SHAKSPEARE.
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thers abide our question. Thou art free.We ask and ask. Thou smilest, and art still,Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,Spares but the cloudy border of his baseTo the foiled searching of mortality; And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure,Didst tread on earth unguessed at.--Better so! All pains the immortal spirit must endure,All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,Find their sole speech in that victorious brow. WRITTEN IN EMERSON’S ESSAYS. “O monstrous, dead, unprofitable world,That thou canst hear, and hearing hold thy way!A voice oracular hath pealed to-day,To-day a hero’s banner is unfurled; Hast thou no lip for welcome?”--So I said.Man after man, the world smiled and passed by;A smile of wistful incredulity,As though one spake of life unto the dead,-- Scornful, and strange, and sorrowful, and fullOf bitter knowledge. Yet the will is free;Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful; The seeds of godlike power are in us still;Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!--Dumb judges, answer, truth or mockery? WRITTEN IN BUTLER’S SERMONS. Affections, Instincts, Principles, and Powers,Impulse and Reason, Freedom and Control,--So men, unravelling God’s harmonious whole,Rend in a thousand shreds this life of ours. Vain labor! Deep and broad, where none may see,Spring the foundations of that shadowy throneWhere man’s one nature, queen-like, sits alone,Centred in a majestic unity; And rays her powers, like sister-islands seenLinking their coral arms under the sea,Or clustered peaks with plunging gulfs between, Spanned by aërial arches all of gold,Whereo’er the chariot-wheels of life are rolledIn cloudy circles to eternity.
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