Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1842-06-16

distended them into cataracts OF passion
making havoc of the element Of poetry
Curious and expectant youth rushes into
the neighborhood of this Niagara Of pas
sion and Of song, whose sullen, dizzying
deafening thunders, stun his ears TO ths
gentle voices OF the dove, and the wooing'
Of Wordsworth are unheard.
To make a hero of passion, is bu! to
win our pity or admiration, il not our love
for the vicious and Byron has only made
true the words Of Pope,
ave first endure, then pity, then embrace,
:" The violent and outrageous stimulants
oil frantic novels, and Of idle and extrava.
giant stories in verse;" the monstrous births
Of satanic inspiration, do but give US false
notions Of life-bearing the imagination
away from this earth, and from the bro.
therhood Of flesh and blood, and giving us
countenances too lofty to see the good
that is, for
Wisdom is oft times nearer when we stoop,
Than when we soar"
But the human mind, in its humility, is
of itself, independent Of these gross stlmu-
lants, capable of excitement; and that
from its own inherent activity, and is the
result Of a sympathy which exists between
it and whatever is friendly to the develop.
ment Of its nature and dignity-the result
of its longngs aud gaspings after what
ever it admires and loves. This activity
this excitement is its life, and what
stamps it with heaven born nobility
This activitv-thse excitement, il IS, which
makes it not ashamed to strike lis roots
deeper and deeper. into the mysteries OF
the universe, watered by the streams of
salvation, and sends its head ever tower
ing to the skies.
A writer in Blackwood, speaking OF
ColeriGge, as poet, who has been faith
ful to his calling on earth, who has not
profaned the God-given strength by MAX
ing it subservient to unworthy or unhal-
lowed ends, nor kindled any portion of the
sacred fire upon the affairs Of impurity or
superstition !" though "genius end ina.
gination do not save their possessors from
SIM" says nevertheless, "that genius and
Imagination can beautiiy even virtue. -
More fa!sehood than poetry in that thought!
While we think what Byron and Shelley
were without virtue, and what they might
have been with her; let US lift our hearts
in thankfulness to him in whose hands are
the hearts OF all mcn, that virtues spirit
ualizing power made Coleridge what he
was. and Wordsworth, his master, what
he is.
Ii was the PRIDE Of Byron's genius,
disdaining the comforting, tranquilizlng
and sanctifying influence Of heavenly
grace, that impelled him from his flaming
orbit; so that he rushed along a msan-
thropic, n-burning comet, jostling
his solitary way among the spheres oil
heaven, until with frantic, impious bound,
he dashed against the throne of the eter.
nal, and recoiled from the impact crush
ed world of ruined feeling!
Imagination thus inflated with pride,
luxuriates in region, hostile to human So
ciety, for then in a " frenzy" she
Bodies forth.
The forms Of things unknown,
Turns then to shapes, and gives to airy nothing:
A local habitation and name"
She introduces us to the society Of these
existencies Of shadowy Immortality, whose
marvellous natures mysteriousiy cheat US
into a faith in the being Of such a state Of
things as reason and experience never
knew, and which deluded Hope, sigh she
ever so fondly, can never realize. And
because not realized, the soul becomes sick
of her existence and because nature anc
human society have not gratfied desires
and met expectations, which from theIl
very constitution they could never have
created i; and because she is too blind to
see tina, she is self-deceived, she charges
them with being her deceivers and eartt
becomes the grave of all her bliss.
But when Imagination takes the hand o
heaven bowed humility, and walks with
man, she is his wartnest friend. Faitf
lends her vision which glances from eartf
to heaven, piercing not presumptuously
even up to God himself; and her most de
lightful duty is ever to ascend and descent
that ladder OF communication which has
been restored between this and the uppe
world. Philosophy, instead of binding
her by sophistry, removes the veil which
ignorance and superstition have drawn
over the universe, and she no longer dim
ly discerns in the clouds and misty light
troops of malignant spirits, but sees, al
with microscope, each atom Pregnan
with the wisdom and love of Omnipoience
and reads with astonishment that there Il
nothing too mean TO be the object OF hei
handy work, which it required the Majcs
~ of heaven to create. She discovers
that her most worthy, beautiful and sub
lime objects, are the moral and religious
sentime nts, and natural affections OF man
for these are they which make him akir
TO Deity and these too she finds in al
their native freshness, vigor and lowell
ness, in the despised, but christianzet
walks of humble life. No longer wishing
the feelings Of man, as well as the exter
nal world to be entirely passive under he'
hand that she may compound tempting VI
ands for our equity passions, she joys tina
she is able in all her creations still
ITO justify the ways of God to man"
Rest with the companionship of Faitt
and meek-eyed Hope, she completes The
happy trio, whose plastic hands mould into
hailowed shapes the gentle forms of earth
and animate them with their own pure
s,;r;t which breathes of friendship and O