"Moreover, something is or seems
That touches me with mystic gleams,
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams--
Of something felt, like something here,
Of something done, I know not where,
Such as no language may declare."
[30] "Ay" must have the force of the Greek [Greek: ai] "alas"--and "ay me"
be as the Latin _hei mihi_, "woe is me!" See also P. xl., 6.
[31] The early purple orchis is said to bear 200,000 seeds, and perhaps
one grows to a plant.
[32] Coleridge says: "The Jacob's ladder of Truth let down from heaven to
earth, with all its numerous rounds, is now the common highway on which we
are content to toil upward."--_Friend_, viii.
[33] The doctrine of evolution may dispute this statement, and tell us
that the type, or form, of the winged lizard of chaos, now fossilized in
the rock, has been developed and continued in the reptile of the ditch;
but its living self has perished, and its type is gone.
[34] "To die,--to sleep,--no more."--Hamlet.
[35]
"But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still."
[36] The term "toll" is correct--
"When we lament a departed soul
We toll."
[37] _Dixitque novissima verba_, AE. iv., 650.
[38] A poem by Catullus (_Carmen_ ci.) who visits his brother's grave,
concludes with these lines:
"_Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, Ave, atque Vale._"
_Ave_ is the morning greeting: _Vale_ that of the evening. This seems the
like idea to that of the morning and evening star. See P. cxxi., 5.
[39] There is often great charm in the cheerfulness of those who we know
have suffered.
[40] See the Poet's own words on this point at the end of Poem XCVII.
[41] "Doubtful shore" may mean that here there may be doubt, whether there
has not been a previous existence.
[42] "Thou, as one that once declined," recalls in Hamlet, Act I., s. 5,
"To decline upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor to those of
mine."
[43] Clevedon Church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, is quaint and
picturesque in appearance, but not architecturally beautiful. It is an
irregular structure, which has evidently been added to at various times,
the chancel being the original fisherman's church, and it has a solid
square tower. Within the sanctuary is the Hallam vault, on which the organ
now stands. Two cliffs, known as Church Hill and Wains Hill, rounded and
grass-grown, that rise on either side, seem to guard and shelter it, with
its surrounding churchyard that holds the quiet dead. There are only two
bells in Clevedon Church--a small one, on which are three initial letters
L. A. C., and a larger one, weighing 25 cwt. which is inscribed--
"I to the church the living call,
And to the grave do summon all."--1725.
[44] There are other tablets in this church, which contain touching
memorials of the Hallam family. The historian's own death is recorded as
having taken place on 21st January, 1859. Mrs. Hallam died 28th April,
1840. Their son Henry Fitzmaurice died at Sienna, 25th October, 1850, aged
26; and he is said, by one who knew him, to have had all the charm and
talent of Arthur. On 13th June, 1837, in her 21st year, Eleanor Hallam was
suddenly called away, and was buried in the vault where her brother,
Arthur, had been laid.
It was after this sad bereavement, that Mr. and Mrs. Hallam made a brief
sojourn at Sevenoaks, then unspotted by villas, where they lived in strict
retirement. Mr. Hallam only associated with Sir John Bayley, the retired
judge, who was a kind friend of my own youth. I see the sorrowing couple
at church in garments of the deepest mourning: and the fine brow of Mr.
Hallam resting on his hand, as he stood during the service in pensive
devotion.--A. G.
[45] The Severn is nine miles wide at Clevedon.
[46] _Consanguineus leti sopor._ AEn. vi. 278. See also Iliad xiv., 231,
and xvi., 672.
[47] In Tennyson's "Ode to Memory" the lines occur
"The seven elms, the poplars four.
That stand beside my father's door."
[48] The foot of "Maud" opened these fringes by treading on the daisies.
"Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy."
[49] Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Letter to a Friend," says, with reference
to some one recently dead, that "he lost his own face, and looked like one
of his near relations: for he maintained not his proper countenance, but
looked like his uncle."
[50] In "The Two Voices," Tennyson says,
"I know that age to age succeeds,
Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds,
A _dust_ of systems and of creeds."