nicely moulded shapes of minute as well as of stupendous dimensions, and through the eye gains access to the soul, and there gives rise to poetic ecstacy-to joyous feelings— and so becomes an influence to the mind and heart, which cannot refuse to accept its teachings; whilst music, with its myriad sounds of thrilling melody, electrifies the soul through its delighful companionship with the ear, and gives rise to poetic rapture-to Heaven-born happines-and so becomes a teacher to the mind and heart, which must become influenced by its soothing and soul-lifting language which is itself fraught with the true poetic inspiration of nature, and must necessarily, when wedded to poetic diction, refine and elevate the human feelingssoften and subdue the flinty ruggedness and coarse susceptibilities of ungenerous natures-fill the breast with rapturous joy, delightful associations, and minister to the affections a heavenly solace from earthly care and depressing solicitude, so that the spiritual part of our beings may taste of the delicious fruit of the ideal, of the poetical and musical world, and realise at intervals the blissful separation from the momentous and necessary struggles of earth, to enjoy in reality, for a brief duration, the entrancing and spirit-waking sensations of heaven.

I, of course, have reference to music solely when it is employed for purposes of a refining and elevating character; not when it is, as is too often the case, employed in an opposite sphere; and, instead of deeply rooting the impressions of wisdom and divinity, contained in the language of our poets,-in the minds of its recipients, it roots more deeply the obscene language of the vulgarest songs; for then it has a demoralizing tendency-it is abused, and out of its own congenial element; and although, for such is its tendency, it will touch the chords of the most hardened soul, and produce vibrating throbbings and unresisting emotions of goodness, which rise sooner or later in every human breast, touched by some divine influence or other. Still the so-called pleasure that feeds the morbid and unrefined appetite, which, without the aid of music, would lose half its charms, creates a listlessness and an unnatural void of moral principle in the mind-thus music, instead of serving to create a purely spiritual and moral development, so that man might rise superior to ignorant and gross sensualism, and breathe the purer atmosphere of intel lectual and spiritual perfection, serves to crush, by its aid, in making sensual and ignorant pleasure more palatable, all the moral tendencies of his heart-and thus becomes

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instrument of danger, where otherwise it would become an instrument powerful for human improvement.

Poetry has an influence of no mean character on the human family-however unperceived to some minds that influence may be, to other minds it is observable through a thousand different mediums. Society, with its complexity of mechanical, social, and physical conditions-with its commercial regulations and speculative arrangements, and with its religious, philosophical, and scientific institutions, patronised by a thousand different influences, feels through all its necessary parts, either directly or indirectly, something of the influence of poetry. It permeates our whole intellectual, moral, and social being. We trace its existence in the literary productions of our greatest and most profound thinkersproductions that have served to mould the thoughts and to influence the literary labours of many who possess not that fertile and creative genius which gave birth to them. Productions, that unconsciously all of us may be influenced more or less by, either through the experience that they have brought to bear upon our educational training, or through the new modes of political, philosophical, or religious conceptions they may have grafted in our minds, or through the belief which they may have created in the minds of those who have studied them being made to re-act on the unconscious followers of no preconceived theory of their own; but whose influence, along with the influence of those productions, must have its weight in the world. Poetry can be traced through all the noble results that emanate from moral example and imitation. The heroic deeds which have been performed, regardless of personal safety and enormous sacrifices, by men of lofty souls, full of moral beauty and universal ideas; the social arrangements that are linked to the chain of existing regulations, so much as they may partake of the spirit of moral progression and distributive justice, owe something to poetry for whatever of a moral and elevating character they possess. There are no necessary boons to the human race, either of a social or moral kind, that have to be hewn out of the rock of ignorance by united struggling and firm determination-no rights, human or divine, that must be attained for the down-trodden and enslaved of our fellowmortals ere they can keep pace with the eternal law of progression-no endurance and brotherly aid in bringing to light the hidden truths of the universe, so that those who are groping about in the darkness of false scepticism may

guided by the radiating light of true faith, and lend their

enthusiastic endeavours to improve humanity-no delightful and visionary anticipations that through the portals of the present are seen by the imagination to settle in the dimness and distance of the slowly approaching future,-but where poetry is required to lend its divine influence, either by its action on the heart, through the imaginative workings of the mind, or through the diction which conveys it to the eye or ear.

A LECTURE

Delivered at Wolverton, on the 21st of November, 1853,

ON THE

BEST MEANS OF ELEVATING THE WORKING CLASSES.

"All men are brethren," is a sentiment which was given to the world 1800 years ago. It found its way into the hearts of those heroes of antiquity who stood bravely forward in defence of human freedom. Many of them were sacrificed at the feet of oppression, but the lesson of practical utility which they taught, had its influence on the world. Men began to dream of a happier future, yet slowly realized a practical result. Almost imperceptibly things were changed-the sunlight of freedom pierced the dark shadows of abject slavery, and men arose like Galileo, in Science-Hampden, in Politics-and Luther in Religion; who, feeling the influence of knowledge, proclaimed to the people of all ages that the irrevocable destiny of man is progression; and, in spite of prejudice on the one hand and despotism on the other, it must go on in its eternal course, developing fresh stages in civilization-fresh fields for the exploit of intelligence, fresh conditions to prepare man for the enjoyment of the highest possible state of freedom of which his nature is capable. The heroes of the past knew well the imprisonment-and even death-which were likely to result from their attempts at reform; but, true to their noble mission, they were not to be defeated until the world should possess itself of their inspiration. Yet they were persecuted by all the cruel instruments oppression could contrive. But, in spite of all, the seeds of their lives were sown in the soil of mankind, and have sprung up amid "tears and bloodshed" strong in their native beauty, to testify to man the absolute inutility of all attempts to annihilate that which is inherent in the philosophy of life by persecution. But had it not have been for such men, possessed of heroic courage, where would have been our progress in civilization? It could not have taken place. With what wonder, then, must we behold the diversified means employed by Providence to aid the world's march towards its destined goal! There never was a ti

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