Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807.

FEBRUARY 28. Michael de Montaigne, 1533; R. A. F. Réaumur, 1683.

He resolved henceforward not to lean on others; but to walk self-confident and self-possessed; - no longer to waste his years in vain regrets, nor wait the fulfilment of boundless hopes and indiscreet desires; but to live in the Present wisely, alike forgetful of the Past, and careless of what the mysterious Future might bring. And from that moment he was calm and strong; he was reconciled with himself.

HYPERION.

Assert thyself; rise up to thy full height;
Shake from thy soul these dreams effeminate,
These passions born of indolence and ease.
Resolve, and thou art free.

THE MASQUE of Pandora

Edward Cave, 1692; G. Rossini, 1792.

THREE FRIENDS OF MINE.

WHEN I remember them, those friends of mine,
Who are no longer here, the noble three,
Who half my life were more than friends to me,
And whose discourse was like a generous wine,
I most of all remember the divine

Something, that shone in them, and made us see
The archetypal man, and what might be
The amplitude of Nature's first design.

In vain I stretch my hands to clasp their hands;
I cannot find them. Nothing now is left
But a majestic memory. They meanwhile
Wander together in Elysian lands,

Perchance remembering me, who am bereft

Of their dear presence, and, remembering, smile.