ON PERCEPTION. His are the Mountains, and the Vallies his, And by an emphasis of interest his, Whose eyes they fill with tears of holy joy, Ah from the soul itself must issue forth And from the soul itself must there be sent What and wherein it doth subsist, This beautiful, and beauty-making power; Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud. And thence flows all that glads or ear or sight, All melodies the echoes of that Voice, All colours a suffusion from that light. COWPER. COLERIDGE, FROM THE GRIZE. Joy, O my masters! joy to the young, the fair, the brave, the middleaged, the old, and the decrepit! joy, true joy, to every christian soul of mortal man! Joy, O beloved! that over the once sterile passages of earth, radiant spirits of song and beauty such as these should have passed for thine inexhaustible delight! scattering flowers that can never fade and breathing music incapable of death! revealing to thee treasures, by which thou art surrounded, richer than all 'barbarick gold and pearl ;' disclosing the latent glories of thine own nature; and proving that not to any future state of existence is deferred that highest of the beatitudes, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD.' Yes!-where, to the sensual and the proud, there exist only darkness and dulness and vague chaotic masses of unformed nature, to thee, O pure in heart, there shall spring forth a new Heaven and new Earth, wrought out in thy presence, and fashioned by the hand of HIM whose spirit breathes now upon thy spirit, as once He breathed upon the dust of the ground and formed the father of thy race! Thine are the Mountains, and the Vallies thine, And the resplendent Rivers! I have placed at the head of this Essay a Fountain of golden light; and all that I hope or can desire is, to behold some one young listener kneel with me at it's brink, and fill his urn with Joy. So great a part of my own life has been wasted in quest of that which is not bread, nor light, nor joy, nor spiritual sustenance, that all it's waning hours would be made comparatively rich by the consciousness of having pointed out to only one enquiring spirit the way that I have myself so lately found. And therefore I venture to write these few unlearned words upon PERCEPTION, and upon the temper in which things should be perceived; with which they should be beheld, and studied, and welcomed to the heart. The experience that is requisite to acquire this temper is within the compass of the human life of every soul; and almost every moment of that life may be made a step toward the attainment of it. There is no position upon the surface of the earth so remote or desolate as not to yield full scope to the largest aspirations after such knowledge to the pure in heart. Indeed solitude, or the solitary communings of the soul within itself, are as indispensable to the acquisition of all spiritual knowledge, as the bustle and intercourse of ordinary life are to that which is merely worldly. When that mysterious impersonation of the Evil principle was permitted to tempt the SAVIOUR of mankind toward the consequences of illregulated ambition, all the Kingdoms of the Earth were exposed in rotation to his view, and all the tumultuary glories of their dominion offered to his acceptance and enjoyment: and again, it was suggested to him that he should cast his body to the earth from a pinnacle of the temple, that thousands to do him honour might witness his miraculous escape from injury : but it was in the lone stillness of the cloudcapt mountain, and from the narrow cleft of the overhanging rock, that THE ALMIGHTY, yielding in part to the request of the august legislator of Israel, caused His goodness to pass in review before the Eyes of His astonished and enlightened servant; and when Moses descended from the mountain, it was necessary to veil his face from the people, because of the effulgence of spiritual light that beamed from it! This should teach us that it is in retirement from what is called the world, that the soul mainly derives its spiritual good, while the crowd and occupations of society, not necessarily but more frequently, subject us to temptation and error. Joy then, O listener, in the mountain, and the valley, and the resplendent river! Let not an imagination of selfappropriation enter into thy thoughts, but enjoy because it is His gift, alike to thee and to all mankind. Who owns Mont Blanc ? whose is the Atlantic, or the Indian ocean? Thine, thou rich one! thine to sail over, thine to gaze upon, thine to raise thy hands from, upward toward Heaven in thanks for the glories of thy King! Whose are the worlds on which thy sight shall then rest, and the boundless sea of blue in which thy soul is bathed with delight? And, when thine eyes return again to earth in tears of holy joy, who formed the granitic peak, that oldest of His earthly creatures? or placed upon the ridges and summits of the Alleghany chain of mountains, the later wonder of those stupendous masses of limestone rock that rise in perpendicular structure to the clouds? The traveller, emigrating to the west, descends from the covered wagon that contains his bed and his reposing children, and prepares his breakfast and his journey in the dawn of morning, before day has yet visited the vales below; and the smoke of his fire, guided by the vast wall of rock, mounts in an unbroken column to the skies. The small and delicately pencilled flowers that are scattered at his feet or are trodden under by them and that seem as if they could only abide in solitude, who planted them? And the vine that creeps upward and finds for it's tendrils jutting points and crevices that are inscrutable to the eye of man, how beautifully does it's bright green foliage wave in contrast with the dark-gray of the towering mass of rock! And the azure, the purple, green, and golden birds and insects that play around and welcome the earliest sunbeams with a vivacity and joy that prove their lives to have been one long festival of native sport and pleasure! Every where, around, abroad, above, COLOUR, COLOUR, COLOUR, the unspeakable language of God's goodness and love; with which He writes His promises in the Heavens and unnumbered comforts on the soul of man! Now it is in this spirit that, when returning and mingling with the world, our powers of perception should be exercised and sustained. Teach thyself to enjoy the fortunes of thy friends, and enumerate the advantages of all mankind around thee as if they were all thine own. Do this without one envious, or repining, or selfish thought, And from thy Soul itself shall issue forth Thou art childless perhaps, or poor, or embarrassed with debt, or old, and broken-hearted in thy hopes. But the hearth of one of thy friends is clustering with immortal gems of beauty and intelligence of every age and promise; go among them in this spirit; thou shalt be more welcome than ever, and every child shall be thine own! And the one only daughter of another friend, in whom all his hopes are centred, and all to be realized that opening bud of grace and beauty, of refinement, gentleness and truth - let her be to thee a Trea sury of Joy! There can need no word, no regard that might by possibility be deemed intrusive, no earnest expression even of thy trust in the happiness of all her womanly affections. But when thine eye sees her then let it give witness to her, and when thine ear hears her then let it bless her! Do this with a full heart and silent lips, and thou shalt share largely in the bright fortune of thy friend. Her image and her silvery voice shall come visit thee in thy walks or at thy lonely fire-side, and thou shalt count her among the jewels of thy soul. The riches of another, thou shalt find unexpectedly to be thy wealth; and in his youth and vigour, thou shalt become suddenly strong. Let another freely own the statuary or the painting; so that the sight of it's magical beauties or it's delicious hues be accorded to thee. And another the library; delight thou that the knowledge it contains is opened by the freshness of his heart to thy thankful and devout acquisition. Rejoice in his resources; share, at least in thought, in all his pleasures; his generosity; his acquisitions and his success in life so superior to thine own. Walk with him; build with him; delight in his garden; admire his fruits and flowers; love his dog; listen with him in rapture to his birds, thou shalt find cadences in their song sweeter than were ever known to thee before; and drink his wine with him in an honest and cheery companionship, with grateful reference to that BEING who planted the Vine to gladden the heart of man and warm. it into social truth and tenderness. Thus, that which many have esteemed the hardest requisition of Christianity, that we should love others namely as ourself, shall prove to thee a source of the richest and most refined and unfailing pleasure; and, without diminishing the abundance of those who surround thee make thee a large and grateful sharer in it. Thou shalt walk over the Earth like a Visitant from above, enjoying and promoting Virtue in every form; and unfolding, out of the beautiful and useful, the cheerful and the good. Thoughts for the happiness of others shall rise whispering from thy heart, in prayerful words, to the Spirit of Truth; and thou shalt know that they have all been heard. Thou shalt look upward for illumination, or for support, and no cloud intervene between thee and the Source of Light and Strength. Young and old shall come forth to greet thee with open-handed Joy. And, if thou should'st be WOMAN flowers shall spring up to mark thy footsteps, the skies smile over thee, and the woods grow gay and musical at thine approach; for thou hast the happiness of others for their own sake at thine heart, thy pure heart, thy true heart, thy WOMAN'S heart AND thence, flows all that glads or ear or sight, All melodies the echoes of that Voice, LONG AGO. JOHN WAters. VOL. XXV. t. AFAR, by an ancient and shadowy wood, In the midst of a garden, my early home stood; In the freshness of spring-time and youth, long ago! 11. The sweet thrilling tones of affection and love, 41 St. Louis, Mo. III. Still memory pictures the far-away scene, Long ago! long ago! SKETCHES OF THE GREAT WEST. NUMBER TWO. J. S. : THE PIASAU ROCK. THE Piasau, or Pi-as-sau Rock, so called from a remarkable legend connected with it, is situated on the northern confines of the city of Alton, immediately on the Mississippi, from the surface of which it rises to a height of nearly a hundred feet, including a receding base of broken and shelving rock, extending about thirty feet from the water's edge, and about the same distance in height. Its summit is sparsely studded with dwarf cedars, and it presents a craggy and jagged front, with the exception of a space of about fifty feet by forty, which is smooth and even. On this space is emblazoned the figure of a hybridous animal, having a head resembling that of a fox, from which protrude large horns or antlers its back is supplied with wings, and it has a long curling tail, and four feet, or rather four huge claws. The sketch of the figure is very rough, and evidently executed by no master hand. It seems to have been first drawn with a species of red paint, and afterward rubbed over and polished with lime, or some other white substance. Immediately in the rear is another figure, but so obliterated by time, and by being marked over with the names of ambitious visiters, (who have taken this only available method of making themselves known to fame,) that it is impossible to trace its outline. It is probable, however, from the few marks visible, that it was intended to represent an animal similar to the former, but in a different position. The figure, which remains entire, is about eight feet long and five in height, to the tip of the wing, which is thrown upward over the back. The Piasau Rock is the lower extremity of the bluffs, which, commencing at Alton, extend northward up the Mississippi. It has been marked, as we have described, 'from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary;' and what is most remarkable, the tradition connected with it is not confined to a few tribes of Indians only, but seems to exist among all the aboriginal inhabitants of the Great West, none of whom, even to this day, pass the rock without discharging their arrows or rifles, at the |