The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-02

me, In Alastfa, when the plan was | covered with mist. to recognize by cer- tain signs that there must be sunshine m saint-odile or Champ -du-Feu. An hour later. I was treading sun-warm paths. beneath the c1oudless blue. The people of Geneva do the same thing when, saturated with the mists of Lake Leman, they climb the heights of the seieve. Nothing could be more beautiful. Slowly you emerge from the grey cloud, which has been growing more and more diaphanous into the warm brightness of the sun and the Spring. At your feet. like a milky sea. rolls the fog making islands of the summits
 This spectacle is symbolical. It off, fers an Image of what happens to man, when leaving behind him the cold plains of reality. as he might leave a wintry scene, he makes for the regions of the ideal. and forgets for time he Is free.
 What is bad is idle dreaming, and spending ones life in that ethereal bath. Now there are people for whom the ideal Is perpetual summer holi- day, in which contemplation takes the place altogether of action. It is the life of wonder and admiration. the sub- lime likeness of the heights, coupled with a sensitive shrinking from re- turning to ordinary conditions. That is frankly dangerous.
 To dream is good. We must in- dnlge in dreaming sometimes call 1t to our assistance under the whip of brutal difficulties and necessities. It Is good spirit which suggests to us dreams of beauty. of a happier future. It is. on the contrary,an evil spirit which produces that sort of intoxica- fnrx cab "A hA nf opium or morphine. in which. careless | of others, a man seeks a selfish ob- livion' of the actual world. and that vague crad1ing of the imagination | among its own nerveless creations. That is no longer idealism. but a harm full uhantasmagoria
 The ideal. as the word Itself informs from the Great thinkers. means the vision of that which should be It is the vision of a superior hu- manity. contemplated by the eyes of the spirit.
 Let us own that. even in that form, 1t might sometimes be discouraging. We are not unacquainted with an ideal- ism so abstract and exalted that it de- prives us of all courage to attempt realizing 1t. Its champions see so far, and see so fair. that they are struck with impotence. as far as bringing about any practical result is involved. They are like those painters whose imaginations continually create pie lures of fabulous beauty. and whose brushes. despairing of seizing the un- seizable. have long lain asleep In the dust Sometimes the beauty the great ness. the majesty we get A glimpse of, the splendor of the goal we hail from afar. produce in our souls mere prostration. We become infirm of pur- pose. we do nothing. because the road appears too magnificent to travel on our poor cTutches. When real liya shows too wholly different from the ideal. we resign ourselves to stagnate where we are. But that is again the result of an error. The true ideal could never produce such a disastrous enect: the true ideal Is encouraging. The sculptor has before him his model. and. surpassing all models. has within him that interior model. of which any exterior one is but faint copy When he sets to work to incorporate his idea in the block of granite or marble. the difference between the block and the idea must not so unnerve his hand that he drops the chisel. He must on the contrary. draw from the contrast between his idea and the block an especlal courage. an especial impulse, which we call the creative impulse. HIS iorce taxes possession of us as we consider, on the one hand. the ma terial we have to work with. and. on the other. the idea we have to incorpo- rate. If the ideal presents itself to us under shape at once suflcientlv human and sufficiently divine, that is to say, under it's double aspect of en- gazing and sublime. 1t becomes simt- lar to those favorable winds which fill the sails Of becalmed Ships at sea, ana sends them to theid destina- tions. That inner enthusiasm. which keeps us glad, which helps us con stantly to recover our erectness af- ter blows which have bowed us, to get upon our feet again after falls. Is more necessary than daily bread Man lives by the ideal.
 NOW the difficulty lies in the union | or what is so great, so beautiful so h'Eh ana spiritual, with what is so low | ana apparently devoid of spiritualitv. l mean the ideal in life, and not only in life. but In daily life. I use the word purposely. The word daily suggests week days. work days. days without | relier or lustre. For, we have week. days and we have Sunday. Sunday is quite another day from week-days: and holidays are still a different mat ter There Is Sunday mood, there is holiday mood. After long experience
 
 l ana that gentle contagion of hope per vading the air on Sunday. there are | those who find the mountain and the forest, the fields and the flowers, love- Ter on that day than any other. There is something of the splendor of Sun days in the brightness of certain holi- days. That the ideal and the mood of exceptional days should meet can as- toniSn no one Much more difficult it Is to mingle the ideal with everyday life.
 It is harder to give lustre to reality than grace to bear-cub. But arduous tasks are never devoid of greatness. Generous souls are braced for the | struggle by obstacles. Let us be the attacking party, let Us not capitulate at once Shameful equalization 1t is which promptly throws the axe-handle after the axe-head. and declares: There is nothing to be done"
 The ideal. let me warn you, is not to be found like coal in a mine. Coal, or gold. if you prefer, or diamonds. if you are more exacting still, are to be found in great veins in particular places. You must happen upon the vein; there is none to be found elsewhere. But 1t Is different with the ideal. It is nowhere and it Is everywhere. The proof of which is that the man who has none in himself vainly looks for 1t in life. Note this well: the ideal is within ourselves. There Is no poetry where you have put none. Poetry Is not in the air; it is in the mind; 1t Is sown by man in things. If you have soul in yourself you will find soul around