veiled." Egyptians, the griffin of the northern mytholIn the same manner the sphinx of the gy, and the dragon of the Greeks, may be decomposed. In the poetry of all nations, we find this peculiar manifestation of the imagination. Its operations are extended to inanimate as well as animate nature. It is difficult to select examples exhibiting the purely creative power of imagination. We might find opponents if we should cite of the Parsi, the Elohim, the Achadim, and the demons of the Orphic hymns, the Izeds Adonim of the Hebrews, the Lahi of the may, together or separately, as the image | The left distinguished, and to all the four has more or less characteristics of the crea- Belonged an eagle's visage. By itself tive soul, lend their charms and give the Distinct, their faces and their wings they each Extended upward, joining thus, it seemed, spirit of life. Fancy contents itself with Two wings for flight, while two their bodies describing in a delicate, lively, pleasing, or luxurious manner that which really exists. Imagination always creates. It stops only at the elements of things, for of a new element the mind cannot conceive. The highest imagination has almost an infinite power of combination. We may, however, deduce two laws of its operation. It adds, in the first place, other elements to objects already existing, or combines parts of existing objects into new ones. Again, it creates objects out of the very elements of things, of which the world of form and life exhibits no real types. This distinction is somewhat arbitrary, and the point in the line which marks the extent of the first law, and the commencement of the second, it is perhaps impossible to locate; but for the sake of clearness of expression, it may be adopted. Illustrations of the first law abound in all genuine poets. One of the most beautiful manifestations of this kind of imagination is the investment of external objects with human feelings: some have even regarded this as the whole province of imagination. We have, therefore, "weeping willows," "sleeping moonbeams," "dancing terrors," &c. With reference to the nudity of Godiva, Tennyson says: "The shameless noon Thibetians; but most will concede to us the superhuman creations of Shakspeare. We gods of Homer, Dante's "Inferno," and the find real manifesfations of this kind of imagination in "Paradise Lost," and in Goethe's "Faust." faculty of mind, but a manifestation of variThe imagination, then, is not a single intense activity. The creations of imaginaous combinations of its elements, joined with tion may therefore be characterized by beauty or deformity, purity or depravity, harmony or discord, sublimity or loveliness, love or hatred. The human soul creates in its own image. It requires imagination to paint the Witch of Endor, as well as the Virgin. Let any one read that awful description in Dante, commencing with the "O quanto parve a me gran meraviglia, Quando vidi tre facce alla sua testa!" and he will be satisfied that imagination may busy itself with the lowest hell as well as with the highest heaven. It may produce Was clashed and hammered from a hundred towers." In all the four-fold visaged four was seen "Romance of giants, chronicle of fiends," and may "body forth" "dire faces, figures dire, seen, Goethe's Mephistopheles is the most unholy creation of powerful imagination in all literature. If Faust is a devilish saint, Mephistopheles is a saintly devil. The sin of such a being is a yielding to the tempta- | worth's could invest her with such charms tions of virtue, a violation of his absolutely as awaken only holy and pure affection?— In consideration of these facts, we may say that Wordsworth is not equal in imagination to the greatest poets. He is inferior in this respect to Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, Milton and Goethe, if not to others. At the same time we may say that he is superior to all in purity of imagination. We find no splendid images that rouse the unholy passions of our nature. His imagination weaves a vestal garb around every object with which it deals, clothes with hallowed affection, and infuses a controlling moral life. He leaves to the lip its ruby color, inviting to sip the nectar joy of earthly life, but makes you feel in your own nature the working of a higher law than than that of impulse, in obedience to which you must act, or joy will turn to sorrow. The naphtha fire of earth is not extracted, but a new tempering fire is added from heaven. The beings of his imagination are ensouled with the spirit of humanity, and breathe an atmosphere of music and love. When, according to poetic fancy, nature takes it into her head to "make a lady of her own," whose imagination but Words The following imperfect translation, in which the half personification of the original is lost, is by Dr. Francklin, of Oxford: "Grant me, henceforth, ye powers divine, May sanctity of manners ever shine; The laws descended from above, Or, worn by time, decay and die, But bloom eternal, like their native heaven!" "Three years she grew in sun and shower; Then Nature said, A lovelier flower On earth was never sown; "Myself will to the darling be Both law and impulse; and with me In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, To kindle or restrain. "She shall be sportive as the fawn, "The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see, Even in the motions of the storm, Grace that shall mould the maiden's form By silent sympathy. "The stars of midnight shall be dear In many a secret place, The following passage will show, in proof and illustration of our position, that music and sublimity may be used as ingredients, thus to speak, in the composition of imagination: "The towering headlands, crowned with mist, Thy pinions, everlasting air, Are delegates of harmony, and bear Strains that support the seasons in their round.” We cannot resist the temptation to copy which shows the presence one more passage of form, color and beauty, as well as other mental qualities, in a picture of the imagination with which but few equals are found in all literature. Something perhaps must be allowed for the reality, but imagination alone could see in the mountain mist, through which the sunbeams were playing, a picture which is described as follows: "A single step, that freed me from the skirts Of the blind vapor, opened to my view Glory beyond all glory ever seen By waking sense or by the dreaming soul; Clouds of all tincture, rocks and sapphire sky, We have said that Wordsworth has been sees. He be allowed the expression, he rather feels than "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: And cometh from afar, Each of these statements was no doubt real to him at the moment of utterance. Hence inconsistencies may be strung on a thread of truth, while falsehood may be woven into the even web of consistency. Plato would not have defended in earnest his doctrine of pre-existence. In regard to it, Wordsworth was in earnest only in a poetical sense. It is well known that Dante represents the soul as a little girl "weeping and laughing in its childish sport," knowing nothing save moved by its Creator, "willingly it turns to that which gives it pleasure." Turning away from the scare-crow of Pantheism, which our poet never meant to advocate, let us be contented with the following beautiful and highly meditative sonnet: "It is a beauteous evening, calm and free; A sound like thunder-everlastingly. Thy nature is not therefore less divine: And worshipp'st at the temple's inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not." We are not sorry that no space is left to dwell upon positive faults. A want of a quick perception of the ridiculous has exposed Wordsworth to the poisoned arrows of wit and the playful sallies of humor; an advantage of which the Edinburgh critics were not slow to avail themselves. There was no affinity between the subtlety of Jeffrey's intellect and the subtlety of Words every thing but the shadows or the realities of a court. It would be no difficult thing to show glaring inconsistencies in his political views, yet they may be harmonized, perhaps, by shifting the application of his ideal. Now we hear the tone of eulogy, now the tone of denunciation; this is an echo of the past, that a prophecy of the future. We might also refer to many passages which show a redundancy of language, and to some which show that he at times invested commonplace thoughts with a drapery of expression altogether too gorgeous. From his poems we could pick some that might be placed among the finest specimens of art that have ever been written, yet we could wish that upon certain passages more care might have been bestowed. A theory, vicious in some respects, has led him, in many places, to use unpoetic language and imagery. We desist. Who can bear to expose the foibles of a wise and venerable friend? worth's heart. We are thankful for the wounds inflicted by Jeffrey, for we have, on account of them, a loftier example of heroic patience and unflinching purpose in Wordsworth. Again we may say that our poet is deficient in constructive power. None of the earth, shall remain to greet and bless his poems have a pleasingly entangled plot. None of his narratives have a winding thread that begets expectation and awakens interest. Also, while dwelling upon sentiments he loses sight of individual life; hence his poetry is deficient in dramatic effect. Again, while he has Wordsworth occupies a sacred place in our heart. His spirit, that hovers in the mysterious drapery of words a living presence on millions that shall come hither in future ages from the unknown, and to pronounce, as one of the sacred ministers of the Word, benediction on them at their departure. From him may all devout poets take encouragement, and all profane ones take warning, for the Eternal will permit the stamp of immortality to be put only upon that which accords with his atributes of justice and mercy, wisdom and love. He has revealed to us new powers and susceptibilities of the heart, and the heart responds to his gentle touch with a deep feeling of sympathy and blessing. As long as English literature has a place for the wise Spenser, it will have one for the good Wordsworth. o. w. w. NATURE AND EFFECTS OF A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. Ir is obvious to all reflecting minds, that under the present tariff we are importing foreigu goods to an excessive extent. The drain of specie from the vaults of our banks, which is now going on in consequence, would most certainly produce a financial crisis, bringing ruin upon thousands, were it not for the supply of gold from California. This is putting off the evil day, but for how long no one can predict. As it is, others are taking from us by this system nearly all the advantages we so eagerly expected from our rich Pacific possessions. We are merely becoming the shippers of the treasures of that region for our more sagacious European rivals. Under these circumstances we will be excused for again presenting in the simplest form another argument for protection to our own industry in all its forms. A tariff founded on constitutional authority, and at the same time wisely modified by all the necessities of the country to which it can apply, is a measure that cannot be successfully assailed. Some system of taxation must exist for the support of government; and none has ever been devised so faultless or so fit as this. Under its operation taxes are levied upon the people by their own voluntary action, and thus, as it were, by an invisible and unfelt agency; and the costs of collection have been estimated by high authority at one fifth only of the costs that would be incurred under a system of direct taxation. Thus, whatever is paid, is paid with the greatest possible convenience to the citizen; and the amount paid is less than it would be under a system of direct taxation by four fifths of the costs of the collection of the revenue under that system. These premises are beyond the reach of material objection; and if true, there can be but one rational opinion as to the expediency of the tariff system. But there is a further and direct pecunia VOL. VIII. NO. I. NEW SERIES. ry advantage derived through the operation of the tariff. This can be easily stated and illustrated. It is, that foreign States, in some degree, actually and substantially pay our revenue. But how is this effected? It is thus: Suppose the revenue necessary for the support of the Federal Government equal to $25,000,000, (costs of collection, &c., included:) this sum must be raised in either one or the other of two ways, viz., by direct taxation, or by duties on foreign commerce: if by the former, then it is certain the government costs the people that sum, precisely; but if by the latter, then the question is, Have not foreign countries paid a part of the amount? Doubtless they have; and let us see by what process. Keeping in mind that twenty-five millions are to be raised-suppose we were at any time without a tariff, and that foreign goods could be bought in our markets at certain rates-any you please: for the time being the people pay the whole twenty-five millions, and buy their goods at the rates that may be: suppose now that subsequently it is thought fit by government to levy a tariff of twenty per cent. on all foreign goods sold in our markets, and which duty would precisely meet the expenses of government, to the entire relief of the people from direct taxation: in this case, and by the operation of a settled law of trade, the duty of twenty per cent. levied upon the foreign goods would not be added to the price which our citizens would be required to pay for them, but some smaller amount. The sum of twenty per cent. above the previous cost would be divided between the seller and the purchaser, the seller losing (it may be) five, and the purchaser fifteen of the twenty per cent. Now, each party losing in his respective proportion, the purchaser three fourths and the seller one fourth of the twenty per cent., which in the aggregate make up the twenty-five millions, it is obvious that the citizens of the country pay only eighteen 6 |