Article July 22, 1905 Issue

The Real and Its Symbol

LEWIS C. STRANG.

Probably no metaphysical idea is more real to mankind in general than the idealistic concept which is identified by the word liberty. For countless generations, men have talked liberty, thought liberty, fought for liberty, and died for liberty; and thus has the race of men proved that it does not question the reality of liberty, though that reality is purely metaphysical,—a state of mind not directly cognizable by the material senses.

In New York harbor there stands a giant Statue of Liberty,—the bold attempt of an ambitious sculptor to embody in matter an artistic ideal; but no one, not even the sculptor himself, fancies for a moment that the Statue of liberty is liberty. The statue is merely the symbolic statement in terms of matter of a metaphysical reality, which has absolutely no connection with matter. So far from liberty the Statue of Liberty, that the statue is meaningless, even is a symbol, except as the imaginative thought of each individual perceives the artist's ideal above, beyond, and apart from its crude material embodiment. The Statue of Liberty is therefore seen for what it is, as a suggestive symbol, only as the thought of those who gaze upon it is in touch with the purely ideal.

Crossing New York harbor in the mist of the morning, one might not discern the outlines of the statue though the pall of fog and smoke, but be would not be disturbed by this circumstance. Though the Statue of Liberty appears dim and indefinite through the thick atmosphere, is ideal of liberty remains just as clear, and just as real as ever. It is plain, moreover, that the Statue of Liberty is of no importance whatsoever to the ideal of liberty, while the ideal of liberty is of supreme importance in determining the artistic worth of the statue. Indeed, the only value that the statue has as a work of art is due to the faithfulness with which it symbolizes an imperishable ideal, which an innumerable multitude of statues could neither change nor influence in the least, What if the statue were maimed or halt or blind? What if it were engulfed by the seas over which it stands guardian? What if it should crumble into dust with the burden of years and decay? What loss would there be? None—at least none that could be called irreparable, and for this reason: The ideal of liberty is not in the statue, and therefore can never be touched by anything that may happen to the statue. Even if destroyed, the statue itself would still exist in thought,—exist, too, in far more perfect form than could ever be expressed in matter.

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