bare faculty
of sight involves thought and feeling. The symbol which the fancy
spontaneously constructs, implies a whole world of truth or error, of
superstitious beliefs or sound philosophy. The poetry holds a number of
intellectual dogmas in solution; and it is precisely due to these
general dogmas, which are true and important for us as well as for the
poet, that his power over our sympathies is due. If his philosophy has
no power in it, his emotions lose their hold upon our minds, or interest
us only as antiquarians and lovers of the picturesque. But in the
briefest poems of a true thinker we read the essence of the life-long
reflections of a passionate and intellectual nature. Fears and hopes
common to all thoughtful men have been coined into a single phrase. Even
in cases where no definite conviction is expressed or even implied, and
the poem is simply, like music, an indefinite utterance of a certain
state of the emotions, we may discover an intellectual element. The
rational and the emotional nature have such intricate relations that one
cannot exist in great richness and force without justifying an inference
as to the other. From a single phrase, as from a single gesture, we can
often go far to divining the character of a man's thoughts and feelings.
We know more of a man from five minutes' talk than from pages of what is
called 'psychological analysis.' From a passing expression on the face,
itself the result of variations so minute as to defy all analysis, we
instinctively frame judgments as to a man's temperament and habitual
modes of thought and conduct. Indeed, such judgments, if erroneous,
determine us only too exclusively in the most important relations of
life.

Now the highest poetry is that which expresses the richest, most
powerful, and most susceptible emotional nature, and the most versatile,
penetrative, and subtle intellect. Such qualities may be stamped upon
trifling work. The great artist can express his power within the limits
of a coin or a gem. The great poet will reveal his character through a
sonnet or a song. Shakespeare, or Milton, or Burns, or Wordsworth can
express his whole mode of feeling within a few lines. An ill-balanced
nature reveals itself by a discord, as an illogical mind by a fallacy. A
man need not compose an epic on a system of philosophy to write himself
down an ass. And, inversely, a great mind and a noble nature may show
itself by impalpable but recognisable signs with