Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/291

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EDUCATION OF A POET.
287

turous exclamation: 'The Heavens declare the glory of God!'

"But every precept which has been given, will be inefficacious in forming the mind of the Poet, unless, aloof from the world, much of his time be passed in solitude and reflection. Here alone he can examine nature, and here the seeds of education must acquire full maturity."

"Such is the outline of the education which should expand poetical genius into perfection. A rude sketch of the subject only could be given here. The poet should indeed be acquainted with all that man can know; for every art, and every science, every department of learning, and every object in nature, may subserve for the decoration of his page. But ever mindful of the awful truth that man's 'life is a vapor which continueth a little time and then vanisheth away,' all his research should tend either directly, or through the medium of reason, to the improvement of sensibility and imagination, the instruments of his great design. Thus heaven-directed genius shall enwreath the brow with laurels of immortal verdure, and enroll its name forever in the record of wisdom and the song of beauty."

This elegant composition, which still remains unpublished, gained for its young author the appointment of poet at the next anniversary of the Phi-Beta-Kappa Society. It was inferred that one, who could so accurately delineate the true nurture and aliment