were the vast old sea even the deep of its dread bosom seemed to swell the higher as if by the emotions of the song thus the world assumed another and a better aspect from the hour that the poet blessed it with his happy eyes the creator had bestowed him as the last best touch to his own creation was i not finished till the poet came to interpret and so com it the was no less high and beautiful when his human brethren were the subject of his verse the man or woman sordid with the common dust of life who crossed his daily path and the little child who played in it were if he beheld them in his mood of poetic faith he showed the golden links of the great chain that them with an kindred he brought out the hidden traits of a celestial birth that made them worthy of such kin some indeed there the great stone face were who thought to show the of their judgment by that all the beauty and dignity of the natural world existed only in the poet s fancy let such men speak for themselves who undoubtedly appear to have been forth by nature with a contemptuous bitterness she h� them up out of her refuse stuff after all the swine were made as respects all things else the poet s ideal was the truest truth the songs of this poet found their way to he read them after his customary toil seated on the bench before his cottage door where for such a length of time he had filled his repose with thought by gazing at the great stone face and now as he read that caused the soul to thrill within him he lifted his eyes to the vast countenance beaming on him so o majestic friend he murmured addressing the great stone face is not this man worthy to resemble thee the face seemed to smile but answered not a word now it happened that the poet though he dwelt so far away had not only heard of but had meditated much upon his character until he deemed nothing so desirable as to meet this man whose wisdom walked hand in hand with the noble simplicity of his life one summer morning therefore he took passage by the railroad and in the decline of the afternoon alighted from the cars at no great distance from s cottage � the great hotel which had formerly been the palace of mr was close at hand but the poet with his carpet bag on his arm inquired at once the great stone face where dwelt and was resolved to be accepted as his guest approaching the door he there found the good old man holding a volume in his hand which alternately he read and then with a finger between the leaves looked lovingly at the great stone face good evening said the poet can you give a traveller a night s lodging willingly answered and then he added smiling i never saw the great stone face look so at a stranger the poet sat down on the bench beside him and he and talked together often had the poet held intercourse with the and the wisest but never before with a man like whose thoughts and feelings up with such a natural freedom and who made great truths so familiar by his simple utterance of them angels as had been so often said seemed to have wrought with him at his labor in the fields angels seemed to have sat with him by the fireside and dwelling with angels as friend with friends he had the of their ideas and it with the sweet and lowly charm of household words so thought the poet and on the other hand was moved and agitated by the living images which the poet flung out of his mind and which peopled all the air about the cottage door with shapes of beauty both gay and pensive the sympathies of these two men instructed them with a sense than either could have attained alone their minds accorded into one strain and made delightful music which neither of them could have claimed as all his own nor distinguished his own share stone face from the other s they led one another as it were into a high of their thoughts so remote and hitherto so dim that they had never entered it before and so beautiful that they desired to be there always as listened to the poet he imagined that the great stone face was bending forward to listen too he gazed earnestly into the poet s glowing eyes who are you my strangely gifted guest he said the poet laid his finger on the volume that had been reading you have read these poems said he you know me then � for i wrote them again and still more earnestly than before examined the poet s features then turned towards the great stone face then back with an uncertain aspect to his guest but his countenance fell he shook his head and sighed wherefore are you sad inquired the poet because replied all through life i have awaited the fulfilment of a prophecy and when i read these poems i hoped that it might be fulfilled in you you hoped answered the poet faintly smiling to find in me the likeness of the great stone face and you are disappointed as formerly with mr and old blood and thunder and old stony yes it is my doom you must add my name to the illustrious three and record another failure of your hopes for � in shame and sadness do i speak it � i am not worthy to be by yonder and majestic image the � at face and why asked he pointed to the volume � are not those thoughts divine they have a strain of the divinity 