But let each choose the path he deemeth meet,
And strew the road with flowers for his feet.
Fit not all frames to old Procrustes' rack,
Nor hope to wash the white from out the black.
This Soul is dower'd with gift of music sweet;
That loves to haunt philosophy's retreat;
One will the towers of history attack,
And one dwell lonely 'mid the starry spheres.
We all have somewhat that our fellows want;
In something all are beaten by our peers.
One Land doth not all flowers and fruits bring forth;
All rivers flow not from a single font ;
The Orient hath its gems, its steel the North.
Note. This is somewhat though not sufficiently ameliorated now, by institut. ing classes in History and other subjects as well as in Greek and Mathematics only,
This is the shrine of Silence; sunk and hewn
Deep in the solid rock: its pillars rise
From floor to roof, like giants, with fix't eyes
And palms crossed on their breasts: e'en at mid-noon
A dim light falls around, as though the Moon
Were peering at the temple from the skies.
The foot falls soundless on the sand, that lies
A carpet by long centuries thick-strewn,
The mighty Shapes that guard the solemn pile,
Unburied, after ages, from the tomb
Heap'd on them by the blast of the Simoom,
Sit at the portal, gazing, night and day,
O'er the lone desert, stretching far away,
And on the eternal flood of Father Nile.
"Da che concetto ha l'arte intera e diva
Le membra e gli atti d'alcun, poi di quello
D'umil materia un semplice modello
E'l primo parto che da quel deriva,
Poi nel secondo in pietra alpestra e viva
l'arrogie le promesse del martello,
E si rinasce tal concetto bello
Ch' el suo eterno non i ch' il presicriva."
As in the shapeless block of marble sleepeth
Whatever form-a demon, beast, or god-
The Sculptor shall wake from it by his nod,
Though year by year his patient chisel creepeth
Over the surface, till to life out-leapeth
The destined figure: so athwart the clod
Long moulded only 'neath the scourging rod,
The plastic hand of Education sweepeth,
And fashions forth from pauper or from slave
Poet or hero; wisemen, good, and brave.
No State can love its children, till it teach
All born within its uttermost confine;
And so build, Roman-like, that none may reach,
Save through fair Virtue's temple, Honour's shrine.
"Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum a te."-HORACE.
Nec rude quid possit video ingenium, alterius sic
Altera poscit opem res et conjurat amice."-HORACE.
Like to the Bard, the Orator is born,
Not made; yet Learning gives each excellence,
As a flower's hue by culture grows intense.
Grace may be learnt; but neither fire, nor scorn,
Nor pathos; for the Speaker must be torn
First by his hearers passion: the pretence
Of feeling ne'er yet rose to eloquence.
Laugh, and I laugh; mourn, and I too shall mourn.
Who writes down all the lips shall have to say,
Is parrot-wise he works but with their art
Who shape the marble from the modelled clay :
But Buonarotti freed, with aid of heart
Intuitive, and God-like eye alone,
The form his genius saw within the stone.*
* Michael Angelo, unlike other sculptors, contented himself with a diminutive instead of a full sized model, and trusted for the correct execution of his gigantic figures, to his knowledge and his genius.
· ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἐτόλμσ ̓· ἐξερυσάμην βροτοὺς
τοῦ μὴ διαῤῥαισθέντας εἰς "Αιδου μόλειν·
τῷ τοι τοιαῖσδε πημοναῖσι κάμπτομαι,
πάσχειν μὲν ἀλγειναῖσιν, οἰκτραῖσιν δ' ἰδεῖν.
θνητοὺς δ ̓ ἐν οἴκτῳ προθέμενος, τούτου τυχεῖν
οὐκ ἠξιώθην αὐτός, ἀλλ ̓ ἀνηλεῶς
ὧδ ̓ ἐῤῥώθμισμάι.”AscHYLUS.
Christ on his cross, with thorny crown, the mock
Of Jews, and brutal Roman soldier train,
Side-pierced ; between red-handed robbers slain :
Prometheus stretch'd on the Caucasian rock,
Bearing the fiery-taloned Vulture's shock,
Through countless ages of undying pain;
Bound in a coil of adamantine chain ;
Scorning his bosom's secret to unlock :-
Of all the storied spectacles of woe
And agony, these are the saddest twain :
Both victims of their great love of mankind,
For that by each with far-foreseeing mind
From Heaven's own store a particle was ta'en
Of the celestial fire for men below.
|