Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-06-22
The Paxanisrn Of Thsnatopsis.

The poem of ThanatopSis' is now suffering
criticism as a pagan poem" Mr.. aecher
trasted il with di"ge by DR.. Waits, which lac
pronounced the better Of the tw,, he mar
VtIed that Bryant should have left out of his
pagan poetry the glory of death" which
Glance This is the shall ow utterance OF
cant. Consider what the pee surveys in his
stately strains. Ii j. The teaching Of nature
concerning dea h. Nothing more can be said
OF death from that point OF view taan is said
here. The universal fate and the universal
consolation are the burden. MAJ must die
Tor All men have died; the earth no lis the
races thai have been. and al that are 10 be
must follow them. The very common places
If thought, clothed in language Of noble ele-
walton. And AT the end the -XnrpSSinn of the
faith derived from tie unquenchah}e nS,iu:t
OF ihe SOU that a good life l. 4 letter prepara-
ton for death, whatever Comes, Than a bad
one
SO live that when thy summons comes to jnin
The irm m~ra j. ca an. which m vcS
Ic ila' my Sttri'us Il ms where each hail take
His chambe' in the S'cn halls If e, d.
Th' 4" not like 'h. quarry slave at nisit.
Scou1scd 10 has dungeon, but sustained and
BY all unfal;, ri g t:ust. approach thy grave
Ike en- Wh, WI; pS me drapery o: his couch
Ado Lin, ami H. down TO pleasant Dir ans
This is the same grand tone which is pro-
!Orged in all Bryant's religious meditati1nS;
in the Forest Hymn. the Hymn to Death the
Evening Revery, the Flood of Years. These
an S rr6r from RON The deep f0Gnts Of Nature
1t never could have occurred TO the poet to
adu.terate her catholic meanings with any
theological scheme. Bryant did not pui
Christianity into nature because he did not
frd it there. Both the honesty of the man
and he conscience of the artist would have
withheld him. When Mr.. Beecher writes a
"ThanatopSis," he may lug in all the doc
trines he pleaSes, but the world viii not be
Likely to abandon Mr.. Bryant's version for
his.-lSprtn&fetd Republican.
PHoNoGRAPHIC STUDIEs.-Jenkin and Ew
ing have studied deliberately the form of the
sound tracinsS produced by Edison'S phonO-
gIalh. With rtfe:eEce to the vowels, these
obs erverS EOte that if a set of vowel sounds be
spoken to the photograph, and then it be
ade to speak at several different veloctieS
OF rotation, no difference can be detected i'm
the quality of the sounds. This, they regarl
as contradictory of HemhoItz'S statement
that each vowel sound has a characteristic
note of definite pitch. Moreover, they have
observed that the wave form of the markings
produced by any vowel sound does not re
main unchanged at all pitches; but whether
these changes are due TO alterations i'm the
dmp1tudeS of the constituents or to yaria ions
OF phase is not determined. subsequently. in
a paper before the Royal Society of Edin-
bulgh. they announced the curious fact that
both yOWclS aud conSonantS are unaiteTed by
being spoken backward. Words such as ada
dt0, Gjd, etc, could be readily identified which
ever way The cylinder was turned, even by
persons ignorant of what had been said
Moreover, they find that Gb said backward be-
comes %, thus proving that a reversible part
really c"nstit uteS an element of speech Thus
putting the word 7lOStIeeSOSsd on the cylinder
and turning il backward, it repeats association
beautifully. Preece has described two phono
graphs made in England from Edson's de
scriptions In one Of these the rotation was
maintained uniform by means of clock work
hus maintaining the identity of the sounds in
The other the receiving membrane was of
paper, and seemed to be the l0udeSt.-[ Eli
tors Scientific Record in HaTper'S Magazine
t0r July.