The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-06-22
THE PARENT OF>ACTION.
The Remarkable Effort of Marie
Elizabeth C1ipfe11.

The Remarkable Effort OF Marie
Elizabeth ClipfeI1.
The following brilliant and remark
able document was written by Miss
Marie Elizabeth Clipfell, daughter of
Mr.. and Mrs. H. F. Clipfell, and read
at the graduating exercises Of the
Northwestern Christian college, at
Excelsior, several days since, at which
time the degree of bachelor of arts
was conferred upon the. young lady.
The remarkable language, mingled
with natural philosophy, cannot help
being admired:
All the operations of nature have
the nearness and impulsiveness of
heart throbs. The mountain cataract
leaps in the sunlight and great tenn
pests break with sudden fury. At
morning, the sun clears the barrier of
the eastern hills with startling quick
ness, like a gladiator bounding into
the arena, and sinks behind the west
ern woods at night with a mournful
and peculiar majesty. Then do the
evening stars burst forth with en-
kindling splendor. Thus the infinite,
the mysterious, the unsearchable
meets us everywhere, and thus may
the human heart see in Nature, vibrat-
ing and quivering with perpetual i'm
pulse, the portrayal of it's own indie
scribable capacity for emotion. The
sublimer the prospects which are
opened by the universe, the more the
spirit of man is impelled to
ascend to a still sublimer being.
Whose heart has not softened into
Joy, as he has looked on hill and val
ley, and cultivated plain, On stream
and forest, on the constant stars and
the serene sky?
One of the attributes of men that
separates him most wildly from the
brute creation is his emotional nature,
pure and noble as conceived in the
thought of God. What a contrast be-
tween the unchanging instincts of the
brute and the tumultous conflict,
hopes and fears,the lightning thoughts
and boundless aspirations of the hui
man soul? There is tina: within us
which responds when we stand in the
presence Of greatness. The thousands
who, day by day, stand in silent awe
before mighty Niagara; the countless
tourists, who journey from all parts of
the world to behold the beauties of
the Rhine, or the marvels of Alpine
scenery; the throngs of sight-seers
who visit each season the valley of the
Yosemite, all these testify to the fact
that mans soul delights in beauty and
sublimity. This emotion is also man
Tested in the interest the multitude
take in persons of commanding intel
lectual energy, Of heroic courage, or of
answering loyalty to principle. Great
artists, poets, orators and musicians
have always aroused in men the keen
feelings of appreciation and pleasure.
The feelings aroused by the pre-
sentation Of any subject to the mind,
have sometimes a tendency to diminish
as the object becomes familiar. We
grow accustomed to those things
which at first produced upon us the
profoundest impressions. This famil-
iarity dulls our appreciation of the
beautiful, and sometimes dwarfs our
capacity for deep and genuine emotion
The thoughtless person sees nothing
marvellous in that which is common
How true to life, sadly true, is the
character of whom Wadsworth says
"A primrose by the rivers brim;
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing MORE
Every flower of the field is an EN-.
bodiment of beauty and symmetry, a
revelation of the Creator, and should
be a delight to mans heart.
When we try to imagine each one
of the countless, twlnkling points o.
fire in the heavens, as flaming sun
immeasurably larger than our owr
sun-how inconceivable2 When W.
try to think of their distances as such
that the stupendous distance from u.
to our own SUN is but a span in com
parison, and the swift winged Ligh
needs years to bring us single ray
from them-how incomprehensible
No thoughtful man ever ponders upor
these things without being moved t.
exclaim, "What is man, that thou ar
mindful of him." Whenever thi
love of the beautiful and sublime un
folds into strong emotion, it becomes
closely related to reverence and it
natural influence is to lead our mind
to contemplate brighter beauty that
is revealed in creation. How essentia
is it then, that we should develop ant
educate the sensibilities and in no wa,