Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1848 edition. Excerpt: ... PROLOGUE. I can yoke rich words together, Using fancy as their tether; Utter syllables in rhyme, As if they were bells in chime. Though thou hast no Minstrel's rod, We are children of one God; Therefore never fret nor pine That thy skill is less than mine. Hast thou sunlight watched, and shower, Sea, and shell, and field, and flower, Living insect, beast and bird? Hast thou for a moment heard Children, on their mother's knee, Prattle with untrammelled glee? Or the wind sing in the tree? Hadst thou so, and only cried "Oh! how beautiful!" and died, That last hour had come to thee With a flash of poetry. Canst thou kiss a poor man's child, And thyself think undefiled? With no proud unchristian qualm, Canst thou shake the horny palm Of the meanest in the land, Freely as a jewelled hand? Canst thou smile when others smile? When they sorrow, weep the while? Holding love a holy thing, Would'st thou blush to stain his wing? Canst thou search on history's page For the men of every age Who have dared the tyrant's ban, And upheld the weaker man, And while sounding fame records them, Feel thy heart-strings stretch towards them? If thy soul be formed for this, Sigh not for the Muse's kiss, Since the bird which sings the best Feels no deeper than the rest. Though thou hast no words to preach Beauty unto all and each, Never fret and never pine That thy skill is less than mine: To thy God in duty bow; Shakespeare felt no more than thou. REVELATIONS THE BEAUTIFUL. On the borders of the sea Lived a youth whose master-fault Was, methinks, inconstancy. On the shore he oft would halt, There, with an untutored whim, Stoop and pick a shining shell: --Ask not if he loved it well, Since all beauty governed him. He would place it to his ear, Like a child, and leap...