Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-08-13

most the only thing about tncm can
remember In fact, | could build up
tolerpble gallery out OF those old
wood cuts-not the finest In the world.
perhaps. but that would not be tho
memory's fault. The poet Wordsworth,
you remem Der. In his beautiful poem
ON the daffodils, claims as the bliss
OF solitude" this very power Of the mind
! by which remembered Images flash
upon that inward eye" To be sure
he is speaking about images produced
| by scenes in nature, but the same
thing is true OF images made by art.
| only II may be I'm a less pleasurabo
! sense The passage in which he says
this Is as follows: The poet had been
| wandering lonely as a cloud when he
saw "a crowd. host OF golden darfo-
! dis beside the lake futtering and
| dancing In the breeze" The sight gave
him Joy. But that was not all. JOY
came To him years after i'm the remem-
brance Of the scene.
For oft, when on my couch lie
| In vacant or In penslve mood
They flash upon that inward eye,
| Which Is the bliss OF solitude:
| And then my heart with pleasure fills,
| And dances with the daffodils."
Surely II ought to be regarded as an
| asset I'm our experience that we have
| filled our minds with beautiful images
| pictures. Macaulay, II Is said. while
on voyage 10 India, amused himself
| by repeating Paradise Lost" to him
| self when the weather was too bad TO
read. He could not have done this
| that voyage would have been less
| pleasurable. IL he had not In his child
hood days committed to memory large
portions of that great poem. Essen
TALLY the same thing Is true of scenes
In nature and I'm art which have Inn
pressed themselves upon our minds.
/ greatly fear however. that the
word fix may start up I'm the minds
Of some OF you an objection TO the use
of pictures on this very ground of their
impressiblity. You will perhaps tell me
that certain pictures have done irre-
parable mischief by thus fixing images
on the mind. Even so, and no objec-
ton can be more nearly unanswerable
than this. But IL Is not an objection
to pictures, only 10 bad pictures: and
the general board does not purpose 10
recommend any bad pictures.
SOME OBJECTIONS.
or you may tell me that you do not
believe in fixing images OF any sort OIL
the mind by means of pictures; you
would have the mind create its own
pictures on the ground that 1t is more
educational
There Is some ground for this objec-
ton IL Is unquestionably true that
in such work OF the Imagination as
Paradise Lost" for instance, IL is bet
ter for the mental rather than the
physical eye TO see the Internal spirits
prone on the fiery floods COMPOUNDED
after their fall from heaven. myself
would object to an illustrated Para
disc Lost" on the grounds of this very
fixing Of the idea If you once saw
a picture of this scene. ten chances to
cot Nnrf. rf1 90
the image thus produced on the mind;
the details OF the scene would there
after tend TO arrange themselves after
the fashion OF the pigment on that can
vas. The same thing is true OF great
many other scenes that could be named
from nature and from the Imagination.
! once knew a very good woman who
insisted, as only woman can, that
Christ was baptized by the process OF
dipping; and when | came to trace the
belief back to its authority, / found
that II rested finally in a picture where
Jesus and John the Baptist were stand
Ing ankle deep In water, presumably
the Jordan river. and the son OF Zacha-
rias pouring water from a cup on tine
head of the Savior.
Well, | think we may grant all this |
without injury to my contention for |
pictures in the Religion class. Like the |
other objection, IL Is really leVeled at |
selves, are really improper by reason |
largely OF the subject OF the picture. |
But, as l say, II Is not the intention |
to have any picture in our Religion |
class an image OF which would be in |
furious. This. however. IS not the whole |
answer. The objection rs based mainly
on the suppositiOn that children work
out the details OF a scene which they
do not actually have before them. But
they do not. Most grown-ups, ! am
free to say, do not stop to build up de-
tails into a whole picture. putting this
particular here, and that particular
there, My experience with young peo-
Pile is that even in the high school age
this power to image entire scenes is
extremely rare. that Il takes a long
time to acquire this power. and that
II Is difficult OF attainment. Let me try
a concrete passage upon this au-
dience. As | read the following passage
from Tennyson's "Enoch Arden" try
to put things into a picture:
Long lines Of cliff breaking have left
"A chasm;
And in the chasm are foam and yellow
sands;
Beyond, red roofs about narrow
In cluster; then a mouder'd church;
and higher
a long street climbs TO one tall
tower'd mill:
And high in heaven behind IL is a gray
dawn
with Danish barrows; and a hazel
wood.
By autumn nutters haunted, hourishes
Green in cuplike hollow Of the down.
What sort ~ picture have you I'm
mind Unless YOU have actually looked
upon some such scene, | venture the
opinion that your picture Is extremely |
vague and ill-dehned Most likely you
have made a strong effort to construct
n definite image. How do those lines
of cliff look? What situation do those
houses take with respect to one anoth-
or? What kind OF houses are they? |
Danish? Yes. but you have not seen
them unless you have been to Den
mark And yet this Is the sort OF thing
we are called upon 10 do very often
in life. II I should place before you
a picture OF this scene, you would take
IL I'm at a glance and remember II Sup
pose In Religion class you are to tell |
the children about the arrival of the