The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-04
FROM LowELL.s VIEWPOINT.
Imagination and Conscience Sway
Men More Than Convictions Do.

Men More Than Convictions DO.
In one of his literary talks to young
men the late James Russell Lowell said:
'T confess that it is with more and
more confidence that l rise every year
to have my little talk with you about
books and the men who have written
them. If I remember my terrestrial
globe rightly, one gets into his temper
ate zone after passing the parallel OF
49, and arrives at that, shall call 1t
Sheltered Haven of Middle Age, when,
in proportion as one is more careful or
the conclusions he arrives at, ne IS
less jealous in his desire that all man.
kind should agree with him. More
over, the longer one studies the more
thoroughly does one persuade nimsel1
that till he knows everything he knows
nothing-that after twenty years OF
criticism one is still a mere we1gher
and gauger-skilled only to judge what
he may chance to have been in the
habit of inspecting at his own little pro-
vincial custom house. And as one gets
older he is apt to allow more for per-
Sonal idiosyncrasy, and to have less
certainty that the truth he has reached
is not a one-sided one, and that there
are not fifty others equally important,
and, perhaps, equally unsatisfactory.
Every bait is not for every fish. We
begin by admitting the old doctors ap-
Othegn that art is long; we gradually
become persuaded that it is like the
Irishman's rope, the other end of which
was cut off. So different is art whose
concern is with the ideal and potential,
from science, which is limited by the
actual and positive. Life is so short
that 1t may be fairly doubted whether
any man has a right to talk an hour,
and 1 have learned at least so much
that / hope less to teach than to sug-
gest.
Whether Mr.. Buckle be right or
wrong in affirming that the progress of
the race has been purely intellectual
and not moral. 1T is certain that the
imagination and conscience of men are
stronger motives of action, and lead to
greater results than any mere intel
IlectuaL convictions. The lever of the
great English rebellion was the con-
science of England, and though Lord
Bacon has said that all revolutions be-
gin in the belly, this is in no wise true
| of such as bring about enduring polit-
ical changes. So, during our own revo-
Tuition, though the quarrel certainly be-
gan about a point of law, yet the en-
thusiaSm which carried it through dis
iaster and privation to success was
kindled and kept alive by the few
pregnant distractions into which the
genius of Jefferson had condensed the
VI bOulH anu quincy anu uIle
eloquence of Rousseau
| mo wiser man, according to the
wisdom of the world, ever lived than
Geoth. and he said: Woe to the man
who has trafpled on the dreams of his
YOUTH that is, the power of surrender
ling himself to purely abstract en-
thusiasm. The imagination always
asserts its place in history, for it is
inseparable from the nature of man,
and the story of Colonel COTE at Deer
! field n but a modern version of the
Dioscuri and of st. James of Com
postella
I'm my walk the other day 1 saw a
man sitting in the sun in front of a
little cottage which commanded a
pretty landscape.
! You have a charming view here
said T
Yes he answered. 7 take a great
deal of pleasure in it, though 1 cannot
see it. 1 have long ago lost my sight.
but l love to sit here and recall it, and
think that 1t is all there
1T lies in our choice with what pic
lures we may fill our minds, whether
Jour inward eye shall command noble
prospects over the whole domain of
human thoughts. or shall be bounded
by the narrow alley of a merely utiIi-
tartan training"