The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-06-10

a 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 :
unselfsh men and women He taught
that cotton is not king. that corn is not
king. but that the greatest region - 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 AM
too prosaic- They were sentinels OF the
spirit. keeping watch in an age OF in
dustrialism.
LITERATURE OF NATURE.
There has sprung IN In our day al
most q new kind or literature. tho litera-
ture OF out-of-doors. There had been
some books written like IZaak Walton's
'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
" Of the world. In Pope's garden AT
Twickenham nature was trim and en-
broidered in 2 way that was typical OF
VIZ pcttLN VI At4dL ~ IeI- II ZIG = 80
ters We find that first indication OF a
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 cedars;
beasts and all cattle: creeping things
and flying flowls'-these words OF tho
Psalmist express the spirit OF worship
that many men have felt. Men have
sought nature as a companion. discover
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 ley about us and might have
suggested something OF heaven.
POETRY. THE FLOWER OF LIFE.
Il speak last of the poetry of the nine
teenth century. Poetry is the finest
flower on the tree of human life. l
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-
ton to the three greatest. Wordsworth,
Browning and Tennyson. They were
alike in writing, not for arts sake. but
for art'S nnJ mans cn1a Thou "a
alike in their lifelong devotion TO
what was best in art and noblest il
human life. And yet in other respects
three men could hardly be more unlike.
Wordsworth lived a solitary life among
the mountains and lakes of Northern
England, Browning an active social lie
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 o:
the mountain, emote 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 a river flowing in a full,
clear and placid course.
"Wordsworth's creates gift is that Of
tranquility, JOY in widest c~ommonalty
spread. After feeling the disappointmen,s
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 a 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
nd sim uIp human life To rCPOnSt r1Ict his
faith. Hence he was a prophet TO a
fatigued and restless age of the wonder
and bloom of the world. The best pas
sage to give you an idea of the spiri:
of this man is in his Ode in the Intima-
ton of mortality:
"'And O, we Fountain, Meadows, FILLS
and Groves.
Forbode not any severing of our loves'
Yet in my heart of hearts l feel your
might;
/ only have relinquished one delight
To live beneath your more habitual
sWay
l love the Brooks. which down their
channel spread,
Even more than when l tripped lightly as
they;
Tie innocent brightness of a newborn
day
Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather around the set
ting sun
To take a sober coloring from an eye
That have kept watch Ger mans NOR
tally;
Another race hath been. and other palms
are won.
Thanks to its tenderness. its Joys, and
tears.
To me the meancst flower that blows can
give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for
tears.
Browning is generally charged with
obscurity. Indeed there is hardly a town
in the country that has not a society for
the purpose Of studying his works on the