The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
Philosophy
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
but also, be the condition high or low, the worthy occupant of it, by
reason of the common humanity he shares with all above and all beneath
and all around him, has a brother's birthright to brotherly treatment,
to even-handed justice and open-handed charity.
We have taken it for granted that Punch is a household necessity and
familiar friend of our readers; and, resisting as far as possible the
besetting temptation to refer in detail to the many pictorial and
letter-press illustrations of his merits, have spoken of him as "a
representative man,"--the universally acknowledged example of the
legitimate and beneficent uses of the sportive faculties; thus
indirectly claiming for these faculties more than toleration.
The variety in human nature must somehow be brought into unity, and its
diversified, strongly contrasted elements shown to be parts of a
symmetrical and harmonious whole. The philosophy, the religion, which
overlooks or condemns any of these elements, is never satisfactory, and
fails to win sincere belief, because of its felt incompleteness. All men
have an instinctive faith that in God's plan no incontestable facts are
exceptional or needless facts. Science assumes this in regard to the
phenomena of the natural world; and, in its progressive searches,
expects to discover continual proof that all manifestations, however
opposite and contradictory, are parts of one beneficent scheme.
Accordingly, Science starts on its investigations with the conviction
that the storm is as salutary as the sunshine,--that there is utility in
what seems mere luxury,--and that Nature's loveliness and grandeur,
Nature's oddity and grotesqueness, have a substantial value, as well as
Nature's wheat-harvests. Now the same principle is to be recognized in
dealing with things spiritual. It may not be affirmed that anything
appertaining to universal consciousness--spontaneous, irresistible, as
breathing--is of itself base, and therefore to be put away; since so to
do is to question the Creative Wisdom. The work of the Infinite Spirit
must be consistent; and you might as truly charge the bright stars with
malignity as denounce as vile one faculty or capacity of the mind.
Consequently, there is a use for all forms of wit and humor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account