Safe, too, was the peasant boy from any temptation in works of a gross and licentious nature, not only because of the happy ignorance of his rural life, but because of a more enduring safeguard,--genius! Genius, that, manly, robust, healthful as it be, is long before it lose its instinctive Dorian modesty; shamefaced, because so susceptible to glory,--genius, that loves indeed to dream, but on the violet bank, not the dunghill.

Wherefore, even in the error of the senses, it seeks to escape from the sensual into worlds of fancy, subtle and refined.

But apart from the passions, true genius is the most practical of all human gifts.

Like the Apollo, whom the Greek worshipped as its type, even Arcady is its exile, not its home.

Soon weary of the dalliance of Tempe, it ascends to its mission,--the Archer of the silver bow, the guide of the car of light.