Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-11-15

DR. THOMAS WARDS ADDRESS, the
recent celebration Of the One Hundredth An
nlversary Of the New York Society Library
Dr. Thomas Ward read his address prepared
for the occasion, the leading features Of which
were as follows:
Books, he said, are the granaries wherein
the mental harvess of past generations are
safely garnered; the caskets where the golden
treasures of knowledge and the sparkling gems
Of wit and poesy are held secure for the eIeva-
tiou and enrichment of all coming time Over
the front Of an Egyptian library OF the time Of
Rameses LII, we're craven these expressive
words
The nourishment Of the soul.
Books may be called ancient bottles, where in
skins Of the goat, the calf and the sheep are
stored the rarest wines, expressed and ferment-
ed, of the teeming human brain. Books hold,
ever ready for our daily use, the wisdom of
sages the learning of scholars, the fancy of
story tellers and the song of poets:
TIE BEST THOUGHTS OF TIE BEST THINKERS :;
the very essence of the highest mental powers
in their happiest moments of inspiration. Their
association therefore, has some advantages
over the living mpanionshp of the very men,
however mighty, that produced them. For
poor humanity, with all its weaknesses Of soul
and body, its testy humors, its sinkings OF
heart, enhanced as they must be by the irri-
liability special to the kind, arising from more
! highly refined nervous organization, must have
furnished an association less free from alloy,
and consequently less enjoyable, than that of
their finished works; where we fined the pure
grain Of wisdom wnnowed of the chaff of NOR
tai infrmity; the flowers of song shorn of the
thorns of human tretfuness, and the perfect
thought no longer shapeless in its infant dew, !"
but crystalIized into forms of imperishable
beauty. TO the true lover Of books it is sur
prising how little suftices beyond the bare re-
qurements of life. How poor to him seem all
the prizes of the world that are passion to
the average mind lie needs no long rent
roll; DO heavy balance at his bankers: no fop-
perry of dress or equipage; no bang tailed steeds
to bear him to the races; no pasteboard tokens
Of fashionable acknowledgment. He looks
down upon the giddy crowd with wonder and
complacency He knows them not. They are
not of his set. lie cultvates only the very best
society-that of the wisest, the purest, the
oftiest, the sweetest OF their kind; not crca
lures Of day, the spawn Of sudden sunshine,
but the flower of ancient heraldry, the very
| blue blood of genius, the genuine arstocracy
of the human race. Happy he whose taste in.
clines him to intercourse so refining lie has
resources that can never fail Tie may be
solitary stranger in the land, and yet with his
chair, his corner and his book, he will never
lack for pleasant companonship; he may be
poor neglected and Responding, yet with a fin
ger can he turn the glowing page and cheer
the darkness of his soul with
THE LIGHT THAT NEVER WAS ON SEA OR
LAND,
and in the supreme rapture Of his noontide
| glory he can say to the ntruding rulers of the
world that protfer him their patromizng aid,
''Only stand out of my sunshine Leave me
but the light of knowledge, and | ask no
more" The literature of q land often outlives
it's laws, its political importance, and some
times even its history. The rulers, the states
men, the professional men, that may have
filled their several parts with credit during their
little hour upon the stage too often perish
with their time; while 10 their midst obscure,
neglected. perhaps the very humblest IN In.
huence, the sages, the writer's, and surest Of oil
the poets, are embaming the spirit OF their age
and words-after all, the most durable Of things
are frequently the only relics of peoples
greatness. Wonderful the change since the
time when it took a week to 60 from New York
to Albany by sloop-now done 10 four hours
and when the stage coach. the iyingdisptach'
was rushed through from Powe's Hook to Phil,
adelphia in the incredibly short period of TWO
days, now done in three hours.
CURIOUS WILL CAsE-M ErEMpsYcHosIs.-
The Surrogate of New York has given a deci-
sion of considerable interest upon curious will
admitted to probate in that city, not, as gen.
orally supposed, merely for the disposition of
the personal estate but embracing the realty.
Louis Bonnard, native Of France died in the
city of New York two years ago. He left his
property, amounting to 100000, to the So.
ciety for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals.
Bonnard was believer in metempsychosls-
that is, that the soul after death Inhabited
some Inferior animal-and not recognizing any
necessity for a change of locality, he thought
that the probability was that his spirit would
enter into the body of a street-car or Broadway
omnibus horse. Under these circumstances he
desired to provide for his own comfort. His
relatives were of different religious belief,
and contested the will on the ground that Bon
the legacy. The Surrogate held that the en-
tertainment of this ancient and curious faith
did not destroy the testator's sound and dis
posing mind and memory" The Surrogate
fortified his position by the fact that the an
cient philosophers Plato Pythagoras, and 9th
er sages of the East held the same opinion as
Mr. BonDard Any other decision would have
opened the field very wide for relatives to con-
test wills Any religious opinion differing from
the opinions of the heirs at-aw might be made
the plea for setting aside the requests of tes-
tator; and the courts would be compelled to
decide uyon what was the true and rational be-
lief on subject upon which so many differ.
Mr.. H. Leigh Staples has been elected re-
ceiving and paying teller of the State Bank Of
Virginia, in Richmond, vice VIM. r. Teller
absconded
There are apprehcnsions in Spain of con-
spracy against the Government among the
men in the Government arsenal near Cadiz