The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-01-07
The Imagination.

NoEth IlcNiSW IoT JdHuufy.
The man Of imagination-that is to
say, of genius-having seen 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 a coat Of mail, instantly i'm
| agined the society, the conditions. that
produced it, and what it produced. He
| saw the castle, the moat, the draw
bridge, the lady on the tower, and the
knightly lover squirting over the plain.
He saw the bold baron and the rude re-
tainer, 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 a
citizen of Athens in the days of Pericles;
listened to the eager eloquence of the
great orator, and sat upon the cliff, and
with the tragic poet heard s'the multi
tudinous laughter OF the sea-" He saw
Socrates thrust the spear OF question
through the shield and heart of falsehood;
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
shapeless stone to forms Of love and
| awe.
| Ho I~,- 81 4
the vast and monstrous. He knows the
very thought that wrought the features
of the Sphinx. He has heard great
Memnon's morning song-has lain him
down with the embalmed and waiting
dead and felt with their dust the expec-
tation Of another life mingled with cold
| and suffocating doubts-the children
born Of long delay.
He has walked the ways Of mighty
Rome, has seen great Caesar with his le
gions in the field, has stood with vast
and motley throngs and watched the
triumphs given to victorious men, fol-
lowed by uncrowned kings, the captured
hosts, and all the spoils of ruthless var.
He has heard the shout that shook the
Coliseum's roofless walls when from the
Keeling 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 regrets:
all virtues and their rich rewards. He
has been victim and victor, pursurer 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,
of beasts. He has felt the crouching
tigers thrill, the terror Of the ambush
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 bo-tree's con-
templative shade, wrapt in Budha's
mighty thought, and he dreamed all the
dreams that Light, the alchemist, hath
wrought from dust and dew and stored
within the slumbrous poppy's subtle
blood.
He has knelt with awe and dread at
every shrine, has offered every sacrifice
and every prayer, has felt the consola-
ton and the shuddsring fear, has seen