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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1880)
3 ",V V 0$t$ s- V rvEVJ vtwjhl ouvig: Hesperian Student UvVIVEMlSITJ Ojp JkiyitH.lSK.l, IS , Vol. IX. Lincoln, Neil, Novkmukii 1, 1880. No. 12 HOTELS. h j&rffagtau .lOSKl'II Ol'ELT, IMtOl'. Lnto or the MAKSII IIOUSK, Hhownvii.i.k, Neb. Lincoln qb, Commercial Hotel. Cor 11 and V Sts. LINCOLN, - - - NK1JHASKA. J, J. IMIIOFF, Pron. 9 Sxrx.mIioQxs QirirxjtarJFz,&9a, Turkish, Russinn, and Suit "Water Baths in the Hotel. Rheuma tism cured by Turkish Baths. E. HAL LET, Watchmaker, and Jeweler, gitcrnrit. O St., but. 10th and lltli, nouth hide. LINCOLN, NKB. Conservatory of 3Tusic Established by authority and under the sanction of the Board ofKegeniK. Instruction given in .'i thorough and systematic manner in all departments of Muic. Tuition raiiKl"K from $0.00 to 81.1.00 per term. -Tke Vocul Elomuntary Class U fiike to all 8. B. H0HMANN, Director. A.M. DAVIS, Wholttalt anil Jltlatl Jttaltr in Oll-GlotliN, MattIii,KuKH, Mutu, AValiruper, Window ,Shudos, Lace GurtoluB, Damask. &c, ( Nd:JEaBt6t' ISSdoiwJNiB. A FALKLAND. fllltOUGHOUT tlie frayed -iiul un. even weft of the English revolution the thread of Falkland's life runs tragic ally black. There was not a life or cai ling In all that age, so newly awakened to science, that was not tangled in the un happy web. There was not a jurist but must leave his codes; not a scientist but must lay aside his microscope and ham mer; not a preacher but must forget his parish : not a farmer but must leave his plow In the furrough ; not a weaver or uiincr but must drop his spindle and pick-ax and go forth to lend a hand to guide the ship of state ; not a poet or man of letters even but must leave his books in dust and forth, too, to add his vision ary zeal to the cause of the public wel fare. Milton complained that he had been "born an age too late," and he shows in this how well ho understood that labor spent upon his art must be one long struggle against the spirit of the age. But his life shines like a thread of gold in the canvas; Tor he" is conqueror; hft spirit is never disma'yed; Aw sword never falls from his hand. This age produced statesmen before whom the world stands reverent, as before the true princes and sovereigns of mankind. Before Falkland it stands in pity as before a great genius aiming at statesmanship and leaving be hind only a series of splendid failures and fruitless efforts. The quiet life at Great Tow had unfitted the scholar for the war ring of factions; that life in the realm of mind "in which was no compulsion save that of light and reason," in which no narrow-minded king curried on a hopeless and unjust cause to the bitter end rather than abate anything of his .arbitiary will; in which no fanatical parliament freed itself, from religious persecutions only to inflict the same persecutions in turn upon others. Recall Clarenden's description of that circle of literary men, Ben Jonsou, Carew Davcnaut, Suckling, Hales, Chillingworth the list does not end until you have in eluded all the eminent scholars in or out of the Universities. Men who each, like Hales, might have said, "The pursuit of truth hath been my only care since I fully understood the meaning of the word; for this I have left all friends, all hopes, all desires that might bias me from driving right at what I aimed." Men who, while others willingly enough took up the bur den of the what of tlni great struggle, took up the greater burden of the wherefore and the why, held in uncomprehending scorn by the fanatics of the wMt. What cared they and Falkland for the divine right of Bishops? Whut cared they for the scripture origiu of presbyterianism ? f-Wliat they foresaw was freedom of wor. ship, was freedom of thought. However much thoi, wo may pity Falkland as u man who, in spite of the rarest gifts and graces, was unfortunate, upon whom we may clearly see the finger of doom laid, lot us not pity him for the clearness of his vision and thu Irrgenessof his temper. Let us not pity him that he took his he roic stand against the inadequate ideals of his age, for the truths to which his fate seems set like a seal were the truths that were secured of ultimate triumph. Ho was the founder of all the more en lightening tendencies that survived in the church after it had been loosed from the "dark prison house of puritanism." He was the very life and soul of the circle of rational and moderate thinkers whose principles steadied the course of the ship of state after the storm of rebellions had ended. Sir John Eliot is the central fig ure of the earlier parliamentary struggle, Hampden and Pym embody the later national resistance. Cromwell is the one grand leader of the victorious move, ment, but it is by none of these that the true spirit of the revolution is interpreted. Pym was a conservative by nature and thought only of resisting innovations up on the tW order- of.-thjngs; the narrow bounds of his ideas never included the full significance of the revolution the great revolution that was for no single generation, and no single land. Indeed wo do not find among all its leaders a single man who docs. The figures in the drama are constantly changing, as one man accomplishes his work he moves from the scene, and another is found to take up thu work and give it a new phase, while onward it sweeps, blotting out its old impressions by its later ones, as the waves of thu sea do iheir old murks on the sand. There is no stemming the tide; the people are in earnest; Eliot is in ear nest when he says the Commons are wise enough to rule England. Pym is in ear nest when he says that Romish supersti lion shall not again replace the religion of their fathers and that the king shall not suhvort the constitution. Hampden and Cromwell are in earnest when they say the puritans shall not bu persecuted. N'ivcrti.eless it is not through these that toleYatimi, the true meaning of the revo lution, c mes in. It is with Falkland, and not Eliot or Pym or Hampden that openess of mind to new ideas and a desire to reconcile conflicting force t lies. But the hand of the ago was u'jxm Falkland. Those men with their resolute purposes and thjir ovoiy aim within compass irid, in the need of tho time for action, an im. mediate and immense advantuge over the moderate and visionary scholar. Pym was the embodiment of law and his intense reverence for that led him to his course; where there was no precedent in all history for such a relation as then existed betwcenaiie Icing and the people, . yet with his unerring perception of the "proportion" of the constitution, as he called it, ho saw that tho parliament must he tho predominant power in the govern ment. Falkland cared nothing for what had been simply because it had been. When Charles' oppression of the people mounted to sheer midsummer madness he was a resolute champion of liberty, but on the other hand tho passion and vehe mence of Eliot's words and implicit faith in the wisdom of the Commons seemed to him mere politic moonshine. He strove as long as he could to effect a com- promise, and when a choice must be made it was a choice, with him, between two evils. There is a time in all the op erations of the human mind that lead to great revolutions when such a spirit of wise compromise and moderation as his might have prevented them, but this tide In England's affairs had not been taken at the flood and all the voyage of Falk iuud's statesmanship was bound in shut lows and in miseries Sick at heart of the violence and fanaticism of the puritans he had gone over to the royalist's cause. Sick at heait, too, of Charles' selfishness and the evil cpunsels'lowhiclrheiistened lie lost all heart in the cause he felt him self in honor T)OuV(Fto",sup'port. " Books and quiet at such a time were not for the man who loved his country. It seemed as if no There was room for his voice; against no foe was his buckler and shield needed. A melancholy which to his cheerlul spirit was unknown before came upon him. Weary of the long war he would go about muttering "peace, peace,'1 and fearing lest this longing for peace should be taken for want of courage he exposed himself recklessly in every ac tion and early fell at Newbury, fighting in the front. Theodore Winthrop, whose spirit was as rare and beautiful as Falkland's own, and whose death was like his, has said: "There is no better fortune than a timely death ; who can fail to rejoice wlier a worthy soul meets it." Falkland wavered no more now between king and parlia ment; between tyranny and fanaticism. The present was Pym's and Cromwell's, but the distant future of moderation and toleration was. Falkland's still. He had "gone oyer" for the last time, and this time lo tfiat silent majority of the wise and good among the dead" whoso influ ence is always shaping the long resulls of time no matter what counsels may carry away the present. PARODY: SPARTIGUS TO TUB GLADIATORS. s? MHRJ mill mo nliinf niwl ir ,...!! tr. .. ... ,...., ...... j U IUI IU call her chief who for twelve lone years lias met upon the rostrum every shape of tho woman question that the brain of man could devise, and who nev er 3 ct lowered her voice. If there be one among you who can say that ever in pub lic discussion or.prlvate bebate my ton rii a I t . tl 4 i rl ' VI fca i t 49 Iw 'Sis In ,ftuQIC
