Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-12-05
Books Written in Prison.

have been the result of a compulsoI
leisure in gaol. This thought has il
duced us to review a few, from tn
long list of the wise and good, whor
the world has rewarded and honore
with persecution. Monarchs, state,
men, warriors, martyrs, poets AM
philosophers are to be found on tn
bead roll ofprison history--thei
names are almost legion. How to ap
preciate and treat its wisest chillrel
is a lesson the world has be IN long
in learning-bas scarcely learned ever
yet. From time immemorial TIN
prophet has been stoned goal, stakes
and gibbets have been the crowns o
glory awarded to those who hav,
labored to improve mankind, to in
crease knowledge, and to liberat,
truth and such treatment has al
ways failed in its object. We have
"Sagos, patriots, martyrs mild,
Going to the stake as child"
Goeth to it's little bed
The dark and lonely cell has be.
come a holy place, which the song Of
the poet, the story 0' the novelist, the
truths Of the Philosopher, the prayers
of the martyr, the aspirations Of the
patriot have glorifed. The uncon-
querable mind has made.
imprisonment pleasure,
Aye, such a pleasure as ENGAGED birds
Conceive, when, after many moody thoughts,
At last, by note of household harmony,
They quite forget their loss of liberty"
And many a prison has become a
shrine of glory more worthy Of pill,
grlmage than most OF the places to
which our toretathers directed their
steps.
All tragedy is more
lasting than comedy. Dante's song
stands like giant above all the other
songs of Italy, glorious as is the
Jerusalem Delivered" and Millions
paradise Lost" whose very name IS
pathos, is the greatest epic the
world possesses. A volume might be
filled with quotations from the most
inspired poets, proving how deeply
they had experienced the benefcent
influence of grief and suffering
"Blessed are the uses of adversity,"
says England's greatest child of
of poesy Shelley tells us that poets
Learn in suffering what they teach in song"
and Wordsworth has left us these
melancholy lines
ave poets in our youth begin in gladness,
Whereof in the end cometh dependency and
madness.
A young living poet has in two
verses sung exquisitely upon this
theme
"The flowers live by the tears that fall
From the sad face Of the skies
And life would have no Joys at all
Were there no watery eyes.
Love then thy sorrow grief shall bring
Its own relief in after years:
The rainbow-see how fair thing
God hath built up from teals."
Such being the blessed infence of
sorrow, we need not wonder that
some of the worlds greatest books
have been written in prison. The
cell of the poor sufferer has thus been
converted into place of thought, and
rendered more glorious by the halo
which suffering but triumphant genius
has thrown around it than is the
throne of the most successful con.
queror with which the world has been
cursed or blessed. Dearer to our
memories, and dearer to all future
generations will the prison house of
Boethius be than palace Of Theodore,
great as the Goth undoubtedly was.
Who of us would not prefer seeing
tie cell in which Tasso was confined |
to all the splendor of the house OF
Este p? And great and notable as
were the life and deeds of Charles v.
who of US would not rather make
to the prison of Cervantes
than to the Emperors cloister at
Valladolid ? Silvio Pellico has made
the house of Hapsburg a thing of
shame, and his narrow home of iron
and stone a more glorious spot than
The crimes stained court of Vienna.
Bedford Gaol is dearer to the mem.
ories of Englishmen than Whitehall,
and Bunyan has made damp, miser-
able and narrow cage more glorious
han the throne upon which sat he of
he Revolution.
So true is it, as Richard Lovelace
'ings.
"Stone walls do not prisons make"
hat workingman, by trade a shoe
maker, shall be imprisoned for Chart
st riots, and shall convert his cell IN.
% a temple for the Muses., and sing
lis "Purgatory of Suicides" without