The Artist. Teacher in honor. pieces of art scattered over Europe, which attract the connoiseur of every land. From generation to generation, and from age to age, they are preserved with almost a religious veneration. We pronounce the name of the artist with a thrill of feeling which his own lofty genius alone can inspire. But he labors to produce the form and features of these frames of ours upon canvas and in marble; and though he inspire these, dumb and cold as they are, with the grace and beauty of the moving, speaking form, yet it is but a shadow that he creates. Scarce has he put the final touch of his pencil, or has struck upon his chisel the last tinkling blows, ere time's effacing fingers are busy on its surface, and the canvas fades and moulders, and the marble is crumbling into dust. Not so with the work of the teacher. He draws the lineaments and features of life upon a human soul, warm with emotion and radiant with heavenly beauty. His work does not fade and crumble, but is more. enduring with years. Every line from his pencil takes deeper and brighter color as time wears on, and every stroke from his chisel lays bare veins of beauty which grow richer with age, and take a higher polish from use. In every age the teacher has been held in honor. He is the interpreter to his own time of all the generations of thinking men that have preceded him. He Sibylline books. Rome. is the exponent of all cotemporary thought. He is the chosen representative in the republic of letters. The men of every profession seek to read and understand what he has written, and his books, like the books of fate which the Sibyl presented to the Roman emperor, are preserved with religious care, and are studied with pious veneration. As we look back through the ages that are past, the eye rests on many nations that have, in their day, shone forth with transcendent glory, and have served as beacon lights to those which followed. There are Troy, and Thebes, and Athens, and Argos, and Sparta, and Carthage, and Rome. They have achieved universal fame. Though existing in those remote ages, the mellow light of their glory rests down upon them in unclouded serenity. And what among all their grand achievements and boasted honors have they bequeathed to us that we prize the most? The books of their schoolmasters. There is no other of their possessions that have come down to us, which can be compared to these. Without them the glory of those nations departs, for it is their books that form the title-deed of their renown. When the Goth and the Vandal uncouth and savage, invaded Rome, and trampled out the last remaining spark of Roman genius, the night of barbarism settled down upon Europe and the civilized Dark Ages. Western and Eastern Empires. world. Rome was the last of the great heathen nations, and when the light of her civilization was extinguished, a period of gloom and ignorance succeeded, which was significantly called the dark ages. Generation after generation passed, and we nowhere see any marked achievement of mind. There were no triumphs in literature, in science, in art, and consequently, there was no lofty impulse, no aspiring purpose, that anywhere moved the national heart. A universal gloom brooded over the nations. And what was it amid this thick darkness that gave presage of the approaching dawn? What was it that stimulated thought and kindled that flame which was soon to flood the world with light, and burn with increasing splendor? It was the books of a few schoolmasters, that had been hoarded up, and were now scattered to the four winds. Upon the fall of the Western Empire the writings of the Grecian and Roman scholars were collected at Constantinople, and during that long period of intellectual darkness they were preserved and reproduced with vigilant and unceasing care. But at the breaking up of the Eastern Empire, and the overthrow of the power there concentred, the books that had been collected were scattered over the whole face of Europe, and the energies of the nations, which had lain dormant for more than three centuries, were inspired with Printing-Press. Alexander the Great. new vigor. The compass was invented, which sent Columbus in search of a new world. The discovery of the explosive nature of gunpowder civilized the profession of war; and the invention of the printingpress scattered thought as the wind drives the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. The dozing millions over all Europe were aroused, like the giant waking from his long slumbers and girding himself for great labors. The national pulse beat with new vigor, for an element of life and activity was poured into its veins. And this mighty revolution which followed was achieved by the books of a score or two of schoolmasters, who, centuries before, had lived and died in peace on the shores of the Mediterranean. In the same volume in which we read the history of Alexander the Great, we read that of Socrates. Alexander is recognized as one of the leading military chieftains of any age. His conquests extended over half of the civilized world. He was worshiped While he lived he by his subjects as a demigod. walked the earth in glory, but he died a miserable death, in a fit of beastly intoxication, surrounded by a circle of drunken revelers. Scarce was he cold in his grave, before the captains whom he had raised to power quarreled over his tomb for the spoils of empire. And whenever we utter his name, there is no thrill of gratitude and veneration. Virtue of Socrates. His memory. Extent of his influence. Socrates, on the contrary, was an humble teacher; who spent his days in the groves of the Academy, among his pupils, and dwelt beneath a "low-roofed house." "But from his mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools Of Academics old and new, with those His life was so pure and unsullied, and its closing scenes were characterized by such sublime virtue, that his praise has been upon the tongue of all succeeding ages. His pupils gathered around him at his death, filled with unutterable grief, preserving with religious care every word that escaped his lips. The mention of his name thrills the heart with love and admiration for his character. The thoughts which were matured in his brain will never die so long as there are admirers of virtue,—and the consistency of his life, like the jewel on the brow of beauty, sheds unfading luster on his name. Socrates indeed lived to a great purpose. His power of intellect, the acuteness of his thoughts, and the logical correctness of his reasonings, have made him the teacher, not merely of the pupils gathered about him in a Grecian city and speaking the Athenian tongue, but he is the teacher of all time, |