The record-union., 1899-03-23
One Breath of Song.

Blessings be with them, ana eterhai
Who gave US nobler lives, and nobler
cares.
The poets-who on earth have made US
heirs,
OF truths and pure delight by heavenly
lays.
Their names are on our lips, in our
ears. before our eyes, and in our
thought we read wisely and are on
speaking acquaintance with good lltera-
ture-to an extent far greater that we
know. and With each succeeding gener-
alton this will be true of them more and
more.
Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise,
The towers the domes, the temples fall,
The fortress crumbles ana decays, au
One breath of song outlasts them all.
So DIR. Holmes wrote ten years ago
in his little poem to the author of My
Country. IT'S of Thee on the celebra-
ton of his eightieth birthday. Is it
not true? Will it not always be trueF
Daniel Webster, Theodore Parker, Ly-
man Beecher. Charles Sumner, Wen
dell Phillips were all famous men in
their generation and did noble work for
humanity, but how many of US to-day
ouote their words or think their thought
in the same stirring form in which they
cave it expression? While Longfellow
and BRYANT. Holmes, Whittier and
Lowell. their contemporaries, and like
them. also gone over to the silent ma
iority. are among the oracles OF the
ages with us every day to inform the
mind. to quicken the fancy, to awaken
thought, to refine the taste, to- strength
en- our purpose, to gladden. our hearts,
to enrich our souls.
What other men, aside from the
prophets and teachers of the old Blple'
have, like the poets, so impressed their
thought upon their own times ana le1t
so much that will be cherished ana
taught and enjoyed and passed on to
still other generations? They hear the
music of nature and sing 1t TO other
ears that listen for the song and learn
If and love it and teach It, ana VIII
teach it. as the generations go by. They
have seen light and glory, beauty and
wonder, majesty and power on every
hand With Moses they have looked
upon the burning bush that was con-
sumed and in the solemn stiffness
heard the voice of the omnipresent God-
Hearing and seeing they have the glft
to tell that others may hear ana see
We read and we feel that we too nave
known these things, dimly II may De,
and we take to- our hearts their lines OF
fuller tone and clearer vision as the ex-
preston of our thought and feel1ng,
and so these spread and are enbalmed
in the heart of our nobler humanity
That So few men should mean so much
to countless millions! The poets!
Blessings. indeed, be with them and
eternal praise."
The teacher who lives in the society
of these men and women and leads
young souls into reverent companion
ship here, is more than Lord OF the
Isles, and may be far richer than II ne
owned the railroad stock OF the Wander
bits or signed the rent-rolls OF the AS
tors, with all the possibilities for good
to his kind which this vast WORLDLY
wealth must afford.
If for enduring fame and influence II
is better to give to the world such
poems as "Thanatopsis, Excelsior,
and Lead, Kindly Light, than to
write a popular book, or to speak the
speech that compels the applause OF
the world, to conduct some great bust
ness enterprise, or to accumulate the
wealth of the millionaire, then it is well
for us to know these things and to teach
our children to know and to enjoy them !
full appreciation of the world or prose
in life and letters, which is the substan-
tial daily bread of our intellectual be-
ing; but now it is diamonds, cut and
polished, of which I speak, and we
should cultivate the habit of looking |
for these gems of literature and making |
them our own. 1t is not common nab
it, nor one easy to be acquired; but 1t
can be acquired, and to have it is worth |
more than worldly honor or success.
What has been the habit of poets them |
selves? They have known by heart 4
many of their own best things. and
many of those written by others How |
they committed them to memory, |
whether the time was long or short, the |
task easy or hard we do not know. |
They doubtless gave close attention and |
memorized much as the rest of US are |
in the habit of doing, using no artifi- |
cial system of mnemonics but just do |
ing the thing to be done. We simply |
know-they knew them--J P. McCas-
key.