Dramatic Fragment
Let the boy have his will! I tell thee, brother,We treat these little ones too much like flowers,Training them, in blind selfishness, to deckSticks of our poor setting, when they might,If left to clamber where themselves incline,Find nobler props to cling to, fitter place,And sweeter air to bloom in. It is wrong—Thou striv’st to sow with feelings all thine own,With thoughts and hopes, anxieties and aims,Born of thine own peculiar self, and fedUpon a certain round of circumstance,A soul as different and distinct from thineAs love of goodness is from love of glory,Or noble poesy from noble prose.I could forgive thee, if thou wast of themWho do their fated parts in this world’s business,Scarce knowing how or why—for common mindsSee not the difference ‘twixt themselves and others—But thou, thou, with the visions which thy youth did cherishSubstantialized upon thy regal brow,Shouldst boast a deeper insight. We are born,It is my faith, in miniature completeness,And like each other only in our weakness.Even with our mother’s milk upon our lips,Our smiles have different meanings, and our handsPress with degrees of softness to her bosom.It is not change—whatever in the heartThat wears its semblance, we, in looking back,With gratulation or regret, perceive—It is not change we undergo, but onlyGrowth or development. Yes! what is childhoodBut after all a sort of golden daylight,A beautiful and blessed wealth of sunshine,Wherein the powers and passions of the soulSleep starlike but existent, till the nightOf gathering years shall call the slumbers forth,And they rise up in glory? Early grief,A shadow like the darkness of eclipse,Hath sometimes waked them sooner.