Like a soft mist upon the evening shore,

At once a lovely isle before me lay ;
Smooth, and with tender verdure covered o'er,
As if just risen from its calm inland bay;
Sloped each way gently to the grassy edge,
And the small waves that dallied with the sedge.

The barley was just reaped-its heavy sheaves
Lay on the stubble field-the tall maize stood
Dark in its summer growth, and shook its leaves—
And bright the sunlight played on the young wood-
For fifty years ago, the old men say,

The Briton hewed their ancient groves away.

I saw where fountains freshened the green land,
And where the pleasant road, from door to door,
With rows of cherry trees on either hand,

Went wandering all that fertile region o'er-
Rogue's Island once-but, when the rogues were dead,
Rhode Island was the name it took instead,

Beautiful island! then it only seemed

A lovely stranger-it has grown a friend.
I gazed on its smooth slopes, but never dreamed
How soon that bright beneficent isle would send
The treasures of its womb across the sea,
To warm a poet's room and boil his tea.

Dark anthracite! that reddenest on my hearth,
Thou in those island mines didst slumber long,
But now thou art come forth to move the earth,
And put to shame the men that mean thee wrong;
Thou shalt be coals of fire to those that hate thee,
And warm the shins of all that under-rate thee.

Yea, they did wrong thee foully-they who mocked
Thy honest face, and said thou wouldst not burn;
Of hewing thee to chimney-pieces talked,

And grew profane-and swore, in bitter scorn,
That men might to thy inner caves retire,
And there, unsinged, abide the day of fire.

Yet is thy greatness nigh. I pause to state,
That I too have seen greatness-even I-
Shook hands with Adams-stared at La Fayette,
When, barehead in the hot noon of July,

He would not let the umbrella be held o'er him,

For which three cheers burst from the mob before him.

And I have seen-not many months ago

An eastern governor, in chapeau bras And military coat, a glorious show!

Ride forth to visit the reviews, and ah, How oft he smiled and bowed to Jonathan!

How many

hands were shook, and votes were won !

'Twas a great governor-thou too shalt be

Great in thy turn--and wide shall spread thy fame, And swiftly-farthest Maine shall hear of thee,

And cold New-Brunswick gladden at thy name, And, faintly through its sleets, the weeping isle That sends the Boston folks their cod, shall smile.

For thou shalt forge vast rail-ways, and shalt heat
The hissing rivers into steam, and drive
Huge masses from thy mines, on iron feet,
Walking their steady way, as if alive,
Northward, till everlasting ice besets thee,
And south as far as the grim Spaniard lets thee.

Thou shalt make mighty engines swim the sea,
Like its own monsters--boats that for a guinea
Will take a man to Havre-and shalt be

The moving soul of many a spinning jenny,
And ply thy shuttles, till a bard can wear
As good a suit of broadcloth as the mayor.

Then we will laugh at winter when we hear

The grim old churl about our dwellings rave: Thou from that "ruler of the inverted year,'

Shalt pluck the knotty sceptre Cowper gave, And pull him from his sledge, and drag him in, And melt the icicles from off his chin.

Heat will be cheap-a small consideration

Will put one in a way to raise his punch,
Set lemon-trees, and have a cane plantation--
'Twill be a pretty saving to the Lunch.
Then the West India negroes may go play
The banjo, and keep endless holiday.

B.

ON THE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY.

THE following remarks upon the elementary principles of beauty, were written by a person not intimate with the various theories upon this subject, which are contained in a multitude of ancient and modern books, and under circumstances that suggested the thought of beauty by the intimation of contrast, as Rousseau says he formed the conceptions of the fair friends, Julie and Clara, from the presence and conversation of his degraded wife and her mother. If they afford any original views or illustrations of a hacknied subject, they may be interesting to those, particularly, who love to analyze the taste, which, under an infinity of modifications, is allotted to man as the richest luxury and purest refinement of his intellectual being; and which, under the influences of education and habit, is common, in divers measures and degrees, to the young and the old, the rich and the poor. None but the extremely neglected, and extremely corrupted portions of mankind, can look without any discrimination and preference upon all the works of nature, and all the creations of art. All these have their distinctive character, and the eye of every intelligent beholder rests upon each with more or less satisfaction, as his mind has been cultivated and his heart ennobled.

Spiritual, moral, and physical beauty, have all a relation and correspondence. God, who said, let there be light and there was light, who made the fair world and all the stars sang together, is the very origin and centre of beauty. He, and his elements, his designs and their results, comprehend the whole display and the whole sentiment of beauty; if we add to these what is effected by him, "God's image," who is admitted to be worker together with him in all things that exalt and make human life better. Physical beauty, or the beauty of objects which speak to the moral sense through the eye, is always referred to this agency of first and second causes, and in this view may be entirely reduced to simplicity, and to the sentiment of felicity, as perhaps may every species of beauty. A few of the facts which lead to this conclusion, are presented in this short essay.

Simplicity in beauty, consists in the absence of every thing not strictly and properly belonging to the object--as a fine complexion is one of a pure colour, without any, even the least, excrescence or blemish, and in exact fitness, which is a quality of simplicity, of the beautiful thing to its proper uses, when the uses of the thing are the production of pleasure. A woman is a rational, susceptible being, formed to enjoy pleaVOL. II.

50

sures of reason, passion, sympathy, and sense; her perfection consists in the sensibility and improveableness, in the developement and cultivation of every animal, intellectual, and moral attribute of her nature. Health, activity, thought, conscious dignity and benevolence, and that poetic enthusiasm which unites things heavenly with the earthly in the imagination, are the essential qualities of the perfect female; and when these are expressed in the figure and features of any living being, of any statue or picture, if it should indicate the period of maturity anterior to decay, it would be "with perfect beauty adorned."

The associated attribute of a living being of this class, is the expression of wide intelligence, a something which intimates the sense of dignity by comparison and resemblance, and which combines the idea of the beautiful of other ages and countries with the modes of embellishing the person in present fashion. I wish, said a distinguished French woman, that my daughter may know enough of the fine arts, to transfuse the spirit of their gracefulness into her mind and manners, and that the style of her dress, without departing from the customs of her country, may be guided by that elegance which affords models for all countries. This lady certainly understood the art by which her daughter might add the fittest attraction to her natural charms.

In the aspect of a truly beautiful human being, the beholder views a representation of the divine nature: the first fair is surely suggested to the imagination by one little lower than the angels, and who has received its appropriate exterior from the hand of God himself. This beautiful being exhibits the absence of all unworthiness, and the capability of all good-the purity and the power of goodness. The purity is the element of simplicity, the power is the suggestion of felicity; for the power expressed denotes all which sustains, embellishes, consoles, endears, and produces life. This is feminine beauty-genius is not included in it, nevertheless it may be exalted by genius; but this latter attribute, combining in itself high intelligence and powerful energy, superadds to beauty the character of sublimity, and is most suited to the stronger sex, though it is not uncommon in female beauty. A perfectly beautiful man or woman, shows the moral and intellectual perfection of the individual and of the species, and consequently the highest susceptibility of human happiness. The authority of that great master Spenser, may well serve to establish this principle:

"Every spirit as it is most pure, And hath in it the more of heavenly light,

So it the finer body doth procure
To habit in, and is more firmly dight
With cheerful grace and amiable sight;
For of the soul the body form doth take,

For soul is form, and doth the body make."

Whatever applies to the truth of nature, applies to the truth of imitative art-for they are one-so that the moral nature of beauty is as obvious in sculpture and painting as in life, and a moral illustration of one serves for all.

The beauty of the earth's surface, of certain delicate mechanic productions, of the heavens, of distressing objects sometimes, of a fine style in writing, and of declamation, may not seem at first to express, principally, simplicity of design, and the idea of felicity-felicity, either consciously enjoyed, or unconsciously diffused. The latter condition of felicity is that which is proper to inanimate existence only, and which only appertains to the instruments of God's benevolent designs. The beauty of a new country consists in its capability of becoming subservient to the faculties and comfort of man, and in the evidence it affords of its present conduciveness to the enjoyment of innumerable living creatures. Could it be devested of all relation to life, what would it be? In connexion with life, the abundance and variety of its productions illustrate the liberality of God's bounties, and the intelligence, order, and harmony of all his purposes, in which he exhibits his own perfections, and his will to diffuse to all good gifts, which they may richly enjoy. The whole external world expresses happiness-God's happiness in making and giving it, and the happiness of man and the lower animals in accepting it from him. If it were not so, would primitive men have conse crated every mountain and valley, every running river, and every tree that overshadowed it? When the Hebrew poet looked forth upon the face of nature, he sung, "The springs of the valleys, which run among the hills, they give drink to every beast of the field-the grass which grows for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man-the trees where the birds make their nests, and sing among the branches-the high hills a refuge for the goats--the great and wide sea, wherein are things innumerable, both small and great beasts." What constitutes the objects of natural beauty but such objects—and for what cause are they felt to be beautiful, but for their relation to their maker, and the beings which they benefit?

If it be asserted that distress may exhibit beauty, and happiness is no part of its nature; that a natural flower, or a piece of mosaic, exhibits beauty; that the blue heaven, with its va