furled? 
       Show me their shaping,
     Theirs who most studied man, the bard and sage,—­
       Give!” so he gowned him,
     Straight got by heart that book to its last page;
       Learned, we found him. 
     Yea, but we found him bald too, eyes like lead. 
       Accents uncertain: 
     “Time to taste life,” another would have said,
       “Up with the curtain!”
     This man said rather, “Actual life comes next? 
       Patience a moment! 
     Grant I have mastered learning’s crabbed text,
       Still there’s the comment. 
     Let me know all!  Prate not of most or least,
       Painful or easy! 
     Even to the crumbs I’d fain eat up the feast,
       Ay, nor feel queasy.” 
     Oh, such a life as he resolved to live,
       When he had learned it,
     When he had gathered all books had to give! 
       Sooner, he spurned it. 
     Image the whole, then execute the parts—­
       Fancy the fabric
     Quite, ere you build, ere steel strike fire from quartz,
       Ere mortar dab brick!

     (Here’s the town-gate reached; there’s the market-place
       Gaping before us.)
     Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace: 
       (Hearten our chorus!)
     That before living he’d learn how to live—­
       No end to learning: 
     Earn the means first—­God surely will contrive
       Use for our earning. 
     Others mistrust and say, “But time escapes! 
       Live now or never!”
     He said, “What’s time?  Leave Now for dogs and apes! 
       Man has Forever.” 
     Back to his book then:  deeper drooped his head;
       Calculus racked him;
     Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of lead;
       Tussis attacked him. 
     “Now, master, take a little rest!”—­not he! 
       (Caution redoubled! 
     Step two abreast, the way winds narrowly!)
       Not a whit troubled,
     Back to his studies, fresher than at first,
       Fierce as a dragon
     He (soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst)
       Sucked at the flagon.

     Oh, if we draw a circle premature,
       Heedless of far gain,
     Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure
       Bad is our bargain! 
     Was it not great? did not he throw on God
       (He loves the burthen)—­
     God’s task to make the heavenly period
       Perfect the earthen? 
     Did not he magnify the mind, show clear
       Just what it all meant? 
     He would not discount life, as fools do here
       Paid by installment. 
     He ventured neck or nothing—­heaven’s success
       Found, or earth’s failure: 
     “Wilt thou trust death or not?” He answered, “Yes! 
       Hence with life’s pale lure!”
     That low man seeks a little thing to do,
       Sees it and does it: 
     This high man, with a great thing to pursue,