in the strength of His spirit sendeth wisdom,
estate, high station: He swayeth all things.
Whiles He letteth right lustily fare
the heart of the hero of high-born race,—
1730in seat ancestral assigns him bliss,
his folk’s sure fortress in fee to hold,
puts in his power great parts of the earth,
empire so ample, that end of it
this wanter-of-wisdom weeneth none.
1735So he waxes in wealth; nowise can harm him
illness or age; no evil cares
shadow his spirit; no sword-hate threatens
from ever an enemy: all the world
wends at his will; no worse he knoweth,
1740till all within him obstinate pride
waxes and wakes while the warden slumbers,
the spirit’s sentry; sleep is too fast
which masters his might, and the murderer nears,
stealthily shooting the shafts from his bow!
XXV
1745“Under harness his heart then is hit indeed
by sharpest shafts; and no shelter avails
from foul behest of the hellish fiend.[1]
Him seems too little what long he possessed.
- ↑ That is, he is now undefended by conscience from the temptations (shafts) of the devil. This “sermon” of Hrothgar may be “of forty-parson power,” as some one says; but one likes to know what sort of sermon those English of the seventh century preferred. This one would have pleased Dr. Johnson. The same allegory is found in the Middle-English Sawles Warde,—that is, conscience,—and in many other places, times, and authors.
