Thoughts On The Beautiful.

and from which descends a baptism of adoring loA'e . The beautiful abounds everyAA'here , and in everything that Ave can see and hear and feel . All nature , animate and inanimate ; all sciences ,

profound and simple ; all sounds , all shapes , all colours , are full of the traces of beauty . Singly or in combination , in AvhateA'er form or shape or position they may exist , beauty more or less intense is seen as the sign manual of Jehovah . And there is enough

of divinity still left in humanity , 6 A en in its ruin ancl banishment , to discover and appreciate these traces of beauty , hoAvever they may be developed ancl wherever they may be found . But this poAver to discover and appreciate varies in man , as

one form or face differs from another . At least half the enjoyments of life have their source ¦ in the beautiful ; and to a heart that is properly attuned to love it , the beautiful may be found eA'erywhere . Life ' s checkered pavements are

strewed all over Avith gems of beauty on AA'hich the contemplative and appreciating may gaze Avith delight . There is beauty in everything that God has made , Avhether in the physical or spiritual Avorld ; and there is beauty in the ideal as Avell as in the

jaractical . There is beauty in design—in system ¦ —in order ; in adaptation and in completeness ; in the fitness of things natural and moral , everything that is just as it ought to be , is beautiful . It is seen , also , in influence , especially if it tend to bless

and benefit , and lure to goodness ancl truth and jiurity . HOAV beautiful Avas that influence Avhich enabled the child to cause the tear of repentance to fall from the eye unused to Aveep , and the sigh of bitter regret to escape from the heart long " dead

in trespasses and in sin ! " Possibly these are only its effects , and that beauty , as the cause , is found in tho soft blue eye and angel-face of innocence and youth—in the pleading of affection that utters such potent language in each smile of love .

Would yon be led , from a contemplation of the beautiful , to " adore the Creator ? " Go look on the lofty and rugged mountain , the varied landscape , the fioAving river , the green woods , the fioAvory prairie , or the " AA'ide rolling sea / '' There

is beauty in the Avaterfall and the rainboAv , the lightning ' s flash and the light of the gloAV-worni , the falling rain-drops and the rushing ancl thundering cataract , the rays of burning noon , and the soft and holy light of the moon-beams Avhen they Avrap cottage and garden , the distant mountain , and the

tranquil sea in their drapery of mellow light . There is beauty in the Avaving corn and the yellow harvest ; in the daring flight of the eagle as he soars upward among tho sun-beams , and laughs at peril in the home of storms . And there is beauty in the flight of the hummina' -bird as it darts from flower to

floAver with the SAViftness of thought , and snatches a kiss of nectar from each as it passes on the wing . It is beauty embodied , for it Avinsthe heart ancl leads captive the eye , like some ethereal formation from the land of dreams .

All is beautiful—above , beloAV , around . The heavens are full of beauty , for they " declare the glory of God , and show His handiAVork . " Did you ever look up—aAvay up , through the unmeasured ancl immeasurable distances—to those

glittering orbs which adorn the heavens at night , ancl not feel that there is entrancing beauty there ? And the glorious moonlight , so calm , so gentle , so subduing — have you not often OAvned the power of its beauty ? Perhaps the " loved one " Avas by your side ,

AVho made every dear scene of enchantment more dear , and transmuted all into a lover's dream of heaven , or changed a howling wilderness into a blooming paradise . The Avorld's rude shocks , and crowding cares , ancl pressing anxieties Avere for the

time unfelt and forgotten . Or , it may be , that jrou Avere " alone witli God" —in the spirit and for the purpose of adoration ; how you seemed to be on the confines of that land " Avhere there is no night , " nor winter , nor death ; and Avhere there

is " no need of the sun , " because it is enlightened by "the glory of God . " Anon you thought of friends—perhaps distant and loved ones—Avhile you felt the SAveet influence of that glory AA'hich surrounded you ; and your heart wandered off on its beams of silent beauty to some hallowed shrine , and Avorshipped in

ecstacy there . Before you were aware , perhaps , you Avere holding communion Avith them through the medium of that queenly orb . Sweet moon ! if , like Crotona's sage By any spell my hand could dare To make thy disc its ample page ,

A . nd write my thoughts , my wishes there ; How many a friend , whose careless eye Now wanders o'e . that starry sky , Should smile upon the orb to meet The recollection , kind and sweet—The reveries of fond regret—The promise never to forget , And all my heart and soul would send

To many a dear-loved distant friend . Those bright Avorlds on which Ave gaze in the calm clear night retain all their original perfection .