The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-04-27
BRILLIANT LECTURE
OF PROF. GRIGGS
HE SPOKE ON LITERATURE
AND LIBERAL EDUCATION.
Was the First Lecture of Series He
Proposes to Deliver and Was a
Plea for a More Universal Study
of Literature-He Does Not Be-
lieve in the idea of Putting Off
Reading Shakespeare to Delve in
the Newspapers and Magazines.

Professor Edward Howard Griggs
gave the first lecture in his series last
night in Guernsey hall. He was hap
PLY introduced by Mr.. James p. Dick
son. The subject of the evening was
Literature and Liberal Educations."
Professor Griggs is a favorite with
Scranton listeners who heard his Flor"
entine lecture and he was heard with
great appreciation on this occasion.
His faultless English and the subtle
modulation of his voice give additional
beauty to any subjects which he pre-.
sents. The lecture was plea for more
universal study of literature. Profess
sor Griggs spoke on the fact that in
this day of specialization, while cul-
ture for business purposes is legitimate
and praiseworthy to a certain extent,
the chief questions seems to be, Does
1t pay?" Nothing pays better than
love and wisdom and in the eager pur-
sui. after special culture for business
there is danger of detecting the very
end sought.
The wider horizon, the larger the
measure. the more perfectly equipped
is the individual for his special work.
The part is understood only in its re-
lation to the whole. 1t is said of So
phocles that he saw life steadily and
saw it whole" The vocation is made
more productive by liberal culture. In
the fine arts the direct expression of
human life eliminates and of these
literature is most universal 1t is ac-
cessible at all times and is the common
heritage of all. We have its great
masters always at hand. 1t has been
| said that if the stars shone but once
in thousand years we should fall
down and worship them. AS they are
set in the sky every night we forget
their sublimity and hardly look up
| toward their places.
DANTE'S SONGS.
Because Dante Incompatible songs
are near us every day some of us die
without having interest enough to turn
the pages. And we put off the reading
of Shakespeare for the daily papers
| and magazines. | do not disparage
| these. We need both: but the man
| who devotes all the time he has to
| read to magazines and newspapers
| will find it a destructive form of in
| telleCtual dissipation worse than any
physical dissipation he could attempt.
| Fifteen minutes a day is enough for
the daily paper. unless from long in
| tellectual strain he wishes TO read
something he expects. to forget.
| The reason we are so desirous of
going TO Europe is because the poets
have sung of its valleys, its mountains
and rivers. The daisy had bloomed
for centuries. but it was not known
until Burns called 1t "A wee. modest,
crimson tipped flower" Three men
gave Scotland to the world. Scott in
its romantic interest. Carlyle in the
stern strength, Burns in the sweet
songs of the common people.
| Professor Griggs then illustrated the
! ideality Of evening in the song Of
Sappho in "Hesper all things thou
bringest," and the paraphrase by BY
ron in his beauteous ave Marie" fur
ther showing the uses TO which il
comes in touching with its fairy wand
such an unsentimeutal theme as has
been pathetically lifted by San Fran
cisco poet in The Irish Tramp"
BEHIND THE MAN.
We believe our lot commonplace al.
ways. Max Nordeau in his moderr
idea of degeneration voices thought,
identical with those uttered by Homer
| III lne udNS we fancy 10 nave peer
the childhood of Europe. Behind the
man is his epoch. behind the epoch
the race. We become Elizabethians il
reading the masters of that period
We are Greeks in reading Greek litera
ture. AS the mountains encourage tn,
literature Of strength. so the literatur,
of grief is found in the imagery of the
sea, as in
Break, break, break
ON thy cold gray stones, q sea-"
voices all of deepest sorrow to be eX
pressed by the human heart as Ten
nyson expressed it in that lyric il
memory of Arthur HalIam. We neeC
the influence of literature in the rou
tine of daily living, for the real, undig
nified by the ideal, is sordid and mean
The ideal unrealized is sentimental
weak and vain
"Sit at the feet of the masters,
said the speaker in closing, until the,
seem nearer than the people you NEE
in the street"