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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1875)
52335223 mmmmmmmMmM '"' " THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. of Toil; but just upon (lie left is a beauti ful walk through the verdant and shady lawn of Leisure, by the charming brook of Pleasure. The one leads to an elevated plain where the inhabitants breathe the empyrean air of reward and pluck, the ambrosial fruit from the tree of Fume. The other leads the wanderer down to a vast and densely populated valley, where the dwellers are stilled in an atmosphere of regret and diet on the bitter fruit of disappointment. But here man is notleftwithouta guide. He is not required to take that decisive step in the lurid darkness of uncertainty. If lie sec his patli well defined, his work in plain view before him, and the sacred lire burning within his breast urges him forward, let him not hesitate, let him not Inquire the oh-t-ieles in his course, nor ask the opinions of men. ' Great men of all ages have followed the guiding star which a divine hand hul placed in their intellectual sky. Hut all are not thus positive in their predilection. To some the stars of the llrmament shine with equal brilliancy. Hut this is no evidence that for them there is no work this does not show that they have no part in the drama of life. On the contrary it indicates that a broader field from w.iich to choose is open to lliem. The fire of ambition may be kindled, but the charac ter of its flame must bo determined by the fuel with which it is led. Then let such choose from the callings to which they arc eligible, that which to them is preferable. And having made their choice, let it be fi nal. Let them not turn back to the day when they might have taken another path. Let them never permit themselves to think on what they might have been had they chosen another course of life. An humble calling followed earnestly and persistentl with a noble purpose will bring a greater reward, than a more ostentatious one fol lowed out through selfish pruriency with shame and remorse. If then it be ours to till the soil, stand at the forge or ply the needle, let us not shrink from the heat of the day, nor grow weary in the toilsome hours of night. Or if kind Heaven lias marked out a higher course, given us a higher place in the eyes of the world, let us not shrink from the responsibility thus imposed upon us. If to us are given places of honor and trust, may it not be ours to betray the hand that bestowed them. . Hut it is asked " Can wn not educate men for the various vocations of life? Can we not take the crude material and mould it into whatever shape we choose V" Not so! As in nature each element is as signed its function, so among men each is allotted to ills particular sphere. It is as Impossible for the instructor to make a musician out of nature's mathematician or a poet out of natuie's painter, as for the alchemist to transmute thocopperof Lake Superior into the gold of the mountain, or the chemist to convert the dingy coal of the valley into the sparkling diamond of Brazil. It is not the province of educa tion to bestow upon man that which a di j vine hand has seen fit to wlthold. Hut it , Is to discover and load o- the talents, .golden gems of genius, which nature has .hidden, it may bo under a rough exterior. Although the scientist cannot make the , diamond he may take it from the hidden .. lied, polish it, and make it worthy of a ..place in tlm royal crown, so, nlthough ed. ucation cannot give talent, It may expand and polish that which was bestowed by a higher power, make it ub'o to cope sue cessfully with this world and shine with effulgence In that to come. Hut it is a lamentable met that the present system of education too often fails to accomplish this ideal result. The His torian may tell us of him who has reached this ideal, but who shall record the name of his unfortunate ennpanion f r whom the course of study was entirely unlit, whoso talent it hebilated and whose genius it consigned to oblivion. Our educational system is too much like the famous Procrustes of Attica, the mind of the student is strapped upon the iron bed of the college curriculum and like the victims of that ancient monster it is made to conform to its dimensions. Hut the day is beginning to dawn vhen, it may be hoped, the tendencies of tiie mind rather than a schedule of authors will be the educational guardian when the aim will be to bring out what there is in man and not to force into him that for which lie has no taste. Man is endowed with ti distinct individ uality and to develop it within proper limits and to keep it forever firm should bo one of the chief ends of life. That ed ucation alone is a benefactor which pre serves the individuality of man, while that which would destroy it must forever be a curse. It gives that self-respect, that con sciousness of power, that independence of character without which success in life is impossible. It lias been said that educa. tion makes rogues and villians. If this bo true, it can only be when it places before man the rewards of victory and robs him of the weapons of battle. And of all the weapons wielded in tliebattlcof life there are none so potent as a well de fined individuality. II. II. Wilson. Adelphian Society, Nov. 11). Gfutho'H Wilhelm Meistcr. (concluded .) We will not consider it amiss to take tin again the discussions between Serlo, the manager, and Wilhelm, concerning (lie play of Hamlet. Before putting the play upon the stage, these two naturally deem it their duty thoroughly to analyze the characters. Wilhelm is to personify the melancholy Dane. In his sincerity of soul the incarnation of a oftv Hmnwo.r Wilholm could not stop short of a full analysis of the play. And this spirit of honesty G(Ctlie makes the most of in the hero of this novel. A fullness of the man that will swallow all that comes to him, as unconscious of performance as though it were a regular routine. But though Wilhelm entered into tho spirit of Hamlet as only Gojlho .( lleridgo could' have miulo him to do, it i hard to abide by his disfigurement of the play. Where could Laertes have gotten his courtliness nod hit. fencing, had lie gone to Norway instead of to Paris? Surely there would have been no need of that fine piece of advice Polonlus gives him on his departure for the gayest city of nil time, if the youth had been going instead to the slaidness of the north men. Nor can It bo mado very plausible, that plan of having Horatio come from Norway, in place of Witten berg and the College. Ho and Hamlet are fresh from study, from classics, and doubtless rooted well in tlio poets. More, over, lliis flavor of College associations gives a tinge of meditation to the piece. Either of them arc yet unused to notion! Fresh from culture. Just stepping from t'10 threshold of Aristotle and Socrates, ot the platform of Collides--leaving philoso phy for action. And therein is tlio hesi tancy of tiie prince. Horatio hastening preparations! building a licet ! acting as a soil of commissariat. That is activity itself. Action lias no sympathy with mel ancholy. Manifestly, Iloialio must drop the licet, or Hamlet drop melancholy, to preserve their intimacy. But it is proposed that Hamlet shall play tlio courtier to the army, and go with tlio licet to Norway, and thus undermine his Uncle. But that is a direct, blow at Hamlet. Either lie must adopt tlio adulation of tlio courtier; and arrange to grasp the details, multi tudiuous though they be,--of a ruse with tlio soldiery; which would certainly be the deathblow to all his mclaiichoh, and destroy utterly Iho sublimity of his cau tiousness; or lie nn st renrain as ho is. Meditation. There would have been little of that had lie been in association with a Secretary of tlio Navy. Besides, to have adopted a course of action, would have been to wipe out the hesitation that gave him his melancholy. And then, by such a course lie would have taken more a tinge of revenge and ambition. And with such attributes lie would hardly have ventured the play scene that so starts King Claudius and the Queen from their seats. Would lie not rather have feared dial the result of such a ruse would he his decapitation on the instant V For they could but see his growing popularity with the people, had he been pleased to flatter them, as "Wil helm proposed. No. Let Hamlet stand. There can be no erasures, if the unity of the characters is to be pros rved. Gojlho's plan might have made a meditative Talley rand, but never a Hamlet. And then, where would the effect of those unseen proceedings of young Fortinbras that Serlo so much objected to, have shown itself. There would be no background for such sparks as "the time is out of joint," and "that thou dead corse, encased in complete steel, icvisit'st thus the glimpses of (he moon V" All these, and such as these, are set in bold relief by tha black melancholy of the general outlines. Sec Eneas' tale to Dido, as the player recites it. There is melancholy there, -too, that would put tears in almost anybody's eyes. "Oat, nut, thou strampct, Fortune I All you sod, In K!ioril Hynoil. t iko uwny her power; ItrtMik nil thi) spokes unit follooH from her wheel, And bowl tin- r jiuid imvo down tlio hill of heaven, Ah low u to tint tlemNl" It is such us this that sound-like tlio booming of the thunder in a pitch of clouds, from which tlio lightning steals lorth anon, in "time is out of joint," and rondois the gloom more fearful from its own radiance and the deep-tliroaled roar of such as the above quotation. But the play is at last presided, and Wilholm receives such applause ax suits him, and sucli as every young amateur is conceded, at II rut, if lie ho at all talented. When the season is over, lie betakes him. self to. i search after Amelia's faithless lover. Ho meets him and others, and re turns their friend, with an invitation from Lotlmir tlio lover to visit him at his Lolhair.b castle. When ho arrived at the theatre to assume his duties as before, lie finds that Molina, whom he had so often befriended, had mado such arrangements witli Serlo as would dispense with Wil helm's services. And hero for tlio first time, ho discovered that the world could live without him. And hero ho finds Felix to be his own son. His farewell to tlio stago, brings to his recollection old friends, and he opens cor- respondenco with Werner, the fellow of his boyhood, now bin brother-in-law. In the meantime, ho visits Lothario. Anil here It is that apprenticeship to life ends He "cuts his oye teeth." By some means or other, Jarno takes upon himself the du ty f ushering Wilhelm from the domain of contemplation to tlio klnirdom of no tion. When he becomes a master median. Ic. There is a mystery about all t I1I3 castle machinery and cliaractery. thate.in only be allied to the mystery of nu niory, or reminiscence. For when .Tamo, after welcoming him as "one of ourselves," shoves him unceremoniously through n nnrrow passage Into a dark chamber: Wilhelm recognizes before him (lie stnui. ger with whom lie conversed, some years before, when in love witli Mariana, concerning Art, Destiny and Character. This stranger suggested to Wilhelm that they may possibly better agree now, and then vanishes. "And can what we term Destiny be nothing more than Chancer'1 mused Wilhelm. As if he favored Dc inosthenes. "Good Fortune." rather than Napoleon's "Child of Destiny." Then the clergyman who had sailed with him on tlio pleasure-boat, some time before, with Philina and the rest of the party, comes before him, and lets on that, "Ho who only tastes his error will dally witli it long, and enjoy it as a rare delight; buthe who exhausts it completely, will learn its worthlessncss, if lie bo not wholly senso; loss." As if lie had said, wo have many affectations, but only as we require sturdi. ness and strength do wo rub out our fool Ishness; or, as we wipe out our affectations, so we climb to solidity. But "to what er ror can the man allude," thought Wilhelm, " but that which lias pursued mo throgh my whole life, and has Induced me to seek for instruction where it was not to be found to fancy that I possessed a talent, to which I had not the smallest preten. sions " Ho had always conceived himself capable of greatness in acting. But the puppet shows hud perhaps mado it too vain a delusion. Once lie was warned to beware of Jarno, as lie was only a recruit ing olllcer for the army. And now, m the darkness of this mysterious chamber, tlio young olllcer who had volunteered such warning, comes before him, mid pertly says: "Learn to know the men in whom you may confide." The mystery of so much interest in his fortunes, by so many persons, only now made known to him, gives him a touch of impatience. " If so many persons," lie mused, "feel interested in you, and know your way of lite, and how It should have oceu pursued, why have they not guided you with a firmer and a stricter hand I Why have they tilth, or encouraged than forbade your folly" "Argue not with us," cried a voice, "you are saved, and on tlio road to happim-si. You will never repent nor repeat your fol lies and tliL is the happiest destiny that can be allotted to man." Wisdom! And yot we have screamed in our ears, cleaving our hours of meditation in twain, by tlio puny. throated dis-quisdlions of every by. way poet.ofno philosophy but wondrous?)' intuition ; to shun tho past. As If export , enco must never be reviewed in order bet. tor to hew our way out of to-day. Experi enco gives us knowledge; knowledge, courage; courage, strength; strength, suc cess; and virtuous success, happiness. For what else do wo live. For lias not Socrates demonstrated to Polus that only tlio good are happy v And does not tho good come only from a perfect iuteliigencp creative intelligence ? Iudeed, the piyjt i SUB
