The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-05

without pine hees-notbing but lcbimneys-for
II to enter, there will be no need OF a protest
seanst n aterialism. What external observer OF
our planet could think that lts gaseous envelope
was the spring not only OF almost half its com
merce, but of almost half It's art aud poetry as
welR Yet you cannot only trace the influence
OF The atmosphere on art, but of the very sound
of the sea and wind on the poets rhythms. III
the recurring hexameter is a partial imitation
OF slowly washing wave, the ode would seem
TO ne an attempt TO recover the hslfregular
lrreguIariiy OF the wiDd's cadences. Tuts
is, we suspect, why the ode is SO often
resorted TO by poets in any attempt 10 touch the
cbord OF infinite desires, as by Wordsworth IN
the ode on the "Intimatious OF immortality and
The Power of sounon TO which last 1t is egi-
uently specially appropriately, or Gray when he
lstry'Ig 10 DuGy forth that halfsob of memory
with which luen are apt to look back on the
dehned and Wild joys and sorrows OF childhood
In his ode to Eton College; or Lowell when he is
attempting 10 connect the vague ideals of q
young and buoyant people with the fiery trials
OF civil war. In his fue Commemoration Ode.
we have heard the moaning of the wind in the
cnlmneys OF old, and not unfrequently new
houses spoken OF as sounding like the voice of
"a thousand years ago;' and something, no
calculated to express the sense OF loss, and of
obligation, and of desolatioD, without any
particle OF immediate po wer, though the
most potent Of foroes in fulI Ine action 'ae at
the very moment. Nothing is more curious than
the effect produced upon the mini by the wash
OF bne waves ana the blowing OF the wind in
hollow places. II cannot be association which
gives both sounds their air of mytsic dreaminess,
OF vain lamentatoD, or melancholy desire. Both
sea and wind ale potent enough and practical
enough to make the men who specially devote
themselves to using and breastng their power
hard, keen, daring, rugged. Yet the sound of
the sea on the shore and the wind roaring
through the house suggests anything but daring
and enterDrise. Ii 1t suggests danger and ship.
wreck.-tbat is by association, and because9we
know that shipwrecks come OF waves and winds;
directly 1t does not suggest danger or struggle.
but rather
"Old unhappy far of things,
And trials long ago."
and this can only be because there are certain
sounds adapted OF themselves to recall certain
moods of thought, and which have not gained
their power to do so by association. This is
true Of all music. But the special expressive
power OF high moaning wind seems to be TO
notes melancholy in themselves-into a volume
great pastaway world complaining of its fate
or its oblivion. Ifit is strange enough-as tits
that solid food growing out of the earth should
supply human organizations with nervous
power to perceive and feel, it is at least as
strange that few gases ranged round the earth,
the more immediate object of which seems to
be to oxidlze our food in the lungs, and to pro-
vide currents which ventilate our planets sur
face, should In addition have the extraordinary
power OF supplying us with a medium for
Speech a natural music, and an inarticuate
language of EMOTION London Spectator.