Excerpt from Literary and Biographical Essays a Volume of Papers, by the Way

Poetry is one of the fine arts, and its ultimate basis is that quality in the soul of man which will not let him rest in the useful and the material, but leads him on to seek also the beautiful and the spiritual. To illustrate by analogy in the simplest way, men are not content to cultivate only potatoes and cabbages, but they also want lilies and roses, and not content with clothing which is merely a protection, but insistent that it shall also be an adornment. They are not satisfied with houses which afford warmth and shelter merely, but they want also beauty and refinement.

In like manner in the communication of their thoughts, it is not enough to express them with clearness and precision, there must be added to these beauty and sympathy. Poetry then rests upon the same basis as Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, and Music, and even more than any of these noble arts reflects the general character of the race that produces it. As the race rises, its poetry rises also. Every increase in knowledge, every refinement in manners, every growth of justice, of kindness, of human sympathy, every new perception of spiritual truth is speedily represented in the poetry of the nation.

The names given to the poet are significant, and the fact that in every nation they are the same is also full of meaning. What are these names? The poet is the seer, who pierces some of the veils of sense and of futurity, he is the singer, who gives melody and beauty to the language, he is the prophet, who must speak because of the burden upon his heart.

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