eirs, who most studied man, the bard and sage,--
Give!"--So he gowned him,
Straight got by heart that book to its last page:
Learned, we found him!
Yea, but we found him bald too--eyes like lead,
Accents uncertain:
"Time to taste life," another would have said,
"Up with the curtain!"
This man said rather, "Actual life comes next?
Patience a moment!
Grant I have mastered learning's crabbed text,
Still, there's the comment.
Let me know all. Prate not of most or least,
Painful or easy:
Even to the crumbs I'd fain eat up the feast,
Ay, nor feel queasy!"
Oh, such a life as he resolved to live,
When he had learned it,
When he had gathered all books had to give;
Sooner, he spurned it!
Image the whole, then execute the parts--
Fancy the fabric
Quite, ere you build, ere steel strike fire from quartz,
Ere mortar dab brick!

(Here's the town-gate reached: there's the market-place
Gaping before us.)
Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace
(Hearten our chorus),
Still before living he'd learn how to live--
No end to learning.
Earn the means first--God surely will contrive
Use for our earning.
Others mistrust and say, "But time escapes,--
Live now or never!"
He said, "What's Time? leave Now for dogs and apes!
Man has Forever."
Back to his book then: deeper drooped his head;
_Calculus_ racked him:
Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of lead;
_Tussis_ attacked him.
"Now, Master, take a little rest!"--not he!
(Caution redoubled!
Step two abreast, the way winds narrowly.)
Not a whit troubled,
Back to his studies, fresher than at first,
Fierce as a dragon
He (soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst)
Sucked at the flagon.
Oh, if we draw a circle premature,
Heedless of far gain,
Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure,
Bad is our bargain!
Was it not great? did not he throw on God,
(He loves the burthen--)
God's task to make the heavenly period
Perfect the earthen?
Did not he magnify the mind, shew clear
Just what it all meant?
He would not discount life, as fools do here,
Paid by installment!
He ventured neck or nothing--heaven's success
Found, or earth's failure:
"Wilt thou trust death or not?" he answered "Yes.
Hence with life's pale lure!"
That low man seeks a lit