"And at night not hear shall I Clear the voice of nightingale Nor the forest's hollow sound, "But cries alone of companions mine And the scolding guards of night And a whizzing, of chains a ringing." 18. That thoughts of death should now be his companions is only to be expected. But here again his muse plainly sings itself out in both stages,--the stage of discernment and the stage of fulfilment. In the first of the two poems, "Elegy" and "Death-Thoughts" he only _thinks_ of death; in the second he already _longs_ for it. In the first it is only-- "My wishes I have survived, My ambition I have outgrown! Left only is my smart, The fruit of emptiness of heart. "Under the storm of cruel Fate Faded has my blooming crown! Sad I live and lonely, And wait: Is nigh my end?" But in the second it already becomes-- "Whether I roam along the noisy streets Whether I enter the peopled temple, Whether I sit by thoughtless youth, Haunt my thoughts me everywhere. "I say, Swiftly go the years by: However great our number now, Must all descend the eternal vaults,-- Already struck has some one's hour. . . . . . . . . . . "Every year thus, every day With death my thought I join Of coming death the day I seek among them to divine." 19. Pushkin died young; that he would have conquered his demon in time there is every reason to believe, though the fact that he had not yet conquered him at the age of thirty-eight must show the tremendous force of bad blood, and still worse circumstance, which combined made the demon of Pushkin. But already he shows signs of having seen the promised land. In the three poems, "Resurrection," "The Birdlet" (iv. 133), and "Consolation," the first shows that he conquered his regret-disease; the second, that he already found in Love _some_ consolation for sorrow. And the third shows that he already felt his way at least to _some_ peace, even though it be not yet _faith_ in the future, but only hope. For hope is not yet knowledge; it only trusts that the future will be good. Faith knows that the future _must_ be good, because it is in the hands of God, the Good. In the first it is-- "Thus my failings vanish too From my wearied soul And again within it visions rise Of my early purer days." In the second,-- "And now I too have consolation: Wherefore murmur against my God When at least to one living being I could of freedom make a gift?" And in the last,-- "In the future lives the heart: Is the present sad indeed? 'T is but a moment, all will pass...." This _is_ consoling utterance, but not yet of the highest; and the loftiest _spiritual_ song, the song of the Psalmist, was not given unto Pushkin to sing. III. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.