THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 55 



Ballad Poetry generally is the result of the first kind of imagin- 

 ation and delights in rousing it in others. The simple scenes, the 

 quick transitions, the mere hints to suggest the complete picture — 

 all these bespeak the working of the simpler kind of imagination. 

 As examples of the higher kind of imagination, I can only refer you to 

 Wordsworth's Education of Nature, "Three years she grew in sun 

 and shower," and to Shelley's ' Skylark,' two of the finest short poems 

 in our language. This is the imagination which 



"adds the gleam 

 The light that never was on sea or land, 

 The consecration and the poet's dream-." 



The working of the higher imagination is most beautifully and 

 exactly described by Wordsworth in his 'Tintern Abbey :' 



" Nor less, I trust. 

 To them I may have owed another gift, 

 Of aspect more sublime ; that blessed mood, 

 In which the burthen of the mystery, 

 In which the heavy and the weary weight 

 Of all this unintelligible world 

 Is lightened : that serene and blessed mood. 

 In which the aftections lead us gently on. 

 Until, the breath of this corporeal frame 

 And even the motion of our human blood. 

 Almost suspended, we are laid asleep 

 In body, and become a living soul : 

 While with an eye made quiet by the power 

 Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, 



We see into the life of things. 



* * * * * - * 



I * « * -ir « * 



For I have learned 

 To look on nature, not as in the hour 

 Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing oftentimes 

 The still, sad music of humanity. 

 Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power 

 To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 

 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 

 Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 

 Of something far more deeply interfused. 

 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. 

 And the round ocean and the living air, 

 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; 

 A motion and a spirit, that impels 

 All thinking things, all objects of al] thoughts, 

 And rolls through all things.'- 



