Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-01-26
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NOttlOSltl EtSkIlStAtl tltltl.
THURSDAY EVENING, JAN. 20. 1892.
A CHESTER COUNTY REMINISCENCE.
lin ls44 Lyceum association of Ercildoun
was expelled from the public school house,
where 1t had been accustomed to hold its
meetings on account of its liberal religious
teachings. In ls45 the people built new hall
ITO caste, to sect, to color unconfined.
At the dedication OF this hall on the first of
August, that year, the following dedicatory
poem by j. Williams Thorne was read.l
In the wide universe OF Natures works,
In all that We behold around, above
We read living language. Not like that
Ephemcral thing, the creature OF day
BY man SO called, but as the universe,
Enduringly immortal. q language
That has ever been and ever more must be.
The one unchanging oracle to man.
From its eternal fame there ever comes,
In unambiguous tones" Be free! Be free :"
1t comes on the wild winds that sweep the sky
In the dark winter hours. In the free airs
That in tho summer morn kiss the tree
howcrs-
In all that mingled harmony of sounds,
That winds and waters make on every shore,
All over the green earth. And the free voice.
That makes muse OF every living thing
That walks the earth or flutters in the sky,
And the light clouds that in the summer eve
Lingcr swcetly In the suns bright rays.
Tell IN their hues of beauty, Man be free:
The same sweet voice Is whispered from the
stars,
As all unthralled they make eternal sheen
In the dim sky OF night. The mountain
heights
That reared amid the clouds with lightning
voice
Hold converse with the genius OF the storm,
And the wild restless ocean roll tell back
In their sublimity, the same free tones.
From the free universe voice comes fOrLh,
Let man be free! by that free voice inspired,
We builded this free Hail. No pompous dome,
Like some which men have reared to idol
gods.
Its unassuminS walls wero buildcd up
With no sublimer aim than that OF man.
1t hath no creed nor rules by penal laws,
But rs the DER arching temple of the sky.
Is tree TO all the brotherhood of man.
All fetter!c.S her limbs Truth wages here
Against her foes what war so'er she will.
And Error too is tree too weak to move
Much less to wear chain where Truth Is flee.
FIVE look into the past and present world.
Or grieve gladden. the bsholding eye.
Mon do not live in peace ana mutual love,
The tender smile OF innocence and joy
In human faces is not always seen,
The breeZcs DO not uniformly bear
The breath OF blooming health upon their
wings.
The human form )oks not sublimely forth.
Graceful, erect and stately in its mien.
The lingering life-decay intemperance brings,
Has maze i; but the mockery OF man;
And deaths dark impress on the check OF
youth
Dims the b:jgnt roses nature planted there,
The grave, even aboyc the grave, victorious
seems.
Piatcas. Marathons and Watcrloos
Are hallowed by the blood which they have
drank;
The most successful murderers OF their race
Are wor.hipped as its idols: while the poor
House!ess, hungcr-tclnptcd ones: whose ut
most skill
Can compass but the murder of Il few,
Are murdered ignOminiously in turn.
The poor oppressed ones sigh is ever borne
On every fragrant breeze, that makes so
sweet
The summer evening sky; and sorrows tears
Arc mingled with the dew drops OF the morn.
GemmIng the same sweet flowers. Even
friendships smile
l. ottimes but q cOurtly robe that hides
From public gaze the dark deceit beneath
The glittering bribe hypocrisy holds out,
10 lure. to ruin those W hO trust its sheen.
Like to those flowers that fiaunt their gorgeon,
In the pure air. the better to conceal
The poisonous honey they secreie With T..
These are great evils: and they could not be-
Did man more clearly read in Natures book
Her never swearing laws that govern all
IN harmony with beauty and with bliss.
But Slavery is a cloud that comes between
And blOts the BOOK OF Nature from our view,
Till the sweet language OF the universe
Is as u stranger tongue-chief source OF Ill,
For DER the mind its darkening shade it filings
Dimmng its truthward fires. The star-lit sky
Looks ever lovingly Oh the chained soul
And covers it with beauty; hut no voice
Ofanswcring love arises to that sky.
That all might more and more familiar grow
With that instructive page, the open book
OF universal nature, this free hall
Was reared with buoyant hope and wishes
warm
That Truths unfcttered power mig Int soon
dispel
The slavery clouds that come before our eyes
Ecipsing the pure light that evermore
But there are other halls the same free sky
Looks lovingly upon them as on this;
And the free airs that hutter in that sky,
In the same free-tOnel voice commune with
them:
And holy men. they say, assemble oft
Within their walls 10 worship a holy Cod
Why was this buil,ed here: Call up the
dead,
Those martyred ones, from out their grass
grown graves,
All over the green earth, whose blood was
she'd
For daring to be free. Oh hid them tell
The living dead why was this bui,icd here?
May we not warmly hope that yet these walls
In no far future hour will echo back
To the free universe, its own free voice,
In one sweet union strain, one joyous song
Of all mankind The world-the world is free.
Skill in tho Workshop
To do good work the mechanic must have
good health. IflOnS hours of confinement in
close rooms have cnfeeblcd his hand or dim
med his sight, let him at once and before some
organic trOubl" appears, take plenty of Hop
Bittcrs. His system will be rejuvenatcd his
nerves strengthened, his sight become clear
and the whole constitution be built up to Il
highar working condition.