Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-05-19
EXTRACT FROM A POEM DELIV-
Erred At THE DEPARTURE OF
THE SENIOR CLASS OF YALE
COLLEGE IN 1880.
BY n. p. WILLIS.

And the ung0VernaDle tnought WITHIN
Will be in every bosom eloquent.
But when the silence and the calm
Come on, and the high seal OF character
Is set, we shall not all be similar.
The scale of being is graduated thing,
And deeper than the vanities of power,
Or the vain pomp of glory; there is writ,
Graduation in its hidden characters;
The pathway to the grave may be the same,
And the proud man shall tread it,
And the poor, with his bowed head, shall
Bear him company. Decay will make no
Difference, and Death with his cold hand
Will make no difference and there will be
No precedent of power in waking at the
Coming trump of God. But in the temper
OF the invisible mind, the God.like and
undying
Intellect, there are distinctions that
Will live in Heaven, when Time is for.
gotten
Circumstance. The elevated brow of kings
will
Lose the impress OF regalia; and the slave
will wear his immortality as free beside the
Crystal waters; but the depth of glory in
the
Attributes Of God, will measure the capacities
OF mind and as the angels differ, will the
Ken of gifted spirits glorify him more, it
Is life's mystery. The soul of man createth
its
Own destiny of power, and as the trial is
Intenser here, his being has a nobler
strength
In Heaven. What is its earthly victory
Press on! For it hath tempted angels. YET
press on!
For it shall make you mighty among men
And from the eyrie of your eagle thought
we Shall
Look down on monarchs. 0 press on!
For the high ones and powerful shall come
Do you reverence; and the beautiful will
The purer language of your brow, and read
it ina
Talsman of love. Press on for it is God
like to
Unlose the spirit, and forget yourself in
thought;
Bending pinion for the deeper sky,and in
The letters OF your flesh mating with the
pure
Essences OF heaven. Press on "for in the
grave
There is no work, and no device" Press on
while
Yet you may. So lives the soul of man.
It is the thirst of his immortal nature and he
Rends the rocks for secret foundations, and
Pursues the path of the illimitable wind fol
Mysteries and this is human pride
There is a gentler element, and man may
Breathe it with calm unrufled soul, and
Drink its living waters till the heart is pure
And this is human happiness!
Its secret and its evidence are writ in the
Broad book of Nature. IT'S to have atten
tive
And believing faculties; to 60 abroad
Rejoicing in the Joy of beautiful and well
Created things; to love the voice of waters
and
The sheen of silver fountains leaping to the
To thrill with the rich melody of birds
Living their life of music;
To be glad in the gay sunshine; reveren
in the
Storm to see beauty in the stirring leaf
And find calm thought beneath the wits
pering
Tree; to see, and hear, and breathe tn,
evidence
OF Gods deep wisdom in the natural world
1t is to linger on the magic face of human
beauty,
And from light and shade alike to draw &
lesson;
IT'S to love the cadences of voices that are
tuned
BY majesty and purity OF thought;
To gaze on woman's beauty as q star
Whose purity and distance make it fair.
And in the gush of music to be still,
And feel that it hath purified the heart!
1t is TO love all virtue for itself, all natur,
for its
Breathing Evidence and when the ey,
hath seen, and
When the ear hath drunk the beautiful
harmony
OF the world, it is to humble the imperfec
mind,
And lean the broken spirit upon God.
Thus would like just departing child
who
Lingers on the threshold of his home, re
member
With us now no more.
1t is the gift of sorrow to be pure; and
would
Press the lesson, that when life hath be
come
WEAKNESS, and hope thirsts for severe
waters.