Shelburne Essays, Third Series

Third Series
Τίνι χρὴ κρίνεσθαι τὰ μέλλοντα καλὢς κριθήσεσθαι; ἄρ' οὐκ ἐμπειρίᾳ τε καὶ φρονήσει καὶ λόγῳ;
Plato, Republic .
G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1905
Copyright, 1905 BY PAUL ELMER MORE
The last essay in this volume, though written several years ago, has never before been printed. For permission to reprint the other essays thanks are due to the publishers of the Atlantic Monthly , the Independent , and the New York Evening Post .

A still more striking example would be the lines written On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture . By a literary tradition these are reckoned among the most perfect examples of pathos in the language, and yet how often to-day are they read with any deep emotion? I suspect no tears have fallen on that page for many a long year.
Oh that those lips had language! Life has passed With me but roughly since I heard thee last. Those lips are thine—thy own sweet smile I see, The same that oft in childhood solaced me; Voice only fails, else how distinct they say, Grieve not, my child, chase all thy fears away!
Short-lived possession! but the record fair, That memory keeps of all thy kindness there, Still outlives many a storm that has effaced A thousand other themes less deeply traced. Thy nightly visits to my chamber made, That thou mightst know me safe and warmly laid; Thy morning bounties as I left my home, The biscuit or confectionary plum: The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestowed By thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glowed: All this, and more enduring still than all, Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall,—

do you not feel the expression here, the very balance of the rhymes, to stand like a barrier between the poet's emotion and your own susceptibility? And that confectionary plum —somehow the savour of it has long ago evaporated. Even the closing lines—