perament and individuality, and by a small effort excite such Organs as we knew would allay or abate the irritation or grief caused by others in a too active state of excitement. Thus the Poetry of Phrenology rests in its great power of good; for it may be made, if justly used by a true man, a Peacemaker, a Guide, and a Consolation.

CHAPTER XI.

The marble pillars are laid in the dust,
The golden shrine and its perfume are gone,

But there are natural temples still for those
Eternal, tho' dethroned Deities.

L. E. L.

AN INTENDED ESSAY EXPANDED INTO " A LITTLE EARNEST

BOOK."-ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY.

HAT we, at first, intended to be but a

brief Essay, has gradually grown into

a little book; and, from the fact of our feeling earnestly all that we have written, we have deemed ourselves entitled to term it "A Little Earnest Book." We have "said our say " upon the motives of action, and the mental tone, of the true Poet; and upon our idea of what constitutes true Poetry. We have touched upon the Poetry of Science; and now we purpose, after a word or two upon Ancient Poetry, and the influence of

Ancient Poetry, to conclude. We fear that

our

"Little Earnest Book" will be found to lack a proper degree of consecutive order in the consideration of the various phases of "Our great Old Subject;" but we still hope that some few, at least, will be found, who will be sufficiently interested in the general subject itself, to listen to us patiently from the first page to the last.

Poetry has held its sway from the earliest ages of the World; and very often the chief, if not the only, records we have of the infancy of powerful Empires, States, and Nations, is that which reaches us in the shape of Ballad Poetry-half Fable and half Truth. Consider, for instance, that Old Religion, the Heathen Mythology; a religion that we venerate and love even now, because of its exquisite Poetry, and because, even then, it produced Heroism in Man, and Virtue in

Woman. With the single exception of true Christianity, properly and largely understood,

it is, to our minds, by far the most alluring and Poetical of all Faiths. We confess that we are looking at one side only of the picture.

Every Mountain and every Vale, every Wood and every Plain, every River and the vast Ocean, and wheresoever you might wander throughout Nature; every spot was peopled, and every spot was ready by association to charm, elevate, and delight you; or, if conscience had made you a coward, to warn and control you. Those were the days of "visible Poetry;" and through this Poetical and Philosophical Religion-sincerely and devoutly believed by the Ancients—streams were presided over, houses had their protecting gods, and the social virtues and affections were nourished with solicitous care and veneration. It has been termed, "a Romance full

of Poetry and Passion-a mysterious compound of supernatural wonders, and of human thoughts and feelings." What deathless renown was won under the influence of that Religion amongst the Greeks of old, history reveals. It is enough, that it is the country of Homer, Phidias, Sophocles, and Eschylus. Dr. Turner has observed, that "it made a solemn Temple of the vast Universe."

The grace and charm of the following passage from Leigh Hunt has tempted us to quote it. He says "Imagine the feelings "with which an ancient believer must have (6 gone by the oracular oaks of Dodona, or "the calm groves of the Eumenides, or the "fountain where Proserpine vanished under "ground with Pluto; or the laurelled moun"tain Parnassus, on the side of which was "the temple of Delphi, where Apollo was "supposed to be present in person. Imagine