truth, to be ridiculous.  And we are pleased to see manifested in this way, how the lower must follow and serve the higher, despite its jeering mistrust and the stubborn realities which break up the plans of this pure-minded champion.

    ’The effect produced on the mind is nowise that described by
    Byron:—­

      “Cervantes smiled Spain’s chivalry away,” &c.

’On the contrary, who is not conscious of a sincere reverence for the Don, prancing forth on his gaunt steed?  Who would not rather be he than any of the persons who laugh at him?—­Yet the one we would wish to be is thyself, Cervantes, unconquerable spirit! gaining flavor and color like wine from every change, while being carried round the world; in whose eye the serene sagacious laughter could not be dimmed by poverty, slavery, or unsuccessful authorship.  Thou art to us still more the Man, though less the Genius, than Shakspeare; thou dost not evade our sight, but, holding the lamp to thine own magic shows, dost enjoy them with us.

’My third friend was Moliere, one very much lower, both in range and depth, than the-others, but, as far as he goes, of the same character.  Nothing secluded or partial is there about his genius,—­a man of the world, and a man by himself, as he is.  It was, indeed, only the poor social world of Paris that he saw, but he viewed it from the firm foundations of his manhood, and every lightest laugh rings from a clear perception, and teaches life anew.

’These men were all alike in this,—­they loved the natural history of man.  Not what he should be, but what he is, was the favorite subject of their thought.  Whenever a noble leading opened to the eye new paths of light, they rejoiced; but it was never fancy, but always fact, that inspired them.  They loved a thorough penetration of the murkiest dens, and most tangled paths of nature; they did not spin from the desires of their own special natures, but reconstructed the world from materials which they collected on every side.  Thus their influence upon me was not to prompt me to follow out thought in myself so much as to detect it everywhere, for each of these men is not only a nature, but a happy interpreter of many natures.  They taught me to distrust all invention which is not based on a wide experience.  Perhaps, too, they taught me to overvalue an outward experience at the expense of inward growth; but all this I did not appreciate till later.

’It will be seen that my youth was not unfriended, since those great minds came to me in kindness.  A moment of action in one’s self, however, is worth an age of apprehension through others; not that our deeds are better, but that they produce a renewal of our being.  I have had more productive moments and of deeper joy, but never hours of more tranquil pleasure than those in which these demi-gods visited me,—­and with a smile so familiar, that I imagined the