And hope of endless peace in me grew bold:

4

Heaven-born, the Soul a heaven-ward course must hold; Beyond the visible world she soars to seek

(For what delights the sense is false and weak)
Ideal Form, the universal mould.

The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest
In that which perishes: nor will he lend
His heart to aught which doth on time depend.
'Tis sense, unbridled will, and not true love,
That kills the soul: love betters what is best,
Even here below, but more in heaven above.

ΙΟ

FROM THE SAME. TO THE SUPREME
BEING

Translated 1804 ?-Published 1807

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

III

THE prayers I make will then be sweet indeed
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray :

My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That 2 of its native self can nothing feed:

3

Of good and pious works thou art the seed,
That quickens only where thou say'st it may .
Unless Thou shew to us thine own true way
No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred
That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;

1 1827. Which

2 1827. Which

3 1827. Which

1807.

1807.

1807.

5

IO

The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of thee,
And sound thy praises everlastingly.

The sonnet from which the above is translated, is not wholly by Michael Angelo, the sculptor and painter, but is taken from patched-up versions of his poem by his nephew of the same name. Michael Angelo only wrote the first eight lines, and these have been garbled in his nephew's edition. The original lines are thus given by Guasti in his edition of Michael Angelo's Poems (1863) restored to their true reading, from the autograph MSS. in Rome and Florence.

IMPERFECT SONNET transcribed from "Le Rime di Michelangelo Buonarroti Cavate dagli Autografi da Cesare Guasti. Firenze. 1863."

SONNET LXXXIX. [Vatican].

BEN sarien dolce le preghiere mie,
Se virtù mi prestassi da pregarte :
Nel mio fragil terren non è già parte
Da frutto buon, che da sè nato sie.

Tu sol se' seme d' opre caste e pie,
Che là germoglian dove ne fa' parte:
Nessun proprio valor può seguitarte,
Se no gli mostri le tue sante vie.

The lines are thus paraphrased in prose by the Editor :-

Le mie preghiere sarebbero grate, se tu mi prestassi quella virtù che rende efficace il pregare: ma io sono un terreno sterile, in cui non nasce spontaneamente frutto che sia buono. Tu solamente sei seme di opere caste e pie, le quali germogliano là dove tu ti spargi e nessuna virtù vi ha che da per sè possa venirti dietro, se tu stesso non le mostri le vie che conducono al bene, e che sono le tue.

The Sonnet as published by the Nephew is as follows :

BEN sarian dolci le preghiere mie,
Se virtù mi prestassi da pregarte :
Nel mio terreno infertil non è parte
Da produr frutto di virtù natie.

Tu il seme se' dell' opre giuste e pie,
Che là germoglian dove ne fai parte:
Nessun proprio valor può seguitarte,
Se non gli mostri le tue belle vie.

Tu nella mente mia pensieri infondi,
Che producano in me si vivi effetti,
Signor, ch' io segua i tuoi vestigi santi.

E dalla lingua mia chiari, e facondi
Sciogli della tua gloria ardenti detti,

Perchè sempre io ti lodi, esalti, e canti.

(Le Rime di Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pittore, Scultor e Architetto cavate degli autografi, e pubblicate da Cesare Guasti. Firenze, 1863.)—Ed.

APPENDIX

NOTE I

"POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES "

When, to the attractions of the busy world, p. 66

The following variants occur in a MS. Book containing Yew Trees, Artegal and Elidure, Laodamia, Black Comb, etc.- ED.

When from the restlessness of crowded life
Back to my native vales I turned, and fixed
My habitation in.this peaceful spot,

Sharp season was it of continuous storm
In deepest winter; and, from week to week,
Pathway, and lane, and public way were clogged
With frequent showers of snow.

When first attracted by this happy Vale
Hither I came, among old Shepherd Swains

To fix my habitation, 't was a time

Of deepest winter, and from week to week
Pathway, and lane, and public way were clogged

When to the f cares and pleasures of the world
attractions of the busy world

Preferring

{

NOTE II. THE HAWKSHEAD BECK

(See pp. 188-89, The Prelude, book iv.)

Mr. Rawnsley, formerly of Wray Vicarage-now Canon Rawnsley of Crosthwaite Vicarage, Keswick-sent me the following letter in reference to

that unruly child of mountain birth,
The famous brook, who, soon as he was boxed
Within our garden, found himself at once,
As if by trick insidious and unkind,

Stripped of his voice and left to dimple down

I looked at him and smiled, and smiled again,

Ha, quoth I,

'pretty prisoner, are you there!'

"I was not quite content with Dr. Cradock's identification of this brook, or of the garden; partly because, beyond the present garden square I found, on going up the brook, other garden squares, which were much more likely to have been the garden belonging to Anne Tyson's cottage, and because in these garden plots the stream was not 'stripped of his voice,' by the covering of Coniston flags, as is the case lower down towards the market place; and partly because-as you notice--you can both hear and see the stream through the interstices of the flags, and that it can hardly be described (by one who will listen) as stripped of its voice.

At the same time I was bound to admit that in comparing the voice of the stream here in the channel paved by man's officious care' with the sound of it up in the fields beyond the vicarage, nearer its birth-place, it certainly might be said to be softer voiced; and as the poet speaks of it as 'that unruly child of mountain birth,' it looks as if he too had realised the difference.

But whilst I thought that the identification of Dr. Cradock and yourself was very happy (in absence of other possibilities), I had not thought that Wordsworth would describe the stream as 'dimpling down,' or address it as a 'pretty prisoner.' A smaller stream seemed necessary.

It was, therefore, not a little curious that, in poking about among the garden plots on the west bank of the stream, fronting