NATUEE AND HER HARMONIES. 
61 
be traced to tlie unceasing antagonism of tliese two opposite 
elements of man's nature. Each successive generation marks 
the victorious progress of the spiritual in the declension of 
mere animal bulk ; the more delicate and sensitive texture 
of nervous tissue, and greater frontal development, a falling 
off in the actual numerical span of life, but a corresponding 
accession in that which constitutes its true measurement — the 
number, variety and intensity of emotions and thoughts — in 
short, an every-day and increasing recognition of all higher 
truths. 
Men are beginning now to appreciate the true offices of Im- 
agination, and to separate them from the monstrous and un- 
natural paternity of mere machine rhyming ! and to know 
and feel that 
" A drainless shower 
Of light is Poesy ! 'Tis the Supreme Power — 
'Tis might half slumbering on its own right arm. 
The very arching of its eye-lids charm 
A thousand willing agents to obey ; 
And still she governs with the mildest sw^ay !" 
Now, while we write, in a retired corner of the great city, 
at a late hour of the night, there is an entire lull of the rum- 
ble of dray, hack and omnibus wheels, and the glance of the 
large-eyed moon reflexes coldly from the white cathedral 
spire that copples sharp in the distance before our window. 
It ought to be the hour of profound repose — when the puls- 
ings of this mighty heart should be quiet. 
It ought to be, but is it so? We hear through the open 
windows of the marble palace opposite the favorite air of 
" Miss Lucy Long," fashionably parodied — and a cultivated, 
clear, manly voice accompanies the soft, shrill treble of some 
fair warbler. In the street beneath, an unwashed, ragged 
loafer whistles a vehement " third," and thrums the interlude 
with his bare heels upon a pine box, which will probably be 
his roosting-place for the night ! 
