Back     Blueprint    Next    ========    

The Bibelot

VOLUME I

    Mdcccxcv    

 =========== 


From The Bibelot, A Reprint of Poetry and Prose for Book Lovers, chosen in part from scarce editions and sources not generally known, Volume I, Number IV, Testimonial Edition, Edited and Originally Published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine; Wm. Wise & Co.; New York; 1895; p. 92.

IV.  A DISCOURSE OF MARCUS AURELIUS




[92]



“EVEN in a palace, life may be led well!”
So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,
Marcus Aurelis. But the stifling den
Of common life, where crowded up pell-mell,


Our freedom for a little bread we sell,
And drudge under some foolish master’s ken
Who rates us if we peer outside our pen —
Match’d with a palace, is not this a hell?


Even in a palace! On his truth sincere,
Who spoke these words, no shadow ever came;
And when my ill-school’d spirit is aflame


Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
I’ll stop, and say: “There were no succour here!
The aids to noble life are all within.”

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

















[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]
Valid CSS!