Saint Mary mend my fiery mood! LESSON CXXXIX. THE SENSE OF BEAUTY. W. E. CHANNING. 1. BEAUTY is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the branches of the trees, and the green blades of grass. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. 2. The universe is its temple; and those men who are alive to it, cannot lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. Now this beauty is so precious, the enjoyments it gives are so refined and pure, so congenial with our tenderest and most noble feelings, and so akin to worship, that it is painful to think of the multitude of men as living in the midst of it, and living almost as blind to it, as if, instead of this fair earth and glorious sky, they were tenants of a dungeon. 3. An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of culture of this spiritual endowment. Suppose that I were to visit a cottage, and see its walls lined with the choicest pictures of Raphael, and every spare nook filled with statues of the most exquisite workmanship; and that I were to learn that neither man, woman, nor child ever cast an eye at these miracles of art, how should I feel their privation; how should I want to open their eyes, and to help them to comprehend and feel the loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice! 4. But every husbandman is living in sight of the works of a diviner Artist; and how much would his existence be elevated, could he see the glory which shines forth in their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression! I have spoken only of the beauty of nature, but how much of this mysterious charm is found in the elegant arts, and especially in literature? 5. The best books have most beauty. The greatest truths are wronged, if not linked with beauty; and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul, when arrayed in this their natural and fit attire. Now no man receives the true culture of a man, in whom the sensibility to the beautiful is not cherished; and I know of no condition in life from which it should be excluded. 6. Of all luxuries this is the cheapest and most at hand; and seems to me to be most important to those conditions, where coarse labor tends to give a grossness of mind. From the diffusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, and of the taste for music in modern Germany, we learn that the people at large may partake of refined gratifications, which have hitherto been thought to be necessarily restricted to a few. LESSON CXL. HARMOSAN. DEAN TRENCH. 1. Now the third and fatal conflict for the Persian throne was done, And the Moslem's fiery valor had the crowning victory won. Harmosan, the last and boldest the invader to defy, Captive, overborne by numbers, they were bringing forth to die. Then exclaimed that noble captive, "Lo, I perish in my thirst; Give me but one drink of water, and let then arrive the worst!" In his hand he took the goblet; but awhile the draught forebore, Seeming doubtfully the purpose of the foemen to explore. 2. Well might then have paused the bravest, for around him. angry foes, With a hedge of naked weapons, did that lonely man in close. "But what fearest thou?" cried the caliph. "Is it, friend, a secret blow? Fear it not! our gallant Moslems no such treacherous dealing know. 3. "Thou mayst quench thy thirst securely, for thou shalt not die before Thou hast drunk that cup of water, this reprieve is thine -no more!" Quick the satrap dashed the goblet down to earth with ready hand, And the liquid sank forever, lost amid the burning sand. 4. "Thou hast said that mine my life is, till the water of that cup I have drained; then bid thy servants that spilled water gather up!" For a moment stood the caliph as by doubtful passion stirred, Then exclaimed, "Forever sacred must remain a monarch's word. 5. "Bring another cup, and straightway to the noble Persian give; Drink, I said before, and perish,-now I bid thee drink and live!" LESSON CXLI. POLITICAL CORRUPTION. M'DUFFIE. 1. WE are apt to treat the idea of our own corruptibility, as utterly visionary, and to ask, with a grave affectation of dignity-what! do you think a member of Congress can be corrupted? 2. Sir, I speak, what I have long and deliberately considered, when I say, that since man was created, there never has been a political body on the face of the earth, that would not be corrupted under the same circumstances. Corruption steals upon us in a thousand insidious forms, when we are least aware of its approaches. 3. Of all the forms, in which it can present itself, the bribery of office is the most dangerous; because it assumes the guise of patriotism to accomplish its fatal sorcery. We are often asked, where is the evidence of corruption? Have you seen it? 4. Sir, do you expect to see it? You might, as well, expect to see the embodied form of pestilence, and famine stalking before you, as to see the latent operations of this insidious power. We may walk amidst it, and breathe its contagion, without being conscious of its presence. 5. All experience teaches us the irresistible power of temptation, when vice assumes the form of virtue. The great enemy of mankind could not have consummated his infernal scheme, for the seduction of our first parents, but for the disguise, in which he presented himself. 6. Had he appeared as the devil, in his proper form; had the spear of Ithuriel disclosed the naked deformity of the fiend of hell, the inhabitants of paradise would have shrunk with horror from his presence. 7. But he came as the insinuating serpent, and presented a beautiful apple, the most delicious fruit in all the garden. He told his glowing story to the unsuspecting victim of his guile. "It can be no crime—to taste of this delightful fruit. It will disclose to you the knowledge of good, and evil. It will raise you to an equality with the angels." 8. Such, sir, was the process; and, in this simple but impressive narrative, we have the most beautiful and philosophical illustration of the frailty of man, and the power of temptation, that could possibly be exhibited. 9. Mr. Chairman, I have been forcibly struck with the similarity between our present situation, and that of Eve, after it was announced, that Satan was on the borders of paradise. We, too, have been warned, that the enemy is on our borders. 10. But God forbid that the similitude should be carried any further. Eve, conscious of her innocence, sought temptation and defied it. The catastrophe is too fatally known to us all. She went, "with the blessings of heaven on her head, and its purity in her heart," guarded by the ministry of angels; she returned covered with shame, under the heavy denunciation of heaven's everlasting curse. 11. Sir, it is innocence that temptation conquers. If our first parent, pure as she came from the hand of God, was overcome by the seductive power, let us not imitate her fatal rashness, seeking temptation, when it is in our power to avoid it. Let us not vainly confide in our own infallibility. We are liable to be corrupted. To an ambitious man, an honorable office will appear as beautiful and fascinating-as the apple of paradise. 12. I admit, sir, that ambition is a passion, at once the most powerful and the most useful. Without it, human affairs would become a mere stagnant pool. By means of his patronage, the president addresses himself in the most irresistible manner, to this the noblest and strongest of our passions. 13. All that the imagination can desire-honor, power, wealth, ease, are held out as the temptation. Man was not made to resist such temptation. It is impossible to conceive, Satan himself could not devise, a system, which would more infallibly introduce corruption and death into our political Eden. |