THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
derived great benefits from the ioscrirtfions on ancient
coins and we can see no reason why wc should not
pay to posterity the debt we thus owe to antiquity.
There is moreover an advantage to the present gen
eration; those men whose likenesses are used on the
more common of the postage stamps are more easily
remembered than others, and though in this case it
may be more of a cause than an effect, if we add the
date and see the two always together as would be the
case in our coinage it would be a great help to the
memory. It would fix one fact relating to each four
years to serve as a nucleus for our knowledge concern
ingU. S. history. And to crown all, such a change
would break the monotony of seeing the same cross
looking female on each dollar as it passes through
our hands, always seeming to throw it in our faces
that she can only help us by leaving us, and give in
her stead a regular picture gallery of former "dark
horses" and fathers of their country.
gjjhe students' grtf $ooh,
Wlicro countless thousands knool and stubborn heads Incline
In humble revoronco, before tho universal God, dlvluo.
When onch has trod his pilgrim way along tho "Valo of Tears,"
And In tho silent gravo, has hid tho burden or his years,
Whllo tho mortal clay lies sleeping 'neath tho Bod,
Tho ovcrlastlng spirit takes Us homeward night to God.
FAUBT.
X.
TIME.
The clock striken twelve recording Time's uuceaplngflight,
And singing in our listening ears tho great Creator's might.
Unnumbered years have passed away nud countless ages lied
Unmarked, unnoticed nud unknown except by tho.e who tread
The golden streets of New Jerusalem, whero whispering angels
wait
To chime tho hours of man's dcstluctlou, and the universal fat0
Of planetary dwellers In worlds besidto our own,
Where God's eternal light has for endless age shown.
Six thousand, years have moved in quick succession through
Ktarnlty't) over open gates, and still our ca.'th is now,
Although proud man has grown apace, and seemed inclined
To jostle those immortal watchmen from their time-worn towers,
And mark with Instruments of human mako the swiftly (lying
hours.
'TIs night and darkness hangs in solemn grandeur o'er tho earth
Where but a few brief moments sinco, the lively signs of mirth
And revelry were heard; and tho busy tramp of mauy feet,
And the hum or labor, which echoed through thucrudwed street,
Arc hushed, and peaceful slumber closes many an eye,
Of erring, sinful mortals, still unprepared to die.
The lovely maiden slcops and dreams of him who gave
Such fond assurances of love and pledged himself to brave
All earthly danger and submit with joy to torturing pain
If he could thus her straying, fickle lovo regain.
In changeful dreams the noble youth behold'
All he holds dear, on earth and rapturously folds
Her fair form In his arms and whispers In her ear
Those oft repeated vows, and seals them with a sacred tear.
The miter sees his golden heaps miraculously grow
And all his native streams with golden waters How.
The pensman dreams of want, of misery gone past,
And prays each breath ho draws may be his last.
Thus in the visions of the night Time's rapid flight it known,
And Immortal spirits bow In holy awe before the lordly throne
Of Morpheus, and speed with hasty step through every scene,
Abjuring their allegiance to midday's transceudant queen.
Those evanescent shades, which flit so quickly through the brain,
Are counterpart of things enacted; and the taadowy .rain
Of thoughts, that gush spontaneously from the abundant store
Of sweet Ideas in.the soul, hate all been thought before.
Time flics regardless of proud mau's estate,
tnd guides him safely to the eternal gates,
There hiwo been many attempts by modern writers to
mntcrlallr.o Mio spirit of the "Dark Ago," toitypily its
undoi lying principle, generally with little success.
Among the Gorman people however, lias gradually
I grown up and from Ucrmauy spread auroau over unris-
tendom a true conception of tho soul at Hint timo inhab
iting tho body of civilized humanity a conception in
which wc see most truly the blind gropings, the fumb
lings, tho failures, of tho ungnidod intellect of tho timo;
a strong intellect, but with strength misdirected, over
striving to cnvolve the universo from its own inner con
sciousness instead of seeing in itself only an inflnitosi
mal port of n divine audMnflnito whole.
Seeing tho profound darkness surrounding even the
wisest of tho time we liud it hard to realize that it was a
part of men themselves and hnd naught to do with tho
outwnrd forms of uulure; that, while isolated facts un
connected by a priuiplc of uuily wcrcjas will-o-the-wisps
leading into quagmires of error, thatprinciplc of unity
the one increasing purposedwelt in all 'things then as
now and beyond the clouds and darkness produced
alone by the magician, the great sun was shining where
natuio held open her Bible in tho sunlight. Travelers in
tho Alps looking down into its valleys when dayl'ght
first finds entrance to their depths, see the fogs that have
lain there througlithc night writhing and tossing as it
in pain while slowly disappearing. Thus also the clouds
overhanging the mind of past centuries rolled in terrible
contortions as they dissolved in the clear thought which
brought about the Reformation. As a shadow; dies in
seeing the light which muxes possible its cxistanco so
the crruis of thai timo in vanishing become a purl of tho
general illumination.
The legend of Doctor Fausltts, who suld.bis soul to the
devil for twenty-four years of unhesitating service, origi
nated in Geimauy some time in tho sixteenth century.
Thence it spread to the literatures of France, England and
Italy, Marlowe writing his playof thnl name from a prose
translation Under his hand it became a drama of con
siderable power though his treatment shows that he did
not sec the great possibilities of the theme." His Faust
is no moro than a conjuring, inquisitive libertine and a
coward at that, frightened alternately at tho devil he
has raised and the compact he has made with Ji'in. His
is not tho fearless soul which makes of evil a servant not
a master; and in conscious strength sees that "he only
earns his freedom and cxisteucc who daily conquers
them anew." Marlowe's Mcphistophebs too, can linrdly
be identified with the proud and confident picture of
Lucifer drawn by 3Iiiton.; ho Is too weak spirited too
mindful of his own misfortunes to drag down such a man
as Fnust should be. It l.us been well said that lie is much
the better Chriataln of the two.
It was reserved for Goethe in tho first part of his neat
lUe work to give to the world its true rcprecnuUo .
We see this time no slight of Jmud trickier in the crar
bearded old man who sits "hemmed in by cureedgloomj
Jill
lmKM
PESO
NWI
