LIFE AND MEMORY.

From "A Confession and an Apology."

I AM conscious that where all things strive 'Tis shameful to sit still. I would not live Content with a life lost

In chasing mine own fancies thro' void air,
Or decking forth in forms and phrases fair
The miserable ghost

Of personal joy or pain. The ages roll
Forward; and, forward with them, draw my soul
Into time's infinite sea.

And to be glad, or sad, I care no more:
But to have done, and to have been, before
I cease to do and be.

Shame on the wretch who, born a man, foregoes
Man's troublous birthright for a brute's repose!
Shame on the eyes that see

This mighty universe, yet see not there
Something of difficult worth a man may dare
Boldly to do and be!

Yet is there nought for shame in any thing
Once dear and beautiful. The shrivell'd wing,
Scathed1 by what seem'd a star
And prov'd, alas, no star, but withering fire,
Is worthier than the wingless worm's desire
For nothing fair or far.

Rather the ground that's deep enough for graves,
Rather the stream that's strong enough for waves,
Than the loose sandy drift

Whose shifting surface cherishes no seed
Either of any flower or any weed,
Whichever way it shift,

1 scathed-injured, as by lightning.

Or stagnant hollow which the storms despise
Nought finding there to prey upon, I prize.

*

I deem that nothing suffer'd or enjoy'd
By a man's soul deserves to be destroy'd,
But rather to be made

Means of a soul's encreased capacity
Either to suffer,-and to gain thereby
A more exalted grade

Among the spirits purified by pain,
Or to enjoy, and thereby to attain
That lovelier influence

Reserved for spirits that, 'mid the general moan
Of human griefs, praise God with clearest tone
Of joyous trust intense.

And, for this reason, I would yet keep fair
And fresh the memory of all things that were
Sweet in their place and season.
And I forgive my life its failures too,
Since failures old, to guide endeavours new,
Are good for the same reason.

Robert, Lord Lytton: born, 1831.

Edward Robert, son of Edward Bulwer, late Lord Lytton,after nearly thirty years' diplomatic service abroad, was appointed Viceroy of India in 1876. He is the author of The Wanderer, Lucile, Chronicles and Characters, and other volumes of poetry, and is one of the truest poets of our time.

A GREAT MAN.

THAT man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own,
For neither praise nor pelf:1
Content to know, and be unknown :
Whole in himself.

1 pelf-gain.

Strong is that man, he only strong,
To whose well-order'd will belong,
For service and delight,

All powers that, in the face of Wrong,
Establish Right.

And free he is, and only he,
Who, from his tyrant passions free,
By Fortune undismay'd,
Hath power upon himself, to be
By himself obey'd.

If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,1
He cannot fare amiss.

Great Nature hath him in her care
Her cause is his :

Who holds by everlasting law

Which neither chance nor change can flaw: 2
Whose steadfast course is one
With whatsoever forces draw

The ages on :

Who hath not bow'd his honest head
To base Occasion: nor, in dread

Of Duty, shunn'd her eye:

Nor truckled 3 to loud times: nor wed
His heart to a lie:

Nor fear'd to follow, in the offence
Of false opinion, his own sense

Of justice unsubdued :

Nor shrunk from any consequence
Of doing good.

He looks his Angel in the face 5
Without a blush: nor heeds disgrace,
Whom nought disgraceful done
Disgraces. Who knows nothing base
Fears nothing known.

1 fare-live; or sometimes, travel. 2 flaw-break or blemish. 3 truckled-yielded obsequiously. 4 loud-boastful or showy. 5 his angel-an allusion to the beautiful belief that each man's life is in charge of an angel-witness or guardian.

Not morsell'd1 out from day to day
In feverish wishes, nor the prey
Of hours that have no plan,
His life is whole, to give away
To God and man.

For tho' he live aloof from ken,"
The world's unwitness'd denizen,3
The love within him stirs
Abroad, and with the hearts of men
His own confers:

The judge upon the justice-seat:
The brown-backed beggar in the street:
The spinner in the sun :

The reapers reaping in the wheat :
The wan-cheek'd nun

4

In cloister cold: the prisoner lean
In lightless den: the robèd Queen:
Even the youth who waits,
Hiding the knife, to glide unseen
Between the gates :-

He nothing human alien deems
Unto himself, nor disesteems

Man's meanest claim upon him:
And, where he walks, the mere sunbeams
Drop blessings on him:

Because they know him Nature's friend,
On whom she doth delight to tend
With loving-kindness ever,

7

Helping and heartening to the end
His high endeavour.

1 morsell'd out-fritter'd away.

2 aloof from ken-out of the way of social knowledge or 3 denizen-stranger-inhabitant.

distinction.

4 cloister-convent: a place of retirement from the world. 5 Even the youth... gates-even the assassin or the worst of criminals. 6 alien--strange or foreign.

7 heartening-encouraging.

Therefore, tho' mortal made, he can
Work miracles. The uncommon man
Leaves nothing commonplace.
He is the marvellous. To span
The abyss of space,

The orb of time, is his by faith,
And his, whilst breathing human breath,
To taste, before he dies,
The deep eventual calm of death,
Life's latest prize.

If such a man there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,
He doth not fare alone.

He goeth girt with cohorts, powers,
The monarch of his manful hours,
Whose mind's his throne;

He owes no homage to the sun :
There's nothing he need seek or shun:
All things are his by right:
He is his own posterity:

His future in himself doth lie:
His soul's his light:

Lord of a lofty life is he,

Loftily living, tho' he be

Of lowly birth; tho' poor,
He lacks not wealth: nor high degree
In state obscure.

The merely great are, all in all,
No more than what the merely small
Esteem them. Man's opinion
Neither conferr'd, nor can recall
This man's dominion.

Robert, Lord Lytton: born, 1831. (See page 24.)

1 cohorts-armies. (Among the Romans a cohort was the tenth part of a legion, a body of about 500 or 600 warriors. See page 7).