The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-07-06
Thursday July 6. 1882.
MIR GEORGE w. CABLES LITERARY
SPEC. IL AT OXFORD, MISS, COL
LEGE.

Mr.. Geo. w. Cable, who has recently bur-
eeoned into celebrity from the foster keeping
of the late Scribner's, delivered on the 18th
ult. one of the addresses at the commence
ment exercises of the University of MISSISSIPPI
pi, at Oxford. His speech was specially adj
dressed to the literary societies of the college,
and knowing nothing of Mr.. Cables preten-
sions or qualifications as speaker, we regret
not having been told something about them
bv the Times Democrat, in which we hnd the
address. From the character of Mr.. Cables
writings as manifested in the "Grandissmes,
we take him to be writer OF more art than
genius, more labor than spontaniety, more
method than inspiration. He is obviously an
energetic worker in the intricate management
of character dialect, but we thought that the
work cited denoted less skill than industry IN
if. and that the author would have been the
better for boost from some wandering aW4-
tbs. 1t is only as writer that we can crltlcise
Mr.. Cable in his college speech. 1t has none
of the elements of speech, no spell thai
stirred the pulses of his young hearers, no
emotional elexir in its creeping tides. These
are the qualities of eloquence, and we hazar"
nothing in saying that Mr.. Cable is not elo-
ouent. Yet many who are not SO, are still i'm
pressive and forcible speakers, and MIR. Cable
might vet be one of them.
Mr.. Cable opened with a carefully prepared
battery of metaphors and sylogisms. 10 the
open hearts of the youth he addressed he pro-
posed to open his heat, cr>o to relate what he
thought and desired. There were turgld SEN
fences. such as that his audience 'recognized
the sovereignty of matured thoughts notwith-
standing they center in the midst of a realm OF
action" which if it means anything, which we
urgently deny, should certainly have been
much better said by any one aware of i.
1t seems only the scale of that little fish
-egoism. It is an exemplary vice
in writer or speaker to impose share of the
labor he expends on a sentence upen the un-
Outstanding Of his nearer or reader; and, then,
not to reach his understanding venal. This
is the very error of the moon or otherwise ex-
notwithstanding luny. The following Is
an example of that sort, Of which MIR. Cable
should have spared the youth of Oxford
great deal. We quote it to indicate style and
whatever else it may unhappily denote:
We are neither in Asia nor Europe, but in
America, where everywhere agreat and peace
full conquest is being made by man over ma
ture 1t is not battle just begun, though II
is battle at the foot of the mountain-wlth
the heights apt to be taken. The nation
fight is now for the self-conquest of thought
Action continues to remain King. Thought
must sit above him, as the Queen Regent
The son of her right hand is Letters. A lit
erature is one Of the component parts OF every
real civilization.
Ifthese are some ofthe "matured thoughts
they are of bastard royalty. We absolutely
do not know what the self-conquest OF
thought is Intended to mean. We recognize
thought as spiritual power that comes %
men from the summit Of all power, the eyrle,
so to speak, of omnipotence. 1t is a
height the finite mind cannot scale
and in this light, what the "self-con-
quest of thought" can only mean is
self-denial which the young gentlemen
of Oxford probably failed to discover. Self
denial is an individual virtue and cannot be
excepting as the nation is an aggre-
gate of individuals. But we think many OF
Mr.. Cables expressions meaningless-some
worse. faction continues to remain King"
is silly, and as we read we helplessiy exclaim,
''Don't be a goose, Mr.. Cable" So the next.
Thought must sit above him, &c" What
in the audience at Oxford had to do
vas to sit down Oh the whole Of this as an in
dignity. Perhaps it did so, here and there
,monp the subtler brains. We would not
axe from Mr.. Cable any available chance for
distinction, but he must vigorously avoid ad
ressss. And yet the mental reserves from i
uccessful book like 1.-THE Grandissimes'
upht to he able to flower into an address.
We will tell Mr.. Gable a secret. If he will
trive less, forego hard work and throw bis
eius loosely upon the haunch's Of his Pega-