The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-14


shadow in hot midsummers day, Caliban
proceeds to speculate upon the nature of
this same Setebos, his god. Caliban's island
life was mixture of good and bad, mostly
bestial pleasures and hates with some sat
isfactons and so he multiplied them with
what to him was infinity Gnfnity. says
Emerson, is what we cannot see over), and
transfer them all to his divinity. Calibans
idea was that Setebos made the world for
spite, or, as the children say, "for meas1-
ness and thought the best way to worship
and placate him was not to seem too happy
The following is Browning's satire upon the
Calvinistic doctrine Of predestination:
'Thinketh such shows nor right nor wrong
in all,
Nor kind nor cruel; he is strong and Lord.
Am strong myself compared with yonder
crabs
That march on from the mountain to the
sea;
Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-frst,
Loving not, hating not, just, choosing so.
Say, the first straggler that boasts purple
spots
Shall Join the file, one pincer twisted off;
Say, this bruised fellow shall receive a
worm,
And two worms he whose nippers end in
red;
AS it likes me each time. do-so He''
But here comes another puzzle to Caliban
and another sharp satire for Browning.
Evil is the great stumbling block for all
theologians. Evil implies a limitation of
either the Supreme Beings wisdom or pow
er, neither of which can be for a moment
admitted in any church creed. Then how
did sin get into existence? The theistic
answer is through and by the devil. His
satanic majesty thus becomes convenient
scapegoat for what otherwise could not and
-
CURED to the thick-skulled Caliban to make
a devil to relieve his Setebos of the odium
of all that was bad, and yet he has sense
enough to see that it would mix up things
too much to make the same power the
author OF both good and bad. Something
must come to Setebos's aid, and so Caliban
Setebos, whom he calls the Quiet. I have
not room to quote Caliban's description of
him.
The lesson that Browning means to teach
in Caliban upon Setebos is this that God
is not to the Jews a gigantic Jew, nor to
the Catholics kaiser, to the
Professionals what John Calvin made of Him.
We have no right whatever to transfer our
human attributes to Him. The process
should be the other way; we should humbly
draw our best qualities from Him. 1 close
with liberal quotation from Mr.. Ames in
his essay upon this subject:
1T is the province of true religion to help
us distinguish between the higher and
lower elements of our nature, and thus de-
velop and strengthen the one by subduing
the other to it's proper service. Caliban Is
one Of our poor relations, and frightfully
like us in some particulars. y We
Calibanize when we make our God like to
ourselves instead of making ourselves like
to him. We should seek to become what
we praise in God by translating into our
scheme of life Gods wisdom, justice and
benevolence. We Calibanize when we in
vert the process by transcribing into Gods
character our own defects and attributing
to him qualities inconsistent with either
wisdom, justice or love- Does not science
smack Of Calibanism when it exalts the
evidence of our senses concerning physical
facts above the testimony of our conscious
ness concerning our internal experiences or
when we tumble for the essence of mans
being among the processes of physical life
According to Caliban, when our affairs go
pleasantly God is in a good humor but
angry. How absurd the idea that God is
ever moved by anger-the most vulgar of all
things. But as one after another of our
pleadings for special divine interposition
form causation, we fall in all helplessness
and needs into the arms of a universal
Providence, which takes up all beings,
great and SMALL and all events, pleasant
and painful, into the unbroken order of His
wisdom and goodness"