(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.
80
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!
90
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, deg.
deg.98
Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure
Bad is our bargain!
100
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 instalment.
He ventured neck or nothing—heaven’s
success
Found, or earth’s
failure:
110
“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,
Dies ere he knows
it.
That low man goes on adding one to one,
His hundred’s
soon hit:
This high man, aiming at a million,
Misses an unit.
120
That, has the world here—should he need
the next,
Let the world
mind him!
This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed
Seeking shall
find Him.
So, with the throttling hands of death at strife,
Ground he at grammar;
Still, thro’ the rattle, parts of speech were
rife:
While he could
stammer
He settled Hoti’s deg. business—let
it be!—
deg.129
Properly based
Oun deg.—
deg.130
Gave as the doctrine of the enclitic De deg.
deg.131
Dead from the
waist down.
Well, here’s the platform, here’s the
proper place: