The Portland daily press., 1885-02-28

lContnued from First Page]
son and influence OF the place, than Washing
ton irving? AS Edmund Burke said, 1.-THE
moment l entered Westminster Abbey, I felt
kind of awe pervade my mind which cam
not describe; the very silence seemed sacred,'
so Irving said, "On entering, the magnitude of
the building bre axis fully upon the mind. The
eye gazes With wonder at clustered columns of
gigantic dimensions, with arches spriDgipg
from them to such an amazing height. 1t
seems as if the awful nature of the place pres
ses down upon the soul, and bushes the be-
holder into Doiseess reverence"
When the shouts OF the Westminster school
boys break in upon his revery and upon the
monsstic stillpess about him, he escapes into
the deeper solitudes of the pile, following the
verger through "the portal rich with the
crumbling sculpture OF former ages" into the
library and there holds his fanciful colloquv
with the laxative Quarto volume of Shakes
peares time upon the mut9bility of literature
The courts of the Alhambra, to Ewing even,
could never have been so thronged with
memories, as were the old gray cloisters of
Westminster Abbey.
The place itself, consecrated as the site of q
Christian church from an immemorial date,
almost from the time when the last Roman le-
glon left Britain; over which successive waves
OF invasion have swept, and the wars and rev.
nlutions of English history have rolled;
where Saxon, Dane and Norman kings have
reigned, and the long succession of
English sovereigns have been crowned;
the abbey, en- which the shadows OF
the Middle Ages still seem to rest; itself mo-
sale of English history, of the taste, Judgment
and resources of different epochs; monument
and memorial of ages more picturesque than
our own, OF the ages OF myth, miracle, romance
and mystery,in which 1t was founded; eloquent
at once of all that the beautiful and grand in
architecture can teach, and of the moral and
meaning OF change and decay; which has sur
vived sudden and violent, and gradual and
silent changes in the church and faith which
reared it; this immemorial restipg.place of the
illustrious dead; "this great temple of silence
and reconciliation, where the enmities of
twenty generations lie buried i'm what rev.
cry or rapture may memory and the magma
t1oni hand in hand, wander here at will, while
the silent influences of the place steal in upon
the haunted mind.
believe Goldsmith is said to have first ap-
piled the name Poet Corner to the southern
end Of the south trapsept of Westminster
Abbey. Here, about the simple memorials of
the poets, visitors at the Abbey are most likely
to linger. IA kinder and fonder feeling takes
the place of that cold curiosity or vague admir-
alton with which they gaze on the splendid
monuments of the great and heroic. They
finger about these as about the tombs Of friends
and companions"
Many a name commemorated here is already
forgotten. Many a famous and brilliant name
in English literature is without memorial
Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Ben JON
son, Milton, Dryden, Gray and Goldsmith,
these are among the names in the brilliant line
age of English genius which are read upon the
memorials in the Poets Corner.
But Westminster Abbey, and its monuments
are too familiar to you all for me to hope to
excite moments interest By any words OF de-
scripton.
The event we celebrate tonight is the recep-
ton by our Maine Historical Society from the
Muniicence OF the English Committee OF a
n tho I'm Of Vpk hach na MI in &ha
Poets Corner IN memory of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. The admission of an American
name, however illustrious, to the honor of
commemoratIon in Westminster Abbey is an
event that has excited the interest and touched
the hearts of all our countrymen.
The reception by our State Historical Society
o. this admirable bust is an event that may
well be celebrated with peculiar pride here, in
our city where Longfellow was born, with
which his family has been identified from an
early period, and where his family name was
an honored one before his life and works had
given to 1t the lRstte of his genius and fame.
Excelsior" as given by the Haydns,
formed an agreeable intsrlude to the speak
ing. Mr.. Baxter, in introducing Professor
Chapman, said that Portlanders are always
happy to hear the voice of the Professor.
PROFESSOR cHApMAN's ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
There are some interesting points OF resem-
blance between nations and individual ls. Those
who go forth from the celestial home and
build for themselves a humble lodge in the
wilderness are no sooner established in their
new dwelling than they begin to question
about their stsnding with those who are living
in possession of the old home; and especially
is this true If the separation has not been a
kindly one. The pioneer gains the belief that
the people at home feel superior to him; that
he is looked down upon. Indissolubie ties of
birth and blood will assert their power, how
ever, though distress may have caused them to
sink from sight like the cable beneath the waves.
As culture and comforts increase the new peo-
pie Care less for the opinion of the old. The
question WHO reads an American hook?" has
no power to annoy Americans as it once did.
Our love for England is strengthened by
mutual knowledge of merits and defects
Enduring respect enables as to bear the laxi-
ties OF diplomatic courtesy and the occasional
growl of the British lion. We are one people
with the English and it is not as a stranger or
an alien that LoDgfellow is admitted to place
Ia Westminster Abbey. 1t is a qualification to
us that the commonwealth which contains
Pemsquid is the first to be honored with
place Tor one of its sons in mausoleum of
the family.
Professor Chapman closed with comparis-
on between Longfellow and the great English
poets and said, "by common fame. his name
will ever be linked with those who have made
the English tongue chief of the Pentecostal
tongues of earth"
''The Heavens are Telling" was sung by the
Haydns, after which in Mr.. Geo. F. Talbot's
absence, his address was read by his son, Mr..
Thomas Talbot.
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE F. TALBOT
A city is justly more proud of its eminent
men than OF its wealth, its natural beauty, or
its military renown. We take to ourselves the
credit of genius, and say, this soil and sky pro-
duce this kind; he is but specimen nugget OF
the gold that permeates this vein, and every
miner has but to dig to provide himself with
others equally valuable. We reckon cent?
IDENTIFY that the crop of great minds shall be as
regular and bouDtifal as the crops of fruit and
corn. But this is an overweening presump-
ton. For Emerson says Rotation is the
law OF nature. When nature removes great
man, people explore the horizon for success
SCR; but none comes, and none will. His class
Is extinguished with him.
Two Ionian cities, Cyme and Smyrna, CON-
tended with each other as to which was the
birthplace of Homer, SO great was the distinc-
the master and father of song. The Homeric
age was quite too unconscious to note such an
event as the birth of great poet. 1t was a
time when great actions were performed: bat
the effort spent itself in the doing, and not in
the telling. Our modern times are intensely
self-conscious. The reporter interviews all
our privacy, and the daily newspaper chroni-
whiIns and our resentments. It is an age
when no man liveth to himself, and no man
dieth to himself. II the condolences of our
friendships, the satisfaetions of our affections,
our aspirations, our regrets, our errors and our
offences have in them aught to point q moral
or adorn tale; anything to feed the every
where stimulated hunger for news, they must