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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1883)
nse""3HPPP!H THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. l ..1.1- ...... tn In Itj nKlttlir li nttt ...til. observer uouuia imu o w no ..u.n iU wu ,nu tempests, portentous oloiula brooded over tlio litllo vessel ult was loosed from its moorings mid began its aber rant voyao. Hut no crufi over bore a more valued cargo for It contained a heaven-born genius, whoso mis sloa was to tench tho world the price-loss worth of time to live an ago without a day, to die before tho sun passed asextant of It course. Tho mists of life's morning are slowly cleared away and tho spirit of the voyager holds communion with the external world, and to tho voices of uaturo utter responsive songs. He, like Shakespeare, has a potential capacity for all knowledge and his sleep less mlud is fast becoming a transcript o1' the universe; but a storm that had long been gathering burst suddenly forlh and tho spirit craft writhes amid violent waves. Now, exulting it overtops tho hightest surges; anon, it is engulfed in despondent gloom. Like the voyage of tho fairy ship is the story of Ohat lerlou's life a life replete with ambitious strivings, radiant hopes, colossal toils, baffled endeavors to overcome the insurmountable, melancholy broodings, dark despair. This life, so romantic in its varied experience of joy and suffering, so tragic in its end has becomo a theme for philosophers, poets, statesmen, divines. Moro'lhau thirty five works by eminent men attest his excellence and will perprtunto his memory as long as human sympathy shall endure. "Paint for mo an angel," says the child, "with a trumpet to trumpet my name over the world." lie was to become the angel-trumpeter of his own fame and the melody of his childish voice, like tho music of an .Eoliau harp, reaches us, touching our hearts with its low sweet trembling notes. Thomas Chnttcrton was born on the 20lh of November, 1752, near St. Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol. His up. parent dullness in childhood gained for him the imputa tion of idiocy but at tho ago of six ho became interested in the illuminated capitals of a music folio and hence forth manifested an intense activity in tho acquisition of kuowledge, At eight ho was an insatiable devourer ol books, ami had already begun Hint study of antiquity that was to make his namo immortal. What ho says of "Cannyngo'' may bo said of himself "In nil his simple gambols and child's play 1 kenned the purpled light of wisdom's ray." Tho poet Eliot has painted a picture of his childhood "In Severn's vale a wan and moon struck boy Sought by tho daisy's side a ponsivo joy, Held converse with tho sea birds as they passed, And strange and dire communion with the blast; Aud read in sunbeam and tho starry sky Tho golden lauguago of eternity. Age saw him and koked sad, tho young men smiled, And wondering maidens shunned his aspect wild; But lie, tho ever kind, the ever wise, Who sees through fate with omnipresent eyes, Uid from the mother, while she blest her son, The woes of genius and of Cliatterton." At eight ho entered a charity school where he remained Jil fourteen; but neither in tho routine of study nor in "is companions did lie take an interest. His mind was I lied above this sordid world of ours into a world of chivalry aud heroism. Ilia school was tho attic in his mother's house, filled with antique parchments, or tho beautful church of St. Mary Redcliffe, in tho shadow of which ho was born; and his associates, tho generous Onunyiigo. tlio gifted Rowley, valorous knights and beau tlful maids who lived and loved in a nobler age. With these idoal beings of the fourteenth contuory ho tolled night and day, and to them ho gave real existence in numer. ous lyrics and tragedies, antique 111 form but exhibiting a luxuriance aud energy of thought that would have done credit to Dryden and a graco aud harmony of numbers cf which Pope might well have been proud. His three long years of servitude as a lawyer's clerk, his indomitable energy in tho prosecution of his plans, his repeated attempts to break tho chains that bound him and to gain recognition from the public, his final release and his journey to London have all tho breathless interest of a romance; while his four months life in tho metrop olis seems like tlio last act of tragedy in its cllnmx of suf fering, in its agony of death. Observe him now alone in tho cold, selllsh world. The visions of beauty that wero wont to float before his eyes have been dispelled. The palo check, tho haggard fea tures show that he has been without food for several daysi and the wild desperation in those intelligent but sunken languid eyes indicates that the fatal hour has come; and he has no friend never had he one in all this world to rescue him from the entlirallni'Mit of deep, dark gloom. On the 2olh of August 1770 he failed to appear at tho ac customed lime aud his door was found to bo locked. This was soon broken in. The lloor was stiewn with manuscripts and the lifeless body of the child geuius lay. stretched upon his bed. A pinch of arsenic in a glass of water had done tho work. The ephemeral voyage was ended the mission of tho voyager, accomplished. Tho frail craft lies wrecked upon tho wave-worn rocks, and the spirit of the voyager mingles once more with that of Ills infinite father. Where lie was bured will never ho known, but a bcauti fill Gothic monument, with a statue of the poet at the top has been erected to his memory near St. Mary Redcliffe church, in a spot he so dearly loved. Thus died Cliatterton at the ago of sevcutcon years aud nine months whom a great poet of nature well has named, "That marvelous boy, The sleepless soul that perished in his pride." And Shelley has writon that he, "The inheritor of unfulfilled icnowu, Roso from a throne bu'lt beyond mortal thought, Par iu the unappraanl." What motives prompted this last rash act what mad thoughts crowded that burning brain, for-bear to ask. But approach aud read the epitaph, composed by him self, inscribed upon his monument . "Reader judge not. If thou art a Christian, believe that ho should 1o judged by a superior power. To that power alone is he now answerable." G. W. B. Prep. "Tho infernal angles of a Socrates triangle are equal to twice the square of tho hypothesis." It is sniil that Emerson failed repeatedly to pass his examinations while in college. His nunc in scolarship was very low, but tlio names of tho geniuses who out ranked him arc forgotten. Thl; seems to indicate that neither talent nor genius can be gauged by any arlifical irrading or denoted througr- competitive examinations. fa Reveille.