St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1861-03-14
The Lecture.

SA~ ASSSV~A0s, ~
The Seminary was janmed on Monday
evening for Mr.. Miller's lecture on "Mys-
terry" 1t was received with profound at
tention and some applause, although most
of the audience doubted the propriety Of
Introducing politics into course of gener-
al lectures. We are badly situated for
giving an opinion on any effort of Mr..
Ms: OYr long and intimate relations Of
friendship and family connection, would
lead folks to suspect us Of Partially if We
praised him, when in fact these circum-
stances make us more inclined to cavil at
him than at a stranger. We think no one
so well as ourself knows how much less
Mr. M. is than he ought to be-than with
his natural powers he should have been.-
His habit of life has been to read the half
or more of every night, then spend all Of
every day in tho most scrupulous attention
to business Iedgers and day-books, thus
giving himself no time for reAection-no
time to follow out a train Of thought, to
digest, to analyze.
when ne engages to deliver public ad-
dress he settles it in his own mind that he
Will think it up some day as he goes to
dinner, or take an hour after tea; and we
knowing his habit, listened to the address
not so much as what it is than what it
might have been. We feel always that
he is not doing himself justice. No
matter what bursts Of eloquence it con
tains, what passages Of beauty, we see in
it only the possible, not the real. =:
In this lecture, he spoke Of the myster-
les of earth, and sky, Of the little seed
containing the full plant, of the stars
which circle their course above US, and of
the fossils which lie pulseless under our
feet, Of the teeming crowds which inhabit
a drop of water, and the monsters of the
mighty deep, all shrouded in mystery.
His thoughts were beautiful and elo-
quently expressed but we did not think
the details Of his illustration of the mys-
teries of secession was fully up to the out
line idea. Then it is profound mystery
to US where he raised the temerity to talk
as he did of those mysterious folks who
"sing nothing but David's Psalms, and a
peculiar version at that those turbu-
lent spirits, Garisonians and Covenanters,
who re- fuse to take an oath to support the
Constitution Of the United States, to vote
or hold Office, under it. His pledge of as
sistance to "attend to them" when they be-
come dangerous was rich. We advise our
radical friends not to be deferred from any
plot of secession they may be Matching,
through fear Of coercion from Northern
Minnesota, for we shall use our best eff.
forts to have Mr.. Miller appointed COM
mander.in-chief Of the Union-saving troops
from this region, then keep quiet until the
evening before the day of marching, when
we shall hand him over to lady who
sings nothing but David's Psalms, Rause's
version to the twelve tunes composed by
'The Sweet Singer Of Israeli" du-
ring his last visit to Ircland-who makes
capital coffee, and has an extra large:.chi-
ma cup. Then, when the hour for start
ing shall have arrived, Mr.. Millers
whereabouts will be new mystery
When it is explained it will be discover
ed that he himself has seeded.