Part 1 (1/2)

Wayside Weeds.

by William Hodgson Ellis.

INTRODUCTION

BY MAURICE HUTTON, LL.D., _Princ.i.p.al of University College, Toronto_

W. H. E.

There is a Heav'n: at least on earth below: It is where scholars read and thinkers brood: For crowns and halos volumes in a row For angels' wings it has its gown and hood.

In that seraphic choir see Ellis sit!

With that Elys-ian light his numbers glow: The scholar's seriousness, the scholar's wit, Twin spirits in alternate ebb and flow.[1]

Studious and silent he has read life's page, Scholar and chemist he sees part and whole; Teaching and thought let loose his n.o.ble rage And stir the genial current of his soul.

His golden rod absorbs our meaner staves As Aaron's rod the rods of Phara-oh, Or as New Brunswick's river-name outbraves[2]

The pious Jordan of Ontario.

His May-blossoms relieve our strenuous May, Our evening smoke curls bluer as we read, The earliest pipe of half-awakened day Draws a new fragrance from his choicer weed.

His artless puff-b.a.l.l.s have a tale to tell, His Flora opens treasures new and old, His way-side weeds have been our asphodel[3]

His ”dandy lines” become our ”harmless gold.”[4]

[1]Plato (sixth letter-323 c.) speaks of Elysian or Ellis-i-an scholars ”Swearing with scholarly seriousness and with that playfulness which is seriousness' twin sister.” Thompson's _Gorgias_, 41.

[2]See ”Weed,” p. 37.

[3]See ”Weed,” p. 43.

[4]See Lowell on ”Dandelions”:-

”Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.”

SOME ELUCIDATIONS OF THE INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITORS

Lines

1. So also,

”. . . amidst the fairest flowers Of the blest isles, Elysium's blooming bowers.”