Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/43

 as their king, but as a mighty sovereign in the universal empire of mind. And wherever this power displays itself, there is shadowed forth the spiritual presence and operations of genius; therefore, since this power is so strikingly evinced in the writings of L. E. L., and since it cannot exist apart from that mental constitution, which, for its superior endowments and capabilities, we denominate genius, it follows that genius must be attributed to L. E. L. This Genius may be further illustrated by examining the Descriptions and Imagery of its productions. In attempting to select any specimens of Miss Landon's descriptions, we feel bewildered, where all are so varied and beautiful. We will, however, quote two as illustrating her descriptive powers and her peculiar faculty of associating moral sentiments with natural objects:—

The present! it is but a drop from the sea, In the mighty depths of eternity. I love it not, it taketh its birth Too near to the dull and the common earth; It is worn with our wants and steeped with our cares, The dreariest aspect of life it wears; Its griefs are so fresh, its wrongs are so near, That its evils of giant shape appear; The curse of the serpent, the sweat of the brow, Lie heavy on all things surrounding us now.

The actual! it is as clay to the soul, The working-day portion of life's wondrous whole. How much it needeth the light and the air To breathe their own being—the beautiful there! Like the soil that asks for the rain from the sky, And the soft west wind that goes wandering by, So the wonderful world within will arise, And rejoice in the smile of the summer's soft eyes.

The present, the actual, were they our all, Too heavy our burden, too hopeless our thrall;