is not the numerical increase of the Jews | the proofs of the commencement of the which can explain the anxiety which fulfilment of the sacred prophecies. they now inspire. How is it that Chris- "Coming events cast their shadows betian Europe, orthodox Russia, Protest- fore." Geo. Reynolds. ant Prussia, and France in Algiers tremble for the future of their civilization ?" If the house of Judah were any ordinary race we should be perplexed with these same questions, but knowing something of the future of that people we can understand why it is that the nations are dismayed at this, one of Kind words produce their own image in men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and comfort the hearer. That unfinished block is my master, and I am its obedient pupil. Angelo. SPIRIT There's a song of songs in my heart to-day, 'Tis a song whose words in a sweet refrain, Are like dreams, that, vanishing, yet remain In memories faint recalling. And the song that lingers in memory, Recalls a heavenly glory; In the scenes of elysian homes I see That faintly are shown before me. There's a home where brothers and sisters dear, MEMORIES. As a childhood's dream of another sphere, To regain this beautiful home above, With spiritual kindred thronging; Rolled on, my probation bringing. When my spirit meets with the angels near, THE CONTRIBUTOR. encumberments-in the Spirit World JOSEPH L. BARFOOT. WE heard some one relate a dream the other day, in which he saw a congress of eminent persons convened in the Spirit World. One might suppose, if there is anything in the dream, that the summons to attend had not been confined to the distinguished of Paradise, but extended also to the great among the sons and daughters of earth. A moment's reflection calls to mind many of the most advanced thinkers, philosophers, poets, statesmen and philanthropists, who have within a short time, passed on to the abode of the spirits. Carlyle, George Eliot, Emerson, Longfellow, Draper, Darwin, Garfield and many more might be named, whom we readily imagine associated together in a conference of the great and learned that have gone before. In such an assembly where the intelligence and learning of a lifetime here below is canvassed over and found to reach but a little way beyond, we contemplate one whose earthly researches have been illumined by the Spirit of eternal light, rising in their midst to show the "more excellent way." Such an one, endowed with the acquirements that have distinguished the greatest here on earth, and with the knowledge of the sublime truths of everlasting life, is the spirit of that good and lowly man, whose name is at the head of this paper. He was a man whose knowledge and scholastic attainments qualified him to mingle with the deepest thinkers of the age; but circumstances, in a great measure, barred him from their society. Where he is free from those we can but feel that his mission is to such as we have named, and that to the honest and upright among them, he is like a bright and shining star, pointing out the path that leadeth onward and upward eternally. Joseph L. Barfoot was born March 29, 1816, in Warwick Castle, England. He was justly entitled to be cradled in the historic halls of England's nobility, being himself a lineal heir to one of the most eminent earldoms of the realm. His father's ancestral line descended from no less a personage than Robert Bruce, the warrior king of Scotland, while his mother's was from the celebrated Bishop Ridley, one of the mar tyrs who perished in the flames of Smithfield. He was at the time of his death the rightful heir to the Earldom of Crawford. At the age of eighteen young Barfoot enlisted in the Royal Marines of the British navy, serving several years with honor to himself and family. On procuring his discharge from the marine service he joined his father in London, who was at that time superintendent of the London City Mission, a philanthropic educational institution for the benefit of workingmen, which was patronized by the distinguished philanthropist Lord Ashley. While in London he engaged in the manufacture of gutta percha goods, and was employed for a time as butler to a London banker. His career up to the time of receiving the Gospel in February, 1856, was one of varied and interesting experience, bringing him in contact with the circumstances of his fellow men in such a way as to indelibly impress upon his heart the desire to do them good, as the noblest work of life. With this sentiment operating as his silent monitor he was in a condition to gladly receive the principles of the Gos pel, as not only the means of saving his own soul, but of gratifying in an immeasurably enlarged degree his wish to benefit his fellows. From the day Brother Barfoot entered the Church to the end of his life, he maintained, without wavering, the faith EDITORIAL. that sanctified all his accumulation of knowledge to his own glory, and the encouragement and help of his associates in life. It was a notable feature in his investigations of science that he never failed to discover in the phenomena of the universe that which glorified the great Creator. In this respect he differed with many professed scientists whose custom is "to take the things of God to prove there is no God." His intelligence and extensive information qulified him eminently for the various duties that devolved upon him in the Church. Shortly after his baptism he was chosen to preside in the Chelsea branch, London, and subsequently he became President of the Holborn, Hammersmith and Lambeth branches successively. In this capacity Brother Barfoot labored with great zeal and effect, his influence winning many converts to the Church and strengthening the Saints. He was a kind and fatherly counselor to the young Elders sent to London from Zion; many of whom cherish deep in their memories, acts of disinterested friendship that made their missions pleasant and profitable, where they might have been otherwise. 251 secrets relating to the minerals of Utah, which had he lived and been supplied with means to develop, would have given to our Territory a fame among the precious metal producing States that would have outshone California in her brightest days. Science and capital may yet unite to demonstrate the truth of this remark. Let it then be remembered that the humble curator of the Deseret Museum foresaw the union and foretold its happy results! For several years Brother Barfoot was engaged in President Brigham Young's office as night-watchman. In that position he was brought in close relations with the President, who valued his clear, scientific judgment and spent with him many hours of the watch, attending with great interest his explanations of natural phenomena and consulting him upon endless questions involving a knowledge of the sciences. The friendship formed by these night vigils lasted during life and was one that Professor Barfoot was ever proud to allude to in terms that clearly showed how warmly he was attached to those whom he knew well and loved. In the literature of the Territory, Brother Barfoot has been a faithful, though extremely modest worker. He has con In 1865 Brother Barfoot gathered with the Saints, coming direct to this city, his wife and daughter having pre-tributed under various noms de plume ceded him two years. He immediately entered into business and was active in to all of our home papers and periodicals. The readers of the CONTRIBUTOR have been indebted to his pen for "Chronicles of Utah," and an occasional scientific sketch. He always signed the name of the Greek letter "Beta" in this magazine. His correspondence with eminent peo demonstrating by successful experiments the feasibility of manufacturing soap, candles and several useful chemicals from the elements so profusely abounding in the mountains. None of Utah's citizens were better acquainted with the wonder-ple of the world and published communful resources of her mountain ranges, fertile valleys, springs, rivers and lakes. For many years before it was deemed prudent to develop the mineral wealth of the mountains, Professor Barfoot was familiar with the location of gold deposits and silver ledges, had analyzed copper, iron, zinc and antimonial ores, and from knowledge of their abundance predicted the great future of the Territory as a producer of mineral wealth. His predictions are now being partly realized, but he died in possession of ications to the outside press, have been the means of enlightening many thousands respecting our people and country. It is unnecessary to say more of his labors. As curator of the Deseret Museum he has for years dispensed information and collected valuable natural curiosities, that will in years to come be of great value to the citizens and all the material interests of this Territory. Our beloved brother is gone, having performed a noble part among men. He breathed his last on Sunday morning, April 23d, dying peacefully, as he had lived. For several months he had suffered from bronchitis, aggravated no doubt by too close confinement to his duties in the museum. Though perfectly assured that all is well with him and that our temporary loss is his eternal gain, there are thousands who knew this gentle, kind-hearted, intelligent soul, and are indebted through the public prints as well as by private association for his wise and ever-willing instructions, who will feel a pang of sorrow as they read the sad tidings of his decease. He was one of nature's noblemen, refined and cultured in her highest school, and possessed many of the traits which alone make human nature admirable. With an apparently unbounded store of learning, he was as humble and unassuming as a child, and was only too happy to gratuitously impart the knowledge which was often credited to an inferior origin. The rightful claimant of a British earldom, "an heir of flattery, to titles born," he cheerfully relinquished all hopes of earthly eminence, for the surer and more lasting honor of the approval of heaven, and the guerdon of an endless exaltation. With the blood of the martyred Ridley flowing in his veins, he ever manifested the same willingness to stand to the death by his religious convictions, while as the descendant of a kingly hero, he battled bravely for the truth, in defending which he gained a far more glorious victory than even the Bannockburn of his warlike ancestor. His extensive knowledge and many amiable virtues would have won him worldly wealth and distinction, but these to him were the merest baubles, compared with that higher knowledge, which to know is to have eternal life; and though poor as to this world's possessions, and obscured to a great extent by his own native meekness and modesty, he contentedly remained so for Christ's sake, relying with calm confidence upon the promise 'of the Savior, that whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted, and the declaration of the Almighty Father, in whose eternal bosom it is decreed that the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it hereafter. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. WITHIN the short space of four | theology, and was about to begin preachweeks, America has lost two of her ablest writers-Longfellow and Emerson. Scarce had the gray-haired poet closed his eyes on the objects of this world, before the philosopher too was called from our midst. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the second son of William Emerson, was born in Boston, May 25, 1803. At the age of fourteen, young Emerson entered Harvard college, where he graduated in 1821. While at college he gave few indications of the remarkable powers which he possessed, and was indeed considered rather dull in mathematics and philosophy, notwithstanding an excellent essay on "The present state of Ethical Philosophy," delivered in his senior year. Having made up his mind to enter the ministry he turned his attention to ing, when his health failed and he went to the Southern States to spend the winter. In 1830 he became pastor of the Second Unitarian Church of Boston, and shortly after married his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker. For four years Emerson discharged faithfully and conscientiously his duties as minister, but having some doubts as to the efficacy or even authority of the rite of the Lord's Supper, and not being sustained in his opinion by his congrega tion, he resigned his office and sailed for Europe. While in Europe he met many distinguished men, among whom were Horatio Greenough the sculptor, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle. Between the last named writer and Emerson there grew up a firm friendship which lasted until death. On his return RALPH WALDO EMERSON. In to America in 1833 he began lecturing on different topics. Two of these lectures, the one on Michael Angelo, and the other on John Milton were the first publications from his pen, they appearing in the North American Review. 1835 he married Lidian Jackson, his first wife having died a few months after their marriage, and moved from Boston to Concord where he continued to reside until his death. Soon after his second marriage he began lecturing in all the principal cities of the United States, winning, in this field, a reputation which will long survive him. In 1836 Emerson's first book called "Nature," was published. Of all his works this, to me, is the most delightful, the most congenial. Quiet, calm, yet steadily glowing with a serene eloquence, the book holds a place more in the heart than in the mind. Take, for instance, his observations on the stars when he says: "Seen in the streets of cities how great are the stars! If they should appear only one night in a thousand years how would men believe and adore! But every night come out these envoys of beauty and light the universe with their admonishing smile." Listen again to his tranquil enjoyment of nature: "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them. The waving of the boughs in a storm is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise and yet is not unknown." In rising to higher questions, of which this work treats, such as "Spirit," "Immortality," "The human soul and the divine spirit;" the writer loses much eloquence but gains vigor; and the happy, soothing influence of the language in the less weighty subjects discussed, though not entirely missing, is less apparent. He concludes the book by exhorting us to build up a world of our own that we may enter the "kingdom of man over nature," with "no more wonder than a blind man feels who is gradually restored to perfect sight." 253 The first series of Emerson's "Essays," was published in 1841, the second in 1847. These essays treat of many subjects that cannot be mentioned in this sketch. A first volume of poems also appeared in the latter year. In 1848 Europe was again visited by Emerson, and twenty years later he made a third voyage to the Old World. On his return from his second voyage he published "Representative Men," and some five years after, "English Traits." His other prose writings are "The conduct of Life," "Society and Solitude,” a third volume of "Essays," and "Letters and Social Aims." As a poet Emerson ranks high in the minds of many. Mr. Fotheringham says "It is only a certain defect of rhythm and ryhme which prevent him from being the greatest of American poets." Opinion is divided as to which is his best poem, some giving the preference to "May Day," some to the "Concord Hymn," and some to "The Song of Nature." In April last the sad tidings of his death were received throughout this country and England, where he has been almost universally admired as a writer, and in many instances beloved as a friend. In Concord he is mourned as only a good man can be. He was at all times a teacher and helper to those in any way associated with him; and endeavored, through his writings, to be both to all mankind. His remains were laid to rest on the thirtieth of April, in the Concord cemetery, near the graves of Hawthorne and Thoreau. And here he sleeps that sweet sleep forevermore where "haughty Hope, nor swart Chagrin, C. T. Charles Lamb remarked of one his critics: "The more I think of him, the less I think of him." Coleman the dramatist was asked if he knew Theodore Hook, "Yes," replied the wit: "Hook and eye are old associates." |