Takes for web the world's long ages, Thrones are bobbins in His shuttle; Powers are jarring, Upward, downward, See how strange the nations go, What a rattling, O'er the mixing and the mingling, See you not the reason subtle- Glorious wonder! What a weaving! Where the feet of sages go- That great God Himself is weaving! Long foretold by seers and sages.* Lancaster, Pa. H. H. *In the light of the truth we have endeavored to unfold in this little poem ART. V.-WHAT IS POETRY? * In our college days we enjoyed the rare privilege of attending a course of lectures on Esthetics by Dr. Rauch, first President of Marshall College, who, whilst he devoted his attention principally to the philosophy of Mind and Morals, demonstrated by these lectures that he was equally at home in the philosophy of Art. The impression which they produced on those who heard them, and on many who heard of them, will not be soon erased. They were, perhaps, the first strictly scientific course of lectures on the philosophy of the Fine Arts ever delivered before an American College. They were, certainly, the means of introducing his students into an entirely new world of ideas, to which, at the time, there was no access in the current English literature. With the desire of assisting in promoting the interest in aesthetical studies, which has been on the increase in this country and England for the last ten or fifteen years, it is proposed in this article to enlarge upon, and to reproduce, in a free way, some of the views advanced by our honored teacher, now no more, on this interesting depart ment of science. In doing so, we are happy in saying that *Notes of Lectures on Esthetics by Dr. F. A. Rauch, President of MarIn Manuscript. shall College. Delivered to the Junior Class, 1841. Solger's Vorlesungen ueber Aesthetik. Leipzig, 1829. Algemeine Aesthetik in Akademischen Lehrvorträgen von Friedrich Thiersch. Berlin, 1846. A good Hand Book. Aesthetik oder Wissenschaft der Schönen, von Dr. Friedrich Theodor Vischer, 1847. This work is in four octavo volumes, and is pronounced by competent judges the best on the subject that has yet made its appearance. we may console ourselves with the thought, that even the dark cloud of war which now hangs over the nations of the old world, is not without its bright "silvery lining," indicating that the light of heaven is shining behind it. Wherever and whatever it may be, there is rubbish somewhere which has been piled up in ignorance or unhallowed ambition by the human factor in history which the divine factor requires to be removed. The devil may do it, but he works for God. The power behind thrones will break open the chan nel of History. any want of distinct recollection on our part respecting what we heard, now eighteen years ago, has in a great measure been provided against by more or less reflection on the general subject, as well as by a careful study of standard German writers, who have treated the science of Esthetics in the same spirit and stood in the same school with Rauch. In the present paper we design to take a view of poetry in some of its more general relations, and, if possible, to show something of its nature and mission. In order to arrive at a proper idea of poetry, or to answer the oft repeated, but seldom answered question, what is poetry, it is necessary for us, in the first place, to inquire into the nature and meaning of Art, inasmuch as poetry is one of the Fine Arts, and carries with it the nature of art in general. It is very common to hear individuals speak of Nature and Art in the way of contrast, or of opposition to each other, as though they were entirely different spheres of life or thought. Thus the hacknied question, which are the most beautiful, the works of nature or art, hinges upon this supposed antithesis, and continues to be debated, without any hope, as it would seem, of a satisfactory solution. The popular view leans decidedly in favor of the works of nature, because, according to the common argument, God is the author of nature, whilst man is the author of art. But is it true that God works only in the natural world, whilst the sphere of art is left to the wisdom and ingenuity of man? We reply that there is nothing less philosophical than such a supposition. It is true that nature is simply the development of the divine will, which penetrates and animates those laws, by which its frame-work is held together. But it is certainly an error to suppose that the divine power breaks off abruptly with the irrational world, and has nothing to do with the productions of human intelligence. The works of art are produced by the free development of the human imagination, but the laws, by which they are evolved, are as much the expression of the divine will as those that give form to the various productions either of the vegetable or mineral world. The same power, that forms the icicle, the dew-drop, or the rose, reigns as law just as supremely, in the evolution of works of poetry, sculpture or painting. It is true, art is penetra ted with human consciousness, whilst nature is not, and this st once elevates it into a higher sphere than that of the blind productions of nature. But this is simply a distinction, and not such a difference as emancipates it from the power of divine and eternal laws. Art stands in nature, and is properly a part of it, but its constant tendency is to rise above and beyond it, by taking up into it its diversized forms, and then refining them and filling them with a clearer and more distinct meaning, until it approaches in the way of type, shadow, or prophecy, the great infinite and eternal Beyond, in which the universe itself finds its truth and significance. As thus related, nature and art form a living unity, and they should not be abstractly sundered. Art without nature, becomes fantastic and meaningless, whilst, on the other hand, nature without art is deprived of her legitimate exponent and is shorn of her beauty. Art, however, has its proper antithesis, and this it finds in the idea of Science. In order to orient ourselves more fully in regard to the subject before us, it will be of service to us, if we consider somewhat in detail the difference, or as the Germans say, the Gegensatz, involved in the case. Science commences with the particular, that is, with single events, facts or phenomena, but only with the view of arriv ing at the general principles, which animate them, and give them their particular form or subsistence. This remark applies, of course, to science in its rise and progress, and not its consummation; for when its end has been reached, that is, when general laws and principles have been eliminated, the process is reversed, and science, from her imperial throne sways a more than regal sceptre over the realms of facts or phenomena, holds them under her power by the omnipotence of law, and proceeds to extend her dominions |