Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-11-26
GEMS FRoMLOwELL.
Sc ections from James Russell Lowells recent
Grafton at Harvard.

as barren and cherries as the serpent set
TO guard buried treasure.
Ride fast and far as we may, we carry
the past od our crupper, as immovably
seated there as the black Care of the
Roman poet.
Il In proportion as there are more thor
oughly cultivated persons in community
will the finer uses OF prosp4 rity be taught
and the vulgar uses of 1t become d.srep-
utable.
Man and his monuments are of yester-
day, and we, however, we may play with
our fancies, must content ourselves with
being young. II youth be defect, 1t is
one That we outgrow only too soon.
The most precious property OF culture,
and of college as its trustee, is to main
tain higher ideals of life and its purpose,
to keep trimmed and burning the lamps
OF that pharos, built by wiser than we,
which warns from the reefs aud shadows
Of popular doctrine.
| am not undertaking phllology or
accuracy of scholarship. Both are excel.
lent and admirable in their places. But
pathology is less beautiful to me than
philology as Milton understood the word
and mere accuracy is to truth as plas
ter cast TO the marble statue; ii gives the
facts, but not their meaning.
1t seems an odd anomaly that, while
respect for age and Difference to its opin-
ions have diminished aud are still sensi-
bly, diminishing among US, the relish of
antiquity should be more pungent and
the value set upon things merely because
they are old should be greater in America
than anywhere else.
Our public schools teach too little or
too much; too little If education is to 90
no further, too many things If what is
taught Is to be taught thoroughly; and
the more they seem to teach, the less
likely Is education to go further, for 1t is
one Of the prime witnesses of democrat
cy to be satisfied with the second best il
1T appears to answer the purpose tolera-
! bly, well, and to be cheaper--as 1t never is
in the long run.
We have justified ourselves by the
famill,r proverb that one man may lead
horse to water, but ten can't make him
drink. Proverbs are excellent things, but
we should not let even proverbs bully u.s.
They are the wisdom of the understand
Ing, not OF the higuer reason. There is
another animal, which even Simonides
could compliment only on the spindle.
side Of his pedigree, and which ten men
could not lead TO water, much less make
l a
Our Puritan ancestors have been mis-
represented and nialigned by persons
without imagination enough to make
themselves CO temporary with, and there
fore unable to understand, the men
whose memories they strive to blacken
That happy breed OF men who, both In
church and state, led our first emigration
were children OF the most splendid intel
! lectual epoch that England has ever
known. They were the coevals of a gen.
Grafton which passed on in scarcely di.
minished radiance the torch of life kin !
died in Eliza's golden days.
The Massachusetts, Bay colony itself
also was then and since without q par
allel. IL was established by CONNER
cial company, WAose members combined
In themselves the two by no means In. !
congruous elements Of religious enthusi- |
asm and business sagacity, the earthly in
gredient, as In dynamite, holding inc eek |
us explosive partner, which yet could and
ala explode on sufficient concussion
Ihey meant that their venture should be
galnful, but at the same time believed
that nothing could be long profitable for
the body wherein the soul fou not also
heradyantsge.
We are comfrorted by being told that in
called the Spirit Of the Age, which may be.
after all, only finer name for the mis-
chieyous goblin known to our forefathers
as Puck. have seen several Spirits OF
the Age 10 my time, Of very different
voices and summoning in very different
ulrectlons, but unanimous In their pro-
penalty 10 land us In the mire at last.
Would 1t not be safer to make sure first
whether the Spirit of the Age, who would
De very Insignificant fellow If we dockgd
MN OF MS capitals, be not lying spirit
since such there are?
II their (the Creek language ia dead
yet the literature 1T enshrlnes is ramyfNed
with lie as perhaps no other writing, *.
eept Shakspeare's, ever was or will be
~ is as contemporary with to-day as with
the ears II tirst enraptured, for it appeals
not TO the man OF then or now, but to the
entlre round OF human nature itsef. Men /
are ephemeral or evanescent but what
ever page the authentic soul OF man bas
touched with her immortanaing finger. NO
matter how long ago, is still young and
ialr as 1t was 10 the worlds gray fathers.
oblivion looks in the face OF the Cream /
muse only to forget her errand.
am not ignorant that wealth "a .ha /
great fertilizer of civilization. anS {
of the arts that beauty IL The /
very names OF civilization and Of no /
likeness show that the refinement of man. {
ners which made the arts possible il the I
olrth OF cities where wealth earliest nc. !
S Gu because it found itself secure |
wealth may be an excellent thing for II :
means power, 1t means leisure. II mean !
liberty. But these, divorced from chi. {
sure' mat Is, from intelligent purpose :
become the very mockery OF their own /
essence, not goods, but evils fatal n '
snei' possessor, and bring with them a
ahlessing 'sAN u /
or. Ruskln said the other dav that z
ne could not live in a COUNTRY that haS S
neither castles nor cathedrals, and donht.
Tess men OF imaginative temper and mot
only charm but Inspiration in strnctures I
Wnich nature has adopted as her foster /
children, and ON which time has laid bis
sn, uu only Ia oenedictlon. 1t is not their