Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine. Volume I. September 1887-February 1888. — John Shaqi
Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine. Volume I. September 1887-February 1888.Various
Religion
Lucifer: A Theosophical Magazine. Volume I. September 1887-February 1888.
Various
Theosophy -- Periodicals
_A F. L._ Never mind all that—I want to do your magazine good and make
it known, and you can’t expect me to enter into explanations of that
sort every time I mention the title? Impossible! Life is too short and
too busy. Besides, it would produce such a bad effect; people would
think me priggish, and then I couldn’t talk at all, for I couldn’t
bear them to think that. Don’t call it Lucifer—please don’t. Nobody
knows what the word is typical of; what it means now is the devil,
nothing more or less.
_Editor._ But then that is quite a mistake, and one of the first
prejudices we propose to do battle with. Lucifer is the pale, pure
herald of dawn——
_Lady_ (_interrupting_). I thought you were going to do something more
interesting and more important than to whitewash mythological
characters. We shall all have to go to school again, or read up Dr.
Smith’s Classical Dictionary. And what is the use of it when it is
done? I thought you were going to tell us things about our own lives
and how to make them better. I suppose Milton wrote about Lucifer,
didn’t he?—but nobody reads Milton now. Do let us have a modern title
with some human meaning in it.
IV.
_A Journalist_ (_thoughtfully, while rolling his cigarette_). Yes, it
is a good idea, this magazine of yours. We shall all laugh at it, as a
matter of course: and we shall cut it up in the papers. But we shall
all read it, because secretly everybody hungers after the mysterious.
What are you going to call it?
_Editor._ Lucifer.
_Journalist_ (_striking a light_). Why not _The Fusee_? Quite as good
a title and not so pretentious.
The “Novelist,” the “Man of the World,” the “Fashionable Lady,” and the
“Journalist,” should be the first to receive a little instruction. A
glimpse into the real and primitive character of Lucifer can do them no
harm and may, perchance, cure them of a bit of ridiculous prejudice.
They ought to study their Homer and Hesiod’s Theogony if they would do
justice to Lucifer, “_Eosphoros and Hesperos_,” the Morning and the
Evening beautiful star. If there are more useful things to do in this
life than “to whitewash mythological characters,” to slander and blacken
them is, at least, as useless, and shows, moreover, a narrow-mindedness
which can do honour to no one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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