Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

bestowed upon the drapery as might attract the attention, in a measure however slight, from the grand personality expressed in the figure and face, would indeed be contemptible. From this it is expected that the student will perceive that the fact that a truth is particular, is not sufficient warranty for its expression at all times, and under all circumstances, since those truths which are most characteristic of the particular style of thought, feeling, or motive to be expressed, must always have precedence, even to the exclusion, if such be necessary, of all others. In art, what does not help, hinders, let it be remembered, and the truth which does not conspire to the effect which it is desired shall be induced, is not, however true it may be, to be tolerated.

The value of particular or characteristic truths over general, will be perceived in the matter of dramatic impersonation, with very little comment. In a characterization of Hamlet those truths are to be emphasized which make Hamlet, Hamlet, and prevent him from being Lærtes, Horatio, Polonius or Osric.

We have seen that in art particular truths are of more importance than general ones; to this may be added the fact that rare truths are more important than frequent ones. Repetition is always blamable, and the representation of trite truths, is the representation of repeated and hackneyed subjects. "No supposition," says Ruskin, "can be more absurd than that effects or truths frequently exhibited are more characteristic of nature than those which are equally necessary by her laws, though rarer in occurrence. Both the frequent and the rare, are parts of the same great system; to give either exclusively is imperfect truth, and to repeat the same effect or thought in two pictures is wasted life. What should we think of a poet who should keep all his life repeating the same thought in different words? and why should we be more lenient to the parrot-painter who has learned one lesson from the page of nature, and keeps stammering it out with eternal repetition without turning the leaf? Is it less tautology to describe a thing over and over again with lines, than it is with words? The teaching of nature is as varied and infinite as it is constant; and the duty of the painter is to watch for every one of her lessons, and to give (for human life will admit of nothing more) those in which she has manifested each of her principles in the most peculiar and striking way. The deeper his research, and the rarer the phenomena he has noted, the more valuable will his works be; to repeat himself, even in a single instance, is treachery to nature, for a thousand human lives would not be enough to give one instance of the perfect manifestation of each of her powers; and as for combining or classifying them, as well might a preacher expect in one. sermon to express and explain every divine truth which can be gathered out of God's revelation, as a painter expect in one composition to express and illustrate every lesson which can be received from God's creation. Both are commentators on infinity, and the duty of both is to take for each discourse one essential truth, seeking particularly and insisting especially on those which are less palpable to ordinary observation, and more likely to escape an indolent research; and to impress that, and that alone, upon those whom they address, with every illustration that can be furnished by their knowledge, and every adornment attainable by their power."

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

THE SUPERMUNDANE.

BY WALTER HUBBELL.

(CONTINUED FROM AUGUST NUMBER.)

THE modern medical theory, that all persons who claim to see or hear ghosts of the dead are deranged, is not tenable. Nor does it prove that there are no ghosts, because we know that deranged persons often claim to see and hear them, for there is no reason why an insane person should not see and hear a ghost just the same as a sane person does.

This statement may at first seem paradoxical, but since, in order to see or hear ghosts, it is necessary either to have been born with the faculty, and, consequently, literally live in both worlds at once, or, that some person be present, from whose body vital magnetism escapes in sufficient quantities to render the contact of the inhabitants of the two worlds possible, who shall say that this necessary vital magnetism does not escape from the bodies of the insane, as well as those of the sane, or, that those sane persons born with the faculty of seeing and hearing ghosts, or who have become possessed of it, and are hence in an abnormal state-must lose it when they have become insane. Many insane persons are undoubtedly "possessed of devils" or, in more modern phraseology, are entirely under the malign influence of evil ghosts whom they can at times both see and hear.

If we class among the deranged, all the persons who to-day see and hear ghosts, as the medical fraternity would have us do, simply because we know that those among the insane often claim to see and hear ghosts, what is to be thought of all those supermundane portions of the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, the sacred books of India, and the ancient writings of the Chinese. Were the accounts of ghosts, angels and devils, that are to be found in each and all of them, written by insane men, or did the writers tell the truth in narrating the actual experiences of sane men? Notwithstanding the unanimous verdict of materialistic physicians, some persons who have been pronounced sane, or who are at least accredited with being of sound mind, believe the latter; and that so far as those ancient writers could convey accounts of what they saw and heard of good and evil ghosts, they chronicled the truth.

As the term "astral body" may be obscure to some readers, I must explain that by it I mean what all Christian teachers call the soul, and that, by the term "vital magnetism," I mean that subtile principle that should probably be more correctly called human electricity, that permeates, and holds the astral body to the physical body, or, as we may say, the soul to its earthly form, from which it is released by death, at which change the vital magnetism accompanies the soul to where the soul, or astral body, as I prefer to call it, exists forever, the world of ghosts.

In reference to the well-known and easily corroborated fact that persons who have lost limbs, or portions thereof, feel at times that they are again actually present, I would say that, although imagination may, in one case in a hundred, account for the phenomenon, the medical theory about memory, and the ends of the irritated nerves in the remaining portion of the limb, is, nevertheless, a mistake, although it is possible that the fact of the ends of the nerves in the stump of the severed member being inflamed may, in some instances, occassionally cause the elimination of suffi cient vital magnetism from the physical and astral bodies of the sufferer to allow the presence of the astral or ghostly portion of the limb to be

again felt, as if present in its earthly or physical form. However, as the ghostly or astral limb is still present, and, under certain other vital magnetic conditions, its actual presence is often manifested when there is no irritation, it must be obvious that it is not necessary that irritation of the ends of the severed nerves should always be present when the presence of the amputated limb is apparent.

This article is not the proper place for me to give a detailed account of my weirdly wonderful experience with the six ghosts of the dead, in the haunted house where I had an opportunity, such as befalls but few men. on the earth, to study the supermundane.

All that I need say, is that I kept a journal of all that occurred, and can assure my readers that I was not deceived by jugglers, charlatans, or the alleged mediums of modern Spiritualism, for no such persons were at any time living in, or visiting the house during the time I lived there, nor at any previous or subsequent time, and I may add that I am not, and never have been, a hypnotic subject, nor capable of being influenced, in any way whatsoever, by psychology in any of its other forms, not even the psychology of Modern Spiritualism

For seventeen years I have been a careful and patient investigator of the supermundane, and, during that period, have had ample opportunity to expose fraud, and to corroborate what I found to be the truth concerning the greatest problem of human life.

66

"Is there another world and a life hereafter?" is a question asked to-day by millions of the human race. I answer, most emphatically, "yes, and the fact is capable of scientific demonstration, and need no longer rest on faith and belief."

In closing, I must say that I have found during my investigations, that just as surely as vital magnetism escapes from the persons of individuals in quantities sufficient to render possible, contact between them and ghosts, just as surely does the same kind of vital magnetism escape from some ghosts; and that that is why such ghosts, without the aid of the vital magnetism escaping from the body of a person in the physical form, can, and do come amongst mankind on earth, frequently haunting old houses that have been deserted by men, and, in all probability, occasionally committing terrible crimes that are charged to men, and for which innocent men, have undoubtedly been made to suffer.

It is a fallacy to believe that ghosts are ever ethereal, because they appear so to the eyes of men ; on the contrary they are always, in reality, just as substantial beings as we are, and can come in contact with our world and us, with great ease when compared to the difficulty we often experience in coming in contact with them.

All men appear to be semi-transparent when they are seen by ghosts, for, as I have already stated, and the fact is proved by my investigations, what is a solid substance to us as men, is to the ghosts but a liquid or vapor, while what to them is solid substance, is to us but air.

There is not the slightest doubt in my mind, nor can there be in the mind of any man, or body of scientific men, living in a haunted house, that the evil ghosts of evil men still haunt mankind, as they did in the days of Jesus and his disciples. But the ghosts of the good, the ghosts of the pure in heart, ah! how sad it is to have to record that my experience has convinced me that the ghosts of the good and pure rarely come to

visit the friends and loved ones whom they have left behind, and I believe the reason is that the corruption, the evil among the people of the earth is so predominant, in the majority of instances, that, being unable to benefit us by their return, they consequently make no effort to rend for all time the veil that separates the world of the good and pure ghosts from. the world of depraved mankind.

CONSTANCY.

BY MELVIN L. SEVERY.

TRUE as the sunbeam's course gleams through the dust,
Deep as the mountain rocks thrust their great bases
Neath all disturbing shocks, e'en so love's trust,

Into the heart of faith, grows, interlaces,

Till all impurer thought, earth's baneful lust,
Dies of the death it ought, in the embraces

Of virtuous sprites, or forever is thrust

There, where it should be sought, far from the graces
Of heaven-bent souls, deep in its mire of must,
Following its loathly lot 'neath its own maces.
O constant heart of woman, loyal-souled,
Beneath grief's grinding-stone so bravely mute!
As doth the violet when spring's over cold,
So thy love, unsubdued, takes deeper root.

THE ETHICS OF BEAUTY.

Part Third.

APPLIED PRINCIPLES (CONCLUDED.)

In England beauty has spoken through its Cathedral-builders, its modern landscape-painters, its composers of ecclesiastical music, and the makers of its marvelous literature, which is all-embracing, radiant, and most. magnificently responsive.

Many writers have likened modern England to ancient Rome, and claimed that its function in the world of to-day is nearly identical with that of the older empire in the time of its supremacy. This resemblance is true upon. the surface, the salient features of the comparison being easily recalled by all. The civilizing energy; the colonizing zeal and success, binding together the uttermost parts of the earth by a strong, elastic bond, and sheltering and restraining them with imperial power; the genius for government, the facility with which organization is effected; the reverence for law: -all these are amongst the traits exhibited in common by the Roman and the Briton. But to England also belongs a far higher kind of dominion. Its language has given it its literature, and its literature is gaining, and will still more greatly gain, that influence in the realm of mind which Greece has hitherto wielded. Rome looked to Greece for its inspiration. In the future, England shall look to none but itself for its deepest draughts of wisdom. Students have been led to Greek letters as the most perfect fruit of the human intellect. Students shall be led to English let

ters for their nourishment of mind and soul. Other languages and literatures may not be cast into oblivion, but primacy shall be with the tongue and teaching of England and its children.

[ocr errors]

This composite race has fashioned a flexible instrument with which to do its work. Like the flaming sword of the angel at the gate of paradise. it turns all ways at once, but unlike it it does not bar the entrance. It tests the armor and tries the spirit of him who seeks the presence of the beautiful. It pierces for it is a sword, but it also shapes like a chisel, and, under its touch, the statues of humanity are born, as illimitable in their grandeur, as undying in their loveliness, as the mighty agent of their formation.

English is brush and palette, as well as sword and chisel. It has been used as "artists' materials" with the best results. From Chaucer's ivorytypes of women, and his dainty aquarelles, in which the very smile and tender greeting of the English country are rendered with faithfulness of heart, and delicate strength of treatment, through all the generations of writers, its literature is possessed of word-paintings of every variety of power and charm. Added to its other riches, this gift makes it indeed a paradise, where beauty lurks behind each rock and tree, dwells in each flower, laughs in the sun-lit fountains, and leads on to the heights beyond, where the future majesty is revealed; where God-through beautywalks and talks with the children of men. The ethics of such an art are clearly discernible, affording, as it does, a medium of communication between the divine and the human. Morality becomes spirituality, mortals immortals, and earth an Eden, placed on the shores of Heaven.

Almost as wonderful as the English language and literature — and strikingly akin to it is the embodiment of beauty found in the German tongue, and German letters, but, notwithstanding this, its most characteristic interpretation, the one most in accord with the intellectual, ethical and spiritual nature of the Teuton, is found in the youngest of the arts. The peculiarly German craving, for mathematical exactness, united with glowing ideality, meets satisfaction in that divine echo of beauty-music, which is both science and art. That the morning stars sang together is an utterance of inspired poetry. That the motions of the spheres are rhythmical and resonant, has been admitted by a modern scientist. The body and soul, the science and art, of this form of beauty have, therefore, existed since time began, but their dual character has been best expressed through the Germans of the last four centuries.

The dominion of the ethical, the suppression of the materialistic, in music, does not need to be more than indicated, as the student knows that essentially sensuous music is rarely found in the compositions of the great classical masters.

Some remarkable conceptions of beauty are shown in the bronzes of the Russians. They burn with intense individuality - with Russia's very self, sad, stern, eager, in one phase; in another, simply joyous and contented, as are few races to-day. They are full of vigorous thought, and their dexterity, their daintiness of manipulation, astound and fascinate.

The literature of this country is impregnated with the melancholy beauty of the remote and mysterious land of its birth; for even yet, Russia is a mystery. It abounds in contradictions. Its people never cease to astonish the world by doing exactly that which it has been pronounced impossible for them to do. Each traveler tells things new and strange, which

« AnteriorContinuar »