emu - tent of the people, for the people, and by the
people should not perish from the earth." If the
contemplation of worthy lives, of great occasions
and of noble actions tends to exalt us and fit us
not only to comprehend but in some degree to
emulate what is so far above our common life, no
friend of liberty would take away even one from
this gloilous trio of patriotic festivals, so well
adapted to develope a pure and lofty love of
country.
That we may value our festivals aright' . let us
glance at those of some other countries. In Eng
land, the great holiday is neither patriotic nor
moral. Parliament adjourns or sits without a
quorum, shopkeepers close their shops, and Lon
don empties itself every :May, on the Wednesday
following Trinity Sunday, to visit Epsom Downs
and there see the racing for the "Derby" stakes
which are worth as much as $30,000. Now that
May day and its may-poles are wholly things of
the past and that
,Christmas, the civilized form of
our barbarian ancestors' Yule-feast, has lost its
social prominence in England and is scarcely more
regarded than in the time of the Puritans, our
mother country--having neither Fourth of July
nor Thanksgiving—has only that glorification of
betting and horse racing known as "Derby day."
. If we look across the Channel, we find in France
the Celtic equivalent of our July 4th, 1776, to be
July 14th, 1789, the day on which the mob of
Paris captured the old fortress-prison which had
for centuries enclosed as in a - living tomb the vic
tims of every form of tyranny, political, personal
or ecclesiastical, and which thus symbolized all
despotic misrule. But while July 14th, Bastile
day, has thus an origin similar to that of July
4th, Independence day, the anniversary of the
former is not celebrated by all good citizens but
rather has fallen into the hands of the mob and
the Commune, whose leaders use it as an occasion
for declaiming against rightful authority.and for
glorifying mob rule and anarchy.
In view of these facts, we cannot envy other na
tions their festivals, for we would not wish either
THE FREE LANCE.
to exchange for or to adopt any that they have
We would rather, realizing that a nation needs
every stimulus to patriotism and that the worth of
the national life depends on the depth of the re
ligious life and the purity of the home life, seek
to value more intelligently and use more wisely
those which already are ours. As good citizens
then we should all recognize the meaning and the
helpfulness of Feb. 22, • May 3oth and July 4th,
which remind us of the valiant deeds, the noble
lives and the glorious deaths of our country's
heroes, and we should also, as good citizens, con
sider well the worth to our nation of that last
Thursday of Ncirenibei WhiCh bids us thrust aside
all angry feelings and strengthens cur hold on our
Saxon heritage of a pure home life by bringing us
around the old hearth stone, there to reunite the
broken family and weld heart to heart more firmly
than before, and we should especially .value the
increasing influence of December 25th, as pro
claiming glad tidings of peace and love and as ad
vancing that righteousness which exalteth a na
tion. - J.
THE USE OF THE IMAGINATION IN
STUDY.
The imagination vitalizes whatever we. study.
A fact or a definition is barren until the imagina
tion transforms and pictures it for us as a glowing
thought or emotion. Learning that nourishes
the mind, and gives emotion and aspiration, can
only be had through the transforming power of
the imagination. We are apt to think that it is
the faculty of the poet only. To every student,
and to him with a loi.ging to become a student, I
wish to declare that this is a fatal mistake.
There can be no worthy scholarship in any line
of study without the cons!ant suffusing power of
this faculty. Food without digestion is scarcely
less useful to the body. True, formulas may be
learned by rote that will be of service. in various
walks of life—;-just as a hoe or spade is serviceable
—but such knowledge is not education, for even