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ACCORDING to one mode of regarding those two classes of mental action, which are called reason and imagination, the former may be considered as mind contemplating the relations borne by one thought to another, however produced, and the latter, as mind acting upon those thoughts so as to color them with its own light, and composing from them, as from elements, other thoughts, each containing within itself the principle of its own integrity. The one is the [Greek], or the principle of synthesis, and has for its objects those forms which are common to universal nature and existence itself; the other is the [Greek], or principle of analysis, and its action regards the relations of things simply as relations; considering thoughts, not in their integral unity, but as the algebraical representations which conduct to certain general results. Reason is the enumeration of qualities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those qualities, both separately and as a whole. Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things. Reason is to imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance. 1
Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be "the expression of the imagination": and poetry is connate with the origin of man. Man is an instrument over which a series of external and internal impressions are driven, like the alternations of an ever—changing wind over an Æolian lyre, which move it by their motion to ever—changing melody. But there is a principle within the human being, and perhaps within all sentient beings, which acts otherwise than in the lyre, and produces not melody alone, but harmony, by an internal adjustment of the sounds or motions thus excited to the impressions which excite them. It is as if the lyre could accommodate its chords to the motions of that which strikes them, in a determined proportion of sound; even as the musician can accommodate his voice to the sound of the lyre. A child at play by itself will express its delight by its voice and motions; and every inflexion of tone and every gesture will bear exact relation to a corresponding antitype in the pleasurable impressions which awakened it; it will be the reflected image of that impression; and as the lyre trembles and sounds after the wind has died away, so the child seeks, by prolonging in its voice and motions the duration of the effect, to prolong also a consciousness of the cause. In relation to the objects which delight a child these expressions are what poetry is to higher objects. The savage (for the savage is to ages what the child is to years) expresses the emotions produced in him by surrounding objects in a similar manner; and language and gesture, together with plastic or pictorial imitation, become the image of the combined effect of those objects, and of his apprehension of them. Man in society, with all his passions and his pleasures, next becomes the object of the passions and pleasures of man; an additional class of emotions produces an augmented treasure of expressions; and language, gesture, and the imitative arts, become at once the representation and the medium, the pencil and the picture, the chisel and the statute, the chord and the harmony. The social sympathies, or those laws from which, as from its elements, society results, begin to develop themselves from the moment that two human beings coexist; the future is contained within the present, as the plant within the seed; and equality, diversity, unity, contrast, mutual dependence, become the principles alone capable of affording the motives according to which the will of a social being is determined to action, inasmuch as he is social; and constitute pleasure in sensation, virtue in sentiment, beauty in art, truth in reasoning, and love in the intercourse of kind. Hence men, even in the infancy of society, observe a certain order in their words and actions, distinct from that of the objects and the impressions represented by them, all expression being subject to the laws of that from which it proceeds. But let us dismiss those more general considerations which might involve an inquiry into the principles of society itself, and restrict our view to the manner in which the imagination is expressed upon its forms. 2
In the youth of the world, men dance and sing and imitate natural objects, observing in these actions, as in all others, a certain rhythm or order. And, although all men observe a similar, they observe not the same order, in the motions of the dance, in the melody of the song, in the combinations of language, in the series of their imitations of natural objects. For there is a certain order or rhythm belonging to each of these classes of mimetic representation, from which the hearer and the spectator receive an intenser and purer pleasure than from any other: the sense of an approximation to this order has been called taste by modern writers. Every man in the infancy of art observes an order which approximates more or less closely to that from which this highest delight results: but the diversity is not sufficiently marked, as that its gradations should be sensible, except in those instances where the predominance of this faculty of approximation to the beautiful (for so we may be permitted to name the relation between this highest pleasure and its cause) is very great. Those in whom it exists in excess are poets, in the most universal sense of the word; and the pleasure resulting from the manner in which they express the influence of society or nature upon their own minds, communicates itself to others, and gathers a sort of reduplication from that community. Their language is vitally metaphorical; that is, it marks the before unapprehended relations of things and perpetuates their apprehension, until the words which represent them, become, through time, signs for portions or classes of thoughts instead of pictures of integral thoughts; and then if no new poets should arise to create afresh the associations which have been thus disorganized, language will be dead to all the nobler purposes of human intercourse. These similitudes or relations are finely said by Lord Bacon to be "the same footsteps of nature impressed upon the various subjects of the world" 1—and he considers the faculty which perceives them as the storehouse of axioms common to all knowledge. In the infancy of society every author is necessarily a poet, because language itself is poetry; and to be a poet is to apprehend the true and the beautiful, in a word, the good which exists in the relation, subsisting, first between existence and perception, and secondly between perception and expression. Every original language near to its source is in itself the chaos of a cyclic poem: the copiousness of lexicography and the distinctions of grammar are the works of a later age, and are merely the catalogue and the form of the creations of poetry. 3
But poets, or those who imagine and express this indestructible order, are not only the authors of language and of music, of the dance, and architecture, and statuary, and painting: they are the institutors of laws, and the founders of civil society, and the inventors of the arts of life, and the teachers, who draw into a certain propinquity with the beautiful and the true that partial apprehension of the agencies of the invisible world which is called religion. Hence all original religions are allegorical, or susceptible of allegory, and, like Janus, have a double face of false and true. Poets, according to the circumstances of the age and nation in which they appeared, were called, in the earlier epochs of the world, legislators, or prophets: a poet essentially comprises and unites both these characters. For he not only beholds intensely the present as it is, and discovers those laws according to which present things ought to be ordered, but he beholds the future in the present, and his thoughts are the germs of the flower and the fruit of latest time. Not that I assert poets to be prophets in the gross sense of the word, or that they can foretell the form as surely as they foreknow the spirit of events: such is the pretence of superstition, which would make poetry an attribute of prophecy, rather than prophecy an attribute of poetry. A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one; as far as relates to his conceptions, time and place and number are not. The grammatical forms which express the moods of time, and the difference of persons, and the distinction of place, are convertible with respect to the highest poetry without injuring it as poetry; and the choruses of Æschylus, and the book of Job, and Dante's "Paradise" would afford, more than any other writings, examples of this fact, if the limits of this essay did not forbid citation. The creations of sculpture, painting, and music are illustrations still more decisive. 4
Language, color, form, and religious and civil habits of action, are all the instruments and materials of poetry; they may be called poetry by that figure of speech which considers the effect as a synonym of the cause. But poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty, whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man. And this springs from the nature itself of language, which is a more direct representation of the actions and passions of our internal being, and is susceptible of more various and delicate combinations, than color, form, or motion, and is more plastic and obedient to the control of that faculty of which it is the creation. For language is arbitrarily produced by the imagination, and has relation to thoughts alone; but all other materials, instruments, and conditions of art have relations among each other, which limit and interpose between conception and expression. The former is as a mirror which reflects, the latter as a cloud which enfeebles, the light of which both are mediums of communication. Hence the fame of sculptors, painters, and musicians, although the intrinsic powers of the great masters of these arts may yield in no degree to that of those who have employed language as the hieroglyphic of their thoughts, has never equalled that of poets in the restricted sense of the term; as two performers of equal skill will produce unequal effects from a guitar and a harp. The fame of legislators and founders of religions, so long as their institutions last, alone seems to exceed that of poets in the restricted sense; but it can scarcely be a question, whether, if we deduct the celebrity which their flattery of the gross opinions of the vulgar usually conciliates, together with that which belonged to them in their higher character of poets, any excess will remain. 5
We have thus circumscribed the word poetry within the limits of that art which is the most familiar and the most perfect expression of the faculty itself. It is necessary, however, to make the circle still narrower, and to determine the distinction between measured and unmeasured language; for the popular division into prose and verse is inadmissible in accurate philosophy. 6
Sounds as well as thoughts have relation both between each other and towards that which they represent, and a perception of the order of those relations has always been found connected with a perception of the order of the relations of thoughts. Hence the language of poets has ever affected a certain uniform and harmonious recurrence of sound, without which it were not poetry, and which is scarcely less indispensable to the communication of its influence, than the words themselves, without reference to that peculiar order. Hence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet. The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower—and this is the burden of the curse of Babel. 7
An observation of the regular mode of the recurrence of harmony in the language of poetical minds, together with its relation to music, produced metre, or a certain system of traditional forms of harmony and language. Yet it is by no means essential that a poet should accommodate his language to this traditional form, so that the harmony, which is its spirit, be observed. The practice is indeed convenient and popular, and to be preferred, especially in such composition as includes much action: but every great poet must inevitably innovate upon the example of his predecessors in the exact structure of his peculiar versification. The distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error. The distinction between philosophers and poets has been anticipated. Plato was essentially a poet—the truth and splendor of his imagery, and the melody of his language, are the most intense that it is possible to conceive. He rejected the measure of the epic, dramatic, and lyrical forms, because he sought to kindle a harmony in thoughts divested of shape and action, and he forebore to invent any regular plan of rhythm which would include, under determinate forms, the varied pauses of his style. Cicero sought to imitate the cadence of his periods, but with little success. Lord Bacon was a poet. 2 His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm, which satisfies the sense, no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect; it is a strain which distends, and then bursts the circumference of the reader's mind, and pours itself forth together with it into the universal element with which it has perpetual sympathy. All the authors of revolutions in opinion are not only necessarily poets as they are inventors, nor even as their words unveil the permanent analogy of things by images which participate in the life of truth; but as their periods are harmonious and rhythmical, and contain in themselves the elements of verse; being the echo of the eternal music. Nor are those supreme poets, who have employed traditional forms of rhythm on account of the form and action of their subjects, less capable of perceiving and teaching the truth of things, than those who have omitted that form. Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton (to confine ourselves to modern writers) are philosophers of the very loftiest power. 8
A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth. There is this difference between a story and a poem, that a story is a catalogue of detached facts, which have no other connection than time, place, circumstance, cause and effect; the other is the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator, which is itself the image of all other minds. The one is partial, and applies only to a definite period of time, and a certain combination of events which can never again recur; the other is universal, and contains within itself the germ of a relation to whatever motives or actions have place in the possible varieties of human nature. Time, which destroys the beauty and the use of the story of particular facts, stripped of the poetry which should invest them, augments that of poetry, and forever develops new and wonderful applications of the eternal truth which it contains. Hence epitomes have been called the moths of just history; they eat out the poetry of it. A story of particular facts is as a mirror which obscures and distorts that which should be beautiful; poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted. 9
The parts of a composition may be poetical, without the composition as a whole being a poem. A single sentence may be considered as a whole, though it may be found in the midst of a series of unassimilated portions; a single word even may be a spark of inextinguishable thought. And thus all the great historians, Herodotus, Plutarch, Livy, were poets; and although the plan of these writers, especially that of Livy, restrained them from developing this faculty in its highest degree, they made copious and ample amends for their subjection, by filling all the interstices of their subjects with living images. 10
Having determined what is poetry, and who are poets, let us proceed to estimate its effects upon society. 11
Poetry is ever accompanied with pleasure: all spirits on which it falls open themselves to receive the wisdom which is mingled with its delight. In the infancy of the world, neither poets themselves nor their auditors are fully aware of the excellence of poetry: for it acts in a divine and unapprehended manner, beyond and above consciousness; and it is reserved for future generations to contemplate and measure the mighty cause and effect in all the strength and splendor of their union. Even in modern times, no living poet ever arrived at the fulness of his fame; the jury which sits in judgment upon a poet, belonging as he does to all time, must be composed of his peers: it must be impanelled by Time from the selectest of the wise of many generations. A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why. The poems of Homer and his contemporaries were the delight of infant Greece; they were the elements of that social system which is the column upon which all succeeding civilization has reposed. Homer embodied the ideal perfection of his age in human character; nor can we doubt that those who read his verses were awakened to an ambition of becoming like to Achilles, Hector, and Ulysses: the truth and beauty of friendship, patriotism, and persevering devotion to an object, were unveiled to the depths in these immortal creations: the sentiments of the auditors must have been refined and enlarged by a sympathy with such great and lovely impersonations, until from admiring they imitated, and from imitation they identified themselves with the objects of their admiration. Nor let it be objected that these characters are remote from moral perfection, and that they can by no means be considered as edifying patterns for general imitation. Every epoch, under names more or less specious, has deified its peculiar errors; Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi—barbarous age: and Self—deceit is the veiled image of unknown evil, before which luxury and satiety lie prostrate. But a poet considers the vices of his contemporaries as the temporary dress in which his creations must be arrayed, and which cover without concealing the eternal proportions of their beauty. An epic or dramatic personage is understood to wear them around his soul, as he may the ancient armor or the modern uniform around his body; whilst it is easy to conceive a dress more graceful than either. The beauty of the internal nature cannot be so far concealed by its accidental vesture, but that the spirit of its form shall communicate itself to the very disguise, and indicate the shape it hides from the manner in which it is worn. A majestic form and graceful motions will express themselves through the most barbarous and tasteless costume. Few poets of the highest class have chosen to exhibit the beauty of their conceptions in its naked truth and splendor; and it is doubtful whether the alloy of costume, habit, etc., be not necessary to temper this planetary music for mortal ears. 12
The whole objection, however, of the immorality of poetry rests upon a misconception of the manner in which poetry acts to produce the moral improvement of man. Ethical science arranges the elements which poetry has created, and propounds schemes and proposes examples of civil and domestic life: nor is it for want of admirable doctrines that men hate, and despise, and censure, and deceive, and subjugate one another. But poetry acts in another and diviner manner. It awakens and enlarges the mind itself by rendering it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought. Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar; it reproduces all that it represents, and the impersonations clothed in its Elysian light stand thenceforward in the minds of those who have once contemplated them, as memorials of that gentle and exalted content which extends itself over all thoughts and actions with which it coexists. The great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasure of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause. Poetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thoughts of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all other thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices whose void forever craves fresh food. Poetry strengthens the faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb. A poet therefore would do ill to embody his own conceptions of right and wrong, which are usually those of his place and time, in his poetical creations, which participate in neither. By this assumption of the inferior office of interpreting the effect, in which perhaps after all he might acquit himself but imperfectly, he would resign a glory in a participation in the cause. There was little danger that Homer, or any of the eternal poets, should have so far misunderstood themselves as to have abdicated this throne of their widest dominion. Those in whom the poetical faculty, though great, is less intense, as Euripides, Lucan, Tasso, Spenser, have frequently affected a moral aim, and the effect of their poetry is diminished in exact proportion to the degree in which they compel us to advert to this purpose. 13
Homer and the cyclic poets were followed at a certain interval by the dramatic and lyrical poets of Athens, who flourished contemporaneously with all that is most perfect in the kindred expressions of the poetical faculty; architecture, painting, music, the dance, sculpture, philosophy, and, we may add, the forms of civil life. For although the scheme of Athenian society was deformed by many imperfections which the poetry existing in chivalry and Christianity has erased from the habits and institutions of modern Europe; yet never at any other period has so much energy, beauty, and virtue been developed; never was blind strength and stubborn form so disciplined and rendered subject to the will of man, or that will less repugnant to the dictates of the beautiful and the true, as during the century which preceded the death of Socrates. Of no other epoch in the history of our species have we records and fragments stamped so visibly with the image of the divinity in man. But it is poetry alone, in form, in action, or in language, which has rendered this epoch memorable above all others, and the store—house of examples to everlasting time. For written poetry existed at that epoch simultaneously with the other arts, and it is an idle inquiry to demand which gave and which received the light, which all, as from a common focus, have scattered over the darkest periods of succeeding time. We know no more of cause and effect than a constant conjunction of events: poetry is ever found to coexist with whatever other arts contribute to the happiness and perfection of man. I appeal to what has already been established to distinguish between the cause and the effect. 14
It was at the period here adverted to that the drama had its birth; and however a succeeding writer may have equalled or surpassed those few great specimens of the Athenian drama which have been preserved to us, it is indisputable that the art itself never was understood or practised according to the true philosophy of it, as at Athens. For the Athenians employed language, action, music, painting, the dance, and religious institutions, to produce a common effect in the representation of the highest idealism of passion and of power; each division in the art was made perfect in its kind of artists of the most consummate skill, and was disciplined into a beautiful proportion and unity one towards the other. On the modern stage a few only of the elements capable of expressing the image of the poet's conception are employed at once. We have tragedy without music and dancing; and music and dancing without the highest impersonations of which they are the fit accompaniment, and both without religion and solemnity. Religious institution has indeed been usually banished from the stage. Our system of divesting the actor's face of a mask, on which the many expressions appropriated to his dramatic character might be moulded into one permanent and unchanging expression, is favorable only to a partial and inharmonious effect; it is fit for nothing but a monologue, where all the attention may be directed to some great master of ideal mimicry. The modern practice of blending comedy with tragedy, though liable to great abuse in point of practice, is undoubtedly an extension of the dramatic circle; but the comedy should be as in "King Lear," universal, ideal, and sublime. It is perhaps the intervention of this principle which determines the balance in favor of "King Lear" against the "Oedipus Tyrannus" or the "Agamemnon," or, if you will, the trilogies with which they are connected; unless the intense power of the choral poetry, especially that of the latter, should be considered as restoring the equilibrium. "King Lear," if it can sustain this comparison, may be judged to be the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world; in spite of the narrow conditions to which the poet was subjected by the ignorance of the philosophy of the drama which has prevailed in modern Europe. Calderon, in his religious autos, has attempted to fulfil some of the high conditions of dramatic representation neglected by Shakespeare; such as the establishing a relation between the drama and religion, and the accommodating them to music and dancing; but he omits the observation of conditions still more important, and more is lost than gained by the substitution of the rigidly defined and ever—repeated idealisms of a distorted superstition for the living impersonations of the truth of human passion. 15
But I digress. The connection of scenic exhibitions with the improvement or corruption of the manners of men has been universally recognized; in other words, the presence or absence of poetry in its most perfect and universal form has been found to be connected with good and evil in conduct or habit. The corruption which has been imputed to the drama as an effect, begins, when the poetry employed in its constitution ends: I appeal to the history of manners whether the periods of the growth of the one and the decline of the other have not corresponded with an exactness equal to any example of moral cause and effect. 16
The drama at Athens, or wheresoever else it may have approached to its perfection, ever coexisted with the moral and intellectual greatness of the age. The tragedies of the Athenian poets are as mirrors in which the spectator beholds himself, under a thin disguise of circumstance, stripped of all but that ideal perfection and energy which everyone feels to be the internal type of all that he loves, admires, and would become. The imagination is enlarged by a sympathy with pains and passions so mighty, that they distend in their conception the capacity of that by which they are conceived; the good affections are strengthened by pity, indignation, terror, and sorrow; and an exalted calm is prolonged from the satiety of this high exercise of them into the tumult of familiar life: even crime is disarmed of half its horror and all its contagion by being represented as the fatal consequence of the unfathomable agencies of nature; error is thus divested of its wilfulness; men can no longer cherish it as the creation of their choice. In a drama of the highest order there is little food for censure or hatred; it teaches rather self—knowledge and self—respect. Neither the eye nor the mind can see itself, unless reflected upon that which it resembles. The drama, so long as it continues to express poetry, is as a prismatic and many—sided mirror, which collects the brightest rays of human nature and divides and reproduces them from the simplicity of these elementary forms, and touches them with majesty and beauty, and multiplies all that it reflects, and endows it with the power of propagating its like wherever it may fall. 17
But in periods of the decay of social life, the drama sympathizes with that decay. Tragedy becomes a cold imitation of the form of the great masterpieces of antiquity, divested of all harmonious accompaniment of the kindred arts; and often the very form misunderstood, or a weak attempt to teach certain doctrines, which the writer considers as moral truths; and which are usually no more than specious flatteries of some gross vice or weakness, with which the author, in common with his auditors, are infected. Hence what has been called the classical and domestic drama. Addison's "Cato" is a specimen of the one; and would it were not superfluous to cite examples of the other! To such purposes poetry cannot be made subservient. Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it. And thus we observe that all dramatic writings of this nature are unimaginative in a singular degree; they affect sentiment and passion, which, divested of imagination, are other names for caprice and appetite. The period in our own history of the grossest degradation of the drama is the reign of Charles II, when all forms in which poetry had been accustomed to be expressed became hymns to the triumph of kingly power over liberty and virtue. Milton stood alone illuminating an age unworthy of him. At such periods the calculating principle pervades all the forms of dramatic exhibition, and poetry ceases to be expressed upon them. Comedy loses its ideal universality: wit succeeds to humor; we laugh from self—complacency and triumph, instead of pleasure; malignity, sarcasm, and contempt succeed to sympathetic merriment; we hardly laugh, but we smile. Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, becomes, from the very veil which it assumes, more active if less disgusting: it is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret. 18
The drama being that form under which a greater number of modes of expression of poetry are susceptible of being combined than any other, the connection of poetry and social good is more observable in the drama than in whatever other form. And it is indisputable that the highest perfection of human society has ever corresponded with the highest dramatic excellence; and that the corruption or the extinction of the drama in a nation where it has once flourished is a mark of a corruption of manners, and an extinction of the energies which sustain the soul of social life. But, as Machiavelli says of political institutions, that life may be preserved and renewed, if men should arise capable of bringing back the drama to its principles. And this is true with respect to poetry in its most extended sense: all language, institution, and form require not only to be produced but to be sustained: the office and character of a poet participate in the divine nature as regards providence, no less than as regards creation. 19
Civil war, the spoils of Asia, and the fatal predominance first of the Macedonian, and then of the Roman arms, were so many symbols of the extinction or suspension of the creative faculty in Greece. The bucolic writers, who found patronage under the lettered tyrants of Sicily and Egypt, were the latest representatives of its most glorious reign. Their poetry is intensely melodious; like the odor of the tuberose, it overcomes and sickens the spirit with excess of sweetness; whilst the poetry of the preceding age was as a meadow—gale of June, which mingles the fragrance of all the flowers of the field, and adds a quickening and harmonizing spirit of its own which endows the sense with a power of sustaining its extreme delight. The bucolic and erotic delicacy in written poetry is correlative with that softness in statuary, music, and the kindred arts, and even in manners and institutions, which distinguished the epoch to which I now refer. Nor is it the poetical faculty itself, or any misapplication of it, to which this want of harmony is to be imputed. An equal sensibility to the influence of the senses and the affections is to be found in the writings of Homer and Sophocles: the former, especially, has clothed sensual and pathetic images with irresistible attractions. Their superiority over these succeeding writers consists in the presence of those thoughts which belong to the inner faculties of our nature, not in the absence of those which are connected with the external; their incomparable perfection consists in a harmony of the union of all. It is not what the erotic poets have, but what they have not, in which their imperfection consists. It is not inasmuch as they were poets, but inasmuch as they were not poets, that they can be considered with any plausibility as connected with the corruption of their age. Had that corruption availed so as to extinguish in them the sensibility to pleasure, passion, and natural scenery, which is imputed to them as an imperfection, the last triumph of evil would have been achieved. For the end of social corruption is to destroy all sensibility to pleasure; and, therefore, it is corruption. It begins at the imagination and the intellect as at the core, and distributes itself thence as a paralyzing venom, through the affections into the very appetites, until all become a torpid mass in which hardly sense survives. At the approach of such a period, poetry ever addresses itself to those faculties which are the last to be destroyed, and its voice is heard, like the footsteps of Astræa, departing from the world. Poetry ever communicates all the pleasure which men are capable of receiving: it is ever still the light of life; the source of whatever of beautiful or generous or true can have place in an evil time. It will readily be confessed that those among the luxurious citizens of Syracuse and Alexandria, who were delighted with the poems of Theocritus, were less cold, cruel, and sensual than the remnant of their tribe. But corruption must utterly have destroyed the fabric of human society before poetry can ever cease. The sacred links of that chain have never been entirely disjoined, which descending through the minds of many men is attached to those great minds, whence as from a magnet the invisible effluence is sent forth, which at once connects, animates, and sustains the life of all. It is the faculty which contains within itself the seeds at once of its own and of social renovation. And let us not circumscribe the effects of the bucolic and erotic poetry within the limits of the sensibility of those to whom it was addressed. They may have perceived the beauty of those immortal compositions, simply as fragments and isolated portions: those who are more finely organized, or born in a happier age, may recognize them as episodes to that great poem, which all poets, like the co—operating thoughts of one great mind, have built up since the beginning of the world. 20
The same revolutions within a narrower sphere had place in ancient Rome; but the actions and forms of its social life never seem to have been perfectly saturated with the poetical element. The Romans appear to have considered the Greeks as the selectest treasuries of the selectest forms of manners and of nature, and to have abstained from creating in measured language, sculpture, music, or architecture, anything which might bear a particular relation to their own condition, whilst it should bear a general one to the universal constitution of the world. But we judge from partial evidence, and we judge perhaps partially. Ennius, Varro, Pacuvius, and Accius, all great poets, have been lost. Lucretius is in the highest, and Vergil in a very high sense, a creator. The chosen delicacy of expressions of the latter are as a mist of light which conceal from us the intense and exceeding truth of his conceptions of nature. Livy is instinct with poetry. Yet Horace, Catullus, Ovid, and generally the other great writers of the Vergilian age, saw man and nature in the mirror of Greece. The institutions also, and the religion of Rome, were less poetical than those of Greece, as the shadow is less vivid than the substance. Hence poetry in Rome seemed to follow, rather than accompany, the perfection of political and domestic society. The true poetry of Rome lived in its institutions; for whatever of beautiful, true, and majestic, they contained, could have sprung only from the faculty which creates the order in which they consist. The life of Camillus, the death of Regulus; the expectation of the senators, in their godlike state, of the victorious Gauls; the refusal of the republic to make peace with Hannibal, after the battle of Cannæ, were not the consequences of a refined calculation of the probable personal advantage to result from such a rhythm and order in the shows of life, to those who were at once the poets and the actors of these immortal dramas. The imagination beholding the beauty of this order, created it out of itself according to its own idea; the consequence was empire, and the reward ever—living fame. These things are not the less poetry, quia carent vate sacro 3. They are the episodes of that cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of men. The Past, like an inspired rhapsodist, fills the theatre of everlasting generations with their harmony. 21
At length the ancient system of religion and manners had fulfilled the circle of its revolutions. And the world would have fallen into utter anarchy and darkness, but that there were found poets among the authors of the Christian and chivalric systems of manners and religion, who created forms of opinion and action never before conceived; which, copied into the imaginations of men, became as generals to the bewildered armies of their thoughts. It is foreign to the present purpose to touch upon the evil produced by these systems: except that we protest, on the ground of the principles already established, that no portion of it can be attributed to the poetry they contain. 22
It is probable that the poetry of Moses, Job, David, Solomon, and Isaiah had produced a great effect upon the mind of Jesus and his disciples. The scattered fragments preserved to us by the biographers of this extraordinary person are all instinct with the most vivid poetry. But his doctrines seem to have been quickly distorted. At a certain period after the prevalence of a system of opinions founded upon those promulgated by him, the three forms into which Plato had distributed the faculties of mind underwent a sort of apotheosis, and became the object of the worship of the civilized world. Here it is to be confessed that "Light seems to thicken," and
"The crow makes wing to the rocky wood,
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
And night's black agents to their preys do rouse."
But mark how beautiful an order has sprung from the dust and blood of this fierce chaos! how the world, as from a resurrection, balancing itself on the golden wings of Knowledge and of Hope, has reassumed its yet unwearied flight into the heaven of time. Listen to the music, unheard by outward ears, which is as a ceaseless and invisible wind, nourishing its everlasting course with strength and swiftness. 23
The poetry in the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and the mythology and institutions of the Celtic conquerors of the Roman Empire, outlived the darkness and the convulsions connected with their growth and victory, and blended themselves in a new fabric of manners and opinion. It is an error to impute the ignorance of the dark ages to the Christian doctrines or the predominance of the Celtic nations. Whatever of evil their agencies may have contained sprang from the extinction of the poetical principle, connected with the progress of despotism and superstition. Men, from causes too intricate to be here discussed, had become insensible and selfish: their own will had become feeble, and yet they were its slaves, and thence the slaves of the will of others: lust, fear, avarice, cruelty, and fraud, characterized a race amongst whom no one was to be found capable of creating in form, language, or institution. The moral anomalies of such a state of society are not justly to be charged upon any class of events immediately connected with them, and those events are most entitled to our approbation which could dissolve it most expeditiously. It is unfortunate for those who cannot distinguish words from thoughts, that many of these anomalies have been incorporated into our popular religion. 24
It was not until the eleventh century that the effects of the poetry of the Christian and chivalric systems began to manifest themselves. The principle of equality had been discovered and applied by Plato in his "Republic" as the theoretical rule of the mode in which the materials of pleasure and of power produced by the common skill and labor of human beings ought to be distributed among them. The limitations of this rule were asserted by him to be determined only by the sensibility of each, or the utility to result to all. Plato, following the doctrines of Timæus and Pythagoras, taught also a moral and intellectual system of doctrine, comprehending at once the past, the present, and the future condition of man. Jesus Christ divulged the sacred and eternal truths contained in these views to mankind, and Christianity, in its abstract purity, became the exoteric expression of the esoteric doctrines of the poetry and wisdom of antiquity. The incorporation of the Celtic nations with the exhausted population of the south impressed upon it the figure of the poetry existing in their mythology and institutions. The result was a sum of the action and reaction of all the causes included in it; for it may be assumed as a maxim that no nation or religion can supersede any other without incorporating into itself a portion of that which it supersedes. The abolition of personal and domestic slavery, and the emancipation of women from a great part of the degrading restraints of antiquity, were among the consequences of these events. 25
The abolition of personal slavery is the basis of the highest political hope that it can enter into the mind of man to conceive. The freedom of women produced the poetry of sexual love. Love became a religion, the idols of whose worship were ever present. It was as if the statues of Apollo and the Muses had been endowed with life and motion, and had walked forth among their worshippers; so that earth became peopled with the inhabitants of a diviner world. The familiar appearance and proceedings of life became wonderful and heavenly, and a paradise was created as out of the wrecks of Eden. And as this creation itself is poetry, so its creators were poets; and language was the instrument of their art: "Galeotto fù il libro, e chi lo scrisse." 4 The Provençal trouveurs, or inventors, preceded Petrarch, whose verses are as spells, which unseal the inmost enchanted fountains of the delight which is in the grief of love. It is impossible to feel them without becoming a portion of that beauty which we contemplate: it were superfluous to explain how the gentleness and the elevation of mind connected with these sacred emotions can render men more amiable, more generous and wise, and lift them out of the dull vapors of the little world of self. Dante understood the secret things of love even more than Petrarch. His "Vita Nuova" is an inexhaustible fountain of purity of sentiment and language: it is the idealized history of that period, and those intervals of his life which were dedicated to love. His apotheosis of Beatrice in Paradise, and the gradations of his own love and her loveliness, by which as by steps he feigns himself to have ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious imagination of modern poetry. The acutest critics have justly reversed the judgment of the vulgar, and the order of the great acts of the "Divine Drama," in the measure of the admiration which they accord to the Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The latter is a perpetual hymn of everlasting love. Love, which found a worthy poet in Plato alone of all the ancients, has been celebrated by a chorus of the greatest writers of the renovated world; and the music has penetrated the caverns of society, and its echoes still drown the dissonance of arms and superstition. At successive intervals, Ariosto, Tasso, Shakespeare, Spenser, Calderon, Rousseau, and the great writers of our own age, have celebrated the dominion of love, planting as it were trophies in the human mind of that sublimest victory over sensuality and force. The true relation borne to each other by the sexes into which humankind is distributed has become less misunderstood; and if the error which confounded diversity with inequality of the powers of the two sexes has been partially recognised in the opinions and institutions of modern Europe, we owe this great benefit to the worship of which chivalry was the law, and poets the prophets. 26
The poetry of Dante may be considered as the bridge thrown over the stream of time, which unites the modern and ancient world. The distorted notions of invisible things which Dante and his rival Milton have idealized, are merely the mask and the mantle in which these great poets walk through eternity enveloped and disguised. It is a difficult question to determine how far they were conscious of the distinction which must have subsisted in their minds between their own creeds and that of the people. Dante at least appears to wish to mark the full extent of it by placing Rhipæus, whom Vergil calls justissimus unus, 5 in Paradise, and observing a most heretical caprice in his distribution of rewards and punishments. And Milton's poem contains within itself a philosophical refutation of that system, of which, by a strange and natural antithesis, it has been a chief popular support. Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in "Paradise Lost." It is a mistake to suppose that he could ever have been intended for the popular personification of evil. Implacable hate, patient cunning, and a sleepless refinement of device to inflict the extremist anguish on an enemy, these things are evil; and, although venial in a slave, are not to be forgiven in a tyrant; although redeemed by much that ennobles his defeat in one subdued, are marked by all that dishonors his conquest in the victor. Milton's Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture, is to one who in the cold security of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his enemy, not from any mistaken notion of inducing him to repent of a perseverance in enmity, but with the alleged design of exasperating him to deserve new torments. Milton has so far violated the popular creed (if this shall be judged to be a violation) as to have alleged no superiority of moral virtue to his God over his Devil. And this bold neglect of a direct moral purpose is the most decisive proof of the supremacy of Milton's genius. He mingled as it were the elements of human nature as colors upon a single pallet, and arranged them in the composition of his great picture according to the laws of epic truth; that is, according to the laws of that principle by which a series of actions of the external universe and of intelligent and ethical beings is calculated to excite the sympathy of succeeding generations of mankind. The "Divina Commedia" and "Paradise Lost" have conferred upon modern mythology a systematic form; and when change and time shall have added one more superstition to the mass of those which have arisen and decayed upon the earth, commentators will be learnedly employed in elucidating the religion of ancestral Europe, only not utterly forgotten because it will have been stamped with the eternity of genius. 27
Homer was the first and Dante the second epic poet: that is, the second poet, the series of whose creations bore a defined and intelligible relation to the knowledge and sentiment and religion of the age in which he lived, and of the ages which followed it, developing itself in correspondence with their development. For Lucretius had limed the wings of his swift spirit in the dregs of the sensible world; and Vergil, with a modesty that ill became his genius, had affected the fame of an imitator, even whilst he created anew all that he copied; and none among the flock of mock—birds, though their notes were sweet, Apollonius Rhodius, Quintus Calaber, Nonnus, Lucan, Statius, or Claudian, have sought even to fulfil a single condition of epic truth. Milton was the third epic poet. For if the title of epic in its highest sense be refused to the "Æneid," still less can it be conceded to the "Orlando Furioso," the "Gerusalemme Liberata," the "Lusiad," or the "Faerie Queene." 28
Dante and Milton were both deeply penetrated with the ancient religion of the civilized world; and its spirit exists in their poetry probably in the same proportion as its forms survived in the unreformed worship of modern Europe. The one preceded and the other followed the Reformation at almost equal intervals. Dante was the first religious reformer, and Luther surpassed him rather in the rudeness and acrimony than in the boldness of his censures of papal usurpation. Dante was the first awakener of entranced Europe; he created a language, in itself music and persuasion, out of a chaos of inharmonious barbarians. He was the congregator of those great spirits who presided over the resurrection of learning; the Lucifer of that starry flock which in the thirteenth century shone forth from republican Italy, as from a heaven, into the darkness of the benighted world. His very words are instinct with spirit; each is as a spark, a burning atom of inextinguishable thought; and many yet lie covered in the ashes of their birth, and pregnant with the lightning which has yet found no conductor. All high poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which contained all oaks potentially. Veil after veil may be undrawn, and the inmost naked beauty of the meaning never exposed. A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight; and after one person and one age has exhausted all its divine effluence which their peculiar relations enable them to share, another and yet another succeeds, and new relations are ever developed, the source of an unforeseen and an unconceived delight. 29
The age immediately succeeding to that of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio was characterized by a revival of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Chaucer caught the sacred inspiration, and the superstructure of English literature is based upon the materials of Italian invention. 30
But let us not be betrayed from a defence into a critical history of poetry and its influence on society. Be it enough to have pointed out the effects of poets, in the large and true sense of the word, upon their own and all succeeding times. 31
But poets have been challenged to resign the civic crown to reasoners and mechanists, on another plea. It is admitted that the exercise of the imagination is most delightful, but it is alleged that that of reason is more useful. Let us examine as the grounds of this distinction what is here meant by utility. Pleasure or good, in a general sense, is that which the consciousness of a sensitive and intelligent being seeks, and in which, when found, it acquiesces. There are two kinds of pleasure, one durable, universal, and permanent; the other transitory and particular. Utility may either express the means of producing the former or the latter. In the former sense, whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful. But a narrower meaning may be assigned to the word utility, confining it to express that which banishes the importunity of the wants of our animal nature, the surrounding men with security of life, the dispersing the grosser delusions of superstitions, and the conciliating such a degree of mutual forbearance among men as may consist with the motives of personal advantage. 32
Undoubtedly the promoters of utility, in this limited sense, have their appointed office in society. They follow the footsteps of poets, and copy the sketches of their creations into the book of common life. They make space, and give time. Their exertions are of the highest value, so long as they confine their administration of the concerns of the inferior powers of our nature within the limits due to the superior ones. But whilst the sceptic destroys gross superstitions, let him spare to deface, as some of the French writers have defaced, the eternal truths charactered upon the imaginations of men. Whilst the mechanist abridges, and the political economist combines labor, let them beware that their speculations, for want of correspondence with those first principles which belong to the imagination, do not tend, as they have in modern England, to exasperate at once the extremes of luxury and want. They have exemplified the saying, "To him that hath, more shall be given; and from him that hath not, the little that he hath shall be taken away." The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism. Such are the effects which must ever flow from an unmitigated exercise of the calculating faculty. 33
It is difficult to define pleasure in its highest sense; the definition involving a number of apparent paradoxes. For, from an inexplicable defect of harmony in the constitution of human nature, the pain of the inferior is frequently connected with the pleasures of the superior portions of our being. Sorrow, terror, anguish, despair itself, are often the chosen expressions of an approximation to the highest good. Our sympathy in tragic fiction depends on this principle; tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain. This is the source also of the melancholy which is inseparable from the sweetest melody. The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself. And hence the saying, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of mirth." Not that this highest species of pleasure is necessarily linked with pain. The delight of love and friendship, the ecstasy of the admiration of nature, the joy of the perception and still more of the creation of poetry, is often wholly unalloyed. 34
The production and assurance of pleasure in this highest sense is true utility. Those who produce and preserve this pleasure are poets or poetical philosophers. 35
The exertions of Locke, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, Rousseau, 6 and their disciples, in favor of oppressed and deluded humanity, are entitled to the gratitude of mankind. Yet it is easy to calculate the degree of moral and intellectual improvement which the world would have exhibited, had they never lived. A little more nonsense would have been talked for a century or two; and perhaps a few more men, women, and children burnt as heretics. We might not at this moment have been congratulating each other on the abolition of the Inquisition in Spain. But it exceeds all imagination to conceive what would have been the moral condition of the world if neither Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Calderon, Lord Bacon, nor Milton, had ever existed; if Raphael and Michael Angelo had never been born; if the Hebrew poetry had never been translated; if a revival of the study of Greek literature had never taken place; if no monuments of ancient sculpture had been handed down to us; and if the poetry of the religion of the ancient world had been extinguished together with its belief. The human mind could never, except by the intervention of these excitements, have been awakened to the invention of the grosser sciences, and that application of analytical reasoning to the aberrations of society, which it is now attempted to exalt over the direct expression of the inventive and creative faculty itself. 36
We have more moral, political, and historical wisdom than we know how to reduce into practice; we have more scientific and economical knowledge than can be accommodated to the just distribution of the produce which it multiplies. The poetry in these systems of thought is concealed by the accumulation of facts and calculating processes. There is no want of knowledge respecting what is wisest and best in morals, government, and political economy, or at least, what is wiser and better than what men now practise and endure. But we let "I dare not wait upon I would, like the poor cat in the adage." We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life; our calculations have outrun conception; we have eaten more than we can digest. The cultivation of those sciences which have enlarged the limits of the empire of man over the external world, has, for want of the poetical faculty, proportionally circumscribed those of the internal world; and man, having enslaved the elements, remains himself a slave. To what but a cultivation of the mechanical arts in a degree disproportioned to the presence of the creative faculty, which is the basis of all knowledge, is to be attributed the abuse of all invention for abridging and combining labor, to the exasperation of the inequality of mankind? From what other cause has it arisen that the discoveries which should have lightened, have added a weight to the curse imposed on Adam? Poetry, and the principle of Self, of which money is the visible incarnation, are the God and Mammon of the world. 37
The functions of the poetical faculty are twofold: by one it creates new materials of knowledge, and power, and pleasure; by the other it engenders in the mind a desire to reproduce and arrange them according to a certain rhythm and order which may be called the beautiful and the good. The cultivation of poetry is never more to be desired than at periods when, from an excess of the selfish and calculating principle, the accumulation of the materials of external life exceed the quantity of the power of assimilating them to the internal laws of human nature. The body has then become too unwidely for that which animates it. 38
Poetry is indeed something divine. It is at once the centre and circumference of knowledge; it is that which comprehends all science, and that to which all science must be referred. It is at the same time the root and blossom of all other systems of thought; it is that from which all spring, and that which adorns all; and that which, if blighted, denies the fruit and the seed, and withholds from the barren world the nourishment and the succession of the scions of the tree of life. It is the perfect and consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and the color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it, as the form and splendor of unfaded beauty to the secrets of anatomy and corruption. What were virtue, love, patriotism, friendship—what were the scenery of this beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our consolations on this side of the grave—and what were our aspirations beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those eternal regions where the owl—winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar? Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of the will. A man cannot say, "I will compose poetry." The greatest poet even cannot say it; for the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness; this power arises from within, like the color of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure. Could this influence be durable in its original purity and force, it is impossible to predict the greatness of the results; but when composition begins, inspiration is already on the decline, and the most glorious poetry that has ever been communicated to the world is probably a feeble shadow of the original conceptions of the poet. I appeal to the greatest poets of the present day, whether it is not an error to assert that the finest passages of poetry are produced by labor and study. The toil and the delay recommended by critics can be justly interpreted to mean no more than a careful observation of the inspired moments, and an artificial connection of the spaces between their suggestions by the intertexture of conventional expressions; a necessity only imposed by the limitedness of the poetical faculty itself; for Milton conceived the "Paradise Lost" as a whole before he executed it in portions. We have his own authority also for the Muse having "dictated" to him the "unpremeditated song." And let this be an answer to those who would allege the fifty—six various readings of the first line of the "Orlando Furioso." Compositions so produced are to poetry what mosaic is to painting. This instinct and intuition of the poetical faculty are still more observable in the plastic and pictorial arts; a great statue or picture grows under the power of the artist as a child in a mother's womb; and the very mind which directs the hands in formation is incapable of accounting to itself for the origin, the gradations, or the media of the process. 39
Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. We are aware of evanescent visitations of thought and feeling sometimes associated with place or person, sometimes regarding our own mind alone, and always arising unforeseen and departing unbidden, but elevating and delightful beyond all expression: so that even in the desire and the regret they leave, there cannot but be pleasure, participating as it does in the nature of its object. It is as it were the interpretation of a diviner nature through our own; but its footsteps are like those of a wind over the sea, which the coming calm erases, and whose traces remain only as on the wrinkled sand which paves it. These and corresponding conditions of being are experienced principally by those of the most delicate sensibility and the most enlarged imagination; and the state of mind produced by them is at war with every base desire. The enthusiasm of virtue, love, patriotism, and friendship is essentially linked with such emotions; and whilst they last, self appears as what it is, an atom to a universe. Poets are not only subject to these experiences as spirits of the most refined organization, but they can color all that they combine with the evanescent hues of this ethereal world; a word, a trait in the representation of a scene or a passion will touch the enchanted chord, and reanimate, in those who have ever experienced these emotions, the sleeping, the cold, the buried image of the past. Poetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world; it arrests the vanishing apparitions which haunt the interlunations of life, and veiling them, or in language or in form, sends them forth among mankind, bearing sweet news of kindred joy to those with whom their sisters abide—abide, because there is no portal of expression from the caverns of the spirit which they inhabit into the universe of things. Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man. 40
Poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed; it marries exultation and horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its light yoke all irreconcilable thin


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BZZ to AUD Converter
The 3Commas currency calculator allows you to convert a currency from Swarm (BZZ) to Australian Dollar (AUD) in just a few clicks at live exchange rates.
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The chart displays Swarm price changes in AUD.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Thrive Themes has been around since 2013 and also they've built themselves right into one of the most credible as well as effective WordPress site plugin and also Theme firms on the marketplace.
I've personally constructed a profile of web sites (including this) making use of Thrive Themes as well as these devices B2b Lead Generation Thrive are what has permitted me to make lovely looking websites without coding knowledge.
In this article, I'll give a full Thrive Themes review and discuss my ideas on Thrive Themes as a whole after using the system myself for over five years.
Thrive Themes (Benefits And Drawbacks).
Thrive Themes is among the most sophisticated, yet easy-to-use collection of web site structure tools.
Thrive Themes offers WordPress Themes as well as plugins, as well as a no-code drag-and-drop editor that permits you to build distinct web sites even with no technological abilities.
This conversion-focused collection of devices is developed with one objective, and that is to help you transform internet site visitors right into subscribing customers.
With it, you will certainly be able to obtain more traffic, more leads, even more subscribers, as well as extra customers for your company.
Yet, just like any device (however remarkable), there are benefits and drawbacks you require to consider before determining whether it's right for your internet site.
- Conversion Focus: There are really few suppliers on the marketplace that have such a huge profile of tools concentrated on marketing, optimization, and list building.
- Thousands Of Page Templates: You can select from virtually 300 layouts to aid you start developing website quickly.
- Free Training: They have actually developed Thrive University, which has lots of training courses where you can find out every little thing you require to know about just how to use each of the tools.
- Easy to Use: Thrive Themes has a very instinctive interface. The drag as well as decline editor makes it very easy to develop pages– also for newbies.
- Great 3rd-Party Integrations: You can quickly incorporate with lots of other advertising devices and solutions, such as plugins, platforms, and so on.
- Fully Responsive: The Thrive Themes page Builder as well as themes are all 100% responsive.
- A Great Deal of Products: The large variety of devices offered by Thrive Themes can prove frustrating for beginners.
- Understanding Curve: Just like any type of new platform available, Thrive Themes suite of items all have their very own knowing contour. I do assume the platforms are intuitive, yet it requires time as well as patience to master them.
- Only Functions With WordPress: There's no variation of Thrive Themes that collaborates with Drupal, Joomla, or any other website system.
- Support Action Time: It's not that the support for Thrive Themes is bad, it's actually quite great. Yet occasionally it takes hours to get an action which is annoying when you remain in the middle of doing something.
Thrive Themes Product Reviews
At first look, the collection of conversion-focused devices can be a bit challenging, yet I'll damage every little thing to make it easy and very easy for you to establish which Thrive Themes plugins will certainly help you satisfy your advertising and marketing objectives.
Allow's take a trip of the Thrive Themes collection of tools.
Thrive Theme Builder.
($97 or $19/month For All Devices).
Thrive Theme Builder is a flexible, easy to use WordPress Theme for developing a WordPress site.
Not to be puzzled with Thrive Architect, which is a plugin as well as web content editor, this Theme Builder was released in early 2020 as well as does so far more.
With it, you will certainly have the ability to aesthetically produce as well as customize any kind of aspect of your pages, including headers, footers, post layouts, sidebars, page layouts, look web pages, group pages, 404s, and so on
. This means that you no longer have to be stuck to whatever page elements featured the Theme. With this device, you will be able to drag-and-drop different components to make your web page appearance precisely just how you desire it to and fully tailor it to your needs.
Enjoyable reality, the web site you're on today was made with Thrive Theme Builder as well as though I'm biased, I think it looks rather darn great.
Thrive Architect
($ 67 or $19/month For All Devices).
Thrive Architect is a next-generation WordPress web page Builder that is suitable for marketers and business owners whose primary focus is on advertising and marketing.
For those that do not understand, Thrive Architect used to be called Thrive Content Builder. I'm not 100% sure why they made a decision to alter their name from Thrive Web content Builder to Thrive Architect, yet Thrive Architect is much more feature-rich than its precursor.
This aesthetic editor is really the foundation of the whole suite of tools from Thrive Themes. It's the primary editor that you will be making use of to build or edit your sales web pages, landing pages, list building types, and so on.
It gives a lots of versatility as well as power contrasted to the default editor in WordPress and also has numerous pre-designed touchdown pages to select from. It will certainly aid you change your pages as well as post right into special, responsive, captivating, and high transforming pages that your target market will enjoy.
Thrive Architect provides you with complete visual control over how your web site and any kind of article looks and feels without you having to learn any coding like HTML or CSS. Everything on the platform is drag-and-drop.
Just like any software program, there's a little a knowing curve when making use of Thrive Architect, but it'll certainly deserve it to be able to produce remarkable, professional-looking websites without having to deal with CSS or PHP code.
Thrive Leads
($ 67 or $19/month For All Tools).
Thrive Leads is a device that you can make use of to build your e-mail lists. Whatever that you could need to attract and inspire viewers to sign up for your email list is included, which makes it such a powerful tool.
You can present the forms utilizing the different options. For example, you can choose a pop-up opt-in kind or include it in your sidebar widget and also just have these trigger on mobile, or on desktop. There are a ton of different screen choices for Thrive Leads.
In addition, it enables you to gauge performance as well as conduct split examinations. You get records that supply you with deep understandings on exactly how your e-mail advertising and marketing approach is working so you recognize how to improve it.
This is a HUGE deal due to the fact that you can check different test or visuals to see what will certainly convert far better and also give you with even more e-mail clients.
Thrive Test Builder
($67 or $19/month For All Devices).
On-line tests are incredibly popular viral advertising tactics on social media, or interactive components on your own web site. They make excellent listing structure tools, as well.
Nevertheless, the trouble with creating tests is that they typically call for either expensive tools or personalized programs.
Thrive Test Builder has whatever you require to develop exciting quizzes for your target market. You can provide different visitors various phone call to activity, and, based upon their answers, you have the ability to provide them particular opt-ins that will permit you to section your checklist.
Using this tool, you can create some rather awesome tests to improve your list building efforts or to obtain tons of website traffic to your blog posts. Not just that, yet you can likewise use tests as studies to collect even more information regarding your audience.
Thrive Apprentice
($ 67 or $19/month For All Devices).
If you want to begin providing on the internet courses, after that Thrive Apprentice will aid make your job easy. This plugin addresses the trouble of just how to arrange and also present digital courses on your WordPress web site.
It helps you create elegant lesson pages and lets you quickly arrange them into modules and also chapters. You also get full progress monitoring includes that allow you to keep an eye on whatever from right within your WordPress control panel to comprehend exactly how your pupils are proceeding.
Thrive Apprentice works with all other Themes, and it incorporates quickly with all significant subscription site Themes and plugins. It also has deep integration with SendOwl to make sending out emails combined with the course even much easier.
Thrive Comments
($ 39 or $19/month For All Devices).
Having talk about your WordPress site can assist encourage customer interaction. By including fresh, relevant web content on your internet site web pages, you additionally help to boost your Search Engine Optimization efforts.
With this device, you are essentially replacing the default comments system on all article as well as opening a lot more capability, including upvoting, opt-in features after they leave a comment, and more. This will help you transform your remarks right into a huge part of your overall conversion method.
As an example, when blog viewers publish a remark, you can give them a phone call to activity to share the blog post or opt-in to your e-mail checklist. These are just a few of the ways you can use Thrive remarks to change your blog comments into a powerful marketing tool.
Thrive Optimize
($19/month yet Consists Of All Tools).
Thrive Optimize is designed to allow you A/B examination the web pages on your site so you can optimize your conversion prices.
A/B testing enables you to send your web site web traffic to two various web page variations– the original page, as well as a 2nd one where one element, such as the call to action text or web page headline, has been transformed.
You can track conversions so you can see which web page does better as well as make the winning web page your default version. You after that duplicate the test by changing one more aspect. This continuous process of enhancement is crucial to creating landing web page design templates on your website that transform like crazy.
It adds best onto Thrive Architect, which allows you to run full split-testing and also track conversions from right within your WordPress website.
Thrive Ultimatium
($97 or $19/month For All Devices).
Thrive Ultimatium is a clever, customizable, as well as simple-to-use plugin that enables you to use deficiency to market your digital products.
I can inform you from personal experience that shortage functions, I use it in my own business. Somehow, people don't take action a lot of the time up until they recognize they're about to lose out on something.
This device lets you run fixed day advocate limited time deals, immediately repeating campaigns to ensure that your shortage campaigns happen repeatedly, and also they likewise use the supreme evergreen system that offers all customers their own due date.
Thrive Ovation
($ 39 or $19/month For All Devices).
Thrive Ovation is a testimonial monitoring plugin that aids you collect social proof, such as client testimonials which play a terrific duty in aiding to persuade your potential customers.
The system is automated to gather customer reviews and after that display them in an appealing means on your web site web pages to aid you improve conversions.
Social proof is an important element of your marketing, yet many web site proprietors don't request reviews on their websites. Additionally, if they do get a testimonial, they don't store or use it in one of the most efficient way.
If that's you, after that Thrive Ovation could be the excellent device for you. With this plugin, you will have the ability to automate the collection of reviews on your web site. You'll also have a very easy means to manage and arrange everything from your WordPress control panel.
You can present the testimonies anywhere on your website. All you need to do is drag and drop them right into any kind of page, and also you even have the alternative of revealing them dynamically.
Thrive Heading Optimizer
($ 67 or $19/month For All Devices).
The Thrive heading optimizer plugin enables you to A/B split test your headlines to increase the click-through rate for your own site pages. This likewise helps to boost other metrics, including scroll depth and also time spent on page.
Generally speaking, Thrive headline optimizer is developed for big websites or blog sites that have a lot of website traffic and wish to split examination how well their inner headlines do to keep visitors on the website.
Thrive Clever Widgets
($ 39 or $19/month For All Tools).
This plugin allows you to add some conditions so you can show widgets contextually on your blog post. With this device, you will have the ability to show different widgets for various articles. You can differ them by groups, tags, and so on
Comprehending the Thrive Themes Membership.
Though you can acquire any one of the Thrive WordPress plugins individually, they use a yearly registration design that averages $19/month, billed every year or $30/month billed quarterly.
When you buy the Thrive Themes Membership, you get full accessibility to all of their devices, and also you can utilize them on approximately 25 sites. The devices include everything that I simply discussed above.
Summing it up, below's what you get with the Thrive Themes Subscription:.
- Accessibility to every one of the plugins.
- You can use them on approximately 25 websites.
- Free item updates permanently.
- Tech support as long as your subscription is active.
- You'll additionally obtain accessibility to Thrive University which has numerous in-depth tutorials.
It must be mentioned that Thrive also has an agency subscription for $49/month paid each year. This allows firms complete accessibility to their suite of devices for approximately 50 overall websites.
Thrive Themes prices has a few different alternatives. You can either acquire each of the devices separately for a single charge or you can acquire accessibility to every one of the tools for $30/month paid quarterly, or you can select $19/month, paid yearly.
If you were to acquire each of these tools separately, you would certainly need to pay $540.
That's why the Thrive Themes membership is such a good deal because you can unlock whatever for simply $228 per year.


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Binocular Night Vision Device High Magnification High Clarity Binoculars Night Infrared Digital Night Vision Telescope
Made of fine quality material, practical, easy to operate and use, wide application range, has a long service life.
2.31″ high-definition TFT internal screen with 3 times larger window magnifier.
The digital screen directly displays, the picture is stable, the display effect is clear and intuitive, and the professional performance intelligently adjusts the vision.
A 10x magnification lens with a diameter of 24mm and a 4-bit digital zoom for magnified observation of distant objects.
Bright infrared light, long distance observation at night.
Star-level sensor, which can be observed from a distance without turning on the infrared light in low light conditions.
250-300 meters full black observation distance.
Support picture function, video function, up to 32GB TF card (storage card is not included).
Dual-use day and night, high-definition pixels.
It can be displayed with an external computer.
Wear-resistant, non-slip, ergonomic.
Simple operation with multiple buttons, 12 languages available, support date and time setting and date stamp imprint, fine user experience.
Can be used for hunt, reconnaissance, safety and surveillance, camping fun, exploring caves, night fishing and boating, wildlife observation and taking pictures, etc.
Material: ABS
Color: black
Picture resolution: 2M (1600×1200), 1M (1280×960), VGA (640×480)
Video resolution: 720P (1280×720@30FPS), VGA (640×480@30FPS)
Lens: F1.2 large aperture, f=50mm
Lens angle: FOV=10°, diameter 24mm
Display: inner screen 2.31″ high-definition TFT screen, 960*240, outer screen size 98*48mm
Storage: support up to 32G TF card (storage card is not included)
USB interface: USB 2.0
MIC: yes
Speaker: yes
Automatic shutdown: 1 min / 3 min / 5 min / OFF
Infrared light: 3W, 850nm strong infrared spotlight, 7-gear infrared adjustment
Full black viewing distance: 250-300 meters
Low light viewing distance: 3.0 meters to infinite
Magnification: digital zoom 4 times
Battery: 6 * AA battery (not included)
Language: 12 countries available
Date stamp imprint: support date and time setting, date and time are displayed on photo and video
Operation buttons: 6 buttons
Waterproof grade: IP56
Operating temperature: -20℃~+60℃
Storage temperature: -30℃~+70℃
Item size: 196 * 146 * 59mm / 7.7 * 5.7 * 2.3in
Item weight: 576g / 1.3lb
Package size: 205 * 155 * 69mm / 8.1 * 6.1 * 2.7in
Package weight: 950g / 2.1lb
Packing List:
1 * Night Vision Device
1 * USB Cable
1 * Bag
1 * Strap
1 * User Manual
Small and portable, dual-use day and night, with camera function and loop recording function, clear night vision, with infrared light, large field of vision.
Animals, environment, objects, etc. can be clearly detected in all black environment and sunny daytime.
Ergonomic design, non-slip, simple operation.
It can be connected to an external display device, and the captured videos and photos can be exported to a computer for viewing with a data cable.
Four times digital zoom, seven gears infrared adjustments, more professional.
Can be used for hunt, reconnaissance, safety and surveillance, camping fun, exploring caves, night hunt, observing the city, wildlife observation and taking pictures, etc.
Material: ABS
Color: black
Picture resolution: 1M(1280*960), VGA(640*480)
Video resolution: 960P(1280*960@30FPS), 720P(1280*720@30FPS), VGA(640*480@30FPS)
Lens: F1.2 large aperture, f=25mm
Lens angle: FOV=10°, diameter 24mm
Display: inner screen 1.5″ TFT high-definition display screen, outer screen 40*30mm
Storage: support up to 32G TF card (memory card is not included)
USB interface: Micro USB 2.0
MIC: no
Speaker: no
Automatic shutdown: 1 min / 3 min / 5 min / 10 min / OFF
Infrared light: 3W, 850nm strong infrared spotlight, 7-gear infrared adjustment
Full black viewing distance: 250~300 meters, star class sensor
Low light viewing distance: 3.0 meters to infinite
Magnification: digital zoom 4 times
Battery: 5 * AA battery (not included)
Language: 12 countries available
Date stamp imprint: support date and time setting, date and time are displayed on photo and video
Operation buttons: 6 buttons
Waterproof grade: IP56
Operating temperature: -20℃~+60℃
Storage temperature: -30℃~+70℃
Item size: 140 * 69 * 48mm / 5.5 * 2.7 * 1.9in
Package size: 173 * 132 * 69mm / 6.8 * 5.2 * 2.7in
Package weight: 315g / 11.1ounce
Packing List:
1 * Night Vision Device
1 * USB Cable
1 * User Manual
12X50 High Clarity Monocular Telescope:12X magnification and 50mm object lens diameter help you see target clearly, whether you are searching for birds or trying to get a better view of the stage.
High-quality Lens and Prisms:with fully multi-coated (FMC) optical lens and BAK4 prisms, which guarantees superior light transmission and brightness, and gives you a better field of view.
Nitrogen-filled Waterproof:nitrogen-filled design, 10 meters waterproof, fits for most outdoor environment; can prevent moisture, dust and debris from getting inside the monocular telescope.
With Phone Holder:comes with an adjustable phone holder that is compatible with iPhone X, 8/8 Plus, 7/7 Plus, Samsung, Huawei and other most of smartphones.
Wide Applications:perfect for most of outdoor activities, such as hunting, bird watching, wildlife viewing, sports events watching, concerts, camping, hiking, traveling and more.
Brand: K&F CONCEPT
Magnification Times: 12
Lens: 50mm
Field: 80M
Field Angle: 6.5°
Prism System: BAK4
Focusing System: Manual Focus
Distance of Exit Pupil: 14mm
Exit Pupil Diameter: 4.1
Item Size: 15 * 6cm/ 5.9 * 2.4in
Package Size: 17 * 11 * 7cm/ 6.7 * 4.3 * 2.8in
Package Weight: 420g/ 14.8oz
The smartphone and tripod showed in the picture are not included.
Package List:
1 * Monocular Telescope
1 * Strap
1 * Carry Bag
1 * Cleaning Cloth
1 * Phone Holder
1 * Users' Manual
Material: ABS
Color: black (optional)
Video size: 1088P/1080P/720P/VGA/QVGA
Photo resolution: 12MP/10MP/8MP/5MP/3.0MP/VGA
Aperture: F 1.2 f=25mm
Lens angle: FOV=10°, diameter: 25mm
Display screen: Inner 1.5inch (480*240)TFT LCD
Digital zoom: 5X
Storage media: memory card,Max up to 32GB (NOT included)
Viewing distance in 100% darkness: 150~200M
Viewing distance in weak light or day time: 3.0 meter~+∞
IR LED: 3W, 850nm, 7 levels
USB port: USB 2.0
Battery: 1 * lithium battery, 2000mAh (included)
Operating temperature:-20℃~60℃
Storage temperature:-30℃~70℃
Item size: 150 * 70 * 46mm / 5.9 * 2.8 * 1.8in
Item weight: 200g / 7.1ounce
Package size: 188 * 136 * 73mm / 7.4 * 5.4 * 2.9in
Package weight: 300g / 10.6ounce
Packing list:
1 * Digital Night Vision Device
1 * USB Cable
1 * User Manual
We are proud to offer international shipping services that currently operate in over 200 countries and islands world wide. Nothing means more to us than bringing our customers great value and service. We will continue to grow to meet the needs of all our customers, delivering a service beyond all expectation anywhere in the world.
Packages from our warehouse in China will be shipped by ePacket or EMS depending on the weight and size of the product. Packages shipped from our US warehouse are shipped through USPS.
Yes. We provide free shipping to over 200 countries around the world. However, there are some locations we are unable to ship to. If you happen to be located in one of those countries we will contact you.
We are not responsible for any custom fees once the items have shipped. By purchasing our products, you consent that one or more packages may be shipped to you and may get custom fees when they arrive to your country.
|*Estimated Shipping Time
|United States
|10-20 Business days
|Canada, Europe
|10-20 Business days
|Australia, New Zealand
|10-30 Business days
|Central & South America
|15-30 Business days
|10-20 Business days
|15-45 Business days
Yes, you will receive an email once your order ships that contains your tracking information. If you haven't received tracking info within 5 days, please contact us.
For some shipping companies, it takes 2-5 business days for the tracking information to update on the system. If your order was placed more than 5 business days ago and there is still no information on your tracking number, please contact us.
For logistical reasons, items in the same purchase will sometimes be sent in separate packages, even if you've specified combined shipping.
If you have any other questions, please contact us and we will do our best to help you out.
All orders can be cancelled until they are shipped. If your order has been paid and you need to make a change or cancel an order, you must contact us within 12 hours. Once the packaging and shipping process has started, it can no longer be cancelled.
Your satisfaction is our #1 priority. Therefore, you can request a refund or reshipment for ordered products if:
We do not issue the refund if:
*You can submit refund requests within 15 days after the guaranteed period for delivery (45 days) has expired. You can do it by sending a message on Contact Us page
If you are approved for a refund, then your refund will be processed, and a credit will automatically be applied to your credit card or original method of payment, within 14 days.
If for any reason you would like to exchange your product, perhaps for a different size in clothing. You must contact us first and we will guide you through the steps.
Please do not send your purchase back to us unless we authorise you to do so.
5 Stars (2)
4 Stars (1)
3 Stars (0)
2 Stars (0)
1 Star (0)
Very bad packaging
Excellent Product
works very well!! the magnification is limited....but night vision works very well
Excellent product meets expectations


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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado Springs is known for its stunning scenery, abundant sunshine and mild climate. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum opened its newest exhibit, The City of Sunshine, and it explores how those things have impacted overall health in the Pikes Peak region.
Dating back to the late 1800's, Colorado Springs was known as a premier health destination for the treatment of Tuberculosis.
"Tuberculosis was a horrible thing happening in our country," said Megan Poole, the Pioneers Museum program coordinator. "A lot of people were dying from it and essentially doctors would say go west, go out to Colorado and seek the arid climate, the dry air, the high altitude and sunshine."
Hence the exhibit's name, the City of Sunshine. It explores not only that history but how the overall community has continued to uphold its identity of health and wellness.
"I would argue and I think there are tons of surveys and people in this building right now that would tell you they came out here because of the lifestyle," said Poole.
Several non-profit community organizations like Upadowna, who identify with health and well being, came together today in support of the grand opening.
"We like to get people out and experience the health benefits that nature can offer," said Upadowna COO Randy Hitchcock. "Whether you're by yourself taking a walk through nature or with a community group, which is what we provide, getting outside and enjoying nature can really help your health."
The exhibit features new interactive technology, a first for the museum.
"A lot of technology that we've never gotten to do before in this museum so we're really excited, we're pushing our boundaries which is so exciting."
The exhibit also features everything from old photos, to replica sick patients and even the medicine used thought to cure Tuberculosis but the goal is making sure people leave with a new learning experience.
"It's just getting them excited, having fun today but we always hope that those learning experiences will travel with them out of this building," said Poole.
If you're interested in checking out the new exhibit, the museum is free and open Tuesday through Saturday.


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Following the election of the president, the SP delegates Balla, Gjiknur, and Spiropalin to meet with parliamentary factions.
Following the expiration of Ilir Meta's mandate, the Socialist Party has tasked Taulant Balla, Elisa Spiropali, and Damian Gjiknuri with the task of picking a new president for the country. Taulant Balla, the head of the socialist parliamentary group, announced in a statement to the media following the group meeting that this process is taking place within the Albanian Parliament and that all parties want engagement and dialogue.
"There will be a calendar in the conference of presidents that will lead to the election of the president of the Republic no later than May 24, and the process of electing the president should have commenced. A procedure will be carried out by the parliamentary majority. Spiropali and Gjiknuri will be with me as instructed by the parliamentary group to consult with other parliamentary groups for a constructive conversation on the process of electing the president," the desire is for an open consultation process within the parameters of the consultation dialogue.
"Consultations have started today inside the parliamentary group for the MPs to come up with concrete recommendations," he says, "so that we have almost a short list of prospective candidacies.""
A technical process, such as the filing of candidacies, is also part of the process of electing the president."
When asked which Democratic Party group the SP will approach when the President is elected to the Assembly, Balla stated that the SP would approach parliamentary factions.
"Parliamentary groups are what you're familiar with; what happens in parliamentary groups is their concern. The Copenhagen criteria, as well as Albania's European route, have established that dialogue is required. The SP has always been the only political party that has made a significant contribution to the establishment of standards." Consultation takes place in the Parliament for as long as the President is chosen by the Parliament."
He also stated that the country requires a president who is the opposite of Ilir Meta.
"Albania needs a normal president now more than ever, especially since we don't have a president over the parties, but rather a couple of opposition parties. We need Albania to elect a president who is completely opposite to what Ilir Meta represents in 2022. "Albania will have a much better president or presidents than Meta, and they will be incomparable to him."
Balla stated that during the socialist parliamentary group meeting, the MPs were asked to remain on the ground over the weekend and produce concrete results.


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Free Online Community for WRAP and Peer Support.
Community Emergency Response Team
CERT offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.
Listos California
First Aid Kit for Your Mind with five simple steps for protecting your mental well-being and helping others do the same, along with resources for when you need more support.
Listos California
Listos California has worked with communities across the state to boost resiliency, provide new accessible in-language information and advance a new culture of disaster preparedness. Anchored at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), Listos California reached nearly 4 million people with low incomes, disabilities and language barriers, older adults, and other highly vulnerable Californians from 2019 – 2021.
California for ALL
California's response to COVID-19. Contains resources, updates, and information.


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Please note: this profile is now part of an archived conference and information may be outdated.
Tom Jordan
Writer and Content Creator
After working for more than 15 years in travel publishing, writing for National Geographic Traveller, Sunday Times Travel Magazine and CNN, among others, and writing and editing travel books, Tom recently made the move into children's TV in the only logical way possible – as a script writer for Go Jetters (CBeebies).
He is currently working on multiple children's projects across TV and digital platforms, including Awesome Animals (Fettle Animation) and Explorer HQ, his first children's book, and a radio comedy. He's also the author of the voice of John Keats at Guy's Hospital in London, part of the international Talking Statues project, alongside other writers including Anthony Horowitz.
Tom has run the full gamut of CMC roles too, and is delighted to be producing the Perspective On XR Stories video.


text: The latest unveiling from Nas' up coming release 'Life Is Good', debuted on BBC Radio 1 last night. This is the track I was most looking forward to on the album; while Amy Winehouse was so often mocked by the public for her unorthodox lifestyle none can deny the talent and genius she possessed. It's tragic the way she was percieved I think. Anyway this song is amazing, so soulful, and it feels quite surreal listening to Amy Winehouse on an album called 'Life Is Good'. Nas spoke to NME about the Winehouse feature, have a read.