Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-03
say, to her half crippled, homely, and fret
| tul husband.
A though you are nothing in the world,
I XnrIa nLI thIa,r -rnrll IL ma

say, 10 her bali crippled, homely, and fret
ful husband:
Although you are nothing in the world,
You are all the world TO me-"
The very term we use TO designate the
qualities of the highest beings of our
faith and worship illustrates this ideal
ism. We speak of the attributes of such
being. These are the dispositions. the
Faculties, the heart and mind, which we
attribute to one; the qualities we believe
him to possess. and which make up his
| character TO our honest apprehension. II
Is one of the happiest faculties of the
human mind that we can attribute these
qualities even to those nearest and dearest
to US; that, while they walk by our side
through life, we can robe their real beings
with the soft velvet of our idealism, hid
ing all the unwelcome discrepancies and
unpleasant features of bare fact which we
do not wish to see. Not one of the Christ
ian graces acts without some faculty OF
the mind put in exercise. And charity,
that GROWING virtue Of them al ,-''char-
ity that beareth all things. believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth ali
things; charity that suffereth long and is
kind, and eny eth not, and thinketh no
evil, this the greatest Of all the graces
that brighten and sweeten the life of Eu.
man society, acts more through this
faculty of idealism than through any
other power Of the mind. What a
wretched aggregation of human beings
society would be if they lived and moved
together in the bare bones Of actual fact.
unclothed upol by that soft mantle of our
idealism, which is woven In the same
loom as charity best robe, wherewith she
covers such multitude of sins. blots, and
specks which would otherise be seen
to the hurt of our social happiness.
We have, then, the clearest testimony
that God could give, in nature, in revela
ton, and in the history of r1ankind, that
there is no power of the human mind
through which he works so manifestlv, so
irreslstibly, for the uplifting and salvation
Of our race, as this very faculty Of ideal
ism. Not a family or tribe o. mankind
has ever made one step of progress in civ
ilizatiol. except through the exercise of
thss faculty. Not an individual soul has
made its pilgrimage on earth and reached
the opened gate of the heavenly city with
ont the constant help of tins faculty It is
!, faculty tGat creates Co ti7e heart. he
eve, and ear, and hand Of faith, new
heaven and a new earth, and peoples both
with ideas which are hundred times more
vivid, tangible, companionable, and help
ful to it than tie best realities that are
found in flesh and blood. It would require
volumes to record the history of this great
faculty; of its training and progress
through the ages; of tie successive stages
by which it has carried mankind forward
on the high road of civilization; Of the IN
dustrial and fine arts 1t has produced, and
IT the thousand ways in which it has
worked for the glory of God and the good
Of man. All the mechanical, chemical, |
and electrical forces now in operation for
mankind have been developed through
this reserve force of the intellect Their
history is the history Vi idaalism brou2nt
10 bear upon the pure and simple facts Of
nature.
In all the mythoIogies and poetical con
ceptions of Greece, Rome, and other coun-
tries in the pagan ages, we see what
characters and what characteristics made
up the beau-ideals Of their conception.
hey represented and dehled the brute
forces of humanity, the strength, courage,
and feats of the warrior. Their highest
qualities were the brute-fOrc8 virtues,
which then inspired and filed ali that tie
imagination of society could grasp Of good
AMI glory. As these qualities were to
that imagination the divinist that man
could attain and illustrate, so they supple
mented their actual, historical heroes with
ideal beings who had exhibited these quail
tiles to superhuman degree of power and
courage. Thus we can trace the progress
Of the human mind in its conception and
estimation of the moral virtues by the
character OF the ideals it mas created. In
what are called the classic or heroic eras,
these ideas were all Of the same cast
they were all partial heroes, who fought
with the go3s Or against them, or were
held as divine III their origin and end
It Is peculiar feature OF inspired ideal
ism, or Of the fictitious characters, wrought
under the influence Of divine revelation.
that they illustrate what we may call
the Teactive virtues. The exhibit the cul-
ture Of the human soul, training and de-
Velopment of its faculties of thought and
feeling and moral action TO the highest
perfection that poetical Imagination can
conceive. They erect before us the struc-
ture Of d human character all glorious
with truth and beauty in the highest con-
ceivaitle perfection, and say TO US, Be
mold the man." Behold the model of
your own life and thoughts.
ELTHU BURRITT.