buck, j.d. - brownings paracelsus and other essays

8/22/2019 Buck, J.D. - Brownings Paracelsus and Other Essays

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BROWNING'S PARACELSUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS.

BYJ. D. BUCK,

Author of A Study of Man, Mystic Masonry, etc.

Sleep is hut birth into the latidof Memory: birth but a sleepin the oblivion of the Past.

CINCINNATI:THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY.

1897.


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Copyright, 1S97, by J, D. Buck.


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TOL. C. B.

THE MOST LOYAL AND HELPFUL OFCOMRADES

[n all of the Author's Aspirations and Endeavors.


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CONTENTS.

Introduction, . - - vParacelsus, - - - ^3

Genius . . - - 6iThe Music of the Spheres, - 7^Idols and Ideals, - - 83

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INTRODUCTION.

We are nearing the close of the Nine-teenth Century, and the spirit of unrestis in the air. Turn whichever way youwill, the old foundations are being brokenup, and the ancient monuments over-turned. There was a period, within thememory of those still living, when causesnow active seemed inoperative, andthings now investigated and explodedwere regarded as sacred, and it wassacrilege to question, much more tointerfere with them. ** Things settledby long use, as Bacon once said, '*if notabsolutely good, at least fit well together.Society, and even human thought, are

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VI INTRODUCTION.like a Chinese puzzle, loosen one piece,disturb one section, and the whole beginsto fall in pieces. Innovation once startedruns like a mighty wave, gathering forceas it advances, till it sweeps all before it.Many earnest souls see only the destruc-tion left behind, but the prophetic spiritdiscerns the germs of a new life spring-ing from the ruins of the old. Thetidal-wave is still advancing, yet thepromise of the newer Hfe is heralded bymany signs. We are in a transition pe-riod, in the twilight that precedes thedawn.We are told by those who have care-

fully studied the cyclic flight of time andthe slow-revolving centuries, that the lastquarter of every century for many mil-lenniums has been marked by similarevents, and that certain great truths arebrought prominently forward as guiding


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INTRODUCTION. Vlllights for the coming age. Progress isthe law of life. The human mind isreaching out in every direction ; is look-ing inward and questioning the soul ; islooking upward and questioning thestars ; is looking backward and question-ing the ages. It was even so at theclose of the Fifteenth Century in thetime of Paracelsus and Martin Luther.The same problems face us now as then,though in a somewhat different form.In the last analysis these problems allmerge in one, viz., the higher evolutionof man or the regeneration of the humanrace.

It is the undying spirit in perpetualconflict with the things of sense andtime ; the sacred fire on the altars oflife, illumining the steps by which weascend to the Adytum of Illumination.It has ever been the mission of genius


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VIU INTRODUCTION.to sense this conflict, and discern thetrue lightthe informing ideal, viz. , thesupremacy of spirit over intellect, asover matter and all lower functions inman. Wordsworth and Tennyson, Whit-tier and Emerson, struck the same key-note and gave no uncertain sound.**A11 goes to show, says Emerson, inThe Over-Soul, ''That the soul inman is not an organ, but animatesand exercises all the organs; is not afunction, like the power of memory, ofcalculation, of comparison, but usesthese as hands and feet; is not a fac-ulty, but a light ; is not the intellect orthe will, but the master of the intellectand the will; is the back-ground of our be-ing, in which they liean immensity notpossessed and that cannot be possessed.And, again, says Emerson, quot-

ing from Swedenborg, It is no


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INTRODUCTION. IXproof of a man's understanding to beable to confirm whatever he pleasesbut to be able to discern that what istrue is true, and that what is false isfalse ; this is the mark and character ofintelligence. It is this power of dis-cernment, this spiritual perception, thatis the guiding light of genius and itsoft-inspiring theme.Among the inspired prophets and seers

of this ''Light of the Logos standsRobert Browning. Discerning this awak-ening spirit in man, and the needs ofthe coming age, his genius lit a lampfrom the sacred fires on ancient altarsand bore it aloft : Too high, as yet, forthe plodding crowd : Too pure for themarket-place, and the tables of the mon-ey-changers, it shines like a nev/ star inthe dawn of the coming age. The as-tronomers of the intellectual firmament


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X INTRODUCTION.have been puzzled in assigning it to anyconstellation, and have often regardedit as a comet, a wanderer among the stars.They have hardly yet defined its orbit,calculated its revolutions, or tabulatedthe perturbations produced thereby.Browning himself gave them its truesign, but left others to determine itsmagnitude. ''Spirit is not mind, norfrom mind, but above it. The newplanet shines not in the star dust of themilky-way, but in the pure ether fromwhich it has emergedthe ''spirit of theair, as Paracelsus called it.The new age builds toward Robert

Browning, but the close of the TwentiethCentury will not quench his light. It issixty years since Browning published hisParacelsus. Such a production froma young man of twenty-three, shows howclear the light of genius shone in him.


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INTRODUCTION. XIand how the spirit that is above intel-lect illumined his mind. A brief out-line of the times and the career of Para-celsus may serve as a back-ground to thestill briefer glance at Browning's crea-tion, which, with a glance at the philoso-phy involved, is all that is here attempted.


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BROWNING'S PARACELSUS.Paracelsus was born in 1493, and was

twenty-four years old when the greatProtestant Reformer affixed his ninety-five propositions to the castle church atWittenberg, while Luther>as ten yearshis senior. The dawn of the SixteenthCentury called into existence a new eraof thought, the result of which hascolored all subsequent events. The dis-covery of a new world in the west andthe dawn of religious liberty in the eastevents crowded into a single quarter of acenturymark the beginning of thecareer of Paracelsus, who in his ownday was called the '' Medical Luther.A strong character and a great innovator

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14 browning's PARACELSUS.

like his illustrious contemporary, Para-celsus created strong partisans who viedwith each other in immoderate praiseand Wind hatred and condemnationof the physician who dared to ridiculeGalen and Hypocrates and to disputethe ancient authorities in the heahngart. His great learning was undisputed,but it served only to increase the hatredof his hereditary enemies, the Doctorsand the Apothecaries, who condemnedhim for writing his treatises in the Ger-man language instead of Latin, and whenby means of his skill he was able to curea number of cases publicly assigned himas 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 hisdestruction. There are few epochs inthe history of human progress when it is


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BROWNING'S PARACELSUS. 1either safe or desirable to advance farbeyond the borders of conservative medi-ocrity.

This fact has often led to concealmentof wisdom and retarded the progress ofman. It was even so in the case ofParacelsus. Great as were his discov-eries and the reformations he sought toinaugurate, his most intimate disciplecondemned him bitterly for concealingthe sources and extent of his knowledge,though the disciple repented his injusticeafter the death of his master. Obligedon more than one occasion to seek safetyin flight for his opposition to bigotry andvested rights that were public abuses, thegreat Physician had learned the neces-sity and the art of concealment.

Paracelsus, the Physician, the Re-former, the Philosopher, is idealized byRobert Browning and made to portray


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1 browning's PARACELSUS.the struggles of an aspiring soul in itsevolutionary journey. It becomes us,therefore, to inquire whether Browninghas read into the life of Paracelsus anideal and a meaning, an aim and a re-sult, largely his own, or whether he hasonly idealized a picture the outlines andfeatures of which were actual existencesand capable of verification.

Recorded incidents in the life of oursubject will be entirely inadequate tosolve the problem. No estimate givenby his contemporaries, whether friend orfoe, will materially aid us in our search.The knowledge which he concealedmight, indeed, be of great service, andthe clues to that knowledge are not diffi-cult to follow ; they are to be found inthe philosophy v/hich he taught.The concealment complained of was

altogether due to the ignorance and


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browning's PARACELSUS. 1

superstition with which he was sur-rounded and from which even his dis-ciples were by no means free. Thepower to impart knowledge is alwayslimited, and is confined to the capacityof the student to apprehend, and when-ever the teacher transcends these naturalbarriers, he is misapprehended and usuallycondemned.As City Physician at Basel, and Pro-

fessor of Physic, Medicine, and Surgeryby appointment of the City Council,Paracelsus made every effort to imparthis knowledge, but, after three yearsspent in such efforts, he had to leave thecity secretly and hurriedly in order toavoid the unpleasant consequences thatthreatened him. He wandered fromplace to place consorting with people inevery grade of life, with the avowed ob-ject of learning whatever might be gained


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l8 browning's PARACELSUS.from the most humble and obscure, noless than from the rich and powerful, andhe practiced the art of healing amongthe poor gratuitously. The rich noble-men promised him great rewards if heshould be able to cure them, and afterrecovery paid him with ingratitude andeven persecution. Paracelsus left noworldly goods except his v/ritings, gen-erally transcribed by his disciples, andthese are imperishable. ''Those whoremain at home, says Paracelsus, *' maylive more comfortably than those whowander about; but I neither desire tolive comfortably, nor do I wish to be-come rich. Happiness is better thanriches, and happy is he who wandersabout, possessing nothing that requireshis care. He v/ho v>'ants to study thebook of Nature m.ust wander with hisfeet over its leaves. Books are studied


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BROWNINGS PARACELSUS. igby looking at the letters which they con-tain : Nature is studied by examiningthe contents of her treasure-vaults inevery country. Every part of the worldrepresents a page in the book of Nature,and all the pages together form the bookthat contains her great revelations.This is hardly the language of a vaga-bond wandering aimlessly over theearth. Paracelsus visited Germany,Italy, France, The Netherlands, Den-mark, Sv/eden, and Russia. He wentto India, was taken prisoner by the Tar-tars and brought to the Khan, whose sonhe afterward accompanied to Constanti-nople. There are three important factorsin the experience of Paracelsus to betaken into account. First, his instruc-tions under his earHest teacher, Trithe-mius; second, his visit to India; andthird, the philosophy revealed in his


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20 BROWNING S PARACELSUS.writings ; and by the light thus derived,we need have no difficulty in determiningthe sources and nature of his knowledge,his motive being clearly revealed by hisutterances and his life.Johann Trithemius was abbot of St.

Jacob at Wurzburg and was celebratedas one of the greatest of Alchemists andAdepts in Occultism. Young Paracelsuswas under the abbot's instruction be-tween his sixteenth and twentieth years,and went to India between his twentiethand twenty-eighth years. Much as Para-celsus revered the book of Nature, andmuch as he may have learned by wan-dering with his feet over its leaves, hewas by no means a self-taught philoso-pher. Others both before and since hisday have traveled far more extensivelythan he, without discovering Nature's


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BROWNINGS PARACELSUS. 21treasure-vaults or learning how to in-terpret her revelations.From Trithemius, Paracelsus derived

the key that unlocked the secret vaultsof wisdom, and in Indian lore he foundthe ancient philosophy of which he heldthe key. The careful student will findnot the least difficulty in discovering thesame 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. Cosmogenesisand Anthropogenesisthe evolution ofworlds and the evolution of manarethe subjects treated of. The Macro-cosmthe great world or Cosmos, andthe little world, Microcosm or m.an, fur-nish the theme, and the philosophy is asynthesis of the whole. This philosophicalscheme of evolution differs essentiallyfrom that of modern times, which con-


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2 2 browning's PARACELSUS.fines itself largely to physical evolutionalone in its attempt to reduce all prob-lems to terms of mass and motion. Theolder philosophy regards evolution as pro-ceeding simultaneously on three planes :the physical, the mental, and the spir-itual; the co-ordination of which deter-mines the final result. This is the onlysense in which the term synthesis can belegimately applied to human evolution.Such a basis not only includes all evolu-tionary processes possible to conceive of,but also includes every kind of knowl-edge and every sphere of activity possi-ble for man. Time will not permit ofdemonstration or of illustrations in sup-port of this view. I mmst refer my read-ers to the writings under considerationfor proof.

Paracelsus shows himself to have beenperfectly familiar with this grand and


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BROWNING S PARACELSUS. 23far-reaching philosophy. It not only ap-pears fully in his writings, but the idealof renunciation and his indifference tofame, riches, and even comfort, showsconclusively that he lived in accordancewith what he believed and taught. Hewas therefore misunderstood and misrep-resented, even by his zealous followers,who could not bring themselves to thepoint of casting all things into the alem-bic in order that the pure gold of truthmight alone survive as their one onlypossession. The ideal was too high; therenunciation too great.

It is this characteristic in the life ofParacelsus, I think, that Brov/ning seizesas the ideal and the theme of his greatpoem; and, making it less austere thancold philosophy, and more human bydramatic representation, and the sweetreasonableness of loving friends and


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the companions of his early life, hasadded to the fame of Paracelsus, andassured the immortality of his own, evenif he had written nothing else.

This view might be questioned fromthe laments and disappointment put intothe mouth of Paracelsus by Browning.But what great soul imbued with a highideal ever felt that all of the highest andbest aimed at had been achieved ? Hereinlies the evidence of strength, not ofweakness. It is left to weak and shallownatures to be content and complacent withthe humble attainments of one short life.The really wise see, as plane after

plane unfolds, plane after plane beyondand the narrov/ horizon of the knownbut makes broader the expanse and moreprophetic the vision of the unknown.It is this prophetic vision, based on realknowledge, and guided by a faith that is


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browning's PARACELSUS. 25sublime, that constitutes the day-star ofthe soul, and the guiding ** pillar of fireby night. I am not aware of any evi-dence showing Browning to have been,at so early a date in his career, familiarwith the philosophy taught by Trithemius,by Paracelsus, and the Eastern Sages, assuch. I think it more likely that thepoet's intuition, born of real geniushis** apperception, as Leibnitz would havetermed itsensed the truth from a planehigher than reason and clearer than phi-losophy, and, passing by the forms ofthought, gave the essence and the idealthat he saw.

This view is not only sustained by thepoet's own utterances, but really furnishesthe key to his whole work. ''Mind,he says, is not matter, nor from matter,but above. Paracelsus is made to sayTruth is within ourselves; it takes no


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rise from outward things, whate'er youmay believe. There is an inmost centerin us all, where truth abides in fullness;and around, wall upon wall, the grossflesh hems it in, this perfect, clear per-ceptionwhich is truth. . . . '*Toknow, rather consists in opening out away whence the imprisoned splendormay escape, than in effecting entry for alight supposed to be without.The guiding light and the zest thatholds the soul to the quest for truth, in

thus *' opening out a way for the im-prisoned splendor to escape, is Faith.Not blind belief v/here the ** Spiritualfunctions are smothered in surmise, butrather what Wordsworth calls ' ' a pas-sionate intuition, or as Browning putsinto the mouth of Bishop Bloughram,*'With me, faith means perpetual un-behef kept quiet like the snake 'neath


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Michael's foot, who stands calm justbecause he feels it writhe.The work of real genius, whether in

literature or in art, consists no less inthe perfection of details, and in the co-ordinate proportion by which they areconcealed, than in the final result throughwhich the creative spirit shines. In thevery process of building the temple thewood on the sacred alter bursts intoflame, and all meaner things disappearin the presence of the dazzling light.So a living soul leaps from the canvas inanswer to our questioning gaze; or awarm and inspiring human heart throbsfrom the printed page responsive to ourown, and aids us in opening out a wayfor the splendor in us 'Ho escape.Apply whatever test we may to this

immortal poem of Browning's and weshall not be disappointed. We may


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come to it again and again with ever-increasing admiration and profit. Thepoem has sometimes been called mys-tical and obscure. We shall do well tobe very sure that the obscurity com-plained of is not an excuse for our owndullness of apprehension; and as tomysticism, it is a name but seldom un-derstood.True mysticism is to the quest for

wisdom what the principle of life is tothe body, viz., the revealer, that whichtransports the clod into cloud-land inorder that it may be hung with rain-bows and illumined with light. Truemysticism first senses the spirit behindphenomena, and, ascending from intel-lect to intuition, guides the soul to itsheritage with Divinity. By Hfting thebody up it brings the spirit down, and isthus the revealer and interpreter of


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Naturethe most practical and benefi-cent of all our forms of thought. When-ever man seeks to lift the veil of matterthat hems him in, and to rise above theplane of the animal senses, he treads onthe border-land of mysticism ; and everystep toward clearer vision is a revelationfrom the hitherto unknown mystic realm.Browning was a mystic in the truest

sense; and yet there can not be foundin all literature a more joyous and vitalsympathy with sensuous life, and theaffections of the human heart than hehas portrayed. He was as free from asickly sentimentality on the one handas from intellectual dullness and mys-tification on the other. He stands, Ithink, as the Apostle of Health in body,mind and spirit, and his creations aretherefore living verities.

It would be audacious to attempt in


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30 browning's PARACELSUS.one short hour to analyze a work of suchmagnitude, depth and subtlety as Para-celsus; to condense to briefer spacewhat genius has already condensed toan hundred pages, or to extract thetheme where the composition is so variedand the harmony is so complete.And yet in all modesty and sincerity

we may glance at this creation of geniusand gather inspiration, and bestow hom-age for the passing hour.We are introduced to Paracelsus as ayoung man of twenty, full of a noblepurpose, and in the midst of affection-ate and inspiring friends. Here ishis first confession, showing how clearhis brain, how warm his heart : ' ' Festusknows he holds m.e one scarce aware of allthe joys I quit ; when Festus learns thatevery common pleasure of the world af-fects me as himself; that I have just as


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varied appetite for joy derived fromcommon things ; a stake in life, in short,like his; a stake which rash pursuits ofaims that life affords not, would as soondestroyhe may convince himself that Ishall act well advised.

'' I was not born informed and fear-less from the first, but shrank fromaught which marked me out apart frommen.And then he shows how Festus, hisfriend, after Trithemius, his teacher,

taught him (me) to know mankind andknow himself (''myself ), ''the sove-reign proof that we devote ourselves toGod, is seen in living just as though noGod there were. Festus says: Youleft with me our childhood's home tojoin the favored few whom, here, Trithe-mius condescends to teach a portion ofhis lore, and not one youth of those


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SO favored, came, resolved like you tograsp all, and retain all, and deserveby patient toil a wide renown like his.It should be borne in mind that JohnReuchlin, a great Kabalist, and said tohave been the greatest linguist and scholarin his day in Europe, was the intimatefriend and preceptor of Luther. Luther'sfirst course of lectures was delivered onthe Metaphysics of Aristotle. It maybe thus seen that the men who really in-augurated the renaissance of the Six-teenth Century were taught and inspiredby the occulists, Trithemius and Reuch-lin, though the reign of faith ere longeclipsed the rejuvenated philosophy.But to continue our quotations. Brown-ing makes Festus say of the aim of Para-celsus, it *'was so vast in scope that it** desired to gain one prize in place ofmanythe secret of the world, of man,


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and man's true purpose, path, and fate.The character of this aim consists '* mostlyin this, that in itself alone shall its rewardbe; not an alien end blending therewith;no hope, nor fear, nor joy, nor woe, toelsewhere move you, but this pure devo-tion to sustain you or betray ; thus youaspire.

Paracelsus replies: ''I profess noother share in the selection of my lot,than this my ready answer to the will ofGod who summons me to be his organ.God appoints no less the way to praise,than the desire to praise, the setting forthsuch praise the natural end and serviceof a man, . . . and such praise isbest attained when man attains thegreater welfare of his kind.

Be sure that God ne'er dooms towaste the strength he deigns impart. . .

*' Be sure they sleep not whom God


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needs. . . . **This is the faith inwhich I trust. *'And I am young, myFestus, happy and free; I can devotemyself; I have a life to give. . . .

. . . * T is time new hopes shouldanimate the world, new light shoulddawn from new revealings to a raceweighed down so long, forgotten solong. Festus asks regarding this mis-sion toward which Paracelsus aspires''Why not pursue it in a fast retreat,some one of learning's many places?Paracelsus replies that from his earli-est youth he has been possessed by atrue fire, an inspiration to this greatwork. He would know, not for know-ing's sake, but to become a star to menforever. The *'true fire spoketheinward voice ** There is a way: 'T ishard for flesh to tread therein, imbuedwith frailtyhopeless, if indulgence first


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browning's PARACELSUS. 35have ripened inborn germs of sin tostrength : Wilt thou adventure for mysake and man's apart from all reward ?Paracelsus says: I answered not,knowing him.^^ . . . Thence for-ward ... he proceeds loadedwith fate so that, quailing at themighty range of secret truths whichyearned for birth, I haste to contemplateundazzled some one truthits bearingsand effects aloneat once what was aspeck expands into a star.

This reminds one of the answer givenby Sir Isaac Newton, when asked howhe had been able to make such greatdiscoveries. He repHed: '*I keep thesubject constantly before my mind, re-volving it o'er and o'er, till by and bythe full-orbed truth appears. Geniusmay have various methods, but the


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30 BRO\yNING'S PARACELSUS.fountain of inspiration is ever the same,for Truth is One.So much for the aspiration of Paracel-

sus, which is so fully elaborated andworked out in the first part of the poem.Aspiration alternates with attainmentthrough the five parts, representing dif-ferent stages in the life of Paracelsus,into which the poem is divided. Thethought in the poem itself is already socondensed, and the form of expressionso terse, that in following the theme onemay scarcely discern it in one part morethan another. In his periods where at-tainment is the theme, the motive is thesame, but success not a thing to be en-vied or to boast of. *'At worst, hesays, '*I have performed my share ofthe task. The rest is God's concern;mine merely this : to know that I haveobstinately held by my own work. . . .


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What's failure or success to me? Ihave subdued my hfe to one purposewhereto I ordained it; there alone I spy,no doubt, that way I may be satisfied.. . . '*I have made life consist ofone idea. . . . ''My aims remainedsupreme and pure as ever. In the sec-ond part of the poem occurs a long epi-sode between Paracelsus and his earlyfriend, Aprile, the poet. Paracelsus as-pired to know ; Aprile, to love infinitely,and be loved So far, each is shown tohave erred, and how love and wisdomshould unite in man. In the deathscene, Paracelsus exclaims: ''Die not,Aprile; we must never part. Are wenot halves of one dissevered world whomthis strange chance unites once more?Part ? Never, till thou, the lover, know,and I, the knower, loveuntil both aresaved. This wisdom without love, dis-


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38 browning's PARACELSUS.interested as was his motive, Paracelsusall along laments as his sin.

After the death of Aprile, Paracelsusreturns to his friend, Festus, is appointedprofessor and city physician at Basel, andmeets at first with great success, till hisenemies have time to rally and compelhim to seek safety in flight. In conver-sation with Festus, Paracelsus says: *'Ihave vowed long ago my worshipers shallowe to their own deep sagacity all fur-ther information, good or bad. . . .''Why strive to make men hear, feel,fret themselves with what 't is past theirpower to comprehend? As Festusprobes Paracelsus to find a reason forhis despondency, he replies: ''I havesaid it, dearest Festus; for the man-ner, 'tis ungracious, probably. You mayhave it told in broken sobs one day,and scalding tears ere long, but I thought


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best to keep that off as long as possible.* ' No ; it must oft fall out that one whoselabor perfects any work shall rise from itwith eye so worn that he of all men leastcan measure the extent of what he hasaccomplished. He alone who, nothingtasked, is nothing weary too, may clearlyscan the little he effects. In speakingof the will of God, Paracelsus puts itdifferently now from earlier days. Theconstant talk that men of your stamp,he says to Festus, ''keep up of God'swill, as they style it, one would swearman had but merely to uplift his eye,and see the will in question charac-tered on the heaven's vault. 'Tis hardlyvnse to moot such topics. Doubts aremany, and faith is weak. I know asmuch of any will of God as knows sometortured brute what man, his stern lord,wills from the perplexing blows that


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plague him every way; but there, ofcourse, where least he suffers, longest heremainsmy case ; and for such reasonsI plod on. . . . ''God's intimationsrather fail in clearness than in energy;'twere well did they but indicate thecourse to take like that to be forsaken.. . . ''We have to live alone to setforth well God's praises.

In the last six pages of the poem, in along and uninterrupted discoursethedying words of the philosopher to hisfriendParacelsus reviews his life, stateshis ideals, his methods, and involves,rather than explains, his philosophy. Allthrough the poem, faith and aspirationalternate with uncertainty and despond-ency; yet through all, the ideals areheld with a grasp that never for a mo-ment weakens, and pursued unerringly,though with varying speed.


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browning's PARACELSUS. 4I

Browning has taken the life and thephilosophy of Paracelsus, so far as re-vealed in his life and writings, as a back-ground, containing sufficient novelty andenough of the mystical and unknownupon which to idealize the evolution ofthe aspiring soul of man. Wisely trainedin his earliest youth in spiritual things,and keeping himself unspotted from theworld, conceiving a noble mission to befulfilled by him at any cost, and with afaith sublime enough to compass all hisdoubts and survive even in the face ofseeming failure, the hero of the poemis made to epitomize the journey ofhumanity after natural selection has givenplace to v/hat Prof. Fiske has termed*' Divine Selection, and I doubt if anything commensurate with the range ofthought, the analysis of experience, themeasure of motive and design, and the


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42 browning's PARACELSUS.true conception of the highest ideal inthe perfectibility of man, can be foundelsewhere in modern literature. Thatthis was Browning's conscious design isshown by words put into the mouth ofthe dying Paracelsus.

Tracing the evolutionary wave upthrough all lower life, he says: Theworm has enterprise, deep quiet droopswith evening, triumph takes the sunsethour, voluptuous transport ripens withthe corn beneath a warm moon like ahappy face ; and this to fill us withregard for man ; with apprehension ofhis passing worth, desire to work hisproper nature out and ascertain his rankand final place. For these thingstend still upward, progress is the law oflife, man is not Man as yet. He speaksof hopes and cares that grow too greatfor narrow creeds of right and wrong


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BROWNINGS PARACELSUS. 43which fade before the unmeasured thirstfor good while peace rises in them for-evermore.The genius and the intuition of the

poet appeal to the emotions and the as-pirations of men, for who among us doesnot feel far more than he can eitherexpress or understand ? This is whatRuskin long ago marked out as themission of true poetry, viz: To offernoble grounds for noble emotions.Ideals are found in the spiritual at-mosphere about us, that are thencefashioned into forms of thought, andwrought, little by little, by daily ex-perience into the fabric of our lives.

There is thus furnished both a zest inlife and a conscious aim or ideal to bestriven after ; in other words, a livingfaith, with perpetual unbelief keptquiet like the snake 'neath Michael's


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44 browning's PARACELSUS.foot; not blind belief that lulls thesoul to sleep with shallow self-compla-cency and sense of safety from the firesof hell.

But, says one in this materialistic age,this is all very well in poetry ; interestingand beautiful, if you please, but not atall practical. It was the philosophy em-bodied in the writings of Paracelsus, thekey of which he drew from the teach-ings of Trithemius that led him to hisgreat discoveries and gave him such as-cendency over the common men of hisage. They had indeed the power toput him down and compel him to fleefor safety, but they could not discoverhis secrets, undo his work, or reallytarnish his fame. Even the present agehas hardly grown to his estate, becauseit still gropes in the slough of material-ism, and rings the everlasting changes


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on the transformations of matter, losingsight of the indwelling spirit, the moverand inspirer of all.The sublime philosophy with which

the writings of Paracelsus fully agree, andfurnish continuous though fragmentaryproof, estabhshes three fundamentalpropositions :

(a) * 'An Omnipresent, Eternal, Bound-less, and Immutable Principle, on whichall speculation is impossible, since ittranscends the power of human concep-tion and could only be dwarfed by anyhuman expression or simihtude. It isbeyond the range and reach of thought.Something like this idea m^ay be drawnfrom what Emerson calls the Over-soul, and from Herbert Spencer's ''Un-knowable, and it has been vaguely con-ceived and expressed by many namesbut in no case has it been set forth in its


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46philosophical bearings and held intelli-gently and consistently as in this oldphilosophy. Plotinus called it the *' Prin-ciple of Principles, but he was versedin the ancient philosophy.

(J?) The second proposition is, theeternity of the Universe in toto as aboundless plane ; periodically, the play-ground of numberless Universes inces-santly manifesting and disappearing,called 'the manifesting stars' and the* Sparks of Eternity.'

{c) ''The third proposition is, the funda-mental identity of all Souls with the Uni-versal Over-soul, the latter being itself anaspect of the Unknown Root; and theobligatory pilgrimage of every Soul, aspark of the former, through the cycleof Incarnation (or necessity), in accord-ance with Cyclic or Karmic law, duringthe whole term. Upon these three


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browning's PARACELSUS. 47fundamental propositions, applicablealike to Cosmogenesis and Anthropo-genesis, the whole philosophy proceedsand man, the Microcosm, is, at everystep, involved and evolved with Cosmos,or the Macrocosm. Progress is thelaw of Life, declares Paracelsus, and inthe magnificent oration put into hismouth by Browning in the closing scene,he clearly portrays the unity of all lifethat climbs to man's estate, and the One-ness of all Nature that bodies forth oneuniversal plan. Paracelsus says: *'possess two sorts of knowledge : onevast, shadowy hints of the unboundedaim I once pursued ; the other consistsof many secrets, caught while bent onnobler prizeperhaps a few prime prin-ciples which may conduct to m.uch.These last I offer to my fellows here.Now bid me chronicle the first of


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thesemy ancient studyand in effectyou bid revert to the wild coursesjust abjured : I must go find them scat-tered through the world. Then for theprinciples, they are so simple (beingchiefly of the overturning sort (that onetime is as proper to propound them asany otherto-morrow at my class, or halfa century hence embodied in print. Forif mankind intend to learn at all, theymust begin by giving faith to them andacting on them. The principles arethus shown to be universal and eternaland, as Emerson put it, to honor everytruth by use is the key to their effi-ciency in the evolution of the soul. Pre-cisely the same conclusion is to be de-rived from Browning's idealization andfrom the facts set forth in the writingsand life of Paracelsus.The principles, which are so simple,


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BROWNING S PARACELSUS. 49are first to be apprehended, then actedon. Enter the Path. ' Tis hard forflesh to tread therein, imbued by frailtyhopeless, if indulgence first have ripenedinborn germs of sin to strength. Para-celsus was known to have led a life ofcelebacy, for v/hich many and diversereasons were assigned, the true one notonly has Browning rightly conceived, butsuch is ever the rule when man seeks tobecome more than man. Next, the idealof knowledge for the help of man, de-void of worldly or selfish motive, andpursued with a zeal and determinationthat nothing can quench or turn aside;and, finally, renunciation, or the vow ofpoverty. It is said by one of his bi-ographers that Paracelsus received thePhilosopher's Stone from an Adept atConstantinople, in 152 1, when he wastherefore twenty-eight years of age.


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5 BROWNING S PARACELSUS.Browning lays the scene betweenParacelsus and the poet, Aprile, atthe house of a Greek conjuror at Con-stantinople in the same year, and makesthis ''jewel of wisdom to consist inlearning that Love and Wisdom arehalves of one dissevered world, in whoseunion and completeness the lover Knows,and the knower Loves.No gaunt and pale asceticism hud-

dling in caves, or fleeing from humankind, is here discerned; but knowl-edge and love combined and devotedwholly to the service of man. Withsuch aims, and so pursued, it is claimedthat the higher faculties unfold. It isthus they open out a way for the im-prisoned splendor to escape the Truththat dwells within us and is wisdom'sself when crowned with Love.

That such conceptions entered into


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browning's PARACELSUS. 5 Ithe philosophy of Paracelsus there canbe no possible doubt; that he carriedthem out in practice can not now be demon-strated unless it be by the great discov-eries he made and the great wisdom hepossessed. He anticipated Harvey in thediscovery of the circulation of the blood,Mesmer in a knowledge of Animal Mag-netism, Hahnemann in the Law of Simi-lars, and made a vast number of other dis-coveries and innovations. He taught bythe use of symbols and wrote in allegorieswhenever he dealt with the profoundersecrets he had acquired, not from aselfish desire to conceal, or a superficialhabit of mystifying, but, as Browningmakes him say : * ' My worshipers shallowe to their own deep sagacity all furtherinformation, good or bad. A teacherinstructs the dull and the intelligent alikeand in the same way. The intelligent


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52 browning's PARACELSUS.profit greatly by the instruction, but thedull are little benefited thereby.; Browning is not merely the interpreterof Paracelsus, but he uses Paracelsus asa mask while he interprets himself. Helifts his hero to his own grand ideals andshows alike the way to failure and suc-cess, and all through, so noble, and yetso human, conscious of frailties, yetturning ever from alluring snares to''the imprisoned splendor and thebeckoning star. If aspiration is followedby attainment there succeeds a period ofdespondency so natural to every loftysoulso worn that he, least of allmen, can measure the extent of what hehas accomplished.We must not, therefore, take too liter-

ally, and never as a finality, the despond-ency and the confession of sin and fail-ure put into the mouth of our hero, for


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BROWNING S PARACELSUS. 53herein, through honest introspection, lieshis strength and the magnet that drawshim ever to his great ideal. It is ratherin the periods of boasting what he hasaccomplished, and in scorn for the igno-rance and stupidity of man, that his hu-man frailty appears. Step by step, thepoet analyzes every mood, as the deep-ening tide of life sweeps on, and not onephase is lost or is in vain. Even scorn,contempt, and hatred are ministering an-gels to the aspiring soul, where the sure re-bound reveals in warmer colorsclearerlightthe soul's highway. These darkgulfs being bridged and crossed, bringcharity for those who falter at their brinkor stumble headlong dov/n their steep de-scent. These, too, will rise, purified bysore trial, and stronger grown and moreglad for the smooth and sun-lit valleysand the ''mountain heights where


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54 browning's PARACELSUS.dwells repose. All seeming evil, rightlyscanned, but leads to greater good, andso the Nations climb from age to age,and man, the Eternal Pilgrim, journeyson. Were man all mind, he gains astation little enviable.The learning gained in any age is soon

outgrown and cast aside. The same oldproblems front us now in other garb, yetstill the riddle of the sphinx unsolved,and death is still triumphant, man im-mortal still. Were man all heart, andlove his only theme, his heart wouldbreak at trials he could never under-stand, and useless misery would seemthe curse of all existence ; existence atits best a curse, o'ershadowed by the fearof death, and sunk at last in dread ob-livion. ^'LovC; hope, fear, faiththesemake humanity ; and wisdom joined tolovethese are ** halves of our dissev-


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BROWNINGS PARACELSUS. 55ered world the empire of the soul.Love is the life of the Soul, wisdom thelight of the Mind, and love and lightlead man to his immortal destiny.

Most people of intelligence, now-a-days, are familiar with the history of therise, the progress, and the results of thegreat Protestant Reformation, inaugu-rated by Martin Luther. Far less isgenerally known of Trithemius, thegreat teacher, and of his illustrious pu-pils, Paracelsus and Cornelius Agrippa;of Tauler and John Reuchlin, and of thesociety designated by the strange title,* * Friends of God, or the little book calledTheologia Germanica, to which Lu-ther wrote a most approving introduc-tion. This was four hundred years ago.Humanity in the v/estern world was thenjust waking from the sleep of the darkages, and superstition stood with the


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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 be-lieved to be the enemies of religion.Then began the reign of faith, and forfour hundred years creed and dogmahave usurped the place of light andknowledge. Again the slow-revolvingcenturies have brought us to the dawnof another century, and in its twilightthe same conditions may be discerned.Many earnest, aspiring souls are gropingtheir way and welcoming the growingdawn with thankfulness and hope. Wehave banished many superstitions andrefined our materialism, and Salvationby faith has had its day and weakenedits hold. It remains to be seen whetherwe are to any extent Friends of God in


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browning's PARACELSUS. 57the sense set forth in the TheologiaGermanica, or whether Agnosticism onthe one hand, and materialism on theother, shall again blot out the light ofknowledge.

This knowledge is idealized in Brown-ing's Paracelsus in a form fitted to thethought of the new age, intellectual andphilosophical, rather than mystical anddevotional as in the work attributed toTauler. Forms of thought, like fashionsin dress, change from age to age, butprinciples are eternal. Truth weavesmany garbs and speaks a varied lan-guage, yet at heart it is one and un-changing.There is a legend in the far east, told

in many ways, of a beautiful face seenbut for an instant at a lattice window, oragain on the market-place, and lost erethe admirer could turn and speak. It is


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seen again when despair has well-nighended the quest, and so between weari-ness and hope the lover journeys on untilhe learns at last that in order to gain hisquest he must rehnquish Self. It is theparable of the journey of the soul inquest of the Higher Self, or the union ofthe soul with its god within, dwelt uponby the mystics, and portrayed by symboland allegory in many a legend and in allreligions. The perfection of man onthis earth, and not in some far-off heaven,is the ideal of the soul's evolution. AsBrowning puts it Man is not Man as yet,Nor shall I deem his object served, his endAttained, his genuine strength put fairly

forth.While only here and there a star dispelsThe darkness, here and there a towering

mind


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BROWNING S PARACELSUS. 59

O 'erlooks its prostrate fellows; when thehostIs out at once to the despair of night,When all mankind alike is perfected,Equal in full-blown powersthen, not till

then,I say, begins man's general infancy,Such men are even now upon the earth,Serene amid the half-formed creatures

round.

This is no meaningless and mysticalconception drawn from the poet's fertileimagination, but the outcome of man'shigher evolution, the details and methodsof which Paracelsus taught and Brown-ing fully outlines in his great poem. Inportraying the methods, the aims, ideals,failures, and triumphs of his hero. Brown-ing has grasped the scheme of the higherevolution, which in some happier timeshall come to full fruition. His hero,


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6o browning's PARACELSUS.therefore, stands idealized as the type ofthe aspiring soul of man; hedged aboutby frailties and hampered by ignorance,yet true to its lofty aim, and ever sinkingself in its sublime ideal. The closingsentence is prophetic

If I stoop into a dark tremendous sea oicloud.

It is but for a time; I press God's lampClose to my breast; its splendor, soon or

late.Will pierce the gloom. I shall emerge one

day.You understand me ?

**And this was Paracelsus.


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GENIUS.There is a certain energy of soul

manifest, sometimes in thought, some-times in action, that is called genius.Though the word and the qualities itrepresents are difficult to define, andthough often misapprehended and mis-used, genius is nevertheless recognizedby a consensus of opinion among men,the majority of whom could either giveno intelligent reason for their opinions,or would assign for it reasons the mostdiverse imaginable. That the popularestimate is thus vague, and that it as-signs genius to those who are merelypeculiar, erratic, unbalanced or insane,and who are thus excused as irrespon-

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62 GENIUS.

sible, by no means proves that there isno more solid and enduring basis forthat which is so Httle understood.

In the first place, real genius is spon-taneous and not studied, and its pos-sessor is likely to be the last to claim it,or recognize the fact that he is differentfrom his fellows in possessing it. Thenoisy cackle which heralds certain pro-ductions, and seeks to forestall judgmentin others, is both commonplace andvulgar, and the less noisy air of conceitand self-complacency, often engenderedby mediocre achievements in the field ofthought or the field of action, equallystamps the individual as both shallow andvoid of judgment, and to attribute ge-nius, or even a high degree of talent, tosuch an individual would be the hight offolly. Genius does spontaneously and


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GENIUS. 63

almost unconsciously that which otherscan do indifferently or not at all.

Genius is thus ever a secret to it-self, and is creative rather than imita-tive. It may be ignorant of all rules ofcomposition, and yet conform to them sothat new rules may result in trying toexplain how it was done; just as theanatomist may describe the musclesbrought into action in boxing or fencing,and yet be without skill with fist orsword. There is thus no genius withouttalent, while talent alone is neithercreative nor spontaneous. There is asublime self-confidence in men of geniusthat is far removed from self-conceit, andis born of clear vision and identificationof the Thinker or actor with his work.He is at home with it and feels sure ofhis ground, and may thus seem dog-matic. But there is a wide margin be-


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64 GENIUS.

tween such dogmatism and that whichsprings from ignorance or shallow con-ceit, and this it is which gives it recog-nition and authority, permanency andenduring fame. Genius deals with nobarren propositions, but with livingrealities, and identifies itself with all ittouches. The realm of genius, there-fore, is the real world of essential forms,and intuition seizes the ideals of natureand of life and translates them intoforms of thought or methods of action.Genius is therefore the interpreter ofnature, standing above the plane ofreason, yet by no means divorced fromit. Master for the time of both reasonand will, it brings to light things hiddenin gross darkness from ordinary minds,and translates them into form and sub-stance, life and power. It outwardlycreates that which it inwardly perceives.


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GENIUS. 65

The mind of man is not a collectionof self-acting powers and passions, not amere bundle of attributes, but essentiallya unit capable of great variety of formsof action, and essentially one.The very word Man means *' to think,

and the real man is the Thinker. Thevarious faculties of the mind, like reason,will or imagination, are the forms ofaction, the modes of energy, manifestedby the unit, man. Without this concep-tion of man as a unit, rather than a mereaggregate, self-consciousness is a mis-nomer and would be inconceivable. Itis just at this point that all theories ofheredity break down, and it is also atthis point that the foundation and natureof genius is neither inherited nor trans-mitted. The apparent exception to thisstatement in the case of genius in musicis apparent only and not real. The real


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66 GENIUS.

musician would be impossible unless thebodily organs responded to the intuitivegenius within. But it is the vehicle, andnot the driver, the instrument and notthe player, that must depend on heredity.Heredity furnishes the soil and condi-tions of growth, not the immortal seedof genius, here or elsewhere.

Genius is the heritage of the real man,not from human progenitors, but from thedivine source of all being. The organsof action in man, the faculties and pas-sions, furnish the theater of action of theThinker, define its dimensions, prescribeits limits, circumscribe its powers, repre-sent its environment, its tendencies, itsbias, its predilections. All these standdefinitely related to the real man, as thetools with which he works, and the con-ditions under which he must use them,and as no one of them, nor all together,


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GENIUS. 67

can constitute man, but only his condi-tion of action, so is genius not thus de-termined. Genius is like a concealedfountain, that bursts forth spontaneouslyin a mighty rushing stream, seizing andshaping its channels as it goes

Having located genius in the real selfin man, what are its attributes, andwhence derived ?Comparing men of ordinary powers

with men of genius, and comparing thatwhich most nearly resembles genius, viz.,talent, with genius itself, we may be ableto discover wherein genius consists.We have already found that genius is

spontaneous, self-conscious of power,creative, and ever a secret to itself,while the ordinary individual is deficientin just these attributes, or at best pos-sesses, perhaps, some one of them inslight degree.


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6S GENIUS.

Talent is a thing of growth, and isevolved by application. It is the resultof cultivation; or, in one word, Expe-rience ; and there must be an inborncapacity as the measure and limit of allexperience, resulting in talent. In otherwords, talent represents that which wehave learned, and is the result of ac-cumulated experience. The most strik-ing characteristic of genius is that it doesthat which apparently it has never learnedto do, or had the opportunity of learn-ing, unless we admit the platonic theoryof pre-existence. Even inborn tenden-cies or innate capacity, fail to explainthe creative genius of a child Mozart,if we have rightly located genius as thecentral power of the ego itself, unless wealso admit that the ego, the real self,is created at conception, and this again


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GENIUS. 69

would annul all theories of immortalityfor the ego.

If talent represents that which we havelearned, and is the result of accumulatedexperience, and if all men of genius havetalent, while the reverse is not true ; andif, further, talent belongs to the facultiescultivated, while genius is the potencyand power of the ego itself. Genius isrelated to the Thinker, as precipitated ex-perience. It is what Plato called a Remi-niscence of the soul, and therefore a secret to itself on all outer planes ofconsciousness, for reminiscence is thememory of pre-existence. This sparkof genius, that illumines space and timewith the mellow light of the forgottenpast, is nowhere more delicately andbeautifully expressed than by James Rus-sell Lowell, in his poem, called


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70 GENIUS.

IN THE TWILIGHT.Sometimes a breath floats hy me,An odor from Dreamland sent,

That makes the ghost seem nigh meOf a splendor that came and went,

Of a life lived somewhere, I know notIn what diviner sphere,

Of memories that stay not and go not,Like music heard once hy an ear

That can not forget or reclaim it,

A something so shy, it would shame itTo a make it a show,A something too vague, could I name it,For others to know,

As if I had lived it or dreamed it,As if I had acted or schemed it,

Long ago


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.Order and Harmony are the first laws

alike of Earth and Heaven ; for as earthand heaven are rather contrasted condi-tions than different localities, so order isbut the sequence of harmony, the pro-cession of events, and the embodimentof ideas in visible things according tonatural relations.

Ail fret and friction, all the sorrowsand pain of earthly existence, can betraced directly to disharmony. Harmonyand order in the life of man mean healthand happiness. In thus removing allstress and friction from the body andsoul, man is placed on the lines of leastresistance, and the journey of the soul

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72 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.through the abodes of matter becomes amarch of conquest inspiring the soulwith a pean of victory. Just as there isa science of music beyond all pleasurableemotions, and just as all harmony maybe reduced to orderly sequence in thecombination of chords according to exactmathematical ratios of vibration, so alsoin every department of the life of man,law and order, based on the same un-varying mathematical law, determinehealth, harmony, and happiness.

Music, as a mere pastime, may besoothing, comforting, and inspiring, butonly when it is made to reveal its uni-versal laws of harmony does it mount toits true place as the educator and in-spirer of the soul, and as the revealer ofthe Music of the Spheres. It is not thehighest office of music to portray thepassions of man. The grandest and


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 73

most complicated symphony, with all itscontrasted yet related parts, leads themind by simpler melodies to the finaleand at last to silence that is breathless,and where the wings of the soul, nervedby the confluence of harmonious sound,forget to beat the air, ecstatic visiontouches the shores of the isles of the blestand the inner being opens to the singingsilence, the Music of the Spheres. Everygreat composer, every true musician, hassensed this inner vision; every lover ofmusic has been under its spell.Can such a thing exist as a vagary of

the emotions without an underlying law ?without a corresponding universal prin-ciple ? I hold that the highest office ofmusic is not to exercise the emotions,but to lead the soul of man to the ap-prehension of this universal law of har-mony. Its office is not to amuse, or to


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74 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.exercise the emotions, but to elevate andpurify them. Music thus entered intothe ceremonies of all ancient genuineinitiations. The whole science of musicis based on mathematics, and just as theharmonious exercise and elevation of theemotions was secured by music, so theinstruction and elevation of the mindwas derived from mathematics. Thusthe training of the neophite in the mys-teries did not end in ecstatic vision, butin knowledge of the universal laws ofharmony. The harmony secured in theindividual's life enabled him to grasp thelaws of universal being, and opened tohim the music of the spheres.

Music is not an arbitrary invention oran accidental discovery of man. Theintervals in music exist in the very natureof things, and the true musician sensesthese as he senses light and color by con-


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 75sonant vibrations in the correspondingorgan in his own nature. FaiHng in this,he can only repeat mechanically certaintones, whether with instrument or voice,and his music is soulless. His executionmay be technically exact, but it nevertouches the heart. Music thus becomesthe great revealer. It opens the door tothe celestial harmony. The EgyptianIsis was called the Mother of all Liv-ing. ''AH that hath been, all that is,and all that shall be, and perfect har-mony only could lift the veil. Modernscience has re-discovered enough of thev/isdom of Pythagoras and the old Initi-ates to discern that all light, all color, allsound, and every form in nature dependupon and are determined by different vi-brations. The form of every living be-ing, the crystallizing of every snowflakeas of every physical substance, the vein-


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76 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.ing of every leaf, the penciling andfragrance of every flower, no less thanthe forms of thought and the subtle playof human emotions, are thus all depend-ent upon vibration, conform to the lav/sof harm.ony, and belong to the Music ofthe Spheres. Nay, every atom of mat-ter in the Universe is set to music, andwhether dancing in light or coalescing inthe deep dark bowels of the earth, is partof the universal diapason of nature. Forthe universe is not dead, but literallybreathing and pulsating with life, andthe law of that life is harmony. Everyatom, as every sun and star, throughceaseless motion, under the law of eter-nal harmony, is striving for equilibrium.Man suffers only because he is out ofharmony with himself, with Nature, andwith the Eternal source of Being. Everypain is the cry of an organ out of tune


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 77every sin and every crime is but the at-tempt of a soloist to ignore the score ofthe orchestra to which he belongs and towhich he is indissolubly bound. It isthese discords that drown out the Musicof the Spheres, and we are so intent uponour own discords, and so bound up inour own performance, that we are deafto the symphony of Hfe set before us,and when called to account console our-selves with the reflection that we are noworse out of time than the other mem-bers of the great orchestra

Nature is full of music, as it exists onlythrough the laws of harmony. Manonly is discordant and out of tune.How many have visited Niagara andheard only the roar of waters and the crashof sound? Eugene Thayer, the well-known organist, has published an analy-sis of the music of Niagara Falls. He


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78 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.says: I heard nothing but a perfectlyconstructed musical tone, clear, definite,and unapproachable in its majestic per-fection. A complete series of tones, alluniting in one grand and noble unison,as in an organ. ... I arrived atmy conclusion, he says, ''both theoret-ically and practically. Let me first callattention to the third and fourth notes,D and G. The ground note, G, was sodeep, so grand, so mighty, that I nevercould realize it or take it into my thoughtor hearing; but these two tones, onlyfour octaves lower, were every-wherewith a power that made itself felt as wellas heard. But it will be rephed, thesetwo notes were too low to be detectedby the sense of hearing. How did Idetermine the pitch ? I first caught theharmonic notes above them that weredefinite in pitch, and then, counting the


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 79number of vibrations of these lower twonotes, easily determined the distancebelow. And here comes a curious feat-ure, which proves that Niagara gives atone and not a roar. The seventh note,the interval of the tenth, was of a powerand clearness entirely out of proportionto the harmonics as usually heard in anorgan. Were the tone of Niagara amere noise, this seventh note would beeither weak or confused or absent alto-gether.What is Niagara's rhythm? Its beat

is just once per second. Here, he con-cludes, *'is our unit of timethe chro-nometer of God.

But it is not alone the movement ofmatter over matter that results in sound,or the friction of moving bodies with theelements of our atmosphere that maybecome audible. The basic function of


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8o THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.the Ether is sound, and long before theappearance of heat and light the im-mensity of space is filled with resonantvibrations. Both the resistance of theether and the revolutions of suns andstars are constant and uniform. Thehuman ear is a time organ, and it is be-cause there are no interruptions, nothingto break the sound of revolving planets,that we do not hear the sound they causein boundless space. If the mutual at-traction of planets is determined by theirrelative size and density, and they areheld to their orbits by mutual attractionand repulsion, so also the ratio of move-ment of each to each and of each to allmust coincide. But what is this but themovement of different instruments ofvarying tone as in an orchestra? Thesymphony of creation must be a fact andnot a fancy, and the singing of the morn-


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THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 8ing Stars a veritable reality. There is asubjective side to the physical senses,and this only becomes active when theouter function is suspended. On thisinner plane the senses merge in one; wehear the hght and see the sound, andsense or feel the harmony. This is thereason why the greatest seers have beenunable to describe their experiences inecstatic vision. All language fails, asouter qualities disappear and the inneressence of beauty and harmony are re-vealed. When every fiber of man's be-ing throbs in harmony with the universalsoul of nature, the universal rhythm nolonger broken into wrangling discords bythe perverted will and disjointed mem-bers of man, then will man be at-onewith all and join in the great symphony.Nothing so determines and defines theprogress of man as his power to sense


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82 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.and apprehend these revelations of na-ture, and his insight into that orderly se-quence which determines the rhythm ofmotion and the harmony of law. The*' other world is far nearer than wethink. The journey by which it isreached does not extend through space,or over mountain and ocean, nor needwe wait to pass through the gateway ofdeath to enter the celestial realm. Wehave only to open our souls to the divineharmony and silence all discords within,in order to hear and to understand theMusic of the Spheres.


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IDOLS AND IDEALS.Man has been called the Eternal

Pilgrim. Immersed in matter, and in-volved in sense and time, man facesthe riddle of the Sphinx and tries tosolve the problem of existence; to dis-cover the Great Secret.The center of man's being is a Spark

of Divinity. The spirit in man is thusakin to the Supreme Spirit and thesource of his conscious existence. Di-vinity is thus involved in man as thebasis and fact of his consciousness, asthe exhaustless fountain of life. Itis the destiny of man to attain per-fection. He descends into matter inorder to gain experience, and evolves

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84 IDOLS AND IDEALS.outwardly in form the latent potencieswhich he involves from the fountain ofall being.

In the very dawn of human existencethe center of consciousness begins toexpand v/ith the first experience, andthe ebb and flow of life, the inbreath-ing of Divinity and the outbreathingof Nature (involution and evolution)constitute self-consciousness in man.This process is typified not only in alllower forms of life, but in every or-ganic cell where the tides of life ebb andflow from circumference to nucleus, andfrom nucleus to circumference. Actionand reaction are thus opposite and al-ternate with continual adjustment, aninstant of equilibrium, and then renewalof the conflict ; the onward sweep of therestless tides of life.

This instant of equilibrium is rather


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 85ideal than actual; a nascent point, de-void of extension or duration. Were itotherwise, did equilibrium obtain and allantagonism cease, death on the physicalplane would result ; just as by cessationof breath, the inhalation and exhalationof air, the heart ceases to beat and allthe wheels of life run down.

It is thus that the conscious ego inman, the very center of his being focalizestwo worlds, the spiritual and the phys-ical, and the circle of consciousnesscontinually expands by experience drawnfrom both worlds. The poet sensed thisby intuition when he wrote : Between two worlds life hovers like a star'Twixt night and morn upon the horizon's

verge.Here is the process of life, and the

key to its interpretation is analogy. Whatconsciousness is in its last analysis, we


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86 IDOLS AND IDEALS.know and can know as little as we cangrasp Nature in its entirety. The in-finitely small and the infinitely great, themathematical point and boundless space,alike elude us. They alike represent theprinciple of antithesis in the form of thethinking faculty in man.

Spirit and Matter, God and Nature,Space and Time, exist in man as Ideas,and whenever he seeks to externalizethese he creates an Idol.Thought is an externalizing process.

Consciousness is a passive conditionthought being its active form, its chang-ing states. Hence the old saying : Allthat I am is the result of what I havethought. We interpret all experiencein terms of thought, and thus self-con-sciousness continually expands. Wethus derive our ideas of things. Arrestthought, stop all progress in the changing


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 87

panorama of events, repeat the same ex-periences day after day and we buildidols, and cling to our own creations asthough they were living and everlastingverities.

In the progress of evolution, in thelong journey of the Eternal Pilgrim,man's conscious experience must com-pass, not exhaust, the whole range ofpossible experience.

Man must know in kind all that canbe known by intelligent inquiry.Plato says : ' ' He who has not even a

knowledge of common things is a bruteamong men; he who has an accurateknowledge of common things alone is aman among brutes ; but he who knowsall that can be known by intelligentenergy is a god among men.

This continual expansion of the rangeof conscious experience, presenting the


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88 IDOLS AND IDEALS.world to consciousness in terms ofthought, slowly converts the personaland limited into the universal; trans-forms our hmited ideas into universalIdeals. That which makes evolutionpossible in man is his self-consciousnessthrough which he epitomizes in potencyEternal Nature and the Supreme Spirit.He will realize the potency in actualitystep by step as experience expands.

All experience, therefore, is to be re-garded as means to an end. Man isever seeking finalities, and imagines thatfinal happiness is to be found in thoseexperiences which are never final, butfortuitous ; can never be results but onlyprocesses. And so we ring the ever-lasting changes in sensation and antici-pation, exhaust experience in sense andtime till vitality wanes, zest dies, and theequilibrium of desire and disappointment


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 89Stops the wheels of life and physicaldeath is the result.The very goal at which we aim and

blindly sense is the cause of our defeat.To maintain action and preserve zestwhile holding in the mind the idealequilibrium, while striving consciouslyfor self-mastery, this is the great secret.To accomplish this we must dethroneour idols and cast out desire.Man may then establish between Faith

and Reason that equilibrium which evereludes him between desire and disap-pointment, or between sensation anddisgust. Just in proportion as he de-thrones his idols will the universal idealstake their place. When faith ignores ordethrones reason superstition is the re-sult. Whenever reason denies faith thewings of the soul are clipped, and mangrovels in the slough of matter, becomes


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90 IDOLS AND IDEALS.a worm of dust. Endow the brutishsoul with self-consciousness and it be-comes human. Let the personal self inman refuse to advance toward the uni-versal and it stagnates, turns back, anddescends to the plane of the brutefor it ceases to involve the divine po-tency, becomes lost in sensation and de-sire, and evolution is arrested.

Universal Nature is the embodimentof Divine Consciousness. Nature pro-gressively evolves only as it involves thethought of the All-Intelligence. BehindNature and beneath all evolutionary pro-cesses is the Divine Ideal; the plantoward which all Nature builds. This isPlato's world of Divine Ideas. These areperfect forms, or universal Ideals. Cir-cumscribed by the personal equation,limited by self-consciousness, the ex-perience of man gathers thence his ideas,


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 9distorted images, mere caricatures ofperfect forms. He clings to these asthough they were final verities, convertsthem into idols, and worships the creationof his own hands. This is the great illu-sion; the Maya of existence.In order to evolve with nature manmust relinquish and let go. Man mustfirst serve in order to command; mustlose his life in order to save it ; mustcontinually merge the personal in theuniversal. The sin of separateness isthe darkness of ignorance. In seekingto grasp and to hold, man eventually losesall. Self-consciousness is circumscribed,bewildered, and lost, in the consciousnessof self.True Religion ever presents the ideal

of self-sacrifice, while superstition buildsidols of flesh or of stone.

It is thus that the sublimity of Faith


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92 IDOLS AND IDEALS.degenerates into time-serving intellectualbelief, and man builds idols after the pat-tern of his own infirmities. Then rea-son again assumes the throne, breaks theidols in pieces, and restores to theworld a purer faith.

All evolution is thus stayed by theapotheosis of selfishness, and man remainsinvolved in the pleasures of sense andlost in the illusions of matter.

Perfection is the goal of the EternalPilgrim, and all progress implies con-tinual adjustment of ideas to Ideals ; ofthe personal and evanescent to the uni-versal and eternal. The voice alike ofNature and Divinity cries forever in ourears : Let go Let go Pass on PassonThe question of immortality for every

individual is a problem in consciousness.Conscious identity is always present as


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 93the primal endowment of the Ego, andthe continuity of experience holds fromday to day with the intervening dreamsof night, or with dreamless sleep. Herememory is the connecting link. The in-complete experiences of the more recentpast lap over and blend with those ofto-day, and so we have continuity ofthought in sense and time.

People often object to Reincarnation,because they can not remember the ex-periences of a past life, when in factthey can not retain a tithe of the ex-periences of the present life.Now, take all the elements and faculties

in man with which we are familiar, andimagine man in the life after this in thesubjective world to be deprived of therecollection of the events of this presentlife. He would there face the sameproblem as now.


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

and ascertained that the life in the sub-jective world came at last to an end, thecontinuity of existence would be still un-solved.

If memory fails to retain the experi-ences of the present life during its con-tinuance, and as with the aged, imbecile,or insane, may fail altogether, it must beapparent that memory of past experienceor past lives can not be depended uponfor a demonstration of continued exist-ence, independent of all change of en-vironment.The proof of continued existence lies,

therefore, in the conscious identity ofthe Ego, viz., in self-consciousness. Asthe theater of self-consciousness continu-ally expends, as the individual involvesby experience more and more of theDivine Life, and broadens and evolves


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 95more toward the ideal or perfect form,so the consciousness of immortality alsodeepens as the kinship of all life co-ordinates and confirms the continuity ofall individual experience. In seekingempirical testimony from without of athing which can by no possibility be soproven, we overlook or ignore the in-ternal evidence, and darken or obscurethe light of immortality within our ownsouls.The feeling or intuition of endless ex-

istence is the natural heritage of man.It is the endowment of that *' spark ofDivinity which has given him self-con-sciousness Man may imagine that hehas reasoned it away as he becomesinvolved in the senses and outer cycle ofphysical life. Reason may thus stranglefaith, and the individual become be-


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g6 IDOLS AND IDEALS.wildered and lost through his own de-vices.The belief in immortahty, even that of

very ignorant people, which certain ag-nostics and students of science assumeto despise, is thus far wiser and betterwarranted from all scientific and philo-sophical considerations than any negationcan possibly be.There is a science of life which solves

the riddle of the Sphinx, and, grasping thesecret of death, reveals the mystery ofBeing.As a mere speculation, this science is

of little worth. It is not speculative, butapplied science, that can become a guid-ing light in the Journey of the EternalPilgrim. As a prerequisite, one musthave an open mind; must be divestedof all prejudice, in order to examine dis-passionately, weigh accurately, and dis-


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 97criminate wisely. Faith and Reasonmust be in perpetual equilibriumFaithas a light on the path ; Reason as a com-pass by which the Pilgrim is guidedtoward the star of destiny.

All idols must be dethroned, andTruth discerned as an Immortal Ideal.Perfection must be recognized as the

goal of evolution ; not a negative perfec-tion in goodness by cutting off follies andsins, but perfection in knowledge, good-ness, understanding, and powerThe Pilgrim must determine his true

relations to his fellow-men, and adjustthose relations, step by step, as experi-ence expands. He must not, like chil-dren wearied with play and tired of thetoys that served to amuse, be discour-aged at the outlook and sink down indespair. Here Faith comes in, with asure promise of final triumph, and gives


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98 IDOLS AND IDEALS.confidence to endeavor and zest in life.Nothing so clogs the wheels of progressfor the aspiring soul as selfishness. NoIdeal is so helpful and inspiring as thatof the Universal Brotherhood of Man,and the kinship of all Hfe. The onwardsweep of evolution bears all human-ity and all life toward the same goal.The selfishness of one retards the progressof all. No one can rise alone. Theadvance guard of the human race is evercomposed of those who sink self for thegood of others ; of those who Step out of sunlight into shade, to make

more room for others.These but illumine the darkness with a

light that is Divine, and again step asidethat others may enjoy the light. Thetrue light that shineth in darkness is evera light from within.


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. 99The basis of all knowledge is experi-

ence. Have we not all had experienceenough on the animal side, of passionand lust, selfishness and greed? Mustwe ring the everlasting changes on thedownward scale, till faith is quenched indarkness and reason is dethroned? It isindeed more experiences that we need,but on the upward trend, toward themountains of light, where the benedic-tions of peace abide; where Faith pointsto the star of destiny; where Reasonleads to understanding; and where theDiapason of Nature is in harmony com-plete with the song of the Sons of God.Man may, if he will, ever build towardIdeals, and if these recede and seem to

elude him at every step, it is only thatthey may put on a new beauty at everyrift in the cloud. He passes to-day theideals of yesterday. He has become that


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lOO IDOLS AND IDEALS.which lured him. It is thus that man'sideas expand into ideals, and the Divin-ity which is the source of all life evolvesinto that Nature which is its completeembodiment.

This is the At-one-ment of the Sons ofGod, and if it is and must long remainfor us common mortals an ''ideal, itsapprehension as such may, nevertheless,be to the life of man what the sunlightis to earthly existence, or what the pole-star and the compass are to the sailor ondarkened seas. We are often like dis-mantled ships in stormy seas, withoutmast, sails, rudder or compass ; driftingat best in pleasant weather, and drivenhither and thither by every wind of pas-sion that blows.To know the meaning of life, the

method and goal of evolution, the fact


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IDOLS AND IDEALS. lOIof immortality, while holding the perfec-tion of man ever in mind as the loftyIdeal, this it is more than all else thatcan give zest in life and motive to allhuman endeavor.


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buck, j.d. - brownings paracelsus and other essays

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