UNIVERSITY COURIER.
9
Mexi-
mes of
a provi-
cial, are
real fine
erman.
collec- tting to one of the It may being was about one edge of between addition too, therees, and curious. These cyclope- geologyict, the educational of them probably Govern- stament with the zhoo and an exe books, National ease of our arrival could seem form the college
with the need paper by four y of his the same in Roman student, andreds of novels, in god of reStrangely the whole one by There is relating
to the Alabama claims, English official documents, and many publications in French, as well as in English.
The tout ensemble of the library is unique and characteristic of its collector. It illustrates his great versatility and eminent abilities, and also those peculiarities which kept him from taking the prominent position as a statesman which his abilities qualified him to fill.
The library is now at the auction rooms of Messrs. Sullivan Brothers & Libbie, No. 2 Beacon street, Boston, where it will be sold early in October. The catalogue is now in the printer's hands, and will be ready for distribution by the 15th inst. It will richly repay examination.
CLOUD LAND.
At the risk of being called sentimental and poetical, I have chosen a subject as variable as the passing wind and as high as the heavens above us. With what intense interest and delight we have gazed in our childhood's hours at the blue sky and the cloud-curtains that sometimes intervened. In our youthful imagination we have pictured in the fleecy, floating cloud-masses many beautiful and sublime images. Now assuming the form and features of an old man who is looking serenely and complacently upon the world below; again taking the shape of a carriage which is driven by fairy hands and drawn by fairy steeds through the pathless air; or that of a fairy boat sailing upon the upper deep toward some unknown celestial harbor far away in space; at other times assuming the form and the rugged outline of a mountain range with its peaks and plateaux. Oh, how often with dreamful eyes we have gazed upon these fading, changing pictures! How we have longed to stand on those shadowy mountain peaks and to ride upon the "wings of the wind"" in the fairy boat up to the "walls of Paradise!"
This was the bright side, the "silver lining of the cloud theme. We remember, too, that when the bright sunlight was shut out, often for entire days, what a feeling of dejection and despondency was thrown around us; how we longed for the cheering rays to shine out and dispel the gloom. The life of every individual and every nation has times of joy and sorrow, the sunshine giving place to shadow, and brightness dispelling the clouds. Many an over-sensitive person has been blinded by the sunlight of prosperity or overwhelmed by clouds of adversity. The sunlight of happiness has been driven away by a
word or look which strikes the sensitive feelings too harshly.
A near friend has been carried away to a quiet nook in the cemetery, and a cloud has settled upon that household. Disease sometimes throws a shadow over our lives which shuts out the sunshine and joy of life and clouds our prospects of Heaven.
Our country has had its war-clouds, which have deluged it in blood. A storm is now brewing which threatens to be more destructive than any of our past history; which threatens to revolutionize society and take away all that is held dear to modern civilization.
Modern socialism, which has had its origin in Germany and its first great agitator in the person of Ferdinand Lassalle, is spreading rapidly. Permeating, as it does, the intellectual classes of Germany, it has spread into Russia. It has taken root in the universities of the latter country, and has assumed a threatening aspect under the name of Nihilism. It has found a lodgment upon our shores among the discontented laboring classes. By an act of the German Reichstag two million Socialists were deprived of their constitutional rights. These are secretly encouraged and aided by the German Chancellor to emigrate to the United States. They bring with them their Socialistic ideas. Every month adds fresh recruits to their ranks in America. A large majority of them are Germans, and their leaders are from the Fatherland. They are organized into a party under the name of the Socialistic Labor Party. Article X. of their platform reads as follows: "All conspiracy laws operating against the right of workingmen to strike or induce others to strike shall be repealed." It is easy to see what would follow from carrying out this declaration. Universal anarchy, confusion and bloodshed would be the consequence. A writer in the North American Review says: "To the indigent and ignorant laborer, indeed we must confess that the whole scheme of the new social order wears a most alluring aspect. It is easy to picture the Arcadian Utopia which rises in his ravished fancy. Universal brotherhood, comfort and plenty, free railways, free telegraphs, free theaters and amusements, gratuitous instruction, an end to imprisonment, an end to caste, materialism to replace religion, the State the universal, sole proprietor and administrator of the entire industry of the country; state help in every direction; all men to feed and fatten at the public crib; in fact an end to care and trouble, an era of contentment such as distinguished the home of Evan-