Far  back  in  boyhood  he  had  heard
the  pipes  of  the  Faun  and  followed
them,  glad  and  free,  into  the  depths
of  the  wood  and  lived  at  ease  with
the  creatures  that  hide  there ;  the
birds  paid  no  more  attention  to  him
than  to  other  familiar  and  friendly
things ;  he  had  early  won  the  free
dom  of  the  fields  and  been  as  one
of  the  wild  things  that  have  no  other
roof  but  the  sky,  and  are  fed  by  the
providence  of  Nature.
And  then,  in  his  golden  youth,
when  the  imagination  kindles  and
[95


,*o  i


the  commonest  things  are  touched
with  poetry,  he  had  listened  like
one  enchanted  to  the  full,  rich  tones
of  Apollo's  lyre,  vibrating  to  the
touch  of  the  secret  forces  and  re
vealing  the  mystery  and  splendour
and  sublime  order  of  things  in  such
a  swell  and  sweep  of  melody  as
set  all  the  worlds  singing  together.
And  in  that  divine  music  the  world
that  had  lain  outspread  in  his  senses
in  all  its  varied  beauty  sank  into  his
imagination  and  broadened  immeas
urably  into  a  universe  whose  love
liness  was  the  bloom  of  the  streaming
life  at  its  heart,  whose  aspects  and
movements  and  forces  were  signs  and
words  of  his  own  inner  life,  whose
vastness  and  order  and  variety  were
a  sublime  symbol  of  an  intelligence
[96]


everywhere  at  work  but  nowhere
revealed,  which  was  at  one  with
his  own  spirit.
