The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-01-03
THE REAL AND THE IDEAL.

We are told that in this age of scientific
revelations, the Old occupations of fancy
and Imagination are gone forever; that
reality is greater than imagination, and that
those who read rocks and stars state facts
which glow and burn with diviner fire
than ever warmed and vitalized the i'm
aginatiOn of Milton or a Shakespear.
Possibly the real is 10 take the place of the
ideal, and that in the near future the world
is to find its mental delights Is discussing
facts rather than fancies. Already it is
contended that science has upset the idea
that the world was made 5000 years ago.
Admit it. What then2 Does the admis-
sion curb the Imagination Nay verify, it
plumes itself for grander flights. and wings
its way from
"-Stsr 10 star
FROM world 20 luminous world as far
AS the universe spreads it's flaming wall"
And whatever may be the trophies of
science, the imagination will find beyond its
realm an ideal world in which 10 gather
gems as rich anl rare as have in any age
since time began challenged the admiration
of the devotees of the beautiful. Admitting
all that can be said in regard to the ultilits-
rian characteristics of the age in which we
live, it may still be urged that the fires of
fancy and imagination are not extinguished.
Indeed, it may be said that the men who
go forth with pickaxe and spade, with mi
croscope and telescope. who read backward
from man to ape and forward from granite
to God, are themselves furnishing food for
fancy and incentives to imagination, and
that poets desire no firmer foundation upon
which to construct ideal worlds than
the facts which scientists supply OF
the real world which we inhabit.
IL must ever be thus. The soul inhabits a
world that scientists can not explore, that
has no building periods; and no matter what
may be true of this man is so constituted
that he will seek that ideal place and for
ever strive to incorporate its fancied joys
and satisfactions with the dull realities OF
human life Man signs for an eternal abode
freed from the toll and yexations which pre-
dominate here; and the anticipation is about
all there is to reconcile him to his present
surroundings. To deny him such satisfac-
items, to rob the mind OF such beatitc Wis
ions, to bludgeon fancy and imagination out
of existence. is as cruel az it would be to rob
this world of its flowers and sunshine, of its
melodies of brook and bird and bee, or
extend the frigid zones TO the equator and
introduce reign Of eternal ice. No, let
us have the ideal with the real; let us
enjoy hopes Of Heaven; let the imagination
supply the materials while fancy weaVes
them into gorgeous pictures of zeal happi-
ness. The rugged realities of life will not
therefore be less, but they may be softenec
somewhat and made more easy of endur-
ance. II the belief in a better world than
this be only freak of the imagination, a
fiction which the fancy adorDs and beauti-
fies. il is, nevertheless, q sublimatory freak,
and since It blnnts rather than sharpens the
pangs Of dissolution and robs the grave of
It's ierron it were cruel to antagonize 1t. II
death is All eternal sleep and the resurrec-
ton sham, as some contend, man is not