CONTENTS ALIPORADA THE SPIRIT OF MAN Book I AFTE himself. FTER experience had taught me that the common Spinoza is occurrences of ordinary life are vain and futile, telling of and I saw that all the objects of my desire and fear were in themselves nothing good nor bad, save in so far as the mind was affected by them; I at length determined to search out whether there were not something truly good and communicable to man, by which his spirit might be affected to the exclusion of all other things: yea, whether there were anything, through the discovery and acquisition of which I might enjoy continuous and perfect gladness for ever. I say that I at length determined, because at first sight it seemed ill-advised to renounce things, in the possession of which I was assured, for. the sake of what was yet uncertain. I therefore turned over in my mind whether it might be possible to come at this new way, or at least to the certitude of its existence, without changing my usual way of life, [a compromise] which I had often attempted B ·Dissatisfaction before, but in vain. For the things that commonly 2 La belle dame sans merci. O WHAT can ail thee, Knight-at-arms, The sedge has wither'd from the lake, Sadness O what can ail thee, Knight-at-arms, I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever dew; I met a Lady in the meads, Full beautiful, a faery's child ;- I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long; She found me roots of relish sweet, She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept and sigh'd full sore, And there I shut her wild, wild eyes With kisses four. And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dream'd-Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream'd On the cold hill-side. |