136 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
but effects referable to ripplings or waving of the air. 
So far, sound is but a simple result of natural causes—a 
plain prose fact. But as the grey and brown tints of the 
earth are lifted out of the region of prose into that of 
poetry by the gay hues of flowers, so is human speech, 
and all other sounds, lifted out of the dead level of mere 
utility into a region of life by a poetry which asserts 
itself in song. God has so willed it that while the world 
brings forth bread for the body, it shall bring forth 
beauty for the soul. We prize the com because it 
nourisheth; we love the fresh green of the waving 
wheat because it is a thing of beauty. Words are instru¬ 
ments of power, and among the highest in the list of 
mere utilities; but when the jangle of commerce ceases, 
and the tender utterance of sympathy begins, how poor 
the words of the mind, how rich the music of the heart! 
Nature ever climbs up towards the spiritual; she never 
ceases with use, she must have beauty ; and so she gives 
man a capacity for the appreciation of harmonious vibra¬ 
tions; and speech dies out—as if in shame at its own 
weakness—where the expression of the soul begins. 
Simple in its source—simple in its history, is this fact; 
yet how deep it lies in the unity of this circle of the 
affections—how closely bound up with the hopes and 
joys of living men—how suggestive of spiritual life and 
high aspiration—how strong a link in the chain of our 
destinies. The most ethereal and at the same time the 
most vague musical expressions, stand as high above 
verse, as verse—the connecting link between conversation 
and melody—does above mere prosy talking. We re¬ 
member the air of an old song long after we have for- 
