| Share page |
|
Sussex Poets. 253 |
||
|
run down, though there is no reason to believe that it was done designedly. On its being raised up from where it lay, 15 fathoms deep, all was in her—books, telescope, ballast— lying on each side of the boat, without any appearance of shifting or confusion: the topsails furled, topmast lowered; the false stern broken to pieces, and a great hole knocked in the stern timbers. When she was brought to Leghorn, every one went to see her, and the same exclamation was uttered by all: " She was run down."
In the " Shelley Memorials," to which reference has already been made, some extracts are given from Mrs. Shelley's " Private Journal" which were written in the October succeeding the death of her husband. They are most touching, but also of an exalted character, and point to the spiritual belief of both husband and wife. " You will be with me," she exclaims to his spirit, " in all my studies, dearest love. Your voice will no longer applaud me, but in spirit you will visit and encourage me: I know you will. What were I, if I did not believe that you still exist ? It is not with you as with another. I believe that we all live hereafter; but you, my only one, were a spirit caged, an elemental being, enshrined in a frail image, now shattered. Do they not all with one voice assert the same ? Trelawny, Hunt, and many others. And so at last you quitted this painful prison, and you are free, my Shelley; while I, your poor chosen one, am left to live as I may."
In a subsequent passage she thus bursts forth, in the agony of separation:—"Mine own Shelley! the sun knows of none to be likened to you—brave, wise, gentle, noble-hearted, full of learning, tolerance, and love. Love ! what a word for me to write ! Yet, my miserable heart, permit me yet to love—to see him in beauty, to feel him in beauty, to be interpenetrated by the sense of his excellence; and thus to love, singly, eternally, ardently, and not fruitlessly; for I am still his—still the chosen one of the blessed spirit—still vowed to him for ever and ever!" |
||