And before some single thesis had been followed out in all its branches,
The wandering thinker would be lost in the pathless forest of existence.
What were the matter or the spirit, that hath no part in Fame?
Where were the fact irrelevant, or the fancy out of place?

For the handling of that mighty theme should stretch from past to future,
Catching up the present on its way, as a traveller burdened with time.
All manner of men, their deeds, hopes, fortunes, and ambitions,

All manner of events and things, climate, circumstance, and custom,
Wealth and war, fear and hope, contentment, jealousy, devotion,

Skill and learning, truth, falsehood, knowledge of things gone and things

to come,

Pride and praise, honour and dishonour, warnings, ensamples, emulations, The excellent in virtues, and the reprobate in vice, with the cloud of indifferent spectators,—

Wave on wave with flooding force throng the shoals of thought,

Filling that immeasurable theme, the height and depth of Fame.

With soul unsatisfied and mind dismayed, my feet have touched the threshold,

Fain to pour these flowers and fruits an offering on that altar:
Lo, how vast the temple,—there are clouds within the dome!
Yet might the huge expanse be filled with volumes writ on Fame

OF FLATTERY.

MUSIC is commended of the deaf;-but is that praise despised?
I trow not with flattered soul, the musician heard him gladly.
Beauty is commended of the blind ;—but is that compliment misliking?
1 trow not though false and insincere, woman listened greedily.
Vacant Folly talketh high of Learning's deepest reason;

Is she hated for her hollowness?—learning held her wiser for the nonce.
The worldly and the sensual, to gain some end, did homage to religion :
And the good man gave thanks as for a convert, where others saw the
hypocrite.

YET none of these were cheated at the heart, nor steadily believed those flatteries;

They feared the core was rotten, while they hoped the skin was sound: But the fruits have so sweet fragrance, and are verily so pleasant to the

eyes,

It were an ungracious disenchantment to find them apples of Sodom.
So they laboured to think all honest, winking hard with both their eyes;
And hushed up every whisper that could prove that praise absurd;
They willingly regard not the infirmities that make such worship vain,
And palliate to their own fond hearts the faults they will not see.

For the idol rejoiceth in his incense, and loveth not to shame his suppliants,

Should he seek to find them false, his honours die with theirs :

An offering is welcome for its own sake, set aside the giver,

And praise is precious to a man, though uttered by the parrot or the mocking-bird.

::

THE world is full of fools; and sycophancy liveth on the fcolish:
So he groweth great and rich, that fawning supple parasite.
Sometimes he boweth like a reed, cringing to the pompousness of pride,
Sometimes he strutteth as a gallant, pampering the fickleness of vanity;
I have known him listen with the humble, enacting silent marveller,
To hear some purse-proud dunce expound his poverty of mind;

I have heard him wrangle with the obstinate, vowing that he will not be convinced,

When some weak youth hath wisely feared the chance of ill success: Now, he will barely be a winner,—to magnify thy triumphs afterward; Now, he will hardly be a loser,--but cannot cease to wonder at thy skill: He laudeth his own worth, that the leader may have glory in his follower; He meekly confesseth his unworthiness, that the leader may have glory in

himself.

Many wiles hath he, and many modes of catching,

But every trap is selfishness, and every bait is praise.

COME, I would forewarn thee and forearm thee; for keen are the weapons of his warfare;

And, while my soul hath scorned him, I have watched his skill from far. His thoughts are full of guile, deceitfully combining contrarieties,

And when he doeth battle in a man, he is leagued with traitorous Self

love;

Strange things have I noted, and opposite to common fancy;
We leave the open surface, and would plumb the secret depths.
For he will magnify a lover even to disparaging his mistress;
So much wisdom, goodness, grace,-and all to be enslaved ?

Till the Narcissus, self-enamoured, whelmed in floods of flattery,

Is cheated from the constancy and fervency of love by friendship's subtle praise.

Moreover, he will glorify a parent, even to the censure of his child,—

O degenerate scion, of a stock so excellent and noble !

Scant will be in well-earned praise of a son before his father;

And rarely commendeth to a mother her daughter's budding beauty:

Yet shall he extol the daughter to her father, and be warm about the son

before his mother;

Knowing that self-love entereth not, to resist applause with jealousies

Wisely is he sparing of hyperbole where vehemence of praise would

humble,

For many a father liketh ill to be counted second to his son:

And shrewdly the flatterer hath reckoned on a self still lurking in the

mother,

When his tongue was slow to speak of graces in the daughter

But, if he descend a generation, to the grandsire his talk is of the grand

son,

Because in such high praise he hideth the honours of the son;

And the daughter of a daughter may well exceed, in beauty, love, and learning,

For unconsciously old age perceived-she cannot be my rival.
These are of the deep things of flattery: and many a shallow sycophant
Hath marvelled ill that praise of children seldom won their parents.
This therefore note, unto detection; flattery can sneer as well as smile;
And a master in the craft wotteth well that his oblique thrust is surest.

FLATTERY sticketh like a burr, holding to the soil with anchors,

A vital, natural, subtle seed, every where hardy and indigenous.

Go to the storehouse of thy memory, and take what is readiest to thy hand,―

The noble deed, the clever phrase, for which thy pride was flattered:

Oh, it hath been dwelt upon in solitude, and comforted thy heart in crowds, It hath made thee walk as in a dream, and lifted the head above thy fel

lows;

It hath compensated months of gloom, that minute of sweet sunshine,
Drying up the pools of apathy, and kindling the fire of ambition:
Yea, the flavour of that spice, mingled in the cup of life,
Shall linger even to the dregs, and still be tasted with a welcome;
The dame shall tell her grandchild of her coy and courted youth,
And the graybeard prateth of a stranger, that praised his task at school.

OFTTIMES to the sluggard and the dull, flattery hath done good service,
Quickening the mind to emulation, and encouraging the heart that failed.
Even so, a stimulating poison, wisely tendered by the leech,
Shall speed the pulse, and rally life, and cheat astonished death.

For, as a timid swimmer, ventureth afloat with bladders,

Until self-confidence and growth of skill have made him spurn their aid,
Thus commendation may be prudent, where a child hath ill deserved it;
But praise unmerited is flattery, and the cure will bring its cares:
For thy son may find thee out, and thou shalt rue the remedy:
Yea rather, where thou canst not praise, be honest in rebuke.

I have seen the objects of a flatterer mirrored clearly on the surface,
Where self-love scattereth praise to gather praise again.

This is a commodity of merchandise, words put out at interest;

A scheme for canvassing opinions, and tinging them all with partiality. He is but a harmless fool; humour him with pitiful good-nature:

If a poetaster quote thy song, be thou tender to his poem :

Did the painter praise thy sketch? be kind, commend his picture,

He looketh for a like return; then thank him with thy praise.

In these small things with these small minds count thou the sycophant a courtier,

And pay back, as blindly as ye may, the too transparent honour

ALSO, where the flattery is delicate, coming unobtrusive and in season, Though thou be suspicious of its truth, be generous at least to its gentility. The skilful thief of Lacedæmon had praise before his judges,

And many caitiffs win applause for genius in their calling.

Moreover, his meaning may be kind,—and thou art a debtor to his tongue;
Hasten well to pay the debt, with charity and shrewdness:
He must not think thee caught, nor feel himself discovered,

Nor find thine answering compliment as hollow as his own.

Though he be a smiling enemy, let him heed thee as the fearless and the friendly;

A searching look, a poignant word, may prove thou art aware:

Still, with compassion to the frail, though keen to see his soul,

Let him not fear for thy discretion: see thou keep his secret, and thine

own.

HOWEVER, where the flattery is gross, a falsehood clear and fulsome,
Crush the venomous toad, and spare not for a jewel in his head.

Tell the presumptuous in flattery, that or ever he bespatter thee with praise,