National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-03-11
WESTMINSTER ABBEY,

WENlMlNSlER A b b + I
AN ELOQUENT LECTURE BIZ REV
CHARLES kINGSLET.
TIE ENGLISH PANTHEoN-ThE Hrsi
PLACE OF ENGLISH ROYALTY, eENio'
AND GREATNESS - BEAUTIFUL DE
scpIprIoN OF THE FAMOUS ABBET AMI
ITS SILENT INMATES.
The largest audience that has assembled at thu
Oonxrera.ienal church during the present lectur,
.e.sou greeted the celebrated English divine
Rev. Charles Kingsley, last evening in his bril-
liant and elegant lecture on the past and present
ofthst ancient and famous structure. Westminster
Abbey. After being gracefully introduced. The
reverend lecturer, acknowledging the iatterine
applause which greeted him, said, with a mu
seal and captivating voice, that reverence for age
was a fair test of the vigor Of youth, and, con
versely, insolence toward the old and the past
whether in individuals or in nations, was sign
rather of weakness than Of strength. The cause,
he thought was this: Rich and strong young ma
lures, which felt themselves capable of original
thought and original work, had respect for those
who had worked before them. Reverence always
accompanied true independence Of spirit. The
young soldier always admired the old general, the
young midshipman the old admiral, Just in pro.
portion as he himself was likely to be an able and
daring officer hereafter. This was true Of nations
as well as individuals. .u-...
He did no, hesitate to say that the most original
races, those who had succeeded best and left their
stamp most broadly and permanently on the hu.
man race, had also been the most tractable pro-
yided they were allowed to learn in their own
way, and TO adapt to their own purpose any higher
ancient civilization with which they might come
in contact. What more striking instances Of this
truth than the reverence Of the free republican
Greek for that old despotic civilization of Egypt
and of the free Norsemen, our own ancestors, for
the old and equally despotic civilization Of Rome.
He had seen, he said, with Joy, like spirit in
those Americans whom II had been his good for
tune to meet in his own land. However self-teaeh-
ing and seif-determining they might be, he had
found in them that genial reverence Cor antiquity
which he held to be the sign Of q truly generous
that is, high-bred nature. He had been touched,
and deeply touched, at finding SO many Of them
On landing for the rst time ut Liverpool hurrying
81 to the quaint old city Of Chester to gaze on its
old walls and towers, Roman and medieval, its
curious Rows of overhanging houses, its modest
little cathedral, and the really very few relics of
English history which it contains Even two
banners of an old Cheshire regiment, which had
been in the Peninsular war, were almost as inter-
middle ages
More than once he had had to repress the en-
thusiasm Of some charming lady and say: But
that is nothing Do not waste your admiration
here Go on; see the French cathedraIs. the ruins
Of Provence and Italy, the galleries Of Florence,
Naples, Rome" "Ah, but you must remember
was the answer, "these are the first old things !
ever saw" A mere sentiment, it might be said:
but, as poets well knew. and as statesmen ought
TO know, by sentiment we'll directed, as by sorrow
we'll used. great nations lived. When sentiment
Wreu ou, -sp r.~SS rsryaIc calculation 81 l6s and
profit to9k tsblace, then came byzantine 3heah
o Chinese epoch, dscrepitude and slow decay.
The enthusiasm Of these Americans was a good
augury Of them. as of their native land. He saw
this and was delighted. though not surprised.
The lecturer here introduced o handsome tribute
to Mr.. Longtellow, whose poetic genius, he said,
was as much reverenced in England as in Amer
leo. 1t was a fact that he had exercised an in
fuence on Britain, il might be, as great, and GER
tainly more varied than in America.
He had penetrated into thousands Of Puritan
homes and awakened tens OF thousands Of young
hearts TO the beauty and nobleness Of the old pre-
reformation age of that romance and art, from
which their TOO exclusive hereditary training had
until this time shut them out. And be had thus
truly done a sacred deed in turning the hearts Of
rcrsely turned the hearts Of the fathers TO the
children The worldwide humanity Of his poems
had produced throughout Great Britain o Just
reverence and affection foc the American mind,
which would have. which had already had. large
social and Political results. BE sure he said,
that, in spite of passing jars. our empire will
never be long unjust TO yours while Longfellow
and Bryant remain, not merely as household
bards, but as counselors. comforters and trusted
fric pds IN brn ired of fhnusoDIS nf md
earnest souls from the palace to the parsonage, |
from the little village shop to the farm house
the lonely down. But there was another Amer- |
can writer said the lecturer, who was the delight
Of his boyhood. and who was in some degree his |
teacher, for he was . master Of English prose- |
Need he say that he meant the lamen;ed Wash |
ington Irving. He quoted from his writings the |
passages descriptive of Westminster Abbey and |
Of the Chapel Of Henry VII After such prose as |
that, he said, tpoetry IT was, in prose) what had
he to tell OF the great abbey: AID ye, shere were
a few things he dared to say which Irving would
have written differently had he visited the abbey |
now. instead OF forty years ago.
In the first place he would not have noticed |
that look of dilapidation at which he had limited.
Dilapdation, dirt and negligence, continued the !
lecturer, are as hateful to US now to the /
builder OF the newest house outside. We, toe, 70.
more than generation past have felt, in common |
Win the Aese VI Insinu @iiu VAN OIL siAe Hs-sAone
OF Northern Europe, hatawakened reverence Tor |
medieval art and medieval history. which is for |
good or for evil-thc special social phenomena Of
our times-the natural, and, on the whole, useful
counter-check to that extreme Of revolutionary
feeling which issues-as in Paris but three years
ago-in utter hatred and remuneration OF the past
and destruction OF its monuments. To preserve. |
restore andf not to copy, q sort Of inal duty,
the buildings which our forefathers have left u.s.
is now held to be the very mark Of cultivation and
good taste in Great Britain. 1t may be that we |
carry it too far; that by servilc and Chinese ex
setness Oh imitation we are gripping "hat origin
ahny Vi genius may eAist ainong our oraas htsnen-
feulptofs; alchiee's. Out we ~ least confess
thereoy tha' we cannot invent anu create as could
our ancestors H'e hundred years ago ana as long
rs tIa' s 'i,e Ease IL Is WISE IN US as III any
peoPie, 10 eahuust 'ie isnineit o anu power OF
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