224 

 NEW FIELD OF POETRY. 



As men advance in intellectual culture, more and 

 more of their well-being must depend upon the tenor 

 of their philosophical speculations. There is an ad- 

 versity and a propensity not witnessed by the world, 

 and whose theatre is the silent chamber of the student. 

 Wherever human feeling- exists, there Poetry will 

 follow. She has, therefore, in these later limes, ad- 

 vanced from the field of great actions and high enter- 

 prize, and has entered with all her glowing imagery 

 into the haunts of meditation. She has pitched her 

 tent in the solitudes of philosophy. As the warrior 

 had heretofore been fired by the recorded achievments 

 of his predecessors in his tremendous path of ambition ; 

 as the lover has hung over the joys and afll'ections of 

 other lovers like himself; so now may the student 

 attend with his own peculiar pleasure to the doubts 

 and tribulations, the toil, the mystery, the elation and 

 the gloom of other men who have also wandered in 

 the pathless regions of meditation, fashioning their 

 cloud-like temples as they went. If Poetry has 

 extended her empire, the critic must, in the same 

 proportion, enlarge his knowledge and his capacity 

 of feeling ; and, since she now finds the materials of 

 her power in those deep emotions which attend on 

 the inquiry after truth, it it is here also that he must 

 follow her. London Review. 



TO NATURE. 



It may indeed be phantasy, when I 



Essay to draw from all created t})ings 



Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings; 



And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie 



Lessens of Love and earnest piety. 



So let it be; and if the wide world rings 



In mock of this belief, it brings 



Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity. 



So will I build my altar in the fields, 



And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be. 



And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields, 



Shall be the incense I will yield to thee 



My God ! and thou shall not despise 



Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice. 



