Debating Society.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2087, 23 July 1901, Page 5

Debating Society.

The following concludes the piper on '" The iDK.giuatiouttj mid the Eiuotious," read by Mr Burgeas ai tae last meeting if the aLove Society :

A few visits to any cf k tbe public libraries or reading ruouia in tliia or tdb adjoining culoui.es, will nuiitfy the enquiring visitor that these institutions, valuable us they aie, and ustful as the> might t>»cunie, are not to the mats of the people more thun a name. Consider tor u mement what a well stocked library really its- It ie the coutentrateu wisuotu una eulture ot.ages. Iu it is euibalineil alt that is precious in human thought, all that it valuable ia human ditcov.ry. JJy its me?as we can bold communion with the mighty dead. It brings us into contact witb the highest minds, the keenest intellect* the world haa produced, '.there liea the ttreaauie house of centuries, whose ricbee axe te be hud for the a*king, Tnere ia nothing else in the world equal to it, there is nothing comparable to it, and yet bofl little ita treasures are appreeiated. Consider the facilities afforded iu our day by instttutiona of this kind and then let the mind wander backward not many cental us when books weie so scarce and valuable aa to ba the property only of tne few.

The menial enjoyment derivable from the exereiae and cultivation of the iraagi BBtien ia ese eyiiich fata the great recoin"

faoulty it not depondent for its existence on a high civilization or a high staudard of mental culture. There are pursuit* which reqnire many years of preparatory study which demand for their prosecution not only Bome natural Inclination towards them but a certain amount of mental culture and technical proficiency. It is not so with the imagination. It is the natural expression of the soul. Amoug more priuiirivu peoples the ideal irod the emotional find nt'onfer expression than among the more civilised. With them there is no distiuc tion between prose and poetry—they are intprmixed. The songs and speeches of almost savage people are frequently rich in beautiful and striking imagry, and surprise us by the spontaneous poetry of their expression In modern laces of higher advancement the poetic faculty ceases to color the ordinary conversation and the daily business of the people. It is only here and there some great mind, some impassioned soul, bursting through his mosaic surroundings soars like the lark far above the earth and pours out from on high his floods of melody and song. As we read the creation of the poet's braii our own imaginations are fired, and oupulses bound in unsion with the throbbin i of his sensitive heart.

Although their efforts have no appreciable effect on the outward condition o* mankind, could we as a r.a'ion afford to give up our poets and idealißto. IJas th wisdom of centuries, the universal voce ol civilisation erred in their conception of tb dignity of their position. No, we fee that these men, the e id al 4s, th se *mi> tlonalists are wanted in Mite WjiU. Ma baa a dual existence—there is tha; liftwhich he leads fioin day to day—as he appears to his fellow man —a&upniior am mal merely, and there is th.»t inner man, that higher self, tnat iu its noblest de velnpment rues above mundane thiny that, as it were, 9ti« iches itn arms t grasp the infinite that,inks itiielt with theternal, li is to this inuer fceif thepoei speaks. Who can say huw much th world tiweß to tha dreamer and th< idealist. In the tteuiiug world of thimagination what schemes for the amelioration of ou. race, what visivrs for th betterment of maukind havo not hao the> origin. Who cau measure thiir coutribution to the,'proep> rity of mankind 1 I b*ve almded to tie pott, for I lojl upon him as the highest embody menc oi the imaginative faculty. Leaving the manifestation of the imagi uatiOn as it appears in the works of tnt poes we come to a much wider if ltss devated field in works of fiction. The novel has beeome a raoßt prominent feature in modern literature, and it i» even yet a debated question whether it> effects are wholesome or pernicious. There is no doubt that the taste for novel reading must have at present a very strong hold on the public mind. New books aie being issued ulmoßt dady. Many of them are. no doubt, ephemeral in theii nature, and will not live beyond the gem ration in which they were published. Both novfll writing and novel reading involve the ixerciee of the imagination. The writer «is carried away by the creations of hiß own mind, and enabled to ■ write of persons and incidents with as» much interest arid animation as could have been excited by living characters and actual events.

In the bands of an author possessing geDJUP, and an insight into tbe of tbe human heart, such, for instance, as Thackerary, Dickens, or Georg. Elliott, how it is possible to invest even the lowliest and most commonplace characttrs with life and inters st. Their creatures stand before us with all the attributes of men and women, beings ol flesh and blood, with human hearts and hum»o instiLots. They love as human beinps love, tley hate as men and women hate". Even Bill Svkee, brutal and ruf fianly aB he is drawn, is yet thoroughly human, Fagan, momentarily expecting the sentence that dooms him to the gallows, and yet speculating on all sorts of trivial matters around him, even mechaiiicaily connling the epikes in front of hion and wondering bow one of them go? broken and whether it trill be replaced, is intensely human and life-like. Some of the most tender and touching of Pickens' characters, like Paul Dombey and little Nell, are only children, yet they are pourtrayed, exhibiting such emotions and traits of cbaractor that to us they seem realities, and we cherish their memory almost as much as though they had been real children whom we had known and loved. Art has its foundation in the love or the beautiful. It is the striving for thr ideally perfect in foim, tbe ideally pure in color. It springs from that faculty of imitation which is inherent in the human mind, the deeire to copy and perpetuate in a permanent form that which strikes us as Rracefut or beautiful, and worthy of preservation.