The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-10
Ho. the rose having cu,led its sweet lips for the

4
Takes delight in the motion IFS petals keep up
As they laugh to the wind laughs from the West
/ Now you have heard the Sapphic fragment
read, and you have heard Little Brown Hands. "
shall draw no comparison; do venture to say
this: That If this simple little song of the Brown
| Hands had come down to sea breeze
/ from Teos or from Lesbos with the perspective
of two or three thousand years to soften its
I meaning, it would to-day be in every Greek
anthology and would be considered priceless
| echo of Ionan melody or of the lyrical richness
| of Methymna and Mityiene
Stray gusts Of Sapphic song that blew through Nifty
1 lene'
slons of pagan life in old Greek days than does
| this sincere childs song, of Americas brown
handed children, suggest the highest possibil-
/ ties OF a pure and enlightened freedom. The
/ brown haads may be those of Lincoln splitting
rails of Washington holding the surveyors
compass of johnson at the tailor's table, of Gar
| field guiding the horse on the tow path of Grant
| at the tanners vat, of Cleveland at the clerks
| desk but they are to be the hands of Presi-
| dent
may be narrow and weak, but I have a
keener sympathy for my own people than for
any other | stand up for my own day, my
own tongue and my country. Longfeow, Bry-
ant Whittier and the dear young school in
America and over the world good enough for
me. The heroes of our own battle felds-all of
our own men and women who have carved their
way to a just fame-are the very dearest of all to
me. WE'LL it is better torecord the beautiful truths
of our own civilization than to clcthe the lies of
the past in sonorous verse. 1t is better to
| realize the Pacific railroad and the ocean cable
than to dream of the hanging gardens of Baby
Ion or to visit the Sphynx. 1t is better to honor
General Grant than to apotheosize Hannibal
Yesterday we had slavery, to-day we are a
free people. Our own General Manson, when he
received his wounds for the sake of sweeter
humanity, a broader liberty and firmer founda-
| ton for our government went higher than ever
Caesar dared to 60, and who shall deny It'll
l believe in sincerity, selfconfdence, pluck,
developed to that degree which impels revolt
against the merely conventional limitations OF
modern criticism. have heard men expatiate
on the transcendant genius OF Napoleon Bona
parte, who, if asked where Austerlitz. or Lodi,
or Waterloo was, could not have told. Those
who rant loudest about Homer and Pindar know
| the least Greek. The most eloquent Ciceronians
are those who have never read the famous
oratone
The doctrine I would urge is the doctrine of
faith in the triumphs of labor-the doctrine of
sympathy with our surroundings;-the doctrine
of the survival of the newest, the truest and
the best only so long as they remain the newest,
| the truest and best-the doctrine of the young
school. If General Wallaces ben Hur" is as
good a novel as 'Ivanhoe' or a better novel than
the Vicar of Wakefield" i believe in saying
that it Isl | do not find the good of standing
with ones back to the future, and ones face to
| the past l do not relish this tendency toward
clarifying everything foreign, and old, and dis
tant, while our own country, our own day, and
our own achievements are ignored. Ii Ben ID.
House, and J. W. Riley, and Dan Paine, and
Mrs. Wallace, and Miss Krout. and many others
here in Indiana have done honor to our day.
our State and our tongue, why look over their
heads to gaze at strange. faces2 |
take no pleasure in the doctrine that
Distance lends enchantment to the view"
| should choose to be near what is beautiful |
would rather stand on the mountain top, in the
thin, clear air. than to view the peak from q dis
tance. believe in the now and the Immediately
forthcoming / should like to be among the
skrmishers On the foremost fringe of the army
that invades every UNEMPLOYED domain of science
literature and art. / would not be, like GER
tain character in Dickens's novels always
thinking about the old un." The new one is
prettier, and sweeter, and more lovable But
shall / not study Shakespeare" you ask. Yes;
study him, and you will find him amazingly hui
man in his divinity, superbly broad, almost uni
versal in the sweep of his genius. Study him. but
do not allow him to shut off your vision of
the present and the future. Study Mil
ton, and Dante, and Homer, but make
them stay behind you where they belong
Study Hugo and Goethe and Robert Browning
but do not forget that the future must lead
higher. Be alert, inquisitve, examine every
thing for yourselves dsdainins source refus--
ing nothing that is new, and true, and good. You
have all observed that it is the chief character
istic of dotage that it thinks of talks of and
lives in the past. When man or woman be-
gins to weaken and fall the present fades out.
and the past brightenS
Our minds become monumental as soon as
they begin to prefer the finished and the we'll
worn to that which is just beginning to grow
and to promise something bright and new. If
we prefer the old, we grow old; if we love the
new, we remain young.
If we look about us, giving to contempor-
aneous achievement the respect and honor that
is due it, shall find that we do not need to be
forever feeding our imaginations on the wonders
of a departed glory. Life changes with the
changes OF time. New eXigences call for new
expedients The genius of to-day must give
place to the genius of tomorrow. There can be
no progress unless the standard of excellence be
kept constantly improving. 1t is the young
school of thinkers that we shall find always just
far enough ahead of the to be forever in the
endless daybreak of a new life. These cheerful
and hopeful birds of morning get the first deli
cious foretaste of every change For them there
is no gloom of night no fierce glare of MONDAY
but always the sweet, tempting, early dawn.
The story of the Lotus land is very faScnat-
ing to some minds-a land of perpetual after
noon, a land of dreams and revery-but the in
doent luxury of such life as the vision sug-
gests is far from enlightened and inquisitive
age. We do not care for the afternoon or for
night, no matter how splendid with moon
and stars. Always the daybreak-always the
rosy dawn. Guided by this soft and grateful
light we shall breathe always the freshest breath
of discovery our sandals shall be dashed with fra
grant dew, and we shall feel that the morning
stars are still singing together over world for
ever growing, forever young, forever vigorous
forever beautiful
'tBut clear as amber, fine as musk
Is life to those who, pilgrimwise,
Move hand in hand from dawn to dusk
Each morning nearer paradise.
O. not for them shall angels pray:
They stand in everlasting light
They walk in Allahs smile by day,
And nestle in his heart by night