LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Sheif^TaLS 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
PHICE, 25 OE3STTS. 
 
 0RLE3TU3 C. TRISLER'S 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 $ 
 
 j g^-w 6 
 
 PRESS OF GEO. P. HOUSTON, PUBLISHER, CINCINNATI. 
 
LIGHTS m SHADOWS, 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 -BY- 
 
 Orlestus C. Trisler.' 
 
 COPYRIGHTED I» 
 
 PRESS OF GEO, P. HOUSTON, PUBLISHER, CINC 
 
ORLESTUS C. TRISLER 
 
 is prepared to make a few 
 engagements to lecture on 
 
 "Lights and Shadows," 
 
 U T " 
 
 h 
 
 "Woman's Rights," 
 " Evolution I Revelation- 
 Creator and Creation." 
 
 Address 
 
 ORLESTUS C. TRISLER, 
 
 54 Cha^e Avenue, 
 Station A, Cincinnati, O. 
 
 Public Opinion says : "Trisler is a platform geniu-.' r 
 " He carries his audience with a vim and dash." He is a 
 young man of remarkable, almost phenomenal power," 
 

 |^S INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 A Spring Day 9 
 
 Day of Human Life 12 
 
 Work — The Law of our Being 13 
 
 Men of Fate 15 
 
 Liberty and Law 17 
 
 Over- Grown Infants 19 
 
 Brevities 20 
 
 Unequal Conditions 24 
 
 The Home 32 
 
 Life is a Drama 36 
 
 A Man's the Degree for a' That 38 
 
 Education Eternal 42 
 
 Bulwarks of Knowledge 43 
 
 The Magnanimous Man 51 
 
 Age of Man 52 
 
 Century of Magnanimous Magnanimity 56 
 
 Hope of the Future 60 
 
 (3) 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Orlestus Clement Trlsler was born Oct. 
 13, 1865, in Brown Co., 0. The days of his 
 youth were spent on the farm, where, during 
 the summer, he did the chores, helped till the 
 soil, and eagerly employed every leisure mo- 
 ment in his literary studies. Never was he 
 without the companionship which history, 
 language, and mathematics afforded. While 
 in the corn-field, Ridpath's United States 
 History was read, and the mid-night lamp 
 frequently found the boy of twelve years 
 conning Holbrook's English Grammar, or 
 deep in the problems of Ray's Algebra. 
 During the winter he attended the country 
 school. The early training given him by his 
 parents was characterized by that practical 
 Christianity which believes that habits of 
 usefulness should be inculcated in childhood. 
 
 Such was Orlestus' aptness, diligence, and 
 
 (5) 
 
6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 ambition, that at the age of fifteen, he had 
 obtained a certificate from the County Ex- 
 aminers, and engaged a school near Sardinia, 
 O., where he was retained two years, and was 
 called " the boy teacher." During the sum- 
 mer of 1882, he attended the National Normal 
 University, at Lebanon, 0. He then con- 
 tinued teaching and going to school alter- 
 nately, and at the age of eighteen was made 
 principal of the Mt. Orab Public Schools, 
 being the junior teacher. After holding this 
 position one term, he resigned and entered 
 the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, 
 0. Here he was a student one year, and dis- 
 tinguished himself in the Philomathean 
 Literary Society. As a text-book student 
 he did not excel, attending classes rather 
 irregularly. His fort was independent read- 
 ing and thinking. He went on the principle 
 that in an important sense, no one is taught 
 except so far as he is self-taught. He could 
 not deal with minutia, he must generalize, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 
 
 study great problems — scan great questions. 
 He had a desire to attend different institu- 
 tions of learning, observe different systems 
 of school government, compare methods of 
 teaching, and believed that a change of influ- 
 ences would render him more liberal both in 
 his religious and educational views, and 
 general sentiments as well. Accordingly he 
 went from Delaware to Ada, 0., entered Ada 
 University, and was soon recognized to be 
 one of its leading orators. Here he gradu- 
 ated at the age of twenty, and then continued 
 in school for some time, taking special Post 
 Graduate studies. At the age of twenty-one, 
 he accepted the principalship of Augusta 
 College, Augusta, Ky., being again the 
 youngest teacher of the institution, and hav- 
 ing five teachers and three hundred pupils 
 under his supervision. So successful was he 
 here that his work excited no little attention, 
 and won for him an enviable reputation as 
 an educator. His aspirations, plans, and 
 
8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 purposes were" such, however, that he finally 
 gave up the profession of teaching, and is 
 now pursuing an extensive course of reading 
 in the Cincinnati Library. 
 
 A firm believer in the theory of evolution, 
 he is also a devoted adherent to " the faith of 
 the fathers." To-day there is no more beau- 
 tiful feature in the character of the man, than 
 his reverence for the principles inculcated by 
 his honored parents, and his ready and glad 
 recognition of the debt owed to the purity of 
 a mother's influence. 
 
 Not the least among his attainments is his 
 genius as a public speaker. A ready and 
 far-reaching command of language, combined 
 with personal magnetism and marked elocu- 
 tionary power, renders him popular and 
 effective as a platform lecturer. 
 
 A. B. Brooks. 
 Cincinnati, 0., Sept. 24, 1889. 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 
 
 Imagine a beautiful Spring morning. The 
 first faint light of day-break is just beginning 
 to dawn, and on the distant horizon the east- 
 ern sky is resplendent with the golden rays of 
 a glorious sunrise. 
 
 Each tree and tiny bush is donning its garb 
 of delicate green ; meadows and hillsides are 
 beautiful with their soft, velvety carpet; and 
 on every leaflet and tiny grass blade sparkles 
 diamonds of dew. 
 
 The birds are warbling sweet melodies in 
 every tree-top, and all Nature's orchestra, so 
 long silenced by icicles and frost, are singing 
 praises to their Maker in the early morning 
 sunlight. 
 
 The quiet gurgle of the laughing streamlet, 
 as it gaily dances through the valley and 
 among the rocks, over the pebbles, adds a 
 pleasant accompaniment to earth's glad choir. 
 
 The air is laden with the sweet perfume of 
 apple blossoms, and busy bees hasten on their 
 mission, culling sweets from every blossom. 
 
 (9) 
 
10 Trisler's lecture on 
 
 In the meadows, herds and flocks feed upon 
 tender herbs; bleating lambs playfully skip 
 to and fro, and all nature rejoices in return- 
 ing spring. 
 
 In the early morning, man himself goes 
 forth with renewed vigor and strength, per- 
 forming his daily tasks. 
 
 Soon the busy household is awakened; mer- 
 ry voices of happy children ring out through 
 the clear air, and the day has truly begun. 
 
 The great, red sun steadily rises, gradually 
 attaining the zenith of his glory, shedding 
 his piercing rays in every direction, penetrat- 
 ing many a fathomless depth. 
 
 As the noon-day heat becomes excessive, 
 the kine instinctively seek the cooling shades 
 of the rocky dales, quenching their thirst at 
 the sequestered pool wherein is mirrored the 
 pale blue sky and towering tree-tops — where 
 fishes fearlessly play about, and the water- 
 cress spreads in rich profusion. 
 
 Over the distant hills echo the mellow 
 notes of the dinner-horn, and, the noon-day 
 repast over, the laborers return to the fields ; 
 the sun begins his downward course, show- 
 ing that the day is half spent. 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 11 
 
 But suddenly, as so often occurs on a warm 
 spring day, the western sky and southern 
 wind show signs of an approaching storm, 
 and soon the rain patters quickly upon the 
 roof and window-panes. The clouds lower, 
 the gray, rugged Nimbus pours its waters 
 upon the earth, the winds whistle in the 
 chimneys, scattering the dust in every direc- 
 tion, and the spring shower rages in all its 
 glory, drenching the thirsty earth until every 
 sluice runs a diminutive river. " April showers 
 bring forth May flowers ; " the parched earth 
 revives, and before the powerful luminary of 
 day scud the angry clouds, piling themselves 
 in monstrous heaps against the sky, assum- 
 ing shapes grotesque and weird. The sun 
 creeps down his golden ladder, slowly reach- 
 ing its last round. 
 
 The village clock tolls the hour of six ; 
 husbands, brothers and friends return home 
 to rest from their day's labor. As the evening 
 twilight gathers, the happy family assembles 
 beneath the wide-spreading elms, to while 
 away a little time in pleasant conversation. 
 
 A few neighbors join in merry company. 
 One by one the golden candles are lighted in 
 
12 trisusr's lecture on 
 
 the heavens, the twinkling, starry eyes of 
 the azure-tinted firmament sparkle as a 
 thousand costly gems. 
 
 Nature's million voices shouted gaily, and 
 the woods with their rustic temples and 
 silvan statues re-echo the music of the 
 birds and of those green-coated musicians, 
 the frogs, as they croak their mournful dirge 
 from the marshes. 
 
 The silver-faced moon rolls listlessly in its 
 orbit, the roses and the lilies fill the evening 
 zephyrs with sweet perfumes, the tulips 
 droop their heads in slumber, the pansies 
 and blue-eyed forget-me-nots uphold their 
 quaint faces, nodding to the stars. 
 
 DAY OF HUMAN LIFE. 
 
 This day, methinks, is fittingly typical of 
 the ideal journey of human life. The day 
 of human life has its morning, its noon-day, 
 its evening, its twilight, and then comes 
 night. But unlike the natural day, it em- 
 braces in its comprehensiveness a just return 
 of sunshine and storm, of success and failure, 
 of Lights and Shadows, as the result of 
 individual perseverance and effort. By the 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 13 
 
 right individual elements at work, it, too, 
 can be made an ideal day — a day of sunshine 
 and joy. 
 
 We rise in the morning of life full of rosy 
 expectations and egotistical anticipations. 
 We set forward with spirit and hope. We 
 imagine we see behind the curtain that 
 shrouds the future gardens of pleasure 
 and the beacon light of fame. But unless 
 we -execute as well as plan, and work as well 
 as dream, our lives will eventuate nothing 
 but the shadows of blighted hopes; and 
 anon the sun creeps down behind the occi- 
 dental clouds, and in the evening twilight 
 we take a glimpse at the past, bid adieu to 
 the living, and with forgotten names are 
 consigned into the City of the Dead — to 
 sleep beneath the quiet stars. 
 
 WORK THE LAW OF OUR BEING 
 
 Work is the law of our being — the living 
 principle that carries men and nations on- 
 ward. Motion is life — stand-stillism is death. 
 All that is great in man comes through labor, 
 and the light of a glorious civilization is its 
 product. It is idleness that is the curse o 
 
14 TRISI,ER'S IyKCTURE on 
 
 man — not labor. Idleness eats the heart out 
 of men as of nations, and consumes them as 
 rust does iron. But how many there are 
 who entertain the mistaken idea that, through 
 mere luck and chance, and without the sum- 
 moning of any individual effort, they can 
 win the prize of life and reach the goal of 
 their ambition ! And so do men drift with 
 the tide, helplessly about over the billows, 
 vainly expecting that ere long some favorable 
 breeze will spring up and launch their boat 
 upon the harbor of fortune and renown. 
 
 Those who wait for the tide to land their 
 boat upon the shore are soon carried out 
 into dangerous waters, where the " white- 
 caps" lash them 'round and 'round, and thus 
 are they wrecked and go down between the 
 icebergs of life's tempestuous sea. 
 
 You have heard of the man that got to 
 heaven. It was rather a long journey. 
 When he arrived at the gate — the entrance 
 of heaven — Peter was there, and said to 
 him : " Hold on a moment ; I'd like to ask 
 you a few questions. Did you ever belong 
 to church?" " No ; I never joined them." 
 " Did you ever read the Bible any ? " " No ; 
 
UGHTS AND SHADOWS. l5 
 
 I never read it much." " Well, did you ever 
 go to meeting any ? " " No ; I usually sat 
 on the porch and watched the other folks go 
 to meeting." " Then you may just take this 
 stool ; please sit down and watch the other 
 folks go into heaven." 
 
 There are men to-day sitting on the stool 
 of do-nothing, watching the world go on 
 before them, with her lawyers, doctors, his- 
 torians, statesmen, men of all callings, achiev- 
 ing honor and distinction. Sit there, sit 
 there, sit there ; but when the snow of age 
 invades them, and the shadows of the even- 
 ing twilight are falling, they realize impor- 
 tunely that — 
 
 " Life is real ! Life is earnest ! " 
 
 MEN OF FATE. 
 
 There is a sanguine idea now afloat upon 
 the breezes, and entertained by clubs of radi- 
 cal, shallow-minded thinkers, that we are all 
 born in subjection to one great, immutable, 
 pre-existent law of fate and circumstances ; 
 prior to all our devices, and prior to all our 
 contrivances; paramount to all our ideas, 
 and all our sensations; antecedent to our 
 
16 Trisler's lecture otf 
 
 very existence, by which we are knit and 
 controlled in the great eternal frame of the 
 universe, and out of which we can never stir; 
 operated upon and governed by the wires 
 and levers of the resistless circumstances of 
 the hour, and succumbing to the behests of 
 fate and immutable law, — all hastening down 
 through the corridors of time, either into 
 the carnival of an eternal cess-pool of ruin, 
 or, albeit, into perpetual happiness and 
 flowery beds of ease. 
 
 Methinks these so-called men of fate, luck, 
 and chance — all the idlers and gamblers, 
 travel in the same boat. They have the 
 devil for their helmsman, and when he steers 
 them far out upon the restless, devouring 
 sea, where the rolling waves and roaring 
 billows mock the cry of thousands, and speak 
 only of w^rath and terror — they hoist a white 
 flag, upon whose folds is written that warn- 
 ing sentiment, "The past has deceived us; 
 the present torments us ; the future terrifies 
 us." It is true indeed that all things are 
 governed by law, and the violation of law 
 means punishment. Without law all would 
 be chaos. With law we have kosmos, or 
 
UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 17 
 
 harmonious order. The whole creative uni- 
 verse rests upon law. And while our lives 
 are thus operated upon, and thereby 
 preserved, we are, nevertheless, endowed 
 with discriminative, and deliberative facul- 
 ties, and latent powers, which are de- 
 veloped by contact with the external world, 
 through the medium of our corporeal senses, 
 and by which we are capable of acting, 
 choosing, deciding, judging, and reasoning 
 upon things as they fall under our observa- 
 tion, and out of which our individuality and 
 responsibility emanate. 
 
 LIBERTY AND LAW. 
 
 But there is another class of men in this 
 country whom I denominate centrifugal, 
 red-flagged anarchists, composed mostly of 
 the slums of creation ; who hold to the idea, 
 that men are free only in proportion as they 
 are without restraint— that so long as they 
 are under law they are'without liberty — that 
 liberty means absence of law. 
 
 Now, no one can rightfully claim liberty to 
 do that which is wrong. The law only re- 
 strains him from wrong — but it also protects 
 
18 trisi^er's lecture on 
 
 him from wrong-doings on the part of 
 others. The law forbids him to murder — 
 forbids him to steal, but that does not abridge 
 his liberty, for he never had a right to 
 murder, or to steal. Therefore, so far as law 
 restrains him from doing wrong, it does not 
 interfere with his liberty. No one has a 
 right to do that which is inconsistent with 
 the welfare of society. Not only does law 
 forbid wrong-doing but also furnishes pro- 
 tection, or security, which is the essential 
 element of civil liberty. Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh defines liberty to be security against 
 wrong. But the object of law is security, or 
 protection. Therefore, liberty is the product 
 of law. And any man, native or foreign, 
 who hoists a red flag in this country, in op- 
 position to our union flag — that flag for 
 which more blood was shed than any other 
 flag that waves beneath the eternal dome of 
 heaven — ought to be screwed down in the 
 bottom of hell with rusty screw-taps without 
 oil or grease. 
 
 JSTo, no, not law, neither natural, divine, 
 nor human — but it is idleness, one of the 
 seven deadly sins, the devil's cushion and 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 19 
 
 pillow, that hampers, restrains and enslaves 
 men, and directs their course ; for it diseases 
 the mind, contaminates and rusts the soul, 
 saps confidence, blights manhood, makes 
 men cowards, and compels the idler to ex- 
 claim with Satan, — 
 
 "Which way I fly is hell, 
 Myself am hell." 
 
 OVER-GROWN INFANTS. 
 
 A Union general was riding up to the rear 
 of his forces at the battle of Antietam when 
 he saw from the front rank a tall soldier 
 start and in double quick time make his way 
 to the rear. The general was astonished, 
 and, looking at him for a moment, said: 
 " Halt, sir ! Go back to your regiment." 
 The fellow stopped, commenced to cry, and 
 said: " General, I can't; I am a coward, 
 and I told them I was a coward when they 
 drafted me in the army." "Well," said the 
 general, " if I was a coward, I would not be 
 a great baby. Go back, sir." "Well, I wish 
 I was a baby, and a gal baby at that." 
 
 Ridiculous ! Yes, but is it half as ridiculous 
 as to see over-grown infants who are forever 
 
20 trisi^er's i,ecture on 
 
 doing nothing but criticising God and man— 
 grumbling, complaining, and whimpering 
 around: "We are hampered by law. Our 
 personal liberties are abridged. We are 
 curbed and restrained, and can not have 
 things our way. Mr. Legislator, you make 
 our taxes too high. You pay no attention to 
 our petitions. You ought to have your 
 heads mashed. Mr. Capitalist, there is too 
 much poverty, inequality, and unsophisti- 
 cated cussedness in this land. This is a dreary 
 world." 
 
 Thackeray says the world is a looking- 
 glass, and gives back to every one the reflec- 
 tion of himself. 
 
 Many men worry more about things that 
 are small to them, than they do from failing 
 to see that alligator in the egg. 
 
 Men must recognize the fact that the mass 
 is made up of individuals, and as the indi- 
 vidual is, so is society — so is the nation. 
 
 BREVITIES. 
 
 One reason why so many people find their 
 business at a stand-still is that they stand still 
 themselves. 
 
IvlGHTS AND SHADOWS. 21 
 
 The parrot is rather a pretty bird, with a 
 hooked bill. Many people have a similar 
 nose and they are always found sticking it 
 into other people's business. 
 
 The Devil lost his position by kicking up 
 a row. Many people do the same thing 
 now-a-days. 
 
 One who would be happy, let him spend 
 his evenings with his family. A cat in a 
 strange garret is always getting into trouble. 
 
 It is strange to find so many that are 
 moral in daylight, go to the Devil and the 
 dives after dark. 
 
 The home of a drunkard reminds one of 
 the terrible effects of a cyclone. 
 
 A camel will take enough water at one 
 time to last for several days, but many peo- 
 ple must wet their whistles at every saloon, 
 and then get up in the morning with their 
 "copper" hot. 
 
 The centipede is a worm found in the 
 tropics. It has numerous legs, each one of 
 which has a sting. Where it crawls over its 
 victim the flesh falls off. There are animals 
 more dangerous, assuming the shape of men, 
 who take the last loaf of bread from their 
 
22 trisi/er's lecture on 
 
 children to the corner saloon to purchase a 
 glass of " dynamite/' then return and kick 
 their wives and children out into the storm. 
 
 Idleness, drunkenness, and laziness were 
 all brought up in the same school and belong 
 to the same family. They lie, gossip, and 
 seek to undermine their neighbor's business. 
 
 There is only one thing that can be pro- 
 duced from nothing — and that is a falsehood, 
 and it returns to the same source. It is not 
 necessary to clothe truth, but falsehood 
 needs a new suit of clothes every time it 
 makes its appearance. 
 
 To keep out ot trouble, keep out of debt. 
 There is only one satisfaction for the debtor. 
 If he should get sick his creditors will be his 
 watchers, if he dies, his mourners. 
 
 Prosperity and Adversity met on the road 
 one day. Adversity asked the other the 
 cause of his success. Prosperity replied : 
 " When you get further on your journey you 
 will meet Labor and Economy and they will 
 tell you all about it." 
 
 One who kindly submits to being told of 
 his faults is on the road to reform. One who 
 will flatter you will make sport of you when 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 23 
 
 your back is turned. We are all laboring 
 and advising mankind to do better. If we 
 were to spend the effort upon ourselves, 
 wouldn't we be a world of saints ? If a man 
 is ever found who practices just what he 
 preaches he should be sent to Barnum's 
 Museum. 
 
 The birds are singing, the floweis are 
 blooming, nature is dressed in all her glory ; 
 yet, man is complaining. Nature smiles, — 
 man frowns. The rich are restless, the poor 
 dissatisfied. Fortune may favor the few, 
 but happiness is free for all, if all would but 
 look within for it. 
 
 Goldsmith says : 
 
 " Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 
 That bliss which only centers in the mind." 
 
 Pope says : 
 
 " Virtue alone is happiness below." 
 
 Man wants everything free, but when free 
 he will not have it. It ceases to be a luxury, 
 ye know. Don't you think it would be a 
 good idea for us to have free whisky — then 
 water would be a good beverage for Young 
 America. 
 
24 TRISI,ER'S t^CTURE ON 
 
 . The ancients worshiped dogs and cats 
 with certain peculiar spots and stripes. But 
 the civilized world, to-day, worship the 
 almighty dollar. 
 
 Labor and Capital should shake hands and 
 quit their quarreling. Capital forgets that 
 Labor creates its wealth. Labor forgets that 
 Capital gives it employment. Demagogues 
 have broken the chords of confidence be- 
 tween Labor and Capital. 
 
 Demagogues, Communists, Socialists, An- 
 archists, Idlers, Gamblers and Gossipers have 
 all chartered a special, lightning, hell-bound 
 train, and they all have through tickets. 
 
 UNEQUAL CONDITIONS. 
 
 The so-called sages of all ages have theo- 
 rized upon the unequal distribution of wealth 
 and conditions of mankind, only to derive 
 their sociology from fallacies of a so-called 
 philosophy exploded times without number. 
 I undertake to remark that the great masses 
 of socialists, or so-called labor extremists, 
 have been moved and influenced by self- 
 seeking demagogues, who possess a wonderful 
 faculty of imagination, which transcends 
 
UGHfS AND SHADOWS. 25 
 
 real and possible things, but whose ideas are 
 fragmentary and incoherent, and premises 
 illogical. They have stirred up a feeling of 
 discontent by *the notion that men are 
 wronged who have not a share with the rich, 
 and by prefacing their discussions of social 
 and labor questions with declarations of love 
 for the working-class, and sympathy for the 
 pcor — a feeling which is natural among all 
 men. And suffice it to say that it is the op- 
 posite of proof of the supernatural wisdom to 
 discover a cure for that which has existed 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 The leader of the reaction against our 
 social system, to-day, is Henry George. He 
 asks, " Why this vice and wretchedness 
 among the poor? Why have they not equal 
 happiness with the rich. Because society is 
 unjust, conditions unequal. Because one 
 man owns a thousand acres while his neigh- 
 bor is famishing." His remedy is, " Eight 
 the injustice ; make property common as air 
 is common, and sunlight, and starlight ; make 
 conditions equal as nature made them equal, 
 and all this poverty will be swept away and 
 misery will be gone." 
 
26 TRisivER's i/ecture on 
 
 But the theory rests on false premises. 
 Nature never made conditions equal, Mr. 
 George. The obliquity and the oblateness 
 of the earth, the inclination and constant 
 parallelism of its axis, the irregularities of 
 its surface, engender various conditions of 
 climate, and multifarious varieties of animal 
 and vegetable life. These foster continual 
 inequalities among men as regards their 
 physical, intellectual and social being. Had 
 you created this wonderful mechanism of 
 worlds, Mr. George, and made this all one 
 vast level plain, no mountains, no valleys, 
 climate equal, men equal in body and brain, 
 your theory might obtain. 
 
 Go back through the long, dim vista of the 
 geological ages, and notice the multitudinous 
 changes that have taken place, the continual 
 evolution and progression of the creation of 
 all forms, — inanimate and animate — in an 
 unbroken series, from the lowest, simplest, 
 and most homogeneous, by successive, slight, 
 but numerous, continuous differences, or 
 differentiations, through infinite gradations, 
 up to the highest, most complex, and heter- 
 ogeneous forms ; notice how each species was 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 27 
 
 continually striving for supremacy, the very 
 elements, as it were, fighting among them- 
 selves, and you behold an actual warfare in 
 the whole range of organic life, a survival of 
 the fittest. Were it not so this would not be 
 a progressive world, a progressive life, no 
 incentive to effort — no stimulus to the de- 
 velopment of latent power ! 
 
 Now, I put the question, Why does sloth, 
 vice, and wretchedness prevail in this land ? 
 And I hear the echo coming from the Idlers, 
 " Poverty." I go to yon lowly burial place, 
 beneath whose surface rests the moulder- 
 ing remains of a drunkard and criminal, 
 one who possessed a heart overflowing with 
 the milk of benevolence, the spring-time of 
 whose life was hallowed by high and lofty 
 aspirations, and I ask, why this human 
 wreck? And again I hear the echo coming 
 from the Idlers, " Poverty." Then, I pro- 
 ceed to ask how comes so much poverty ? 
 And all the Socialists, Anarchists and Dem- 
 agogues join in the chorus, and I hear the 
 echo coming from thousands of mumuring 
 voices : " Pov-er-ty." Now the very ele- 
 ments of sin and wretchedness, three black 
 
28 ^risi^er's lecture on 
 
 angles, can no longer withstand the pangs 
 and remorse of conscience, and arise, and 
 speak aloud, in emphatic language, " We, In- 
 toxicants, Licentiousness, and Laziness are the 
 primal cause of all this vice and crime — this 
 poverty and inequality." 
 
 What gives property its value? The 
 sweat of some man's face — of some man's 
 brain. Yonder marsh is worthless. Irrigate 
 it and it teems with richness. Is it right 
 when one man gives it value for all to enjoy 
 equally the product of his labor ? Industry 
 deserves more than laziness. Great capacity 
 deserves more than mean capacity, for this 
 is the eternal law of creation. 
 
 Injudicious remedy ! It offers nothing to 
 give hope to the earnest workman who 
 would rise by his superior energies. It 
 promises him instead of daily bread earned 
 by the sweat of his brow, unearned, gilded 
 ginger bread; Tenderloin of Beef, Braised 
 with Mushrooms ; Cold, Sugar-Cured Ham ; 
 Boned Turkey, with Jelly ; Saratoga Chips ; 
 Vanilla Ice Cream ; Charlotte Eusse ; White 
 Mountain Cake ; Egg Jumbles, Chocolate 
 Macaroons, and all the elegant niceties that 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 29 
 
 co aid gratify the appetite of the most fasti- 
 dious epicurean. 
 
 Were property common, conditions equal, 
 who should dwell on Suwanee's verdant 
 banks ? Who on the shores of the Hudson ? 
 Who should choose? Who decide? Would 
 there be no favoritism, no dissatisfaction ? 
 Ah, behind this work of Socialism flashes the 
 bayonets. We hear the marshal music of 
 war, the roar of hostile cannon, the shriek of 
 shot and shell. We see death upon every 
 breeze, dark volumes of smoke rising from 
 the ruins. Red flags are flaunting their folds 
 o'er a benighted land. Millions in arms — 
 hep, hep, hep — marching in solid phalanx to 
 the carnival of death and the grave of con- 
 stitutional liberty ! 
 
 Equalize conditions and every motive to 
 effort and incentive to improvement would 
 die. Voiceless yet would be the golden harp 
 of Shakspeare, silent the song of Milton, no 
 philosophy written by Benjamin Franklin, 
 by George Eliot ; the gentle Charles Lamb 
 would have written no charming essays, made 
 no immortal jokes; no Goldsmith's Vicar 
 of Wakefield, nor Defoe's Robinson Crusoe ; 
 
30 trisler's lecture on 
 
 Thackeray would never have scorched 
 snobbery; Dickens would never have met 
 the Wellers and Mrs. Nickleby, nor Mr. 
 Mantinelli ; dead would be the names of 
 Irving, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Haw- 
 thorne,Lowell and Emerson ; unknown the 
 peerless and deathless names of Washington, 
 Lincoln and Garfield ; unreared our temples 
 of learning that tower as noble monuments 
 from whose summits gleam the beacon-light 
 of hope, and wrapped in the shadows of a 
 dream undreamt this mighty civilization, 
 were it not for the principle that man is, and 
 of right, ought to be entitled to the product 
 of his own labor, the labor of his hand and 
 of his brain. 
 
 I have but one construction of equality : 
 Equality of condition, never; but eternal 
 equality of privilege — of privilege forever 
 and aye ! Equality of privilege to be a Van- 
 derbilt, if one can, to be a Grant, if one can, 
 to be a Beecher, if one can. This principle 
 it was that gave us our liberty, that handed 
 the instant lightnings down to Lincoln, that 
 stormed those heights at Lookout ; equality 
 of privilege, and the tattered battle flags 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 31 
 
 torn by the shells at Yorktown, at Shilo, at 
 Gettysburg; the monuments of those who 
 fell on the furrowed fields where our heroes 
 fought for the" eternal rights of men — 
 call upon us to preserve this principle for- 
 ever. 
 
 This is a world of war. War is the heri- 
 tage of man. Success is achieved by fighting 
 for it. God has ordained that man should 
 earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
 This life is a survival of the fittest, the fittest 
 survives, the better man wins. When you 
 go forth to the battle of life, sharpen your 
 " battle ax." If you don't, your neighbor 
 will, and cut your head off with it. The 
 destinies of men are in accordance with 
 their efforts. A man can sit down upon a 
 red-hot stove, or suffer the mortification of 
 being kicked by a mule, or stung by the "hot 
 end" of a wasp, but just tell him he's a lazy 
 good-for-nothing and he is ready to fight. 
 There is more efficacy in pluck than in luck. 
 
 It is not in birth, nor rank, nor state, 
 
 But the u get up and get," that makes men great. 
 
 Mr. Can't never accomplished anything, 
 neither did old Mrs. Can't. In fact, the 
 
32 trisi,er's lecture on 
 
 whole Can't family do nothing more than 
 help to fill up space. 
 
 " I Can " climbs to the mountain top, 
 
 And plows the billowy main ; 
 He lifts the hammer in the shop 
 
 And draws the saw and plane. 
 
 Then say " I Can! " Yes, let it ring; 
 
 There is a volume there : 
 There's meaning in the eagle's wing: — 
 
 Then soar and do and dare. 
 
 THE HOME. 
 
 If you doubt your ability to accomplish 
 your object, don't undertake it; you will fail 
 if you do. Don't undertake anything unless 
 your determination is equal to the task you 
 are to perform. If you would better your 
 condition do not take too much of your 
 neighbor's advice, as that is what he is trying 
 to do. It is folly to count on certainties 
 growing out of possibilities, for they do not 
 often occur amongst the probabilities. It is 
 even a dangerous proposition to declare a 
 certainty until it has developed into a fact. 
 
 Don't be too sure of your sweetheart — 
 you may get left like the gentleman did with 
 Letty and Hildegonde. He had completely 
 
LTGHTS AND SHADOWS. 33 
 
 captivated both — and knew full well, sooner 
 or later, he had to choose between them. 
 But when he thought of life with one, it 
 made him long for the other; besides, to 
 break a woman's heart should horrify a 
 heathen. What must he do — go to Salt 
 Lake City? It really seemed to him a case 
 where bigamy was a duty. But when the 
 difficulty was ended, he said : 
 
 " Kind friends, the die is cast, 
 Oh take me out and bake me ! 
 I've popped to both the girls at last 
 And neither one would take me ! " 
 
 Marriages were formerly considered mu- 
 tual ; both were to work together to build up 
 the home. Nowadays it means a host of 
 servants, a piano, and a large bank ac- 
 count. 
 
 I like a girl that knows how to cook a 
 beefsteak, and entertain company, and write 
 a novel, and paint a picture, and teach a 
 school, and sing a song, and harness a horse, 
 and row a boat, and fire a rifle, and make a 
 patriotic speech. That is the girl for me, 
 and if I don't get her — I — well — I suppose I 
 shall have to give her up. 
 
34 TRISIfER'S I,ECTURE ON 
 
 Let your home be ever so homely it is a 
 heaven to feel that you dwell in peace. 
 
 A woman who is always talking about 
 dresses, theaters, parties, and balls, and 
 otherwise complaining and scolding, will 
 squander her husband's salary, and make 
 him feel rather diminutive. 
 
 I am reminded of a certain twain whose 
 home was made desolate and unhappy by 
 extravagance and continual vexations. The 
 husband dies. In a few months the widow, 
 through remorse of conscience, becomes 
 anxious to communicate with him, goes to a 
 spiritualist, has his spirit called up and they 
 talkthusly: "Oh, John; are you happy?" 
 "Yes." "Are you very happy, John?" — 
 "Yes." "Are you happier than when you 
 were with me, John? " — " Oh, yes." " Well, 
 where are you, John ? " — " In hell." 
 
 Fault finding engenders alienations, Mrs. 
 Caudle, and makes your next dress much 
 longer — in coming, yet much shorter when 
 it does come; and poorer in quality; and 
 thus of everything else. Methinks you cut 
 your nose off to spite your face, Mrs. Caudle. 
 Well, bless my soul, there is Mr. Caudle; 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 35 
 
 pardon me, I had almost forgotten you. I 
 believe you had some trouble about the but- 
 ton. Yes. Pretty much always sometimes 
 most generally getting into trouble. Yes. 
 Please allow your humble servant to give 
 you a prescription : " More work and less 
 talk; quit sitting around; get out and ac- 
 complish something;" then you can say : 
 
 " Now my task is smoothly done, 
 I can fly or I can run." 
 
 I havn't very much sympathy for these 
 hen-pecked, broom-sticked men, for it is 
 generally prima facie evidence that they are 
 neglecting their business. 
 
 The sweetest type of heaven is a home 
 where contentment reigns supreme, and 
 where all is joy and peace and love. You 
 remember when two regimental bands were 
 hurling responsive and defiant strains at each 
 other, at last one of thenTstruck up "Home, 
 Sweet Home ! " And to that challenge the 
 enemy had no defiance ; all they could do 
 was to join their strains also with the strains 
 of their foemen in " Home, Sweet Home ! " 
 
 Home ! what tender associations cluster 
 thick around that endearing word! No 
 
36 TRIER'S LECTURE ON 
 
 man, in all his weary wanderings ever goes 
 out beyond its overshadowing arch. Let 
 him stand on the surf-beaten coast of the 
 Atlantic, or roam over western wilds, and 
 every dash of the wave or murmur of the 
 breeze will whisper Home, Sweet Home ! 
 Let him down among the glaciers of the 
 north and even there thoughts of home, too 
 warm to be chilled by the eternal frosts, will 
 float in upon him. Let him rove through 
 the green, waving groves and over the sunny 
 slopes of the South and in the smile of the 
 soft skies, in the kiss of the balmy breeze, 
 home will live again. It is a green spot in 
 memory, an oasis in the desert, the school of 
 individual character, of civilization, the in- 
 dex of heaven. 
 
 In the heyday of life man rows against 
 the tide and enjoys the ride. In old age he 
 floats down the stream of time and lands 
 safely in the harbor, where the waters are 
 placid and the storm king is heard no more. 
 
 LIFE IS A DRAMA. 
 
 Life is a drama. We come upon the stai^e 
 of action quite early in our infancy. We 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 37 
 
 open our eyes with great expectations. We 
 gaze out through the windows of our soul 
 upon the visible, external world, and every 
 day find out something new, make some 
 new discovery. God has endowed us with 
 faculties and latent powers which by a proper 
 development are to make us complete be- 
 ings. But it is the use we make of the 
 powers entrusted to us, which constitutes 
 our only just claim to respect. He who 
 employs his one talent aright is as much to 
 be honored as he to whom ten talents have 
 been given. There is really no more personal 
 merit attaching to superior intellectual pow- 
 ers than there is in the succession to a large 
 esfate. How are those powers used, how 
 is that estate employed ? It is possible for 
 the mind to accumulate large stores ot 
 knowledge without any useful purpose. 
 Pestalozzi held intellectual training by itsell 
 to be pernicious. An often quoted expression 
 at this day is that " Knowledge is power ;" 
 but so, also, are fanaticism, despotism 
 and ambition. Knowledge of itself, unless 
 wisely directed, unless it strikes and feeds 
 in the soil of the rightly governed will, and 
 
38 TRISI^KR'S I.KCTURE on 
 
 is fortified by sound principles and right 
 habits, might merely make bad men more 
 dangerous, and the society in which it was 
 regarded as the highest good, little better 
 than a pandemonium. 
 
 A MAN'S THE DEGREE FOR A' THAT. 
 
 A complete man must be more than a 
 learned man ; he must be an educated man. 
 Education implies more than mere learning 
 or book knowledge. A degree is not the 
 index of an education. Nowadays it is not 
 a very good index of learning. I undertake to 
 say that degrees, diplomas and honorary 
 certificates have no intrinsic significance. 
 Many Doctors of Philosophy, so-called, and 
 Masters of Art, so-called, leave their Alma 
 Maters, go out into practical life and 
 make deplorable failures ; while many stu- 
 dents of lower rank in college, having no 
 literary laurels, go out into practical life and 
 rise high above their mistaken superiors. 
 Diplomas and degrees would indeed be quite 
 worthy and honorable, were they conferred 
 on the completion of a full and definite 
 amount of work uniform in all institutions 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 39 
 
 so empowered. But the truth is, that in dif- 
 ferent institutions, the curriculums leading to 
 the same degree are 'differentiated by very 
 important studies and a great amount of im- 
 portant work. There are, indeed, a great 
 number of institutions whose diplomas, in 
 first class institutions would not be accepted 
 in lieu of the preparatory course, would not 
 give one freshman rank. Therefore, I say 
 that a degree in many cases does not mean 
 what it ought to mean. 
 
 I remember one time there came to the 
 Ohio Wesleyan University from some infe- 
 rior institution, a graduate who desired to 
 take the Post Graduate Course. He had the 
 degree A. B. and thought A. M. from the 
 Ohio Wesleyan University would give him a 
 good deal of fame. He introduced himself 
 to the President, told his purposes, showed 
 his highly ornamented diploma, and asked to 
 take the Post Graduate Course. " Your in- 
 stitution does not rank with ours," said the 
 President, " we shall have to examine you 
 and put you where you belong." The ex- 
 amination was rather humiliating, for he 
 absolutely could not reach the freshman 
 
40 trisi^kr's I^CTURE on 
 
 class. He had taken some of the elements 
 of science, had a little smattering of language, 
 had translated a few easy latin lessons by 
 riding on a pony, had delivered a " cut and 
 dried," borrowed, graduation oration, and 
 being flattered and ' puffed up ? with egotism, 
 then thought to render his name immortal, 
 which he unfortunately did. The most con- 
 spicuous thing about this fellow was his 
 dress. He wore a very short coat, very tight 
 pantaloons, a very high collar, a very big 
 necktie, very thick soled, one-toed shoes, a 
 cane, and an eye glass. They called him a 
 dude, ye know. He became acquainted with 
 one of the University girls and insisted on 
 escorting her home from church. Proceed- 
 ing, he felt dudey and said : " What would 
 you do if you were I and I were you, ye 
 know ? " u Well," she said, " if I were you, 
 ye know, I would throw away that vile 
 cigarette, cut my cane up into fire-wood, 
 wear my watch chain underneath my vest, 
 and stay at home at night and pray for 
 brains." He reminded me of the boy that 
 wanted to join church. The preacher asked 
 him what evidence he had that he was a fit 
 
UGHT^S AND SHADOWS. 41 
 
 subject to become a member of church. "I 
 know very well I am a fit subject/' said the 
 boy, " for last night I had a vision, and in my 
 vision I saw a ladder standing upright, and 
 I heard a voice coming from the angels, and 
 saying unto me, 'climb, Jim, climb;' and I 
 started up the ladder. Then I heard another 
 voice coming from the angels, and saying 
 unto me, " climb, Jim, climb ; ' and I climbed 
 some more. Then I heard a voice coming 
 from Christ, saying unto me, ' climb, Jim, 
 climb;' and I climbed to the top of the lad- 
 der and stood on the last round — and that 
 did not extend quite up to heaven. Finally 
 I heard a voice coming from God, saying 
 unto me, 'jump, Jim, jump;' and, gewhif, 
 but I did get the blamedest fall." 
 
 Dudes are the progeny of the babboon, 
 the missing link between them and the hu- 
 man race. Not having sufficient intelligence 
 to entitle them to the name of either. 
 
 After all is said w T ith reference to different 
 institutions, degrees and diplomas, suffice it 
 to say that the great, fundamental, essential, 
 all-important, vital, sine-qua-non prerequisite 
 in all learning, and in all education, is the— 
 
42 ?RISI,ER*S I,£CfURfi Otf 
 
 scholar — himself. Because one is a graduate 
 of Harvard College is no reason why he is the 
 brightest star of the Pleiades, the center of the 
 social, intellectual and moral universe, and 
 the rest of mankind but planets and aster- 
 oids. Because one attended a preparatory 
 institution, or albeit, never attended any in- 
 stitution, is no reason why he may not be a 
 man of tremendous power and influence 
 among his fellow men. Robert Burns says : 
 " A man's a man for a' that." Allow me to 
 say with Robert Burns, that a man's the 
 teacher, the institution, the Alma Mater 
 for a' that A man's the diploma, a man's 
 the degree for a' that and a' that. A. M., 
 written on one's eyes, on the windows of 
 his soul, that is the degree of genuine worth, 
 that is the index of ability, manhood and 
 power. 
 
 EDUCATION ETERNAL. 
 
 Education has reference to the whole man, 
 the body, the mind, the heart, and it covers 
 the whole area of life. It is not confined to 
 book-knowledge, nor is it confined to the 
 present period of life. For aught we know 
 
LIGHTS AND vSHADOWS. 43 
 
 it may be continued in heaven. Mind may 
 expand and intensify through eternity. The 
 affections may grow in beauty and fervor 
 through innumerable ages. We learn the 
 elements of things below, above we will study 
 their essence. Education is a work of pro- 
 gress. We progress only by efforts. Let 
 our efforts go on. 
 
 While fleets may sink, store-houses con- 
 sume and riches fade, the stores of knowl- 
 edge we gather, if fortified aright, will be 
 permanent and enduring and as unfading as 
 the constant flow and perpetual roar of the 
 Niagara, aye, and live while roll the cycles of 
 eternal ages. 
 
 BULWARKS OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 Let me now notice some of the bulwarks 
 of knowledge or fundamental elements of 
 education. 
 
 1. One great bulwark of knowledge and 
 important element in education is character. 
 Character is human nature in its best form, 
 worth of soul and wealth of heart, the great 
 desideratum of life. Other agencies are in- 
 termittent like the revolving light, which, 
 
44 TRISIyER'S mcture on 
 
 after a time of brightness, goes out into a 
 period of darkness. But the radiance of 
 character is as perpetual as a star. Charac- 
 ter is power in a much higher sense than 
 knowledge, for it commands the respect, 
 good-will and confidence of mankind, and 
 that is the life-blood of success. 
 
 Canning wisely said : " My road must be 
 through character to power." And so of all 
 the attributes of human nature, personal 
 character commands the most influence upon 
 the individual, upon society and upon the 
 world. In some cases it seems to act as a tal- 
 ismanic or supernatural force. "If I but 
 stamp on the ground in Italy," said Pompey, 
 "an army will appear." At the voice of 
 Peter the hermit, as described by the histo- 
 rian, Europe arose and precipitated itself 
 upon Asia. The very names of some men 
 are like the sound of a trumpet. When the 
 Douglass lay mortally wounded on the field 
 of Otterburn, he ordered his name to be 
 shouted still louder than before, saying that 
 there was a tradition in his family that a dead 
 Douglass should win a battle. His followers 
 inspired by the sound gathered fresh courage 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 45 
 
 rallied and conquered ; and thus in the words 
 of the Scottish poet : 
 
 44 The Douglass dead, his name hath won the field." 
 
 There have been some men whose greatest 
 conquests were achieved after they them- 
 selves were dead. Character is of the nature 
 of immortality. It lives on through the 
 ages. And thus Plato and Socrates, David 
 and Solomon, yet have their influence and 
 still speak to us as from their tombs. 
 
 2. Another positive element of education is 
 energetic perseverance. One should have the 
 blaze of activity and the steady glow of per- 
 sistent industry. Work must have purpose as 
 well as effort before it becomes industry. Self- 
 help becomes fruitful only when it is enduring. 
 Very much as Sir Fowell Buxton says, " The 
 great difference between men, between the 
 feeble and the powerful, the great and the in- 
 significant, is energy, invincible determination , 
 a purpose once fixed and then death or vic- 
 tory ! That quality will do anything that 
 can be done in this world, and no talents, 
 no circumstances, no opportunities, w T ill make 
 a two-legged creature, a man, without it." 
 
46 trisi^kr's mcture on 
 
 One who would be successful must "paddle 
 his own canoe " without the aid of friends. 
 
 " Voyager upon life's sea, 
 
 To yourself be true ; 
 And where'er your lot may be, 
 
 Paddle your own canoe. 
 Never, though the winds may rave, 
 
 Falter nor look back, 
 But upon the darkest wave 
 
 Leave a shining track. 
 
 " Nothing great is lightly won, 
 
 Nothing won is lost ; 
 Every good deed nobly done 
 
 Will repay the cost ; 
 Leave to heaven in humble trust, 
 
 All you will to do ; 
 But if you succeed you must 
 
 Paddle your own canoe." 
 
 3. Another positive element of education 
 is courage ; not physical courage, not simply 
 the courage displayed amid the roar of shot 
 and shell where death is upon every breeze, 
 but high, moral courage ; the courage to 
 speak the truth, to be just and honest; the 
 courage to be yourself, to exercise your own 
 powers; the courage to speak your own 
 thoughts, to elaborate your own convictions, 
 to walk a highway of the right in spite of 
 
tlGHTS AND SHADOWS. 4? 
 
 jeer and taunt, neither stopped by foe nor 
 swerved by friend. It is the strong and cour- 
 ageous men who guide and rule the world. 
 Their lives are like a track of light and their 
 energy and intrepid bravery continue to be 
 the inspiration of succeeding generations. 
 Every enlargement of the domain of knowl- 
 edge which has made usbetter acquainted with 
 the heavens, with the earth, and with our- 
 selves has been established by the energy, 
 devotion and courage of the great martyr 
 spirits of the past, — Galileo, Kepler, Coper- 
 nicus, Luther, Wesley, Loyola, Socrates and 
 a host of others, who, however much they 
 have been opposed by their contemporaries, 
 now rank among those whom the enlight- 
 ened of the human race most delight to 
 honor. 
 
 Again, men often conquer difficulties be- 
 cause they feel they can. And their confi- 
 dence in themselves inspires the confidence 
 of others. When Csesar was at sea, a storm 
 began to rage, and the captain of the ship 
 which carried him became unmanned by fear. 
 The vessel heaved and groaned under the 
 dreadful weight and force of the angry waves 
 
48 trisi,kr's i,e:cotre ON 
 
 and foaming waters ; and while the wind was 
 raging and the billows dashing and the 
 masts were being broken the brave, un- 
 daunted spirit looked up at the affrighted 
 captain and cried, u What art thou afraid of? 
 Thy vessel carries Csesar." And, so to speak, 
 the courage of the brave man is contagious 
 and carries others along with it; His stronger 
 nature awes weaker natures into silence, or 
 inspires them with his own will and purpose. 
 4. Fourthly, — a great and positive element 
 in education is faith. Doubt is always para- 
 lyzing; faith is vitalizing. Doubt may break 
 down error or expose folly; but faith is 
 necessary to find truth and build up strength 
 and enthusiasm of life. Doubt is a restless 
 sea, rising and falling, but never moving or 
 impelling forward ; faith is a favorable breeze 
 which fills the sails and moves as well as 
 floats the vessel, and enables the helmsman 
 to keep her headed homeward. Doubt can 
 never be an end in itself; at best, it can be 
 only a station where we spend a night on 
 our way homeward to the truth. It ought 
 to be temporary, provisional. It may be 
 used as a foil which teaches us how to wield 
 
UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 49 
 
 the sword of faith. It may mark the unac- 
 cented syllables in our thinking; but the 
 ictus must be put upon actual belief. You 
 should not ask yourself what you doubt, but 
 what you believe. Learn not so much when 
 to say no, as when to say yes. Build on 
 what you have, not on what you lack. And 
 so, look up, not down; look forward, not 
 back; look out, not in. 
 
 5. Finally, great elements are cheerfulness, 
 patience, hope. Perthes wrote to a despond- 
 ent young man : " Go forward with hope 
 and confidence. We must ever stand up- 
 right, happen what may, and for this end we 
 must cheerfully resign ourselves to the va- 
 ried influences of this many-colored life." 
 Cheerfulness recounts its successes, despond- 
 ency its reverses. Cheerfulness should ac- 
 company patience, which is one of the main 
 conditions of happiness and success in life. 
 " He that will be served," says George Her- 
 bert, " must be patient." It was said of the 
 cheerful and patient King Alfred, that " good 
 fortune accompanied him like a gift of God." 
 Marlborough's expectant calmness was great, 
 and a principal secret of his success as a 
 
50 TRISI,ER*S LECTURE ON 
 
 General. " Patience will overcome all things/' 
 he wrote in 1702. In the midst of a great 
 emergency, while baffled and opposed by his 
 allies, he said : " Having done all that is 
 possible, we should submit with patience." 
 Last and perhaps chiefest, is hope, the most 
 common of possessions ; for, as Thales, the 
 philosopher, said: "Even those who have 
 nothing else, have hope." Hope has been 
 styled " the poor man's bread." It is also 
 the sustainer and inspirer of great deeds. It 
 is recorded of Alexander the Great that, 
 when he succeeded to the throne of Macedon, 
 he gave away among his friends the greater 
 part of the estates which his father had left 
 him ; and when Perdiccas asked him what he 
 reserved for himself, Alexander answered, 
 "the greatest possession of all — hope !" Then, 
 
 " Through childhood, through manhood, 
 Through life to the end, 
 Struggle bravely and stand 
 By your colors, my friend ; 
 Only yield when you must, 
 Never " give up the ship ; " 
 But fight on to the last, 
 With a stiff upper lip." 
 
RIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 51 
 
 THE MAGNANIMOUS taAN. 
 
 As we sum up the elements of education 
 in all its fullness and imagine them dis- 
 played in one stalwart figure, which we have 
 undertaken to describe inductively, we behold 
 our hero, great colossal, magnanimous man ! 
 Giant, intrepid spirit ! Able to face and 
 fight the battles of a world of conflict and 
 of w^ar, as though within his veins there 
 flowed the blood of a hundred kings. No 
 power under the eternal stars can sink him 
 beneath the waters. . For, with knowledge 
 fortified by character, perseverance, courage, 
 faith, cheerfulness, patience and hope, he 
 walks onward o'er the boisterous waves, on 
 through the rugged cliffs that meet and 
 mock the innumerable billows of life's sea, 
 reaches the harbor of honor and fame, scales 
 the heights, and the world shall know his 
 power and name. 
 
 Above his intellectual gifts, above the 
 places he is able to command, above the 
 ermine he refuses, rises his integrity like 
 some great mountain peak, firm as the earth 
 beneath, pure as the stars above. 
 
52 trisler's lecture on 
 
 AGE OF MAN. 
 
 We live in the age of man. The age of 
 preachers and teachers and tyrants is gone. 
 Some men preach, some teach, some legis- 
 late, some buy and sell, some farm, but all 
 must be men. There are preaching men, 
 but their manliness must be their godliness. 
 There are teaching men, but their practical 
 manhood must be more than their scholar- 
 ship. There are legislative men, but their 
 manhood must be equal to their knowledge 
 of law and government. The solemn, long- 
 faced, sanctimonious theologian whom every 
 one was compelled to revere, simply because 
 he was a divine, is a thing of the past. The 
 self-satisfied, perfected and completed, tre- 
 mendously Almighty pedagogue, who always 
 wore about a ton of ice in his manner, looked 
 as if he was a mediator between God and 
 humanity ; knew everything, especially when 
 he didn't have sense enough, if it were all 
 hammered down into one conglomerate, solid 
 mass, it wouldn't be enough to fill the eye- 
 tooth of a mosquito, is no more. The aristo- 
 cratic, lordly, haughty King who rode on a 
 horse, with epaulets on his shoulders, and a 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 53 
 
 tinsel crown upon his brainless head, who 
 owned the bodies and souls of men, and ruled 
 the world, was made to get off the throne, 
 and the people were royally seated thereon; 
 the people became the sovereigns, and the 
 sovereigns became the servants of the people. 
 In the days of our forefathers the people had 
 no rights, they had to succumb to the behests 
 of somebody who claimed to be endowed with 
 supernatural powers. All was hypocrisy, 
 superstition, and ignorance. Men believed 
 that their destinies lay in the hands of the 
 confessor, to be cast for hell or heaven, as cap- 
 rice might direct; the seasons were supposed 
 to be under the control of spirits instead of 
 immutable, natural laws ; men believed that 
 a few- incantations could blast a season's 
 planting or bewitch their stock; new inven- 
 tions were likely to be pronounced the work 
 of the devil; pardon for theft, robbery, and 
 even for murder, could be bought for money ; 
 in addition to these and.other things, men who 
 showed the slightest disposition to doubt the 
 infallibility of their spiritual adviser, or who, 
 in many cases, merely incurred.the displeas- 
 ure of their neighbors, could be brought to 
 
54 TRISIvKR'S lecture on 
 
 trial without knowing their accusers, and 
 convicted without evidence, even without 
 their knowledge, of crimes involving almost 
 every grade of punishment, from social ostra- 
 cism to imprisonment and death. Nor were 
 these results of man's ignorance and awe of 
 the irresistible forces of nature confined to 
 any particular church. The founder of 
 Protestantism firmly believed in witchcraft, 
 and in the castle at Wartburg the black stain 
 still marks the wall where he threw his ink- 
 bottle at the devil. Wesley as late as 1768, 
 said : " The skeptic well knows, whether 
 Christians know it or not, that giving up 
 witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible. " 
 A few years previous, even the British par- 
 liament refused to adopt the Gregorian cal- 
 endar because decreed by a Catholic Pope, 
 until the error in the old style was so great 
 that the peasants planted their crops out of 
 season. 
 
 But all these things have passed away. We 
 no longer believe that vegetables grow better 
 in ground prepared by a spade because it has 
 the form of a cross, or that a voyage is more 
 prosperous in a sailing vessel, because its 
 
tIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 55 
 
 masts have the same figure. In the corner 
 of the church the box is no longer found to 
 receive accusations of witchcraft. We no 
 longer believe that hell is in the sun, and that 
 the spots are occasioned by congregated 
 masses of the lost. Rare natural phenomena 
 are no longer attributed to miraculous causes, 
 nor are they longer believed to foretell 
 famine, pestilence, and war. The condition 
 of the farmer's cattle depends more upon 
 their food and shelter than upon the impre- 
 cations of his neighbors or the caprice of 
 spirits. It is more essential that seed be 
 planted in good ground than in any particu- 
 lar sign of the moon. Liberal theology no 
 longer rests upon authority, doubt is no 
 longer branded as criminal, and impartial in- 
 vestigation is no longer discouraged in every 
 possible manner. 
 
 On the other hand, thought and personal 
 observation are beginning to be considered 
 the first conditions of wisdom; faith is no 
 longer the opposition of reason, but one of 
 its manifestations. Such questions as that 
 of the Trinity, the exact relation of the Father 
 to the Son, the nature of the soul, the number 
 
56 TRISI^r's I,£CTORE ON 
 
 of angels that could dance on the point of a 
 cambric needle, many of them occupying the 
 minds of theological philosophers for ages, 
 have been supplanted by the study and dis- 
 cussion of the rights of nationalities, the 
 progress of republicanism and the dignity of 
 labor. The surplice, the gown, and the 
 expression of a so-called, artificial, solemni- 
 fied dignity have lost their power as badges 
 of authority. The age of darkness and human 
 slavery has passed away, and we have come 
 into an age of light, the age of man. 
 
 CENTURY OF MAGNANIMOUS 
 MAGNANIMITY. 
 
 Standing here on the mountain of the nine- 
 teenth century, under the dome of freedom's 
 cloudless sky, and in an atmosphere of civil- 
 ization, we behold as we look down the 
 mountain side of centuries, and into the val- 
 ley of superstition and fatalism, the graves 
 of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exp] oded 
 theories, of disgraced doctrines, of barbarous 
 outrages ! We see the tombs of the great 
 martyr spirits, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Loyola, 
 Wesley, and a host of others, who gave their 
 
UGHTS AND SHADOWS. 57 
 
 lives for the eternal rights of men, for freedom 
 and reform. We see the monuments of 
 Washington, Lincoln, and Grant, who com- 
 pleted the great work of freedom ; and green 
 be the memories of all the world's heroic 
 souls who have fought for the liberties of 
 men. They have given us free labor, free 
 thought, love, affection ; these are the great 
 pillars of prosperity and happiness. We are 
 now on the grandest heights the world has 
 ever seen. We enjoy all the advantages 
 which have culminated from centuries of 
 war. Men are now working, thinking in- 
 vestigating, as never before, because they en- 
 joy the product of their own labor. This is 
 iiadeed a century of magnanimous magnani- 
 mity, which eclipses the past as the sun in 
 his majesty outshines the dim reflection of 
 the moon. No other period in all historic 
 time has been so fraught with such revolu- 
 tionary discoveries, such startling events, 
 such profound advances in philosophic and 
 scientific research, and such surprising me- 
 chanical inventions, since the dawn of civili- 
 zation. This progressive march of intellect, 
 of man's mastery over uature, the recondite 
 
58 TRISI^ER'S LECTURE ON 
 
 resources of God's universe now so rapidly 
 unfolding themselves must indicate to you 
 and to me that man is not living in vain in 
 this lower sphere of human action, but that 
 a still higher plane of intellectuality and 
 civilization is in the ascendant, and that the 
 future, so far from inspiring a feeling of 
 gloom in the minds of thoughtful investi- 
 gators, is bright with the portents of glorious 
 possibilities and triumphs, and the consum- 
 mation of grander things beyond. 
 
 Think a moment of the progressive de- 
 velopment and. wonderful achievements of 
 Grecian intellect ; the culture of Athens, with 
 her statesmen and philosophers, her brilliant 
 poets, her artists, her historians; yet all this 
 array of talent which culminated during the 
 two centuries of her greatest greatness 
 and fame, in the persons of Demosthenes, 
 Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle, is 
 but as the title page to the great volume of 
 achievements and startling record of events 
 of modern day. Demosthenes in Athens, or 
 Cicero in Rome could sway the multitude as 
 a cyclone moves the forest, and though we 
 now look back and wonder at such mar- 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 59 
 
 velous achievements accomplished so many 
 centuries ago, yet if either of those great 
 rhetoricians would now drop into our midst, 
 with all their pristine powders, they would be 
 but an intellectual and oratorical pygmy 
 by the side of our Sumners, our Clays, our 
 Websters, our Calhouns, whose names are 
 legions all over this great country. 
 
 Take the best words ever utteredby a Cicero, 
 or the best lines ever penned by a Homer, aid- 
 ed by the embellishing powers of the finest 
 translators in existence, and they bear no 
 comparison to the words and stanzas of our 
 own statesmen, poets and historians. We go 
 into ecstasy over a massive but ridiculous 
 pile of stone called a pyramid, because it is 
 four thousand years old, while we scarcely 
 notice a modern fountain or monument of 
 the most exquisite design and finish made by 
 some one we know. " ? Tis distance lends en- 
 chantment to the view." 
 
 This is an enlightened day. The curtain 
 of illumination rises higher and higher while 
 the battalions of thought are moving on. 
 We must progress. We are every day mak- 
 ing wider and deeper investigations. We 
 
60 TRISIvER'S LECTURE ON 
 
 are penetrating the debths. We are scaling 
 the heights. We are dynamiting through 
 the barriers of truth. Let the world's mind 
 go on toward the millennial dawn. 
 
 YOUNG MEN OF MY GENERATION. 
 
 Young men of my generation, it does not 
 remain for our fathers to attempt much more 
 on this theater of human action. They look 
 on to see what we are determined to do. We 
 are the hope of the future, and the indepen- 
 dence of public liberty. It devolves upon us to 
 hold on to what our ancestors have bequeath- 
 ed to us. We live in a great age and in a 
 great country. And though we are proud of 
 our republican liberty and free institutions, 
 we must not forget that there are ills within 
 our bounds. There~are socialistic and centrifu- 
 gal tendencies which threaten our downfall. 
 But let us arise in the majesty of freedom 
 and in the morning of our power, and tram- 
 ple these slippery serpents of corruption un- 
 der the iron heel of popular indignation. 
 Let us uphold the institutions under which 
 we were born; be manly and brave; fear noth- 
 ing, but to do wrong; dread nothing, but to 
 
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 61 
 
 be found recreant to our country and our 
 country's God, so that when our fathers shall 
 sleep in the silent dust, our institutions shall 
 be free and safe. 
 
 "God to the human soul, 
 
 And all the spheres that roll 
 
 Wrapped by her spirit in their robes of light, 
 
 Hath said, 'The primal plan 
 
 Of all the world and man 
 
 Is Forward! Progress is your law, your right!' p 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 604 116 1 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 
 i