A Dish of Orts : Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on ShakespeareMacDonald, George
Philosophy
A Dish of Orts : Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare
MacDonald, George
Literature -- History and criticism; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
consequences would soon appear in the intellect likewise which they
worship. Kill that whence spring the crude fancies and wild day-dreams
of the young, and you will never lead them beyond dull facts--dull
because their relations to each other, and the one life that works in
them all, must remain undiscovered. Whoever would have his children
avoid this arid region will do well to allow no teacher to approach
them--not even of mathematics--who has no imagination.
“But although good results may appear in a few from the indulgence of
the imagination, how will it be with the many?”
We answer that the antidote to indulgence is development, not restraint,
and that such is the duty of the wise servant of Him who made the
imagination.
“But will most girls, for instance, rise to those useful uses of the
imagination? Are they not more likely to exercise it in building castles
in the air to the neglect of houses on the earth? And as the world
affords such poor scope for the ideal, will not this habit breed vain
desires and vain regrets? Is it not better, therefore, to keep to that
which is known, and leave the rest?”
“Is the world so poor?” we ask in return. The less reason, then, to be
satisfied with it; the more reason to rise above it, into the region of
the true, of the eternal, of things as God thinks them. This outward
world is but a passing vision of the persistent true. We shall not live
in it always. We are dwellers in a divine universe where no desires are
in vain, if only they be large enough. Not even in this world do all
disappointments breed only vain regrets. [Footnote:
“We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which, having been, must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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