Buck, J.D. - Brownings Paracelsus and Other Essays

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BROWNING'S PARACELSUS
AND OTHER ESSAYS.
BY
J.
D.
of
BUCK,
etc.
Author of "A Study
Man," "Mystic Masonry,"
"Sleep
is
hut birth into the latid
of Memory: birth but a sleep in the oblivion of the Past."
CINCINNATI:
THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY.

1897.
Copyright,
1S97,
by
J,
D. Buck.
TO
L.
C.
B.
THE MOST LOYAL AND HELPFUL OF
COMRADES
[n all
Endeavors. of the Author's Aspirations and
CONTENTS.
Introduction,
v
^3
Paracelsus,
Genius
6i
-
The Music of the Spheres,

Idols and Ideals,
-
7^
83
(iii)
INTRODUCTION.
We
is
are nearing the close of the Ninespirit
teenth Century, and the

in the air.
of unrest
Turn whichever way you
will,
the old foundations are being broken
up,
and the ancient monuments overThere was a period, within the

of those
still
turned.
memory
now
things
living,
when
causes
active
seemed
inoperative,
and
now
to
investigated
and exploded and

it
were regarded as
sacrilege
interfere
sacred,
was
to
question,
much more
**
with them.
as
Things settled
said, '*if
by long use,"
Bacon once
fit
not
absolutely good, at least

Society,
well together."
and even human thought, are

(V)
VI
INTRODUCTION.
Chinese puzzle, loosen one piece,
like a
disturb one section,

to
fall
and the whole begins
in pieces.
Innovation once started
runs like a mighty wave, gathering force

as
it
advances,
till it
sweeps
all
before
it.
Many
earnest souls see only the destruc-
tion left behind, but the prophetic spirit
discerns the germs of a
new
life
spring-
ing
from the ruins of the

is
still
old.
The
the
tidal-wave
advancing,
is
yet
promise of the newer Hfe
heralded by
many
riod,
signs.
in
We
are in a transition pe-
the
twilight that precedes the
dawn.
We
are told
by those who have
care-
fully studied the cyclic flight
of time and
the slow-revolving centuries, that the last
quarter of every century for
many
by
mil-
lenniums
events,
has been marked
similar
and
that certain great truths are
brought prominently forward as guiding
INTRODUCTION.
lights for the
Vll
coming
age.
Progress
is
the law of
life.
The human mind

;
is
reaching out in every direction
is
look;
ing inward and questioning the soul
is
looking
stars
;
upward
and
questioning
the
is
looking backward and questionIt
ing the ages.
was even so
at the
close of the Fifteenth
Century in the
time of Paracelsus and Martin Luther.
The same problems

though
In the
in
face us
now
as then,
a somewhat
different
form.
all
last analysis
these problems
merge
of
in one, viz., the higher evolution
man
It is
or the regeneration of the
human
race.
the undying spirit
in
perpetual
sense
conflict
with
the things
fire
of
and
of
time
life,
the
sacred
on the
altars
illumining the steps
by which we
ascend to the Adytum of Illumination.

It
has ever been the mission of genius
VIU
to sense this
INTRODUCTION.
conflict,
and discern the

viz.
,
true light
the
informing ideal,
spirit
all
the
as
supremacy of
over
intellect,
over matter and
lower functions in
man.
tier
Wordsworth and Tennyson, Whit-
and Emerson, struck the same keyand

gave
note
**A11
no
uncertain
sound.
goes to show," says Emerson, in

Over-Soul,
is
The
''That
organ,
the
the
soul
in
man
not
an
all
but
animates
is
and exercises
organs;
not a
function, like the

calculation,
power of memory, of
but
uses
of
comparison,
is
these as hands and feet;

ulty,
not a fac-
but a light
will,
is
not the intellect or
the
but the master of the intellect

is
and the
ing, in
will;
the back-ground of our belie
which they
an immensity not
Emerson,
quotis
possessed and that cannot be possessed."
And,
ing
again,
says
from
Swedenborg,
"It
no
INTRODUCTION.
IX
proof of a man's understanding to be

able
to
confirm whatever he
pleases
is is
but to be able to discern that what

true
false
is
;
true,
and
that
what
is
false
this is the
It
mark and
is
character of
dis-
intelligence."
this
power of
cernment,
is
this spiritual perception, that
the
guiding light of
genius
and
its
oft-inspiring
theme.
inspired prophets and seers
Among the
of this
''Light of the
Logos" stands
this
Robert Browning.
ening
spirit
Discerning
awak-
in
man, and the needs of

his genius
fires
:
the coming age,
lit
a lamp
altars
from the sacred
on ancient
and bore
it
aloft
Too
:
high, as yet, for

for the
the plodding
crowd
Too pure
market-place, and the tables of the

ey-changers,
the
it
mon-
shines like a nev/ star in
dawn
of the
coming age.
The
as-
tronomers of the intellectual firmament
INTRODUCTION.
it
have been puzzled in assigning

constellation,
it
to
any
and have often regarded

wanderer among the
yet defined
its
as a comet, a
stars.
They have hardly

calculated
its
orbit,
revolutions,
or tabulated
the
perturbations
produced
thereby.
its
Browning himself gave them

sign,
true
its
but
left
others
to
is
determine
not mind,
it."
magnitude.
''Spirit
nor
from mind, but
above
The new
planet shines not in the star dust of the
milky-way, but in the pure ether from
which
it
has emerged
the
''spirit of the
air," as Paracelsus called
it.
The new age

Century
builds
toward Robert
Browning, but the close of the Twentieth

will
not quench his
light.
It is
sixty years since
Browning published
production
his
Paracelsus.
Such a
from
a young
man
of twenty-three, shows
how
clear the light of genius shone in him.
INTRODUCTION.
XI
and how the
spirit
that
is
" above
intel-
lect " illumined
his
mind.
brief out-
line of the times
and the career of Para-
celsus
still
may
serve as a back-ground to the

at
briefer glance
Browning's crea-
tion,
which, with a glance at the philosois all
phy involved,
that
is
here attempted.
BROWNING'S PARACELSUS.
Paracelsus was born in 1493, and was
twenty-four years old

Protestant Reformer
when
the
great
affixed his
ninetyat
five propositions to the castle
church
Wittenberg, while
his senior.
Luther>as ten years

the Sixteenth
The dawn of
the
Century called into existence a

of
thought,
all
new
The
era
result
of
which
has
dis-
colored
subsequent events.
covery of a new
the
world in the west
and
dawn
of religious liberty in the east
events crowded into a single quarter of a
century mark
the
beginning
of
his
the
career of Paracelsus,
who
in
own
day was called the
''
Medical Luther."
strong character and a great innovator
(13)
14
like his
browning's PARACELSUS.
illustrious
contemporary, Para-
celsus created strong partisans
who
vied
with each other in immoderate praise
and
Wind hatred
and
condemnation
to
of the physician
who dared
in
ridicule
Galen and Hypocrates and

the
art.
to dispute
ancient authorities
the
heahng
His great learning was undisputed,

it
but
served only to increase the hatred
of his hereditary enemies, the Doctors
and the Apothecaries, who condemned
him
for writing his treatises
in the
Ger-
man
a
language instead of Latin, and when

his skill
by means of
he was able to cure
number of
cases publicly assigned
him
as tests,
and declared incurable by Doc-
tors of his time, such as Elephantiasis,

his
enemies,
as
might have been
ex-
pected, but clamored the louder for his

destruction.
There are few epochs
in
is
the history of
human
progress
when
it
BROWNING'S PARACELSUS.
either safe
or desirable to advance far
beyond the borders of conservative mediocrity.
This fact has often led to concealment

of
wisdom and retarded

It
the progress of
in the
his
man.
was even so
case
of
Paracelsus.
eries
Great as were
discovto
and the reformations he sought

his
inaugurate,
most
intimate
disciple
condemned him
the sources
bitterly for concealing

his
and extent of
knowledge,
his injustice
though the disciple repented

after the
death of his master.
Obliged
on more than one occasion
to seek safety
in flight for his opposition to bigotry
and
vested rights that were public abuses, the

great Physician had learned the necessity
and the
art of
concealment.
Physician,
is
Paracelsus,
the
the
Re-
former, the Philosopher,
idealized
to
by
Robert Browning and made
portray
its
the struggles of an aspiring soul in
evolutionary journey.
It
becomes
us,
therefore, to inquire whether
Browning
has read into the

ideal
sult,
life
of Paracelsus an
re-
and a meaning, an aim and a

largely his own, or whether
he has
only idealized a picture the outlines and

features of
which were actual existences

verification.
and capable of
Recorded incidents
subject
will
in the
life
of our
to
be entirely inadequate
solve the problem.
No
estimate given
by
his contemporaries,
whether friend or
our search.
foe, will materially aid us in
The knowledge which he
concealed
might, indeed, be of great service, and

the clues to that knowledge are not
cult to follow
;
diffi-
they are to be found in
the philosophy v/hich he taught.
The concealment complained

altogether
of was
due
to
the
ignorance
and
superstition
with
which
he
was
sur-
rounded and from which even

ciples
his dis-
were by no means
to
free.
is
The
always
power
limited,
impart knowledge
is
and
confined to the capacity
of the student to apprehend, and when-
ever the teacher transcends these natural

barriers,
he is misapprehended and usually
condemned.
As City Physician
at Basel,
and Pro-
fessor of Physic, Medicine,
and Surgery
by appointment of the City Council,

Paracelsus
his
made every
but,
effort
to impart
knowledge,
after
three
years
spent in such
city secretly
efforts,
he had
to leave the
and hurriedly
in
order to
avoid the unpleasant consequences that

threatened
him.
He wandered
with the
from
place to place consorting with people in
every grade of
ject of learning
life,
avowed
ob-
whatever might be gained
l8
from the most humble and obscure, no

less
than from the rich and powerful, and

art of healing
he practiced the
among
he
the poor gratuitously.
The
rich nobleif
men promised him
great rewards
should be able to cure them, and after
recovery paid him with ingratitude and
even persecution.
Paracelsus
left
no
gen-
worldly goods except his

erally transcribed
v/ritings,
by
his
disciples,
and
these
are
at
imperishable.
''Those who
*'
remain
live
home," says Paracelsus,
may
more comfortably than those who

I
wander about; but

live
neither desire to
comfortably, nor do I wish to berich.
come
riches,
Happiness
is
is
better
than
and happy
he who wanders
about, possessing nothing that requires

his care.
He
its
v/ho
v>'ants
to study the
his
book of Nature
feet
m.ust
wander with
over
leaves.
Books are studied
BROWNINGS PARACELSUS.
by looking
tain
:
ig
at the letters
is
which they con-
Nature
contents
studied by examining
in
the
of her treasure-vaults
every country.
Every part of the world
represents a page in the
book of Nature, book
and
that
all
the pages together form the
contains
is
her
great
revelations."
This
hardly the language of a vaga-
bond
earth.
Italy,
wandering
Paracelsus
aimlessly
visited
over
the
Germany,
France,
The Netherlands, Den-
mark, Sv/eden, and Russia.

to India,
tars
He
went
was taken prisoner by the Tarto the
and brought
Khan, whose son
he afterward accompanied to Constantinople.

in the
There are three important
factors
experience of Paracelsus to be
First,
taken into account.
his
instruc-
tions under his earHest teacher, Trithe-
mius;
third,
second,
the
his
visit
to
India;
in
and
his
philosophy revealed
20
writings
BROWNING
;
PARACELSUS.
light thus derived,
and by the
we need have no
his
difficulty in
determining
the sources and nature of his knowledge,
motive being clearly revealed by his

life.
utterances and his
Johann Trithemius was abbot of

Jacob
as
at
St.
Wurzburg and was celebrated
one of the greatest of Alchemists and

in Occultism.
Adepts
Young
Paracelsus
was under the abbot's instruction between

his sixteenth
and twentieth
between
years,
and went
to India
his twentieth
and twenty-eighth
years.
Much as
Para-
celsus revered the
book of Nature, and
much
as
he may have learned by wanits
dering with his feet over
leaves,
he
was by no means a
pher.
self-taught philoso-
Others both before and since his

far
day have traveled
more extensively
than he, without discovering "Nature's
treasure-vaults" or learning
terpret her revelations.
21
how
to
in-
From
Trithemius, Paracelsus derived
the key that unlocked the secret vaults
of wisdom, and in Indian lore he found

the ancient philosophy of which he held
the key.
The
careful student will find
not the least difficulty in discovering the
same philosophy
in the writings of Tri;
themius and the Eastern Sages
in fact,
the writings of the former are but com-
mentaries on the
latter.
Cosmogenesis
evolution of
and Anthropogenesis
the
of.
worlds and the evolution of man

the
subjects
are
and
treated
The Macro-
cosm
the
the
great world or Cosmos,
little
world, Microcosm or m.an, fur-
nish the theme,
and the philosophy
is
synthesis of the whole. This philosophical
scheme of evolution
differs
essentially
from that of modern times, which con-
22
fines itself largely to physical evolution
alone in
its
attempt to reduce
all
prob-
lems to terms of mass and motion.
The
older philosophy regards evolution as pro-
ceeding simultaneously on three planes
the physical, the mental, and the spiritual;
the co-ordination of which deterfinal result.
mines the
This
is
the only
sense in which the term synthesis can be

legimately applied to
human
evolution.
Such a
basis not only includes all evoluof,
tionary processes possible to conceive
but also includes every kind of knowl-
edge and every sphere of activity possible for
man.
Time
will
not permit of
demonstration or of illustrations in support of this view.

ers to the writings
for proof.
I
mmst
refer
my read-
under consideration
Paracelsus shows himself to have been

perfectly familiar
with this
grand and
BROWNING
PARACELSUS.
It
23
far-reaching philosophy.
not only ap-
pears fully in his writings, but the ideal
of renunciation and his indifference to

fame, riches, and even comfort, shows
conclusively that he lived in accordance
with what he believed and taught.
He
was therefore misunderstood and misrepresented, even
by
his zealous followers,
who could
not bring themselves to the

all
point of casting
things into the alem-
bic in order that the pure gold of truth
might alone survive as

possession.
their
one only
The
ideal
was too high; the
renunciation too great.

It is this characteristic in the
life
of
Paracelsus, I think, that Brov/ning seizes

as the ideal
and the theme of

it
his great
poem; and, making
less austere
than
cold philosophy, and more
human by
dramatic representation, and the "sweet
reasonableness"
of loving friends and
24
the
companions of
to the
his
early
life,
has
added
fame of Paracelsus, and
assured the immortality of his own, even

if
he had written nothing
else.
This view might be questioned from

the laments the
and disappointment put
into
mouth of Paracelsus by Browning.
But what great soul imbued with a high

ideal ever felt that all of the highest
and
best
lies
aimed at had been achieved ? Herein

the
evidence of strength,
It is left to
not
of
weakness.
weak and shallow
natures to be content and complacent with

the
humble attainments of one

really
short
life.
The
wise see,
as
plane after
plane unfolds, plane after plane beyond
and the narrov/ horizon of the known

but makes broader the expanse and more
prophetic the vision of the unknown.
It is this
prophetic vision, based on real

faith that is
knowledge, and guided by a
25
sublime, that constitutes the day-star of

the soul,
and the guiding

I
**
pillar
of fire"
by
night.
am
not aware of any evito
dence showing Browning
have been,
at so early a date in his career, familiar
with the philosophy taught by Trithemius,
by Paracelsus, and the Eastern Sages, as

such.
I
think
it
more
likely that the
poet's intuition,
**
born of real genius
his
apperception," as Leibnitz would have

it
termed
sensed the truth from a plane
higher than reason and clearer than philosophy, and, passing by the forms of
thought, gave the essence and the ideal
that
he saw.
is
This view
poet's
not only sustained by the
own
utterances, but really furnishes
the
key
to his
whole work.
''Mind,"
he
says, "is not matter,
nor from matter,

is
but above."
Paracelsus
made
it
to say
"Truth
is
within ourselves;
takes
no
26
rise
from outward things, whate'er you
believe.
all,
may
in us
There
is
an inmost center
in fullness;
where truth abides

wall
and around,
flesh
upon
wall,
the gross
clear per.
.
hems
it
in, this perfect,

is
ception
which
truth."
'*To
know, rather
consists in opening out a
way whence
the
imprisoned
splendor
may
light
escape, than in effecting entry for a
supposed
to
be without."
The guiding
thus
*'
light
and the
zest
that
holds the soul to the quest for truth, in
opening out a way
for the
is
im-
prisoned splendor to escape,"
Faith.
Not blind
belief v/here
the
**
Spiritual
functions are smothered in surmise," but

rather what
sionate
into
Wordsworth
calls
'
'
a pas-
intuition," or as
Browning puts
the
mouth of Bishop Bloughram,

faith
*'With me,
means perpetual unlike the
behef kept quiet
snake 'neath
Michael's
foot,
27
just
who
it
stands calm
because he
feels
writhe."
The work
of real genius, whether in

consists
literature or in art,
no
less
in
the perfection of details, and in the coordinate
proportion by which they are
concealed, than in the final result through
which the creative
spirit shines.
In the
very process of building the temple the
wood on
flame,
in
the
all
sacred alter bursts into
and
meaner things disappear

light.
the
presence of the dazzling
So
a living soul leaps from the canvas in

to
answer
our questioning gaze; or a

inspiring
warm and
human
heart throbs
from the printed page responsive to our
own, and aids us
in
" opening out a way
for the splendor "in us 'Ho escape." Apply whatever test we may to this immortal poem of Browning's and we
shall
not
be
disappointed.
We may
28
to
it
come
again and again with ever-
increasing admiration
and
profit.
The
poem
tical
has sometimes been called mys-
and obscure.
We
shall
do well to
be very sure that the obscurity complained of

dullness
is
not an excuse for our
own
to
of
it
apprehension;
is
and
as
mysticism,
derstood.
name but seldom

the
un-
True mysticism
is
to
quest for
life
is
wisdom what the
principle of
to
the body, viz., the revealer, that which

transports
the
it
clod
into
cloud-land
in
order that
may be hung
with rain-
bows and illumined with

mysticism
first
light.
True
senses the spirit behind

intelits
phenomena, and, ascending from

lect to intuition, guides
the soul to
heritage
with Divinity.
it
By
Hfting
the
is
body up
thus
the
brings the spirit down, and

revealer
and
interpreter
of
Nature
29
the
all
most practical and benefi-
cent of
our forms of thought.

seeks to
in,
lift
When-
ever
that
man
the veil of matter

to rise
hems him
and
above the
plane of the animal senses, he treads on

the border-land of mysticism
step toward clearer vision
is
;
and every
a revelation
from the hitherto unknown mystic realm.
Browning was a mystic
in the truest
sense; and yet there can not be found

in all literature a
more joyous and

life,
vital
sympathy with sensuous

affections of the
and the
human
heart than he
as free
has portrayed.
He
was
from a
sickly sentimentality
as
on the one hand
from intellectual dullness and mys-
tification
on the other.
He
stands,
think, as the Apostle of
Health in body,
his creations are
mind and
spirit,
and
therefore living verities.

It
would be audacious
to attempt in
30
one short hour to analyze a work of such

magnitude, depth and subtlety as Paracelsus;
to
condense
to
briefer
space
to
what genius has already condensed

an hundred pages,
or
to
extract
is
the
theme where the composition
so varied
and the harmony
is
so complete.
sincerity
And
we may
age
yet in
all
modesty and
glance at this creation of genius

inspiration,
and gather
and bestow hom-
for the passing hour.
We
are introduced to Paracelsus as a

full
young man of twenty,
of a noble
purpose, and in the midst of affectionate
and
inspiring
friends.
Here
is
his first confession,
showing how clear

his heart
'
:
his brain,
how warm
m.e
;
'
Festus
knows he holds
the joys
I
one scarce aware of all

Festus learns that
quit
when
every
fects
common pleasure of the world afme as himself; that I have just as
varied appetite
for
;
joy
derived
life,
from
common
aims that
things
a stake in
in short,
like his; a stake

life
which rash pursuits of
affords not,
would
as soon that I
destroy he may convince himself

shall act well advised."
''
was not born informed and

from
the
first,
fear-
less
but shrank
from
aught which marked
me
out apart from
men."
And
friend,
then he shows
after
how
Festus, his
Trithemius,
to
his
teacher,
" taught him (me)
know mankind and

ourselves to
know
God,
himself "
(''myself"), ''the sove-
reign proof that

is
we devote
seen in living just as though no Festus says:
God
left
there were."
"You
to
with
me
our childhood's
home
join the favored few
whom,
here, Trithe-
mius condescends to teach a portion of

his lore,"
"and
not one youth of those
32
SO favored, came, resolved like you to
grasp
all,
and
toil
retain
all,
and deserve
like his."
by patient
It
a wide renown
should be borne in mind that John
Reuchlin, a great Kabalist, and said to
have been the greatest

in his
linguist
and scholar
day
in
Europe, was the intimate

Luther's
friend
first
and preceptor of Luther.
course of lectures was delivered on
the
Metaphysics of Aristotle.
It
may
be thus seen that the
men who
really in-
augurated the renaissance of the Sixteenth Century were taught and inspired
by the
lin,
occulists,
Trithemius and Reuchfaith ere
though the reign of
long
eclipsed the rejuvenated philosophy.
But
ing
to continue our quotations.
Brown-
makes Festus say of

it
the aim of Parait
celsus,
**
*'was so vast in scope" that
desired to gain one prize in place of

secret of the world, of
many the
man,
and man's true purpose, path, and
33
fate."
The character of this aim consists

in this, that in itself alone shall
'*
mostly
its
reward
be; not an alien end blending therewith;
no hope, nor
elsewhere
fear,
nor joy, nor woe, to
move
you, but this pure devo;
tion to sustain
aspire."
you or betray
thus you
Paracelsus
replies:
''I
profess
no
lot,
other share in the selection of
my
than
this
my
ready answer to the
will of
God who summons me to be his God appoints no less the way to
organ.
praise,
than the desire to praise, the setting forth
such praise the natural end and service

of a man,
best
. .
and such
praise
is
attained
when
man
ne'er
attains
the
greater welfare of his kind."
"Be
*'
sure that
God
dooms
.
to
.
waste the strength he deigns impart. "
Be
sure they sleep not
whom God
34
needs."
.
**This
is
the faith in
which
I trust."
*'And
am
young,
my
.
Festus, happy and
free; I
can devote
.
.
myself;
. .
I
.
have a
life
to give."
*"T
the
is
time
new hopes should

light
animate
world,
new
long,
should
a race
so
dawn from new

weighed down
long."
sion
revealings
to
so
forgotten
Festus asks regarding this mis-
toward which Paracelsus aspires

it
''Why not pursue

some one of
Paracelsus
est
in
a fast retreat,
learning's
many
from
places?"
his
earli-
replies that
youth he has been possessed by a

fire,
true
an inspiration
to
this
great
work.
He
would " know, not for know-
ing's sake, but to
become
There
a star to
men
forever."
The
inward voice
hard
with
*'true fire" spoke

**
the
is
is
way: 'T
for flesh
frailty
to tread therein,
if
imbued
first
hopeless,
indulgence
have ripened inborn germs of
strength
:
35
sin
to
Wilt thou
adventure for
all
my
?"
sake and man's apart from

Paracelsus
says:
.
reward
"I
.
answered
.
not,
for-
knowing
him.^^
"Thence
quailing
truths
ward
with
...
fate
he
proceeds "loaded
at
" so
of
that,
the
mighty range
yearned
secret
which
for birth, I haste to
contemplate
its
undazzled some one truth
bearings
and
effects
alone
at
once what was a
speck expands into a star."

This reminds one of the answer given
by
Sir Isaac
Newton, when asked how

able
to
he had been
discoveries.
make such
'*I
great
He
o'er
repHed:
keep the
mind, re-
subject constantly before
my
till
volving
the
it
and
truth
o'er,
by and by
Genius
but
the
full-orbed
appears."
may have
various
methods,
30
BRO\yNING'S PARACELSUS.
is
fountain of inspiration
for
ever the same,
Truth
is
One.
for the aspiration of Paracelis
So much
sus,
which
so
fully
elaborated and
worked out
Aspiration
in the first part of the
poem.
alternates
with
attainment
through the
five parts, representing diflife

is
ferent stages in the

into
of Paracelsus,
divided.
which the poem
The
thought in the
poem
itself is
already so
condensed, and the form of expression

so terse, that in following the
theme one
may
scarcely discern
it
in
one part more

at-
than another.
In his periods where

is
tainment
is
the theme, the motive
the
same, but success not a thing to be envied or to boast

says,
'*I
of.
*'At worst," he
have performed
my
share of
the task.
The
rest
:
is
God's concern;
that I
mine merely
this
to
know
have
.
obstinately held
by
my own
work."
37
"What's
failure
or success
to
me?
have subdued
whereto
I
my
way
hfe to one purpose

it;
ordained
that
there alone I spy,
no doubt,
.
may be
life
satisfied."
'*I
.
have made
.
consist of
one idea."
''My aims remained

as ever."
supreme and pure
In the sec-
ond
part of the
poem
occurs a long epi-
sode between Paracelsus and his early

friend, Aprile, the
poet.
Paracelsus as-
pired to
know
!
Aprile, to love infinitely,
and be loved
So
far,
each
is
shown
to
have erred, and how love and wisdom

should unite
in
man.
In the death
''Die not,
scene, Paracelsus
exclaims:
Aprile;
we
must never part.
Are we
not halves of one dissevered world

this strange
whom
know,
chance unites once more?

till
Part ?
Never,
thou, the lover,
and
I,
the knower, love
until
both are
dis-
saved."
This wisdom without love,
38
interested as was his motive, Paracelsus

all
along laments as his "sin."

After the death of Aprile, Paracelsus
returns to his friend, Festus,

professor
is
appointed
and
city physician at Basel,
and
his
meets
at first
with great success,

rally
till
enemies have time to
and compel
In conver*'I
him
to seek safety in flight.
sation with Festus, Paracelsus says:
have vowed long ago
my worshipers
sagacity
all
.
shall
fur. .
owe
to their
own deep
to
ther information,
good or bad."
''Why
fret
strive
make men
't is
hear, feel, past their
themselves with what

to
power
comprehend?"
As
Festus
for
probes Paracelsus to find a reason

his
despondency, he
it,
replies:
for
''I
have
said
dearest
Festus;
the
man-
ner, 'tis ungracious, probably.
You may
have
it
told
in
broken sobs one day,
and scalding
tears ere long, but I thought
39
best to keep that off as long as possible."

*
'
No
it
must
oft fall out that
one whose
it
labor perfects any work shall rise from
with eye so worn that he of
all
men
least
can measure the extent of what he has

accomplished.
tasked,
is
He
he
alone who, nothing
nothing weary too,

little
may
clearly
scan the
effects."
In speaking
it
of the will of God,

differently
Paracelsus puts
earlier days.
now from
"The
constant talk that
men
of your stamp,"
he says
will, as
to Festus, ''keep
up of God's
they style
it,
one would swear
man had
but merely to uplift his eye,

will
and see the
in
question
charac-
tered on the heaven's vault.
'Tis hardly
vnse to moot such topics.
Doubts are
I
many, and
faith
is
weak.
know
as
much
wills
of any will of
God
as
knows some
tortured brute what man, his stern lord,
from
the
perplexing blows that
40
but
there,
plague him every way;
of
course, where least he suffers, longest he
remains
I
my case
. .
and
for
such reasons
plod on."
fail
''God's intimations
rather
in clearness than in energy;
'twere well did they but indicate the

course to take like that to be forsaken."
. . .
''We have
to live alone to set
forth well
God's praises."
pages of the poem, in a
discourse
In the
last six
long and uninterrupted
the
states
dying words of the philosopher to his

friend
his
Paracelsus reviews
his
faith
his
life,
ideals,
methods, and involves,

All
rather than explains, his philosophy.
through the poem,
and aspiration
alternate with uncertainty
and despondthe
ideals
ency;
yet through
all,
are
held with a grasp that never for a mo-
ment weakens, and pursued

though with varying speed.
unerringly,
4I
Browning has taken the
life
and the
philosophy of Paracelsus, so
vealed in his
life
far as re-
and
writings, as a back-
ground, containing sufficient novelty and
enough of the mystical and unknown
upon which
to idealize the evolution of
the aspiring soul of man.

in his earliest
Wisely trained
youth
in spiritual things,
and keeping himself unspotted from the

world, conceiving a noble mission to be
fulfilled
by him
at
any
cost,
and with a
all his
faith
sublime enough to compass
doubts and survive even in the face of
seeming
is
failure,
the hero of the

the
poem
made
to
epitomize
journey of
humanity
after natural selection has given
place to v/hat
*'
Prof.
Fiske has termed

I
Divine Selection," and
doubt
if
any
of
thing commensurate with the range
thought, the analysis of experience, the
measure of motive and design, and the
42
true conception of the highest ideal in
the perfectibility of man, can be found
elsewhere
this
in
modern
literature.
That
is
was Browning's conscious design

into the
shown by words put

the dying Paracelsus.
mouth of
wave
up
Tracing through
all
the
evolutionary
life,
lower
he says:
"The
worm
has enterprise, deep quiet droops
with evening, triumph takes the sunset

hour, voluptuous
transport ripens with
the corn beneath a
warm moon
this
like
happy
face
and
;
to
fill
us
with
regard for
his
man
with apprehension of
passing
worth, desire to
work
his
proper nature out and
ascertain his rank
and
tend
life,
final
still
place."
" For these things

is
upward, progress
is
the law of
man
not
Man
as yet."
He
speaks
of hopes and cares that " grow too great

for
narrow creeds of right and wrong
which fade before the unmeasured
for
43
thirst
for-
good while peace
rises in
them
evermore."
The
genius and the intuition of the

as-
poet appeal to the emotions and the

pirations of
men,
for
who among
This
us does
either
not
feel
far
more than he can

understand
?
is
express
or
what
the
offer
Ruskin long ago marked out

mission of true poetry, viz:
as
"To
spiritual
noble
Ideals
grounds
are
for
noble
the
that
emotions."
at-
found
about
into
little
in
us,
mosphere
fashioned
are
thence
forms of
thought,
and
ex-
wrought,
by
little,
by
daily
perience into the fabric of our lives.
There
life
is
thus furnished both a zest in

ideal to
and a conscious aim or

;
be
striven after
faith,
in other words, a living
"with
like
perpetual
unbelief
kept
quiet
the
snake 'neath Michael's
44
foot;"
soul
to
not blind belief
that
lulls
the
sleep with shallow self-complafires
cency and sense of safety from the

of
hell.
But, says one in this materialistic age,

this
is all
very well in poetry

if
interesting
and
all
beautiful,
practical.
you
please,
but not
at
It
was the philosophy em-
bodied in the writings of Paracelsus, the
key of which he drew from the teachings of Trithemius that
led
him
to his
as-
great discoveries
and gave him such
cendency over the common men of

age.
his
to
flee
They had indeed
the
power
to
put him
down and compel him

undo
his
for safety, his

secrets,
but they could not discover
work,
or really
tarnish his fame.
Even
the present age
has hardly grown to his estate, because

it
still
gropes in the slough of material-
ism,
and rings the everlasting changes
45
on the transformations of matter, losing

sight of the indwelling spirit, the
mover
and
inspirer of
all.
The sublime philosophy with which

the writings of Paracelsus fully agree,
furnish
proof,
and
continuous though fragmentary

estabhshes
:
three
fundamental
propositions
(a)
less,
all
*
'An Omnipresent, Eternal, BoundPrinciple,
and Immutable
speculation
is
on which
since
it
impossible,
transcends the power of

tion
human concep-
and could only be dwarfed by any

expression or simihtude.
It
is
human
beyond the range and reach of thought."

Something
like this idea m^ay
calls
be drawn
from what Emerson

soul,"
the
"Over-
and from Herbert Spencer's ''Unit
knowable," and
has been vaguely con-
ceived and expressed by
many names
set forth in its
but in no case has
it
been
46
philosophical bearings and held
intelli-
gently and
consistently as
in
it
this
*'
old
Prin-
philosophy.
Plotinus called
the
ciple of Principles," but
he was versed
in the ancient philosophy.

(J?)
The second
of the
;
proposition
in
is,
"the
as
eternity
Universe
toto
boundless plane
periodically, the playinces-
ground of numberless Universes

santly
manifesting
'the
and
disappearing,
called
*
manifesting stars' and the
Sparks of Eternity.'"
{c)
''The third proposition

all
is,
the funda-
mental identity of
Souls with the Uni-
versal Over-soul, the latter being itself an
aspect of the
Unknown Root; and
the a
obligatory pilgrimage of every Soul,
spark of the former, through the cycle

of Incarnation (or necessity), in accord-
ance with Cyclic or Karmic law, during

the
whole term."
Upon
these
three
fundamental
alike
to
47
propositions,
applicable
Cosmogenesis and Anthropo-
genesis, the
whole philosophy proceeds

is,
and man, the Microcosm,

step,
at
every
involved and evolved with Cosmos,
or the
Macrocosm.
"Progress
is
the
law of Life," declares Paracelsus, and in

the magnificent
oration
put
into
his
mouth by Browning
in the closing scene,

all
he clearly portrays the unity of

that climbs to
life
man's
estate,
and the One-
ness of
all
Nature that bodies forth one

plan.
sorts
universal
Paracelsus
of
says:
:
*'
possess
vast,
two
knowledge
one
shadowy
I
hints of the
;
unbounded
aim
of
once pursued
secrets,
the other consists
many
caught while bent on

a few prime printo
nobler prize
ciples
perhaps
offer to
which
last I
may conduct
m.uch.
here.
These
my
fellows
Now
bid
me
chronicle
the
first
of
48
these
my ancient
bid
revert
:
study
to
and
wild
in
effect
you
the
courses
scat-
just abjured
must go find them
tered through the world.

principles,
Then
simple
for the
they are
so
(being
chiefly of the overturning sort (that
one
time
is
as
proper to propound them as

at
any other
to-morrow
my class,
in print.
or half
a century hence
if
embodied
For
they
mankind intend
to learn at
faith to
all,
must begin by giving

acting
them and
are
on them."
to
The
"
principles
thus
shown
be universal and eternal

it,
and, as
truth
Emerson put
is
to
honor every
effi-
by use"
the key to their
ciency in the evolution of the soul.

cisely the
Pre-
same conclusion
is
to
be de-
rived from Browning's idealization and
from the
facts set forth
in the writings
and
life
of Paracelsus.
principles,
The
which are so simple,
BROWNING
are
on.
first
PARACELSUS.
49
to
be apprehended, then acted
Enter the Path.
'"Tis hard
imbued by
first
for
flesh to tread therein,
frailty
hopeless,
if
indulgence
have ripened
Paralife
inborn germs of sin to strength."

celsus
was known
to
have led a
of
celebacy,
for v/hich
many and
diverse
reasons were assigned, the true one not
only has Browning rightly conceived, but
such
is
ever the rule
when man
seeks to
become more than man.
Next, the ideal
of knowledge for the help of man, de-
void of worldly or
selfish
motive,
and
pursued with a zeal and determination

that nothing can
quench or turn aside;
and, finally, renunciation, or the

poverty.
It is
vow
his
of
bi-
said
by one of
ographers that Paracelsus received the

Philosopher's
Stone from an Adept at

152 1,
Constantinople, in
therefore
when he was
years
twenty-eight
of
age.
BROWNING
lays
PARACELSUS.
scene
poet,
Browning
Paracelsus
the the
between
Aprile,
at at
and
the house of a
Greek conjuror
same
year,
Con-
stantinople in the
this
and makes
in
''jewel of
that
wisdom"
Love
to consist
learning
and Wisdom
are
halves of one dissevered world, in whose
union and completeness the lover Knows,
and the knower Loves.
No
kind,
gaunt and pale
asceticism
hud-
dling in caves, or fleeing

is
from human
but
here
discerned;
knowl-
edge and love combined and devoted

wholly to the service
of
man.
it
With
claimed
It is
such aims, and so pursued,
is
that the higher faculties unfold.
thus they " open out a
way
and
for the
im-
prisoned splendor to escape "

that
self
the Truth
is
dwells
within us
wisdom's
when crowned
with Love.
That such conceptions entered into
the philosophy of Paracelsus there can
be no possible doubt; that he carried
them out in practice can not now be demonstrated unless

eries
it
be by the great discov-
he made and the great wisdom he
possessed.
He
anticipated
Harvey
in the
discovery of the circulation of the blood,
Mesmer
netism,
lars,
in a
knowledge of Animal Magin the
Hahnemann
Law
of Simidis-
and made a vast number of other
coveries and innovations.

the use of symbols
He taught by
in allegories
and wrote
whenever he dealt with the profounder

secrets
he had
acquired,
not from
selfish desire to conceal, or a
superficial
habit of mystifying, but,
as
Browning
makes him say
*
:
'
My
worshipers shall
all
owe
to their
own deep
sagacity
further
information,
good or bad."
and the
teacher
instructs the dull
intelligent alike
and
in
the
same way.
The
intelligent
52
profit greatly
by the
instruction, but the
dull are
;
little
benefited thereby.
Browning
is
not merely the interpreter
of Paracelsus, but he uses Paracelsus as
a mask while he interprets himself.

lifts
He
and
suc-
his
hero to his
own grand
failure
ideals
shows alike the way to

cess,
and
and
all
through, so noble, and yet

frailties,
so
human, conscious of
ever
yet
to
turning
''the
from
alluring
snares
imprisoned
star.
splendor"
is
and
the
beckoning
If aspiration
followed
by attainment there succeeds a period of

despondency so natural
soul
"so
to
every lofty
least
worn
that
he,
of
all
men, can measure the extent of what he

has accomplished."
We
ally,
must
not, therefore, take too liter-
and never
as a finality, the despondsin
ency and the confession of
and
fail-
ure put into the mouth of our hero, for
BROWNING
PARACELSUS.
53
herein, through honest introspection, lies

his strength
and the magnet
that
It is
draws
rather
him ever
to his great ideal.
in the periods of boasting
what he has
accomplished, and in scorn for the igno-
rance and stupidity of man, that his hu-
man
frailty
appears.
Step by step, the
poet analyzes every mood, as the deep-
ening tide of
life
sweeps on, and not one
phase
is
lost or is in vain.
Even
scorn,
contempt, and hatred are ministering angels to the aspiring soul,
where the sure recolors
bound
light
reveals in
soul's
warmer
clearer
brink
the
highway.
These dark
gulfs being bridged
and crossed, bring

falter at their
charity for those
who
or stumble headlong dov/n their steep descent.
These, too, will
rise,
purified
by
sore
trial,
and stronger grown and more

sun-lit valleys
glad for the smooth and
and
the
''mountain
heights
where
54
All seeming
evil, rightly
dwells repose."
scanned, but leads to greater good, and

so the Nations climb from age to age,
and man, the Eternal Pilgrim, journeys

on.
"Were man
little
all
mind, he gains a
station
enviable."
is
The
learning gained in any age

cast aside.
soon
old
outgrown and
The same
problems front us now

still
in other garb, yet
the riddle of the sphinx unsolved,

is still
and death
mortal
love
still.
triumphant,
all
man
im-
Were man
heart,
and
his
at
only theme, his heart would

trials
break
stand,
he could never undermisery would seem

;
and
useless
all
the curse of
its
existence
existence at
best a curse, o'ershadowed

last in
by the
fear
of death, and sunk at

livion.
dread ob-
^'LovC; hope,
fear, faith
these
make humanity ;" and wisdom

love
joined to
these
are
**
halves of our dissev-
ered world"
55
soul.
the
empire of the
Love
is
the
life
of the Soul,
wisdom the
light
light of the
Mind, and love and

immortal destiny.
intelligence,
lead
man
to his
Most people of
now-a-
days, are familiar with the history of the

rise,
the progress, and the results of the
great
Protestant
Reformation,
inauguless
is
rated by
generally
Martin Luther.
Far
known
of
Trithemius,
his illustrious
the pu-
great teacher,
pils,
and of
Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa;
of Tauler and John Reuchlin, and of the

society designated
* *
by the strange
little
title,
Friends of God, " or the
book
called
"Theologia Germanica," to which Luther wrote a most

tion.
approving introduc-
This was four hundred years ago.

in the v/estern
Humanity
just
world was then
waking from the sleep of the dark
ages,
and superstition stood with
the
56
multitude in the sacred place of religion,
and
in the gross ignorance
and
crass
ma-
terialism then so prevalent, the ''Theo-
logia
Germanica" found few
readers,
and the ''Friends of God" were believed

to
be the enemies of
the reign of faith,
religion.
Then began
four
and
for
hundred years creed

place
and
of
dogma
and
have usurped the

knowledge.
light
Again the slow-revolving
centuries have brought us to the
dawn
of another century, and in

the
its
twilight
same conditions may be discerned.

earnest, aspiring souls are groping
Many
their
way and welcoming
the
growing
dawn
with thankfulness and hope.
We
have banished many superstitions and

refined
our materialism, and Salvation

has had
It
its
by
its
faith
day and weakened
hold.
remains to be seen whether
we
are to any extent Friends of
God
in
the
57
sense
set
forth
in
the
Theologia
Germanica, or whether Agnosticism on

the
one hand, and materialism on the
other, shall again blot out the light of
knowledge.
This knowledge
is
idealized in
Brownthe
ing's Paracelsus in a
form
fitted to
thought of the new age, intellectual and

philosophical, rather than mystical
and
devotional as in the work attributed to

Tauler.
in dress,
Forms of thought,
change from age
are
eternal.
like fashions
to
age, but
principles
Truth weaves
lan-
many
garbs
and speaks a varied

it
guage, yet at heart

changing.
is
one and un-
There
in
is
a legend in the far east, told
many
ways, of a beautiful face seen

lattice
but for an instant at a
window, or
again on the market-place, and lost ere

the admirer could turn and speak.
It is
58
seen again
when
quest,
despair has well-nigh
ended the
and
so
between weari-
ness and hope the lover journeys on until
he learns
at last that in
order to gain his

Self.
It is
quest he must rehnquish
the
in
parable of the journey of the
soul
quest of the Higher

the soul with
its
Self, or the
union of
god
within, dwelt
upon
by the
mystics,
in
and portrayed by symbol
and allegory
religions.
this earth,
is
many
in
a legend and in of
all
The
perfection
man on
heaven,
and not
some
far-off
the ideal of the soul's evolution.

it
As
Browning puts
"
Man
Nor
is
not
Man
deem
as yet,
his object served, his
shall I
end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly

forth.
While only here and there
a star dispels
The
darkness, here and there a towering
mind
BROWNING
PARACELSUS.
59
the
O 'erlooks
host
Is out at
its
prostrate fellows;
when
once to the despair of night,
When
all
mankind
alike
is
perfected,
Equal in full-blown powers

then,
I
then, not
till
say, begins
man's general infancy,"

earth,
"
Such men are even now upon the

Serene
amid
the
half-formed
creatures
round."
This
is
no meaningless and mystical

fertile
conception drawn from the poet's
imagination, but the outcome of man's
higher evolution, the details and methods

of which Paracelsus taught
and BrownIn
ing fully outlines in his great poem.
portraying the methods, the aims, ideals,

failures,
and triumphs of
his hero.
Brown-
ing has grasped the scheme of the higher

evolution, which in
shall
some happier time

fruition.
come
to full
His hero,
6o
therefore, stands idealized as the type of
the aspiring soul of
man; hedged about

and ever sinking
by
frailties
and hampered by ignorance,

its
yet true to
self
lofty aim,
in
its
is
sublime ideal.
prophetic
The
closing
sentence
" If I
stoop into a dark tremendous sea oi

cloud.
It is
but for a time;
I press
its
God's lamp
Close to
late.
my
breast;
splendor, soon or
Will pierce the gloom.

day.
I shall
emerge one
You
understand
me
"
**And
this
was Paracelsus."
GENIUS.
There
manifest,
is
certain
energy of
soul
sometimes in thought, someis
times in action, that
called
genius.
it
Though
the
word and the

difficult
qualities
represents
are
to
define,
and
though often misapprehended and misused, genius

is
nevertheless recognized
by a consensus of opinion among men,

the majority of
whom
it
could either give
no
intelligent reason for their opinions,
or would assign for

diverse
estimate
signs
reasons the most
imaginable.
is
That the popular

it
thus vague, and that
as-
genius to those
erratic,
who
are merely
peculiar,
unbalanced or insane,
irrespon-
and who
are thus excused as
(6i)
62
sible,
GENIUS.
by no means proves
solid
is
that there
is
no more
that
and enduring
basis
for
which
so Httle understood.
place, real genius
is
In the
first
sponposit,
taneous and not studied, and

sessor
is
its
likely to
be the
last to
is
claim
or recognize the fact that he
different
it.
from
his fellows in possessing
The
noisy cackle which heralds certain productions,

in
and seeks
is
to forestall
judgment
others,
both commonplace
less
and
vulgar,
and the
noisy air of conceit
and self-complacency, often engendered
by mediocre achievements
thought or the
field
in the field of
of action, equally
stamps the individual as both shallow and

void of judgment, and to attribute genius, or
even a high degree of
talent, to
such an individual would be the hight of

folly.
Genius does spontaneously and
GENIUS.
63
almost unconsciously that which others
can do indifferently or not
at all.
Genius
self,"
tive.
is is
thus " ever a secret
to
it-
and
It
creative rather than imita-
may be
rules
it
ignorant of
all
rules of
composition, and yet conform to them so

that
new
may
result in trying to
just
explain
how
was done;
describe
as
the
anatomist
may
the
muscles
brought into action in boxing or fencing,
and yet be without

sword.
talent,
skill
with
fist
or
There
while
is
thus no genius without
talent
alone
is
neither
is
creative
nor spontaneous.
There
sublime self-confidence in
that
is
is
men
of genius
far
removed from
self-conceit,
and
born of clear vision and identification
of the Thinker or actor with his work.
He
his
is at
home
with
it
and
feels sure
of
ground,
and may thus seem dogis
matic.
But there
a wide margin be-
64
GENIUS.
that
tween such dogmatism and
which
springs from ignorance or shallow conceit,
and
this
it
is
which gives
it
recog-
nition
and
authority,
permanency and
enduring fame.
barren
realities,
Genius deals with no

but
with
living
it
propositions,
and
identifies itself with all
touches.
The realm
of genius,
there-
fore, is the real
world of essential forms,
and and
intuition seizes the ideals of nature
of
life
and
translates
them
into
forms of thought or methods of action.
Genius
nature,
is
therefore
the
interpreter
of
standing
above
the
plane
of
reason, yet
it.
by no means divorced from

for the
Master
will,
it
time of both reason
and
in
brings to light things hidden
gross darkness from ordinary minds,

translates
life
and
them
into form
It
and sub-
stance,
and power.
it
outwardly
creates that which
inwardly perceives.
GENIUS.
65
not a collection
The mind
of
man
is
of self-acting powers and passions, not a
mere bundle of
attributes,
but essentially
a unit capable of great variety of forms

of action,
and
essentially one.
*'
The very word Man means

and the
real
to think,"
man
is
the Thinker.
The
various faculties of the mind, like reason,

will
or
imagination,
are
the
forms of
action, the
modes of energy, manifested

Without
this
by
the unit, man.
concep-
tion of
man
as a unit, rather than a
mere
aggregate,
self-consciousness
is
a misIt
nomer and would be inconceivable.

is
just at this point
that
all
it
theories of
is
heredity break down, and

this point that the
also
at
foundation and nature
of genius
mitted.
is
neither inherited nor transto this
The apparent exception

real.
statement in the case of genius in music

is
apparent only and not
The
real
66
GENIUS.
musician would be impossible unless the

bodily organs responded to the intuitive
genius within.
But
it is
the vehicle,
and
not the driver, the instrument and not

the player, that must
depend on
soil
heredity.
Heredity furnishes the
and condi-
tions of growth, not the immortal seed
of genius, here or elsewhere.
Genius
not
is
the heritage of the real man,

progenitors, but from the
all
from human
divine source of
being.
The organs
of action in man, the faculties and passions, furnish the theater of action of the
Thinker, define
its limits,
its
dimensions, prescribe
its
circumscribe
powers, repretendencies,
its
sent
its
environment,
predilections.
its
bias, its
All
these stand
definitely related to the real

tools with
man, as the
which he works, and the con-
ditions
under which he must use them,
and
as
no one of them, nor
all
together,
GENIUS.
67
his condi-
can constitute man, but only

tion of action, so
is
genius not thus deis
termined.
Genius
like
a concealed
fountain, that bursts forth spontaneously

in a
mighty rushing stream, seizing and

its
shaping
channels as
it
goes
in the real self
attributes,
Having located genius

in
man,
what are
?
its
and
whence derived
Comparing men of ordinary powers

with
men
of genius, and comparing that

viz.,
which most nearly resembles genius,

talent,
with genius
itself,
we may be
consists.
able
to discover
wherein genius
We
have already found that genius

self-conscious
is
spontaneous,
creative,
of
power,
and " ever a
secret to itself,"
is
while the ordinary individual

in just these
sesses,
deficient
attributes, or
at
best posin
perhaps,
some one of them
slight degree.
6S Talent
is
GENIUS.
a thing of growth,
It is
and
is
evolved by application.
of cultivation;
rience
;
the result
or,
in
one word, Expe-
and there must be an inborn

all
capacity as the measure and limit of

experience, resulting in talent.
In other
words, talent represents that which
we
ac-
have learned, and
is
the
result of
cumulated experience.
The most
is
strik-
ing characteristic of genius

that
that
it
does
which apparently
it
has never learned

learn-
to do, or
had the opportunity of
ing, unless
we admit
the platonic theory
of pre-existence.
Even inborn tendenfail
cies or innate capacity,
to
explain
the creative genius of a child

if
Mozart,
we have
rightly located genius as the

itself,
central
also
is
power of the ego
unless
we
admit that the ego,
the real
self,
created at conception, and this again
GENIUS.
69
would annul
for the ego.
all
theories of immortality
If talent represents that
which we have
learned,
and
is
the result of accumulated

if all
experience, and
talent,
if,
men
is
of genius have
while the reverse
not true
and
further, talent belongs to the faculties
cultivated,
while genius
is
the potency
and power of the ego
itself.
Genius
is
related to the Thinker, as precipitated ex-
perience.
It is
what Plato called a Remisoul,
niscence of the
and therefore a
outer planes of
is
" secret
to itself"
for
on
all
consciousness,
reminiscence
the
memory
of
pre-existence.
This spark
of genius, that illumines space and time

with the mellow light of the
past,
is
forgotten
nowhere more
delicately
and
beautifully expressed than

sell
by James Rus-
Lowell, in his poem, called
70
GENIUS.
IN
THE TWILIGHT.
floats
Sometimes a breath
hy me,
sent,
An
odor from Dreamland
That makes the ghost seem nigh me
Of a splendor that came and went, Of a life lived somewhere, I know not
In what diviner sphere,
Of memories
That can not
that stay not and go not,
Like music heard once hy an ear

forget or reclaim
it
it,
A
To
a
something so shy,
would shame
it
make
it
a show,
I
A
As
if I
if I
something too vague, could

to
name
it,
For others
know,
it
had lived
or dreamed
it,
As
had acted or schemed
it,
Long ago
THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.

Order and Harmony are the
alike of Earth
first
laws
and Heaven
for as earth
and heaven are rather contrasted condithan different localities, so order is

tions
probut the sequence of harmony, the
cession of events,
and the embodiment
to of ideas in visible things according
natural relations.
Ail fret
and
friction,
all
the sorrows
and
pain of earthly existence, can
be
traced directly to disharmony.
Harmony
health
all
and order
in the
life
of
man mean
and happiness.
stress
soul,
In thus removing
and
friction
is
from the body and
man
placed on the lines of least
resistance,
and the journey of the soul

(71)
72
through the abodes of matter becomes a
march of conquest
inspiring
the
soul
is
with a pean of victory.

a science of music beyond emotions, and just as
all
Just as there
all
pleasurable
harmony may
be reduced to orderly sequence in the

combination of chords according to exact
mathematical ratios of vibration, so also
in
every department of the
life
of man,
law and order, based on the same unvarying

health,
mathematical
law,
determine
harmony, and happiness.
Music, as a mere pastime,

soothing, comforting, and
may be
but
unito
inits
inspiring,
only
when
it
is
made
to
reveal
it
versal laws of
its
harmony does
and
mount
true place as the
educator and
spirer of the soul,
as the revealer of
It is
the
Music of the Spheres.

office
not the
highest
passions
of music to portray the
of
man.
The grandest and

most complicated symphony, with
all
73
its
contrasted yet related parts, leads
the
mind by simpler melodies

and and where the wings of the
to
the finale
breathless,
at last to silence that is
soul,
nerved
by the confluence of harmonious sound,

forget
to
beat
the
air,
ecstatic
isles
vision
touches the shores of the
of the blest
and the inner being opens

silence, the
to the singing
Every
great composer, every true musician, has
sensed
this
inner vision; every lover of

its spell.
music has been under
Can such
a thing exist as a vagary of

?
the emotions without an underlying law
without a corresponding universal principle ?

I
is
hold that the highest

not to exercise the
office of
music
emotions,
to the
but to lead the soul of
man
ap-
prehension of
this universal
is
law of har-
mony.
Its office
not to amuse, or to
74

and
into
exercise the emotions, but to elevate
purify them.
Music thus entered

all
the ceremonies of
initiations.
is
ancient genuine
science of music
The whole
based on mathematics, and just as the
harmonious exercise and elevation of the

emotions was secured by music, so the
instruction
and elevation of the mind
was
derived from mathematics.
Thus
the training of the neophite in the mysteries did not
end
in ecstatic vision, but
in
knowledge of the universal laws of
harmony.
individual's
The harmony secured

life
in the
enabled him to grasp the
laws of universal being, and opened to
him the music of the

Music
is
spheres.
not an arbitrary invention or
an accidental discovery of man.

intervals in
The
music
exist in the
very nature
of things, and the true musician senses

these as he senses light and color by con-
75
sonant vibrations in the corresponding
organ in his
own
nature.
FaiHng
in this,
he can only repeat mechanically certain

tones, whether with instrument or voice,
and
his
music
is
soulless.
His execution
it
may
be technically exact, but
never
touches the heart.

the great revealer. the
Isis
Music thus becomes

It
opens the door
to
celestial
harmony.
The Egyptian
all
was called "the Mother of

''AH that hath been,
all
all
Livis,
ing."
that
and
that shall be,"

lift
and perfect
veil.
har-
mony
only could
the
Modern
science has re-discovered enough of the
v/isdom of Pythagoras and the old

ates to discern that
all light, all
Initi-
color, all
sound, and every form in nature depend
upon and
brations.
are determined
by
different vi-
The form
of every living be-
ing, the crystallizing of every
snowflake
as of every physical substance, the vein-
76
ing

of
every
leaf,
the
penciling
and
fragrance of every flower, no less than

the forms of thought and the subtle play
of
human
upon
emotions, are thus

vibration,
all
depend-
ent
conform
to the lav/s
of harm.ony,
and belong
to the
Music of
the Spheres.
ter in the
Nay, every atom of matis
Universe
set to music,
and
whether dancing in
light or coalescing in
is
the deep dark bowels of the earth,

of the universal diapason of nature.
part
For
the
universe
is
not dead, but literally

life,
breathing and pulsating with

the law of that
life
is
and
harmony.
star,
Every
through
atom, as every sun and
ceaseless motion, under the law of eter-
nal harmony,
is
striving for equilibrium.

is
Man
suffers
only because he
out of
harmony with
himself, with Nature,
and
with the Eternal source of Being.

pain
is
Every
the cry of an organ out of tune

every sin and every crime
is
77
at-
but the
tempt of a
soloist to ignore the score of
the orchestra to which he belongs
and
It
to
is
which he
is
indissolubly bound.
these discords that
drown out the Music
of the Spheres, and
we
are so intent
upon
in
our our
own
discords,
and so bound up
that
own performance,
symphony
to
we
are deaf
to the
of Hfe set before us,
and when called
account console our-
selves with the reflection that
we
are no
worse out of time than the other

bers of the great orchestra
mem-
Nature
is full
of music, as
it
exists only
through the laws of

only
is
harmony.
Man
discordant and out of tune.
How many
of sound?
have visited Niagara and
heard only the roar of waters and the crash
Eugene Thayer,
the
well-
known
sis
organist, has published
an analy-
of the music of Niagara Falls.
He
78
says:
"I heard nothing

in
but a perfectly
constructed musical tone, clear, definite,
and unapproachable
fection.
its
majestic perall
complete series of tones,
uniting in one grand and noble unison,

as
in
an organ.
...
Let
arrived at
my
conclusion," he says, ''both theoret-
ically
and
practically.
me
first call
attention to the third
and fourth
note, G,
notes,
and G.
The ground
or take
was so
deep, so grand, so mighty, that I never
could realize
or hearing;
four
it
it
into
my thought
every-where
well
but these two tones, only

lower,
octaves
were
with a power that

as heard.
made
will
itself felt as
But
it
be rephed, these
to
two notes were too low
be detected
by the sense of hearing.

determine the pitch
?
How
that
did
I first
caught the
harmonic notes above them

definite in pitch,
were
and then, counting the
79
number
notes,
of vibrations of these lower two

easily
determined
the
distance
feat-
below.
ure,
And
here comes a curious
which proves that Niagara gives a
tone and not a roar.
The seventh
note,
the interval of the tenth, was of a
power
and clearness
to the
entirely out of proportion

in
harmonics as usually heard
an
organ.
Were
weak
the
tone
of
Niagara a
mere
either
noise, this seventh note
would be
or confused or absent alto-
gether.
"What
is
is
Niagara's rhythm?
Its
beat
just
once per second.
Here," he con-
cludes, *'is our unit of time
the
chro-
nometer of God."
But
it
is
not alone the
movement
of
matter over matter that results in sound,

or the friction of
moving bodies with the
elements of our atmosphere that
may
become
audible.
The
basic function of
8o

is
the Ether
sound, and long before the

light
appearance of heat and

mensity of space
vibrations.
is
the
im-
filled
with resonant
Both the resistance of the
ether
stars
and the revolutions of suns and

are
ear
constant
is
and
uniform.
it
The
is
human
to
a time organ, and
be-
cause there are no interruptions, nothing
break the sound of revolving planets,
that
we do not hear
the sound they cause

If the
in boundless space.
mutual
at-
traction of planets
relative
size
is
determined by their
and
density,
and they are
held to their orbits by mutual attraction
and repulsion, so
also the ratio of
moveall
ment of each
to
each and of each to
must coincide.
But what
different
is
this
but the
of
movement of
symphony of
instruments
varying tone as in an orchestra?

creation must be a fact
The
and
not a fancy, and the singing of the morn-

ing Stars a veritable reality.
subjective
side
to
8
is
There
the physical senses,
and
this
only becomes active

is
when
the
this
outer function
suspended.
On
inner plane the senses merge in one;
we
the
hear the hght and see the sound, and

sense or feel the harmony.
This
is
reason
why
the greatest seers have been
unable to describe their experiences in

ecstatic
vision.
All
language
fails,
as
outer qualities disappear and the inner
essence of beauty and harmony are revealed.
When
every fiber of man's beuniversal
ing throbs in
harmony with the
soul of nature, the universal
rhythm no
longer broken into wrangling discords by

the perverted will and disjointed
memat-one
bers of man, then will
man be
with
all
and join
in the great
symphony.
Nothing so determines and defines the

progress of
man
as his
power
to
sense
82
and apprehend these revelations of nature,
and
his insight into that orderly se-
quence which determines the rhythm of

motion and the harmony of law.
*'
The
other world"
is
far
nearer than
it
we
is
think.
The journey by which
reached does not extend through space,

or over mountain
and ocean, nor need
we
wait to pass through the gateway of
death to enter the celestial realm.
We
have only to open our souls
to the divine
harmony and
silence
all
discords within,
in order to hear
and
to
understand the
IDOLS
Man
Pilgrim.
AND
IDEALS.
the
has
been
called
Eternal
Immersed
in
in matter,
and
in-
volved
sense
and time, man faces

Sphinx and
tries
the riddle of the
to
solve the problem of existence;
to dis-
cover the Great Secret.
The
akin
center of man's being
is
a Spark
is
of Divinity.
to
The
spirit in
man
thus
the
Dithe
the
Supreme
Spirit
and
source of his conscious existence.

vinity
basis
is
thus
fact
involved in
man
of
as
and
of his consciousness, as
fountain
life.
the
is
exhaustless
the
It
destiny
of
man
to
attain
per-
fection.
He
gain
descends
into
matter in
evolves
order to
experience, and
(83)
84
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
outwardly in form the latent potencies
which he involves from the fountain of

all
being.
In the very dawn of

the
human
existence
center
of consciousness begins to
the
first
expand
v/ith
experience,
and
the ebb and flow of ing

of
life,
the inbreath-
of
Divinity and
the
outbreathing
Nature (involution
and evolution)
in
constitute
self-consciousness
is
man.
This process
typified not only in all

life,
lower forms of
ganic
cell
but in every
or-
where the
tides of life
ebb and
flow from circumference to nucleus,
and
from nucleus
to circumference.
Action
al-
and reaction are thus opposite and

ternate
with
continual
adjustment,
an
instant of equilibrium,
and then renewal
of the conflict
the
onward sweep of the
restless tides of life.
This instant of equilibrium
is
rather
IDOLS
ideal
AND
IDEALS.
85
than actual; a nascent point, de-
void of extension or duration.

otherwise, did equilibrium obtain
Were
and
it
all
antagonism cease, death on the physical

plane would result
;
just as
by cessation
of breath, the inhalation and exhalation

of
air,
the heart ceases to beat and

life
all
the wheels of
It
is
run down.
the conscious ego in
his
thus
that
man, the very center of

two worlds, the
ical,
being focalizes
spiritual
and the phys-
and
the
circle
of consciousness
continually expands by experience
drawn
this
from both worlds.
The poet sensed

:
by
"
intuition
when he wrote
life
Between two worlds
hovers like a star
'Twixt night and morn upon the horizon's

verge."
Here
key
to
its
is
the process of
is
life,
and the
interpretation
is
analogy.
What
we
consciousness
in its last analysis,
86
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
as as
know and can know

grasp Nature
finitely small
little
we can
The
in-
in
its
entirety.
and the
infinitely great, the
mathematical point and boundless space,

alike elude us.
They
alike represent the
principle of antithesis in the form of the
thinking faculty in man.

Spirit
and Matter, God and Nature,

exist in
Space and Time,
man
to
as Ideas,
and whenever he seeks

these he creates an Idol.
externalize
Thought
is
an externalizing process.
is
Consciousness
passive
condition
its
thought being
ing states.
that
I
its
active form,
chang:
Hence
is
the old saying
"All
am
the result of what I have

interpret
all
thought."
in
We
experience
terms of thought, and thus self-concontinually
sciousness
expands.
We
Arrest
thus derive our ideas of things.
thought, stop
all
progress in the changing
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
87
panorama of
periences
idols,
events, repeat the

after
same
ex-
day
day and we build
and
cling to our
own
creations as
though they were living and everlasting

verities.
In the progress of evolution, in the
long
journey of the Eternal
Pilgrim,
man's conscious experience must compass,
not exhaust,
the whole range of
possible experience.
Man
must know
in
kind
all
that can
be known by
Plato says
:
intelligent inquiry.
knowledge of
He who has not even a common things is a brute

'
'
among men; he who
has an accurate
is
knowledge of common things alone
man among
all
brutes
but he
who knows
that
is
can be known by intelligent

a
energy
god among men."
This continual expansion of the range

of conscious experience, presenting the
88
world
thought,
to
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
in
consciousness
slowly
into
terms
of
converts
the
the
personal
trans-
and limited
universal;
forms our hmited ideas into universal

Ideals.
That
which
is
makes
evolution
possible in
man
his self-consciousness
through which he epitomizes in potency

Eternal Nature and the Supreme Spirit.
He
step
will realize the
potency
in actuality
by step
as experience expands.
is
All experience, therefore,
to
be
reis
garded as means to an end.

ever seeking
final
finalities,
is
Man
and imagines
be found
never
that
happiness
to
in those
final,
experiences which are

fortuitous
;
but
can never be results but only
processes.
lasting
And
so
we
ring
the
everantici-
changes
in sensation
and
pation, exhaust experience in sense
and
time
till
vitality
wanes, zest dies, and the
equilibrium of desire and disappointment
IDOLS
Stops
AND
IDEALS.
89
the
is
wheels of
life
and physical
death
the result.
The very
goal at which
is
we aim and
preserve
the
zest
blindly sense
the cause of our defeat.
To
maintain action and
while holding in the mind

equilibrium,
ideal
while
striving
is
consciously
for self-mastery, this
the great secret.
To
accomplish
this
we must dethrone
our idols and cast out desire.
Man may
and Reason
eludes
then establish between Faith

that equilibrium
which ever
him between
or
desire
and
disap-
pointment,
disgust.
between
sensation
and
Just in proportion as he de-
ideals thrones his idols will the universal or ignores faith When take their place.
dethrones reason superstition

sult.
is
the re-
Whenever reason denies
faith the
wings of the soul are clipped,

grovels in the slough of matter,
and man
becomes
90
a
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
the
brutish
it
worm
of dust.
Endow
soul
with self-consciousness
and
be-
comes human.
Let the personal
self in
man
refuse to advance toward the uni-
versal
and
it
stagnates, turns back,
and
descends to
for
it
the
plane of
the
brute
ceases to involve the divine po-
tency,
sire,
becomes
lost in sensation
is
and
de-
and evolution
arrested.
is
Universal Nature
of Divine
the
embodiment
Nature pro-
Consciousness.
it
gressively evolves only as
involves the
thought of the All-Intelligence.
Behind
Nature and beneath

cesses
is
all
evolutionary prothe plan
the
Divine Ideal;
toward which
all
Nature builds.
This
is
Plato's world of Divine Ideas.
These are
Cir-
perfect forms, or universal Ideals.
cumscribed
limited
by the
personal
equation,
the
ex-
by
self-consciousness,
perience of
man
gathers thence his ideas,
IDOLS
distorted
perfect
AND
IDEALS.
caricatures
to
9 of
as
images,
mere
forms.
He
clings
these
though they were
final verities,
converts
them
of his
into idols,
and worships the creation

This
is
own
hands.
the great
illu-
sion; the
Maya
of existence.
In order to evolve with nature
man
must
must relinquish and

first
let go.
Man
it
;
serve in order to
his
life
command; must
must
in
lose
in order to save
continually
universal.
merge the personal
the
is
The
sin
of
separateness
the darkness of ignorance.

to grasp
all.
In seeking
and
to hold,
man
is
eventually loses
Self-consciousness
lost, in
circumscribed,
bewildered, and
of
self.
the consciousness
True Religion ever presents the

of
self-sacrifice,
ideal
while superstition builds
idols of flesh or of stone.

It is
thus that the sublimity of Faith
92
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
degenerates into time-serving intellectual

belief,
and man builds
idols after the pat-
tern of his
own
infirmities.
Then
rea-
son again assumes the throne, breaks the

idols
in
pieces,
and
restores
to
the
world a purer
faith.
is
All evolution
thus
stayed by the
apotheosis of selfishness, and
man remains
involved in the pleasures of sense and

lost in the illusions of matter.
Perfection
Pilgrim,
is
the goal of the Eternal
and
all
progress
implies con;
tinual adjustment of ideas to Ideals
of
the personal and evanescent to the universal
and
eternal.
The
voice alike of
Nature and Divinity

ears
:
cries forever in
!
our
Pass
Let go
Let go
Pass on
on!
The
question of immortality for every

is
individual
a problem in consciousness.
is
Conscious identity
always present as
IDOLS
the primal
AND
IDEALS.
93
endowment
of the
Ego, and
the continuity of experience holds from
day
to
day with the intervening dreams
of night, or with dreamless sleep.
Here
memory
is
the connecting link.
The
in-
complete experiences of the more recent

past lap over
to-day,
and blend with those of
and
so
we have
and time.
continuity of
thought
in sense
People often object to Reincarnation, because they can not remember the experiences of a past
life,
when
in
fact
they can not retain a tithe of the experiences of the present

life.
Now, take
in
all
the elements
and
faculties
man
with which
we
are familiar,
and
imagine
man
in the life after this in the
subjective world to be deprived of the

recollection of the events of this present
life.
He
as
would there face the same

now.
problem
94
If
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
he
still
possessed a thinking faculty

that the
life
and ascertained
jective world
in the sub-
came
at last to
an end, the
still
continuity of existence
solved.
If
would be
un-
memory
fails
to retain the experilife
ences of the present
during
its
con-
tinuance, and as with the aged, imbecile,

or insane,
apparent
may fail altogether, it must be that memory of past experience

depended upon
or past lives can not be
for a demonstration of continued exist-
ence, independent of
all
change of en-
vironment.
The proof of continued
existence
lies,
therefore, in the conscious identity of
the Ego, viz., in self-consciousness.
As
the theater of self-consciousness continually
expends, as the individual involves
by experience more and more of the

Divine Life, and broadens and evolves
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
95
more toward
the ideal or perfect form,
so the consciousness of immortality also
deepens as the kinship of

ordinates
all
all
life
co-
and confirms the continuity of

experience.
individual
In seeking
empirical
testimony from without of a
thing which can by no possibility be so
proven,
we overlook
or ignore
the
in-
ternal evidence,
and darken or obscure
the light of immortality within our

souls.
own
The
istence
It is
feeling or intuition of endless exis
the natural heritage of man.
the
endowment
of that
*'
spark of
Divinity" which has given him self-consciousness
Man may
it
imagine that he
as
has "reasoned
away"
he becomes
involved in the senses and outer cycle of

physical
faith,
life.
Reason may thus
strangle
and the individual become
be-
g6
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
his
wildered and
vices.
lost
through
own
de-
The
belief in immortahty,
even that of
very ignorant people, which certain agnostics
and students of science assume

is
to despise,
thus far wiser and better

all
warranted from
scientific
and
philo-
sophical considerations than any negation
can possibly be.
There
is
a science of
life
which solves
the riddle of the Sphinx, and, grasping the

secret of death, reveals the mystery of
Being.
As a mere
of
little
speculation, this science

It is
is
worth.
not speculative, but
applied science, that can
become a
guid-
ing light in the Journey of the Eternal

Pilgrim.
As a
prerequisite,
one must
have an open mind; must be divested

of
all
prejudice, in order to examine dis-
passionately,
weigh accurately, and
dis-
IDOLS
criminate
wisely.
AND
IDEALS.
97
Faith
and
Reason
must be
as a light
in perpetual equilibrium
Faith
comguided
on the path
Reason
as a
is
pass
by which the Pilgrim

star of destiny.
toward the
All
idols
must
be
dethroned,
and
Truth discerned as an Immortal Ideal.

Perfection must be recognized as the
goal of evolution
tion in
sins,
;
not a negative perfecoff follies
goodness by cutting
and
but perfection in knowledge, good-
ness, understanding,
and power
The
Pilgrim must determine his true
relations to his
fellow-men,
and adjust
those relations, step by step, as experi-
ence expands.
He
must
not, like chil-
dren wearied with play and tired of the

toys that served to amuse, be discour-
aged
at
the outlook
and sink down

in,
in
despair.
Here Faith comes
with a
sure promise of final triumph,
and gives
98
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
confidence to endeavor and zest in
life.
Nothing so clogs the wheels of progress

for the aspiring soul
as selfishness.
No
Ideal
is
so helpful
and inspiring
as that
of the Universal Brotherhood of Man,
and the kinship of
all Hfe.
The onward
all
sweep of evolution
ity
bears
human-
and
all
life
toward the same goal.
The
of
selfishness of
one retards the progress

rise
all.
No
one can
alone.
is
The
ever
advance guard of the human race
composed of those who sink

good of others
;
self for the
of those
who
to
" Step out of sunlight into shade,
make
more room
for others."
These but illumine the darkness with a

light that
is
Divine, and again step aside
that others
may
enjoy the
light.
is
The
ever
true light that shineth in darkness
a light from within.
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
99
is
The
ence.
basis of all
knowledge
all
experi-
Have we
not
had experience
side, of passion
enough on the animal and

lust,
selfishness
and greed?
Must
on the
in
we
ring the everlasting changes

scale,
till
downward
faith is
is
quenched
darkness and reason
dethroned?
It is
indeed more experiences that we need,

but on the upward trend, toward the
mountains of
light,
where the benedicwhere Faith points where Reason
tions of peace abide;

to the star of
destiny;
leads to understanding; and where the
Diapason of Nature
is
in
harmony comGod.
plete with the song of the Sons of
Man
Ideals,
may,
if
he
will,
ever build toward
and
if
these recede and

it
seem
to
elude him at every step,
is
only that
at
they
rift
may
put on a
new beauty
every
in the cloud.
ideals of
He passes to-day the yesterday. He has become that
lOO
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
which lured him.

ideas
ity
It is thus that
man's
expand
is
into ideals,
and the Divinall life

is
which
the source of
evolves
into that
Nature which
its
complete
embodiment.
This
is
the At-one-ment of the Sons of

if it
is
God, and
for us
and must long remain

its
common
life
mortals an ''ideal,"
apprehension as such may, nevertheless,
be to the
is
of
man what
the sunlight
to earthly existence, or
what the poleon
star
and the compass are

seas.
to the sailor
darkened
We
in
are often like disseas,

;
mantled ships
mast,
sails,
stormy
without
drifting
rudder or compass
at best in pleasant weather,
and driven
pas-
hither
and
thither
by every wind of
sion that blows.
To know
the
meaning of
life,
the
method and goal of
evolution, the fact
IDOLS
AND
IDEALS.
lOI
of immortality, while holding the perfection of
man
it
ever in mind as the lofty

is
Ideal, this
more than
life
all
else
that
to all
can give zest in
and motive
human endeavor.
^'^\\\\\\v\w;rw

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JCK

Author of "A Study

Man," "Mystic Masonry,"

hut birth into the latid

of Memory: birth but a sleep in the oblivion of the Past."

THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY.

THE MOST LOYAL AND HELPFUL OF

Endeavors. of the Author's Aspirations and

The Music of the Spheres,

are nearing the close of the Ninespirit

teenth Century, and the

Turn whichever way you

the old foundations are being broken

and the ancient monuments overThere was a period, within the

and exploded and

absolutely good, at least

and even human thought, are

disturb one section,

and the whole begins

Innovation once started

runs like a mighty wave, gathering force

earnest souls see only the destruc-

tion left behind, but the prophetic spirit

discerns the germs of a

from the ruins of the

promise of the newer Hfe

are in a transition pe-

twilight that precedes the

by those who have

fully studied the cyclic flight

the slow-revolving centuries, that the last

quarter of every century for

has been marked

that certain great truths are

brought prominently forward as guiding

The human mind

reaching out in every direction

ing inward and questioning the soul

looking backward and questionIt

ing the ages.

close of the Fifteenth

time of Paracelsus and Martin Luther.

The same problems

in one, viz., the higher evolution

or the regeneration of the

the undying spirit

illumining the steps

ascend to the Adytum of Illumination.

has ever been the mission of genius

and discern the

over matter and

Wordsworth and Tennyson, Whit-

and Emerson, struck the same keyand

goes to show," says Emerson, in

function, like the

these as hands and feet;

not the intellect or

but the master of the intellect

the back-ground of our belie

possessed and that cannot be possessed."

proof of a man's understanding to be

but to be able to discern that what

this spiritual perception, that