SYNOPSIS OF PROCEEDINGS. 207 



active member and liberal patron of the Davenport Academy of 

 Sciences. Beneath that earnest face as a frequent attendant at our 

 regular meetings, lurked the hidden fire of a repressed, thoughtful zeal, 

 which we wr-uld have been glad to see expressed in fitting words had 

 we the magic power to evoke them; but it was not to be — like the 

 hero of Gray's Elegy, which, in many other respects he resembled, be 

 calmly chose 



"Along the cool sequestered vale of life 

 To keep the noiseless tenor of his way." 



With ample means at his command, he apparently never ventured 

 beyond his first land speculation, and postponed until too late in life 

 the inspiration he might have received from a visit to his native land. 

 Only after years had diminished his physical vigor, and tinged his locks 

 with silver — after his invalid wife had been laid at rest beneath the 

 prairie sod, did he undertake alone this long postponed journey, leaving 

 an only daughter behind, anxiously expecting news of his speedy re- 

 covery — instead of which comes the hasty summons to his death-bed; 

 alas! not soon enough to receive his parting blessing. And now our 

 friend and associate finds a peaceful grave in the land of his birth and 

 early youth. 



Let me now, as his old-time friend, do the best thing for his memory 

 by bringing from its obscure hiding-place and putting on permanent 

 record in the proceedings of this Academy, of which he was so long an 

 honored member, the poetic gem before alluded to, entitled "A Prairie 

 Sunset," an ode which in its keen appreciation of natural scenery, its 

 graphic imagery, tender vein of pathos, and polished poetic diction, 

 would be worthy the pen of a Gray or a Bryant. 



It is introduced by the following characteristic note in the Weekly 

 Gazette of February 22, 1847: 



Davenport, Iowa, February n, 1847. 

 Mr. Editor: 



Sir The enclosed verses were written last fall, and are offered to you for 

 publication in the hope that they may claim from local interest the attention 

 which they may fail to awaken on the score of poetic merit. I admit your 

 right, as the priest of your own oracle, to print or refuse them, and I have only 

 to beg that should you deem them unworthy of your paper, your stove alone 

 may be the repository of the secret of their existence. 



Yours, etc., R. S. 



A Prairie Sunset in Autumn. 



Emblem of the Eternal ! gorgeous sun, 

 How vainly doth the laboring mind essay 



To laud thee worthily; since time begun, 

 Supremely beauteous, thy transcendent ray 



lias flittered in the poet's verse, yet none 

 Hath yet half told thy glory, King of Day! 



Till human praise can match angelic song. 



The Muses' highest riitrht will do thee wrong. 



