“The most beautiful things remain invisible to those who have not eyes to see. Look at the hundreds and thousands in every large city and, strange to say, more particularly in country districts, who know nothing of the beauty and sublimity of the heavens and nature around them. Many a farmer looks at the sky simply to note the changes of the weather. The magnificence of cloud effect, the glory of the sunrise and the quivering of the eternal stars, he never sees. And even those who profess to be lovers of nature, how little more than external beauty do they see? Do they indeed see any deeper than the surface of things and but rarely pierce the veil to behold with awe and wonderment the reality?”
_The Professor._—“Ah! Doctor, it is always, ‘but’. Isn’t it all true, with no ‘but’?”
_Dr. Roberts._—“Yes, I grant you that what Madam Purple said about the appreciation of nature is true, and even that the same thing applies to the appreciation of art and music and the drama. But—I was going to say—it seems to me your illustration is too lofty for the case under consideration. It is true one may rise to the greatest heights of consciousness under the influence of music and poetry and the contemplation of high ideals and if I understand you aright, Madam Purple, you hold these are the same high feelings that may be aroused by the grand harmonies of nature and by what perhaps is meant by the music of the spheres. Do I catch your meaning?”
_Madam Purple._—“Yes, Doctor, you have caught the idea in part, but music and poetry and the harmonies of nature too often exercise only what I might call an unconscious and transitory influence—not deep-seated in any sense—because men will not open their eyes and lend their ears. The great anthem of nature is ever being sung; life is joy and harmony; but alas, there are so many who will not open their hearts to the song and the sunshine. But I see you wish to say something more, Doctor.”
_Dr. Roberts._—“Yes, I grant this may be true, no doubt it is true, but to return to the old Greek tragedies, although there may be lofty ideas in them, I fail to see that they will produce the effect you anticipate. There is no music in them and they are altogether too cold and bare. Besides, what meaning do they hold, deeper than that which may be seen by the ordinary reader?”