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THE HESPERIAN.
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For lessons in color, the sky may be studied. Here is seen
the effect of blending sky blue with every tint ofgrey, of
cream, and of pink or with gold and deep shades of purple
and of crimson. Combinations not seen in the sky may be
found in the colors of flowers, birds and trees,
Another element conducive to beauty is foim. So impor
tant is this element regaided that some of the greatest men
have made it the study of their lives. Sculpture, based on
this one element, represents, perhaps, as much beauty as
painting which includes the other two, light and shade as well
as color. For symmetry and grace of form the figures of
animals furnish the best examples.
Every one who knows what is leautiful may make use of
the knowledge. If one is not a poet, a sculptor, or a painter,
there will be many ways in which to show an appreciation of
the beautiful.
A business man may- display his taste in his office and by
wearing becoming clothes.
Ladies, perhaps, have more opportunities for gratifying
their love of the beautiful than men do. If they are house
keepers they certainly have one of the best opportunities for
displaying artistic taste. The furnishing of a loom may be
regarded as an art in itself. In this, as in a kitchen, the effect
of color, light and form must be considered.
The ill ess of ladies, also, ii an art to which the principles
of beauty should be applied. Perhaps in no other way is it so
easy for a cultured person to judge of a lady as by her dress.
Desides, all the pleasure which this study affords, one
receives something better. All the beauty with which the
Creator has endowed this world, if rightly comprehended
cannot fail to inspire thoughts that are purifying and ennobling,
Fanmk Muuton.
Chill) Simon to the Dark Tower Came.
As analyzed by the Browning class.
Simple Simon met a pieman
Cluing to the fair,
Said Simple Simon to the pieman,
'Let me taste your ware."
Said the pieman to Simple Simon
"Show me first your penny,"
Said Simple Simon to the pieman, ,
"Indeed, I have not any.
Simple Simon went a fishing '
For to catch a whale,
Hut all the water he had got
Was in his mother's pail.
Simple Simon went a hunting
For to catch a hare,
He rode a goat about the .streets,
Hut could not find one there.
Simple Simon went to sec
If plums grew on a thistle,
He pricked his fingers very much
Which made poor Simon whistle.
I must confess that it was only after having made a care
ful study of this poem that I was able to see in it any definite
meaning. That the poem is allegorical is evident, but to us
of this age, nourished upon Wordsworth from our infancy,
the higher and more spiritual poetry of Iirowning is often
almost incomprehensible. After often re reading the poem
however, I decided upon the interpretation which I shall give
yon as the correct one.
The author's aim in. writing the poem, is, it seems to me,
to depict the struggle of those who miss the goal, not through
any .fault, or weakness in themselves,, but rather through their
,laek of adaptability to external conditions, of those who fail
rather because they shoot above the mark, than below it.
Browning was always setting, men right in the estimation of
the world. His theory was that a man should be judged
according to what he aspires to do, not what he actifally accom
plishes. In Child Simon he wishes to illustrate this fact, and
so complicated is the poem that it is not written for Child
Simon's sake at all, or to create any special admiration for
him, he is merely a means to an end.
"Simple Simon met a pieman
Going to the fair."
Probably to that fair of all fairs, the Fair of Vanity. The
rhyme between "Simon" and "pieman" in the first and third
lines is noticeable, as it is largely the means by which the light,
joyous effect in the first and second stanzas is produced, so
suggestive of the hopefulness of youth.
"Said Simple Simon to the pieman,
Let me taste your ware."
The first instinct of a child is not to seek, but to claim as
its right, enjoyment. He demands the pie. To his innocently
scientific soul pies arc the inalienable right of man. The
sweet delusion is soon broken.
"Said the pieman to Simple Simon,
r Show me first your penny.
Said .Simple Simon to the pieman,
Indeed, I have not any.
"Earth gets its price for what earth gives us." The ghastly,
grinning pieman lias roughly thrown him into contact with the
actual conditions of life, and Simon, in the bitterness of hia
heart might have' said with Tennyson,
"Cursed be the social wants
That sin against the strength of youth;
Cursed be the social ties,
That warp us from the living truth."
The harsh reply of the pieman's is not so much to carry
on the narrative as to reveal the pieman's lack of sympathy,
of soul. It is merely the means by which he brings about the
desired effect. Here, as usual, Drowning is general, his mean
ing is as broad as humanity.
. "All the world's a pie,
Men and women are but piemen;
And each man sells his many tarts."
Simple Simon . cut a fishing
For to catch a whale.
What else do we fish for when we are young? Youth
knows naught of minnows, much less of suckers.
Hut all the water he had got,
Was in his mother's pail.
Drowning ws.s not one of the "Lake School" poets. The
search for great ideal in the petty sphere of action which the
world offers is too apparent to need any explanation. It has
been experienced by every man who has lived. Hut true to
his standard, Drowning judges hint not by the pail, but the
whale. In this powerful passage, as in in many others of
Drowning's, one might slmost say that the most profound
thought, and the finest sentiment is read between the lines.
Simple Simon went a hunting
Foi to catch a hare,
He rode a goat about the sleets
Dut could not find one there.
Still tirelessly pursuing his ideal, Apollo pursuing Daphne.
The man had sought in vain through many lands, "Ransacked
the ages, spoiled the climes," before, the terrible climax in the
last stana of the poem.
Simple Simon went to see
If plums grew on a thistle,
In Simplo Simon, Drowning has given us a man of great
nspirations, who "Venture neck or nothing, heaven's success
found, or earths failure." Dirt alas, "aiming at a million,
he misses a unit." No man deceives Child Simon, well he
knows that the thistle Is a thistle, but the chase has been so
long, and the high hope of' old has sunk to such dead, cynical
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