Guest post for Pioneer Day

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This is a guest post by Huston.

“Call up your courage again. Dismiss your grief and fear.
A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.
Through so many hard straits, so many twists and turns
our course holds firm for Salt Lake Valley. There God holds out
a homeland, calm, at peace. There God decrees
the kingdom of Zion will rise again. Bear up.
Save your strength for better times to come.”

This is a quote from Brigham Young.

Here, the Mormon leader motivates discouraged pioneers as they survey the barren, hostile wilderness they’re passing through, after being driven out of their ruined home. He reminds them that they’ve already suffered greatly before and endured. He inspires them with a vision of their destined goal: the establishment of a new headquarters for their people in a land to the west. Their civilization is to be a re-establishment of a great order that had been lost. This powerful, cheering attitude helps the people strive and successfully realize their destiny.

Oh, no, wait. That’s not right. This is actually a quote from the Trojan hero Aeneas in Virgil’s classic The Aeneid (Book I, lines 238-244, Robert Fagles trans.).

“Call up your courage again. Dismiss your grief and fear.
A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.
Through so many hard straits, so many twists and turns
our course holds firm for Latium. There Fate holds out
a homeland, calm, at peace. There the gods decree
the kingdom of Troy will rise again. Bear up.
Save your strength for better times to come.”

Here, the Trojan leader motivates discouraged warriors as they survey the barren, hostile wilderness they’re passing through, after being driven out of their ruined home. He reminds them that they’ve already suffered greatly before and endured. He inspires them with a vision of their destined goal: the establishment of a new headquarters for their people in a land to the west. Their civilization is to be a re-establishment of a great order that had been lost. This powerful, cheering attitude helps the people strive and successfully realize their destiny.

Sorry for the confusion, but you can see how I got these two epic journeys mixed up. They have so much in common.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in that for us.

7 thoughts on “Guest post for Pioneer Day”

  3. Touché – though at the end of their day, they could strip down naked and clean themselves with a strigil and olive oil. Pioneers had to make do with the rare dip in a manky river which (circa 1850) would be filled with cholera bacteria.

    My recollection was Brigham telling the folks to stop their wicked ways or he’d turn around and head them back east. Gambling was involved, and swearing on the Sabbath. They gave up their cards and foul language and shaped up.

    Brigham (as I recall) wasn’t much given to poetic language in inspiring his people. But there is great comfort in a man who takes command with authority. This he did.

  5. When I read the Brigham Young “quote” I thought something is not quite right, almost right, but not quite. The goal was a home and a refuge far away in the West, vaguely the Salt Lake Valley, but more importantly, a place for Zion rather than its reestablishment. Zion, unlike Troy, was not destroyed, though the Saints were driven from Nauvoo. Zion (the pure in heart) was merely for a time on wheels. And Zion is still the pure in heart, regardless of which city they are gathered in.

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