m
THE HESPERIAN.
recreation, are necessary there the contest is not a
laudable thing.
. We have just passed a very pleasant epoch in the
history of our University, that of the formal dedica
tion of our first building since our establishment. It
is not only a mark of past progress, but the character
of the new building indie?.1 cs that it is only a part of
a plan which promises for the future a most wonder
ful progress in every department. We have now able
instructors and many students and the sole remaining
requisite for a first class University, is the providing
of those buildings and equipments which are necces
sary for the best utilization of the powers and ener
gies of instructors and students alike. Do not misun
derstand us, we need buildings and equipments
but that is not what we ask of our legislati re. It is
true The Hesperian has discussed the matter of
buildings; what ones we are in the most pressing need
of, but that is a matter which in our humble opinion
should be left to those who understand our wants the
best, the Regents and the Faculty. We only ask that
what belongs to us should- be given over into our
hands; what we shall do with it if we get it, isa ques
tion which ought only to be determined by our Uni
versity authorities. Our legislature does not attempt
to dictate to our State Superintendent of public in
struction as to what shall be done with every dollar,
but the funds are, as a matter of course, turned over
to the common schools of Nebraska. It seems to us,
to be a mere matter of justice that the University
should have the use of its own funds and the real
question should be, not whether they shall have such
use, but what shall they use it for, and that to be de
termined by those who are elected by the people of
Nebraska to so decide, the regents. It is true that
our legislature and the people of Nebraska have a
right to know whether or not the money is rightlyand
economically used, but their confidence in the re
gents certainly must be great enough to trust to them
the rights and duties which they have elected them
to discharge. So with all due deferance to our legis
lators we would ask that we might have the use of
' that which Congress and the people of our state have
given us.
MARGINALIA.
The attempt to produce the famous passion plays will not
be soon forgotten. How it shocked the public moral senti
ment! The indignation was not confined to the ungodly, but
was evinced as well by churchmen. The mayors hastened to
prevent such a shock to the religious sensibilities of the pub
lic. In their care to protect the religious sensibilities of the
public, why do not our mayors interpose to prevent some of
the shocking violations of good taste and religious sensibili
ties by some of the sensational and theatrical preachers oi
the land? Why not interdict' the fanatical practices of the
so-called Salvation Army winch parades our every street?
These endeavour to picture by words, gestures, descriptive
scenes and imaginative appeals, to the eye and car, what the
old passion plays exhibited more directly and impressively
to the spectator.
Herodotus made thefirsl steps from pure provincialism,from
a petty and isolated account of a particular city or tribe, to
a cosmopolitan narrative, in which an epic wholeness was at
tempted. By him the fortunes of diftcrcut cities and various
nations were brought together and shown to have a mutual
dependence and a common relation. The first to represent
the presen. as having its roots in the past, and the Greece of
Ins day as vitally connected with other countries. In fnct.his
historyis a prose.historical epopee. It has unity of design, in
that it concentrates the events of the past, ot all the known
civilized parts of the world into one final result, the invasion
and triumph of Greece. It is the first germ of universal his
tory, the first recognition of the unfolding of national events
as a part of the great world drama in which each civilized
people constitutes a scene or an act in the one play. The great
stream has its affluents and the topography of its valley in
cludes also these tributaries.
The peculiarities ol Tennyson's descriptions of nature and
natural scenery is that every part is transmuted by his own
sentiment, so as to be a new creation. He docs not give us
an exaggerated copy of the commonplace effects of nature
upon the inind, but portrays the scene in such colors that it
becomes the only fitting framework for his picture, and suits
the mood that belongs to the character or sentiment he wishes
to unfold. He does not seek for interpretations of nature but
lets nature interpret herself i a the way that shall best har
monize with and unfold his bought. He gives us no literal
copy of any special place, nor does he portray scenery which
wi'l answer for aught else than the background of his pic
tures. The necessity of an harmonious grouping and color
ing seems to guide his pen and steep the whole landscape in
its minutest parts in the dye of his sentiment so that each
feature is individualized and yet there is an all-pervading li c
and unity of impression. Where on earth can be the coun
try of the "Lotus Eaters?" Evidently nowhere; and yet we
have that feeling of reality, as we read, which comes from a
perfect keeping of all the parts, though the whole fabric is
built in cloudland, and the place is nowhere to be found on
land or sea.
If the mete holding of public office could make a career
interesting the life of James Monroe should be a most fascin
ating one. When at the age of sixty six James Monroe retir
ed from public life, though not wholly from public service,
there were few offices in the gift of the American people
which he had not held. Surely such a career, beginning in
obscurity, and culminating with honor in the loftiest station
attainable by the citizen of a free republic, must always pos
sess a rare charm. But we fear that the many who have known
Mr. Monroe only as one of the 'fathers,' the friend of Wash
ington and Madison and Jefferson, the last president of the
golden age of the republic, will rather wonder how one who
was neither a great orator, nor a great debater, nor a great
statesman, nor a jreat thinker, who was unskillful with his
pen and ungraceful in his bearing, who was neither learned
nor witty nor affable, could have held his own in such grand
company; and in sp'ite of Jefferson's testimony to his moral
I purity and Madison's to his intellectual acumen, and Dr. Gil-