The text of 1840 returns to that of the 2nd edition of 1820.] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote GL: Compare _The Fountain_ (vol. ii. p. 92)-- 'Twill murmur on a thousand years, And flow as now it flows. And Tennyson's _Brook_, Men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever. ED. ] [Footnote GM: And feel that I am happier than I know.--MILTON.[466] The allusion to the Greek poet will be obvious to the classical reader.--W. W. 1820. I was indebted to Professor Jebb, in 1883, for the following note:-- "While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, ... ... must vanish, ... has been suggested by the well-known lines in the Ἐπιτάφιον Βίωνος, by the pastoral poet Moschus of Syracuse (circ. 200 B.C.):-- αἴ, αἴ, ταὶ μαλάχαι μὲν ἐπὰν κατὰ κᾶπον ὄλωνται, ἢ τὰ χλωρὰ σέλινα, τό τ' εὐθαλὲς οὖλον ἄνηθον, ὕστερον αὖ ζώοντι καὶ εἰς ἔτος ἄλλο φύοντι· _ἄμμες δ', οἱ μεγάλοι καὶ καρτεροὶ ἢ σοφοὶ ἄνδρες_, ὁππότε πρᾶτα θάνωμες, ἀνάκοοι ἐν χθονὶ κοίλᾳ εὕδομες εὖ μάλα μακρὸν ἀτέρμονα νήγρετον ὕπνον.] (Vv. 103-108.) You will see that Wordsworth has _translated_ the Greek verse which I underline ('brave' representing μεγάλοι). The 'mallows,' 'parsley,' 'anise' of the Greek poet's garden--which are to live again--are represented by Wordsworth's stream which 'shall for ever glide.' One might _contrast_ the lines in the _Christian Year_ about the autumn leaves:-- How like decaying life they seem to glide! And yet no second spring have they in store, But where they fall, forgotten to abide Is all their portion, and they ask no more." With this _Afterthought_ compare Virgil, _Georgics_ II. 458, 459-- O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint Agricolas, etc. ED.] POSTSCRIPT A poet, whose works are not yet known as they deserve to be,[GN] thus enters upon his description of the "Ruins of Rome": The rising Sun Flames on the ruins in the purer air Towering aloft; and ends thus-- The setting Sun displays His visible great round, between yon towers, As through two shady cliffs. Mr. Crowe, in his excellent loco-descriptive Poem, _Lewesdon Hill_, is still more expeditious, finishing the whole on a May-morning before breakfast. To-morrow for severer thought, but now To breakfast, and keep festival to-day.