The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-07-11
Our Young People
BY REV. R. H. RIVERS. d. d.
The Imagination.


was an imaginary monster called
the centaur. 1t was said to be half
man and halfihorse. Now here were
elements well known-man and
horse-but these elements were
never thus united in nature.
Such is the power of imagination
that it can take any elements and
so unite them as to startle by their
novelty and please by their appro-
priateness. 1t is said that when the
celebrated Grecian painter, ZeuXis,
was required to paint woman per
feet in form and feature, he took
rome six of the most beautiful wO-
men and selected from each some
feature, which, by his imagination, he
grouped together, thus forming Il
picture of purely imaginary being,
who excelled any living maiden or
matron, in all that constituted beau
ty.
1t is thus that the landscapes
which shine On canvass, come forth
from the artistic hands OF the paint
err, almost without a flaw to mar
their beauty. 1t was thus that Mil
ton created the garden of Paradise
glowing with celestial beauty.
We owe to the imagination many
of the richest and rarest flowers of
literature, the finest gems of po-
etry, and the sublimest strains of
oratory. 1t is a noble faculty.
When tired of the dull monotony of
this world, it can create other
worlds shining in pristine splendor,
unstained by sin, and never visited
by death or sorrow. 1t can pass
beyond all worlds and look out upon
the infinite void, in which no sun
shines and no world revolves. Cor
rupt, it creates scenes and Gharac
tiers whose very actors are of the
pit and whose touch is moral death.
1t is to the corrupt imagination Of
| Byron that we are indebted for the
licentious pictures in Don Juan.
By such an imagination, the world
has been flooded with the filthiest
ichor that ever sent its pestiferous
stencil to breed moral desoiatIon.
Its pictures corrupt the innocent
and seduce the young. They fasci-
nate to bewIlder; charm to destroy.
They fire the passions and poHute
the conscience. They fill the air
with moral malaria, and spread
abroad most poisonous miasma.
1t is almost universally true that
the moral sense is first tainted
through the influence of the imagi-
nation. Designed to give to virtue
its bright charms and to it's re-
wards celestial luster, 1t grovels in
sensuality and revels amid scenes
fetid with the results of foul and
seething passions. Given to US Tor
the wisest purposes, it has been de-
based to the most ignoble ends.
Capable of the loftiest and purest
creations, it has been perverted to
an indulgence in scenes whose foul
ness equals the lowest dens of infa-
my which human deformity has
ever fostered. With the beauty and
grandeur of nature to inspire it, the
debased Imagination has often
sought its inspiration amid the
most revolving scenes of vice and
crime. With a power to soar to
the highest heaven of thought ii
is often content to dwell low down
amid seethIng furnaces, whose fire
is kindied by all consuming lust.
1t is a well known fact that most
of the crimes which degrade our
race have been committed over and
over again in Imagination before
they disgraced our annals in real
life. The assassin has plunged his
dagger to the heart of his victim
again and again in his excited and
corrupt Imagination, long before he
committed the crime in actual life.
So it is with all premeditated
crimes. They are the companions cf
solacious imaginations, the invited
guests of bosoms which have first
been opened to them by the heated
ferver of ignoble passions. All this
shows how sin debases and pollutes
all that it touches. Here is one CT
the highest of the intellectual facili-
ties, more honored Of God than any
other, which can be corrupted to the
basest purposes, and can be made
to delight ia the most horrid and
dreadful scenes. The boy reading
his dime novel is inhaling the pois-
on which is to blight his life
and cause to tester the many sourc-
es of purity and of happiness. The
youth alone at night allows his i'm
aginations to infame the worst of
passions amid scenes from which
the virtuous mind shrinks with inf
/ mite distnay, and that faculty which
gloWed under sppern atnral influence
as it pictured beneath Isaiah's pen,
scenes of the greatest suhlimity,
and touched his lips with hall
lowed fire, carries his powerless vic
tim down, down to where the pit
opens and fiends indulge il mid
night revels.
Against this fearful descent, al
low me 30 warn you with all the ear
Restless of love ana tie power of
truth. Another step, and it may be
too late to beat retreat. Another
indulgence of an imagination, cor
rupJeu Dy impure passions, may
lead to a distance from virtue
from which there is no return. The
imagination and passions react
upon each other and produce the
fiercest and most intense moral
heat known. Both set on fire by
the breath of demons, lead the soul
to utter and hopeless ruin. 1
charge my young readers that they
listen TO this voice as though ut
tered by the.lips of the Eternal, and
that they keep awaJ from influences
which will bear them with the GER
tainty of destiny to an inevitable
ruin. Guard with more than vestal
vigilance this wonderful gift of
God. Keep 1t ever under the con
troll of enlightened reason and
pure conscience. Repress with the
highest energy Of your nature the
first attempts OF corrupt creation.
Suffer not this brightest star in the
coronet of mind to shoot out into
palpable and everlasting darkness.
Let it move along the shining path
stainless virtue. Let 1t never wan
der amid the vile and shameless des