Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, April 05, 1883, Page 5, Image 9
? THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. k ft length, been brought. In Europe the grout diversity of the different languages forms an ollcclunl bur against any such coalition. In the case of Canada and the United States no such barrier ex ists. A confederation between the two would thus be among the possibilities, and we think among the proba bilities of the near futuic. A VIEW OF REALISM. The characteristic tendency of the present generation is realism. Human thought in every direction is straining after tho truth. Men whose actions mark the footsteps of progression care more than ever before to learn and tench what actually is, and less than ever before to mourn for the illusions, however beautiful, which are daily becom ingbut memories of the past. Mountains of superstition that have proudly stood for ages, walls of false theory, built long ago by careful hands and faithfully repaired and strengthened by following generations, resist for a time by massive strength the wave of investigation which so morcilessly forces its "way into their mighty hearts, but fiually crumble and go down forever in the ruin of obliv ion. Iconoclastic as we are, we often troinble to look up. on the vastness of the destruction we have wrought; but unceasingly, unerringly, the work goes on. The very air is filled with realism. We ciui no more avoid coming under its almost instinctive influence than we can slop drawing breath. It is here, and in spite of our selves we ore infected with its spirit and carried along by the tide of the inevitable. The causes of this universal movement are explained very diversely and quite unsatis Jactorily. They are, however, beyond the limits of this discussion; we arc chielly. concerned with its effects. Former eras of the world's history are respectively desig. nated the age of chivalry, the age of intolerance, the age of romance and idealism and the age of great deeds. Ours has been styled the age of mediocrity; but a more exact, a truer name would bo the realistic age. To de monstrate its propriety, let us glance for a moment into the principal departments of current human thought. Science, being intrinsically a search for the actual, rev elo in its native clement, and advances to unprecedented and uu.dreamcd-of triumphs. Endless arc its discover ies of the liuth in nature, and incalculable are the benefits derived from the utility that is made of them by invention. The literature of the time is permeated with realism. The Theologian no longer affirms with serious exactness the number of angels tiiat can comfortably dance on tho pointcf a needle; he has ceased to argue concerning the authenticity of tho Apocrypha, and we rarely even hear him insist on the inspiration of the Scriptures. In this day of practicality, mankind calls out to himfor the ker nel, not the chaff, of religion; aud heturns his attention to the demands and necessities of humanity, to the more vital questions which concern the ultimate welfare and happiiiehs of his fellow-men, to the ugliness of sin, the beauty of righteousness, and the eternal hnercy and love of God. The Poet, stirred by the generalAthrill, turns with fond reluctance from the luxurious fields of his im agination, and takes instead his Inspiration from the exis tent domain of life about him. The Novelist runs his pen through a network of improbab'.c'plots and Marlliiig sits uatione, and blots out unfeelingly his impossibly good heroes and impossibly wieiu'd villains. Pausing and looking out upon the busy world before him, he sees he. roes of sufficient heroism, villains of sufficient villainy and excitement of sufficient intensity to justify him in becom ing an exact delineator of life as it is, in short, an histos riau in detail. In tho province of art, tho development of man's finest sensibilities and the satisfaction of his highest nature, the influence of pure realism is scarcely less discernible. The Painter forsakes the weird and beautiful images of his ideality, and pictures on his canvas the simplest aud most common of natural scenes, a bit of ordinary wood land, an humble cottage, a view in every day life. No object, if truly depicted, is too lowly or familiar to claim the attention of the school which acknowledges as its motto: "True art is fidelity to nature." The Sculptor turns his back upon the indefinable outlines of an angelic or mythological group, aud leaves unfinished the work of bringing into life the ideal beauty of some hcaven.born Venus or Apollo. Imbued witli the surrounding atmos phere of exactness, he carves into enduring marble tho physical faults as well as graces of living models, or by his magic touch shapes some homely, simple group in rural or domestic life. Even the Musician, the im)3t ethe real of all artists, appreciates and follows the prevailing tendency. The operas of Wagner and the symphonies of Berlioz undertake to deal witli fact more than with fancy. The underlying idea of the whole is to represent real ac tiou, rcal.life, and real emotion. And so we might goon indefinitely, finding as wepro. cceded that the entire range of present thought is marked byadovol'on to that whicJt is. The actual is discovered to be of far higher importance to mankind then the ideal aud hence mankind is bending its energies to the explor ation and comprehension of what lies before it. And in all this is implied a practical lesson to humanity. When complaint is made by lovers of the beautiful that beaut' suffers loss by the indiscriminate sacrifice of the imagi nation to fact, they display at once the import of the warn ing given by this realistic age. There are but three possible classes of tilings wilhiu our knowlcdgc.-those owing their existence to God, toman, and to both. In the first class, the beauty of the truth admits of no improvement; in the second and third, the responsibility for the lack of beauty rests upon ourselves. Shall we sit by, in idle grief, to mouin the ashes of those false idols which we our selves have reared ; or shall we profit by the lesson, and, taking life just as it is, make it worthy of our admiration ? The destruction ot that which only pleased and flattered wiil not be in vain, if man will place the truth before his eyes and strive to make it beautiful. Then will the world have Uiken a mighty bound towards all that is higher,-grander,-uobler. C. A. P. The masher: "Whatlsthst, motheri" 'A mneher, dear; You will always find it standing hero Posed on tho corner of the street, Proudly displaying its tiny feet, Twlrltug Its Httie ten-cent cane, And stupefying its tender hraln, With the smoke of a paper cigarette. Dont touch it, dear- Jt was rained a pet," "Will It bite, motheri" Well, I should shout: It will bite for ull that's out." Colltge Iwhi