CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR 393

Who, with a natural instinct to discern

What knowledge can perform, is diligent to
learn;

Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature's highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
Is placable-because occasions rise
So often that demand such sacrifice;
More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labours good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows :
-Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand

On honourable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;

ΙΟ

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And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must
fall,

Like showers of manna, if they come at all:

Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,

Or mild concerns of ordinary life,

A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
But who, if he be called upon to face

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired

With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,

Come when it will, is equal to the need:

-He who, though thus endued as with a sense And faculty for storm and turbulence,

Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans

To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
Are at his heart; and such fidelity
It is his darling passion to approve;

More brave for this, that he hath much to

love:

'Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity,-
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not-
Plays, in the many games of life, that one

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Where what he most doth value must be won:

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CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WARRIOR 395
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name-
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
That every Man in arms should wish to be.

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S. T. COLERIDGE (1772-1834) Anima Poetae... London . . . 1895. 8vo.

This embyro-character is one of the many brilliant suggestions which came to Coleridge, but remained inchoate. He is referring to The Statesmen and Favourites of England since the Reformation. By David Lloyd, London, 1665-70.

The Worldly-wise Man

AN UNWRITTEN CHARACTER BY COLERIDGE

I WOULD strongly recommend Lloyd's StateWorthies' as the manual of every man who would rise in the world. . . . N.B.-I have a mind to draw a complete character of a worldly-wise man out of Lloyd. He would be highly-finished, useful, honoured, popular—a man revered by his children, his wife, and so forth. To be sure, he must not expect to be beloved by one proto-friend; and, if there be truth in reason or Christianity, he will go to hell-but, even so, he will doubtless secure himself a most respectable place in the devil's chimney-corner.

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)

The Last Essays of Elia. . . . London: . . . 1833. 8vo.

'The descriptions, in detached sentences, of the "Poor Relation" and the "Convalescent" are Fuller all over.' (Ainger.) It is pleasing to a character-historian, subject to the danger of seeing characters' everywhere, when an editor so well known and free from such preoccupations is on his side. Not only here, and in the 'Two Races of Men,' but also in other places, Lamb consciously adopted the character-devices of some of his favourite early writers. It does not lessen his originality that he should clothe his wit in the older fashions. No imitator, though he adopt all Elia's devices, can be mistaken for him, for, as intimately as ever style has been the man, his style was Lamb himself.

Poor Relations

He is known by his knock. Your heart telleth you That is Mr. - A A rap, between familiarity and respect; that demands, and, at the same time, seems to despair of, entertainment. He entereth smiling, and-embarrassed. He holdeth out his hand to you to shake, and-draweth it back again. He casually looketh in about dinner time when the table is full. He offereth to go away, seeing you have company-but is induced to stay. He filleth a chair, and your visiter's two children are accommodated at a side table. He never cometh upon open days, when your wife says with some complacency, 'My dear, perhaps Mr. will drop in to-day.' He remembereth birth-days-and professeth he is fortunate to have stumbled upon one. He declareth against fish,