ensive
knowledge of natural laws. No man was ever yet a _great_ poet without
being at the same time a profound philosopher, for Poetry is the blossom
and fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions,
and human emotions. The poet must have the ability to observe things as
they really are, in order to depict them with accuracy, unchanged by any
passion in the mind of the describer, whether the things to be depicted
are actually present to the senses, or have a place only in the memory.

Nature may be regarded either as the home of man, and consequently
associated with all the phases of his existence; or as an assemblage of
symbols, manifesting the thoughts of the Creator. In accordance with the
first view, the poet may give it its place in the different scenes of
human life, animated with our passions, sympathizing with us, and
expressing our feelings; in the second, he must try to interpret this
divine language, to seize the idea gleaming through the veil of the
material envelope, for there is an established harmony between material
nature and intellectual. Every thought has its reflection in a visible
object which repeats it like an echo, reflects it like a mirror,
rendering it sensible first to the senses by the visible image, then to
the thought by the thought.

Genius is the instinct of discovering some more of the words in this
divine language of universal analogies, the key of which God alone
possesses, but some portions of whose stores he sometimes deigns to
unclose for man. Therefore in earlier times the Prophet, an inspired
poet; and the poet, an uninspired prophet--were both considered holy.
They are now looked upon as insane or useless; and indeed, this is but a
logical consequence of the so-called _utilitarian_ views. If only the
material and palpable part of nature which may be calculated, percented,
turned into gold, or made to minister to sensual pleasures, is to be
regarded with interest; if the lessons of the harvest, with its 'good
seed and tares,' and the angels, its reapers; the teachings of the
sparrow and the Divine Love which watched over them; the grass and the
lilies of the field clothed in splendor by their Creator, are to awaken
neither hope nor fear--then men are right in despising those who
preserve a deep reverence for moral beauty; the idea of God in his
creation; and respect the language of images, the mysterious relations
between the visible and invisible worlds. Is i