Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1877-11-30

Al the recepuou rendered by the
Goeshe. Club to Mr., William Cullen
Rvysat last week, the venerable poet
ms3e = pleasant speech, in which he
accounted for fhe attention which was
4hownto him. " = new ard. smusiDg
theory. He ssid. ss-5 sc .;1sq- y
sri eannot acceps the compliments
which have seen paid me ss n they
were justly my due. aad il I could not
parry most Of them and, put them aside
I should have reason to stand sbashed
and contased1,n yo,ir presence. You
will. therefore, allow me to ascrabe
the kindness which has been shown me
this evening to cause which you will
admit to be sufficiently obvions-name-
ly, to tine long life which | have led
the late old age which l have reached
an existence prolonged considerably
beyond the common lot. One who has
passed rather inofensively beyond the
milestones which mark the stages OF
lite up to fourscore is looked upon by
the rest of mankind with certain COM
passionate feeling. Ne cannotdo much
more mischief, they naturally and Justly
think, and therefore may safely be
praised. His further stay upon the
earth is necessarily short, and it is
therefore charitable thing to make
that short stay pleasant. Besides, he
has become. by reason Of his very few
oevals, sort OF curiosity-a rare in
stance-and rarity often gives value and
price to things which are in themselves
intrinsically worthless. Let me pursue
this thought a, little further. There
have been various attempts to give q
concise definition Of the term man,
founded ON some peculiarly which dis
tinguishes the human race from all 9TH
er animals. our fellow inhabitants ot
this planet. Some have defined man
as talking animal, notwithstanding the
instance Of the parrot; some as laugh
ing animal, although there is laugh
ing hyena: aud some as cooking animal,
the only animal that roasts ehestnu:s,
overlooking the ancient tradition oi the
monkey who used the paws OF the cat
to draw the nuts from the fire.
Il will venture to give another de-
fnltien, to which think no objection
can we'll be made. would define man
as the animal that dellghtsin antiquities.
No other creature gathers up the rel
les of past years and deposits them in
museums and guards them with care
and points them out TO the wonder OF
others. II is only man who digs among
the runs Of cities destroyed long ago,
in order to unearth the domestic imple-
ments and personal adornments Of the
human race when il was yet in its in
fancy-as Schlicmann and others are
doing, thinking themselves fortunate in
proportion TO the rudeness and clumsi-
ness. in other words the antiquity, OF
these objects. If VIC were to hear ol
monkeys turning up the earth among
old tombs in search Of the earrings and
necklaces OF those who lived in the
time of the Trojan war, We should be
struck with amazement, and word would
at once be sent to Darwin by his disci-
piles that here was a new proof OF the
doctrine Of evolution. But older than
Priam and Agamemnoa are the remains
OF the lake dwellers Of distant period
of the worlds history, when men lived
in habitations built on wharfs over the
water and used only implements oi
stone, the use of metals not being yet
discovered. Stone axes and stone
spear-heads have been fshed up from
the mud Of these waters-the tokens OF
a time " hen warriors hammered each
other to death with rude weapons oi
flint and granite. These have been
diligently collected and daintily ham
died. and laid up in cabinets OF curiosi-
ties, and gazed at and wondered at, and
made the subject Of books and elaborate
treaiises ard lighter magazine articles.
All their value consists IN the many
years which have elapsed since they
were made bv the workmen of q rude
and simple age. Offer one Of these stone
axes to a woodman TO be used in his vo-
cation, and he would reject it with
scorn. He might bv great effort bruise
down a tree with it, but he could not be
said to cut II down. Offer il to a butch
er that he NAV use il in telling an OK,
and he would laugh at the clumsy in
strument and demand an axe Of metal
Rejected as II would be for lack OF util.
i;y IN min,stering to our necessities OF
our comfort, il is YET made much Of; II
is written about and talked about, and
men see in IL whole chapter Of the
history Of mankind. have thus shown
how natural it is that those who are
left TO grow very old become by that
circumstance alone the objects Of KIND
attention. For such testimonials Of thi.
kindness as | have received this even,
ing 1 return, along with nv aeknowE
edgements, my good wishes also. May
you all who hear me yet become antiq.
Ities-not after the fashion Of the stone
axe. which I have described, nor afteI
the fashion OF him who has described
them; but after the manner of the pole
star. which century after century ha:
guided by its useful light the navigator
on the sea and the wanderer on ths
land. Nav you become antiquities like
the venerable mountains which attract
the clouds and gather the rains into
springs and rrvulets, and send them
down TO give life and refreshment "a
the fields below. May you become an.
tiquities like the blessed and ancient
sun, which ripens the harvests Of the
earth for successive generations Of man.
kind. and al the end cferery day leave,
in the western sky glorious memory
Of his genial brightness"