The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1878-09-13


the literary field, where We have only
10 follow in the burrows already made;
only 10 take our share Of the flourish.
ing grain. With the historian We de-
sccnd among the musty tombs Of past
ages, and reanimate the actors who
trod the worlds broad stage long be-
fore we saw the light Conquest and
submission; party rancor and political
strife; rapacious assault and territori-
al partition-come to US with their
impressive lessons, whether Of denun-
citation or Of imitation; and he who
ignores the treasures Of history, an
Gent or modern, locks his intellect
against the richest harvest that can I'll
its stores. He loses the companionship
of such men as Gibbon, Hallam, Ma
cauley, Hume, Bancroft and Abbott,
men whose light will shine while the
star of destiny hangs over the nations
of the earth.
With the tourist we may visit an
Gent cities where vast ruins tell OF UNI
rivalled magnifcence; or stroll beside
the clear lakes where tender poets
have loved and sung; or scale the
mountain heights that warriors have
made famous. We may enter Kings
palaces and mingle our republican
speech with the stereotyped phrases of
royalty. And who are our compan-
ions DeQuincey, Irving, Taylor,
Willis, Clemens, Ward, Grace Green
wood, and a host of charming ladies,
whose graphic pens, and genial smiles
illumine every mile of the way. Yes,
with such a travelling company we
may at any time forget life's stern ne
cessities in LIES grand realities.
The novelist holds the reins Of I'M
limited power, for giving pleasure, by
the fictitious weaving of human pas
sions into the mystic web of romantic
caprice, with here and there so ex-
quisite a coloring Of domestic expert
ence, and so heavy a stroke of practi-
cal motive, that we bring home to our
hearthstones much that reflects peace
by comparison, and implants hope by
contrast. And these literary friends
are countless; their name is legion,
Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer,
Beaconsfeld, Miss Edeeworth, Miss
Austen, Charlotte Bonte, George e.
lot and others Of our mother country;
a score of writers of Germany and
other European states; and score of
our own American novelists whose
names arc as familiar rs household
words.
Who has not found a congenial
companion in Tennyson, Byron,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelly,
Ssuthey, Hemans, Sigourney, Long
fellow, Bryant, Campbell, Moore and
legion of cOmpeers What vein of
the temper, what mood of the spirit,
what. emotion of the heart, what
phase of the life or what decree OF
fate but finds utterance in some line of
the poets song? And who has not
borrowed the soft, sweet numbers as
vehicle of expression, when imagina-
tlon held the soul captive?
Or, if so fortunate as to dive
deeper still into the wonders and beau
ties of classic lore, we find entertain
ing companions in Herodotus. Thucy-
dides, Tacitus, Livy, Plutarch and
their contemporaries. We distil from
iambics the essence Of true poetry.
We follow with Euripides, the for
tunes Of Orestes, or latham the dra.
matte pictures of Sophocles, and
Escbylus. We sing of mighty deeds
with Homer, chant odes with Horace,
stand on the rostrum with Cicero,
and glory in the fame of Demosthenes.
Verify the list of familiar faces is
beyond numbering. Verify their les
sons and their maxims are as pearls
beyond price.
And when we skim along the years
that connect us with the darkened
past, we pause by the wayside to
glance into the songs of Chaucer, see
Hamlet and Othello in their earliest
prime, and follow the fairy Una with
her lore into Spencer's final sphere
where heroism and glory are united.
Cowper, Watts, Gray and Dryden,
give us their treasures. Swift makes
US laugh, and Addison serves up a
variety of dishes to our fancy.
Indeed we are in danger of losing
ourselves completely if we endeavor
to scan the numberless channels of BIZ
ography, essay, memoir, epistle and
dialogue. These have their distinctive
features of pleading thought, and
serve to beguile many an hour of leis-
nre. And those who sound the heavy |
sea Of the professions, the sciences, the |
and the occult theories,
lind therein stern faces and wrinkled |
brows; they meet with solid benefit;
but this Is more work than play, and