Page:George Chapman, a critical essay (IA georgechapmancri00swin).pdf/179

 attainable where the delight of spiritual desire may be consummated, and consumed in the moment of its consummation. A man of the second order of genius is of his nature less quick to apprehend the truth that

If all the pens that ever poets held Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,"

and if one single and supreme poem could embody in distilled expression the spirit and the sense of

"every sweetness that inspired their hearts, Their minds, and muses on admired themes,"

there would remain behind all things attainable and expressible in sound or form or colour something that will not be expressed or attained, nor pass into the likeness of any perishable life; but though all were done that all poets could do,

Yet should there hover in their restless heads One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least, Which into words no virtue can digest."

No poet ever came nearer than Marlowe to the expression of this inexpressible beauty, to the incarnation in actual form of ideal perfection, to the