The Portland daily press., 1882-04-03
whole man lifted to higher plane of feeling


ia, that he belongs to this glorious band OF I'M
mortal bards whose procession as seen py
Dante, he has gone to join and by wnoM' we
doubt not, he has been recognized, auu To-
ceived into their select society as one OF theni-
selves, "a brother beloved"
Intanto voce fu udita,
"Onorate paltissimo poeta.
If you ask us for the grounds of this belief,
our reply is that made to those VINO ~ OF.
Paul's ask for the monument of Sir christopher
Wren. Circumspice, 'Look around you; ana
on every side all over the world wherever tne
English tongue is spoken you will una alhpie Pc
proof that Portland gavee true poeI " .aS
world in the person of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow.
More read in England than their own
Laureate, in this one country he IS Jactte
princeps Not that we wonld dlspaIage
Bryant whom also We have lost, or w Whi1tier
who etill lives to sing the ballads OF New Eng
land as they should be sung, in manner All ~. nis
own and with tenderness and patnoS whicn
find response in every New England neart.
Whittier is racy of the soil, to the manner Dorn,
no travelled man." not "having seen many
lands or men Of diverse manners" but poet
of home-like aptitude, tastes and sympatnles.
Lungfellow loved New England no sss,
but his culture carried his thougnt Into al
lands and literatures, from which he derived
treasures to adorn his own verse ana enrich
and ennoble the minds OF his readers.
The influence Of the great German poe,s IN
particular is easily discernible in his youtnIni
rhymes, but more especially that OF onianu'
whom he emulated and finally surpasses.
But he lived to have manner all his own,
for which he was indebted to no one, man
ner and q style which, in inferior nanos,
quickly degenerated into mannerism, giving
us "the contortions of the prophet withou' MS
inspiration" -.
The genius of Longfellew like that OF ms
friend and contemporary, Tennyson, Is iylicai
a. A,.so nwrd
genius has entered into the emotions, Ine rs
pirations, the thoughts, the life oil Engiish
speaking people all over the world.
And If, as Pericles says, that "of gooa anu
great men the whole earth is the sepui-
chore," because their memory is precious II
heritance which should be guarded and pre-
served by all men, and also because thelr
thoughts and lives become at death the COM
mon property of the world, then Of Longfei-
low, whose happiness 1t was IN life to be per-
sonally loved, and In death universally Ia
mented, we may truly say:
"He In our wonder and astonishment,
Has built himself q lifelong monument,
And there sepulchred in such pomp doth lie,
That kings, for such tomb, might wish to dle."
Judge Symonds, of the Supreme Court OF
Maine, and q member of the Bowdoin Associ-
alton, then followed:
JUDGE sYMoNDs' ADDRESS.
1t has fallen to me somewhat suddenly to
take brief part in this memorial service;
speaking for the resident Alumni OF Bowdoin:
1t would perhaps be strange, II the Alumni OF
the college in which the Intellectual life OF
Longfellow began, "and to which his name
imparts charm and illustration" were to sit in
willing silence among those who are met to
revere his memory; standing as It were Just
within the sudden darkness which has followed
the sunset Of his life. And yet, what IS there ore
rcollege to do now. with heart brimming
with proud and grateful emotions, better than
to sit down in her sorrow for the dead, and to
offer the golden tribute OF silence, OF gratitude
and thanks for the life that has closed, for the
peerless and priceless legacy his genius and
fame have left to her.
To the graduates of Bowdoin las Of other col
leaes) who sometimes 60 back in sort OF en-
chantment of memory and the imagination TO
the pleasant years passed there, TO some OF
them at least, many halo floats over it.
There are, too, other associations connected with
it of more or less interest to all. But that
Longfellow and Hawthorne-Hawthorn
whose genius Lopgfellow was among the first to
recognize, sending a ray of JOY and sunlight
into the darkness Of his long seclusion by that
kindly and appreciative notice of the Twice
Told Tales, in the North American Rev lew
in 1837-that the footsteps Of these two men, in
youth and early manhood, were accustomed to
ioter there, these are associations which Will
linger imperishably, growing richer and strong.
or as something of the interest and charm OF
antiquity shall gather about the college. Its
scarcely necessary for me to speak OF Longfel-
lows poetry, of its manifold and exceeding
beauty, in spirit, in substance and form; or OF
the marvels Of his achievement. His poems
seem to me to be tho best life, the highest and
purest aspiration, the graceful and strong ex,
preston Of serene and noble mind We read
them, and all common things appear in finer
light. There is new beauty in human life, a
new glory on the earth and in the heavens.
The round Of daily duties is no longer sordid
or dull. The opportunity. the possibility for
new value upon it. to prize it above gold.
One Of the fragments which remain OF the
Twelve Tables OF the Roman law proviaes,
that those qualities by which the heroes were
dei6ed, virtue, piety, fidelity, shall be RANKED
among the divinities. Temples shall be erected
to them. But let no worship ever be paid to
any vice. The pristine Roman yigor and pur-
ity are in that law. But the affairs to virtue,
piety, fidelity, are sacred still IN LongfeiloW,s
verse; and a holier fire burns upon them for
ever.
What An assured immortality of fame is hisl
His works are already the inheritance OF the,
whole earth Transcending the boundaries OF
nations, they have become the common proper
ty of mankind; common as the light OF day,
the glory of the sunset, or the stars OF night.
His is the life of books long life OF the
best books; and that is immortality.
"How instantly the air will close on this ar
rowy path" once Rufus Choat exclaimed, al
luding to his own professional career, brilliant
as it was. And in his beautiful journal OF tray-
el he writes, "Some memorial would leave
vet, rescued from the grave of mere profess
sional man, some wise, or beautiful, or Interest,"
ing page After all, book is the
only immortality"
"It is only letters" !" said Lord Bacon. (which
as ships, pass through the vast sea OF time"
Something of the subtle equality of eloquence
is born of the moment and expires with it.
Part of the great occasion, it cannot be repro
duced. OF those arts imperial, by which in
great crises the emotions of the hour and the
judgments of men are swayed by public spe ak
ing, only the greatimyth can be transmitted to
posterity.
am reminded of the language of an author,
by whom this contrast has been strikingly paint
cd. He says: 1.-THE written outlives and out
dazzles the spoken word. The life of rhetoric
perishes with the rhetorician.
The bows of eloquence are buried with the
archsrs. Where is the splendid defamation OF
Bolingbroke? It has vanished, like his own
image from the grass-plots of Trickenham.
~ Literature is the Immortality
Of speech 1t embalms for all ages the depart
ed kings of learning, and watches over their
repose in the eternal pyramids of fame The
sumptuous cities which have lighted the world
since the beginning of time, are now beheld
only in the pictures of the historian or the poet
Homer rebuilds Troy, and Thucydides renews
the war Oh f6lOpOuuoSub. LILO uaIu 1hne PiofCou
the Persian breastplate moulders in the dust of
Marathon; but the arrow of Pindar quivers, at
this hour, with the life of his bow"
Twenty-four centuries passed, and the arrow
OF Pindar still quivers with the life OF his bow.
1t will be well for the world, for the happi-
ness and nobility Of mankind, If tho costly
grace and spiritual beauty of Longfellow's poe
try shall continue to be familiar as household
words, two thousand years to come.
The services closed with the chanting of the
Lords Prayer by the choir, and the benedic-
ton. The music by the choir was magnificent
ly rendered, as was to be expected from Miss
Milliken, Mrs. Morrison, Messrs. Thurston
and Shaw, with Kotzschmar as organist-
Rev. Dr. Seward preached very interesting
sermon at Plymouth church yesterday morn
ing, on the lives of eminent men, as suggested
by the death of the poet Longfellow.
Children's Ball.
Mr.. Gilberts dancing school exhibition was
given at City Hall Saturday afternoon, and,