Charles Wheeler thought the word actual would help them out of their difficulty.
I wanted to quote Emerson to the effect that the Ideal is more Real than the Actual.
Margaret agreed with Mr. Wheeler, and said that by reality she understood anything incarnated,—whatever was tangible. She then went on to speak of the Sphinx. What was it?
Elisabeth Hoar seemed surprised at the question. Was it not one thing to everybody?
Margaret called for her idea, but she would not give it.
Margaret said that to herself it represented the development of a thought, founding itself upon the animal, until it grew upward into calm, placid power. She revered these good ancients, who did not throw away any of the gifts of God; who were neither materialists nor immaterialists, but who made matter always subservient to the highest ends of the Spirit.
William White asked if the festivals of the Gods, the highest source of their influence over the people, did not show how little they had penetrated to the spirit of things?
Margaret thought ambrosia and nectar were proper emblems of Divine Joy. They were not to be taken literally.
“But,” persisted White, “the great body of the people thought them so.”