XX. Atmosphere How delightful it is to be seated in an audience, and listen to a lecture, reading, or the interpretation of some old Classic Lore when the speaker seems to be the embodiment of joy; the epitome of sorrow; the enchantment of Love; the Adonis of Beauty; the American Eagle of Patriotism; the pudicity of Purity; the entity of Ideals and the sublimification of the Sublime. After having spent an hour in such society, one feels that he has found the "Elixir of Life"; for such a speaker builds for you a heavenly atmosphere in which myriads of starry ideals are couched in resplendent array; and one feels like repeating a line from the wonderful old Bard, Robert Browning, "How good to live and learn!" GAFFER GRAY Holcroft. "Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Gray? And why does thy nose look so blue?” ""Tis the weather that's cold, "Tis I'm grown very old, And my doublet is not very new,-Well-a-day!" "Then line thy warm doublet with ale, Gaffer Gray, And warm thy old heart with a glass!" "Nay, but credit I've none, And my money's all gone; Then say how may that come to pass?-Well-a-day!" "Hie away to the house on the brow, Gaffer Gray, And knock at the jolly priest's door." "The priest often preaches Against worldly riches, But ne'er gives a mite to the poor,-Well-a-day!" "The lawyer lives under the hill, Gaffer Gray; Warmly fenced both in back and in front." "He will fasten his locks And threaten the stocks, Should he ever more find me in want;-Well-a-day!" "The squire has fat beeves and brown ale, Gaffer Gray; And the season will welcome you there." "His fat beeves and his beer And his merry new year, Are all for the flush and the fair,-Well-a-day!" "My keg is but low, I confess, Gaffer Gray; What then? while it lasts, man, we'll live!" "The poor man alone, When he hears the poor moan, Of his morsel a morsel will give,-Well-a-day!" D FORMS OF POETRY I. Didactic Poetry IDACTIC poetry is that form of poetry which aims chiefly to give instruction, but all poetry of a meditative kind. The poetry of this sort in English is very abundant -Bryant's "Thanatopsis," Campbell's "Pleasures of Hope," Young's "Night Thoughts," Pope's "Essay on Man," etc. The moral power is what tyrants have most cause to dread. It addresses itself to the thought and the judgment of men. No physical force can arrest its progress. Its approaches are unseen, but its consequences are deeply thought. It enters garrisons most strongly fortified, and operates in the palaces of kings and emperors. We should cherish this power, as essential to the preservation of our government, and as the most efficient means of ameliorating the political condition of our race. And this can only be done by a reverence for the laws, and by the exercise of an elevated patriotism. The old philosopher we read of, might not have been dreaming when he discovered that the order of the sky was like a scroll of written music, and that two stars (which are said to have appeared centuries after his death, in the very places he mentioned) were wanting to complete the harmony. We know how wonderful are phenomena of color; how strangely like consummate art the strongest dyes are blended in the plumage of birds, and in the cups of flowers; so that, to the practised eye of the |