THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
However that may bo its nblllty to oopo with
following beautiful lines: o01 ovo1' tho llll, v03So1
I stood in Venice, on f lnS boS tl9 f01'"
, , . 'or boro a moro valued
A palace and pnson on . whogQ mjH
I saw from out the waves xHcoloaa worth of timo
As from the stroke of an enoforo tho suu passed
. A thousand years their cloudy'lc's morning aro
Around me, and a dying glory snfl? Wr hoU,B
O'er the far times, when many a subject voiccs
Looked to the winged lion's marble piles,sjce '
Where Venice sale in state, thronged on,ivcrsc.
hundred isles. juddonly
,011 1 waves.
A late number of Harpers Weekly gives,s; anon, it
dotes of Wilhelm Richard Wagner, the gn
composer, which are quite characteristic?1 of Clint
He has obtained great eminence in TL s l v "KS'
"S to overcome
founder of an entirely new school of d' tlark iegnnjr.
and by us, as Americans, he also destCe of joy nnd
mention and grateful rememberance,o a theme for
composed our grand Centennial marchllum thirty
favor he received, to him, the trifieifi0 nml wl11
five thousand dollars. It may be wclf"1 j""
few facts concerning his early life. He waVrc waa
Leipzig, in 1813. His father was a man of consioo
able talent, but died during the child s infancy. Thri
widow married again. Wagner's step-father wa a
painter, an actor and an author of several comedies.
He wished to make a painter of Richard, but he
had no talent for drawing, so the project was finally
given up. When Richard was only seven years old
he lost his second t father, and the day before his
death he asked Richard to play some pieces which
he had learned to play upon the piano. After lis
tening a while he said "It is possible that Richard,
who is good for nothing else, may make something of
himself in music yet." From this time he was left to
himself without special advantages; and for quite a
length of time he learned only, by imitation.
If he heard a symphony of Beethoven, he immedi
ately set about writing a symphony, and thus he was
guided by no fixed principles of art, but was always
vacillating from one point to another. His present
eminence has not been gained without encountering
many obstacles, and struggling to overcome adverse
criticism, and lack of recognition. He has ever
maintained those principles, which he believed to be
the true and beautiful in music, and he has said,
"art is not created by money, but by artists."
As a man, he was haughty and violent, and almost
sublime in extravigance; he was nervous and passion
ate a perfect volcano. Despotism and love of
power were theleading elements in his warm and con
tradictory nature. He quarreled with his best friend.
He couldnot compose without complete silence,
but when he accomplished his work, and tfje ob-
whlch ho wns born; nnd his associates, tho generous
Cnnnytigo. tho gifted Rowley, valorous knights nnd beau
tlful mnids who lived nnd loved in n nobler age. With
tlicso Idcnl bolngs of tho fourteenth contuory ho toilod
night nnd day, nnd to thorn ho gave ronl cxistonco in numer.
0113 lyrics nnd tragedies, uutlquo 111 form but exhibiting
n luxurinuco mid energy of thought that would hnvo done
credit to Dryden nnd n grnoo nnd harmony of numbers of
which Popo might well hnvo been proud.
His three long years of sorvltudo ns n lawyer's olork,
his indomitable euorgy in tho prosecution of his plans,
his repented attempts to brenk tho chains Hint bound him
and to g.xiu recognition from tho public, his final release
and his journey to London have all tho breathless iuterost
of n romance; while his four months 1Kb in tho metrop
olis seems liko tho last act of tragedy in its climax of Buf
fering, in its ngony nf death.
Observe him now alono in tho cold, selfish world. Tho
visions of beauty that woro wont to float before his eyes
have been dispelled. Tho pale cheolc, tho haggard fea
tures show that ho has been without food for several daysi
and tho wild desperation iu those intelligent but sunken,
languid eyes indicates that the fatal hour has come; nnd
ho has no friend never hnd he one in all this world to
rescue him from the cnthralltnunt of deep, dark gloom.
On the 25th of August 1770 ho failed to appear at tho ac
customed timo and his door was found to bo locked.
This wns soon broken in. Tho floor was stiowu with
manuscripts and tho lifeless body of the child genius lay.
stretched upon his bed. A pinch of arsenic iu a gluss of
of co-educati6u0 AVOrk The ephemeral voyugc was
put a stop to hazing and VtlTeftraccom',,i9hccl- Th
r . , , 7 ,. , "vorn rocks, and
alent before the advent of the co-eds. ..ne aumor
at last concluded that this result was to be desired,
and many will be surprised to learn that any one
should have doubted that it is desirable for college
boys to quit getting into "scrapes,"and to settle
down to quiet lives of hard work, stagnation, and
dyspepsia. Yet many a man will remember some
trick which he helped to execute while at school long
after he has forgotten what the professors tried to
teach him. It seems to us entirely possible that a
man may draw valuable elements of virility from
those escapades of which he delights to tell, but
whose counterparts so often lead him to think that
the rising generation is going to the dogs. Some of
the boys in this institution have expressed a wish
that the regents" would give us a good old fashioned
gold-headed-cane-chancellor who would do some
thing to furnish us with good excuses for insubordi
nation and pranks of all kinds. There seems how
ever to be no hope of such a catastrophe, and in the
meantime the gentlemanly way in which the profes
sors treat the students seems to necesitate like con
duct on the part of the latter, while the presence of
ladies compells the boys to repress all the promptings
of their semi-latent barbarism, circumstances and
the state paperswill probably prevent us from being
ruffians and we sincerely hope that our own instincts
I will keep us from becoming milk-sops.
W'
msmagsm
3 fc'v
