236 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



habit, above originality? Is not every evolutionist bound to revere 

 the law-breaker, the rebel, the freaks, cranks, radicals, if only as vari- 

 ants, as "sports," as sporadic instances of possibly greater types than 

 any that have been ? We would lay down the law to the poet — tell him 

 what to eat, drink, wear, do, think, feel; but he has been before us in 

 every path. 



He saw thro' life and death, thro' good and ill. 



He saw thro' his own soul; 

 The marvel of the everlasting will, 



An open scroll, 

 Before him lay. 



And Freedom reared in that august Sunrise 



Her beautiful bold brow. 

 When rites and forms before his burning eyes 



Melted Uke sno^. 



Truly one poor poet's scroll may shake the world — has shaken the 

 world, over and over again. " As sure as the sun rises," says Common- 

 Sense. "The sun stands still while the earth rotates," retorts Genius. 

 "As certain as chalk is chalk, or cheese is cheese," says Common- Sense. 

 " Chalk and cheese are groups of vortices in ether, or electric tensions, 

 or perhaps dreams of will," says Genius. "Away with such monstrosi- 

 ties," says Common- Sense; "bum these men, crucify them, tear them 

 limb from Hmb." And Genius answers, either with martyrdom or with 

 a joke, but always with pity and contempt for our blindness: "You 

 cannot bum the tmth." 



What is the conclusion of the whole matter ? Common- Sense can- 

 not tell whether any new departure is for better or for worse. In every 

 age Genius has made departures from accepted standards of reason, 

 faith, beauty. Nearly all these departures are condemned by results. 

 But "the many fail, the one succeeds." One genius in many has found 

 the right direction of progress; the army breaks camp, often after 

 murdering the successful scout, and strikes a fresh claim into the unknown. 



Is Ariel really the imaginative type in Shakespeare's Weltanschauung ? 

 He seems to do always the right thing, to be in harmony with the reign 

 of law. But his rebellious attitude, his moodiness, his desire for free- 



