The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-28 00:00:00

This question has been asked in all ages, and its
many answers haze puzzled most honest persons so
much that they give it up as a matter beyond their
comprehension, made only for the double-distilled
essence of humanity existing amongst a few refined
spirits, whose sphere lies somewhere very far out of
the earthly tabernacle inhabited by "common clay."
Poetry is the life of nature; we could not live with-
out it ; and therefore it is right that none—the most
simple or even brutal—should imagine it belongs not
to them. When I speak thus, I mean those simple
elements of which poetry makes the glorious com-
pound; the ideas of comparison and harmony, for
these I take to be the first principles of.poetry, what-
ever else is embodied with them. Memory is a
powerful agent in the vital elixir of poetry. What
mother that has lost an infant in the bloom of its
beauty, has rot recalled its im.:ge to her mind ;
thought of it and fancied a resemblance between it
and some other child, or sour lovely picture ? And
why does she L;ok on such., child w i• 11 ioterest, and
Fe, k egerly to hing the picture on her wall ? It is
the memory of her lore; but more—it is the power of
the imagination, by which she can !-ee, in that %%hid)

is pre+iit, the image of that which is not.
Why does the poor man love, on the quiet Sab-
bath, a walk in the fields ? Whence springs the
exclamation, even from business man and labourer,
" What a fine day ; I am glad of it ?" These are
indications that the harmony of light and form is
pleasing to the mini, which, involuntarily, feels and
enjoys it. The very dogs and horses love the sun-
shine; and to man, who can comprehend a wider
range of beauty, it brings happiness and peace. Man
never feels lonely in the sunshine, because his mind
grows full; the scene around awakens a world of
comparison, and he sees and thinks more of Nature's
relationship.
Poetry is a stage of natural education. It is
awakened by what is mysterious and unknown, and
by the heart's yearnings to pierce this mystery ; and
thus, to express its impressions thereof, it flies to com-
parison with something familiar; it sees the connect-
ing links of creation and binds great things with
small. Therefore, this poetry is truth; it is, to the
growing mind, the electric stream which 'flows
through God's great universe. The teacher, in
explaining to his pupil something new, illustrates it
with the well-known objects and incidents of the
papil's life, because the mind seeks comparison, to
know a great many.results from a few principles—to
picture the image of what is unknown in that which
is familiar. What more beautiful embodiment of a
child's idea, opening to it the path of rising thought,
than the old, but exquisite verse—
" Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Lihe a diamond in the shy !"

Here is poetry springing out of wonder, beauty,
and asscciation. This poetry has a holy office: it
seeks to point out the real position and relationship of
all things in nature. When the poet said, " Night
put her mantle on, and pinned it with a star," we saw
at once a picture, we saw the boundless space, with
its rolling worlds, far more strikingly than by a cal-
culation of miles in millions. And when God's
prophet declared that, " Ile weigheth the hills in a
balance; He measureth the waters in the hollow of
his hand ;" he brought before our awe-struck minds
this little earth as it is, amid the vast creation spring-
ing from that " light unapproachable," which made
and guardeth all; as an almost imperceptible ray of
the glory of His work. And when a modern bard
said that the sun's most gorgeous light shed on the
leafless hills was " But his living shadow there," what
a glorious idea of the immortal One rises in the mind.
But pass we this height of poetic fancy ; we see the
same elements in the joke, the song, the simple
description by which we place each other in the
scenes where we have been : the power is merely
directed by the character and education of the indi-
vidual. however coarse the spontaneous comparison
may be, it is an idea.
Imagination means a combining of the atoms of
things we know, into new forms, so as to present an
image. The story and the pun spring from this same
source; its course is shaped by our sentiments, our
passions, our love of grave or gay, sublime or severe,
embodied by the power of language. The poet's
passions may not be stronger than other men's; but
his perceptions are, altogether, more highly strung.
He has seen deeper into Nature's secret; and the
delicacy of his reflection is shed on all he touches, and
gilds all thought and feeling with a magic beauty,
which startles minds less finely wrought. The poet's
quick imagination joins one object with another,
owns their relation to those intangible ideas which
move in his own brain ; and, 'twist spirit and matter,
he weaves a glorious combination, whose result is
perfect beauty ; and beauty comes alone of truth—it
is perfection—it is God's own making; and, in know-
ing nature, we know the full harmony of God.
Poetry belongs to the youth of the mind, it is the

illustration by -which we know the unknown; th!
silken cord which draws U 3 up to Heaven ; tho steady
star in the Est which guides us on to where lies
cradled the form of happiness—as simple as a little
child.

Yet inasmuch as poetry is the lamp to truth, it is
not yet full-lighted, but shall go on, guiding human
life with clearer flame until Time shall be no more.

It stands on the cuhninating point of this great life.
intricacy ; pointing clearly to where the simple:prin-
ciples of glorious n Ortdity burn fixed and holy ; and
by this light alone we read them. E. M. S.