THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
who docs nil things well; he who sees the noblencss
of little things nnd can perform them in a way that
wins for him respect from fellow men. Such actions
can come but from a life that has beo'i taught to view
things as they really arc. Machinery works the
smoothest and transmits the greatest power when its
actions have been carefully calculated and provided
for before hand. So with our lives: his life is most
in unison who has planned it out, and provided for
it most thoroughly and conscientiously in the past.
If a thing is conquered once, it is done forever. There
is a time for each thing and it takes no longer to do
it once well than to do it twice poorly. A lesson
once learned well is far better than only partly
learned, then at the last "crammed up" for exami
nation. He who knows how to do each part well,
and how to conquer the little things is far on the
road to success; he feels he leaves nothing behind
him that is to throw its blight and shadow into the
future and dim the objects before him: no time nor
energy is lost in doing what should have been done
before; and through life
"Each morning sees some tnk bognn.
Kach evening seos it close,
Something attempted, something done;
Has earned n night's repose."
gttc gfndcnt's grr,ij"lw0hm
A REVIEW
Perfection in style and accurate delineation of society
ns one sees it, will go far to counterbalance deficiency
in creative powir, and a pciccplion of llie invisible foun
dations of visible things, the motives and passions under,
lj ing the actions of men.
Jinny like Thackery can picture life ns it is acted
around them, but like him wiiile attempting to confine
themselves lo the actual, they include but a small portion
of the vast drama noted from day to day. A man may
have a wide experience of the -vorld yet know comparas
ttvely nothing of Thackery's world. In short his success
depends upon perfection in style nnd the most accurate
analysis of human nature, yet it is painful, because ho
looks at that which is superficial and paints it as seen
through the medium of his own unhappy mind. Life ns
pictured by him, would scarce be worth the living,- defi
cient in those qualities and beliefs vhich convij ins-pirn-tion
as well ns information, which impart heat to the soul
as well as light to the intellect, lacking the insight of
principles and the cx erience of great passions and uplift
ing sentiments, his representation of the actual world
excludes the grand forces which really animate and move
it and thus ignore those deeper sentiments which to
life earnest7ie8s, purpose and glow.
"The Klsnory of Henry Esmond" is on the whole a sue.
cessful attempt to look at the history of the age of Queen
Ann through the eyes of a contemporary and to record the
result injlhe style of the period- pleasant glimpses nrc given
of the great men of the age literary, military and political'
The story rambles on to its conclusion exciting tha1
quiet interest with which Esmond himself might relate
events recalled through Iho dim vista of tho past. Tho
characters he pcrmlls to inlroduco themselves. Volumes
could not more forcibly portray tho loneliness of
a child than tho simplo words of Harry Esmond,
"I would ns lief go there as any where, thero is
no one to care for me," when nsked if ho would accom
pany I ndy Castlowood to the Tower. Again we find
him seated alone in tho gallery poring over a largo book
note the look of joy and surprise, that one should take
a kindly interest in him in return lor which ho nppar
cntly consecrated tho services of a lifetime, sharing tho
sorrows of his kind mistress, acting the part of tutor to tho
family and finally after having in vain attempted to save
tho life of Lord Castlowood by directing tho dagger of the
assasin to his own breast, willingly relinquished title and
wealth for those who had befriended him. His love for
the beautiful ambitious Beatrice nnd his attempt for her
sake to play the traitor, suddenly brenks tho beautiful
image and our hero is transformed into an unprincipled
intriguor Such is tho story of Esmond bringing with it
the morbid conviction of the vanity of all things.
Beatrice the opposite of her gentle mother Lad Cas.
llewood belongs to riiackcry's class of women of spirit
and independence gifted with a great vigorous mind, an
intense nature and the elements of a noble woman. She
is also endowed with a morbid ambition for wealth and an
uumistakblc thirst for admiration that at hist predominate
over all other qualities.
In the character of Lady Castlowood we see the work
ings of a master hand. It is a strange combination of
feminine contradictions of personal weakness as shown
in her intercourse with her children, aud of personal
strength, of occasional sprightlincss and of deep melan
choly, of self negation and of jealousy, she loves Esmond
3et does all in her power to bring nboul his marriage twith
Beatrix, in fact the author has so concealed this love that
llie reader scarcely becomes conscious of it until the last
chapter, when all the incidents of tho story have been re
lated. Through tho entire cast of characters maj' be
seen tno workings of a mind prone to look upon the dark
side of life, yet the lesson taught is on the whole salutary
glory can come only Irom that which is truly glorious,
and as one of our critics aptly cxpros'cs it, "tho results
of meanness are always in the moan."
THE SIMILES OF VIllQIL.
In the immense fields of mo dern poetiy, wo search
without finding one that is more lertile, broader and
more beautiful than any of the others. If one bo more
fertile, another is broader: if one be be broader, an
other is more benutiful: and ifouo be more beautiful, an
other has the bright tropical sun. We search medieval
writers with almost the samo result. Wo wander on,
until, worn with fruitless labor, "we halt lo retrace our
steps. Glancing for the last time iuto what seemed to be
chaos, we behold, through the hazy dawn, n grand, mag
nificent expause, abounding in everything needful to fer
lility and beauty, and extending to the blue, cloudless
horizon.
Divided into two equal parts by a line no greater thau
that which separates the two sister lrnguagcs lay these
two boundless fields, Homer and Virgil: the lorraer is
tho father of poetry, the latter its guardian angel.
Virgil, the second great poet, born under the brightest
I
V
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