The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-01-04
Subject: Vision.

| tJfo- ne Sdlu.
OF all the physical gifts which we
have received at the hand and by the
grace Of loving Father the natural
eyesight is the best. What a blesse
bestowal IL is. | fancy that most Of
us, had we 10 give up any OF the
senses would relnquish the sense of
sight last. Most OF us, | believe,
would lose all our other faculties be-
fore this one. The eyes reveal TO rs
the animate world. They are the
windows out Of which we look upon
the universe Of Cod. With them we
study the handiwork Of Jehovah in
nature and in human kind. Through
them we search the wonders Of the
Heavens and view the brilliant beau
ties Of the paintings Of God in sky
and cloud, in hill and vale, in wood
land, stream. in lake and sea.
The eyes are for use. They grow
strong and acute and increase in
power OF discernment by exercise
alone. Visual facility is the result
OF visual activity. The man who
does not, or cannot, use his eyes,
sooner or later loses the faculty Of
vision. The poor prisoner in the
donjon keep, with only darkness for
! companionship and with no consola-
tion save the slow approaching hand
OF death, after years of dark confine-
! ment and OF torture hideous and
maddening, loses the power to see.
Seeing is not looking. Many peo-
! pie look who never see. They look
! upon things, but they rarely see into
| things. Their eyes catch visions, but
! they rarely pierce beneath the sur
! face. Many people look at things,
! they cast their eyes upon things, but
! they do not see.
! Seeing is discipline. Looking Is
habit of the lax. To see we must
| cultivate the power Of perception.
/ We must school ourselves to look be-
yond the superficial 10 the eternal un-
! derlying realities. And because they
! lack perception, because their eyes
have not been opened, because they
do not possess, through exercise, the
ability to differentiate, to discern, to
perceive clearly, many people really
do not see. It was not until the clear
vision Of Ruskin showed to me the
! purple haze at sunset that | learned
TO know and love the darkening beau
| ty OF the hills.
Those who have used their eyes are
the worlds greatest men. "As one OF
our wisest teachers has said, the
greatest thing a human soul ever
does in this world, is to see some
! thing, and to tell what it saw in
| plain way. Hundreds Of people can
talk. for one who can think. But
! thousands can think for one who can
see: to see clearly is poetry, prophecy
/ and religion, all i'm one. Therefore,
! finding the world Of literature more
| or less divided into thinkers and
! seers, | believe we shall find also,
! that the seers are wholly the greater
race Of the two" For, as Or. Hills
! has said greatness is vision" I
| fancy that many q man had bathed
I'm a tub before Archimedes, at his
| bath, discovered the eternal fact of
! the displacement Of bodies and for
| mulated the truth Of displacement
} into law. Multitudes OF men un~
| questionahiy gaZed upward into the
| heavenly armament and studied the
movement Of the heavenly spheres
before CoperniCus; but it remained
| for him, with the seeing eye. 10 re-
veal to humanity the underlying prin-
! ciples OF the celestial galaXies. New
| ton was not the first man who had
| watched an apple fall from a leafy
| bough: but he was the first one who
really saw the apple fall. Other men
had seen it and had not been by it
| impressed. Newton used his eyes
| and TO us was given the law Of gravi-
tation. Columbus was not the first
man who stood upon the shores OF
! Portugal and watched the ships sail
! hull first over the horizons edge, into
| the unknown bosom OF the sea- but
| in the disappearing vessel Columbus
saw the prophecy of the rotundity
OF the earth. Multitudes OF kettles
! OF diverse form had steamed on
many a hearth before the days OF
| Watts: but only Watts saw the loco
motive I'm the wasted. superheated
| vapor. With a kite and a string
many n boy and many a man had
wiled away the pleasant hours: but
| IT was not until Franklin, with pre-
vision born OF application. sent his
! frail skv-Craft up into the clouds that
the wonder Of electricity became re-
| allied To men. Darwin, Wallace and
Agassi. delving into the mysteries as
well as the superfcialties Of natural
| life, were not the first TO gaze upon
| the animal life that is teeming
! round about us: but they were the
| nTSJ 10 UNDERSTAND. WITH luSlEnl ana
clear vision. he harSiiwork OF God
therein. IL is said that Henry ard
! Beecher could see and reveal more
beauty in the top OF a head of ce;ery
than the average man is able to dis
Germ in the full-bloom beauty OF the
rose. Yes. greatness is vision
The world needs discernment. That
| Is To say il needs seeing eyes. II
needs to cultivate the habit and the
| faculty of perception. This is true
| in the intellectual. in the civic and
the spiritual world. not TO mention
others.
We need vision In the intellectual
| life. Too great insisteucy cannot be
| laid upon the need for clear-cut. def
| mite. incisive thinking. We cannot
AFFORD as men or as a society TO do
| less than cultivate our powers OF in
| tellectual discernmSut 10 the full. II
we are TO have a theory OF knowl-
] edge which shall be valid: IL We
4 arc 20 have n wise statement OF the