The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1875-09-10
M I S G e Han g O us.
ECHOES

Grafton deliCered at tile 4h Orato13cal Contest
Jetaceen tue Ir0ing and Webster Literary So
cieties Of Western Maryland CoNege, June
10th, 1875 By elias. Z. Wright, Of Hartford
county.
Human life is a period in which are strangely
and mysteriously blended the deeds of man in
all their diversity, whether prompted by the
nobler elements of his nature, the operations of
vitiated mind, or whims to which humanity
Is so painfully subject. Our intellects gradual
ly expanding under the influence of age, reach
at last state in which they find themselves
able to view the workings of the world upon
which their faculties have dawned. Looking
out over the vast field spreading around us, we
behold the restless currents of life, each SEEM
ing to have its own channel, each performing
its own task; all having common destiny.
We behold with wonder the vast results pro-
duced by these existing agents, and the memo
rails of those that have performed their labors
and passed from the scene of action. The
crumhlng monuments of former glory and
the thousand evidences Of present earthly gran.
deur present themselves in the broad panorama
of the natural and artificial world, man vieng
with man in the great conflict of existence;
Kingdoms having their golden.crowned mon
arcls lifted by the servile hands of subjects to
purple-deckcd thrones; nation measuring steel
with nation in the mad contest for pre-emn-
ence; mind warning with mind in the limitlcss
realms OF thought for the support of cherished
opinions brought down from the dead past ages
Truth struggling with error in the maintenance
of the noble contest that each rolling year, since
light and darkness became alternate, has wit
messed. We behold, too, world partly illum-
ined by the lamp of literary and scientific truth,
and partly and sadly darkened by the gloomy
shades of ignorance that still inger round the
pathway of light; world teeming with life
world of mingled good and evil; II world full
OF wonders.
Sud1aOlv tl,a droo,,,,, e,>oll .Iot A.
contemplation of ali this has thrown around
us, we ask the question, "What is the meaning
of all this OF what gences are all these
things the result? What influence has produc.
ed these struggling tides of life that seem in way
ward, aimless course to tend?n And as we lis.
ten for the answer, it comes rolling up in the
ringing tones of q million voices, "These are
but the echoes floating back from the departed
years." echoes telling the story of past deeds;
echoes repeating with startling distinctness the
sounds whose harshness may have caused the
life-chords OF nation to vibrate BITTERLY or
whose sweetness have calmed and charmed into
repose the cares Of turbulent world echoes
bearing back the evidences that, in the past,
lived und labored noble, daring, hgh.souled
men; echoes, too, revealing the dark, evil past,
and telling us in language too plain to be mis-
interpreted, that "The sound is but the echo of
the sense" the result is but the echo of the
deed.
Material philosophy has taught us that every
sound has its own peculiar echo. The gentle
halloo of recognition receives no angry shout
for its answer; the tone indicative of wrath
receives indications of displeasure in return !;
whispers are waited back in whispers, and thun-
der reverberates in thunder, The world is full of
echoes, but they are not the trembling waves of
returning sounds; human actions are echoing
through every land of earth, through every
moment OF time, in every beating heart. HUI
man errors are producing human calamities,
and human evil neccssitating human chastise-
ment. Thus it is also with mans efforts for the
promotion of good. They return to him laden
with the rich harvest of temporal blessings,
and surround him with the glorious results of
glorious deeds.
The echoes that float back from the object of.
fering resistance to the sound wave, die away
when the tremulous air ceases to strike the
| listening car, and leave no trace of themselves
on mind, or heart, or life. "They faint on hill,
or field, or river but our echoes roll from soul
| to soul, and grow forever and forever" Mans
| labors and struggles in all oflfes departments,
are but the movements of tool in the hands of
| master architect; but the obedience of sub
| iect to the will of commanding sovereign, We
are placed upon the stage designed for the ac-
| tors of llfe's drama. The part assigned us to
perform is no inferior one. The dispenser of
| mans duties gave no despicable one to be per-
| formed, and true nobility of soul does not hest
| tate to choose for its place of labor what some
| are pleased to call life's meaner stations and
others scorn to recognize as worthy to become
| the seat of such labors as the world calls hon
| orable. Our deeds, to be great, need but to be
| good to be ignoble, need but to be evil. Our
| lives to be crowned with success and leave be-
| hind them the unmistakable and enduring evil
| dences that we have lived, must be spent in ac-
| tive, earnest, untring effort; must be charac-
terized by spirit that refuses to listen to the
| tempting whispers that promise security from
the common ills of mankind, and lulls the physi-
| cal and mental faculties into II slumber more
| fatal than the fercest of lifes storms. We must
| plant the seed from which is to spring the gold
en- harvest of results; We must nourish the
| flowers whose fragrant blossoms are to distil
| sweetness to human existence, or that existence
will know naught but bitterness. Our own
| hands must weave the garlands to brighten and
beautify lifes pathway, or thorns will be its dec
Grafton, and we shall pass from the course I'M
| crowned unmourned and unknown. We must
| be ever exerting our mite of influence upon the
world aboutus; we must strike firm, deter
| mined, telling, blows upon the living, human
| sound-wayes floating around us, and from them
''Set the wild echoes flying" through the great
universe of mind.
| Do you ask how these echoes are to be pro-
duced Would you know in what direction Ia
| Dor must tend, to return laden with Its richest
| fruits? Or do you doubt that mans actions
| like resisted sounds roll back in answers that
! strike again upon human chords, and exercise
| their influence upon human life? If thus you
question, and thus you doubt, let me lead you
| In Imagination back along the dark, dusty
pathway of the year, beyond the cycles that
| men call modern, and Us the mysterious shades
of antiquity seem to envelop you, and you stand,
| as 1t were, enshrouded in the misty uncertain
ties that cling round the events Of the long de-