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his whole future being, are now wrapped up in his soul as the rudiments of the future plant in the seed. As a necessary result of this constitution, the soul, possessed and moved by these mighty though infant energies, is perpetually stretching beyond what is present and visible, struggling against the bounds of its earthly prison-house, and seeking relief and joy in imaginings of unseen and ideal being. This view of our nature, which has never been fully developed, and which goes farther towards explaining the contradictions of human life, than all others, carries us to the very foundation and sources of poetry. He who cannot interpret by his own consciousness, what we now have said, wants the true key to works of genius. He has not penetrated those sacred recesses of the soul, where poetry is born and nourished, and inhales immortal vigour, and wings herself for her heavenward flight. In an intellectual nature, framed for progress and for higher modes of being, there must be creative energies, power of original and ever-growing thought; and poetry is the form in which these energies are chiefly manifested. It is the glorious prerogative of this art, that it "makes all things new" for the gratification of a divine instinct. It indeed finds its elements, in what it actually sees and experiences in the worlds of matter and mind; but it combines and blends these into new forms and according to new affinities; breaks down, if we may so say, the distinctions and bounds of nature; imparts to material objects, life, and sentiment, and emotion, and invests the mind with the powers and splendours of the outward creation; describes the surrounding universe in the colours which the passions throw over it, and depicts the mind in those modes of repose or agitation, of tenderness or sublime emotion, which manifest its thirst for a more powerful and joyful existence. To a man of a literal and prosaic character, the mind may seem lawless in these workings; but it observes higher laws than it transgresses, the laws of the immortal intellect; it is trying and developing it best faculties; and in the objects which it describes, or in the emotions which it awakens, anticipates those states of progressive power, splendour, beauty, and happiness, for which it was created.

We accordingly believe that poetry, far from injuring society, is one of the great instruments of its refinement and exaltation. It lifts the mind above ordinary life, gives it a respite from depressing cares, and awakens the

consciousness of its affinity with what is pure and noble. In its legitimate and highest efforts, it has the same tendency and aim with Christianity; that is, to spiritualize our nature. True; poetry has been made the instrument of vice, the pander of bad passions; but when genius thus stoops, it dims its fires, and parts with much of its power; and even when poetry is enslaved to licentiousness or misanthropy, she cannot wholly forget her true vocation. Strains of pure feeling, touches of tenderness, images of innocent happiness, sympathies with what is good in our nature, bursts of scorn or indignation at the hollowness of the world, passages true to our moral nature, often escape in an immoral work, and show us how hard it is for a gifted spirit to divorce itself wholly from what is good. Poetry has a natural alliance with our best affections. It delights in the beauty and sublimity of outward nature and of the soul. It indeed portrays with terrible energy, the excesses of the passions; but they are passions which show a mighty nature, which are full of power, which command awe, and excite a deep though shuddering sympathy. Its great tendency and purpose, is to carry the mind beyond and above the beaten, dusty, weary walks of ordinary life;-to lift it into a purer element, and to breathe into it more profound and generous emotion. It reveals to us the loveliness of nature, brings back the freshness of youthful feeling, revives the relish of simple pleasures, keeps unquenched the enthusiasm which warmed the spring-time of our being, refines youthful love, strengthens our interest in human nature by vivid delineations of its tenderest and loftiest feelings, spreads our sympathies over all classes of society, knits us by new ties with universal being, and, through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on the future life.

We are aware, that it is objected to poetry, that it gives wrong views and excites false expectations of life, peoples the mind with shadows and illusions, and builds up imagination on the ruins of wisdom. That there is a wisdom, against which poetry wars, the wisdom of the senses, which makes physical comfort and gratification the supreme good, and wealth the chief interest of life, we do not deny; nor do we deem it the least service which poetry renders to mankind, that it redeems them from the thraldom of this earth-born prudence. But,

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passing over this topic, we would observe, that the complaint against poetry, as abounding in illusion and deception, is, in the main, groundless. In many poems, there is more of truth than in many histories and philosophic theories. The fictions of genius are often the vehicles of the sublimest verities, and its flashes often open new regions of thought, and throw new light on the mysteries of our being. In poetry, the letter is falsehood, but the spirit is often profoundest wisdom. And if truth thus dwells in the boldest fictions of the poet, much more may it be expected in his delineations of life; for the present life, which is the first stage of the immortal mind, abounds in the materials of poetry, and it is the office of the bard to detect this divine element among the grosser labours and pleasures of our earthly being. The present life is not wholly prosaic, precise, tame, and finite. To the gifted eye, it abounds in the poetic. The affections which spread beyond ourselves and stretch far into futurity; the workings of mighty passions, which seem to arm the soul with an almost superhuman energy; the innocent and irrepressible joy of infancy; the bloom, and buoyancy, and dazzling hopes of youth; the throbbings of the heart, when it first wakes to love, and dreams of a happiness too vast for earth; woman, with her beauty, and grace, and gentleness, and fulness of feeling, and depth of affection, and her blushes of purity, and the tones and looks which only a mother's heart can inspire;-these are all poetical. It is not true that the poet paints a life which does not exist. He only extracts and concentrates as it were life's ethereal essence, arrests and condenses its volatile fragrance, brings together its scattered beauties, and prolongs its more refined but evanescent joys; and in this he does well; for it is good to feel that life is not wholly usurped by cares for subsistence, and physical gratifications, but admits, in measures which may be indefinitely enlarged, sentiments and delights worthy of a higher being. This power of poetry to refine our views of life and happiness, is more and more needed as society advances. It is needed to withstand the encroachments of heartless and artificial manners, which make civilization so tame and uninteresting. It is needed to counteract the tendency of physical science, which being now sought, not as formerly for intellectual gratification, but for multiplying bodily comforts, requires a new developement of imagina

tion, taste, and poetry, to preserve men from sinking into an earthly, material, epicurean life. Our remarks in vindication of poetry, have extended beyond our original design. They have had a higher aim than to assert the dignity of Milton as a poet, and that is, to endear and recommend this divine art to all who reverence and would cultivate and refine their nature.

(To be Continued.)

What is a Unitarian?

This is a question often asked, and it shall be our business to give to it a plain and definite answer. It is an inquiry often made in no friendly spirit, but that will make no difference in our reply. It is an interrogation occasionally used by opponents to our principles, and the explanation which they usually give, is unfounded and incorrect. By this means, false views of our sentiments are held forth to deter the inquiring; and so horrific is the picture conjured up by those who should know better, that the uninformed are scared from examination, and are kept from doubting the faith of their forefathers, by the fear that there is a lion in the way. The ignorance so prevalent on this subject, would be inexplicable, were we not aware of the mighty force of educational prejudice, the authority of great names, the influence of interest, and the all-attractive power of an established faith.

The inquiry, What is a Unitarian? was not very long since made by the highest law-officer of Great Britain. In the debate on the Unitarian Marriage Bill, the Lord Chancellor is reported to have said, I should like to know what a Unitarian is? We have no hope that these pages will ever be perused by his Lordship; but we do hope they may be read by many an individual as likely to listen to the statement with seriousness, and as willing to pursue the inquiry with earnestness, and more likely to have his doubts removed, and more willing to make an open profession of an obnoxious faith.

The Unitarian Christian vindicates the use of reason in matters of a religious nature, as the only means which his Creator has given him to distinguish what is true from what is false, to detect the vain and futile pretensions of

the Prophet of Mecca, and gratefully to acknowledge the well-grounded and heaven-approved claims of the Son of God. He suffers not his godlike reason to rust in him unused, but freely employs it on every subject which can be of moment to the human mind, or can possibly affect the human heart. He is thankful to his Maker for his gracious gift, and desires ever to exercise it in his Creator's praise.

Believing, from the deductions which his intellectual faculties enable him to draw from the works of nature, and the appearances of the world, and the frame and constitution of man, that there is a God, the Unitarian Christian carefully investigates the evidences which are asserted to prove the divine origin of the Christian system; and he rises from that investigation, a firm and practical believer in its truth and heavenly original. Believing the New Testament to contain a perfect representation of Christian doctrines, he needs no creed to make it more so. The Bible only is the Unitarian Christian's Religion. The Bible is his Confession of Faith. The Bible is his Assembly's Catechism. The Bible is his alone standard of Christian faith and practice, the charter of the emancipation of mind from human thraldom and human error, the freehold of his rejoicing for himself and his heirs for ever.

Such being the fact, it follows from the nature of the human mind, and from the various circumstances in which different individuals are placed, and from the fearless free inquiry which is one of the distinctive marks of the Unitarian denomination, that there should be variations of opinion on some controverted points, among those who are called by our name. Such variations are, however, principally confined to the questions of Christ's preexistence and simple humanity, universal restoration and limited punishment terminated by destruction, the subjects of baptism and church government. Taking as our guide, in reply to the question, What is a Unitarian? the opinions of the major portion of the denomination, we answer, that, in addition to the opinions on the use of reason and the sufficiency of the Scriptures, a Unitarian is one who maintains, That there is but One God, one in essence, one in person, even the Father, who is the benevolent Parent of all mankind, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The One God, even the Father, the Chris

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