The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864Various
Religion
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 4, April, 1864
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
There is a poet claiming to be of the supernal life--especially of the
supernal conjugal--who has written 'epics' and 'lyrics,' of which I must
honestly say, as Emerson, I believe, once honestly said of some of the
writings of Swedenborg: 'I read them with an unction and an afflatus
quite indescribable.' They lift one to the empyrean like nothing else I
know of outside the Bible. There is such a saintly purity; such a
wondrous, rich, mellow joyousness; such bounding elasticity of spirit;
such an evidently irresistible gush of song in the heart; such broad
catholicity of religion, that, to some, it seems impossible that they
could have been written anywhere but under the perpetual midsummer skies
of paradise. It may show poor taste, but to me, in those regions of the
upper ether wherein Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, and Shelley grow
wing-weary, he soars on strong, free pinion. His 'imaginings,' if such
they are, of immortal life, as much surpass in plausibility and
naturalness those of Milton, Dante, and Virgil, as the acting of a
first-class theatre surpasses that seen in the old monkish 'mysteries.'
This writer, T. L. Harris, has won much recognition in both hemispheres;
would win much more if he appeared simply as a poet, and did not claim a
seer faculty, making many positive statements that cannot be verified.
He certainly comes up to Aristotle's standard, where he says: 'The
object of the poet is not to treat the True as it really happened, but
as it should have happened.'
And now the story. I left myself indulging in reveries concerning the
expected sight of my invisible charmer. The appointed hour came. I was
quite excited. I knew that the land was already full of people who
claimed to see the sights of the other world as spirits see them, and
fully expected to have my clairvoyant faculty opened. But I saw no
'sudden Ianthe;' and to this day have never seen even a kobold, a
wraith, or a doeppelganger! This was doubtless fortunate; for I was
nearly driven into lunacy by the things I _heard_ before I reached the
end of this 'youthful adventure.' I should have gone 'clean daft' if the
bugaboo had been permitted to show me the sights they presently
promised.
Soon came again my collocutor with explanations.
'You were in such a state of excitement that the united efforts of more
than forty of your spirit friends were utterly unavailing for the
opening of your sight. We, too, became so excited that we lost all
control of ourselves, and could only weep to hear your mournful appeals
followed by your surrender of all claims upon me.' ... 'Do not think
that I could ever hope to bask beneath the sunshine of your smile after
having intentionally deceived you.'
Then followed much similar feminine beguilement; the faculty for which
seems to be rather increased by the Jordan bath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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