Barringer High School - Athenaeum Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

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THE POWER OF MIND. 5 The guardian of this lighthouse tells us I that it takes him more than half the day I to keep the prisms and classes clear. lie I also says that the electric light in the I tower can be seen for a radius of eighty 4 miles. We must descend in the lift to the second platform, though we would linger to take a last walk around the square, see the printing press, buy a paper and write a postal. We look down through the centre of the tower at the labyrinth of iron bars and try to believe we are still four hundred feet above the earth. The descent is made in less than a minute. As I again find myself on the smooth, graveled walk under the immense stone arches that support this admirably con- structed lighthouse, I take a seat and watch the surging crowd walking beneath ; anon I gaze at the dizzy altitude, trying to grasp the height, the depth of this iron lion. Although so small that it was con- tained in the convolutions of one man’s brain, now that the conception has taken stable form, to be seen by millions, the mind through the eye fails, and it is impossible to realize the generous scale on which this Modern Babel is built. Prize Oration 1889. THE POWER OF MIND. EDMUND K. HOPPER, ’89. A 1IND is always young: profound I IVI thought, always original. It is a wrong belief which some have enter- , tained that, as the world grows old, mind t becomes aged and enfeebled, exchanging t its ancient originality for present weakness 1 and debility. Man has the same power to- [ day that he possessed in the days of Pericles i and Augustus; the same glory of intel- lect shed upon the empires of the old t world, may brighten this republic of the ? new. Every mind exerts an influence. As I the sun, setting beyond the western hills. t leaves a trail of light behind it, so wher- jever man moves he leaves behind him influences either good or evil; energies potent for blessing or for future ill. The world still feels the evil effects of Nero’s cruelty. A thousand years is not long . enough to stay the tide of social pollution (created by men of genius like Byron and (Voltaire. But let us look rather at the good influences of mind. About three hundred years ago there were born in England two men whose names have become immortal. Shakes- peare was a child of nature. His mind was not fashioned by rule, but seemed to expand under the guidance of its own instincts. When we reflect upon his early circumstances, the age in which he lived, the state of learning and public sentiment at that period, we are inclined to regard him as the most remarkable man that any age or any country ever produced. His works are a living source of moral and literary instruction for the whole world. Milton was a child of culture. How many there are whose minds have been enlightened by his acute reflections and profound views, whose piety has been warmed by his religious devotion, and whose cravings for greatness and sub- limity have been satisfied by “Paradise Lost.” Shakespeare and Milton—their works bear not the impress of common minds; they are not the puny and perish- ing efforts of ordinary men, but the durable monuments of strong and gifted intellect.

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LA TOUR EIFFEL. '4 and farther from the second floor. At the foot of this I meet a friend. Having each bought a white ticket for one franc we ascend together. He tells me among other items of interest that the tower weighs about seven thousand tons, and the iron, drawn into a wire a tenth of an inch in diameter, would make a tele- graph wire around the world. This struc- ture is supported by four curved uprights, with arches between, which are one hun- dred and sixty-five feet high. The span between the feet is three hundred and thirty feet. The base being of cement gives it a very light appearance, but in reality it is embedded by foundation stones extending farther in depth than the bed of the Seine. Two and a half million rivets were used in the construction of this tower. Besides four staircases, there are five lifts, three of which are constructed on the French and two on the Otis system, of which America is justly proud. These elevators ascend at the rate of three and a third feet per second. The first floor holds six thousand people, the second fifteen hundred and the third five hundred, to- gether with two thousand on their way up, make a grand total of ten thousand people. Enough to make a small city. The money- making capacity is about seven hundred and fifty dollars per hour, or nearly one- thousandth of its entire cost. For one hundred thousand dollars it can be taken down and re-erected on another site. So if the World’s Fair in 1892 cannot have an Eiffel Tower of its own, we might borrow the French one for six months. The parts of the tower, like the parts of Solomon’s Temple, were not constructed at the place where it now stands, but were finished in the factory and brought to the site all ready to put together. It was com- menced on the 28th of January, ’87, and completed March 30th, ’89. By this time we have reached the sect floor, at the north pillar, quite close tot printing office of the “Figaro.” Wenw toward the railing, from which we view the palace of the Trocadero, situat on the right bank of the Seine, and erect for the exhibition of ’78. We decide go higher, and accordingly buy qur 1 tickets, having in the red, white and b! invested five francs. There is no sta way, so we step into the lift. As ascend the iron trellis work is more slew and there is more space between the d ferent parts. On the third fl x)r we are so fortun; as to meet M. Eiffel himself, who 0 dially invites my friend, whom he knui and me to his private rooms, where spends pleasant hours far above the thii of the earth. The staircase which Its to these apartments has only ten stfl The rooms which we enter are large 1 triangular. They have double wooi walls, and the space between the two w. is filled with mineral cotton, which light, a non-conductor against heat, aa proof against vermin. This makes rooms warm in winter and cool in su From these rooms we go out on a race which is about three yards wi Here learned men are able to try expt ments that must be made in the opem Up here the noise of Paris is gone; a hum still reaches my cars. The below seems like the land of the Ii the putians; everything is so small, high as this is, we can go still higher, straight staircase of thirty steps leads a small round landing scarcely a yarf! diameter; we then come to an iron t' in which there is a door. Opening thi?( see within a ladder on which we : crawl on our hands and feet to a sr balcony. We can go no higher, for are at the lighthouse.

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i6 THE POWER OF MIND. The German poet Schiller, Wordsworth and Coleridge, Franklin and Hugh Miller, and Sir Walter Scott, all live because they have left behind them a noble record of mind. All men honor Wilber force and our own Whittier—the one so instrumental in freeing the slaves of Africa—the other in breaking the chains that bound the slaves of America. Notice now a few of the great minds which have expressed themselves in deeds and spoken words. Savonarola lived in an age when unblushing wickedness and degrading vice prevailed throughout Italy, an age of social corruption. Against these evils he raised his voice, sounding a warn- ing cry in tones that were heard from one end of that fair land to the other. Savon- arola has long since passed away, but the influence he exerted can never be lost. At about the same time the German monk, Luther, appeared. This genius did not come like a meteor, whose glare is soon to be extinguished; but like the light of the morning, struggling at first through opposing mists, but at length shining in the unclouded splendor of the noon-day sun. Following Luther’s guiding influence, men once more began to think and feel; to understand their rights, and appreciate the blessings of freedom. The spirit of liberty once aroused, went from nation to nation, preparing the way for the English revolution, and, were it necessary, there would be little difficulty in tracing dis- tinctly the settlements and revolution in America to the same fruitful source. And who can question the influence of that revolution and consequent independence? Hut our country has produced men of mind whose record we may point to with pride, and whose influence we still feel. Such a man was Alexander Hamilton; one of the great leaders of our revolution; to him we are in a great measure indebted for our Constitution. Another such man was Daniel Webster; the greatest of our American statesmen and orators. His early advantages were limited; but by diligent application to study he rose step by step, until he be- came the representative man of America. Webster’s dying words were, “I still live.” And how true! He does still live in the hearts of men, and in the words of counsel and advice which he bequeathed to the world. As we realize the influence exerted by the powerful and fully developed intellect, what is it that makes our own hearts beat so rapidly? Is it not a feeling that we, t x . have within us a spark of that flame which bums a central heat in the moral world? that long after we have passed away, we, too, may exert an influence to ennoble and refine? Let us then cultivate our intellects and attain such a greatness of mind its becomes wise and virtuous men. Where the love of knowledge has found a resting place in man, such love will stir into active energy every element of his being. He will learn to blend his honest efforts for the good of others with his own highest improvement. Let us not do as we see many doing,—let us not chase that gilded bauble,—wealth, as if thereon depended our eternal happiness. When this passion has taken full possession of a man, it eradi- cates alike every sentiment of honor, and every desire for intellectual culture. May we be brave enough to sacrifice worldly gain, if need be, in order that “ Wc may to our own selves be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, We cannot, then, be false to any man. Near the ancient city of Thebes, stands the colossal “Statue of Memmon.” During the night, this statue stands cold and silent, but when the morning sun covers