The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-01-03
h raIa md geps,
The Herald and News Hears from s5eru-
salemo Again.

The Herald and News Hears from st5eru-
SALEM Again.
When saw that the subject Inn
aginationn had been assigned to Prof.
Evans of the Graded School, I must
confess to some slight shade Of amuse-
raent; not that doubted his ability to
write thoughtfusly upon any phase OF
his life work, bat because I had formed
Z the opinion that he was one of those
practical souls who had not only bri-
died his Imagination, but had really
swapped it off fora more conservative
mode Of transit over the juttiDg curves
and tortnons grades Of pedagogical
effort. But, Judging from the defence
of his position Il gnt.in too late to hear
the reading of his paper, I am con-
strained to acknowledge that | have
done my brother a grievous wrong,
and that, coupled with q courteous
obedience to the laws of pedo-netrical
practiealism, there is an underlying
strata Of psychological aestheticism
which rounds out his capacity as an
instructor of youth. I say rounding
out adqisedly; for to eliminate the
idesIistic from our lives would, in my
opinion, strike down, at one fell blow,
the palliating influences that render
existence, in someof its INITIATIVE pc
riods, bearsble. Chain the proud bird
of imagination-up pom whose wings we,
rise, round upon round, into the pure
atmosphere of untrammelled thought
and gaze with undimmed eye at the
sunlight OF possibility you reduce
Us 10 the lower level of automatic util-
itarianssm; condition as degrading to
tho sosl as it is damaging to the morals
OF progressive people.
Is not all art:fcaat language the out
growth Of the imaginative faculty?
{ We End the definition of the term (ac-
eording to Worcester) to be, "The fac
ulty or power Of forming ideal pictures,
or produeidg origiual thoughts, or new,
combinations of ideas; an image in the
MIND; fancy" etc. Words, being but
the expression of thoughts, are simply
fancies; for when we teach q child that
the fous sounds, lock, represent TOR
or spelD sslock, Z, we have drawn upon
3 its inaginasion-te that extent which
may cause serious doubts of our cru
dition when we irupart the additional
Information that Tough spells "lock".
But granting that this last premise is
admitted, beo she is then ready to
inform ..aeir less fortunate playmates
that rough spells "roek," trough
s.frock, 2 plough aplock,n dough
.:dock, 2 etc.
0fcourse these legitimate conclusions
are caught up amidship and split into
idealistic fapcies to suit the require
ments of that jargon which we call
speech, and the memory of the child
is stored with those combinations Of
sound which, bearing no analogy
whatever to the real objects, which
they do aot represent, are nevertheless
necessary for the exchange OF thought.
Let ns take the meow of z cat and
the ssboemn of q cannon, and we have,
az the result of the use of our arbitrary
suund-signs, not the expression of a
thought, but a reproduction that will
Z be instantly recognized by anyone, no
matter of what Nationality or tongue;
and yet, in order to arrive at the con-
elusion thst these so-called sign-sounds
used coliectively-resemble the feline
mode of expression or the detonation
IS s. caanon, one must needs indulge
some oG the widest fights of fancy.
that the necessity for sub
Id the aney Of others in the
speech is saramount, and for
her the time nor
M rsEol i6nize matters
beg 70 protest
II has soss OBJ
8 { max 70,
ect the detae e
aThe mind maSer sSs s s sgroaues
Fancy makes the SssSss los;;
lion. the artizan. Fancy sysnsas
reproduction, the scribe
the heavenly spark fron
clouds; reproductit built its thre
like roadway. Fancy scars througn1
the illirnitable realms Of space; "niis1
grovels upon the surface
OF the earth, awaiting the mandates Oh
its neutrality-suspicious..
- ;,.so 1iHSc,1lt to find any