The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-08-22
Notes by the Way,

"To look around thy room one wonld think
thee a great admirer of men,
This from a friend whose company we
had been enjoying in our own private
room, and although our reply was quick
and decided and no doubt would have met
the approval of any man, yet the remark
has ocoasioned a train of thought which
causes us to q~uestion-are we? As we
glance around the walls we conclude it
was very natural for any one to entertain
and give expression to such a thought, and
by way of pastime we will endeavor to
analyze this question more fully and see if
that friend was correct, or otherwise, in
her supposition.
Here to our right hangs a very good
| portrait of he who is the author of the
"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" and
from the expression of his eyes and mouth
we think he meant it when he commanded
US in his poem on Language" to
"speak clearly, ifyou speak at ali;
Carve every word before you let it fail;
DON'T, like a lecturer or dramatic star,
Try over hard to roll the British Il;
Do put your accents in the proper spot;
Don't-let me beg y%ou-don't say how for
what
However much we may admire this man
" me- SAAiAAShtsf tb1a ioACiNts etAiA
for his skill as a physician, and although
we give him due credit for abstaining him
self from that which brntalizes men, yet
we do not admire the course he pursued
when the Constitutions Amendment was
put to a vote in his own state of Massa-
chusetts, he not only having voted against
the measure himself but tried to win Others
to follow suit.
Further over is a very clever portrait of
that miserably besotted but brilliant
author who wrote in his remorse:
abe that word our sign OF parting, bird or
fend!' shrieked. upstarting-
"Get thee back into the tempest and the
nights plutonian shore,
Leave no black plume as q token OF that lie
thy soul hath spoken.
Leave my loneliness unbroken.-quit the
bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart. ana lake
thy form from Oft my doori"
Quoth the raven, 'NevermoreF'
As we gaze into the authors face thought
shows us one made after the image of God,
having possessed bright intellect, great
advantages, wealth, a loved and loving
wife, yet even these had no power to stay
his downward course, and after "Lenore'
was taken from him, after he was driven
from the projection Oh his OeDeiact0r, lie
died in his depravity, aged but thirty-eight
years. Shall we admire here, or condemn?
Judgment doth belong only to God.
Over there on the opposite wall is a pro-
file of that graceful and independent
thinker who has said Beauty is The mark
God sets upon virtue," and that Every
natural action is graceful" Although his
portrait, as here represented, would natur-
ally lead one To believe he did not possess
hardly his share of facial attractiyeness,
yet from his great sincerity and beauty of
expression and from the respectful atten-
ton he has commanded in literature, we
conclude there were greater qualities about
him to be admired than personal comeliness
could excite, for beauty without a soul
and a flower without fragrance, however
pleasing they may be to the eye. do not
satisfy us. We have heard il said though
beauty is but skin deep, u~sliness goes To
the bone This we don't believe, how
ever, in its literal sense, Tor we h~aveknown
homely faces that possessed irresistible
charms for us, and we have met, too,
handsome faces that were repulsive, their
unseen ugliness reaching the bone. no
doubt. Do we admire here OF otherw ise7
Next is one of Americas idolized poets