The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1858-11-04

~hiA'N'
Some boys stand on the library-Seps
all their lives. Wherever they 60, what
ever they see, they are still in the dusk ]
library, and still know only the romantic
aspect Of the world Such are they who
go to the Coliseum, and behold only pic.
furesqne arches fringed with fernes in al
Italian moonlight, who fancy Roman
DANES with jewel.ed fingers, dead centu
ries ago, pointing gladiators to death and
who do not shudder that the very ground
they tread on is saturated with the blood
of countless murders, that the very stones
are crystalized with shrleks of horror
Other boys, Oh their way down the steps,
discover that some splendid results have
been attained in the world too soon, as it
were, and unfairly. They are like early
peas and strawberries, coming on the ta-
bic before their natural time. Thus great
ease and luxury for the Individual should
be known in 4 society where everybody is
comfortable. \ few men in Il few places
have enjoyed great domains, spacious pal
aces and parks, and lovely pleasure
grounds. How lovely and pleasant they
/ are as you walk in them
The Villa Este at Tivoli, fer instance
| recollect it on that perfect day of sum-
mer. | linger again down the silent
avenue Of expresses; | hear the feeble
splash of water in the fountain with the
ruined uossy margin land here is one gone
dry. The light glimmers, the shadows
deapen. 1t is not Ferrara, but it is the
| Villa d Este, and it is by the magic of
that name that the figure with the laurel
ed head end the melancholy eyes glides,
holding a manuscript from ladies' whose
eyes smile upon him and whose pride
shuns him. How rich and stately aud
beautiful the villa is in its decay. Was
is altogether beautiful in it's prime p
Trees, fountains, and statues always are
How about the system of which it was a
pretty flower? The retreating figure of
Tasso seems to have left only sadness in
this enchanted air.
Palaces have a millenial aspect to the
Imagination, for they imply that every
man i'll the world is at ease. Noman wants
to eat cake while his brother is starving
Il mean ideally, not historically, exactly
The haggard beggar at Ter elbow spoils
the beauty of the NEST beautiful woman
in the world, just as a mud hovel destroys
satisfaction in the palace it adjoins. How
can you hope to get music from the harp
when only its least string is unstrung?
Is the world less harmonious than harp
So these things seem to have been pos
sesscd toe soon. The race was never vet
SO prosperous, that any individual should
have built Chatsworth or Certosa. With
what immense injustice the romantic Ken
iIworth Castle is tainted, For the hidden
principle Of feudal tenure, whether in
Egypt or England, ugly and coarse as the
foundation wall OF the mCst beautiful tenn
pie in the world, is, every man for himself
and something else for the hindmost
Do YOU remember The Cathedral at Co
logne? 1t has been unfinished for hun
dreds Of years 1t never will be flushed,
But upon the incomplete tower vines hang
and Eave-lul;age blooms and rustles, and
al the romantic pomp Of antiquity crowns
an ancient fragment that was never a ruin.
90 it IS with many of the feudal phenome-
Ia. They arc decorated with a grace and
beauty that should properly belong only
to results ripcned by the holiest, not BY
the meanest civilization. These remarks
contained the whole philosophy of our
Club.
The objections to building Chatsworth
and Certusa, continued our President, do
not lie against my country-seat. 1t is a
little old house on the shore, standing at
the grassy mouth of a pretty river that
winds inland from bay Of the Sound.
1T is separated from the Sound on cue
side BY a long, low, sandy spit, on which
stands hut, a.one OF the wide, wide sea.
The hut seems to be built in the water
when the tide is high, and stands pro-
foundly solitary; and you will be glad to
hear tbas it was the house in which Cow
per wrote his ode, and Zimmerman his
book on solitude.
The house is so near the pebbly and
grassy beach that the children are founder
ing in aud out of the water all the time.
They dress on the porch, and scampcr
down-splash-whoop The languid old
element, hugsing the earth, is glad to be
caressed in turn by the blithe young i'm
mortals. They bring in marine booty
without end, and their aquatic forays are
richly rewarded. Dry horse-shoes, with
all theiranatomy displayed-shells, stones,
weeds, flowers, every thing is fish to the
net of that childish curiosity on the shore
/ say, one is not troubled there with
TIE. feeling that injustice is done to any
other human being. No farmer can com
plain, for not a solitary potato do raise
nor the butcher, for | buy all my meat
nor the fisherman, for buy fish nor the |