ICE BEAUTY
If we had not our bewitching autumn
foliage, we should still have to credit the
weather with one feature which compensates
for all its bullying vagaries—the ice-storm—when
a leafless tree is clothed with
ice from the bottom to the top—ice that is as
bright and clear as crystal; every bough and
twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-*drops,
and the whole tree sparkles cold and
white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond
plume. Then the wind waves the branches,
and the sun comes out and turns all those
myriads of beads and drops to prisms, that
glow and hum and flash with all manner of
colored fires, which change and change again,
with inconceivable rapidity, from blue to red,
from red to green, and green to gold; the
tree becomes a sparkling fountain, a very
explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands
there the acme, the climax, the supremest
possibility in art or nature of bewildering,
intoxicating, intolerable magnificence!—Samuel
L. Clemens.
(1476)
Icebergs—See Gravitation and Icebergs. IDEAL, DEVOTION TO AN "It is not our aim to shine in the art of acting; that would be presumptuous and ridiculous in simple country people; but it must be the earnest desire of each one to try and represent worthily this most holy mystery." Thus spoke Pastor Daisenberger in his sermon to the peasant actors of Ober-Ammergau before the production of the Passion Play in 1870. In these simple, devout words of their minister, Archdeacon Farrar found the echo of the deeply religious feeling which animates the peasants of the Bavarian village, to which so many of the sordid outer world have thronged. There is no taint of commercialism nor worldly ambition, we are assured, in the hearts of these peasant actors. Time and again have they refused lucrative offers to produce their historic drama elsewhere; and they do not, it is said, yield to the temptation to extort money from the tourists who invariably flock to witness the performance. Even the recent floods have given proof how they can bear adversity.
(1477)
See Types, Distinct. IDEAL, THE A certain congregation could not find a pastor. They knew what they wanted. He must be a sound and able theologian, a literary man, up in science, polished to the last degree, good-looking, genial, a mixer, sympathetic, a hustler, not heady, humble minded, etc. A visiting minister, who knows them, told this story: "A certain gentleman came to a horse-dealer and gave the following order: 'I want a young horse with spirit and speed in him—something I'd like to drive myself for my wives and daughters. He must be entirely without blemish and work in single or double harness. He must be a perfect carriage-horse, and also good under the saddle, with several gaits. And he must be absolutely afraid of nothing.' "'Ah, I see—I see,' replied the dealer. 'You want a hoss without a speck on him; mettlesome, but gentle; young, but easily governed; guaranteed not to shy at anything; perfect any way you want to use him, in single or double harness, or as a saddle-*hoss, with all the gaits.' "'Yes, yes,' interrupted the gentleman, 'that's what I want exactly.' "'My friend,' answered the dealer, 'there ain't no sich hoss!'" The congregation doubtless caught the point.—Presbyterian of the South.
(1478)
See Being Before Doing.
IDEAL, THE, ATTEMPTED
Delos was a small but very celebrated
island near the center of the Egean Sea.
It was a sacred island, devoted to religious
rites, and all contention, and violence, and,
so far as possible, all suffering and death,
were excluded from it. The sick were removed
from it; the dead were not buried
there; armed ships and armed men laid aside
their hostility to each other when they approached
it. All was an enchanting picture
of peace and happiness upon its shores. In
the center of the island was a large natural
