The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-09
DR.. KiIgo Speaks to the
Graduates.
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Of these are not equal to the energies that
belong to the moral side of our natures
of this there is no better proof than found
in the golden periods OF a nations life
that is those periods when men were hap
piest. strongest, most hopeful and en-
ergetic. 1t was during the reign of David
that Israel had its best age In intel
lectual brightness, he was not equal to
Solomon his wise son and successor. Solo
mon made the naIlon flash with a display
Of royal splendor and wealth. he filled the
land with terse sayings, and gained for
himself a far-reaehing fame. But amid
all this the fire of patriotic faith was go
ing out, a destroying Incidence was com
ing on a greed for luxury was growing,
discomfort was making inroads, and
the strong nation which David turned
over to him was pale, weak and sensuous.
What the Puritan was in England and
Holland he has been in America. whether
know as the Pilgrim Father of New Eng
land or the Scotch-Irish of the Caroinas
He has found his ideals, faiths and motives
i'm his moral consciousness. Everything
with him has been a right or a wrong
His conscience has gone into all his tasks;
victory or death has been his standard
of purity; toughness has been his chief
quality as worker; while truth and
freedom have been his guarded heritage.
He. at one time, hung witches but he
also built Americas greatest colleges; he
had severe Sabbath, but he fired the
first gun that sounded around the globe;
he taught many rules that could not re-
hut ba hod
which was born all that is great IN
America. George William Curtis did not
go beyond the truth when in the heat OF
oratorical passion. he uttered these words:
Forth from the morning of Greece come
Leonidas with your bravest of the brave;
in the rapt city plead, Demosthenes, your
country's cause; pluck, Gracious, from
aristocratic Rome its crown; speak, !
Cicero, your magic word; lift Cato your
admonishing hand: and you, patriots of
modern Europe. be all gratefully remem +
bered: but where in earlier ages, in later
day, in lands remote or near, shall we
find loftier sacrifice more unstained devo
ton to worthier ends, issuing in happier
results to the highest interests of man, /
than in the English Puritan.
Amy investigation of the history of an
age will show that whatever Of strength
there has been manifested in the deeds of
the age has sprung out of the moral con-
seriousness. The world has been moved |
forward by moral force, and most fire. |
quently the moral force of single soul /
intellect gets its best energy out of the /
moral side of ones consciousness. Mind
Is never at its best unless it is driven on
ward by the force OF moral impulses This
is called inspiration.
Many have come forward to exclaim
and apologize for the scantiness of South
ern literature Perhaps these have gen
orally been sincere in their kindly feelings
for the South, especially as the majority
Of them have been Southerners. Among
the explanations offered is a lack OF
wealth. Passing by the possible reflec-
ton that lies in the show OF poverty. for
poverty is a condition that may be ex-
planned, and accepting the reason for all
that it may be worth, honesty requires one
to say that such a reason falls far short
of an explanation, or even a part of an
explanation. Poverty has never hindered
any man or age from creating literature
On the contrary the argument seems to
lie in the opposite direction. The larg-
est amount and the best quality of the
worlds literature has been made by men
who we're acquainted with poverty in its
painful limitations Only in a few IN
stances have kings been authors and the
quality of the majority of their work may
he passed over with becoming charity.
Men do not feel deepest and truest when
they are most comfortable. Call over to
yourselves the roll of the makers of the
English literature and judge how much
OF it is the work of comfortable ease
''Of the same kind is the explanation
based on a lack of leisure. Probably it is
this notion that has given rise to the pow
erty plea since wealth may secure ease
and leisure. and leisure is thought to be
literary opportunity, or atmosphere, the
poverty plea is set forth with a degree
of assurance. The men who have made
the literature of the world have not been
the worlds loafers, they have been its
hardest and most poorly paid workers No
doubt Horace would have done better as
a poet had Maecenas not given him a
mountain villa. Besides the South has
been the home of more leisure than any
other section of the civilized world, and
should, according to this argument, have
sent forth the greatest American liter-
ture. But the record shows that New
England with all its hardships of climate,
its limited natural resources, and its ag-
ricultural hindrances has been the home
of American literature. The real cause
must be found in something deeper than
mere outward conditions
when the highest moral qualities Of an
age begin to act the mind viii begin TO
put in permanent form the deeper things
of a peoples. life. This is not charging
that the lack of literature is an evidence
OF bad moral conduct. Such is not true
Outward personal conduct may be all that
one can wish, while the deeper and
larger movements of the moral quality in
consciousness are not set in sympathy
with true idealism, and until this is done
the poet win not appear, and should he
appear, he will not be heard, but dis
carded as one OF the eranks that give as
surances OF human impertecti0ns. The
lack Of literature makers at any time, and
IN any country, is caused by failure to
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