The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-03-16
CBy Andrew James Miller.)

The most practical and serious-mnded
people of this world are the most mirth-
less. Like Airs. Uldcastle, they can only
indulge in a laugh. by instaliments. For
them no landscape was ever painted Oh
the canvas OF imagination, and tor i'm
perious man they leet that they have
sneered the ghost and dragons away.
| know such u man--avery learned man-
with whom ! recently introduced the sub
iect of illusions Bah he said. with
a show of disgust. -..dsions belong 10
childhood, the priod of nursery rhymes,
nymphs, brownies and gobins. In this
strain he continued an assault upon what
he termed THE delusive sport of an I'M
sound mind" He said that the search
for the mrthic Already like that for the
City of Gold, was n ruthles waste OF IN
tellectual activity.
Now, few of us like matter of-fact UNI
romantic and unimaginative people, We
sometimes think we do. but We don't.
Otherwise We would never read novels or
attend the theatre. We love the credul-
Gus, cheerful, happy, imaginative per-
son. who is not persistently teillng us
how near akin we are to his satanic
majesty; those who don't wish to demon
strate everything by the aXloms of
Euclid. In plain words, We love people,
who have their Arcadias
The poet Cowley, in his essay ON
Greatness expressed a wish for "a lii
tie convenient estate. little company and
a little feast" In later life. he realized
this ng-cherished ideal, as the. Arcadia
Of which he dreamed. at his charming
retreat in Surrey. on the Thames. But
he made the mistake of wanting to cN-
elude the world. Still, none of us shape
out our Arcadias without some incon-
gruoua element or some impossible
feature. Even Sir Philip Sydney could
not create that fairy realm of his, with
out the shepard boy piping as If he
would never grow old. In sponsors
IDEAL world, the pilgrim comes upon the
treacherous enchanters. false Duessas and
ligh,-of-love ladies. which speak of the
realities Of life There is. indeed a pro-
found wisdom in Shakspeare's introduce
ton of Calban, the monster. into the
haunted reccsses of Miranda s island, for
it teaches that the harmony of our intel
lectual conceptions cannot imam being
what he Isl elude its clashing dissouances
and discords
But let these Arcadias be as incongru-
Gus as they will. they furnish an outlet
for our higher and better thoughts and
they represent our consciousness of some
thing purer and more beautiful than
tAlSlS III Inc NttilpuS bNlSllc VI IGSOIL
the exchanges Of the world. Ii must be
one of the proofs of mans immortal
nature. that he seeks and finds these
methods of escaping from himself. as
well as the conventionalities and COM
monplaces with which society Expresses
the thoughts within him"
The man. who can find nothing but his
ledgers, or his profession to amuse him,
has no ideal. and makes of himself a
dwarfed pattern of the image of his
maker. He has no dreams beyond get
ting and spending "toiling and moiling"
and thereby pushes behind him the real
meaning of existence. The logical end
If such a unit would encourage the idea
that il hadn't sufficient soul to be saved.
We, unlike Cowley, may never realize
our ideals. but we shall have the enjoy
mcnt hnd the inspiration of them with
ont limit or impeachment. Nay in these
Arcadies. We may If We will, rival the
Golden Age restore the melodies of Pan,
the dances of the shepherds and the