Page:Poems, Emerson, 1847.djvu/173

Rh Failing sometimes of his own,

He is headstrong and alone;

He affects the wood and wild,

Like a flower-hunting child;

Buries himself in summer waves,

In trees, with beasts, in mines, and caves;

Loves nature like a horned cow,

Bird, or deer, or caribou.

Shun him, nymphs, on the fleet horses!

He has a total world of wit;

O how wise are his discourses!

But he is the arch-hypocrite,

And, through all science and all art,

Seeks alone his counterpart.

He is a Pundit of the East,

He is an augur and a priest,

And his soul will melt in prayer,

But word and wisdom is a snare;

Corrupted by the present toy

He follows joy, and only joy.