THE HAMPTON TRACTS.
Nothing in the way of explanation is needed on these admirable “Hampton Tracts.” All that the notes will try to do is to enforce their importance. They certainly contain the foundation principles of health, and C. L. S. C. members have a work of reform laid upon them by their knowledge, which should be carried on at home, in schools and churches. Homes can not be happy if vitiated by uncleanliness and impure air; schools will fail in their work, and no spiritual good will come to the man who willingly disobeys the laws of health. Howard, the philanthropist, was once asked what precautions he took in visiting sick-rooms. He replied, “After the goodness of God, temperance and cleanliness are my preservations.” These preservations are within the reach of everyone. Fresh air, fresh water and sunlight are worth all the physicians and drugs of the times. Perhaps the hardest difficulty to contend with is a damp or marshy location, and it may not be amiss to note that, in France and Holland, sunflowers planted on an extensive scale have done much to disinfect the marshy tracts. It is quite possible that a permanent good may be done where C. L. S. C. circles are instituted, by the circles turning themselves into health clubs. Ten or fifteen minutes of every session devoted to health would keep up an active interest in the subject, would spread much needed knowledge, and work reform in the community.
ENGLISH LITERATURE.
THE POET DESCRIBED.
By S. JOHNSON.
“Wherever I went, I found that poetry was considered as the highest learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the angelic nature. And it yet fills me with wonder, that in almost all countries the most ancient poets are considered as the best; whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received by accident at first; or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe nature and passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing for those that followed them but transcriptions of the same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed, that the early writers are in possession of nature, and their followers, of art; that the first excel in strength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement.
“I was desirous to add my name to this illustrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca. But I soon found that no man was ever great by imitation. My desire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my subject, and men to be my auditors; I could never describe what I had not seen; I could not hope to move those with delight or terror whose interests and opinions I did not understand.