Such things to bear, such things to see;
Until endurance long be o'er,
And indignation burn no more.
Though much there be with which to strive,
I would not shrink, but dare to live,
To brave and bear, and conquer so,
Though but to brave and bear I know;
And still would well maintain the high,
The conscious thought of energy,
The conscious still in all its stress,
In vigour and in vividness;
That would but strive for strong command
Though all the black Erinnean band
Like fiends of darkness and of fire
Were passions here, where such aspire;
And would not brook a proud control
Though all the worlds that shine or roll
Were thunder'd blazing at the soul.
This that is thus myself would I
Well wield, well win before I die;
Well, whatsoe'er the others be,
Would think that there is life for me.
(40) —ὅσῳ ἂν μᾶλλον τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔχῃ πᾶσαν καὶ εὐδαιμονέστερος
I dare desire the power, whate'er
The peril I at least would dare.
I think the truth: I seek the spell :
And what I win I win then well".
Were mine the fiercest lightning riven
Forth from the darkest cloud of heaven,
I would not that th' ethereal fire
Should faintly from my hold expire,
Or, hurl'd away in rash despair,
Flash like a meteor through the air,
That gleams but as it flames afar,
A star because a falling star ;
But grasp it in a kingly hand,
In high because in strong command.
The thunder-fire that burns within
The human spirit well to win
And well to wield-were what alone
Who with it strive have ever known.
ᾖ, μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τῷ θανάτῳ λυπηθήσεται· τῷ τοιούτῳ γὰρ μάλιστα ζῆν atov,-Arist. 'H0. NƖk. III, xii, 4.
— τοὺς εἰδότας ἃ δεῖ πράττειν ἐν τῷ βίῳ, καὶ ἃ δεῖ λέγειν, τούτους γε ζῇν προσήκει, ὧν καὶ αὐτὸς ὡμολόγει εἶναι. Σοὶ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, οὐκ εἰδότι τά τε λεκτέα καὶ τὰ πρακτέα, ἀποθανεῖν ἐν καλῷ ἐστιν· ἐμὲ δὲ τὸν ἐπιστήμονα ἐκείνων, πρέπει ζῆν. Ælian, Π. I. X, xi; Gronov. Leyd. 1731.
Πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα, κακὸν εἶναι τὸ ζῇν, Οὐ τὸ ζῆν, εἶπεν, ἀλλὰ τὸ Kak v. Diog. Laert. VI, 55.
Montaigne, Essais, II, xxxvii, De la ressemblance etc. vol. III,
I live that I by long endeavour
And thinking through and forth for ever
May wield and win and all possess
At once in one high consciousness
That which in this thought-ardour'd life
Is energy in mighty strife—
The ceaseless thought, the unpossess'd,
The thought from which I cannot rest,
The thought that will not, cannot sleep,
Vivid through its vigils deep,
Through the long dark hours of night-
Others at peace or in delight-;
The sleepless spirit that aspires
With the mind's, the heart's desires;
That nothing near and nothing far11
Can stay, or win it from its war.
The lore of ages, science, song,
In seeks in vigil deep and long,
All seeking that may here be sought,
For much must be for such a thought-
It knows, but knows not there reveal'd
The thing that its content can yield :
What others will is nought to me :
No dreamy hope for it may be :
(41) "Und alle Näh' und alle Ferne
Befriedigt nicht die tief bewegte Brust."
Faust (Prolog im Himmel).
Its vision it indeed must see
It woos, and wins, and well is blest, But cannot linger, cannot rest
In languor on a fond fair breast—
And, vivid still, has ever still
The lofty hope and noble will,
The bright ambition, fire within,
The pledge that it the hope will win,
The wonder and the will to know
Somewhat more how things are so
Than others care, than others show,
Somewhat more of what is Being
Than the many minds are seeing,
Somewhat more, whose truthfulness
More must I in my thought possess.
I gaze; and look to one far hour
Where once it may indeed be power;
Though thus but brooding day by day,
I do but muse what once I may,
While sunset, though it linger yet,
And the stars, that rise to set,
Bear downward to the dim deep west
My hours, my years, all unpossess'd,
From this my youth, which I have won
Thus far, and nothing, nothing done–
And mine the time ere which was pass'd
One to the heavens such looks had cast,
Nor far from that when one well bold
Grasp'd Britain's empire, long to hold,
And though if I should die to-day
Mine were the word that breath'd away
The gallant life of lost Desaix-
But who by his Napoleon's side
Had fought, and in Marengo died- :
Though thus it be, it yet may be
That even hence I somewhat see,
In prescience dim indeed and far,
But dim and distant like the star-
Distant and dim to human eye,
Because beyond it all so high.
Though shadow of the thought so vast
The Now have somewhat overcast,
There once may be the present Power—
The vision thought of this far hour.
Well would I watch, and many a night,
This thought of mine to win with might,
Urge forth afar, and summ'dly sway
The power it is as most I may.
(42) Horrockes-observed the transit of Venus at 21. (43) Pitt-Chancellor of the Exchequer at 23.
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