AE in the Irish TheosophistRussell, George William
Religion
AE in the Irish Theosophist
Russell, George William
Theosophy
That we are living in the Dark Age we all know, yet we do not realise
half its darkness. We endure physical and moral suffering; but,
fortunately or unfortunately, we are oblivious of the sorrow of
all sorrows--the Spiritual Tragedy. Such a rust has come over the
pure and ancient spirit of life, that the sceptre and the diadem
and the starry sway we held are unremembered; and if anyone speaks
of these things he is looked at strangely with blank eyes, or with
eyes that suspect madness. I do not know whether to call him great,
or pity him, who feels such anguish; for although it is the true
agony of the crucifixion, it is only gods who are so martyred.
With these rare souls memory is not born: life flows on, and they
with it go on in dreams: they are lulled by lights, flowers, stars,
colours, and sweet odours, and are sheltered awhile from heaven
and hell; then in some moment the bubble bursts, and the god
awakens and knows himself, and he rises again with giant strength
to conquer; or else he succumbs, and the waves of Lethe, perhaps
in mercy, blot out his brief knowledge.
I knew such an one many years ago, and I tell of him because I know
of no deeper proof of the existence of a diviner nature than that
man's story. Arthur Harvey, as I have heard people describe him,
in his early years was gentle, shy, and given to much dreaming.
He was taken from school early, came up from the country to the city,
and was put to business. He possessed the apathy and unresisting
nature characteristic of so many spiritual people, and which is
found notably among the natives of India; so he took his daily
confinement at first as a matter of course, though glad enough when
it was over, and the keen sweet air blew about him in spring or
summer evenings, and the earth looked visionary, steeped in dew
and lovely colour, and his soul grew rich with strange memories
and psychic sensations. And so day-by-day he might have gone on
with the alternation of work and dream, and the soul in its
imaginings might never have known of the labours of the mind, each
working by habit in its accustomed hour, but for an incident which
took place about two years after his going to business.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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