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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1900)
T H E TORCH OF R EA SO N , S IL V E R T O N , OREGON, AUGUST 9, E. M. 300 (¡9 0 0 ) 5 The New S p irits an d M ythology nor light a corpuscle, nor a th u n d e r | the purposes for which they by the great modern poe»s and art- in the New World. bolt, any m atter at all; and th a t N a were originally composed and ists. To understand them we m ust ture does not ‘‘abhor” a vacuum , w ritten, there is not now a learn how religions become “ mate- BY T. B. WAKEMAN. j and so on to th e end of the “ revela word of tru th in them , for the rialized” into Theologies; how Sci- tions” of Science. world in and for which they were ence in time tran slates those into V . ,-i H i > r* T JJ 4.« # * • One trouble all emigra But in the domain •: •ISÍigá?*} composed and w ritten a is le d Mythologies; and then th e creative, .... ..»• ■-«» V When thcy «<ry to settle in < A pw few irords jv<x>gGÌ& tfcàt a l i total!}, wois. :r.an tin •. ¿s s} ¡tiu e u T , a r t i s t i c power of linagin- their new country, m any of th eir the old Theology is now M ythology, fabric of a dream , for they have ative thought uses their old words, old words won’t fit. They have to th a t it is an old home of hum an been reversed. Nothing is true names and forms, as sym bols and let them have new m eanings, or thought? and affections from which th a t was true. W ith the New descriptions. Thus they become else learn new words outright. In we have moved out aud passed on. W orld and E ra of the Copernican true names of and for the new pro- the greatest change ev^r m ade by In the new world in which we aie and B runo A stronom y (1600), came cesses, feelings, thoughts and ideals the hum an race, the change from uow living, the old m eauings of the A rt prefiguring its new “ Re- which m ake tim e a never-ending the old statio n ary “ firm am ent,’’ God, Devil, Angel, H eaven, Hell, ligion.” Shakespeare was its m orn transform ation scene before ever three-story tenem ent house of The- Soul, Ju d g m en t Day, Im m ortality, ing staT; then cam e V oltaire, its growing M an . The poets m ake no ology to the new Infin ity of m odern etc., have no applicatiori; th e re in tighter; then Goethe, its reconciling secret of this transform ing of the Science, with its ro tatin g aud sun- nothing w hatever left for them to realizer; and then Shelley and his old into the new, for the New encircling earth , of course a corres apply to. So with M etaphysics, its compeers, its prophets. Now, this W orld and its feelings, ideals and ponding great word change m ust be world has faded into nothingness galaxy of Poetic Art has revived purposes. Goethe did it confess made. W ords are undergoing th a t with the Theology, of which it was and paved the Soul of the New E ra edly. Of his Iphigenia at T auris, process now, and we m ust recog the m inor rainbow reflection. There by m ethods of evolutional tra n s he gave the key to K ruger, its nize it and help it on, aud not get are no more “ S p irits” or “ en tities,” form ation of words, m yths and actor, in a presentation copy, th us: left, or stupidly fight it. In the or “essences,” “ v irtu es,” or “ p rin c i m ythologies, as above intim ated. W h at to th is Book th e Poet H opefully, helievingly e n tr u s te d — old A stronom y the sun, moon and ples, or “ a u ra s,” etc., etc.— now all, All of the old has become to them May it, th ro u g h G erm an L ands stars used to move around the all gone “ the dream s of things th a t the background, m eans and m a By th y A rtist work, l>e know n : So then in action, as in w ords, earth an d “ spheres.” Now we kuow were” not. T he trouble is th a t the terials for expressing the higher Ijove in sp ired , proclaim it far— th a t there are no such m otions or masses of m ankind have not been m ental, m oral, social, esthetic, pro T h at for all h u m an failings P ure H u m a n ity ato n es. spheres, but we have found a plenty th in k ers, aud have been and are phetic and even ecstatic forefelt re of uses for the word “ sphere”—such now living upon these words as if alities of the New H eaven, the The often quoted words by which they were things, realities, and as “ spheres of influence,” etc. “ E arth ly P aradise.” Shakespeare Coleridge expanded the fine th ought Still, much of our old language upon them have rested all their really commenced this New E ra of of Schiller, th a t “ The old F airy still rem ains and expresses the re hopes and physical existences. the new religious art. “ The T em Form s (m eaning the old gods and verse of the facts, as “ sunrise,” W hen Science sweeps them all pest” was w ritteu to lull and allay religions) have em igrated,” should “sunset.” W ho will in v en t a con down and out it seems as though the discords and tem pest of the past. he re-read and preserved as scien venient su b stitu te for these false the S cythe of Death had cut all of It is the great poem of obliviscence, tific and practical Liberal educa hoods? So in Physics we still talk the flowers, fruits au a seeds of life hope and prophecy on E a rth , for tion in A rt; and in this grand T his is the “ this place is Paradise; here let me work an d duty of Ideal tran sfo rm of thunderbolts and lightning, and a t one fell stroke. in th e organic world, we speak of greatest difficulty Liberalism has to live ever.” Let “ The T em pest” he ation: Life or “ soul” as a thing or entity; meet. When the u n th in k er loses re-read from this point of view. The fair h u m an itie s of old relig io n , and “ d e a th ” as an en tity or a p er his m eaning of a word he th in k s he Notice how all of the old words and The Power, th e B eauty and th e .Majesty, T h a t had th e ir h a u n ts in dale o r piny son, or worse, the “ King of T er has lost all it 6tood for, and he m ythologies are sim ply p ain ters’ m o u n tain , Or forest by slow stre am , or pebbly looks upon the Scientific Philologist and poets’ m aterials to help him to rors.” But we now kuow th a t they spring, and the soul are processes, and as a robber. The great Liberal get the sunshine of Heaven on Or chasm s and w at’ry d e p th s ; all these have v an ish ed . death is the ceasing of the vital Poets and Scientists have seen aud ea rth ; and because Juno, Ceres and They live no longer in th e faitli of reason process— aud no en tity , or thing, felt this difficulty, and have done Iris were not sufficient, he invents B u t still th e h e a rt d o th need a la n g u ag e; still or king a t all. In the physical and good work towards obviating it. Sycorax, C aliban and Ariel! The Doth th e old in stin c t b rin g hack th e old biological dom ains these changes Their m ethod, in short, to give the thing to notice is th a t the new state nam es ; And to yon sta rry w orld th ey now are new m eanings to the old words, of mind and feeling, of im m easur make trouble enough, b ut when we gone, * » get to the dom ain of m ind, P sy symbols and Mythologies, and so able value in the peaceful evolution S p irits or gods, th a t used to sh a re th is e a rth chology, Sociology, A rt, E sthetics, use them as bridge» by which the of the E nglish and other peoples, W ith m an as w ith th e ir frie n d ; an d to Religion, etc., we have the sam e thoughts, feelings, hopes—the Re could never have been realized and th e lover Y onder th ey m ove, from y o n d er visible ligious, Esthetic, im aginative and pictured to us except upon an “en difficulty as the fabled builders of sky Babel. We have not only differ creative powers — may gradually chanted islan d ,” th a t no one has Shoot influence down : and even a t th is day ent languages, but in each language pass over from the old so as to fit, ever seen, and by an old and new ’Tis J u p ite r who brings w h a te ’e r is ever so m any words th a t only m is till up and m ake habitable, com fort M ythology, whose forms were “ the g reat, And V enus who brings e v ery th in g t h a t ’s able and joyous the life of the new baseless fabrics of the vision” they describe the new processes, con fair! cepts and im aginings. “ These airy world. They found that as the wore. There is not a word of tru th * V Such specim ens as Iphegenia be higher faculties of m an evolve, his in the m aterials and characters of nothings,” which are the syntheses of feelings which build our govern words and. symbols m ust grow into “ The Tem pest,” yet such was the long to the crowing flowers of this ing or a ttra c tin g Ideals, have now a power to be the instrum ents and creative power of the m ighty im m odern A rt. B u t on the first page to get “ th eir local h ab itatio n and m eans of expression of their new agination and fancy th a t “ m a te ria l of this paper we give an in tro nam e,” and th e ir very forms of be requirem ents. And so the M yth ized” and used them th a t no higher ductory lesson from Shelley’s P ro ing, from a world quite distin ct ologies of Theology and M eta tru th or step has been taken to m etheus, which is unequalled in from th a t in which they originated. physics become the m aterials, the , wards the Heaven on E a rth , “ where sim plicity, beauty and prophetic If --we go to the bottom of frames, canvas and pigm ents by H eaven never yet could be.” Goethe power. It shows how thè m ean th in g s,, things are all, even which the new “sp iritu al” world is afterw ards, by sim ilar a rtist m a ingless word, “ sp irit,” like the word the stones, now known to be very to be “ bodied forth,” as the new terials and powers, sta rtin g with “ soul,” is to he saved for Liberal different from what our F ath ers home of the hum an “soul.” The Ariel, disclosed by pictures, which use by a new and true m eaning. supposed, and not a single word cure for the “ devastation of Icono- were transform ation scenes, the rise longer a breath, gas, a u ra or spook” of any kind, «• it describes they used can possibly have th e clastic Infidelity” is m o d e rn Scien- | and • -------------------- ’ •• ------ and progress of the individual SAME m eaning to us now th a t it did tific, constructive Art. T h at is the race “ soul” of M an in the second now the continuous fact or process to them . The total change of em otional realizer and exponent of p a rt o f Faust; and then Shelley, of feeling, im pulses and purposes of worlds has m ade a total change in the new “ R eligion,” the Religion of also by sim ilar M ythologic m ate- life considered as the resu ltan t of the m eaning of the language by Liberty,Science and H u m an ity . Let rials and power, fore-felt and aduin- m aterial nerve activity. As light no longer a corpuscle, but a vi- which we try to describe it to each us take a long th in k over where wej brated its future in his “ Prom e- O ther great bration of ether, so soul and spirit other, so th a t we are only beginning are- Hom er, Virgil, The Bible, theus U nbound.” to really live intelligently in it. Dante and M ilton were all poets of questions and m eans of progress are no longer entities, but the con- We are beginning to get it through the old world —of the past theolo- there certain ly are, b u t none higher tinuous fact of life and feeling, and us th a t m atter is active, th a t elec- gies. They have all become m yth-, th an the evolution of the F u tu re as 80 a Pa rt of and “come from th e tricity is not a fluid, nor heat caloric, J ologies. In the BenH€ and fo ri the heaven and hom e of our Ideals, j C oncluded on 8th page.