ETON COLLEGE CHAPEL FROM THE THAMES

A characteristic reach of the Thames associated with Shelley, who was passionately fond of boating; though it is not certain that he was a "wet bob" at school.

Alastor. Shelley had now tasted the joys of a wandering existence, travelling with a donkey, like Mr. Stevenson, through France to Switzerland, visiting the source of the Thames, and making a voyage in a wherry from Windsor to Cricklade. Alastor was Another poet might now

composed on his return."

have been inspired to treat Nature in the spirit of The Scholar Gipsy. Not so Shelley. He makes his poet "seek strange truths in undiscovered lands,” and

His wandering step

Obedient to high thoughts, has visited

The awful ruins of the days of old :

Athens, and Tyre, and Balbec, and the waste
Where stood Jerusalem, the fallen towers
Of Babylon, the eternal pyramids,

Memphis and Thebes, and whatsoe'er of strange
Sculptured on alabaster obelisk,

Of jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx,

Dark Ethiopia in her desert hills

Conceals. Among the ruined temples there,
Stupendous columns, and wild images

Of more than man, where marble dæmons watch
The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men

Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around,

He lingered, poring on memorials

Of the world's youth, through the long burning day
Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor, when the moon
Filled the mysterious halls with floating shades

Suspended he that task, but ever gazed

And gazed, till meaning on his vacant mind
Flashed like strong inspiration, and he saw
The thrilling secrets of the birth of time.

Starting from Athens, the pilgrim of the poem begins a pedestrian tour to Balbec, Babylon, Memphis,