Sr. VIATEURS
CoLLEGE JouRNAL.
LECTIO CERTA PRODEST, VARIA DELE CTAT. Seneca.
VOL. I.
BOURBONNAIS GROVB.lLL. FRiDAY. FBD. 11884. FOLLY OF MAN .
No. 19
pleasure smiled ? What now remains s11 v e the memory of senselessness and shame? :;\T otbing-
" lt sta nd s to tell A m elancholy tale, to give Awful wa ming; soon i'fhn, though possessing a vital spark of heaven ly fimue, Oblivion will steal silently though endowed with a power that is capable of conTh e remnant of its fa me. trolling the very lightning of hea v en, consid ered in his 1\lonarch and conquerors t here, external bearings toward s hi~ feltow-m:m and conseProud o'er prostrate milli ons trod, quently toward s hi s Creator, is a strange phenom enon of The earthquakes of the human race, inconsiste ncy, if not of folly. Apprecia ting the tac t from Like th em forgotten n·bere the ruin the ma__.,;:im tha t the prope:r stttdy of man is man, whilst That marks their shock is past." pondering upo n the truth t here in contained a few even\Yh ere is Troy the scene of Greek and Trojan comings s in ce, th e above characteristic stood out very promin entl y made manifest by so many spec im ens that daily bats , where steel cln sbed with steel in deadly battle, , p resent themselves before the eyes of eve n the most where A chilles fought where Petro cl~ts and Hercules cn reless observer. Lookin g, at thi s per iod, Rwny back fell? Of it and th ese the immortal Virgil sings, and his into th e twilight of hi story, glanci ng nt his primitiYe con- own words, the epitaph of that ill-fated city are the clition as he stepped fo r th fresh from the creative ha nd most appropriate response-"llium fuit ! Wh ere is Carof God perfect in form nnd in beau t:r , breathing the frn - thage the l~u ee n-city of the seas th e rival of Rome in gra nce of t ranscenclent endowments 1hat at once' co nsti- commerce and 1realth? The sad voice of some lone tuted him king of the universe-n nd watching him fi·olll tnw eler standi ng on some imaginary turret of fallen hi s fall from g race to wander forth to enrn hi s bread by Troy gi 1·es back the r eply " unkn own"! Where is Athethe SIYeat of hi s hrow, up to the pre ent m0m ent- whnt nian and Spartan g randeur ? IV here is Balbec, where is 11'0n<l erful works has be perform eel, but a l as~ ho w few of Ephes us, wh ere is Thebes with its mighty columns? them can by claim to permanency , can lay claim to All-all hav e disappeared ; the owl seated on some stabili ty, c11 n la y claim even to a n:mw tha t posterity broken fragment is now the only occupa nt. Where is th e R.ome of bygo ne ages wi th its four million s of souls? may knOIY or reverence n few centuri es hence. Fro m the tra nsgression of Atlam in t he gn rden of ~Wh ither ha ve d ep:n'tecl those trumpet voices that summoned foreig n pote11tates to the mistress of the world Par~di ~e cl own thr011gh the conntlefs succeed ing ge nerations in each :mel ev ery nge clo we find innum ernbl\: to k neel cl o wn and adore at her altn,rs? ,,-he re is the P<mtheon ? ~Wher e is the Colosseum wi th eviden ces of thi s fooli sllll ess. F or c-ent uri es the alcheits spn.cious wa lls-with its resounding voices of singmi st labored to convert th e rude minernl in to go ld , hunin g thou sand s-whose 11·ild and savage huzzas rent the dreds of years have been spent in sea rching fo r the phiair, filled ns they IYere, with del ight in witness ing the losop he,··s stone, man in hi " folly attempted to sc:1 le the golden gntes of the city of God n·he n Babel's tower wns glarliatoria l com bats? \Vh ere are th ey 'rho bui lt this raised on high and co nfu ~ ion of tongues and the sca tter- bloody circus to ~a t iate tbe imperial nppetite? Where ing of the tribes was th e imm ediate res nlt. Like fabled are those who butchered a son in ~wh ose ve ins flowed l caru s soaring al oft on t he wings of unh oly an tbi t ion, the pmest bl ood to nwkc a R.oman holiday, and who we find ma n continttall y directing his co urse upwards glutted and feast er! upon the mang led , bleeding corpse relying on hi ::~ own mental strength, but he too when of him whom Byr011 so g rnphically anrl touchin gly dethe ze uith of his glory is reachecl, must f:tll , and f:t ll scri bes> " I see before me the gladiator li e swiftly a nd snrely to sink beneath the mt~·es of time IIe leans upo n his hand-his mmtl y brow :mel be lost amid its dashing surges. Wh ere is Palmyra Consents to dc~.th b ut conqu ers ngony . 1111 1 its ruined pala.ces where gra nd eur f'ruwncd " ·here