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Wikipedia Commons A Woody Landscape 1801 |
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Library of Congress Marriage of Heaven and Hell Plate 2, Copy D |
https://ramhornd.blogspot.com/2011/01/blakes-nakedness_16.html
Preface to The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis:
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140726
Blake wrote the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. If I have written of their
Divorce, this is not because I think myself a fit antagonist for so great
a genius, nor even because I feel at all sure that I know what he meant.
But in some sense or other the attempt to make that marriage is
perennial. The attempt is based on the belief that reality never presents
us with an absolutely unavoidable ‘either-or’; that, granted skill and
patience and (above all) time enough, some way of embracing both
alternatives can always be found; that mere development or adjustment or
refinement will somehow turn evil into good without our being called on
for a final and total rejection of anything we should like to retain.
This belief I take to be a disastrous error. You cannot take all luggage
with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and your
right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind. We are not
living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if
followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally
meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few
miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork
you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a
river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it
and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection.
Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil
but from other good.
I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue
consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put
right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it
afresh from that point, never by simply _going on_. Evil can be undone,
but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must
be unwound, bit by bit, ‘with backward mutters of dissevering power’—or
else not. It is still ‘either-or’. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even
earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able
to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell. I
believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what
he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) has not been lost: that
the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes
will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in ‘the High
Countries’. In that sense it will be true for those who have completed
the journey (and for no others) to say that good is everything and Heaven everywhere. But we, at this end of the road, must not try to anticipate that retrospective vision. If we do, we are likely to embrace the false and disastrous converse and fancy that everything is good and everywhere is Heaven.
But what, you ask, of earth? Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone
to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead
of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell:
and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a
part of Heaven itself.
There are only two things more to be said about this small book. Firstly,
I must acknowledge my debt to a writer whose name I have forgotten and
whom I read several years ago in a highly coloured American magazine of
what they call ‘Scientifiction’. The unbendable and unbreakable quality
of my heavenly matter was suggested to me by him, though he used the
fancy for a different and most ingenious purpose. His hero travelled into
the _past_: and there, very properly, found raindrops that would pierce
him like bullets and sandwiches that no strength could bite—because, of
course, nothing in the past can be altered. I, with less originality but
(I hope) equal propriety have transferred this to the eternal. If the
writer of that story ever reads these lines I ask him to accept my
grateful acknowledgment. The second thing is this. I beg readers to
remember that this is a fantasy. It has of course—or I intended it to
have—a moral. But the transmortal conditions are solely an imaginative
supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually
await us. The last thing I wish is to arouse factual curiosity about the
details of the after-world.
C. S. Lewis
_April, 1945_.
Night Thoughts
http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00016/AN00016359_001_l.jpg
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotle
****************
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 20, (E 42)
"till the body was left a helpless trunk. this
after grinning & kissing it with seeming fondness they devourd
too; and here & there I saw one savourily picking the flesh off
of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoyd us both we went
into the mill, & I in my hand brought the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was Aristotles Analytics.
So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou
oughtest to be ashamed.
I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.
Opposition is true Friendship." ON HOMERS POETRY (E 269) "As Unity is the cloke of folly so Goodness is the cloke of
knavery Those who will have Unity exclusively in Homer come out
with a Moral like a sting in the tail: Aristotle says Characters
are either Good or Bad: now Goodness or Badness has nothing to do
with Character. an Apple tree a Pear tree a Horse a Lion, are
Characters but a Good Apple tree or a Bad, is an Apple tree
still: a Horse is not more a Lion for being a Bad Horse. that is
its Character; its Goodness or Badness is another consideration."Annotations to Watson, (E 615) That mankind are in a less distinguishd situation with
regard to mind than they were in the time of Homer Socrates
Phidias. Glycon. Aristotle & let all their works witness
[the Deists]<Paine> say<s> that Christianity put a stop
to improvement & the Bishop has not shewn the contraryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyconhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidias
UC Santa Barbara
Walter Isaacson
The Innovators
Page 248
"Defense Department money was not flowing freely to costly programs designed to allow collaboration among academic researchers."
Page 249
"He [Steven Cocker] never considered nuclear survival to be part of his mission. Yet when Lukasik sent around his 2011 paper, Cocker read smiled, and revised his thinking. "I was on top and you were on the bottom,so you really had no idea of what was going on and why we were doing it," Lukasik told him. To which Cocker replied with a dab of humor masking a dollop of wisdom, "I was on the bottom and you were on the top, so you had no idea of what was going on or what we were doing."
Page 251
"Janet Abbate noted ... the group that designed and built ARPA's networks was dominated by academic scientists, who incorporated their own values of collegiality, decentralization of authority, and open exchange of information into the system." These academic researchers of the late 1960's, many of whom associated with the antiwar counterculture, created a system that resisted centralized command. It would route around any damage from a nuclear attack but also around any attempt to impose control."
Page 260
"The Internet was built partly by the government and partly by private firms, but mostly it was the creation of a loosely knit cohort of academics and hackers who worked as peers and freely shared their creative ideas. The result of such peer sharing was a network that facilitated peer sharing. This was not mere happenstance. The Internet was built with the belief that that power should be distributed rather than centralized and that any authoritarian diktats should be circumvented."
______________________
"I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to CreateWilliam Blake" First posted Dec 20, 2010
Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat,
to explain the concepts of the new physics in the context of classical
science. This quote crosses the dividing line between physics and
cosmology:
"In
Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of
as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the
universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It
is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty
of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are
confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore
seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality
of everything in the universe.
"...Unseen and not directly
measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence,
like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all
surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of
evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum.
Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."
__________________________Illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost
The
following passages scattered through Blake's writing give the
impression that the 'weeping babe' or 'weeping infant' is man in his
potential form holding all possibilities. Like the Quantum Vacuum
mentioned above the babe does not contain but 'allows the patterns of
dynamic energy' to take form. The babe cannot be measured or defined but
awaits 'fill[ing] with every potentiality of everything in the
universe.' Into this babe we become immersed and become expressed
through his potential.
The Pickering Manuscript, The Crystal Cabinet, (E 488)
"I strove to sieze the inmost Form
With ardor fierce & hands of flame
But burst the Crystal Cabinet
And like a Weeping Babe became
A weeping Babe upon the wild
And Weeping Woman pale reclind
And in the outward air again
I filld with woes the passing Wind"
Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 214)
"And Jehovah stood in the Gates of the Victim, & he appeared
A weeping Infant in the Gates of Birth in the midst of Heaven"
Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 214)
"The Cities & Villages of Albion became Rock & Sand Unhumanized
The Druid Sons of Albion & the Heavens a Void around unfathomable
No Human Form but Sexual & a little weeping Infant pale reflected
Multitudinous in the Looking Glass of Enitharmon, on all sides
Around in the clouds of the Female, on Albions Cliffs of the Dead"
Jerusalem, Plate 81, (E 239)
"Humanity is become
A weeping Infant in ruind lovely Jerusalems folding Cloud:
In Heaven Love begets Love! but Fear is the Parent of Earthly
Love!"
------------
Plate 82, (E 239)
"the mighty Hyle is become a weeping infant;
Soon shall the Spectres of the Dead follow my weaving threads."
------------
Plate 82, (E 240)
"She drew aside her Veil from Mam-Tor to Dovedale
Discovering her own perfect beauty to the Daughters of Albion
And Hyle a winding Worm beneath [her Loom upon the scales.
Hyle was become a winding Worm:] & not a weeping Infant.
Trembling & pitying she screamd & fled upon the wind:
Hyle was a winding Worm and herself perfect in beauty:
The desarts tremble at his wrath: they shrink themselves in fear."
Four Zoas, PAGE 27, (E 317)
"And I commanded the Great deep to hide her in his hand
Till she became a little weeping Infant a span long
I carried her in my bosom as a man carries a lamb
I loved her I gave her all my soul & my delight
I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer
Weaving mazes of delight along the sunny Paradise
Inextricable labyrinths, She bore me sons & daughters
And they have taken her away & hid her from my sight"
Thel, PLATE 4, (E 6)
"Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.
Art thou a Worm? image of weakness. art thou but a Worm?
I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf:
Ah weep not little voice, thou can'st not speak. but thou can'st
weep;
Is this a Worm? I see thee lay helpless & naked: weeping,
And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.
The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice, & raisd her pitying head;
She bowd over the weeping infant, and her life exhal'd
In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes.
O beauty of the vales of Har. we live not for ourselves,
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed;
My bosom of itself is cold. and of itself is dark,"
Four Zoas, PAGE 35, (E 324)
"The deep lifts up his rugged head
And lost in infinite hum[m]ing wings vanishes with a cry
The living voice is ever living in its inmost joy
Arise you little glancing wings & sing your infant joy
Arise & drink your bliss
For every thing that lives is holy for the source of life
Descends to be a weeping babe
For the Earthworm renews the moisture of the sandy plain"
In Howe's Hist. of Presby Church in SC, Vol 1. there is a footnote on pp 611-12, which contains portions of a letter from Rev John McElhenny to J.H.Saye; it is a short description of the life of his elder brother, Rev. James McElhenny:
Rev. James McElhenny(1768-1812) was said to have been born in Waxhaws (although Lunenburg Co. VA has also been claimed as his birthplace). His father was John, and his grandfather S McElhenny. His mother was said to be a Cail. The family lived in the Waxhaws (Lancaster Co. SC), and there were 4 sons and 2 daughters. The older son was James. Their father, John, died after the Revolution. The family moved to Chester Co. James McElhenny married Jane Moore at Bethesda Church in York Co. It seems likely that David Leech and Prudence McElhenny were also married there. Was Prudence one of James' two sisters??
James studied with Rev. Jospeh Alexander, pastor of Bullocks Creek Church in York Co. He also studied sciences with Dr. Hall of NC. Licensed and invited to preach at St. Johns Island near Charleston. Due to health he moved to Pendleton District, near the Old Stone Church.
(in 1990 the writer bought a house just off Old Stone Church Road, about a half mile from the church. At that time he had no idea there were kinfolk nearby, but it seems likely that Rev. James McElhenny was his gx uncle.)
"Rev James McElhaney married Jane Moore of Bethesda. According to Hart: Jane Moore was the 5th child of the original James Moore who died (1774-87). She married Rev. James McElhenny. (In 1779 John McElheney, Jr. had witnessed a conveyance of David Leech to the Moore family, of which more is detailed below).
1794 James McElhenny of Chester Co. SC, was one of four presidents of the Philomathic Society, instituted this year, a debating society. Another member was Jackson McElhenney. (Chester Bulletin for June, 1992 p 58/9.) (Perhaps the man who had just married Jane Moore and went to Old Stone Church in Pendleton.)
His son in law was Rev. James Archibald Murphy, husband of Jane McElhenny. He died the same year. It was said that they were trying to grow rice in the swamps, which led to their death.
Rev. James McElhenny's 2nd wife was Mrs. Smith Wilkinson;
his
step-daughter, Susan Wilkinson married Governor Andrew
Pickens. Her
son was Francis W. Pickens who served as South Carolina's
governor
during the Civil War.
(Members of the Pickens extended family are buried at
Rock Springs
Presbyterian Church in Mt. Hope in Lawrence Co. AL, a few
miles from
where Prudence McElhany Leech's son, John lived.)
Rev. James' grandson, James Archibald Murphy, Jr. md Dorcas Moore, probably a cousin. Their son, James Archibald Murphy III died unmarried.
Jane McElhenny Murphy, a widow, married again to her first cousin, Alfred Moore.
Rev. James McElhaney's four room house was purchased about 1820 by John C. Calhoun. In due course it came into the possession of Calhoun's son in law, a man named Clemson. It was enlarged and modified into a ten bedroom house with a large Greek facade on two sides. At his death Clemson gave the house and surrounding property to the state of South Carolina for agricultural research--out of which of course developed Clemson University. The house remains in the center of the campus.
At school time he chose Yale, but it was closed due to yellow-fever; so he went with his schoolmate, Sam Wilson to Washington Academy in Lexington, VA. He was ordained in Rockbridge Co., but served in York Co.SC most of his life. He died in 1871.
(Another James McIlheny was said to be born in York Co. SC in 1759 (although there was no York Co. SC at that time) and living in District 96 when he enlisted with Capt. John McIlheny. This may be the Spartanburg family. He was later Company Captain in the regiments of Col John Thomas and Col. Hammond.)
Alexander McElhenny was in the militia under Col Roebuck;
after the
fall of Charleston he lost a horse. (Same unit as Capt.
David
Leech)
There were land grants to a man of this name over on the
Saluda
River.
The two Rev. McElhaneys were members of Bethesda Church, probably organized by Rev. Wm Richardson about the time he acquired half of the land grant of Thomas and Jean McKelheney in Lancaster Co. It was located a few miles southeast of Yorkville in York Co. Here worshiped David Leech of the writer's family and many other families associated with LEECH, both in York Co. and later in Lawrence Co. AL. This is certain in the cases of ASH and DICKEY and probably quite a few others. For example Hezekiah Balch, a missionary from the New York Synod, often preached at Bethesda; a person of that name is found in the 1820 Lawrence Co. census.
Bethesda Church is a few miles south and a little east from Yorkville 20 miles from the Broad and 17 miles from the Catawba. The congregation is listed in History of the Presbyterian Church of SC, by Haire, p. 338.
In 1759 Thomas and Jean Mcelhony got property on the Catawba, and in 1767 James and Wm McElkene acquired 500a on Fishing Creek, witnessed by Tho and Jane McElkeny.
In 1763 James Moore had received a grant on the south fork of Fishing Creek. 126 acres of it were conveyed to David Leech in 1769. In 1779 David Leech, tanner, conveyed it back to John Moore, Jr. perhaps a son of James Moore, the original grantee. One of the witnesses was John McElheney, Jr. (Recall that Rev. James McElhaney was to marry Jane Moore, said to be the 5th child of the original James Moore.
1767 McElkene Jas and Wm SC York/Chester
500a from James
Johnston for 200 lbs. on Fishing Creek, which Johnston
bought from Wm
Jones in 1754 (SC Deed Abstracts III p 364)
wit Tho and Jane McElkeny, Catherine McAdoo
(Since a granddaughter of Prudence McElhaney, Jane Leech
married Able
Johnston in Lawrence AL in 1824, one can't help wondering
if this
James Johnston may be an ancestor of Able Johnston of
Lawrence Co.
AL.)
1775 Samuel Dunlap and wife Elizabeth of Bekley Co. to John McElhany of Craven Co. for 45 lb 300a on Cane Creek, adj. Thomas McMeen, John Dunlap, Eliz Dunlap, Witnesses Richard Cousart, Alex Thompson, John Dunlap.
In 1799 John McElhany, late of Chester Co for $300 sold
to Eliezar
Alexander 300 acres on e side of Cane Cr. on both sides
of the Road called
the Lands Ford Road adj Eliezar Alexander, Eliz and Wm
McMeen, John
Simpson, Ben. Cudworth and David Adams.
wit Alexdr Moore, Thos McElhenny
Agnes McElheney X relinquished dower rights before John
Simpson, J.L.C.
(Was John McElhany going to KY?)
1814 McElhenny Stephen SC Chester
adj to land on
Fishing Creek which John Blair sold to Sam Rainey
Book R Page 352 Chester County Deeds:
Sept 13 1814, John Blair of York District SC, for 325
dollars, to
Samuel Rainey of Chester, 122 ac in Chester District on
south fork of
Fishing Creek, bounded by Allen Knight on north, Stephen
McElhenny on
east, Thomas Wallace on south, Samuel Rainey on west,
conveyed from
James Wallace to William Miller, and from John Kennedy,
Sheriff of
Chester County, as the property of said Miller to Samuel
McNeels, to
John Blair. (Guardian of David B. Martin) Witnesses:
Thomas Wallace,
?JP, James Martin.
(I have not ascertained the nature of the
relationship between the McElhaney and Blair families,
but it
certainly seems significant. Consider for example that
another
granddaughter of Prudence McElhaney Leech, Clarissa
Fineta Leech,
married John Dickey Blair in Lawrence Co. AL. Consider
also that this
John Blair was the guardian of David Martin, perhaps the
same David
Martin who was a neighbor of Prudence's son, John Leech
in Lawrence
Co.
1819 McElhenny Robert SC Chester 195a from exors of John Wright Decd (James Gill of Chester and Robert Love of York) tract orig granted to James Bigham 6 Oct 1763 (100a), then resurveyed by John McReary, Surv for Estate of John Wright it was 195a adj Wm Brown, Pagan, John Gills corner wit James Wallace Sam Bannon proved before Tho Wallace by Tho McElhennny who said James Wallace swore to him.
Chester Wills Vol II, Book G, p 71:
1821 McElheny James SC Chester
will
(He seems to be a batchelor!)
sister: Nancy McElhany 150a where I live.
at her death divided between 3 sons of Steven
McElheny:
James, Robt, and John.
James to get 50a adj Jonathan Wallace.
Brother Sam and James (Sam's son?) the property which
they now have.
exor Sam McNeil
wits John Clark, Eliz McNeil, Esther McElheny
proved 1822
( from this I get:
siblings: James, Nancy, Steven and Sam.
Steven's sons: James, Robt and John
Sam's son: James
This certainly appears to be the McElheny family on
page 276 in
Chester in 1810, while David Leech was on page 274.
1767 McKlekeny, John SC Spartanburg 100a s sides of n. fork of Tygar River, adj Thomas Collins, John Leech & his own land. File no. 86; grant no. 104 Bk 20 p. 43(a SC instrument)
Mecklenburg Co NC Warrants (may be repetitious):
1769 Mackilhany John NC Meck
100a s side of N
fork of Tyger adj Tho Collins and Francis Dodd's lines
(an NC
instrument)
1769 Mackilhany John NC Meck 200a N fork of Tyger on Browns Ck betwen John Prince and John Miller
1788 McElheny John and wife Anne Armstrong SC Spartan
500a in
Greenville Co.(N. side of Saluda for 5 shillings to John
and Wm Armstrong
wit: Martin Armstrong, Wm Stiggs, James Jordan
(This was a 1785 grant to Ann Armstrong, which suggests
that John
McElheny may have married Ann Armstrong between
1785-88.
In 1767 John McKlekeny/McIlhenny and John Leech had adjoining property on the Tygar. John Leech died in 1799, and most of his family moved to Kentucky. Among his sons was James, b. 1779. He married Martha Drennon. Among their eleven children were James McElhaney Leech, b 1819 Caldwell County KY (died 1874) (married Elizabeth Ann Dunbar).
The origin of the name James McElhaney Leech is unclear. There are two possibilities: one that it stems from his grandfather, John Leech's association with his neighbor on the Tygar. The other that it stems from his mother's family. It appears that the Drennons may have been members of the Old Stone Church in Pendleton (now Pickens) Co. SC during the years of the pastorate of Rev. James McElhaney.
The writer welcomes comments, criticism, corrections,
suggestions, any
other sort of correspondence relating to the McElhaney
family. Send
such to
lclay@netzero.net
or slomail to:
According to the 1880 census James M Leech, 47, born in MS had wife Ella and son Bernard. James was said to have been born in MS and both of his parents in AL. Ella is said to have been born in MS, her father in AL and her mother in MS:
1880 Miss Yalobusha Co. census Twp Water Valley (Taylor and Water Valley are quite close, although in different counties) Leech James M 43 born MS Leech Ella A 22 born MS Leech Bernard 10/12, born MS
The 1890 census was unfortunately burned.
Some time before the turn of the century James Leech and family moved from rural Mississippi to the city of Memphis. No doubt then as now people leave the country to make their fortune in town.
1900 Tenn Shelby census ed. 102 sheet 10, line 42 Leach James, age 66; Shaw St., Memphis. Born 1833 in Alabama. carpenter (house), literate, a renter Leach Ella E b. May 1857 age 43 mother of 2 children, 1 living Bernard O son born July 18, 1879; aged 20, born in Miss laborer (riveter iron) literate.
Two daughters were born in Memphis: In 1904 Mary Maud Leech. In 1921
she married Robert L Clayton in New Orleans.
In 1905 Mae Leech. In 1920 she married Vernon H. Bray. The Brays had
3 children: Vernon, Jr., born 1923 Betty Jean, born ca 1927, died of diphtheria
at age of 3. William, born ca 1942 in Glendale, CA.
Ca 1936 Vernon and Minnie Mae Bray moved from Memphis to Glendale CA. Soon thereafter Minnie Mae's parents followed them. They were members of the Broadway St. Methodist Church. Life was better for the family than it had been in depression days in Memphis. In 1953 most of the Leech family were in California: the Brays and the two Clayton grandchildren, Margaret having moved there in 1942 and Larry serving in the U.S.Navy.
© 2001 Larry Clayton
My Home
file:///home/ellie/Documents/Genealogy/leech.htm
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British Museum Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts |
Revelation 21
[3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God.
[4] And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
[5]
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
[6]
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the
water of life freely.
[7] He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Phillips
21:1-4
- Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the
first Heaven and the first earth had disappeared and the
sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride
dressed in beauty for her husband. Then I heard a great
voice from the throne crying, "See! The home of God
is with men, and he will live among them. They shall be
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and will
wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no
more, and never again shall there be sorrow or crying or
pain. For all those former things are past and
gone."
Larry wrote:
Like Los Blake walks up and down the biblical scene from Adam
to John of Patmos. He takes what best serves his purpose, or rather the
biblical symbols rearrange themselves kaleidoscopically into his
visions of Eternity. These together add up to a cogent and provocative
commentary on the Bible and on its child, the Christian faith.
JOHN MASEFIELD
O Christ, who holds the open gate,
O Christ who drives the furrow straight,
O Christ, the plow, O Christ, the laughter
of holy white birds flying after.
Lo, all my heart's field red and torn,
and thou wilt bring the young green corn,
the young green corn divinely springing,
the young green corn for ever singing.
And when the field is fresh and fair
thy blessèd feet shall glitter there,
and we will walk the weeded field,
and tell the golden harvest's yield.
The corn that makes the holy bread
by which the soul of man is fed,
the holy bread, the food unpriced,
thy everlasting mercy, O Christ.
A treat when we visit the beach is seeing the sea birds standing in the morning light on the wet sand. Three images of the birds are presented. First is the reflection in the wet sand before there is enough light to fully illuminate the birds. When the direct light of the sun breaks the horizon the reflected light from the birds is strong enough to reach our eyes. As the light increases shadows of the birds are discernible.
This reminds me that all we see are images each presenting partial information of an infinite pattern.
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| March 16, 2020 |
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| Feb 7,2019 |
A clear an account of seeing not an objective thing but the intrinsic reality which underlies surface appearance is found in Robert Pirsig's novel Lila. Pirsig named the philosophy of Phaedrus Dynamic Quality. The exterior static constructs of the left brain fail to provide the flexible perspective which recognizes goodness as it appears in all its aspects.
Robert Pirsig's second novel: read Lila as pdf
From the end of Chapter 26:
"Once when Phaedrus was standing in one of the galleries of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, he saw on one wall a huge painting of the Buddha and nearby were some paintings of Christian saints. He noticed again something he had thought about before. Although the Buddhists and Christians had no historic contact with one another they both painted halos. The halos weren't the same size. The Buddhists painted great big ones, sometimes surrounding the person's whole body, while the Christian ones were smaller and in back of the person's head or over it. It seemed to mean the two religions weren't copying one another or they would have made the halos the same size. But they were both painting something they were seeing separately, which implied that that 'something' they were painting had a real, independent existence.
Then as Phaedrus was thinking this he noticed one painting in the corner and thought, There. What the others are just painting symbolically he is actually showing. They're seeing it second-hand. He's seeing it first hand.'
It was a painting of Christ with no halo at all. But the clouds in the sky behind his head were slightly lighter near his head than farther away. And the sky near his head was lighter too. That was all. But that was the real illumination, no objective thing at all, just a shift in intensity of light. Phaedru stepped up to the canvas to read the name-plate at the bottom. It was El Greco again.
Our culture immunizes us against giving much importance to all this because the light has no 'objective' reality. That means it's just some 'subjective' and therefore unreal phenomenon. In a Metaphysics of Quality, however, this light is important because it often appears associated with undefined auspiciousness, that is, with Dynamic Quality. It signals a Dynamic intrusion upon a static situation. When there is a letting go of static patterns the light occurs. It is often accompanied by a feeling of relaxation because static patterns have been jarred loose. He thought it was probably the light that infants see when their world is still fresh and whole, before consciousness differentiates it into patterns; a light into which everything fades at death. Accounts of people who have had a 'near death experience' have referred to this 'white light' as something very beautiful and compelling from which they didn't want to return. The light would occur during the breakup of the static patterns of the person's intellect as it returned into the pure Dynamic Quality from which it had emerged in infancy.
During Phaedrus' time of insanity when he had wandered freely outside the limits of cultural reality, this light had been a valued companion, pointing out things to him that he would otherwise have missed, appearing at an event his rational thought had indicated was unimportant, but which he would later discover had been more important than he had known. Other times it had occurred at events he could not figure out the importance of, but which had left him wondering.
He saw it once on a small kitten. After that for a long time the kitten followed him wherever he went and he wondered if the kitten saw it too.
He had seen it once around a tiger in a zoo. The tiger had suddenly looked at him with what seemed like surprise and had come over to the bars for a closer look. Then the illumination began to appear around the tiger's face. That was all. Afterward, that experience associated itself with William Blake's Tiger! Tiger! burning bright.'
The eyes had blazed with what seemed to be inner light."
 |
| The Descent of Peace by William Blake On the Night of Christ's Nativity by John Milton |
"The divine Presence is more than anything else. There is more than one way to the rediscovery of the 'genus divinum' in us. This is the only thing that matters....I wanted the proof of a living Spirit and I got it....Don't ask me at what price....I don't want to prescribe a way to other people, because I know that my way has been prescribed to me by a hand far above my reach. I know it all sounds so damned grand. I am sorry that it does, but I don't mean it. It is grand and I am only trying to be a decent tool and don't feel grand at all."
Quoted from letter to Fr. Victor White.
This sounds like a man who knew the Spirit within. Jesus didn't ask for more than that.
Quotes from CARL JUNG: WOUNDED HEALER OF THE SOUL by Claire Dunne
Road to Salem by Adelaide Fries
Based on account by Anna Catharina Antes Kalberlahn Reuter Heinzmann Ernst
Page 75
On another day Martin took me to the mill, where we found the' same crowded conditions as in Bethabara. Refugees had been permitted to cut down trees in the neighboring forest, and had built eight log cabins in a row, the back walls of the cabins forming one side of the stockade. The other three sides were built of boards, for a saw-mill had been erected for our own convenience, and it was possible to saw the boards, and less trouble than to use palisades. Neighbors seldom took the trouble to haul away boards, but the grist-mill, the only one in a radius of many miles, was used by a great many persons. "They have built a very large bin in Bethabara," said Brother Kapp, the miller, "and I have sent thither a large amount of flour, so that if we are besieged both places can be fed."
Page 78
This distressed Brother Spangenberg, who had selected the site
for Wachovia, and had directed its development from Bethlehem, but
was paying his first visit to the village of Bethabara since its
founding. Doubtless this made him the more ready to accept the
proposal of Michael Hauser, Sr., one of the mill refugees,
who did not wish to return to his farm and asked that the
Moravians would begin a second village, not too far from
Bethabara, and allow him and his family to settle there. He
discussed the matter with the Bethabara Brethren, and several of
the men stated that they would be glad to join in the movement to
establish a second Moravian village. On June 12th Brother
Spangenberg, his wife, and several Brethren, rode to what they
called the Black Walnut Bottom, and there they selected a
suitable site, about three miles from Bethabara, on the road
that led by the mill. Lots were laid off there on the 30th
of the month, and the name of Bethania was given to the
new village.
Page 93
The year 1761 made little difference in my life. The Cherokee war continued, and additional cabins were built at the mill to give the refugees more room. Poor Henry Benner's house was pillaged again, but as he and his family were here for the fourteenth time they were not in danger
Page 162
Brother George Soelle is truly what he calls himself, 'a free
servant of the Lord/ On one of his missionary tours in that
direction he heard of the Broadbayers, went to see them, was made
welcome, and was asked to come again. In spite of the distance
from Bethlehem he made repeated visits and finally became pastor
of a group of interested men and women. Last year I heard that a
company of them were speaking of leaving New England and coming to
Wachovia, of which Brother Soelle had told them."
We had heard nothing more about this plan, but in November, 1769,
it was reported that a company from Boston had reached Wilmington
and was coming to Bethabara by way of Cross Creek. That proved to
be true, and they reached us on November the 9th.
They had left Boston in the middle of August, but their schooner
ran aground off the Roanoke and two families lost all their goods,
though no lives were lost. In another schooner they reached
Wilmington, where many of them had been ill, and some were still
having fever. They were housed in the tavern until some of the
cabins at the mill could be repaired for them.
A few days later more arrived, and several of them also had fever.
As they were being escorted to the tavern one of them, a Mrs.
Hahn, asked, "What is the text for today?"
"Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you," was the
answer, and the good woman rejoiced greatly that she was among the
Brethren, as she had long desired to be, and that she had reached
us on a day which had so auspicious a text.
Shortly after their arrival there was a conference between our
leaders and the leaders of their party, and it was decided that two
families should stay at the mill, where the men could work;
that two should go to Bethania; and that the rest should move into
the partly finished houses in Salem, where the men could be employed in building.
"I had been hoping that we could move into one of those houses
until our own was built," I confided to Christian, and again he
counseled patience, pointing out that the additional help would
make building go faster.
HOUSE BUILDING
Page 129
"How can we build frame houses?" asked Triebel, the practical. "We
have no saw-mill in Salem, and to haul all the lumber from
Bethabara will be troublesome and expensive."
"I mean the sort of frame house that is used in parts of Pennsylvania," said Brother Marshall. "Where good wood is scarce, as it is here, the trunks of the trees are used for the large timbers and the smaller pieces serve well for the laths. See—" and taking up his pencil he drew a small design. "Here are the heavy uprights, squared, with grooves on opposite sides. These heavy timbers, the height of the wall, are set two or three feet apart. Then small pieces of wood, of the correct length to extend from one groove into another, are used as laths, which need not be uniform or finished, only relatively of the same size. These laths are chipped at each end to fit into the grooves; then each is wrapped in a mixture of straw and clay to form a cylinder of the proper diam- eter, and each cylinder in turn is slipped into the grooves and ressed down. If the work is well done the result is a solid wall, the thickness of the uprights and as warm as a wall of brick."
"Are such walls permanent?"
"They should be protected by extra wide eaves, and for a two-
story house there should be a narrow roof set between the first
and second story."
"What about the house roof?"
"It can be made in the same way, but must be covered with
clapboards, tile, or shingles; and the inside walls can be made
with smaller cylinders, of the straw-clay mixture, to keep them
from being too thick. What do you think, Brother Rasp?" for
Brother Melchior had been saying nothing as he studied the little
sketch thoughtfully.
"I think it can be done," he said. "Give me a stone foundation,
and on it we can build such a wall as this, and if or when the
clay shows signs of washing out we can cover the outside with
clapboards or with good lime plaster."
"It will certainly solve the timber problem," said Christian,
when he told me of the conversation, "and I had wondered what we
would do for suitable logs for houses."
"And log houses would not look well on the main street of a
town," I added, at which Christian laughed, though I saw that he
felt the same, as the artist in him naturally would.
So the first houses were built of framing and straw and clay, on a foundation wall of rough stone; and the ceremonial foundation stone was laid at the very bottom of the wall.
