Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/91

66 So now, — the hour that first with light inspired

An eye that deep in Nature's heart doth look,

Comes with the power of deathless genius fired,

To stamp with signet-ring our household book:

Oh, Bard of tuneful soul! may health be thine,

And ever-cloudless peace illume thy day's decline.

It was during my visit to Wordsworth, that I first received intelligence of the melancholy declension of health and intellect which had befallen Southey. With reluctance I resigned my intention of going to Keswick, having been extremely desirous to see him, and being provided with letters of introduction from mutual friends. How mournful, that such a rayless cloud should envelop that genius which has so long thrown a bridge of light and beauty across the Atlantic. Sometimes I have thought his prolific and versatile powers well symbolized in one of his own descriptive passages:—

A letter from the successor of his beloved Edith, mentions, feelingly, the state of unconsciousness that overshadows him, and says: "In the blackness of this darkness we still live, and shall pass from under it,