The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-22

The immortal and universal poets OF
orr race are to be read and re-read siu
their music and their spirit are part
of our nature; they are 10 be thought
over and digested till we live in the
world they created for US; they are 70
ne read devoutly, as deyOut men read
their Bible and for,ify their hearts
With n=aIrns For as the old Hebrew
singer heard the heavens declare the
glory Of their Maker, and the frma-
ments showing his handiwork, so in
the long roll of poetry we see trans
figured the strength and beauty OF hui
manity, the joys and sorrows, the dig
nifty and struggles. the Iong-Iife his
tory of our common kind.-From The
Choice of Books by Frederic Farri-
son.
The spiritual appeals which are
made by every form of art must be
responded TO directly, Immediately Tin
the literal sense of the word). or not at
all. OF course the extent of the res
ponse may be definitely increased. But
there must be. to begin with, direct.
immediate response, however limited
it NAV be. There is no roundabout
way TO such appeals. The inductive
method is not applicable to spiritual
matters The very word induction is
absurd in connection with the spirit
ual 1t belongs exclusively to the in
tellectual domain. -.
The opinion is prevalent among edu-
Gators that clear, definite intellectual
conceptions are the only measure of
true education; and that indefinite i'm
pressions, in order to be educating,
must be intellectualized as far as pos
sible; that truly to know really means
this. On the contrary. it may be main
tanned that in the domain of the spir-
itual (and to this domain the higher
literature primarily belongs), it is all
important that indefinite impressions,
derived, for example, from great ere
alton of genius. should long be held in
solution (to use chemical figure), and
not be prematurely precipitated into
barren judgments which have no
quickening power. They then cease to
have a spiritual action. One should
be we'll charged with a great author,
through long, sympathetic, wisely
passive" reading of his works, before
any attempt be made at defining, for
mulating, precipitating, which refuse
| the soul its way" But the tendency is
strong in the other direction. +.
| We must long inhale the choral at
| mosphere of a work of genius before
| intellectual formulation of it: which
formulation must necessarily be COM
paratively limited, because genius,
as genius, is transcendental, and
therefore outside" of the domain OF
the intellect. The human spirit can be
educated only through the concrete
and the personal; and these may be
said to constitute the vernacular Ian
guage of genius. But if this language,
IN our educational systems. be trans
lated into the abstract, into the Ian
guage of the intellect, so far as it can
be, its proper function is defeated
| The spiritual man is not responsive to
| the abstract. The word must become
ponded to. The response of the intel
! lect to the abstract does not quicken
The acquisition of knowledge is a
good thing: the emendatiOn and
sharpening of the intellect is a good
| thing: the cultivation of science and
philosophy is a good thing; but there
is something of infinitely more impor-
lance than all these-it is the ratifica-
ton, the adjustment, through that
mysterious operation we call sympa-
thy, of the unconscious personality, the
hidden soul, which cooperates with the
active powers with the conscious in
| tellect. and, as this unconscious per
Sonality is rectified or unrectified, de-
| termines the active powers, the con
scious intellect, for Righteousness OF
unrighteousness .--From Professor Cor
sons ''Aims of Literary Study"