A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1929, Page 1

A DAILY MESSAGE

ART AND IDEALS. Tun power of thought is mighty, but perhaps nowhere is that power so supremely illustrated as in sculpture. Thought can compel even dead stone to live, to speak, to carry a message. This it ever occurred to you that a great work of art in stone—set- up where the crowds go b.v —might do more to awaken men to a higher coitcopt oil’ life and duty than a hundred laws or a hundred sermons? It is not the stone, nor the marble, nor yet the brass or the stone, from which a. great statue is wrought, which gives the statue its great spiritual influence—it is the thought of the artist which stamps the statue with the hallmark of the spirit and compels it to carry his message. In works of art men • and nations have deposited the richest intuitions, ideas, and ideals they possess; from I works of art nations and men have derived their richest lesson. The magnificent statue of Moses was not merely a marble enlargement oif an ancient law-maker. What gave to Michaelangelo’s Moses its greatness and its grandeur was the fact that it was the symbol of the liberators of the human race, those men and women who, in every age and every clime, liberate men from the shackles of superstition, ignorance, and corruption. 'The statue of Pallas Athene was not merely that of a girl in armour; it was the symbol of an eternal concept of wisdom—that is, righteousness and power —through which the sculptor, following his own thought, aimed to lead those who could understand. And those who do understand recognize the Wilberforees and the Lincolns ofj the world in Michelangelo’s Moses—just as they recognize every great Teacher in the world’s history in the statue ol Pallas Athene the girl in armour. Yes, every great statue is an embodiment in stone, bronze, or marble, of great eternal principles, and of spiritual truths of highest range. Ours would he a nobler, finer, better city if some great sculptured masterpieces were set up where the crowds go by. For thought can compel even dead stone to live, to speak, io carry a message. —M. PRESTON bTANI.EY