Impression versus Expression

IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION. BY ERNEST M. HALL, B. A., EDITOR OF THE "CRIMSON," BRIGHAM YOUNG COLLEGE. It is not my intention to attempt a philosophic discussion of this subject, but simply to voice a few thoughts which I have gathered upon this timely theme. If, perchance, I say something which will cause someone to give expression to the hope that is within him, then this endeavor will not have been in vain. As soon as a child learns to talk, it is impressed, by its parents, with the idea that "children should be seen and not heard.'' This old-time maxim is evidently absurd. It is contrary to nature and opposed to law for a bright, active child to sit as quietly as the wax doll with which it plays. It is as natural for the little girl or boy to romp and play, laugh, dance, and be noisy, as it is for the rose to bloom or for the meadow-lark to greet the rising sun with his cheerful song. The flowers of the field are under no restrictions, but follow perfectly the life which God has given them. They receive the impressions from sunshine and shower, from morning zephyr and evening dew, and in a short time, give expression, as Nature intended, in the form of daisy, buttercup, and violet. All is done in harmony and the result is perfection. Likewise, the birds show their appreciation for sunshine and warmth. Scarcely have their feathers dried, after the shower, than the sweet songsters burst forth in such strains of rippling melody that the earth becomes a paradise. How readily all nature responds to impressions of light, heat, and moisture ! As soon as the April showers have passed, and the

genialwarmth of the May sun is felt, grass springs up in the meadow, the trees are in full leaf, the birds are singing their merriest melodies, and even the frogs add their song to the music of the meadows. The air is full of perfumes and pipings, and the purple halo of the distant mountains makes a fitting background for this charming prospect. It remains for man, blessed with intelligence and freedom of will, to thwart the laws of his nature and to act like the sponge, ever assimilating and absorbing, retaining all good things for himself and casting off only that which is bad. Man should follow more closely in the path of nature. Instead of behaving as God's noblest creation, he is too often unresponsive, unsympathetic, and reserved. He breathes in the bracing air of the spring morning, the fragrance of violet, rose, and geranium. He sees beauty on every side, yet passes on in silence. He would not let a fellowcreature know that he felt these things — no, he must keep them for himself. They were made for him, and he will enjoy them alone. How selfish, how cold, how unfeeling this is! Why not give expression to these feelings of inspiration? Point out to a companion the beautiful colors and the delightful odors of the flowers, and your friend who, probably, sees more beauty in the birds and busy bees, will have you enjoy things which you had passed by unobserved. Thus your pleasure is doubled and your friend has forgotten his troubles to praise the goodness of God. What should we think of the artist who could paint inspiring landscapes and beautiful faces, yet who never touched brush to canvas, a man who had splendid visions of form and color, but who chose to dream them in solitude? What should we think of a Milton who could write such a poem a3 "Paradise Lost," and yet who buries his sublime thoughts in the recesses of a shriveled soul? What sentence should we pass on a Daniel Webster who might electrify the nation with his eloquence and cause the Senate to hang breathless on his words, yet who allowed his great talents to slumber? Let us not pass judgment too hastily, however. Let us first examine ourselves, and see if we are not thinkers of great thoughts and doers of little deeds. Are we not capable of enriching the world with our actions, and gladdening the hearts of our friends

IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION. 669 with love? Are we not in the habit of placidly absorbing and assimilating without a ripple of expression or action? We believe that when we have attended college for a few years, digested a score of text books, listened to a dozen lectures, and absorbed the atmosphere of classic halls, we are educated. This is only half. An educated man is not always one who has disturbed the ghosts of dead languages, who has reveled in mathematical formulas, or who has studied the technique of art. He is sometimes the man who can cast strands of steel across the Mississippi and build a highway for trade, he is the one who can curb the waters of Niagara and convert their power into electricity, he is the one who can animate the heart of the student and cause him to seek after truth; in short, he is the man who can do something. To illustrate the dire results which follow lack of expression, I shall referto an article entitled, "White Slavery in the South," by Elbert Hubbard, in which is pointed out the conditions existing in South Carolina,where child labor is employed in the large cotton mills. Children of six years and upwards are compelled to work from six in the morning until seven at night. These little toddlers pace up and down for the entire day, in their bare feet, watching the spindles of cotton-thread revolving on frames twenty feet in length. The threads are always breaking, and the little toilers have no chance for rest. They are forbidden to speak with one another, and if they were not, the tremendous din of the machinery would make it impossible. And what are the results of this child slavery? Inside of four years, these tiny plodders find rest in the grave. It takes but a few months after entering the mill for a child to lose his memory, for him to forget the mother whose smiles and caresses gladdened his heart but a short time before. After he has worked there a year, it is impossible for him to learn to read, he has lost all desire to play, and he can never develop into manhood. When work is over he falls into a sleepy stupor, and when awake, looks at you through glassy eyes, which have a dreamy, stupid, inanimate expression. The little worker weighs about thirty- five pounds, he shrinks from your caresses, and makes no response to your smile. Referring to the cause of these terrible conditions, Hubbard

says: "The reason that thought flags and stupor takes possession of the child who works at one task for eleven hours a day, is through the fact that he does not express himself. We grow through expression, and expression, which is exercise, is necessary to life." As students and teachers, we think too much, and express too little. We are constantly drinking in, and but seldom opening our hearts that the feelings may flow out. We are too stern and implacable. We believe in cramming our minds with facts and profound thoughts, but not in allowing others to profit bylour labors. We fear criticism because much is expected of us. We remain silent because the sound of our voice is strange. We learn so much about grammar, composition and rhetoric, that we are afraid to speak or write, lest we violate one of the manyjrules we have learned. By the time the student has become a college professor, his mind is overflowing with impressions and thoughts which he has been assimilating during years of studious toil. He has enough material in cold storage to fill a good- sized encyclopaedia. His brain is a veritable granary filled with the fruits of the harvest. — He is prepared to act, but no he leaves the world of expression and action. He wraps himself in the profundity of his own thought, and goes into a state of hibernation; not like the bear, for six months, but, perhaps, for the remainder of his days. Professor James says: "No reception without reaction, no impression without correlative expression. * * * An impression which simply flows in at the student's eyes or ears, and in no way modifies his active life, is an impression gone to waste." Another writer says: "We grow through expression, and the large colleges, even yet, afford a very imperfect means for expression — all is impression and repression and suppression." This is undoubtedly true. We love to dream, we love to recline in the shade of balmy trees, while our minds explore the universe of the unreal. We delight to revel in the grandeur of our "castles in Spain," while our neighbor across the way builds him a mansion of brick and stone. We rejoice in the dream of the golden age to come, but we allow our dreams to float away in mist. The dreamer is like the rain from heaven, which only asks the sun of expres-

IMPRESSION VS. EXPRESSION. 671 sion to reveal its rainbow of beauty. The thinker is a diamond in the rough, which requires only to be polished to give expression to the splendor within. The world needs the man who can think well, but she worships the man who can both think and act. James Watt became impressed by the boiling of the tea-kettle. Today the whistle of the locomotive, and the puff of the steam engine, are the expressions of that thought. Marconi dreamed of sending messages through the ether, and now the crippled ship on the broad Atlantic calls for help, and her cry is answered. Edison saw the flash of the electric spark, and utilized its energy, until today the brilliancy of the electric light rivals the splendor of the noonday sun. Yesterday the master minds of this age thought of connecting two mighty oceans. In consequence of that idea, tomorrow we shall sail through the Isthmian canal. Man looked into the heavens and wondered at the mysteries of the universe. He thought, and that thought found expression in the modern spectroscope. Now he takes a ray of light from the milky way and reads the story of the stars. These and many other things man has done by mixing thought and^action, by combining impression and expression. What things man will yet do, are in the realms of the infinite. God has blessed us with many talents; he has granted us wisdom and power; he has given us light and intelligence; he has honored us with the privilege of eternal progression. Let us, then, use the great talents that have been given us, for the enlightenment of man and for the glorification of God. "Act in the living Present! Heart within and God o'erhead! "Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing; Learn to labor and to wait!" Logan, Utah.