The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-30

and the Koran. reflected a local type;
Iney belonged 10 temporary situation,
where the expression OF time IS dis
tlnguished from an eternity.
i shall make you understand what L
mean. If / take the older men and Wo-.
men Ia TINS congregation If they under
take to go back and read the fiction
that you and 1 read when we were Just
growing into manhood and womanhOOd,
forget the charm Of Dickens novels;
we shall never forget the pathOs and In
terest Of Thackerays works But we
cannot get the modern boy or girl to
read those books And why do they not
d them2 The curious fact is that
81. Z entirely fail to find there the charm
Wn was so present to us. / remem-
Der going TO my study one day and find
ing = son OF mine. i or Is years of age.
Club, as grave as a Judge as solemn 5
an owl. and / said 10 him. Sir. don
that book make you !, lau isI1 No ne
saIu, why should it, We'll said,
you are no son of mine. then" The age
had outgrown that particular type OF
humor: and there Is no. man so clever,
matter how fine a perception OF art
or nature he has, who has built him
self a place in the shrine of the temple
of literature, but will come to be out
grown. In one sense ought to be
glad of il. for after all the progress OF
literature Is an Illustration OF otner pros
resses-the progress o.. literature Is cnar-
acteristic of all progresses. The charm
of the things which delighted US when we
were young consisted in the fact that
they found US when we were young. and
that they belonged to the period when
we were young. You all remember the
story of Mr.. Liccoln carrying in his
pocketbook the poem. "Oh, Why Should
the Spirit of Mortal Be PrOud?' ! con-
fess read that poem many times and
tried hard to be charmed with it.. but
to me it was the veriest commonplace.
yet it touched the soul of that great
man. The highest sentiments and emo
tions in him were just beginning to live.
Known by All
And so I know and the world knows
and we all know that hterature-aH lit
erature-becomes outlived by time.
We have people who tell US that we
ought to sit down and read the classics:
but they who know the classics cannot
know the charm of the classics perfect
ly. because we do not live in the hOmeric
age; we do not know the Romall society
when Seneca lived, or when Horace lived
and wrote his odes. And the consequence
is, that it is absolutely impossible for US
to bring our minds into the attitudes
which must have been characteristic of
men and women to whom. Horace and
Seneca and Virgil and Homer wrote.
the astounding thing is, and the more
you think of it ! venture to say the
more astounding you ind It, that that
The marvellous thing about the Bible is
that 1t is just as true, just as real, just
as present today as II was two or three
thousand years ago. and OF that truth
there is no more dramatic or profoundly
suggestive Illustration than the Book OF
Psalms. There was David Well. he was
a very difficult kind of man to begin
with. because he had the elements in
him of great nobility and great base
ness of charaeter Now, our method Of
dealing with him IS 10 say, mat man
is a scoundrel' or That man is a saint
Or one might say. That woman Is
goddess or That woman is viper.
Nobody is a goddess. nobody a viper; no
body is even an utter scOundrel; nobody
even is an utter saint, Qualities are
until the publications of life have de-
tected the nObler in us.