Read Literature, Learn an Age

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  “The discovery has been made that a literary work is not a mere play of the imagination, the isolated caprice of an excited brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners and customs and the sign of a particular state of intellect. The conclusion derived from this is that, through literary monuments, we can retrace the way in which men felt and thought many centuries ago.” Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1863) “Introduction to the History of English Literature”

Star of Bethlehem

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As shadows cast by cloud and sun
Flit o'er the summer grass,
So, in thy sight, Almighty One,
Earth's generations pass.
And while the years, an endless host,
Come pressing swiftly on,
The brightest names that earth can boast
Just glisten and are gone.

Yet doth the Star of Bethlehem shed
A luster pure and sweet,
And still it leads, as once it led,
To the Messiah's feet.
0 Father, may that holy star
Grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beams afar
To fill the world with light.

--WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

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