The Portland daily press., 1882-12-25

Than ever cunning smiths for kings designed
And these went by-when suddenly appeared
Another band of folk in motley guise-
Priests of all faiths which human hopes had reared
With minds in fixed moulds cast--of men most wise
In self conceit, who seemed with owlish eyes
Ever TO see best in obesurity
Things which forsooth in dreams might only be.
On these the goddess sternly looked and cried,
fAhl wretehed ones who held the charmed keys
To human hearts, where joy and grief may bide
To you were godlike opportunities,
For We had lifted, had We willed, with ease
From many men bent low with grief and care
The burdens which they found DER hard to BEAR
"And, yet, We would not lift a feathers weight,
But to confirm your rule, shut out the light
Which would have glorified their drear estate
Ye bore yourselves as gods in their poor sight,
Taking their reverence as thing but slight,
Yet feasting on it with secret joy,
AS on thing whose sweetness could not cloy.''
Hardly had passed from view the stately train,
When came of folk busy, buzzng crew.
The merchants of the world-princes of gain
Who even from tyrants oft a tribute drew
Their flags on many waters proudly flew,
And their rich caravans strange lands had crost,
Or scourged by tropic heat or arctic frost.
Then cried the dreamer, ''These all men must hold
AS benefactors.'' ''Nay," Athena cried,
tThey might have been, had not the glare of gold
Blinded their sight and turned them quite aside
So that the rights of men, in their blind pride
They trampled under feet and held it right
To measure virtue even by rule of might
Now, hardly had she finished, when appeared
Another throDg-All who might teach mankind
Through any art or craft:-teachers revered--
OF every school wherein the immortal mind
Might be led forth from crooked paths and blind.
To broader fields of thought, where clear and
bright
Truth could shine forth with unobstructed light.
Then cried Athena. "Lol the worlds great souls
Who through self abnegation ever strove
To reach the affairs where the quenchless Goals
Of truth burn bright beneath the eye of Jove;
They toiled to break the bonds which ignorance
wove
Round human souls, that they like us might be
AS the Supreme designed, forever free.''
And SO the names of these did she impress
Above all others on the tablets bright,
Which in the treasure house of changelessness
Should be laid up before the Immortals' sight,
So long as stars shoald slug paths of Light
Ending her task just as line of gray
Along the horizon marked the coming day.
The dreamer saw the heavens begin to glow,
And heard the Weakening BIRDS begin to trill;
And felt the cool breath of the morning blow
From the blue bay beneath ,-serene and still,
He saw the empty streets begin to fill
With men who lived to taste the bliss which lay
Iiro+ bo nia Of dow
Then he arose. and to his house mast go
With downcast eyes; but, they remembered long
Who passed him, how his face was all aglow
And, ever after, with the humble throng
Of teachers walked he wisely, hating wrong:-
Counting all sacrifice of self but gain.
OF men thereby might some small good attain.
The statues of Fame's idols are no more.
Athens hath persisted; but men still hold dear
Great Plato's patient teacher-him who bore
The name of Socrates. And they shall hear
With reverence his name, when men once near
The gods in grandeur-kings of glorious strain
The memory of man shall not retain.
So ends the tale, o faithful Teacher! thou
Who art of these august ones! and, though Fame
May Irvine no transient laurel fer thy brow,
Still, heavens eternal page shall bear thy name
In changeless characters beyond the flame
OF Times devouring torch; for thou art one
Whose work the world must say hath been well
done.
twas said of Socrates, and still is said
Of that great teacher, more reyered than when
The streets of Athens barefoot he would tread,
HE taught the greatest Souls-of acidest ken
Il Xenopho7s and Plato but of men
TJa lad vic ri fru1U
Than thou hast led through Learning's golden gate
After the poem had been read Gen. j. L.
Chamberlain was introduced by the President,
and, despite a severe cold, from which he was
evidently suffering, spoke as follows.
GEN. CHAMBERLAIN REMARKS:
We have gathered here tonight as for core
nation. We come to mingle our tributes with
the honors which life has laid upon the head
of this chosen man, the scholar of so years,
since the laws of the land have declared him
such the citizen who has completed sfour MAJ
jorities the teacher of three generations, the
score of years, and for more than half CEN
fury an efficient member of it,-and still man
amoAg us, erect and firm, his eye not dim nor
his natural force abated.
We have come to mingle cur thankfulness
with his; to congratulate him on the long life
need of honor, and a career singularly happy
in the continued ability of useful service,
blessing which even Moses, the man who had
talked with God dared not vouchsafe to four
score years; to congratulate ourselves, that he
has SO long stood before US, bearing with him
the treasures of the departed years, and that
he stands with us still ready to step with us
into the new year, and lead onward and up
ward as ever. We come to recognize how gra-
ciously on yester eve God sat upon his brow
that many-wreathed, rare crown, wrought by
the golden circuit of the sun, and to renew our
pledges of loyal love to one we acknowledge as
teacher and master still.
l almost fear that our .venerated friend breads
the ordeal of this evening. There are some
fates Detailing this mortal lot, from which he
might we'll have deemed himself exempt.
Never having aspired to what is called the
public service" he might reasonably hope to
escape biography by vivisection. 1t is reserved
for the political candidate to see his history
spread out before him, with an application of
fact and inference, and an imputation of mo-
tive, not calculated for the sanctifcation nor
edifcation of any but the genius of journalism,
and 1t is sometimes among the deaths the SOL
der has to die, to have occasionally thrust in
his face his obituary of Illuminating brevity.
My service must be no task. And yet ap-
proach it with some misgiving. Mere con-
graduation would seem to you too little sign
pie Justice would seem to him too much.
Far distant be the day when any one stand
ing here shall be able without restraint, to por-
tray this character and service And may
this presence which inspires long check our
eulogies.
The thoughts of many here, perhaps, 60
with our friend over wider years than mine.
You, Mr.. President, must have known him
years before my little star woke hitherward
from the unknown. But none here, or alas,
elsewhere now, on earth, have been longer as
sociated with him in the work of life.
He was early called sinto that circle of men
who made Bowdoin College power from the
very beginning; so that she seemed to have
sprung, Athena-like full-panoplied from the
brain of Jove; armor and shield; betokening
not simply strength and skill, but courage,
prudence, perseverance, 'presage of victory;
men who not only were themselves distinguish
cd for what is excellent in character and
achievement, but ALSO through this and some
thing more than this, a certain unselfish loyal
ty and heroic devotion, gave the College from
the outset singular and unexampled prestige.
What those men were, and what they did, and
what they sent forth, the world knows and
honors.
The fountains were few, but they were high
up on Helicon.
In science, philosophy, Language, literature
eloquence, poetry, how readily can you supply
the names that stand doubly stelligerent, dead
but immortal, on Bowdoin's pagel
They were great men, and they made the
College great.
And their greatness was not limited to ability
and learning, worthy as these were; it filled a
larger, the moral mould it shown out of the
man himself: il was greatness in motive, pur