No More Learning

"
He shook from off his ears the hyacinthine
Curls that had lain unwet upon the water,
And still the ripples murmured, "Hylas! Hylas! "
He thought: "The voices are but ear-born music.
Pan dwells not here, and Echo still is calling
From some high cliff that tops a Thracian valley ·
So long mine ears, on tumbling Hellespontus,
Have heard the sea waves hammer Argo's forehead,
That I misdeem the fluting of this current
For some lost nymph-" Again the murmur, "Hylas! "
And with the sound a cold smooth arm around him
Slid like a wave, and down the clear green darkness
Glimmered on either side a shining bosom, —
Glimmered, uprising slow; and ever closer
Wound the cold arms, till, climbing to his shoulders,
Their cheeks lay nestled, while the purple tangles
Their loose hair made, in silken mesh enwound him.
Their eyes of clear pale emerald then uplifting,
They kissed his neck with lips of humid coral,
And once again there came a murmur, "Hylas!
Oh, come with us! Oh, follow where we wander
Deep down beneath the green, translucent ceiling,-
Where on the sandy bed of old Scamander


## p. 14536 (#98) ###########################################

14536
BAYARD TAYLOR
With cool white buds we braid our purple tresses,
Lulled by the bubbling waves around us stealing!
Thou fair Greek boy, oh, come with us! Oh, follow
Where thou no more shalt hear Propontis riot,
But by our arms be lapped in endless quiet,
Within the glimmering caves of Ocean hollow!
We have no love; alone, of all the Immortals,
We have no love. Oh, love us, we who press thee
With faithful arms, though cold,-whose lips caress thee,-
Who hold thy beauty prisoned! Love us, Hylas! ”
The boy grew chill to feel their twining pressure
Lock round his limbs, and bear him vainly striving,
Down from the noonday brightness. "Leave me, Naiads!
Leave me! " he cried: "the day to me dearer
Than all your caves deep-sphered in Ocean's quiet.
I am but mortal, seek but mortal pleasure;
I would not change this flexile, warm existence,
Though swept by storms, and shocked by Jove's dread thunder,
To be a king beneath the dark-green waters. "
Still moaned the human lips, between their kisses,
"We have no love. Oh, love us, we who love thee! "
And came in answer, thus, the words of Hylas: —
My love is mortal. For the Argive maidens
I keep the kisses which your lips would ravish.
Unlock your cold white arms; take from my shoulder
The tangled swell of your bewildering tresses.
Let me return: the wind comes down from Ida,
And soon the galley, stirring from her slumber,
Will fret to ride where Pelion's twilight shadow
Falls o'er the towers of Jason's sea-girt city.
I am not yours: I cannot braid the lilies
In your wet hair, nor on your argent bosoms
Close my drowsed eyes to hear your rippling voices.
Hateful to me your sweet, cold, crystal being,—
Your world of watery quiet. Help, Apollo!
For I am thine: thy fire, thy beam, thy music,
Dance in my heart and flood my sense with rapture!
The joy, the warmth and passion now awaken,
Promised by thee, but erewhile calmly sleeping.
Oh, leave me, Naiads! loose your chill embraces,
Or I shall die, for mortal maidens pining. "
But still with unrelenting arms they bound him,
And still, accordant, flowed their watery voices:-
"We have thee now,- - we hold thy beauty prisoned;
Oh, come with us beneath the emerald waters!


## p. 14537 (#99) ###########################################

BAYARD TAYLOR
14537
We have no love: we have thee, rosy Hylas.
Oh, love us, who shall nevermore release thee;
Love us, whose milky arms will be thy cradle
Far down on the untroubled sands of ocean,
Where now we bear thee, clasped in our embraces. "
And slowly, slowly sank the amorous Naiads:
The boy's blue eyes, upturned, looked through the water,
Pleading for help; but Heaven's immortal Archer
Was swathed in cloud. The ripples hid his forehead,
And last, the thick bright curls a moment floated,
So warm and silky that the stream upbore them,
Closing reluctant, as he sank forever.
The sunset died behind the crags of Imbros.
Argo was tugging at her chain; for freshly
Flew the swift breeze, and leaped the restless billows.
The voice of Jason roused the dozing sailors,
And up the mast was heaved the snowy canvas.
But mighty Hêraclês, the Jove-begotten,
Unmindful stood beside the cool Scamander,
Leaning upon his club. A purple chlamys
Tossed o'er an urn was all that lay before him:
And when he called, expectant, "Hylas! Hylas! "
The empty echoes made him answer, "Hylas! "
THE SONG OF THE CAMP
IVE us a song! " the soldiers cried,
The outer trenches guarding,
When the heated guns of the camps allied
Grew weary of bombarding.
་
"G"
The dark Redan, in silent scoff,
Lay, grim and threatening, under;
And the tawny mound of the Malakoff
No longer belched its thunder.
There was a pause. A guardsman said,
"We storm the forts to-morrow:
Sing while we may,- another day
Will bring enough of sorrow. "
They lay along the battery's side,
Below the smoking cannon:
Brave hearts, from Severn and from Clyde
And from the banks of Shannon.


## p. 14538 (#100) ##########################################

14538
BAYARD TAYLOR
They sang of love, and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory:
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang 'Annie Laurie. '
Voice after voice caught up the song,
Until its tender passion
Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,—
Their battle-eve confession.
Dear girl, her name he dared not speak;
But as the song grew louder,
Something upon the soldier's cheek
Washed off the stains of powder.
Beyond the darkening ocean burned
The bloody sunset's embers,
While the Crimean valleys learned
How English love remembers.
And once again a fire of hell
Rained on the Russian quarters,
With scream of shot, and burst of shell,
And bellowing of the mortars!
And Irish Nora's eyes are dim
For a singer, dumb and gory;
And English Mary mourns for him
Who sang of Annie Laurie.
Sleep, soldiers! still in honored rest
Your truth and valor wearing:
The bravest are the tenderest,—
The loving are the daring.


## p. 14539 (#101) ##########################################

14539
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
(1800-1886)
HE modern English drama of literary significance is too scant
to make it easy to overlook so sterling a performance as
Sir Henry Taylor's Philip Van Artevelde. ' Taylor was a
poet by deliberation and culture rather than by creative neces-
sity. But he devoted himself with a calm singleness of purpose to
literature for a long term of years; and his work was always self-
respecting, careful, and artistically acceptable. He did his share in
lending dignity to letters. His career was fortunate in allowing him
to exercise his poetic talent in quiet ease; and the solid quality and
considerable extent of his literary endeavor are to show for it. Of
course his vogue is not now what it once was. Professor Saintsbury
has pointed out that whereas he was much quoted between 1835 and
1865, he has been little quoted by the generation coming between
1865 and 1895. But this is only the common fate of all but the
greatest. Philip Van Artevelde,' Taylor's masterpiece, will remain
one of the most notable achievements in the English historical drama
of the first half of the nineteenth century. It may be added that in
the lyric snatches imbedded in his plays, he sometimes strikes a rare
note, one that sends the reader ck to Elizabethan days. These
perfect songs are few in number, but sufficient to stamp their maker
as a true poet in his degree.
Henry Taylor was born at Bishop Middleham, Durham, England,
on October 18th, 1800. He came of a family of small land-owners.
He entered the navy as a lad, and was a midshipman for some
months. But this life he did not take to; and after four years in
the storekeeper's department, he found his true place in entering
the Colonial Office. He went in as a young man of twenty-four; he
remained well-nigh a half-century, became an important figure, and
acquired property. Taylor exercised much influence in his relation
to government: a fact indicated by the offer of Under-Secretaryship of
State in 1847, which he declined, and by his being knighted in 1869.
His employment left him the leisure necessary to carry on his liter-
ary work tranquilly, as an avocation. Dramatic writing constitutes
the bulk and the best of his efforts. He began when twenty-seven
with the play 'Isaac Comnenus' (1827), which was not well received.
But seven years later, Philip Van Artevelde' won great success;
TOK


## p. 14540 (#102) ##########################################

14540
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
deservedly, since it is by far his finest production. Other dramas are
the historical 'Edwin the Fair' (1842), the romantic comedy 'The
Virgin Widow' (1850), and St. Clement's Eve' (1862).
His essays
on political and literary topics are gathered in the three volumes
'The Statesman' (1836), 'Notes from Life' (1847), and Notes from
Books' (1849). His non-dramatic verse appears in The Eve of the
Conquest, and Other Poems' (1847), and in 'A Sicilian Summer, and
Minor Poems' (1868), of which the title-piece is the already noted
'The Virgin Widow' under another name.
'Philip Van Artevelde' is a historical drama in two parts, or
two five-act plays. Its length alone would preclude its production
in a theatre; but in all respects it is a closet drama, to be read rather
than enacted upon the stage. It makes use of the fourteenth-century
Flemish struggle, in which Van Artevelde was a protagonist; the first
play carrying the leader to his height of power, the second conduct-
ing him to his downfall and death. Taylor has a feeling for char-
acter; he gets the spirit of the age, and writes vigorous blank verse,
rising at times to an incisive strength and nobility of diction which
suggests the Elizabethans. The sympathetic handling of Philip Van
Artevelde' has been explained by the fact that certain incidents in
the Fleming's career-those having to do with his love-tally with
Taylor's own subjective experiences. 'Philip Van Artevelde' is
weakest on the purely dramatic side: as a study and description
of character in an interesting historical setting, it is admirable,—a
drama that can always be read with pleasure. The lyrics it contains
show the author at his happiest in this kind.
The works of Sir Henry Taylor were published in five volumes in
1868. His very entertaining biography appeared in 1885, the Corre-
spondence following in 1888. He died on March 28th, 1886, at Bourne-
mouth, where he spent his final days in the sun of general esteem
and regard. He had attained to the good old age of nearly eighty-
six.
SONG
OWN lay in a nook my lady's brach,
And said, "My feet are sore,-
I cannot follow with the pack
A-hunting of the boar.
Do
"And though the horn sounds never so clear
With the hounds in loud uproar,
Yet I must stop and lie down here,
Because my feet are sore. "


## p. 14541 (#103) ##########################################

SIR HENRY TAYLOR
14541
The huntsman when he heard the same,
What answer did he give? —
"The dog that's lame is much to blame,
He is not fit to live. "
ARETINA'S SONG
From A Sicilian Summer›
I'M
'M A bird that's free
Of the land and sea;
I wander whither I will;
But oft on the wing
I falter and sing,
O fluttering heart, be still,
Be still,
O fluttering heart, be still!
I'm wild as the wind,
But soft and kind,
And wander whither I may;
The eyebright sighs,
And says with its eyes,
Thou wandering wind, oh stay,
Oh stay,
Thou wandering wind, oh stay!
TO H. C.
(IN REPLY)
T MAY be folly, - they are free
Who think it so, to laugh or blame,-
But single sympathies to me
Are more than fame.
The glen and not the mountain-top
I love; and though its date be brief,
I snatch the rose you send, and drop
The laurel leaf.


## p. 14542 (#104) ##########################################

14542
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
Clara-
THE FAMINE
From Philip Van Artevelde
Α'
RTEVELDE -Now render me account of what befell
Where thou hast been to-day.
Clara-
I paid a visit first to Ukenheim,
The man who whilome saved our father's life
When certain Clementists and ribald folk
Assailed him at Malines. He came last night,
And said he knew not if we owed him aught;
But if we did, a peck of oatmeal now
Would pay the debt and save more lives than one.
I went. It seemed a wealthy man's abode:
The costly drapery and good house-gear
Had, in an ordinary time, made known
That with the occupant the world went well.
By a low couch, curtained with cloth of frieze,
Sat Ukenheim, a famine-stricken man,
-
Not much is that.
With either bony fist upon his knees
And his long back upright. His eyes were fixed
And moved not, though some gentle words I spake:
Until a little urchin of a child
That called him father, crept to where he sat
And plucked him by the sleeve, and with its small
And skinny finger pointed; then he rose
And with a low obeisance, and a smile
That looked like watery moonlight on his face,
So pale and weak a smile, he bade me welcome.
I told him that a lading of wheat-flour
Was on its way; whereat, to my surprise,
His countenance fell, and he had almost wept.
Artevelde-Poor soul! and wherefore?
That I saw too soon.
He plucked aside the curtain of the couch,
And there two children's bodies lay composed.
They seemed like twins of some ten years of age,
And they had died so nearly both at once
He scarce could say which first; and being dead,
He put them, for some fanciful affection,
Each with its arm about the other's neck,
So that a fairer sight I had not seen
Than those two children with their little faces
So thin and wan, so calm and sad and sweet.


## p. 14543 (#105) ##########################################

SIR HENRY TAYLOR
14543
Artevelde-
Clara-
I looked upon them long, and for a while
I wished myself their sister, and to lie
With them in death as with each other they;
I thought that there was nothing in the world
I could have loved so much; and then I wept:
And when he saw I wept, his own tears fell,
And he was sorely shaken and convulsed
Through weakness of his frame and his great grief.
Much pity was it he so long deferred
To come to us for aid.
-
It was indeed;
But whatsoe'er had been his former pride,
He seemed a humble and heart-broken man.
He thanked me much for what I said was sent,
But I knew well his thanks were for my tears.
He looked again upon the children's couch,
And said, low down, they wanted nothing now.
So, to turn off his eyes and change his mood,
I drew the small survivor of the three
Before him, and he snatched it up, and soon
Seemed lost and quite forgetful; and with that
I stole away.
VENGEANCE ON THE TRAITORS
From Philip Van Artevelde
A
RTEVELDE I thank you, sirs; I knew it could not be
But men like you must listen to the truth.
Sirs, ye have heard these knights discourse to you
Of your ill fortunes, numbering in their glee
The worthy leaders ye have lately lost.
True, they were worthy men, most gallant chiefs,
And ill would it become us to make light
Of the great loss we suffer by their fall:
They died like heroes: for no recreant step
Had e'er dishonored them,- no stain of fear,
No base despair, no cowardly recoil;
They had the hearts of freemen to the last,
And the free blood that bounded in their veins
Was shed for freedom with a liberal joy.
But had they guessed, or could they but have dreamed,
The great examples which they died to show
Should fall so flat, should shine so fruitless here,


## p. 14544 (#106) ##########################################

14544
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
That men should say, "For liberty these died,
Wherefore let us be slaves," had they thought this,
Oh then with what an agony of shame,
Their blushing faces buried in the dust,
Had their great spirits parted hence for heaven!
What! shall we teach our chroniclers henceforth
To write that in five bodies were contained
The sole brave hearts of Ghent! which five defunct,
The heartless town by brainless counsel led
Delivered up her keys, stript off her robes,
And so with all humility besought
Her haughty lord to scourge her lightly! No,
It shall not be - no, verily! for now,
Thus looking on you as ye gather round,
Mine eyes can single out full many a man
Who lacks but opportunity to shine
As great and glorious as the chiefs that fell.
But lo, the earl is mercifully moved!
And surely if we, rather than revenge
-
The slaughter of our bravest, cry them shame,
And fall upon our knees, and say we've sinned,
Then will the earl take pity on his thralls
And pardon us our letch for liberty!
What pardon it shall be, if we know not,
Yet Ypres, Courtray, Grammont, Bruges, they know;
For never can those towns forget the day
When by the hangman's hands five hundred men,
ΤΙ bravest of each guild, were done to death
In those base butcheries that he called pardons.
And did it seal their pardons, all this blood?
Had they the earl's good love from that time forth?
O sirs! look round you lest ye be deceived:
Forgiveness may be written with the pen,
But think not that the parchment-and-mouth pardon
Will e'er eject old hatreds from the heart.
There's that betwixt you been, men ne'er forget
Till they forget themselves, till all's forgot;
Till the deep sleep falls on them in that bed
From which no morrow's mischief knocks them up.
There's that betwixt you been, which you yourselves,
Should ye forget, would then not be yourselves;
For must it not be thought some base men's souls
Have ta'en the seats of yours and turned you out,
If in the coldness of a craven heart
Ye should forgive this bloody-minded man


## p. 14545 (#107) ##########################################

SIR HENRY TAYLOR
14545
For all his black and murderous monstrous crimes?
Think of your mariners,-three hundred men,-
After long absence in the Indian seas,
Upon their peaceful homeward voyage bound,
And now, all dangers conquered as they thought,
Warping the vessels up their native stream,
Their wives and children waiting them at home
In joy, with festal preparations made,-
Think of these mariners, their eyes torn out,
Their hands chopped off, turned staggering into Ghent
To meet the blasted eyesight of their friends!
And was not this the earl? 'Twas none but he!
No Hauterive of them all had dared to do it
Save at the express instance of the earl.
And now what asks he? Pardon me, sir knights,
[To Grutt and Bette.
I had forgotten, looking back and back
From felony to felony foregoing,
This present civil message which ye bring:
Three hundred citizens to be surrendered
Up to that mercy which I tell you of,-
That mercy which your mariners proved,-which steeped
Courtray and Ypres, Grammont, Bruges, in blood!
Three hundred citizens a secret list:
No man knows who; not one can say he's safe;
Not one of you so humble but that still
The malice of some secret enemy
Van den Bosch-
-
-
May whisper him to death; - and hark-look to it!
Have some of you seemed braver than their peers,
Their courage is their surest condemnation;
They are marked men- and not a man stands here
But may be so. -Your pardon, sirs, again!
[To Grutt and Bette.
XXV-910
You are the pickers and the choosers here,
And doubtless you're all safe, ye think-ha! ha!
But we have picked and chosen, too, sir knights.
What was the law for, I made yesterday?
What is it you that would deliver up
Three hundred citizens to certain death?
Ho! Van den Bosch! have at these traitors: there!
[Stabs Grutt, who falls.
Die, treasonable dog! is that enough?
Down, felon, and plot treacheries in hell.
[Stabs Bette.


## p. 14546 (#108) ##########################################

14546
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
ARTEVELDE REFUSES TO DISMISS ELENA
From Philip Van Artevelde'
Scene: Van Artevelde's Tent in the Flemish Camp before Oudenarde.
Present, Elena and Cecile.
Cecile -
Cecile
Q
Elena
Fie on such truth!
Rather than that my heart spoke truth in dumps.
I'd have it what it is,- a merry liar.
Elena - Yes, you are right: I would that I were merry!
Not for my own particular, God knows:
But for his cheer,- he needs to be enlivened;
And for myself in him, because I know
That often he must think me dull and dry,-
I am so heavy-hearted, and at times
ELENA (singing)
UоTH tongue of neither maid nor wife
To heart of neither wife nor maid,
"Lead we not here a jolly life
Betwixt the shine and shade? "
Quoth heart of neither maid nor wife
To tongue of neither wife nor maid,
"Thou wag'st; but I am worn with strife,
And feel like flowers that fade. "
There was truth in that, Cecile.
Outright incapable of speech. Oh me!
I was not made to please.
Yourself, my lady.
'Tis true, to please yourself you were not made,
Being truly by yourself most hard to please:
But speak for none beside; for you were made,
Come gleam or gloom, all others to enchant,
Wherein you never fail.
Yes, but I do:
How can I please him when I cannot speak?
When he is absent I am full of thought,
And fruitful in expression inwardly:
And fresh and free and cordial is the flow
Of my ideal and unheard discourse,
Calling him in my heart endearing names,
Familiarly fearless. But alas!
No sooner is he present than my thoughts
Are breathless and bewitched; and stunted so
In force and freedom, that I ask myself


## p. 14547 (#109) ##########################################

SIR HENRY TAYLOR
14547
Cecile -
Elena
-
Whether I think at all, or feel, or live,
So senseless am I!
Heed not that, my lady:
Men heed it not; I never heard of one
That quarreled with his lady for not talking.
I have had lovers more than I can count,
And some so quarrelsome a slap in the face
Would make them hang themselves, if you'd believe them:
But for my slackness in the matter of speech
They ne'er reproached me; no, the testiest of them
Ne'er fished a quarrel out of that.
Thy swains
Might bear their provocations in that kind,
Yet not of silence prove themselves enamored.
But mark you this, Cecile: your grave and wise
And melancholy men, if they have souls,
As commonly they have, susceptible
Of all impressions, lavish most their love
Upon the blithe and sportive, and on such
As yield their want and chase their sad excess
With jocund salutations, nimble talk,
And buoyant bearing. Would that I were merry.
Mirth have I valued not before; but now,
What would I give to be the laughing fount
Of gay imagination's ever bright
And sparkling fantasies! Oh, all I have
(Which is not nothing, though I prize it not),—
My understanding soul, my brooding sense,
My passionate fancy; and the gift of gifts
Dearest to woman, which deflowering Time,
Slow ravisher, from clenched'st fingers wrings,
My corporal beauty,- would I barter now
For such an antic and exulting spirit
As lives in lively women. -Who comes hither?
Cecile 'Tis the old friar: he they sent abroad;
That ancient man so yellow! Od's my life!
He's yellower than he went. Note but his look:
His rind's the color of a moldy walnut.
Troth! his complexion is no wholesomer
Than a sick frog's.
Elena-
Cecile It makes me ill to look at him.
Elena-
Cecile-It makes me very ill.
Be silent: he will hear.
Hush! hush!


## p. 14548 (#110) ##########################################

14548
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
Father John-
Elena-
-
Father John-
Elena-
Father John-
Elena-
Cecile-
Elena -
I seek the Regent.
Cecile [aside to Elena]-
He comes anon.
Artevelde-
Enter Father John of Heda
Your pardon, lady:
Please you, sit awhile:
Father John-
And likewise yours. -[Aside. ] Yea, this is as I heard:
A wily woman hither sent from France.
Alas, alas, how frail the state of man!
How weak the strongest! This is such a fall
As Samson suffered.
What gibbering is this?
This tent is his?
May we not deem
Your swift return auspicious? Sure it denotes
A prosperous mission?
Artevelde [as he enters]-
What I see and hear
Of sinful courses, and of nets and snares
Encompassing the feet of them that once
Were steadfast deemed, speaks only to my heart
Of coming judgments.
Father John-
It is.
How the friar croaks!
Of naughty friars and of-
Father John—
Peace, Cecile !
Go to your chamber: you forget yourself.
Father, your words afflict me.
――――――
What I see and hear
Who is it says
That Father John is come? Ah! here he is.
Give me your hand, good father! For your news,
Philosophy befriend me that I show
Enter Artevelde
[Exit Cecile.
No strange impatience; for your every word
Must touch me in the quick.
To you alone
Would I address myself.
Nay, heed not her:
She is my privy councilor.
My Lord,
Such councilors I abjure. My function speaks,


## p. 14549 (#111) ##########################################

SIR HENRY TAYLOR
14549
Elena
Father John-
-
Artevelde
Elena
That whilst a foreign leman
To me say what thou wilt.
Father John-
And through me speaks the Master whom I serve;
After strange women them that went astray
God never prospered in the olden time,
Nor will he bless them now. An angry eye
That sleeps not, follows thee till from thy camp
Thou shalt have put away the evil thing.
This in her presence will I say -
Elena-
―――
Nay, spare her:
Thus then it is:
This foreign tie is not to Heaven alone
Displeasing, but to those on whose firm faith
Rests under Heaven your all; 'tis good you know
It is offensive to your army; — nay,
And justly, for they deem themselves betrayed,
When circumvented thus by foreign wiles
They see their chief.
-
Father John-
Oh! let me quit the camp.
Misfortune follows wheresoe'er I come;
My destiny on whomsoe'er I love
O God!
Alights: it shall not, Artevelde, on thee;
For I will leave thee to thy better star
And pray for thee aloof.
Thou shalt do well
For him and for thyself: the camp is now
A post of danger.
Artevelde! O God!
In such an hour as this in danger's hour-
How can I quit thee?
Father John-
-
Dost thou ask? I say,
As thou wouldst make his danger less or more,
Depart or stay. The universal camp,
Nay more, the towns of Flanders, are agape
With tales of sorceries, witcheries, and spells,
That blind their chief and yield him up a prey
To treasons foul. How much is true or false
--
I know not and I say not; but this truth
I sorrowfully declare,- that ill repute
And sin and shame grow up with every hour
That sees you linked together in these bonds
Of spurious love.


## p. 14550 (#112) ##########################################

14550
SIR HENRY TAYLOR
Elena
Artevelde
Father, enough is said.
Clerk's eyes nor soldier's will I more molest
By tarrying here. Seek other food to feed
Your pious scorn and pertinent suspicions.
Alien from grace and sinful though I be,
Yet is there room to wrong me.
I will go,
Lest this injustice done to me work harm
Unto my lord the Regent.
Hold, I say;
Give me a voice in this. You, Father John,
I blame not, nor myself will justify;
But call my weakness what you will, the time
Is past for reparation. Now to cast off
The partner of my sin were further sin;
'Twere with her first to sin, and next against her.
And for the army, if their trust in me
Be sliding, let it go: I know my course;
And be it armies, cities, people, priests,
That quarrel with my love, wise men or fools,
Friends, foes, or factions, they may swear their oaths,
And make their murmur,- rave, and fret, and fear,
Suspect, admonish,- they but waste their rage,
Their wits, their words, their counsel: here I stand
Upon the deep foundations of my faith
To this fair outcast plighted; and the storm
That princes from their palaces shakes out,
Though it should turn and head me, should not strain
The seeming silken texture of this tie. —
To business next: Nay, leave us not, beloved,-
I will not have thee go as one suspect;
Stay and hear all. Father, forgive my heat,
And do not deem me stubborn. Now at once
The English news?
Father John-
Your deeds upon your head!
Be silent my surprise-be told my tale.
-


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14551
JEREMY TAYLOR
(1613-1667)
BY T. W. HIGGINSON
AWTHORNE once pointed out the intrinsic perishableness of
all volumes of sermons; and the fact that goes farthest to
refute this theory is the permanent readableness of Jeremy
Taylor. Not always profound as a thinker, and not consistent in that
large theory of religious liberty in which he surpassed his times, he
holds his own by pure beauty of rhetoric, wealth of imagination, and
abundant ardor of mind. Coleridge calls
him "most eloquent of divines;" adding
further, "had I said 'of men,' Cicero would
forgive me, and Demosthenes add assent. "
So beautiful is Taylor's imagery, so free
the motion of his wings in upper air, that
when he once appeals to the reader with a
sentence beginning "So have I seen," it
is impossible to withdraw attention until
the whole series of prolonged and balanced
clauses comes to an end. Like other fine
rhetoricians, he has also a keen ear for
rhetoric in others; and his ample notes pre-
serve for us many fine and pithy Greek or
Latin or Italian sentences, which otherwise
might have faded even from human memory.
carefully prepared works, Holy Living' and 'Holy Dying,' need to
be read twice with different ends in view: once for the text, and once
for the accompanying quotations.
JEREMY TAYLOR
Indeed, his two most
Jeremy Taylor, the son of a Cambridge barber, was born on August
15th, 1613, took his degrees at the University (Caius College), where
he was also a fellow; and afterwards obtained through Archbishop
Laud a fellowship at Oxford (All Souls). He later became rector at
Uppingham, and was twice married; his second wife, Joanna Bridges,
being, in the opinion of Bishop Heber, an illegitimate daughter of
Charles I. when Prince of Wales. His first work, published in 1642,
bore the curious name of 'Episcopacy Asserted against the Aceph-
ali and Aërians New and Old,' and hardly gave a hint of his future



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14552
JEREMY TAYLOR
reputation. He is thought to have served as chaplain during the
civil war, and was impoverished by that great convulsion, as were so
many others; becoming later a schoolmaster in Wales. Here he was
befriended by Richard Vaughan, Earl of Carbery, whose residence
"Golden Grove" affords a title to Taylor's manual of devotion, pub-
lished in 1655. This, with the other works by which the author is
now best known, was prepared during his retirement from the world,
between 1647 and 1660. The Liberty of Prophesying' (1655) was far
above the prevalent opinions of the time, or indeed of any time. In
this he sets aside all grounds of authority except the words of Scrip-
ture, placing reason above even those; and denies the right of civil
government to exercise discipline over opinions. The fact that he was
three times in his life imprisoned for his own utterances may well
have strengthened this liberality; but unfortunately it did not pre-
vent him, when after the Restoration he became Bishop of Down and
Connor, from ejecting thirty-six ministers from their pulpits for doc-
trines too strongly Presbyterian. He was capable even of very ques-
tionable casuistry; justified the Israelites for spoiling the Egyptians,
maintained that private evil might be employed for the public good,
and that we may rightfully employ reasonings which we know to be
unfounded. This was in a book expressly designed as a guide to
learners, the Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in all
her General Measures' (1660).
Taylor's whole theory of religious liberty may be found summed
up in one passage, which heads the series of selections that follow
in this volume; and which may be thus condensed still further: No
man, he thinks, can be trusted to judge for others unless he be infal-
lible, which no man is. It is, however, perfectly legitimate for men
to choose guides who shall judge for them; only it is to be remem-
bered that those thus choosing have not got rid of the responsibility of
selection, since they select the guides. The best course for a man,
Taylor also points out, is to follow his guide while his own reason is
satisfied, and no farther; since no man can escape this responsibility
without doing willful violence to his own nature. Reason is thus
necessarily the final arbiter; and all things else - Scriptures, tradi-
tions, councils, and fathers- afford merely the evidences in the ques-
tion, while reason remains and must remain the judge. It is needless
to say that in this statement every vestige of infallible authority is
swept away.
-
In handling practical questions, Jeremy Taylor displays an equal
freedom from traditional bondage. In dealing with the difficult sub-
ject of marriage, for instance, it is to be noticed that he places the
two parties, ordinarily, on more equal terms than English usage, or
even the accustomed discipline of the English Church, has recognized;


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JEREMY TAYLOR
14553
and that his exhortations are usually addressed to both parties as if
they stood on equal terms. "Let them be sure to abstain from all
those things which by experience and observation they find to be
contrary to each other. " Again he says, "Man and wife are equally
concerned to avoid all offenses of each other in the beginning of their
conversation;" and all his suggestions of caution and self-restraint
apply alike to both parties. The same justness and humane sympathy
extend to his remarks on children: who, as he observes, have tenderer
feeling and greater suffering in respect to their senses; and are not
fortified by the results of long experience, as grown persons are, nor
have they heard the instructive words of philosophers, or acquired the
habit of setting their blessings against their sorrows: and yet they
"wade through the storm and murmur not," and give an example
to their elders.
His supreme wisdom is shown, however, in all his discussion of
the trials and cares of life, and of the means of defying them. No
one has painted quite so vividly the difference between the cares
that come with increased wealth or office, and the peace that dwells
in humble stations. "They that admire the happiness of a prosper-
ous prevailing tyrant, know not the felicities that dwell in innocent
hearts, and poor cottagers, and small fortunes. " He thinks that man
miserable who has no adversity; and virtues, he says, are but in
the seed at first, and need heat and cold, showers as well as sunshine,
before they can be of any value. God himself, he boldly says, "loves
to see us struggling with a disease, and resisting the Devil, and con-
testing against the weaknesses of nature. " The gladiators of old did
not cry or complain; the soldier stands at his post through everything.
It is to Taylor that we chiefly owe the attention latterly attracted to
the oft-quoted saying of Xenophon, that the same labors are easier to
the general officer than to the common soldier, because the former is
"supported by the huge appetites of honor. " Again, reasoning more
minutely, he points out that in most forms of grief or pain, we deal
with it only, as it were, from moment to moment, and can therefore
meet it with strength supplied at the same short intervals. There is
rarely a cumulative or composite pain; but it flows "like the drops
of a river or the little shreds of time. " Each duty can thus be mas-
tered, if we will but make sure of the present moment.
All these things show that Jeremy Taylor had not lived for noth-
ing through the ordeal of a civil war; that he was not merely a
gentle and placid dweller amid the calms of life, but had encoun-
tered its storms with an equal mind. They still show you, at Chep-
stow Castle, the room where he was imprisoned; and his kindred in
the little city still boast of the period as an honor. That he was
patient in adversity cannot be denied; although it may be that when


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14554
JEREMY TAYLOR
his turn of prosperity and power came, he was not always mindful of
his own broad theories. Nevertheless, a halo of purity and elevation
will always hallow his name. A portrait of him hangs in All Souls.
College at Oxford; and this, like all the pictures of him, justifies the
tradition of personal beauty so long attributed to Taylor. The legend.
seems appropriate to the charm of his style; and recalls the opinion
expressed by Dr. Parr,-that Hooker may be the object of our rev-
erence, and Barrow of our admiration, but that Jeremy Taylor will
always be the object of our love.
T. W Higginson
відоми
OF THE AUTHORITY OF REASON
From the Liberty of Prophesying'
ERE then I consider, that although no man may be trusted to
H judge for all others, unless this person were infallible and
―――
----
authorized so to do,- which no man nor no company of
men is, yet every man may be trusted to judge for himself;-
I say, every man that can judge at all: as for others, they are
to be saved as it pleaseth God;-but those that can judge at
all must either choose their guides who shall judge for them,—
and then they oftentimes do the wisest, and always save them-
selves a labor, but then they choose too: or if they be persons of
great understanding, then they are to choose for themselves in
particular what the others do in general, and by choosing their
guide. And for this, any man may be better trusted for him-
self than any man can be for another: for in this case his own
interest is most concerned; and ability is not so necessary as
honesty, which certainly every man will best preserve in his own
case, and to himself,- and if he does not, it is he that must
smart for 't: and it is not required of us not to be in error, but
that we endeavor to avoid it.
He that follows his guide so far as his reason goes along with
him, or which is all one-he that follows his own reason (not
guided only by natural arguments, but by divine revelation and
all other good means), hath great advantages over him that gives
himself wholly to follow any human guide whatsoever; because
he follows all their reasons, and his own too: he follows them till
reason leaves them, or till it seems so to him,-which is all one


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JEREMY TAYLOR
14555
to his particular; for by the confession of all sides, an erroneous
conscience binds him when a right guide does not bind him.
But he that gives himself up wholly to a guide is oftentimes
(I mean if he be a discerning person) forced to do violence to his
own understanding, and to lose all the benefit of his own dis-
cretion, that he may reconcile his reason to his guide.
So that Scripture, traditions, councils, and fathers are the evi-
dence in a question, but reason is the judge: that is, we being
the persons that are to be persuaded, we must see that we be
persuaded reasonably; and it is unreasonable to assent to a lesser
evidence when a greater and clearer is propounded.
THE TRUE PROSPERITY
From Sermon: Faith and Patience of the Saints'
:
Is
S THAT man prosperous who hath stolen a rich robe, and is
in fear to have his throat cut for it, and is fain to defend
it with greatest difficulty and the greatest danger? Does not
he drink more sweetly that takes his beverage in an earthen
vessel, than he that looks and searches into his golden chal-
ices for fear of poison, and looks pale at every sudden noise,
and sleeps in armor, and trusts nobody, and does not trust God.
for his safety, but does greater wickedness only to escape awhile
unpunished for his former crimes? "Auro bibitur venenum. " No
man goes about to poison a poor man's pitcher, nor lays plots
to forage his little garden, made for the hospital of two beehives
and the feasting of a few Pythagorean herb-eaters. They that
admire the happiness of a prosperous, prevailing tyrant know not
the felicities that dwell in innocent hearts, and poor cottagers,
and small fortunes.
And so have I often seen young and unskillful persons sit-
ting in a little boat, when every little wave sporting about the
sides of the vessel, and every motion and dancing of the barge,
seemed a danger, and made them cling fast upon their fellows;
and yet all the while they were as safe as if they sat under a
tree, while a gentle wind shook the leaves into a refreshment
and a cooling shade. And the unskillful, inexperienced Christian
shrieks out whenever his vessel shakes, thinking it always a dan-
ger that the watery pavement is not stable and resident like a


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14556
JEREMY TAYLOR
rock and yet all his danger is in himself, none at all from with-
out; for he is indeed moving upon the waters, but fastened to a
rock: faith is his foundation, and hope is his anchor, and death
is his harbor, and Christ is his pilot, and heaven is his country.
And all the evils of poverty and affronts, of tribunals and evil
judges, of fears and sadder apprehensions, are but like the loud
wind blowing from the right point,-they make a noise, and
drive faster to the harbor; and if we do not leave the ship and
leap into the sea, quit the interests of religion and run to the
securities of the world, cut our cables and dissolve our hopes,
grow impatient and hug a wave, and die in its embraces,— we
are as safe at sea; safer in the storm which God sends us than in
a calm wind when we are befriended by the world.
THE MERITS OF ADVERSITY
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
N°
MAN is more miserable than he that hath no adversity,—
that man is not tried whether he be good or bad: and
God never crowns those virtues which are only faculties
and dispositions; but every act of virtue is an ingredient into
reward. And we see many children fairly planted, whose parts
of nature were never dressed by art, nor called from the fur-
rows of their first possibilities by discipline and institution, and
they dwell forever in ignorance, and converse with beasts; and
yet if they had been dressed and exercised, might have stood at
the chairs of princes, or spoken parables amongst the rulers of
cities. Our virtues are but in the seed when the grace of God
comes upon us first; but this grace must be thrown into broken
furrows, and must twice feel the cold and twice feel the heat, and
be softened with storms and showers, and then it will arise into
fruitfulness and harvests. And what is there in the world to
distinguish virtues from dishonors, or the valor of Cæsar from the
softness of the Egyptian eunuchs, or that can make anything
rewardable but the labor and the danger, the pain and the diffi-
culty? Virtue could not be anything but sensuality if it were
the entertainment of our senses and fond desires; and Apicius
had been the noblest of all the Romans, if feeding and great ap-
petite and despising the severities of temperance had been the
work and proper employment of a wise man. But otherwise do


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JEREMY TAYLOR
14557
fathers and otherwise do mothers handle their children. These
soften them with kisses and imperfect noises, with the pap and
breast-milk of soft endearments; they rescue them from tutors
and snatch them from discipline; they desire to keep them fat
and warm, and their feet dry, and their bellies full: and then
the children govern, and cry, and prove fools and troublesome,
so long as the feminine republic does endure. But fathers-
because they design to have their children wise and valiant, apt
for counsel or for arms-send them to severe governments,
and tie them to study, to hard labor, and afflictive contingencies.
They rejoice when the bold boy strikes a lion with his hunting-
spear, and shrinks not when the beast comes to affright his early
courage. Softness is for slaves and beasts, for minstrels and use-
less persons, for such who cannot ascend higher than the state of
a fair ox or a servant entertained for vainer offices; but the man
that designs his son for nobler employments,- to honors and to
triumphs, to consular dignities and presidencies of councils,—
loves to see him pale with study or panting with labor, hardened
with suffrance or eminent by dangers. And so God dresses us
for heaven: he loves to see us struggling with a disease, and re-
sisting the Devil, and contesting against the weaknesses of nature,
and against hope to believe in hope,-resigning ourselves to
God's will, praying him to choose for us, and dying in all things
but faith and its blessed consequents; ut ad officium cum periculo
sinus prompti-and the danger and the resistance shall endear
the office. For so have I known the boisterous north wind pass
through the yielding air, which opened its bosom, and appeased
its violence by entertaining it with easy compliance in all the
region of its reception; but when the same breath of heaven hath
been checked with the stiffness of a tower, or the united strength
of a wood, it grew mighty and dwelt there, and made the high-
est branches stoop and make a smooth path for it on the top of
all its glories.
THE POWER OF ENDURANCE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
—
IⓇ
F WE consider how much men can suffer if they list, and how
much they do suffer for great and little causes, and that no
causes are greater than the proper causes of patience and
sickness,—that is, necessity and religion,— we cannot without


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14558
JEREMY TAYLOR
huge shame to our nature, to our persons, and to our manners,
complain of this tax and impost of nature. This experience
added something to the old philosophy. When the gladiators were
exposed naked to each other's short swords, and were to cut each
other's souls away in portions of flesh, as if their forms had been
as divisible as the life of worms, they did not sigh or groan: it
was a shame to decline the blow but according to the just meas-
ures of art. The women that saw the wound shriek out, and he
that receives it holds his peace. He did not only stand bravely,
but would also fall so; and when he was down, scorned to shrink
his head when the insolent conqueror came to lift it from his
shoulders: and yet this man in his first design only aimed at
liberty, and the reputation of a good fencer; and when he sunk
down, he saw he could only receive the honor of a bold man, the
noise of which he shall never hear when his ashes are crammed
in his narrow urn. And what can we complain of the weakness
of our strengths, or the pressures of diseases, when we see a
poor soldier stand in a breach almost starved with cold and hun-
ger, and his cold apt to be relieved only by the heats of anger, a
fever, or a fired musket, and his hunger slaked by a greater pain
and a huge fear? This man shall stand in his arms and wounds,
patiens luminis atque solis, pale and faint, weary and watchful;
and at night shall have a bullet pulled out of his flesh, and shiv-
ers from his bones, and endure his mouth to be sewed up from
a violent rent to its own dimensions: and all this for a man
whom he never saw, or if he did was not noted by him, but one
that shall condemn him to the gallows if he runs from all this
misery. It is seldom that God sends such calamities upon men
as men bring upon themselves, and suffer willingly. But that
which is most considerable is, that any passion and violence upon
the spirit of man makes him able to suffer huge calamities with
a certain constancy and an unwearied patience. Scipio Africanus
was wont to commend that saying in Xenophon, That the same
labors of warfare were easier far to a general than to a common
soldier; because he was supported by the huge appetites of honor,
which made his hard marches nothing but stepping forward and
reaching at a triumph.


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JEREMY TAYLOR
14559
ON HUSBAND AND WIFE
From Sermon: The Marriage Ring'
M
AN and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offenses of
each other in the beginning of their conversation,- every
little thing that can blast an infant blossom: and the
breath of the south can shake the little rings of the vine when
first they begin to curl like the locks of a new-weaned boy;
but when by age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardness.
of a stem, and have, by the warm embraces of the sun and the
kisses of heaven, brought forth their clusters, they can endure
the storms of the north, and the loud noises of a tempest, and
yet never be broken: so are the early unions of an unfixed mar-
riage,― watchful and observant, jealous and busy, unquisitive
and careful, and apt to take alarm at every unkind word. For
infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first scenes, but in
the succession of a long society; and it is not chance or weak-
ness when it appears at first, but it is a want of love or prudence,
or it will be so expounded; and that which appears ill at first,
usually affrights the inexperienced man or woman, who makes
unequal conjectures, and fancies mighty sorrows by the propor-
tions of the new and early unkindness.
Let man and wife be careful to stifle little things,-as fast
as they spring, they be cut down and trod upon; for if they be
suffered to grow by numbers, they make the spirit peevish, and
the society troublesome, and the affections loose and easy by an
habitual aversion. Some men are more vexed with a fly than
with a wound; and when the gnats disturb our sleep, and the
reason is disquieted but not perfectly awakened, it is often seen
that he is fuller of trouble than if, in the daylight of his reason,
he were to contest with a potent enemy. In the frequent little
accidents of a family, a man's reason cannot always be awake;
and when his discourses are imperfect, and a trifling trouble
makes him yet more restless, he is soon betrayed to the violence
of passion. It is certain that the man or woman are in a state
of weakness and folly then, when they can be troubled with a
trifling accident; and therefore it is not good to tempt their
affections, when they are in that state of danger. In this case
the caution is to subtract fuel from the sudden flame; for stub-
ble, though it be quickly kindled, yet it is as soon extinguished,
if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath or fed with new


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14560
JEREMY TAYLOR
materials. Add no new provocations to the accident, and do not
inflame this, and peace will soon return; and the discontent will
pass away soon, as the sparks from the collision of a flint: ever
remembering that discontent proceeding from little daily things
do breed a secret undiscernible disease, which is more dangerous
than a fever proceeding from a discerned notorious surfeit.
Let them be sure to abstain from all those things which by
experience and observation they find to be contrary to each other.
They that govern elephants never appear before them in white;
and the masters of bulls keep from them all garments of blood
and scarlet, as knowing that they will be impatient of civil
usages and discipline, when their natures are provoked by their
proper antipathies. The ancient in their marital hieroglyphics
used to depict Mercury standing by Venus, to signify that by
fair language and sweet entreaties the minds of each other should
be united; and hard by them
they would have all de-
liciousness of manners, compliance, and mutual observance to
abide.
THE VALUE OF AN HOUR
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
IN
N TAKING the accounts of your life, do not reckon by great dis-
tances, and by the periods of pleasure, or the satisfaction of
your hopes, or the sating your desires; but let every inter-
medial day and hour pass with observation. He that reckons
he hath lived but so many harvests, thinks they come not often
enough, and that they go away too soon. Some lose the day
with longing for the night, and the night in waiting for the day.
Hope and fantastic expectations spend much of our lives; and
while with passion we look for a coronation, or the death of an
enemy, or a day of joy, passing from fancy to possession with-
out any intermedial notices, we throw away a precious year, and
use it but as the burden of our time,-fit to be pared off and
thrown away, that we may come at those little pleasures which
first steal our hearts, and then steal our life.
12


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JEREMY TAYLOR
14561
LIFE AND DEATH
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
X
ERXES wept sadly when he saw his army of thirteen hundred
thousand men, because he considered that within a hun-
dred years all the youth of that army should be dust and
ashes: and yet, as Seneca well observes of him, he was the man
that should bring them to their graves; and he consumed all that
army in two years, for whom he feared and wept the death after
an hundred. Just so do we all.
THE ROSE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
have I seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its
hood, and at first it was fair as the morning, and full with
the dew of heaven as a lamb's fleece: but when a ruder
breath had forced open its virgin modesty, and dismantled its too
youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness,
and to decline to softness and the symptoms of a sickly age: it
bowed the head, and broke its stalk, and at night having lost.
some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of
weeds and outworn faces. The same is the portion of every man
and every woman.
REMEDIES AGAINST IMPATIENCE
From Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying'
ERTAIN it is, reason was as well given us to harden our spir-
its, and stiffen them in passions and sad accidents, as to
make us bending and apt for action: and if in men God
hath heightened the faculties of apprehension, he hath increased
the auxiliaries of reasonable strengths, that God's rod and God's
staff might go together; and the beam of God's countenance may
as well refresh us with its light as scorch us with its heat. But
poor children that endure so much, have not inward supports
and refreshments to bear them through it: they never heard the
sayings of old men, nor have been taught the principles of
severe philosophy, nor are assisted with the results of a long
experience, nor know they how to turn a sickness into virtue.
XXV-911


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JEREMY TAYLOR
and a fever into a reward; nor have they any sense of favors,
the remembrance of which may alleviate their burden: and yet
nature hath in them teeth and nails enough to scratch and fight
against their sickness; and by such aids as God is pleased to
give them, they wade through the storm, and murmur not. And
besides this, yet although infants have not such brisk perceptions
upon the stock of reason, they have a more tender feeling upon
the accounts of sense; and their flesh is as uneasy by their un-
natural softness and weak shoulders as ours by our too forward
apprehensions. Therefore bear up: either you or I, or some
an wiser, and many a woman weaker, than us both, or the very
children, have endured worse evil than this that is upon thee
now.
That sorrow is hugely tolerable which gives its smart but by
instants and smallest proportions of time. No man at once feels
the sickness of a week, or of a whole day, but the smart of an
instant; and still every portion of a minute feels but its proper
share, and the last groan ended all the sorrow of its peculiar
burden. And what minute can that be which can pretend to be
intolerable?