rroii
THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
Bin
t.E 7"
.
udo, wntch him as he sits in his humblo cot, lured by
the music or Homer whose Iliad lie holds in his hand
into oblivion of the present. On his desk before him lie,
Virgil and Aeschylus. A. phoobe pours her mellow notes
in at the open window while the timid squirrel peeps
over the threshold to pay him a morning call; or we may
sec him again watering the wild morning glory by his
ioor or feeding the fishes of the pond which swim con
fidingly into his hand. Did lie never feol lonely ? ''Is
not our planet," he answers, "in the milky-way ?"' The
xertion of one's body never brought two minds nearer to
gether. Thus two years were passed in seclusion studying,
thinking and writing, his companions, the birds and
fishe?, the towering oak and the trailing arbutus; in
short, Nature became his confiding sister, lie delved in
to her treasure-house with penetration truly wonderful.
Emerson, his contemporary says, "He saw as "with a mi
croscope, heard as with an ear trumpet, and his mem ry
was a photographic register of all he saw and heard."
1 horcau himself once said that should he awake from a
Rip Van Winkle sleep, ho thought he could tell from the
plants within two days the exact week of the year, so
closely hud he studied their habits.
Of his published works there aro eight, though at the
time of ills death in 1802, but two had appeared in print
.these, Walden is the journal of his hermit life, the
doings and musings of this dreamer and stoic, the record
of two years by Nature's private secretary.
An idealist, the material world is to him a means and
symbol. Tilings and time have diflerent names, but
what signifies space? Each is but an emblem of the
whole. The return of morning brings back the heroic
ages, he is a Greek, worshipping at the shrine of Auro
ra. The soft rustling of leaves falls on his ears, it Is
Homer's requiem sighing on the air. In the morning
wind lie hears the poem of creation, "Olympus is but the
outside of the world every where." "With an ear ever
open to music and an eye to beauty, he finds these in
every condition of nature. Even her very silence breathes
in his car a quiet melody.
His writings, though prose, yet brim with poetic
genius. Real poetry of thought is not girt in Tjy arbitrary
rules of rhyme and rythm. What can bo more politic
than this simile of his on timo. "Timo is the stream I
go a fishing in; I drink at it, but while I drink I eee
the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin
current slides away, but eternity remains. 1 would
drink deeper, fish in the sky whoso bottom is pebbly
with stars."
Describing the otherial flight and graceful sportings in
air of a bird which had attracted his attention, lo suys,
"It was not lonely but made all the earth lonely beneath
it. The tenant of the air, it seemed rotated to earth but
by an egg, hatched sometime in the crevice of a crag; or
was its native nest matin in the angle of a cloud, wovon of
the rainbow's trimmings and the sunset sky, and lined
with some soft midsummer hazo caught up from the
earth ? Its eyry now some cliffy cloud?
In tio writings' of Thoroau, we find a strange union of
the Ideal and the real. Re would make the real ideal, "If
you have built castles in the air, your work need not be
lost; that is whore they should bo. Now put foundations
under thorn." Let the poet pass more of his daya and
nights without any obstruction between himself and the
stars, and his poetry will savor more of heaven, less of
earth.
Thorcau would simplify tie physical lie; ho would
magnify the intellectual. By working six weeks in the
year, he tells us ho easily maintained himself and thus
had all his winters and most of his summers for study
To imitate his mode of living would bo but to controvert
the end for which he strove. Ho would have every man
make his own path, and follow it despite every opposi
tion ; "for," he says, "I desire that thoro bo as many dif
ferent persons in the world as possiblo "
In his life Thorcau stood alone. Men could neither
understand nor appreciate the principle which actuated
him lo lead a life so remote from that of his fellows.
But to ronder any now era possible, one man at least
must bo in advance of his age. A guiding star muU of
necessity bo solitary in the heavens. Thorcau stands as
pioneer of that simple independence and independent
simplicity which more and more is gaining ground io
our social life, and whoso wholcsomo influence is creep
ing into our literature. He represents the dawn of ideal
reality. To him who keeps pace with the sun it is per
petual morning," and "the sun is but a morning star."
Nora E. Gage.
SA VING HIS SHILLING.
A parent aak'd n priest his child to bloss,
Who forthwith told htm ho must first confess.
Well, said the boy, suppose thon I am willing;
What Is yourchargo? To you 'tis but a shilling.
Do all mon pay? anil all men make oonfosslon?
Yes, boy, every one of Catholic profession.
Pray, sir, do you confess? Yes, to tho Duan.
And do you pny him? Ayo,a wholo thirteen.
Do Deans confess 1 Yes, boy, they do
Confess to Bishops, and pay something too.
Do Bishops, sir, confess? If so, to whom?
Why they confess, boy, to the Popo of Rome.
Well, said the boy, all this is mighty odd;
And does tho Popo confess? Yes, boy, to God.
And does God charge tho Pope? No, quoth the
Priest,
God charges nothing. Oh I thun God is boat
He's ready to lorgivo, and always wlllinc,
To him, then, I'll confesp, and savo my shilling.
A COMMUNICATION.
Philip Gilbert Hamortou says in one of his CBsaye that
"arl cannot ho understood until so much of life and nature
is understood that the mastery of this single subject im
plies, at least, an intelligent appreciation of almost every
other subject." This thought ouglit to be univocsially
applied. It is true in education, there never was a more
fallac'ous doctrino than that if you wish to know one
lino to sever it from all else. One cannot comprehend a
subject in all Its bearings until ho has soon its connec
tion, its identity, with others. It is much like a scientist
wishing to study an apple, should separate it from the
trco and tako no thought of its history, the causes that
lead to its growth, but consider tho fruit alone. That
would represent ono sid , but you leave out tho fac'
that earth, air, wator and light arc connected with it
Tito mastery of one thing bears indirectly on tho mastery
of all. A lesson in Greok, a composition of music, In the-,
highest sonso, practicially bear on one's daily life. The
