it embracing or aiding was most in my mind? Hard question.
But a new thing was in me: I too was a youth among maidens.
Was it the air? who can say? But, in part, 'twas the charm of
the labor.'"

And he proceeds in a rapture to talk on the beauty of household
service.

Hereat Arthur remarks: "'Is not all this just the same that one hears
at common room breakfasts, Or perhaps Trinity-wines, about Gothic
buildings and beauty?'"--p. 13.

The character of Hobbes, called into energy by this observation, is
perfectly developed in the lines succeeding:

"And with a start from the sofa came Hobbes; with a cry from
the sofa,
There where he lay, the great Hobbes, contemplative, corpulent,
witty;
Author forgotten and silent of currentest phrase and fancy;
Mute and exuberant by turns, a fountain at intervals playing,
Mute and abstracted, or strong and abundant as rain in the tropics;
Studious; careless of dress; inobservant; by smooth persuasions
Lately decoyed into kilt on example of Hope and the Piper,
Hope an Antinous mere, Hyperion of calves the Piper.....
"'Ah! could they only be taught,' he resumed, 'by a Pugin of women
How even churning and washing, the dairy, the scullery duties,
Wait but a touch to redeem and convert them to charms and attractions;
Scrubbing requires for true grace but frank and artistical handling,
And the removal of slops to be ornamentally treated!"--pp. 13, 14.

Here, in the tutor's answer to Hewson, we come on the moral of the
poem, a moral to be pursued through commonplace lowliness of station
and through high rank, into the habit of life which would be, in the
one, not petty,--in the other, not overweening,--in any, calm and
dignified.

"'You are a boy; when you grow to a man, you'll find things alter.
You will learn to seek the good, to scorn the attractive,
Scorn all mere cosmetics, as now of rank and fashion,
Delicate hands, and wealth, so then of poverty also,
Poverty truly attractive, more truly, I bear you witness.
Good, wherever found, you will choose, be it humble or stately,
Happy if only you find, and, finding, do not lose it.'"--p. 14.

When the discussion is ended, the party propose to separate, some
proceeding on their tour; and Philip Hewson will be of these.

"'Finally, too,' from the kilt and the sofa said Hobbes in conclusion,
'Finally Philip must hunt for that home of the probable poacher,
Hid in the Braes of