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 possible. In the world's earlier days, conceptions of art were of the loftiest and purest order.

"The thoughts of the 'old world' period are written in well-nigh indelible characters. The colossal architecture of the temples of ancient Egypt, and that marvelous imaginative creation, the Sphinx, with its immutable face of mingled scorn and pity; the beautiful classic forms of old Greece and Rome,—these are all visible evidences of spiritual aspiration and endeavor; moreover, they are the expression of a broad, reposeful strength—a dignified consciousness of power. The glorious poetry of the Hebrew Scriptures, the swing and rush of Homer's 'Iliad,' the stately simplicity and profundity of Plato—these also belong to what we know of the youth of the world. And they are still a part of the world's most precious possessions. We, in our day, can do nothing so great. We have neither the imagination to conceive such work, nor the calm force necessary to execute it. The artists of a former time labored with sustained and passionate, yet tranquil, energy; we can only produce imitations of the greater models with a vast amount of spasmodic hurry and clamor. So, perchance, we shall leave to future generations little more than an echo of 'much ado about nothing.' For truly we live at present under a veritable scourge of mere noise. No king, no statesman, no general, no thinker, no writer is allowed to follow the course of his duty or work without the shrieking comment of all sorts and conditions of uninstructed and misguided persons"

Imagination is an artist's first necessary. The poet, the painter, the sculptor, or the musician