as with the blood of Spring; and whenever henceforth it grows in that
same place, the drop will have been drawn from his heart.[97]


"YOUTH AND ART" is a humorous, but regretful reminiscence of "Bohemian"
days, addressed by a great singer to a sculptor, also famous, who once
worked in a garret opposite to her own. They were young then, as well as
poor and obscure; and they watched and coquetted with each other, though
they neither spoke nor met; and perhaps played with the idea of a more
serious courtship. Caution and ambition, however, prevailed; and they
have reached the summit of their respective professions, and accepted
the social honours which the position insures. But she thinks of all
that might have been, if they had listened to nature, and cast in their
lot with each other; of the sighs and the laughter, the starvation and
the feasting, the despairs and the joys of the struggling artist's
career; and she feels that in its fullest and freest sense, their artist
life has remained incomplete.


"A LIKENESS" describes the feelings which are inspired by the familiar
or indifferent handling of any object sacred to our own mind. They are
illustrated by the idea of a print or picture, bought for the sake of a
resemblance; and which may be hanging against a wall, or stowed away in
a portfolio: and, in either case, provoke comment, contemptuous or
admiring, which will cause a secret and angry pain to its possessor.


"APPEARANCES," a little poem in two stanzas, illustrates the power of
association. Its contents can only be given in its own words.