St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-06-21

tongue play backward and forward from
| the roof of his mouth, chuckling like hen.
| and sometimes protrudingi it against his up
| per gums in front, as il pronouncing under
his breath, too, too, too. all this accompa-
| MED sometimes with a thought look, but
| more frequently with a smile. Generally
| when he had concluded a period in the
| course Of dispute, by which time he was
| good deal exhausted by vociferation, he
used to blow out his breath like whale.
Your manners may be project, and
you may have none of these obnoxious
traits, and yet you may be much less
a real man than Samuel Johnson.
This same DIR. johnson believed in
ghosts and went to many spirit rap
ping performances, hoping to see one.
Yet the streets of London ere full of
ghosts. All men are really ghosts,
more or less alive.
| This life is like a stage. The play ers
come into the theatcr. put ON their cos
TUNES. act their part. and go away. We
enter upon this life. from whence we
know not: we depart we know rot
whittier. While we are here we put on
our costumes of clay. the same old
clay that the red Indians wore who
roamed these prairies in primeval
days, even the same clay that the birds
and animals used. Are we so stupid
as to call this costume-clay, this play
actors makeup, man? No man hath
seen man at anytime. Men are invis-
ible, eternal; the things which are
seen are temporal.
| All visible things are but symbols of
some unseen reality. There is build
| ing you call courthouse. 1t is but
| flag, sign that stands for a certain
| idea in the human mind called justice,
or law. Take that idea out of that
| mind and before month is over men
| will begin to take down the court
| it to express another idea. Your
church building is but a word Of stone
and brick to express the invisible idea
of worship. Your schoolhouse is but
a mark to indicate the idea of educa-
ton. Eliminate the thought of wor-
| ship and education from the human
mind and straightway churches and
SCHOoluouSCs VIII OC VI ca INV
livery stables and packing houses.
If this be true of the ordinary things
about us. how much more true it is of
the stupendous framework we call the
universe! The visible universe is also
sign; God is the reality; stars and
worlds constitute His garment, some
time to be laid aside outworn. Addi-
- ho eft q
giving voice to God: Ill
what though In solemn silence all
Move round this. dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Among the splendid orbs be found?
In reasons ear they all rejoice
And utter forth glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine:
The hand that made us is divine
How can there be those who say that
this world is without mind to move
it and control it? How can men not
believe in the spiritualities? l would
rather believe all the ia bles of mythol-
ogy, all the stories in Grimm's fairy
tales, and all the childish crudities of
the superstitious ages past. | would
rather make my soul highway OF
Sc
elves, gnomes, hobgoblins and witches,
than to believe the horrid lie that
there is no reality but mud, or to be-
lieve that dead matter can secrete
ideas of beauty, of nobility and of
God.
All true greatness lies in the invisi-
bic world 1t is of ideas, not of things.
nv
what you are and what you think, and
not by what you possess. Ideas alone
are worth while. We sometimes say:
'sThat is only an idea, y rs if an idea
were some small thing and the reality
were something greater. A young
man once came to Joseph Pulitzer, of
the New York World, applying for
position 'What can you do?" said
Mr.. Pulitzer 81 do not know" an
swefed the young man. II am grad
uate of Harvard. I have nothing but
ideas" "Ideas! Ideas!" exclaimed
Mr.. Pulitzer, dropping his pen and
throwing up his hands. "That is just
what I am looking for. will give
YOU a salary of $1,000 a year if you will
give me one idea by which l can in
crease the circulation of the World
hundred thousand copies!" Then
the young man came to himself and
realized that he did not have so many
ideas after all.
If you have something in your mind,
some greatness in your heart, never
fear, but all visible things will rush
to your aid that you may express it.
The ancients had fable that the city
of Thebes was built by Orpheus play
ing upon his lutte. This is more than
a fable. All things are built so. Here
is this house in which we are. How did
it come into existence? I will tell you.
Once an invisible spirit had an invis-
ible, intangible thought - just
thought, an airy nothing. such stuff
as dreams are made of. But the thought
made the man sit down and draw his
plans upon a paper, which might be
called the musical score. The thought
kept singing, and in response to it's
notes trees fell in the forest, they
were sawed and planed and polished;
rocks came crawling from the quar-
ries; iron arose from the bowels of
the earth; brick and mortar came
also; all these found their places, shap-
ing themselves in orderly array until
at last this building was the result.
Schelling was right when he called az
chitecture "frozen music" &
You have heard much of heresy, and
are inclined to favor the heretic; but
after all the hereto is wicked per-