JOHN ARANY 223 instincts. The only writings which carne from his pen were carefully drawn legal documents. But soon after the entrance of good fortune into his house, another visitor pressed for admittance, and that visitor was Poetry. First he wrote a long satirical epic poem about the oddities of provi nciai administration and pro vinciai life, entitled The Lost Cotstitution. He sent it anonymously to the Kisfaludy Soci ety on the occasion of a literary competition, and to his intense astonishment he won the prize. Arany had not, however, found his true self in that work. The poem is full of brilliant but cold wit ; it glistens like icicles in the sunshine. In the next year (1846) he competed for the prize with another poem. Th is time it was the great epic, Toldi, and he was again successful. In addition to the prize, more over, he won what he valued still more, the suddenly awakened sympathy of Petőfi. Petőfi was aH fire and flame while reading Toldi. Th ough he did not know the author, he wr ote bim a letter in verse, saying that he was sending his own soul across the intervening · miles to greet th e creat or of Toldi. "AH other poets have gained their laurels leaf by leaf, but to thee we must give a wreath at once ." What attracted bim so powerfully in Aran y was not only a kindred great ness, but also a kindred popular tendency. In June 1847, Petőfi went to see Arany, and Hungary's two greatest poets spent ten happy days in the humble home of the notary of Szalonta . 44 The chords of my lyre were arclent in emulation, and flame was kindled by flame," wrote Arany. He read to his friend the con tinuation of his Toldi, called Toldi's Eve, dealing with the old age of the hero, Nich olas Toldi. But this per fectly constructed epic was not published until several
