Part 21 (2/2)

THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENTS.

LUCIUS LACTANTIUS, an eminent Christian author, 260-325 A. D.

Is there any one so foolish as to believe that there are antipodes with their feet opposite to ours; that there is a part of the world in which all things are topsy-turvy, where the trees grow with their branches downward, and where it rains, hails, and snows upward?

THE LAKE FRONT PARK STATUE OF COLUMBUS.

The World's Fair city is a close compet.i.tor with the historic cities of the Old World for the grandest monument to Columbus and the fittest location for it. At Barcelona, on the Paseo Colon, seaward, a snowy marble Admiral looks toward the Shadowy Sea. At Genoa, 'mid the palms of the Piazza Acquaverde, a n.o.ble representation of the n.o.blest Genoese faces the fitful gusts of the Mediterranean and fondly guards an Indian maid. A lofty but rude cairn marks the Admiral's first footprints on the sh.o.r.es of the wreck-strewn Bahamas, and many a monument or encomiastic inscription denotes spots sacred to the history of his indomitable resolve. These all commemorate, as it were, but the inception of the great discovery. It remains for Chicago to perpetuate the results, and most fitly to place an heroic figure of the first Admiral viewing, and in full view of all.

On the Lake Front Park, in full view of the ceaseless commercial activity of the Great Lakes, and close by the hum of the hive of human industry, grandly will a bronze Columbus face the blasts from Michigan's bosom. There the greatest navigator stands,

Calm, his prescience verified,

proudly through the ages watching the full fruits of that first and fateful voyage over the waves of the seas of mystery, to found a nation where Freedom alone should be supreme. Just where the big monument will be located on Lake Front Park has not been decided, but a site south of the Auditorium, midway between the Illinois Central tracks and Michigan Boulevard, will perhaps be chosen. The statue proper will be twenty feet high. It will be of bronze, mounted on a ma.s.sive granite pedestal, of thirty feet in height, and will serve for all time as a memorial of the Exposition.

The chosen artist, out of the many who submitted designs, was Mr. Howard Kretschmar, a Chicago sculptor of rare power and artistic talent.

The ma.s.sive figure of Columbus is represented at the moment the land, and the glorious future of his great discovery, burst upon his delighted gaze. No ascetic monk, no curled cavalier, looks down from the pedestal.

The apocryphal portraits of Europe may peer out of their frames in this guise, but it has been the artist's aim here to chisel _a man, not a monk; and a n.o.ble man_, rather than a cringing courtier. Above the ma.s.sive pedestal of simple design, which bears the terse legend, ”Erected by the World's Columbian Exposition, A. D. 1893,” stands the n.o.ble figure of the Noah of our nation. The open doublet discloses the ma.s.sive proportions of a more than well-knit man. The left hand, pressed to the bosom, indicates the tension of his feelings, and the outstretched hand but further intensifies the dawning and gradually o'erwhelming sense of the future, the possibilities of his grand discovery. One of the n.o.blest conceptions in bronze upon this continent is Mr. Howard Kretschmar's ”Columbus,” and of it may Chicago well be proud.

COLUMBUS THE CIVILIZER.

ALPHONSE LAMARTINE, the learned French writer and politician. Born at Macon, 1792; died, 1869. From ”Life of Columbus.”

All the characteristics of a truly great man are united in Columbus.

Genius, labor, patience, obscurity of origin, overcome by energy of will; mild but persisting firmness, resignation toward heaven, struggle against the world; long conception of the idea in solitude, heroic execution of it in action; intrepidity and coolness in storms, fearlessness of death in civil strife; confidence in the destiny--not of an individual, but of the human race; a life risked without hesitation or retrospect in venturing into the unknown and phantom-peopled ocean, 1,500 leagues across, and on which the first step no more allowed of second thoughts than Caesar's pa.s.sage of the Rubicon; untiring study, knowledge as extensive as the science of his day, skillful but honorable management of courts to persuade them to truth; propriety of demeanor, n.o.bleness, and dignity in outward bearing, which afford proof of greatness of mind and attracts eyes and hearts; language adapted to the grandeur of his thoughts; eloquence which could convince kings and quell the mutiny of crews; a natural poetry of style, which placed his narrative on a par with the wonders of his discoveries and the marvels of nature; an immense, ardent, and enduring love for the human race, piercing even into that distant future in which humanity forgets those that do it service; legislative wisdom and philosophic mildness in the government of his colonies; paternal compa.s.sion for those Indians, infants of humanity, whom he wished to give over to the guardians.h.i.+p--not to the tyranny and oppression--of the Old World; forgetfulness of injury and magnanimous forgiveness of his enemies; and lastly, piety, that virtue which includes and exalts all other virtues, when it exists as it did in the mind of Columbus--the constant presence of G.o.d in the soul, of justice in the conscience, of mercy in the heart, of grat.i.tude in success, of resignation in reverses, of wors.h.i.+p always and everywhere.

Such was the man. We know of none more perfect. He contains several impersonations within himself. He was worthy to represent the ancient world before that unknown continent on which he was the first to set foot, and carry to these men of a new race all the virtues, without any of the vices, of the elder hemisphere. So great was his influence on the destiny of the earth, that none more than he ever deserved the name of a _Civilizer_.

His influence in civilization was immeasurable. He completed the world.

He realized the physical unity of the globe. He advanced, far beyond all that had been done before his time, the work of G.o.d--the SPIRITUAL UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE. This work, in which Columbus had so largely a.s.sisted, was indeed too great to be worthily rewarded even by affixing his name to the fourth continent. America bears not that name, but the human race, drawn together and cemented by him, will spread his renown over the whole earth.

THE PSALM OF THE WEST.

SIDNEY LANIER, an American poet of considerable talent. Born at Macon, Ga., February 3, 1842; died at Lynn, N. C., September 8, 1881. From his ”Psalm of the West.”[45] Lanier was the author of the ”Centennial Ode.”

Santa Maria, well thou tremblest down the wave, Thy Pinta far abow, thy Nina nigh astern; Columbus stands in the night alone, and, pa.s.sing grave, Yearns o'er the sea as tones o'er under-silence yearn.

Heartens his heart as friend befriends his friend less brave, Makes burn the faiths that cool, and cools the doubts that burn.

”'Twixt this and dawn, three hours my soul will smite With p.r.i.c.kly seconds, or less tolerably With dull-blade minutes flatwise slapping me.

Wait, heart! Time moves. Thou lithe young Western Night, Just-crowned King, slow riding to thy right, Would G.o.d that I might straddle mutiny Calm as thou sitt'st yon never-managed sea, Balk'st with his balking, fliest with his flight, Giv'st supple to his rearings and his falls, Nor dropp'st one coronal star about thy brow, Whilst ever dayward thou art steadfast drawn Yea, would I rode these mad contentious brawls, No damage taking from their If and How, Nor no result save galloping to my Dawn.

”My Dawn? my Dawn? How if it never break?

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