The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-06
A WEARIsOME COMPANY.

As the head of one of the greatest uni
| versities in the country, DR.. David Starr
Jordan is entitled to a reading when he
writes. That may sometimes prove to be
his misfortune. It is not difficult to find
fault with that which any one may write,
for even if there should be an agreement
as to standards of literary form, there will
be disagreements on the score of their APP
plication to the ethical concerns of life so
long as there are contrarieties of opinion
on ethical matters. Nor does any fault
which may be found with Dr. Jordan as a
litterateur employing his pen in the for
warding of some cherished religious idea
bear any relation to whatever masterful
ability he may possess in the management
of great university. We have to do now
solely with shoemaker who temporarily
quits his last and turns TO the making of
pianos.
DR.. Jordan has written-and even copy
righted-a small pamphlet entitled 1.-THE
Story of the Innumerable Company"
which is intended to be an allegory illus
trating the struggles of human beings to
find the road to heaven. The opening SEN
fences read thus: There was once great
sea, and on its TANKS it bore q mighty
forest. Beyond the crest of the mountain
were ridges and valleys, peaks and chasms,
springs and torrents. Further on lay a
sandy desert, which stretched its monoto-
nous breadth to the shore of wide, swift
river. What lay beyond the river no one
knew, because its shores were always hid
in azure mist. Year by year there came up
from the shore of the sea an innumerahle
company. Each one must cross the noun
tain and the forest, faring onward toward
the desert and the river. And this was
one condition of the journey-that whose
ever came to the river must breast its
waters alone"
Although in this pamphlet there is no
reference to William Cullen Bryant's
Thanatopsis," let us quote few lines
from that great poem:
So live, that when thy summons comes to Join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber In the silent halls of death,
Thou so not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon. but sustained and soothed
BY an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps the drspery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
i HC AuAuulcIdDlc CdIdfaH secluS 10 DC
much happier idea than the Innumerable
Company; but the suggestion of similarity
laid aside, to say nothing of a comparison
of the literary forms of these two authors,
let US pass to consideration of DR.. Jor-
dams method of constructing an allegory.
In leaving the didactical form of express
ing moral ideas and adopting fiction in its
stead, the author assumes the most exact
ing of literary tasks. As form is of the
essence of his work, he must bow to its
impefious necessities and must tell story.
Jesus with his parallels, Esop with his
fables and Bunyan with his inimitable
allegory of "Pilgrim's Progress have fur
nished us with the highest and most ex-
quisite forms of telling the gravest truths
in the form of fiction. The student will
observe in all these masterpieces of literary
art, and in many others to which his
memory will revert, that all the require
ments Of storytelling are rlgidly adhered
to. They all begin with statement of
certain things which require explanation;
they proceed in a straightforward way, are
developed simply and logically and end
conclusively and satisfactorily. Pill
grim's Progress" is one of the few per-
fectly constructed novels in literature; but
Christians progress, though frequently in
terrupted by thrilling adventures, was
always onward, and the reader could feel
that his triumph would come in the end.
That is the true and highest form of