The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-08
ciate and interpret the literature OF
the century,

L
group of men whom we may call con-
! crete philosophers, preachers without a
pulpit, critics of life. heralds of new
order men who speak directly and vividly
of the great affairs of life. Three men
stand out pre-eminent in this class
Carlyle, Emerson and Ruskin. Carlyla
came like a thunder cloud out of Scot
land, bursting upon the shams and con-
ventionalites of the age. He was at
times bitter and severe. but he delivered
great message to his age. Work, pro-
duce, don't dare to die unless you have
done something for the world-this was
his message. Emerson might be COM
pared to the masses of vapor, often hazy
and obscure. but now and then luminous
as they are piled around the gates of
sunset He set forth the gospel of the
individual. Don't be mass, be yourself.
The present is as noble as the past. He
taught the unfathomed might of man and
did much to break the shackles of Amerl-
can thought. Ruskin, more gifted and
versatile than either of these. set forth
gospel of life, teaching that the only
true wealth is the capacity to enjoy, to
admire, to love. The richest community
is that which has the largest number
of the best and most cultured and most
unselfish men and women. He taught
that cotton is not king, that corn is not
king, but that the greatest region is that
which grows the best men and women.
All of these men fought against shams.
They dared nobly to overthrow false
ideas. They did much to keep the Anglo
Saxon from becoming too material and
too prosaic. They were sentinels of the
spirit, keeping watch in an age Of in
dustrialism.
LITERATURE OF NATURE.
"There has sprung up in our day al
most new kind of literature, the litera-
ture of out of-doors. There had been
some books written like Izaak Waltons
'Compleat Angler and Whites Natural
of Selborne,' that gave evidence of an in
tensely human contact with the world
of nature, but in the eighth century men
regarded but little the wonder and beau
ty of the world. In Popes garden at
Twickenham nature was trim and en-
broidered in way that was typical of
the poetry of that period. In Gray's let
tiers we find that first indication of
new feeling for nature. then in the
poems of Burns, Cowper and Crabbe. In
the nineteenth century many things have
caused a great interest in nature, espe-
cially the new spirit of religion and the
study of science. Mountains and all
hills; fruitful trees and all ccdars:
beasts and all cattle; creeping things
and flying flowls'-these words of the
Psalmist express the spirit of worship
that many men have felt. Men have
c0t oh fItrn
ing many interesting facts and spiritual
meanings in birds, flowers. horses, and
dogs. Thoreau and John Burroughs have
made us feel at home in this old world.
Men should not keep their eyes so set
on the other world as not to see the
beauty of this. St. Peter may ask us
some embarrassing questions about
things that lay about us and might have
suggested something of heaven.
POETRY. THE FLOWER OF LIFE.
81 speak last of the poetry OF the nine
teenth century. Poetry is the finest
flower on the tree of human life. 1
would rather have my child grow up
thinking that the world was fat or that
electricity was some kind of an insect
than to be insensible to the ideals and
aspirations expressed in great poetry.
One should not be ignorant of science
and yet knowledge of facts is far less
to be desired than a responsiveness to
ideas. While there are many poets in
the past century / shall call your atten-
tion to the three greatest. Wordsworth,
Browning and Tennyson. They were
alike in writing, not for arts sake. but
for arts and mans sake. They were
als L0;r
what was best in art and noblest in
human life. And yet in other respects
three men could hardly be more unlike.
Wordsworth lived solitary life among
the mountains and lakes of Northern
England, Browning an active social life
in the crowded streets of London or
Florence, while Tennyson lived with
many friends about him at Aldworth or
Farringford. The emblem by which we
might represent Wordsworth is that os
the mountain, remote from men and yet
majestic and awe-inspiring; Browning
might be compared to the plains crowded
with busy men, while Tennyson may be
thought of as river flowing in a full,
clear and placid course.
"Wordsworth's greatest gift is that Of
tranquility, Joy in widest commonalty
spread. After feeling the disappointmenes
that came to him with the failure of the
French Revolution to accomplish all the
ideals that his youthful imagination
hoped for he passed through period of
great despair with regard to mankind
and himself At this critical time Cole
ridge and Dorothy Wordsworth came to
him and enabled him by bringing him
into contact with the world of nature
and simple human life to reconstruct his
faith. Hence he was prophet to
fatigued and restless age of the wonder
and bloom of the world. The best pas
sage to give you an idea of the spirit
of this man is in his Ode in the Intima-
ton of mortality:
And o, We Fountain. Meadows, Hills
and Groves.
Forbode not any severing of our lovesl
Yet in my heart of hearts l feel your
might;
i only have relinquished one delight
To live Beneath your more habituaI
sway.
love the Brooks. which down their