Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-06-13

| Alter showing that asthetic culture should al
ways be pursued in subordinatOn TO the moral
law, the speaker concluded by repeating the
declaration that in the trio OF the good, the
true and the beautiful, goodness Is supreme
that our pursuit of truth and beauty should be
ever in subordination to the law Of right And
| yet, if we could see each one of them IN its
fullness and perfection we should perceive
that there is a mysterious unity by which the
three are one.-the good always true and beau
tiful the true beautiful and good, the beautiful
| good and true. Let us cherish them all be
their united smiles our guerdon,-may we
never worship one to the neglect of the rest !;
| for
Beauty, Good and knowledge, are three sisters,
That doaf upon each other, friends to man:
Living together under the same roof
And never can be sundered without tears
The president then stated that the next thing
in order was the hearing of poem, by one
whose fame was universal, but whose modesty
would not admit of its being read by himself.
! He had preferred to have it read by friend.
The mention of Mr.. Whittier's name was re-
ceived with irrepressible applause, although it
was staid Quaker audience. Geo. IL. Chase
Of Lynn, then proceeded to read the poem, as
! follows -
The Quaker Alumni.
From the wel-springs of Hudson, the sea cliffs of
Maine,
| Grave men, sober matrons, you gather again.
| And with hearts warmer grown as your heads grow
cool,
Play over the old game of going to school.
All your srifes and vexations, your whms and com
plants,
| (You were not saints yourselves if the children of
saints y
An your petty sef-seekngs and rivaries DONE
Round the dear Alma Mater your hearts beat as one
How widely soccer you have strayed from the fold,
Though your "thee" has grown you" and your
blue
To the old friendly speech and the garbs sober
form,
Like the heart of Argyle to the tartan, you warm
But, the first greetings over, you glance round the
Your hearts call the roll but they not all;
Through the turf green above them the dead cannot
hear;
Name by name in the silence falls sad a tear
In love, let us trust they were summoned SO soon
From the morning of life while we toll through It's
noon;
They frail like ourselves they mad needs ike
our own,
And they rest as we rest in Gods mercy alone.
Unchanged by our changes of spirit and frame,
Past, now, and henceforward the Lord is the same;
Though we sink i'll the darkness his arms break our
fall,
And in death as in life he is Father of all!
We older: our footsteps so light in the play
OF the far-away school-time, move slower to-day;
Here beard touched with frost, there bald, shin
ing crown,
And beneath the caps border, grey mingles with
brown.
But faith should be cheerful, and trust should be
glad,
And our foles and sins, not our years make us sad
Should the heart closer shut the bonnet grows
prim,
And the face grow in length as the hat grows in
brim?
Life is brief duty grave but with rainfolded wings
OF yesterday sunshine the grateful heart sings;
And we, of all peoples, have reason to pay
The tribute OF thanks, and rejoice on our way,
For the counses that turned from the follies of
YOUTH
For the beauty of patience, the whteness of truth
For the wounds of rebuke, when love tempered its
edge;
For the households restraint, and the discipline's
hedge;
For the lessons of kindness youchsafed to the least
Of the creatures of Cd whether human or beast,
bringing hope TO the poor, lending strength to the
tra
In the lanes of the city. the slave hut, and jail;
For womanhood higher and holier, by all
Her knowledge of good, than was Ewes ere her
Whose task work of duty moves lightly as play,
Serene as the moonlight and warm as the day;
And, yet more. for the faith which embraces the
whole,
of the creeds of the ages the life and the soul,
Wherein letter and spirit the same channel run,
And man has not severed what God has made one!
For a'sense of the goodness revealed everywhere,
As sunshine impartial and free as the air.
And a hope for all darkness the light shineth
through.
Who SCOTS at brthrght? the words of the seers
And the songs of the bards in the twilight of years,
All the iore-gleams of wisdom in santom and sage,
In prophet and priest, are our true heritage.
The word which the reason of Plato discerned
The truth, at whose symbol the Mirthra-lre burned
The soul of the world which the stole but guessed;
In the light universal, the Quaker confessed.
No honors of war to our worthless belong;
Their plain stem of life never Powered into song;
But the fountains they opened still gush by the way
And the world for their healing is better to-day
He who lies where the minister's groined arches
curve down
To the tomb-crowded transept of England's renown,
The glorious essayist, by genius enthroned,
Whose pen as sceptre the muses. all owned, =
Who through the worlds pantheon walked in his
pride,
Setting new statues up thrusting old ones aside,
And in fiction the pencils of history dipped,
To gid Ger Or blacken each saint i'll his crypt
| How vainly he labored to sully with blame
The white bust of Penn, i'll the niche of his fame
Self-will is self-wounding, peryersity blind:
| On himself fell the stain for the Quaker designed
For the sake OF his true-hearted father before him.
For the sake Of the dear Quaker mother that bore
him.
For the sake of his gifts and the works that outlve
him,
And his brave words for freedom, freely forgive
him!
There are those who take note that numbers are
small,-
New Gibbons who write our decline and our fall;
But the Lord ofthe seed field takes of his own,
And the world shall yet reap what the sewers have
sown.
The last of his sect to his fathers may go,
Leaving only his coat for some Barnum to show;
But the truth will outlive him, and broader with
years,
Till the false dies away, and the wrong disappears
Nothing fails OF its end Out of sight sinks the stone
n q I'll hp an
Till the low-ripped murmurs along the shores rum
And the dark and dead waters leap glad in the sun.
Meanwhile shall we learn, in our care, to forget
10 the martyrs oftruth and of freedom our debt?
Hide their words out OF sight, like the garb that they
And for Barclays apology, offer one morc9
Shall fawn round the prestcraft that glutted the
shears,
And fesooned the stocks with our grandfathers'
Talk of Wooman's unsoundness Count Penn het-
erodoX?-
And take Cotton Mather in place of George Fox?-
Make our preachers war-chaplans ?-quote Scrip
ture to take
The hunted slave back for Onesimus' sake?-
Go to burning church candles, and chanting in
choir,
And on the old meeting house stick up spre!
Mo- the old paths we'll keep until better are shown,
Credit good where we find il, abroad or our own;
And while "Lo here" and 40 there' the multitude
call,
Be true to ourselves and do justice to ALL
The good round about us we need not refuse,
| Nor talk of our Zion as if we Jews;
But why shirk the badge which fathers have
worn,
Or beg the worlds pardon for having been born?
| We need not pray over the Pharisees PRAYER,
| Nor claim that our wisdom is Benjamin's share
| Truth to us and to others is equal and one;
shall we bottle the free air, or hoard up the sun?
Well know we our birthright may serve but to show
| Of do in ric oo1r