36 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



and power which are the elements of all supreme rule, whether 

 it be human or divine. 



These earth-mated creatures are his subjects; and here, at 

 least, his lust of despotism can be gratified, for he is ruler 

 and lord above them all, for evil as well as for good. When 

 it is for evil, how terrible he must be to them with his dread 

 engines and his fierce subtlety ! When for good, what moving 

 of strange thoughts, what yearnings for a better and gentler 

 beiDg must visit them ! Was it not so, even with ourselves, 

 when there were giants in those days, and angels sought the 

 daughters of Adam on our earth ? 



If creation be an unresting tendency, eternally ascending 

 towards the perfect, then is our supposition less a fancy than 

 a truth, and our dominion over the beast of the earth and 

 the fowl of the air becomes a heritage of fearful responsi- 

 bilities, embracing wide extremes of pleasure and of pain. 

 Duties, then, of startling significancy, open to us, and we 

 feel the presence of self-derived majesty expand throughout 

 our principality, and in beneficence above immortal subjects. 

 We are no longer their tyrants, but right royal masters. 

 We know them not as the insensate objects of a rude caprice, 

 dumb foot-balls to our blind and heady passions, to be chased 

 and torn and worried in our savage glee, — but as the crea- 

 tures of our dedicated love, to be guarded gently, nurtured 

 well, and led by easy ways up, through serener airs, to happier 

 fields. 



This is the Apocalyptic Vision of an elder race — ^man, the 

 Ascender, beckoning the fiocks and herds, the live ocean- 

 tide of his inheritance, up the steep ; the calm radiance of his 

 merciful brow drawing its flood towards the stars ! It is a 

 healthful philosophy, full of noble teachings, and we should 

 hold it to oxir hearts,, though the reality of such a vision 

 may be so remote — though, alas ! fallen ourselves, we have 

 cursed them. 



It is sad enough that all these creatures have scented 



