Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-30

Or If books tire - they somesimes muss,
then Be . clover Of unesDfained and immor-
tai beauty: 60 with EmeFson. Who its al
great things, ~ Nature To the woosis,- those
plsataIions Of God rh<re is perpetual yOuih,
here de- Drum and saHctity reign, ! per-
ennisI festival IL dressed, and the guest pees
ns't bow he shouli tire Of ihrm in . thousand
,esrs." Study With him the ..suecession Of
Natures plants III the pastures and roatsiles
wbsch makes the silent clock by which time
tells the summer hours" Turn your face
up 10 the wonderful dome Of day With Il.
tent Of dropping clouds, to the scriptured
night With its canopy Of goli. to the ..azurr
SKY, over whose uaspssiel deeps the winds
fofevermore drive noeks of stormy clouds
and lrxye no wrinkle or STAIN
Yet even from the infinite inspiration of
nature, the mind in time must turn, not from,
fault or flaw jim her. but from the
minds necessary craving for rhythm
md change. Each sense and faculty is
vessel which cannot BE- more than filed wifhour
'verfowing. and must be emptied before IL
can be filled again. So after profrzcfed
exercise or enjsy ment, in travel. arr iireFatur.
The mind oyerfiows and can hold no more
The most spacious thoughts. the nobIesr
serse, the lofiiest ideals Of beauty in nature
music, poetry, ART morals, religion, no longer
strike Or hold the mind. Thus the mind ~
. whole reffeshes itsef by the double
hythrn OF variety In action and total rest
md each faculty rests while another is active
30 that the whole complex movement of
mental growth is made mp of rhythms
ZACH faculty growing By peBdulum-lks
wings from activity to rest. while the whole
mind pushes along by . rhythmic orbit Of
evelopment ami decay. by = movement
| shich- like that Of the plant stem. by urging
| on its separate powers successfully and not
| simultaneously, results in constant and
hythmic oscillation seross its true axis o.
Howih. Compounded with all these regular
rhythms of mental development are lesser
md irregular ones following bodily health or
.ickness, mental tquinin,ity or anxiety, ex-
| cesHiye use or disuse. Extraordinary stimulus.
90. superb occasion. the heat intense
oliiary thought. the fric1on of antagonism
he dazzling fence Of debate, the quick thrust
md parry Of legal controversy forces the
mind. makes il think easily, nimbly, holds ii
| o the point, gives fitting and splendid drspery
o its thought, fills 1t with images. makes il
cry stslline, imperial
Eloquence IL electric, like the shock from
| battery. The orator In his persuasions
he lawyer or statesman in his argument il
hythmc. He approaches il from afar,
sarily, and from common ground with his
| ,earer. He assaults and then withdraws,
;h0oses q new point of attack. gathers
trength with each recoil, beats down op-
'osing facts by alternate blows and rests,
urls at them wave after wave Of metaphor.
iogic, eloquence. reserves himself always
tor his climax. at last brings up all his rein
torcements and storms the citadel.
II then, rhythm, both in movement and de-
velopment is the law of nature and the in
iividual mind, is it not equally the law OF
associated mind; of communities, states, civ
bzations; of the unfolding of literature
science and the arts of the mighty currents
If trade. of the great flow of opinion from,
age to age Like the stars in eternal pro-
cession up the sky. or those strange moons of
Mars which pass through all their phases be-
fore our eyes and in single night, so. one
by one, the nations of the earth climb their
enith and decline. in rythmic path of waxing
md retreating splendor. The pomp of Assyria,
lark Egypt with mystery of sphynx and py-
amid Greece with white limbs and unsandaled
feet. prohled, like her Parthenon, perfect
against the centuries, Rome mistress OF
dominion; states and empires since, Germany.
the nurse of learning. England of philosonh,
aud the senses, America lowered with the
priceless trust of freedom, all have passed or
re passing through their cycle of develop
ment and decay.
Neither aggregate nor individual growth
is "A ladder of which every round is above the
last. but progresses only by fluctuations.
The l,iest spe' eh of the great orator is not
ilways his best. and the same of the poet.
he thinker, the novelist. Yet each is still
pursuing the III, thine law of growth, and
'hough the Pickwick Papers were not
equalled ty "Barnaby Ridge" and Martin
Chuzz ewit," and Adam Bede" stood I'M
match d by the mill on the Floss" OF ''Silas
Warner" still the greatness of BLEAK
House and 'Romola" was yet to come and
ny aud by, pricked by some great spur, the
orator, the poet, the thinker, will nightly
ovcrpsss all his previous limit of achieve
ment. Two centuries passed after Chaucrr
before another great name was given to
English letters, and yet by and by Shake
spere followed. Learn patience, then. from
nature, who never is in haste. Think not
ever that the best has been. Presently.
from the deep places of the sea, one more
royal than SHAKESPEARE will swing past you
humorous, and. far up the shore, will leave
his lonely gauntlet, the wonder of coming
time.
Thus we have imperfcctly traced our sug
sestel law of rhythm from matter through
mind to society. We have seen that all ma
ure. whether in its sweetness or terror
Sooing or threatening, beats with nnresting
rhythm; that mind and society wherever
touched, show themselves by rhythmic pro
iucts, as a liquid. struck, moves in waves, or
a solid, in atomic vibration.
Yet, so the wisest tell us, with the uni
verse. even as with the ephemera, evolution
'uust be followed by dissolution, the rhythm
of life by the rhythm of death: they tell us
that the time will ceme when our earth shall
become like the frozen moon, and all things
hall be wrapped not in flame of fire, but in
universal and overcoming cold that, in con-
sequence, al life shall dwindle and disap-
pear, and man and mind. unfed by the solar
ray, shall cease to act or be; that the uni
verse itself is held together only by the
equilibrium of attraction and repulsion; that |
the increasing resistance Of the inter stellar
medium may slowly lessen the velocity of all
planetary motion. that the attractive forces, |
being thus less and less opposed. may gradual |
ly gain ascendancy, that planets and satel- |
ltes thus brought nearer and nearer to rest
will be left unprotected against the indraw-
ing of gravitstion. that moon after moon will
he drawn back into its original planet. planet
after planet into its original sun, till ut last
miIfionx -4f extinct suns and systems
rush with inconceivable shock upon their
common centre. and the whole mass gasihed
by the fierce impact. PUSHES back again To
,ebula aud chaos. Who, then, can tell If
he universe be not already past high noon
md if the finger of time be not already fling
ny backward shadows on the dial of eternity
Well. then. did the poet cry, as he looked
tut on the world of things;
Flow, flow the waves hated,
Accused adored,
The waves OF mutation;
No anchorage Is,
sleep Is not, death Is not,
Wha seem to die, live . 1