NOTES TO THE POEMS

posed to preside over each man's life and destiny.
It pauses, or delays, long enough to give him a chance to
show his powers, before putting an end to his career.
1. ii. Peers: equals, companions.

Emery Walker Ltd. «<

P. 128, 11. 8-9. One, who most has suffered: this can hardly
apply to anyone but Goethe, the greatest of German
writers (1749-1832), who in his youth wrote "The
Sorrows of Werther," a novel chiefly autobiographical.
Arnold considered him the greatest " modern man,"
and learnt from him many of his leading ideas, in-
cluding that of Culture.
203