INTRODUCTION
BY
MAURICE HUTTON, LL.D.,
Principal of University College, Toronto
W. H. E.
[There is a Heav’n:] at least on earth below:
[It is where scholars read and thinkers brood]:
For [crowns and halos] volumes in a row
For angels’ wings it has its [gown and hood].
In that seraphic choir see Ellis sit!
With that Elys-ian light his numbers glow:
The scholar’s seriousness, the scholar’s wit,
[Twin spirits] in alternate ebb and flow.[1]
Studious and silent he has read life’s page,
Scholar and chemist [he sees part and whole];
Teaching and thought let loose his [noble rage]
And [stir the genial current] of his soul.
His [golden rod] absorbs our meaner staves
As Aaron’s rod the rods of Phara-oh,
Or as New Brunswick’s river-name outbraves[2]
The [pious Jordan] of Ontario.
His May-blossoms relieve our [strenuous May],
Our evening smoke curls bluer as we read,
The earliest pipe of half-awakened day
Draws a new fragrance from his choicer weed.
His artless puff-balls have a tale to tell,
His Flora opens treasures new and old,
His [way-side weeds] have been our asphodel[3]
His “dandy lines” become our “harmless gold.”[4]
[1]Plato (sixth letter—323 c.) speaks of Elysian or Ellis-i-an scholars “Swearing with scholarly seriousness and with that playfulness which is seriousness’ twin sister.” Thompson’s Gorgias, 41.
[2]See [“Weed,” p. 37].
[3]See [“Weed,” p. 43].
[4]See Lowell on “Dandelions”:—
“Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold.”