OF INVENTION.

MAN is proud of his mind, boasting that it giveth him divinity,

Yet with all its powers can it originate nothing:

For the great God into all his works hath largely poured out himself,
Saving one special property, the grand prerogative,-Creation.

To improve and expand is ours, as well as to limit and defeat:

But to create a thought or a thing is hopeless and impossible.
Can a man make matter ?—and yet this would-be god
Thinketh to make mind, and form original idea:
The potter must have his clay, and the mason his quarry,
And mind must drain ideas from every thing around it.
Doth the soil generate herbs, or the torrid air breed flies,

Or the water frame its monads, or the mist its swarming blight ?—
Mediately, through thousand generations, having seeds within themserves,
All things, rare or gross, own one common Father.

Truly spake Wisdom, There is nothing new under the sun :

We only arrange and combine the ancient elements of all things.

Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion.

A sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes;
From the basket and acanthus, is modelled the graceful capital:
The shadowed profile on the wall helpeth the limner to his likeness:
The footmarks stamped in clay, lead on the thoughts to printing;

The strange skin garments cast upon the shore suggest another hemisphere: (23)

A falling apple taught the sage pervading gravitation;

The Huron is certain of his prey, from tracks upon the grass;

And shrewdness, guessing on the hint, followeth on the trail;

But the hint must be given, the trail must be there, or the keenest sight is as blindness.

Behold the barren reef, which an earthquake hath just left dry;

It hath no beauty to boast of, no harvest of fair fruits :

But soon the lichen fixeth there, and, dying, diggeth its own grave, (24) And softening suns and splitting frosts crumble the reluctant surface;

And cormorants roost there, and the snail addeth its slime,

And efts, with muddy feet, bring their welcome tribute;

And the sea casteth out her dead, wrapped in a shroud of weeds;
And orderly nature arrangeth again the disunited atoms:
Anon, the cold smooth stone is warm with feathery grass,
And the light sporules of the fern are dropt by the passing wind.
The wood-pigeon, on swift wing, leaveth its crop-full of grain;
The squirrel's jealous care planteth the fir-cone and the filbert;
Years pass, and the sterile rock is rank with tangled herbage;
The wild vine clingeth to the brier, and ivy runneth green among the corn;
Lordly beeches are studded on the down, and willows crowd around the

rivulet;

And the tall pine and hazel thicket shade the rambling hunter.

Shall the rock boast of its fertility? shall it lift the head in pride?—
Shall the mind of man be vain of the harvest of its thoughts?
The savage is that rock: and a million chances from without,
By little and little acting on the mind, heap up the hotbed of society;
And the soul, fed and fattened on the thoughts and things around it,
Groweth to perfection, full of fruit, the fruit of foreign seeds.
For we learn upon a hint, we find upon a clue,

We yield an hundred-fold; but the great sower is Analogy.
There must be an acrid sloe before a luscious peach,

A boll of rotting flax before the bridal veil,

An egg before an eagle, a thought before a thing,

A spark struck into tinder, to light the lamp of knowledge,

A slight suggestive nod to guide the watching mind,

A half-seen hand upon the wall, pointing to the balance of Comparison.

By culture man may do all things, short of the miracle,—Creation :

Here is the limit of thy power,-here let thy pride be stayed:

The soil may be rich, and the mind may be active, but neither yield unsown; The eye cannot make light, nor the mind make spirit:

Therefore it is wise in man to name all novelty invention:

For it is to find out things that are, not to create the unexisting:
It is to cling to contiguities, to be keen in catching likeness,
And with energetic elasticity to leap the gulfs of contrast.
The globe kneweth not increase, either of matter or spirit;
Atoms and thoughts are used again, mixing in varied combinations;
And though, by moulding them anew, thou makest them thine own,
Yet have they served thousands, and all their merit is of God.

OF RIDICULE.

SEAMS of thought for the sage's brow, and laughing lines for the fool's face;

For all things leave their track in the mind; and the glass of the mind is faithful.

Seest thou much mirth upon the cheek? there is then little exercise of

virtue;

For he that looketh on the world cannot be glad and good:

Seest thou much gravity in the eye? be not assured of finding wisdom;
For she hath too great praise, not to get many mimics.

There is a grave-faced folly; and verily a laughter-loving wisdom;
And what, if surface-judges account it vain frivolity?

There is indeed an evil in excess, and a field may lie fallow too long;
Yet merriment is often as a froth, that mantleth on the strong mind:
And note thou this for a verity, the subtlest thinker when alone,
From ease of thoughts unbent, will laugh the loudest with his fellows:
And well is the loveliness of wisdom mirrored in a cheerful countenance;
Justly the deepest pools are proved by dimpling eddies;

For that a true philosophy commandeth an innocent life,
And the unguilty spirit is lighter than a linnet's heart :

Yea, there is no cosmetic like a holy conscience:

The eye is bright with trust, the cheek bloomed over with affection, The brow unwrinkled by a care, and the lip triumphant in its gladness.

And for your grave-faced folly, need not far to look for her;

How seriously on trifles dote those leaden eyes,

How ruefully she sigheth after chances long gone by,

How sulkily she moaneth over evils without cure!

I have known a true-born mirth, the child of innocence and wisdom,
I have seen a base-born gravity, mingled of ignorance and guilt:
And again, a base-born mirth, springing out of carelessness and folly,
And again, a true-born gravity, the product of reflection and right fear.
The wounded partridge hideth in a furrow, and a stricken conscience would

be left alone;

But when its breast is healed, it runneth gladly with its fellows:

Whereas the solitary heron, standing in the sedgy fen,

Holdeth aloof from the social world, intent on wiles and death.
Need but of light philosophy to dare the world's dread laugh;
For a little mind courteth notoriety, to illustrate its puny self:
But the sneer of a man's own comrades trieth the muscles of courage,
And to be derided in his home is as a viper in the nest :

The laugh of a hooting world hath in it a notion of sublimity,
But the tittering private circle stingeth as a hive of wasps.
Some have commended ridicule, counting it the test of truth, (25)
But neither wittily nor wisely; for truth must prove ridicule :
Otherwise a blunt bulrush is to pierce the proof armour of argument,
Because the stolidity of ignorance took it for a barbed shaft.
Softer is the hide of the rhinoceros than the heart of deriding unbelief,
And truth is idler there than the Bushman's feathered reed:

A droll conceit parrieth a thrust that should have hit the conscience,
And the leering looks of humour tickle the childish mind ;
For that the matter of a man is mingled most with folly,

Neither can he long endure the searching gaze of wisdom.

It is pleasanter to see a laughing cheek than a serious forehead,
And there liveth not one among a thousand whose idol is not pleasure.
Ridicule is a weak weapon, when levelled at a strong mind;

But common men are cowards, and dread an empty laugh.

Fear a nettle, and touch it tenderly,—its poison shall burn thee to the shoulder;

But grasp it with bold hand, is it not a bundle of myrrh?

Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt find fools enough to mock thee; But answer thou their laughter with contempt, and the scoffers will lick thy feet.

OF COMMENDATION.

THE praise of holy men is a promise of praise from their Master;
A forerunning earnest of thy welcome,-Well done, faithful servant;
A rich preludious note, that droppeth softly on thine ear,

To tell thee the chords of thy heart are in tune with the choirs of heaven.
Yet is it a dangerous hearing, for the sweetness may lull thee into slumber.
And the cordial quaffed with thirst may generate the fumes of presumption.
So seek it not for itself, but taste, and go gladly on thy way,

For the mariner slacketh not his sail, though the sandal-groves of Araby

allure him;

And the fragrance of that incense would harm thee, as when, on a sum

mer evening,

The honied yellow flowers of the broom oppress thy charmed sense: And a man hath too much of praise, for he praiseth himself continually; Neither lacketh he at any time self-commendation or excuse.

Praise a fool, and slay him: for the canvas of his vanity is spread;
His bark is shallow in the water, and a sudden gust shall sink it:

Praise a wise man, and speed him on his way; for he carrieth the ballast

of humility,

And is glad when his course is cheered by the sympathy of brethren ashore. The praise of a good man is good, for he holdeth up the mirror of Truth, That Virtue may see her own beauty, and delight in her own fair face: The praise of a bad man is evil, for he hideth the deformity of Vice, Casting the mantle of a queen around the limbs of a leper.

Praise is rebuke to the man whose conscience alloweth it not:

And where conscience feeleth it her due, no praise is better than a little. He that despiseth the outward appearance, despiseth the esteem of his fellows;

And he that overmuch regardeth it, shall earn only their contempt:
The honest commendation of an equal no one can scorn, and be blameless
Yet even that fair fame no one can hunt for and be honoured:

If it come, accept it and be thankful, and be thou humble in accepting;
If it tarry, be not thou cast down; the bee can gather honey out of rue :
And is thine aim so low, that the breath of those around thee

Can speed thy feathered arrow, or retard its flight?

The child shooteth at a butterfly, but the man's mark is an eagle;

And while his fellows talk, he hath conquered in the clouds.

Ally thee to truth and godliness, and use the talents in thy charge:

So shalt thou walk in peace, deserving, if not having.

With a friend, praise him when thou canst; for many a friendship hath

decayed,

Like a plant in a crowded corner, for want of sunshine on its leaves:
With another, praise him not often-otherwise he shall despise thee;
But be thou frugal in commending; so will he give honour to thy judg-

ment:

For thou that dost so zealously commend, art acknowledging thine own inferiority,