The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-07-19


I power to awaken the emotions of the
heart that the grandest conceptions of
Mozart or Beethoven do not possess There
are those who seem to think, that to arouse
the world to action, pompous high sound
ing phrases are needed. Examine any of
those old songs that seem the common pro-
perty Of all ages, and the language is the
simplest possible. The quotations that are
on every tongue are expressed in monosyl-
tables.
How grand, and yet how simple seem the
words of the christian battle song, "All
hail the power of Jesus name,'' or Luther's
anthem with which he inspired the faith of
his Responding followers. ga strong tow
er is our God"
Montgomery has been in his grave but a
few years, yet his songs are already the
worlds common property. His conception
Of
Land DER all supremacy blest,
Where milder suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night"
land that the human heart ever deems
the best, is too true to nature for the world
to let it die.
Here in the body pent,
Absent from him we roam,
Yet nightly pitch our moving tent
days march nearer home"
is another idea that helps TO make him a
classic sure Of Immortality.
Campbell has many noble passages, but
none that will endure the test of time, like
the picture he paints of quiet home scenes
filling the lovers thoughts-of some quiet
nook shut in from storm and strife, where
all the joys of life may centre in the attrac-
tions of home.
We might multiply these quotations in
definitely, but one more must suffice
Among the unsolvcd and unsolvable eng
mas of history, we must reckon George
Gordon Byron, England's greatest poet,
one of the worst among her citizens. A
believer and an atheist, a cynic and lib
ertIne, an aristocrat and Democrat, with
all the pride of birth of England's aristoc-
racy, he spent his life in an effort to secure
popular rights. A man, the mistakes of
whose life were balanced by his early death
in the cause of human equality.
The assertion is sometimes made, that
whatever faults one may possess in life,
posterity will do him justice. 1t has not
been so in Byron's case, for as the world
recedes from the time in which lie lived
the more bitter becomes the controversy
over his character. His works are con-
demned as hopelessly immortal, yet no
intelligent man or woman is willing to re-
main ignorant of them. Yet it is his fare
well to home that will ever arouse the
quickest sympathies of the multitude
Had he written nothing else, had he been
the demon in character some believe, this
song would be a monument more enduring
than marble. How many other wanderers
casting their eyes for the last time upon
their native shores, have joined with
Byron in his,
"Adieu! adieu! my native shore
Fades DER the waters blue;
The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,
And shrieks the wild sea-mew.
fon sun that sets upon the sea
We follow in his flight;
Farewell awhile to him and thee,
My native Land-Good Night.'
1t must be in the atmosphere of home
that the graces must be inculcated that
make good citizens, and most important of
all true men and acomen. Dickens wrote no
truer plea for humanity than that he makes
in the "Old Curiosity Shop" for an inter-
est in the soil for the lower classes, as a
means of securing an attachment to their
native land. 1t is not home he says where
one is liable to be driven from his dwelling
at the will Of some overbeariug landlord.
1t is an interest in the soil that makes good
citizens and in the hour Of danger invinci-
BILE soldiers. 1t has been in striking for
their homes that men have displayed the
truest heroism on the field of battle. The
idea that MaCauley puts into the mouth OF
his ancient Roman, that
"Since to every man upon this earth death
cometh soon or late,
Then how can man die better than facing
fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers and the tenn
Piles of his Gods"
| is one that has nerved many an arm in dan
gers hour to strike sturdy blows for home
| and all that the heart holds dear.
The world will never let die the story OF
Marathon or Thermophylae. Where a
handful of patriots struggled against the
| hordes of Asia. The crags and wales Of
| Piedmont where a band of true hearts held
aloft the standard of christianity when all
the rest of the world bowed to Rome, have
every spire and hamlet, every cave and
ravine made sacred for all time. There are
| wilder passes than the Pra del Tor, more
will hold the admirer of true heroism speel-
bound as they. Every rock tells some story
of the great struggle for home and faith.
| Those men may have been small in the
estimation OF the world, but to them it was
given to do some of earths really grand
est work. To keep alive the spirit of
christianity, until the modern spirit Of
civil and religious progress could take pos
session of the world.
| Scotland has no truer claim to the respect
of all futurity, than the fact that her glens
and caves sheltered the covenanters in
their long struggle for religious liberty.
The crags of its mountains that were free
doms last abode; the glens that sheltered
the gallant few met for prayer, are in his
tory, never to be erased. So it is the world
over, the pilgrim spirit will gladly turn
from the records of the worlds great to
muse over the deeds of it's true patriots
those who have really done good work in
the cause of human progress.
Home! there is magic in the very
sound. No other name has power to call
up the emotions this can do; yet how lit
! tie true home life the world possesses
The progress of the world still goes on
steadily it is increasing in intelligence and
all that can minister to human wants and
wishes. 1t is impossible in this career OF