Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/77

 elements in his nature that are godlike; with capacities whose final reach no intellect has yet limited; with hopes that burn like everlasting stars in the sky; and aspirations that mount up on stronger than eagle's wings, and seek to lay hold of the very battlements of heaven; with a reason forever restless and unsatisfied; a widening career that continually puts the worthiness of his past actions to open shame; with longings after the vague and ideal, and a soul forever haunted with images and dreams, that would seem almost to hint at a previous existence, — well might Hamlet say as he did:—


 * That in the summer weather,
 * Each standing in its own place,
 * Lean rosy lips together,
 * And pour their sweet confession
 * Through a petal's folded palm,
 * With a breath that only deepens
 * The azure-lidded calm
 * Of the heavens bending o'er them,
 * And the blue-bells hung before them,

All whose odor in the silence is a psalm.


 * I will love thee as the dews love,
 * In chambers of a lily;
 * Hung orb-like and unmeeting,
 * With their flashes blending stilly;
 * By the white shield of the petals
 * Held a little way apart,
 * While all the air is sweeter
 * For the yearning of each heart,
 * That yet keep cool and crystal
 * Their globed spheres celestial,

While to and fro their glimmers ever dart.