Show NEED OF THE POET of abe mind mahe him wa important factor its impossible for men to live in the world without poetry of some sort or other if they cannot get the best they will gel some substitute for it and thus seem to verify saint augus tines slur that it is wine of devils says james russell lowell in century the mind bound down too closely to what is practical either becomes inert or revenges itself by rushing into the savage wilderness of iams isms the insincerity of our civilization has disgusted some persons so much that they have sought refuge in indian wigwams and found refreshment in taking a scalp now and then nature insists above all things upon balance she contrives to maintain a harmony between the material and spiritual nor allows the cerebrum an expansion at the cost of the cerebellum if the character for example run on one side into religious enthusiasm it is not unlikely to develop on the other a counterpoise ter poise of worldly prudence thus the shaker and the moravian are noted for thrift and mystics are not always the worst managers through all changes of condition and experience man continues to be a citizen of the world of idea as well as the world of fact and the tax gatherers of both are punctual there is as much poetry as ever in the world if we only knew how to find it out and as much imagination perhaps only that it takes a more prosaic direction every man who meets with misfortune who is stripped of material prosperity finds that he has a little outlying mountain farm of imagination which did not appear in the schedule of his effects on which his spirit is able to keep itself alive though he never thought of it while he was fortunate job turns out to be a great poet as soon as his flocks and herds are taken away from him |