droppings of water, as is pretended by those who go about to explain the formation of congelations in grottoes. It is much more probable that these other congelations we speak of, and which hang downwards or rise out different ways, were produced by one principle, namely, vegetation." The sight of the whole is described, by those who have visited this cavern, as highly imposing. In the middle of the Great Hall, there is a remarkably fine and large stalagmite, more than twenty feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet high, termed the Altar, from the circumstance of the Marquis de Nointel, the ambassador from Louis XIV. to the Sultan, having caused high mass to be celebrated here in the year 1673. The ceremony was attended by five hundred persons; the place was illuminated by a hundred large wax torches; and four hundred lamps burned in the grotto, day and night, for the three days of the Christmas festival. This cavern was known to the ancient Greeks, but seems to have been completely lost sight of till the seventeenth century. 640 GOLDEN GRAINS. GOLDEN GRAINS. JAMES A. GARFIELD. SELECTED FROM VARIOUS ORATIONS. FEEL a profounder reverence for a Boy than for a Man. I never meet a ragged Boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat. Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to! sink or swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I never knew a man to be drowned who was worth the saving. There are times in the history of men and nations, when they stand so near the veil that separates Mortals and Immortals, Time from Eternity, and Men from their God, that they can almost hear their breathings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Growth is better than Permanence, and permanent growth is better than all. It is no honor or profit merely to appear in the arena. The Wreath is for those who contend. There is a fellowship among the Virtues by which one great, generous passion stimulates another. The privilege of being a Young Man is a great privilege, and the privilege of growing up to be an independent Man in middle life is a greater. Many books we can read in a railroad car and feel a harmony between the rushing of the train and the haste of the Author. If the power to do hard work is not Talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. Occasion may be the bugle-call that summons an army to battle, but the blast of a bugle can never make Soldiers or win Victories. Things don't turn up in this World until somebody turns them up. If there be one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave Man-it is a man who dares look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil. True art is but the anti-type of Naturethe embodiment of discovered Beauty in utility. Every character is the joint product of Nature and Nurture. Not a man of Iron, but of Live Oak. forms-strength and force-each possessing peculiar qualities and each perfect in its own sphere. Strength is typified by the Oak, the Rock, the Mountain. Force embodies itself in the Cataract, the Tempest, the Thunderbolt. As a giant Tree absorbs all the elements of growth within its reach and leaves only a sickly Vegetation in its shadow, so do towering great Men absorb all the strength and glory of their surroundings and leave a dearth of Greatness for a whole generation. It has been fortunate that most of our greatest Men have left no descendants to shine in the borrowed lustre of a great name. In order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into your work a fullness of Knowledge-not merely a Sufficiency. but more than a Sufficiency. Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Young Men talk of trusting to the Spur of the Occasion. That trust is vain. Occasions cannot make Spurs. If you expect to wear Spurs you must win them. It you wish to use them you must buckle them to your own heels before you go into the Fight. |