THE BATTALION.
Entered at the College Station Fostoffiee as Second Class Mail Matter.
IS.L. F.RUCE - - Editor-in-Chief j Published Monthly by (JOE GILBERT (CaUiOpean Asso. Ed.
WILL DAZEY (Austin) Asso Ed, J lAter-ary Societies. ( a. MITCHELL (Aus.) Asst, lius Manager
Yol. 1. V COLLEGE STATION, TEXA^, DECEMBER 1, 1893. No. 4.
CHAUCEI?.
What a pitv that Chaucer is almost a
foreigner to the modern English reader!
He is so fresh, so joyous, so brimful of
sweet gayetyy so true to the brighter
tiide of life, we need him constantly as
a set off against the gloomy introspee-
^i^eness 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 Ims 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
spurts and of cities ; who has seen the
shock of battle, and felt the pain of cap-
tivify; who has gone on stately em
bassies, find talked with learned clerks
abroad. The closet poets of our day
may haye their little coteries of/adorers,
for this generation, and perhaps for
anothei*; 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 ful'ness 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 he
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 bis verse makes,
when righlly read ; his delicacy of feel
ing for all thaL 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