The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-06-08

ing the twitching of the legs Of frogs?
Socrates was put to death as a dreamer,
because his dreams were told, and it was
said that by them he perverted the
youth OF Greece, and yet We call him the
founder OF philosophic investig CATION.
What does all this mean? Who, after
all, is this dreamer? for Abram, Column
bus, Franklin, Newton and Socrates are
but names the dreamer has had at differ
ent epochs in human history; but gar
ments in which he has appeared; but
different lenses through which the vision
has been seen. The dreamer is man real
izing that there is more than the senses
reveal. The dreamer is man believing in
the vastness of a comprehensive universe
without, which can be brought into sub
lection to him.. His crime is that he sees
more than the majority OF the people
about him, and hence maddens them.
IL you see further than / do, I tell you
that it is only a dream, a mirage; that
my eyes are as good and as trustworthy
as yours, and that ! see nOthing; there
fore there is nothing there to be seen.
IoI persist in your statement, until at
length |, having power, for you are alone,
have put you TO dea-h for seeing visions.
You sing, and l ask where you get the
music, and you tell me that the air is
vocal with sound, aud you only utter il;
but | hear no sound, and declare that you
are a dreamer. You look up into the sky
u tCfi iuc thdt theft aIt CutThoS IhoTt
than Raphaele ever saw, peeping over
and through every cloud; but l only see
so much possibility of rain, and tell my
friends that l am afraid poor X. is losing
his mind, because he sees the strangest
visions. The dull eyed world has called
these discoveries, these intimates with
the lightning, these conversers with the
distant worlds, who have made natures
mightiest forces their obedient servants,
and have compelled the farthest stars to
1 s-ll ~ I- ~
very texture OF their bodies-dreamers,
because such ideas were far beyond their
grasp, and they in their vanity were I'M
willing to admit that there was anything
movable they had not discovered. 1t
wounds the vanity of an age and disturbs
dreamer appears, and so he has never been
treated very kindly. Today he is in dan
ger of being thrust aside altogether, but
he will not be. The world cannot spare
him. We murder his successors, while
we decorate with flowers his tomb; but
who tell US that the world is but an in.
fant yet-its achievements but those of
the babe strangling the serpent, and its
labors to be accomplished az far in adj
vance OF what it has done as Hercules, the
god, snatching Alkestis from the hand of
death itself. is greater than the Graded
infant protecting itself from the poison
GUS reptile. We pride ourselves on what
we do and the power to think.
cannot close this sketch OF the debt OF
the wOild to dreamers without calling
your attention to the greatest Dreamer OF
them ALLIE who had been the subject OF
dreams and the theme OF the greatest
dreamers of a great nation. Let us &c
back to that land from which the first
Dreamer to which called your attention
came forth. and gaze upon the vision of @
dreamer whose vision refers to Him oil
whom l now speak,
Beside q river In the land of the Chal.
deans, more than two thousand years age
a captive prophet heheld a vision Whose
mystic splendOrs defy attempts to trans.
late them into the prose language OF ex.
act exploitation. In a whirlwind swept
down before him a great cloud, resplen.
dent with lightnings, and enfoidinp
c%herubic forms hat sparkled like Goals O
fire and burning lamps. Beside these APP
peared vast wheels eaucentrio, wheeI
within wheel, instinct with spirit life
and brilliant with wondrous eyes. At ths
command OF the Almighty, these wheels
by cherubic guards attended, moved with
the sound of u miahty host to and fro
swift as lightuings beneath a crysta
armament, where, on a sapphire throne
beneath an Ov~erarching rainbow, sat q
human form, glorihed in celestial fire
From that chariot of living glory thi,
Goldman spoke tenderly to the captiy,
child OF the dust, who wept oyer the woes
Of his country and prayed for the bettel
day to dawn.
Centuries passed, and One who called
Himself the Son OF Man appeared. Men
OF His day, and men III our day as well
have regarded Him as a visionary. Hi.
dream was larger than that of Ahram
larger than that of Columbus. larger thar
those OF Newton. lie saw In His greaI
visions nothing less than universal do.
miniou. How did lie propose to secur.
ItJ BY love, the mightiest force in tn,
universe. Ii seemed to the men Of Hi
day a wild dream, aud they rejected and
crucified the dreamer, and scofIed ant
Knocked at His dream. We who are her.
today regard Him "a the greatest OF all
the One to whom the world owes its
9 eatest debt; and although the entirs
fulfllment of His prophecies, the perfect
realization of His dream 10 yet tn the dis
lance, each day brings It nearer. He is &c
US by no means q visionary. He is thu
One b saw deeper than all others, he.
cause He saw God as no other saw Hin
possessed life as did no other, knew lis
meaning and It's ros abilities, and uttered
his thoughts with these things 10 mind
and vhiis the world had no other place
for Him or His theories nineteen hundred
years ago, 1t today bows before Him as
rightful heir Of universal dominion,