l know the weariness of fatigue, but not
that of satiety; and which will be ever fresh, pleasing and stimulating
to his taste. Such work holds a man together, braced at all points; it
does not suffer him to doze or wander; it keeps him actively conscious
of himself, yet raised among superior interests; it gives him the profit
of industry with the pleasures of a pastime. This is what his art should
be to the true artist, and that to a degree unknown in other and less
intimate pursuits. For other professions stand apart from the human
business of life; but an art has the seat at the centre of the artist's
doings and sufferings, deals directly with his experiences, teaches him
the lessons of his own fortunes and mishaps, and becomes a part of his
biography.

*****

Farewell fair day and fading light!
The clay-born here, with westward sight,
Marks the huge sun now downward soar.
Farewell. We twain shall meet no more.

Farewell. I watch with bursting sigh
My late contemned occasion die.
I linger useless in my tent:
Farewell, fair day, so foully spent!

Farewell, fair day. If any God
At all consider this poor clod,
He who the fair occasion sent
Prepared and placed the impediment.

Let him diviner vengeance take--
Give me to sleep, give me to wake
Girded and shod, and bid me play
The hero in the coming day!

*****

Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be
sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. And it is not by
any means certain that a man's business is the most important thing he
has to do. To an impartial estimate it will seem clear that many of the
wisest, most virtuous, and most beneficent parts that are to be played
upon the Theatre of Life are filled by gratuitous performers, and pass,
among the world at large, as phases of idleness. For in that Theatre,
not only the walking gentlemen, singing chambermaids, and diligent
fiddlers in the orchestra, but those who look on and clap their hands
from the benches, do really play a part and fulfil important offices
towards the general result.

*****

The fact is, fame may be a forethought and an afterthought, but it is
too abstract an idea to move people greatly in moments of swift
and momentous decision. It is from something more immediate, some
determination of blood to the head, some trick of the fancy, that the
breach is stormed or the bo