ployed sixteen thousand workmen, but now about two thousand. Before the entrance are four mammoth lions carved from the native marble, and brought from Piræus in 1687; the largest of them was covered with inscriptions, now illegible, and is supposed to have stood on the battle field of Marathon. The arsenal contains many stand of arms, trophies of historic interest, flags and banners taken in battle, armor of several doges, old fashioned weapons, instruments of torture, the iron helmet of Attila, king of the Hups, a model of an ancient Venetian vessel and of the piles on which the city is built, also the remains of the "Bucentoro," the vessel from which the doges annually performed the ceremony of "wedding the Adriatic." This was done by throwing a ring, dedicated for the purpose, into the sea, and was a time honored custom, attended with great pomp and display. The Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, contains some of the most celebrated and beautiful pictures in the world, among them the works of Bellini, and the masterpiece of Titian, called the "Assumption of Mary," also the first painting of the great artist, executed when he was fourteen years old, and the unfinished effort of his later years, the last he attempted to paint, when ninety-nine years of age. The numerous paintings representing scenes in the life of the Savior, by artists of all grades, from the great masters down, constitute a prominent feature in the Venetian gallery. "The adoration of the Savior," by Paul Veronese, is one of the most beautiful of them all. It represents Mary sitting above with the infant Savior in her arms, while below, upon a high pedastal stands the childish form of John the Baptist, with a fur skin thrown over his back for clothing. Around these central figures are grouped Joseph of Arimathea, Zacharias and Elizabeth and St. Thomas. The picture is one of fine coloring, and the expression is free from the sanctimonious cant, which, not confined to the sectarian preaching of the world, finds its way into the pictures made by sectarian artists. It would be impossible to describe the paintings that have been gathered into the great galleries of Italian cities, there are thousands of them, ranged one above another, upon miles of wall, dedicated to the exhibition of the fine arts. Venice has her share, and weeks might be spent in gazing upon them, and studying out the lessons they are designed to teach. The great churches of Venice, besides the cathedral of St. Mark, are the Frari, which contains the splendid tombs of Titian and Canova, and most costly and elegant chapels and altars, paintings, statues and carvings; the church of Ste. Maria della Salute, built in commemoration of the plague of 1630, also contains some fine pictures and sculpturing; St. John and St. Paul is the name of a very imposing and magnificent church edifice, which contains the vaults of the doges, and is the repository of the most noble Venetian dust that falls into decay. This church is the Westminster Abbey of Venice; the tombs of her illustrious rulers, generals, and men of mark are here, and are built in a manner that testifies of the love the living have had for their honored dead, and of the rare appreciation of art and cultivation of taste that have made the canvas and marble the preservers of Italian fame, and have exalted her artist sons to the highest place in the praise of all nations. De Vallibus. Better have large feet than a small understanding. Happiness is often at our side and we pass her by; Misfortune is far off and we rush to meet her. Once to be wild is not a foul disgrace, EVERY young man should remember that the world will always honor industry. The vulgar and useless idler, whose energies of body and mind are rusting for want of occupation, may look with scorn upon the laborer engaged at his toil; but his scorn is praise, his contempt honor. NEPHITE APOSTATES. 107 IV. ZORAM. NEPHITE APOSTATES. It is generally admitted in theory, though seldom honored in practice, that no "religion can be studied with profit except in the very words of its own votaries." But it too frequently happens that a disputant or critic will define another man's creed and then go to work to demolish it; whilst, if he had permitted the believer to state his own faith, he would have found it a vastly different affair to the myth he is antagonizing. This needs no argument to prove, for it is in the very nature of things that persons living outside a religion, especially if they are opposed to it, cannot fully understand the "true-inwardness" of its creed, or the symbolism of its ceremonies, unless they adopt modes of inquiry which are generally esteemed superfluous or disgraceful, being considered either over inquisitive or hypocritical. There is, however, one grand exception to the above rule; it is when a servant of the Most High God, in holy words of inspiration, denounces the heresies of apostates, or describes the follies of false believers. Such an account is the one given by Alma, of the absurdities and iniquities of the followers of Zoram. mon. There are two distinct classes of people called Zoramites in the Book of MorThe first, the descendants of Zoram (the servant of Laban) who accompanied Nephi from Jerusalem. The second were Zoram, whose defection and treason the followers of the apostate caused so much trouble and bloodshed to the Nephite republic. history. the teachings of Nehor, as the majority of his adherents appear to have been gathered from that sect and to have belonged to that order. Zoram inaugurated a gathering dispensation. He assembled his people in a region of the South American continent, at that time but very thinly settled by the Nephites. It was called the land of Antionum, and lay to the east of the river Sidon, whilst it stretched from the land of Jershon in the north, to the great wilderness south, which was infested with the more savage, wandering Lamanites. To this broad land the Zoramites gathered, and there built their cities, erected their synagogues, and developed in material wealth; until, in the year B. C. 75, they had grown to be an important, though undesirable portion of the Nephite commonwealth; as friends they were unreliable, as enemies formidable. It were impossible, in a short article, as this must necessarily be, to enter into details with regard to the vagaries of the Zoramite faith; indeed, to a great extent, such a course would be superfluous, as the story of their follies is so graphically told by Alma in the Book of Mormon.* Suffice it to say, they esteemed themselves as the particular favorites of heaven, born to be saved, and on the strength of this assurance lived lives which entirely unfitted them for that exalted, blissful state, but rather prepared them for the wrath of a just God. Strong in the pride of their own self-righteousness, they were vain, dogmatic, supercilious, cruel and licentious; the quality of mercy was unknown in their hardened hearts; they followed the lusts and corruptions of their distorted natures, and gave up their lives to the accumulation of wealth, and to the gratification of those unlawful pleasures that this wealth would secure. To be poor was regarded as criminal, and he was esteemed the best member of the Of Zoram's individual life we have no We only know him through his pernicious teachings, and the sad results thereof. trations The time of his unholy miniscan, however, be fixed with certainty; they were during the days when Alma, the younger, was the presiding High Priest, and Nephihah the Chief church who made money the fastest, or Judge of the whole nation. spent it with the most lavish ostentation. It is altogether probable that before To crown the whole foul pyramid of their Zoram started out as a religious reformer on his own account, he was a follower of bastard faith, they denied the coming and * Book of Alma, commencing chapter xxi. the need of a Redeemer; the elect, such as they, needed no being greater or holier than themselves to intercede in their behalf before the throne of God. To this misguided people Alma went with words of invitation, warning and reproof. He was accompanied by several other prominent servants of the Lord, who joined their fervid testimonies with his. But their words were scorned, their warnings were ridiculed; even more, some of the missionaries were abused and maltreated, until Alma considered they had done their whole duty, and had cleared their garments of Zoramitish blood, then he and his companions withdrew to the land of Jershon. Still, their labors were not altogether ineffectual. A number of the poorer members of the community received the word, and accepted the Gospel teachings. These were soon cunningly sought out, persecuted, despoiled and driven from their homes and country by their richer and viler fellow-citizens. The expatriated believers followed Alma to the land | of Jershon, where they were hospitably received by the Ammonites, and their wants provided for-notwithstanding the insulting demands and imperious threats of the leader of the Zoramites, who, in his hatred (and doubtless he well represented his people), desired that these poor sufferers for truth's sake might be left to perish. The Zoramites soon affiliated with the Lamanites, in fact, soon became Lamanites to all intents and purposes, taking a prominent part in the wars in after years waged against their former fellow countrymen. So conspicuous were they for fierce hatred, unyielding courage, mental activity and shrewdness beyond that of the original Lamanites, that it became a settled policy with the kings of that people to appoint Zoramites (with Amalekites and other Nephite traitors) to be the superior officers in their armies,and as such, we frequently find them noticed in the history of the wars of the Nephites, from the days of Zoram to the downfall of the Republic. R. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. How few facts connected with the life of the great poet have descended to our time! With the internal life of the great author we are almost wholly unacquainted; his works only, in all their grandeur and beauty, are left to us. William Shakspeare, the bard of whom the world is proud, was born April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. His father, John Shakspeare, was a well-to-do tradesman in the little village, and his mother, Mary Arden, was descendea from an ancient aristocratic family, and possessed at her marriage, a small fortune. At an early age, the poet was sent to the free grammar school at Stratford, where he learned to read, write and spell, accomplishments that were not enjoyed by the majority of the people in his day. After leaving school it is supposed, for various reasons, the most prominent among them being the free and frequent use of legal terms in his works, that young Shakspeare occupied the position of clerk in an attorney's office. At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, a lady eight years his senior. Little is known of his married life, but many biographers suppose it to have been rather unhappy. Though firmly bound by the ties of matrimony, he did not settle himself down to the stern realities of life until necessity compelled him to do so. Accounts of some wild freaks of his early life are still extant. One in particular will do to relate, as it will present before us a part of the poet's real nature, and will lead us to think of the great bard not as a dreamyeyed youth, despising all physical enjoyments, but as a young man true to common nature, proving in a rash manner his love of sport, and his youthful indiscretion. Sir Thomas Lucy, so goes the story, owned a large park, well filled with WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. game, at Charlecote, near Stratford, which was a constant source of temptation to the young men of the village. One night Shakspeare, who with some of his friends had been trespassing upon Sir Thomas' grounds, was caught and confined until morning, when, it is said, he received a severe flogging. The young man was so enraged by this treatment, that he wrote some insulting verses and fastened them to the gate at Charlecote. The first and closing verses are given, not that they were a credit to their author, but simply as a curiosity. SIR THOMAS LUCY. A parliament member, a justice of peace, Soon after this affair, finding it necessary to provide support for his wife and three children and aged parents, and thinking the anger of Sir Thomas Lucy might make his situation in Stratford rather unpleasant, Shakspeare went to London, the city in which so many before him, and so many after, have struggled to win a fortune. 109 here it was that he began to write those splendid works which will ever remain the boast and glory of English literature. Fortune seemed to favor the young author in endowing him with both mental and worldly gifts, for it was not long e'er he became a partner in the Globe Theatre, with an annual income of about £1500. During these years Ben Jonson became his intimate friend, and in Jonson's play of "Every Man in His Humor" Shakspeare took the part of Old Knowell. Among his own plays his favorite parts were the ghost, in "Hamlet," and Adam, in "As You Like It." Of the thirtyseven plays that he wrote, it is supposed he never once conceived a plot of his own, but though the plots were borrowed the wording and characters of the plays belong to Shakspeare alone. He seemed to be wholly unappreciative of his own talents, allowing his plays, as soon as written, to be thrown about, here and there, caring little whether they were preserved or destroyed, and none of them were published during his life. Though actors were, in those days, considered very common people, Shakspeare being more poet than actor, associated with the best society of London, and received the favor and patronage of both Queen Elizabeth and King James. His public life, at this time at least, was a happy one; he had written his poems, the "Rape of Lucrece," "Venus and Adonis," and the "Passionate Pilgrim," and his one hundred and forty-four sonnets; his magnificent dramas were nearly all completed; he had won what in London he sought, fame and fortune; and so he bought a place in Stratford, and retired in 1612. The theatrical profession, with all the fascinations it ever possesses, was chosen by the young man as a means of obtaining a livelihood; but to childish impressions it is very likely he owed this choice. Troups of strolling actors had often played at Stratford, with the permission of Shakspeare's father, who was high baliff or mayor, and to these primitive treaders of the stage little Will always listened with more than ordinary attention. Besides this, the successful actors, Burbage and Greene, were both natives of Warwickshire, and why should not Shakspeare try his fortune where these two had prospered so well? With this ambition, the year 1587 found him in London, where he began his theatrical career, it is thought, as a call boy. He soon became a re-writer of plays, and in a year or two connected himself with the company at the Blackfriars Theatre, and mains. Above his grave are written the We know as little of the remaining four years as of the early part of his life. It is supposed that he lived in a happy, contented manner, entertaining his friends, cultivating his garden and writing occasionally. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in the little church at Stratford, on the banks of the beautiful Avon, the river he had always loved so well. And there his honored dust re following lines, which have prevented the disturbance of the renowned poet's ashes: Good friend, for Jesus sake, forbear To digg the dust enclosed here. Blest be ye man yt spares these stones, And curst be he yt moves my bones. Seven years after his death two friends, Heminge and Condell, published a book called the "First Folio," in which thirtysix of the great poet's plays were given to the world, and to these the play of Pericles was afterwards added. To this edition Shakspeare's portrait was attached. Modern writers can say nothing that would either add to or detract from the glory of this great writer's works, and words spoken for such a purpose were better unsaid. All of us have read, or seen at least one of his comedies or tragedies, and some of us are familiar with them all; but very few have read many of his sonnets, those "gems of poetry," which in themselves would have raised their writer to the rank of a fine poet, therefore our selections will be from them, though Dr. Johnson says: "He that tries to recommend him (Shakspeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house for sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen." We quite agree with him. SONNETS. TIME. Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forward do contend. Nativity once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned, Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight, And time that gave, doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth, And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, Feeds on the rarities of virtue's truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth despite thy cruel hand. FULL MANY A GLORIOUS MORNING HAVE I SEEN. Full many a glorious morning have I seen, Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchymy, Anon permit the basest cloud to ride, With ugly rack on his celestial face, With all triumphant splendor on my brow; But out! alack! he was but one hour mine, The region cloud hath masked him from me now. Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth Sons of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth. ABSENCE. From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leaped with him. Yet nor the lays of birds nor sweet smells Of different flowers in odour and in hue, Could make me any summer's story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: Nor did I wonder at the lillies white, Nor praise the deep vermillion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. Yet seemed it winter still and you away, As with your shadow I with these did play. Viva. Respect is the truest homage of the heart. THE UNIVERSITY OF DESERET. IV. KNOWLEDGE, like virtue, is its own reward. As to be happy one must be virtuous, so to be useful one must be intelligent. All that is elevating and ennob ling has its birth, directly or indirectly, in education, and is known as knowledge and intelligence. Education is the skilled hand and discerning eye which paints the manifold and everchanging beauties |