ur
attention to Art. Why should we not learn to excel in Art? We excelled
in Poetry. Our Poets were cited: not that there was a notion that poems
would pay as an export but to show that if we excel in one of the
Arts we may in others of them. The poetry was not cited, nor was it
necessary, the object being to inflate the balloon of paradox with
a light-flying gas, and prove a poem-producing people to be of their
nature born artists; if they did but know it. The explosion of a
particular trade points to your taking up another. Energy is adapted to
flourish equally in every branch of labour.

It is the genius of the will, commanding all the crossroads. A country
breeding hugely must prove its energy likewise in the departments of the
mind, or it will ultimately be unable to feed its young--nay, to feast
its aldermen! Let us be up and alive.--Such was the exhortation of a
profound depression. Outside these dismal assemblies, in the streets,
an ancient song of raven recurrence croaked of 'Old England a-going down
the hill'; for there is a link of electricity between the street-boy and
the leading article in days when the Poles exchange salutations.

Mr. Ezra's legacy of his millions to son and daughter broke like a
golden evening on the borders of the raincloud. Things could not be so
bad when a plain untitled English gentleman bequeathed in the simplest
manner possible such giant heaps, a very Pelion upon Ossa, of wealth to
his children. The minds of the readers of journals were now directed
to think of the hoarded treasures of this favoured country. They
might approximately be counted, but even if counted they would be past
conception, like the sidereal system. The contemplation of a million
stupefies: consider the figures of millions and millions! Articles were
written on Lombard Street, the world's gold-mine, our granary of energy,
surpassing all actual and fabulous gold-mines ever spoken of: Aladdin's
magician would find his purse contracting and squeaking in the
comparison. Then, too, the store of jewels held by certain private
families called for remark and an allusion to Sindbad the sailor, whose
eyes were to dilate wider than they did in the valley of diamonds. Why,
we could, if we pleased, lie by and pass two or three decades as jolly
cricketers and scullers, and resume the race for wealth with the rest
of mankind, hardly sensible of the holiday in our pockets though we were
the last people to do it, we were the