"Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind....
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find."
GOLDSMITH (and JOHNSON),
_The Traveler_, 423-32.
"He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' center, and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself in his own dungeon."
MILTON, _Comus_, 381-5.
Compare also Paradise Lost, I, 255-7.
"O mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and merely great works of art; but are also like the phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers,--like frost and snow, rain and dew, hailstorm and thunder, which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert,--but that, the further we press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident!"--DE QUINCY.
"Nec metuis dubio Fortunæ stantis in orbe
Numen, et exosæ verba superba deæ?"
OVID, _Tristia_, v., 8, 8.
FRIENDSHIP
In connection with his essay on Friendship, the student should read the two other notable addresses on the same subject, one the speech by Cicero, the famous Roman orator, and the other the essay by Lord Bacon, the great English author.
"When half-gods go The gods arrive."
[^302: Curricle. A two-wheeled carriage, especially popular in the eighteenth century.
HEROISM
"Ruby wine is drunk by knaves, Sugar spends to fatten slaves, Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons, Thunder clouds are Jove's festoons, Drooping oft in wreaths of dread Lightning-knotted round his head: The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails."
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,' The youth replies, 'I can.'"
"Let them rave.
Thou wilt never raise thine head
From the green that folds thy grave--
Let them rave."
MANNERS
GIFTS
It was a part of Emerson's philosophic faith that there is no such thing as giving,--everything that belongs to a man or that he ought to have, will come to him. But in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, Emerson was a gracious giver and receiver. In his family the old New England custom of New Year's presents was kept up to his last days. His presents were accompanied with verses to be read before the gift was opened.
When Emerson, in his old age, had his house injured by fire, his friends contributed funds to repair it and to send him to England. The gift was proffered graciously and accepted gratefully.
NATURE
"And the countless leaves of the pines are strings Tuned to the lay the wood-god sings."
SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET