gress of resemblance most remarkable when two persons, the one richly communicative, the other apt to receive, have lived a considerable time together, without foreign intervention; when he who gave had given all, or he who received could receive no more, physiognomonical resemblance, if I so dare say, had attained its punctum saturationis. It was incapable of farther increase.

A word here to thee, youth, irritable and easy to be won. Oh! pause, consider, throw not thyself, too hastily, into the arms of a friend untried. A gleam of sympathy and resemblance may easily deceive thee. If the man who is thy second self have not yet appeared, be not rash, thou shalt find him at the appointed hour. Being found, he will attract thee to himself, will give and receive whatever is communicable. The ardour of his eyes will nurture thine, and the gentleness of his voice will temper thy too piercing tones. His love will shine in thy countenance, and his image will appear in thee. Thou wilt become what he is, and yet remain what thou art. Affection will make qualities in him visible to thee which never could be seen by an uninterested eye. This capability of remarking, of feeling what there is of divine, in him, is a power which will make thy countenance assume his resemblance.

IX.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION ON THE COUNTENANCE.

A WORD, only, on a subject concerning which volumes might be written, for it is a subject I must not leave wholly in silence. The little, the nothing, I have to say upon it, can only act as an inducement to deeper meditations on a theme so profound.

Imagination acts upon our own countenance, rendering it in some measure resem-bling the beloved or hated image, which is living, present, and fleeting before us, and is within the circle of our immediate activity. If a man deeply in love, and supposing himself alone, were ruminating on his beloved mistress, to whom his imagination might lend charms, which, if present, he would be unable to discover-Were such a man observed by a person of penetration, it is probable that traits of the mistress might be seen in the countenance of this meditating lover. So might, in the cruel features of revenge, the features of the enemy be read, whom imagination represents as present. And thus is the countenance a picture of the characteristic features of all persons ex

ceedingly loved or hated. It is possible that an eye less penetrating than that of an angel may read the image of the Creator in the countenance of a truly pious person. He who languishes after Christ, the more lively, the more distinctly, the more sublimely, he represents to himself the very presence and image of Christ, the greater resemblance will his own countenance take of this image. The image of imagination often acts more effectually than the real presence; and whoever has seen him of whom we speak, the great HIM, though it were but an instantaneous glimpse, Oh! how incessantly will the imagination reproduce his image in the

countenance.

Our imagination also acts upon other countenances. The imagination of the mother acts upon the child. Hence men long have attempted to influence the imagination for the production of beautiful children. In my opinion, however, it is not so much the beauty of surrounding forms as the interest taken concerning forms, in certain moments; and here, again, it is not so much the imagination that acts as the spirit, that being only the organ of the spirit. Thus it is true that it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh and the image of the flesh, merely considered as such, profiteth nothing. A look of love,

may

from the sanctuary of the soul, has, certainly, greater forming power than hours of deliberate contemplation of the most beautiful images. This forming look, if so I call it, can as little be premeditatedly given as any other naturally beautiful form can be imparted, by a studious contemplation in the looking glass. All that creates, and is profoundly active, in the inner man, must be internal, and be communicated from above; as I believe it suffers itself not to be occasioned, at least, not by forethought, circumspection, or wisdom in the agent, to produce such effects. Beautiful forms, or abortions, are neither of them the work of art or study, but of intervening causes, of the quick-guiding providence, the predetermining God.

Instead of the senses, endeavour to act upon affection. If thou canst but incite love, it will, of itself, seek, and find, the powers of creation. But this But this very love must itself be innate before it can be awakened. Perhaps, however, the moment of this awakening is not in our power; and, therefore, to those who would, by plan and method, effect that which is in itself so extraordinary, and imagine they have had I know not what wise and physiological circumspection when they first awaken love, I might exclaim in the words of the enraptured singer: "I charge

you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please."Here, behold the forming Genius.-" Behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, like a young hart." Song of Sol. chap. ii. 7, 8, 9.

Moments unforeseen, rapid as the lightning, in my opinion, form and deform. Creation, of whatever kind, is momentaneous: the developement, nutriment, change, improving, injuring, is the work of time, art, industry, and education. Creative power suffers itself not to be studied. Creation cannot be meditated. Masks may be moulded, but living essence, within and without resembling itself, the image of God, must be created, born, "not of the will the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

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