58 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



The higli philosophy of beauty, in which the ancients delighted, is 

 a better symbol of the manifestation of the sentiment than any which 

 modem poets can afford. They said " that the soul of man, embodied 

 here on earth, went roaming up and down in quest of that other world 

 of its own, out of which it came into this, but was soon stupified by 

 the light of the natural sun, and unable to see any other objects but 

 those of this world, which are but shadows of real things. There- 

 fore, the Deity sends the glory of youth before the soul, that it may 

 avail itself of the beautiful bodies, as aids to its recollection of the 

 celestial good and fair." * And, although the first utterances of the 

 Inner Life are seen in the youth in the love of nature, and a growing 

 fondness, and a kindling sympathy for that higher beauty, which is 

 in itself impersonal, and beyond the stretch of thought, and which 

 may flash upon him from the sunset, the gleam of waterfalls which 

 leap amid wild islands green, the silence or the sleep of nature, or the 

 dove-like eyes of the loved one of his heart ; yet, this is but the first 

 spark of a sentiment, which shall hereafter enlarge into a warm and 

 generous flame, to light up all the world with the radiance of a new 

 hope, and to bring the bosom in which it burns nearer to God. The 

 awakening of the soul to the perception of beauty, encircling and 

 multiplied, is its first step to the appreciation of beauty special. Then 

 it expands in a sentiment more lofty and pure, and love becomes the 

 ruling passion of the heart, and is a wreath of flowers upon manhood's 

 brow. This new delight is but a sympathy made forceful and pre- 

 dominating, and for us it remakes the world, and forges all nature into 

 spangles and stars, and summer sheen, and song, and makes every 

 leaf and cloud articulate. 



It gives the brow of age 

 A smack of youth, and makes the lip of youth 

 Shed perfumes exquisite. 



This sentiment is ennobling, because it springs from that deep well 

 of inexhaustible beauty which lies within us, unsullied and serene. 

 It is the bond which shall unite all men and women together, and 

 form them into one great circle of good and generous souls. Love is 

 our highest assurance of this inward self, for beneath it nature hides 



* Emerson. 



