Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-31

visible in his very presence. and still
maintaining that peculiar reticence and
reserve which seemed to shrink from
all allusiOn to his own troubles and
SORROWS. This was the very day be-
fore that final journey to New Hamp-
shire, where in the silence of the night,
on the shore of the beautiful lake with
which he and his friend were so famil-
lar, the angel of death, with noiseless
step, was present to relieve the waiting
angel of sleep at his bedside: and the
world weary man was at rest.
Rowdoin friendship:
No one Of us need to go beyond his own
experience to know what they are
Whether they are purely personal or
arise from some relation Of classmatc or
GreckLetter society, or from other as
ISOLATION in college. they are formed in
youth and they last forever. Our college
friendships. what have we found in the
world to dim them or to take their place?
| But if we were to look for general in
stances of them. for instances that to all
our minds would be typical of what col
| Iegc friendships are, could We do better
| than to select the friendships of Haw-
| thorne and President Pierce. or 1Iaw
thorne and Longfellow. President Pierce
marking his advent to power by appoint
| ing Hawthorne to what was then sup
posed to be the most lucrative place in
the gift Of the President, and Hawthorne.
| in defiance Of his publisher, and with
that manly letter. insisting upon dcdi-
eating his new volume, Our Old Home,
to Franklin Pierce in the darkest days of
the rebellion when the name of the ex-
| President was not mentioned in New
| England except in terms of angry and
| kissing scorn. 1t mattered little what
New England said To Nathaniel Haw-
thorne Franklin Pierce was Franklin
Pierce still. Longfeilow greeting the pub
LEGATION of The Twice Told Tales with
| those generous words in the North AM
eTican Review, endeavOring in every way
socially and by correspondence. to draw
| Hawthorne away from his solitude into
| the companionShip of the brilliant circle
Of men of whom Longfellow was a loved
and honOrcd member. greeting him at
every triumph;-and finally returning
sadly from his burial at Concord to write
that noble poem upon his elassmaate and
friend. l know how familiar it is to you
all, but some familiar things are so beau
tiful that we like to hear them repeated
Let me repeat few lines of it to you
HAWTHORNE.
| May %. 1864
How beautiful it was. that one bright day.
In the long week of rain,
Though all the splendor could not chase
| away
The omnipresent pain.
The lovely town was white with apple
| blooms
And the gray elms o'erhead
Dark shadows wove on their aerial looms,
Shot through with golden thread.
manse,
| The historic river flowed
1 was as one who wanders in a trance.
| Unconscious of his road.
The faces of familiar friends seemed
strange:
And yet the words they uttered seemed to
change
Their meaning to my ear.
For the one face 1 looked for was not
The one low voice was mute;
Only unseen presence filled the air.
And ba1fied my pursuit.
Now l look back. and meadow, mansc
Dimly my thought defines:
| only sea dream within a dream
The hilltop hearsed with pines.
only hear above his place Of rest
Their tender undertone.
The infinite longings of a troubled breast, |
The voice so like his own.
There in seclusion and remote from men
The Wizard hand lies cold.
Which at its topmoSt speed let fall the
pen,
A,,1 Loft ba 10 bo1 told
All. who shall lift that wand of magic
power,
And the lost clew regain?
The unfinished window in Aladdins tower
Unfinished must remain.
The unfinished window in the charmed
palace!
With what splendor of the sunset would
Ha wthorne have piled it. If he could have
lived to The limit of three score years
and ten. but it was not to be. He did
not live to see his sixteth birthday. Tn
finished it must remain.
do not know what kinder wish or
greeting we can send to our Alma Mater. !
cur loved Bowdon College than the hope
that her future may flourish as long as
the fame of her brilliant son shall en-
dure Nav il he So