The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-10-13


allure is life It is the expression Of
human experience. At the first gray
dawn of human history, when human
ity stepped out from the gloom of the
past into the realm of self-realizatiOn
and seIf-consciousness men sang in
songs and recited in verse the common
feeling and thought that swayed the
nations mind. Back of every great song,
back of every poem of every great book
is the human heart filled with the i'm
pulses, motives and passions that con
troll life. Here we feel the pulse-beat
of humanity, the strength after some
thing better and higher the soul seek
ing the truth. Monuments of metal
and arouse our sense Of grandeur. We
feel a sense of sublimity in the pres
ence of the Pyramids as they rise to
colossal heights from the sands of the
desert. We stand in awe when we
gaze upon the vastness of temples built
to pagan gods. These, indeed, testify
a nations reach after ideals. They
tell us of a faith and power once alive
but centuries dead. But monuments
of metal and stone are cold, dumb; and
they reveal not the secrets of the soul.
But literature speaks, speaks to me Of
God and OF human aspirations. Here
life is unveiled. Here are depicted
the spiritual moral and social forces
which dominate life. Pyramids and
temples may some day crumble into
dust and be lost, but the epics of Homer,
Aeschylus, Dante, Milton and job will
live as long as there is heart to feel and
a mind to be touched with aesthetic
beauty.
The true art of literature has its
roots in the soul. 1t is the soul strug-
Cling to incarnate itself into outward
form. 1t is, in truth, revelation OF
those spiritual laws that lie beneath
and control life. Possessed of such ele-
ments, the great art OF literature must
be imperishable and exert it's influence
on succeeding ages. True literature
also reveals those spiritual forces that
influence its own age. 1t reflects as IN
a mirror the spirit and thought of its
own day What histories will give us
Hypocrisy than the black strokes of its
satirsts or PauPs bold censures?
Through the literature of the sixteenth
century flows the intense faith and re-
ligious principles of the people OF that
day. Hence such literature is the true
history of mankind. history not OF
events, but of thought; not of the tin
seIed glory of outward pOmp, but OF the
emotions of the heart. Speaking max
ed thoughts instead of draping them IN
sights and sounds" 1t penetrates into
the deeper meaning of life. Here PROB
lens that stirred the passions are met
with Religion forms its groundwork
and questions relating to God and I'M
mortality are asked and answered. ana
these passions give glory of life and
mower to the product of the mind, or
rather of the heart. For literature is
not the outburst of the intellect, but of
the emotions Out of the emotions
and the intellect are the issues or life:
and art is life 1t is a revelation OF
those never-ending, ever-changlng
modes and phases of the inward in
clinations and aspirations. Art is crys-
talized emotions. 1t is this element
that gives to the literature OF the Bible
life and power, and gives to each sue
ceeding age its attractiveness. As one
has recently said: The Old Testament
lust as it stands, is the most tfemend-
Gus fact that looks out upon me from
the pages of literature. 1t is fesn OF
nv flesh and bone of my bone. Its
blood flows in my veins. Its passions
surge in my breast. It's thoughts peat
unon nv brain. It's hopes and fears
and love and hate and joy and sorrow
toucb all the chords of my heart. Its
tears are my tears It's cry of pain and
wall of anguish are upon my lips. It's
song is my song; its melody my music
Its communion of spirit Is my com
rnunion 1t meets God when L meet
him" The grand oratoriOs of Isaiah;
the warning notes of Ezekiel; the path
etic voice of Job as he sits in loneliness
musing on his hopes and fears, yet
withaI with a sublime faith in God, are
the expressions of the deepest emo
tions. Job asks "Canst thou by search
ing find out God?" No Job, but thou
canst feel him.
The utterances of Jesus possess the
same elements; Jesus opened up TO hu-
manitv new world. not of intellect
but of heart: not of thought but OF
emotions He touched the main-springs
of life from which issues those pureI
and sublime delights.
Under the inspiration of such art,
such literature, we rise for time
above our dull environment, darkened
as it is too often by the deep shadow
of sin. and live with the true, the beau
tifuI and the good. 1t presents to us
noble grounds for noble emotions. Call
this poetic, call this idealism if you
will. nevertheless, under its influence
the soul is moved with intense longing
after righteousness, a longing to know
more of beauty, virtue, truth, love and
melody. There is a germ of greatness
in every soul that can be touched only
by the ideal elements of thought and OF