The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-06-20
The Passing of
the Glamor &&
BY LILY WATTS ON.

learning to make strict search for the cause of everything. Even the
most commonplace householder who would formerly have attributed
the unseen germ is to blame, and wars against it as best he can. There
is a survival of the old tone of thought in the word inAuenza-"nAu-
ence"-but it is to be hoped that ere long this maign visitant will be
tanned and checked by science-a mystic Influence no longer!
The vague, the inaccurate, the there or thereabouts' style of
COMPLIMENTARY Of thinking-has ceased to win appreciation.
Il must know this exactly must do this exactly!' says the terri
BILE and delightful Klesner, shaking his forehnger at Gwendolen Har-
leth. IF you know, you can put your knowledge into clear Ian
guage," says the modern teacher to the hesitatng pupil who gropes
after the phantom of a naHly learnt lesson, eluding his grasp. His
torlcal stories, implicitly believed once upon a time, are fading away
before the clear light of research. There was no William Tell as our
chldhood's eyes beheld him, shooting the apple from the head Of
his little son; there was no scene of dagger and poson-bowl await
ing fair Rosamond at the end of the slken clue in that labyrinth at
Woodstock; and so on. In short, the whole tendency of the present
day lies in the direction Of exactness, de6niteness, accuracy.
So far, so good; nay, most exce1ently we'll! But, in the g1ori-
fcation of science and scientific methods, a danger turks. The mag
inahon, without whose aid, indeed, no discoverer can hope to sue
coed, may be too lightly esteemed. "Without Imagination, no man
can De a naturalist, SAID Goethe. Science does not know its debt
to Imagination" said Emerson. And imagination, working in a diff
ferent way, has to fulfill an important part in the relationships Of
daily life. Around the relationships of youth and age, child and par.
ent, lover and beloved, there should hover something Of
The light that never was on sea or land,
The conservation, and the Poets dream.
Old age nowadays may have a more firmly founded cause of
complaint in the fading of the "gamor' which from time i'm
memorial has entitled it to reverence. 1t is, or has been, indeed, the
age Of Grand Old Men, who have VIGOROUSLY demonstrated that
intellect and power of will can triumph over physical decline. They
have been fully and freely honored in consequence. But where is the
reverence that used to exist for age as age irrespective of personal
achievement? 1t is going or gone. "There is no credit in your
growing DID, the world seems to say. You would rather not do it,
but you cannot help it. Pray why should you be reverenced for sue
cumbing to al unpleasant law of nature, which you defy as long as
you can possibly hold it at bay?"
1t is difficult to give exact proof Of this change of view, but it
is I'm the air" One reads articles upon it in the magazines. "Too
old at forty" is a significant and a pathetic phrase. Women, instead
of fastening as did their grandmothers to assume the insignia of age
and dignity, defer the wearing of caps and shaw1s to the last pos
sible moment. No one, surely, will deny that this is the day not
of the old, not even of the ~mddle-aged, but of the young. Youth,
the public understands, must mean vigor and energy of body and
mind; familiarity with the newest discoveries, the latest modern ideas,
SO far as mental training is concerned.
The reverence associated with old age has never been the result
OF exact criticism, scheduling individual claims one by one. But
doubtless there entered into the "gamor" surrounding git a considera-
ton for experence-always the possession of age-and a conviction
that sympathy was more likely to be found in those who have seen
and. suffered much. Be that as it may, "glanor" is now yielding to a
hard dry light. "You are old; and for that reason alone, you are
sacred in our eyes" was the utterance of bygone youth and maturity.
You are old. Have you done anything worth the doing, and if so,
can you still keep it up? Then we will respect you; otherwise, please
stand aside" This is the new style.
If we wish to grow, to expand individually, as a people, as a ma
ton VIZ Ill a for II the nrice If camfnrt WIZ CANNQE PESE