<TITLE>06. Par 36-43</TITLE>L-36   And then when he got it all so perfect, every corner off, and every place rubbed, and the eyes just right, every hair, and beard, all just the way it was, he stood off and looked at it. I--I think of--of many, many hard years of labor, and how he had to hold that same vision all the time, in his mind, of what he was going to do. And just think, that vision on his mind for so many years, to make it look just exactly to what it was! He caught the vision first, and how he had to work to that vision, cutting off and making down! And when he got it to where he perfected it, till it really got perfect; he stood and looked at it when he finished up that morning, with a hammer in his hand.
And he was so inspired when he looked at it, because the vision of his mind was standing before him, in reality. What he had seen, and the... his conception of what Moses was, there it was figured before him, what he had had in his heart all these years. And toils, and hours of sorrow and distress, and critics, and everything else, but yet he stayed right with the vision until it was completed.

L-37   And then when it was completed, he stood back with the hammer, or sculptor's hammer, in his hand, and he looked at that monument. And the inspiration of the vision that he had seen, of how to do it, inspired him so much till he... The inspiration struck him till he got beside hisself, and struck it across the knee, and said, "Speak!"

L-38 Now there's a flaw on that great image, on the knee, on the right knee. Just above the knee, about six inches, is a place (I've put my hand on it) about that deep.

L-39   After he had spent all that time, for years and years, to make this; then under the--the influence of seeing fulfilled what he had seen in his heart and in his vision, and desired to see, it was completed. And when it was completed, he was so inspired by it till he thought his own masterpiece should speak back to him. And he struck it across the leg, and holler, "Speak!" And it made a flaw on it. It put a flaw on the image.

L-40 To me, the flaw was what made it the masterpiece. Now, maybe to the--the mind that might think different, you think that spoiled it. No, to me, it--it made it what it was. It--it... Because of after so many years of careful work and toils, and inspiration, and so forth, of making it, his toil had proved not in vain. It was perfect, and that's why he cried out, "Speak!" Because, he had seen before him that he (was) had been able to achieve, to bring to pass the vision that was in his mind. And therefore, under inspiration, he done something out of the reason, out of the ordinary. He struck it, and hollered, "Speak!" See, he wouldn't have done that if he had thought. But he didn't think. It was inspiration of seeing what he had in his mind setting there perfectly before him.

L-41   His toils, and wearies, and long nights, and housed away from the world for days, and maybe eat a sandwich. And--and rub on it, and get back, and, "No, that's just not the way it was. Now it's got to come down to this," and rubbing it. Then when he saw it, just perfect, then he saw in reality. The negative of the what was in his mind had become real, it become positive, therefore it sprung into him. And it was so real that he must cry out, "Speak!"

L-42 To me, it was a reflection. It was--it was a compliment to his work, that his own work so inspired him, that he would become beside himself to smite it and to say, "Speak!"

L-43   I stood there and looked at the monument. I thought of the hours that the man must have put, in making that. They said how many years it was. But it--it was a reflection to him, because it was a contribution to his--to his great art, his great work of what he was doing. And when he finally was able to achieve it, it was so great.


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