To the view which has now been taken of the object and necessity of that part of our constitution through which we are liable to moral or punitory suffering, it will probably be objected, as in the analogous case of physical pains, that if the Creator had seen fit, he might so have adjusted the active principles of our nature, às to have rendered a violation of the moral laws impossible, and the penalties by which they are sanctioned unnecessary.

But this sort of objection, we have already seen, has no manner of bearing upon the design of our argument, nor has it in itself much weight, to whatever opinion it be opposed. A full examination of it would lead to a repetition of much concerning the nature of spirit, which has already been stated concerning the constitution of matter. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that we believe the human mind to be wholly incapable of forming the conception of a finite moral agent, constituted with desires, by the gratification of which his happiness is to be created, and placed in a world full of conflicting interests, without, at the same time, supposing in the being a liability to moral transgression; that the operation of an ability in the Creator to have formed such an agent, is an assumption wholly unsupported by fact, and that, for reasons already suggested, if regarded merely as a supposition, it not only conflicts with the other acknowledged attributes of God, but is also contrary to every analogy derived from the works which he has made.

Moreover, a reference of the subject to the general feelings of mankind would, we think, bring us to the same conclusion. In making such an appeal, it would be necessary to select those persons, as representatives of the race, in whom the moral sentiments are most fully developed, and also to take them at a time when these sentiments are in the highest activity. Now, à belief that God has so arranged the present system of things as to make it as favorable to the happiness of all his sensitive creatures as the nature of the case rendered possible, will, we think, be universally found more congenial to the feelings of such persons, under such circumstances, than the idea that he has unnecessarily constituted our world so as to involve a liability to moral and physical evil, and has thus voluntarily introduced to it all the pain and misery which have actually flowed from it.

The former view of the subject is, we think, also more favorable to the cultivation of right moral feelings in our own

bosoms. We readily submit with penitence and resignation to the evils which infinite and omniscient goodness has seen necessary for our preservation. Moreover, beholding all around us, and all within us, radiant with divine beneficence, we not only feel it our duty, but we love to do all in our power for the general promotion of happiness, and esteem it our highest privilege that we are permitted to have a part in carrying forward the plans of a Being so gloriously benevolent. And if, instead of regarding this world as an inferior production of divine power, we consider what a system of things it really is, how vast in its comprehension, and how minute in its parts, composed of elements in themselves discordant, and yet every where pervaded by harmony, continually liable to the evils arising from disorder, and yet constantly pouring forth a deep and measureless stream of happiness, we fall down in adoration of the goodness which planned a scheme of such benevolence, we admire the wisdom which devised the means of its accomplishment, and our minds are overwhelmed with astonishment at the power which was necessary to carry it into effect. Besides, he who has arrived at the interesting conviction, that all the arrangements with which the Creator has filled his universe are intended for the good of his sensitive creatures, will love habitually to contemplate the works of nature, so far as they fall within the sphere of his observation, with reference to the designs of their great Author. Studying, with devout attention, the various systems by which he is surrounded, he will gradually arrive at a knowledge of their several objects, and become acquainted with the archetypes upon which they are constituted, until, at length, he rises to communion in his intellectual as well as his moral nature, with the great Father of the universe. His philosophy thus becoming the handmaid to his piety, every advance in knowledge "will be subservient to a more exalted faith, and in proportion as the veil becomes thinner through which he sees the causes of things, he will admire more the brightness of the divine light by which they are rendered visible." And, in the language of the eloquent Paley, "the world will thenceforth become a temple, and life itself one continued act of adora

tion."

ARTICLE II.

AMERICAN POETRY.

The Poetical Works of RICHARD H. DANA, WILLIAM C. BRYANT, Mrs. SIGOURNEY, and Miss H. F. GOULD.

THE honored names which we have placed at the head of this article indicate our intention to make a few remarks on poetry,-American poetry. Let it not, however, be thought, that such a theme can be discussed as it deserves to be within the limits of a Review; or that we shall attempt any thing beyond a rapid glance at some of the higher uses and purposes to which poetry may be applied.

Rousseau has observed, that "with whatever talent a man may be born, the art of writing is not easily obtained." If this remark is true of all kinds of composition, how much more so of poetry, which is confessedly the most difficult of all; and how pardonable the praise, which has bestowed on the combined virtue, and talent, and labor, which are capable of producing it in perfection, the appellation of divine.

What is poetry? Various are the answers which have been given to this question; whether satisfactory or not, we shall not stop to determine. Taking but one view of the subject, we shall venture to give a definition of our own, as the basis of our reflections. And we shall call it that production of genius, which contains, embodied in verse, whatever is remarkable and instructive, either in the objects of vision or of faith, in a manner best adapted to awaken the power of virtue in the human soul. Perhaps this is sufficiently comprehensive for our purpose. We are anxious to show, that virtue and religion are essential elements in this difficult and sublime art. "The noblest benefits and delights of poetry," says an admirable critic on Hayley's Life of Cowper, "can be but rarely produced, because all the requisites for producing them so seldom meet. A vivid mind and happy imitative power may enable a poet to form glowing pictures of virtue, and almost produce in himself a short-lived enthusiasm of goodness. But although

even these transient and factitious movements of mind may serve to produce grand and delightful effusions of poetry, yet when the best of these are compared with the poetic productions of a genuine lover of virtue, a discerning judgment will scarcely fail to mark the difference. A simplicity of conception and expression; a conscious and therefore unaffected dignity; an instinctive adherence to sober reason, even amid the highest flights; an uniform justness and consistency of thought; a glowing yet temperate ardor of feeling; a peculiar felicity both in the choice and combination of terms, by which even the plainest words acquire the truest character of eloquence, and which is rarely to be found, except where a subject is not only intimately known, but cordially loved ;-these, I conceive, are the features peculiar to a real votary of virtue, and which must, of course, give to his strains a perfection of effect never to be attained by the poet of inferior moral endowments."

In defining poetry, therefore, to be an art which awakens the power of virtue in the soul, it is equally clear, that virtue is essential to the production of good poetry; or, in other words, that poetry and religion are the mutual helpers of each other. They have, it is true, been frequently forced to an unnatural separation; and that which was designed as the handmaid to piety, has been perverted to its abuse. In the hands of the weak and unskilful, it has been degraded; among the mere dreamy votaries of romance, it has been exposed to ridicule; with the licentious, it has been defiled. But these might very appropriately be addressed in the words of the Roman poet, "Procul, O procul, este profani."

The Muse will not acknowledge them as worshippers at her shrine; she will not afford them shelter, nor ought they to be dignified with her name. It is sacrilegious to obtrude with rashness or impurity on her consecrated ground. She may be profaned, but she cannot honor the injury. Her choicest inspirations descend only on the good, and are, indeed, only inspirations, when found in beautiful and harmonious union with goodness.

"Poet and saint, to them are justly given,

The two most sacred names of earth and heaven."

The position which we have thus assumed may seem strange to those who have been accustomed to place reliance on the opinions of those great critics, who have asserted, that contem

plative piety cannot be poetical, and that religious themes are unfit for the exercise of poetic talent. These opinions have been, we believe, fully and repeatedly refuted; and, contradicted as they are both by theory and by fact, we can only wonder, that they should ever have been entertained.

What are the sources of poetry? Nature, teeming with the evidences of God. Life, whose sad and mysterious harmonies appeal to all the deepest and holiest sympathies of the human soul. Religious faith, which only the pure in heart can comprehend. What influences nourish and minister to its spirit, but those arising from the vast, the beautiful, the spiritual and the eternal? What works contain the best specimens of its power? We answer, unhesitatingly, those which are most imbued with the love of truth and piety. Who are those who have met with the most distinguished success in this department of literature? Unquestionably, those who have been most fervently religious; who have held most converse with God, in his word and in his works; who have entered most deeply into the plan and spirit of goodness on which he acts; and who have most feared, loved and adored his character. What names form so beautiful a constellation of moral worth, in the hemisphere of genius, as those of Milton, and Cowper, and Coleridge, and White, and Pollock, and Hemans, and Montgomery? Where are minds which have been so deeply baptized in the spirit of intellectual and religious contemplation? What is the testimony of one of these upon this very subject? Religion is the poetry and philosophy of all mankind. It unites in itself whatever is excellent in either, and while it, at one and the same time, calls into action, and supplies with the noblest materials, both the imagination and the intellective faculties, superadds the interests of the most substantial and homefelt reality to both,-to the poetic vision, and the philosophic idea."* And again, says the same author, "I can truly affirm of myself, that my studies have been profitable and availing to me, only so far as I have endeavored to use all my other knowledge as a glass, enabling me to receive more light in a wider field of vision from the word of God." Can we then doubt, that poetry derives its value and its power from the vivid perceptions of religion, or suppose that any thing else but the faith of the gospel can promote its freedom, purity and perfection?

Coleridge's second Lay Sermon, + Appendix to the first Lay Sermon.