I envy not the beast that takes Nor, what may count itself as blest, I hold it true, whate'er befall; 'Tis better to have loved and lost SONG FROM "MAUD." COME into the garden, Maud, For the black bat, night, has flown; Come into the garden, Maud, I am here at the gate alone; And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad, And the musk of the roses blown. For a breeze of morning moves, And the planet of Love is on high, Beginning to faint in the light that she loves On a bed of daffodil sky, To faint in the light of the sun she loves, To faint in his light, and to die. All night have the roses heard The flute, violin, bassoon; All night has the casement jessamine stirred Till a silence fell with the waking bird, I said to the lily, "There is but one And half to the rising day; Low on the sand and loud on the stone I said to the rose, "The brief night goes O young lord-lover, what sighs are those But mine, but mine," so I swore to the rose, "For ever and ever mine." ROBERT BROWNING. INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH Camp. You know, we French stormed Ratisbon : A mile or so away On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming-day; With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, Legs wide, arms locked behind, As if to balance the prone brow Just as perhaps he mused, "My plans Let once my army-leader Lannes Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew Full-galloping; nor bridle drew Until he reached the mound. Then off there flung in smiling joy, And held himself erect By just his horse's mane, a boy : (So tight he kept his lips compressed, You looked twice ere you saw his breast "Well," cried he, "Emperor, by God's grace We've got you Ratisbon ! The Marshal's in the market-place, To see your flag-bird flap his vans Where I, to heart's desire, Perched him!" The chief's eye flashed; his plans Soared up again like fire. The chief's eye flashed; but presently Softened itself, as sheathes A film the mother-eagle's eye When her bruised eaglet breathes ; "You're wounded!" "Nay," the soldier's pride Touched to the quick, he said: "I'm killed, sire!" And his chief beside, THE LOST Leader. JUST for a handful of silver he left us, How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags-were they purple, his heart had been proud! Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Burns, Shelley were with us-they watch from their He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves ! We shall march prospering-not through his presence; graves! One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, One more devil's triumph and sorrow for angels, One wrong more to man, one more insult to God! Best fight on well, for we taught him-strike gallantly, Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, WORK AND Worth. [From "Rabbi Ben Ezra."] NOT on the vulgar mass Called "work" must sentence pass, Things done, that took the eye and had the price; O'er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice : But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account; All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through language and escaped : All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. INDEX. Addison, Joseph, 127, 146, 152, 155, | Chaucer, Geoffrey, 10, 12, 22, 23, 24, 26, 157., 233, 237, 279. Austen, Jane, 209. 28 ff., 36, 37, 38, 41, 46, 50, 55, 56, 57, 79, 81, 146, 150, 166, 192, 221, 255. Chesterfield, Lord, 154. Churchill, John, 153. Coleridge, S. T., 98, 107, 115, 177, 187, 190, 191, 196, 197 f., 201, 202, 205, 215, 239, 295. Colet, John, 51, 53. Bacon, Francis, 71, 75 ƒ., 90, 113, 129, Collier, Jeremy, 144. 237, 264. Beattie, James, 165, 167, 182. Collins, William, 164, 168, 169, 170, 173, Beaumont, Francis, 78, 85, 91, 100, Congreve, William, 142, 154. 105, 112, 144, 267. Behn, Mrs. Aphra, 143. Boswell, James, 170, 172, 173. Bourchier, John, 42. Bronté, Charlotte, 225, 232. Brooke, Arthur, 78. Brougham, Henry, 188. Constable, Henry, 78. Coverdale, Miles, 52. Cowley, Abraham, 119, 124, 137, 146, Cowper, William, 80, 169, 179 f., 184, 195, 196, 288. Crabbe, George, 195, 196. Browne, Thomas, 75, 113, 114 ff., 116, Crashaw, Richard, 119, 123. 150, 273. Browne, William, 78. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 182. Burton, Robert, 113, 205. Byron, George, 79, 163, 181, 187, 193, Carlyle, Thomas, 171, 177, 182, 185, Chatterton, Thomas, 165, 166 ƒ., 205. Dickens, Charles, 203, 226 ff., 231, 233, Donne, John, 119 f., 145, 149. Dyer, John, 167, 170, 173. Eliot, George, 76, 208, 226, 234 ƒƒ., 311. Etherege, George, 142, 143, 144. |