elements in his nature that are godlike; with capacities whose final reach no intellect has yet limited; with hopes that burn like everlasting stars in the sky; and aspirations that mount up on stronger than eagle's wings, and seek to lay hold of the very battlements of heaven; with a reason forever restless and unsatisfied; a widening career that continually puts the worthiness of his past actions to open shame; with longings after the vague and ideal, and a soul forever haunted with images and dreams, that would seem almost to hint at a previous existence, — well might Hamlet say as he did:—
"What is man,
If his chief good, and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast no more.
Sure, He that made us with such large discourse
Looking before and after gave us not
That capability and godlike reason,
To fast in us unused."
"She said, You offer me love — but what kind — ah, what kind? And he answered, love all truly human." — Listen! —
I will love thee as the flowers love,
That in the summer weather,
Each standing in its own place,
Lean rosy lips together,
And pour their sweet confession
Through a petal's folded palm,
With a breath that only deepens
The azure-lidded calm
Of the heavens bending o'er them,
And the blue-bells hung before them,
All whose odor in the silence is a psalm.
I will love thee as the dews love,
In chambers of a lily;
Hung orb-like and unmeeting,
With their flashes blending stilly;
By the white shield of the petals
Held a little way apart,
While all the air is sweeter
For the yearning of each heart,
That yet keep cool and crystal
Their globed spheres celestial,
While to and fro their glimmers ever dart.
