30 LITEEAEY VALUES 



ant, echoing, reverberating, booming, grumbling. 

 All trades, pursuits, occupations, furnish types or 

 symbols for the mind. The word " whitewash " 

 has become a very useful one, especially to political 

 parties. Thoreau said he would not be as one who 

 drives a nail into mere lath and plaster. Even the 

 railroad has contributed useful terms, as side-tracked, 

 down brakes, the red flag, way station, etc. Great 

 men are like through trains that connect far-distant 

 points ; others are merely locals. From the builder 

 we get the effective phrase and idea of scaffolding. 

 So much in the world is mere scaffolding, so much 

 in society is mere varnish and veneer. Life is said 

 to have its " seamy side." The lever and the ful- 

 crum have their supersensuous uses. The chemist 

 with his solvents, precipitants, crystallizations, attrac- 

 tions, and repulsions, and the natural philosopher 

 with his statics and dynamics and his correlation of 

 forces, have enlarged our powers of expression. The 

 strata of the geologist furnish useful symbols. What 

 a significant symbol is afforded by the wave ! There 

 is much in life, in history, and in all nature that is 

 typified by it. We have cold waves and hot waves, 

 and in the spring and fall migrations of the birds 

 we have " bird waves." Earthquake shocks go in 

 waves and circles ; how often our views and concep- 

 tions of things are expressed by the circle ! It is a 

 symbol of most profound meaning. It helps us to 

 imderstand how the universe is finally inexplicable ; 

 that there is neither beginning nor end, and that it 

 retreats forever into itself. 



