To those sweet counsels between head and heart Whence grew that genuine knowledge, fraught with peace, Of clouds his glory's natural retinue— Hath dropped all functions by the gods bestowed, Sets like an Opera phantom. Thus, O Friend! Through times of honour and through times of shame The perturbations of a youthful mind Under a long-lived storm of great events A story destined for thy ear, who now, The city of Timoleon! Righteous Heaven! * In 1804 Bonaparte sent for the Pope to anoint him as Emperor of France.-ED. † Coleridge was then living in Sicily, whither he had gone from Malta. He ascended Etna. See Cottles' Early Recollections, chiefly relating to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Vol. II., p. 77), and also compare the notes in this Volume, pp. 168, 238, and 258.-ED. Timoleon, one of the greatest of the Greeks, was sent in command of an expedition to reduce Scilly to order; and was afterwards the Master, but How are the mighty prostrated! They first, They first of all that breathe, should have awaked When the great voice was heard from out the tombs For ill-requited France, by many deemed A trifler only in her proudest day; Have been distressed to think of what she once Promised, now is; a far more sober cause Thine eyes must see of sorrow in a land, Of memory, to virtue lost and hope, Though with the wreck of loftier years bestrewn. But indignation works where hope is not, And thou, O Friend! wilt be refreshed. One great society alone on earth: The noble Living and the noble Dead. There is Thine be such converse strong and sanative, To health and joy and pure contentedness; A lonely wanderer art gone, by pain I feel for thee, must utter what I feel: The sympathies, erewhile in part discharged, not the Tyrant, of Syracuse. He colonised it afresh from Corinth, and from the rest of Scilly; and enacted new laws of a democratic character, being ultimately the ruler of the whole island; although he refused office and declined titles, remaining a private citizen to the end. (See Plutarch's Life of him, and Cor. Nep.)-ED. See p. 238, text, and note *.-ED. * Gather afresh, and will have vent again: My own delights do scarcely seem to me Abroad on many nations, are no more For me that image of pure gladsomeness Which they were wont to be. Through kindred scenes, For purpose, at a time, how different! Thou tak'st thy way, carrying the heart and soul When from afar invoked by anxious love? Child of the mountains, among shepherds reared, Ere yet familiar with the classic page, I learnt to dream of Sicily; and lo, The gloom, that, but a moment past, was deepened Philosopher or Bard, Empedocles,† Or Archimedes, pure abstracted soul!‡ Compare Paradise Lost iv. 260.-Ed. + Empedocles, the philosopher of Agrigentum, physicist, metaphysician, poet, musician, and hierophant. (Flo. cir. 450 B.C.)—ED. The geometrician of Syracuse (287-212 B.C.).—ED. That doth not yield a solace to my grief; Prevailed among the powers of heaven and earth, Wrought for them in old time: yea, not unmoved, When thinking on my own beloved friend, I hear thee tell how bees with honey fed Thus I soothe The pensive moments by this calm fire-side, To cheer the thoughts of those I love, and mine. Of heroes; or, in reverence to the gods, 'Mid temples, served by sapient priests, and choirs Of virgins crowned with roses. Not in vain Those temples, where they in their ruins yet Survive for inspiration, shall attract Thy solitary steps: and on the brink * The pastoral poet of Syracuse.—ED. Or, if that fountain be in truth no more, Then, near some other spring-which by the name I see thee linger a glad votary, And not a captive pining for his home. Book Twelfth. IMAGINATION AND TASTE, NOW IMPAIRED AND LONG time have human ignorance and guilt And things to hope for! Not with these began Of the green hills; ye breezes and soft airs, Without offence; ye who, as if to show The wondrous influence of power gently used, And, with a touch, shift the stupendous clouds By day, a quiet sound in silent night; Ye waves, that out of the great deep steal forth , |