of a Time now wholly swallowed. Mournful reflections crowd
on us; and yet consolatory. How many brave men have lived
before Agamemnon! Here is a brave governor Samson, a man fearing
God, and fearing nothing else; of whom as First Lord of the
Treasury, as King, Chief Editor, High Priest, we could be so glad
and proud; of whom nevertheless Fame has altogether forgotten to
make mention! The faint image of him, revived in this hour, is
found in the gossip of one poor Monk, and in Nature nowhere else.
Oblivion had so nigh swallowed him altogether, even to the echo
of his ever having existed. What regiments and hosts and
generations of such has Oblivion already swallowed! Their
crumbled dust makes up the soil our life-fruit grows on. Said I
not, as my old Norse Fathers taught me, The Life-tree Igdrasil,
which waves round thee in this hour, whereof thou in this hour
art portion, has its roots down deep in the oldest Death-
Kingdoms; and grows; the Three Nornas, or _Times,_ Past,
Present, Future, watering it from the Sacred Well!

For example, who taught thee to _speak?_ From the day when two
hairy-naked or fig-leaved Human Figures began, as uncomfortable
dummies, anxious no longer to be dumb, but to impart themselves
to one another; and endeavoured, with gaspings, gesturings, with
unsyllabled cries, with painful pantomime and interjections, in a
very unsuccessful manner,--up to the writing of this present
copyright Book, which also is not very successful! Between that
day and this, I say, there has been a pretty space of time; a
pretty spell of work, which _somebody_ has done! Thinkest thou
there were no poets till Dan Chaucer? No heart burning with a
thought, which it could not hold, and had no word for; and
needed to shape and coin a word for,--what thou callest a
metaphor, trope, or the like? For every word we have, there was
such a man and poet. The coldest word was once a glowing new
metaphor, and bold questionable originality. 'Thy very
ATTENTION, does it not mean an _attentio,_ a STRETCHING-TO?'
Fancy that act of the mind, which all were conscious of, which
none had yet named,--when this new 'poet' first felt bound and
driven to name it! His questionable originality, and new glowing
metaphor, was found adoptable, intelligible; and remains our
name for it to this day.

Literature:--and look at Paul's Cathedral, and the Masonries and
Worships and Quasi-Worships that are there; not to speak