The Making of a Man

by James W. Lee

I.

Yet the mind must first see through the eye of sense, before it is capable of seeing through the eye of reason. The universe, that really belongs to the mind, the eye of sense never sees, but it sees something that suggests it. Through the eye of sense man takes in a few colors, but these suggest to Rubens the magnificent visions which illuminate the art galleries of Europe. Through the sense man hears a few notes, but these are taken and multiplied into the symphonies of Beethoven.

Through the eye of sense, Columbus sees a few pieces of driftwood brought to the shore by the waves of the ever-restless sea; but these help him, through the eye of reason, to see a new world with its virgin forests, its wide-reaching plains and its majestic mountain ranges. Agassiz sees through the eye of sense an indentation on a rock in the State of Maine. This gives him a suggestion which helps him to see, through the eye of reason, the icebergs and the glaciers, which, in the early ages, ground their way to the south. The man of science sees through the eye of sense, only a bit of chalk; but from this a suggestion comes to him, which enables him to see through the eye of reason the oozy bed upon which the submarine cable rests; and the life that sported in the vast oceans when the Dover Cliffs were being formed. Through the eye of sense Cuvier sees an immense tooth, larger than any known at the present. Through the eye of reason he sees the huge animal in whose jaw it was set. Upon the comprehensive, active power of reason, man relies to determine for him the elements good for food, the power which serves his social nature, the truth which furnishes his intellect, the right which matches his will, and the beauty which corresponds with his æsthetic nature.

The universe lends itself in its totality to the scale and the dip of the particular capacity or power through which man, for the time being, seeks to appropriate it. It stands before the sense of hunger in terms of bread. It stands before the social nature in terms of power. It stands before the intellect in terms of truth. It stands before the will in terms of law. It stands before the æsthetic nature in terms of beauty. The person who has related himself to the world through all the powers of his nature, finds it capable, by turns, of feeding every faculty with which he is endowed. The universe is now all bread, now all power, now all truth, now all law, and now all beauty. It will be any or all of these, according to the side, or sides, of himself through which he addresses it. One of the great discoveries of modern times is the correlation of forces. The persistent force may express itself in heat, or light, or electricity, or magnetism. These are only different forms of the same thing, and any one may pass to any of the others. In the world, as a whole, we find the sense of correlation inheres, as it relates itself to the different faculties man has for taking hold of it. As the correlate of hunger, it is all bread; as the correlate of the social nature, it is all power; as the correlate of the intellect, it is all truth; as the correlate of the will, it is all law, and as the correlate of the æsthetic sense, it is all beauty. Objective reality is addressed to the many sides of human life, in order that the whole of it may be used up for the purpose of making a man. It is all to be drawn into manhood. As all rivers meet in the ocean, and all colors meet in the white ray of light; so objective reality, in all that it is for food, for power, for truth, for right, for beauty; is to meet in human life, for nutriment, for furnishment, and for the completion of manhood. If you want to know what the objective self of the fish is, look at the ocean. If you want to know what the objective self of the eagle is, look at the sky. If you want to know what the objective self of the elephant is, look at the Asiatic jungle. If you want to know what the objective self of man is, look at the conditions of food, power, truth, law, and beauty which environ him. The fish gets the water, the bird gets the air, and the elephant gets the jungle; but man, with a nature illimitable, with capacities inexhaustible, with hunger deep as truth, with aspirations as wide as right, and with an ideal as unfathomable as beauty, is the child of the eternal God, and is to get the fullness of his nature in nothing less than the entire expression which God has made of himself in objective reality.

II.

All truth, as we have before stated, which man has tried to express, is but a transcript of divine truth. The truth of astronomy is a transcript from the reality of the stars. The truth of botany is a transcript from the reality of plants. The truth of geology is a transcript from the reality of the earth’s structure. All right, which man has sought to embody in statutes, in constitutions, in enactments, is but a transcript from the will of God. So all beauty, which man has attempted to symbolize, is contained in the nature of things, and has its source in God. The beauty man has seen has taken in the process of history many forms. It is seen in architecture, sculpture, poetry, painting, and music. These are different forms of the same thing. As the persistent physical force expresses itself in heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, so genius is the persistent mental force which expresses itself in art. Sometimes the persistent mental force comes to such unity and fullness in some massive soul that from him it goes out into all the fine arts. Michael Angelo was by turns poet, painter, sculptor, and architect. Had he lived in Germany in the time of Beethoven he would have added to his other accomplishments that of music. The noblest specimens of music are only great cathedrals constructed out of sound, as Michael Angelo’s “Moses” was a great epic poem wrought in stone.

We wish to consider beauty in its relation to the æsthetic sense, in two aspects of itself.

The most important forms of beauty have as the physical conditions of their existence light and sound, and as the ideal conditions of their existence space and time. The names man gives to these forms of beauty, when he expresses them, or re-expresses them, are painting and music. For no element of man’s nature has more marvelous provision been made than for the æsthetic element. The objective conditions of the beauty, which correspond to the subjective æsthetic sense, are contained in sound and light. Sound and light are the invisible physical forces which play upon the objects of nature, and call from them the responses of melody and vision which the æsthetic nature appropriates for ecstasy and delight.

Capacity for sound is lodged in well-nigh all created objects. Minerals, woods, gases, and liquids even, contain the notes of the musical scale. Builders of pianos, harps, put no notes in the elements they use in the construction of these instruments. They simply comply with conditions necessary to bring them out. The music we get out of wood and steel and brass, as we find them arranged in the piano, the organ, the harp, by striking them at regular intervals, is the melody breathed into them when they were created. Beethoven, Handel, and Mozart created no music. Their genius was manifested simply in the power to bring out of forest and mine and cane-brake what God put into them.