The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-05-19
TO Thine OwnseIf be True.
Or ALTON


GRAFTON:
DIFFERED upon the Twenty First Anniper-
nrg of the Phi Sigma Society By HAMP
Ton MUNDALL SULLIVAN, of Pamela
County, Mississippi, May 9TH, 1870,
University of Mississippi.
LADIES, GENTLEMEN. AND MEMBERS
OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY
There are tints that linger upon this sum
mer sky that the hand of the painter cannot
sketch, there are delicate hues upon the
sken folds of these lovely flowers that the
pen Of the poet cannot portray. 80 the
cOmmingled feelings that crowd upon your
humble speaker to-day artificial language
cannot express. Phi Sigma's, former Ami
versarians have told you right nObly to BE
inst and fear not" They have held up be
fore your enwrapt fancy The Permapency
of Literary fame;" and with enthusiasm
have pointed you "A light in our gloom =
and have profoundly warned you of The
Unitarian Spirit of the Age"
And to-day, have no solemn warning
no gorgeous panorama of rhetorical beauties
to pass before your ime gination, but from
out my heart feelings mingle with my
reason to leave with you the simple words
TO Thine Ownself Be True" True to
yourselves not in that narrow sense attrib
uted to the theory of Hobbies, of craven
hearted selfishness, but true to yourselves
in diseharging, with zeal and fidelity, all
the obligations which arise from the rela-
nOnships you bear to yourself, to your
country and to your God.
Life feeds upon death. Nature has been
hushed in the stiffness of a winter tomb
The Storm God rode upon the blast, the
yernal beauties dropped in autumn's urn,
and dying nature sank in winters chill en-
brace. But scarce has the faint echo of the
solemn reQueim of her death-song died
away upon her snow-capped cliffs andfrozen
valleys, ere the "balmiest breeze that Vernai
zephvrs breathe" has moved the soft tresses
of the newborn spring. So we witness the
melancholy fact that life feeds upon death
in all the Kingdoms of nature and in all the
economy of Gods mental and moral world.
The mineral kindom yields up its life for
sustenance to the vegetable, and in turn the
vegetable fourishes, blooms in beauty, de-
Gays, and dies, that in its death, life may be
given 10 the animal and that the spiritual
may live It's necessary tina tthe animal man
should die-aye, We find no crystal fountain
1.-THE waters OF life except we pass through
"the valley of the shadow of death" And
that a life of beauty ,radient with immortal
ity, might spring from the charnel house of
teath, twas neceSSarythat even the Immac-
plate Son ofGOd Himself should die! That
the earth might be illuminated with a halo
orchestral hight, it was necessary that the
sun should grow dim. that the moon be
bathed in blood, that the stars should cease
to give their light and that the earth itself
should quake and groan in the darkness of
misery and grief So it seems there is no
JOY but has its birth in sorrow, no order and
beauty but springs from chaos and confu-
sion. life feeds upon deaths first flashed
upon the darkness of the deep when the
nat went forth Let there be light" We
hear IL echoed by the winds and waves OF
primOpIiul n 10 nil ntin ri /,
for mans abiding place. We see it engra-
ven upon the braZen pillars and bronzed
columns O@mighty nations, rising in supe-
riOr strength upon the relies of their own
former ruins.
We read it in the renovated systems of
Philosophy. Art, Literature. Science and
Government that come forth from the decay
of past systems FURNISHED with the light OF
progress; ''All to refiourish must fade -
"An things terminate in their contraries -
this is the thought that made the mighty
mind of Plato reach through the dim mist
Of Heather darkness and grasp the hope of
Immortality this is the thought that should
send rays of hope through our country'S
gloom, like sunbeams through the tempest.
For the lurid glare Of battle lights up he
uarksome places, and calls forth learning
and virtue from their slumbers; the flowers
OF knowledge and liberty bloom in beauty
upon the ruins of the old battlefield.
"1es, give me the land where the battles
red blast.
Has flashed on the future the forms of the
past,
Yes, give me the land of the wreck of the
tomb.
There's grandeur in graves, there's glory in
gloom,
For out of that gloom future brightness is
born,
And after the night looms the bright COM
ing MORN"
Papacy in the West, and Moslemism in the
East had drawn around the earth the mantle
oflgnorance and despOtism. But the Cru
sades lighted up freedoms van, and pro-
Claimed liberty from mental thraldom and
q new era dawned upon the OrientRlS like
gorgeous sunburst. From the battle of
Waterloo the triumph oflearning in Sweden,
IN Denmark, IN Prussia and in Norway,
reckons the brilliancy ofits rising splendOr,
and when the din and roar of that mighty
conflict had subsidized there arose a beautiful
constellation of benevolent societies whose
oenignant light shone to the uttermost parts
OF the earth.
From the blOod-died waters of conyulsed
france a spirit of advancement free Insti-
tutions, in governmental science, and in
rehglon. and liberty, arose and walked in
Tue bloody trail of the mighty Corsican.''
And ere long the South shall arise from
tneSe bitter waters of strife and desolatiOn.
tAe tar-RetnmeQ Isle OF the ocean. hitting
Us nOwer-crowned summit above the wa
ters of the briny deep, and she shall come
iorth decked with the radiance of intellect
qal progress, and shining with her myriad
Institutions laden with rich experience,
And our mother, who now sits lonely in
desolation, The weeping NiObe of nations"
snail sit again in the temples of freedom
crowned with the laurel wreath Oescience,
ana she shall smile on peace and plenty and
stng again the songs OF Liberty.
:. 4ne earthquake shock of the past revolu-
tion has reuded the very foundations OF this
nation and torn up all the plants grown by
me arts and policies of peace. The public
eOnldence is lost, the old landmarks are
gone. reason reels, and faith in government
ialth in Institutions. faith in man is violated
almost destroyed! and even the monster
tnndelity lifts gain his hydra head above
me oeetling waves Of the tuFbid waters of
1natlclsm! The old ship has torn loose
rom her anchorage, and beaten, and bat
ered by the storms and tempests OF war,
sorn and tattered by tell discord. sectional
i.tiIe, and party hatred. she Is dashed Wild
Madly, upon an unknown sea, and ere
tnAs SILL small voice shall speak TO these
Mouoled waters. peace be still" we must
Rass through revolutions and reformations
4, a. our finance, In s0clals, ID morals, in re-
tssklon. In the system Of our labor, and In al
sae intricate relations Of life.
IN meeting these great revelations we
como 70 eradicate the evils characteristics ol
bne a8es and 60 meet the coming issues, MOI