j. '-rntiktiWhd
MM
Miuu 'MjkilL'J!!t
p&xxtt
JA.SKA I .
Hesperian Student.
VOL. i
University of A'cbtutska.
xo
.
sKPTlPlllKKt
Qui non Irollolt, Inlt.
1875.
Scraps from my Note Hook.
XIX.
Till. ISK AM) TllH ANKMONK.
Kc know ill origin of the Rose and
dm Anemone ; l)tit tho old Greek poet llion
luipcurs to liavo known, and thus relates,
ooiiuuMicingn' the (Hid lino of his Epitaph
jos Adotudo.:
ill. l. tun Kutliurulnii. npoloto kiilu Adonis.
tl.ikruoit ii I'aphla toon clii'ol, oon Adonic
alinn flit'cl : tn dt pantti poll chtlionl glgnoinl
nntl't-:
ulnm roilon tlktoi. tu do ilukrim tun iiiiinionan."
Aln. 'tine, Venus, beautiful AdotiN 1 dead.
Vi'im pourn fortli as ninny tear n Adonis
Drop" r blood: but nil become How err- upon tho
ground.
Tin' Mood engender- tin- Ilo-e. bill tin- tear- th
Aiii'inoiii1.
Tlii" i- as sentimental and beautiful as
anybody can wish it.
While 1 was translating the above lines,
a question arose in m, mind as to verse
translation in general. It was this: Con.
fesM'illy, neither English heroics, English
l,i:,.i'.neters, nor English ballad moires,
faithfully represent the spirit of tho old
classical poetry ; (see Arnold on Trans
ating Homer!) bulmaynota iwrJHcntl,
llowing, and irregular vorse, such as 1
have adopted in the above specimen, more
adequately relleet an author's actual pow
er mid purpo&o limn dull prose, or a moat
unnatural verso that, owing to metrical
exgoncios, is often necessarily cramped,
or painfully dilfusive?
XX.
MKX CANNOT I.ONO UK IIKI.I) TO ATIIKISM.
Ill his book, "Democracy and Monarchy
ia France," Prof. Adams, of Michigan
University, says of Voltaire, "The most
suered things in religion and morals were
the favorite objects of hisscofilng raillery ;
niul so keen was his wit, so blasting his
mockery, that those who professed to
cling still o tho old doctrines of religion
ami virtue, were cither driven into obscur
ity or covered with general contempt."
Piiijo 01.
And yet, Rationalism was a tragedy soon
plnycd, and the worst Ultrainontanism is
absolute master of France to-day. Tho
doctrines of a few men like Voltaire, J. S.
Mill, lloruort Spencer, etc., cause such
alarm and disgust, that, in the end, the
Papacy always wins by them. I am in
clined lo think that they who shall seo tho
subsidence of the Liberal wave of these
times, say about 14)25 (or fifty years hence.)
will find tho Roman Church the leading
force in American thought. People, self
conscious of individual helplessness, are
bound to believe something; and a dry
philosophy ia worth next to nothing to
anjbody for any length of time. Very
fuw are willing to die by it, ovon Voltaire
was not.
According to the height of a tidal wave
is its rellux. And as these times are very
liberal, when the reaction comes, who is
likely to profit by It, but tho venerable In.
fallibility who takes his meals In Rome?
XXI.
HEIGHT AND BTHKNOTU.
According to Mr. Bryant, the following
lines of Tennyson are more expressive of
height than any others in our language,
Thoy are all we have of a fragmentary
poem called The Eagle.
Hi- t1np tin1 frag with hooked linurix;
Oloo to tho otin In lonoly lund.
, Kinged by tho imiro world, ho lnmN.
"The wrinkled son buuouih him crawls;
lli ilusliu" from his mnutitnhi wulK
And llko u thnndi'iholt ho full.
To sec the world from so suolimc a
point of view that its vast orb seoms but
a mere ring of azure, and the sea with Its
swift, mountainous waves no more than a
watery plain wrinkled by monotonous and
slow-erawling ripples, is, indeed, to "bo
high up."
Hut whatever may be said for lleiglit,
adequate expression has never yet been
given to Strength. Abstractions have in
deed been powerfully asserted, such as
Love, Darkness, Death, etc. Byron con
sidered tho dark eye of a woman as tho
Ultima Ttiilc of strength, and could find
no better comparison for Night, Storm
and Darkness.
" Oh night,
And Htorni. nod durkucf'e.) e itro w on droit btrong.
Yet lowly In your i-tiongth, ns in tho light
Of a dark eye In wotnnn!"
But I am inclined to think that the
strongest thing within the world of human
observation is a woman's back, and not
the light of her dark eye. Talk about the
woman being tho " irotkcr vessel !" I
have seen many a wife carry a great fat
babe in her arms day in and day out, and
apparently never got tired; but if she
passed over tho child to its father to hold
for a lew minutes, ho almost immediately
found his progeny such an intolerable
burden that, from sheer fatigue, he plead
ed ' business" and hurried oil' as quickly
as possible. It is cry wonderful that this
fact has escaped the poets, and that the
proper apostrophes and parallels have not
been made.
XXII.
AIIOUT THE UGIIT.
There is a Trinity in tho light. The
throe primary colors are Blue, Yellow and
Red. The Blue represents the actinic
rays which are never seen, as God tho
Father is not scon; the Yellow represents
the visible light which is as God the Soti(
who is the Light of the world, or tho
source of all illumination; and the Red,
or the heat rays are, presumably, tho rep
rosontativc of God tho Holy Ghost, who is
rarely seen, but felt in His influences upon
our hearts.
"God coveroth Himself with light as
with ii garment;" and the fact that Ho is a
Trinity of Persons, yet one God, is made
clearer to our comprehension by the fact
that His covering of light ia a Trinity of
colots, which, in combination, make the
perfect, transparent, and wholly blended
Light.
How noble are Milton's lines in the
third Book of Paradise Lost:
" Hup , holy Light 1 offspring of Hea on flrtt-uorn-Or
of tho Etoniul cootcrnal beam
May I uxprcB thee tinblainedHrucoUd 1b light.
And never but lu nnapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then In theo,
Bright effluence of bright essence Inereatc.
Or uoarost thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountniu who shall tell? Before the (tun,
lii'foro the heawii" thou wrl, and at the oleo
Of (od, n with a intuitu-, didst lnwt
Tho rllng world of wilier dark and deep,
Won from tlu- void of funnta" Inllnito."
Perhaps there is no grander expression
of power in all hngungo than this: "Let
there bo light, and there was light;" yet It
is more finely rendered in the Vulgate
than in English. " Lux it of lux mil" is
briefer and much worthier of a divine
original.
The doctrine of a Trinity in the light is
as old as Nlcono Christianity.
XXI 11.
WHAT IS MAN?
Astronomy tenches us that tho order of
the stellar universe is this: 1. Satellite
sj steins, or moons; 2. Planetary systems,
or bodies llko our earth that revolve
around suns; :3. Fixed stars or suns; 4.
Groups of suns, that revolve around some
vast sun, as a common centre; .1. Clusters
of groups of suns, that also revolve
around nn immeasurably vast and distant
sun as their common centre; 0. Nebula,1
of combined clusters ot suns that revolve
around a centre of suitable greatness.
Our earth is one ol the smallest planets
in our own solar system ; and our sun is
one of the smallest suns in the heavens.
Of Hie suns visible from the earth, it is
said that Sirius gives as much light as (W
of our suns; the Pole Star as 80; Vega as
.'Ml; Capclla as 4:50; Arcturus as ."510; Al
cyone of the Pleiades as 12,000. Think of
a star blazing with 12,000 times Ihc inten
sity of our sun!
This Alcyone of the Pleiades is believed
to bo the most wonderful star visible in
the heavens. It is assorted by some to be
tho centre of all the stars within the com
pass of human observation. What tf it bo
the centre of tho Universe V And if not,
how vast must lie the centre of which such
stars as Alcyone are but satellites? Some
have thought that tho "sweet Inlluencc of
he Plelades"mentioned in Job XXXVIII,
indicates that the central heaven itself is
located among them.
But if all those suns aro attended by
planetary systems, and if all have living
inhabitants, who are witnesses of God's
glory,how populous the Universe must be!
And, amidst such an innumerable popula
tion, what are men, even if taken altogeth
or; and whaus any single man, even if
Shakspeare's self? And what is fame,
bounded by this ono world alone; and
what is all that we can do, which will
never bo heard of beyond the confines of
the earth and only by a small part of the
people who live around us and come after
us V These contemplations ought to suita.
My humble us and keep us In place: they
might well make us distrust a vaunting
individualism.
O. C D.
A Lesson from History.
In looking over the world's history, wc
find hero and there a name standing out
in bold relief, upon which the historian
dwells with delight, as the ustronomer
contemplates with pleasure those stars
whose effulgence surpasses that of ull
others. And we are led to ask what it is
that has placed these few men so far
above their fellows; what has caused
those few to rise to such dazzling bights
of fame, while others remained in obscu
rity. History shows that the price c f renown
varied with the customs and notion of
the times and of the country. Among
the ancient Romans, physical prowe-s,
bold daring and public assassination y,n
the applause of brave heroes mid f.iir
matrons. Tho fame of a Roman was
measured only by the extent o: hi- dev
astation, the hoinousnoss of his plots and
the atrocity of his deeds.
In modern European nations whore
caste and primogeniture are still held
sacred, men aie born heirs to fame and
are entitled by their birth to the pa ires of
history. Here men, equal by iiatnn arc
separated, one held aloft while the other
is consigned to oblivion. Here nn illit
erate and arrogant Prince may sway his
arbitrary and despotic sceptre over a re
filled and cultured subject. There is u
land where the long sought air of free
dom inspires the American youth ; whero
men, born in poverty, and cradled In ob
scurity, have converted adversity into
opportunity, and made obstacles their
benefactor. Where ono leave the maul
and wedge in the forest of the West, to
serve his country in the Presidential
chair; mother forsakes his master on the
isles of a Southern sea, to strengthen tho
financial credit of a free people as Secre
tary of the Treasury; and a third quits
his humble cottage in the sunny South, to
become the greatest orator of the land.
Here the widow's son from the balmy
South, and tnoson of the millionaire from
the frigid North, stand side by side in u
national congress.
Thus men have risen alike from all
grades of society to the foremost station
of the land, and we are led to enquire tho
cause of this elevation.
History shows that there are two groat
principles by which renown is gained
The first, and by far the most common, is
whero men throw themselves into tho cur
rent of public opinion and aro borne on
ward by tho research and labors of others;
where they gather up tho fragmentary
thoughts of the people, clothing them In
magnificent language, giving them a pat
riotic from, and uttering them with the
charm of eloquence.
The second principle is wheio men
branch out into new and unexplored re
gions of thought, form their own opinion
and so fortify them with logic that over
throw is impossible, that to hear thorn is
to believe them and to doubt is arrogance.
Of those who gained celebrity by tho
first groat principle, wore Cicero of the
Romans, Demosthenes of the Greeks ami
later Pitt of the English. And of our
own country we may mention Henry Clay.
Viewing him first as an advocate we fintl
him pleading before a Kentucky jury, ve
hement, impetuous, irrascible. Frequent
ly disregarding the evidence, overlooking
.the merits of the case, he overwhelms the
7.
V
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