The farmer and mechanic., 1913-12-02
VALUE OF CULTURE,
IN AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
mt Few of Trinity College. in Onen;no c+o1:.
erary and Historical Society, Looks to Literature 70
Bring Greatest Joy to Industriahsm

NeSNuFe 01 decay we need most ~ |
ar 70 nave our souls freed, aroused
th;s o. now can literature perform
.nis noble function and so become
not a substitute to be sure. but q
handmaid OF religion?
In the first place. II is the truth
mat makes US free. And it is the
uistlIfeo and essential truth that |
anioes In literature. this is the Attic
sait that preserves it. 1t is this quail
lty In literature that informs and dis !
clpilnes our sense for beauty and our
sense Ior conduct. We must still |
look TO literature, as men in all gen
erations have looked to it, for inspir-
alton and guidance.
For in great literature this perma-
nent and universal truth is presented
10 US IN alluring and compelling
forms. Consider for instance what
Shakespeare does for us in one of his
tragedies. In each OF these tragedies
ne gives US the spectacle Of a great
man, and one in general good, brought
| into misery through some defect Of
his nature, and through his own blind
| ness and weakness made the channel
! through which runs to others an ever
swelling torrent of unutterable woe.
Thus thorough the feelings Of pity
and fear these tragedies, in Aristotles
famous phrase, effect the proper
purgation of our passions and leave
us with Quivering sense Of the perilS
and responsibilities of earthly life. In
such moments of concentrated and
| heightened spiritual activity, thus
completely freed, aroused, dilated,
the mighty heart of all mankind lies
still and absorbs the great, elemental,
universal moral laws by which we
live. But this imaginary spectacle
stirs also the heroic in us and fires
US to the inordinate hatred Of evil
and emulation of good. For Shakes
peare brings us to find, as he himself
had found, in the "splendors or cour-
age and love a remedy for despair"
Aside from the joys that come to
| us from out ourSelves-from health,
morality, and usefulness-the might
lest solace to the tired children Of the
her vast contrivances of charm, her
grand procession Of the seasons; her
seas and lands; the green earth still
young and entrancingly beautiful as
when she lay by the sources of time.
But what makes the world the vastly
Interesting thing it is it is the fact
that it has been the scene Of man S
life for countless generations. The
record of mans experience with the
earth is preserved in literature. Lit
erature stands in most intimate rela-
tions with human life. In fact, it is
life itself, conceived in purity, incar-
nate through the magic of speech.
. Literature also stands in the most in
, innate relations with nature. In the
history Of mankind, the three-life, lit
erature, and nature-are inextrica bly,
interviewer. And so it is
, THE clouds that gather round the
: setting sun
, Do take a sober coloring from an eye
l That hath kept watch Ger mans NOR
D tality."
t Who ever stood and listened at the
!: melancholy, long, Withdrawing roar
| of the ocean and did not find IN 1t
( new meaning, if he had read So
. phocles and remembered that SO
). phocles too long ago heard it on the
|. the turbid ebb and flow Of human mis-
J. ery"? What lover of English poetry
3 does not see an added glory in tha
: most splendid of all earthly spectacles
r the daily miracle Of rising sun, L
4 he carries in his heart Mifton's phrase
e while the still morn went out VIII
q sandals gray? What lover of Eng
d lish poetry can look even upon th'
a scar and forbidding autumn trees
;. that austereSt natural scene.-W1th
). out a thrill of pleasure beca use he re
e members Shakespeare's tender an'
v beautiful line in which they are oe
l. scribed as
II "Bare ruin'd choirs, where late tn
a sweet birds sang?
Ill To the lover of poetry there no
: only then wells up within himself
# perpetual spring of peace and JOY,
II sort of fountain Of eternal youth, bu
# there also rises before his eyes Wis
,e ion of a new heaven and new earth
le All but the most highly gifted Q
l. linen need to be taught to see oy tnos
twho have been able to see more clear
le ly and who had the power or express
h ing the thoughts and feelings in whic
l. we can all dimly share when the
O. have been phrased for US. The poet
not only open up for us new Wori
. of nature but they help us to unioc
= our own hearts.
"We're made SO that we love