166 State Papers and Addresses

Lanier already has earned his place in the Hall of Fame. By his creative
genius, by his diligent scholarship, by his high courage and splendid achieve-
ment, he already has builded a shrine of which marble corridors and bronze
statuary are only the physical symbol.

There are some things, even in a democratic society, not subject to popular
referendum. We cannot proclaim the greatness of an artist (only his own
works can do that for him), but we can affirm that greatness. We cannot
immortalize poetry and music—they have a way of doing that for themselves.
But we can and do recognize their qualities of everlastingness. Let us say
then that we are here on Sidney Lanier Day to affirm our belief in his greatness
and to celebrate his memory—in expectation of the honor which we know he
deserves, and which we feel he soon will receive. In saying "we" that plural
form is used advisedly. I would not be here as Governor unless I intended my
voice to speak the sentiments of many Maryland people—both the quick and
the dead.

The quick and the dead—yes, because the people who knew Sidney Lanier
in person would be the first to wish him honor. I like to feel that this institu
tion contains the spirits of men and women who loved him, and whose good
wishes for his memory this Governor of Maryland has. the right, and the duty,
to express.

Sidney Lanier is a Marylander by a particularly binding tie. You have
heard the old saying that one difference. between our relatives and our friends
is that we have a choice in regard to the latter. Well, Lanier does not belong
to us by birth or blood; but he very strongly does become a Marylander by
affection and adoption.

You will remember that he passed through Baltimore, a sick and unsuc-
cessful man, intending to make a fresh start somewhere farther north. But
he stopped off here and visited an official of the Peabody—who refused to let
him get away. Some of you in this audience may have reason to know what
the first recognition of his talent can mean to a man of neglected genius. Lanier
became a member of the Peabody Orchestra, playing the flute; his contribution
to music, both as a composer and performer, was made largely to, for, and by
the Peabody Institute.

You will remember also his connection with that other Baltimore institu-
tion for arts and learning—the Johns Hopkins University. This City was then
—in the 1870's—enjoying her greatest renaissance of culture and the sciences.
Daniel Coit Gilman, President of the new University, assembled a faculty
which became the wonder of the educational world—some of their names you
know—Gildersleeve, Osier, Rowland, Remsen, Welch. Lanier became a member
of this staff, but not until he had completed his education, interrupted by the
Civil War, with two years of intensive study.

Practically all of that work was done right here at the Peabody. By that
time, a few years after his arrival, Lanier had become a true Baltimorean. It
is hard to conceive how any native son could have been loved more in life or
mourned more in death than this adopted son. His courtliness and courage
won him as much affection as his talents won him admiration. He came to be
called the "Sir Galahad of American Letters. " When he died, a Baltimorean
said of him that Sidney Lanier's greatest and finest poem was his own life.

As another indication of the ties which bind Lanier and his memory to
Maryland, it may be noted that it was here that his two sons, Charles and