By this white wandering waste of sea, One face shall never turn to me Shall never smile and turn and rest Nor one most sacred hand be prest I came as one whose thoughts half linger, The youngest to the oldest singer I found him whom I shall not find In holiest age our mightiest mind, But thou, if anything endure, O spirit that man's life left pure, Not with disdain of days that were Let dreams revive the reverend hair, Come back in sleep, for in the life We find none like thee. Time and strife Move thee no more; but love at least May move thee, royal and released And thou, his Florence, to thy trust Keep safe his dedicated dust, So shall thy lovers, come from far, As morning-star with evening-star The only perfect poet is he who makes no man perfect. Landor's fame very surely awaits him, but it will not in any sense be faultless. To the end we see him as it were unconquerable. He keeps an unquailing aspect to the very close, has yielded nothing in the duel he has been fighting so long single-handed with the world, and dies at last with harness on his back. But he is only unvanquished; he is not the victor. Victorious he cannot at any time be said to have shown himself; either over the circumstances from which he suffered, or the genius by which he achieved, so much. Greatness there was always; a something of the heroic element which lifted him, in nearly all that he said and very much that he did, considerably above ordinary stature; but never to be admitted or described without important drawbacks. What was wanting most, in his books and his life alike, was the submission to some kind of law. To this effect a remark was made at the opening of this biography, which has had confirmation in almost every page of it written since. But, though he would not accept those rules of obedience without which no man can wisely govern either himself or others; and though he lived far beyond the allotted term of life without discovering what was true in the profound old say ing, that all the world is wiser than any man in the world; his genius, which the possession of such additional knowledge would have rendered more complete, was yet in itself so commanding and consummate as to bring into play the nobler part of his character only and by this his influence will remain over others, while for all that was less noble he will himself have paid the penalty. I am not going now to preach any homily over my old friend. Whatever there was to say has been said already with as much completeness as I found to be open to me. Attempt has been honestly made in this book to estimate with fairness and candour Landor's several writings, as each of them successively appeared; and judgment has been passed, with an equal desire to be strictly just, on all the qualities of his temperament which affected necessarily not his own life only. But, now that the story is told, no one will have difficulty in striking the balance between its good and ill; and what was really imperishable in Landor's genius will not be treasured less, or less understood, for the more perfect knowledge of his character. What indeed was highest in him receives vivid illustration from that which limited and controlled it. If he had measured everything less by his own unaided impressions, if he had consented at times to judge himself by others instead of always judging others by himself, the originality that distinguishes all his books might have been less intensely marked. It is a great power, as solitude itself is, if a man chooses to risk the danger attending it. To refuse the recognition also of any strength but one's own, to exalt continually one's individual prowess, and to rest all claim to magnanimity and honour on self-assertion rather than self-denial, cannot but be a grave fault in the conduct of· life in modern time; but shift it back into classic ages, and the heroes of Greece and Rome take visible shape once more. Yet was this only a part of Landor's happiest achievement, which was not so circumscribed within Paganism as the general character of his genius and method has led many to suppose. The source from which he drew his inspiration had not so confined him in applying it. Though his mind was cast in the antique mould, it had opened itself to every kind of impression through a long and varied life; he has written with equal excellence in NN both poetry and prose, which can hardly be said of any of his contemporaries; and perhaps the single epithet by which his books would be best described is that reserved exclusively for books not characterised only by genius, but also by special individuality. They are unique. Having possessed them, we should miss them. Their place would be supplied by no others. They have that about them, moreover, which renders it almost certain that they will frequently be resorted to in future time. There are none in the language more quotable. Even where impulsiveness and want of patience have left them most fragmentary, this rich compensation is offered to the reader. There is hardly a conceivable subject, in life or literature, which they do not illustrate by striking aphorisms, by concise and profound observations, by wisdom ever applicable to the needs of men, and by wit as available for their enjoyment. Nor, above all, will there anywhere be found a more pervading passion for liberty, a fiercer hatred of the base, a wider sympathy with the wronged and the oppressed, or help more ready at all times for those who fight at odds and disadvantage against the powerful and the fortunate, than in the writings of WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. T GENERAL INDEX. ABLETT, Mr., of Llanbedr-hall, 286; Adair, Robert, takes Landor to the Addison and Steele (Imag. Con.), 316. Eschylus, 337, 337, 500, 531. Alexander, emperor, and Capo d'Is- Alfieri and Metastasio (Imag. Con.), liking for, 257; Salomon the Floren- Andrea of Hungary, &c., Landor's, Anecdotes of Landor at Rugby, 9-20, 69; attacks on Landor, ib. 335. Antonelli and Gemeau (Imag. Con.), 419; and Pio Nono (Imag. Con.), 420. Architecture, as to, 495. Arnold of Rugby, 324, 333, 459. Athenæum, appearance of Landor's Atlantic Monthly, young lady's recol- Autobiographical, 70-72. Aylmer, Rose, 50, 217; her death, 106; Bacon, Lord, and Richard Hooker Baños, Lopez, and Romero Alpuente Barry Cornwall (B. W. Procter), Bath, 103-7; and see 385; a sunset, Beauties of England and Wales, er- Beniowski and Aphanasia (Imag. Benwell, Landor's tutor at Oxford, 21. B., Landor's tenant at Llanthony, 154, Birch, Walter, Landor's friend at Landor's marriage, 151; notices of Blackwood's Magazine and Landor, Blake, Wm., Landor attracted by Blake and his brother Humphrey Boccaccio and Petrarch (Imag. Con.), Boileau, 247. Bolivar, a revised opinion, 443. Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, visit to Books, the first two bought by Lan- Bowles, Caroline, second wife of Sou- Brothers, Landor's, 6, 478; see Charles and Henry Landor. Brown, Mr. Armitage, the friend of Browning, Robert, 388, 427-8, 445, Bugeaud, Marshal, and chieftain (Imag. Con.), 419. Arab Bunsen, Arnold, and Julius Hare, 459. Caldwell, Miss, 468. Calvus, Landor's signature in the Campbell, Thomas, 98. 194, 199, 200-1, 202. Cary, Henry, at Rugby, 15, 96; trans- Catullus, 84, 425, 435-6, 438, 448, Chapman, Dr. of Trinity, Oxford, Charitable Dowager, Landor's com- Chatham, admiration of, 378. Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Petrarch Chesterfield, Lord, and Lord Chat- Children, pleasure derived from, Clarke, Oxford fellow, 35-6. Clerke, Captain Shadwell, 259-60. they's letters to on the same, 59; |