Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-03-29

gestiCns 2, 800 years ago in'the 54
edies of that master Of merriment Gre
clan mythology has been the richest
mine from which orators and essayists
have drawn their illustrations and paint
ers the themes for their canvas, and, al
though now an exhausted mine, Grecian
mythology has done a work that moth
ing else could have accomplished. Bo-
seas, representing the north wind; Sissy
phus, rolling the stone up the hill, only
to have the same thing to DO over again;
Tantalus, with fruits above him that he
could not reach. Achilles, with his ar
rows; Icarus, with his waxen wings,
flying too near the sun; the Centaurs,
half man and half beast; Orpheus, with
his lyre; Atlas, with the world on his
back-all these and more have helped
literature, from the graduates speech
on commencement day to Rufus ChOate' s
eulcgium en- Daniel Webster at Dart
mouth. Tragedy and comedy were born
in the festivals of Dionysius at Athens.
The lyric and elegiac and epic poetry of
Greece 500 years before Christ has it's
echoes in the Tennysons, Longfellows
and Bryants of L., 800 and i ,90O.,years aft
er Christ. There is not an effective,pulpit
or editorial chair or professors room or
cultured parlor or intelligent farmhouse
today in America or Europe that could
not appropriately employ Paul's ejacu-
lation and say, st am debtor to the
Greeks -
The fact is this-Paul had got much
of his oratorical power of expression
from the Greeks. That he had studied
their literature was evident when,
standing in the presence of an audience
of Greek scholars ON Mars hill, which
overlooks Athens, The dared to quote
from one of their own Greek poets,
either Cleanthus or Aratus, declaring,
LAS certain also of your own poets have
said, For we are. also his offspring =
And he made accurate quotation, Clean
thus, enc of the poets, having written:
For we thine offspring are All things that
creep
Are but the echo of the voice, divine.
And Aratus, enc of their own poets,
had written:
We are his offspring, and to Jove we fly.
It was rather a risky thing for Paul
to attempt to quote extemporaneously
from "a poem in language foreign to
his and before Greek scholars, but Paul
did it without stammering and then
acknowledged before the most distin-
guished audience on the planet his in
debtedness to the Greeks, crying out in
his grafton, '"As one of your own poets
has said
Inventors of Architecture.
Furthermore, all the civilized world,
like Paul, is indebted to the Greeks for
architecture. The world before the time
Of the Greeks had built monoEths, ODE
iisks, cromlechs, sphinxes and pyramids,
but they We're mostly monumental, to
The dead whom they failed to memorial
ize. We are not certain even Of the
names of those in whose comm
he pyramids Were built. But Greek
architecture did most for the living.
ignoring Egyptian precedents and bor-
rowing nothing from other nations,
Greek architecture carved its own col
umns, set its own pediments, adjusted
it's own entablatures, rounded its own
holdings And carried out as never be-
fore the three qualities of right build
ing, called by an old author 'frn1itas,
utilitas, venustas firmness,
usefulness, beauty.
Although the Parthenon on the Acrop-
oils of Athens is only a wreck of the
storms and earthquakes and lombard
ments of many centuries, and although
Lord Elgin took from one side of that
building. at an expense of $3.50, 900,
two shiploads of sculpture, one shipload
going down in the Mediterranean and
the other shipload now to be found in
the British museum, the Parthenon,
though in comparative ruins, has been
an inspiration to all architects for cen
turtles past and will be an inspiration
all the time from now until the world
itself is temple ruin. Oh, that Parthe-
non One never gets over having once
seen it. But what must it have been
when it stood as it's architects, IkitnOs
and Kallikrates, built it out of Penteli-
can marble, white as Mont Blanc at
MONDAY and as overwhelming. Height
above height Overlapping the august
and majestic pile and rising from its
roof was statue of Pallas Promachus
in bronze, SO tall and flashing that sail
ors far out at sea beheld the plume of
her helmet. Without the aid of the
eternal God it never could have been
planned, and without the aid of God
the chisels and trowels never could have
constructed it, There is not fine church
building in all the world, CT properly
constructed courthouse, or a beautiful
art gallery, or an appropriate audito-
rum, or tasteful home, which, because
of that Parthenon, whether its style or
some other style be adopted, is not di-
rectly or indirectly a debtor to the
Greeks.
Blessings of Sculpture.
But there is another art in my mind
the most fascinating, elevating and
inspiring of all arts and the nearest to
L -. Il. Il. Il