In view of
that progress, and of evolution, the religious and esthetic elements,
the distinctive and most important of any, seem to me more indebted
to poetry than to all other means and influences combined. In a very
profound sense _religion is the poetry of humanity_. Then the points
of union and rapport among all the poems and poets of the world,
however wide their separations of time and place and theme, are
much more numerous and weighty than the points of contrast. Without
relation as they may seem at first sight, the whole earth's poets and
poetry--_en masse_--the Oriental, the Greek, and what there is of
Roman--the oldest myths--the interminable ballad-romances of the
Middle Ages--the hymns and psalms of worship--the epics, plays, swarms
of lyrics of the British Islands, or the Teutonic old or new--or
modern French--or what there is in America, Bryant's, for instance,
or Whittier's or Longfellow's--the verse of all tongues and ages,
all forms, all subjects, from primitive times to our own day
inclusive--really combine in one aggregate and electric globe or
universe, with all its numberless parts and radiations held together
by a common centre or verteber. To repeat it, all poetry thus has (to
the point of view comprehensive enough) more features of resemblance
than difference, and becomes essentially, like the planetary globe
itself, compact and orbic and whole. Nature seems to sow countless
seeds--makes incessant crude attempts--thankful to get now and then,
even at rare and long intervals, something approximately good.
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