The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-08

Cannon Farar's Arguments for an American
Kind of Westminster Abbey.

it may perhaps be said that the progress of
America in art has fallen short of her progress
in all other things. She has yet to fulfill the
prophecy of Sir William Jones:
Commerce with fleets shall mock the waves,
And arts that flourish not with slaves,
Dancing with every grace and muse -,
Shall bid the valleys laugh and heavenly beams diff
fuse"
Architecture. sculpture, painting, mosaics, iron
work are not born In day. America has YET
ample time in which to develop some heaven
born genius in these directions. But were 1T
once known that she contemplated the erection
of building which was to attain as nearly as
possible to the ideal of her beauty and magnlh-
cence, how intense stimulus would be given TO
the toll and to the gifts of every native artist
Of course, the conception of such a structure
should be of the grandest and statelest descrlp-
ton. There should he
Nil parvo aut humili modo.
The architecture should be of the most mag
nifcent proportions; the floors of the most lus-
trous marbles; the mosaics enriched with pre-
cious stones malachite and lapis lazuli, and
agate, and carnelian, crystal, and every native
gem, like those of the most splendid Russian ca
thedrals. No painting, no sculpture should be
admitted into it which had not stood the test OF
time which did not satisfy the severest
canons of contemporary taste. believe that the
beginning of such building, the mere fact that
such a building in contemplation, would
form an epoch in the history of American art.
1t is true that at the best there would be IN your
Valhalla, as in our Abbey, many sculptures
which succeeding generations would condemn.
But even these have their value. They visibly
present to the student the history of art They
teach him what to initiate and what to AVOID.
They reflect with unfailing and unsuspectlng
accuracy, the varying emotions and ideals OF the
periods by which they were produced
Second should like, in my remaining re-
marks, to point out the certain incidental ad-
vantages which would acrue to the American
nation from the possession of such building:
l. 1t would fire the honorable passion for
glory the desire for earthly Immortality won by
the bestOwal of great and lifelong services.
America already feels the spell exercised over
her imagination by the modest mansion on the
banks of the Potomac" by the memorial at
Gettysburg. by the statues around her Capitol
at Washington, by the monument on Bunker
HILL How much was expressed by the exclama-
ton of Lord Nelson: Tomorrow peeIage or
Westminster Abbevw
II. 1t would give a fresh impulse to literature.
complete literature has sprung up round West
minister Abbey, and it would be. difficult to est-
mate how many valuable books have first been
suggested to their authors by lingering in its
precincts. Once instance may suffice. The most
interesting of Lord Macaulay's essays was sug-
gested to the great historian as heStood talking
to Dean Mlman under the bust of the great Pro-
consul, Warren Hastings. 1t is to that ceno-
taph that we owe so brilliant chapter in our
Indian history.
III. 1t would stimulate courage in the faint
hearted, and hopefulness in the respondent To
me history and biography have ever been books of
God, and some of the most touching lessons of
history and biography are recalled to the mind
as we gaze on the memorials and stand upon
the graves of the illustrious dead "Ihave been
born,' said Montezuma, 'let that come which
must come!" IL am a man." said Frederick the
Great land therefore born to misfortune. But
| will oppose to misfortune the constancy of a
man. l will breast the storm" Human cour-
age" said Gen. Robert E. Lee. SHOULD rise to
the height of human calamity Many, strange
and terrible were the calamities which afflicted
the great men whose bodies are now buried in
peace under those ancient roofs, but they
wrestled with them and they conquered The
lesson is not lost upon the minds of the young.
One day. more than a hundred years ago. poor
booksellers boy came into the Abbey, groaning
under the weight of a load of books
which he had to carry to the house of
his masters customer Tired out, the poor boy
came in at the great north door and sat down to
rest. And as he sat down he burst into invOluu
tary tears as the thought came into his mind: Il
am nothing but poor booksellers boy, and
shall have nothing to do all my life long but to
trudge the streets of London under these heavy
burdens!' And then, lifting up his eyes, he
caught sight of the statues of the great and good
everywhere around him, and he thought: "These
men became great many of them, from positions
of poverty and obscurity, why should not II"
The boy dried his tears, he shouldered his bur-
den; the sacred fire of noble purpose was kin
died in his heart. He grew up to be the emf
nert and sanity DR.. William Marshman, the
first who translated the Holy Scriptures into the
dialect of HindoStan-one of the earliest OF our
great missionaries to that new empire, and the
father-inlaw of the stainless hero, Sir Henry
Havelock, who saved India III the terrible
mutiny, and died like Wolfe IN the hour of vic
tory.
~. And the lessons derived from these me-
MORALS may be both indirect and direct. They
may be indirect, yet very precious. What ma
ton, for instance, afford to let 60 of any in
fuence which may help to save it from vulgar
and commonplace views of life; from false types
of excellence; from the paltry competition which
strives above all things after material success;
from the dedication of current popular opinion;
from the desire to swim with the stream and to
spread the sails to the passing breeze? The
memorials Of the great and good may tend to
inspire purer hopes and loftier aspirations.
The will show, as is shown over and over
again il the Abbey, that the best, the greatest,
the most revered by posterity have often
been, in their own lifetime, utterly unsuccessful
as the world counts success. Thew have been
often intensely unpopular and miserably poor.
They have been surpassed in all earthly COM
forts and possessions by hundreds of common
place swinders and gorgeous criminals. They
have enjoyed to the utmost the bitter beatitude
of malediction. They have cut against the
grain of indurated prejudices. Kings have
frowned on them, and priests mathematical.
But they would not throw away to morrow for
ever in order to secure to-day. Fools counted
their lives madness and their end to be without
honor. How are they counted among the chill
dren of God and their lot among the saints2"
V. And the lessons of instructive human lives
may be brought home, in such places, directly
we'll as indirectly. The picturesque sensibili-
ty Of the late Dean of Westminster was shown
again and again in the notices. texts and titles
which he selected to inscribe on various tombs
and statues. On the cenotaph of John Wesley
is carved his last utterance-'"The best Of ali is,
God is with u.s." On the grave of Livingstone
are carved the last words found written in his
diary. 'All can say in my solitude is, may
heavens blessing rest on every one-English.
man, American. or Turk-who shall help to heal
this open sore of the world"-the slave trade.
On the bust of Lord Lawrence is the inscription,
He feared man so little because he feared God
so much" might quote many other instances.
The wisdom of Athens trained her youth in vir-
tue by moral sentiments and inscriptions upon