Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

MATHEMATICS AND METAPHYSICS OF LIFE, H. B. Stevens,

NATURE'S VOICES, .

G. B. Manley,.

NATURE THE STUDY OF THE ARCHITECT, H. E. Scudder,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

PEN AND INK SKETCHES FROM HAWAII, H. M. Lyman,

279

23

140

1971

375

344

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

PHILOSOPHY OF ART,

H. M. Alden,

174

[blocks in formation]

RELIGION & CHARACTER OF THE GREEKS, E. S. Isham,

289

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

THE superstitious Greek, as he wandered over the crags or through the valleys of his native country, and at some favorable spot, heard the sound of his own footsteps thrown back from the rocks or the mountainsides, was accustomed to halt, and with profound awe to listen, or to think he listened, to the voice of a veritable Divinity. He had learned from the wandering bards that these solitary places were the abodes of a divine Goddess who discoursed thus to mortals, and so he devoutly uttered an audible prayer, and received again, with satisfaction, the faint, though approving answer from the lips of Echo.

With such a reverence did the old thinker, as he roamed through the unexplored wildernesses of mind, and caught the faint reply of his own voice at every advance, listen and bow to a spirit misunderstood, yet imagined to be the acquiescence of a superior Deity. And so it was, but that Deity resided in himself.

Although the rays of philosophy have piereed through mythology, absorbing those dimmer lights of partial reason and imagination, still the essential element is not destroyed-it is only eclipsed, and therefore forgotten. It still exists, and has expanded, with the increase of mankind, over all human nature. Venus Aphrodite was once worshipped, as one of the highest deities, but as evil has come to be recognized, and through the luxuries and vices of men, to be classified, that very term which was to the heathen the representation at once of love and reverence, is now used to express the most loathsome crime. The spirit, although it is a

fallen spirit, retains its identity, for as there were then worshipers of Venus, so now there are devotees to lust. The same is applicable to the Oread; she was once an awe-inspiring Goddess; now, in the social world, she is degraded by legions of worthless beings who pervert the significancy of her name and character. Her spirit now appears in forms of flesh and blood which glory in imaging other men's thoughts or acts or characters.

The voices of those first poets, who revelled in new fields of imagination, no longer resound distinctly through the world, nor return upon themselves impeded; for now, each syllable, striking on the adamantine brain of some protruding object, sends forth myriads of confused and empty echoes.

The old moralists, when they gave to the world lessons of wisdom and virtue, thought they were benefiting it, and marking out for humanity a sure and speedy road to the millenium. But those very truths, encountering the obtuse mind of the imitator, are thrown into a thousand fragments, which come to the people jumbled and incomprehensible. Here is a sufficient argument for the slow progress of morality and religion. Although truth in the abstract lives forever unimpaired, yet it is evident that the tawdry and unbecoming apparel, in which it is and has been the fashion to clothe it, is very apt to make it repulsive, or to conceal it entirely.

The critics and essayists too, who held over the literature of olden time an iron rod, and labored assiduously that the channels, through which the rising stream was to flow, should be free from obstructions, ended their labors with the conviction that their own examples of style and manner of criticism were the foundations of effectual barriers to impurity and corruption. But there were opposing obstacles a little way from them also, and the next age listened to the tumult of distorted language. The pigmy imitators of these, introduced what they called " a more delicate mode of expression "-true, it was delicate-enervated; for where is the voice, ever so strong, that can impress itself upon a diminutive object with sufficient force to elicit any adequate sound? Through such media, the ideas and language of the best English essayists were conveyed to the masses, and in their transmission became but the mangled images of the originals.

The rapid rate at which these weak-minded authors are now being pushed up to the literary atmosphere, augurs a yet darker prospect for purity of style and a rough field for true criticism.

« AnteriorContinuar »