“When I was born, From all the seas of strength Fate filled a chalice, Saying: ‘This be thy portion, child: this chalice, Less than a lily’s, thou shalt daily draw From my great arteries,—not less nor more.’ All substances the cunning chemist, Time, Melts down into the liquor of my life,— Friends, foes, joys, fortunes, beauty and disgust; And whether I am angry or content, Indebted or insulted, loved or hurt, All he distils into sidereal wine, And brims my little cup, heedless, alas! Of all he sheds, how little it will hold, How much runs over on the desert sands. If a new Muse draw me with splendid ray, And I uplift myself into its heaven, The needs of the first sight absorb my blood; And all the following hours of the day Drag a ridiculous age. To-day, when friends approach, and every hour Brings book, or star-bright scroll of Genius, The little cup will hold not a bead more, And all the costly liquor runs to waste; Nor gives the jealous lord one diamond drop So to be husbanded for poorer days. Why need I volumes, if one word suffice? Why need I galleries, when a pupil’s draught, After the master’s sketch, fills and o’erfills My apprehension? Why seek Italy, Who cannot circumnavigate the sea Of thoughts and things at home, but still adjourn The nearest matter for a thousand days?” Plutarch tells us that of old they were wont to call men Φῶτα, which imports light, not only for the vehement desire man has to know, but to communicate also. And the Platonists fancied that the gods, being above men, had something whereof man did not partake, pure intellect and knowledge, and thus kept on their way quietly. The beasts, being below men, had something whereof man had less, sense and growth, so they lived quietly in their way. While man had something in him whereof neither gods nor beasts had any trace, which gave him all the trouble, and made all the confusion in the world,—and that was egotism and opinion. A finer discrimination of gifts might show that Genius ranges through this threefold dominion, partaking in turn of each essence and degree.