The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1848-05-04
Marriage of Vulcan and Venus.

l
new building for the Sheffield Athenaum
and Mechanics Institution, Lord Morpeth
made an admirable speech, in the course of
which he made alluson to the fabulous story
of Vulcan and Venus in the following happy
manner:
"Those of you who have the opportunity
of consulting the old legends and classical
mythology, are aware that among the fancied
deities with which they people the world, one
more especially was regarded as the god OLA
Dor and of handicraft, Vulcan by name, who
was always represented as employed in huge
smithies and workshops, hammering at heavy
anyils, blowing hugs bellows, heating furnaces,
and begrimmed with SCOT and dirt. Well, la
dies and gentlemen, for this hardwoiking, and
swarthy looking divinity they wished to pick
out wife, Cloud laughter). And they did
not select for him mere drap-a person TAX
en- from the scullery or kitchen dresser, but
they choose for him Venus, the goddess of
love and beauty.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, pick out for
me the moral of this tale for believe that
nothing ever was invented--cert nothing
BY the polished and brilliant Imagination OF
the Grecian intellect-which has not its mean
ing and its moral.
81 have no doubt that all the legends of our
own country-that the one even Of your own
| neighborhood, the Dragon of Vanity himself
has some appropriate allegory and meaning,
if we only knew how to find them out But
what's the special meaning of the marriage of
Vulcan with Venus-of the hard-working ar
tifcer with the laughter loving queen, of la
Dor with beauty what is it, ladies and gen.
tlemen, but this that even in busy hive Of
industry and toll like this; even here. upon
spot which is in many respects no inapt repre-
sen,ation OF the tabled workshop Of Vulcan
even here, mid the clang of anvils, the noise
Of furnaces. and the sputtering of forges-
even here amid stunning sounds and sooty
blackness, the mind, the untrainmeled mind,
may go forth, may pierce the dim atmosphere
which is poised around us, may wing its way
to the freer air and purer light which are be-
yond, and may ally itself with all that is most
fair, genial, and lovely in creation. Gap
plause.)
$50 gentlemen, say, your labor, your
downright, hard, swarthy labor, may make it
self the companion, the helpmate, and the
husband of beauty. dare say, and have rea-
| LII +has xxhi I am
able even now to command, and have no doubt
a more intimate acquaintance with your wives,
sisters and daughters, would enable me to
prove that was not wrong in my illustration.
But above this beauty, say your labor may
ally itself with intellectual beauty-the beau
ty connected with the play of fancy, with the
achievements of art, and with the creation of
genius, beauty such as painting fixes upon the
glowing canvass-such as the sculptor en-
bodies in the breathing marble-such as arch
itecture develops in her stately and harmo'
nious proportions-such as music clothes with
the enchantment of sound. But there is a
beauty of still higher order, with which
feel more assured it is still open to it to unite
itself / mean with moral beauty-beauty
connected with the affections, the conscience
the heart and the life. cloud cheers.)
"It is true, that in the busiest and blacklist
of your work shops-in the most wearyins
and monotonous tasks of daily drudgery, as
also in the very humblest Of your own dwell
lngs-by the smallest of your Preside, you
| NAV, one and each of you, in the jealous and
cheerful discharge of the daily duty, in re
spect for the just rights, and in consideration
for he feelings of others-in meekness and
sobriety of spirit, and in the thousand charities
and kindness of social intercourse-even thus