Niagara Falls 



1885 indulgence of a sentiment. It is in their sentiments that the life 

 of a people is most truly manifested. Are we to teach at vast 

 expense in our schools the methods and the order of nature, the 

 ideals in poetry and art, and yet not cherish the majestic teacher 

 that exalts all our ideals? It is our sectarian dissensions alone 

 which prevent us from devoting any part of the public wealth to 

 the highest of all public uses — religion ; but in the worship 

 inspired by this place we are all of one faith. 



The sentiments of men are oftentimes more powerful than their 

 interests even, and history furnishes some interesting proofs of 

 the depth of the feelings, closely akin to those the triumph of 

 which we celebrate to-day, which connect the sentiment of rever- 

 ence in man with great natural objects. The superstition of 

 early Greece asserted the existence at Delphi of a miraculous 

 cleft in the earth, from which bursts forth a divine afflatus capable 

 of inspiring the awful responses of Apollo; but this mere fable 

 could scarcely have sufficed to render the spot the principal shrine 

 of the favorite god. Situated in the most picturesque valley of 

 Greece, at the foot of the lofty summit of Parnassus, it was the 

 beauty and sublimity of the scene which enhanced the fame of 

 the oracle. It was the surrounding scenery, exalting the imagina- 

 tion and kindling the religious emotions, which attracted the multi- 

 tude of votaries and rendered the place the center of the Hellenic 

 world. But the devout sentiments of the pilgrims were offended 

 by the petty exactions of the neighboring seaport of Cirrha, and 

 the fertile plain around the temple excited the cupidity of the 

 neighboring husbandmen to make continual encroachments upon 

 the sacred precincts of the god. The evil was endured for a 

 time; but in the end Greece arose in resentment at the profana- 

 tion, and in a devastating conflict of ten years, fitly styled the 

 " Sacred War," destroyed the offending town and choked up its 

 harbor; swept from the Circassian plain all evidences of human 

 ownership, and thus vindicated the insulted majesty of the god, 

 and asserted the right of worshippers from every land to approach 

 the great oracle unmolested. 



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