5 10 15 THE WORLD-SOUL. THANKS to the morning light, To the green-haired forest free; To the maids of holy mind, To the boy with his games undaunted Cities of proud hotels, Houses of rich and great, Vice nestles in your chambers, Beneath your roofs of slate. It cannot conquer folly, Time-and-space-conquering steam, And the light-outspeeding telegraph The crimson morning flames into And what if Trade sow cities Like shells along the shore, And thatch with towns the prairie broad Along Thought's causing stream, For Destiny does not like To yield to men the helm; And shoots his thought by hidden nerves The patient Dæmon sits, With roses and a shroud; He has his way, and deals his gifts, But ours is not allowed. He is no churl nor trifler, And his viceroy is none,— Love-without-weakness, Of Genius sire and son. And his will is not thwarted; The seeds of land and sea Are the atoms of his body bright, And his behest obey. NOTES. The one thing attempted in the editorial portions of this little book is to make these parts of service to the pupils who will read it. It has, therefore, seemed better to suggest a search, perhaps even too close, for the poet's literal meaning, rather than to risk leaving an impression of something beautiful, but vague. For facts concerning Emerson's life and for quotations from his journal, the editor is under obligations — as every student of Emerson must be- to E. W. Emerson's Emerson in Concord, J. E. Cabot's Memoir of Emerson, and O. W. Holmes's Ralph Waldo Emerson. COMPENSATION. 11. A by-word and a hissing: Emerson was once hissed at a political meeting in Cambridgeport. A friend who was present said one "could think of nothing but dogs baying at the moon. serene as moonlight itself." ... He was 12. Res administrari: translated in the preceding sentence. Primeval despots of Egypt: the Hyksos, or shepherd kings. The journey of Abraham to Egypt (Genesis xii. 10) is assigned to the early part of their reign, and that of Joseph (Genesis xxxvii. 28) to the closing period of their power. 15. It is in the world, etc.: cf. John i. 10. Oi . . . εὐπίπτουσι : translated in the following sentence. 17. The ingenuity of man, etc. cf. the address to the "backstairs" in Kingsley's Water-Babies, Chapter VIII. 19. Drive out nature with a fork: this saying is at least two thousand years old. See Horace's Epistolæ, I. 10. 24, "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." The irreverent modern American illustration of the thought is the story of Mrs. Partington's trying to sweep back the Atlantic with her broom. 20. How secret art thou, etc. Confessions of St. Augustine (fourth century), Book I. 18. 109 |