The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-12-07


But this exposition was more than a
collection Of competing exhibitors. It
was an age jubilee of humanity. 1t was
itself as a whole the most marvellous ex-
hibit. Its buildings We're poems in arch
itecture. Its grounds were incarnate
dreams. The fragile shell that covered
the exhibition was itself the sublimest
being no basis Of comparison in other
exhibitions, we even turn in vain to the
civilization itself of the nations of the
present and the furthest antiquity.
WITHOUT A PARALLEL.
IN vain we ransack the nations of the
past for some monument as standard
of comparison.
T'.ere is, there has been, nothing like
i. The most magnificent production
OIL the greatest civilizations of the past,
with the dim perspective of the centuries
to eXaggerate it, and with all the addi-
tons of the human imagination in song
and story, fades into insignifcance be-
fore the splendor of this magic city.
We recall the glory of Babylon in her
paliniest days, of her palaces and hang
ing gardens, and they are nothing. We
recall the monuments of Egypt, and they
are insignificant.
We think Of Athens in the age of Peri
cles, and it startles us to know that we
could almost cover the city beneath the
graceful lines Of "a single building in this
group. We think Of Rome-of the Coli
scum, the Forum and the palaces Nero
built, of modern Rome, with its St. Pc
ter's, and they are dwarfed and imper-
feet by comparison.
We strive in vain to think Of comb
nation Of the master works of the master
civilizations of all ages as basis of COM
parison, and the result is discord.
The monuments of the past stand for
bloody victories, national pride that
means hatIed Of the rest of the world
the strifes Of religions and of sects.
These buildings stand for the glory of
humanity, Their matchless splendor,
order and harmony are the concrete ex-
preston of an enthusiasm for humanity
IS wide as the race, as deep as history.
BEAUTY Is DIVINE.
Second-Ne see here the dawning con-
seriousness of sense of beauty that must
ultimately dominate life.
Beauty is an attribute Of God. To
grasp it and embody it in matter is to
know God and continue the work of in
carnation toward its completion. The
development of the sense Of beauty Is
the time test of the advance of civiliza-
ton. This is one of the great facts that
the teacher of institutional religion so
often forgets. There is in every human
soul the sense to recognize and the insa-
table longing for the beautiful. This
is the nature of God speaking through
man made in his image.
One of the first steps toward civilizing
a savage is to give him mirror. Let
him see himself, and this divine sense
within condemns and starts him on the
road to the laundry, the barber and the
tailor.
Ii we but knew it, dirt and vulgarity
and CRIME may in great measure be slain
by their own hideousness if we can but
rouse this sense of beauty in man.
More than once has beautiful picture
been the divine means of forming a no
BILE character
! A woman convict who was little re-
moved from fiend in disposition was
brought to tears and gentle and loving
character by picture that hung on the
prison wall
Cherries novels and squalid surround
ings have damned many poor soul nr;s.