270 Right Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter [March 15, 



bad. In a good sense it was popular, for it recognize! more than 

 did tbe poets of preceding ages the ministry which poetry might 

 exercise" towards the people. It was a r ovement against conven- 

 tionality and towards naturalness. This virtue it shared with almost 

 every other new movement in art, letters and faith ; for is it not 

 often the case that a new movement is the swing of the pendulum 

 away from the art or religion which have tended to become con- 

 ventional ? But though it shared this feature with many other 

 movements, we must not on that account be less grateful to those 

 who opened new avenues when men were seeking wider room in 

 which their developing powers might exert themselves. 



It was an opportune movement, for it came at the time when 

 science and the mechanical arts were about to lengthen their cords 

 and strengthen their stakes. It was Avell that at such a time, when 

 science might have monopolised the human mind and the increased 

 opportunities of wealth might have engrossed men's thoughts, 

 singers and writers should have arisen who conjured up before the 

 popular imagination another world, ideal if you will, but not less 

 real on that account, which might woo them from vulgar and too 

 earthly thoughts. We cannot estimate how much the reading of the 

 poetry and romances of Walter Scott has kept alive in the popular 

 mind an interest in and a love of things better than those which 

 perish in the using. 



Such gain the movement gave to English life. How much the 

 national life was enriched we can perhaps estimate by asking our- 

 selves whether we could afford to lose Shelley's " Skylark," " The 

 Ancient Mariner," "The Ode to Immortality," "The Lay of the 

 Last Minstrel," not to mention a host of other now familiar and 

 cherished Avorks. The movement bequeathed us rich legacies. Rich 

 as these were, we must leave them behind : for we are called to 

 press onward and ever up the steep of the hill on whose summit the 

 eternal sunlight shines. We in our generation have our work to 

 accomplish, as these men had : but the songs which these men sang 

 will cheer us as we struggle upwards. We shall share the feelings of 

 Wordsworth when, on the side of the hill, he hccird the song of the 

 solitary reaper rising from the vale below : — 



" Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang 

 As if her song could have no ending ; 

 I saw her singing at her work, 

 And o'er the sickle bending ; 

 I listened motionless and still , 

 And as I momited up the hill, 

 The music in my heart I bore, 

 Long after it was heard no more." 



Thus it is that the songs of the past which have once struck into the 

 hearts of men, not only find a resting-place there, ])ut bring their 

 inspiration to the makers of other songs. 



