The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-05
LITERARY EXERCISES
Continued from Page II


and prophet and as one of the front
men among the younger orators of the
| United States.
THE COURSE OF EMPIRE.
THE vision of yesterday becomes the
reality of today" said the speaker in
| beginning his Grafton. The visionary
: of today is canonized in the art and life
of tomorrow. To be behind the times
| is the fate of most of US; 10 be abreast
of the times the good fortune of a few;
to be in advance of the times the lone
distinction Of the prophet. The initial
impulse of progress is with the man of
vision. First a Garrison; after that,
| Grant is possible
1T is a curious fact that at the be-
ginning of the Christian era, there were
two men-one a Greek, the other a
Roman-both of whom foreshadowed
the discovery of new world. The first
was Strabo, the Greek traveller and
geographer; the second was Seneca, the
moralist and philosopher. Over four
teen centuries before Columbus fought
out the issue with the bigots of his
time. Strabo was teaching that the
earth was round. And if you turn to
Washington Irving's Life of Column
bus" you will find that he has inscrib-
ed on the title page these words from
the Media of Seneca-I quote from
Archbishop Whately's translation:
There shall come time in later ages,
when ocean shall relax his chains and
a vast continent appear, and a pilot
shall find new worlds. and Thule shall
be no more earth's bound Lord Ba-
con, in speaking of this utterance. called
it "A prophecy of the discovery of
America
IF you care to trace this curiously |
intricate line of prophecy through the !
medieval ages, turn to Humboldt's crit
zeal examination of the history of the
geogra ply of this continent, and that |
other book, unquestionably his greatest, |
the "Kosmos.'' For the present I take
up the thread at the point where
Columbus worked out his great design. !
1 refer to a single utterance, that OF !
the Italian poet Pulci, a friend of
Lorenzo de Medici, which utterance in
itself is enough to explode the popular
fancy, that the conception of a new
world was born in the mind of Column
bus. 1 quote from the poets work
brought out eleven years before Column
bus sailed. The translation is that of
our own Prescott, and you Will find the
verses in his History of Ferdinand and
lisa BELLA
Know that this theory is false; his
bark
The daring mariner shall urge far
Ger
The western wave, a smooth and level
plain,
Albeit the earth is fashioned like a
wheel.
Man was in ancient days Of grosser
And Hercules might blush to learn
how far
Beyond the limits he had vainly set
The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing {
her way.
Men shall descry another hemisphere,
Since to one common center all things +,
tend;
30 earth, by curious mystery divine
Well balanced. hangs amid the starry
spheres.
At our Antipodes are cities. states,
And thronged empires. ne'er OWNED
OF yore.
BUT see. the sun speeds on his western
path
To glad the nations with expected I
light
THAT which had been the vague Wis
on of Strabo and Seneca. the burden
z the verse of Pulci. came. under the
n6omitable energy of Columbus, TO De
substantial fact From the moment
he gates of the new world were flung
pen. men of discernment saw that the
curse of empire must be towards the :
.oIden West. Very few, however, be
an TO realize what the westward move
aent really meant. 1t was the pouring :
f old wine into new bottles Four I
Mighty empires had risen in the world $
fstory and passed away What old 7
he steady tramping of the countless
thousands mean? It meant that Anerl-
a was to be '.the seat Of the fifth en-
ire" Nearly two centuries ago Bishop
Berkeley wrote the words we quote so
ften:
Westward the course Of empire takes /
its way: i
The first four acts already past, u
he fifth shall close the drama with 5
the day;
Times noblest offspring is the last" I
THE Pilgrims drilled into a granite Il
ouIder on the shore Of Monument 9
Say. text for Bishop Berkeley's in c
pfred lines: