The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-12-14
NIL. A. COURSE.
Lecture by Rev. DIR. u. y. StOrrs.

Lecture by Rev. DIR. Il. y. storrs.
City Hall was well filled last evening by a
large audience, who listened with much inter-
est to lecture of an hour and a half in length
by Rev. DR.. Storrs, of Brooklyn, upon 1.-The
Old and the New in Europe" Upon being In
troduced to the audience the speaker recalled
the fact that ten or dozen years had passed
since he had addressed Portland audience
Since that time he had been but wayfarer
upon the lecture platform, of which previous to
that time he had been regular occupant. AT
ter few pleasant words in regard to the city,
the lecturer passed to his lecture proper.
DR.. Storrs in opening, remarked that while
this continent was the oldest geoogically, its
civilization was the newest. Mr.. Huxley had
found the four-toed horse in the geological de-
posits of the Northwest, and expected to find
still older one with four fingers and thumb.
but it would puzzle any one to find civilized
population here whose ancestors had been
American for three centuries. The restless
spirit of our people was continually sweeping
aaay the relics of the past, and but very few of
the landmarks of colonial and revolutionary
York, Philadelphia-all our cities, in fact-had
been almost 6enuded of the relics of their early
history The result is that we see so little of
the past in our own land that when we 60 to
Europe, which to our imagination is overflow
ing, as it were with the treasures of antiquity,
We expect to meet them on every hand and to
find them everywhere thrusting themselves
upon US. Instead of this, the first thing to at
tract our attention abroad are the great modern
Improvements, many of which excel those of
America. The magnificent docks, public streets.
and buildings of Liverpool, the vast metropol-
tan features of London; the gay and uxuriant
modern garb of Paris and Brussels and Wen
ma, and even the modern frivolites of eternal
Rome itself are the first to catch OuG eye. But
when we go deeper beneath the surface, and
find the past it impresses us all the more from
its coexistence with the present. Halt an hour
from modern Liverpool we find the city of
Chester, which recalls so v:vIdly the old Ro-
m an CdStrum of fifteen centuries ago. Passing
to busy London, we behold the antiquated Tow
er in the midst OF the modern hustle and traf-
ic, and in the excavations of modern Rome we
not unfrequently come upon separate layers of
ancient pavement dating back to the days of
the Emperors and the Consuls. Everywhere
this striking contrast between the present and
the past impresses the mind with sense of
novelty and interest in which the older civiliza-
tons of the East is lacking. In Europe the old
and the new each magnifes and enhances the
other, while in India and China there is no con-
nection between the two-no development of
the past into the present. One of the most for
chile characteristics of old Europe was the mas
siveness and the solidity of its ruins. The
aqueducts and public works, which were now
to be found on the frontiers of the old Empire,
seemed to have been built by giants In the
south and southeast of France many of these
works were to this day used for their original
purposes, and in all probability would be so
used for centuries to come.
Huge gateway hundred feet in height and
built of enormous blocks of stone, man moth
ampitheatres cut out of the solid rock, and pub
lie roads which eclipsed in mag ntude and dur
ability the best works of the moderns. were to
be found skirting the vast circle of what was
once the Roman Empire. Even now the re-
mains of Traia JAMS road along the Danube were
the admiration of the tourist and the arch9ol-
ogist The six miles of the Claudian aqueduct
rising over the dead level of the Roman Cam
pagna told an eloquent story of the perma-
hence and durability of Roman architecture
and engineering And in the temples, the pal
aces, and the churches of both ancient and
modern Europe. the next most striking feature
to their grandeur was their beauty. In the
past they Ornamented construction, in the
present we too often construct ornamentation.
When we see big Mansard roof on small
&C ttage, or tremendous portico to a COM
paratively small house, it reminds US of Sidney
Smiths donkeys converted into deer by at
taching antlers to their heads.
Another of the most striking characteristics
of old Europe was the tremendous energy
everywhere displayed whether in art war or
religion We sometimes thought of those ages
as dull. uninteresting epocbs, but when we
realize the rushing, surging tide OF life in that
day, the vast interests at stake, and the ire
mendous consequences which followed each
change in the great drama, we were driven to
confess the most stirring of modern periods,
tame in comparison. Of the energy, the depth
of feeling, the intensity of passion, which ami
mated men in the middle ages we could form
some opinion by contemplating the paintings
and statuary of the great Italian cathedrals.
The accumulated saints and martyrs the end
less succession of MadOnnas and cruciix iop,
the skill and patience and undying zeal with
which their authors gave up whole life-times to
the propagation of the Christian religion. all
told their own eloquent story. In other ways
the hideous relics of the Inquisition and the
savage modes of resistance which they devel-
oped among the prosecuted, gave evidence OF
the same deep passionate spirit of the past.
The thirty years war destroyed fully three
fourth of the inhabitants and three-tourths of
the houses of all Germany, and the thirty
years war was only one of the contests which
were waged for the success or defeat of con-
tending ideas. How the stern, unyielding spir-
it of the past had become dwarfed and emascu-
lated by the growth of modern civilization. OF
all living men Bismarck was the only one who
fully represented the old life of Europe Four
teen years ago he was SO Insignificant that the
CyClUpcuidS tuOuSub HIS udL1e unworthy OF men.
ton: today he doomed up the greatest of living
statesman. As an eighty-ton Krupp cannon
was to small arms and polished ordnance, 50
was Bismarck to the diplomatists Of modern
Europe. (Applause.) Old Europe developed it.
self into the new by the law of reaction, and
the stubbornness with which its conservative
classes resisted change was something unimag-
Unable to the Western mind. 1t was no uncom-
mon thing while abroad to have waiter be-
hind your chair at dinner capable of speaking
six different Languages, and who, when asked
why he does not seek something better, will say
that bis father and grandfather have been wait
ers before him, and that it is very respectable
business!
The railroads were really the great civilzers
of Europe, and were knitting it together faster
than all the philosophers. Our railways in
America had wiped out the doctrine of state
rights more effectually than all our statesmen,
and in Europe they were fast disposing of ma
tional prejudices and bgotry in a similar man.
ner.
The lecturer concluded with an eloquent pre-
grafton, descriptive of the future Of Europe
under the benign influence of Christianity and
modern civilization.
OUR FIsHERIEs.-The report of the Fish
Commissioners has been finished and the fol-
lowing facts are derived in advance The year