Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, October 01, 1874, Page 2, Image 2
It '5 2 THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. i .1 IK 1 1 IV l " .. !'' ih-3 That Is ii poor excuse, lor luck of thought, to numufacturo certain clover ex. pressions for tlio sake of a happy quota tion. Ills learning Is undoubtedly great, hut it is small to stoop to a display. Each sentence must he necessary. The hest Is all that Is (It for hooks. The world is large, and we may have our choice. He hemoth knows the crib is fed by the gods, and will cat his (ill of the good grain, will have no chalf. Ills "Hepresentativo Men" are not the every.day biographies found in niiiHizinos. "Jones" would sound as well for him as anything else, to begin the " Life of Win, Bhakespeare" with. No man shall put "Smith" in the front of his essays. Ills sketches are mental photographs, life-size. "Bonaparte's exact rank is plainly oen; and ho will put on the right shoulder straps without hesitation. Neither will he Hatter him by a high grade, makiUg Him a hero. His love for the Bible is as for a book of many ages. But all of Christianity and Mahammcdanism can bo found in Plato's Phoodo. It is his business to know as much of the world as possiblo its origin be with the heavens. lie was put here with the flowers like them to wither or bloom, as the weather orders ; and like them, he will take what comes. There is in his writings, however, a cer tain tinge of u belief in the immortality of the soul, and in the existence of a Dei ty a spirit, pervading all things. There is no skepticism in those lines; but it is none of his business, he will not meddle with God and the angels. This man is not made by recipe, as the Oxford graduate propose to manufacture numberless Wordsworths and Tennysons, and as the women do cakes and puddings. There is too much life in him. We must have no platitudes. Let each word be coined gold, standing for something. It will then sparkle in the eyes of some shrewd hunter, some good mind; and that is the excellence of a work, the friction it creates. My first love for him came through his "Society and Solitude," a series of essays on such subjects as most interest a young mind, viz.: Success, Courage, Eloquence, Books, Old Age, and others. My room was peculiarly uncomfortable and cold; the noise down stairs rude and unpleas ant. I purchased this book ono evening to keep the glooms away. Wrapping myself in a quilt, I sat down to read. The cold was forgotten. The book was full of heat a perfect warming-pan. My blood tingled. Each sentence was" stout with vitality." As Lowell would say " tho thoughts and fancies seemed to play around his head like hcat-iightcning." The brain is pulled with with incessant encouragements. Nor is it of tlio bubble kind. Alter you have laid tho book aside, Borne sentence, you find, hangs lire. It re fuses to leave yon, but creeps in and out of your mind like a bee humming about tho dewy portals of a ro-o. Your mind is full of a panorama "f fairyland. The sentence will cling to you. A sprite, it is, which feeds you with a dreamy nectar, too sweet to drive away. You dream with your eyes wid6 open. But it is not tho profitless dreamigfialecp. It is pure lion ey, and1 yoti are hevbr satiate. Ho Dooms f! ... ''.j.. ...ill. 41... 1.. c l iu uu in communion wuu uiu guua, lurniH pen 'is surely dipped in their blood. You may wonder why that wild colt is rang, ing over tho prairies so madly, until you see that he is tho Inspiration of a' troop of geldings who are following away along the ridge yonder. So with Emerson. lie never pulls a plough. There arc no heavy trains of thought or reasoning tn his work, lie conies at the question on all sides at once, but he never fails in strlk. ing the centre. Your heart swells; your coat fits tightly. "IVylhee undo this button," that I may grow as big as I feel. You feel yourself fairly hold of the rounds of the ladder that leads up to Ga briel. Ills nerves are strong. We must hold all hope, drop nil discouragements. " Never hung a dismal picture on the wall." The uneducated are blessed, if they have read his works. lie excites curiosity. Hoad his essay on Plato, and it will be hard not to hasten away for the works of the old master. That, to him, has ivholc currleulums, ten times over, in it. Whether his mental nieanderlngsand beliefs will do to follow always, we have not presumption to say; but all will find in him a sturdy helper. A tonic for their debilitated nerves. A sort of galvanic battery. His is what hehimsols calls the "celestial chime, ringing in the best minds of the world for auditors." A di vine mind. Kaiius. Three. THKIK SAYINOS, ltOTU WISH AND KOOMHII, Ak reported by Ixroel. "0, como Maidens, come, o'er tho blue-rolling wave, Tho lovoly ehiill etlll ho tho enro of the Drove," comes softly from the dusk wiiiiin the room where belle Marie sits at her piano, idly singing "very soft and low," old half-forgotten melodies of "long ago." It is a fashion of our beautiful friend's to sing to us thus at twilight and she scarcely needs Euphrosyne's half command, half request, which Is sure to come at tho "edge of the dark." In spite of Euphrosyne's 'theories' I am suspicious that a thread of golden romance runs through her practical nature ami nowhere manifests itself more clearly than in the music she prefers. She sits now on the veranda steps, leaning against the column over which clambers a spreading rose tree; with her hands, firm white hands they are, idly clasped in her lap as they have a trick of falling; the leaves droop down to touch tho short, wavy hair pushed hastily back from the white brow whose contractions show alio is thinking deeply. I quite agree with tlio Apostle in what he said of the chief glory of a woman . It is even a shame that she have short hair, no doubt tho good saint thought. Marie's now, is the royal crown of her womanhood. I watch Euphrosyne's drooping face in silence. There aro lines there that tell of pride and haughty determination but it is sweet and womanly withal. An earnest face yot not one to tell you all at tho first glanco. There Is a restless look in thn brown oyes seeming to bo always seeking after somothing. Thoy aro not Mario's blue, ail "doopcr than tho depth of wutorw, Stilled at ovon. I can conceive of no greater contrast than those two friends ofmino. Ono restless, self-assorting, inquiring. Tho othor calm', quiet and restful. One, never content, Impatient, always questioning. The other accepting everything with that faith which is woman's most ondonrinir olmrm Euphrosyno mint work for, and by her- sun. one is a law unto herself. Marie, dopendant and womanly, is content that she is happy. One is an intellectual woman; tho other, a beautiful one. As tho words of tlio song como Hunting through the open door, I see on Euphro syne's face a swift look ofdlspleasure. I am curious to know what she thinks, for I am sure I shall hear something original at least, as the reward of my Inquiry ' "What are you thinking of, Mlini?" Hui'JtiioiVNK. Aesthetically approve of that song morally, I d.ui't. Or if you will let me coin a word, "romantically" it is all right, but practically It is nil wrong. I was just wondering what became of that class who evidently had no place iu the poet's thought when he wrote that very pretty sentiment whal becomes of tho unlovely in fact. Ihkaki,. You, at any rate, will have no occasion to be troubled. (There is a look iu Euphrosyne's brown eyes that shows mo I have made a very foolish speech.) EurmtosYXK. Don't descend to com pliments, Israel. It's a very common way you men have of getting around anything a woman cays. And it' perfectly exas perating to bo treated so, too. If you would give us credit for the sense we do possess we might come in time to have more. Ishaki,. Well, well, Miml, I'll try to do so after this. I you aro not lovely what are you going to do about it? KunruosYNic. That Is just what JI was considering when you spoke to me. In directly our poet seems to divide into four parts "all people that on earth do dwell." Two, fortunate two, unfortunate, which may bo described thus: Class First those who arc lovely; Class Second those who are bravo; Class Third those who are not lovoly and Class Fourth, those who are not brave. Doubtless it is very pleasant to be one of the f.ovely and be tenderly cared for by the Brave. Doubtless it is a sad fact that but few of us are of that favored class and not all of you are of the Brave. Evidently then we, the unfavored many, must take care of ourselves as best we may or Ihkaki.. Perhaps 3-011, since you per sist in placing yourself there, and your class are in the charge of your fourth di vision those who arc not bravo. EuiMinosYxn. A gracious dispensation of Providence truly! A double blessing to tho lucky and a doublo curse to tho un lucky ones. Well, let tho first he so, but we will work out our own salvation with out being a "charged" upon you. Ihkaki.. A vain boast, I apprehend, But, Mlmi, are you suro that your third and fourth classes aro as large as you imgine them to beV You dare not determine who is brave and who is not. You dare not set up a standard by which to measure all men, saying of one this man is brave; of another, this man is not brave, because he docs not riso to your ideal of manly courage How do you know Hint your hero is tho tito ono? Euimihobynk. I do not. But tho ideal I have, ho it worthy or unworthy, is tho standard by which my judgments aro rendered. Jyjudgmcnts, remember, not your's or tho world's, and as Channlng says, I nm answerable, not for their right Hess, but for their uprightness, IsuAKTi. Then let your standard bo as near tho true ono as is possiblo ior a hu- man one to be. EuiMinoSYNK, (quickly.) What is tho true ono ? Is it yours ? IsuAEi.. Not because it is mine We havo but ono truo Ideal Man tho Good which came out of Nazareth. EuiMtitOBYXK. Measured by that stan dard do you hopo to lessen the multituOo of that unfortunate class ? Ah, my friend whoso deeds aro great chough to lift im ' to that level ? Ishaki.. Tho magnitude of the thing dono is no measure of tho heroism re quired to do It, and In one sense we might say there aro degrees in moral heroism Do you not think it is heroic Tor the mean' est of us all' to overcome his peculiar temptation, as for John Huss to hum at the stake, or 11 Canieronian to endure per. sedition for his faith? Again it is not so often the deeds done that are heroic as those that are not done those that are renounced those dearest hopes of our life perhaps that are resigned for the most uncongenial work. I believe Hint the grandest lesson of life isrenunciiition, To learn to give up in silence our cherished wishes because duty calls us to it and to even lind pleasure In so doing at tnc last is it not heroic ? Is it not more heroic than to conquer worlds for unnoticed we conquer ourselves by moral force, by far a more difilcul' task than to overcome the world by physical power amidst the praises of an admiring multitude. And in that our struggles are unnoticed lies the 'icroism. We can not be rightly judgod or wo lose tho end for which wo are striv. ing tlio bloom is gone from the fruit. "HiUUm nlo tnlch boitrthencn konnon 80 wnr' Ich nlcht vn Ich bin." Mimi's face glowed wiih the thought as she sat iu silence, a black robed figure, looking out into tho west where the moon hung, ti silver setting in the blue cnnmcl of tho heavens and Hesperus gleamed like a golden lamp. A light wind sud denly stirred among the vines like "the sound of a going in the tops of the mill berry trees." A limitless prairie-sea at our feet stretched in the dim distance to meet the dark-bluo sky. Across lis sheeny waves of fading Autumn grass, shining iu the last rays of the moon, there camo the faint cry of some wandering bird. Within the dusky room the pluno which had been growing softer and softer, now stopped. A light footfall and a scent of Iloliotropc at my side told me without a look who stood, a stately picture, with white flowing drapery, framed in the dark nesss of the doorway. "A daughter of tlio Gods,, divinely tall And most divinely fair," Im Hello Marie! Her clear voice broke the charmed silence at last. "Dreaming as usual, Mignon?" (Do not wonder at the number of names wo give our dreamer. Euphrosyno Is such a stumbling block to us all that wo aro glad to substitute almost anything for it.) Mignon slowly turned her face still glow ing with tlio enthusiasm of her thought. .1 was thinking how glorious it must bo to strive for victoiy over ourselves and to vanquish the "inward fire." That aftor all, a life of work and continual strife, such as Is our destiny, is the noblest thut could bo given us to live--and the nio?t to bo desired. And that I is not bo much tho victory as the struggle that. Is tho hap piness of noble souls. I was even think, ing I was almost glad that I am one of tho uniovely, because then I have a difll cult part in the contest. Don't laugh atmo plesao. I know all my enthusiasm will vanish with tho practical sunlight and I shall bo just as doubting and morbid as before. I shall faint in tio noontide but I am tlio better for oven this little flash of heavenly foe Still, aftor all, what are you going to do with us? Maiuh. 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