A. E. (George W. Russell) & Plotinus
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A. E. (George W. Russell) & Plotinus Wikipedia: George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935) who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (sometimes written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, artistic painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a mysticism writer, and a personage of a group of devotees of theosophy in Dublin for many years. He used the pseudonym “AE”, or more properly, “Æ”. This derived from an earlier Æon signifying the lifelong quest of man, subsequently abbreviated. His house at 17 Rathgar Avenue in Dublin became a meeting-place at the time for everyone interested in the economic and artistic future of Ireland. His interests were wide-ranging; he became a theosophist and wrote extensively on politics and economics, while continuing to paint and write poetry. Æ claimed to be a clairvoyant, able to view various kinds of spiritual beings, which he illustrated in paintings and drawings. He was noted for his exceptional kindness and generosity towards younger writers: Frank O’Connor termed him “the man who was the father to three generations of Irish writers,” and Patrick Kavanagh called him “a great and holy man.” (419-1) I remember one day when A.E. (George W. Russell) the Irish poet and statesman, chanted to me in his attractive Hibernian brogue, some paragraphs from his beloved Plotinus that tell of the gods, although the number of words which stick to memory are but few and disjointed, so drugged were my senses by his magical voice. “All the gods are venerable and beautiful, and their beauty is immense … For they are not at one time wise, and at another destitute of wisdom; but they are always wise, in an impassive, stable, and pure mind. They likewise know all things which are divine … For the life which is there is unattended with labor, and truth is their generator and nutriment … And the splendor there is infinite!” Duplicates 08 (Literary Notebook Carbons) (173-5) Out of his own large experience of meditation, “Fear not the stillness,” wrote A.E. in a poem. Grey Long 03 04 (11-1) Seventy years ago that versatile Irishman who used the pen name of A.E. published his collected poems. He was a gifted painter as well as a poet, economist as well as a prose essayist, clairvoyant, seer and, when I met him, more of a sage. Looking through his verses I select a few lines which impress me: “The power is ours to make or mar Our fate has on the earliest morn, The DARKNESS and the RADIANCE are Creatures within the spirit born.* The Wisdom that within us grows Is absolution for our sins.** He does not love the bended knees, The soul made wormlike in HIS sight, Within whose heaven are hierarchies And solar kings and lords of light.† He felt an inner secret joy — A spirit of unfettered will Through light and darkness moving still Within the ALL to find its own, To be immortal and alone.†† Dark churches where the blind Mislead the blind. *† Unto the deep the deep heart goes, It seeks a deeper silence still; It folds itself around with peace, With folds alike of good or ill In quietness unfostered cease.”‡ * The whole stanza (from The Twilight of Earth) is: The power is ours to make or mar Our fate as on the earliest morn, The Darkness and the Radiance are Creatures within the spirit born. Yet, bathed in gloom too long, we might Forget how we imagined light. ** From “Faith” the first stanza is: HERE where the loves of others close The vision of my heart begins. The wisdom that within us grows Is absolution for our sins. † This is the third stanza of “Faith” †† These are the last lines of “Endurance” *† This couplet is the last line of “Transformations” ‡ This is the first line of the first stanza and the whole second stanza of “The Place of Refuge” UNTO the deep the deep heart goes, It lays its sadness nigh the breast: Only the Mighty Mother knows The wounds that quiver unconfessed. It seeks a deeper silence still; It folds itself around with peace, Where thoughts alike of good or ill In quietness unfostered cease. AD BV 2 Henry Ward Abbot & Georges Santayana Henry Ward Abbot was a Harvard classmate of Santayana’s, whose life was otherwise undistinguished. They wrote letters to each other which we still have today. (35-2) Santayana tersely defined what he called “the idealistic dogma” as being “knowledge of objects is but a modification of the subject,” in a letter to H. W. Abbot. He then declares “the impossibility of being a thorough going idealist, because consciousness of any kind implies the existence of something not itself outside of itself.” Duplicates 16 (Pink Folder 2) Lascelles Abercrombie Lascelles Abercrombie (also known as the Georgian Laureate, linking him with the “Georgian poets”; 9 January 1881 – 27 October 1938) was a British poet and literary critic, one of the “Dymock poets”. He was born in Ashton upon Mersey, Sale, Cheshire and educated at Malvern College, and at Owens College. Before the First World War, he lived for a time at Dymock in Gloucestershire, part of a community that included Rupert Brooke and Robert Frost. Edward Thomas visited. During these early years, he worked as a journalist, and he started his poetry writing. His first book, Interludes and Poems (1908), was followed by Mary and the Bramble (1910) and the poem Deborah, and later by Emblems of Love (1912) and Speculative Dialogues (1913). His critical works include An Essay Towards a Theory of Art (1922), and Poetry, Its Music and Meaning (1932). Collected Poems (1930) was followed by The Sale of St. Thomas (1931), a poetic drama. He wrote a series of works on the nature of poetry, including The Idea of Great Poetry (1925) and Romanticism (1926). He published several volumes of original verse, largely metaphysical poems in dramatic form, and a number of verse plays. His poems and plays were collected in ‘Poems’ (1930). Lascelles Abercrombie died in London in 1938, aged 57, from undisclosed causes. (251-13) “I was a fool. And now I know what wisdom dare not know: For I know Nothing.”– Lascelles Abercrombie Grey Long 14 19 Acts of the Apostles Wikipedia: The Acts of the Apostles (Ancient Greek: Πράξεις τῶν Ἀποστόλων, Práxeis tôn Apostólōn; Latin: Āctūs Apostolōrum), often referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian church and the spread of its message to the Roman empire. Acts is the second half of a two-part work, referred to as Luke-Acts, by the same anonymous author, referred to as Luke the Evangelist, and usually dated to around 80-90 CE. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world’s salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah. Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century, beginning with the Ascension of Christ. The early chapters, set in Jerusalem, describe the Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit) and the growth of the church in Jerusalem. Initially the Jews are receptive to the Christian message, but soon they turn against the followers of the Messiah. Rejected by the Jews, under the guidance of the Apostle Peter the message is taken to the Gentiles. The later chapters tell of Paul’s conversion, his mission in Asia Minor and the Aegean, and finally his imprisonment in Rome, where, as the book ends, he awaits trial. Luke-Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. (267-4) If you want to know the purpose of life read (Acts XVII, 2): “God made man to the end that he should seek the Lord.” Grey Long 03 04 (76-8) Why is it that nobody seems to give the proper weight to the words of St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles: “And we are witnesses of all things which He, whom they slew and hanged on a tree, did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem.” Is this not a flat contradiction of the common belief that Jesus was nailed and crucified? Duplicates 20 Henry Adams Wikipedia: Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and member of the Adams political family, being descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he was secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln’s ambassador in London, a posting that had much influence on the younger man, both through experience of wartime diplomacy and absorption in English culture, especially the works of John Stuart Mill. After the American Civil War, he became a noted political journalist who entertained America’s foremost intellectuals at his homes in Washington and Boston. In his lifetime, he was best known for his History of the United States. During the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, a 9-volume work, praised for its literary style, but sometimes criticized for inaccuracy. His posthumously published memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams, won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to be named by The Modern Library as the top English-language nonfiction book of the twentieth century. (392-10) Henry Adams (1838-1918) “I travelled to every place on earth described as fascinating, in hope of finding one where I should want to stay, but 3 days in any place is all it will bear.