are only the refinements which our own minds have been able to make upon the world without. Imagination is a purifying and exalting power. "Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour and to loveliness." "Fancy," says Wordsworth, "is given to quicken and beguile the temporal part of our nature; Imagination to incite and support the eternal." Though the daughter of Sensation and Memory-a humble parentage indeed-Imagination has had a numerous and honourable offspring. She is the mother of Genius, Hope, Love, Poetry, Music, Sculpture, Painting, and every other possible embodiment or revelation of "the good, the beautiful, and the true." The rarest fancies by which poets strive to witch the world derive their primal elements from the sensuous nature of man, and are constructed out of the raw material received into the mind through the senses, and laid up in Memory's "Immortal shrine, Where they for ever uncorrupted dwell." But the sensible is ever transitory and evanescent; sensations appear for a little moment only, and then pass away-it may be for ever-from the perceptive powers, and yet the mind possesses the capacity of treasuring even its slightest sensation, and weaving it into the web of its own thoughts, and Imagination bestows upon it the immortalization of beauty. "Doubtless this could not be, but that she turns As fire converts to fire the things it burns, As we our food into our nature change. From their gross matter she abstracts the forms, To bear them light on her celestial wings. Thus doth she when, from individual states, She doth abstract the universal kinds, Which when re-clothed in diverse names and fates, Steal access through our senses to our minds." 66 It may seem strange to many of our readers, that while a herd of authorlings are bewailing the antagonism of Poetry and Science, that we should have endeavoured to maintain their near relationship, and to predicate that they are not enemies but kindred. Yet we doubt not but that those who pursue the thoughts suggested to them in the present paper will agree withi us upon this point. To show that there is a self-consistent coherency in our views, although perfectly unpremeditated by us, we may be permitted to refer to our article on The Investigation and Discovery of Truth,' as an illustration of the opinion herein insisted on. It is therein proven, that in order to discover truth the mind" subpones or underlays an hypothesis or imaginary explanation of the causes which superinduce any given series of phenomenal manifestations;" that "thus the understanding gives them a supposititious oneness," and a caution is given not "to neglect that 'magic light' with which the soul illumines nature." • "Art of Reasoning, No. XI.," Vol. II. page 81. It is therein asserted, that "Hypothesis strives to classify the results of Observation under some general (supposititious) law; when this law is postulated, systematized observation— i.e., Induction—is called into action, to compare the results which would flow from this (imaginary) law with the actual processes of Nature. If these agree, the Hypothesis is correct, and becomes Theory - i.e., the means by which the mind may contemplatively survey any series of facts, and from the laws discovered as ruling amongst these, can deduce new facts or infer new truths." Imagination is the primordial element alike in Science and in Poetry, and upon this ground we disagree with the dictum of that mighty metaphysical mind-Coleridge-when he asserts that "Poetry is not the proper anthesis to Prose, but to Science." They are but parts of one great series of progressive thought— Science gaining a knowledge of mere truth, Taste discovering the hidden harmony and beauty of the co-linked elements with which Science has been dealing, the Emotional faculties perceiving their connexion with the good, and Poetry fusing all these together by the intense heat of the Imagination. Hence it is that the harmonious co-working of all the human faculties is required to constitute a great poet. Hence it is that the great poet has won for himself the admiration of all men; for, in so far as he is really and truly a poet, he is the nearest approach to a perfect man. Who can be more perfect than he to whom the mighty realms of truth, beauty, and goodness, are given as a perpetual inheritance, and who is continually permeated with the influences which proceed thence? Is not this what Tennyson means, when he says of "The Poet"— "He saw through life and death, through good and ill He saw through his own soul. The marvel of the everlasting will Is there no poetry in the star-garb of night-and did not Newton enable us to listen to the music of the spheres? Is there no poetry in the records of a bygone creation-and have not these splendidly-descriptive rock-pages been read to us by the geologist? Is there no poetry in the seemingly all-potent ocean-and shall we deny the poetry of the scientific powers by which man has made it subject to his will? Is the lightning-flash only poetical when, like a destroying angel, it flits through the heavens and strikes the earth dumb with terror?-and does it become prosaic only when it links soul to soul in messages of love, and becomes the arbiter of peace? Is there no poetry in the huge leviathan-like fire-fed draught-steed which inan harnesses and guides with perfect ease and safety wheresoever he wills? Is architecture a science, and are not cathedrals minsters, &c., "fossil poetry?" If inventive genius belongs to the poet, does it not also belong to the scientific inventor or discoverer? If Imagination is "the light of all our seeing," does it not illumine the geometrician as well as the poet? Is the poetical only displayed in the invention of fairy tales, mind-moving fictions, gorgeous imagery, or in describing "cloud-land," and not also in the invention of nation-improving mechanisms, or the description of the splendid scenery which abounds in the terra firma of scientific fact?* The real is the parent of the ideal. Science the origin of Poetry, and, vice versâ, Poetry the origin of Science; for the true must be productive of beauty and goodness; and whatever is productive of the good and the beautiful must be true-not, perhaps, truth in a veritable present embodiment, but a portion of that eternal truth, of which all facttruths are only parts. We do not say that Science is Poetry, but that it is a member of the progressive series of which Poetry is the result. "For when the different images of things By chance combined, have struck the attentive soul With deeper impulse, or connected long, Have drawn the frequent eye; howe'er distinct The external scenes, yet oft the ideas gain From that conjunction an eternal tie, And sympathy unbroken. By these mysterious ties the busy power Of memory her ideal train preserves Entire; At length, endowed with all that nature can bestow, The child of Fancy oft in silence bends O'er these mixt treasures of his pregnant breast With conscious pride; from them he oft resolves This class of ideas, relations, and emotions, is the raw material from which Imagination elaborates-according to the predisposition of the mind, its general culture, inclinations, and associations-Science or Poetry. In one mind external things become the seeds from which springs forth Geometry—in another, they become "The Seasons;" in one, they produce an historical treatise-in another, "The Course of Time;" in one, Moral Philosophyin another, "Paradise Lost;" in one, the science of Geology-in another, "The World before the Flood;" in one, the Nuova Scienza-in another, the "Divina Commedia ;” in one, "Cosmos," or "The Architecture of the Heavens"-in another, "Night Thoughts," or "The Excursion;" and so on, in every case under the "shaping spirit of Imagination," each mind elaborates that portion of the true, the good, and the beautiful, of which he is the most capable expositor. "It sports like hope upon the captive's chain; * See further illustrations in Lord Brougham's "Discourse on the Objects, Pleasures, and Advantages of Science." And as in waters the reflected beam Still where we turn glides with us up the stream; Fields to each eye its own fond track of light.” Keligion. IS THE STRICT OBSERVANCE OF A SABBATH, AS ENJOINED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, INCUMBENT UPON CHRISTIANS? AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I. BEFORE proceeding I must positively ob- | sonant with the principles of enlightened ject to the emblazonment of the colours reason, that the sabbath is a day set apart under which I am about to fight. No Chris- not only for rest-for quiescence from tian, I am sure, can logically support the physical labour-but a day for bringing Jewish sabbath, with all its formalities, the soul into closer communion with her under the christian dispensation; it suffices Creator-for awakening and elevating the for him to support the claims of the day to spiritual or moral nature of man. a sacred character, and to show his reasons for this, first, from those sacred writings admitted by Christians to possess authority in the matter; and, secondly, from the constitution of things, or its suitableness-not to man, as an animal merely possessed of a physical constitution, requiring certain periodical supplies of bread and butter, and the compliance with certain natural laws, which seem to be pretty nearly the Alpha and the Omega of our utilitarian friends; but to man as a being who can bend in adoration before the throne of the Eternal-who on the wings of imagination can explore "Happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells," or descend to "Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell;" who joins to his physical and intellectual a moral nature also. But, before proceeding further, let me beg to assure my friends that I am not an Agnewite; not that I entertain any especial horror towards the memory of this, I believe, sincerely christian and philanthropic gentleman; but in indulgence to the feelings of the opposition, on whom symptoms of incipient convulsions appear at the bare mention of his name. Now to our case. I wish to affirm that it is agreeable to the word of God, and con Before entering, however, upon the scriptural argument in favour of the sanctity of the sabbath, my utilitarian friends must permit me to indulge in a quiet cachinnation at their admirable argumentative tactics under this head. "Look you," says their champion to his supporters; "I don't care a fig for this argument from authority; in fact, between you and me, it's all fudge; but, then, won't I trounce the sabbatarians nicely with their own weapons! The sword is a wooden one; but I can beat them off as easily with this as the Damascus blade of reason." Well, my tricky friend, as we are not going to settle the truth of Christianity, but whether the sanctity of the sabbath is recognised by it, let us have at thee with this sword which thou believest wooden. I. The citadel of the scriptural argument lies in the fourth commandment; and, to Christians, the only question that can arise from the admission that the Jewish dispensation has been superseded by the christian is, Does this dispensation abrogate the former with respect to this command? That the ten commandments, or those laws which were written by the finger of God upon the two tables of stone, were, by the special manner in which they were delivered, and their foundation in the moral nature of man, lifted far above the common ceremonial laws of Judaism, no Christian who receives the scriptures implicitly momentarily doubts Ten glorious announcements! marked as with lightning upon the front of an abyss of darkness, revealing the conditions which God had impressed upon the moral nature of his creature, man, and received as such by all pure and noble minds under whose understanding they have come since, in spite of all that thou mayest affirm, my sneering, utilitarian friend, professor of the bread-andbutter creed! Of these ten commandments not one jot or tittle has passed or shall pass away while the moral constitution of man remains as it is. Let us see. Has the first, or the second, or the third, or fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, commandment been abrogated? Has the christian dispensation enabled its believers to dispense with the exclusive worship of one Jehovah--with the worship of this Being, not by symbolic representations, but in immediatcy of spirit and truth-with the cultivation of a reverential spirit towards him personally, and the things connected with him or his worship-with the honour due to parents, and the obvious relations of society springing out of this, the primitive-with the preservation of the lives of themselves and their neighbours-with that purity of heart and life, and that regard to the property of others, which it is the boast of Christianity to inculcate-with that regard to truth, of which witness-bearing before the sacred tribunal of the laws is the appropriate symbol-with that quenching of those evil desires within the heart which lie at the bottom of all outward sins-ah! and had I forgot?-with the observance of a special time, when the soul, shaking off, or endeavouring to shake off, the burden of worldly affairs, strives to drink more deeply of the fountain of all goodness, purity, and truth? thyself, my utilitarian friend; these are but scanty proofs for the abrogation of a commandment standing in the centre of a code which, if thou dost not consider binding upon Christians, then for ever I hope to forswear thy Christianity. It is unnecessary to point to many things which were repealed by the introduction of the gospel; nor is it enough to say that the spirit of the latter dispensation has modified, to a considerable extent, that of the former. This, however, cannot render evident the repeal of a positive law. Let us see, my utilitarian friend, how thy reasoning looks cast into a syllogism:1. Some things belonging to Judaism were abolished by Christianity. 2. The sabbath belonged to Judaism. 3. Therefore the sabbath was abolished by Christianity. Methinks there's a screw loose in the connexion between the major and minor propositions, my friend! I fear the syllogism would scarcely pass muster before Mill or Whately. Before leaving this part of the argument, allow me, my friends of the opposition, to express my wonder how you, who are all for the spiritual liberty of Christianity, become, when the change of the sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, falls under consideration, so very strongly attached to the letter; or how, even admitting that the change is faulty, it follows that we ought, therefore, to keep no sabbath at all? But, granting that the change has taken place in a manner hardly definable, we Christians believe that the resurrection of the Son of God and Saviour of mankindthe consummation of the hopes of fallen humanity-was an event sufficient to justify the first day of the week being held as the sabbath instead of the seventh. So much for the scriptural argument. But where is this commandment abrogated? Do the walkings of Jesus and his disciples through the cornfields on the sabbath, and II. In the second place, suppose it is plucking a few ears of corn to satisfy their granted that there is a God-a personal hunger-does the healing of the sick on the God, and not merely a system of material same day-prove its abolition? On the laws; seeing, moreover, that all mankind contrary, our Lord justifies these practices worship; seeing that worship is, or ought to by the existing Mosaic law, rejecting only be, the struggle of the mind to approach those needless and formal commentaries nearer perfection, which is embodied in God, which had been added to the law in the what dreadful impropriety is there in mainform of Jewish traditions. Has St. Paul taining that there should be special times intimated its abolition, when he says (Col. ii. when the soul should shake off the burden 16), “Let no man judge you in respect of its material environments, and endeavour caßßúτwv-of rests or sabbaths?" Bethink to rise higher and higher in spiritual attain |