Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-07-10
LANCASTER. WISCONSIN, THURSDAY. JULY TO- 1879

and lost imagination, and lost art
Hc who breaches or pleads law till
he is forty, will preach TO sinners
or address jury to the end. His
poems would be sermons or briefs
After we have thus conceded that
the church diverts u number of re.
ligious minds from making litera.
ture pursuit it remains to mark
WHAT OTHER INFLUENCES ARE AL.
WAYS AT WORK
to render indefinite and reserved
the religion possessed by the great
book max RS Of our times A large
influence must be found in the es.
sential nature of the studies and
works of these gifted minds. Lit
eraturo itself dares not be soctarian;
it dares not De the advocate of O
limited form of thought, but it must
speak for the whole human family,
Ii has been called one of the "hu
manities" because it is full OF all the
oest qualities of human nature. As
a man who loves every man is, for
that reason, called O humane man,
one who is not blinded by the style,
or ancestry, or Office Of an individu-
al, but who sees the soul and heart,
so that form Of truth which can be
read alike by old and young, slave
and king, whig and democrat, Cal.
whist and Arminian, is called one
one of the "humanities, since all
human nature SO reads it, and so
loves il. There are common grounds
of truth and sentiment where all
men may meet. The educated Prot
estant and Catholic NAV travel to-
gether, and even live together, and
all the while hold daily converse
ton, and even religious CONVERSE
ton, without being compelled to
obtrude upon each other the ideas
over which they differ, for the uni
verse is 80 large that when the PEI
culiar tenets of two sects are omit
ted from its contents, it scarcely
feels the loss. The statesmen, Glad
stone and Beaconsield may differ
about the most urgent duties of
England at home or in the East,
but the libraries of these noble
minds are made up of much the
same books, and they could talk or
write forever in perfect harmony in
letters because literature is not the
portrait ola politician, but it is the
picture of all mankind. In it are
all the women and children of the
whole world. Literature will in.
deed reveal conflicts upon vast
ideas, such as
LIBERTY OF STATES AND LIBERTY OF
SLAVES.
but it passes with contemptuous
silence the macy small distinctions
which exist in the world of politics
and religion. When Cowper sang
81 would not have slave to till my
ground, to carry me, to fan me
while | sleep, and tremble when l
wake" he was 70 the line of MS
high art, for the freedom of man is
ono of those broad sentiments which
only a savage could reject, and art
can never shape itself to suit the
savage tribes So Schiller was a
passionate friend of liberty, and his
passion was his power, because this
| freedom ia the most universal and
powerful of all mental and spiritual
dreams. Thus these books which
make up what il called Letters"
carry only such ideas as will make
every body laugh or weep, or feel
wiser, or higher, or bottcr. All laugh
alike over Cervantes, all alike feel
the remorsc of Macbeth, tho love
aud sorrow of Juliet, the grief of
Hamlet, the humor of the Falstaf' /;
all read the tales of Scott; all the
rural scenes aud loves in the ver-
ses of Burns; the meditations in
Gray's Eegy touch all because all
have loved ones in the fields of the
dead, and are themselves moving
along toward the shades of the yew
tree. The first element in litera
ture being the element of breath all
those who are born great enough to
enter into it's noble kingdom must
possess the power to overlook the
temporary and local, and to grasp
that which will ever be dear to the
human race. Men unable to feel
this perpetual and universal quality
of the greatest ideas are unknown
in the bright roll of which we ara
thinking. They may have knoe ked
at the gates crying, "Open Lord to
US" but the voice must have come
from within, 81 never knew you,
you cannot enter here"
IF then it is the essence and vir.
tue of all great writings that they
deal with what all hearts will at
once confess to be true, it would
come to pass that men welded to
the world Of thought would natural.
~ care less for special form OF
Christianity than would the man
and woman and child reared within
more exclusive walls.
| THE LITERARY PURSUIT
does not lead toward Baptist, or q
Methodist, or Catholic church, but
SO far as it leads toward any wor.
ship it is only the sublime worship
of God. The religious sentiment in
Coleridge led him while in the Vale
of Chamouni to hear the "awful
mount" speak forth the existence
and power of the Creator, but ia
such language that Catholic or Prot.
estant, Highchurchman or Quaker
can read alike the eloquent words,
and feel that into his own soul ali
those glowing ideas were poured by
the eloquent dreamer. That Hymn
at Sunrise" was sung for the human
race; and we can imagine that even
an atheist would at last give up bis
unbelief should he read at times
that sacred reverie. In the Peas
ants Evening Prayer of Robert
Burns all is so universal that all
sects alike may commit it to memo
ry, and all must feel that the cot.
tage is blest indeed where such q
prayer climbs up with the silent
vines over the thatched roof.
!" Then knesling down to Heavens Eternal King.
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
HOPE sprlng ' ssu II, On sriampnans wines.
/ No more TO sigh or shed the bitter tear