The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1857-07-24

| Wm, Shakespeare, Phllllp lpMessihger, Shau
Ger, Spenser, Johnson, Pope, Cowpe
Dryden EVERY one of them, and hun
dreds of Others, their worthy fellows, ar
on, ,he spot, armed and EQUIPPED, and look
ing rs fresh rs if they had relieved tn
gift Of youth and immortality. Modes
men, all il;-thcy never refuse the asker
Ihaye my doubts whether, If they wer
alive, I could keep the peace OF my DO
mains. But now they dwell together II
amity, and all Of the train in one comp
any, and work for the worlds good, caci
in his special way, but all contribute /.
Charles ], John Milton, and Olive
Cromwell these three heads lie togethel
in my portfolio, without the shade Of re
pugnance or anger! The silent Henry
VIII, and his eight wives, more or less
have domestic quiet now, though they
touch each other. | can face the mos'
arbitrary men Of empire, without an an
pcr-fs.if. Here arc Chrrles W and Fran
cis r.. the Mcdici, masculine and feminine
and cd Peter the Great. Here are the
dear old Port-Royalists, tho sweet Fenelon
the plausible Bossuet! Now it is quite
surprising how these men have changed
Not only are they here without quarrel.
ling, without ambition or scltishncss but
how calmly do they sit, though you pluck
their opinions by the beard! can dis
putc with Samuel Johnson with great
success. He is as mild as Melancthon.
I have had some sound words with Lu.
ther upon the sacramental question, but |
must do him the justice to say that he has
never made an excited or fierce reply.
On nv left hang, highest, John Calvin
and lowest, Martin Luther, and between
them,-Iheodorc Parker. They have
never touched him, though Martin looks
as though he would grind him topowder
But there is peace here. Voltairc and
Pascal keep good neighborhood. Ohio
dox and her etic are on good behavior.
No kingdom ever had such illustrations
subjects as mine, or as wecll goverened.
| can put nv most naughty subjects up
or down, as it plcascs Inc without tumult
or opposition. | can lead them forth
to such wars as | please, and not one OF
them is deafto the trumpet. / hold all
Egypt in Zee simple. can say as much
of ali the Orient, as he that was sent to
did of Babylon. l build not a city, but
empires, at a word. Percles and Phidias
look out Of my windows, while | am gone
back to the Acropolis to see what they
have been about. Old Michael Angelo
scowls and Raphael smiles, as ifmy study
were the Sistine chapel Of stanza OF
the Vatican. The architects arc building
night and day, like them Of old, without
the sound of hammer; my artists are
painting, my designers are planning, my
poets are chanting, my philosophers are
discoursing, my historians are spinning
dry webs,my thcologians are weaving their
vet finer ones my generals arc trooping
about without noise or blood. All the
world is around me. All that stirred hu-
man hcar, or fred the imagina Jpn, Is
harmlessly here! My shelves are che ar-
.enues of time. Cities and empires are put
in corner. Ages have wrought, gener-
ations grown, and all blossoms are cast
down here. It's in the garden of im-
mortal fruits, without dog or dragon.
No such garden was Eden, in the past.
II is the Eden to which the race is COM
inc, tha. is, to see the true Adam and the
true Eve. But there goes that much-abus-
ed bell and with it my dream.