nd say, that he who taught thee
His yearning want and pain,
Too dearly dearly bought thee
To part with thee in vain.

These lines are by the author of that exquisite little book "Ionica"--a
book about which I hope to talk to you in another lecture. His real name
was William Cory, and he was long the head-master of an English public
school, during which time he composed and published anonymously the
charming verses which have made him famous--modelling his best work in
close imitation of the Greek poets. A few expressions in these lines need
explanation. For instance, the allusion to Hermes and his rod. I think you
know that Hermes is the Greek name of the same god whom the Romans called
Mercury,--commonly represented as a beautiful young man, naked and running
quickly, having wings attached to the sandals upon his feet. Runners used
to pray to him for skill in winning foot races. But this god had many
forms and many attributes, and one of his supposed duties was to bring the
souls of the dead into the presence of the king of Hades. So you will see
some pictures of him standing before the throne of the king of the Dead,
and behind him a long procession of shuddering ghosts. He is nearly always
pictured as holding in his hands a strange sceptre called the _caduceus_,
a short staff about which two little serpents are coiled, and at the top
of which is a tiny pair of wings. This is the golden rod referred to by
the poet; when Hermes touched anybody with it, the soul of the person
touched was obliged immediately to leave the body and follow after him. So
it is a very beautiful stroke of art in this poem to represent the touch
of the hand of great love as having the magical power of the golden rod of
Hermes. It is as if the poet were to say: "Should she but touch me, I know
that my spirit would leap out of my body and follow after her." Then there
is the expression "crescent-browed." It means only having beautifully
curved eyebrows--arched eyebrows being considered particularly beautiful
in Western countries.

Now we will consider another poem of the ideal. What we have been reading
referred to ghostly ideals, to memories, or to hopes. Let us now see how
the poets have talked about realities. Here is a pretty thing by Thomas
Ashe. It is entitled "Pansie"; and this flower name is really a corruption
of a French word "Penser," meaning a thought. The flower is very
beautiful, and its name is sometimes given to girls,