The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-06-04

history would have been put back.
MS phase of idealism finds its poet
laureate in Robert Browning. He has
portrayed two characters who with
nsular forcefulness illustrate the
hopeless ineffciency of those who
eatch up with their ideal. one is
Andrea del Sarto. the faultless
painter His fault lay in his fault
l~essness. and he knew it. Out Of the
depths Of an HremediaDle despair he
cries.
All, but a mans reach SHOULD exceed
his grasp.
OR what's a heaven for
The other character who serves as
the Of the overtaken ideal
is the risen Lazarus. This man had
zone more than stand 1iptOe upon the
misty mountain-top Of ife-he had
seen behind. He had for a brief sea
son exchanged the mortal for the i'm
mortal. the relative for the absolute.
the BART for the whole. time for
eternity. He returned to earth blast
ed by excess of light" The "un-
dreamed Of RAPTURE the knowl-
edge
Increased beyond the heshly faculty,
pSALNo : q ocu willie SCt Ol
earth
had rendered him listless, witless,
silent. inefficient. The spur of half
knowledge, the doubt that is the pre-
Jude to faith, the mystery tina bids
nor sit nor stand out go.'-these
energized him no more. Life was
now but a dull and stupid thing
~thrusting itself between hin and the
assured goal.
Such is the nature Of the idea
whether It guide one or many. There
must be the blend Of effort and I'M
attainablenesS, the PERSISTENT reach
ing out on the one hand, the steady
recession or enlargement of the 0
on the other. To answer the ques
ton, therefore, whether America OF
any other nation be an idealistic ma
ton IN the large sense, the quest mus
n e unduly circumscribed. 1t mus
not Confine itself to the present or K
the past. It must include both. w
u consider. in other wo,Ns, tn
stock from which we come, the en-
virOnment that has surrounded us
and the more characteristic nationa
achievements by which and through
which the resultant Of stock and en-
has lac itself manifest
III AAEt ~ q AcCoSns
The %colonists and early settlers o
America were chiefly of English stock
o stock known the world over for it
sturdy. practical idealism. The domi
nant ideal of the English people ha
always been q certain rugged individ
ualism. They do for themselves wha
the State does for it's subjects in Othe
lands. This trait is. Of course. NOR
distinctively Germanic than English
Mr.. Bryce. however. our wisest critic
comedies hat the Americans are NOR
idealistic than the English or eve1
than the French. The Americans, h
/ says, are an impressionable people
) TT Is not their intellect. however," h
continues. that Is impressionable
5 but their imagination and emotions
which, respond in unexpected ways t
appeals made on behalf OF a cauS
t which seems to nave about it some
thing noble or pathetic. They are cap
, able Of an ideality SURPRISING that Q
EnRltshmen or F~renchmen.'
The chief reason for this balance i
} our favor. so far as original stoc
. is concerned. is to be sought not in tn
: increasing compositeness of the Amer
: lean people but in a fact compare
lively ignored by historians. Gu
t early settlers were, in a word. NOR
9 English than the English. After tn
: Norman Conquest England became
e land Of mixed bloods. Of mixed in
stitutions. of mixed ideals. The orig
nal English or Germanic stock t
r distinctively for indiv1dualism. where
a as the Norman invader stood for IL
; st~itutionalism. Now 1T is a weI-knoW
8 fact that America was settled by me
and women whose ver" names pro
e claim their purely Germanic Or Anglo
y Saxon origin and who preserved tn
9 old traditions Of self-reliance and IL
z dependence. They had not been MOI
manized.
e Mr.. H. Perry Robinson. an English
o mar and the writer who has mo!
8 clearly outlined this fundamental di1
~ference.% declares that There is Il
people more responsive to high idea
than the American" because, as h
It adds, the American had mo Norma
encumbranceS.' The Norman gay