The Portland daily press., 1895-02-28
NATURE IN LITERATURE.
First Lecture in ReY. John A. Bel
lOws's Course.
A Delightful Discourse With Admirable
Readings.

| Life. at the Second Advent church, We'd
nesdqy afternoon. his special subject being,
III he Interpretation of Nature by Iiitera-
ture" He prefaced his discourse with a
very complimentary aliusion to the course
of lecture by Prof. Chapman of Bowdoin,
who. by the way, was in the church. He
made a b ief statement of what literature is
and what it is not. He said that in this day
he glad to say, as teacher, that even
the text books in schools, have something
moro of beauty and grace then they used to
have.
Literature is an Interpretation of the
highest souls in their highest movements.
1t is criticism of human life. Mr.. Bellows
first condemned the department of fiction.
He believed in good fiction. 1t a girl or
boy is deficient in imagination, turn them
into Scott who as Emerson said, lis
| delight to generous boys" He unrolls be-
fore us as in some great picture. the
splendor and beauty of noble men and deeds
and pure and beautiful women. He did not
think it good sign that in our modern
| times the boy instead of reading Scott. are
reading Henty. He first learned of this in
the classic shades of Bowdoin. where he
was told that this author was very popular
with the boys. Since then he had tried to
become acquainted with Henty. He found
no harm in him, but very little of improve
ment.
He referred to Robert Louis Stevenson as
dear to many of us. because of certain
distinction of style that was peculiar to him.
His passing seems like personal bereave-
ment. The tender love for him of those
simple oamoans liz a very touching spectacle
for the whole world.
If all this is true of the minor writer's of
the day. if they help to interpret life to us.
how much more is this true of the great
writer's. How does Homer interpret life for
us?
There is an enlargement of behavior in
his great characters that eDlarges our
vision of the world. And how does Hamlet
interpret life for us? 1t is as a great moral
lesson that it benefits us. II shows to us
that no wisdom s profitable to us until it
has been converted in to character. Hamlet
has amancipated his intellect without im-
proving bis character. 1t is the tragedy of
thought that is not able TO exert itself into
action. The tragedy of Leah is the tragedy
hat is in our own heart 1t shows that it
is suspicion and distrust that saddens our
home. So too the drama of reconcilla-
tom of Shakespeare. 1.-THE Winters Tala.''
and ''The Tempest What grand sermons
are they in their teachings of forgiveness.
1t is the carrying out of he old stole ideas
OF Epictelus, nothing outside of you can
harm you.'
Nature is the presentation of all outward
phenomena. What are 10 think of it?
We are to ourselves unknown. The savage
trembles before the tempest. The wiser
Greek worships the sun in his course
through the heavens. On ouI western coast
the Chinese implore their gods or devils to
preserI them for another yenr.
And in our own homes | find a certain
trace of that devil worship and devil fear
that We laugh at in the poor Chinese
a great teacher, recently dead. says that
what we ought to live for is Impressions. 1t
is the number OF thrills and sensations thar
man has experienced that constitutes his
life and not the number of his years.
John Stuart Mills described nature as a
tyrant that treats it will. In contrast
to this is the statement from Emerson's
Divinity school addre S. it is his way of
looking at nature. Mr.. Bellows then read
the famous poet passage beginning In this
refulgent summer it is pleasure to draw
the breath of life. etc.,
1t is true that net all felt the power and
mystery of nature alike. The man by the
seashore and the man in the mountains do
not reply Satisfactorily TO the question as 20
how the ocean and the mountain appeal to
them. They simply say perhaps that they
would miss the roar of the waves or the
presence of thespeaks, but nevertheless they
may thus express deep love for nature
as anybody could feel. However, our appre-
citation of nature. and the help and inspira-
ton that we shall get from nature depends
largely upon what we have read in books
about nature and how the thong hts of other
minds bout nature sink into cur own.
Mr.. Bellows read from Tennyson. Wards
worth and others TO illustrate this state
lnent. The love of nature seems to be con-
fined to the modern poets. Homer cares
most for the life of men and seems not to
have been penetrated by the beauty and
mystery of the natural world.
All the talk about appreciation of nature
ID the classics must be referred to Theocri-
tus. In comparison with him Virgil is
practical and unreal. If you want to get
the full favor of pastoral life turn to
Theocritus. The speaker here read the con-
versation between the two shepherds. To
pass to medieval times the great name Of
Dante at once suggests the descriptions
that we have in the Inferno. Dante
naturally leads US to our English poet, who
wrote the Canterbury Tales. Chaucors's
love of nature is the keen delight in green
things growing and not the hot house de-
light of some of our modern poets. Spenser
is very different interpreter of nature He
is not a first hand in terpreter. He seems to
look upon nature as is a dream. He is a
literary poet, WHO has gathered together
all charming thoughts about nature, and
expresses them with the greatest literary
skill.
70 speak of Shakespeare is to speak of
one who has summoned TO himself all powers
aid, as it sometimes seems all knowledge
Charlie Lamb said thar the song IN the Tenn
pest is like no other song in expressing the
spirit of the ocean.
II is not commonly thought that the
setting of Shakespeare's plays, the nature
that is introduced, has a very decided Dear-
ing upon the plot, but if we look carefully
we will see how marvelously the scenes of
nature do correspond with the theme of the
play.