues ye valleys low where the mild whispers use of shades and wanton winds and on whose fresh lap the star looks the english poets throw hither all your quaint d eyes that on the green turf the honey d showers and purple all the ground with flowers bring the that forsaken dies the crow toe and pale the white pink and the d with jet the glowing violet the rose and the well attired with wan that hang the pensive head and every flower that sad wears bid all his beauty shed and fill their cups with tears to the where lies for so to a little ease let our frail thoughts with false ah me whilst thee the shores and sounding seas wash far away where er thy bones are whether beyond the stormy where thou perhaps under the tide visit st the bottom of the monstrous world or whether thou to our moist vows denied sleep st by the fable of old where the great vision of the guarded mount looks toward and s hold look homeward angel now and melt with and o ye the youth weep no more weep no more for your sorrow is not dead sunk though he be beneath the ry floor so sinks the in the ocean bed and yet anon his drooping head and tricks his beams and with new ore flames in the forehead of the morning sky o sunk low but mounted high through the dear might of him that walk d the waves where other groves and other streams along with pure his locks he and hears the song in the meek of joy and love john milton there entertain him all the saints above in solemn troops and sweet societies that sing and singing in their glory move and wipe the tears for ever from his eyes now the weep no more henceforth thou art the genius of the shore in thy large and shalt be good to all that wander in that perilous flood thus sang the uncouth to the oaks and while the still mom went out with grey he touch d the tender stops of various with eager thought his lay and now the sun had stretch d out all the hills and now was into the western bay at last he rose and d his mantle blue to morrow to fresh woods and pastures new on his being arrived at the age of twenty three how soon hath time the subtle thief of youth n on his wing my three and twentieth year i my days fly on with full career but my late spring no bud or blossom perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth that i to manhood am arrived so hear and inward doth much less appear that some more happy spirits th yet be it less or more or soon or slow it shall be still in measure even to that same lot however mean or high toward which time leads me and the will of heaven all is if i have grace to use it so as ever in my great task master s eye the poets oh his i consider bow my l lit is spent ere half my days in this dark and and that one talent is death to hide lodged with me though my soul more bent to serve my maker and present my true account lest he returning doth god exact day labour light denied i fondly ask but patience to prevent that murmur soon replies god doth not need either man s work or his own gifts who best bear his mild yoke they serve him best his state is thousands at his bidding speed and post o er land and ocean without rest they also serve who only stand and wait	45
on the late in o lord thy s whose bones lie scattered on the mountains cold ev n them who kept thy truth so pure of old when all our fathers stocks and stones forget not in thy book record their groans who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold slain by the bloody that roll d mother with infant down the rocks their the to the hills and they to heaven their martyr d blood and ashes sow o er all the italian fields where still doth sway the triple tyrant that from these may grow a hundred fold who having learnt thy way early may fly the woe john milton to the lord general may on the proposals of certain ministers at the committee for of the gospel our chief of men who through a cloud not of war only but rude guided by faith and fortitude to peace and truth thy glorious way hast and on the neck of crowned fortune proud hast rear d god s and his work pursued while stream with blood of and field thy praises loud and s wreath yet much remains to conquer still peace hath her no less renowned than war new foes arise threatening to bind our souls with chains help us to save free conscience from the of wolves whose gospel is their from paradise lost set book l of man s first and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe with loss of till one greater man restore us and regain the seat sing heavenly muse that on the secret top of or of inspire that shepherd who first taught the chosen seed in the beginning how the heavens and earth rose out of chaos or if sion hill delight thee more and s brook that flow d the english poets fast by the of god i thence thy aid to my song that with no middle flight to above the mount while it things yet in prose or rhyme and chiefly thou o spirit that dost prefer before all temples the upright heart and pure instruct me for thou know st thou from the first present and with mighty wings dove like sat st brooding on the vast abyss and mad st it what in me is dark what is low raise and support that to the height of this great argument i may assert eternal providence and justify the ways of god to men say first for heaven hides nothing from thy view nor the deep tract of hell say first what cause moved our grand parents in that happy state favoured of heaven so highly to fall off from their creator and his will for one restraint lords of the world besides who first them to that foul revolt the infernal serpent he it was whose d up with envy and revenge deceived the mother of mankind what time his pride had cast him out from heaven with all his host of rebel angels by whose aid to set himself in glory above his he trusted to have d the most high if he opposed and with ambitious aim against the throne and of god raised war in heaven and battle proud with vain attempt him the almighty power d headlong flaming from the ethereal sky with hideous ruin and down to there to dwell in chains and fire who defy the to arms nine times the space that measures day and night john milton to mortal men he with his horrid crew lay d rolling in the fiery gulf confounded though immortal but his doom reserved him to more wrath for now the thought both of lost happiness and lasting pain him round he throws his eyes that witnessed huge affliction and dismay mix d with pride and steadfast hate at once as far as angel s ken he views the dismal situation waste and wild a horrible on all sides round as one great furnace yet from those flames no light but rather darkness visible served only to discover sights of woe regions of sorrow shades where peace and rest can never dwell hope never comes that comes to all but torture without end still and a fiery fed with ever burning such place eternal justice had prepared for those rebellious here their prison d in utter darkness and their portion set as far removed from god and light of heaven as from the centre thrice to the utmost pole o how unlike the place from whence they fell there the companions of his fall o d with floods and of fire he soon and by his side one next himself in power and next in crime long after known in and named to whom the arch enemy and thence in heaven call d satan with bold words breaking the horrid silence thus began if thou he but o how fallen how changed from him who in the happy of light clothed with brightness though bright if he whom mutual league united thoughts and counsels equal hope and hazard in the glorious enterprise the english poets join d with me once now misery hath join d in equal ruin into what pit thou from what height fallen so much the stronger proved he with his thunder and till then who knew the force of those dire arms yet not for those nor what the potent victor in his rage can else inflict do i repent or change though changed in outward lustre that fix d mind and high disdain from sense of injured merit that with the raised me to contend and to the fierce brought along innumerable force of spirits arm d that dislike his reign and me preferring his utmost power with adverse power opposed in battle on the plains of heaven and shook his throne what though the field be lost all is not lost the will	45
and study of revenge hate and courage never to submit or yield and what is else not to be overcome that glory never shall his wrath or might from me to bow and sue for grace with knee and his power who from the terror of this arm so late doubted his empire that were low indeed that were an and shame beneath this since by fate the strength of gods and this substance cannot fail since through experience of this great event in arms not worse in foresight much advanced we may with more successful hope resolve to by force or eternal war to our grand foe who now triumphs and in the excess of joy sole holds the tyranny of heaven so the angel though in pain aloud but rack d with deep despair and him thus answered soon his bold o prince o chief of many powers john that led the to war under thy conduct and in dreadful deeds fearless heaven s perpetual king and put to proof his high whether by strength or chance or fate too well i see and the dire event that with sad overthrow and foul defeat hath lost us heaven and all this mighty host in horrible destruction laid thus low as far as gods and heavenly can perish for the mind and spirit remain invincible and vigour soon returns though all our glory extinct and happy state here swallow d up in endless misery but what if he our conqueror whom i now of force believe almighty since no less than such could have o d such force as ours have left us this our spirit and strength entire strongly to suffer and support our pains that we may so suffice his ire or do him service as his by right of war whatever his business be here in the heart of hell to work in fire or do his errands in the gloomy deep what can it then avail though yet we feel strength d or eternal being to undergo eternal punishment with speedy words the arch replied to be weak is miserable doing or suffering but of this be sure to do aught good never will be our task but ever to do ill our sole delight as being the contrary to his high will whom we resist if then his providence out of our evil seek to bring forth good our labour must be to that end and out of good still to find means of evil which may succeed so as perhaps shall grieve him if i fail not and disturb the english poets his inmost counsels from their destined aim but see the angry victor hath recall d his ministers of vengeance and pursuit back to the gates of heaven the hail shot after us in storm o hath laid the fiery that from the precipice of heaven received us falling and the thunder wing d with red lightning and impetuous rage perhaps hath spent his shafts and ceases now to through the vast and boundless deep let us not slip the occasion whether scorn or fury yield it from our foe thou yon dreary plain forlorn and wild the seat of desolation void of light save what the glimmering of these livid flames casts pale and dreadful thither let us tend from off the tossing of these fiery waves there rest if any rest can harbour there and our afflicted powers consult how we may henceforth most offend our enemy our own loss how repair how overcome this dire calamity what we may gain from hope if not what resolution from despair thus satan talking to his nearest mate with head above the wave and eyes that sparkling blazed his other parts besides prone on the extending long and large lay floating many a in bulk as huge as whom the name of monstrous size or earth bom that d on jove or whom the den by ancient held or that sea beast which god of all his works created that swim the ocean stream him on the foam the pilot of some small night founder d some island oft as tell with fixed anchor in his john milton by his side under the lee while night the sea and wished mom so stretch d out huge in length the lay chained on the burning lake nor ever thence had risen or heaved his head but that the will and high permission of all ruling heaven left him at large to his own dark designs that with crimes he might heap on himself while he sought evil to others and enraged might see how all his malice served but to bring forth infinite goodness grace and mercy on man by him but on himself confusion wrath and vengeance pour d forthwith upright he from off the pool his mighty stature on each hand the flames driven backward slope their pointing and in leave in the midst a horrid then with expanded wings he his flight aloft incumbent on the dusky air that felt unusual weight till on dry land he lights if it were land that ever bum d with solid as the lake with liquid fire and such appeared in hue as when the force of wind a hill tom from or the shattered side of thundering whose and d thence fire with fury aid the winds and leave a bottom all involved with and smoke such resting found the sole of feet him followed his next mate both to have the flood as gods and by their own recovered strength not by the of power is this the region this the soil the said then the lost this the seat that we must change for heaven this mournful gloom for that celestial light be it so since he the english poets who now is sovereign can dispose and bid what shall be right farthest from him is best whom reason hath	45
d force hath made supreme above his equals farewell happy fields where joy for ever dwells hail horrors hail infernal world and thou hell receive thy new possessor one who brings a mind not to be changed by place or time the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell a hell of heaven what matter where if i be still the same and what i should be all but less than he whom thunder hath made greater here at least we shall be free the almighty hath not built here for his envy will not drive us hence here we may reign secure and in my choice to reign is worth ambition though in hell better to reign in hell than serve in heaven but wherefore let we then our faithful friends the associates and of our loss lie thus astonished on the pool and call them not to share with us their part in this unhappy mansion or once more with rallied arms to try what may be yet regained in heaven or what more lost in hell so satan and him thus answered leader of those armies bright which but the none could have foil d if once they hear that voice their pledge of hope in fears and dangers heard so oft in worse extremes and on the perilous edge of battle when it raged in all their signal they will soon new courage and revive though now they lie and prostrate on yon lake of fire as we astounded and amazed no wonder fall n such a height he scarce had ceased when the superior was moving toward the shore his ponderous shield john ethereal temper large and round behind him cast the broad hung on his shoulders like the moon whose through glass the artist views at evening from the top of or in to new lands rivers or mountains in her globe his spear to equal which the pine on hills to be the mast of some great were but a he walk d with to support uneasy steps over the burning not like those steps on heaven s and the smote on him sore besides with fire he so endured till on the beach of that sea he stood and call d his angel forms who lay thick as leaves that the in where the shades high over arch ij or scatter d afloat when with fierce winds arm d hath vex d the red sea coast whose waves and his chivalry while with hatred they pursued the of who beheld from the safe shore their floating and broken chariot wheels so thick abject and lost lay these covering the flood under amazement of their hideous change he so loud that all the hollow deep of hell princes warriors the flower of heaven once yours now lost if such astonishment as this can seize eternal spirits or have ye chosen this place after the toil of battle to repose your wearied virtue for the ease you find to slumber here as in the of heaven i or in this abject posture have ye sworn to the conqueror who now vol ii z the english poets and rolling in the flood with scattered and till anon his swift from heaven gates discern the advantage and descending tread us down thus drooping or with linked us to the bottom of this awake arise or be for ever they heard and were d and up they sprung upon the wing as when men wont to watch on duty sleeping found by whom they dread rouse and themselves ere well awake nor did they not perceive the evil plight in which they were or the fierce pains not feel yet to their general s voice they soon obeyed innumerable as when the potent rod of s son in egypt s evil day d round the coast a cloud of on the eastern wind that o er the realm of hung like night and d all the land of so were those bad angels seen hovering on wing under the cope of hell upper and surrounding fires till at a signal given the uplifted spear of their great waving to direct their course in even balance down they light on the firm and fill all the plain a multitude like which the north pour d never from her fi to pass or the when her barbarous sons came like a on the south and spread beneath to the sands forthwith from every and each band the heads and leaders thither haste where stood their great commander shapes and forms human and powers that in heaven sat on though of their names in heavenly records now be no memorial blotted out and john milton by their rebellion from the books of life nor had they yet among the sons of eve got them new names till wandering o er the earth through god s high for the trial of man by and lies the greatest part of mankind they to god their creator and the invisible glory of him that made them to oft to the image of a brute d with gay of pomp and gold and devils to for then were they known to men by various names and various through the heathen world say muse their names then known who first who last roused from the slumber on that fiery couch at their great emperor s call as next in worth came singly where he stood on the bare strand while the crowd stood yet aloof the chief were those who from the pit of hell to seek their prey on earth fix their seats long after next the seat of god their by his altar gods adored among the nations round and abide thundering out of sion between the yea often placed within his itself their and with cursed things his holy rites and solemn and with	45
their darkness his light first horrid king d with blood of human sacrifice and parents tears though for the noise of drums and loud their children s cries unheard that pass d through fire to his grim idol him the d in and her watery plain in and in to the stream of utmost nor content with such audacious neighbourhood the wisest heart of solomon he led by fraud to build z the english poets his temple right against the temple of god on that hill and made his grove the pleasant valley of thence and black the type of hell next the dread of s sons from to and the wild of in and s realm beyond the of clad with vines and to the pool his other name when he in on their march from to do him wanton rites which cost them woe yet thence his he enlarged even to that hill of scandal by the grove of lust hard by hate till good drove them thence to hell with these came they who from the flood of old to the brook that parts egypt from ground had general names of and those male these feminine for spirits when they please can either sex assume or both so soft and is their essence pure not tied or with joint or limb nor founded on the strength of bones like flesh but in what shape they choose dilated or bright or obscure can execute their airy purposes and works of love or enmity fulfil for those the race of oft their living strength and left his righteous altar bowing lowly down to gods for which their heads as low bow d down in battle sunk before the spear of foes with these in troop came whom the call d queen of heaven with horns to whose bright image nightly by the moon john milton paid their vows and songs in sion also not where stood her temple on the offensive mountain built by that king whose heart though large by fair fell to foul came next behind whose annual wound in the to lament his fate in all a summer s day while smooth from his native rock ran purple to the sea supposed with blood of yearly wounded the love tale sion s daughters with like heat whose wanton passions in the sacred porch saw when by the vision led his eye d the dark of next came one who d in earnest when the captive ark d his brute image head and hands off in his own temple on the edge where he fell flat and his his name sea monster upward man and downward fish yet had his temple high rear d in dreaded through the coast of in and and and s frontier bounds him follow d whose delightful seat was fair on the fertile banks of and streams he also the house of god was bold a once he lost and gain d a king his conqueror whom he drew god s altar to and for one of mode whereon to bum his odious and the gods whom he had d after these appear d a crew who under names of old renown i and their train with monstrous shapes and abused the english poets egypt and her priests to seek their wandering gods disguised in forms rather than human nor did the when their borrow d gold composed the calf in and the rebel king doubled that sin in and in his maker to the ox who in one night when he passed from egypt marching d with one stroke both her first bom and all her gods came last than whom a spirit more fell not from heaven or more gross to love vice for itself to him no temple stood or altar smoked yet who more oft than he in temples and at when the priest turns as did s sons who with lust and violence the house of god in courts and palaces he also and in luxurious cities where the noise of riot above their towers and injury and outrage and when night the streets then wander forth the sons of flown with insolence and wine witness the streets of and that night in when the hospitable door exposed a matron to avoid worse these were the prime in order and in might the rest were long to tell though far renown d the gods of s issue held gods yet confessed later than heaven and earth their boasted parents heaven s first bom with his enormous brood and seized by younger he from jove his own and s son like measure found so jove reign d these first in and known thence on the snowy top of cold ruled the middle air their highest heaven or on the or in and through all the bounds john milton of land or who with old fled over to the fields and o er the d the utmost all these and more came but with looks downcast and damp yet such wherein appeared obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their chief not in despair to have found themselves not lost in loss itself which on his countenance cast like doubtful hue but he his pride soon with high words that bore semblance of worth not substance gently raised their fainting courage and their fears then straight commands that at the warlike sound of trumpets loud and be d his mighty standard that proud honour claim d as his right a tall who forthwith from the glittering staff the imperial which full high advanced shone like a streaming to the wind with gems and golden lustre rich arms and all the while metal blowing martial sounds at which the universal host up sent a shout that tore hell s and beyond the reign of chaos and old night all in a moment through the gloom were seen ten thousand	45
a spacious wound and d out ribs of gold let none admire that riches grow in hell that soil may best deserve the precious and here let those who boast in mortal things and wondering tell of and the works of kings learn how their greatest monuments of fame and strength and art are easily by spirits and in an hour what in an age they with incessant toil and hands innumerable scarce perform nigh on the plain in many prepared that underneath had veins of liquid fire from the lake a second multitude with wondrous art founded the ore each kind and d the a third as soon had form d within the ground a various mould and from the boiling by strange conveyance fill d each hollow nook as in an organ from one blast of wind to many a row of pipes the board breathes anon out of the earth a fabric huge rose like an with the sound of and voices sweet built like a temple where the english poets were set and pillars with golden nor did there want or with the roof was fretted gold not nor great such magnificence equalled in all their glories to or their gods or seat their kings when egypt with strove in wealth and luxury the ascending pile stood fix d her stately height and straight the doors opening their brazen folds discover wide within her ample spaces o er the smooth and level pavement from the arched roof by subtle magic many a row of lamps and blazing fed with and yielded light as from a sky the hasty multitude admiring enter d and the work some praise and some the his hand was known in heaven by many a tower d structure high where angels held their residence and sat as princes whom the supreme king exalted to such power and gave to rule each in his the orders bright nor was his name unheard or in ancient greece and in land men call d him and how he fell from heaven they thrown by angry jove sheer o er the crystal from mom to noon he fell from noon to eve a summer s day and with the setting sun dropped from the like a falling star on the isle thus they relate for he with this rebellious fell long before nor aught availed him now to have built in heaven high towers nor did he by all his engines but was headlong sent with his industrious crew to build in hell meanwhile the winged by john milton of sovereign power with awful ceremony and trumpet s sound throughout the host proclaim a solemn council forthwith to be held at the high capital of satan and his their summons call d from every band and regiment by place or choice the they anon with hundreds and with thousands came attended all access was throng d the gates and wide but chief the spacious hall though like a covered field where bold wont ride in arm d and at the s chair defied the best of chivalry to mortal combat or career with lance thick swarm d both on the ground and in the air brush d with the hiss of rustling wings as bees in spring time when the sun with rides pour forth their youth about the hive in clusters they among fresh and flowers fly to and fro or on the smoothed plank the of their straw built new with and confer their state affairs so thick the airy crowd and were till the signal given behold a wonder they but now who seem d in to earth s giant sons now less than smallest in narrow room throng like that race beyond the indian mount or fairy whose midnight by a forest side or fountain some peasant sees or dreams he sees while over head the moon sits and nearer to the earth wheels her pale course they on their mirth and dance intent with music charm his ear at once with joy and fear his heart thus spirits to smallest forms reduced their shapes immense and were at large though without number still amidst the hall the english poets of that infernal court but far within and in their own dimensions like themselves the great lords and in close recess and secret sat a thousand on golden seats frequent and full after short silence then and summons read the great consult began book iv o for that warning voice which he who saw the heard cry in heaven aloud then when the put to second came furious down to be on men woe to the inhabitants on earth that now while time was our first parents had been warn d the coming of their secret foe and so his mortal for now satan now first with rage came down the ere the of mankind to on innocent frail man his loss of that first battle and his flight to hell yet not rejoicing in his speed though bold far off and fearless not with cause to boast begins his dire attempt which nigh the birth now rolling in his tumultuous breast and like a devilish engine back upon himself horror and doubt his troubled thoughts and from the bottom stir the hell within him for within him hell he brings and round about him nor from hell one step no more than from himself can fly by change of place now conscience wakes despair that slumber d wakes the bitter memory of what he was what is and what must be worse of worse deeds worse sufferings must sometimes towards which now in his view lay pleasant his grieved look he fixed sad sometimes towards heaven and the full blazing sun which now sat high in his tower john milton then much revolving thus in sighs began thou that with surpassing glory crowned look st from thy sole dominion like	45
the god of this new world at whose sight all the stars hide their diminished heads to thee i call but with no friendly voice and add thy name sun to tell thee how i hate thy beams that bring to my remembrance from what state fell how glorious once above thy sphere till pride and worse ambition threw me down in heaven against heaven s king ah wherefore he deserved no such return from me whom he created what i was in that bright eminence and with his good none nor was his service hard what could be less than to afford him praise the easiest and pay him thanks how due yet all his good proved ill in me and wrought but malice lifted up so high i d and thought one step would set me highest and in a moment quit the debt immense of endless gratitude so still paying still to owe forgetful what from him i still received and understood not that a grateful mind by owing owes not but still pays at once indebted and discharged what burden then o had his powerful destiny d me some inferior angel i had stood then happy no unbounded hope had raised ambition yet why not some other power as great might have and me though mean drawn to his part but other powers as great fell not but stand from within or from without to all temptations arm d thou the same free will and power to stand thou whom hast thou then or what to accuse but heaven s love dealt equally to all be then his love accursed since love or hate the poets to me alike it eternal woe nay cursed be thou since against his thy will chose freely what it now so justly me miserable which way shall i fly infinite wrath and infinite despair which way i fly is hell myself am hell and in the lowest deep a lower deep stiu threatening to me opens wide to which the hell i suffer seems a heaven o then at last is there no place left for repentance none for pardon left none left but by submission and that word disdain me and my dread of shame among the spirits beneath whom i with other promises and other than to submit i could subdue the ah me they little know how dearly i abide that boast so vain under what inwardly i groan while they me on the throne of hell with and high advanced the lower still i fall only supreme in misery such joy ambition finds but say i could repent and could obtain by act of grace my former state how soon would height recall high thoughts how soon what d submission swore ease would vows made in pain as violent and void for never can true grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep which would but lead me to a worse and heavier fall so should i purchase dear short bought with double smart this knows my therefore as far from he as i from begging peace all hope excluded thus behold instead of us out cast his new delight mankind created and for him this world so farewell hope and with hope farewell fear john milton farewell remorse all good to me is lost evil be thou my good by thee at least divided empire with heaven s king i hold by thee and more than half perhaps will reign as man ere long and this new world shall know thus while he each passion d his face thrice changed with pale ire envy and despair which d his borrowed and betrayed him if any eye beheld for heavenly minds from such foul are ever clear whereof he soon aware each smooth d with outward calm of fraud and was the first that practised falsehood under show deep malice to conceal couch d with revenge yet not enough had practised to deceive once d whose eye pursued him down the way he went and on the mount saw him more than could befall spirit of happy sort his gestures fierce he mark d and mad then alone as he supposed all unobserved unseen so on he and to the border comes of where delicious paradise now nearer crowns with her green as with a rural mound the head of a steep wilderness whose hairy sides with thicket overgrown grotesque and wild access denied and over head up grew height of shade and pine and fir and palm a scene and as the ranks ascend shade above shade a theatre of view yet higher than their tops the wall of paradise up sprung which to our general gave prospect large into his empire neighbouring round and higher than that wall a row of trees with fairest fruit vol il a a the english poets blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue appeared with gay colours mix d on which the sun more glad impress d his beams than in fair evening cloud or bow when god hath shower d the earth so lovely seem d that landscape and of pure now purer air meets his approach and to the heart delight and joy able to drive all sadness but despair now gentle their wings dispense native and whisper whence they stole those spoils as when to them who sail beyond the cape of hope and now are past off at sea north east winds blow from the shore of the with such delay well pleased they slack their course and many a league cheer d with the grateful smell old ocean smiles so entertained those sweets the who came their though with them better pleased than with the that drove him though from the of s son and with a vengeance sent from post to egypt there fast bound now to the ascent of that steep savage hill satan had d on pensive	45
and slow but further way found none so thick as one continued the of shrubs and bushes had d all path of man or beast that passed that way one gate there only was and that look d east on the other side which when the arch saw due entrance he and in contempt at one slight bound high o d all bound of hill or highest wall and sheer within lights on his feet as when a wolf whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey watching where pen their flocks at eve in amid the field secure john milton leaps o er the fence with ease into the fold or as a thief bent to the cash of some rich whose substantial doors cross d and bolted fast fear no assault in at the window or o er the so the first grand thief into god s fold so since into his church climb thence up he flew and on the tree of life the middle tree and highest there that grew sat like a yet not true life thereby regain d but sat death to them who lived nor on the virtue thought of that life giving plant but only used for prospect what well used had been the pledge of immortality so knows any but god alone to value right the good before him but best things to worst abuse or to their meanest use beneath him with new wonder now he views to all delight of human sense exposed in narrow room nature s whole wealth yea more a heaven on earth for paradise of god the garden was by him in the east of planted stretch d her line from eastward to the royal towers of great built by kings or where the sons of long before dwelt in in this pleasant soil his far more pleasant garden god d out of the fertile ground he caused to grow all trees of noblest kind for sight smell taste and all amid them stood the tree of life high eminent blooming fruit of vegetable gold and next to life our death the tree of knowledge grew fast by knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill southward through went a river large nor changed his course but through the shaggy hill pass d underneath d for god had thrown aa the english poets that mountain as his garden mound high raised upon the rapid current which through veins of earth with kindly thirst up drawn rose a fresh fountain and with many a watered the garden thence united fell down the steep and met the flood which from his passage now appears and now divided into four main streams runs wandering many a famous realm and country whereof here needs no account but rather to tell how if art could tell how from that the rolling on pearl and sands of gold with error under shades ran visiting each plant and fed flowers worthy of paradise which not nice art in beds and curious knots but nature boon pour d forth on hill and and plain both where the morning sun first warmly smote the open field and where the shade d the thus was this place a happy rural seat of various view groves whose rich trees wept and others whose fruit d with golden hung amiable true if true here only and of delicious taste them or level downs and the tender were interposed or or the lap of some valley spread her store flowers of all hue and without thorn the rose another side and of cool recess o er which the vine lays forth her purple and gently luxuriant meanwhile murmuring waters fall down the slope hills dispersed or in a lake that to the fringed bank with crown d i her crystal mirror holds unite their streams the birds their apply airs airs john milton breathing the smell of field and grove the trembling leaves while universal pan knit with the graces and the hours in dance led on the eternal spring not that fair field of where gathering flowers herself a fairer flower by gloomy dis was gathered which cost all that pain to seek her through the world nor that sweet grove of by and the inspired spring might with this paradise of strive nor that isle with the river where old whom call and jove hid and her son young from his s eye nor where kings their issue guard mount though this by some supposed true paradise under the line by head enclosed with shining rock a whole day s journey high but wide remote from this garden where the saw all delight all kind of living creatures new to sight and strange two of far nobler shape erect and tall erect with native honour clad in naked majesty seem d lords of all and worthy seem d for in their looks divine the image of their glorious maker shone truth wisdom severe and pure severe but in true filial freedom placed whence true authority in men though both not equal as their sex not equal seem d for contemplation he and form d for softness she and sweet attractive grace he for god only she for god in him his fair large front and eye sublime declared absolute rule and locks round his parted manly hung but not beneath his shoulders broad the english poets she as a veil down to the slender waist her golden wore d but in wanton waved as the vine curls her which implied but required with gentle sway and by her yielded by him best received yielded with submission modest pride and sweet reluctant delay nor those mysterious parts were then conceal d then was not guilty shame shame of nature s works honour sin bred how have ye troubled all mankind with shows instead mere shows of seeming pure and banish d from man s life	45
his happiest life simplicity and innocence so pass d they naked on nor d the sight of god or angel for they thought no ill so hand in hand they pass d the loveliest pair that ever since in love s embraces met adam the man of men since bom his sons the fairest of her daughters eve under a of shade that on a green stood whispering soft by a fresh fountain side they sat them down and after no more toil of their sweet labour than to recommend cool and made ease more easy wholesome thirst and appetite more grateful to their supper fruits they fell fruits which the boughs yielded them as they sat on the soft bank d with flowers the they and in the still as they the stream nor gentle purpose nor smiles wanted nor youthful as fair couple link d in happy league alone as they about them play d all beasts of the earth since wild and of all chase in wood or wilderness forest or den john milton sporting the lion d and in his the kid bears d before them the elephant to make them mirth used all his might and wreath d his close the serpent sly with his train and of his fatal gave proof others on the grass couch d and now d with pasture gazing sat or for the sun declined was now with prone career to the ocean and in the ascending scale of heaven the stars that evening rose when satan still in gaze as first he stood scarce thus at length speech recovered sad book x thus adam to himself lamented loud through the still night not now as ere man fell wholesome and cool and mild but with black air accompanied with and dreadful gloom which to his evil conscience represented all things with double terror on the ground outstretched he lay on the cold ground and oft cursed his creation death as oft accused of execution since the day of his offence why comes not death said he with one thrice acceptable stroke to end me shall truth fail to keep her word justice divine not hasten to be just but death comes not at call justice divine not her pace for prayers or cries o woods o fountains and with other echo late i taught your shades to answer and far other song whom thus afflicted when sad eve beheld desolate where she sat approaching nigh soft words to his fierce passion she d but her with stem regard he thus d o the english poets out of my sight thou serpent that name best thee with him as false and hateful nothing wants but that thy shape like his and colour may thy inward fraud to warn all creatures from thee henceforth lest that too heavenly form pretended to falsehood them but for thee i had persisted happy had not thy pride and wandering vanity when least was safe rejected my and disdain d not to be trusted longing to be seen though by the devil himself him to over reach but with the serpent meeting fool d and by him thou i by thee to trust thee from my side imagined wise constant mature proof against all and understood not all was but a show rather than solid virtue all but a crooked by nature bent as now appears more to the part sinister from me drawn well if thrown out as to my just number found o why did god creator wise that peopled highest heaven with spirits masculine create at last this novelty on earth this fair defect of nature and not fill the world at once with men as angels without feminine or find some other way to mankind this mischief had not then befallen and more that shall befall innumerable on earth through female and strait with this sex for either he never shall find out fit mate but such as some misfortune brings him or mistake or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain through her but shall see her gain d by a far worse or if she love withheld by parents or his happiest choice too late shall meet already link d and bound john milton to a fell adversary his hate or shame which infinite calamity shall cause to human life and household peace confound he added not and from her d but eve not so with tears that ceased not flowing and all disordered at his feet fell humble and embracing them his peace and thus proceeded in her me not thus adam witness heaven what love sincere and reverence in my heart i bear thee and have offended unhappily deceived thy i beg and clasp thy knees me not whereon i live thy gentle looks thy aid thy counsel in this distress my only strength and stay forlorn of thee whither shall i me where while et we live scarce one short hour perhaps between us two let there be peace both joining as joined in injuries one enmity against a foe by doom express d us that cruel serpent on me exercise not thy hatred for this misery befallen on me already lost me than more miserable both have but thou against god only i against god and thee and to the place of judgment will return there with my cares heaven that all the sentence from thy head removed may light on me sole cause to thee of all this woe me me only just object of his ire she ended weeping and her lowly plight till peace obtained from fault acknowledged and in adam wrought soon his heart towards her his life so late and sole delight now at his feet in distress creature so fair his seeking his counsel whom she had displeased his aid the english poets as one his anger all he lost and thus with peaceful words her soon and too	45
desirous as before so now of what thou know st not who the punishment all on alas be r thine own first ill able to sustain his full wrath whose thou feel st as yet least part and my displeasure bear st so ill if prayers could alter high i to that place would speed before thee and be louder heard that on my head all might be visited thy and sex forgiven to me committed and by me exposed but rise let us no more contend nor blame each other blamed enough elsewhere but strive in offices of love how we may each other s burden in our share of woe since this day s death if aught see will prove no sudden but a slow paced evil a long day s dying to our pain and to our seed o seed derived to whom thus eve recovering heart replied adam by sad experiment i know how little weight my words with thee can find found so thence by just event found so unfortunate nevertheless restored by thee vile as i am to place of new acceptance hopeful to regain thy love the sole contentment of my heart living or dying from thee i will not hide what thoughts in my breast are risen tending ta some relief of our extremes or end though sharp and sad yet tolerable as in our evils and of easier choice if care of our descent us most which must be bom to certain woe d by death at last and miserable it is to be to others cause of misery our own and of our to bring john r into this cursed world a race that after wretched life must be at last food for so foul a monster in thy power it lies yet ere conception to prevent the race to being yet thou art remain so death shall be deceived his and with us two be forced to satisfy his but if thou judge it hard and difficult conversing looking loving to from love s due rites embraces sweet and with desire to without hope before the present object with like desire which would be misery and torment less than none of what we dread then both ourselves and seed at once to free from what we fear for both let us make short let us seek death or he not found supply with our own hands his office on ourselves why stand we longer shivering under fears that no end but death and have the power of many ways to die the shortest choosing destruction with destruction to destroy she ended here or vehement despair broke off the rest so much of death her thoughts had entertained as her cheeks with pale but adam with such counsel nothing d to better hopes his more attentive mind had raised and thus to eve replied eve thy contempt of life and pleasure seems to argue in thee something more sublime and excellent than what thy mind but self destruction therefore sought that excellence thought in thee and not thy contempt but anguish and regret for loss of life and pleasure or if thou death as utmost end of misery so thinking to the penalty pronounced doubt not but god the english poets hath arm d his ire than so to be much more i fear lest death so snatched will not us from the pain we are by doom to pay rather such acts of will provoke the highest to make death in us live then let us seek some safer resolution which i have in view calling to mind with heed part of our sentence that thy seed shall the serpent s head piteous amends unless be meant whom i conjecture our grand foe satan who in the serpent hath contrived against us this deceit to crush his head would be revenge indeed which will be lost by death brought on ourselves or days resolved as thou so our foe shall his punishment d and we instead shall double ours upon our heads no more be mention then of violence against ourselves and wilful that cuts us off from hope and only and pride impatience and despite reluctance against god and his just yoke laid on our necks remember with what mild and gracious temper he both heard and judged without wrath or we expected immediate dissolution which we thought was meant by death that day when lo to thee pains only in were foretold and bringing forth soon with joy fruit of thy on me the curse glanced on the ground with labour i must earn my bread what harm idleness had been worse my labour will sustain me and lest cold or heat should injure us his care hath provided and his hands clothed us unworthy pitying while he judged how much more if we pray him will his ear be open and his heart to pity incline john milton and teach us further by what means to the seasons rain ice hail and snow which now the sky with various face begins to us in this mountain while the winds blow moist and keen the graceful locks of these fair spreading trees which bids us seek some better some better warmth to cherish our limbs d ere this star leave cold the night how we his gathered beams reflected may with matter or by collision of two bodies grind the air to fire as late the clouds or pushed with winds rude in their shock the lightning whose flame driven down the bark of fir or pine and sends a comfortable heat from far which might supply the sun such fire to use and what may else be remedy or cure to evils which our own have wrought he will instruct us praying and of grace him so as we need not to pass this life sustained by him with many comforts till we end in	45
dust our final rest and native home what better can we do than to the place where he judged us prostrate fall before him and there confess humbly our faults and pardon beg with tears watering the ground and with our sighs the air sent from hearts in sign of sorrow and humiliation meek undoubtedly he will and turn from his displeasure in whose look serene when angry most he seem d and most severe what else but favour grace and mercy shone so our father penitent nor eve felt less remorse they forthwith to the place where he judged them prostrate fell before him and both confessed the english poets humbly their faults and pardon d with tears watering the ground and with their sighs the air sent from hearts in sign of sorrow and humiliation meek from paradise regained set book i meanwhile the son of god who yet some days lodged in where john musing and much revolving in his breast how best the mighty work he might begin of to mankind and which way first publish his office now mature one day forth walk d alone the spirit leading and his deep thoughts the better to converse with solitude till far from track of men thought following thought and step by step led on he enter d now the desert wild and with dark shades and rocks round his holy meditations thus pursued o what a multitude of thoughts at once awaken d in me swarm while i consider what from within i feel myself and hear what from without comes often to my ears with my present state compared when i was yet a child no childish play to me was pleasing all my mind was set serious to learn and know and thence to do what might be public good myself i thought bom to that end bom to promote all truth all righteous things therefore above my years the law of god i read and found it sweet made it my whole delight and in it grew to such perfection that ere yet my age john milton had measured twice six years at our great feast i went into the temple there to hear the teachers of our law and to propose what might improve my knowledge or their own and was admired by all yet this not all to which my spirit victorious deeds in my heart heroic acts one while to rescue from the roman yoke then to subdue and o er all the brute violence and proud power till truth were freed and restored yet held it more humane more heavenly first by winning words to conquer willing hearts and make persuasion do the work of fear at least to try and teach the soul not but unaware the stubborn only to subdue these growing thoughts my mother soon perceiving by words at times cast forth rejoiced and said to me apart high are thy thoughts o son but them and let them to what height sacred virtue and true worth can raise them though above example high by deeds express thy for know thou art no son of mortal man though men esteem thee low of thy father is the eternal king who rules all heaven and earth angels and sons of men a messenger from god foretold thy birth conceived in me a virgin he foretold thou be great and sit on david s throne and of thy kingdom there should be no end at thy a glorious of angels in the fields of sung to watching at their folds by night and told them the now was bom where they might see him and to thee they came directed to the where thou la st for in the inn was left no better room the english poets a star not seen before in heaven appearing guided the wise men thither from the east to honour thee with incense and gold by whose bright course led on they found the place it thy star new in heaven by which they knew the king of bom just and prophetic d by vision found thee in the temple and before the altar and the priest like things of thee to all that present stood this having heard straight i again the law and searching what was writ concerning the to our known partly and soon found of whom they i am this chiefly that my way must lie through many a hard even to the death ere i the promised kingdom can attain or work for mankind whose sins full weight must be transferred upon my yet neither thus d nor dismayed the time i waited when behold the of whose birth i oft had heard not knew by sight now come who was to come before and his way prepare i i as all others to his came which i believed was from above but he straight knew me and with voice proclaimed me him for it was him so from heaven me him whose he was and first refused on me his to confer as much his greater and was hardly won but as i rose out of the stream heaven open d her eternal doors from whence the spirit descended on me like a dove and last the sum of all my father s voice audibly heard from heaven pronounced me his me his beloved son in whom alone he was well pleased by which i knew the time now full that i no more should live obscure john milton but openly begin as best becomes the authority which i derived from heaven and now by some strong motion i am led into this wilderness to what intent i learn not yet perhaps i need not know for what concerns my knowledge god so our morning star then in his rise and looking round on every side beheld a desert dusk with horrid shades the way he	45
own hath nothing and to whom nothing belongs but condemnation and shame who for so many benefits received d to god and false and so of all true good himself d milton yet to himself would take that which to god alone of right belongs yet so much is in god such grace that who advance his glory not their own them he himself to glory will advance so the son of god and here again satan had not to answer but stood struck with guilt of his own sin for he himself of glory had lost all yet of another plea him soon of glory as thou wilt said he so deem worth or not worth the seeking let it pass but to a kingdom thou art bom d to sit upon thy father david s throne by mother s side thy father though thy right be now in powerful hands that will not part easily from possession won with arms now and all the promised land reduced a province under roman yoke nor is always ruled with temperate sway oft have they the temple oft the law with foul rather as did once and think st thou to regain thy right by sitting still or thus retiring so did not he indeed retired unto the desert but with arms and o er a mighty king so oft prevail d that by strong hand his family obtain d though priests the crown and david s throne with and her once content if kingdom move thee not let move thee zeal and duty and zeal and duty are not slow but on occasion s watchful wait they themselves rather are occasion best zeal of thy father s house duty to free thy country from her heathen so shalt thou best fulfil best the old who sung thy endless reign english poets the happier reign the sooner it begins reign then what thou better do the while to whom our answer thus returned all things are best d in their due time and time there is for all things truth hath said if of my reign prophetic writ hath told that it shall never end so when begin the father in his purpose hath he in whose hand all times and seasons roll what if he hath that i shall first be tried in humble state and things adverse by injuries and and and violence suffering quietly expecting without distrust or doubt that he may know what i can suffer how obey who best can suffer best can do best reign who first well hath obey d just trial ere i merit my exaltation without change or end but what concerns it thee when i begin my everlasting kingdom why art thou what moves thy know st thou not that my rising is thy fall and my promotion will be thy destruction to whom the rack d replied let that come when it comes all hope is lost of my reception into grace what worse for where no hope is left is left no fear if there be worse the expectation more of worse me than the feeling can i would be at the worst worst is my port my harbour and my ultimate repose the end i would attain my final good my error was my error and my crime my crime whatever for itself condemned and will alike be punish d whether thou reign or reign not though to that gentle brow willingly could i fly and hope thy reign from that placid aspect and meek regard john mil ton rather than my evil state would stand between me and thy father s ire whose ire i dread more than the fire of hell a shelter and a kind of cool as a summer s cloud if i then to the worst that can be haste why move thy feet so slow to what is best happiest both to and all the world that thou who art be their king perhaps thou linger st in deep thoughts detained of the enterprise so and high no wonder for though in thee be united what of perfection can in man be found or human nature can receive consider thy life bath yet been private most part spent at home scarce view d the towns and once a year few days short and what thence thou observe the world thou hast not seen much less her glory and and their radiant courts best school of best experience insight in all things that to greatest actions lead the wisest will be ever and with modesty as he who seeking found a kingdom but i will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit those and see before thine eyes the of the earth their pomp and state sufficient introduction to inform thee of so apt in arts and mysteries that thou may st know how best their opposition to withstand with that power was given him then he took the son of god up to a mountain high it was a mountain at whose feet a spacious plain d in circuit wide lay pleasant from his side two rivers flow d the one winding the other straight and left between the english poets fair with less rivers then meeting join d their tribute to the sea fertile of com the of oil and wine with herds the pastures throng d with flocks the hills huge cities and high tower d that well might seem the seats of and so large the prospect was that here and there was room for barren desert and dry to this high mountain top the brought our and new train of words began well have we and o er hill and forest and field and flood temples and towers cut shorter many a league here thou behold st and her empire s ancient bounds and the lake thence on as far as east west and oft beyond to south	45
the bay and inaccessible the here of length within her wall several days journey built by old of that first golden the seat and seat of whose success in long still there the wonder of all tongues as ancient but by him who twice and all thy father david s house led captive and laid waste till set them free his city there thou and there her structure vast there and her hundred gates there by stream the drink of none but kings of later fame built by or by hands the great and there turning with easy eye thou may st behold all these the now some ages past by great led who founded first john milton that empire under his dominion holds from the luxurious kings of won and just in time thou com st to have a view of his great power for now the king in hath gather d ail his host against the whose wild have wasted to her aid he now in haste see though from far his thousands in what martial they issue forth steel bows and shafts their arms of equal dread in flight or in pursuit all in which fight they most see how in warlike muster they appear in and and half and wings he look d and saw what numbers the city gates out pour d light armed troops in coats of mail and military pride in mail their horses clad yet fleet and strong their bore the flower and choice of many provinces from bound to bound from from east and to the cliffs of and dark from and the neighbouring plains of and the south of to s haven he saw them in their forms of battle ranged how quick they wheel d and behind them shot sharp of showers against the face of their and overcame by flight the field all iron cast a gleaming brown nor wanted clouds of foot nor on each horn all in steel for standing fight or with towers of nor of a multitude with and arm d to lay hills plain fell woods or valleys fill or where plain was raise hill or with bridges rivers proud as with a yoke the english poets after these and and with of war such forces met not nor so wide a camp when with all his northern powers as tell the city of from thence to win the fairest of her sex his daughter sought by many knights both and the of n such and so numerous was their chivalry set many are die sayings of the wise in ancient and in modem books d patience as the truest fortitude and to the well of all all chances incident to man s life writ with studied argument and much persuasion sought of grief and anxious thought but with the afflicted in his pangs their sound little or rather seems a tune harsh and of mood from his complaint unless he feel within some source of consolation from above secret that repair his strength and fainting spirits god of our fathers what is man that thou towards him with hand so various or might i say temper st thy providence through his short course not as thou the orders and inferior creatures mute and brute nor do i name of men the common that wandering loose about john milton grow up and perish as the summer fly heads without name no more remembered but such as thou hast solemnly elected with gifts and graces eminently adorned to some great work thy glory and people s safety which in part they effect yet toward these thus dignified thou oft amidst their height of noon thy countenance and thy hand with no regard of highest past from thee on them or them to thee of service nor only dost them or to life obscured which were a fair but throw st them lower than thou them high falls in human eye too grievous for the or oft them to the hostile sword of heathen and profane their to dogs and fowls a prey or else or to the unjust under change of times and condemnation of the ungrateful multitude if these they perhaps in poverty with sickness and disease thou bow st them down painful diseases and d in crude old age though not yet suffering the punishment of days in fine just or unjust alike seem miserable for oft alike both come to evil end born at near march died in london his poems were first collected by his widow and published in a volume but since that time about twenty five new poems have been discovered mr has published the complete works in the fuller library was not only a public man of mark and the first of his day but a and poet as a poet he still ranks high his range of subjects and is wide he touches at different points and the group of and but his most interesting connection is with milton of that intellectual lustre which was produced by the union of classical culture and ancient love of liberty with enthusiasm milton was the central a paler yet bright like milton was at cambridge and there after making himself an excellent he as milton had before him in rebellious by a quarrel with the authorities of his college during his student days he was nearly drawn into the toils of the but he broke loose with an energy of reaction which has left its trace in f his earliest satire he afterwards spent four years on the continent living for some time at rome where like milton he his mind in latin literature and his hatred of the in became to mary the daughter of the general of the parliament who had laid down his command and was spending his quiet days in literature and collecting books and at his house of in here was in a	45
special home of the chivalry of which was the poet accordingly appears in his as the of english patriotism the hill and grove at and house are of the in the shades of and they bear no small resemblance to the of lord in marvel was recommended to as assistant latin secretary of the council of state by milton who describes him in his letter as a man of singular desert acquainted with the french italian spanish and dutch languages well read in the greek and latin authors and one whom if he had any feeling of or jealousy he might hesitate to bring in as a did not at that time receive the appointment but he was employed as to young intended son in law at where he with his pupil in the house of a zealous who had been driven into exile with his wife by persecution and had preached in the by as protector was made joint secretary with milton the connection has left in several poems including that on the death of the protector in which we find a little picture vivid and true of the great man s look and bearing by one who had often seen them where we so once we used shall now no more to fetch day press about his chamber door from which he issued with that awful state it seemed broke through double gate yet always tempered with an air so mild as april that e er gentle smiled on the return of the milton the of was driven into retirement where he had leisure to prove that a great man may throw himself thoroughly into the struggles the feelings even the passions of his time and yet keep art serene and in the of his mind far less and by no means remained in public life and as member for sat a roman and in the corrupt and of charles ii the poems of his later days were not or but like his renowned against tyranny and wickedness in church and state and he died in the midst of a fierce literary with the most odious of the restoration not without suspicion of poison to milton he remained bravely true and lines on paradise lost are about the earliest salutation of that sun as it rose amidst the clouds of the evil days a the english poets as a poet is very unequal he has depth of descriptive power melody his study of the could not fail to teach him form sometimes we find in him an airy and tender grace which remind us of the lighter manner of milton but art with him was only an occasional not a regular pursuit he is often sometimes especially when he is by the facility of the he was also eminently afflicted with the gift of wit or ingenuity much in his day his with those of or he is capable of saying of the the air where er she fly follows and her the stream below if it might fix her shadow so and of maria such and so doth hush the world and through the evening rush no new bom such a train draws through the sky nor star new slain for straight those giddy fail which from the earth but by her flames in heaven tried nature is wholly the garden is an english version of a poem written in latin by himself it may have gained by being cast originally in a classical mould which would and extravagant in it has been said to approach assuredly he shows a depth of poetic feeling wonderful in a political the thoughts that dwell in a green shade have never been more expressed a drop like the garden was composed first in latin it is a conceit but a pretty conceit gracefully as well as worked out and forms a good example of the contrast between the philosophic poetry of those days a play of intellectual fancy and its more spiritual and in our own time the concluding lines with their stroke of wit about the are a sad fall the was no doubt suggested by the history of the it is the holy and cheerful note of a little band of for conscience sake by providence in their small boat to a home in a land of beauty young love is well known and its merits speak for themselves it is by the intrusion in the third and fourth of the and passion the on return from ireland cannot be positively proved to be the work of yet we can hardly doubt that he was its author the point of view and the sentiment admiration of with respect and pity for charles are exactly his the classical form would be natural to him and so would the philosophical conceit which the the epithet applied to in a poem which is undoubtedly his and so does the emphatic expression of belief that the hero could have been happier in private life and that he sacrificed himself to the state in taking the supreme command the and severity of style are not characteristic of but they would be imposed on him in this case by his model if the is really his to take it from him would be to do him great wrong it is one of the noblest in the english language and presents the figures and events of the great tragedy as they would impress themselves on the mind of an ideal spectator at once feeling and the spirit of revolution is described with a touch in the lines though justice against fate complain and plead the ancient rights in vain but those do hold or break as men are strong or weak better than anything else in our language this poem gives an idea of a grand measure as well as of the and spirit of an of the lines on paradise lost some	45
are vigorous but they are chiefly interesting from having been written by one who l ad anxiously watched milton s genius at work s poems are cold probably he was his are in the false classical style and of little value and is about the best of them and about the best of that is near this a fountain s liquid bell within the shell the in their day were much admired and feared they are now for the most part the subjects of satire as a rule are but a great like or the english poets preserves his flies in the of his general sentiment in s there is no they are mere heaps of dead flies honest indignation against and in high places no doubt is there but so are the meanness of restoration politics and the of restoration thought the curious may look at the character of holland the jokes in which are as good or as bad as ever though the cannon of and de have ceased to roar and in and the passage of which giving advice to charles ii is a specimen of the which was deemed s peculiar gift and in which swift and were his pupils like milton wrote a number of latin poems one of them had the honour of being ascribed to milton smith the garden how vainly men themselves to win the palm the oak or and their incessant labours see crowned from some single or tree whose short and narrow shade does their toils while all the flowers and trees do dose to the of repose fair quiet have i found thee here and innocence thy sister dear mistaken long i sought you then in busy companies of men your sacred plants if here below only among the plants will grow society is all but rude to this delicious solitude no white nor red was ever seen so as this lovely green fond lovers cruel as their flame cut in these trees their mistress name little alas they know or heed how far these beauties her exceed fair trees where er your i wound no name shall but your own be when we have run our passion s heat love hither makes his best retreat the gods who mortal beauty chase still in a tree did end their race hunted so only that she might laurel grow and pan did after speed not as a but for a reed vol ii the english poets what wondrous life is this i ripe apples drop about my head the clusters of a vine upon my mouth do crush their wine the and curious into my hands themselves do reach stumbling on as i pass with flowers i fall on grass meanwhile the mind from pleasure less into its happiness the mind that ocean where each kind does straight its own resemblance find yet it these far other worlds and other seas all that s made to a green thought in a green shade here at the fountain s sliding foot or at some fruit tree s root casting the body s aside my soul into the boughs does glide there like a bird it sits and sings then and its silver wings and till prepared for longer flight waves in its the various light such was that happy garden state while man there walked without a mate after a place so pure and sweet what other help could yet be meet but twas beyond a mortal s share to wander solitary there two are in one to live in paradise alone how well the skilful gardener drew of flowers and this dial new where from above the sun does through a fragrant and as it works the industrious bee its time as well as we i how could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned but with and flowers a drop of dew see how the dew shed from the bosom of the into the blowing roses yet careless of its mansion new for the clear region where twas bom round in itself and in it little globe s extent frames as it can its native element how it the purple flower does slight scarce touching where it lies but gazing back upon the skies shines with a mournful light like its own tear because so long divided from the sphere restless it rolls and trembling lest it grow till the warm sun its pain and to the skies it back again so the soul that drop that ray of the clear fountain of eternal day could it within the human flower be seen remembering still its former height the sweet leaves and blossoms green and its own light does in its pure and thoughts express the greater heaven in a heaven less in how a figure wound every way it turns away so the world round yet receiving in the day dark beneath but bright above here there in love the english poets how loose and easy hence to go how and ready to ascend moving but on a point below it all about does upward bend such did the s sacred dew white and entire although and chill on earth but does run into the glories of the almighty sun the where the remote ride in the ocean s bosom from a small boat that rowed along the listening winds received this song what should we do but sing his praise that led us through the watery unto an isle so long unknown and yet far kinder than our own where he the huge sea monsters that lift the deep upon their backs he lands us on a grassy stage safe from the storms and rage he gave us this eternal spring which here every thing and sends the fowls to us in care on daily visits through the air he hangs in shades the orange bright like golden lamps in a green night and does in	45
the close jewels more rich than shows he makes the our mouths to meet and throws the at our feet but apples plants of such a price no tree could ever bear them twice with chosen by his hand from he stores the land and makes the hollow seas that roar proclaim the on shore he cast of which we rather boast the gospel s pearl upon our coast and in these rocks for us did frame a temple where to sound his name oh let our voice his praise till it arrive at heaven s vault which then perhaps may echo beyond the bay thus sung they in the english boat a holy and a cheerful note and all the way to guide their with falling oars they kept the time young love come little infant love me now while thine years clear thine aged father s brow from cold jealousy and fears pretty surely to see by young love old time d while our are as free as the nurse s with the child common beauties stay fifteen such as yours should move whose fair blossoms are too green yet for lust but not for love love as much the snowy lamb or the wanton kid does prize as the bull or ram for his morning sacrifice now then love me time may take thee before thy time away of this need we virtue make and learn love before we may the english poets so we win of doubtful fate and if good to us she meant we that good shall or if ill that ill prevent thus do other titles to their crown in the cradle crown their king so all foreign claims to drown so to make all rivals vain now i crown thee with my love crown me with thy love again and we both shall prove a upon s return from ireland the forward youth that would appear must now his dear nor in the shadows sing his numbers tis time to leave the books in dust and oil the unused s removing from the wall the of the hall so restless could not cease in the arts of peace but through adventurous war urged his active star and like the three lightning first breaking the clouds where it was did thorough his own side his fiery way divide for tis all one to courage high the or enemy and with such to is more than to oppose w mar then burning through the air he went and palaces and temples rent and caesar s head at last did through his blast tis madness to resist or blame the force of angry heaven s flame and if we would speak true much to the man is due who from his private gardens where he lived reserved and austere as if his highest plot to plant the could by industrious climb to ruin the great work of time and cast the old into another mould though justice against fate complain and plead the ancient rights in vain but those do hold or break as men are strong or weak nature that allows of penetration less and therefore must make room where greater spirits come what field of all the civil war where his were not the deepest and shows what part he had of wiser art where fears with hope he a net of such a scope that charles himself might chase to s narrow case that thence the royal actor borne the tragic might adorn while round the armed bands did clap their bloody hands he nothing did or mean upon that memorable scene the english poets but with his eye the axe s edge did try nor called the gods with vulgar spite to his helpless right but bowed his comely head down as upon a bed this was that memorable hour which first assured the forced power so when they did design the s first line a bleeding head where they begun did fright the to run and yet in that the state foresaw its happy fate and now the irish are ashamed to see themselves in one year tamed so much one man can do that does both act and know they can affirm his praises best and have though overcome confessed how good he is how just and fit for highest trust nor yet grown with but still in the republic s hand how fit he is to sway that can so well obey he to the feet presents a kingdom for his first year s rents and what he may his fame to make it theirs and has his sword and spoils to lay them at the public s skirt so when the high falls heavy firom the sky she having killed no more doth search but on the next green bough to perch where when he first does the has her sure w mar what may not then our isle presume while victory his crest does what may not others fear if thus he crowns each year as caesar he ere long to to italy a and to all states not free shall be the no shelter now shall find within his party coloured mind but from this sad shrink underneath the happy if in the the english hunter him mistake nor lay his hounds in near the deer but thou the war s and fortune s son march on and for the last effect still keep the sword erect beside the force it has to fright the spirits of the shady night the same arts that did gain a power must it maintain on milton s paradise lost when i beheld the poet blind yet bold in slender book his vast design crown d god s reconciled decree angels the forbidden tree heaven hell earth chaos all the argument held me awhile his intent that he would ruin for i saw him strong the sacred truths to	45
fable and old song so the temple s posts in spite the world o to revenge his sight english poets yet as i read soon growing less severe i liked his project the success did fear through that wide field how he his way should find o er which lame faith leads understanding blind lest he d the things he would explain and what was easy he should render rain or if a work so infinite he jealous i was that some less skilful hand such as always what is well and by ill would might hence presume the whole creation s day to change in scenes and show it in a play pardon me mighty poet nor despise my yet not but i am now convinced and none will dare within thy labours to pretend a share thou hast not missed one thought that could be fit and all that was improper dost omit so that no room is here for writers left but to detect their ignorance or that majesty which through thy work doth reign draws the devout the profane and things divine thou treat st of in such state as them preserves and thee at once delight and horror on us seize thou sing st with so much gravity and ease and above human flight dost aloft with so strong so equal and so soft the bird named from that paradise you sing so never flags but always keeps on wing where thou words of such a compass find whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind just heaven thee like to rewards with prophecy thy loss of sight well might thou thy readers to with rhyme of thy own sense secure while the town writes all the while and and like a pack horse without his bells their fancies like our points appear the poets them we for fashion wear i too transported by the mode offend and while i meant to praise thee must commend thy verse created like thy theme sublime in number and measure needs not rhyme samuel butler samuel butler was bom at in in and died in london in samuel butler the of poetry seems to have been mainly a self taught man after leaving cathedral school he started in life as justice s clerk to a mr at he was next at in in the service of the of and here he met and worked for john finally he formed part of the household of sir samuel a colonel for and governor of at the restoration he was made secretary to the president of wales and steward of castle and in at full fifty years old he published the first part of the immense whose has given him his place in english letters the second part of was issued in the third in two years afterwards butler died the circumstances of his life during this final period are wholly he is said to have been rich and he is said to have been poor to have married a widow of means and to have had no fortune with his wife but a parcel of bad to have had a royal gift of and been s secretary and to have had neither reward nor of any sort to have been in a position to refuse as insufficient such places as were offered him and to have lived and died a disappointed who was of his friends describes him as a good fellow but and of a severe and sound and adds in this connection wits whom they converse with and consequently make themselves many enemies and few friends and this was his case so that the mist of obscurity in which his latter years were past may after all have been a mist of his own raising samuel butler during his lifetime butler published but the three parts of a couple of and an on the exploits and renown of the illustrious which last in its grave p t y anticipation not of s wild three volumes of remains mostly were published in but in i of put forth a couple of volumes of prose and verse selected from butler s and these with some scraps printed later on are all that is known to exist of him his chief work that one on which his fame is wholly founded and of which he was himself most careful and is as a whole it is now a days hard reading it is long the greater part of it has fallen naturally into and disregard the most popular of its innumerable have got degraded into mere and remind us of and smoothed by centuries of but is none the less as notable in these days as it was at the epoch of its birth it has been more largely read and quoted than almost any book in the language it contains the best and brightest of butler and is a perfect of his mind and temper to give an idea of it by means of is almost impossible the poet s of illustration and argument is astonishing his is bewildering his intelligence of things is he treats of much and that at such length that he takes many thousand verses to pass his heroes through some two or three adventures to know him as he was his work must be read as a whole and diligently his literary in are not far to seek his matter he must have acquired during his stay with sir samuel when he had such opportunity of study from the life as has fallen to the lot of but few it was in the work of le and the band of brave wits responsible for the e that he learned to make a proper use of the material he had gathered and acquired in perfection the art of placing his and victims in an absolutely odious light his genius it is	45
true had little or nothing dramatic in it and the of and the lady and the squire have not the personal and ring in them that is to be discerned in those of and the de but they proceed on the same principle with these like these they nothing and set down everything in malice of these they are in some son the english poets the worthy for his manner butler found a something of it in the acute imaginative intelligence of abuse that is a feature in that wandering s is a feature in butler also mn flashing his random speeches at the enemies of his party and his king there are to be found as it were the rough of the patient persistent laborious author of the broken scholar at a parcel of lay elders those state made up of ears and like or at the members of a mixed assembly as so many where there rules the fading and the coming or reflecting in connection with the he hated lord what a thing is want of shirts or crying out of that he had a of victory is not remote from the maker of and the now and now the reverse we know in it must be added that butler is not less polished and orderly than is rough and careless that butler is nearly always apt enough to be final and that hangs or fire a dozen times for once he that butler in fine is an artist in and that is at best but a clever amateur lastly it was from that butler took the idea of his fable and of his chief personages his object was to and the and not to imitate or otherwise the act that converted the good into an evil of the abstract colonel and his squire into a monstrous and charge of an independent would be not less infamous than the doings of with re and shakespeare butler however did but choose the great of his as the two most popular figures in european literature and his instinct in this matter the instinct of the true did him service the public of the restoration must have felt to and as to the oldest friends they had thus much secured the rest was easy it was not for butler to make his human for as mr has observed to represent anything but monsters some strokes must have been introduced and as butler wanted not to finally the he hated but to make as much fun out of them as possible he did right to deal in monsters and in monsters only accordingly is but a back a beard and a collection of old clothes and rusty iron has no outward presence at all while samuel butler both man and master are merely compact of and of folly butler had the co at his back a he gave them ot t he liked and it was his function for some twenty years to aid and the brace of pitiful he had contrived and so make sport for a winning side that could not forget it once had been in other circumstances it is the steady and persistent exercise of this function that has procured him much of the neglect with which he is visited fashions change the of one epoch become the heroes of the next and what yesterday was apt and humorous is and out of date to morrow that which we praise in butler now is that for which two centuries ago no man regarded him he is tedious trivial where he once was exact heroic but he had an abundance of wit of the best and truest sort he was an observer he knew opinions well and books even better he had considered life and severely as a he proceeded from none and has had no successor his is of its kind his work is a very of sentences and of vigorous and picturesque of strong sound sense and robust english and when all against him has been said that can be there remains enough of good in his verse to prove that great as it is his reputation was well earned and justly bestowed w e the english poets from part l he could raise scruples dark and and after solve em in a as if divinity had the on purpose to be scratched or like a did wound and herself with doubts profound only to show with how small pain the of faith are cured again the that stubborn crew of saints whom all men grant to be the true church such as do build their faith upon the holy text of and gun decide all by and prove their doctrine with blows and call fire and sword and desolation a thorough which always must be going on and still be doing never done as if religion were intended for nothing else but to be mended a whose chief devotion lies in odd perverse in falling out with that or this and finding somewhat still amiss more cross and than dog or monkey sick that with more care keep the wrong than others the right way samuel butler compound for sins they are inclined to by those they have no mind ta still so perverse and opposite as if they worshipped god for spite the self same thing will one way and long another for they one way another nothing else allow all piety consists therein in them in other men all sin rather than fail they will defy that which they love most tenderly quarrel with and their best and dearest friend fat pig and goose itself oppose and through the nose new light tis a dark lantern of the spirit which none see by but those that bear it a light that falls down from on high for spiritual trades to by an that and leads men into pools	45
and to make them dip themselves and sound for in dirty pond to like for salvation and fish to catch the muse of thou that with ale or inspire and and force them though it was in spite of nature and their stars to write who as we find in sullen and cross works of modem wits vol ii d d a the english poets with vanity opinion want the wonder of the ignorant the praises of the author by himself or wit friend the of picture in the front with and wicked upon t au that is left o the hill to make men without skill make a poet spite of fate and teach all people to though out of languages in which they understand no part of speech martial music instead of trumpet and of drum that makes the warrior s stomach come whose noise sharp like by thunder turned to for if a trumpet sound or drum beat who has not a month s mind to combat honour he that is and dares fight though can lose no honour by t honour s a lease for lives to come and cannot be extended from the legal tenant a not to be in battle if he that in the field is slain be in the bed of honour lain he that is beaten may be said to lie in honour s bed for as we see the sun by mortals is more gazed upon than when adorned with all his light he shines in serene sky most bright so in a low estate is most admired and wondered at taken in execution samuel from part ii night the sun grew low and left the skies put down some write by ladies eyes the moon pulled off her veil of light that hides her face by day from sight mysterious veil of brightness made that s both her lustre and her shade and in the lantern of the night with shining hours hung out her light for darkness is the proper sphere where all false glories use to appear the twinkling stars beg to muster and glitter with their borrowed lustre while sleep the wearied world relieved by death revived morning the sun had long since in the lap of taken out his nap and like a boiled the mom from black to red began to turn spiritual some say the soul s secure against distress and is free from action and from execution and contempt and to be summoned to appear in the other world s here and therefore few make any account into what they run l for most men carry things so even between this world and hell and heaven d d the english poets without the least offence to either they freely deal in all together and equally to quit this world for both or both for it and when they and damn their souls they are but prisoners on from part hi marriage there are no driven nor marriages clapped up in heaven and that s the reason as some guess there is no heaven in marriages two things that naturally press too narrowly to be at ease their business there is only love which marriage is not like to improve love that s too generous to abide to be against its nature tied for where tis of itself inclined it breaks loose when it is confined and like the soul its the freedom of the air against its to stay and struggles out and flies away and therefore never can to endure the matrimonial tie that the female and the male where the one is but the other s like roman when they slept chained to the prisoners they kept although some fits of small contest sometimes fall out among the best samuel butler that is no more than every lover does from his lady suffer that makes no breach of faith and love but rather sometimes serves to for as in running every pace is but between two legs a race in which both do their to get before and win the post yet when they re at their races ends they re still as kind and constant friends and to relieve their weariness by turns give one another ease so all those false of strife between the husband and the wife and little quarrels often prove to be but new of love when those who re always kind or in time must either tire or from an apology for as none but kings have power to raise a which the subject pays and though they call that tax a loan yet when tis gathered tis their own so he that s able to impose a wit on verse or prose and still the authors are can make them pay the greater share is prince of poets of his time and they his that supply him can judge more justly of what he takes than any of the best he makes and more conceive what s lit to choose and what to leave for men reflect more strictly on the wit of others than their own the english poets and wit that s made of and is richer than the plain downright as salt that s made of salt a more fine than when it first came from the and spirit s of a nobler nature drawn from the dull matter upon the weakness and misery of man our pains are real things and all our pleasures but diseases of their own accord but come difficult and hard our noblest piles and rooms are but to our cities though ne er so great and brave but mere to the grave our bravery s but a vain disguise to hide us from the world s dull eyes the remedy of a defect with which our is yet makes us smile with pride and boast as if we had gained by being lost and	45
from and i rhyme the is of verses with which like ships they steer their courses in the hurry of a tis hard to keep out of harm s way honour is like a widow won with brisk attempt and putting on with entering and urging not slow approaches like a virgin samuel butler great always own what s prosperous by the soldier done great greater glory gain by foes in triumph led than slain ay me what perils do the man that with cold iron i s a wit a gin that women oft are taken in in all the trade of war no feat is nobler than a brave retreat for those that run away and fly take place at least of the enemy he that runs may fight again which he can never do that s slain fools are by looking wise as men tell by their eyes night is the sabbath of mankind to rest the body and the mind as if and edge tools were the only engines to save souls money that like the swords of kings is the last reason of all things he that against his will is of his own opinion still those that write in rhyme still make the one verse for the other s sake he that will win his dame must do as love does when he his bow with one hand thrust the lady from and with the other pull her home what is worth in anything but so much money as bring the public faith which every one is bound to observe is kept by none the english poets t he that an oath makes it not he that for convenience takes it opinion all mankind like the blind s leading of the blind the worst of never arm to do their king and country but draw their swords to do them good as doctors use by letting blood the saints are more stiff than the headed of the wicked without love some say is like a lock without a key too much or too little wit do only render the owners fit for nothing but to be undone much easier than if they had none in little trades more and lying is used in selling than in buying but in the great dealing is used in than in selling loyalty is still the same whether it win or lose the game true as the dial to the sun although it be not upon the all things are they re but to nothing the more near things said false and never meant do oft prove true by accident authority is a disease and cure which men can neither want nor well endure earl of was bom in ireland in he spent the best part of his life in france and italy and died in london lord was a man of taste and judgment who had in france a liking for forms of literature and who attempted to be to english poetry what was to french he did not come forward as a writer till late in life when he produced two thin of critical poetry an essay on translated verse and art of poetry there was little originality in these polite exercises but they were smoothly and sensibly written with a certain pope has noted that in all charles days only lays he was the friend of and the admirer of milton whose he in terms that recall the later praise of w the english poets from the essay on translated verse on sure foundations let your fabric rise and with attractive majesty surprise not by affected arts but strict harmonious of parts which through the whole must pass with vital heat to the mass a pure an active an flame and bright as heaven from whence the blessing came but few few spirits pre ordained by fate the race of gods have reached that envied height no rebel s crime by hills on hills can thither climb the man of hell denied entrance till he knew his guide how justly then will mortals fall whose pride would to heaven without a call pride of all others the most dangerous fault proceeds from want of sense or want of thought the men who labour and things most will be much to than boast for if your author be profoundly good cost you dear before he s understood how many ages since has writ how few are they who understand him yet approach his with religious fear no vulgar deity there n shakes not more at jove s imperial nod than poets should before their god hail mighty may that sacred name my breast with thy celestial flame sublime ideas and apt words the muse instruct my voice and thou inspire the muse i charles earl of was bom january immediately after the restoration he was elected to represent east in parliament and distinguished himself in the house of he went as a to the first dutch war in and after this devoted himself to a learned leisure he succeeded to the in and again took a part in public business till when his health failed he died at bath january it is recorded of lord that he refused all offers of political in early life that he might give his mind more thoroughly to study he was the friend and patron of almost all the poets from to pope adored him in one generation and prior in the next nor was the courtesy that produced this affection mere idle for no one was more fierce than he in and literary of all the poetical of the restoration lord alone reached old age yet with all these opportunities and all this bias towards the art the actual verse he has left behind him is miserably small va splendid piece of society verse a few songs some extremely foul and violent these are ail that have survived to	45
justify in the eyes of posterity the boundless reputation of lord the famous song was written in when the author at the age of twenty eight had volunteered under the duke of york in the first dutch war it was composed at sea the night before the critical engagement in which the dutch admiral was blown up and thirty ships destroyed or taken it may be considered as the epoch of de td as it has flourished from prior down to w the english poets song written at sea to all you ladies now at land we men at sea but first would have you understand how hard it is to write the now and too we must to write to you for though the should prove kind and fill our empty brain yet if rough rouse the wind to wave the main our paper pen and ink and we roll up and down our ships at sea then if we write not by each post think not we are unkind nor yet conclude our ships are lost by or by wind our tears well send a way the tide shall them twice a day the king with wonder and surprise will swear the seas grow bold because the tides will higher rise than e er they did of old but let him know it is our tears bring floods of grief to stairs should chance to know our sad and dismal story the dutch would scorn so weak a foe and quit their fort at for what resistance can they find from men who ve left their hearts behind the earl of m r n i let wind and weather do its worst be you to us but kind let curse no sorrow we shall find tis then no matter how things go or who s our friend or who s our foe to pass our tedious hours away we throw a merry main or else at serious play but why should we in vain each other s ruin thus pursue we were undone when we left you but now our fears grow and cast our hopes away you regardless of our woe sit careless at a play perhaps permit some happier man to kiss your hand or your fan when any tune you hear that dies in every note as if it sighed with each man s care for being so remote think then how often love made to you when all tunes were played in justice you can not refuse to think of our distress when we for hopes of honour lose our certain happiness all those designs are but to prove ourselves more worthy of your love and now we ve told you all our loves and likewise all our fears in hopes this declaration moves some pity from your tears let s hear of no we have too much of that at sea i the english poets song s sparkling wit and eyes united cast too fierce a light which high but quickly dies pains not the heart but hurts the sight love is a joy smooth are his looks and soft his pace her is a boy that runs his link full in your face for shame let us improve a thousand different ways those few short moments snatched by love from many tedious days if you want courage to despise the censure of the grave though love s a tyrant in your eyes your heart is but a slave my love is full of noble pride nor can it e er submit to let that discretion ride in triumph over it false friends i have as well as you who daily counsel me fame and ambition to pursue and leave off loving thee but when the least regard i show to fools who thus advise may i be dull enough to grow most miserably wise sir charles sir charles was born at in august ao his most comedy he garden appeared in his poetical and dramatic works were collected in was one of the most graceful and refined of the mob of restoration gentlemen who wrote in prose and verse for nearly forty years he was recognised as a patron of f f tj as an amateur of more than usual skill three times at intervals of ten years he produced a play in the taste of the age and when his clever comedy was condemned at the theatre royal on account of its intolerable he for the remainder of his life and left to his three more plays in manuscript his songs are bright and lively but inferior to those of in force a certain sweetness of in his verse delighted his who praised his and his gentle prevailing art in his plays he seems to be inspired by and two lines in his most famous song have preserved his reputation from complete decay w the english poets love still has something of the sea from whence his mother rose no time his slaves from love can free nor give their thoughts repose they are d in days and in rough weather they under cold or are in lost one while they seem to touch the port then straight into the main some angry wind in cruel sport their vessel drives at first disdain and pride they fear which if they chance to rivals and falsehood soon appear in a more dreadful shape by such degrees to joy they come and are so long so slowly they receive the sum it hardly does them good tis cruel to a and to a bliss believe me gentle no less is an hundred thousand oaths your fears perhaps would not remove and if i gazed a thousand years i could no deeper love s f charles tis much for you to guess than for me to explain but grant oh grant that happiness which only does remain song from the	45
garden ah that i now could sit as as when your infant beauty could no pleasure nor no pain when i the dawn used to admire and praised the coming day i little thought the growing fire must take my rest away your charms in harmless childhood lay like in the mine age from no face took more away than youth concealed in thine but as your charms to their perfection fond love as did fly and in my bosom rest my passion with your beauty grew and at my heart still as his mother favoured you threw a new flaming dart each in their wanton part to make a lover he employed the utmost of his art to make a beauty she though now i slowly bend to love uncertain of my fate if your fair self my chains approve i shall my freedom hate you il e e l the english poets like dying men may well at first disordered be since none alive can truly tell what fortune they must see is my only joy as the winds or seas sometimes cunning sometimes yet she never fails to please if with a frown i am cast down smiling and makes me happier than before though alas too late i find nothing can her fancy fix yet the moment she is kind i forgive her with her tricks which though i see i can t get free she deceiving i believing what need lovers wish for more mrs whose maiden name was johnson was bom in in and died in london april her most famous comedy the was printed in her poems appeared in mrs was the first who made her by the profession of literature after a youth of much and some not social splendour she seems to have lost her fortune and to have turned at the age of twenty nine to her pen for support she was a woman of no learning but of great enthusiasm for in others and of unbounded veneration for wit and genius wit she herself possessed and something too of genius though not enough to lift her above the mean standard of a and age but while we condemn the of her manners and exclaim with pope how loosely does tread the stage we must not deny her the praise due to honest work performed through nearly twenty years of poverty and failing health living among men struggling by the side of settle and of for the dingy honours of the stage she forgot the dignity of her sex and wrote like a man in eighteen years she saw nineteen of her or by the and idle of the duke s theatre and forced to write what would please she wrote in a style that has put a later generation very justly to the blush but in power of sustained production she surpassed all her except since beside this ample list of plays she published eight novels some of poetry and various miscellaneous volumes the bulk of her writings and the sustained force so considerable a body of literature are more marked than the quality of her style which is very irregular uncertain and she possessed none of that command over her pen which a university training had secured to the best male poets of e the english poets her time but she has moments of extraordinary fire and audacity when her verse throws off its languor and with harmony and passion her one long poem the voyage to the isle of love which extends to more than two thousand lines is a sentimental in a vague and style almost wholly without value her best pieces occur here and there in her plays and among her miscellaneous poems it is very unfortunate that one who is certainly to be numbered as far as intellectual capacity goes in the first rank of english female writers should have done her best to remove her name from the recollection of posterity by the and of her language w mrs be un song from love in fantastic triumph whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed for whom fresh pains he did create and strange power he showed from thy bright eyes he took his fires which round about in sport he hurled but twas from mine he took desires enough to undo the world from me he took his sighs and tears from thee his pride and cruelty from me his and fears and every killing dart from thee thus thou and i the god have armed and set him up a deity but my poor heart alone is while thine the victor is and free the dream the grove was gloomy all around murmuring the stream did pass where fond laid her down upon a bed of grass i slept and saw a piteous sight a weeping lay till both his little stars of light had wept themselves away i asked him why he cried my pity led me on all sighing the sad boy replied alas i am undone as i beneath yon lay down by s springs stole my bow away and both my wings the english poets alas i cried twas then thy wherewith he wounded me thou mighty deity of hearts he stole his power from thee revenge thee if a god thou be upon the set thy wings at liberty and thou shalt fly again and for this service on my part all i demand of thee is wound cruel heart and make him die for me his silken i and those gay wings displayed which gently he mounting cried farewell fond easy maid at this i blushed and angry grew i should a god believe and waking found my dream too true for i was still a slave on the death of how to thy sacred memory shall i bring worthy thy fame a grateful offering i who by toils of sickness am become	45
almost as near as thou art to a tomb while every soft and every tender strain is and ill natured grown with pain but at thy name my muse and a new spark in the dull ashes i hear thy verse thy song divine and am inspired by every charming line but oh what inspiration at the second hand can an immortal command unless like pious mine should be made sacred being to thee mrs eternal as thy own almighty verse should be those that adorn thy the thought illustrious and the fancy young the wit sublime the judgment fine and strong soft as thy notes to sung whilst mine like flowers decay that come to deck thy tomb a short lived day such are like only fit to show from whom we hold our right to wit long did the d world in ignorance stray producing nothing that was great and gay till taught by thee the true poetic way rough were the tracks before dull and obscure nor pleasure nor instruction could procure their thoughtless labours could no passion move sure in that age the poets knew not love that charming god like then was only talked on but ne er seen by men darkness was o er the land displayed and even the chosen tribe strayed till by thee rescued from the egyptian night they now look up and view the god of light that taught them how to love and how to write second earl of was bom in and died july the best edition of his poems appeared in i by a strange and melancholy the finest poet of restoration was also its worst natured man infamous in a age for his the earl of was as a subject shifting and treacherous as a friend and as a man of honour his habitual may be taken perhaps as an excuse for the physical cowardice for which he was notorious and his early decline in bodily strength as the cause of his extreme bitterness of tongue and savage malice so sullen was his humour so cruel his pursuit of pleasure that his figure seems to pass through the social history of his time like that of a veritable devil yet there were points at which the character of this unfortunate and abandoned person was not wholly vile within our own age his letters to his wife have surprised the world by their tenderness and quiet domestic humour and above all the finest of his songs reveal a sweetness and purity of feeling for which the legends of his life are very far from preparing us the volumes which continued to be for nearly a century under the title of s poems form a kind of into which a modem reader can scarcely venture to dip of this notorious collection a large part was the offensive matter that had to be removed from the writings of butler and other less famous poets found an asylum under the of the name of but readers who are fortunate enough to secure the volume by the dead poet s friends in will find no more than are familiar in all poetry of the restoration nd will discover what they will not find elsewhere the exquisite on which the fame of should rest i his as and vigorous as they are foul are not included in this edition he uses the english language in them as and had used latin as a he is only known by his or of s tragedy of of which the sole point of interest is that he omitted all s exquisite songs including the hear ye ladies that despise and introduced a very good song of his own the latter as of the restoration as the former were r with the power of writing songs died in england until the age of and he was the last of the and in some respects the best in the qualities that a song demands simplicity pathos and tenderness he arrives nearer to pure excellence than any one between and his style is without and save in this one matter of song writing he is weighed down by the and of his age but by the side of or of he seems as fresh as by the side of he seems light and flowing turning his of song brightly and sweetly with the of true art occasionally as in the piece not quoted here called the mistress he is like in the quaint force and ingenuity of his images but the fact is that the muse of nothing so much as a beautiful child which has rolled itself in the mud and which has grown so dirty that the ordinary would rather pass it hurriedly by than do justice to its native charms w the english poets song my dear mistress has a heart soft as those kind looks she gave me when with love s art and her eyes she did me but her constancy s so weak she s so wild and apt to wander that my jealous heart would break should we live one day asunder melting joys about her move killing pleasures she can dress her eyes in love and her lips can arm with kisses angels listen when she speaks she s my delight all mankind s wonder but my jealous heart would break should we live one day asunder constancy i cannot change as others do though you scorn since that poor that sighs for you for you alone was bom no no your heart to move a way try and to revenge my love will still love on and die when killed with grief lies and you to mind shall call the sighs that now rise the tears that vainly fall that welcome hour that ends his smart will then begin your pain for such a faithful tender heart can never break in vain the bowl contrive me such a	45
known passage of his history may have in him more of human dignity and freedom than the of popular fury and the to mob prejudice was the of the plot frenzy and his are accordingly stained with much mire and with much blood to what the of excited popular feeling together with an love of strong language can carry a bold and pen the second of the following will suffice to show it the indignation which inspired s most sustained series of efforts and the violence and malignant of his together with its frequent bad and occasional bad grammar he has been repeatedly compared with whose earlier and worse manner he in his own earlier efforts but whom he preceded as a it is in the latter capacity only that is memorable among our poets for his and other are without being effective his have the too to their kind and the rest of his verse though occasionally pleasing has no peculiar value but on the roll of our later poetic which begins with and ends with a far from insignificant place both johnson and pope may have owed something to him but by he was valued and acknowledged as to him the most congenial of his fellow authors at the time of s death though a of the court was not yet a roman catholic and there was accordingly no in the praise which with his usual he offered on the early death of his younger he had but one exception to take and even this he was ready himself to had lived longer wrote advancing age might what nature never gives the young have taught the numbers of hy native tongue but satire needs not those and wit will shine through the harsh of a rugged line to us there is much besides defects of form to overlook or forgive in his most famous have the of an essentially flame than that in which the greatest masters of poetic satire ancient or modem their but he was capable of productions tempered with art if with less expenditure of vigour than those by which he is best known his of and are all more or less and in a few shorter original pieces of the same cast he shows occasional lightness as well as his habitual strength of touch it should certainly not be forgotten that he died at thirty one and that the species of poetry in which he was chiefly gifted for was one more especially suited to powers and to have been the foremost english writer of satire at a time when was already famous though not in this branch of poetry was to have secured a fair title to remembrance a w ward vol ii f f the english poets the from the second of the upon the these are the of the cause the life guard of the roman chose to break the force of and foes the church s in divinity who stead of lace and ribbons doctrine cry rome s who survey each continent its and to vent the gospel like mere ware for sale and t for or as the known here the brethren once christ about for rings and and shall these great be and thus by they by whose means both indies now enjoy the two choice blessings lust and which buried else in ignorance had been nor known the worth of beads and it pitied holy mother church to see a world so drowned in gross it grieved to see such goodly nations hold bad errors and gold strange what a fervent zeal can coin what charity pieces of eight produce i so were you chosen the to the pagan world and give t a christian name and great was the success whole stood at and were in their own blood millions of souls were hurled from hence to bum before their time be damned in their own turn yet these were in compassion sent to hell the rest reserved in spite and worse to feel cardinal the great opposed by james i the spanish de h a dollar or eight silver john compelled instead of to worship you the more devils of the two rare way and method of this to make your your sacrifice if to destroy be thought a plague as well might the good work have wrought now see we why your founder weary grown would lay his former trade of killing down he found twas dull he foimd a crown would be a case and of cruelty each hero seas of blood can when wrongs provoke and honour bids him kill give me your through paced rogue who to be prompted by poor revenge or injury but does it of true cruelty your cool and sober murderer who and at the same time who one hand has stretched up to heaven the other to make the pass so the late saints of blessed memory cut throats in pure sincerity so they with lifted hands and eyes devout said grace and carved a monarch out when the first traitor too good to be thought patron of this black his bloody tragedy of old designed one death alone his mind content with but a quarter of mankind had he been and but put on their savage cruelty the rest had gone his hand bad sent old adam after too and forced the to create anew the domestic from a satire addressed to a friend that is about to leave the university t and abroad in the world some think themselves exalted to the sky if they light in some noble family ceased to be a soldier after the siege of ff the english poets diet a horse and thirty pounds a year besides the advantage of his s ear the credit of the business and the state are things that in a s sense sound great little the inexperienced wretch does know	45
what slavery he oft must undergo who though in silken and dressed wears but a livery at best when dinner calls the must wait with holy words to the meat but hold it for a favour seldom known if he be the honour to sit down soon as the appear sir withdraw those are not for a spiritual observe your distance and be sure to stand hard by the with your cap in hand there for diversion you may pick your teeth till the kind comes for your relief for mere board wages such their freedom sell slaves to an hour and to a bell and if the enjoyment of one day be stole they are but prisoners out on always the marks of slavery remain and they though loose still drag about their chain and where s the mighty prospect after all a served up and seven years the thing perhaps for a reward is to some slender preferred with this bound that he must wed my lady s waiting maid in dressing only skilled and basket for the scraps of dinner john born in at all saints in the valley of the in of and educated at westminster school and college cambridge he appears to have become a about the middle of the year at the restoration he changed into an ardent and towards the close of married the daughter of a nobleman the earl of in he was appointed royal and poet after having hitherto been conspicuous as a and a poet he in by the publication of the first part of ami sprang into fame as a writer of verse in december be was appointed of customs in the port of london his offices were renewed to him on the accession of king james ii but bis of was not renewed till rather more than a year later about the same time became a roman catholic and in april he published the hind and the deprived of both offices and by the revolution of he again for a time wrote for the stage but after a few years finally abandoned dramatic composition for translation some of his greatest likewise belong to his later years he died at his house in street may and was buried with great pomp in westminster abbey has been called the greatest writer of a little age but it may well be doubted whether he for one would have cared to accept either limb of the none of his moral qualities better with his magnificent genius than the real modesty which his self assertion his attitude towards the great literary representative of an age earlier than that to which his own maturity belonged was from first to last one of recognition and though the lines written by under milton s portrait have more sound than point they should not be forgotten as to the spirit which dictated them of in both the species of verse to which he owed his reputation infinitely s inferior the elder poet wrote that their souls were near allied and cast in the same poetic mould to his junior by fuu forty years he declared that he would the english poets gladly have resigned the in which he had been by a on the other hand whatever aspect the restoration age either in politics or in literature may wear in our eyes in its own it assumed any semblance rather than that of an age of decline and indeed to speak of its literature only it must be admitted that there are not a few considerations to be urged against the acceptance of such a it is enough to find the literature of the restoration age set down as essentially a foreign literature and yet a survey of s works alone both dramatic and non dramatic should suffice to shake the foundations of any such the heroic plays a species in which had rivals but no equal differed from the of the ry school as full from the so called restoration comedy the later and more perfect growth of which s efforts were but the is both for better and for worse as national as it is real it would of course be extremely absurd to deny the great influence in this period of french literature upon our own but it was an influence of much greater importance for the future of our literature both prose and verse as to form than as to matter yet though the clearness as well as the of the restoration style was partly due to french example these qualities were something very different from the imported fashions of a season may be charged with more than his usual audacity when in a of he spoke of our wit as far foreign wit after in an of he had his own times as not only but more refined and free in their use of the native tongue than any preceding age yet inasmuch as during two centuries english writers have on the whole followed and his instead of to their of the and earlier periods it would of contemptuously to dismiss the claims to literary honours of an age which formed for itself a style of so proved a merit with the aid of this style it called into life a new species of english poetry that poetry of which is not indeed the but in which he was the first as he has in most respects remained the greatest master whatever view be taken of the general features of the age of which was the chief literary ornament while milton s muse like the blind poet himself dwelt it is certain that john dr en this age speaks to us from the pages of its most brilliant writer he was not formed as a man or as a poet to live out of his times yet neither was he in character or in genius one	45
of those who merely give back what they have received more or less changed in form or in manner he has been as a in politics as a in religion and in literature as the of a succession of schools the reasons for and against these charges cannot be examined here and there seems something specially in treating of in a tone of apology at the same time both his life and works the relations between which are peculiarly intimate often require to be protected from some of the with which they have been visited many of our poets have been subjected to criticism but none has so to speak been so r as he was the of ancestors on both the father s and the mother s side his own according to an adversary of the poet s was a committee man and one of his maternal cousins was a peer of s creation nothing could therefore be more natural or becoming than that on the protector s death then a young man of twenty seven should have sung the praises of our prince generally selecting for qualities which even s enemies would not have denied him to have possessed that the author of the heroic should with the restoration have forth as a no at all it should not be forgotten that the restoration was not a mere party act and that much had happened between it and the death of what ever may have been the hereditary politics of and john was a bom and with the restoration his political changes were at an end poetry was the fashion of the age and the and readiness of dry den s genius made it easy for him to in this kind of composition to be sure even the most willing and the most muse must rapidly such a theme as the virtues of king charles ii and in his written on the king s death found little to add to what he had sung in the composed in honour of the restoration except that his majesty died hard in shorter pieces in honour of the king the of york and lord displayed the same talent for waving gorgeous the poets b of in he hailed the birth of a whom half the regarded as a before he and his parents were no has ever earned like dr den the butt of which the economy of king james new reign off from his salary of all the de force by him however the most extraordinary is that in which he undertook to flatter the nation as well as the to the top of their bent the fire and spirit of the are nothing short of when the which beset the though partly by his own choosing are remembered there was first the of his subject which as a perusal of the poem cannot fail to reveal to the most reader was by no means made up altogether of materials for yet the must really have d me good to the public even at the present day it agreeably the john bull sentiment of patriotism and prejudice in the comer of an englishman s heart another difficulty but in this instance a self imposed one was the form of verse in which the poem was written it was chosen for the sake of its dignity but as well knew and told from whose it was borrowed it put a far greater strain upon the ingenuity and skill of the author thus though has written that is more thoroughly he has written nothing that is more characteristic of himself than this long series of the glorious dash of the performance is his own and so is the victorious struggle against the drag of a difficult and rather dull but it was a yet different kind of poem by which the loyal of the throne first became a in english politics no modem reader whether his sympathies be with the or whether he think that there may be something to be said even in favour of the is likely to refuse his admiration to the greatest greatest without even a suggestion of of english political this position in a literature rich in of the same kind to political and a or rather the first part of the satire owes to the reason which made it so singularly effective at the season of its publication besides being executed with vigour and and as finished in detail as it is impetuous in flow it has the supreme merit for a work of this kind of being completely adapted to its special purpose and is a political satire pure and simple not like john dr a on a whole full of political and religious the form of the satire while so familiar in itself as to save all trouble in the author s just for the real theme beneath a decent disguise but it by no means with a quality necessary for the of the work its accordingly every shaft flies home in every character from and to the lesser which are as it were merely touched in passing precisely those features are marked as to which it is desirable to strengthen and the suspicions of the popular instinct the object of the writer being not to furnish a narrative of a complete historical episode but to give a striking picture of the influences which had led to the situation existing at the time when was to be placed on his trial for treason the real completion of the plot of the poem would have been furnished by the event which it was designed to bring about namely the conviction and condemnation of its treacherous hero thus the first part with its vehement and fervent enthusiasm a moderation proving the author s hand to be that of a shrewd as well as a keen the blows are not dealt as	45
the lay man is content to bow to authority where it deserves the name to leave obscure points aside and where he cannot agree with the church to his private judgment for the sake of peace for points obscure are of small use to learn but common quiet is the world s concern that a whose stood on so very weak a footing should have been led after all into the bosom of a church claiming seems a fact easily accounted for and in truth the laid might almost be called a house in the road along which was travelling a reverence for authority was in his nature he was a tory before he was a catholic moreover he was at no time a man to strain at minor and it was therefore almost inevitable that the s simple creed would sooner or later cease to satisfy a mind inclined and accustomed to look at things in the grand style if in point of fact this time came very soon there is no reason to deny that events happening and currents in operation around him may have hastened the change there are seasons specially favourable for a roll call in the moral as in the political world and apart from the bias in his mind was probably not one of the whom rome has found it most difficult to se cure but to attribute his to the renewal of a whether granted before or just after his declaration of his change of faith is not less than it is idle vaguely to suggest that he was influenced by visions of greater worldly advantage if his finds sufficient explanation as a process natural to a mind and disposition constituted like his and subjected to the general influences of an age like that in which he lived there remains no to be discussed that after becoming a roman catholic he should have felt a strong desire to offer to the world a defence of a position not new to the world but new and therefore in a sense uneasy to seems quite in accordance with experience but that the hind and the was not published in order to the favour of king james ii is manifest from a very circumstance this poem a species of as it might almost be called to the church of england on behalf of the church of rome and an invitation to the former to unite with the latter against the john dr appeared a fortnight after the declaration of indulgence by which the king had sought to the support of the bear the and every savage name willing to listen to the voice of the the hind and the has been by critics and by wits on account of the supposed of its characters and dialogue but there is no reason why beasts should not talk or politics or anything else under the sun in a piece constructed not as an but as a fable and moreover as sir walter scott has pointed out might have appealed for to the works of both and the of parts of the poem may at the same time be but its wit and vigour of expression aided by a which pope declared to be the most correct to be found in render it a unique contribution to literature that the author of the hind and the had lost little if any of his power as a will be evident from some of the passages below as being more suitable for than of the description of the the character of father j put into the s lips and that of dr afterwards bishop had already attacked in passing as in and and who replied in his history of his own time by as a master of and of all sorts this retort or the element of truth contained in its violence cannot be waved aside like the charges brought against of political and religious the of the restoration drama which it would have amused the restoration to see explained as mere imaginative found in him a too willing to be distinguished from the rest only because he had a genius to and to profane but it should be remembered in his honour that though he was not strong enough to resist temptation he was true enough to his nobler self to feel and to record the degradation of his weakness posterity need utter no censure on one who has spoken of his second fall with the solemn severity of displayed by in the beautiful to the memory of anne his nature was too fine and too manly to defy any criticism which he thought in any measure just although he might exaggerated the english poets and despise a of censure which to men of his mould is unintelligible undoubtedly though the strength and of his style makes him in almost everything he has written a truly to be guessed from a mere bit of himself is one of those authors to whom complete justice can never be done by those who study him in only the inexhaustible and ease of his style require the vast expanse of his collected works for their full display but what cannot be exhibited in completeness may be indicated by contrast truly great as a and unusually effective as a poet as an writer surpassed even in execution and at times equalled him in felicity of from the strains of his earlier days he passed in his later to a treatment of a theme not less difficult and far than the praise of earthly crowns and their the two famous in honour of st s day are almost equally brilliant in execution but the earlier and shorter is not altogether successful in avoiding the dangers to any attempt of a more elaborate kind to make the sound appear an echo to the sense alexander s on the other	45
hand may not be without a certain but affectation alone can pretend to be insensible to the magnificent of its movement or to the harmonious charm of of s art as a only one example could find a place here the simple but singularly powerful version to many generations of the creator yet this kind of literary work was one which neither he nor his were inclined to he possessed one of two qualities essential to a master in translation and lacked the other while gifted with an almost instinctive power of seizing upon the points in his original and wonderfully in rendering these by ingenious turns of thought and phrase in his own tongue he had neither the nature nor the training of a scholar he is accordingly at once the most and the most reckless of english poetic his of which with from and made up his last publication the show his mastery over his form at least as strikingly as any other of his works in the days in which we live s long popular re of happily can receive no other praise than this but something more than a mere of purple john seemed required by way of example of these famous by one great english poet of another and greater as a he cannot here be discussed but room has been found for an example of one or two of his and in which the poet following the fashion of his times at his ease with his public through the medium of a favourite actor or since king david s happy restoration of a favourite but nowhere do the wit and the frankness of the age to use the term applied to it by one of its most popular find expression than in these of occasionally with a grain of salt satire or doing duty as or patriotic and nowhere is the genial of more thoroughly at home than in these confidences between and public lastly it should not be forgotten that as a prose critic of dramatic poetry and its laws remains much more than at the present day his any can point out but it is better worth while to appreciate the force of much that he says on whatever side of a question he may advocate among all our poets few have found better reasons for their theories or for the practice they have based on the theories of others in it is futile to seek for poetic qualities which he neither possessed nor affected remarked of him that there is not a single image from nature in the whole body of his works one may safely add to this that he is without depth and incapable true a quality which he in milton if it be too much to say that the magnificent instrument through which his genius its music the of poetry speaking to the heart the still presence of the is certainly wanting to it but he is master of his poetic form more especially of that heroic to which he gave a strength by any of his even by pope who surpassed him in finish and if there is grandeur in the pomp of kings and the march of hosts in the trumpet s loud and in and of velvet and gold is to be with the of english poets the irresistible of an which never falls short or flat and the of a satire which never seems dull or stale give him an place among the most glorious of english wits a w ward the english poets verses to her royal the on the memorable victory gained by the duke against the june and on her journey afterwards into the north when for our your hero you resigned to swelling seas and every wind when you released his courage and set free a fatal to the enemy you lodged your country s cares within your breast the mansion where soft love should only rest and ere our foes abroad were overcome the noblest conquest you had gained at home ah what concerns did both your souls divide your honour gave us what your love denied and twas for him much easier to subdue those foes he fought with than to part from you that glorious day which two such saw as each might to the world give law yet doubtful whom he should obey held to them both the of the sea the winds were hushed the waves in ranks were cast as awfully as when god s people past those yet uncertain on whose sails to blow these where the wealth of nations ought to flow then with the duke your ruled the day while all the brave did his command obey the fair and pious under you did pray how powerful are vows the wind and tide you to combat on the english side thus to your much loved lord you did convey an unknown sent the nearest way james duke of york s naval victory oflf john new vigour to his wearied arms you brought so moses was while fought while from afar we heard the cannon play like distant thunder on a shiny day for absent friends we were ashamed to fear when we considered what you ventured there ships men and arms our country might restore but such a leader could supply no more with generous thoughts of conquest he did bum yet fought not more to than return fortune and victory he did pursue to bring them as his slaves to wait on you thus beauty the rewards of fame and the fair when the brave overcame then as you meant to spread another way by land your far as his by sea leaving our southern you marched along the stubborn north ten thousand strong like the nobility resort in crowding heaps to fill your moving court to welcome your approach the vulgar run like some	45
new from the distant sun and country beauties by their lovers go blessing themselves and wondering at the show so when the new bom first is seen her subjects all their queen and while she makes her progress through the east from every grove her numerous train s each poet of the air her glory sings and round him the pleased audience clap their wings the attempt at from the year of wonders and now approached their fleet from india with all the riches of the rising sun and precious sand from southern brought the fatal regions where the war begun vol ii g g the english poets like hunted conscious of their store their way laid wealth to s they bring there first the north s cold bosom bore and winter on the eastern spring by the rich scent we found our prey which with rocks did close in covert lie and round about their cannon lay at once to threaten and invite the eye than cannon and than rocks more hard the english undertake the unequal war seven ships alone by which the port is barred the indies and all dare these fight like husbands but like lovers those these fain would keep and those more fain enjoy and to such height their frantic passion grows that what both love both hazard to destroy amidst whole heaps of lights a ball and now their armed against them fly some by shattered fall and some by die and though by of the prize in heaven s some ease we find our foes we by our left and only yielded to the seas and wind nor wholly lost we so deserved a prey for storms part of it restored which as a tribute from the sea the british ocean sent her mighty lord go mortals now and vex yourselves in vain for wealth which so must come when what was brought so far and with such pain was only kept to lose it nearer home the son who twice three months on the ocean prepared to tell what he had passed before now sees in english ships the holland coast and parents arms in vain stretched from the shore john dr r this careful husband had been long away whom his wife and little children mourn who on their fingers learned to tell the day on which their father promised to return such are the proud designs of human kind and so we suffer everywhere alas what port can such a pilot find who in the night of fate must blindly steer the fire of london from such was the rise of this prodigious fire which in mean buildings first bred from thence did soon to open streets and straight to palaces and temples spread the diligence of trades and gain and luxury more late asleep were laid all was the night s and in her silent reign no sound the rest of nature did in this deep quiet from what source unknown those seeds of fire their fatal birth disclose and first few scattering sparks about were blown big with the that to our ruin rose then in some close pent room it crept along and as it went in silence fed till the infant monster with devouring strong walked boldly upright with exalted head now like some rich or mighty murderer too great for prison which he breaks with gold who for new does appear and dares the world to tax him with the old so the insulting fire his narrow jail and makes small into open air there the fierce winds his tender force and beat him downward to his first repair the poets the winds like his flames from but to blow them more and eveiy attempt he is l th weaker than before and now no longer of his prey he leaps np at it with enraged desire the with a wide survey and at every house his threatening fire the ghosts of from the bridge descend with bold to rejoice about the fire into a dance they bend and sing their sabbath notes with feeble our guardian angel saw them where they above the palace of our king he sighed his charge to fate and drooping oft looked back upon the wing at length the noise and blaze called up some waking lover to the sight and long it was ere he the rest could raise whose heavy eyelids yet were of night the next to danger hot pursued by fate half clothed half naked hastily retire and mothers strike their breasts too late for helpless left amidst the fire their cries soon all the near now murmuring noises rise in every street the more remote run stumbling with their fear and in the dark men as they meet so weary bees in little repose but if night robbers lift the well stored hive an humming through their city grows and out upon each other s wings they drive the heads of for treason were displayed on bridge john now streets grow thronged and busy as by day some run for to the some cut the pipes and some the engines play and some more bold mount to the fire in for from the east a wind his hostile breath through the dry sent the flames impelled soon left their foes behind and forward with a wanton fury went a key of fire ran all along the shore and lightened all the river with a blaze the tides began again to roar and wondering fish in shining waters gaze old father thames raised up his reverend head but feared the fate of would return deep in his he sought his bed and shrank his waters back into his urn the fire meantime walks in a broader gross to either hand his wings he opens wide he the streets and straight he cross and plays his longing on the other side at	45
first they warm then and then they take now with long necks from side to side they feed at length grown strong their mother fire and a new colony of flames succeed to every nobler portion of the town the curling roll their restless tide in parties now they up and down as armies for prey divide one mighty with a sped through narrow lanes his fire does haste by powerful charms of gold and silver led the and the change to waste y see of the bulk the english poets another backward to the tower would go and slowly eats his way against the wind but the main body of the marching foe against the imperial palace is designed now day appears and with the day the king whose early care had robbed him of his rest far off the cracks of falling houses ring and shrieks of subjects pierce his tender breast near as he draws thick of smoke with gloomy pillars cover all the place whose little intervals of night are broke by sparks that drive against his sacred face more than his guards his sorrows made him known and pious tears which down his cheeks did shower the wretched in his grief forgot their own so much the pity of a king has power he wept the flames of what he loved so well and what so well had his love for never prince in grace did more or royal city more in duty strove from autumn and part i i i of these the false was first a name to all succeeding ages for close designs and crooked counsels fit sagacious bold and turbulent of wit restless in principles and place in power impatient of disgrace a fiery soul which working out its way fretted the body to decay and o er informed the of clay i dr r a daring pilot in extremity pleased with the danger when the waves went high he sought the storms but for a calm unfit would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit great wits are sure to madness near allied and thin do their bounds divide else why should he with wealth and honour refuse his age the needful hours of rest punish a body which he could not please of life yet prodigal of ease and all to leave what with his toil he won to that two legged thing a son got while his soul did huddled notions try and bom a lump like in friendship false in hate resolved to ruin or to rule the state to compass this the triple bond he broke the pillars of the public safety shook and fitted for a foreign yoke then seized with fear yet still affecting fame a s all name so easy still it proves in times with public to private crimes how safe is treason and how sacred ill where none can sin against the people s will where crowds can wink and no offence be known since in another s guilt they find their yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge the we but praise the judge in s courts ne er sat an with more eyes or hands more clean the wretched to swift of despatch and easy of access tht bond is the triple alliance of undone by the alliance concluded with france in when was a member of the this and the following lines referring to s conduct as lord were inserted in the second edition the was the chief justice the english poets oh had he been content to serve the crown with virtues only proper to the gown or had the of the soil been freed from that oppressed the noble seed david for him his harp had strung and heaven had wanted one immortal song but wild ambition loves to slide not stand and fortune s ice prefers to virtue s land grown weary to possess a lawful fame and lazy happiness the golden fruit to gather free and lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree now manifest of crimes contrived long since he stood at bold defiance with his prince held up the of the people s cause against the crown and behind the laws the wished occasion of the plot he takes some circumstances finds but more he makes by fills the ears of listening crowds with and fears of arbitrary counsels brought to light and proves the king himself a weak arguments which yet he knew full well were strong with people easy to rebel for governed by the moon the giddy jews tread the same track when she the prime and once in twenty years their record by natural instinct they change their lord the from and l to further this the of all the whose parties he could wisely join for several ends to serve the same design is the plot roman john the best and of the princes some were such who thought the power of too much mistaken men and in their hearts not wicked but by arts by these the springs of property were bent and wound so high they cracked the government the next for interest sought to the state to sell their duty at a dearer rate and their of the throne pretending public good to serve their own others thought kings an useless heavy load who cost too much and did too little good these were for laying honest david by on principles of pure good with them joined all the of the throng that thought to get by the tongue who follow next a double danger bring not only david but the king the well of old in and in treason bold and at a conqueror s sword but lofty to a lawful prince restored saw with disdain an plot begun and scorned by to be hot headed these who pulled before from the ark which in the judges days they	45
bore their cant and with a zealous cry pursued their old beloved where and priest the nation and justified their spoils by inspiration for who so fit for reign as s race if once dominion they could found in grace these led the pack though not of scent yet deepest mouthed against the government tiu is the of the city or b london ministers en poets a numerous host of dreaming saints succeed of the true old enthusiastic breed form and order they their power nothing to build and all things to destroy but far more numerous was the herd of such who think too little and who talk too much these out of mere instinct they knew not why adored their fathers god and property and by the same blind benefit of fate the devil and the did hate bom to be saved even in their own despite because they could not help believing right such were the tools but a whole more remains of heads too long to score some of their chiefs were princes of the land in the first rank of these did stand a man so various that he seemed io be not one but all mankind s stiff in opinions always in the wrong was everything by starts and nothing long but in the course of one revolving moon was and then all for women painting drinking besides ten thousand that died in thinking madman who could every hour employ with something new to wish or to enjoy railing and were his usual and both to show his judgment in extremes so over violent or over civil that every man with him was god or devil in wealth was his peculiar art nothing went but desert by fools whom still he found too late he had his jest and they had his estate he laughed himself from court then sought relief by forming parties but could ne er be chief is george second duke of a member of the but after his dismissal a member of the opposition he had as in the found out john for spite of him the weight of business fell on and wise thus wicked but in will of means he left not but of that was left from october all human things are subject to decay and when fate summons must obey this like young was to and had governed long in prose and verse was owned without dispute through all the of nonsense absolute this aged prince now flourishing in peace and with issue of a large increase worn out with business did at length debate to settle the succession of the state and pondering which of all his sons was fit to reign and immortal war with wit cried tis resolved for nature that he should only rule who most me alone my perfect image bears mature in from his tender years alone of all my sons is he who stands confirmed in full stupidity the rest to some faint meaning make pretence but never into sense some beams of wit on other souls may fall strike through and make a interval but genuine night admits no ray his rising prevail upon the day besides his goodly fabric fills the eye and seems designed for thoughtless majesty richard had died in he was an by birth o the poets thoughtless as monarch oaks that shade the plain spread in solemn state reign and were but types of thee thou last great prophet of even i a of more renown than they was sent before but to prepare thy way and in came to teach the nations in thy greater name and i from ah and part ii november i a i i though without knowing how or why made still a kind of melody boldly on and dashed through thick and thin through sense and nonsense never out nor in free from all meaning whether good or bad and in one word mad he was too warm on picking work to dwell but his notions as they fell and if they and rattled all was well he is not though he wrote a satire for still there goes some thinking to ill nature he needs no more than birds and beasts to think all his occasions are to eat and drink if he call rogue and rascal from a garret he means you no more mischief than a the words for friend and foe alike were made to them in verse is all his trade let him be gallows free by my consent and nothing suffer since he nothing meant hanging human soul and reason this animal s below treason thomas and james were both extremely was a man settle john dr i shall he be hanged who never could rebel that s a for railing in other men may be a crime but ought to pass for mere instinct in him instinct he follows and no farther knows for to write verse with him is to pity treason at his door to lay who makes heaven s gate a lock to its own key let him rail on let his muse have four and twenty letters to abuse which if he to one line of sense him of a capital offence in re works give him leave to vent his spite those are the only he can write the height of his ambition is we know but to be master of a show on that one stage his works may yet appear and a month s harvest keeps him all the year now stop your noses readers all and some for here s a of midnight work to come from a treason tavern rolling home round as a globe and every goodly and great he sails behind his link with all this bulk there s nothing lost in for every inch that is not fool is rogue a monstrous mass of foul	45
renewed and nature s king through nature s viewed reversed they viewed him lessened to their eye nor in an infant could a god new to this tend hence they began and here they all will end what weight of ancient witness can prevail if private reason hold the public scale but gracious god how well dost thou provide for judgments an guide thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light a blaze of glory that the sight o teach me to believe thee thus concealed and search no farther than revealed but her alone for my take whom thou hast promised never to my thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires my manhood long by wandering fires the allusion is more especially to the at vol il h h the english poets followed false lights and when their glimpse was gone my pride struck out new of her own such was i such by nature still i am be thine the glory and be mine the shame the unity of the catholic church from the hind and the part ii one in herself not rent by but sound entire one solid shining diamond not shattered into like you one is the church and must be to be one central principle of unity as so from errors free as one in faith so one in thus she and none but she the insulting rage of opposed from age to age still when the giant brood her throne she from heaven and meets them half way down and with paternal thunder her crown but like egyptian you stand and vainly lift aloft your magic to sweep away the of from the land you could like them with like infernal force produce the plague but not arrest the course but when the and with disgrace and public scandal sat upon the face themselves attacked the strove no more they saw god s finger and their fate themselves they could not cure of the sore t thus one thus pure behold her largely spread like the fair ocean from her mother bed from east to west triumphantly she rides all shores are watered by her wealthy tides the gospel sound diffused from pole to pole where winds can carry and where waves can roll the self same doctrine of the sacred page conveyed to every in every age v john the from hind and thi part a prince and goodly to the sight he seemed a son of for his height like those whom stature did to crowns prefer black and bluff like s broad backed and built for love s delight a prophet formed to make a female a more by need than genial bent by breeding sharp by nature confident interest in all his actions was discerned more learned than honest more a wit than learned or forced by fear or by his profit led or both his native he fled but brought the virtues of his heaven along a fair behaviour and a tongue and yet with all his arts he could not the most unlucky alive loud praises to prepare his paths he sent and then himself pursued his compliment but by reverse of fortune chased away his gifts no longer than their author stay he shakes the dust against the ungrateful race and leaves the of in the place oft has he flattered and the same for in his rage he no sovereign s name the hero and the tyrant change their style by the same measure that they frown or smile when well received by hospitable foes the kindness he returns is to expose for though and great no gratitude in minds as tribute to his wit the receives the treat his praise of foes is nice afterwards bishop of scotland the english poets so touched it turns a virtue to a vice a and us seven he wisely does because he knows confession stands for one where sins to sacred silence are conveyed and not for fear or love to be betrayed but he his patron to control the secret whispers of his soul stood forth the satan of his crimes and offered to the of the times prompt to and careless of defence in his impudence he dares the world and eager of a name he about and into fame and satire proof he the streets and runs an indian at all he meets so fond of loud report that not to miss of being known his last and utmost bliss he rather would be known for what he is such was and is the captain of the test though half his virtues are not here the modesty of fame the rest the never could create a prince more proper to revenge their hate indeed more proper to revenge than save a king whom in his wrath the almighty gave for all the grace the landlord had allowed but made the and the proud gave time to fix their friends and to the crowd they long their fellow subjects to their patron s promise into question call and vainly think he meant to make them lords of all et mn ii the allusion is to the evidence given by against the earl of before the house of in the allusion seems to be to s defence of the test against bishop of oxford john dr en to or the great our author by experience finds it true tis much more hard to please himself than you and out of no feigned modesty this day his laborious trifle of a play not that it s worse than what before he writ but he has now another taste of wit and to confess a truth though out of time grows weary of his long loved mistress rhyme passion s too fierce to be in bound and nature him like enchanted ground what verse can do he has performed in this which he the most	45
correct of his but spite of all his pride a secret shame his breast at shakespeare s sacred name awed when he hears his rage he in a just despair would quit the stage and to an age less polished more does with disdain the foremost honours yield as with the greater dead he dares not strive he would not match his verse with those who live let him retire two ages cast the first of this and of the last a losing let him away he bears no ready money firom the play the fate which poets thought it fit he should not raise his fortunes by his wit the clergy and the bar dull heroes with the spoils of war all southern vices heaven be praised are here but wit s a luxury you think too dear the last of s in rhyme was produced at the theatre royal our neighbours in line to the rival house in garden the english poets when you to cultivate the plant are loth tis a shrewd sign twas never of your growth and wit in northern will not blow except like orange trees tis from snow there needs no care to put a down tis the most desert place of all the town we and our neighbours to speak proudly are like ruined with expensive war while like wise english you sit and see us play the tragedy of wit to the pious memory or the accomplished young lady mrs anne excellent in the two sister arts of and painting an i thou youngest virgin daughter of the skies made in the last promotion of the whose palms new plucked from paradise in spreading branches more rise rich with immortal green above the rest whether adopted to some neighbouring star thou above us in thy wandering race or in procession fixed and regular moved with the heaven s majestic pace or called to more superior bliss thou tread st with the vast abyss whatever happy region be thy place cease thy celestial song a little space thou wilt have time enough hymns divine since heaven s eternal year is thine hear then a mortal muse thy praise in no verse anne maid of honour to the of york died of the small in in the twenty fifth year of her age she was of a literary family and herself a as well as a painter s was to a edition of her poems john dr but such as thy own voice did practise here when thy first fruits of were given to make a welcome there while yet a young and candidate of heaven if by came thy mind our wonder is the less to find a soul so charming from a stock so good thy father was into thy blood so thou bom into the strain an early rich and vein but if thy pre existing soul was formed at first with more it did through all the mighty poets roll who greek or latin wore and was that last which once it was before if so then cease thy flight o heaven bom mind thou hast no to from thy rich ore nor can thy soul a fairer mansion find than was the frame she left behind to fill or mend the of thy celestial kind may we presume to say that at thy birth new joy was sprung in heaven as well as here on earth for sure the did combine on thy to shine and even the most malicious were in thy brother angels at thy birth strung each his and it high that all the people of the sky might know a was born on earth and then if ever mortal ears had heard the music of the from one of the same kind johnson the of three in the three angles of a the english poets and if no swarm of bees on thy sweet mouth their golden dew twas that such vulgar miracles i heaven had not leisure to renew for all the of love there thy birth and kept thy holiday above o gracious god how far have we thy heavenly gift of made and the mu e to each and use whose harmony was first ordained above for tongues of angels and for hymns of love oh wretched we why were we hurried down this and age nay added fat of our own to increase the steaming of the stage what can we say to excuse our second fall let this thy heaven for all her stream remains with foreign and her wit was more than man her innocence a child art she had none yet wanted none for nature did that want supply so rich in treasures of her own she might our boasted stores defy such noble vigour did her verse adorn that it seemed borrowed where twas only bom her morals too were in her bosom bred by great examples daily fed what in the best of books her father s life she read and to be read herself she need not fear each test and every light her muse will bear though with his lamp were there even love for love sometimes her muse was but a flame which played about her breast light as the of a morning dream so cold herself whilst she such warmth twas bathing in s stream dr en born to the spacious empire of the nine one would have thought she should have been content to manage well that mighty government but what can young ambitious souls confine to the next realm she stretched her sway for near adjoining lay a province and prey a chamber of was framed as will never want pretence when armed to justify the offence and the whole in right of poetry she claimed the country open lay without defence for poets frequent there had made and perfectly could represent the shape the face with every	45
and all the large which the dumb sister swayed all bowed beneath her government received in triumph er she went her pencil drew whatever her soul designed and oft the happy draught surpassed the image in her mind the scenes of herds and flocks and fruitful plains and barren rocks of shallow that flowed so clear the bottom did the top appear of deeper too and floods which as in showed the woods of lofty trees with sacred shades and of pleasant where of brightest form appear and shaggy standing near which them at once admire and fear the ruins too of some majestic piece the power of ancient rome or greece whose statues columns broken lie and though the wonder of the eye and picture are both used in the sense of painting by english poets what nature art bold fiction e er frame her forming hand gave feature to the name so strange a ne er was seen before but when the peopled ark the whole creation bore the scene then changed with bold erected look our martial king the sight with reverence for not content to express his outward part her hand called out the image of his heart his warlike mind his soul devoid of fear his high thoughts were figured there as when by magic ghosts are made appear our queen was too so bright beauty alone could beauty take so right her dress her shape her grace were all observed as well as heavenly face with such a majesty she stands as in that day she took the crown from sacred hands before a train of was seen in beauty foremost as in rank the queen thus nothing to her genius was denied but like a ball of fire the farther thrown still with a greater blaze she shone and her bright soul broke out on every side what next she had designed heaven only knows to such growth her conquest rose that fate alone its progress could oppose now all those charms that blooming grace the well shape and face shall never more be seen by mortal eyes in earth the much lamented virgin lies not wit nor piety could fate prevent nor was the cruel destiny content to finish all the murder at a blow to sweep at once her life and beauty too but like a hardened took a pride to work more slow and first and then destroyed o double on things divine john to rob the and the shrine but thus died heaven by the same disease did both as equal were their souls so equal was their fate meantime her warlike brother on the seas his waving to the winds and vows for his return with vain devotion pays ah generous youth that wish forbear the winds too soon will thee here slack all thy sails and fear to come alas thou not thou art wrecked at home no more shalt thou behold thy sister s face thou hast already had her last embrace but look aloft and if thou from far among the a new kindled star if any than the rest more bright tis she that shines in that light when in mid air the golden shall sound to raise the nations under ground when in the valley of the judging god shall dose the book of fate and there the last keep for those who wake and those who sleep when rattling bones together fly from the four comers of the sky when o er the are spread those clothed with flesh and life the dead the sacred poets first shall hear the sound and foremost from the tomb shall bound for they are covered with the ground and straight with vigour on the wing like mounting to the new morning sing there thou sweet saint before the shalt go as of heaven the way to show the way which thou so well hast learned below the who died of in in her thirty third year anne wrote some verses in her honour the english poets a song for st s day november from harmony from heavenly harmony this universal frame began when nature underneath a heap of lay and could not heave her head the voice was heard from high arise ye more than dead cold and hot and moist and dry in order to their stations leap and music s power obey from harmony from heavenly harmony this universal frame began from harmony to harmony through all the compass of the notes it ran the closing full in man what passion cannot music raise and when struck the shell his listening brethren stood around and wondering on their faces fell to worship that celestial sound less than a god they thought there could not dwell within the hollow of that shell that spoke so sweetly and so well what passion cannot music raise and the trumpet s loud us to arms with shrill notes of anger and mortal the double double double beat of the thundering drum cries hark the foes come charge charge tis too late to retreat john the soft complaining in dying notes the woes of hopeless lovers whose is whispered by the sharp proclaim their jealous pangs and desperation fury frantic indignation depth of pains and height of passion for the fair dame but oh what art can teach what human voice can reach the sacred organ s praise notes inspiring holy love notes that wing their heavenly ways to mend the above could lead the savage race and trees left their place of the but bright raised the wonder higher when to her organ breath was given an angel heard and straight appeared earth for heaven grand chorus as fix m the power of sacred lays the began to move and sung the great creator s praise to all the blessed above so when the last and dreadful hour this crumbling the trumpet shall be heard on	45
high the dead shall live the living die and music shall the sky the english poets alexander s feast or the power of a song in honour of st day twas at the royal feast for won by philip s warlike son aloft in awful state the hero on his imperial throne his were placed around their brows with roses and with bound so should desert in arms be crowned the lovely by his side like a blooming eastern bride in flower of youth and beauty s pride happy happy happy pair i none but the brave none but the brave none but the brave deserves the fair chorus happy happy happy pair none but the brave none but the brave none but the brave deserves the fair placed on high amid the with flying fingers touched the the trembling notes ascend the sky and heavenly joys inspire the song began from jove who left his seats above such is the power of mighty love john a s fiery form the god sublime on radiant he rode when he to fair pressed and while he sought her snowy breast then round her slender waist he curled and stamped an image of himself a sovereign of the world the listening crowd admire the lofty sound a present deity they shout around a present deity the roofs with ears the monarch hears the god affects to nod and seems to shake the chorus with ears the monarch hears the god affects to nod and seems to shake the the praise of then the sweet sung of ever fair and ever young the jolly god in triumph comes sound the trumpets beat the drums flushed with a purple grace he shows his honest face now give the breath he comes he comes ever fair and young drinking joys did first blessings are a treasure drinking is the soldier s pleasure rich the treasure sweet the pleasure sweet is pleasure after pain o the poets chorus blessings are a treasure drinking is the soldier s pleasure rich the treasure sweet the pleasure sweet is pleasure after pain soothed with the sound the king grew vain fought all his battles o er again and thrice he all his foes and thrice he the slain the master saw the madness rise his glowing cheeks his ardent eyes and while he heaven and earth defied changed his hand and checked his pride he chose a mournful muse soft pity to he sung great and good by too severe a fate fallen fallen fallen fallen fallen from his high estate and in his blood deserted at his utmost need by those his former fed on the bare earth exposed he lies with not a friend to close his eyes with downcast looks the victor revolving in his altered soul the various turns of chance below and now and then a sigh he stole and tears began to flow chorus revolving in his altered soul the various turns of chance below and now and then a sigh he stole and to flow john dr the mighty master smiled to se that love was in the next degree but a kindred sound to move for pity the mind to love softly sweet in measures soon he soothed his soul to pleasures war he sung is toil and trouble honour but an empty never ending still beginning fighting still and still destroying if the world be worth thy winning think o think it worth enjoying lovely sits beside thee take the good the gods provide thee the many the skies with loud applause so love was crowned but music won the cause the prince unable to conceal his pain gazed on the fair who caused his care and sighed and looked sighed and looked sighed and looked and sighed again at length with love and wine at once oppressed the victor sunk upon her breast chorus the prince unable to conceal his pain gazed on the fair who caused his care and sighed and looked sighed and looked sighed and looked and sighed again at length with love and wine at once oppressed the victor sunk upon her breast now strike the golden again a louder yet and yet a louder strain break his bands of sleep asunder and rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder vol il i a the poets hark hark the horrid sound has raised up his head as from the dead and amazed he around revenge revenge cries see the arise see the that they rear how they hiss in their hair and the that flash from their eyes i behold a ghastly band each a torch in his hand those are ghosts that in battle were slain and remain on the plain give the vengeance due to the crew behold how they toss their on high how they point to the and glittering temples of their hostile gods the princes with a furious joy and the king seized a with zeal to destroy led the way to light him to his prey and like another fired another chorus and the king seized a with zeal to destroy led the way to light him to his prey and like another fired another thus long ago ere heaving learned to blow while organs yet were mute to his breathing and sounding could swell the soul to rage or soft desire at last divine came of the frame john dr the sweet from her sacred store enlarged the former narrow bounds and added length to solemn sounds with nature s mother wit and arts unknown before let old yield the prize or both divide the crown he raised a mortal to the skies she drew an angel down grand chorus at last divine came of the frame the sweet from her sacred store enlarged the former narrow bounds and added length to solemn sounds with nature s mother wit and arts unknown before let old yield the	45
prize or both divide the crown he raised a mortal to the skies she drew an angel lines printed under the engraved portrait of milton in edition of the paradise lost s three poets in three distant ages bom greece italy and england did adorn the first in of thought surpassed the next in majesty in both the last the force of nature could no farther go to make a third she joined the former two has that these lines are an of a addressed to milton when at rome by otherwise unknown to fame ii the english poets to friend mr on his comedy called the double dealer y well then the promised hour is come at last the present age of wit the past strong were our and as they fought they writ conquering with force of arms and dint of wit theirs was the giant race before the flood and thus when charles returned our empire stood like he the stubborn soil with rules of the cured tamed us to manners when the stage was rude and boisterous english wit with art our age was cultivated thus at length but what we gained in skill we lost in strength our were with want of genius the second temple was not like the first till you the best come at length our beauties equal but our strength firm pillars found your solid base the fair crowns the higher space thus all below is strength and all above is grace in easy dialogue is s praise he moved the mind but had not power to raise great did by strength of judgment please yet s force he wants his ease in talents both adorned their age one for the study t other for the stage but both to justly shall submit one matched in judgment both in wit in him all beauties of this age we see his courtship southern s purity the satire wit and strength of manly all this in blooming youth you have achieved the primitive and king of john dr nor are your grieved so much the sweetness of your manners move we cannot envy you because we love might joy in when he saw a made against the law and join his to the of rome though he with was overcome thus old bowed to s fame and scholar to the youth he taught became o that your brows my laurel had sustained well had i been if you had reigned the father had descended for the son for only you are to the throne thus when the state one edward did a greater edward in his room arose but now not i but poetry is for tom the second like tom the first but let them not mistake my patron s part nor call his charity their own desert yet this i thou shalt be seen though with some short between high on the throne of wit and seated there not mine that s little but thy laurel wear thy first attempt an early promise made that early promise this has more than paid so bold yet so you dare that your least praise is to be regular time place and action may with pains be wrought but genius must be bom and never can be taught this is your portion this your native store heaven that but once was prodigal before to s gave as much she could not give him more maintain your post that s all the fame you need for tis impossible you should proceed thomas was succeeded as royal by thomas who was the right man for the post though he was a poet of no mark and a critic of no merit in the poet was succeeded by the english poets already i am worn with cares and age and just the ungrateful stage kept at heaven s expense i live a rent charge on his providence but you whom every muse and grace adorn whom i foresee to better fortune bom be kind to my remains and eh defend against your judgment your departed friend i let not the insulting foe my fame pursue but shade those which descend to you and take for tribute what these lines express you merit more nor could my love do less and book in w or the herald ends the with loud and vast applause is rent heaven guard a prince so gracious and so good so just and yet so of blood this was the general cry the trumpets sound and warlike is heard around the marching troops through take their way the great earl orders their array the fair from high the passing pomp behold a rain of flowers is from the windows rolled the are with golden spread and horses hoofs for earth on silken tread the king goes and the rivals ride in equal rank and close his either side next after these there rode the royal wife with the cause and the reward of strife the following by three and three proceed by titles in degree a version of part of th in the w john dr en thus through the southern gate they take their way and at the list arrived ere prime of day there parting from the king the chiefs divide and east and west before their many ride the monarch his throne on high and after him the queen and next these the kindred of the crown are with nearer seats and lords by ladies placed scarce were they seated when with loud in rushed at once a rude crowd the guards and then each other and in a moment throng the spacious theatre now changed the noise to whispers low as winds seas more softly blow when at the western gate on which the car is placed aloft that bears the god of war proud entering armed before his train stops at the barrier and	45
the plain red was his banner and displayed abroad the bloody colours of his patron god at that self moment enters the gate of and the rising sun waved by the wanton winds his banner flies all maiden white and shares the people s eyes from east to west look all the world around two troops so matched were never to be found such bodies built for strength of equal age in stature sized so proud an the eye could no distinction make where lay the advantage or what side to take thus ranged the herald for the last a silence while they answered to their names for so the king to with care the fraud of false the of war the tale was just and then the gates were closed and chief to and troop to troop opposed the last retired and loudly cried the fortune of the field be fairly tried the english poets at this the with fierce defy his trumpet sounds the makes reply with rings the field the sky their closed their in the rest or at the pointed or the crest they vanish from the barrier speed the race and see the middle space a cloud of smoke either host and all at once the are lost they join adverse and shock unseen with men with men as in a while they stay till the next blast of wind the day they look anew the form of fight is changed and war appears a sight two troops in fair array one moment showed the next a field with fallen bodies not half the number in their seats are found but men and lie on the ground the points of are stuck within the shield the without their the field the knights on foot renew the fight the glittering cast a gleaming light and are with many a wound out the streaming blood and the ground the mighty with such haste descend they break the bones and make the solid bend this amid the throng with furious force down goes at once the and the horse that on the fallen and throws the rider o er his head one rolls along a to his foes one with a broken his blows this halting this with his wound in triumph led is to the pillar bound where by the king s he must abide there goes a captive led on t other side by fits they cease and leaning on the lance take breath a while and to new fight advance john dr full oft the rivals met and neither spared his utmost force and each forgot to ward the head of this was to the saddle bent the other backward to the sent both were by turns the jealous blows fall thick and heavy when on foot they close so deep their bite that every stroke pierced to the quick and equal wounds they gave and took borne far asunder by the tides of men like and steel they met again so when a tiger the s blood a lion issuing from the wood fierce and the food each claims possession neither will obey but both their are fastened on the prey they bite they tear and while in vain they strive the come armed between and both to distance drive to my honoured john of in the county of esq how blessed is he who leads a country life with anxious cares and void of strife who studying peace and civil rage enjoyed his youth and now his age all who deserve his love he makes his own and to be loved himself needs only to be known just good and wise neighbours come from your to wait their final doom and foes before return in friendship home without their cost you the cause and save the expense of long laws where suits are traversed and so little won that he who is but last undone john first cousin of the poet was member for and seems to have belonged to the opposition which called itself the country party the english poets such are not your but so designed the sanction leaves a lasting peace behind like your own soul serene a pattern of your mind and strife lord of yourself with a wife where for a year a month perhaps a night long a short delight minds are so hardly matched that even the first though by heaven in paradise were cursed for man and woman though in one they grow yet first or last return again to two he to god s image she to his was made so farther from the the stream at random strayed how could he stand when put to double pain he must a weaker than himself sustain each might have stood perhaps but each alone two help to pull each other down not that my verse would all the fair but yet if some be bad tis wisdom to beware and better the bait than struggle in the thus have you and the married state trusting as little as you can to fate no porter guards the passage of your door to admit the wealthy and the poor for god who gave the riches gave the heart to the whole by giving part heaven who foresaw the will the means has wrought and to the second son a blessing brought the first had his father s share but you like jacob are s heir so may your stores and fruitful fields increase and ever be you blessed who live to bless as where er her chariot flew as heaven in deserts rained the bread of dew so free to many to relations most you feed with your own host john inherited from his mother john dr with crowds attended of your ancient race you seek the sports or with well breathed you surround the wood even then industrious of the common good and often have you	45
and there insects had engraved on the mortar patterns of no human style or meaning but curious and suggestive above the trees the case was different the pillar rose into the sky a bright and cheerful thing clean and flushed with the sunlight the spot was seldom visited by a except perhaps in the shooting season the of human intrusion was by the of rabbit runs the feathers of shy birds the of as also by the well worn paths of down the sides of trunks and thence away the fact of the plantation being an island in the midst of an plain sufficiently accounted for this lack of visitors few to such places can be aware of the effect of ground when no necessity people to it this hill of trees and standing in the centre of a field of some ninety or a hundred acres was probably visited less frequently than a rock would have been visited in a lake of equal extent she walked round the column to the other side where she found the door through which the interior was reached the paint if it had ever had any was all washed from the wood and down the surface of the boards liquid from the nails and hinges had run in red over the door was a stone bearing apparently letters or words but the two on a tower tion whatever it was had been smoothed over with a plaster of here stood this piece of erected as the most conspicuous and of a man that could be thought of and yet the whole aspect of the memorial probably not a dozen people within the district knew the name of the person while perhaps not a soul remembered whether the column were hollow or solid whether with or without a explaining its date and purpose she herself had lived within a mile of it for the last five years and had never come near it till now she had no intention of ascending but finding that the door was not fastened she pushed it open with her foot and entered a scrap of writing paper lay within and arrested her attention by its freshness some human being then knew the spot despite her but as the paper had nothing on it no clue was afforded yet feeling herself the proprietor of the column and of all around it her self was sufficient to lead her on the staircase was lighted by in the wall and there was no difficulty in reaching the top the steps being quite the trap door leading on to the roof was open and on looking through it an interesting spectacle met her eye a youth was sitting on a stool in the centre of the lead flat which formed the summit of the column his eye being applied to the end of a large that stood before him on a this sort of presence was unexpected and the lady started back into the shade of the opening the only effect produced upon him by her was an impatient wave of the hand which he did without removing his eye from the instrument as if to forbid her to interrupt him pausing where she stood the lady examined the aspect of the individual who thus made himself so completely two on a tower at home on a building which she deemed her property he was a youth who might properly have been by a word the judicious would not readily use in such a preferring to reserve it for images of the opposite sex whether because no deep felicity is likely to arise from the condition or from any other reason to say in these days that a youth is beautiful is not to him that amount of credit which the expression would have carried with it if he had lived in the times of the classical dictionary so much indeed is the reverse the case that the assertion an awkwardness in saying anything more about him the beautiful youth usually so on the who is about to become the or among the neighbouring maidens that for the due understanding of our present young man his sublime innocence of any thought concerning his own material aspect or that of others is most fervently asserted and must be as fervently believed such as he was there the lad sat the sun shone full in his face and on his head he wore a black velvet skull cap leaving to view below it a curly margin of very light shining hair which accorded well with the flush upon his cheek he had such a complexion as that with which the countenance of the youthful son of a complexion which though clear is r enough removed from virgin delicacy and suggests plenty of sun and wind as its accompaniment his features were sufficiently straight in the to correct the s first impression that the head was the head of a girl beside him stood a little oak table and in front was the his visitor had ample time to make these tions and she may have done so all the more keenly through being herself of a totally opposite type her two on a tower hair was black as midnight her eyes had no less deep a shade and her complexion showed the richness demanded as a support to these decided features as she continued to look at the pretty fellow before her apparently so far abstracted into some world as scarcely to know a real one a warmer wave of her warm temperament glowed visibly through her and a qualified observer might from this have a guess that there was romance blood in her veins but even the interest to the youth could not arrest her attention for ever and as he made no further signs of moving his eye from the instrument she broke the silence with what do you see	45
something happening somewhere yes quite a catastrophe he murmured without moving round what a in the sun the lady paused as if to consider the weight of that event in the scale of life will it make any difference to us here she asked the young man by this time seemed to be awakened to the consciousness that somebody unusual was talking to him he turned and started i beg your pardon he said i thought it was my relative come to look after me she often comes about this time he continued to look at her and forget the sun just such a of influence as might have been expected between a dark lady and a haired youth making itself apparent in the faces of each don t let me interrupt your observations said she ah no said he again applying his eye whereupon his ce lost the animation her presence had lent it and became as that of a bust though to the serenity of repose the two on a tower of life the expression that settled on him was one of awe not might it have been said that he was the sun among the various of that worship which have prevailed since the first intelligent being saw the decline westward as the young man now beheld it doing his was not the he was engaged in what may be called a very or form of that first and most natural of but would you like to see it he it is an event that is witnessed only about once in two or three years though it may occur often enough she assented and looked through the shaded and saw a whirling mass in the centre of which the blazing globe seemed to be laid bare to its core it was a peep into a of fire taking place where nobody had ever been or ever would be it is the strangest thing i ever beheld she said then he looked again till wondering who her companion could be she asked are you often here every night when it is not cloudy and often in the day ah night of course the heavens must be beautiful from this point they are rather more than that indeed have you entirely taken possession of this column entirely but it is my column she said with smiling then are you lady wife of the absent sir g i am lady ah then i agree that it is your s but will you allow me to rent it of you for a time lady g you have taken it whether i allow it or not two on a tower however in the interests of science it is advisable that you continue your nobody knows you are here i suppose hardly anybody he then took her down a few steps into the interior and showed her some ingenious for articles away nobody ever comes near the column or as it s called here rings hill he continued and when i first came up it nobody had been here for thirty or forty years the staircase was choked with nests and feathers but i cleared them out i understood the column was always kept locked yes it has been so when it was built in the key was given to my great grandfather to keep by him in case visitors should happen to want it he lived just down there where i live now he by a nod a little lying immediately beyond the land which them he kept it in his and as the descended to my grandfather my mother and myself the key descended with it after the first thirty or forty years nobody ever asked for it one day i saw it lying rusty in its and finding that it belonged to this column i took it and came up i stayed here till it was dark and the stars came out and that night i resolved to be an i came back here from school several months ago and i mean to be an still he lowered his voice and added i aim at nothing less than the dignity and office of royal if i live perhaps i shall not live i don t see why you should suppose that said she how long are y u going to make this your about a year longer till i have obtained a two on a tower familiarity with the heavens ah if i only had a good what is that a proper instrument for my pursuit but time is short and is infinite how infinite only those who study fully realize and perhaps i shall be worn out before i make my mark she seemed to be greatly struck by the odd mixture in him of scientific earnestness and melancholy of all things human perhaps it was owing to the nature of his studies you are often on this tower alone at night she said yes at this time of the year particularly and while there is no moon i observe from seven or eight till about two in the morning with a view to my great work on stars but with such a as this well i must put up with it you see s ring and s he said that he could manage to do that not without some contempt for the state of her knowledge i have never seen any planet or star through a if you will come the first clear night lady i will show you any number i mean at your express wish not otherwise i should like to come and possibly may at some time these stars that vary so much sometimes evening stars sometimes morning stars sometimes in the east and sometimes in the west have always interested me ah now there is a reason for your not coming your ignorance of	45
of the room was laid for a meal this woman of eighty in a large cap under which she wore a little cap to keep the other clean retained faculties but little she was gazing into the flames with her hands upon her knees quietly re in her brain certain of the long chain of pathetic and humorous which had constituted the parish history for the last sixty years on s entry she looked up at him in a direction you should not have waited for me he said tis of no account my child ive had a nap while sitting here yes ive had a nap and went straight up into my old country again as usual the place was as natural as when i left it e en just years ago all the folks and my old aunt were there as when i was a child yet i suppose if i were really to set out and go there hardly a soul would be left alive to say to me dog how art but tell to stir her and serve supper though i d fain do it myself the poor old soul is getting so revealed herself to be much and several years younger than though of this the latter seemed to be when the meal was nearly over mrs martin produced the contents of the mysterious vessel by the fire saying that she had caused it to be brought in from the back kitchen because was hardly to be trusted with such things she was becoming so childish what is it then said h one of two on a tower your special at sight of it however he added reproachfully now instead of being round it was in shape an irregular that had been exposed to the weather for centuries a little scrap off here and a little piece broken away there the general aim being nevertheless to avoid destroying the of the while taking as much as possible of its substance the fact is added the is half gone i ve only off the merest once or twice to taste if it was well done pleaded martin with wounded feelings i said to when she took it up put it here to keep it warm as there s a better fire than in the back kitchen well i am not going to eat any of it said as he rose from the table pushed away his chair and went up stairs the other station of life that was in his blood and which had been brought out by the grammar school probably him ah the world is an ungrateful place twas a pity i didn t take my poor name off this earthly and creep under ground sixty long years ago instead of leaving my own county to come here mourned old mrs martin but i told his mother how be marrying so many above her the child was sure to high like his father when had been up stairs a minute or two however he altered his mind and coming down again ate all the with the aspect of a person undertaking a deed of great the relish with which he did so restored the that knew no more serious than such as this mr has been here this afternoon said his grandmother and he wants me to let him meet some of the choir here to night for practice they who live at this end of the parish won t go to his house to i two on a tower try over the tunes because tis so they say and so tis poor men so he s going to see what to them will do he asks if you would like to join i would if i had not so much to do but it is cloudy to night yes but i have calculations without end now don t you tell him i m in the house will you and then he ll not ask for me but if he should must i then tell a lie lord forgive me no you can say i m up stairs he must think what he likes not a word about the to any of them whatever you do i should be called a visionary and all sorts so thou child why can t ye do something that s of use at the sound of footsteps beat a hasty retreat up stairs where he struck a light and revealed a table covered with books and papers while round the walls hung star maps and other of celestial phenomena in a corner stood a huge which a close inspection would have shown to be intended for a hung a thick cloth over the window in addition to the curtains and sat down to his papers on the ceiling was a black stain of smoke and under this he placed his lamp that the midnight oil was consumed on that precise spot very often meanwhile there had entered to the room below a personage who to judge from her voice and the quick pit pat of her feet was a maiden young and mrs martin welcomed her by the title of miss lark and inquired what wind had brought her that way to which the visitor replied that she had come for the singing sit ye down then said and do you still go to the house to read to my lady b two on a tower i go and read mrs martin but as to getting my lady to that s more than a team of six horses could force her to do the girl had a remarkably smart and utterance which was probably a cause or a consequence of her tis the same story then said grandmother martin yes eaten out with she s neither sick nor sorry but how dull and dreary she is only herself can tell when i get	45
there in the morning there she is sitting up in bed for my lady don t care to get up and then she makes me bring this book and that book till the bed is heaped up with immense volumes that half bury her making her look as she upon her elbow like the of she j then she looks towards the tall glass then she looks out at the weather her great black eyes and fixing them on the sky as if they stuck there while my tongue goes along a hundred and fifty words a minute then she looks at the clock then she asks me what i ve been reading ah poor soul said no doubt she says in the morning would god it were evening and in the evening would god it were morning like the woman in in the room overhead had suspended his calculations for the interested him there now heavier steps outside the door and his grandmother could be heard greeting sundry local representatives of the bass and tenor voice who lent a cheerful and well known personality to the names and the latter being one with whom the reader has already a distant acquaintance besides these came small of who had not yet developed into such of society as to require i two on a tower is the good man come asked no i see we be here afore him and how is it with aged women to night mrs martin tedious enough with this one sit ye down well little you don t wish in the morning that evening and at evening that morning again do you trust ye for it now who might wish such a thing as that mrs martin nobody in this parish asked curiously my lady is always wishing it spoke up miss lark h she nobody can be for the wishes o that tribe of mankind not but that the woman s heart strings is tried in many ways ah poor woman said the state she finds herself in neither maid wife nor widow as you may say is not the form of life for keeping in good spirits how long is it since she has heard from sir two years and more said the young woman he went into one side of africa as it might be three st martin s days back i can mind it because twas my birthday and he meant to come out the other side but he didn t he has never come out at all for all the world like losing a rat in a said he s lost though you know where he is his comrades nodded ay my lady is a walking weariness i seed her just at the very moment when the fox was away by and the hounds en all but past her carriage wheels if i were she i d see a uttle life though there s no fair nor feast to speak of till week that s true two on a tower she dares not she s under solemn oath to do no such thing be if i would keep any such oath but here s the pa son if my ears don t deceive me there was a noise of horse s hoofs without a stumbling against the door a to the window a creaking of the door on its hinges and a voice which recognized as mr s he greeted each of the previous by name and stated that he was glad to see them all so assembled ay sir said tis only my that have kept me from myself long ago i d upon the top of if t for my i assure ye pa son that in the o my knees where the rain used to come through when i was cutting for the new lawn in old my lady s time tis as if rats every now and then when a s young he s too small in the brain to see how soon a constitution can be worse luck true said to fill the time while the parson was engaged in finding the a man s a fool till he s forty often have i thought when hay and the small of my back seeming no than a s the devil send that i had but the making of men for a i d every man jack two good even if the alteration was as wrong as four four said yes four threw in with additional weight of experience for you want one in front for breast and such like one at the right side for ground dressing and one at the left side for turning well then next i d move every man s a good span away from his so that at harvest two on a tower time he could fetch breath in s drinking without being choked and as he is now thinks i when i feel the going now we ll begin interrupted mr his mind returning to this world again on concluding his search for a hymn thereupon the of chair legs on the floor signified that they were settling into their seats a disturbance which took advantage of by going on across the floor above and putting sheets of paper over knot holes in the boarding at points where carpet was lacking that his lamp light might not shine down the absence of a ceiling beneath rendered his position that of one suspended in the same apartment the parson announced the tune and his voice burst forth with onward christian soldiers in notes of rigid cheerfulness in this start however he was joined only by the girls and boys the men furnishing but an accompaniment of and mr stopped and spoke beg your pardon sir if you ll deal mild with us a moment what with the wind and walking my	45
throat as rough as a and not knowing you were going to hit up that minute i hadn t and i don t think and had either had ye souls i hadn t got thorough ready that s true said quite right of you then to speak said mr don t mind explaining we are here for practice now clear your throats then and at it again there was a noise as of and and the bass at last got under way with k w of its own ai two on a tower ah that s where we are so interrupted the parson now repeat after me on ward christ the choir repeated like an echo on wed ting jaws better said the parson in the sanguine tones of a man who got his living by discovering a bright side in things where it was not very perceptible to other people but it should not be given with quite so extreme an accent or we may be called affected by other and there s a in your manner of singing which is not quite becoming why don t you sing more earnestly my conscience won t let me sir they say every man for himself but thank god i m not so mean as to lessen old chances by being earnest at my time o life and they so much nearer the need o t it s bad reasoning i fear now perhaps we had better fa the tune eyes on your books please fa fa mv i can t sing like that not i said with astonishment i can sing genuine music like f and g but not anything so much out of the order of as that perhaps you ve brought the wrong book sir in kindly i ve music early in life and late in short ever since broke his new fiddle bow in the wedding when pa son brought home his bride you can mind the time when we sung his wife like a fair fertile vine her lovely fruit shall bring when the young woman turned as red as a rose not knowing twas coming i ve music ever since then i say sir and never heard the like o that every note had his name of a b c at that time two on a tower yes yes men but this is a more recent system still you can t alter a old established note that s a or b by rejoined with yet deeper conviction that mr was getting off his head now sound a neighbour and let s have a slap at again and show the pa son the true way produced a private fork black and which being about seventy years of age and wrought before had sent up the pitch to make their instruments brilliant was nearly a note flatter than the parson s while an argument as to the true pitch was in progress there came a knocking without somebody s at the door said a little girl thought i heard a knock before said the relieved choir the latch was lifted and a man asked from the darkness is mr here yes mills what do you want it was the parson s man oh if you please said mills showing an advanced margin of himself round the door lady wants to see you very particular sir and could you call on her after dinner if you ben t engaged with poor she s just had a letter so they say and it s about that i believe finding on looking at his watch that it was necessary to start at once if he meant to see her that night the parson cut short the and another night for meeting he withdrew all the singers assisted him on to his and watched him till he disappeared over the edge of the bottom ill mr trotted onward to his house a distance of about a mile each cottage as it revealed its half buried position by its single light appearing like a one eyed night creature watching him from an leaving his horse at the he performed the remainder of the journey on foot crossing the park towards house by a and path till he struck into the drive near the door of the mansion this drive it may be remarked was also the common highway to the lower village and hence lady s residence and park as is occasionally the case with old fashioned possessed none of the found in some aristocratic the looked upon the park avenue as their natural particularly for and which passed the squire s mansion with due considerations as to the effect of the same from the windows hence the house of when going out from its breakfast had been continually crossed on the for the last two hundred years by the houses of and in full cry to dinner at present these were but too for though the villagers passed the north front door as regularly as ever they seldom met a two on a tower only one was there to be met and she had no zest for before noon the long low front of the great house as it was called by the parish stretching from end to end of the terrace was in darkness as the his pace before it and only the distant fell of water disturbed the stillness of the on gaining he found lady waiting to receive him she wore a heavy dress of velvet and lace and being the only person in the spacious apartment she looked small and isolated in her left hand she held a letter and a couple of at home cards the soft dark eyes which she raised to him as he entered large and melancholy by circumstance far more than by quality were the natural of a warm and affectionate	45
perhaps slightly temperament for want of something to do cherish or suffer for mr seated himself his boots which had seemed elegant in the farm house appeared rather clumsy here and his coat that was a model of when he stood amid the choir now exhibited decidedly strained relations with his limbs three years had passed since his to the living of but he had never as yet found means to establish that with lady which usually grows up in the course of time between and house unless indeed either side should surprise the other by showing a weakness for awkward modem ideas on or on church which had not been the case here the present meeting however seemed likely to such a there was an appearance of confidence on lady s ce she said she was so very glad that he had come and looking down at the letter in her hand was on the point of pulling it from its envelope c two on a tower but she did not after a moment she went on more quickly i wanted your advice or rather your opinion on a serious matter on a point of conscience saying which she laid down the letter and looked at the cards it might have been apparent to a more penetrating eye than the s that lady either from timidity or had from her intended communication or perhaps decided to begin at the other end the parson who had been expecting a question on some local business or intelligence at the tenor of her words altered his face to the higher branch of his profession i hope i may find myself of service on that or any other question he said gently i hope so you may possibly be aware mr that my husband sir was not to matters a mistaken somewhat jealous man yet you may hardly have discerned it in the short time you knew him i had some little knowledge of sir s character in that respect well on this account my married life with him was not of the most comfortable kind lady s voice dropped to a more pathetic note i am sure i gave him no cause for suspicion though had i known his disposition sooner i should hardly have dared to many him but his jealousy and doubt of me were not so strong as to divert him from a purpose of his a for african lion hunting which he dignified by calling it a scheme of discovery for he was anxious to make a name for himself in that field it was the one passion that was stronger than bis of me before going away he sat down with me in this room and read me a lecture which resulted in a very rash two on a tower offer on my part when i tell it to you you will find that it a key to all that is unusual in my life here he bade me consider what my position would be when he was gone hoped that i should remember what was due to him that i would not so behave towards other men as to bring the name of into suspicion and charged me to avoid levity of conduct in attending any ball or dinner to which i might be invited i in some contempt for his low opinion of me volunteered there and then to live like a during his absence to go into no society whatever scarce even to a neighbour s and demanded bitterly if that would satisfy him he said yes me to my word and gave me no for it the inevitable fruits of have resulted to me my life has become a burden i get such invitations as these holding up the cards but i so invariably refuse them that they are getting very rare i ask you can i honestly break that promise to my husband mr seemed embarrassed if you promised sir to live in solitude till he comes back you are it seems to me bound by that promise i fear that the wish to be released from your engagement is to some extent a reason why it should be kept but your own conscience would surely be the best guide lady my conscience is quite bewildered with its she continued with a sigh yet it certainly does sometimes say to me that that i ought to keep my word very well i must go on as i am going i suppose if you respect a vow i think you must respect your own said the parson acquiring some further firmness had it been wrung from you by moral or physical it would have been open to you to break it but as you proposed a vow when your two on a tower husband only required a good intention i think you ought to to it or what is the pride worth that led you to offer it very well she said with resignation but it was quite a work of on my part that you proposed it in a spirit does not lessen your obligation having once put yourself under that obligation st paul in his to the says an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife and you will readily recall the words of pay that which thou hast vowed better is it that thou not vow than that thou vow and not pay why not write to sir tell him the inconvenience of such a bond and ask him to release you no never will i the expression of such a desire would in his mind be a sufficient reason for it i ll keep my word mr rose to leave after she had held out her hand to him when he had crossed the room and was within two steps of the door she said mr he stopped	45
what i have told you is only the least part of what i sent for you to tell you mr walked back to her side what is the rest of it then he asked with grave surprise it is a true revelation as far as it goes but there is something more i have received this letter and i wanted to say something then say it now my dear lady no she answered with a look of utter inability i cannot speak of it now some other time don t stay please consider this conversation as private good night iv it was a bright night a week or ten days later there had been several such nights since the occasion of lady s promise to st to come and study phenomena on the rings hill column but she had not gone there this evening she sat at a window the blind of which had not been drawn down her elbow rested on a little t ble and her cheek on her hand her eyes were attracted by the brightness of the planet as he rode in the opposite beaming down upon her as if desirous of notice beneath the planet could be still discerned the dark edges of the park landscape against the sky as one of its features though nearly by the trees which had been planted to shut out the tracts of the estate rose the upper part of the column it was hardly visible now even if visible at all yet lady knew from experience its exact bearing from the window at which she leaned the knowledge that there it still was despite its rapid by the shades led her lonely mind to her late meeting on its summit with the young and to her promise to honour him with a visit for learning some secrets about the bodies overhead the curious of youthful and old despair that two on a tower she had found in the lad would have made him interesting to a woman of perception apart from his fair hair and early christian face but such is the touch of memory that his beauty was probably richer in her imagination than in the real it was a point to consider whether the temptations that would be brought to bear upon him in his course would exceed the staying power of his nature had he been a wealthy youth he would have seemed one to tremble for in spite of his attractive and gentlemanly bearing she thought it would possibly be better for him if he never became known outside his lonely tower forgetting that he had received such intellectual as would probably make his continuance in seem in his own eye a slight upon his father s branch of his family whose social standing had been only a few years earlier but little removed from her own suddenly she flung a cloak about her and went out on the terrace she passed down the steps to the lower lawn through the door to the open park and there stood still the tower was now as the words in which a thought is expressed develop a further thought so did the fact of her having got so far influence her to go further a person who had casually observed her gait would have thought it irregular and the and of speed with which she proceeded in the direction of the pillar could be accounted for only by a motive much more disturbing than an intention to look through a thus she went on till leaving the park she crossed the road and entered the large field in the middle of which the fir clad hill stood like st in its bay the stars were so bright as distinctly to show her the place and now she could see a faint light at the top of the column which rose like a shadowy finger pointing to the upper there was no wind in a two on a tower human sense but a steady breathing from the fir trees showed that now as always there was movement in apparent nothing but an absolute could their utterance the door of the tower was shut it was something more than the which is by a sickening monotony that had led lady thus r and hence she made no about admitting herself three years ago when her every action was a thing of propriety she had known of no possible purpose which could have led her abroad in a manner such as this she ascended the tower noiselessly on raising her head above the she beheld bending over a of paper which lay on the little table beside him the small lantern that illuminated it showed also that he was warmly wrapped up in a coat and thick cap behind him standing the on its frame what was he doing she looked over his shoulder upon the paper and saw figures and signs when he had down something he went to the again what are you doing to night she said in a low voice started and turned the faint lamp light was sufficient to reveal her face to him tedious work lady he answered without betraying much surprise doing my best to watch stars as i may call them you said you would show me the heavens if i could come on a night i have come as a preliminary swept round the to and exhibited to her the glory of that then he directed the instrument to the less bright shape of here he said warming up to the subject we see a world which is to my mind by far the most wonderful in the system think of streams of or two on a tower racing round and round the planet like a fly wheel so dose together as to seem solid matter he entered further and further into the subject his ideas gathering as	45
he went on like his pet heavenly bodies when he paused for breath she said in tones very different from his own i ought now to tell you that though i am interested in the stars they were not what i came to see you about i first thought of the matter to mr but i altered my mind and decided on you she spoke in so low a voice that he might not have heard her at all events abstracted by his grand theme he did not heed her he continued well we will get outside the system altogether leave the whole group of sun and secondary quite behind us in our flight as a bird might leave its bush and sweep into the whole forest now what do you see lady he the at she said that she saw a bright star though it only seemed a point of light now as before that s because it is so distant that no will bring its size up to though called a fixed star it is like all fixed stars moving with inconceivable but no will show that as anything but rest and thus they talked on about and then about other stars in the of all those beasts and fish and fowl with which like indian the learned stock the till he asked her how many stars she thought were visible to them at that moment she looked around over the magnificent stretch of two on a tower sky that their high position unfolded oh thousands hundreds of thousands she said no there are only about three thousand now how many do you think are brought within sight by the help of a powerful i won t guess twenty millions so that whatever the stars were made for they were not made to please our eyes it is just the same in everything nothing is made for man is it that notion which makes you so sad for your age she asked with almost maternal solicitude i think is a bad study for you it makes you feel human too plainly perhaps it does however he added more cheerfully though i feel the study to be one almost tragic in its quality i hope to be the new what he was to the system i aim to be to the systems beyond then by means of the instrument at hand they travelled together from the earth to and the mysterious outskirts of the system from the system to a star in the swan the nearest fixed star in the northern sky from the star in the swan to stars thence to the remotest visible till the ghastly chasm which they had by a fragile line of sight was realized by lady c we are now distances beside which the immense line stretching from the earth to the sun is but an invisible point said the youth when just now we had reached a planet whose is a hundred times the of the sun from the earth we were only a two part of the journey to the spot at which we have arrived now oh pray don t it me she replied not without seriousness it makes me feel that it is not worth while to live it quite me if it your to over these c two on a tower yawning spaces just once think how it must me to be as it were in constant amid them night after night yes it was not really this subject that i came to see you upon mr st she began a second time it was a personal matter i am listening lady i will tell it you yet no not this moment let us finish this grand subject first it mine it would have been difficult to judge from her accents whether she were afraid to her own matter or really interested in his or a certain youthful pride that he at being the of such a large theme and at having drawn her there to hear and observe it may have inclined her to indulge him for kindness sake thereupon he took exception to her use of the word grand as descriptive of the actual universe the imaginary picture of the sky as the of a dome whose base extends from horizon to horizon of our earth is grand simply grand and i wish i had never got beyond looking at it in that way but the actual sky is a horror a new view of our old friends the stars she said smiling up at them but such an obviously true one said the young man you would hardly think at first that horrid monsters lie up there waiting to be discovered by any penetrating mind monsters to which those of the bear no sort of comparison what monsters may they be monsters namely until a person has thought out the stars and their he has hardly learnt that there are things much more terrible than monsters of shape namely monsters of magnitude without known shape such monsters are the and waste places of the sky look for two on a tower instance at those pieces of darkness in the way he went on pointing with his finger to where the stretched across over their heads with the of a web you see that dark opening in it near the swan there is a still more remarkable one south of the called the coal sack as a sort of that has a force from its very in these our sight quite beyond any we have yet visited those are deep wells for the human mind to let itself down into leave alone the human body and think of the side and secondary to right and left as you pass on lady was and silent he tried to give her yet another idea of the size of the universe never	45
was there a more ardent endeavour to bring down the to human comprehension by figures of speech and apt he took her mind into leading strings compelling her to follow him into of which she had never in her life even realized the existence there is a size at which dignity begins he exclaimed further on there is a size at which grandeur begins further on there is a size at which solemnity begins further on a size at which b ns further on a size at which b ns that size faintly approaches the size of the universe so am i not right in saying that those minds who exert their imaginative powers to themselves in the depths of that universe merely strain their faculties to gain a new horror standing as she stood in the presence of the universe under the very eyes of the lady apprehended something of the earnest youth s argument and to add a new to what the sky possesses in its size and there is involved two on a tower the quality of decay for all the wonder of these everlasting stars eternal and what not they are not everlasting they are not eternal they burn out like candles you see that dying one in the body of the greater bear two centuries ago it was as bright as the others the senses may become terrified by plunging among them as they are but there is a even in their glory imagine them all extinguished and your mind feeling its way through a heaven of total darkness occasionally striking against the black invisible of those stars if you are cheerful and wish to remain so leave the study of alone of all the it alone deserves the character of the terrible i am not altogether cheerful then if on the other hand you are restless and anxious about the future study at once your troubles will be reduced but your study will reduce them in a singular way by the importance of ever so that the science is still terrible even as a it is quite impossible to think at all of the sky of what the sky is without feeling it as a nightmare it is better far better for men to forget the universe than to bear it clearly in mind but you say the universe was not really what you came to see me about what was it may i ask lady she mused and sighed and turned to him with something pathetic in her the of the subject you have engaged me on has completely crushed my subject out of me yours is celestial mine human and the less must give way to the greater but is it in a human sense and apart from important he inquired at last attracted by her manner for he began to perceive in two on a tower spite of his that she had really something on her mind it is as important as personal troubles usually are notwithstanding her notion of coming to as employer to as to page she was falling into confidential intercourse with him his vast and romantic lent him a personal force and charm which she could not but apprehend in the presence of the that his young mind had as it were brought down from above to hers they became unconsciously equal there was moreover an liking in lady to dwell less on her permanent position as a county lady than on her passing emotions as a woman i will the matter i came to charge you with she resumed smiling i must it now i will return allow me to show you out through the trees and across the fields she said neither a distinct yes nor no and descending the tower they the and crossed the field by an odd coincidence he remarked when they drew near the great house you may possibly be interested in knowing lady that that medium sized you see over there low down in the south is precisely over sir s head in the middle of africa how very strange that you should have said so she answered you have for me the very subject i had come to speak of on a domestic matter he said with surprise yes what a small matter it seems now after our and yet on my way to you it so r the ordinary matters of my life as the subject you have led me up to this but with a little laugh i will endeavour to sink down to such as human two on a tower tragedy and explain since i have come the point is i want a no woman ever wanted one more for days i have wanted a friend who could go on a secret errand for me it is necessary that my messenger should be educated should be intelligent should be silent as the grave do you give me your solemn promise as to the last point if i confide in you most emphatically lady your right hand upon the compact he gave his hand and raised hers to his lips in addition to his respect for her as the lady of the there was the admiration of twenty years for or nine in such relations i trust you she said now beyond the above conditions it was specially necessary that my agent should have known sir well by sight when he was at home for the errand is concerning my husband i am much disturbed at what i have heard about him i am indeed sorry to know it there are only two people in the parish who fulfil all the conditions mr and yourself i sent for mr and he came i could not tell him i felt at the last moment that he wouldn t do i have come to you because i think you will do this is	45
had constructed on the spot he began reading over his notes two on a tower and examining some journals that had reached him in the morning the sun blazed into the hollow roof space as into a tub and the sides kept out every breeze though the month was february below it was may in the of the column this state of the atmosphere and the fact that on the previous night he had pursued his observations till past two o clock produced in him at the end of half an hour an overpowering inclination to sleep spreading on the lead work a thick rug which he kept up there he flung himself down against the and was soon in a state of it was about ten minutes afterwards that a soft rustle of silken clothes came up the staircase and hesitating reached the where appeared the form of lady she did not at first perceive that he was present and stood still to her eye glanced over his now wrapped up his table and papers his observing chair and his for making the best of a deficiency of instruments all was warm sunny and silent except that a solitary bee which had somehow got within the hollow of the was singing round unable to discern that ascent was the only mode of escape in another moment she beheld the lying in the sun like a sailor in the main top lady slightly he did not awake she then entered and drawing the parcel from beneath her cloak placed it on the table after this she waited looking for a long time at his sleeping face which had a very interesting appearance she seemed reluctant to leave yet wanted resolution to wake him and his name on the parcel she withdrew to the staircase where the brushing of her dress to silence as she round and round on her way to the base two on a tower still t on and presently the rustle began again in the far down interior of the column the door could be heard closing and the rustle came nearer showing that she had shut herself in no doubt to lessen the risk of an accidental surprise by any when lady reappeared at the top and saw the parcel still untouched and asleep as before she exhibited some disappointment but she did not retreat looking again at him her eyes became so fixed on his that it seemed as if she could not withdraw them there lay in the shape of an no no gallant but a philosopher his parted lips were lips which spoke not of love but of millions of miles those were eyes which habitually gazed not into the depths of other eyes but into other worlds within his temples dwelt thoughts not of woman s looks but of aspects and the of thus to his physical was added the of mental the influence of scientific pursuits was by the purity which expressed itself in his eyes whenever he looked at her in speaking and in the of manner which arose from his to their difference of sex he had never since becoming a man looked even so low as to the level of a lady his heaven at present was truly in the skies and not in that only other place where they say it can be found in the eyes of some daughter of eve would any or and if so what one ever check this pale haired s into the interminable spaces overhead and all his mighty calculations on force and fire into oh the pity of it if such should be the i she became much absorbed in these very womanly two on a tower reflections and at last lady sighed perhaps she herself did not exactly know why then a very soft expression lighted on her lips and eyes and she looked at one jump ten years more youthful than before quite a girl in aspect younger than he on the table lay his implements among them a pair of which to judge from the around had been used in cutting curves in thick paper for some calculating process what whim agitation or attraction prompted the impulse nobody knows but she took the and bending over the sleeping youth cut off one of the curls or rather for they hardly reached a curl into which each lock of his hair chose to twist itself in the last inch of its length the hair fell upon the rug she picked it up quickly returned the to the table and as if her dignity had suddenly become ashamed of her hastened through the door and descended the staircase vi w hen his nap had naturally exhausted itself awoke he awoke without any surprise for he not gave to sleep in the day time what he had stolen from it in the night watches the first object that met his eyes was the parcel on the table and seeing his name inscribed he made no scruple to open it the sun flashed upon a of surprising magnitude polished to such a that the eye could scarcely meet its reflections here was a crystal in whose depths were to be seen more wonders than had been by the of all the hot with took this treasure to his at the then he started off for the great house on gaining its he felt shy of calling never having received any hint or permission to do so while lady s mysterious manner of leaving the parcel seemed to demand a like in his approaches to her all the afternoon he lingered about in the hope of her on her return from a drive occasionally walking with an indifferent across commanded by the windows that if she were in doors she might know he was near but she did not show herself during the d two on	45
a tower daylight still impressed by her playful secrecy he carried on the same idea after dark by returning to the house and passing through the garden door on to the lawn front where he sat on the that the terrace now she frequently came out here for a melancholy after dinner and to night was such an occasion went forward and met her at nearly the spot where he had dropped the some nights earlier i have come to see you lady how did the glass get on my table she laughed as lightly as a girl that he had come to her in this way was plainly no offence thus far perhaps it was dropped from the clouds by a bird she said why should you be so good to me he cried one good turn deserves another answered she dear lady i whatever discoveries result from this shall be ascribed to you as much as to me where should i have been without your gift you would possibly have accomplished your purpose just the same and have been so much the nobler for your struggle against ill luck i hope that now you will be able to proceed with your large as if nothing had happened o yes i will certainly i am afraid i showed too much feeling the reverse of when the accident occurred that was not very noble of me there is nothing unnatural in such feeling at your age when you are older you will smile at such moods and at the that gave rise to them ah i perceive you think me weak in the extreme he said with just a shade of but you will never realize that an incident which filled but a degree in the circle of your thoughts covered the whole of mine no person can see what and where another s horizon is so two on a tower they soon parted and she re entered the house where she sat reflecting for some time till she seemed to fear that she had wounded his feelings she awoke in the night and thought and thought on the same thing till she had worked herself into a feverish fret about it when it was morning she looked across at the tower and sitting down wrote the following note dear mr st i cannot allow you to remain under the impression that i despised your scientific in speaking as i did last night i think you were too sensitive to my remark but perhaps you were agitated with the labours of the day and i fear that watching so late at night must make you very weary if i can help you again please let me know i never realized the grandeur of till you showed me how to do so also let me know about the new come and see me at any time after your great kindness in being my messenger i can never do enough for you i wish you had a mother or sister and pity your loneliness i am lonely too yours truly she was so anxious that he should get this letter the same day that she ran across to the column with it during the morning preferring to be her own in so curious a case the door as she had expected was locked and slipping the letter under it she went home again during lunch her in the cause of s hurt feelings cooled down till she exclaimed to herself as she sat at her lonely table what could have possessed me to write in that way after lunch she went faster to the tower than she had gone in the early morning and peeped eagerly into the under the door she could discern no letter two on a tower and on trying the latch found that the door would open the letter was gone having obviously arrived in the interval she blushed a blush which seemed to say i am getting foolishly interested in this young man she had in short in her own opinion somewhat the bounds of dignity her instincts did not square well with the of her existence and she walked home had a concert lecture or meeting required the patronage and support of lady at this juncture the circumstance would probably have been sufficient to divert her mind from st and for some little time but as none of these incidents were within the range of expectation house and parish lying far from large towns and watering places the void in her outer life continued and with it the void in her life within the youth had not answered her letter had he called upon her in response to the she had r with the rest of the as being somewhat too warmly for black and white to speak tenderly to him was one thing to write another that was her feeling immediately after the event but his counter move of silence and though probably the result of pure on his part completely dispersed such self considerations now her eyes never fell upon the rings hill column without a wonder arising as to what he was doing a true woman she would assume the remotest possibility to be the most likely if the possibility had the recommendation of being and she now feared that something was wrong with st yet there was not the least doubt that he had become so in the business of the new as to forget everything else on sunday between the services she walked to two on a tower little chiefly for the sake of giving a run to a house dog a large st of whom she was fond the distance was but short and she returned along a narrow lane divided from the river by a hedge through whose twigs the flashed silver lights into her eyes here she discovered leaning over a	45
tended i am not going to buy you one she said gently he looked as if he would faint certainly not i do not wish it i x not have accepted it faltered the young man but i am going to buy one for myself i lack a and i shall choose i shall fix my on the column brightened up and i shall let you have the use of it whenever you choose in brief st shall be lady s royal and she and she shall be his queen the words came not much the worse for being uttered only in the tone of one anxious to complete a sentence well that s what i have decided to do resumed lady i will write to these at once there seemed to be no more for him to do than to thank her for the privilege whenever it should be available which he promptly did and then made as if to go but lady detained him with have you ever seen my library no never you don t say you would like to see it but i should it is the third door on the right you can find your way in and you can stay there as long as you like then left the morning room for the apartment and amused himself in that soul of the house as defined it till he heard the sounding from the when he came down from the library steps and thought it time to go home but at that moment a servant entered to inquire whether he two on a tower would or would not prefer to have his lunch brought in to him there upon his replying in the affirmative a large tray arrived on the stomach of a footman and was greatly surprised to see a whole placed at his disposal having at eight that morning and having been much in the open air afterwards the s appetite assumed grand proportions how much of that he might eat without his dear lady s feelings when he could readily eat it all was a problem in which the of a larger and larger quantity argued itself as a smaller and smaller quantity remained when at length he had finally decided on a point in the body of the bird the door was gently opened oh you have not finished came to him over his shoulder in a considerate voice yes thank you lady g he said jumping up why did you prefer to lunch in this awkward dusty place i thought it would be better said simply there is fruit in the other room if you like to come but perhaps you would rather not o yes i should much like to said walking over his and following her as she led the way to the adjoining apartment here while she asked him what he had been reading he modestly ventured on an apple in whose he recognized the familiar taste of old friends robbed from her husband s in his childhood long before lady s advent on the scene she supposed he had confined his search to his own sublime subject suddenly became older to the eye as his s two on a tower thoughts to the topic thus yes he informed her i seldom read any other subject in these days the secret of productive study is to avoid well did you find any good none the theories in your books are almost as as the system only fancy that magnificent leather bound and stamped and gilt t and wide and bearing the of your house in magnificent colours says that the twinkling of the stars is probably caused by heavenly bodies passing in front of them in their and is it not so that was what i learned when i was a girl the modern now rose above the embarrassing horizon of lady s great house magnificent furniture and awe inspiring footman he became quite natural all his self consciousness fled and his eye spoke into hers no less than his lips to her ears as he said how such a theory can have lingered on to this day beats conjecture as long as forty or fifty years ago established the ct that is the simplest thing in the world merely a matter of atmosphere but i won t speak of this to you now the comparative absence of in warm countries was noticed by then again the vary no star his wings like when he lies low he flashes out and flames and colours in a manner quite marvellous to behold and this is only one star so too do and and lesser but i tire you with this subject n the contrary you speak so beautifully that i could listen all day the threw a searching glance upon her for a moment but there was no satire in the two on a tower soft eyes which met his own with a luxurious interest say some more of it to me she continued in a voice not far removed from after some hesitation the subject returned again to his lips and he said some more indeed much more lady often throwing in an remark or question often regarding him in of ideas not exactly based on his words and letting him go on as he would before he left the house the new project was set in train the top of the column was to be in to form a proper and on the ground that he knew better than any one else how this was to be carried out she requested him to give precise directions on the point and to the whole a wooden cabin was to be erected at the foot of the tower to provide better accommodation for casual visitors to the than the staircase and lead flat afforded as this cabin would be completely buried in	45
the dense fir foliage which enveloped the lower part of the column and its it would be no to the general appearance finally a path was to be made across the surrounding by which she might easily approach the scene of her new study when he was gone she wrote to the firm of concerning the for whose reception all this was designed the undertaking was soon in full progress and by degrees it became the talk of the round that lady had given up melancholy for to the great advantage of all who came in contact with her one morning when lark had come as usual to read lady chanced to be in a quarter of the house to which she seldom wandered and while here she heard her maid talking to in the adjoining room on the two on a tower curious and sudden interest which lady had acquired in the moon and stars they do say all sorts of observed the they say though tis little better than mischief to be sure that it isn t the moon and it isn t the stars and it isn t the that my lady cares for but for the pretty lad who draws em down from the sky to please her and being a married and what with sin and shame knocking at every poor maid s door afore you can say hands off my dear to the young man she ought to set a better pattern lady s face up vividly if sir were to come back all of a sudden oh my lady grew cold as ice there s nothing in it said scornfully i could prove it any day well i wish i had half her chance sighed the lady s maid and no more was said on the subject then s remark showed that the suspicion was quite in as yet nevertheless saying nothing to reveal what she had overheard immediately after the reading lady flew like a bird to where she knew that might be found he was in the plantation setting up little sticks to mark where the wooden cabin was to stand she called him to a remote place under the trees i have altered my mind she said i can have nothing to do with this matter indeed said surprised is not my any longer and you are not my royal o lady cried the youth aghast why the work is begun i thought the was ordered i two on a tower she dropped her voice though a shout would not have been overheard of course is my privately and you are to be my royal and i still furnish the but not to the outer world there is a reason against my indulgence in such scientific fancies openly and the project must be arranged in this wise the whole enterprise is yours you rent the tower of me you build the cabin you get the i simply give permission since you desire it the path that was to be made from the hill to the park is not to be thought of there is to be no communication between the house and the column the will arrive addressed to you and its cost i will pay through you my name must not appear and i vanish entirely from the undertaking this blind is necessary she added sighing good bye but you do take as much interest as before and it will be yours just the same he said walking after her he scarcely comprehended the and was absolutely blind as to its reason can you doubt it but i dare not do it openly with this she went away and in due time there through the parish an assertion that it was a mistake to suppose lady had anything to do with st or his star gazing schemes she had merely allowed him to rent the tower of her for use as his and to put some temporary on it for that purpose after this lady into her former life of loneliness and by these prompt measures the ghost of a rumour which had barely started into existence was speedily laid to rest it had probably originated in her own dwelling and had gone but little further yet despite her self control a certain north window of the great house that commanded an view of the upper ten feet of the column two on a tower revealed her to be somewhat frequently gazing from it at a which had begun to appear on the summit to those with whom she came in contact she sometimes addressed such remarks as is young mr st getting on with his i hope he will fix his instruments without the column which is so interesting to us as being in of my dear husband s great grand ther a truly brave man on one occasion her building steward ventured to suggest to her that sir having to her the power to grant short in his absence she should have a agreement with as between landlord and tenant with a against his driving nails into the of such an historical memorial she replied that she did not wish to be severe on the last representative of such old and respected as st s mother s family had been and of such a well descended family as his father s so that it would only be necessary for the steward to keep an eye on mr st s doings further when a letter arrived at the great house from s the with information that the was ready and packed and that a man would be sent with it to fix it she replied to that firm to the effect that their letter should have been addressed to mr st the local on whose behalf she had made the inquiries that she had nothing more to do with the matter that he would	45
receive the instrument and pay the bill her being given for the latter performance viii lady then had the pleasure of beholding a laden with packing cases moving across the field towards the pillar and not many days later who had never come to the great house since the luncheon met her in a path which he knew to be one of her the is fixed and the man gone he said half in doubt as to his speech for her commands to him not to recognize her agency or patronage still puzzled him i respectfully wish you could come and see it lady i would rather not i cannot is lovely is simply sublime i can see double stars in the lion and in the virgin where i had seen only a single one before it is all i required to set me going come but you need say nothing about my visit i cannot come to night but i will some time this week yet only this once to try the instrument afterwards you must be content to pursue your studies alone seemed but little affected at this announcement s man handed me the bill he continued how much is it two on a tower he told her and the man who has built the hut and dome and done the other fixing has sent in his he named this amount also very well they shall be settled with my debts must be paid with my money which you shall have at once in cash since a would hardly do come to the house for it this evening but no no you must not come openly such is the world come to the window the window that is exactly in a line with the long bed in the south front at eight to night and i will give you what is necessary certainly lady said the young man at eight that evening accordingly entered like a upon the terrace to seek out the spot she had the had so entirely absorbed his thoughts that he did not trouble himself seriously to conjecture the why and wherefore of her secrecy if he casually thought of it he set it down in a general way to an intensely generous wish on her part not to lessen his influence among the poorer inhabitants by making him appear the object of patronage while he stood by the long bed which looked up at him like a way the french of the window opposite softly opened and a hand bordered by a glimmer of lace was stretched forth from which he received a crisp little parcel bank notes apparently he knew the hand and held it long enough to press it to his lips the only form which had ever occurred to him of expressing his gratitude to her without the of clumsy words a vehicle at the best of times but rudely suited to such delicate the hand was hastily withdrawn as if the treatment had been unexpected then seemingly moved by second thoughts she bent forward and said is the night good for observations perfect she paused then come to night she at last s e two on a tower said it makes no difference to me after all wait just one moment he waited and she presently emerged muffled up like a whereupon they left the terrace and struck across the park together very little was said by either till they were crossing the when he asked if his arm would help her she did not take the offered support just then but when they were ascending the under the heavy gloom of the fir trees she seized it as if rather influenced by the oppressive solitude than by fatigue thus they reached the foot of the column ten thousand spirits in prison seeming to gasp their from the boughs overhead and a few twigs scratching the pillar with the drag of claws as as those in st s temptation how intensely dark it is just here she whispered i wonder you can keep in the path many ancient lie buried there doubtless he led her round to the other side where feeling his way with his hands he suddenly left her appearing a moment after with a light what place is this she exclaimed this is the new wood cabin said he she could just discern the outline of a little house not unlike a bathing machine without wheels i have kept lights ready here he went on as i thought you might come any evening and possibly bring company don t me for coming alone she exclaimed with sensitive there are social reasons for what i do of which you know nothing perhaps it is much to my that i don t know not at all you are all the better for it heaven forbid that i should you well i see this is two on a tower the hut but i am more curious to go to the top of the tower and make discoveries he brought a little lantern from the cabin and lighted her up the winding staircase to the temple of that sublime mystery on whose threshold he stood as priest the top of the column was quite changed the tub shaped space within the open to the air and sun was now arched over by a light dome of work covered with felt but this dome was not fixed at the line where its base descended to the there were half a dozen iron balls precisely like cannon shot standing loosely in a and on these the dome rested its whole weight in the side of the dome was a through which the wind blew and the north star beamed and towards it the end of the great was directed this latter magnificent object with its circles and	45
pause by speech was apparently futile she laid her hand upon his arm he started withdrew his eye from the and brought himself back to the earth by a almost painful effort do come out of it she with a softness in her voice which any man but would have felt to be exquisite i feel that i have been so foolish as to put in hands an instrument to effect two on a tower my own not a word have you spoken for the last ten minutes i have been mentally getting on with my great theory i hope soon to be able to publish it to the world what are you going i will walk with you lady when will you come again when your great theory is published to the world ix lady if narrowly observed at this time would have seemed to be deeply troubled in conscience and particularly after the interview above described ash wednesday occurred in the a few days later and she went to morning service with a look of genuine on her and yearning countenance besides herself the congregation consisted only of the parson clerk school children and three old people living on who sat under the reading desk and thus when mr blazed forth the sentences of the nearly the whole force of them seemed to descend upon her own shoulders looking across the empty she saw through the one or two clear panes of the window opposite a youthful figure in the churchyard and the very feeling against which she had tried to pray returned again irresistibly when she came out and had crossed into the private walk came forward to speak to her this was a most unusual circumstance and argued a matter of importance i have made an amazing discovery in with the stars he exclaimed it will excite the whole world and the world outside two on a tower but little less i had long suspected the true secret of their but it was by the merest chance on earth that i hit upon a proof of my guess your has done it my good kind lady and our fame is established for ever he sprang into the air and waved his hat in his triumph oh i am so glad so rejoiced she cried what is it but don t stop to tell me publish it at once in some paper nail your name to it or somebody will seize the idea and appropriate it you in some way it will be and over again if i may walk with you i will explain the nature of the discovery it accounts for the occasional green tint of and every difficulty i said i would be the of the system and i have begun to be yet who knows now don t be so up and down i shall not understand your explanation and i would rather not know it i shall reveal it if it is very grand women you know are not safe of such valuable secrets you may walk with me a little way with great pleasure then go and write your account so as to your of the discovery but how you have watched she cried in a sudden accession of anxiety as she turned to look more closely at him the of your eyes are leaden and your eyelids are red and heavy don t do it pray don t you will be ill and break down i have it is true been up a httle late this last week he said cheerfully in fact i couldn t tear myself away from the it is such a wonderful possession that it keeps me there till daylight but what does that matter now i have made the discovery ah it does matter now promise me i insist that you will not commit such again for two on a tower what should i do if my royal were to die she laughed but far too to be effective as a display of levity they parted and he went home to write out his paper he promised to call as soon as his discovery was in print then they waited for the result it is impossible to describe the tremulous state of lady during the interval the warm interest she took in st many would have said warm interest made his hopes her hopes and though she sometimes admitted to herself that great allowance was requisite for the confidence of youth in the future she permitted herself to be blinded to for the pleasure of sharing his dreams it seemed not unreasonable to suppose the present hour to be the beginning of to her darling wish that this young man should become famous he had worked hard and why should he not be famous early his very simplicity in affairs afforded a strong presumption that in things celestial he might be wise to obtain support for this she had only to think over the lives of many eminent she waited for the flourish of trumpets from afar by which she expected the announcement of his discovery to be greeted knowing that immediate intelligence of the outburst would be brought to her by himself she watched from the windows of the great house each morning for a sight of his figure hastening down the but he did not come a long array of wet days passed their dreary shapes before her and made the waiting still more tedious on one of these occasions she ran across to the tower at the risk of a severe cold the door was locked two days after she went again the door was two on a tower locked still but this was only to be expected in such weather yet she would have gone on to his house had there not been one reason too many against such as and	45
there was no harm in their meetings but as woman and man she feared them ten days passed without a sight of him ten and dreary days during which the whole landscape like a the park trees the gravel from the drive while the sky was a coloured of immovable cloud it seemed as if the whole science of had never been real and that the heavenly bodies with their motions were as as the lines and circles of a problem she could content herself no longer with fruitless visits to the column and when the rain had a little she walked to the nearest hamlet and in a conversation with the first old woman she met contrived to lead up to the subject of st by talking about his grandmother ah poor old heart tis a bad time for her my lady exclaimed the dame what her is dying and such a gentleman through and through what oh it has something to do with that dreadful discovery discovery my lady she left the old woman with an answer and with a breaking heart crept along the road tears into her eyes as she walked and by the time that she was out of sight sobs burst forth i am too fond of him she moaned but i can t help it and i don t care if it s wrong i don t care without further considerations as to who beheld her doings she instinctively went straight toward mrs two on a tower martin s seeing a man coming she herself sufficiently to ask him through her dropped veil how poor mr st was that day but she only got the same reply they say he is dying my lady when had parted from lady on the previous ash wednesday he had gone straight to the and prepared his account of a new discovery it was written perhaps in too glowing a for the true scientific tone of mind but there was no doubt that his assertion met with a most startling all the difficulties which had accompanied the received theories on the phenomena attending those of marvellous systems so far away it accounted for the mist that some of them at their time in short took up a position of probability which has never yet been successfully assailed the papers were written in and carefully sealed up with blue wax one copy was directed to another to the royal society another to a prominent a brief statement of the essence of the discovery was also prepared for the leading daily paper he considered these documents as they did two years of his constant thought reading and observation too important to be for to the hands of a messenger too important to be sent to the sub post office at hand though the day was wet dripping wet he went on foot with them to a chief office five miles off and them te exhausted by the walk after his long night work wet through yet sustained by the sense of a great achievement he called at a s for the to which he then resting for a short time at an inn he his way reading his papers as he went and planning how to enjoy a repose on his of a week or more two on a tower on he strolled through the rain holding the umbrella over the exposed page to keep it dry while he read suddenly his eye was struck by an article it was the review of a by an american in which the author announced a discovery with regard to stars the discovery was precisely the discovery of st another man had his fame by a period of about six weeks then the youth found that the goddess philosophy to whom he had vowed to his whole life would not in return support him through a single hour of despair in truth the of circumstance was to him than it would have been to a philosopher of and ten in a wild wish for he flung himself down on a patch of that lay a little removed from the road and in this bed remained motionless while time passed by at last from sheer misery and weariness he fell asleep the march rain him the moisture from the charged locks of heath penetrated him through back and sides and his hair to and when he awoke it was dark he thought of his grandmother and of her possible alarm at missing him on attempting to rise he found that he could hardly bend his joints and that his clothes were as heavy as lead from his teeth chattering and his knees trembling he pursued his way home where his excited great concern he was obliged at once to retire to bed and the next day he was from the chill it was about ten days after this unhappy occurrence that lady learnt the news as above described and hastened along to the in that state of anguish in which the heart is no longer under two on a tower the control of the judgment and self even to error on heroism on reaching the house in bottom the door was opened to her by old who wore an sorrowful look and lady was shown into the large room so wide that the beams bent in the middle where she took her seat in one of a range of chairs beneath a portrait of the reverend mr st her s father the eight dying plants in the row of eight flower pots that there was something wrong in the house mrs martin came downstairs her wonder at beholding lady not altogether the previous mood of grief here s a pretty kettle of fish my lady she exclaimed lady said hush and pointed upward he is not overhead my lady replied s grandmother his bedroom is at the back of the	45
house how is he now he is better just at this moment and we are more hopeful but he changes so may i go up i know he would like to see me her presence having been made known to the sufferer she was conducted upstairs to s room the way thither was through the large chamber he had used as a study and for the manufacture of instruments there lay the large that had been just such a failure as s large boat there were his maps and celestial apparatus of various sorts the absence of the through illness or death is sufficient to touch the and tools with the hues of pathos and it was with a swelling bosom that lady passed through two on a tower this of his youthful to the little chamber where he lay old mrs martin sat down by the window and lady bent over don t speak to me she whispered it will you it will excite you if you do speak it must be very softly she took his hand and one irrepressible tear fell upon it nothing will excite me now lady he said not even your goodness in coming my last excitement was when i lost the battle do you know that my discovery has been it is that that s me but you are going to recover you are better they say is it so i think i am to day but who can be sure the poor boy was so upset at finding that his labour had been thrown away said his grandmother that he lay down in the rain and chilled his life out how could you do it lady whispered o how could you think so much of renown and so little of me why for every discovery made there are ten behind that await making to commit suicide like this as if there were nobody in the world to care for you it was done in my haste and i am very very sorry for it i beg both you and all my few friends never never to forgive me it would kill me with self reproach if you were to pardon my at this moment the doctor was announced and mrs martin went downstairs to receive him lady thought she would remain to hear his report and for this purpose withdrew and sat down in a nook of the adjoining work room of the doctor meeting her as he passed through it into the sick chamber two on a tower he was there a long time but at length he came out to the room she waited in and crossed it on his way downstairs she rose and followed him to the how is he she anxiously asked will he get over it the doctor not knowing the depth of her interest in the patient spoke with the blunt natural towards a comparatively indifferent no lady he replied there s a change for the worse and he retired down the stairs scarcely knowing what she did lady ran back to s side flung herself upon the bed and in a of sorrow kissed him he placid inhabitants of the parish of including lone the blacksmith the carpenter the gardener at the great house the steward and agent the parson clerk and so on were expecting the announcement of st s death the had been going to see his brother in law nine miles distant but promptly postponed the visit for a few days that there might be the r professional hand present to toll the bell in a note of due fulness and solemnity an attempt by a on a previous occasion of his absence having into a miserable that was a disgrace to the parish but st did not a fact of which indeed the reader will have been well aware ever since the rain came down upon the young man in the ninth chapter and led to his alarming illness though for that matter so many histories are themselves in this world as to lend almost a of interest to concerning those who lay great for eternity which prove more short than waste or how it arose that he did not die was in this wise x f two on a tower and his example affords another instance of that rule of the soul over the sovereign body which so wonderfully in elastic natures and more or less in all originally gave rise to the legend that lay on the other side the evening of the day after the tender despairing farewell kiss of lady when he was a little less weak than during her visit he lay with his face to the window he lay alone quiet and resigned he had been thinking sometimes of her and other friends but chiefly of his lost discovery although nearly unconscious at the time he had yet been aware of that kiss as the delicate flush which followed it upon his cheek would have told but he had attached little importance to it as between woman and man had he been dying of love instead of wet weather perhaps the impulsive act of that handsome lady would have been seized on as a proof that his love was returned as it was her kiss seemed but the evidence of a naturally felt towards him chiefly because he was believed to be leaving her for ever the of sunset passed and dusk drew on old came upstairs to pull down the blinds and as she advanced to the window he said to her in a faint voice well what news to day h nothing sir replied looking out of the window with sad only that there s a they say a what said the dying starting up on his elbow a that s all master repeated in a lower voice fearing she had done harm in some way well tell	45
her eyes to speak plainly it was growing a serious question whether if he were not hidden from her eyes she would not soon be plunging across the ragged boundary which the from the forbidden s two on a tower by the time that she had drawn near home the sun was going down the heavy many church now subdued by violet shadow except where its upper courses caught the western stroke of flame colour stood close to her grounds as in many other though the village of which it formerly was the had become quite its cottages had been to the park leaving the old building to stand there alone like a standard without an army it was friday night and she heard the within the hour the notes the even song of the birds and her own previous emotions combined to influence her she entered turning to the right and passing under the arch where she sat down and viewed the whole empty length east and west the semi arches of the with their were still visible by the light from the tower window but the lower portion of the building was in obscurity except where the feeble glimmer from the candle of the spread a glow worm radiance around the player who was miss lark continued without to produce her wandering sounds unconscious of any one s presence except that of the youthful at her side the lays from the s candle illuminated but one small fragment of the outside the of the instrument and that was the portion of the eastern wall whereon the ten were inscribed the gilt letters shone sternly into lady s eyes and she being as as a dove watched a certain one of those on the second table till its thunder broke her spirit with blank she knelt down and did her utmost to those impulses towards st which were two on a tower with her position as the wife of an absent man though not unnatural in her as his victim she knelt till she seemed scarcely to belong to the time she lived in which lost the magnitude that the of its perspective lent it on ordinary occasions and took its actual rank in the long line of other centuries having once got out of herself seen herself from afar off she was calmer and went on to a vow she would look about for some maiden fit and likely to make st happy and this girl she would with what money she could afford that the natural result of their should do him no worldly harm the interest of her lady s life should be in watching the development of love between and the ideal maiden the very of the scheme to her susceptible heart made it pleasing to her conscience and she wondered that she had not before this time thought of a which united the possibility of the with the advantage of guarding against peril to both and herself by providing for him a suitable she would the dangerous awakening in him of sentiments her own arrived at a point of exquisite misery through this heroic intention lady s tears the books upon which her forehead was bowed and as she heard her feverish heart throb against the desk she firmly believed the wearing impulses of that heart would put an end to her sad life and recalled the banished image of st to him in thoughts that the quaint lines of s lied dear my love press thy hand to my breast and tell if thou the in that narrow cell a carpenter dwells there is he and he s a coffin for me i two on a tower lady was disturbed by a break in the s practice and raising her head she saw a person standing by the player it was mr and what he said was distinctly audible he was inquiring for herself i thought i saw lady walk this way he rejoined to s negative i am very anxious indeed to meet with her she went forward i am here she said don t stop playing miss lark what is it mr thereupon resumed her playing and mr joined lady i have some very serious intelligence to break to your he said but i will not interrupt you here he had seen her rise from her knees to come to him i will call at the house the first moment you can receive me after reaching home no tell me here she said herself he came close and placed his hand on the of the seat i have received a communication he resumed halt ir which i am requested to prepare you for the contents of a letter that you will receive to morrow morning i am quite ready the subject is briefly this lady that you have been a widow for more than eighteen months dead yes sir was attacked by and fever on the banks of the in south africa so long ago as last october and it carried him off of the three men who were with him two to the same illness a hundred miles further on while the third his steps into a district remained there with a native tribe and took no pains to make the circumstances known it seems to be only by the mere accident of o two on a tower his having told some third party that we know of the matter now this is all i can tell you at present she was greatly agitated for a few moments and the table of the law opposite which now seemed to to another upon a vision still obscured by the old tears shall i conduct you home asked the parson no thank you said lady i would rather go alone xii on the afternoon of the next day mr who occasionally dropped in to see st called again	45
as usual after duly remarking on the state of the weather him on his sure though slow improvement and answering his inquiries about the he said you have heard i suppose of what has happened to lady no nothing serious yes it is serious the parson informed him of the death of sir and of the accidents which had all knowledge of the same accidents favoured by the of the pair and the of correspondence between them for some time his listener received the news with the concern of a friend lady s aspect in his eyes depending but little on her condition there was no attempt to bring him home when he died o no the climate instant burial we shall have more particulars in a day or two doubtless poor lady so good and so sensitive as she is i suppose she is quite by the bad news two on a tower well she is rather serious not the household is going into mourning ah no she would not be quite murmured himself he was unkind to her in many ways do you think she will go away from that the could not tell but he feared that sir s affairs had been in a seriously involved condition which might and unexpected changes time showed that mr s were correct during the long weeks of early summer through which the young man still lay imprisoned if not within his own chamber within the limits of the house and garden news reached him that sir s and eccentric behaviour were in serious consequences to lady j nothing less indeed than her almost complete his personality was swallowed up in paying his debts and the estate was so heavily charged with to his distant relatives that only a mere was left for her she was the establishment to the compass with decent the horses were sold one by one the carriages also the greater part of the house was shut up and she resided in the smallest rooms all that was allowed to remain of her former of male servants were an odd man and a boy instead of using a carriage she now drove about in a donkey chair the said boy walking in front to clear the way and keep the animal in motion while she wore so his reported not an ordinary widow s cap or bonnet but something even the black material being drawn tightly round her face giving her features a small devout cast very pleasing to the eye now what s the most curious thing in this mr two on a tower san said who in calling to inquire after s health had imparted some of the above particulars is that my lady seems not to mind being a pore woman half so much as we do at seeing her so tis a wonderful gift mr san wonderful to be able to guide and not let loose yer soul in at such a misfortune i should go and drink neat regular as soon as i had my breakfast till my was burnt out like a old copper if it had happened to me but my lady s plan is best though i only guess how one feels in such losses to be sure for i never had nothing to lose meanwhile the was not forgotten nor that of singular shape and habits which had appeared in the sky from no one knew whence trailing its luminous and proceeding on its way in the face of a wondering world till it should choose to vanish as suddenly as it had come when about a month after the above dialogue took place was allowed to go about as usual his first pilgrimage was to the rings hill here he studied at leisure what he had come to see on his return to the just after sunset he found his grandmother and in a state of great concern the former was looking out for him against the evening light her au e showing itself worn and like an old highway by the passing of many days her information was that in his absence lady had called in her driving chair to inquire for him her had wished to observe the through the great but had found the door locked when she applied at the tower would he kindly leave the door to morrow she had asked that she might be able to go to the column on the following evening for the same purpose she did not require him to attend during the next day he sent with the key two on a tower to house not caring to leave the tower open as evening advanced and the grew distinct he doubted if lady could handle the alone with any pleasure or profit to herself unable as a to science to rest under this he crossed the field in the that he had used ever since the com was sown and entered the plantation his mind never once guessed that her against his coming might have existed along with a perverse hope that he would come on ascending he found her already there she sat in the observing chair the warm light from the west which flowed in through the opening of the dome brightened her face and her face only her robes of lawn rendering the remainder of her figure almost invisible you have come she said with shy pleasure i did not require you but never mind she extended her hand cordially to him before speaking he looked at her with a great new interest in his eye it was the first time that he had seen her thus and she was altered in more than dress a sweet expression sat on her face it was of a rare and peculiar shade something that he had never seen before in woman have you nothing to say she continued your	45
footsteps were audible to me from the very bottom and i knew they were yours you look almost restored i am almost restored he replied respectfully pressing her hand a reason for living arose and i lived what reason she inquired with a rapid blush he pointed to the like object in the western sky oh you mean the well you will never make a you know of course what has happened to that i have no longer a husband two on a tower have had none for a year and a half have you also heard that i am now quite a poor woman tell me what you think of it i have thought very little of it since i heard that you seemed to mind poverty but little there is even this good in it that i may now be able to show you some little kindness for all those you have done me my dear lady unless for economy s sake i go and live abroad at or who had never thought of such a was earnest in his regrets without however showing more than a sincere friend s disappointment i did not say it was absolutely necessary she continued i have in fact grown so homely and home loving i am so interested in the place and the people here that in spite of advice i have almost determined not to let the house but to continue the less business like but pleasanter alternative of living humbly in a part of it and shutting up the rest your love of is getting as strong as mine he said you could not tear yourself away from the you might have supposed me capable of a little human feeling as well as scientific in connection with the dear lady by admitting that your has also a part of your interest ah you did not find it out without my telling she said with a which was scarcely playful a new accession of being visible in her face i myself in your esteem by reminding you you might do anything in this world without yourself in my esteem after the goodness you have shown and more than that no no rumour no appearance whatever would ever shake my loyalty to you two on a tower but you put a very matter of fact construction on my motives sometimes you see me in such a hard light that i have to drop hints in quite a manner to let you know i am as sympathetic as other people i sometimes think you would rather have me die than have your stolen confess that your admiration for me was based on my house and position in the county now i am of all that glory such as it was and am a widow and am poorer than my tenants and can no longer buy and am unable from the of my circumstances to mix in circles that people formerly said i adorned i fear i have lost the little hold i once had over you you are as unjust now as you have been generous hitherto said st with tears in his eyes at the gentle of the lady which he poor innocent read as her real opinions seizing her hand he continued in tones between reproach and anger i swear to you that i have but two two thoughts two hopes and two blessings in this world and that one of them is yourself and the other the pursuit of and stands first i have never two such ideas and why should you your altered circumstances my dear lady your if i may take the liberty to speak on such a subject is though i suppose a sadness not perhaps an evil for though your pecuniary troubles have been discovered to the world and yourself by it your happiness in marriage was as you have confided to me not great and you are now left free as a bird to follow your own i wonder you recognize that but perhaps he added with a sigh of regret two on a tower you will again a prey to some man some uninteresting country squire or other and be lost to the scientific world after all if i a pr to any man it will not be to a country squire but don t go on with this for heaven s sake i you may think what you like in silence we are forgetting the said st he turned and set the instrument in order for observation and wheeled round the dome while she was looking at the of the fiery that now filled so large a space of the sky as completely to it dropped his gaze upon the field and beheld in the dying light a number of crossing directly towards the column what do you see lady asked without ceasing to observe the some of the work folk are coming this way i know what they are coming for i promised to let them look at the through the glass they must not come up here she said they shall await your time i have a special reason for wishing them not to see me here if you ask why i can tell you they suspect my interest to be less in than in the and they must have no showing for such a wild notion what can you do to keep them out i ll lock the door said they will then think i am away he ran down the staircase and she could hear him hastily turning the key lady sighed what weakness what weakness she said to herself that envied power of self control where is it that power of concealment which a woman should have where to run such risks to come here alone oh if it were known but i was always so always i	45
i am so anxious to get home she repeated i did not mean to stay here more than five minutes i fear i am much to blame for this accident he said i ought not to have here but don t grieve i will arrange for your escape somehow be good enough to follow me down they and whispering to lady to remain a few stairs behind he to rattle and the door the men removed their bench and stepped out the light of the summer night being still enough to enable them to distinguish him well and samuel and how are you he said boldly well sir tis much as before wi me replied one hour a week wi god a mighty and the rest with loi two on a tower the devil as a chap may say and really now yer poor father s gone i d as that that sunday hour should pass like the rest for pa son do a s conscience that much that church is no at all to the limbs as it was in yer father s time but we ve been waiting here mr san supposing ye had not come i have been staying at the top and the door not to be disturbed now i am sorry to disappoint you but i have another engagement this evening so that it would be inconvenient to admit you to morrow evening or any evening but this i will show you the and any stars you like they readily agreed to come the next night and prepared to depart but what with the and the pipes and the final observations getting away was a matter of time meanwhile a cloud which nobody had noticed arose from the north overhead and large drops of rain began to fall so rapidly that the entered the hut till it should be over st strolled off under the the next moment there was a rustling through the trees at another point and a man and woman appeared the woman took shelter under a tree and the man bearing and came forward my lady s man and maid said is her here asked the man no i reckon her keeps more company replied pack o stuff said not here well to be sure i we can t find her anywhere in the wide house i ve been sent to look for her with these and umbrella i ve suffered horse flesh up and down and can t find her nowhere lord lord where can she be and two months wages owing to me why so anxious green as i think yer i two on a tower name is shaped you be not a married man said tis what they call me neighbours whether or no but surely you was a bachelor chap by late afore her got rid of the regular servants and took ye i were but that s past and how came ye to bow yer head to t tis what you never was inclined to you was by no means a man in my time well had i been left to my own free choice tis as like as not i should ha forming such kindred being at that time a poor day man or weekly at my highest luck in but tis wearing work to hold out against the custom of the country and the woman wanting ye to stand by her and save her from shame so since common usage would have it i let myself be carried away by opinion and took her though she s never once thanked me for covering her confusion that s true but tis the way of the lost when safe and i don t complain here she is just behind under the tree if you d like to see her a very nice woman to look at too for all her few weather well well where can my lady be and i the man tis more than my place is worth to lose her come forward and talk nicely to the work folk while the woman was talking the rain increased so much that they all retreated further into the hut st who had impatiently stood a little way off now saw his opportunity and putting in his head said the rain beats in you had better shut the door i must ascend and close up the dome the door upon them without ceremony he quickly went to lady in the column and telling her th could now pass the villagers unseen two on a tower he gave her his arm thus he conducted her across the front of the hut into the shadows of the i will run to the house and harness your little carriage myself he said tenderly i will then take you home in it please don t leave me alone under these dismal trees neither would she hear of his getting her any and opening her little to keep the rain out of her face she walked with him across the field after which the trees of the park afforded her a sufficient shelter to reach home without much damage was too greatly affected by what he had overheard to speak much to her on the way and protected her as if she had been a lamb after a which had more meaning than sound in it he hastened back to rings hill the work folk were still in the hut and by dint of friendly converse and a at the had so cheered mr and mrs green that they neither thought nor cared what had become of lady st s sudden sense of new relations with that sweet had taken away in one half hour his natural he could act a part i have made all secure at the top he said putting his head into the hut i am now going home when the rain stops lock	45
this door and bring the key to my house xiv j he resistance which lady s judgment had to her rebellious affection ere she learnt that she was a widow now passed into a that rendered her almost as of mood as before but she was one of that cordial and spontaneous who had not the heart to spoil a passion and her affairs having gone to rack and ruin by no fault of her own she was left to a painfully existence which lent even something of to her attachment thus it was that her tender and soul found comfort in her as for st the of his awakening was the natural result of combined with devotion to a but like a spring bud hard in bursting the delay was by after speed at once in this fellow of the skies a woman who loved him in addition to the and friend he truly translated the nearly forgotten kiss she had given him in her moment of despair lady in being eight or nine years his senior was an object even better calculated to a youth s first passion than a girl of his own age superiority of experience and of emotion h two on a tower the same peculiar fascination over him as over other young men in their first in this kind the which thus an abstracted into an eager lover and must it be said spoilt a promising young to produce a common place may be almost described as working its change in one short night next morning he was so fascinated with the novel sensation that he wanted to rush at once to lady and say i love you true in the tones of his mental condition to his assertion in her heart before any of those accidents which creep in vows and change of kings should occur to hinder him but his embarrassment at standing in a new position towards her would not allow him to present himself at her door in any such he waited on as helplessly as a girl for a chance of her but though she had agreed to see him on any reasonable occasion lady did not put herself in his way she even kept herself out of his way now that for the first time he had learnt to feel a strong impatience for their meeting her shyness for the first time led her to delay it but given two people living in one parish who long from the depths of their hearts to be in each other s company what of modesty policy pride or apprehension will keep them for any length of time apart one afternoon he was watching the sun from his tower half echoing the greek s wish that he might be set close to that for the wonder of beholding it in all its glory under the slight penalty of being consumed the next instant he glanced over the high road between the field and the park which features now too often distracted his attention from his and saw her passing along that way two on a tower she was seated in the donkey carriage that had now taken the place of her the white animal looking no larger than a cat at that distance the boy who represented both coachman and footman walked alongside the animal s head at a solemn pace the dog stalked at the distance of a yard behind the vehicle without indulging in a single and the whole turn out resembled in dignity a state procession here was an opportunity but for two the boy who might be curious and the dog who might bark and attract the attention of any or servants near yet the risk was to be run and knowing that she would soon turn up a certain shady lane at right angles to the road she had followed he ran hastily down the staircase crossed the which now covered the field by the path not more than a foot wide that he had trodden for himself and got into the lane at the other end by slowly walking along in the direction of the road he soon had the satisfaction of seeing her coming to his surprise he also had the satisfaction of perceiving that neither boy nor dog was in her company they both blushed as they approached she from sex he from one thing she seemed to see in a moment that in the interval of her absence st had become a man and as he greeted her with this new and light in his eyes she could not hide her embarrassment or meet their fire i have just sent my page across to the column with your book on she said softly that you might not have to come to the house for it i did not know i should meet you here didn t you wish me to come to the house for it i did not frankly you know why do you not yes i know well my longing is at rest i have two on a tower met you again but are you that you drive out in this chair no i walked out this morning and am a little tired i have been looking for you night and day why do you turn your aside you used not to be so her hand rested on the side of the chair and he took it do you know that since we last met i have been thinking of you daring to think of you as i never thought of you before yes i know it how did you know i saw it in your face when you came up well i suppose i ought not to think of you so and yet had i not learned to i should never fully have felt how gentle and sweet you are only think of	45
my loss if i had lived and died without seeing more in you than in but i shall never leave off doing so now when you talk i shall love your understanding when you are silent i shall love your face but how shall i know that you care to be so much to me her manner was disturbed as she recognized the impending self surrender which she knew not how to resist and was not altogether at ease in o lady he continued bending over her give me some proof more than mere seeming and which are all i have at present that you don t think this i tell you of presumption in me i have been unable to do anything since i last saw you for pondering on this some proof or little sign that we are one in heart a blush settled again on her face and half in effort half in she put her finger on her cheek he almost kissed the spot does that suffice she asked scarcely giving her words voice yes i am convinced io two on a tower then that must be the end let me drive on the boy will be back again soon she spoke hastily and looked to hide the heat of her cheek no the tower door is open and he will go to the top and waste his time in looking through the then you should rush back for he will do some damage no he may do what he likes and spoil the instrument destroy my papers so that he will stay there and leave us alone she glanced up with a species of pained pleasure you never used to feel like that she said and there was keen self reproach in her voice you were once so devoted to your science that the thought of an intruder into your temple would have driven you wild now you don t care and who is to blame ah not you not you the animal on with her and he leaning on the side of the little vehicle kept her company well don t let us think of that he said i offer myself and all my energies frankly and entirely to you my dear dear lady whose i shall be always but my words in telling you this will only injure my meaning instead of it in expressing even to myself my thoughts of you i find that i fall into phrases which as a critic i should hitherto have heartily despised for their what s the use of saying for instance as i have just said that i give myself entirely to you and shall be yours always that you have my devotion my highest homage those words have been used so frequently in a manner that honest use of them is not from the unreal he turned to her and added smiling your eyes are to be my stars for the future yes i know it i know it and all you would say i dreaded even while i hoped for this my dear young two on a tower friend she replied her eyes being full of tears i am you who knows that i am not your future i who ought to know better nothing can come of this nothing must and i am only wasting your time why have i drawn you off from a grand celestial study to study poor lonely me say you will never despise me when you get older for this episode in our lives but you will i know you will all men do when they have been attracted in their youth as i have attracted you i ought to have kept my resolve what was that to bear anything rather than draw you from your high purpose to be like the noble citizen of old greece who attending a sacrifice let himself be burnt to the bone by a coal that jumped into his sleeve rather than disturb the sacred ceremony but can i not study and love both i hope so i earnestly hope so but be the first if you do and i am the responsible one if you do not you speak as if i were quite a child and you immensely older why how old do you think i am i am twenty you seem younger well that s so much the better twenty sounds strong and firm how old do you think i am i have never thought of considering he innocently turned to her face she a little but the instinct was premature time had taken no liberties with her features as yet nor had trouble very roughly handled her i will tell you she replied speaking almost with physical pain yet as if determination should carry her through i am eight and twenty nearly i mean a little more a few months more am i not a fearful deal older than you no two on a tower at first it seems a great deal he answered musing but it doesn t seem much when one gets used to it nonsense i she exclaimed it is sl good deal very well then sweetest lady let it be he said gently you should not let it a polite man would have contradicted me o i am ashamed of this she added a moment after with a subdued sad look upon the ground i am speaking by the card of the outer world which i have left behind utterly no such lip service is known in your sphere i care nothing for those things really but that which is called the eve in us will out sometimes well we will forget that now as we must at no very distant date forget all the rest of this he walked beside her thoughtfully awhile with his eyes also bent on the road	45
why must we forget it all he inquired it is only an an it is no to me o how can you talk so lightly of this lady and yet if i were to go away from here i might perhaps soon reduce it to an yes he resumed i will go away love dies and it is just as well to it in its birth it can only die once i ll go no no she said looking up i you it is no to me it is i only meant that from a worldly point of view it is an which we should try to forget but the world is not all you will not go away but he continued yes yes i see it all you have enlightened me it will be your prospects even more than mine if i stay now sir is dead you are free again may marry where you will but for this fancy of ours i ll leave before harm comes of my staying ill two on a tower don t decide to do a thing so rash she begged seizing his hand and looking miserable at the effect of her words i shall have nobody left in the world to care for and now i have given you the great and lent you the column it would be ungrateful to go away i was wrong believe me that i did not mean that it was a mere to me o if you only knew how very very far it is from that it is my doubt of the result to you that makes me speak so they were now approaching cross roads and casually looking up they beheld thirty or forty yards beyond the crossing mr who was leaning over a gate his back being towards them as yet he had not recognized their approach the master passion had already st s natural by would it be well for us to meet mr just now he began certainly not she said hastily and pulling the rein she instantly drove down the right hand road i cannot meet anybody she murmured would it not be better that you leave me now not for my pleasure but that there may arise no distressing tales about us before we know how to act in this this she smiled faintly at him extremity they were passing under a huge oak tree whose limbs irregular with shoulders and elbows stretched over the lane in a manner recalling s death a slight rustling was perceptible amid the as they drew out from beneath it and turning up his eyes saw that very page whose advent they had dreaded looking down with interest at them from a perch not much higher than a yard above their heads he had a bunch of oak apples in one hand plainly the object of his climb and was watching lady g with the two on a tower hope that she might not see him but that she had already done though she did not reveal it and fearing that the latter words of their conversation had been overheard they spoke not till they had passed the next turning she stretched out her hand to his this must not go on she said my anxiety as to what may be said of such methods of meeting makes me too unhappy see what has happened she could not help smiling out of the pan into the fire after turning to avoid the parson we have rushed into a worse it is too humiliating to have to avoid people and both you and me the only remedy is not to meet very well said with a sigh so it shall be and with smiles that might more truly have been tears they parted there and then he passed away and with its infinite of tints came creeping on darker grew the evenings the and heavier the meanwhile the had to its largest dimensions so large that not only the but a portion of the tail had been visible in broad day it was now on the though every night the still afforded an opportunity of observing the singular object which would soon disappear altogether from the heavens for perhaps thousands of years but the of the rings hill was no longer a for his celestial materials he had become but a dim of himself the lover had come into him like an armed man and cast out the student and his situation was growing a life and death matter the resolve of the pair had been so hi kept they had not seen each other in private for three months but on one day in october he ventured to write a note to her i can do nothing i have ceased to study ceased to observe the is useless to me this i have for you my life and my intentions the power to labour in this of fields has left me i struggle against the weakness two on a tower tin i think of the cause and then i bless her but the very desperation of my circumstances has suggested a remedy and this i would inform you of at once can you come to me since i must not come to you i will wait to morrow night at the edge of the plantation by which you would enter to the column i will not detain you my plan can be told in ten words the night after this to her he waited at the spot mentioned it was a melancholy evening for coming abroad a wind had risen during the day and still continued to increase yet he stood watchful in the darkness and was ultimately rewarded by a shady muffled shape that embodied itself from the field accompanied by the scratching of silk over there was no longer any disguise as	45
to the nature of their meeting it was a lover s pure and simple and boldly it as such he clasped her in his arms i cannot bear this any longer he exclaimed three months since i saw you alone only a glimpse of you in church or a bow from the distance in all that time what a fearful struggle this keeping apart has been yet i would have had strength to persist since it seemed best she murmured when she could speak had not your words on your condition so alarmed and me this inability of yours to work or study or observe it is terrible so terrible a sting is it to my conscience that your hint about a remedy has brought me yet i don t altogether mind it since it is you my dear who have the work and yet the loss of time nearly me when i have neither the power to work nor the delight of your company two on a tower but your remedy o i cannot help it i yes you are going away let us ascend the column we can speak more at ease there then i will explain all i would not ask you to so high but the hut is not yet furnished he entered the cabin at the foot and having lighted a small lantern conducted her up the hollow staircase to the top where he closed the of the dome to keep out the wind and placed the observing chair for her i can stay only five minutes she said without sitting down you said it was important that you should see me and i have come i assure you it is at a great risk if i am seen here at this time i am ruined for ever but what would i not do for you o your remedy is it to go away there is no other and yet i dread that like death i can tell you in a moment but i must b n at the beginning all this idleness and distraction is caused by the misery of our not being able to meet with freedom the fear that something may snatch you from me keeps me in a state of perpetual apprehension it is too true also of me i dread that some accident may happen and waste my days in meeting the trouble half way so our lives go on and our labours stand still now for the remedy dear lady g allow me to marry you she started and the wind without shook the building sending up a yet moan from the i mean marry you quite privately let it make no difference whatever to our outward lives for years for i know that in my present position you could not possibly acknowledge me as husband publicly but by marrying at once we secure the certainty that we cannot be divided by accident or ii two on a tower and at ease on that point i shall embrace my studies with the old vigour and you yours lady g was so agitated at the unexpected boldness of such a proposal from one hitherto so boyish and that she sank into the observing chair her intention to remain for only a few minutes being quite forgotten she covered her with her hands no no i dare not she whispered but is there a single thing else left to do he pleaded kneeling down beside her less in than in what else can we do wait till you are famous but i cannot be famous unless i strive and this condition prevents all striving g you not strive on if i gave you a promise a solemn promise to be yours when your name is fairly well known st breathed heavily it will be a long weary time he said and even with your promise i shall work but half every of study will be interrupted with suppose this or this happens suppose somebody her to break her promise worse still suppose some rival me and so her away no lady dearest best as you are that element of distraction would still remain and where that is no sustained energy is possible many things have been written and said by the but never did they float a greater than that love serves as a to win the loved one by patient toil i cannot argue with you she said weakly my only possible other chance would lie in going away he resumed after a moment s reflection with his eyes on the lantern flame which waved and smoked in the currents of air that into the dome from the fierce wind stream without if i might take away two on a tower the supposing it possible that i could find some suitable place for observing in the southern say at the cape i u be able to apply myself to serious work again after the lapse of a little time the southern offer a less exhausted field for investigation i wonder if i might you mean she answered uneasily that you might apply yourself to work when your recollection of me b an to de and my life to become a matter of indifference to you yes go no i cannot bear it the remedy is worse than the disease i cannot let you go away i then how can you refuse the only condition on which i can stay without ruin to my purpose and scandal to your name dearest agree to my proposal as you love both me and yourself he waited while the fir trees rubbed and the base of the tower and the wind roared around and shook it but she could not find words to reply would to god he burst out that i might perish here like in his then the difficulty would be solved for you you	45
of bath or in a convenient of london till a sufficient time should have elapsed to satisfy that on a fine morning at the end of this time she should hie away to the same place and be met at the station by st armed with the marriage license whence they should at once proceed to the church fixed upon for the ceremony returning home in the course of the next two or three days while these were under discussion the thirty winds of heaven continued as before to beat about the tower though their appeared to be somewhat in force himself now and satisfied as is the wont of humanity took views of nature s crushing without and said the wind doesn t seem disposed to put the tragic period to our hopes and fears that i spoke of in my momentary despair the disposition of the wind is as vicious as ever she answered looking into his face with pausing thoughts on perhaps other subjects than that discussed it is two on a tower your mood of it that has changed there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so and as if to s assumption a circular exceeding in violence any that had preceded it seized hold upon rings hill at that moment with the determination of a conscious agent the first sensation of a catastrophe was conveyed to their intelligence by the flapping of the against the lantern glass then the wind which hitherto they had heard rather than felt rubbed past them like a fugitive beheld around and above him in place of the of the dome the open heaven with its racing clouds remote horizon and gleam of stars the dome that had covered the tower had been whirled off bodily and they heard it descend crashing upon the trees finding himself untouched stretched out his arms towards lady whose apparel had been seized by the spinning air nearly lifting her off her l s she too was as yet each held the other for a moment when fearing that something further would happen they took shelter in the staircase dearest what an escape he said still holding her what is the accident she asked has the whole top really gone the dome has been blown off the roof as soon as it was practicable he the extinguished lantern and they emerged again upon the leads where the extent of the disaster became at once apparent saving the absence of the all remained the same the dome being constructed of wood was light by comparison with the rest of the structure and the wheels which allowed it or as expressed it motion denied it a firm hold upon the walls so that it had been lifted i two on a tower o t them like a cover from a pot the stood in the midst as it had stood before having executed its grotesque purpose the wind sank to comparative took advantage of this lull by covering up the instruments with after which the couple prepared to go downstairs but the events of the night had not yet fully disclosed themselves at this moment there was a sound of footsteps and a knocking at the door below it can t be for me said lady i retired to my room before leaving the house and told them on no account to disturb me she remained at the top while went down the in the gloom he beheld o master can ye come home the wind have down the that don t smoke and the end with it and the old ancient house that have been in your family so long as the memory of man is naked to the world it is a mercy that your were not killed sitting by the hearth poor old soul and soon to walk wi god for a s getting on her pins mr as aged folks do as i say a was all but murdered by the elements and doing no more harm than the in the wood nor speaking one word and the fire and smoke were all across house like a chapter in revelation and your poor father s to looking like the and the gilt frame spoiled every every eye piece and every is buried under the and i fed them pigs with my own hands master little thinking they would come to this end do ye collect yourself mr and come at once i will i will i ll follow you in a moment do you hasten back again and assist when had departed the young man ran two on a tower up to lady to whom he explained the accident after with old mrs martin lady added i thought something would occur to mar our scheme i am not quite sure of that yet on a short consideration with him she agreed to wait at the top of the tower till he could come back and inform her if the accident were really so serious as to interfere with his plan for departure he then left her and there she sat in the dark alone looking over the and straining her eyes in the direction of the at first all was obscurity but when he had been gone about ten minutes lights began to move to and fro in the hollow where the house stood and shouts occasionally mingled with the wind which retained some violence yet playing over the trees beneath her as on the strings of a but not a bough of them was visible a cloak of blackness covering everything while overhead the windy sky looked down with a strange and disguised face the three or four stars that alone were visible being so by clouds that she knew not which they were under any other circumstances lady might have felt a nameless fear in thus sitting aloft on a lonely column with a	45
latter in the papers may do for but it won t do for me having resigned the appointment i have two on a tower returned here as a preliminary step to finding another vent for my energies in other words another cow for my i knew nothing whatever of your husband s death till two days ago so that any letter from you on the subject at the time it became known must have at such a moment is worse than useless and i therefore do not with you particularly as the event though new to a banished man like me occurred so long since you are better without him and are now just the limb for doing something for yourself notwithstanding the state in which you seem to have been cast upon the world you are still young and as i imagine unless you have vastly altered since i beheld you good looking therefore make up your mind to your position by a match with one of the local and you would do well to b in drawing neighbouring covers at once a genial squire with more weight than wit more than weight and more than considering the circumstances would be best for you you might make a position for us both by some such alliance for to tell the truth i have had but in and out luck so far i shall be with you in little more than a fortnight when we will talk over the matter seriously if you don t object your affectionate brother louis it was this allusion to her brother s coming visit which had caught her eye in the tower staircase and led to a in the wedding arrangement having read the letter through once lady flung it aside with an impatient little stamp that shook the old floor and its contents produced but not retreat the deep glow of enchantment shed by the idea of a private union with her beautiful young lover killed the pale light of cold reasoning from an indifferently good relative i two on a tower h no she murmured as she sat covering her face with her hand not for wealth could i give him up now i no argument short of in person from the clouds would have influenced her she made her preparations for departure as if nothing had xvii n her days of prosperity lady had often gone to the of bath either for purposes or to attend choir in the abbey so there was nothing surprising in her to an old practice tliat the journey might appear to be of a somewhat similar nature she took with her the servant who had been accustomed to accompany her on former occasions though the woman having now left her service and settled in the village as the wife of green with a young child on her hands could with some difficulty leave home lady overcame the anxious mother s scruples by providing that young green should be well cared for and knowing that she could count upon this woman s fidelity if upon anybody s in case of an accident for it was chiefly lady s exertions that had made an honest wife of mrs green she departed for a fortnight s absence the next day found mistress and maid settled in lodgings in an old coloured brick street which a hundred years ago could boast of rank and fashion among its though now the broad fan light over each broad door admitted the sun to the halls of a lodging house keeper only the lamp posts were still those that had done duty with oil lights and two on a tower old and that once had driven and ridden from london to land s end ornamented with their bent persons and bow legs the pavement in front of the chief inn in the sorry hope of earning sixpence to keep body and soul together we are kept well informed on the time o day my lady said mrs green as she pulled down the blinds in lady s room on the evening of their arrival there s a church exactly at the back of us and i hear every hour strike lady said she had noticed that there was a church quite near well it is better to have that at the back than other folks and if your wants to go there it won t be far to walk that s what occurred to me said lady if should want to go during the days she felt to the utmost the of waiting merely that time might pass not a soul knew her there and she knew not a soul a circumstance which while it added to her sense of secrecy her solitude occasionally she went to a shop with green as her companion though there were purchases to be made they were by no means of a pressing nature and but poorly filled up the of those strange days days surrounded by a shade of fear yet by sweet expectation on the day she told green that she was going to take a walk and leaving the house she passed by the streets to the abbey after wandering about beneath the till her courage was to its highest she went out at the other side and looking timidly round to see if anybody followed walked on till she came to a certain door which she reached just at the moment when her heart i two on a tower began to sink to its very lowest rendering all the up in vain whether it was because the month was october or from any other reason the deserted aspect of the quarter in general sat especially on this building moreover the pavement was up and heaps of stone and gravel the nobody was coming nobody was going in that she appeared to be the single one of the human race	45
bent upon marriage business which seemed to have been abandoned by all the rest of the world as folly but she thought of his hair ardent eyes and eloquent lips and was carried onward by the very reflection entering the s room lady managed at the last juncture to state her errand in tones so collected as to even herself to which her listener replied also as if the whole thing were the most natural in the world when it came to the that she had lived fifteen days in the parish she said with dismay i thought the fifteen days meant the interval of residence before the marriage takes place i have lived here only thirteen days and a half now i must come again ah well i thing you need not be so particular said the as a matter of ct though the letter of the law requires fifteen days residence many people make five sufficient the provision is inserted as you doubtless are aware to hinder marriages as much as possible and secret and other such objectionable you need not come again that evening lady wrote to st the last letter of the fortnight my dearest do come to me as soon as you can by a sort pf blunder i have been able two on a tower to the time of waiting by a day come at once for i am almost broken down with apprehension it seems rather rash at moments all this and i wish you were here to me i did not know i should feel so alarmed i am frightened at every footstep and dread lest anybody who knows me should me and find out why i am here i sometimes wonder how i could have agreed to come and your part but i did not realize how trying it would be you ought not to have asked me upon my word it was too cruel of you and i will punish you for it when you come but i won t i hope the is repaired that has cost me all this sacrifice of modesty if it were anybody in the world but you in question i would rush home without waiting here for die end of it i really think i would but dearest no i must show my strength now or let it be for ever hid the of ceremony are broken down between us and it is for the best that i am here and yet at no point of this trying need lady have feared for her strength deeds in this demand the particular kind of courage that such women are endowed with the courage of their emotions in which young men are often deficient her fear was in truth the fear of being discovered in an unwonted position not of the act itself and though her letter was in its way a true of her feeling had it been necessary to go through the whole legal process over again she would have been found equal to the emergency it had been for some days a point of anxiety with her what to do with green during the morning of the wedding chance unexpectedly helped her in this the day before the purchase of the license green came to lady with a letter in her two ou a tower hand from her husband her face as long as a fiddle i hope there s nothing the matter said lady the child s took bad my lady said mrs green with suspended floods of water in her eyes i love the child better than i shall love all them that s coming put together for he s been a good boy to his mother ever since twelve weeks afore he was bom twas he a tender that made marry me and thereby turned from a little calamity to a little blessing for as you know the man were a backward man in the church part o matrimony my lady though he ll do anything when he s forced a bit by his manly feelings and now to lose the child what shall i well you want to go home at once i suppose mrs green explained between her sobs that such was her desire and though this was a day or two sooner than her mistress had wished to be left alone she consented to green s departure so during the afternoon her woman went of with directions to prepare for lady s return in two or three days but as the exact day of her return was uncertain no carriage was to be sent to the station to meet her her intention being to hire one from the hotel lady was now left in utter solitude to await her lover s arrival xviii a more october morning than that of the next day never beamed into the valleys the yearly dissolution of was setting in the foliage of the park trees resolved itself into the multitude of which mark the subtle of decay reflecting wet of such innumerable hues that it was a wonder to think their beauties only a repetition of scenes that had been exhibited there on scores of previous and had been allowed to pass away without a single from the beings who walked among them far in the shadows semi of blue haze made mysteries of the commonest gravel pit or recess the wooden cabin at the foot of rings hill had been furnished by as a sitting and sleeping apartment some httle while before this time for he had found it highly convenient during night observations at the top of the column to remain on the spot all night not to disturb his grandmother by passing in and out of the house and to save himself the labour of incessantly crossing the field he would much have liked to tell her the secret id had	45
it been his own to tell would probably have ine so i but sharing it with an who knew not two on a his grandmother s affection so well as he did himself there was no alternative to holding his tongue the more effectually to guard it he decided to sleep at the cabin during the two or three nights previous to his departure leaving word at the that in a day or two he was going on an excursion it was very necessary to start early long before the great eye of the sun was high enough to glance into the valley st arose from his bed in the cabin and prepared to depart cooking his breakfast upon a little stove in the corner the young during the foregoing summer watched his preparations through the open door from the grey dawn without as he half dressed in and out under the boughs and among the and that grew around it was a strange place for a bridegroom to perform his toilet in but considering the nature of the marriage a not one what events had been in that camp since it was first thrown up nobody could say but the primitive simplicity of the young man s preparations accorded well with the spot on which they were made under his feet were possibly even now rude that had been worn at ceremonies of the early inhabitants little signified those ceremonies to day or the happiness or otherwise of the parties that his own nevertheless signified much was the reasoning of as it is of many another bridegroom besides and he like the rest went on with his preparations in that mood which sees in his stale repetition the wondrous possibilities of an move then through the wet that hung like on each blade and bough he pushed his way down to the which led from the secluded fir tree island to the wide world beyond the field two on a tower he was not a stranger to enterprise and still less to the contemplation of enterprise but an enterprise such as this he had never even that his dear lady was troubled at the situation he had placed her in by not going himself on that errand he could see from her letter but believing an immediate marriage with her to be the true way of restoring to both that necessary to serene philosophy he held it of little account how the marriage was brought about and happily began his journey towards her place of he passed through a little before leaving the parish the smoke from newly lit fires rising like the stems of blue trees out of the few cottage chimneys here he heard a quick familiar footstep in the path ahead of him and turning the comer of the bushes confronted the foot post on his way to in answer to st s inquiry if there was anything for himself the handed out one letter and proceeded on his route opened and read the letter as he walked till it brought him to a by the importance of its contents they were enough to a more youth than he he over the which came in his path and endeavoured to comprehend the sense of the whole the large long envelope contained first a letter from a in a northern town informing him that his paternal great uncle who had recently returned from the cape whither he had gone in an attempt to repair a broken constitution was now dead and buried this great uncle s name was like a new creation to he had held no communication t with the young man s branch of the family for innumerable years never in fact since the marriage of s father with the simple daughter of farm he had been a bachelor to the end of his life two on a tower and had a fairly good professional fortune by a long and extensive medical practice in the smoky dreary town in which he had lived and died had always been taught to think of him as the of all that was unpleasant in man he was narrow sarcastic and shrewd to that very had enabled him without much professional to establish his large and which lay almost entirely among a class who neither looked nor cared for drawing room however what dr st had been as a matters little he was now dead and the bulk of his property had been left to persons with whom this story has nothing to do but was informed that out of it there was a of oo a year to himself payment of which was to begin with his twenty first year and continue for his life unless he should marry before reaching the age of twenty five in the latter and objectionable event his would be the accompanying letter said the would explain all this the second letter was from his uncle to himself written about a month before the former s death and deposited with his will to be forwarded to his nephew when that event should have taken place read with the solemnity that such inspire the following words from one who during life had never once addressed him dear nephew you will doubtless experience some astonishment at receiving a communication from one whom you have never personally known and who when this comes into your hands will be beyond the reach of your knowledge perhaps i am the by this life long mutual ignorance perhaps i am much to blame for it perhaps not but such are two on a tower at this date i have written with quite other views than to work up a sentimental regret on such an remote as that the fact of a particular pair of people not meeting among the millions of other pairs of people who have never met is a great calamity either	45
upon my soul have all young men from eighteen to twenty five kept under barrels seeing how often in the lack of some such process the woman sits down before as his destiny and too frequently his purpose till he the most promising course ever conceived but no more i now leave your fate in your own hands your well wishing relative st doctor in medicine as coming from a bachelor and hardened of seventy two the opinions contained were nothing remarkable but their practical result in the sudden of s by conditions which turned the favour into a was at this unique moment and in the highest degree however as the letter was the passionate intention of the day was not for more than a few minutes thereby the truth was the caution and bribe came too late too unexpectedly to be of influence they were the sort of thing which required to render them effective had st received the a month earlier had he been able to run over in his mind at every hour of thirty nights a private on the possibilities opened up by this there is no telling what two on a tower might have been the stress of such a web of perplexity upon him a young man whose love for celestial was second to none but to have held before him at the last moment the picture of a future advantage that he had never once thought of or for present staying power it affected him about as much as the view of shown by sheet lightning he saw an immense prospect it went and the world was as before he caught the train at and moved rapidly towards bath not precisely in the same key as when he had dressed in the hut at dawn but as regarded the mechanical part of the journey as as before and with the change of scene even his gloom left him his bosom s lord sat lightly in his throne st was not sufficiently in mind of poetical literature to remember that wise poets are accustomed to read that lightness of bosom thought it an omen of good fortune and as thinking is causing in not a few such cases he was perhaps in spite of poets right xix at the station lady appeared standing expectant he saw her face from the window of the carriage long before she saw him he no sooner saw her than he was satisfied to his heart s content with his prize if his great uncle had offered him from the grave a kingdom instead of her he would not have accepted it jumped out and nature never painted in a woman s face more devotion than appeared in my lady s at that moment to both the situation seemed like a beautiful not to be examined too closely lest its defects of correspondence with real life should be apparent they almost feared to shake hands in public so much depended upon their passing that morning without a fly was called and they drove away take this she said handing him a folded paper it belongs to you rather than to me at and other occasional pauses turned their faces and looked at the pair for no reason but that among so many there were naturally a few of the sort who have eyes to note what incidents come in way as they on but the two in the vehicle could not but fear that these innocent bad special designs on them h two on a tower you look so dreadfully young she said with humorous as they drove along s cheeks being fresh from the morning air do try to appear a little haggard that the parson t ask us awkward questions nothing further happened and they were set down opposite a shop about fifty yards from the church door at five minutes to eleven we will dismiss the fly she said it will only attract on turning the comer and reaching the church they found the door but the building contained only two persons a man and a woman the clerk and his wife as they learnt asked when the clergyman would arrive the clerk looked at his watch and said at just on eleven o clock he ought to be here said yes replied the clerk as the hour struck the is sir he is a and apt to be rather wandering in his wits as regards time and such like which stood in the way of the man s getting a benefit but no doubt he ll come the regular incumbent is away then he s gone for his bare pa son s fortnight that s all and we was forced to put up with a weak man or none the best men goes into the or into the shipping now days you see sir doctrines being rather at present and your money s worth not sure in our line so we church officers be left poorly provided with men for odd i ll tell ye what sir i think i d better run round to the gentleman s lodgings and try to find him pray do said lady the clerk left the church his wife busied herself with at the further end and and were left to themselves the imagination travels so two on a tower rapidly and a woman s is so that the clerk s departure had no sooner doomed them to than it was borne in upon lady s mind that she would not become the wife of st either to day or on any other day her were continually her she knew but a at the moment of marriage surely had a meaning m it ah the marriage is not to be she said to herself this is a it was twenty minutes past and no parson had arrived took her hand if it cannot be to	45
day it can be to morrow he whispered i cannot say she answered something tells me no it was almost impossible that she could know anything of the force exercised on by his dead uncle that morning yet her manner so curiously well with knowledge that he was struck by it and remained silent you have a black tie she continued looking at him yes replied i bought it on my way here why could it not have been less sombre in colour my great uncle is dead you had a great uncle you never told me i never saw him in my life i have only heard about him since his death he spoke in as quiet and measured a way as he could but his heart was sinking she would go on questioning he could not tell her an she would discover particulars of that great uncle s provision for him which he was throwing away for her sake and she would refuse to be his for his own two on a tower sake his conclusion at this moment was precisely what hers had been five minutes sooner they were never to be husband and wife but she did not continue her questions for the simplest of all reasons hasty footsteps were audible in the entrance and the parson was seen coming up the aisle the clerk behind him wiping the beads of perspiration from his face the somewhat sorry specimen shook hands with them and entered the and the came up and opened the book the poor gentleman s memory is a bit whispered the latter he had got it in his mind that a funeral and i found him wandering about the a looking for us however all s well as ends well and the clerk wiped his forehead again how ill murmured but the parson came out at this moment and the put on his countenance and looked in his book lady s momentary languor passed her blood resumed its courses with a new spring the grave of the church then rolled out upon the pair and no couple ever joined their whispers with more than they lady as she continued to be called by the outside world though she liked to think herself the mrs st that she l ally was had told green that she might be expected at in a day or two or three as should dictate though the time of return was thus left open it was deemed advisable by both and herself that her journey back should not be deferred after the next day in case any might be aroused as for st his and were of no consequence it was seldom known whether he was at home or abroad by reason of his frequent at the column two on a tower late in the afternoon of the next day he accompanied her to the bath station intending himself to remain in that city till the following morning but when a man or youth has such a tender article on his hands as a thirty hour bride it is hardly in the power of his strongest reason to set her down at a railway and send her off hke a superfluous hence the experiment of parting so soon after their union proved severe to these the evening was dull the breeze of autumn crept through every and in the town not a soul in the world seemed to notice or care about anything they did lady sighed and there was no resisting it he could not leave her thus he decided to get into the train with her and keep her company for at least a few stations on her way it drew on to be a dark night and seeing that there was no serious risk after all he prolonged his journey with her so far as to the at which the branch line to off here it was necessary to wait a few minutes before either he could go back or she could go on they wandered outside the station doorway into the gloom of the road and there agreed to part while she yet stood holding his arm a sped towards the station entrance where in ascending the slope to the door the horse suddenly the gentleman who was driving being either impatient or possessed with a theory that all may be started by severe applied the lash as a result of it the horse thrust round the carriage to where they stood and the end of the driver s sweeping whip cut across lady s face with such severity as to cause her an involuntary cry turned her round to the and discerned a streak of blood on her cheek by this time the gentleman who had done the two on a tower mischief with many words of r had given the reins to his man and dismounted i will go to the waiting room for a moment whispered hurriedly and her hand from his arm she pulled down her veil and vanished inside the building the stranger came forward and raised his hat he was a slightly and apparently town bred man of twenty eight or thirty his manner of address was at once careless and i am greatly concerned at what i have done he said i sincerely trust that your wife but observing the of he withdrew the word suggested by the manner of towards lady i trust the young lady was not seriously cut i trust not said with some vexation where did the lash touch her straight down her cheek do let me go to her and learn how she is and humbly i ll inquire he went to the ladies room in which had taken refuge she met him at the door her handkerchief to her cheek and that the driver of the had sent to make inquiries i cannot see him she whispered he is	45
my brother louis he is no doubt going on by the train to my house don t let him recognize me we must wait till he is gone thereupon went out again and told the young man that the cut on her face was not serious but that she could not see him after which they parted st then heard him ask for a ticket for which confirmed lady s view that he was going on to her house when the branch train had moved off returned to his bride who waited in a trembling state within iso two on a tower on being informed that he had departed she showed herself much relieved where does your brother come from said from london immediately before that he has a friend or two in this neighbourhood and visits here occasionally i have seldom or never spoken to you of him because of his long absence is he going to settle near you no nor anywhere i fear he is or rather was in the service he was first a clerk in the foreign office and was afterwards appointed attach at but he has resigned the appointment i wish he had not asked why he resigned he complained of the and the climate and everything that people complain of who are determined to be dissatisfied though poor fellow there is some ground for his complaints perhaps some people would say that he is idle but he is scarcely that he is rather restless than idle so that he never in anything yet if a subject takes his fancy he will follow it up with patience till something him he is not kind to you is he dearest why do you think that your manner seems to say so well he may not always be kind but look at my face does the mark show a streak straight as a was visible down her cheek the blood had been brought almost to the surface but was not quite through which had originally appeared having possibly come from the horse it signified that to morrow the red line would be a black one informed her that her brother had taken a ticket for and she at once perceived that he two on a tower was going on to visit her at though from his letter she had not expected him so soon by a few days meanwhile continued you can now get home only by the late train having missed that one but don t you see my new trouble if i go to house to night and find my brother just arrived there and he sees this cut on my ce which i suppose you described to him i did he will know i was the lady with you whom he called my wife i wonder why we look husband and wife already then what am i to do for the three or four days i bear in my ce a clue to his discovery of our secret then you must not be seen we must stay at an inn here no she said timidly it is too near home to be quite safe we might not be known but we were we can t go back to bath now i ll tell you dear what we must do we ll go on to in separate carriages we ll meet outside the station thence we ll walk to the column in the dark and i ll keep you a captive in the cabin till the has disappeared as there was nothing which better recommended itself this course was decided on and after taking from her trunk the articles that might be required for an of two or three days they left the said trunk at the cloak room and went on by the last train which reached about ten o clock it was only necessary for lady to cover her face with the thick veil that she had provided for this to walk out of the station fear of recognition st came forth from another com two on a tower and did not each other till they had reached a shadowy bend in the old road beyond the of the the walk to was long it was the walk which had taken in the rain when he had learnt the fatal of his discovery but now he was moved by a less desperate mood and blamed neither god nor man they were not pressed for time and passed along the silent lonely way with that sense rather of than of choice in their proceedings which the presence of night sometimes reaching the park gate they found it open and from this they inferred that her brother louis had arrived leaving the house and park on their right they traced the highway yet a little further and plunging through the of the opposite field drew near the isolated bearing the plantation and tower which together rose like a dome and lantern from the lighter plain of it was too dark to distinguish from other trees by the eye alone but the peculiar dialect of language which the multitude used would have been enough to proclaim their class at any time in the lovers stealthy progress up the slopes a dry stick here and there snapped beneath their feet seeming like a shot of alarm on being unlocked the hut was found precisely as had left it two days before lady was thoroughly wearied and sat down while he gathered a handful of twigs and from the masses strewn without and lit a small fire first taking the precaution to blind the window and the door lady looked curiously around by the light of the blaze the hut was small as the prophet s chamber provided by the in one comer two on a tower stood the stove with a little table and chair a small cupboard hard by a of water	45
a rack overhead with various articles including a kettle and a while the remaining three or four feet at the other end of the room was fitted out as a for s use during late observations in the tower overhead it is not much of a palace to offer you he remarked smiling but at any rate it is a refuge the cheerful dispersed in some measure lady s anxieties if we only had something to eat she said dear me cried st that s a thing i never thought of nor i till now she replied he reflected with beyond a small loaf of bread in the cupboard i have nothing however just the door there are lots of those little about the size of rats that the call and they are as tame as possible but i fear i could not catch one now yet dear wait a minute i ll try you must not be starved he softly let himself out and was gone some time when he reappeared he produced not a rabbit but four and a i could do nothing in the way of a rabbit without setting a wire he said but i have managed to get these by knowing where they he showed her how to prepare the birds and having set her to roast them by the fire departed with the to it at the brook which flowed near the in the neighbouring bottom they are all asleep at my grandmother s he informed her when he re entered panting with the dripping they imagine me to be a hundred miles off is two on a tower the birds were now ready and the table was spread with this fare out by dry toast from the loaf and with cups of water from the to which added a little wine from the he had carried on his journey they were forced to be content for their supper when lady awoke the next morning was nowhere to be seen before she was quite ready for breakfast she heard the key turn in the door and felt startled till she remembered that the comer could hardly be anybody but he he brought a basket with provisions an extra cup and and so on in a short space of time the kettle began singing on the stove and the morning meal was ready the sweet air from the blew in upon them as they sat at ut the birds round the door which somewhat they ventured to keep open and at their elbow rose the column into an upper realm of sunlight which only reached the cabin in fitful and flashes through the trees i could be happy here for ever said she clasping his hand i wish i could never see my great gloomy house again since i am not rich enough to throw it open and live there as i ought to do poverty of this sort is not unpleasant at any rate what are you thinking of i am thinking about my this morning on reaching my grandmother s she was only a surprised to see me i was obliged to there or appear to do so to divert suspicion and this food is two on a tower supposed to be wanted for my dinner and supper there will of course be no difficulty in my obtaining an ample supply for any length of time as i can take what i like from the without observation but as i looked in my grandmother s face this morning and saw her looking affectionately in mine and thought how she had never concealed anything from me and had always had my welfare at heart i felt that i should like to tell her what we have done no please not she exclaimed very well he answered on no consideration will i do so without your consent and no more was said on the matter the morning was passed in applying wet rag and other to the purple line on s cheek and in the afternoon they set up the under the replaced dome to have it in order for night observations the evening was clear dry and remarkably cold by comparison with the weather after a supper they the stove with from the which they also burnt during the day an idea of s that the smoke from a wood fire might not be seen more frequently than was consistent with the occasional occupation of the cabin by as heretofore at eight o clock she insisted upon his ascending the tower for observations in strict of the idea on which their marriage had been based namely that of restoring regularity to his studies the sky had a new and startling beauty that night a broad arch of vivid white light the northern quarter of the heavens reaching from the horizon to the star in the greater bear it was the just risen up for the winter season out of the seas of the north two on a tower where every autumn was now rapid o let us sit and look at it i she said and they turned their backs upon the and the southern glories of the heavens to this new beauty in a quarter i which they seldom contemplated the lustre of the fixed stars was diminished to a sort of little by little the arch grew higher against the dark void like the form of the spirit maiden in the shades of till its crown drew near the and threw a over the whole and horses of the great northern brilliant shafts from the of the arch coming and going silently the temperature fell and lady drew her wrap more closely around her we ll go down said the cabin is beautifully warm why should we try to observe tonight indeed we cannot the light everything very well to morrow night there will be no interruption i	45
shall be gone you leave me to morrow yes to morrow morning the truth was that with the progress of the hours and days the conviction had been borne in upon more and more forcibly that not for and could she afford to risk the discovery of her presence here by any living soul but let me see your face dearest he said i don t think it will be safe for you to meet your brother yet as it was too dark to see her face on the summit where they sat they descended the winding staircase and in the cabin examined the cheek the line though so far as not to be by any one but a close observer had not quite disappeared but in consequence of her and is two on a tower almost tearful anxiety to go and as there was a strong probability that her brother had left the house decided to call at next morning and with a view to her return her in he crossed the into the park the house was silent and deserted and only one tall stalk of smoke ascended from the chimneys notwithstanding that the hour was nearly nine he knocked at the door is lady at home asked with a now habitual yet unknown to him six months before no mr st my lady has not returned from bath we expect her every day nobody staying in the house my lady s brother has been here but he is gone on to he will come again in two or three weeks i understand this was enough said he would call again and returned to the cabin where waking who was not by nature an early he waited on the column till she was ready to breakfast when this had been shared they prepared to start a long walk was before them station lay five miles distant and the next station above that nine miles they were bound for the latter their plan being that she should there take the train to the where the whip accident had occurred claim her luggage and return with it to as if from bath the morning was cool and the walk not wearisome when once they had left behind the field of their and the parish of they sauntered on comfortably lady s spirits rising as she withdrew further from danger they parted by a little brook about half a mile from the station to return to by the way he had come is two on a tower lady from the to for a to be in readiness to meet her on her arrival and then waiting for the down train she travelled smoothly home reaching house about five minutes sooner than reached the i column hard by after footing it all the way from where they had parted xxi x rom that day forward their life resumed its old channel in general outward aspect perhaps the most remarkable feature in their was its comparative as an expedient for the end designed that of restoring calm to the study of took up his old position as die lonely philosopher at the column and lady back to existence at the house with apparently not a friend in the parish the enforced of life which her limited resources was now an additional against the discovery of her relations with st her neighbours seldom troubled her as much it must be owned from a understanding that she was not in a position to return invitations as from any selfish coldness by her want of wealth at the first meeting of the secretly united pair after their short they were compelled to behave as strangers to each other it occurred in the only part of which deserved the name of a village street and all the were returning to their midday meal with those of their wives who assisted at work before the eyes of this innocent though quite group and his could only shake hands in passing though she contrived to i i l two on a tower say to him in an my brother does not return yet for some time he has gone to paris i will be on the lawn this evening if you can come it was a fluttered smile that she bestowed on him and there was no doubt that every fibre of her heart afresh at meeting with such reserve one who stood in his close relation to her the shades of night fell early now and was at the spot of appointment about the time that he knew her dinner would be over it was just where they had met at the beginning of the year but many changes had resulted since then the flower beds that had used to be so neatly edged were now jagged and leafy black stars appeared on the pale surface of the gravel walks of grass that grew there lady s external affairs wore just that aspect which suggests that new blood may be introduced into the line and new blood had been introduced in good with what social result remained to be seen she silently entered on the scene from the same window which had given her passage in months gone by they met with a embrace and st spoke his greeting in whispers we are quite safe dearest said she but the servants my meagre staff consists of only two women and the boy and they are away in the other wing i thought you would like to see the inside of my house after showing me the inside of yours so we will walk through it instead of staying out here she let him in through the and they strolled forward with some curiosity never before having gone beyond the library and adjoining room the whole western side of the house was at this time shut up her life being confined to two or three small rooms	45
in the south east comer the two on a tower great apartments through which they now walked wore already that aspect that comes from and already formed little for the dust in comers of the and a close smell of wood and leather with mouse pervaded the atmosphere so seldom was the solitude of these chambers on by human feet that more than once a mouse stood and looked the twain in the from the arm of a sofa or the top of a cabinet without any great fear had no ambition whatever but he was interested in the place will the house ever be thrown open to gaiety as it was in old times said he not unless you make a fortune she replied it is mine for my life as you know but the estate is so terribly with to sir s distant relatives one of whom will succeed me here that i have practically no more than my own little private income to exist on and are you bound to occupy the house not bound to but i must not let it on lease and was there any in the event of your re marriage it was not mentioned it is tory to find that you lose nothing by marrying me at all events dear i hope you lose nothing either at least of consequence what have i to lose i meant your liberty suppose you become a popular popularity seems towards art and with science now a days and a better chance offers and one who would make you a and brighter wife than i am comes in your way will you never regret this will you never despise me two on a tower answered by a kiss and they again went on proceeding like a couple of lest they should draw the attention of the cook or green in one of the upper rooms his eyes were attracted by an old chamber organ which had once been lent for use in the church he mentioned his recollection of the same which led her to say that reminds me of something there is to be a confirmation in our parish in the spring and you once told me that you had never been confirmed what shocking neglect why was it i hardly know the confusion from my s death caused it to be forgotten i suppose now dear you will do this to please me be confirmed on the present occasion since i have done without the virtue of it so long might i not do without it altogether no no she said earnestly i do wish it indeed i am made unhappy when i think you don t care about such serious matters without the church to to what have we each other but seriously i should be the established order of spiritual things people ought to be confirmed before they are married that s really of minor consequence now don t think of what so many good men have laid down as necessary to be done and dear i somehow feel that a certain levity which has perhaps shown itself in our treatment of the of marriage by making a adventure of what is after all a solemn would be well for by a due seriousness in other points of religious this opportunity should therefore not be passed over i thought of it all last night and you are a parson s son remember and he would have insisted on it if he had been alive in short do be a good boy and observe the church s two on a tower lady g by virtue of her temperament was necessarily either lover or and she so gracefully between these two conditions that nobody who had known the circumstances could have condemned her to be led into difficulties by those emotions of hers to aim at escape by turning round and seizing the apparatus of religion which could only rightly be worked by the very emotions already bestowed elsewhere it was after all but nature s well meaning attempt to preserve the honour of her daughter s conscience in the trying to which the conditions of sex had given rise as could not be confirmed herself and as communion sunday was a long way off she urged thus and the new bishop is such a good man she continued i used to have a slight with him when he was a parish priest very well dearest to please you i ll be confirmed my grandmother too will be delighted no doubt they continued their lady g first advancing into rooms with the candle to assure herself that all was empty and then calling him forward in a whisper the stillness was broken only by these whispers or by the occasional crack of a floor board beneath their tread at last they sat down and the candle with a screen she showed him the faded contents of this and that drawer or cabinet or the wardrobe of some member of the family who had died young early in the century when muslin reigned supreme when were close to arm and as large as these among and whose human had long ago perished went on for about half an hour when the companions were startled by a loud ringing at the front door bell i s xxii lady flung down the old fashioned whose beauties she had been pointing out to and exclaimed who can it be not louis surely they listened an arrival was such a phenomenon at this mansion and particularly a late arrival that no servant was on the alert to respond to the call j and the visitor rang again more loudly than before sounds of the opening and shutting of a passage door from the kitchen quarter then reached their ears and went into the corridor to more attentively in a few minutes she returned	45

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