The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-25
AT TRIANGLE CLUB
An Address by the Negro
Attorney.
T. McCantS Stewards Delightful Talk
OIL Ralf Hour With The
Poer Whittier.

& At the last meeting of the Triangle
Literary Club, Mr.. T. McCants Stewart
J took part in the program, contributing
a very interesting essay, entitled "A
Z Half Hour With Whittier" which
, reads as follows:
Some one has truly said: Give me
( the making of nations ballads, and
care not who makes its laws" No
matter if this saying must now be
modified in this MONDAY of the
worlds civilization. when the press has
: become such a mighty power, yet it
cannot be denied that the poetry of a
{ nation has tremendous influence up
J on its legislation, its lie The songs
: of David and Solomon were the insp,-
ration OF Israel. Someone saws the
Shah Nameh" of Firdonsi presents.
) even TO this generation the fact of
song power in Persian civilization.
Richer, grander, more original than
} any literature of antiquity: transcend
ing in its beauty, its glory, its power,
} even that Of Rome: unsurpassed by the
accumulated wisdom and literary
achievements of all previous centuries
is the literature of Greece. Her civil
, lization touched high-water mark in
human history ante-dating Christ.
Emerson says of Plato for instance,
that Plato is philosophy, and phil0so-
ply Plato; and that the accumulated
philosophical wisdom of the centuries
succeeding him is but the echo Of wha.
that great master mind conceived and
wrote Back of Grecian literature, be-
hind Grecian polity, inspiring Grecian
civilization, were the ''Iliad" and the
Odyssey of Homer. and the 'Theo-
gony" and Work and Days" of He
siod; were the burning rhapsodies Of
Pindar, and the enchanting strains OF
the violet crowned SapphO, the sound OF
whose sweet poetic Tyre fell upon the
Greek nation like the gentle showers Of
early spring.
The poetry of Greece stimulated, fos-
tered, promoted its civilization, and
has influenced the human race, and es-
! pecially the Christian nations, all
down the ages. There has been no
gap. 10 break in the poetic line from
} Homer to Whittier. Intellectual
: achievement is the outcome of evolu-
ton Our status, in every direction, is
largely the measure of heredity. Of
course there is great danger of laying
too much stress ON the forces of hered-
| ity There is bit of truth in what
rough hotel clerk, in the wild and
woolly West" once said to traveller,
who boosted of his deceased ancestry.
The clerk said, well Stranger, we
don't takeany stock in daddyism in this
country, because ancestry is often like
the potato, the best part being under
ground" And yet, no fact in soclolo-
gical and evolutionary study is appear
ing more clearly than this fact, that
heredtty is the basic cause making
Temperament, character, manhood.
Whittier is a conspicuous illustration
Of it. He stood for freedom, just as his
, ancestors had stood for. freedom. They
made themselves exiles from home be-
cause they could not and would rot
stand the tyranny of the Stuarts. They
represented that large class of English
and Scotch yeomanry who would MOI
bend the hinges of the knee that
thrift might follow fawning.'
, The seed, from which Whittier was
, evolved, was planted in that NEST
NJ I'D oS hn nf rhA
, English speaking world, when freedom
and tyranny met il a death-Strugg e
The death OF Queen Elizabeth was fol-
lowed by a fierce contest between the
throne and the people-one standing
for absolute sovereignty and the other
for constitutional liberty. 1t ended
with the execution of Charles l. II was
during this struggle that the absurd
/ and undemocratic doctrine OF the
+, divine right ofSI<ings" was first pro-
claimed. No period in the history of
any nation marks a fercer struggle by
, royal power to fasten upon the people
the shackles of civil and religious serf-
dom, and nowhere is there evidence OF
more determined resistance and OF
completer triumph on the part OF the
people. 1t was within this period that
the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Ply
mouth Rock inn massachusetts,; it was
within this periS that the spirit of
i Whittier became incarnate; and it was
then that his ancestors emigrated from
t. England and settled near Haverhill III
Massachusetts,.
, Born in the same rugged md billy
; country with Longfellow. Emerson,
, Lowell, his soul partook Of the rugged
ness OF his physical environments,
q aud the quiet of rural surroundings in
Rnancea his whole life Like TennN-