I would now have looked for those others, but knowing my
intention by my gesture, he said consolatorily, 'Sleep is on his
way to the Earth, where many are calling him; but it is not to
these he hastens, for every call only makes him fly further off.
Sedately and gravely as he looks, he is nearly as capricious and
volatile as the more arrogant and ferocious one.'
"'And Love!' said I, 'whither is he departed? If not too late, I
would propitiate and appease him.'
"'He who cannot follow me; he who cannot overtake and pass me,'
said the Genius, 'is unworthy of the name, the most glorious in
earth or heaven. Look up! Love is yonder, and ready to receive
thee.'
"I looked: the earth was under me: I saw only the clear blue sky,
and something brighter above it."
There is something most rare and refined and precious in this vision,
told as it is with a sweet serenity. But it does not touch the heart like
the _AEsop and Rhodope_.
Your loving old
G.P.
[Footnote 1: Born 1775, died 1864.]
20
MY DEAR ANTONY,
I now come to speak of one whose fame was familiar to me as a
boy--the great Lord Brougham.--for he lived till 1868. I remember that
he was vehemently praised and blamed as a politician, but with such
matters others have dealt; in this letter, Antony, we will concern
ourselves with the glory of English prose as it poured from Lord
Brougham in two of his greatest speeches.
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