primitive rock, the skeleton of earth's burning heart, she looms up
through the base of our existence. Addressing herself to some mystic
faculty born before thought or language, she lulls the suffering baby
into its first sleep, using perhaps the primeval and universal language
of the race. For the love which receives the New Born, cadences the
monotonous chant; and human sympathies are felt by the innocent and
confiding infant before his eyes are opened fully upon the light, before
his tongue can syllable a word, his ear detect their divisions, or his
mind divine their significations. But Music looms not only through the
base of our being; like the encompassing sky, her arch spans our
horizon. Lo! is it not the language through which the Angels convey the
secrets of their profound adoration to the Heart of God!

'Having every one of them harps'--'and they _sung_ a new song'--in which
are to join 'every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea'--'and the number of them
was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.'
(Revelation, chap, v.)

* * * * *

While Angelo linked the fiery tones in rhythmed laws, Zophiel sketched
with glowing pen the joys of virtue, the glories of the intellect, and
the pleasures, pains, raptures, woes, and loves of the heart. The deeds
of heroes were sung in Epic; Dramas, Elegies, and Lyrics syllabled the
inner life; men listened to the ennobling strains, and became _freemen_
as they heard. The intermingling flow of high thought and melodious
measures elevated and soothed the soul, and love for, and faith in,
humanity, were awakened and nourished by the true Poet.