The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-10-15
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his volumes are standards in their way, still
Others, from an error in his choice of subjects
or OF Judgment as to his own gifts, were not
successful
master of am idiomatic English, as a
Prose-Wrlter, he did not succeed so well in
poetry, winch he sometimes attempted And
H., ne nau something of the poetic fire in
hIh put the muses. were capricious in his
case; with the pen of a prose-writer in his
manu-, ne concillated them; but when he es-
sayed rhyme or metre they often forsool him
We never knew one who could put 40 mucb
genuine epoetryinto his prose that put SO mncb
prose into his poetry. The secret of II was
here, as it seemed to us: DR.. Allen was con-
scious of the poetic gift; the fire burned in
him at times. He knew the MUSES.: they
knew him. But he had not much skill ir
rhyming or measure; and in his attempts to
conform rigidly to the laws ofprosody, which
he well understood, the lyric flame went out or
left him. But he had no need to write in verse
to be poet, for, in the language of Young,
she sparkled instruction, like the jews famed
oracle of gems" l remember a sentence of
his that occurs in the Dudleyan Lecture at
Harvard always on the papal question:
touching purgatory. 1t was somewhat as fol-
lows: Bring me from the Word of God one
ray OF hope, one beam of promise for che lost
soul; and with more than the opticians de-
light as he employs his prism, would
magnify that beam, and over the dark gulf of
hell, spread it into bow of celestial prom
ise." l have heard that sentence referred to
by great critic as one of the finest in the En-
glsh language. ...rr .- 49,.
His administration at Brunswick was digni-
fled and high-tOned, but not wholly successful.
The literary standard was high: the moral
and religious standard was high; and vet the
college failed, under him, to realize that
standard in full, and for want of the popular
and practical element in the administration.
This eminent occupant of the chair had not
a perfect knowledge of human natute: he
had notthe art of handling boys, nor of concili-
ating them, nor of making them understand
him or his motives. They were consciously
pinloned in his dignihed presence, and he was
apparently reserved and distant in theirs In
deed, the practical was ov, rlaid, in some
sense, by forms and formalities that separat
ed the government too much from the college.
So it was that the professional predominated
over the practical and personal in his admin
istration. The instruction was in eminent
hands-of men distinguished as authors and
christians, and yet the things that had most
need to be ecomprehended by the students were
not, with some exceptions, made clear by a
thorough practical drilling. Men that have
become eminent since in Church and State
went through college in those years, without
CODeS6 SOlilS Itlcli lIltTt was
not enough of thorough mining and quarrying
in the depths, and of coming and shaping the
thought for practical uses. Instruction in
college and everywhere is technically for
the dull. 1t is the slow and the heavy that
need help. The bright and swift, though aid
ed by the stimulus and competition of the
classroom, and curriculum of College, do not
often stand in pressing need of personal aid
from the professor. But If the classroom fails
to make principles obvious to the dull, within
the bounds of reason, it loses half its effect
and worth to the young men.
1t is not intended in these remarks to dis
parage the administration of President Allen.
Itniight have been up to the standard of his
time, perhaps to the standard of the present
time. l admit the professor is in danger OF
assuming too much ignorance in his class
l am sure, he is in danger of assuming too
much knotcledge.
The great excelieney of the administration
of DIR. Allen was the impression left by his
prayers and discourses, that there is fixed
standard of moral principles, to which every
one is amenable, and an ultimate standard
of Judgment to which every one is hasten
ing. This impression was rather a silent and
pervading, than obtrusive and demonstrative
one but as l look back upon those years and
| scenes, am forced to give credit to President
I Allen, and his eminent associates, for having
| set forth and maintained moral and chris
tain standard, which it were well for colleges
now to emulate. w. W.