pictures of Mr. Church, the American, have also aided me much in realising the scenery of the Arctic regions, especially as regards icebergs and the Aurora Borealis.
Go now, my ship, launched on the public sea,
That silently hast grown in secret dock;
Nor axe, nor saw, nor hammer fashioned thee,
Hewn by poetic hand from lifeless block;-
Go and expect the rude affronting shock
Of waves and winds, and elemental jar,
Nor shame thy parent soil and British stock,
True heart of oak, hight Euthanasia,"1
Following the bear with sev'n lamps and steadfast star.
Hight Euthanasia,' the death of bliss,-
For while I cast about to find thy name,
This, that, the other, all did sound amiss,
Nor any fitly marked thy proper aim,-
At last into my pond'ring mind there came
That old-world tale of the Athenian sage,2
Who one of seven shared high wisdom's fame,
And to king Croesus, richest of that age,
Spake wondrously, so tells the grey historic page.
1 Euthanasia means a happy death.
2 See Herodotus, Clio, 29-33.
For when he asked, who was the happiest,
Showing him all his treasures, all his gold,
With secret wish to be pronounced most blest,
Then answer made that other, wisely bold,
Nor heeding aught his pedigree unrolled,
But far postponing purple Lydia's pride,
Of Tellus first the aged Athenian told,
Falling victorious on his country's side,
Next of the God-loved pair in painless sleep who died.1
Full wisely well he spake, and as a friend,
Who, disregarding past and present rate,
The rather looked how fared it to the end:
So searching archives hoar of ev'ry state
Might I the changeful chance and final fate
Of many mourn, whose bright ascending sun
In cloud of darkest dole set soon or late,
Yet others too might find, whose life begun
Toilsome and hard perchance, constant and true did run.
1 Cleobis and Biton, who having performed a signal act of piety towards the goddess Here, afterwards expired without pain, as it were in a blissful trance, in her temple. I am well aware of the grave historical doubts thrown on this recorded interview of Solon with Croesus; but these do not in the least affect the moral, nor my application of it.
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