Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1898 — Dr Sparling's Sunday Evening Lecture. [ARTICLE]

Dr Sparling's Sunday Evening Lecture.

Those present at the F. W. Baptist church Sunday evening listened to an intellectual, treat. Dr. S. E. Sparling gave another of his interesting lectures, talking this time on ‘“The Homes aud Haunts of English Writers.” He gave a graphic account of his own wanderings iu the sacred precincts formerly frequented by Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Johnson, Goldsmith, Pope, Byron, Dickens, Thackeray, DeQuincey, Carlyle, and Gray. He then called attention to the significant fact that nearly all these great makers of our inherited literature had lived in rural seclusion, aud that all of them had interpreted a narrow but thoroughly known environment. One must; see this rural life of England in order to comprehend English literature and English character, as both have been infinitely moulded by its influence. Dr. Sparling shows a genuine public spirit in thus freely sharing the results of his travel and thought with the people of his native town,* and the best way of showing appreciation is by giving large and attentive audience.