The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-10-28

through Cadmus, the alphabet was
carried to Greece, and it is to be noted
that Ogmius evidently a corruption of
Cadmus) was the god of letters in
Ireland long before the Roman con-
quest of Britain, and that the language
of the Punic bards as used by PIautus,
is almost Identical, as shown by Val
lancy's Irish grammar.
SO also we find the Phnnician alpha
bet of sixteen letters was the same as
the Irish. Thus from the east and west
of Europe comes positive evidence that
the Ph9nician race has bequeathed to
humanity the greatest invention ever
met with, simplifying language and
opening up the path of mental progress
to the human race But as it is ideas
that sway the world, which become the
potent forces in mans progress, let us
see wherein the recorded ideas of the
ancients benefit the modern race.
Life, man s life, has been in every age,
striving for higher ideals, little by
little the ideal advances, age Oh age
builds up within us higher concep.
tion of the ideal sought. Whether we
seek an ideal government, or an ideal
system of philosophy, an ideal art, or an
ideal religion, that ideal is ever pro-
jected before the real. Like the mirage
it recedes as the traveller seeks to
reach it,
Literature preserves for the human
race the principal ideals of the social
life of the past, and so doing prevents
us from taking those steps which by
viewing their direction in other social
lives, have led the race backward.
Literature of the past, by preserving
the ideas of ancient life proves to us
that the most potent force of existing
civilization is an idea preserved to us
from ancient life.
Away back in Chadea thousands of
years ago, a priestly philosopher pre-
sents his people with a poetical specu-
lation on the genesis of things. These
twelve books, now in the British
Museum, bear such resemblance to
the Genesis of Moses that had the
latter been a member of our local
Pierian Circle he would have been
"termed plagiarist.'
A learned sage of this state gives an
antiquity of 2000 b. c. to the book Of
Job. The Psalms of David, and the
Proverbs of Solomon belong to the
same period when Hiram the Phpni-
clan furnished the wit to amuse the
wisest Of men, while his artisans fur
nished the skill to build and furnish
his temple.
The Christian religion is the most
potent force now moving the world
and this force comes to us through the
literature of antiquity. The Rigvedas,
the Avesta-Zend of the IndoAryans
furnishes for a large portion of the
world their religious inspirations. The
sayings of Confucius date to 500 B. c.
and so on we find that the religious
ideals Of existing society are the pro-
duct Of ideas conceived in ancient life
What is true Of religion is true also Of
poetry, of philosophy, of science, of art
and the principal ideals of social life.
Who has sung for man such measured
cadences as fall from the lips of "The
blind poet of Chios rocky isle, poetry
that lives and thrives in the bright
gems of thought that circle around
their parent, Homer? What tragedy
falls from the lips of Aeschylus, what
comedy from Aristophanes, what love
from Sappho, from what fount, if not
these was drunk the liquid melody of
Byron, the deep pbilosophic measures
of Browning, the tragedy of Shakes
peare? What of Draceo and Lycurgus,
and Solon and Pericles, the law givers? :?
What of the government of the Demos,
the democratic idea that bloomed and
faded, yet lived to triumph in the new
world? What of Aristotle and Plato
and Socrates? What of the host of
warriors whose influence through the
scant remains of literature has spread
through the ages until today we recog-
nize as the most enriching literature