desert and render with melody the silence of night it may be said that in this busy world there is little employment for the imagination � little scope for the exercise of poetical associations i grant � for i am compelled to do that poetry should be out of our working world to make room for machinery but i see no reason why the same train of thought and course of reasoning should not be carried on i grant that the materials are different but why should we not still endeavour to raise an altar in our minds for a higher worship than that of the of this world why should we fix our attention solely upon the material part of the universe satisfying ourselves with the names of substantial things with their variety and properties why should we confine ourselves to counting the pillars in the temple of nature its magnitude and measuring its height without referring all our calculations through the highest range of imagination to the wonder working power of the great habits and of it may be said that we dwell too much in cities and lead too artificial a life to be able to perceive the of divine wisdom in all the events that pass beneath our observation if this be the case there is the more need that we should rouse ourselves by fresh efforts to penetrate beyond the polished surface of the world in which we live into the deeper mysteries that lie beyond � there is the more need that we should endeavour to perceive in the practical affairs of busy life those great principles by which the laws of nature are governed and the system o� the universe if for instance we live in the heart of a thickly peopled city with the rush of its busy multitudes around us and the labour of man s hand and the efforts of his ingenuity perpetually before our eyes there is no reason why we should look only at the splendour of its amuse our fancy with the outward aspect of its varied of art or regard with disgust the occupations of the because he handles the raw material and touches what is gross would it not be more consistent with the exercise of an enlightened mind to contemplate the wonders of that power which the creator has to the use of man so that he lays hold as it were of the elements of nature and makes them submit to his will night falls not with stillness and repose upon the city but we walk as through a living blaze and shall we pass on like children pleased with the glitter and the show without reflecting that man has been able to convert the darkest substance from the of the earth into the very source of all this light mountains and valleys tracts of women of england land and floods of between us and our distant friends but we fly to them with a rapidity which a few years ago would have been pronounced even by impossible and shall we move like senseless matter even through the very heart of the mountain calculating only the speed at which we travel without to the momentous fact that by the ingenuity of man mere as it is for its weakness and in the creation has been converted into the master power by which the mighty operations of men are carried on we take our daily walks through the bustling city and gaze at the splendid of taste and learn the names of those who are most skilled in music and painting and all the sister arts and we speak in the cant terms that are most in and think we display superiority of mind and intelligence to use them well but should we not at the same time cultivate the habit of bearing in remembrance the principles of beauty and of referring back to them whatever is to our admiration in the form of art we speak of the degrading cares and sordid views that occupy the working world but how have we endeavoured to pass beyond these and to connect them with the world of thought we hear of the vast amount of labour carried on and the relative expenses incurred and the things that can be made and done within a given time but why should we not sometimes make a transition of thought from the material to the means of working it � from the means to the power � and from the power that is imparted to the creator who to day the habits and of his busy tools to morrow his hand may have become rigid and motionless beneath the stroke of death thousands and of thousands pass away from the scene of their labours but the labour still goes on for the laws of nature change not and the principles upon which the labour of man is carried into effect remain the same we are too apt because we mingle in and busy scenes and feel the necessity of moving with the tide to forget that what we see and hear what is obvious to the senses and palpable to the touch is not all that we live for or even all that we live amongst we should endeavour to find breathing times even amidst the hurry and the rush of present things we should sometimes pause amongst the multitude and listen mentally to the beating of the mighty pulse of a tumultuous city and ask whether the creator and of this living mass is not beholding the operation of the various powers he has set in motion marking its defects supplying its and the whole we should then be enabled to perceive something of the working of the inner plan how one class of human beings depends upon another � how the principles of justice establish and counter so that no single power shall be how poverty 