Part 10 (1/2)
Prospero was the highest expression of Shakspere's latest thought, but only the shadowing forth of a supremer ideal. We can portray what is beneath us far more vividly and truly than what is above us. Shakspere had _lived_ Hamlet, and that is why he so vitally touches every human soul. In Prospero it was the vision by the great poetic soul of a promised land he had only viewed from a mountain top. He had seen the wonderfully luscious grasps of Eschol, but had not yet tasted them. This is why we feel the vast yet subtle difference between ”Hamlet” and ”The Tempest.”
If the immortal poet had lived the years allotted to man, with ever increasing openness of vision, his own soul would have attained that lofty height where, from the ”pattern on the mount,” he would have portrayed the splendor of divine manhood in G.o.dlike majesty, the soul irradiating the body like the s.h.i.+ning face of Moses in its halo of awe-inspiring divinity. The people required a veil; they would require one still.
Although Shakspere left us before he had lived in the radiance of the truly spiritual realm, we may well crown his Prospero with his words of another:
He sits 'mongst men like a descended G.o.d: He hath a kind of honor sets him off, More than a mortal seeming.
THE CREATIVE MAN.
BY STINSON JARVIS.
In the April number of this magazine its Editor gave us a paper called ”The Man in History.” Readers will not have failed to note the grand width and depth it gave to ordinary views. The facts concerning the human being, from the earliest records to those of the present day, were marshalled in so masterly a way, and the mental grip on the whole ma.s.s was so far-reaching and unique, that people must have perceived that they were gaining the benefits of a lifetime study.
This article is therefore in no sense a reply to Dr. Ridpath's masterpiece. On the contrary, I wish to refer to all the historical events as he has introduced them, and can only regret that want of s.p.a.ce forbids a reprint which would enable the original to be read with these comments. My endeavor is simply to bring forward for contemporaneous consideration certain suggestions which seem to me to be of a highly interesting character, and which were forced in upon my own thought by the results of experiments upon the human being. After the long series of articles published in THE ARENA about three years ago, many of my readers will not require further explanation of these experiments; but for others I will briefly refer, later on in this paper, to the phenomena which greatly affect one's views regarding man's powers and possibilities, together with the nature and extent of his agency in the world's events.
Dr. Ridpath has brought forward as interesting a question as was ever laid before a public, namely, how far, if at all, Man is the maker of history. And by the word ”history” the learned author does not mean those records of events which any chance chronicler may choose to present, but the events themselves, their causes, action, and results.
Here he presents both sides of the question, with the arguments which may be alternately used in support of each. He cites two master thinkers, Carlyle and Buckle, whose differences of opinion relative to man's agency in history were distinctly defined: Carlyle seeking the hero in each great event, and recognizing only one force, that of G.o.d, behind the princ.i.p.al actor of the temporary drama, and never satisfied until the _individual_ origins of history could be discovered. On the other hand, Buckle, to whom man, including the part he played, appeared ”as the mere result of historical forces,” and in the view of scientific rationalism contemplating ”only the lines of an infinite and unalterable causation encompa.s.sing the world and bringing to pa.s.s whatever is done by the agency of men _en ma.s.se_.”
I confess I was not by any means clear at first as to what Buckle meant by this ”infinite and unalterable causation.” If he meant the shapings of heredity coming down through many generations to produce a man able to lead in a certain event, then I followed him. I also sufficiently understood him if he referred to national desires and necessities a.s.sisting to produce competent manipulators of important events. But I did not gather until later that this language might possibly be intended to include what in common parlance is called ”the will of G.o.d.”
In the alternation of contention which Dr. Ridpath lays before us with so much skill, we are all more or less familiar with the Carlyle side of the argument, so let us consider a part of what is said on the Buckle side. In sentences collected from different portions, the ”believer in the predominance of universal causation” is represented as speaking in this way:
Men produce nothing. They control nothing. On the contrary, they are themselves like bubbles thrown up with the heavings of an infinite sea. They do not direct the course of history. Nations go to battle as the clouds enter a storm. Do clouds really fight, or are they not rather driven into concussion? Are not unseen forces behind both the nations and the clouds? What was Rome but a catapult, and Caesar but the stone? He was flung from it beyond the Alps to fall upon the barbarians of Gaul and Britain. What was Alfred but the bared right arm of England? What was Dante but a wail of the middle ages?--and what was Luther but a tocsin? What was Napoleon but a thunderbolt rattling among the thrones of Europe? He did not fling himself, but _was flung_!
The whole tendency of inquiry respecting the place of man in history has been to reduce the agency of the individual. Every advance in our scientific knowledge has confirmed what was aforetime only a suspicion, that the influence of man, as man, on the world's course of events is insignificant. Over all there is a controlling Force and Tendency, without which events and facts and inst.i.tutions are nothing.... History may be defined as the aggregate of human forces acting under law, moving invisibly--but with visible phenomena.... The individuals who contribute to the vast volume do not understand their contributions thereto, or the general scheme of which they are little more than the atomic parts.
Over this aggregate of human forces there presides somehow and somewhere a Will, a Purpose, a Principle, the nature of which no man knoweth to this day. To this Will and Purpose, to this universal Plan, which we are able to see dimly manifested in the general results and course of things, men give various names according to their age and race; according to their biases of nature and education. Some call it ... Fate; some, the First Cause; some, the Logos; some, Providence; some of the greatest races have called it G.o.d.
We come then to the admission on the Buckle side of the argument that the forces referred to as ”universal causation” may possibly include the will of G.o.d. And from the time this admission is made there seems to be little of material difference between the contestants. Practically, both refer, or may refer, back to the will of G.o.d; and the discussion here brings me to the point at which some pertinent questions may be asked.
In what historical crises has the will of G.o.d been manifested? Can you confidently point to one? If so, your conversational friend will probably call your attention to some terrible disasters which arose from it. Perhaps you may thus point to some monarchy. But your iconoclastic friend will probably refer you to a loathsome system of parasitic adulation, in which place and position went by favoritism and whimsical preference, and where advancement through personal merit was almost unknown. These ills, you think, could not be present in a republic; but when you point to one of these, your attention is directed to an internal rottenness in which justice and liberty are bought and sold by men who must make their fortunes during a short term of irresponsible office. You are then apt to smile at the idea that any of these represented the intentions of G.o.d.
Or, to take an extreme case, you may instance the life, teachings, and death of Christ. But if your friend be a fairly good amateur historian he can sufficiently indicate the many wars, the almost countless conflicts and incalculable amount of manslaughter that belief in Christ gave rise to. He can tell of those stupendous waves of crusadic fanaticism in the course of which the pillage and rapine of utterly lawless hordes brought undying disgrace upon Europe. He can pile story upon story of carnage and divided homes until you may possibly conclude that it would have been better for the world if the cross of Golgotha had never been heard of. A wrong conclusion, most certainly; but one that has oceans of facts to back it.
Outside the cases in which retribution has seemed to follow close upon wrongdoing, where can we find a momentous event of history which we can point out to ourselves and say with confidence, ”That, certainly, was brought about by the will of G.o.d.” If amalgamation of hostile baronies into one dominant nation and the acquirement of many civil advantages may be regarded as a blessing, then some will point back to an immensely picturesque figure of history and claim that the Norman William was one specially produced by the divine will for an event from which issued peculiarly valuable results. But here we have to face a question which is continually prominent when historical events are attributed to the will of G.o.d: ”Is it necessary,” we are driven to ask ourselves, ”that G.o.d's purposes be brought to a culmination through trickery, perjury, manslaughter, and every kind of falsity?” Personally I feel totally unable to think this. I wish to mention the difficulties which everyone who thinks honestly must encounter, and to do so reverently. History thus seems to enforce acceptance of one of two conclusions: Either that the justice of G.o.d is not what we are glad to suppose it to be; or else that these matters were not conducted according to the divine will. For in William's case we find all these difficulties: the claim to be acting on Harold's promise, the prior mortgaging of the intended results to the church of Rome in order to gain the a.s.sistance of foreign hordes by calling the proposed invasion a holy war, and other trickeries which need not now be set out. He brought his newly-made England into the bondage of a hierarchy, and in buying Romish aid established a precedent that was followed by other kings until priestcraft gained the unlimited power which drained the coffers of Europe, impoverished Italy, beggared Spain, revelled in the demoniacal Inquisition, subsequently degraded the Lower Canadians to almost the ignorance of the beasts, and is now using the whole of its political power to fasten its vampire clutch upon the fair virgin provinces of the Canadian Northwest.
If William could have foreseen some results of his handiwork he could have been properly regarded as one of the worst devils ever let loose upon the earth. And yet we are asked to believe that all these things were foreknown to the Deity, and that the shaping of William's policy was under the divine will.
This brief survey of a great event is only one of a large number that could be made, each collection of occurrences showing similar mixed conditions--some exhibiting resulting benefits, but in many cases mingled with disaster and distress to such an extent that the movement as a whole cannot possibly be attributed by any thinking person to the divine will.
Every historian will admit that in the great events of history, the conquests and other large acquisitions of territory, some one or more of the following disgraces were present: the killing of human beings, false pretences, pillage and rapine, human tortures, treacheries, imprisonments, introductions of diseases, plagues, and bad habits, traffic in drugs and liquors which debauched, degraded, and killed. Such a list is almost endless. And shall we say that an Almighty Father caring for his children could have desired such proceedings? Surely not!
Let us be sensible and conform our judgment to the evidence.
In doing so, what is our alternative? Are we not forced to comprehend that even the most valuable improvements were only advanced so far as human intelligence could advance them when this intelligence was illuminated by a partial exercise of its highest faculties? Are we not forced to admit that the resulting benefits, whether personal or national, were for the most part those which were humanly foreseen, and that the subsequent disasters were for the most part those which could not be foreseen by human intelligence?--or were foreseen and intentionally risked and braved? Has there been a single event of history which cannot be honestly attributed to human intelligence--this being aided by a partial exercise of its highest faculties?
What, then, are these highest faculties? What are the powers within man which enable him to transcend other men, and previous men? Let me here state my conviction, which later on will seem justified, that advance in comprehension of the higher faculties in man must be gained through a further acquaintance with phenomena which may be present in hypnotic conditions. I do not mean that personal attention to the experiments is necessary, no matter how preferable. Nor do I suggest that they tell as much as one could wish--at least, so far as I have followed them. Mine have only led me to the outside ramparts of vast realms which await the investigations of others.
What I mean is that everyone should in some way be made certain, either through personal experiment or reliable hearsay, that in the human make-up there are faculties which may be forced by will-power into an activity which they do not manifest in the ordinary daily life. There is no reason to doubt that these are the same faculties which become so apparent in the keen-sightedness of those who are great in statecraft, diplomacy, business, or in any other way. With ordinary people, especially the laboring cla.s.ses, these faculties seem more inactive, through disuse. In most men they seem to show activity only when forced by concentration and will-power; but there are bright people of both s.e.xes in whom they seem very alert without urging.
My reasons for stating that everyone should be acquainted with these peculiarities are well founded. Without this the admission that there is a ”soul” in man is largely due to the compulsion of hearsay. Without this, and certain other studies, some of the reasons for the evolution of man and beast are obscured, and the most telling argument in favor of further evolution remains practically a blank. Without this we need not look for a better understanding of man's place in history. But, on the other hand, this kind of research supplies proof of many seemingly miraculous powers in man which have valuable explanations to make in regard to the history of history.