The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-10-28

Long before i had arrived az what catrhlsihs
| call the age Of reason, / was frequently taken,
| much against my will, to church The church
was very old and the interior OF It at
| this moment just plainly as l saw it forty
| years ago. when il appeared to me like an evil
| dream There | first learned to know the peculiar
| horror that certain forms Of Gothic architecture
| can inspire. l am using the word horror in a
| classic sense-in its antique meaning OF ghostIy
| fear.
On the verv first day of this experience my
child-iancy could place the source of the horror.
| The wizened and pointed shapes of the windows
! immediately terrified me. In their outline
found the form of apparitions that tormented me
| in sleep-and at once | began TO imagine some
! dreadful affinity between COLLINS and Gothic
! churches Presently, in the tall doorways in the
archines OF the aisies. in the ribbings and groin
ings of the roof, ! discovered other and wilder
suggestions OF fear. Even the facade OF the organ
| -peakng high into the shadow above its gallery
seemed to irighttul thing. Had l been
| then suddenly Obliged to answer the question,
pcred, Those points,'' l could not have other
wise explained the matter; l only knew that
was afraid Of the points
The peculiar feeling remained unac-
counted for until years after:
| At last, at last, in the carly hours of certain
! tropical morning, it revealed itself quite unex-
pectedly, while l was looking at glorious group
of palms.
The giant palms of the American tropics can
!
methods of pictorial illustration; they must be
seen. You cannot draw or photograph palm
| 200 feet high
| The first sight of group of such forms, in
their natural environment of tropical forest, Is
magnificent surprise-a surprise that strikes you
| dumb. Nothing in temperate zoncs-not even
| the huger growths OF the California slope-could
have prepared your Imagination for the weird
solemiiity OF that mighty colonnade. Each stone
| grey trunk is perfect pillar-but a pillar OF
which the stupendous grace has no counter.rIrt
| in the works of man. You must strain your
! head well back TO follow the soaring OF the
! prodigious column, up, up, up TIN ough abysses
! Of green twilight. till at last-far Sevond a
! break in that infinite Intervening Of limbs and
lianas which is the roof of the forest--you catch
dizzy glimpse of the capital; a parasol OF
I emerald feathers outsprcad in sky so binding
| as to suggest he notion of azure electricity:
| Now, what is the emotion that such a vision
wonder, too weird to be called delight? Only
| when the first shock Of it has passed-when the
! several elements that were combined in it have
! begun to set in motion widely different groups
| of ideas-can you comprehend how very complex
| 1t must have been. Many impressions belonging
| TO personal experience were doubtless revived in
| ii, but also with them a multitude OF sensations
more shadowy-a Accommodations of organic memory;
| possibly vague feelings older than man--for
| the tropical shapes that aroused the emotion
| have a history more ancient than our race.
| One of the first elements OF the emotion to be-
| come clearly distinguishable is the esthetic;
and this, in its general mass, might be termed
! the Of terrible beauty. Certainly the spec
tace of that unfamiliar life-silent tremendous,
springirg to the sun in colossal aspiration, striv.
| ing for light against Titans, and needless OF
man in the gloom beneath of cropping beetle
thrills like the rhythm of some single marvel
Gus verse that is learned in glance and remem-
| at its widest, is shatowed by a
queer disquiet. The aspect of that monstrons,
| pale, naked. Notwithstanding column suggests
| a life conscious the serpent's. You stare at
Et.a rfrtatt- fnnr.
/ ing to discern some sign of stealthy movement,
some beginning of unduaton. Then sight and
| reason combine to correct the suspicion. Yes,
motion is there, and life enormous; but lite
| seeking only sun-life rushing like the jet OF
geyser. straight to the giant day.
| The great grey trunks changed to the
| pillars of mighty aisle, and from attitudes OF
| dream there suddenly descended upon me the old
| dark thrill of Gothic horrors.
Even before it died away i recognized thar 1t
must have been due to some old cathedral mem
| DRY revived BY the vision OF those giant trunks
| uprising into gloom. But neither the height
nor the gloom could account for anything be-
You'd the memory. Columns tall as thoee palms,
but supporting classic entablature. woald evoke
| no sense OF disquiet resembling the Gothic hor-
| ror felt sure of this-because was able, with
| out any difficulty. to shape immediately the
| imagination of such facade. But presently the
mental picture distorted. | saw the arehtrave
elbow upward in each of the spaces between the
I
| OF prodicious arches-and again the soi;ibre thrill
| descended upon me. simultaneously there fash
| ed to me the solution Of the mystery. l under.
| stood that the Gothic horror was horror oil
/ monstrous rnotion-and that it had seemed TO
| belong to the points of the arches because the
idea of such motion chiefly suggested by the
| extraordinary angle at which the curves OF the
| arci.ing touched.
- For nature TO repeat the strange i'm
preston of the real Gothic arch, it we're neees-
gary that the branches Of the touching crests
| should vastly exceed, both in length OF curve
I and strength of spring, anything of their kind
| existing in the vegetable world. OF
course the child, oppressed by the stTangeness OF
| Gothic forms, is yet incapable of analyzng the
| impression received; he is frightened WITHOUT
| comprehcrding. He cannot divine that the points
| and the curves are terrible to him because they
| represent the prodiGious exaggerafion OF a real
| law Of vegetable growth. He breads the shapes
| because they seem alive; yet he does not Know
| how TO express this dread. Without suspectinG
| why, he feels that this silent manifestation 81
| power everywhere pointing and piercing upward,
| is not natural. To his startled imagination, the
building stretches itself like phantasm OF
sleep makes itself tall and taller with intent to
frigh;en Even though built by hands OF men,
IL has ceased to be mass of dead stone; 1t Is
infused with something that thinks and threat
ens-it has become a shadowing malevo!ente,
multiple goblinry, monstrous fetch!
Perhaps no one but Hearn could have had
the subtlety of perception and depth OF
thought to have followed out this train OF
reasoning It is to be hoped that he Will
give to the world much more in the way OF
philosophical essays. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co. SD
N;unr Eiction