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t b r\ F IIE BATTALION. Entered at the College Station Fostoffice as: Second Class Mail Matter. 1$.L. F.RUCE - - Editor- W- B. THILPOTT - Saperviaing >A.. M. FERGUSON ( Austin ) Asso/Ed. j WILL DAZEY < Austin) Asso Ed, J Editor-in-chief] Published Mcnihh/ by {JOE GILBERT (Calliopean Asso. Ed. •yyicirio’ Editor i TOD(Calliopean 1 asso. Ed. ^ ^ ' —tfiE— ^ E C. JONAS - - Br..s. Manager. Austin ana (Jalhopccm | H. P JORDAN (Cal.) Asst. Bus Manager lAtenary Societies. (a. mitchell (Aus.) Asst. Dus Manager Yol. 1. V COLLEGE STATION, TEXA^, DECEMBER 1, 1893. No. 4. CHAUCHH. What a pity that Chaucer is almost a foreigner to the modern English reader! He is so fresh, so joyous, so brimful of Bweet gayety, so true to the brighter tilde of life, we need him constantly as a set off against the gloomy introspee- ~%i^enesa of modern literary art. His wit is arch, not caustic ; his laughter comes from the heart ; his very satire is without malice. Even when he is pathetic, it is with a childlike grace that gives to tears the charm of summer rain. Whatever lie gives us hau the true ring of pure gold- It is the utterance of one who has lived in the open air and loves the fields and their flowers, the woods and their birds ; who has known the life of eourts and of cities ; who has seen the shock of battle, and felt the pain of cap- tiyi^y; who has gone on stately em bassies, and talked with learned clerks abroad. The closet poets of our day may haye their little coteries of/adorers for this generation, and perhaps for anothe'r ; but the poet for all time is he who has lived like a true man, lias known life and mankind and the outer world, and sings from the fullness of a knowledge which is not drawn from books alone. Possibly this is in one sense, the secret of his charming optim ism. A man for whom life was- so full can not easily be imagined putting to himself or to others a question so ab surd as, “Is life worth living?' 1 Nor is it only the cheerfulness of Chaucer—that bright face with which l ie turns from life to tell its story—that makes him so delightful a companion. His large variety; his clear, lively directness in story-telling ; his exquisite choice of language—one of the surest notes of the true poet—the sweetness and richness of the music his verse makes, when righxly read ; his delicacy of feel ing for all that is lovely in form or lofty in thought, are as dear to us now, after all the splendid additions that have been made to literature since his day, as they would have been had these never