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INTRODUCTION. |
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plied heads and hands and wreathed with the serpent symbol of eternity, expressed their crude conception of the mysterious force productive of life; the phoenix self-consumed and born again from its own ashes, uttered their voiceless hope of immortality.
•The symbol is a sensuous object which suggests an idea. Our hearts leap within us at sight of the American flag, because it is the symbol of our nationality, and are hushed into devotion by the cross because it is the symbol of our faith. "The plastic beauty of the Greek temple corresponded to the plastic beauty of the divinity dwelling within ;" and the Gothic Cathedral, supreme, symbolic expression of Christian art, typifies the central truth of the Christian religion—the unity which demands and realizes itself through variety.
The symbol is distinguished from the signs of language in that there is a real analogy, and not merely a formal relation between the image and the idea it represents. This analogy may be due to a quality common to the image and the idea or to association of the image with expeiiences illustrating the idea. Thus, the circle, symbolizes eternity through the merging of its end in its beginning; the cross symbolizes self-sacrifice through its association with the supreme sacrifice upon Calvary.
In all symbolic expression the correspondence between the idea and the object is vague and indeterminate. There is something in the image which corresponds with something In the idea, but the mind which seeks symbolic expression has not abstracted the element in which the resemblance lies. No devout fire worshipper could have told why to him the light was God. No Egyptian could have defined the thought he uttered in the Sphinx.
Finally, it is to be observed that symbolism is not confined to the arts of material representation. We read of symbolic numbers, symbolic figures traced in space, symbolic dances, and we find symbolism in the spoken and written languages of all primitive peoples. Whenever men have felt more than they comprehended they have sought analogies to their feeling, and gradually through perception and expression of these analogies have transformed feeling into thought.
Granting validity to the assumed parallel between the development of the race and that of the individual, should we not find in the manifestations of the child correspondences to the symbolic expression of primitive man? Scarcely have we formulated the question before we recognize that we have found the true key to the life of the child. New questions and illustrations numberless throng into the mind. The baby's eye is fixed and fascinated In all moving objects,—may it be because his own feeling of life grows vaguely conscious when confronted with life'a physical expression? The young child peers curiously into the birds nest, and eagerly watches the mother bird feeding her young—can he be unconsciously seeking a symbol of mother love? He follows with delighted eyes the swift flight of the bird through the air, and eagerly
bends to catch the fish darting through the water__may it |
sciousness his own ideal of freedom ? He cons over and over the history of Solomon Grundy, and listens with an attention that never flags to the marvellous exploits of Jack the Giant Killer ; is it because there is stirred in him by the one a vague presentiment of the continuity of individual life, and through the other a prophetic feeling of man's truest self as realized not in men but in mankind? He trembles and turns pale when the thunder smites his ear and the lightning blinds his eye—may there be something in his feeling akin to the awe which bowed the hearts of primitive men before an unknown power; and is there in his soul when he stretches out his hands towards the moon, a reflection of the feeling which in all ages has led men to find in light the symbol of the divine?
Through the hint given in history and confirmed by the instinctive self-revealings of the child it became clear to the mind of Froebel that if we wish to foreshadow fundamental truths to infant minds, we must present them in symbolic forms, and also devise some means for enabling the child to give them symbolic expression.
In his attempt to do this lies, I think, the originality and significance of his method. I shall endeavor to show how the symbolic idea pervades his songs and determines the sequence and application of his gifts.
Prefixed to each of the songs of Froebel is a motto intended to make clear to the mind of the mother the thought underlying the play. Glancing over these mottoes we are struck at once with the prevalence of a single thought. The unity that underlies variety seems to be the burden of every song. In one, for instance, we read :
" Wouldst thou with the child maintain a union true, Let the light of unity in all thy deeds shine through.
In another we are enjoined :
" Let not the child an inward feeling cherish, That he within himself one life can be ; Only a member of the living whole— A portion of this varied life is he.
We turn over a few pages, and are met by a new sugges* ion, inspired by the same thought:
11 Whatever singly thou hast played, May in one charming whole be made. The child alone delights to play, But better still with comrades gay. The single flower we love to view, Still more the wreath of varied hue. In each and all the child may find. The least within the whole combined.
Again, we are urged :
tfc Ever in relations with the child recall The truth that unity exists in all.
" We are made attentive to the fact that—
Early the child divines aright,
That several parts in one whole unite.
We are told that the child having, through his own ac |
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be that these types of unimpeded activity startle into |
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Translation of Hegel'* Philosophy of Art, by Wm. M, |
Bryant, from which I boirow definition and illustration of symbolism. 4 |
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