The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-05-09


And the moon is shining bright.
arise from dreams of thee
And spirit in my feet
Has led-Love knows how
To thy chamber window sweet
-.Sheiiy.
"The old woman allowed she'd be blessed IL he
did
And snatched up an old shotgun
Which she fired, and peppered his diaphragm
With bird shot number one"
F. Bret Hars
az know, know, / should not sec
The seasons glorious show,
Its beauty would not shine for me
Or, its wild music flow;
But when around the place sleep
The friends love should come to weep,
Soft airs, the light, the song, the bloom
Would keep them lingering round my tomb.
W. C. Bryant.
Once again:
"Her voice is heard through rolling drums
That beat to battle where he stands
Her face before his fancy comes
And gives the battle to his hands
One moment, while the trumpets blow,
He sees his brood around her knee,
And then like fire he meets his foe
And strikes him dead for thine and thee"
-Tsnnyson.
"He wasn't no saint-them engineers
Is all pretty much alike
One wife in hatcher under the hill.
And another hero in Pike.
A keeress man in his talk was Jim,
And an awkward one in a row,
But he never nunked and he never lied,
| reckon he never knowed how"
john Hay.
"And when the sunsets gates unbar,
there shall see her waiting stand;
And white against the evening star,
The welcome Of the beckoningjhand."
j. G. Whittier.
The reader will excuse any further COM
parison of filthy mire with undrossy gold.
If the vile, wretched stuff through which
we have been wading on one part in this
comparison is NOT mire, considered from
a literary point of view, then the names
of Pope, Shelly. Tennyson, Bryant Emer-
son and Whittier will be forgotten by
posterity, while those of Harte and Hay
will be held in eternal remembrance.
The origin and development Of the sem
sational and slang element in American
literature may be attributed to two
causes one an innate love of the popular
mind Of the exaggerated, the unique, and
grotesque, and the other to want of ap-
probation of true ideal excellence.
The power to deal with the exaggerat-
ed, the quaint, the unique and grotesque,
when combined with the highest degree
of ideal excellence is a soil that yields
the richest and rarest fruits Of literary
merit
Spencer, Scott Dickens, Hawthorne
and Holmes are instances Of this fortuit-
Gus mental combination.
This tendency of the American mind,
which at present leads it to admire the
grimly exaggerated.and the vilely quaint,
when joined to demand for absolute
ideal excellence. will lead it to admire
and seek only the highest excellence in
literary composition.
A literary production should exhibit in
its elements all of the completeness that
is found in the leaf, the bud and flower Of
plant, together with natural attractive
arrangement of these clements, which
make the production, as a whole, as COM
plete, fresh and attractive to the intellec-
tual vision as the blooming rose plant, as
natural object is to the corporeal sense.
Thus poem is only verbal picture,
where words become pigments.
The thought-form that the words must
express or paint should be as clearly and
steadily seen by the ideal eye of the liter.
ary artist, as a material object by the
physical sense. In the clear, steady in.
telcctual sense of sight, resides the subt-
lest most comprehensive, analytical and
synthetical powers.
BY means of this sense the thought.
form, however complex it may be in
structure, is broken up into primitive ell
emental principles, in which condition it,
innate qualities aud the force of their af
finities can he justly estimated.
To master thought SO exhaustivcly
that it may be the most justly and accur
ately painted in words, is to analyze it
to drag its most secret elements and thei
relations into the light, in the ideal realn
By means Of the wonderful chemistry o
ideal vision. The expression or paiHtin,
Of thought-lorm in words should be al
outgrowth or effect of "A mastery that tn,
intellectual sense Of sight has gained owe
its elements anl their relations. A cele
brated painter, when asked to communi
cate the secret Of the wonderful success
with which he mixed his colors. answer
ed 81 mix them with my brains" So
the seeing of a thought-form clearly stead
lily and wildly, by the ideal sense Of sight
ii the miring the words viM brains whel
the mind attempts to give it verbal ex
preston.
Only as the intellectual sense OF visiol
becomes developed in the public min,
will it renounces its corrupt taste and ad
mire and seek the highest excellence il
literature. Only as this development
takes place can their be general, jus
appreciation of ideal excellence.
In the mean time, swarm after swarm
of the ephemera of literary life-the low
est spices in the order of which tn
hinged Pegasus is the hghest-will b
NutShtu itohi 'hO scue1tiouai
dung-hill in American literature, to buzz
to sting, and to annoy for few brie
hours, wherever they may direct thei
flight.
SMART Boy.-Janesville, Wisconsin. i
noted for its smart boys. The latest stor,
is told of youth of six summers. VIII,
was taken to task by his aunt for SOM
supposed offence which he pesistentl,
denied. "Now. Johnnie" said she "l
know you are not telling me the truth
| see it 10 your eye" Pulling down tn,
lower lid Of the organ which had we'll
nigh betrayed his veracity, Johnnie OK
ultantly replied You can't tell anything
about it aunt; that eye always wa |
little streaked.
The best thing to do-Mind your own bis