AS RELATED TO TASTE. 69 



Bryant's poems the beauties are truly the beauty of 

 Nature. The flowers blossom, and the birds sing. 

 The grove is filled with life, and every object is 

 drawn with a master's pencil, that gives Nature's 

 own form and color to the streak of jet on the vio- 

 let's lip. To meet the demand of Taste, these sons of 

 genius and of song go forth into Nature's ample 

 field to select their subjects and their illustrations. 

 Heroic verse might flourish in an earlier age, when 

 heroes were demi-gods; but for the beauty of our 

 English verse, we have no more propitious muses 

 than the birds and flowers, no loftier Parnassus than 

 the hill of science. 



If we needed higher illustration of the power of 

 natural objects to adorn language and gratify Taste 

 than we have in the poets, we should appeal at once 

 to the Bible. Those most opposed to its teachings 

 have acknowledged its beauty, and this is due 

 mainly to the exquisite use of Natural History ob- 

 jects for illustration. It does indeed draw from 

 every field. But when the emotional nature was to 

 be appealed to, the reference was at once to natural 

 objects, and throughout all its books, the objects of 



