The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 128 THE STEAM PACKETs« discursive fancy, and high-toned sentiment with wild passion,—nothing indeed that affords such free scope for the whole soul of man, as the poetry which is taught and felt during the hours of stormy heavens and troubled seas. If the heart be swelling with noble emotions, the fancy glowing with splendid images, or the mind teeming with lofty - thought, how naturally is the rich oblation poured forth upon the altar of Genius—through the medium of the verse dictated by an experience of the awe, the solemnity, the perils, and. the grandeur of the sky covered with its dark and menacing clouds, which. seem the hiding- places of the storm, and the ocean foaming and roaring in its mighty bed. . How naturally does the young enthusiast of nature come glow- ing from the dangers he has experienced, and the beauties he has con- templated in the external world ;—from the crash of elements, and the life-giving breeze ; from the roar of the glaciers, or from the sky with its everchanging face ;—then does he breathe forth in poetry the new and magnificent thoughts and emotions that 22ll have expression, and wall imprint themselves somewhere, as freely and as vividly as. the bright conceptions of the pointers rush’ api the canvass. We may say with Akenside,—. ty Fray atg™ ‘‘ From heaven Aaieeds | The flame of genius to the human breast, And love, and beauty, and poetic joy, And inspiration.’’ Yet it 1s the wonderful or the beautiful ain of earth, and the sym- pathies, emotions, and passions which they excite, that feed this secret flame, and nourieh it in our heart of hearts. _ It i when these feelings are fresh—when the gaze of young astonishment 1s cast upon all things with its earliest intensity—that enthusiastic minds express themselves in effusions which the severe critic may not find faultless, but towards which we should always on that very account be indulgent. We love the natural spring gushing out pure and bright from the foot of the rude mountain, far better than the artificial well, though constructed with vast labour, and built with consummate skill and care. But let us not digress at a moment of such deep interest to our Lu- ~ mainaries. The storm continued; the winds blew—the sea raged—the vessel was tossed on the summit of the billows, and then ‘dashed down. into the hollows between ;—and still she bore bravely on. The Lu- minaries were for the most part crowded together in their own. cabin, and cannot be said to have exhibited any more proofs of courage than those shown by the ladies in their department of the vessel, as already described. Mr. Pifpaf had placed a pillow in one corner, and, seating himself upon the floor, leant back against it, his countenance stretched i Eomicbooks.co