The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-17

might in every line and lard the world
over. y
! Two men walk by a block of mar
| bile. One sees u ShapelesA stone. the
! other peerless statue in IT, That is
: the difference between Michael An
gclo and uitchdiggcr. That is where
/ the power OF the seer-the man of ideas
shows itself. Anybody can sec what
is. but he who can see what may be-.
| and who can pursue persistently and
patiently his ideas. till he has forged
and hammered and fashioned ii into
| fact, he is the rare man of rare power.
for whom the worlds great achieve
mcnts are compelled to wait sometimes
for centuries. He il the man who,
whenever and wherever he comes. and
whatever he does. not only sees. hut
succeeds.
The underlying world always is this
of ideas. Its volcano fires pour the
lava streams that change the face of
whole territories. Its mines exhaustless
yield the treasures that give to matter
its meaning use. and worth Its springs
well ND and overflow what else would
be drear and barren wastes. The world
of matter would be one vast Sahara,
and man Il grinning skeleton. satiriz-
ing life. bu for the world Of mind He
who would search out the secret of
mower mus. enter the portals of this
eternal empire of ideas.
DO not confound ideas with ideals.
The ideal is something YOU work for. the
idea is what you work by. The ideal
is the architects colored picture of the
proposed building: the idea is his work
ing plan. The ideal is the solution Of
the manipulating problem in your
mathematics; the idea is the practical
process by which you reach the solu-
tionif you can. The man who sets
before him 4 high ideal, and works to-
ward it along the line OF high idea.
viii make the world his workshop for
| the building up of a powerful and per-
fecfed character that shall stand I'M
shattered amid the wreck of workshop
and the crash of worlds"
All the great modern inventions were
reviewed and used TO illustrate the
speakers theme--the Brooklyn bridge.
the railway the cotton mill, the silk
factory.
$50 you will find Idea everywhere.
when you get below the surface of mat
Ter into the strata of mind. In all cx-
perience and endeavor. in business and
society. politics and patriotism, in art
| and science, literature and religion. the
Idea precedes the act and the achieve
| ment. The head gives birth to the
work which the hand performs. What
has not this Idea already wrought:
The history of man is crowded with
answering evidence and illustration 1t
is seen in sculpture, it is beard in eo-
| qnence, it is witnessed in architecture.
| it is incarnated in legislation. it is en-
| throned in statecraft The sea has
| felt. the sun owns, and the winds ac-
knowledged It, 1t has riven rocks and
ransacked forests, and tunneled noun
| tains. and bridged CULTS. 1t has beaten
back the ocean. raced with time. wrest-
| led with grayitation, chained the light
ming to It's throne. and equipped it for
| missions Of mercy. wisdom. light and
wealth. the beginnings OF which are
| now but seen.
.idca-power has brought man to his
| rightful sovereignty over nature" g =
Arch and pillar, capital and dome,
| spring from earth and soar to heaven,
! ohedient 10 his all but necromantic
| touch. Homer wrapped in his singing
| robe. wet with the dews Of the morn
| ing of the ages, chants his immortal
| epic. TO find in the broadening centuries
| a whispering gallery, around which his
| melodies swell in musical thunder:
and Milton. blind with excess of light.
clarified by waters OF sorrow and
| chastened by fires of fierce scorn, his
harp upon his shoulder. daring the
| seraphim to a trial of their strength Of
| passion and their sweep Of thought
| what do all these alike proclaim and
/ prove. but the power of an Idea: Man
| Is sovereign only as he Thinks y
| But, nowhere does the power Of an
| Idea shine out more conspicuously than
| in the 'ndividual
Read, then. the power Of an Idea
| as you find it in the lives of the world
great met who rise above the masses
| as the mountain peaks rise above the
| plains, and who form a conspicuous
! chain across the centuries as the Alps
| and Himalayas do across two CONT
| nents. These men, the great thinkers
| and the great workers, are the true
makers Of history. Events are only the
| shells of ideas, and often it is the fluent
| thought of ages that is crystaliZed in a
moment by the stroke of a pen or the
| point of a bayonet. These great men
were they who seized the right mo-
| ment to crystalize the idea into event.
| That meant power.
Illustrative Of this truth the careers
OF Savonarola, Garibaldi, Luther. John
Knox, Calvin. Wesley, John Fox.
Cromwell, Joan Of Are and others were
traced.
a nation without a ruling Idea is a
nation without prominence, permanence
or power. Find oW what the Idea is
| in any nation and YOU can read that
| nations history and predict its des-
tiny. When Sparta's idea was physical
manhood, Sparta produced the most
| perfect physique the world has, ever
| seen. When Athens idea was philos-
| ophy, Athens produced the first philos-
| ophers of the globe. And TO Greece,
| with her Apollo Belvidere, her Socrates,
| Plato and Aristotle, men have ever
turned back in their study Of philosophy
and art. When Rome's idea was en-
| pire, Rome's sway was spreading over
| the known world. When Rome's idea
| fell from rule TO lust, her people fell
| to ruin and the strong arm Of her pow
| er was palsied. When Frances idea
| was glory. glory sat with the eagles on
| her victorious banners and shone upon
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