The Idly Read

James Hurnard, Arthur and Helen (found in: James Hurnard: A Memoir, Chiefly Autobiographical, with Selections from his Poems, edt. Louisa B. Hurnard, London, 1883, p. 94):

35        Much had he read, but yet he studied not;
            And what is idly read is soon forgot;
            Still, much he knew; and what he knew was worth
            More than much knowledge which, in nooks of earth,
            Dull schoolmen prize. The wisdom which he drank
40        Was not drawn up from Learning's leaden tank,
            He quenched his thirst at Nature's crystal rills,
            And sipped the dew-drops which the morn distils.
            The song of birds, the wind's majestic roar,
            The solemn fall of billows on the shore.
45        Nature has many tongues with which to teach;
            He knew them all, and comprehended each;
            And when he looked on earth or gazed on high,
            And saw the planets navigate the sky,
            Mind, with her various powers, within him wrought
50        And furnished soon his treasury of thought.
            He saw ideal forms all pure and bright,
            And peopled earth with denizens of light.
            Exalted thus above the mean and base
            He shunned the frigid of the human race.
55        He was not proud, and yet he could despise
            Ignoble minds that never dare to rise.