The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-20
IN Two-FOLD ASPECT.
The Real and the IdeaI-A Higher
Meaning in Everything.

Menufng In Everything
Kind H L. c. Friends-It has been so
long since / have written to the page
that I am almost ashamed for my nom
TO appear on it, but 1 will try and do
better hereafter.
All things have a two-feld aspect.
Field, mountain, river, the towering
pine, the lowly flower-everything in
nature is symbolic as we'll as real. There
is everywhere concealment and revela-
tion-a double meaning. Viewed object
lively, things never seem as what they
are; regarded ideally, they become the
symbol of a noble existence.
In the works of art we discern this
higher meaning The artist uses the
material world to furnish types or pic
lures that will express his ideals. He
employs common symbols to convey his
fuller perception. The sculptor making
use of earth's forms. and imparting TO
them the qualities Of those images that
people his unreal world, models his
Hercules. his Apollo or his Jove. His
imagination reignS supreme-"that sheen
of inspiration that CLEANS in from the
surrounding eternity''-and lends its own
hues to what it creates.
When Longfellow makes his Prone
theus say:
Il have within myself
All that the heart desires. the ideal
beauty
Which the creative faculty and mind
Fashions and follows in a thousand
More lovely than the real"
He portrays those whose i'm
aginations are increasingly Great
ing new forms. Spencer, with
his eminently fanciful nature, gives
us a grand and beautiful world
a splendid dream, a succession of sweet
sounds and beautiful images. Catching
from nature the secret of her lowell
ness he makes her harmonies breathe
forth all that is noble and true in life.
The poet, faithful and fra-seeing," ever
looks beyond the visible into the deepest
deeps of human life. Thus we regard
conceptions of sculptor. artist and poet.
Each looking forth from the window of
his Imagination, views nature in her
ideal aspect
All her productions he uses represen-
tatively. With fancy alert he reads
the endless changes of her elements.
Yet have we. who neither mould in
clay nor create with pigment and brush,
no ideal world? Must we concede to the
poet the inspiration OF the higher life
with all its brightness? In answer hear
Lowell:
Every man is conscious that he leads
,
the other in which his youth and in
spiratiOn survive for him. Both may be
equally sincere, and there need be no
contradiction between them if the higher
life be real and earnest too"
Here is suggested the Importance of
high ideals of life and action and of
striving to attain to them. The stand
ards by which we regulate our aims
and estimate our achievements are al
ways ideal creations, continually formed
and reformed by the Imagination. Fancy,
like the sculptor, seeks in the unseen its
ideal, but like him must mould its
image from the world Of matter. Our
lofty conceptions, our ardent hopes, the
lovely temples fashioned by fancy must
all be expressed i'm the images that
characterize the actual This is emf
identity a pratical age. But there is
nothing in it more practical than the
ideal, for only through the existence of
ideal can there be realization of the
actual. The true ideal is not opposed to
the real, but lives in it, is the "diviner
mind that hides within the actual, trans
forming it," Knowing this and reused
to higher action by the contemplation
OF the pure and noble in great lives.
and by the inspiration of natures own
teaching, our son will become that of
the poet
Build me more stately mansions. o my
SOUL
AS the swift seasons roll. Leave thy low
vaulted past,
Let each new temple more noble than the
last
Shut the from Heaven with a dome more
vast,
Till thou at length are free.
Leaving thy out-grown shell by Life's
unresting sea"
With best wishes for all I remain
"sPEEDwELL."
Emmeutsville, Ind, Sept. 10.