THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE.
A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
I know that all beneath the moon decays,
And what by mortals in this world is brought,
In time's great periods shall return to nought.
I know that all the muses' heavenly rays,
With toil of sprite which are so dearly bought,
As idle sounds, of few or none are sought--
That there is nothing lighter than mere praise.
DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN.
THERE are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we
naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet
haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles
undisturbed. In such a mood I was loitering about the old gray
cloisters of Westminster Abbey, enjoying that luxury of wandering
thought which one is apt to dignify with the name of reflection,
when suddenly an irruption of madcap boys from Westminster
school, playing at football, broke in upon the monastic stillness
of the place, making the vaulted passages and mouldering tombs
echo with their merriment. I sought to take refuge from their
noise by penetrating still deeper into the solitudes of the pile,
and applied to one of the vergers for admission to the library.
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