GLAMOR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 9

GLAMOR.

J - '.- ———♦ —; — \,"]. f- Children do exist, as Mr.'Barrio ho >t pointed out, who do not,believe in fairie: 10 ami there aro a largo number ofgrowr d ups who have to all intents and purpose 10 a similar disbelief in everything that the 1- cannot see, touch, or handle; TheY'liv ; in a gross ■ world of; substantiality. Fo ■r them tho subtle sensations.'have no ex is istencc. The soul is but another' -nam ,e for tho liver, and in the loftiestSspiritun a conceptions of mankind they "see liicrel [t an evidence, of a disordered, Btomach ■ o !- brain. To -them, -tho' view of man : as . i .t little lower than the angels is supreme) x ridiculous,, and they revel in tracing th' t, evidences .of their -bestial origin.- At tlii ; 3 very hour ono of the ablest of natura philosophers is looking- gravely at- th j. courtships of moths and butterflies fc t . solvo the problem of: the origin' of- mai ,j and prove bis-descent from an''Africa'] (1 baboon. One would have no quarrel wit] t . the materialists if, they would- bo eonteh y to let the rest of us alone. But this i ~ .just what they cannot and' will not do , r They aro ' not willing that wo shall se. l life iwith other \oycs,. shall..find,beaiit' ,{ and colour, and charm where thov perceiv' ,f only dull gray. They aim at the aboli y tion of the glamour of life. The thing n that yOu see they tell us have no rea r existence. They are only like tho:iniragi a of cool waters and greet shades whiol l t comes sometimes to the- weary, trave]lei 6 in..the desert. There are no cool foiia j tains' to allay his thirst,'? no flowerj meadows for his wearied limbs; his plea j. sure is delirium and the wilderness ii ;. blank. And to them the type' of iniw I which prefers the mirage with its pleasani .. illusion to the.desert, with .its'bari'cnnos! |. is.ridiculousand ought, to bo suppressed d Glamour, in- tho smug grammarian'; 0 definition, "is' the supposed influence oi j, a charm on the. eyes making them sof _ things as fairer than they are.", Whc v knows? Who is to decido, in a question ~ of "fairness"? -Is it a.case of.'Ej-es and No Eyes, and are they who "see.things" j, just. the. victims, of-delusion, because tc some other "superior" people they arc ' not visible? The fact is glamour, ■ for all their definitions, is indefinable. Those j who love Nature and Art—the mirror'oi Nature—,who appreciate beauty and , arc conscious that this beauty does speak . to' them-at times in an intelligible ninn. 1 ner, though'not'in-a'tongue'that- fan'-be J' rendered, know how . utterly impossible it is to convey, the senso of their: impression to another "who has !no 6Uch love, lid''such appreciation;. It is not thatthej i will, not, but they cannot, explain. Theii experience is a sealed thing, for those who have never shared it. Music, poetry, pictures are the medium by; which artists convey, to us -their sonse of glamour, of : things, of ."the .light that never was on land or sea."' They show J v& many hidden beauties that otherwise 1 wo might miss. They withdraw our 1 thoughts from tho were machinery of life • to fix them, with appropriate emotions, '" on the spectacle of those great facts in 1 man's existence- which no machinery nf- • fects, "on the great.and,universal pas- : sions of men, on the operation of the 1 elements and'' the appearances of tho ' visible universe, on 6torm and sunshine, E on the revolutions of the seasons, on cold ' and heat, ..on loss of-friends and kindred, lon injuries',and resentments, on gratitude . and hope, on fear and sorrow." 1 , But artists v have no -monopoly of the ! faculty. Glamour exists for. all those who ,liave preserved the eyes of their chi.ldf hood. They.have,tho power that tho old [ alchemists sought—tho touch that trans- ' mutes commou; metal into ■ gold and '■ changes tho everyday prose o? life into 1 poetry. They soo tho beauty of evening, 1 of cities, .of forests tn'd seas no less than ' of a' face,' of a word, a glance, or a smile. ' Thoy aro alive to, the mystery,, of. those ' spring nights in which one can almost hear the grass grow,' tho buds burst opon, • tho earth split and gape to' give life, to ', the spell that broods over tho^wobded valley with its hazel-hidden stream; where 1 the bird sings among the thickets to tho ; spell that trembles in tho green twilight when tho stars begin to glimmer and the woods aro hushed. "Every moment some 1 form grows perfect in hand or face; some tono on the hills or the sea is choicer, than. 1 the rest; some mood of. passion or:insight or, intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and .attractive'to us—for that moment only." / And glamour for-the susceptible-exists uot only, in Nature'and Art but in the actual -.happenings of daily life. It- still mysteriously l surrounds royal personages, and many of the great ones of the earth, and svirvives even the,shock of the dreadful personal details published about them in the press. It clings to certain callings and still encompasses the priest and actor. There is a glamour about ago which old buildings possess, and even about that; excellent dust which clings to family relics and of which every particle 1 speaks of youth and tho happy days gone by. And there is the mysterious, glamour of: sex, and tho look of dawning love in a womaii'ci eyes more precious to in lover than anythiug that comes after. ■•■■ ■ -. ; ; -A. E. MANNING'FOSTER.' ,