The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-22

pRIF. EDWIN MINIS LECTURE.

A large crowd was in attendance at
Trinity lecture room Tuesday evening
to hear Prof. Minis on THE Vision OF
the Poets" Below is given brief sy-
nopsis of lyhis magnificent lecture. 1t
was decidedly the best he has deliver
ed:
There are different forms in which
visions incarnate themselves, the
greatest of all being that in which
visions of God and man take form III
human life. that realizes the vast pos
sibiIitieS of manhood. Visions are also
incarnated in forms of beauty-Sculp-
ture, architecture, painting, music,
poetry-all these are the expressions
of the visions that have lowered be
fore the minds of man, and they all
aid man in his attempts to express his
visions in human conduct Poetry Is
the most accessible of all these.
The lecturer then went into discus
sion of the characteristic Of the poet
First, the poet has the faculty of imagi-
nation with it's penelratiyeandco mbin-
ing forces. Imagination is not fancy
1T is the God-given power of insight and
ability to see the individual in the
light of the unseen life. BY it the poet
lays hold of the inner heart, the essen
tial life of man. THE poet does not
feel differently from other men, but he
feels more" In THE second place, this
superior insight gives rise to the glow
of soul. the thrill of beauty, the rap
ture, the ecstacy of thepoet. In such
moments he is caught up into the life
of The universe, and feels the mighty
surge of the sea of life. Out OF this
rapture comes the musical expression
OF thought Other men may have
imagination and the raEllurc that
comes therefrom, only the poet has
command of that harmony that is as
the harmony of the universe. Poets
awaken men to the divine side Of
things: he brings rs light from the
eternal world.
Illustrations of these points were
given from Shakespeare, Milton, Burns,
Wordsworth and Tennyson. Shake
speare had the vision of the vast world
Of humanity, Milton saw the eternal
conflict between the right and the
wrong. Burns caught a vision of the
world united under the sentiments of
the brotherhood of man, Wordsworth
caught a vision of nature as it was
the relation of God and the teacher of
man; Tennyson realized the triumph
of jahe soul over all doubt and despair.
AUtTt lllCIS 10 IO NISIOii' tllC i'tCBiN
perish. There is a great deal of con-
fusion on the subject of visions.
Visionary men are spoken of with con-
tempt by the so-called practical man of
to-day For the extreme visionary man
we have no use-the man who lives in
the realms of air, who shows nothing
of the real world, who cannot bring
his dreams into the realization of
eternal life. There are loftier visions
than these. however, the visions of the
unseen forces IF the unwise, playing
here and there in the nature and the
soul of man-i5he vision of the mother
who sees in the babe on her lap the
ideal man of the future, the statesman
who sees in the distance the image of
an ideal government; the prophet, who
catches vision of a redeemed world
or the city of the New Jerusalem; the
poet who sees in cloud and stream and
flower light that never was on sea
or land-those are the visions that
have made the world what it is The
progress of mankind is the unfolding
Of the vast vision of God, which shall
reach its climax in the glory of the
millennium.