The Enfolded Prelude: Book Third

Book Third

Residence at Cambridge

It was a dreary morning when the chaisewheels

Rolled over the flat plains of Huntingdona wide plain o' erhung with clouds,

And through the open windows nothing cheered our way till first I we saw

The long-backed long-roofed chapel of King's College rearlift

His Turrets and pinnacles in answering files,

Extended high above the a dusky groves.grove.

Soon afterwards Advancing, we espied upon the road

A student clothed in gown and tasselled cap;cap,

Striding along as if o'ertasked by Time,

Or covetous of exercise and air;

He passed nor was I master of my eyes

Till he was left a hundred yards an arrow's flight behind.

The place as we approached seemed more As near and morenearer to the spot we drew,

To have It seemed to suck us in with an eddy's force, and sucked us in

More eagerly at every step we took.force.

Onward we drove beneath the castle, downCastle; caught,

By While crossing Magdalene Bridge we went and crossed the Cam,Bridge, a glimpse of Cam;

And at the Hoop we landed, "Hoop" alighted, famous inn.Inn.

My spirit was up, my thoughts were full of hope;

Some friends I had had, acquaintances who there

Seemed friends friends, poor simple schoolboys schoolboys, now hung round

With honour and importance. In importance: in a world

Of welcome faces up and down I rovedroved;

Questions, directions, counsel warnings and adviceadvice,

Flowed in upon me me, from all sides. Fresh sides; fresh day

Of pride and pleasure: pleasure! to myself I seemed

A man of business and expense, and went

From shop to shop about my own affairs,

To tutors Tutor or to tailors Tailor, as befel,befell,

From street to street with loose and careless heart.mind.

I was the dreamer, Dreamer, they the dream; Dream; I roamed

Delighted through the motley spectacle:spectacle;

Gowns grave grave, or gaudy, doctors, students, streets,

Lamps, gateways, Courts, cloisters, flocks of churches, courts and towers—

Strange transformation for a mountain youth,

A northern villager. gateways, towers:

Migration strange for a stripling of the hills,

A northern villager.

As if by wordthe change

Of magic or Had waited on some fairy's power, Fairy's wand, at once

Behold me rich in monies monies, and attired

In splendid clothes, garb, with hose of silk, and hair

Glittering Powdered like rimy trees trees, when frost is keen—

My lordly dressing-gown, I pass it by,

With other signs of manhood which supplied

The lack of beard. keen.

My lordly dressing-gown, I pass it by,

With other signs of manhood that supplied

The lack of beard. The weeks went roundly on,

With invitations, suppers, wine, wine and fruit,

Smooth housekeeping within, and all without

Liberal Liberal, and suiting gentleman's array.

The Evangelist St. John my patron was;was:

Three gloomy Gothic courts are his, and in the first

Was my abiding-place, a nook obscure.obscure;

Right underneath, the college College kitchens made

A humming sound, less tuneable than beesbees,

But hardly less industrious; with shrill notes

Of sharp command and scolding intermixed.

Near me was hung Trinity's loquacious clockclock,

Who never let the quarters, night or day,

Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours

Twice over with a male and female voice.

Her pealing organ was my neighbour too;

And from my bedroom I in moonlight nightspillow, looking forth by light

Could see right opposite, a few yards off,Of moon or favouring stars, I could behold

The antechapel, antechapel where the statue stood

Of Newton with his prism and silent face.face,

The marble index of a mind for ever

Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.

Of college College labours, of the lecturer's Lecturer's room

All studded round, as thick as chairs could stand,

With loyal students students, faithful to their books,

Half-and-half idlers, hardy recusants,

And honest dunces; dunces of important days,

Examinations, when the man was weighed

As in the balance a balance! of excessive hopes,

Tremblings withal and commendable fears,

Small jealousies jealousies, and triumphs good or bad—

I make short mention. Things they were which then

I did not love, nor do I love them now:—

Let others that know more speak as they know.

Such glory was but little sought by me,

And little won. But it is right to say

That even so early, Yet from the first crude days

Of settling-time settling time in this my new untried abode,

Not seldom I had melancholy thoughts

From personal and family regards,was disturbed at times by prudent thoughts,

Wishing to hope without a hope hope, some fears

About my future worldly maintenance,

And, more than all, a strangeness in my the mind,

A feeling that I was not for that hourhour,

Nor for that place. But wherefore be cast down,

Why should I grieve? I was a chosen son.down?

For hither I had come with holy powers

And faculties, whether (not to work or feel:

To apprehend all passions and all moods

Which time, and place, speak of Reason and season do impressher pure

Upon Reflective acts to fix the visible universe, and workmoral law

Like changes there by force Deep in the conscience, nor of my own mind.Christian Hope,

I was a freeman, in the purest senseBowing her head before her sister Faith

Was free, and to majestic ends was strong—

I do not speak of learning, moral truth,

Or understanding 'twas enough for me

To know that I was otherwise endowed.As one far mightier), hither I had come,

When the first glitter of the show was passed,Bear witness Truth, endowed with holy powers

And the first dazzle of the taper-light,faculties, whether to work or feel.

As if with a rebound my mind returnedOft when the dazzling show no longer new

Into its former self. Oft Had ceased to dazzle, ofttimes did I leavequit

My comrades, and leave the crowd, buildings and groves,

And walked along the fields, as I paced alone the level fields,

With heaven's blue concave reared above my head.

And now it was that through such change entire,fields

And this first absence Far from those shapes lovely sights and sounds sublime

Wherewith With which I had been conversant, my the mind

Seemed busier in itself than heretofore—

At least I more directly recognised

My powers and habits. Let Drooped not; but there into herself returning,

With prompt rebound seemed fresh as heretofore.

At least I more distinctly recognised

Her native instincts: let me dare to speak

A higher language, say that now I felt

The strength and consolation which What independent solaces were mine.mine,

To mitigate the injurious sway of place

Or circumstance, how far soever changed

In youth, or 'to' be changed in after years.

As if awakened, summoned, rouzed, sununoned, roused, constrained,

I looked for universal things, things; perused

The common countenance of earth and heaven,sky:

And, Earth, nowhere unembellished by some trace

Of that first Paradise whence man was driven;

And sky, whose beauty and bounty are expressed

By the proud name she bears the name of Heaven.

I called on both to teach me what they might;

Or, turning the mind in upon itself,herself,

Pored, watched, expected, listened, spread my thoughts,thoughts

And spread them with a wider creeping, creeping; felt

Incumbencies more awful, visitings

Of the upholder, Upholder of the tranquil soul,

Which underneath all passion lives secureThat tolerates the indignities of Time,

A steadfast life. And, from the centre of Eternity

All finite motions overruling, lives

In glory immutable. But peace, it is peace! enough

To notice Here to record that I was ascending mounting now

To such community with highest truth.

A track pursuing not untrod before,

From deep analogies by thought supplied,

Or consciousnesses not to be subdued,truth—

A track pursuing, not untrod before,

From strict analogies by thought supplied

Or consciousnesses not to be subdued.

To every natural form, rock, fruit fruits, or flower,

Even the loose stones that cover the highway,

I gave a moral life life: I saw them feel,

Or linked them to some feeling. The feeling: the great mass

Lay bedded in a quickening soul, and all

That I beheld respired with inward meaning.

Thus much for the one presence, and the life

Of the great whole; suffice it here to add

That whatsoe'er Add that whate'er of terror, Terror or of love,Love

Or beauty, Beauty, Nature's daily face put on

From transitory passion, unto this

I was as wakeful even sensitive as waters are

To the sky's motion, influence in a kindred sensemood

Of passion passion; was obedient as a lute

That waits upon the touches of the wind.

So it was with me in my solitude:

So often among multitudes of men.

Unknown, unthought of, yet I was most rich,rich—

I had a world about me 'twas my own;

I made it, for it only lived to me,

And to the God who sees into the heart.

I had a world about me 'twas my own,Such sympathies, though rarely, were betrayed

I made it; for By outward gestures and by visible looks:

Some called it only lived to me,madness so indeed it was,

And to the God who looked into my mind.If child-like fruitfulness in passing joy,

Such sympathies would sometimes shew themselvesIf steady moods of thoughtfulness matured

To inspiration, sort with such a name;

If prophecy be madness; if things viewed

By outward gestures poets in old time, and by visible looks—

Some called it madness; such indeed it was,

If childlike fruitfulness in passing joy,

If steady moods of thoughtfulness matured

To inspiration, sort with such a name;

If prophesy be madness, if things viewed

By poets of old time, and higher up

By the first men, earth's first inhabitants,

May in these tutored days no more be seen

With undisordered sight. higher up

By the first men, earth's first inhabitants,

May in these tutored days no more be seen

With undisordered sight. But leaving this,

It was no madness, for I had an the bodily eye

Which in Amid my strongest workings evermore

Was looking for searching out the shades lines of difference

As they lie hid in all exterior external forms,

Near or remote, minute or vast vast; an eye

Which Which, from a stone, a tree, a stone, a withered leaf,

To the broad ocean and the azure heavens

Spangled with kindred multitudes of stars,

Could find no surface where its power might sleep,sleep;

Which spake perpetual logic to my soul,

And by an unrelenting agency

Did bind my feelings even as in a chain.

And here, O friend, Friend! have I retraced my life

Up to an eminence, and told a tale

Of matters which not falsely I may callbe called

The glory of my youth. Of genius, power,

Creation, Creation and divinity itself,itself

I have been speaking, for my theme has been

What passed within me. Not of outward things

Done visibly for other minds minds, words, signs,

Symbols or actions actions, but of my own heart

Have I been speaking, and my youthful mind.

O heavens, Heavens! how awful is the might of souls,

And what they do within themselves while yet

The yoke of earth is new to them, the world

Nothing but a wild field where they were sown.

This is is, in truth truth, heroic argument,

And This genuine prowess prowess, which I wished to touch,touch

With hand however weak weak, but in the main

It lies far hidden from the reach of words.

Points have we all of us within our souls

Where all stand single; this I feel, and make

Breathings for incommunicable powers.powers;

Yet each man But is not each a memory to himself,

And, therefore, now that I we must quit this theme,

I am not heartless; heartless, for there's not a man

That lives who hath not had known his god-like hours,

And knows feels not what majestic sway an empire we haveinherit

As natural beings in the strength of Nature.

Enough, No more: for now into a populous plain

We must descend. A traveller Traveller I am,

And all my Whose tale is only of myself himself; even so—

So be it, if the pure in heart delight

To follow me, and thou, O honoured friend,

Who in my thoughts art ever at my side,

Uphold as heretofore my fainting steps.so,

So be it, if the pure of heart be prompt

To follow, and if thou, my honoured Friend!

Who in these thoughts art ever at my side,

Support, as heretofore, my fainting steps.

It hath been told already how my sighttold, that when the first delight

Was dazzled by the That flashed upon me from this novel show, and howshow

Erelong I did Had failed, the mind returned into myself return.herself;

So did it seem, and so in truth Yet true it was—

Yet this was but short-lived. Thereafter came

Observance less devout: is, that I had made a change

In climate, and my nature's outward coat

Changed also, also slowly and insensibly.

To Full oft the deep quiet and majestic exalted thoughts

Of loneliness succeeded gave way to empty noise

And superficial pastimes, pastimes; now and then

Forced labour, and more frequently forced hopes,hopes;

And, worse than worst of all, a treasonable growth

Of indecisive judgements judgments, that impaired

And shook the mind's simplicity. And yet

This was a gladsome time. Could I behold—

Who less insensible than sodden clay

On a sea-river's bed at ebb of tide

Could have beheld with undelighted heart

so many happy youths, so wide and fair

A congregation in its budding-time

Of health, and hope, and beauty, all at once

So many divers samples of the growth

Of life's sweet season, could have seen unmoved

That miscellaneous garland of wild flowers

Upon the matron temples of a place

So famous through the world? To me at least

It was a goodly prospect; for, through youth,

Though I had been trained up to stand unpropped,

And independent musings pleased me so

That spells seemed on me when I was alone,

Yet could I only cleave to solitude

In lonesome places if a throng was near

That way I leaned by nature, for my heart

Was social and loved idleness and joy.behold.

Who, less insensible than sodden clay

In a sea-river's bed at ebb of tide,

Could have beheld, with undelighted heart,

So many happy youths, so wide and fair

A congregation in its budding-time

Of health, and hope, and beauty, all at once

So many divers samples from the growth

Of life's sweet season could have seen unmoved

That miscellaneous garland of wild flowers

Decking the matron temples of a place

So famous through the world? To me, at least,

It was a goodly prospect: for, in sooth,

Though I had learnt betimes to stand unpropped,

And independent musings pleased me so

That spells seemed on me when I was alone,

Yet could I only cleave to solitude

In lonely places; if a throng was near

That way I leaned by nature; for my heart

Was social, and loved idleness and joy.

Not seeking those who might participate

My deeper pleasures nay, (nay, I had not once,

Though not unused to mutter lonesome songs,

Even with myself divided such delight,

Or looked that way for aught that might be clothed

In human language language), easily I passed

From the remembrances of better things,

And slipped into the weekday works of youth,ordinary works

Unburthened, unalarmed, and unprofaned.Of careless youth, unburthened, unalarmed.

Caverns 'Caverns' there were within my mind which sun

Could never penetrate, yet did there not

Want store of leafy arbours 'arbours' where the light

Might enter in at will. Companionships,

Friendships, acquaintances, were welcome all;all.

We sauntered, played, we rioted, or rioted; we talked

Unprofitable talk at morning hours,hours;

Drifted about along the streets and walks,

Read lazily in lazy trivial books, went forth

To gallop through the country in blind zeal

Of senseless horsemanship, or on the breast

Of Cam sailed boisterously, and let the stars

Come out, forth, perhaps without one quiet thought.

Such was the tenor of the opening second act

In this new life. Imagination slept,

And yet not utterly: utterly. I could not print

Ground where the grass had yielded to the steps

Of generations of illustrious men,

Unmoved; Unmoved. I could not always lightly pass

Through the same gateways, sleep where they had slept,

Wake where they waked, range that enclosure inclosure old,

That garden of great intellects, undisturbed.

Place also by the side of this dark sense

Of nobler noble feeling, that those spiritual men,

Even the great Newton's own etherial ethereal self,

Seemed humbled in these precincts, precincts thence to be

The more beloved, invested here with tasksendeared. Their several memories here

Of life's plain business, as a (Even like their persons in their portraits clothed

With the accustomed garb of daily garb.—

Dictators at the plough a change that left

All genuine admiration unimpaired.life)

Put on a lowly and a touching grace

Of more distinct humanity, that left

All genuine admiration unimpaired.

Beside the pleasant mills Mill of Trompington

I laughed with Chaucer; Chaucer in the hawthorn shadeshade;

Heard him, while birds were warbling, tell his tales

Of amorous passion. And that gentle bardBard,

Chosen by the Muses for their Page of State,

Sweet Spencer, moving through his clouded heaven

With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace—

I called him brother, Englishman, and friend.

Yea, our blind poet, who, in his later day

Stood almost single, uttering odious truth,

Darkness before, and danger's voice behind—

Soul awful, if the earth hath ever lodged

An awful soul I seemed to see him here

Familiarly, and in his scholar's dress

Bounding before me, yet a stripling youth,

A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks

Angelical, keen eye, courageous look,

And conscious step of purity and pride.State—

Sweet Spenser, moving through his clouded heaven

With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace,

I called him Brother, Englishman, and Friend!

Yea, our blind Poet, who in his later day,

Stood almost single; uttering odious truth—

Darkness before, and danger's voice behind,

Soul awful if the earth has ever lodged

An awful soul I seemed to see him here

Familiarly, and in his scholar's dress

Bounding before me, yet a stripling youth—

A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks

Angelical, keen eye, courageous look,

And conscious step of purity and pride.

Among the band of my compeers was one,one

My class-fellow at school, whose Whom chance it was

To lodge had stationed in the apartments which had beenvery room

Time out of mind honored Honoured by Milton's name—

The very shell reputed of the abode

Which he had tenanted. name. O Temperate bard!temperate Bard!

One afternoon, Be it confest that, for the first time I set foottime, seated

In this they Within thy innocent nest lodge and oratory,

Seated with others in One of a festive ring

Of commonplace convention, circle, I to theepoured out

Poured out libations, Libations, to thy memory drankdrank, till pride

Within my private thoughts, till my brain reeled,And gratitude grew dizzy in a brain

Never so clouded excited by the fumes of wine

Before that hour, or since. Thence, Then, forth I ran

From that assembly, the assembly; through a length of streetsstreets,

Ran ostrich-like Ran, ostrich-like, to reach our chapel door

In not a desperate or opprobrious time,

Albeit long after the importunate bell

Had stopped, with wearisome Cassandra voice

No longer haunting the dark winter night.

Call back, O friend, Friend! a moment to thy mindmind,

The place itself and fashion of the rites.

Upshouldering in a dislocated lump

With shallow ostentatious carelessnesscareless ostentation shouldering up

My surplice, gloried in and yet despised,

I clove in pride through the inferior throngthrong I clove

Of the plain burghers, Burghers, who in audience stood

On the last skirts of their permitted ground,

Beneath Under the pealing organ. Empty thoughts,thoughts!

I am ashamed of them; them: and that great bard,Bard,

And thou, O friend, Friend! who in thy ample mind

Hast stationed placed me for reverence and love,high above my best deserts,

Ye will forgive the weakness of that hour,

In some of its unworthy vanitiesvanities,

Brother of to many more.

In this mixed sort

The months passed on, remissly, not giving given up

To wilful alienation from the right,

Or walks of open scandal, but in vague

And loose indifference, easy likings, aims

Of a low pitch duty and zeal dismissed,

Yet Nature, or a happy course of things,things

Not doing in their stead the needful work.

The memory languidly revolved, the heart

Reposed in noontide rest, the inner pulse

Of contemplation almost failed to beat.

Rotted as by a charm, my Such life becamemight not inaptly be compared

A To a floating island, an amphibious thing,spot

Unsound, of spungy spongy texture, yet withal

Not wanting a fair face of water-weedswater weeds

And pleasant flowers. The thirst of living praise,

A Fit reverence for the glorious dead, Dead, the sight

Of those long vistos, catacombs in whichvistas, sacred catacombs,

Perennial minds Where mighty 'minds' lie visibly entombed,

Have often stirred the heart of youth, and bred

A fervent love of rigorous discipline.

Alas, such high commotion touched not me;—

Alas! such high emotion touched not me.

No look Look was in there none within these walls to put to shame

My easy spirits, and discountenance

Their light composure composure, far less to instil

A calm resolve of mind, firmly addressed

To pleasant puissant efforts. Nor was this the blame

Of others, others but my own; I should should, in truth,

As far as doth concern my single self,

Misdeem most widely, lodging it elsewhere.elsewhere:

For I, bred in up, 'mid Nature's lap, was evenluxuries,

As Was a spoiled child; child, and, rambling rumbling like the windwind,

As I had done in daily intercourse

With those delicious crystalline rivers, solemn heights,

And mountains, ranging like a fowl of the air,

I was ill-tutored for captivity—

To quit my pleasure, and from month to month

Take up a station calmly on the perch

Of sedentary peace. captivity;

To quit my pleasure, and, from month to month,

Take up a station calmly on the perch

Of sedentary peace. Those lovely forms

Had also left less space within my mind,

Which, wrought upon instinctively, had found

A freshness in those objects of its her love,

A winning power power, beyond all other power.

Not that I slighted books books, that were to lack

All sense sense, but other passions had been mine,in me ruled,

More Passions more fervent, making me less prompt perhapsprompt

To indoor in-door study than was wise or well,

Or suited to my those years. Yet I could shapeI, though used

The image In magisterial liberty to rove,

Culling such flowers of learning as might tempt

A random choice, could shadow forth a place which soothed and lulledplace

As (If now I had been, trained up in paradiseyield not to a flattering dream)

Among sweet garlands Whose studious aspect should have bent me down

To instantaneous service; should at once

Have made me pay to science and delightful sounds,to arts

Accustomed in And written lore, acknowledged my loneliness to walkliege lord,

With Nature magisterially—yet I

Methinks could shape the image of a place

Which with its aspect should have bent me down

To instantaneous service, should at once

Have made me pay to science and to arts

And written lore, acknowledged my liege lord,

A homage frankly offered up like that

Which I had paid to Nature. A homage frankly offered up, like that

Which I had paid to Nature. Toil and pains

In this recess which I have bodied forthrecess, by thoughtful Fancy built,

Should spread from heart to heart; and stately groves,

Majestic edifices, should not want

A corresponding dignity within.

The congregating temper which that pervades

Our unripe years, not wasted, should be madetaught

To minister to works of high attempt,

Which the enthusiast would perform with love.attempt—

Works which the enthusiast would perform with love.

Youth should be awed, possessed, as with a sensereligiously possessed

Religious, With a conviction of what holy joy there isthe power that waits

In knowledge if it be On knowledge, when sincerely soughtsought and prized

For its own sake in glory, sake, on glory and in praise,on praise

If but by labour won, and fit to endure.endure

The passing day day; should learn to put aside

Her trappings here, should strip them off abashed

Before antiquity and stedfast truth,truth

And strong book-mindedness; and over all

Should be a A healthy sound simplicity,simplicity should reign,

A seemly plainness plainness, name it as what you will,

Republican or pious.

If these thoughts

Be Are a gratuitous emblazonry

That does but mock this mocks the recreant age, at leastage 'we' live in, then

Let Be Folly and False-seeming (we might say)

Be free to affect whatever formal gaitaffect

Of moral or scholastic Whatever formal gait of discipline

Shall raise them highest in their own esteem;

Let them parade among the schools at will,

But spare the house of God. esteem—

Let them parade among the Schools at will,

But spare the House of God. Was ever known

The witless shepherd who would drive his flock

With serious repetition persists to a pooldrive

Of which 'tis plain A flock that thirsts not to sight they never taste?a pool disliked?

A weight must surely hang on days begun

And ended with worst such mockery. Be wise,

Ye Presidents and Deans, and, till the spirit

Of ancient times revive, and youth be trained

At home in pious service, to your bells

Give seasonable rest, for 'tis a sound

Hollow as ever vexed the tranquil air,air;

And your officious doings bring disgrace

On the plain steeples of our English Church,

Whose worship, 'mid remotest village trees,

Suffers for this. Even science Science, too, at hand

In daily sight of such this irreverence,

Is smitten thence with an unnatural taint,

Loses her just authority, falls beneath

Collateral suspicion, else unknown.

This obvious truth did not escape escaped me then,

Unthinking as I was, not, and I confessconfess,

That having in 'mid my native hills given loose

To a schoolboy's dreaming vision, I had raised a pile

Upon the basis of the coming time

Which now before me melted fast away,

Which could not live, scarcely had life enoughtime,

To mock the builder. That fell in ruins round me. Oh, what joy it werejoy

To see a sanctuary for our country's youth

With Informed with such a spirit in it as might be

Protection for itself, Its own protection; a virgin primeval grove,

Primaeval Where, though the shades with cheerfulness were filled,

Nor indigent of songs warbled from crowds

In under-coverts, yet the countenance

Of the whole place should bear a stamp of awe;

A habitation sober and demure

For ruminating creatures; a domain

For quiet things to wander in; a haunt

In which the heron should delight to feed

By the shy rivers, and the pelican

Upon the cypress spire in its purity lonely thought

Might sit and depth—

Where, though the shades were filled with chearfulness,

Nor indigent of songs warbled from crowds

In under-coverts, yet the countenance

Of the whole place should wear a stamp of awe

A habitation sober and demure

For ruminating creatures, a domain

For quiet things to wander in, a haunt

In which the heron might delight to feed

By the shy rivers, and the pelican

Upon the cypress-spire in lonely thought

Might sit and sun himself. Alas, alas,sun himself. Alas! Alas!

In vain for such solemnity we look;I looked;

Our Mine eyes are were crossed by butterflies, our earsears vexed

Hear By chattering popinjays popinjays; the inner heart

Is Seemed trivial, and the impresses without

Are of Of a too gaudy region.

Different sight

Those venerable doctors Doctors saw of oldold,

When all who dwelt within these famous walls

Led in abstemiousness a studious life,life;

When, in forlorn and naked chambers cooped

And crowded, o'er their the ponderous books they satehung

Like caterpillars eating out their way

In silence, or with keen devouring noise

Not to be tracked or fathered. Princes then

At matins froze, and couched at curfew-time,

Trained up through piety and zeal to prize

Spare diet, patient labour, and plain weeds.

O seat of Arts, Arts! renowned throughout the world,world!

Far different service in those homely days

The Muses' modest nurslings of the Muses underwent

From their first childhood. In childhood: in that glorious time

When Learning, like a stranger come from far,

Sounding through Christian lands her trumpet, rouzedroused

The peasant Peasant and the king; when boys and youths,youths, the growth

The growth of Of ragged villages and crazy huts,

Forsook their homes and homes, and, errant in the quest

Of patron, Patron, famous school or friendly nook,

Where, pensioned, they in shelter might sit down.—

From town to town and through wide scattered realms

Journeyed with their huge folios in their hands,

And often, starting from some covert place,

Saluted the chance comer on the road,

Crying, 'An obolus, a penny give

To a poor scholar'; when illustrious men,

Lovers of truth, by penury constrained,

Bucer, Erasmus, or Melancthon, read

Before the doors or windows of their cells

By moonshine through mere lack of taper light.down,

From town to town and through wide scattered realms

Journeyed with ponderous folios in their hands;

And often, starting from some covert place,

Saluted the chance comer on the road,

Crying, "An obolus, a penny give

To a poor scholar!" when illustrious men,

Lovers of truth, by penury constrained,

Bucer, Erasmus, or Melancthon, read

Before the doors or windows of their cells

By moonshine through mere lack of taper light.

But peace to vain regrets. regrets! We see but darkly

Even when we look behind us; us, and best things

Are not so pure by nature that they needs

Must keep to all all, as fondly all believebelieve,

Their highest promise. If the mariner,

When at reluctant distance he hath passed

Some fair enticing tempting island, did could but knowknow the ills

What fate might That must have been his, could fallen upon him had he have brought

His bark to land upon the wished-for spot,shore,

Good cause full often would he have oft be his to blessthank the surf

The Whose white belt of churlish surf that scared him thence,thence, or wind that blew

Or haste of the inexorable wind.Inexorably adverse: for myself

For me, I grieve not; happy is the mangowned youth,

Who only misses what I missed, who falls

No lower than I fell. fell.

I did not love,

As hath been notice heretofore, Judging not ill perhaps, the guisetimid course

Of our scholastic studies studies; could have wished

The To see the river to have had an flow with ampler range

And freer pace. But this pace; but more, far more, I tax not; far,grieved

Far more I grieved to To see displayed among the bandan eager few,

Of those who Who in the field of contest stood

As combatants, passions that did to mepersevered,

Seem low and mean from ignorance Passions unworthy of mine,youth's generous heart

In part, and want of just forbearance; yetAnd mounting spirit, pitiably repaid,

My wiser mind grieves now for what I saw.When so disturbed, whatever palms are won.

Willingly did From these I part from these, and turn

Out of their track turned to travel with the shoal

Of more unthinking natures, easy minds

And pillowy, and pillowy; yet not wanting love that makes

The day pass lightly on, when foresight sleeps,
And wisdom and the pledges interchanged