Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/33

 What heterogeneous topics have been illustrated by L. E. L. what uninteresting and barren subjects have been made to pass before her fancy! and in that transit how have they gained in interest! Ay, subjects apparently as unpromising as the unchiselled marble in the studio of a Chantrey, as the newly-stretched canvas on the easel of a Fielding, or as intractable as the single string on the instrument of a Paganini;—yet soon like these to be animated with a living spirit! The genius that kindles the marble into the glorious shapes, that transforms the canvas into isles of fairy beauty and summer magnificence, and that wakes the soul of music sleeping in the string into thrilling power, also infuses into the poet's tasks the principle of a beauteous vitality. Swift has defined "Sight" as "the art of seeing things invisible;" there is much truth and philosophy in this seeming paradox, while it admits of special application to the mental vision of genius. In scenes and objects that to common eyes appear just what they are, and nothing beyond—common minds wondering what can be said of them—the gifted intellect discerns a charm they cannot see, and hears a voice they cannot hear. These objects the while acquire a grace and interest from the light of talent, like Memnon's statue imbibing harmony from the morning sunbeams. Thus, from ruined tower and olden castle, from Indian temple or Roman palace, from English landscape or foreign scenery, from portrait, or pictured group,—in a word, from the simplest to the most elaborate subject, there rise tones of music fraught with tender and sublime feeling, with moral or intellectual truth, with historical or otherwise interesting associations. We are