Dowd, William Carey, 1835-1860
Page 1
WC.
D
Eagles dont
2
catch flies.
To the mind of an
American,
the eagle is significant of all that is romantic, eloquent and brave. Let
Washington
Irving have occasion to indulge a feeling of romance—and you hear
of "the eagle wheeling aloft from the rugged banks of the
Hudson and
breasting the pure mountain breeze."
3 Let
the orator indulge
4 a
picture—and on eagle's wings his ideas mount to the regions of the
sublime. Let dread war deluge our land 'till hope is ready to bid our ranks
adieu—: but raise the eagle in the midst of our foes, and every soul
that's fired with American
5
blood dreams no longer of death, even though the musket is pointed at his
face.
The eagle is still further significant. He has been adopted as the
American motto
6—and thus has become indicative of an age of
refinement. 'Tis a truth familiar
7
that, on
English soil,
young heroes were wont to bear to battle nought
more for a standard than, perhaps
8 a
worthless present from their lovers. This we know was
ignorance—superstition. When that race became more intelligent the lion
became its adopted motto
9, one
not unworthy still of those whom the world fears. In our time, however, an
age
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when of
literary advancement—when the scienc[e]s a[n]d arts flourish, when genius
is rewarded and all nature betokens bliss, the eagle is the adopted motto
10 of
the first nation on earth. I doubt not that, the historian of future ages, when
he reviews our history, will see these three mottoes
11
plainly marking the different periods of our civilization, and indicating our
growth in literature.
The eagle is thus significant and hence our
proverb—"Eagles do'nt catch flies" that is, as the eagle deigns
not to catch a fly—so strong minds stoop not to trifles. The Statesman
12
notes not the fall of a leaf when in his evening stroll he is thinking how may
the contentions of
Whigs and
Tories
result—how may
England be freed
from the strong grasp of tyranizing
Catholicism?
13 (I
speak of a statesman in the time of
James II) Nor
does the air whistling at the key-hole of his study catch his attention whilst
to
14 his
mid-night lamp he rehearses the sayings of
Cicero.
Nobler objects fill his mind. It contemplates relations between
nations, reviews the history of the past, makes the light gained therefrom
shine upon some deep political conception, which is to affect the future
condition of his country.
'Tis thus with the Mathematician. That two words may make a rhyme is
the least of his thoughts!
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He stands at the center
of the earth and sees it is round, measures the degreess around it, cuts it in
a moment into a thousand angles, belts, &c. &c. He ascends—the
heavenly
15
bodies are before him. He measures each
16
relative distance,
17
fixes each relative position, and subjects the workmanship of
God to man-invented
laws. He has touched
God's mightiest
implements: for he has bound the lightning
t within his vial, and sends it now and then to distant
realms to announge
18 sad
or joyous news. What have
not strong minds done? In
the dim "Past" I see a body of men consulting by what means they may
deprive Nature of her power—how they may, despite of
19 her
mandate, which says dust to dust shall return,
20
give to posterity their king unimpared. Now I see them exhibiting signals of
success and now I see a mighty Pyramid. I look again and see upon
Trojan plains the
blood of
Grecian heroes
and I turn my eye to my little pile of books and there is
Homer a treasure
worth more than the hoarded silver of a
Cresus.
21 I
see floating down the stream of Time numberless specimens of human art which
time can not obliterate.
22
The flight of the eagle teaches us wisdom.
When, for a time he walks upon the earth, whither hunger alone
drives him, his glossy pinions become contaminated
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by its mists and he sees with sorrow his wonted beauty gone. His eye
turns upward: above
23 it
sees a purer atmosphere, a clime more congenial,
24
where the pure sun-beam may restore his lost treasure. He arises—and on
swift wing is borne to genial climes
far away
from and unknown to the inferior tribes, where he hold
25 his
proper position as monarch of birds. We never know that he is wearied nor have
we reason to think he ever is, and herein consists the lesson which
26
teaches us. When man first launches his bark upon life's sea,
he it is driven hither and thither by
each successive billow 'till he loses sights of the intended goal, sees his
bark ready to sink beneath a superior power, and wishes in despair that he had
never made an effort. He now indulges his inclination to idleness. Youth
becomes a dull monotony, yielding nothing to animate and please him. He wanders
in the plain of Melancho
lly where is
the foot of the ladder whose head rests upon the threshold of the "
Temple of
Fame" It
27
catches his eye, and he resolves to climb; for before him he sees those he
loves, who urge him to the attempt. Whilst still in his boyhood he mounts the
first round. In his College days he mounts again, when half overcome by
fear—half by
28
despair he looks upward and in the distance sees as some inaccessible
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mountain-tops, the lofty seats of illustrious
Statesmen
29 who
attained that place of distinction in the days when
Rome was torn by
internal feuds or when
England tottered
under the footsteps of invaders. Again his eye is turned and he sees, as it
were an oasis in a barren, trackless desert, a beautiful summit where revel in
ease and luxury the worlds wise-men. Doctors. Lawyers. Editors &c. Still
his eye traces the ladder and still further in the distance he sees it resting
upon the pillow
30
that supports it. Here is the "
Temple of
Fame" Here mingle a higher order of beings, the Poets and their
sattelites, beings too good for earth. Here they find a genial abode, and here
the eagle in his lofty flight stops.
The young man, filled with love of what he has seen, and buoyed up
by hope, grapples another round and another 'till his form vanishes from my
sight. This is the lesson the eagle teaches, to leave our abode of i[g]norance,
to trust our full grown, but
unused wings and mount
as does its young to purer regions of which our nature is capable. Go to the
ant thou sluggard
31 is
good advice to an idler. Learn of the eagle is a word of consolation to the
wise.
Endnotes:
1.
William
Carey Dowd Papers, SHC. Though undated, the composition was written for
John
Thomas Wheat
, professor of rhetoric and logic, who corrected it in
pencil. The topic, a proverb, is consistent with assignments that would have
been given in the sophomore composition class. A second essay on the same
topic, written by
Thomas Williams Mason
and also corrected by
Wheat
, survives (
see "Class Composition of Thomas W. Mason"). A prolific writer,
Dowd
saved many of his high school and college
compositions. The
William
Carey Dowd
Papers, SHC, house eight essays written before
Dowd
entered the
University, an inaugural address given before the
Dialectic
Society, a draft of his valedictory oration, four essays that appear to
be class compositions, and a thirty-page journal of "Miscellaneous
Sketches."
2.
Wheat
inserted in pencil an apostrophe between the
o and the
n in
dont.
3.
Washington Irving,
"Rip Van
Winkle" (1820): "the eagle was wheeling aloft and breasting
the pure mountain breeze."
4.
Wheat
crossed out
indulge and
pencilled in
paint above the word.
5.
Dowd
wrote
A on top of
a at the beginning of
American.
6.
Wheat
crossed out
motto and
pencilled in
ensign above the word.
7.
Wheat
pencilled
(2) above
truth and
(1) above
familiar, preferring "familiar truth" to
Dowd's
"truth familiar."
8.
Wheat
crossed out
than, wrote
save above the word, and pencilled in a comma after
perhaps.
9.
Wheat
crossed out "adopted motto" and pencilled
in
standard above the phrase.
10.
Wheat
crossed out "adopted motto" and pencilled
in "ensign armorial" above the phrase.
11.
Wheat
crossed out
mottoes and
pencilled in "heraldic devices" above the word.
12.
Dowd
wrote
S on top of
s at the beginning of
Statesman.
13.
Wheat
dotted the second
i of
Catholicism
in pencil.
14.
Dowd
wrote
to on top of
in.
15.
Dowd
crossed the
l in
heavenly;
Wheat
cancelled the stroke in pencil.
16.
Wheat
crossed out
each and
pencilled in
their above the word.
17.
Wheat
pencilled in
s above
distance.
18.
Wheat
crossed out
g in
announge and pencilled in
c
above the word.
19.
Wheat
crossed out
of in
pencil.
20.
Genesis 3:19 :
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the
ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return."
21.
Wheat
pencilled in
o between
r and
e above
Cresus
.
22.
Dowd
having mistakenly crossed the
l and first
t of
obliterate,
Wheat
crossed the second
t in
pencil.
23.
Wheat
pencilled in a comma after
above.
24.
Wheat
deleted
con of
congenial in pencil.
25.
Wheat
pencilled in an
s after
hold.
26.
Wheat
inserted
he in pencil after
which.
27.
Dowd
wrote
It on top of an
unrecovered word.
28.
Dowd
wrote
by on top of
wi.
29.
Wheat
inserted a comma in pencil after
Statesmen.
30.
Wheat
crossed out
ow in
pillow and pencilled in
ar
above the word.
31.
Proverbs 6:6 :
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be
wise."