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Page 12
But when we get still higher there is no longer this
bewilderment. There work is going on which boldly attacks those
pillars which men have set up. There we find other professional
men of learning who test matter again and again, who tremble
before no problem, and who finally cast doubt on that very matter
which was yesterday the foundation of everything, so that the
whole universe is shaken. Every day another scientific theory
finds bold discoverers who overstep the boundaries of prophecy
and, forgetful of themselves, join the other soldiers in the
conquest of some new summit and in the hopeless attack on some
stubborn fortress. But "there is no fortress that man cannot
overcome."
On the one hand, FACTS are being established which the science of
yesterday dubbed swindles. Even newspapers, which are for the
most part the most obsequious servants of worldly success and of
the mob, and which trim their sails to every wind, find
themselves compelled to modify their ironical judgements on the
"marvels" of science and even to abandon them altogether. Various
learned men, among them ultra-materialists, dedicate their
strength to the scientific research of doubtful problems, which
can no longer be lied about or passed over in silence. [Footnote:
Zoller, Wagner, Butleroff (St. Petersburg), Crookes (London),
etc.; later on, C. H. Richet, C. Flammarion. The Parisian paper
Le Matin, published about two years ago the discoveries of the
two last named under the title "Je le constate, mais je ne
l'explique pas." Finally there are C. Lombroso, the inventor of
the anthropological method of diagnosing crime, and Eusapio
Palladino.]
On the other hand, the number is increasing of those men who put
no trust in the methods of materialistic science when it deals
with those questions which have to do with "non-matter," or
matter which is not accessible to our minds. Just as art is
looking for help from the primitives, so these men are turning to
half-forgotten times in order to get help from their half-
forgotten methods. However, these very methods are still alive
and in use among nations whom we, from the height of our
knowledge, have been accustomed to regard with pity and scorn. To
such nations belong the Indians, who from time to time confront
those learned in our civilization with problems which we have
either passed by unnoticed or brushed aside with superficial
words and explanations. [Footnote: Frequently in such cases use
is made of the word hypnotism; that same hypnotism which, in its
earlier form of mesmerism, was disdainfully put aside by various
learned bodies.] Mme. Blavatsky was the first person, after a
life of many years in India, to see a connection between these
"savages" and our "civilization." From that moment there began a
tremendous spiritual movement which today includes a large number
of people and has even assumed a material form in the
THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. This society consists of groups who seek to
approach the problem of the spirit by way of the INNER knowledge.
The theory of Theosophy which serves as the basis to this
movement was set out by Blavatsky in the form of a catechism in
which the pupil receives definite answers to his questions from
the theosophical point of view. [Footnote: E. P. Blavatsky, The
Key of Theosophy, London, 1889.] Theosophy, according to
Blavatsky, is synonymous with ETERNAL TRUTH. "The new torchbearer
of truth will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a
language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he
brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove
the merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from
his path." And then Blavatsky continues: "The earth will be a
heaven in the twenty-first century in comparison with what it is
now," and with these words ends her book.
When religion, science and morality are shaken, the two last by
the strong hand of Nietzsche, and when the outer supports
threaten to fall, man turns his gaze from externals in on to
himself. Literature, music and art are the first and most
sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself
felt. They reflect the dark picture of the present time and show
the importance of what at first was only a little point of light
noticed by few and for the great majority non-existent. Perhaps
they even grow dark in their turn, but on the other hand they
turn away from the soulless life of the present towards those
substances and ideas which give free scope to the non-material
strivings of the soul.
A poet of this kind in the realm of literature is Maeterlinck. He
takes us into a world which, rightly or wrongly, we term
supernatural. La Princesse Maleine, Les Sept Princesses, Les
Aveugles, etc., are not people of past times as are the heroes in
Shakespeare. They are merely souls lost in the clouds, threatened
by them with death, eternally menaced by some invisible and
sombre power.
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