, is not the essence. Devotional poetry is
of that character. Who would require something unexpected and surprising
in a strain of thanksgiving, repentance, or supplication? Such feelings
as these, if rightly expressed, may exalt or prostrate the soul, without
much--without any aid from the imagination--except in as far as the
imagination will work under the power of every great emotion that does
not absolutely confound mortal beings, and humble them down even below
the very dust. There may be "no grace from novelty of sentiment," and
"very little from novelty of expression"--to use Dr Johnson's words--for
it is neither grace nor novelty that the spirit of the poet is
seeking--"the strain we hear is of a higher mood;" and "few as the
topics of devotion may be," (but are they few?) and "universally known,"
they are all commensurate--nay, far more than commensurate, with the
whole power of the soul--never can they become unaffecting while it is
our lot to die;--even from the lips of ordinary men, the words that flow
on such topics flow effectually, if they are earnest, simple, and
sincere; but from the lips of genius, inspired by religion, who shall
dare to say that, on such topics, words have not flowed that are felt to
be poetry almost worthy of the Celestial Ardours around the Throne, and
by their majesty to "link us to the radiant angels," than whom we were
made but a little lower, and with whom we may, when time shall be no
more, be equalled in heaven?

We do not hesitate to say, that Dr Johnson's doctrine of the _effect_ of
poetry is wholly false. If it do indeed please, by exhibiting an idea
more grateful to the mind than things themselves afford, that is only
because the things themselves are imperfect--more so than suits the
aspirations of a spirit, always aspiring, because immortal, to a higher
sphere--a higher order of being. But when God himself is, with all awe
and reverence, made the subject of song--then it is the office--the
sacred office of poetry--not to exalt the subject, but to exalt the soul
that contemplates it. That poetry can do, else why does human nature
glory in the "Paradise Lost?"

"Whatever is great, desirable, or tremendous, is comprised in the name
of the Supreme Being. Omnipotence cannot be exalted--Infinity cannot be
amplified--Perfection cannot be improved." Should not this go to
prohibit all speech--all discourse--all sermons concerning the divine
attributes? Immersed as they are in ma