Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-04
THE SECRET OF SwATTIsM.
The Rev. Joseph Cook Enlfghteus
the Cultured Concerning q Phase
of OrfentaliSm.

The Rev. Joseph Cook Enlfghteus
the Cultured Concerning Phase
OF Orfentalism.
Prom a Dazed Correspondence the N. Y. World
BosToN. April lA-The Rev Joseph Cook
this evening delivered one of the most i'm
portant and brilliant lectures OF his series A
number OF ladies and gentlemen prominent in
our caltu. ed circles had invited him 10 speak
upon Tine Life, Character and Services of the
Mr. Cook speaks, the hall was crowded TO
9yerhowing by the elite of Boston society.
Inc eloquent philosopher, biologist, and di-
vine spoke as follows:
It he culture of the mysterious Orient has
ttssceiIed no heavier blow than the death OF
the Ahkoond of Swat since the day when Abu
ard OF the Lion Heart beneath the walls of
Ascaon When that ponderous weapon OF
offense and defense ratified in laundering
blows upon the mailed head of the Slracen
successor of the Prophet, and finally smote ID
from that naughty neck from which il had
never been hewn before, there was a deep
stin felt throughout the bazars and cara
vans OF the Morningland. Upon the de-
cease Of Abu Bekr, history seemed destined
long to look i'm vain for his. successor: The
east was then in a low state of culture the an
Gent mOnotheiSm had been lost the Califate
OF Bagdad and the AbencerrageS had not yet
Nile; crownleSs Jud IN mourned in gloom
amid the ruins of her palaces and pagodas, and
the Night OF DeSola'ion was lowering over the
gorgeous Oriental landscapes of the East ZAP
p.auSe.l IL is true that there Were not want
ing men like Avicenna and AyerroeS Int they
PISSED s ;S their days IN vain gTesses concerning
ing at conclusions which might wen have put
to the blush even our modern Tindans, and
brands slight thinkers all ISensation. As
l have already observed, culture was then at a
very low ebb. but from the very death of Abu
Bekr there eXhaed a breath which, futtering
among the tremulous palms and gadha tree
OF that far region, was borne on the wings of
morning hther and thither, this way and that
against the very battlements of Oriental Poly
thelSm and ObScurantiSm il made its way into
every tent, pa!anquin, and paladin of what the
Germams, WI h their deep poetical propensi-
ties, call the MOrgenland.
Years rolled on and still there came no
Voice. The countless hordeS of Middle and
Central Asia, between the forty seventh and
thirty fifth parallels of latitude, from the snow
clad SUBMITS of The HimalayaS 10 the verdant
dellS of FL KObab, tore their souls i'm vague
yearnings after the Infinite, the Tangential
and the Supreme. The American Continent.
with its mighty chin prOpped on the cragS of
the Antilles and the Rocky Mountains and its
ieet cooling themselves in the broad Pacific,
lolled at length. but gave no notice or smiled
one Solar Look. 1t had no heart i'm the move
ment. Like Ga ileo, 1t cared for none of these
things. The heavens We're of brass and
stretched III vast and gloomy g0rSeS athwaTt
the nightly sky from Orion To the Southern
cross, from the Polar star To the tropic of Cap
rlcorn. The giant inteectS of Goethe and
Platen. of Meancthon, Schiller. Luther Jacob
Behnen, Columbus s illingheet BiliingSgate
and ApuleiuS. of TyPna, had Not yet seen the
hIhI; AT this juncture some Voice was evil
IDENTITY heard.
IL Shall never forget how one bright sum
mer evening. was walking on the banks of
Won Gumbelschuttbef Schweitzer. of the Thee
logical Faculty of the University of Heide
berg, The full-orbed harvest moon shOne
fairly upon the SUBMITS of the far off SchlOss
which was built by the Emperor Wencesias
late in the year 1884. The sweet voices of the
students came family 10 us from the old bridge
as, with feathers in hat and kneippS upon
their breasts, they chanted the glorious RAM
deS NacheS of PaleStrina. Our conversation
had turned upon the new IdealiSm, and had
asked the professor if he did not think that
the plastic nature of the kantian AntinomieS
might not be explained by particular refer
ence to to the ;WeitgemuthIichkeit of Tauler
Mss deS Observation-Disclosures He did
not speak for several hours but finally he
reared aloft his head and asked me what /
thought OF The AhkOOnd of Swat and of Swat
away. What could | say? What would even
Mr.. Bronson AlcOit have said? | retired to
my room and dakermined to devote good
part OF my life to one long study of SwattiSm.
What then, my hearers, is Swat: what is
SWattlSm: what was the AhkO0nd of Swat
and what, In general, are AhkOCndS? I'm lgne
10 yourselves great circle inscribed upon the
ceiling and having as is center pOin NM
dlate!y over Mir. AIcott's head. will divide
THIS circle INTO tour parts, labelling one of them
Swat, another SwattiSm. still another Ahkoond
of Swat. and the last we will call Ahko ndS
All! see by your faces that yol begin to see
what mean. But wait. stay bit, In pnilOS
ophy we must feel our way with cautious tread
and not like Darwin and Moses Me ldelSSohn.
Prof. TAFT, Max Muller, and the wlO.e rubn-
gen School OF EvOlutiOniStS, plunge headlOng
nto thegulf, as now tear this paper into atoms
lThunders of applause.l 1t was one of the
greatest mathematical discoveries of the Blaise
equal parts, which he called quarters but
which | prefer to designate as 'quadrantS'
Mark you, any circle may thus be divided.
als Rt put he'd
orollary to the Tenth Proposition of his Me
antique Celeste, Laplace, though himself the
3nnder OF the Ne6ular Hypothesis, points out
he capital fact that each of these quadrantS
sequal to any one of the others, while each is
also exactly Onethird of all the others com
the most gigantic triumph Of mathematical
subtlety and DiOphantine Analysis that the
world has ever seen, and 1t shall lead Us to our
goal beyond the msts Of uncertainty and into
have already pointed out
Il. That one quadrant Of our circle is Swat.
~. That another is Swattism.
"a. That the last Is Ahkoonds in general.
What have we now, my hearers: Each
| quadrant is equal to the other, and if We can
only discover what one is, we have the key to
the whole mystery, for all are equal to il.
Ahkoonds of Swat. What Ahkoonds of Swat?
other. Swattism is equal to Each o her: Swat
| is equal to Each Other; the Ahkoond of Swat
| is equal to Each Other, and, finally, Ahkoonds
a nutshell of Equality, and Swattism, Swat
AhkOond of Swat and AhkoondS i'm general,
| are but the SymbOlical Oriental doctrine of the
Equality of Each to Each and All to All-in
| other words, it is the grand doctrine of the
| universal Brotherhood of Man"
At the conclusion of his address, the Rev.
Joseph Cook received applause and felt
proud sense of having solved a great mYS