St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-02
TOWARD REALISM.
Rev. Walter Scott Wallis Ser
mon on Its Great Devel-
opment.
Everything in the Age Tends
Strongly in That One
Direction.
Striking Examples Of the
Fact Drawn From Life
About Us.
When Man Will Be on the
Way to a Higher De-
yelopment.

velopment.
Rev. Walter Scott Vail preached a.
very interesting sermon to the UniverS-
alists yesterday morning on the theme
of Realism; Its Development and In
fluence., His text was from Deuter-
onomy: write the words of this law
very plainly"
Unless there is delusion in the pres
ent tendency of thought, unless men
turn back from the fearless course OF
investigation carried On persistently for
fifty years, we may expect each year
more interest in the plain speaking of
investigators in every department of re-
search. Already the word realism has
come to have almost technical mean
ing, and we presume that the man who
enters any of the fields, such as liter
ature, art or science, will bring to us
things that he has in some way touched
by a personal experience. Although it
vas possible, according to Verestchagin,
that England should commission man
to paint the scenes of the Zulu cam
pay lis WitilOuI ZIG oliS utCot hHONiOuSO
of the local conditions, but the public
demands today. even so near to that
time. that the artist 60 with the army,
stand upon the field, catch the namelesS
atmosphere and give living picture.
The realism of the day has its founda-
ton, so far as it is true and valuable,
in the time when the world was mostly
under the spell of fanciful OF unreal
conceptions. When so wise a man as
the great Lord Bacon prepared for
sleep by drinking various decoctlons OF
more or less magical value, or when a
queen noted for the brilliancy of her
reign was accustomed to go to the for
tune-teller for information; when it was
commonly believed that satan in the
form of black man walked forest
paths on dark nights, and that the chief
use of religion was to foil him and eS-
cape his birthstone lake; when it was
believed that men were divided into
two broad classes, privileged and UNI
privileged, then we may with justice
say that mems views by the nature OF
the case were untrue. 1t was out OF
this condition that the demand for a
new life, based en- reasonable eX-
animation of all the conditions, began.
1t began with the latter half of the
last century. When you remember that
the fly shuttle was followed by the spin
ming Jenny and that by the water frame.
and these combined in the power loom
and the
APPLICATION OF STEAM
coming on Immediately, so that in few
years the people of Lancashire produced
as much yarn as 81 100000 of SpinnerS
could have done by hand; when yoa re-
member that the application of steam
~, I., OF of firnn
when human liberty was the one prob
lem in the minds of thinking men in
Europe and young America, it will then
be easy to conclude that man felt a new
relation the present world, that it be-
came place Of interest fitted to Call
| out his powers rather than valley OF
tears, or wilderness ofWoe; therefore.
we find new spirit entering the hearts
OF the people.
But another great event had moved
the heart of the world. The young ma
ton had risen in thewildernesS, andWhen
men saw in it an asylum for the per-
secuted, where, like the wounded deer
long pressed by hunters, but now safe
under sheltering rocks, they too could
rest at peace when nightfall came and
rise with morning to sing praise as con-
science dictated; when its growth
seemed so marvellous that to the pious
mind it must be because of the special
smile of God, it is not ut all wonderful
that legions of oppressed and burdened
men felt that new era had daWned for
| the human race, and that present things
were worthy of our enthusiastic study
of the physical world; then came
Button, Hugh Miller, and later an
Agassiz and a Darwin: then we APP
preciated that Burns by, the banks
of Doom and Ayr had invested
the whistling backbird, the gay
crested lapwing, the Towering thorn
and a hundred common objects with
new beauty; then Scott brought back to
us the real life of former day and we
| walked with kings of olden times;
| then Dickens told us the heroic story OF
| unheroic lives, and we admired the
| rough boatman or the tender GIRL or
| even the unfortunate Sydney Carton
| atoning for bad life by the most ten
| der sacrifice; then we walked among the
| common people of George Eliot and
knew that the method of the worlds
thought was changing; is it wonder
then that the impending changes are
upon us to-day. or that we feel assured
| that the morrow will further the good
work already begun?
Much has been said about the great
picture, the "Angelus." 1t is the prod
uct of the present age; former gen
Grafton could not have looked upon it
with admiration. But since Words
worth, alone by stream and lake. was
moved to say: land have felt pres
| ence that disturbs me with the joy of
elevated thoughts;'' since Burns
has written, "a mans man
for a. that;'' since Tennyson
has written. ''Ring out the feud
of rich and poor, ring in redress for all
mankind:" since we have listened to
the sentiment. .'kind hearts are more
than eoronets and simple faith than
| Norman blOOd;" is it not natural that
the s.Angelus," with its sammer land
scape, suggesting the quietness so be-
| fitting the presence" that dlSturbS us
with the joy of elevated thoughts"
| with it's evening bell heard across the
| fields as if ringing in redress for all
| mankind; with its plain man and
woman, who must be like those to whom
| Christ spoke when he said, Come unto
| me all We that labor and are heavy
| ladenn-is it not natural that men of
this generation should admire picture
that embOdieS so much OF its literature,
ITS SONG, AND ITS RELIGION?
But we must be careful not to con-
found the false with the true in our
study of realism. Is there not in our
time tendency to appeal to the pas
sional life of man? Is there not ten
dency to awake in him, by picture and
by story, the "reminiscences of animal
life? Do not men try to arouse those
sleeping tendencies that once aroused
make him brute, with all the instincts
of the brute clamoring for satisfaction?
If the world is on the decline: if we
have proved that man is no more than
brute of the field; if ''tbe finest day of
life is the day on which he quits it;'' If
we are on lightning express, without a
guard or driver. rushing headlong to
the switch that will throw us into the
| river: then we may call the "LiOn's