Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-04-22
JELATIN JELLY.
THE IDEAL IN LIFE.
A Visit to the Flower Festival
SUGGESTS Eeccndtre EhGughfs.


The sunfower is the badge of the
disciples of estheticism and those who
wear this insignia Of the direction OF
their minds and hearts may not be
classed with the multitudes who fol-
low passing fancy or a blind idea.
Nstheticism is no longer the craze or
fad, but the school it developed in its
meteoric reign still has large follow
ing Modern 5estheticism is more than
the science OF the beautiful, because it
aims at the practical embodiment Of
abstract idealism. In this it is but
a step removed from the dead Rosi-
erucian school. The disciples of
Rosicrucius believed that life could be
perpetuated throughout all time by
men becoming thoroughly spiritual &;
dealing alone with the Ideal, and
casting out all that was material. The
elixir of life which they attempted to
discover through the means of
higher life developed in the realms
OF Idealty, personified, was not
altogether a mysticism. To the
modern disciple of Esthetics it is the
symbolic essence OF the wisdom of
ages, fer truth yields its Immortality
and eternal youth to those who wor-
ship only the ideal. The fall of man
in the Garden of Eden is but an illus
tration of this aphorism.
Estheticism does not grasp the un-
attainable, but teaches that the cul-
tivation OF the ideal leads to wisdom
and truth, and that within its environ
ments is happiness, present and eter-
nal. Its followers believe that it is
the literators, poets, editors, philoso.
piers, painters and men of science,
who save the world from utter de-
moralization and that withont these
ennobling teachers of mankind the
rich would become thoroughly
selfish and corrupt, and the
poor lamentably ignorant and
degraded. They point to the ideality
of the priesthood and its teachings,
and show that the fnality of religious
beliefs is ideal the Mohamedan alone
believing in a sensual glory and hap
piness hereafter. To the Christian it
is the Kingdom OF the Messiah; to the
Brahmin, the joys Of Brahma, the
prince OF the armament, the various
ascending heavens Of delight, the
gradual absorption into Deity; to the
Buddhist, the ultimate heaven of
Nirvaua, or annihilation; to the
Egyptian, the glorious halls of Osiris;
to the Persian, the exalted domain OF
Mithras and Ormuzd; to the Scandi-
navian, the joys and pleasures OF the
realms of Odin.
All that tends to elevate and refine
human nature is found in the Ideal
in the Material all that imperishes
and degrades mankind.
Estheticism recoils from the en-
pirical statement that the belly rules
the world. "Man is the type of two
imperishable essences: Art, that en-
joys, and Science that contemplates.
No wonder then that, in the floral
magnifcence of the Flower Festival,
thought turns from the sordid side of
life, since in all climes and ages writ
ers and poets have drawn their purest
inspirations from field and blossom,
and the learned and wise have
turned from their grave pursuits to
pay graceful tributes to the floral gifts
of Nature. And in mansion
and hovel alike, flowers are
loved companions. the silent
and eloquent teachers of the gentle and
pure; theirs is the truest language OF
love, and they the sweetest symbols
of higher thoughts and faelinoa
Beautiful flowers Of Spring! Not
alone do they deck the bowers and
minarets in the hall of the Festival.
but the sheltered nook, the sweeping
plain, even the shifting hills Of
sand are iewelled by the vernal mes
sengers of loving nature, and every
where from the softI bosom of mother
Earth spring the harbingers Of love.
Back in thought, through the vista
of years, to revel again among the
spring-sweet meadows. Light-hearted |
and free from care as the |
rowing butterfly, to gather the timid
jasmine buds, the lowly violet, the
white blossoms of the sloe, the CRATE
full, obsequious marigold or brilliant
or in the sun-sweet swaths
Of clover to listless lie and bask. In
these halcyon days life is always
worth the living and youth wanders
through 9 field Of roses, loving, buoy
ant and fearless.
In early manhood, when hope is
sustained BY restless energy and |
IEnnd rsgolvee, whom the INT tones
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