and such Character always secures to itself. For the most part only the life of the anchorite will bear to be so considered; but all our motions should be as impressive as objects in the desert, a broken shaft or crumbling mound against a limitless horizon. All character is thus unrelated, and of distinct outline. Men nowhere live as yet a natural life, around which the vine clings, and which the elm willingly shadows,—a life of equal simplicity and sincerity with Nature, and in harmony with her grandeur and beauty. The natural world has no inhabitant."
The verse, too, on the first page of "Sunday" (54) stands thus in the manuscript, with the name
MORNING
Thou unconverted Saint,
Early Christian without taint!
Heathen without reproach,
Who dost upon the evil day encroach;
Who, ever since thy birth,
Hast trod the outskirts of the earth!
Strict anchorite! who dost simply feast
On freshest dews, I'll be thy guest,
And daily bend my steps to the East,
While the late-risen world goes West.
[xiv]