The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-02-20
INGERsOLL's ELOQUENCE.
He Talks About the Imagina>
ton.

az AAeeAA - AAeNNA~- -
TO say, of genius having seen a leaf
and drop of water, can construct
the forests, the rivers and the seas.
In his presence all the cataracts fall
and foam, the mists rise, the clouds
form and float.
To really know one fact is to know
its kindred and its neighbors.
Shakespeare looking at coat of
mail, instantly imagined the society.
the conditions that produced it, and
it was produced. He saw the castle,
the moat, the drawbridge, the lady
in the tower, and the nightly lover
squirting over the plain. He saw the
bold baron and the rude retainer,
the trampled serf, and all the glory
and the grief of feudal life.
The man of imagination has lived
the life of all people, of all races.
He was citizen of Athens in the
days of Perieles; listened to the ca
ger eloquence of the great orator,
and sat upon the cliff, and with the
tragic poet heard 1.-The multitudinous
laughter of the sea- He saw Soc
rates thrust the spear of question
through the shield and heart of false
hood; was present when the great
man drank hemlock and met the
night of death tranquil as a star
meets morning. He has followed
the peripatetic philosophers, and has
been puzzled by the sophists. He
has watched Phidias as he chiseled
shapeles stones TO forms of love and
awe.
He has lived by the slow Nile
amid the vast and monstrous. He
knows the very thought that wrought
the form and features of the Sphinx.
He has heard great Memnon's morn
ing song-has lain him down with
the embalmed and waiting dead and
felt within their dust the eXpecta-
tion of another life mingled with cold
and suffocating donbts-the children
born of long delay.
He has walked the ways of mighty
Rome. has seen great Caesar with his
legions in the field. and has stood
with vast and motley throngs and
watched the triumphs given to vic
torious men, followed by uncrowned
kings, the captured hosts, and all
the spoils of ruthless war. He has
heard the shout that shook the Coli
seum's roofess walls when from the
reeling gladiator's hand the short
sword fell, while from his bosom
gushed the stream of wasted life.
He has lived the life of savage
men, has trod the forests silent
depths, and in the desperate game
of life or death has matched his
thought against the instinct of the
beast.
He knows all crimes and all re-
grets, all virtues and their rich re
wards. He has been victim and vie
tor, pursuer and pursued, outcast
and king-has heard the applause
and curses of the world, and ON his
heart have fallen all the nights and
moons of failure and success.
He knows the unspoken thoughts,
the dumb desires, the wants and
ways of beasts. He has felt the
crouching tigers thrill, the terror of
the ambushed prey, and with the
eagles he has shared the ecstasy of
flight and poise and swoop, and he
has lain with sluggish serpents on
the barren rocks, uncoiling slowly in
the heat of noon.
He has sat beneath the DO trees
contemplative shade, rapt in Budd
has mighty thought, and he has
dreamed all dreams that Light the
alchemist, hath wrought from dust
and dew and stored within the slum-
brous poppy's subtle blood.
He has knelt with awe and dread
at every shrine, has offered every
sacrifice and every prayer, has felt
the consolation and the shuddering
fear, has seen all devils, has Knocked
and worshiped all the gods enjoyed
all heavens and felt the pangs of every
hell.
He has lived all lives, and through
his blood and brain have crept the
shadow and the chill of every death,
and his soul, Mazeppa-like, has been
dashed naked to the wild horse of
every fear and love and hate.
The imaginative man hath stage
within the brain, wheron he sets all
scenes that lie between the morn of
laughter and the night of tears, and
where his players body forth the
false and true, the joys and griefs,
the careless shadows and the tragic
deeps of every life.