142 KNOWLEDGE NO FOE TO FANCY. 



Divine mechanism which makes it audible ? The same ap- 

 plies to the cheery hum poetically, the "vocal wings" of 

 the bee, and to the music of all 



" Those fairy-formed and many-coloured things, 

 Who worship [God] with notes more sweet than words." 



Because we may happen to have a notion from whence 

 springs the melody of insect choirs, need we the less admire 

 with that master mind the leading mind for awhile of an 

 emancipated nation 



" Comme ils gravitent en cadence, 



Nouant et denouant leurs vols harmonieux ! 

 Des Mondes de Platoii on croirait voir la danse, 

 S'accomplissant aux sons des musiques des cieux."* 



Science, in removing partially the veil which conceals from 

 us the mechanism of created things, leaves them still invested 

 with every charm thrown around them by the imaginative 

 mind. Nor need the rout of superstition which is only 

 imagination in a distorted form loosen one legitimate tie 

 betwixt our visible earth and the unseen worlds of which ours 

 is a type. That, truly, is a, connection which, by every excite- 

 ment, save that of terror, it is well to keep up ; and for what, 

 but for this end, has imagination been numbered amongst our 

 faculties? Let us, then, cultivate this precious gift, which 

 has the power of investing the meanest objects of sight and 

 hearing with beautiful associations, and not this only, but of 



* De Lainartine. 



