The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-09-10


| matchless sublimity of Plato. Again you strait
the eye of Imagination in your efforts to pierc
deeper the cnvcloping shadows; when as If b
an influence more divine than human, YOU
souls feel the thrill of harmony, and as the en-
trancing melody wakes YOU to thought vol
step out from the darkness of conjecture an,
learn that the sightless Homer has touched hi
harp, and the sweet, melting strains of his mu
sic are echoing through the recesses of the hu
man heart, giving food for human thought, anc
shape to human intellect.
The historian tells us that these immorta
strains filled all Greece with their melody; bu
let the historian tell us what he wll-we are Il
testify that, the chords which ages ago trem
bled at the touch of Homer's genius, are still
vibrating, and Greece has not only been filled
with their richness, but the gushngs of thai
melody have flowed beyond her shores, and ouI
own beloved America to-day gives enrapturet
ear to the voice Of the Grecian muse.
But we need not confine our imaginary wan
derings TO Greece, as we search for the birth
place OF echoes. Rome in her pride and glory
witnessed the literary struggles of Cicero, and
read with delight the sublime epics of Virgil
and as our eyes fall upon the almost number.
less collections of classic volumes forming a
most valuable feature in the library of both in
stltutlon and scholar, we recognize in every page
an elect; in every volume Il glorious echo.
whose first vibrations were felt in the throbbing
temples OF the bookworms of antiquity. An.
tlquity boasts ofher glory; and truly there are
glorious echoes in her history. She has left
with us the footprints of her mighty masters in
the results OF their martial scientific and liter
ary trlumphs. But we are not to suppose hers
lhe only influences that control and fill the
world nor are we to believe that all the deeds
OF distinguished men have been good, or the eff.
lects OF those deeds been truly beneficial Every
aye mas claimed It's great men, and every one too.
mas mad the pages of its history blurred and
stained and d!sgraced, by the records of men
famous LOT thelr Daseness alone. The foul i'm
purltlcs ofcvil minds have ever mingled them
selves with the pure waters of life's stream.
ana whlle some have sacrificed time and means
ana more than all, given the best and noblest
efforts OF their intelIects to the task of eleyat
ing the standard of human existence, Others
aune, win misanthropic malignancy that
hends would almost blush to Acknowledged
placed themselves in direct and stubborn oppo
sltloh TO all justice, to all truth, to all good,
ana eXerted to their very utmost, every power
every evil faculty, and every malicious propen
sslly WIN winch their baseness endowed them,
to stamp upon the highest creature of ompipo.
tchce The stains of an ignoble life.
The Proiligate atheism ofsuoh men as Hume,
! ana GlDoon, and Voltaire, and Bolingbroke, has
lett IT'S mark upon human life and character:
ana inc lmpious declarations of Tom Paine,
yet nurI the empty reasonings of intidelity
INTO the face OF Christian world,
Truly the echoes are not all glorious when
The sounds are not all pure the deeds not all
worthy place in human history where the re-
suits are not all free from the evidences of I'M.
man deprayity.
, Let us scan the pages of history, and we find
me historian recording the names and deeds of
earth great men, and tracing out with faithful
Investigation the intricate mases of cause md
'Hect, what mingling of varied characters pre-.
cents ITSELF Here, page beautiful with the
portiess record of pure life and the reanoth-
II hideous with the Dlackncss in which is pre-.
frved the infancy of some human monster.
VOW We turn the historic leaf, and read from
lngle page the glowing eulogies of Shakespeare
nd the burning censures hcapcd upon Francis
,3acon, the praises of Dryden's poetic fire, and
he profound philosophy Of Locke
But are we to understand because history
PRESENTS to us the names and memories of SO
many who have worn the gitteriug coronal of
anne, that the force of fortuitous circumstances
as llitcd them to the nights ofhuman grandeury
IRE we, with our mind filled with such a belief |
nd our energies enfeebled by such cowardly
nd humanity confidence, to sit and wait till the |
GOD tide ofprosperity in its flow, lifts us from
lie sands and bears us triumphanty to the |
oal OF human ambition? Let us read the lives
! the men, the names of whom to-day we dc. |
lght to honor, and take what We find in their
ecords for our answer. |
Tutorcd in the rigid schools of his day, his |
mind trained, expanded and enriched by weary |
ears OF classic labor, subjected to the taunts |
Il MS jealous literary competitors, deprived fl |
ally OF one OF Heaven most precious temporal |
lifts, John Milton has given to us a sublime echo
u his genius in the immortal pages of para. |
Use Lost endowed with poetcal spirit of the |
lghest and purest inspiration, denied the ply. |
lcal Vigor commensurate with his mental pow. |
RS. driven almost to insanity by the frightful |
lslons OF crushing melancholy, shrinking at |
he very contemplation ofpublicity, yet tanning |
he flames OF his genius in the solitude of his sc.
fusion. Cowper has left with us the beautiful |
races of his gentleness, and the evidences of |
yet guileless life. Such are the |
e C OF genius nobly exerted, such the fruits
II human determination to scorn submission to |
human adversely. by thinking" answered
me OF earths greatest philosophers when asked
low he had reyeled amid the delights of scienti.
ic truth and science to-day is but building
Ter temple upon the broad foundation shaped
md liked by the marvellous revelations of the
immortal Newton. England struggling with
national poverty, her progression tagging with
paralyzing sloth, suddenly feels mighty i'm
pulse; and as her slumbering industries wake
20 the task of rendering her rich and intlucn-
,ial nation, she recognizes In the spirit that
her, the carnations of the inventive
mind of Watt.
Our memories of the men who have been our
Dene1actors are their echoes. The swellings of
our deathlcss affection, and the gushngs Of our
pride as we recall them are but the chords of
our hearts, answering to the beatings of theirs
With what feelings of reverent admiration do
we revert to the noble struggles and proud
achievements of the men whose mind refused to
rest under the long supported and cherished
theory that the great ocean washed no other
shore than that of the Old World, and urged on
by spirit that the scotfings of an incredulous
world proved powerless to crush, at last threw
himself upon the UNEMPLOYED waste, trusting
only to the Power that curbs its pillows, and
hn m tod trinn1,nh pf hig 1olo
the shores of the continent he revealed TO his
fellow men. When will the echoes of the glad
shout of "Land land" cease to roll, and when
will Columbia lose the memory of him, who
threw open her broad portals and babe an en-.
Iightcned race possess her? With what venera.
ton do we utter the names ofAdams and Jeffer-
son, when in that utterance we remember then
rs the originators and supporters of the great
scheme that finally burst the letters with which
IN unfeelng tyrant had shackled the limbs ofan
infant nation. The deeds of those noble reyo-
utionary heroes will ever find clear echo I'm the
great throbbing heart of America. Columbus
revealed the existence of our now glorious land
10 the world and his name is inscribed upon ON
mperishable record Daring adventures and
men of noble enterprise filled its broad fields
with life, and we have not forgotten to honor
hem. Discovered and peopled, grown from
childhood to youth, Its colonial worth increas-
I'd by its faithful industry, grasping nation
'oughtto Cypress and possess it. Struggling
II its weakness for freedom it found defiverer
n the matchless and unconquerable spirit of
George Washington, whose fame resounded in
every land, echoed from every shore fills now a
mighty republic with its thrilling notes, as "The
woods are peopled with his fame, his memory
wraps the dusky mountain, his spirit sparkles
Der the fountain. The meanest rill, the might
est river rolls mingling with his name forever"
From the almost numperless records of human
deeds might we gather volumes of names to
n 4 liVns laft hn.
hind them. From the first moments of time
meted outby Omnipotence to man. to the price.
less ones Of which we are now the possessors,
the deed has echoed back the result. Now re-
turning in the grateful answer to Il kind word
again in the severe rctort of wounded spirit.
At times giving back the radiant CLEAN from the
revelation ola great truth, and swelling often
into the startling thunder OF political revou-
ton. In the midst of this great commir cling of
human echoes we are standing to-day Wo hear
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