The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-27

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Tne mighty lips of Blackstone; 90 may
4 feeble trump OF truth that can not die,
] Clearly proclaim and on the roll Of fame
4 lnscribe however humbly my poor name.
4 Jack Harris before his conversion
Come down to me, cling to me, lay thy red lips on
me love,
Let me drown in thy bounuful beauty, oglorious
consectate dove,
Made it for the vgii of Venus, made fair by the
p Cypsfan dame,
.lMade fair IN the form of maiden, q medley of
music and fame;
alFor the world grows wildly around us and swoons
and the pale souls preach
Poor fables Of sorrow and virtue and all that the
grey Gods teach,
But we clasp and we bite and we madden, and
worship your throat and your hair.
We have strayed in the cold sea places we have
L laughed on the altar STAIR
We have eaten and drunken Of love- and the les.
re son of living is this.
24hat the high ssy bends above us and life is a
al curse and a kiss.
VI sound OF thy pas ionate sighs,
While sing of thy body's white beauty and live
in the light OF thy eyes,
For save me there is man living made worthy
to utter thy praise
Cd Who art come as a new moon to our night-tide,
II new sun TO our days.
~ Jack Harris after his conversion.
None who knew Jack Harris in the
discovered any special marks of genius
PIN the man. To his nearest and most in
reimate friends, as far as can be gathered,
olhat the name "Jack Harris" suggested
vas in all important respects identical
with that aroused in the minds of those
Jess closely acquainted with Jack Harris
ut the mention of his name. And vet
Npne would fain believe that even then
here must have been, or at least
might have been, made evident to some
Critical observer, if only in some slight
6lay Of the mouth, some stray glance of
Ehe eye, the presence of that genius
which has since astonished the world.
but the most diligent inquiry has failed
DO discover that to any one Jack Harris
ivas more than the well-meaning, fairly
Educated, healthy, stupid young man we
lll thought him, when we thought about
aim at all-which l now regret to saw
was but rarely. Some among us have,
lndeeS; the audaclty to pretend that
they predicted all along the future great
ness of Jack. But as such predictions
must have been reserved for the privacy
Of their own dwellings or communicated
to some now not forthcoming witness,
they receive only that honor proverbially
awarded to prophets.
Jack Harris was the son of very re-
lspectable retired coth-merchant vino
|lived in bourgeois felicity near the Re
Egents Park, and Jack was reading for
the bar. He had been at public school,
She had been at Oxford, and had passed
| both ordeals we'll enough. At the univer-
lsity he had been merely one of the units
of his college muster-roll; his idcutity
was ia no way rendered conspicuous by
any display of mental of bodily merits,
! |and his name was unknown to the Proc
tor. He left Oxford without making or
receiving any distinct impression; and
when his name astonishes the world, it is
ten to one that those who met him
every day at Balliol will hear lis name
extoled without having the slightest
idea that they ever shared the joys of
studentship with the great poet.
At the wish of jacks father and moth
er-for Jack was dutiful son-he began
to study for the bar, he actually took
chambers in one of the Inns of Court,
where he would pass most of the day
working through the mazes- of Roman
law or studying the pleasing pages of
Cohg but be always returned to Re-
gents Park to dinner, and generally
spent the evening at some scientific lee
ture Of mildly instructive and destruct-
i've nature, or at local concert to which
he had the pleasure of escorting his
cousin Maggie, of whom he considered
himself to be enamored. Jack was in
his gentle way kind of freethinker, and
occasionally Mortified his respectable
dissenting parents by hazarding some
reckless theory of existence imperfectly
,Eecollected from the last meeting of the
sSunday Lecture Society. He would
Introduce the names of Huxley, Of Oar
Yin, and of Mill into his discourse. al
though he was but dimly acquainted
With their works; and he was very fond
il calling himself Nationalist a Util-
siarian, and brother of mankind in gen.
.,al. Indeed, be was very proud of his
i)sition as a reason ng animal, and would
smetimes startle his cousin Maggie.
ho was sensible girl and could see
fit small foundation for this pride, by
Hing her all the conclusions to which
lis reason led him--conclusion invaria-
y at variance.with the WORKOUT ideas
the world. His reason always led
sm to sincere pity for believers of any
ind, and he was often heard to express
kind of melancholy regret at the Ia
Eentable weakness Of intellect evinced
b men like Newman or Dean Stanley.
hat the common herd should follow
hhere dNsy were led was not 20 be won
bred at, but that men of an intellect
most equaling his own should 20 so far
STRAY did indeed sadden him. p was
good creature, however, for all this,
md gave his father and mother very lit
e trouble, never even refusing to ac-
company his mother to church on Sun
ylay morning, and even going SO far as
10 admit to himself that to student and
lover Of humanity, all forms of human
weakness claimed at once his sympathy
topd b;c ;ptaracf IL x.,oa f,r1 &c ,,,o& -