The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-03
-rAr. MrrTrNc CoUNCTL
eos A or T IEWIsH WOMEN.

OF JEWISH WOMEN.
 The members of the Council of Jewish women held a social meeting yesterday afternoon when delightful program was rendered before the feature of the oe- casion. lecture by Sdr. ciford A. Lanier.
 The meeting was presided over by Mrs. C. F. Moritz. president of the Council. and opened with prayer by Rabbi A. T.
 Messing.
 The first number on the program was vocal solo by Miss Eleanor weams. ac-
 companied by Mrs. James Haygood. This
 was followed by a recitation by Mrs. Meyer Greii. whose selection was Aux
 ItaIien"
 The next number was plano solo by
 Miss Ray Cadden. which was followed by Mrs. Lanier's address. His subject was Poetry, Religion and the Bible" and in such thoroughly interesting, as well as instructive, manner did he treat 1t as to claim the undivided attention of his audience throughout its length. MT. Lanier began by saying that ''an English critic has brought the charge
 that modern American literature does
 not deal with deep and important things" and said that the charge was perhaps
 not easy to parry as it must be admitted that America has not produced a poet who looked on life as Dante. or who took stern views of life as Milton, or one who touches on every theme as did Shakes peare, and yet he felt there was a re- joinder in such an occasion as the gath ering of so many women to listen to an address on So serious subject as the one he had selected. He referred to the, rebuke which Wordsworth administered
 to his own eountrymen when he made
 worse charge in saying, We have the
 world too much with us He spoke of poetry as an energy and poetry as an
 art. and said 1t was difficult to define the
 difference.
 MT. Lauier spoke of thought and feel ing as essential to poetry, and he spoke
 of the poetry of words and the poetry of deeds He dwelt on the fact that though en-
 icyment is not the supreme object in life It is surely the highest object in art. and placing poetry beyond music he quoted some one as saying that Every man
 would be a poet If his intellectual diges- ton were perfect" and another as saying that poepry is truer than history, and said that Homer was the chief deposi- tory of religion" He spoke delightfully."-
 of the advisability of allowing the beau- tiful in art to take us away from the little things that are apt to claim our
 attention to the exclusion of the real
 and great things. He led his hearers
 along the lines of thought that show that
 poetry has done as much as all scientific
 invention of the world. He spoke of poetry as great, noble, dear, of it's spirit
 ual force and of 1t as perfect speech. He quoted Sidney Lanier as calling poetry
 the mocking bird of the intellectual world as its song embraces all the others, and
 told of some one else who said that
 when Adam left Paradise he took with him hope and music.'
 "The father of meter is rythm and the | father of rythm is good" he said Mir. Lanier spoke at length of philoso- | phy and religion as related; of science as
 seeking facts and a poetry as seeking | ideals and of religion as seeking a reall- I Zation of ideals in another existence. He | spoke of song as Living aloud' and of
 work as singing with ones hands," He I spoke of the Bible as 'the most wonder \ ful epoc poem ever given to man." Tn concluding his address in which he
 so beautifully blended the beauties of i poetry, religion and the Bible, MT.
 LanIer plead eloquently that we turn to
 the beautiful and great in art, science and literature and not be immersed in lIt-
 tie things; in the greed of accumulation. After Mir. Lanier's address a very much | enjoyed feature was vocal solo by Miss Lovelace. who generously responded to an encore with another song after which the members of the Jewish Council and their guests enjoyed delicious refresh ments and social intermingling.