The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-29


book lovers is indebted for a new de-
light. Just to look at the volume is a
pleasure; it is so prettily bound, SO
well printed and SO appropriately ana
from nature. AS for the text. not
everybody enjoys the essay, but TO
those who still confess to fondness
for that now almost obsolete form OF
literary expression, the charm of MI
Mabie's talent is well known. In his
new book, however we have not mere
" a collection of unrelated essays but
an exhaustive analysis of the relations
between nature and civilization, the
essential harmony of the primordial
and the cultivated, each chapter a
prelude to the one that follows, yet
each a complete and readable frag-
ment in itself.
Perhaps the best of these sub
essays is the chapter on vital Selec-
ton" the underlying thought of which
is the impossibility to man of intel
1ectual and spiritual enrichment ex-
cept by natures plan of growth, the
development of what is germinal. with
in US and by selection of what is
vitality related to us in the world
about u.s.
'sThe endeavor of too many men
and women of this generation" says
Mr.. Mabie, sis, not to develop their
own personality, but to absorb the
knowledge of the whole world. ..
The result is an immense extension or
intellectual interests and activities and
Sn many cases fatal blighting of in
dividuality. The note which such per-
sons give forth, in various forms of
expression, ceases to be clear, author
itative and prophetic; it is muff1ed, in
distinct and nonreSonant- 1t is made
UP of echoes. The age tends
10 a fascinating but unproductive
eclecticism in education. philosophy
and religion rather than to a high and
fertile originality Active minds, full
of curiosity and eager to explore the
round world in quest of the new, the
fresh, and the unknown. waste and de-
bilitate themselves by endeavoring to
take into themselves that which is not
related to them and which they can
not asSimiliate. They add to their
knowledge but they do not to their
power. Their minds are like many
houses into which one goes at this end
of the century which are furnished
from the ScouringS of the globe, but
are without harmony or individuality
of taste. order or ornament; private
museums, filled with fragments and
survivals of civilization, odds and ends
of the centuries. This, it need hardly
be said, is not home-making; 1t is not
the fruit of the art spirit; it is simply
collecting, which is a very different
matter" The universal range
of the mind, without definite aim, in
discriminate, omniverous. excited, does
not secure education. freedom, power
or originality. 1t is a vicious method ;
1t results in a derivative instead of a
creative life of the mind. and it in
wolves a slow decay of individuality.
Menand women who fall victims to
this temptation to waste their force
over a wide field instead of intensity
ing 1t by concentration, become at
last vague congratulations of the vital
principle rather than clear, powerful
and commanding types. In their en-
deavor to grasp all they forget that
truth comes not by searching but by
growing; that it cannot be gathered
here and there by the tourist, but
must be patiently absorbed and assimi-
lated. In elect1ng to be orig
jnal and creative, to make any real
contribution to life, one must
elect to pass by a great deal of knowl-
edge because it is impossible to alb
sorb it. The tree which lives by ar
infallible instinct, If such a phrase is
permissible, takes out of the soil an6
the atmosphere those things which
feed it, in quantities which it can alb
Sorb. In like manner a human sou
can take out of life only those elements
which belong TO it by reason of af
finity to its type -. The artist
the man who strives after perfection
is revealed. as Schiller says, quite a!
much by what he discards as by VIVA
he accepts. Rejection is quite as i'm
portant as selection, in fully develop
ed and productive life
The final chapter on 1.-THE Prophec.
of Nature" reveals at once the kerne
. and the conclusion of the author
nhllOSODnX-
nature" says Mr.. Mabie, carrying
with it the education of the race, ha
steadily risen in quality and slgn1tl
canoe from what we have hithert
called the material to what we hay
called the spiritual; two words which
ourignorance has set in opposition blu
which really describe different aspect
OF the one indivisible life which flow
through all forms. Nature is no longe
an orderly succession of phenomena
alone; she is also a symbol of man
life; she is no longer a material ap
pearance. she is also spiritual real
ity; she is no longer the shell fror
which the fully developed man ha
broken away, she is also a sublim
prophecy of the unbroken and uhil
terrupted life There Is i
every man a capacity for educatio
which is practically without limit
either as to time or range. One stag
of training succeeds to another with
out pause; and no sooner is skin :
cured in one direction than it begin
to effect results in other and unfore
skill or power does not mean pause O
satisfaction; it means clearer vision {
higher things still to be obtained
deeper discomfort with preser
achievement, an expansion of intell
gence and heart which nothing With
the range of the education of TIL
present life can satisfy. In the natuI
of man, as in nature herself, there is
vast movement set towards finer skill
and higher attachments, without pro
vision for a rest of activity, wtthol
recognition of faculties of equipmen
without signs of the limit of the move
ment or of the ebb of the tide whiC
corries it forward That III
folding of all the possibilities of IL
human spirit which is accomplished b
Growth and which is best describe
nv the word culture has been carrie
far, but II mas never YET pee
completed; on the contrary, the ia
Their ii is carried the richer it's poss
bilfties become. The life we now lii
is primarily and in its essence {
educational process; and whatever e
Iargement. deliverance and beau
come to us, in any other life must