der accents, when strengthened by age, and nerved with intellectual energy, shall not prove as potent in hurling defiance at tyranny, as that of the far-famed orator of Athens,
Who shall say that the little boy, who to-day amuses himself by twirling a fire-brand, and watching the ribands formed by its revolutions, shall not to-morrow prove a Franklin, chaining the lightning which plays on the scowling cloud, and giving laws to the warring elements? Who shall say that the child, who to-day is stammering in the first rudiments of letters, shall not to-morrow prove a Milton, charming the world by the beauty of his descriptions, and by the lofty conceptions of his heaven-born muse? or a Shakspeare , harping on the key-string of passion, and swaying the tide of human feeling at his pleasure? or a Newton, bursting the obstructions cast by nature around our finite conceptions, and with a daring almost divine, carrying the line and plummet to the very outskirts of the Almighty's works? Franklin, Milton, Shakspeare, and Newton, were once infants in mind as well as in years; and that potency of intellect which they subsequently manifested, was but the gradual expansion of the humble germ which God implanted in the first buddings of their infant days. Mysterious in its essence, no calculus can define its powers, calculate its eccentricities, or determine its orbit! The laws of matter cannot control it. Spiritual in its nature, it seeks its own level in kindred spirituality. On the fervid wings of its aspiration, it struggles upward through obstacles of sense, and burns for ethereal joys. Earth is not its home. It is an exotic, transplanted from heaven, here to bud awhile, and unfold a few of its golden tints, just giving a glimpse of its loveliness, and then to fade and die. But there it will bloom, in perennial freshness! There it will display, in all their perfection, its magic hues, and waft its undying fragrance on the celestial breeze.
We derive the annexed lines from an esteemed friend, who composed them a short time since, partly doubtless as a relaxation from legislative duties and care, but mainly to oblige the popular vocalist, Mr. H. Russell, who has set them to music, which will soon be published:
Albany, April, 1839
