A life of sensuous, or sensual, pleasure, in youth, is



IX EARLIER PHILOSOPHICAL POEMS 119

avenged by the loss of even that and the incapacity
for anything higher as age comes on. But towards
the end of the monologue of the old man a touch of
something else shows itself. He grows bitter, and
scornful of himself as well as others, and even despair
seems to glimmer out from his talk. And then he
ceases, and the vision changes again. The end has
come, death and decay spreads over all, and the solemn
silent beauty of God alone remains. Then two voices
are heard ; one pleads for the old man that his sins
were those of sense, and that sense has avenged the sin.
