The University daily. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 18??-????, 1880-06-10

and philosophers everywhere have loved
70 dwell and hioralizc upon il. Byron,
il his Childe -Harold's Pilgrimage, visits
The catacombs IF Greece, and looks upon
the remains of departed heroes and states
men whose deeds Of chivaIry and words
ofa sloquence had thrilled not only the
people Of their own times. but the student
1T history through an subsequent periods.
Standing thus amid the ds6,Ts Of the II
lustrious dead, while passing in review
before his mind eye was The active living
past IS compared with the silent. motion
les present the poet gives expression 20
his reflections IN these words
fRemove yon skull from out the scattered heaps;
s II thar atempIe where God may dwell
Why The Is last The shattered sent
Look on ,s..broken arch, is ruined wan.
lis chambers desslate. and portals foul;
IA Yes. this Was once ambnon's airy hall.
This dome Of thought, the palace Of The soul; IN
Behold through each Iacklustre. eysless hole.
The ray recess Of Wisdom and Of Wit
S4 And PASSIONS host thar bfooked coutre
Can iii Saint Sage Or Sophist ever writ.
People this lonely tower, this tenement re6t I"
Shakespeare in his play of Hamlet,
presents US, in the Church yard scene.
with Hamlet accompanied by his friend,
Horatio, in conversation with the grave
diggers engaged in digging.the grave Of
Ophelia. The grave-digger, plying his
vocation, sings his song and accompanies
with grunt each stroke Of his pick, ex-
huming skull after skull she encroaches
upon previous interments. Hamlet. mean
while observing. becomes interested IN the
question as to whom these skulls may have
belonged during life, and proceeds to
speculate upon the probabilities, The
first, he inaginesi may have been the pate
ola politician; the second, the skull Of
lawyer; the third, that Of reaIestatc
dealer one skull among the number
attracting particular attention, he inquiries;
Whose was il y
The grave-digger replies. This same
skull, sir, was Yorick's skull the kings
jester
Yorick, as it would seem. was not only
the kings jester at the court Of Hamlet's5
father during the childhood days Of the son
butwas also, in some sense, the latter's
nurse and playfellow.
Hamlet, taking into his hands the skull
of Yorick, apostrophizes on this wise:
..'A1as, poor Yorick IL knew him we'll,
Horatio fellow Of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy. He hath borne me on
his backa thousand times and now, how
abhorred III my imagination il isl my
gorgerises att Here hung those lips,
that i have kissed know not how oft.
Where be your gibes now your gambols3
yours songsp your flashes Of wit and mer-
riment, that were wont toset the table in a
roar Not ono now, to mock your own
grinning7 quite chopfallena Now get
you to my lady's chamber and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favor she
must come. .
And SO must we all come, young gentle
men. In much less than a ,hundred years
from To- day the skull Of each one Of US will
beEvery much in the same condition as.
these upon the table which now furnish US
the objects Of study.
IL isnot my business to preach but in
this connecticut may, as your teacher, be
pardoned in admonishing Of this fact--as
i, myself, endeavor to heed the admoni-
.tionthat, it matters not SO much how
long we live, as how; and, that we need to
concern ourselves far less with respect to
the welfare Of our bones, than for the dos
tiny Of the spirit which now animates
them.