He makes us free
of his hearth and heart, which is greater than to offer one the
freedom of a city.
Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the
great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides
from their high estimate beyond the stars.
Orpheus does not hear the strains which issue from his lyre, but
only those which are breathed into it; for the original strain
precedes the sound, by as much as the echo follows after. The
rest is the perquisite of the rocks and trees and beasts.
When I stand in a library where is all the recorded wit of the
world, but none of the recording, a mere accumulated, and not
truly cumulative treasure, where immortal works stand side by
side with anthologies which did not survive their month, and
cobweb and mildew have already spread from these to the binding
of those; and happily I am reminded of what poetry is, - I
perceive that Shakespeare and Milton did not foresee into what
company they were to fall. Alas! that so soon the work of a true
poet should be swept into such a dust-hole!
The poet will write for his peers alone. He will remember only
that he saw truth and beauty from his position, and expect the
time when a vision as broad shall overlook the same field as
freely.
