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Read Ebook: Zones of the Spirit: A Book of Thoughts by Strindberg August Babillotte Arthur Commentator Field Claud Translator
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Ebook has 493 lines and 64594 words, and 10 pages
THE HISTORY OF THE BLUE BOOK
A BLUE BOOK--
Zones of the Spirit
THE HISTORY OF THE BLUE BOOK
As I went on, I entered a narrow street. A cart went along by my side carrying a red flag; it was a powder-flag. The cart kept parallel with me and began to disturb me. In order to escape the sight of the powder-flag, I looked up in the air, and there an enormous red flag flaunted conspicuously before my eyes. I looked down again, and a lady dressed in black, with a fiery-red hat, was crossing the street in a slanting direction.
I hastened my steps. Immediately my eyes fell on the window of a stationer's shop; in it a piece of cardboard was displayed, bearing the word "Herbarium."
My journal thus records my impressions:
"The sun shines. A certain quiet resigned uncertainty reigns within me. I ask myself whether a catastrophe will not prevent the performance of the piece, which perhaps ought not to be played. In it I have, at any rate, spoken men fair, but to advise the Ruler of the Universe is presumption, perhaps blasphemy. The fact that I have laid bare the comparative nothingness of life , its irrational contradictions, its wickedness and lawlessness, may be praiseworthy if it teaches men resignation. That I have shown the comparative innocence of men in this life, which of itself involves guilt, is not indeed wrong, but...."
Just now comes a telephone message from the theatre: "The result of this is in God's hand." "Exactly what I think," I answer, and ask myself again whether the piece ought to be played.
I feel as though it were Sunday. The "White Shape" appears outside on the balcony of the "growing castle."
Now the clock strikes eleven, and at twelve o'clock is the rehearsal.
I have had no midday meal; at seven o'clock I ate some cold food out of the basket in the kitchen.
During the religious broodings of my last forty days I read the Book of Job, saying to myself certainly at the same time that I was no righteous man like him. Then I came to the 22nd chapter, in which Eliphaz the Temanite unmasks Job: "Thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing; thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.... Is not thy wickedness great and thine iniquities infinite?"
Then the whole comfort of the Book of Job vanished, and I stood again forlorn and irresolute. What shall a poor man hold on to? What shall I believe? How can he help thinking perversely?
The stage-manager visited me yesterday evening. We both felt, in despair.... The night was quiet.
Quiet grey weather till 3 P.M. Then G. came with a piece of good news.
Spent the evening alone at home. At eight o'clock there was a ring at the door. A messenger brought a laurel-wreath with the inscription: "Truth, Light, Liberation." I took the wreath at once to the bust of Beethoven on the tiled stove and placed it on his head, since I had so much to thank him for, especially just now for the music accompanying my drama.
At eleven o'clock a telephone from the theatre announces that everything has gone well.
The German motto to-day on the tear-off calendar is: "What is to be clarified must first ferment."
To-day I got new clothes which fitted. My old ones had been too tight to the point of torture.
My little daughter visited me. I took her home again in a chaise.
"I said, in the noontide of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave:
"My age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent:
"I have rolled up like a weaver my life; he will cut me off from the loom.
"From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
"Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward.
"Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
"What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.
"Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness;
"Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.
"The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day.
"The father to the children shall make known thy truth."
A BLUE BOOK
If that is a self-evident proposition, which can neither be proved, nor needs to be proved, how much clearer is the axiom of the existence of God!
Anyone who tries to prove an axiom, loses himself in absurdity; therefore, we should not attempt to prove the existence of God. He who cannot understand what is self-evident in an axiom belongs to the class of people of a lower degree of intelligence. One should be sorry for such dullards, but not blame them.
The first point in the definition of God, is that He is Almighty. Thence it follows that He can abrogate His own laws. But since we do not know all His laws, we do not know when He employs a law which is unknown to us, or suspends a law which is known to us.
What we call miracles, may happen according to strict laws which we do not know. We must therefore take care, when confronted by unusual or inexplicable occurrences, to see that we make no mistakes. These draw down upon us the contempt of our fellow-mortals who are gifted with keener intelligence.
Intelligence , or rustic intelligence, is an excellent faculty whereby to grasp what is perceptible by the senses, even when it is invisible. Reason is a higher faculty wherewith one may grasp what is not perceptible by sense. But when the rationalists try to comprehend the highest things with their rustic intelligence, then they see light as darkness, good as evil, the eternal as temporal. In a word, they see distortedly, for they see by the light of nature. Just as the rustic intelligence is indispensable when one goes to market, deals with coffee and sugar, or draws up promissory-notes, even so is the use of reason necessary when one wishes to approach what is above nature.
Voltaire and Heine are counted among the greatest rationalists because they judged of spiritual things by rustic intelligence. Their arguments are therefore interesting, but worthless.
And the most interesting fact about both these men is, that they discovered their errors, declared themselves bankrupt, and finally used their reason. But there the "Beans" can no longer follow them.
"Beans" is a classical name for the Philistines who worshipped Dagon, the fish-god, and Beelzebub, the god of dung.
After a time he heard quite distinctly the well-known cry of the hoopoo. Then he knew that the bird was there. He hid himself behind a rock, and he soon saw the speckled bird with its yellow comb. When Johann returned home after three days, he told his teacher that he had seen the hoopoo on the island. His teacher did not believe it, but demanded proof.
"Proof!" said Johann. "Do you mean two witnesses?"
"Yes!"
"Good! I have twice two witnesses, and they all agree: my two ears heard it, and my two eyes saw it."
Johann was called a liar because he could not prove that he had seen the hoopoo in such and such a spot. However, it was a fact that the hoopoo appeared there, although it was an unusual occurrence in this neighbourhood.
But there is an unwholesome kind of doubt, which consists in denying everything which one has not seen and heard oneself. To treat one's fellow-men as liars is not humane, and diminishes our knowledge to a considerable degree.
There is a morbid kind of doubt, which resembles a weak stomach. Everything is swallowed, but nothing retained; everything is received, but nothing digested. The consequence is emaciation, exhaustion, consumption, and premature death.
Johann Damascenus had passed through several years of wholesome doubt, proving the truths of faith by systematic denial. But when, after minutely checking his calculation, he had become sure of their asserted values, he believed. Since then, neither fear of men, love of gain, contempt, or threats could cause him to abandon his dearly purchased faith. And in that he was right.
"What are you singing about?" asked Damascenus.
"About faith and knowledge," answered one. And then they recommenced. "What I know, that I believe; therefore knowledge is under faith, and faith stands above it."
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