The Sea? why leave one-half the world wild-wasting,

If sounds, some day, may traverse rays of light,

When island-rafts, with food around aye And answers be return'd by means as swift Questions may reach as far as human sight,

lasting, O'ercrowded towns would save from want and

foul airs blasting?

and bright.

XXXVIII.

Not ever thus above my doom I soar;

But, ah! too oft this low vault, this stone floor,

The cold rock-hole appear of my life's tideless shore.

XXXIX.

Sometimes I wake, trembling at my strange

state!

Are my mind's tablets like a wiped-out slate,

With the sad sense that once 'twas writ with words of weight?

XL.

Am I myself, or have I changed with time? Like yon poor slug (at best a silvery slime), Or bones in rags of one whose brain-work was a crime?

XLI.

I count these paving-stones' forbidden lore; Oft like an idiot gabble 'em o'er and o'er ; Then planets gleam- thank God! I am my.

self once more.

XLII.

Yes, o'er earth's elements man's spirit brooding,

May gain large mastery (tho' through years eluding),

But now his struggling force old systems are secluding.

XLIII.

The highest civilization's narrow plan
Can ne'er develop Nature's possible man,
Nor Genius guide a world which popes and
priests trapan.

THE LAY OF THE LAST VORTEX-ATOM, 514 URBS ROMA VALE!

514 THE LEAF IN THE BOOK,

574

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Lo! Love comes wandering on the desert way."No more," so sighed he resolving,

From The Quarterly Review.
NATURAL SCENERY.*

Of all the pleasurable feelings, the sources of refreshment and consolation, which we in modern times possess over and above what was possessed by the most favored nations of antiquity, the most remarkable, perhaps, is that which consists in the enjoyment of beautiful scenery. It is a feeling which, were we to judge by superficial appearances only, we should be tempted to call the absolute creation of the last century and a half. Nor would such a judgment be without a measure of truth; for, whatever indications of the love of natural beauty may be found in writers of an earlier date, it is not till about the time of the poet Gray that we find the beginning of the real and continuous growth of this sentiment in the minds of people generally.

determine these points is an interesting, and, as we shall endeavor to show, not wholly unpractical theme, nor one without a bearing on our conduct.

It is true that such questions seldom admit of a perfect intellectual decision. If we are indifferent to an object, or posi tively dislike it, it is out of the question that we should fully appreciate the possibility that at some future day we may follow it with enraptured admiration. Conversely, while we are absorbed and fascinated, we can but scantily enter into the intellectual probabilities for a rever sion into coldness or distaste. Besides, it is characteristic of all deep emotion, that the full compass of it transcends investigation, and only exists under the shade of a certain modesty and reserve.

Still, though we may not be able to give precise proof as to the substantial value The contrast, indeed, between the pres- of natural beauty, effective conviction on ent appreciation of scenery and the neg. the matter may none the less be wrought lect of it in former times, a neglect in our minds. Above all will this be the which in certain respects amounted to case if it should appear that our foredistaste and disgust, has often been dwelt fathers' want of perception was due to upon, and the cause of it has excited no natural though transient causes; to accismall amount of speculation. We are dents which then were powerful, but now enraptured with a glacier, a precipice, a have been removed. We shall then apdark gorge among the mountains; our pear to be eternally and essentially right; ancestors turned away from these same at the same time our forefathers will not objects with shuddering. Can we assume have been wrong in so much of the mat. that we are right and that they were ter as they saw; only their perceptions wrong? Is it a matter of transient, mu- were so clouded as to prevent their gettable taste? Is it possible that our great- ting to the heart of the matter. And so great-grandchildren may go back to the far as the question admits of being anopinion of so many of our great-great-swered in a few words, this we believe is grandfathers? Or will they on the other the true state of the case. hand care nothing at all about the matter, and look upon every piece of ground as worth exactly what it will fetch for agricultural or mineral uses? Do history and literature throw any light upon these questions? Is any parallel change of feeling to that which has taken place here, to be found in other similar subjects? To

Speaking without any attempt at formal precision, we should say that the contemplation of life, beauty, and power on a large scale, is the reason of the delight we take in natural scenery. Life in the trees of the woodland, with their infinitely varied foliage and forms of growth; in the flowers and herbs, whether lying hid in the recesses of the forest, or on the open meadow, or under the clear waves of the river; in the birds that sing in the branches; in the fishes that dart through the waters; in the insects that hum in the air, or move through the stones, sand, and grass at our feet. All these forms of life are at the present day, over a great