The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-09-12
FATALIsM. ANCIENT AND
MODERN.


be powerless. child of destiny. LAS
flies to wanron boys are we to the gods,
they Kill us for their sport"
Their chief tragedy deals with this
subject. Oedipus is the son of the
king of 1he5es. Before his birth an
oracle furtells that he shall Stay his
father and marry his mother. When
he is an infant, his mother orders him
cast alone, an forest, there to perish.
lie is rescued. grows to manhood, and
journeys toward Thebes. On the way
he meets IN old man. quarrels with
him and kills him. 1t is his father. Ar
irving at Thebes. he finds the Sphynx
has propounded riddle which none
can answer. and every failure costs a
life. The hand of the widowed queen
is offered to the man that succeeds in
giving a satisfactory reply. Gdipus
makes a correct answer and webs his
mother. They do not know their rela-
tionship,"
The highest school of Greek philoso-
ply was the Stole. "Pain and pleasure
were equally despised by the Stoics,
and indifference to external surround
ings was considered the acme of vir-
tue" 1t was foolish to rail against
the gods.
The Greeks never entered battle
without consulting the Delphic oracle.
We read during the Persian war
Mardonius invaded Attica. The Greeks,
one hundred AID ten thousand strong,
took the field under Pansanias, the
Spartan. After the two armies had
faced each other for ten days, Pansanias
moved his camp. While enroute Ma
donnis attacked the scattered forces.
The oneas scere unfdrordble, and the
GreciGn leader dare not gice the signal
to engage. The Spartans protected
themselves as best they could. Many
Greeks were smitten and fell. lament
ing not that they must fall, but that
they could not strike blow for their
county," The characteristics of Hellenic
sculpture, symmetry and repose.
The white faces from out that bleak
atmosphere of the pagan world, ap-
pear frozen, as if breathed upon by
the chill breath of some passing, awful
Destiny.
The Greeks believed in absolute
fatalism, both moral and physical.
The birth of Christ changed all
history. He accentuates the idea of
personal responsibility; hence, in the
modern world, there is no moral fatal
ism. but there is a physical fatalism.
We will dwell on this later.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare tried to
write drama OF Fate; so thought
Edwin Booth, critic whose opinion
cannot be scorned. The great actor
interpreted the hero of the play as a
man weak but not vicious, and one
that was the victim of circumstances.
Macbeth. by nature is neither cruel
nor treacherous. He is soldier, brave
and dashing! Immediately returning
from the battle field, flushed with We
tory he and Banquo, traverse a blasted
heath. The clouds hang black and
heavy over the pale, yellow stubble of
the commons. The air is charged
with electricity. There is forked light
ming in the sky. Three weird beings,
that "should be women, but their
boards forbid it," are dancing around
a lurie, BURNING cauldron. They see
the soldiers. and cry with voices wild
and prophetic, s.All hail Macbeth that
shall be king hereafter!'
Macbeth's face blanches. He trem-
bles, turns to Banquo and says: IF
fate will have me king, why fate shall
crown me without my stir.''
You recall the rest of the story. Lady
Macbeath urges him to kill Duncan.
the King of Scotland, to kill Bsnquo.
and to try and kill Banquo's child
rem. You remember how the weird
sisters prompted him to commit these
crimes. You remember how he hest
tates before the first sin; then perpet-
yates the others. boldly, unblushlngly,
with feverish recklessness. At last, he
gains the throne of Scotland Then
comes the reaction. He realizes .'he
has drunken the dregs of the cup of
trembling and wrung them out" Be-
fore his wild. dispairing eyes, Remorse
stands like an ayenging angel in front
Of the Eden of Peace, and his flaming
sword is turned in every way to keep
Macbeth from ever again. entering the
lair Paradise of .nnocense.,
This remorse prevents the drama
from being fatal. The sense of person.
IL responsibility creeps into the play
and Macbeth is not the victim of the
gods. child of destiny, but only a
weak man that yields to temptation.
Thus it is. no writer OF the Christian
era, has ever brought into his work the
atmosphere of moral fatalism but
physical fatalism, we see it every day.
1t is more flattering to human nature
% say leach man is the architect of his
own fortune" than to say 1--WE are the
product of our environments" but
here are not as many facts in real life
% sustain the argument.
For one man that rises above his cir
there, are ten thousand
men that are crushed beneath them.
One child, in New York city, born
If drunken parents, reared in tene-
nent house, taught to curse and lie
md steal from its babyhood, may pos
IDLY, by some miracle. develop into
| great railroad magnate, or lawyer,
,r solder; but ten thousand children
10 situated will grow up drukards,
lars and thieves. These form the
ule. the other makes the exception. |
These are in this world, the products
If their surroundings. They are the