The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1903-04-28
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THE VALUE OF IDEALS. J
BY MRS. 9. c. GR0CE.
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being unwilling TO miss tne spsGiai 1
questions which always give me so |
much pleasure and profit | asked |
that two of the members kindly |
lend me their manuscripts, These |
they have not seen since they were |
sketched for the benefit Of our club |
and neither had the least thought of |
publication. But it occurs to me
that others outside of our member |
ship may be interested in the char
acter of work that the Shakes
peare club is doing from week to
week and l send this to the editor
that the readers of the Daily Light
may have that pleasure.
Our work is oral, but what we are
going to say is written out before
hand and either given verbatum or
i'm substance.
Man is very apt to measure the
universe with his five senses, refus-
ing to believe what he may not
touch, feel, see or hear, knowing
too, as he does that even the amateur
sleight Of hand performer may de
ceive any one of them. Let us re-
member that we stand on the Dor
der land Of knowledge-th great UNI
known, broad, illimitable deep
stretches out before us. A few facts
are snatched from the drifts at our
feet, but what mysteries lie out in
the great depths we have not yet
fathomed.
What is mind? What is matter?
What is the connection between the
two? are questions that century
has called to century for reply and
which unanswered still echo down
the ages. Minds are graded even to
our own observation and it is but a
natural conclusion that there are
heights to which no human mind
| has vet attained That these heights
are commanded by a supreme intel
/ ligeucc which holds communion
with us through that unseen cable
which connects mind with matter is
most natural step onward and is
/ the easiest explanation of the origin
of such thoughts as lift up the soul
toward what is purest and best,
/ holding out such ideals as would
/ seem to fit it for a higher destiny,
/ Drummond states that the whole
universe is under law and beautiful
| ly shows that it is not within the
power of life in a lower kingdom to
| lift itself into higher, but that the
! higher life reaching down lifts the
| lower. If his reasoning be true the
medium through which the higher
/ life speaks TO men is bis ideals.
That mans Interpretation of these
ideals IS sometimes faulty proves
! only that within his limitations he
: cannot readily comprehend the in
/ finite material himself, he has ever
/ sought to clothe these impress
sions with materially that he
might more readily take hold OF
them. India has laid hold Of
! Buddha, China Confucius, the
/ Arabs Mahamaa, systems by no
means altogether evil though fall
/ ing far short of our present ideals
| bear witness to that Unborn con-
viction OF each race that its hope
! has In it's ideals But some one has
| s aid that God made the human soul
| so great that only Himself can fill
| il and only in so far as these systems
will thew prove satisfying. The
soul / imagine grows as well as the
body and when it is tall enough to
grasp higher ideal 1t loses hold on
the lower, so these religions will die
of themselves and only the truth
shall live eternally. The influence
of the ideal on our lives can scarce
! " be over estimated. No surer
does the wave rise at the moons
reckoning than that the life is lifted
up over which hangs a lofty ideal.
Our own poet has said I'VE are
such stuff as dreams are made Of
We are what our ideals make as.
Not only have these an influence
over the mind, but through the
mind also on the body. Christian
Science, now SO rapidly gaining adj
vocates, has almost its whole fDup-
/ datioa laid on the influence Of the
/ ideal upon the body. Phrenolagy
tells "a the head is shaped, partial
! IS at least, by the thought that
dominates il. Palmistry has per
haps "a golden grain Of truth i'm its
accumulation Of error. The race
oftener betraYs the mind than the
tongue. JOY, anger, love, fear, each
command a special set OF muscles
which il works at will and surely
the ideal which guides and controls
these muscles has much to do with
the make up of the face.
The body gives expression TO the
/ state Of mind and each passing
thought as truly as the calm sur