Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1833-04-10

The seventh article in the last number Of the
North American Review is a mastery criticism
on that unique work, The Pilgrims PROCESS,
BY a writer who combines the religious views
and high p%oetical power Of Bunyan, with a po-
Iish Of style to which Bunyan was a stran.
ger. This article will be read with great
delight by every lover Of fine composition,
and with the deepest interest BY those who
share the opinions which it processes. We have
seen Of late years few publications to be com.
pared for power of thought and style with the
productions Of the gifted pen to which, as we un-
derstand, this article is attributed. The follow
Jog glowing passage is only a specimen of the
general style:
All truth. to the humble mind. is poetry; spi.
ritual truth is eminently so. We long to witness
a better understanding of ITS sublime laws, an
acknowledgement Of It's great fountain, and a
more worthy appreciation Of its nature; to have
it felt and acknowledged that there is poetry in
this world, only because light from Heaven shines
upon it, because it is full Of hieroglypbics, whose
meaning points to the Eternal World, because
man IS immortal, and this world is only the ha.
bitation of his infancy, and possesses power to
rouse his Imagination only in proportion as It's in.
vested with moral grandeur by his own wonder
full destiny, and by the light reflected down upon
it from the habitation Of angels. al. on earth is
shadow, all in Heauen is substance. Truly, as
well as feeIingIy, did Burke exclaim, : What
shadows We are, and what shadows we pursued
We are encompassed by shadows and fitting ap.
partitions and semi transparencies, that wear the
simiIitude Of greatness. only because they are
near US and interposed between our vision and
the world of eternal reality and light. Man Of
the world, you know not what poetry is. till you
know GoD. and can hail in every created thing
the manifestation of omnipotent Deity.
Look at the highest creations OF art, and
behold how they owe their power over the human
soul to the presence Of the idea Of that Being,
the thought Of whom transfsures the movements
of the Imagination with glory, and makes Ian
puspe itself almost divine! What is it that gives
to Coleridge's Hymn before Sunrise in the
Vale Of Chamouny' the deep, unutterable subll-
nifty, that awes the soul into worship, and sui
fuses the eye with swelling tears? What. but
the thought of Hin, to whose praise that stuPen:.
dous mountain with its sky-pointing peaks, and
robe of silent cataracts, rises like a cloud of
incense from the eafth3'
Mo,ionle,s torrents! silent %cataracts!
who made YOU glorious as the gates Of Heaven
p.peath the keen full moonl Who babe the sun
CIu,he YOU with fsinbows' Who, with living flowers
of loveiest blue, spread g%srlands at your feet
God! let the torrents, like a shout OF nations,
answer! and let the ice plains echo Coo!
And ,hey too have = voice, yon piles Of snow,
And in their pcrilous fall shall thunder, God!
Surely there is a spiritual world, and it is a
world of light and grandeur! Mans relation to
il is the greatest theme, that poet or philosopher
ever vet exercised his powers upon. 1t broods
over him like the day.