PETER SPENCE 253 



imagination must be able to perceive the 

 metamorphoses which his ingredients are 

 capable of, and to build up to the eye of the 

 mind structures adapted to work out his 

 processes. The inventor and discoverer are 

 closely akin to the poet ; to both, the 

 imagination and fancy are indispensable; and 

 if, in this utilitarian age, we neglect the 

 culture of those faculties which poetry and 

 romance, history and travel do so much to 

 develope, we shall extirpate those very powers 

 essential to the extension of science and to 

 the perfecting of the arts. 



We shall see how in after years Peter 

 Spence became a fertile inventor, but in his 

 earlier years when he was engaged in the 

 prosaic duties of a grocer's store he manifested 

 the gifts of the poet. 



There lies before us a volume of his poems 

 " written in early life." His thoughts are 

 revealed to us in the subjects he has selected : 



"In the Primeval Forest," 



"The Destruction of Pompeii," 



"Ode to Palestine," 



"The Death of Bolivar," 



"Navarino," 



"Napoleon's Russian Campaign," 



and others similar. 



