FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154  
155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   >>   >|  
Creation the Almighty broke the awful stillness of Eternity, by His first creative fiat, and angels were the first-born of God. They took their thrones in the galleries of the universe, and in silent contemplation sat. They spoke not; for words, as signs of thought or will or emotion, were not then conceived, and, consequently, then unborn. They gazed in rapture on one another, and in solemn silence thought. Their emotions bodied forth the Anthem of Creation. Human words being created breath, and breath being air in motion, prior to these language was impossible. And as the deaf are always dumb, language, like faith, comes by hearing. But hearing itself is a pensioner, waiting upon a speaker; consequently, it must ever be contingent on a cause alike antecedent and extrinsic of itself. It is, therefore, equally an oracle of reason and of faith that, however God may have communicated to angels, to _man_ He spoke in articulate sounds, before man articulated a thought, a feeling, or an emotion of his soul. And as an emotional soul is but a harp of many strings, a hand there must have been to play upon its chords, before melody and harmony, twins-born of Heaven, had either a local habitation or a name. But, it may be asked--Is there not in the regions of Poetry an aeolian harp, found in the cave of AEolus, on which the winds of heaven played many a celestial symphony, without the skill or touch of human hand? Grant all that the Poetic Muse assumes, and then we ask--Who made the harp? And whence directed came the musing sylvan Zephyrus and his choir? Came they not from a land of images and dreams? But we are inquiring for originals. Images and originals are the poles apart. An original without an image is possible; but an image without an original is alike impossible and inconceivable. Hence, alike philosophically and logically, we conclude that _neither man nor angel addressed each other until they themselves had been addressed by their Creator_. Then they intercommunicated thought, sentiment, and emotion with one another as God had communicated to them. The mystery of language and Poetry is insoluble but on the admission of a revelation or communication of some sort, unconceived by the human mind, unexecuted by the human hand. If invention and creation be the grand characteristics of the Poet, Moses, if uninspired, was a greater Poet than Homer, or Milton, or Shakspeare, on the hypothesis that he invented the drama
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154  
155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
thought
 

language

 

emotion

 
hearing
 
originals
 
communicated
 

addressed

 

original

 

angels

 

Creation


impossible
 
Poetry
 

breath

 

Poetic

 

Almighty

 

assumes

 

inconceivable

 

directed

 

musing

 

images


inquiring
 

sylvan

 

Zephyrus

 
Images
 

dreams

 
creation
 
characteristics
 

invention

 

unconceived

 

unexecuted


uninspired

 

hypothesis

 
invented
 
Shakspeare
 

Milton

 
greater
 

communication

 

philosophically

 

logically

 

conclude


Creator

 

mystery

 
insoluble
 

admission

 
revelation
 
intercommunicated
 

sentiment

 

thrones

 
galleries
 

pensioner