52 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIEDS. 
Jewels, silks, "the pouncet box," and music! Dirt, vice, 
tatters, wretchedness, and music! Silence — over the jang- 
ling roar of trampling, rushing, striving men — ^lifted up into 
a Presence Godlike, "walking the clear billows of sweet 
sound." What contrasts ! O thou Omnipotence of Music ! 
Majestic soother ! — before whose smile the fiery mane of 
Storms, careering thunder-hoofed along the mountains of 
the world, is laid ! — whose touch has 
^' Smoothed 
The raven down of Darkness till it smiled ! 
Thou voice of God's Love I how beneficent art thou ! All 
pleasant objects, natures, forms, are tones of thee ! Moon- 
light is the silver tone of thy calm, radiant blessing— and 
" Oldest shades 'mong oldest trees 
Feel palpitations when thou lookest in. 
O Moon ! old boughs lisp forth a holier din 
The while they feel thine airy fellowship. 
Thou dost bless everywhere, with silver lip 
Kissing dead things to life. The sleeping kine, 
Oouch'd in thy brightness, dream of fields divine : 
Innumerable mountains rise, and rise, 
Ambitious for the hallowing of thine eyes ; 
And yet thy benediction passeth not 
One obscure hiding-place, one little spot 
Where pleasure may be sent : the nested wren 
Has thy fair face within its tranquil den, 
And from beneath a sheltering ivy leaf 
Takes glimpses of thee ; thou art a relief 
To the poor patient oyster, where it sleeps 
Within its pearly house." 
Ay ! and that poor human oyster — the Loafer from out 
his motley painted shell of filth and rags " takes glimpses of 
thee ! The largess of thy benediction falleth over him ! The 
fellow is happy there, and his whistle is as blithesome as the 
