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Show Bennion: 1938] The Contributions of Philosophy to Civilization The great poets have themselves presses it thus: recognized this fact. Milton in Comus 37 ex charming is divine Philosophy Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar's sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. How Consider the union of metaphysics and ethics embodied .in these familiar lines from Oliver Wendel Holme's Chambered Nautilus: Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past. new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! Let each Note the implication of a spiritual world order and the ideal of personal toward realizing a spiritual ideal. Consider also James Russell Lowell's expression of the social ideal: progress "He's true to God who's true to man; wherever wrong is done, To the humblest and the weakest, 'neath the all-beholding sun, That wrong is also done to us; and they are slaves most base, Whose love of right is for themselves, and not for all their race." These poets agree with the ancient philosopher Seneca who "Philosophy is the art and law of said, life" and with Thoreau's ideas: so "To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts; but \ love wisdom as to live according to its dictates." to Philosophers are sometimes accused of being poetic, impractical idealists, If poets, they are in good company; if idealists and dreamers in the opinion of the worldly wise the answer to these critics is given by the poet Markham in his comment on the dreams and ideals of youth: dreamers. In spite of the stare of the wise and the world's derision Dare follow the star-blazed path, dare follow the vision! * * * * * * * * * The world is a vapor and only the vision is real; Yea, nothing can hold against Hell but the winged ideal. |
