, the wisest of the
heathens, made a point of teaching their children _music_; because, they
said, it taught them not to be self-willed and fanciful, but to see the
beauty, the usefulness of rule, the divineness of laws. And, therefore,
music is fit for heaven; therefore music is a pattern and type of
heaven, and of the everlasting life of God which perfect spirits live in
heaven; a life of melody and order in themselves; a life of harmony with
each other and with God.

"If thou fulfillest the law which God has given thee, the law of love
and liberty, then thou makest music before God, and thy life is a hymn
of praise to God.

"If thou act in love and charity with thy neighbors, thou art making
sweeter harmony in the ears of our Lord Jesus Christ than psaltery,
dulcimer, and all other kinds of music.

"If thou art living a righteous and a useful life, doing thy duty
orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou art making
sweeter melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ than if thou hast
the throat of the nightingale; for then thou, in thy humble place, art
humbly copying the everlasting harmony and melody by which God made the
worlds and all that therein is, and, behold, it was very good, in the
day when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy over the new-created earth, which God made to be a
pattern of his own perfection."

The minstrel's heart in sadness
Was wrestling with his fate;
"Am I the sport of madness,"
He sighed, "and born too late?"

"No gifts are ever given,"
A friendly voice replied,
"On which the smile of Heaven
Does not indeed abide.

God's harmony is written
All through, in shining bars,
The soul his love has smitten,
As heaven is writ with stars.

The major notes and minor
Are waiting for their wings;
Pray thou the great Diviner
To touch the secret springs.

He may not give expression
In any ocean-tide,
But music, like confession,
Will waft thee to his side;

Where thou, as on a river,
The current deep and strong,
Shalt sail with him forever
Into the land of song."

* * * * *

XXXII.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

(BORN 1786--DIED 1859.)

A LIFE OF WONDER AND WARNING.

The "English Opium-eater" himself told publicly, throughout a period of
between thirty and forty years, what