T H E TORCH OF REASON, SIL V E R T O N , OREGON, JA N U A R Y 17, E. M. 301 (1901.)
Wie das G e stirn ,
O hne H ast,
A ber ohne R ast,
D rehe sieh jeder
Um die eigne L ast.
LITERAL TRANSLATION.
“ Im m o rtality thou h a st th en in m ind,
tindP”
Yes, rig h t w ell! The chief ground is
ju st t h i s ;
T h at we are not able to do w ith o u t it.
N ought of th e T ran sito ry ^
H ap p en as it ¡ay!
O urselves to unm o rtalize
For th a t are we here.
T h e Able, be it false, as it often m ay.
W orks fiotii house to house, day by
day;
The Able, w ie n ¡1 is really tru e,
W orks ever th e Ages through.
J u s t as our P lan et S ta r,
W ith o u t h aste,
Yet. w ithout rest,
Let each the circle
Of his d u ty trace.
of tra n sla to rs,” as Em erson said.
Z w is c h e n g es ano .
L asset fahren bin das allzu F lü c h tig e !
Ih r sucht bei ihm vergel*ens R a th ;
In dem V ergangnen lebt das Tüchtige,
V erew igt sich in schöner T h at.
Und so g ew innt sich das L ebendige
D urch Folg’ aus Folge neue K ra ft;
I ’■
•-*«»■*
. .: z.
Next note; How are we to do it?
By becoming “ the Able,” th a t is,
“ the fit to survive,” the capable,
the excellent, extending the “ powers
of the good”— living in the whole,
the true, and so in the good.
Sie m acht allein den M euchen d a u e r
h aft.
So löst sich jen e grosse Frage
N a ch u n s e r m z w e ite n V a te rla n d ;
Denn das B eständige d er ir d ’schen
Tage
V erbürgt uns ewigen B estan d .
I mmortality .
(In te rlu d e in th e M asonic Poem .)
Let pass th e T ran sito ry as it m a y ;
C ounsel from th a t th o u ’t seek in vain ;
W h a t is tit to Jive grows ever from the
P ast,
In b e a u tifu l deeds will ever rem ain .
A nd so th e Living Pow ers, gaining
ever,
By change to change new stren g th
secure.
For, p u rposes which are p e rm a n en t,
They alone m ake m an en d u re.
D urch M enschlichkeit geheilt die
Schw ersten Plagen.
In th e h ig h est sense th e fu tu re to
found,
H u m a n ity m u st be o u r c o n sta n t aim ,
T hrough th e H um an is it th a t our
heaviest ills are healed.
Or again he says it in presenting
Note finally when and where are to the Actor Krueger his Iphigenia,
we to do this? On this our blessed at Tauris:
“ So in H a n d eln , so in S prechen,
little Mother E arth P lanet, as she
Liebevoll, ver k u n d ’ es weit,
revolving each day, yearly circles
Alle M enschliche G ebrechen
the central sun. So we each day
S ü h n e t reine M enschlichkeit.”
without haste, yet w ithout rest, fol
As in w ords, so in action
low the attrac tiv e power by which
Full of love, proclaim it fa r:
our duty holds and revolves us in
All h u m an failings
her circle.
A pure H u m a n ity h eals.”
It is shallow to talk about qu o t
But we m ust close the poetry by
ing Goethe as a “ fad.” Find some giving the end of the Masonic
one else who went and “ did it.” Poems.
W oo else wields M im ir's sword, or S ong at F estival of W orthy B rothers
the battle ax of Odin, to set us free?
(S t. J o h n ’s Day, 1830.)
W hen, at the height of his p o w er,1
Goethe wrote his Masonic Poemn,
only about half a dozen pages, hut
in them no “ m ortal m a n ” has ever
thought and felt out so much. C ar
lyle says th at their opening c h a n t
“ The Lodge .Symbol” is the greatest
of “ un in sp ired ” writings; we think
th a t the intellectual pathos of the
closing “ Song of the W ort y B roth
ers” is also “ in spired,” if anything
ever was.
In the m iddle, or the heart, of
these poems lies the “ Between
Song” or In terlu d e, by which he
clears the way of the B rethren from
old notions of im m o rtality, by g iv -,
ing the new in these lines which
we tran slate lineally and literally;
they cannot be rendered poetically
without still greater lose of m ean
ing. Those who try to do it will
discover, why Goethe is the “ despair
So !
D en k t e re w ig sich ins R echte,
Is er ewig schön und gross !
And when by d ay , th e Far
Gt m o u n tain -b lu e d raw s me longingly.
Ami by night th e over-depth of sta rs
Glows in th e splen d o r o ’e r m y head.
The “ Spirit W orld” is now’,
T hen every day and every n ig h t,
Fxtol 1 m m ’/ i » ,, if
VKV W ? * * * . ' ■■ IWW. » » w
in fact, o u r “ Ear nest R e a lm ” o f
' *7^*~“'*r’^*** E * i to . Mud it is ligated by the rad-
These littlejew els out of m any in
tim ate the scientific solution clearly
So solves itself th a t y reat query
enough— each one being a conse
A bout o u r second F a th e rla n d ,
quent step to the other.
F o r th e E n d u rin g in our e a rth ly days
Note how he drops all the silly
E n su res th a t tim e itself we shall w ith
stan d .
“ argum ents” for im m o rtality , and,
like K ant in his P ractical Reason,
Like unto this is his reflection
takes its necessity as its only from H erder:
ground. Then next note how he
Im höch sten rsinn d er Z u k u n ft zu be
g ründen,
drops all those “celestial m ansions”
H u m a n itä t sey u n se r ewig Ziel.
—ourselves to im m ortalize are we
HERE.
Still glow th ey , as th e m odest s ta rs ’
S o ft beneticent lig h t.
So H u m a n ity to honor ever,
L et us, uniting joyfully,
As though we, by each o th e r w’ere,
W ith o u r powers to g eth er be.
Fünfzig J a h re sind vorüber,
Wie g em isch te Tage Hohn ;
Fünfzig J a h re sind h in ü b e r
In das e rn s t V ergangne schon.
Doch lebendig, ste ts a u f’s neue,
T h u t sich edles W irken kund ,
F reu n d es Liebe, M änner T reue,
U n d ein ewig sic h re r B und.
A usgesät in w eiter F erne,
N ah, g e tre n n t, ein ern d stes Reich,
S chim m ern sie, beschnedner S terne
L eis’ w ohlthätigem L ic h te gleich.
So, die M enschheit fort zu e h re n ,
L asset, freudig ü b e re in ;
Als wenn w ir beisam m en w ären,
K räftig u n s zusam m en seyn !
3
Forever as he wills the right,
!, m«
¡mice of good works as by the mild Is he ever b eau tifu l and g reat!
light from the starry millions! Af-
T hus with the prose and poetry
ter this the vast starry night may of the new Life and Im m ortality
help us to realize in it our illum inat- [for the Fifth Act of F aust is filled
ed Heaven, and help us to live in , with sim ilar hum an inspiration]
th at w ithout longing for some other, the first great man of the new
---------
scientific world closed his days
So far with Goethe in poetry. The final change came in the fore-
We only give a sim ilar touch, near noon of March 22, 1832. As he sat
the close of his life, in prose. His in his chair the poetic memory
biographer, H einem ann, says (page seemed to recall the good and the
345, vol. 2) in his later years he loved he had known, and he m u t
advised away from the consider tered “ See her brow and curly
ation of these questions.
“ The locks’ and motioned to open the
capable (tiichtiger) m an,” said he, window and said. “ More lig h t.”
“ leaves the future world to rest on These were his last words, for with
itself, and is active and useful in them he had joined the “Choir I n
this. A ctivity, unceasing activity visible.”
is our magic word” (Zauberw ort),
There were no clergy or death
and with this came “ reverence for terrors. No thought or word about
th a t above, around and below us.” “ im m ortality.” T hat had become
\\ e illu stra te all this with his con- secure by the investm ent of his life
ception of the C ontinuity of H u - j n ^ ,e “ perm anent which for age
inanity from his letter from Dorn-1 endures.”
T. B. W.
berg. In the Dornberg Castle near
W eim ar, he went as a refuge from
the grief, and from the confusion,
which attended the death of his old
AND
friend the Duke, and the incom ing
of his successor in the sum m er and
fall of 1828. His years were then
S ilv e r t o n , O re
draw ing to a close, but he never re M a in S t r e e t
fers to any unearthly or unhum an
CARRY A COMPLETE STOCK OF
m atters or longings, but sends the
“ new a d m in istratio n ” his blessing
hooi
aud a sermon in the high courtier
Germ an of th a t day. of which this
Supplies
is the substance— (As it is prose a
translation only will suffice) :
Books and
' “ All the surrounding landscape
im proving from generation to gen
S ta tio n e ry .
eration speaks out all th a t which
the troubled m ind would so gladly
com prehend: th a t the rational h u Dealers in Fruits, Vegetables
m an worid is inevitably moved for
and Confectionery.
ward, from generation to genera
tion, so as to secure the consequent
succession of its a c tiv ity .”
*
KINNEV
PORTER
Scientific W isdom
“ For here a governm ent well o r
dered and m indful has beneficently
In Place of C h ris tia n ity :
continued from prince to prince. I
The laws stand lirm ly ; according to
the need of the times come im prov-
^an ^lnH Forgiven?
ments.
Thus was it before, so will
it he after us; and so the grand
word of the Sage [Pascal] will be
fulfilled.” -T h e rational hum an
world la to be cooatdered as one
great im m ortal individual, who un-
ceasingly works the Necessary, and
thereby raises him self to be the
M aster over h isen v iro n m en t.”
~
Christianity or Science Promote Civil—
ization?
3 Is Religion or Science More Reliable?
4 Evolution M(,
of
5 D,„8 folief in Miracle8
6 Immortality or Annihilation?
JU ST T H E T H IN G
Fifty years have rolled away
Gf th e p o e tr y of t h i s a n x io u s to hand to y o u r C h ristia n frien d s. Send
As m ingled days have flow n;
Dornberg period, we have only
2 cents for 6, o r 6 cen ts for 25 tra c ts,
Fifty y ears are over now,
to E liza M owry B liven , Brook
room for the partin g touch, th u s:—
In to th a t E a rn e st P ast so soon !
lyn, C o n n ., o r send 10 cents
Y et ever living, and ever new
Uu<I wenn m ich am Tag die Ferne
for 50, e ith e r kind o r as
Are noble w orks m ade know n ;
B lauer Berge sehnlich zieht,
sorted kinds, to
The love of friends, th e faith of m an
N achts das Clxirm ass d er S tern e
And a bond forever t r u e : —
P rä ch tig m ir zu H ä u p te n g lü h t.
T H E L IB E R A L U N IV E R S IT Y
T hus sown in th e d istan ce far
Alle T ag’ und alle N ächte
N ear, or scattered , an E arn est Realm ; j R ü h m ’ ich des M enschen L<x>s:
S ilverto n, O re g o n .