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He has not made the poetry, but he flatters himself he has done something towards making the poets. His notion of the poetic function is ambitious, and coincides roughly with what Schopenhauer has laid down as the province of the metaphysician. The poet is to gather together for men, and set in order, the materials of their existence.
"I find passages in it which show a profound knowledge of life, and others of which no one can dispute the high poetic flight," replied Cleopatra.
Another poetic touch the author gives us, from the Cherokee or Cheerake as he spells it explaining that the root, chee-ra, means fire. A Cherokee never extinguished fire save on the occasion of a death, when he thrust a burning torch into the water and said, Neetah intahah "the days appointed him were finished."
And here, notwithstanding I think it very probable that much importance has been attached to many writings, under the idea of their being prophetic, which are nothing more than the poetic effusions of a fruitful imagination; yet I have long been of opinion that there have been, and perhaps still are men in the world who are endowed, by nature, with gifts and faculties differing from men in general; and particularly, say if you please, with a spirit of prophecy, which, however, I must consider nothing less nor more than a second or mental sight.
We must remember that Nature's machines are not human machines. When we place our machine so that it is driven by the great universal currents, the wheel in the stream, the sail on the water, the result is much more pleasing and poetic than when propelled by artificial power. The more machinery we get between ourselves and Nature, the farther off Nature seems.
"Nay, Madame," he rejoined placidly, "but 'tis on the other foot the shoe happens to be, and I'll warrant you'll find the midnight air more poetic without my company: no doubt the sooner I remove the obstruction the better your ladyship will like it." He turned once more to go.
From that point of view, i' faith, politics have a poetic side which is not out of keeping with my past life. Now, to take up your other warning: that of my passion born or to be born for Madame de l'Estorade. I quote your most judicious deductions for the purpose of answering them fully.
Whatever may be said for or against the artistic temper of the present hour, it must certainly be said of the time we are alluding to that it was great as regards its wealth of poetic genius, and as regards its artistic temper greater still.
When the Imperial government was established, the old regicide made himself conspicuous even among the crowd of flatterers by the peculiar fulsomeness of his adulation. He translated into French a contemptible volume of Italian verses, entitled, "The Poetic Crown, composed on the glorious accession of Napoleon the First, by the Shepherds of Arcadia."
The hymn-book seeks to embody or awaken religious emotion alone; would its religious value be less if its poetic value were more? I think not. The best of the Psalms of David, from the religious point of view, are the best from the literary point of view. What reaches and thrills the soul, that is great art. What arouses the passions mirth, anger, indignation, pity may or may not be true art.
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