Chapter XXVII

He neither envies the cage-born bird "that never knew the summer woods," and is content without liberty; nor the beast that lives uncontrolled by conscience; nor the heart that never loved; "nor any want-begotten rest," that is, repose arising from defective sensibility.

On the contrary,

"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."

Seneca in Epistle 99 says, _Magis gauderes quod habueras quam maereres quod amiseras_.--See P. lxxxv., 1.

The Poem seems to halt here, and begin afresh with a description of Christmastide.