A common mind perceiveth not beyond his eyes and ears: The palings of the park of sense enthral this captured roebuck: And still, though fettered in the flesh, he doth not feel his chains, Externals are the world to him, and circumstance his atmosphere. Therefore tangible pleasures are enough for the animal man; He is swift to speak and slow to think, dreading his own dim conscience; And solitude is terrible, and exile worse than death, He cannot dwell apart, nor breathe at a distance from the crowd. But minds of nobler stamp, and chiefest the mint-marked of heaven, Walk independent, by themselves, freely manumitted of externals: They carry viands with them, and need no refreshment by the way, Nor drink of other wells than their own inner fountain. Strange shall it seem how little such a man will lean upon the accidents of life, He is winged and needeth not a staff; if it break, he shall not fall: And lightly perchance doth he remember the stale trivialities around him, He liveth in the realm of thought, beyond the world of things; These are but transient Matter, and himself enduring Spirit: And worldliness will laugh to scorn that sublimated wisdom. His eyes may open on a prison-cell, but the bare walls glow with imagery; His ears may be filled with execration, but are listening to the music of sweet thoughts; He may dwell in a hovel with a hero's heart, and canopy his penury with peace, For mind is a kingdom to the man, who gathereth his pleasure from Ideas. [Illustration] OF NAMES. Adam gave the name, when the Lord had made His creature, For God led them in review, to see what man would call them. As they struck his senses, he proclaimed their sounds, A name for the distinguishing of each, a numeral by which it should be known: He specified the partridge by her cry, and the forest prowler by his roaring, The tree by its use, and the flower by its beauty, and everything according to its truth. There is an arbitrary name; whereunto the idea attacheth; And there is a reasonable name, linking its fitness to idea: Yet shall these twain run in parallel courses, Neither shall thou readily discern the habit from the nature. For mind is apt and quick to wed ideas and names together, Nor stoppeth its perception to be curious of priorities; And there is but little in the sound, as some have vainly fancied, The same tone in different tongues shall be suitable to opposite ideas: Yea, take an ensample in thine own; consider similar words: How various and contrary the thoughts those kindred names produce: A house shall seem a fitting word to call a roomy dwelling, Yet there is a like propriety in the small smooth sound, a mouse: Mountain, as if of a necessity, is a word both mighty and majestic,-- What heed ye then of Fountain?--flowing silver in the sun.