"a deeper import Lurks in the legend told my infant years Than lies upon that truth we live to learn," etc. _The Piccolomini_, Act II, Scene 3.] [110] [Letter CCXXVIII follows 180.] [111] Here follows a detail of charges brought against one very near, and deservedly dear, to the writer, originating with, or adopted by the present Bishop of Llandaff. These charges were afterwards, I believe, withdrawn; at all events compensation was tendered to the party implicated [Allsop]. [This refers to Hartley.] [112] _Shepherd's Calendar. October._ [113] [See Coleridge's _Miscellaneous Works_, edited by T. Ashe: Bohn Library.] [114] Turn to Milton's _Lycidas_, sixth stanza-- Alas! what boots it with incessant care To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair? Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life. But not the praise, Phœbus replied, and touched my trembling ears; Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Nor on the glistering foil Set off to the world, nor in broad Rumour lies, But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; As he pronounces lastly in each deed, Of so much fame in heav'n expect thy meed. The sweetest music does not fall sweeter on my ear than this stanza on both mind and ear, as often as I repeat it aloud. [115] Neither my _Literary Life_ (2 vols.), nor _Sibylline Leaves_ (1 vol.) nor _Friend_ (3 vols.), nor _Lay Sermons_, nor _Zapolya_, nor _Christabel_, has ever been noticed by the _Quarterly Review_, of which Southey is yet the main support. [116] [_Shepherd's Calendar: October._] [117] [Letter CCXXIX follows 173.] CHAPTER XXV HENRY CRABB ROBINSON