The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-01-23
MYSTICISM.

Early on these winter mornings the
lake is like sheet of crumpled
steel the silver rays of the newly risen
sun glance upon the crest OF the waves;
beyond the water in the forests The
trees appear as if painted on canvas.
They blend together, in the distance.
A dim blue haze is the medium through
which we see the lake, the sunrays, the
damp forest trees.
The landscape seems to me to be in ma
ture what mysticism is in literature.
The mystics are not the writers that
deal with mystery, but they are the
writers whose thoughts and images are
seen. as it were, through a mist.
Ruskin says. mo man should paint
picture of the interior of a room WITH
ont putting in it an open window. +"
The window showing a glimpse OF
violet-crowned hills, or blue sky, or
gray ocean waster, suggests in Enitude.
1t presents the picture from being mar
row and too realistic.
In literature the mystics paint the
open window. They are suggestive.
They allow the white winged dove-im-
aeination, to escape from the four walls
of fact, aud to venture forth without
restraint, over the waters OF specula-
ton.
The three greatest mystics in Ameri-
can letters, are the poets Hawthorne.
Edgar Allan Poe and Father Ryan.
II l, 10, iyt
1.-The Marble Faun, SIS a poem The SUBJ
ject is one that appeals to the drem-
en- rather than to the practical man.
1t is taken from Grecian mythology.
In Greece there is supposed to have
existed a race of beings that formed
the link between the brute creation
and man. The fauns were intelligent,
but they had no souls. They were a
part of nature. They were joyful. In
the dim, Hellenic groves they drank
only the golden sunlit wine pleasure
To their lips was never held grief s
chalice of deadly hemIock. In Rome
there is a statue by Proxitiles. 1t is a
..Marble Faun." From this statue
Hawthorne drew the title of his book.
The hero, Donatelo, resembles, per-
sonally, the marble faun. His nature,
too, is as sanguine and careless as was
that of the faun of Mythology. This
being. all sunlight and thoughtlessness,
comes in contact with Miriam, a
woman that is an artist, and one whose
nature is as deep, as saddened as, posi-
bly, as sin-staind as Donatello's is ire
sponsible and free. She is beautiful
with rich, darG Jewish type of beau
ty. Donatello loves Miriam. and for
her sake, on an impulse, in obedience
to a glance from her eyes, he burls the
mad monk from the brow of the Capl-
toline bills. The fantastic mad man is
the husband of Miriam. AS soon as
the murder has been committed the
two lovers feel alone in the universe
isolated from mankind. Then they re-
alze, with shudder, that they are
akin to all the criminals OF old
Rome. There is communion of devils
as well as a communion of saints.
Before he sinned. Donatello used to
lie on the rolling Tuscan hills near his
home Of Monte Benz, and when he gave
low soft whistle Ike the sweft notes
of flute, the birds and the squirrels
would come to him and frolic around
him as if he too. was a creature OF the
wild woods. When his soul becomes
saturated with crime, he leaves Rome
and fees to Monte Beui; hnt the forest
birds and the squirrels will not re-
4 II. l. In
is evil. He is no longer child OF
nature. Is this fact keeping with
Gods law. Does He cast off Ills err
ring ones? Does he not rather make
His sun TO rise upon the evil and the
good and sendeth His rain on the just
and the unjust alikee
Through crime Donatello's soul is
awakened. Is it better to fall and
suffer than to live forever on the sur