Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1854-11-09
EVENING STAR,
TRUE POETRY.

TRUE POETRY.
The extract hereto appended is from q
recent agricultural address delivered by
jeremiah Black, few days ago elected
to the Supreme bench of Pennsylvania,
by an overwhelming majority of the
voters of that State. We recognize in it
the ideas of Milton, in his Paradise
Lost; Byron, in his Manfred and Shak-
speare in Macbeth. Nevertheless, the
combination is one of the brightest and
most brilliant literary achievements We
have ever read. The man capable of
thus culling and arranging the thoughts
of those great masters of the art of
thinking, originally possesses, himself,
an intellect Of great and imposing orr
ginality, beyond all question. Without
any further circumlocution, we present
to our readers, the extract in question
as one of the most beautiful and CON-
plete literary efforts of the day:
Without science, man, the ruler of
this world, would be the most helpless of
all animated beings. His Creator made
him the monarch of the earth, and gave
him dominion over it. to govern and con.
troll it; to levy unlimited contributions
upon it, and convert everything in it to
his own use. But he found himself at
the head of revolted empire. All his
physical forces were in state of insur-
rection against his lawful authority. The
inferior animals were his enemies. The
storm poured their fury on his unshelt-
cred head. He was terrified by the roar
of the thunder, and the Lightning scared
his eye balls. He was parched under the
hot sun of summer, and in winter he was
pierced by the cold. The soil, cursed for
his sake, produced thorns and thistles.
The food that might sustain his life grew
beside the poison that would destroy it.
and he knew not how to distinguish the
one from the other. The earth hid her
minerals deep in her bosom, and guarded
them with a rampant Of thick-ribbed
rocks. The rivers obstructed his pass
age the mountains frowned their def
ance upon him and the forest spread its
gloom around him, breathing browner
horror upon the dangers that beset his
way. If he left the dry land, and trusted
himself to the ocean, the waters yawned
to engulf him, and the tempest came
bowling on his track.
''He seemed an exile and an quito asst in
the world of which he was made to be
the sovereign. But Science comes to
rescue the powerless king from his mise
~ and degradation. Gradually he learns
from her the laws of his empire, and the
means by which his rebel subjects may
be conquered. From age to age he accu.
mulates the knowledge that clothes him
with power, and fills his heart with cour-
age. Step after step he mounts upward
to the throne which God commissioned
him to fill. He holds Q barren sceptre
in his hand no longer. Creation bends
to do him homage. The subjugated ele-
ments own him for their lord, yield him
their fealty, and become the servants of
his will. The mine surrenders its treas
ures; the wilderness blooms around him
like new Eden; the rivers and the sea
bear his wealth upon their bosom; the
winds watt his navies round the globe:
steam, the joint product of fire and water,
becomes his obedient and powerful slave;
the sunbeams are trained to do bis paint
ing; the lightning leaps away to carry
his messages, and the earth works with
ceaseless activity to bring forth whatever
can minister to his qualification"