it is salutary to see, he showed. It was a smile, fruitful as well as luminous! The new society, the desire for equality and concession; that beginning of fraternity called tolerance, mutual goodwill, the just accord of men and right, the recognition of reason as the supreme law, the effacing of prejudices, serenity of soul, the spirit of indulgence and pardon, harmony and peace-behold what has resulted from that grand smile! On the day—undoubtedly close at hand-when the identity of wisdom and clemency will be recognized, when the amnesty is proclaimed, I say it!—yonder in the stars Voltaire will smile. Between two servants of humanity who appeared at one thousand eight hundred years' interval, there is a mysterious relation. To combat Pharisaism, unmask imposture, overturn tyrannies, usurpations, prejudices, falsehoods, superstitions-to demolish the temple in order to rebuild it—that is to say, to substitute the true for the false, attack the fierce magistracy, the sanguinary priesthood; to scourge the money changers from the sanctuary; to reclaim the heritage of the disinherited; to protect the weak, poor, suffering and crushed; to combat for the persecuted and oppressed-such was the war of Jesus Christ! And what man carried on that war? It was Voltaire! The evangelical work had for its complement the philosophic work; the spirit of mercy commenced, the spirit of tolerance continued, let us say it with a sentiment of profound respect: Jesus wept-Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and that human smile sprang the mildness of existing civilization. Alas! the present moment, worthy as it is of admiration and respect, has still its dark side. There are still clouds on the horizon; the tragedy of the people is not played out; war still raises its head over this august festival of peace. Princes for two years have persisted in a fatal misunderstanding; their discord is an obstacle to our concord, and they are ill-inspired in condemning us to witness the contrast. This contrast brings us back to Voltaire. Amid these threatening events let us be more peaceful than ever. Let us bow before this great death, this great life, this great living spirit. Let us bend before this venerated sepulcher! Let us ask counsel of him whose life, useful to men, expired a hundred years ago, but whose work is immortal. Let us ask counsel of other mighty thinkers, auxiliaries of this glorious Voltaire of Jean Jacques, Diderot, Montesquieu! Let us stop the shedding of human blood. Enough despots! Barbarism still exists. Let philosophy protest. Let the eighteenth century succor the nineteenth. The philosophers, our predecessors, are the apostles of truth. Let us invoke these illustrious phantoms that, face to face with monarchies thinking of war, they may proclaim the right of man to life, the right of conscience to liberty, the sovereignty of reason, the sacredness of labor, the blessedness of peace! And since night issues from thrones, let light emanate from the tombs. Who bides his time-he tastes the sweet Of honey in the saltest tear; And though he fares with slowest feet, The birds are heralds of his cause; Who bides his time, and fevers not JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY. THE DESERTED VILLAGE BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, How often have I paused on every charm, The decent church that topt the neighboring hill, And sleights of art and feats of strength went round; And still as each repeated pleasure tired, The matron's glance that would those looks reprove: Sweet-smiling village, loveliest of the lawn! Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn; One only master grasps the whole domain, The hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest; Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; But times are alter'd; trade's unfeeling train And every pang that folly pays to pride. Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom, These, far departing, seek a kinder shore, Sweet Auburn! parent of the blissful hour, Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds, Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew; |