Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein

“ His light, sweet gaiety is like nature's smile,
And not the irony of man.
Raffaële, Galileo, Angelo,
Pergolese; you! intrepid voyagers,
Greedy of other lands, though Nature never
Could yield ye one more lovely than your own;
Come ye, and to our poets join your fame:
Artists, and sages, and philosophers,
Ye are, like them, the children of a sun
Which kindles valour, concentrates the mind,
Develops fancy, each one in its turn ”

“ Yet there are griefs which our consoling sky
May not efface: but where will grief convey
Noble and soft impressions to the soul,
As it does here?
Elsewhere the living cannot find them space
For all their hurrying paths, and ardent hopes ”

“ Its homage is religious, and the wings
Of thought but serve to draw more near to thee.
Religion has no limits, and no bonds;—
The vast, the infinite, and the eternal,
Never from her may Genius separate. ”

“ Those once worn in the heart;—those once sustain’d
Upon a hero's arm.
Before you is Sorrento:—dwelling there
Was Tasso's sister, when the pilgrim came
Asking asylum 'gainst the prince unjust
From humble friends: long grief had almost quench'd
Reason's clear light, but genius still was left.
Yet kept he knowledge of the things divine,
When earthly images were all obscured.
Thus shrinking from the desert spread around
Doth Genius wander through the world, and finds
No likeness to itself; no echo given
By Nature ”

“ The edge of grief is blunted thus, and turn’d,
Not by a harden'd heart, a wither'd soul,
But by a yet more perfect harmony,—
An air more fragrant,—blending with our life.
We yield ourselves to Nature with less fear—
Nature, whose great Creator said of old,—
"The lilies of the vale, lo! ”

“ CHANT OF CORINNE AT THE CAPITOL.* [1]
Cradle of Letters! Mistress of the World!
Soil of the Sun! Italia! I salute thee!
How oft the human race have worn thy yoke.
The vessels of thine arms, thine arts, thy sky! ”

“ It is curious to observe how many Pagan observances were grafted on the Roman Catholic worship. Canonization is but a Christian apotheosis,—only the deceased turned into saints instead of gods.—L. E. L. ↑ ⁠ § Caprea ↑ ⁠* The retreat of Pompey. ”