Part 34 (1/2)

THE FOUNTAIN OF SECOND YOUTH.

Trust me, 'tis not a mere tale,--the fountain of youth really runneth, Runneth forever. Thou ask'st, where? In the poet's sweet art!

WILLIAM TELL. [59]

When hostile elements with rage resound, And fury blindly fans war's lurid flame,-- When in the strife of party quarrel drowned, The voice of justice no regard can claim,-- When crime is free, and impious hands are found The sacred to pollute, devoid of shame, And loose the anchor which the state maintains,-- No subject there we find for joyous strains.

But when a nation, that its flocks still feeds With calm content, nor other's wealth desires Throws off the cruel yoke 'neath which it bleeds, Yet, e'en in wrath, humanity admires,-- And, e'en in triumph, moderation heeds,-- That is immortal, and our song requires.

To show thee such an image now is mine; Thou knowest it well, for all that's great is thine!

TO A YOUNG FRIEND DEVOTING HIMSELF TO PHILOSOPHY.

Severe the proof the Grecian youth was doomed to undergo, Before he might what lurks beneath the Eleusinia know-- Art thou prepared and ripe, the shrine--the inner shrine--to win, Where Pallas guards from vulgar eyes the mystic prize within?

Knowest thou what bars thy way? how dear the bargain thou dost make, When but to buy uncertain good, sure good thou dost forsake?

Feel'st thou sufficient strength to brave the deadliest human fray, When heart from reason--sense from thought, shall rend themselves away?

Sufficient valor, war with doubt, the hydra-shape, to wage; And that worst foe within thyself with manly soul engage?

With eyes that keep their heavenly health--the innocence of youth To guard from every falsehood, fair beneath the mask of truth?

Fly, if thou canst not trust thy heart to guide thee on the way-- Oh, fly the charmed margin ere th' abyss engulf its prey.

Round many a step that seeks the light, the shades of midnight close; But in the glimmering twilight, see--how safely childhood goes!

EXPECTATION AND FULFILMENT.

Into life's ocean the youth with a thousand masts daringly launches; Mute, in a boat saved from wreck, enters the gray-beard the port.

THE COMMON FATE.

See how we hate, how we quarrel, how thought and how feeling divide us!

But thy locks, friend, like mine, meanwhile are bleachening fast.

HUMAN ACTION.

Where the pathway begins, eternity seems to lie open, Yet at the narrowest point even the wisest man stops.

NUPTIAL ODE. [60]

Fair bride, attended by our blessing, Glad Hymen's flowery path 'gin pressing!