Here is no apology for neglecting to do many things
from a sense of our incapacity, - for what deed does not fall
maimed and imperfect from our hands? - but only a warning to
bungle less.
The satires of Persius are the furthest possible from inspired;
evidently a chosen, not imposed subject. Perhaps I have given
him credit for more earnestness than is apparent; but it is
certain, that that which alone we can call Persius, which is
forever independent and consistent, _was_ in earnest, and so
sanctions the sober consideration of all. The artist and his
work are not to be separated. The most wilfully foolish man
cannot stand aloof from his folly, but the deed and the doer
together make ever one sober fact. There is but one stage for
the peasant and the actor. The buffoon cannot bribe you to laugh
always at his grimaces; they shall sculpture themselves in
Egyptian granite, to stand heavy as the pyramids on the ground of
his character.
- - -
Suns rose and set and found us still on the dank forest path
which meanders up the Pemigewasset, now more like an otter's or a
marten's trail, or where a beaver had dragged his trap, than
where the wheels of travel raise a dust; where towns begin to
serve as gores, only to hold the earth together.
