Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-05-14
THE PARLOR'S POWER.
REV. DR. JOHS H VINCENT IN TBE
MODERN SOCIAL ARENA.
The Popular Preachers vigorous Lecture IN
Pi,tsourg what the waits of the rarior
should EncIose-The Present Great
Need of the Country

Rev. Dr. Vincent, who made an address in
the college chapel to the theological students
on Wednesday evening, had just come
hither from Pittsburg. He lcctured there ON
Tuesday evening under the auspices of the
central branch of the ChautauVus circle oi
Pittsburg ON the "power of the Parlor," and
his address was tnged with quaint philos-
ophic vein that was indeed fascinating To- his
auditors. IL is fully reported IN the local
newspapers, from which Is made this ab-
stract:
In opening he said Before l speak OF
the parlor | must examine some of the FAC
tors which give the parlOr power. into a
mans makeup are wrought the lacls anu
energies of the world he has lived in, and OF
which he has learned His past, 10y memory,
becomes present possession, whether II be
the shorter, nearer past which his own linn
tied lite covers, or the wider reaches of that
past which history brings within his hOri-
zou. A man becomes within himself a
museum, treasure house, u curiosity shop,
a sort of itinerant worlds fair, filled with
specimen relics and wonders. gathered from
a wide world OF observation of report and
reading Indeed, the contents are them
selves an integral part of the structure
as II Assyrian tablets, Elgin marbles,
columns, statuary and Jewels which are
used as material i'll the construction
OF its walls. BY memory a man not only
has, but he is His personal life thus be-
comes enlarged and enriched. The walls Of
his palace are hung with paintings and
pierced with windows, and the vast and va
rious world brought INTO his possession. The
years 20 by in decades and Ill scores, but this
possession remains. What he said III the fer
vor Of his young life, he still sees when the
trosts of age crown him. The old man lives
again in his boyhood days and looks out on
the old landscapes. There they all are: Tho
hills, the road, the creek, the homestead, the
butterfly that in the summer sun allured
and eluded him. All these come now as
sweet pictures of other years to the old man 5
memory, and although they We're facts 50
long ago and so far away, smile wreathes
his life to-day, aud a strange light comes into
his old eyes.
THE WEALTH or THE PAST.
BY literature memory makes our own the
wealth of the past. 1t gives us to-day the
| observations, the eeXcitements, theinspiratiOns
| OF most ancient times. We may journey
| back through the centuries and sit down
| with heroes, or witness the wonders they
| wrought 4 man may he older than Methu'
| saleh, and LOOK ing back through more than
| 80 centuries may watch him play as a babe,
| and yet the same minute see him die on the
| breaking verge of his thousand years. \
| man may go back to the earliest dawn OF
| time and watch he light coming at the
| Creators command. He may be an eye
| witness of events recorded long ago by
| Herodotus, Thucydides and NenOphen.
| According to ideals and habits of the student.
| life as to the use of memory Will be the
| measure of his knowledge in variety, vastness
| systematic arrangement, detiniteuesS anu
| availability. \ large chapter might he
| written about an abnormal memory and tht
wonders it performs Thrust into world o
| facts and figures 1t attracts and retains every
thing. There is a dangerous manifestation
of memory in which a man retains, and tina
involuntariy, the very forms OF though
which he reads or hears. lie reproduce
them with perfect eNactness. He does no
| plagiariZe. He is not thief, but literar,
| kleptomaniaC.
ANOTHER CLASS OF POWERS.
There is IN man another power or class q
| powers which enters somewhat into the act
| of memory l have indicated, but through tn
| operation of which man becomes in so IN
sense q creator. do not try to speak wit
| psychological precision, but merely iudicat
| a creative force i'll man, an energy of inver
ton, power of Imagination which, actin
with memory, reprOduces details in light :
| keen, and action SO real, that what once wa
| seems again to be, ana by combinations e
fected in the soul new conceptions come
| Things we have seen with our own eyes liv
again in the present Things we have hear
of are rs though we had seen them. Thing
| we have neither seen or heard of come to OF
| consciousness as visions of reality. Although
| they never were they seem TO be. Thu
children play, and artists lanI. Fancy il
| fact-clOuds are islands and continents, sha
| dows are substance. Rich indeed is he VIII,
| can grasp, retain, create or command th
world of fact fancy that comes into tn,
soul through history, literature, observation
and experience. With this manifold powe
| he is ever alone. Cells of solitude are lofty
| obseryatOries to him. He sees through stOn,
walls he greets his companions and has tn,
| popula of the ages to choose from, I'll,
| can gaze III absolute physical blindness or