Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-01-22

| member Jane-plain, 1t Is true, but in
dividual, balanced, a creature of origi-
nal logic and clean and clear vision.
On the subject of heroes, however,
| one has to confess that Miss Bronte
| did not feel the same restraint that
| led to the production of Jane Eyre.
Generations of schoolgirls and of other
domantic females as well, ought to
bless the creator of Rochester. He Is
not beautiful-we do not necessarily
/ require beauty in heroes-we even like
them swarthy, If need be, with
TRANSPORTING smile that lights the
gloom. trifie mysterious, inscrutable.
a silent horseman, draped in cloak
and followed by a mighty hound, rid
| ing through the dusk into the story;
an arbitrary, not too scrupulous gen.
tleman, but prepared to love when he
does get about it, as one may say, to
beat the band"
OF course Rochester is not real
none of Charlotte Bronte's heroes are
entirely real-but undraped man being
| what he Is, let us not quarrel too much
with the occasional drapery which
sheds a misty bleam over the unas-
sisted truths Of every day.
! Mrs. Dunns address, which proved
to be an extremely clever satirica1
and humorous discussion of the mod
ern novel as compared with the novel
of the past, was listened to with close
attention and most marked apprecia-
| ton.
The meeting enjoyed two most de-
lightful songs by Mrs. T. j. Southland
of Richmond and expressed their en-
tee L., ~
siastic applause. MY Rosary which
was one of the numbers. was rendered
with deepest feeling.
i The resolutions committee. through
its chairman, Miss Jennie McAndrews
reported brief resolution of apprecia-
ton of the spirit of hospitality shown
by the Current Events Club, the Pen
ney Memorial church, the Street Rail
way Co. and the press, in their efforts
to welcome and entertain this meeting
of the Federation.
Miss Mabel G. Foster.
1.-THE Ideal in Literature and Art
was the subject Of the address which
Miss Mabel G. Foster of Portland,
chairman of the department of litera-
ture and art in the Maine Federation,
gave at the mid-winter meeting of the
Federation in Augusta Wednesday.
In beginning Miss Foster said that
the human soul instinctively cries out
for standard norm, an ideal. And
the instinct which demands the ideals
unfailingly creates one. This demand,
this craving for an ideal, is God-given,
and the ideal should be God-like.
Through perversion the mind of man
sometimes creates unworthy ideals.
but in its most unworthy form, the
thought of the ideal suggests the lofty,
the pure, the perfect.
The natural tendency of every indi-
vidual is toward self-depression. Like
the creation of ideals, self-expression
is a God-given power and when linked
with lofty ideals, the result Is worthy
and noble. The builder of lighthouses,
the weaver of cloth, the planter of
potatoes, the digger Of drains, each
finds in his work an opportunity of
i self-expression. Each has worthy
ideal and each els, therefore, contribut-
, ing to the upbuilding of society.
Getting down to the subject of lit
erature and art as a means Of express
ing the ideal, she said that 1t seems
nothing short of necromancy that by
the use of oddly shaped bits of metals
set in rows and smeared with thick
black ink or by the use of certain min
erals and vegetable matters mixed
with oil and spread on cloth by
means of brush made Of pigs bris-
ties, man can mirror for his fellow
men the beauty OF nature. of the hui
man form, the human soul. Just as
| ie. ;y, tl,a rh1
is a great epic or romance hidden in
the typewriter awaiting genius to free
it and bring it into visibility.
What are some of the deals in which
the writer and the artist have cher
ished and made manifest to others,
asked the speaker, and answering her
own question said, There are many
and we have time for consideration of
only a few. have selected the fol-
| lowing, at once, as suggestive ana
comprehensive,-the consciousness of
the universally of beauty; the con-
viction of the ultimate triumph OF
good.
But what shall we do with the ugly
in literature and art? First of all
we must be sure that the object OF
our consideration is ugly. We must
give 1t the benefit of something more
than a superficial consideration.
How shall we find the beauty amid
the ashes?
Using Rembrandt's Lesson in An
atomy" as an example, she said,
This to me is rather extreme illus
tration of the point l would make re-
garding the need to search for beauty
beneath the superficial before con-
demning book or picture to the realm
of unredeemable ugliness.
But, she went on to say that there
is an uginess which sometimes mas
auerades as beauty and about that
we should not deceive ourselves.
| The writer, the artist, who presents
| sin in the form of beauty is pulling
down society and poisoning the stream
of his art. We call such writer or
such an artist decadent and, II we
are wise, we taboo his work.
! Speaking of the ultimate triumph OF
good, she said that this conviction de-
notes in the mind of the writer or the
artist a peculiarly lofty ideal, a poise
| and balance or soul, an outlook upon