The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-18

ltneif Cme. ard yet the simple rae
THAT they invented the alphabet, al.
Though we are not told that they die
muck o than invent the alphabetiC
characters, Is OF far more interest and
consequence to the civilization OF the
world and counts far more in the
standing OF that people and their rep
lutation than all the voyages that
they ever made over all the ocean
known to the %ancients. World power.
did o say? Shall We go back and
lstudy the annals Of the barbarian ma
lions Of the world. nations which have
by the power of arms subdued nation
after nation. until there were left nc
more worlds to conquer? What mich
have they all filed in the temple Of
historical fame, unless by some chance
they have heard OF letters and have
ioecame a learned people at the same
tune they became a powerful people,
IT met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless
legs OF stone
Island in the desert Near them on the
sand.
Half sunk. q shatterd visage lies,
whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer Of cold
command
Tell that its sculptor we'll those
passions read
which yet survive. stamp'd on those
HfelesS things,
The hand that Knocked them and the
heart that fed:
IAnd on the pedestal these words an
pea
My name is Ozymandias, king OF
kings;
Look on my works, we mighty, and
despair
Nothing besides remains. Round the
of that colossal wreck. boundless and
The lone and level sands stretch far
away"
so ran Shelley's most beautiful SON.
met, and such is the history of every
nation which has dared to attempt to
Iachleve greatness without calling to
aid the labors of the sc~hoolmaster and
n product of his workshop, the poet,
tine writer and the historian. Take
lGreece. which was never a world
power until the late day when the am
lbltlon of Alexander carried her arms
TO the Indus: and her power was lost
almost as rapidly Is obtained when
that great general fell a prey to his
lown designations. and yet Alexander
knew that the result of valor, prowess
lin arms and great material acquire
ments would prove of no avail without
command Of letters to record the same,
and so when ne stood on that famous
march, at the tomb Of Ashilles, he
lpaused to eXclaim: 80, fortunate
lyoung man who had a Homer for a
Iherald of thy valor!" The Greeks had
saying, There We're brave men be-
fore Agamemnon, but they a no
Homer to tell about them When we
lstudy the history of hat glorious
country. scarcely larger than two or
three counties in North Carolina and
having no more than 10000 freemen at
the time Of her greatest glory, we
must stand astounded at the physical,
intellectual, artistic and moral
AN array Of statesmen, phi
llosophers, sculptors, historians,
orators and warriors crowned those
few centuries in Greece! Speaking of
their literature and looking forward
to some distant date when possibly
England and perhaps the grandeur Of
the English nation may be forgotten,
when the great people inhabiting Eng
land and Scotland may be swept from
the face of the earth, and having in
view the fa~r-reaching and wonderful
~lgrandeur of Greek literature, Macau-
LAY wrote: wherever literature con-
soils sorrow, or assuages pain, wherever
lit brings gladnesS to eyes which fail
with wakefulness and tears, and ache
for the dark hours and the long
isleep, there is exhibited in it's noble
form the immortal influence Of Athens.
Her freedom and her power have, for
more than twenty centuries, been an
initiated: her people nave degenerated
Into timid slaves; her language into
la barbarous jargon: her temples have
been given up to the successive depre-
dations of Romans, Turks and Scotch
men; but her intellectual empire is i'm
par;cIoh1a AID urhnn fhnca Uhn havp
lrivaled her greatness shall ave shar-
ed her fate; when civilization and
knowledge shall have fixed their abode
in distant continents; when the scep-
tier shall have passed away from Eng
land; when, perhaps, travellers from
distant regions shall in vain labor to
ldecipher on some moldering pedestal
the proudest chief, shall hear savage
hymns chanted to some mishapen idol
lover the ruined dome of our proudest
temple, and shall see a single naked
fisherman wash his nets in the river
lof ten Thousand masts her influence
and her glory shall still survive fresh
in eternal youth. exempt from muta-
lbility and decay, immortal as he in
ltellectual principle from which they
derived their origin. and over which
they exercise their control"
Take those other two nations, one
lon either side OF the Mediterranean,
(which for centuries glared at each
lother across that sea, the nations
(which were in one continuous duel fol
more than one hundred and twenty
Years. Carthage on the n side
Rome on the other. both great in pow
Ter of arms. the former great upon the
water as we'll as upon The land, and
lyet we know today nothing of Car
lthage except what we learn from the
lside reflections of Roman literature.
we know hat h produced great gen.
Ierals, me at least. among the i'm
imortals. and yet we know him only as
IAN impetuous antagonist Of Rome, who
Icame well nigh marching through hel
lgates. Yet but for the literature o.
Rome the names of the C~arthaginiar
generals, as is the a with the name:
lof her statesmen. would have beer
Host in o~blivion's deepest and darkes
lgulf and the sands Of time would hav'
lswept over her history as the sand:
lof the seashore have covered he
mighty cities.
Then. too, we talk about commercial
supremacy, and that vainly. for If VI