Sometimes--sometimes--that glorious dream comes true, in which a hale
and heart-whole youth implants the first pure passionate kiss upon the
lips of a hale and heart-whole girl.--Ah, happy twain! For them the sun
shines, the great earth spins, and constellations shed their selectest
influence. 'T is a dream that all youth dreams. 'T is a dream makes
wakeful life worth living.

Ah! the wild dream of youth! The maenad dream! The spring-time dream!

Of the maid: the dim, dim dream of stalwart man offering a love supreme
without alloy, and taking, forceful, a love as flawless, as supreme; a
steady breast on which to lean, strong circling arms, a face set firm
against the world, a face that softens only to her up-turned eyes that
seek the lover who is hers and hers alone; a dream of music, color, and
the swaying dance; of rivals splendidly out-shone; of home and friends
and trappings; of raiment. Retinue; of ordered bliss; and by and by, in a
still dimmer far-off time, a time un-whispered to herself, of
baby-fingers, baby lips . . . . . .

Of the youthful man: a vivid dream, involved, unsteady, shifting; a dream
of lust and love and smoke, and flame and fame; of cuirass and horse and
saber; of blood and battle; of high place; of many dominated by his
look and gesture; of mighty man, and orders issued, preemptory, not to be
gain said; also of lithe arms, a supple waist, sweetly-soft entwining
limbs, a gentle girlish woman all his own who never was another's and
always will be his; and an heir and household gods.--Ah! the wild dream
of youth!

Youths, dream ye while ye may! And you, ye aged, I charge ye do not wake
them: it is the dream makes wakeful life worth living. And yet--and