When the dawn First glimmers white o'er Lesser Asia, And little birds are twittering in the grass, And all the sea lies hollow and gray with mist, And in the streets the ancient watchmen doze, The master woke with cold. His feet were chill, And reft of sense; and we who watched him knew The fever had not wholly left his brain, For he was wandering, seeking nests of birds, An urchin from the green Ionian town Where he was born. We chafed his clay-cold limbs; And so he dozed, nor dreamed, until the sun Laughed out--broad day--and flushed the garden gods Who bless our fruits and vines in Lampsacus. Feeble, but sane and cheerful, he awoke, And took our hands and asked to feel the sun; And where the ilex spreads a gracious shade We placed him, wrapped and pillowed; and he heard The charm of birds, the whisper of the vines, The ripple of the blue Propontic sea. Placid and pleased he lay; but we were sad To see the snowy hair and silver beard Like withering mosses on a fallen oak, And feel that he, whose vast philosophy Had cast such sacred branches o'er the fields Where Athens pastures her dull sheep, lay fallen, And never more should know the spring! Confess You too had grieved to see it, Pericles! But Anaxagoras owned no sense of wrong; And when we called the plagues of all your gods On your ungrateful city, he but smiled: "Be patient, children! Where would be the gain Of wisdom and divine astronomy, Could we not school our fretful minds to bear The ills all life inherits? I can smile To think of Athens! Were they much to blame? Had I not slain Apollo? plucked the beard Of Jove himself? Poor rabble, who have yet Outgrown so little the green grasshoppers From whom they boast descent, are they to blame? [Footnote: The Athenians claimed to be of indigenous origin-- Autoch'tho-nes, that is, Aborigines, sprung from the earth itself. As emblematic of this origin they wore in their hair the golden forms of the cicada, or locust, often improperly called grasshopper, which was believed to spring from the earth. So it was said that the Athenians boasted descent from grasshoppers.] "How could they dream--or how believe when taught-- The sun a red-hot iron ball, in bulk Not less than Peloponnesus? How believe The moon no silver goddess girt for chase, But earth and stones, with caverns, hills, and vales? Poor grasshoppers! who deem the gods absorbed In all their babble, shrilling in the grass! What wonder if they rage, should one but hint That thunder and lightning, born of clashing clouds, Might happen even with Jove in pleasant mood, Not thinking of Athenians at all!"