The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-21

The Look Before and After.
In poem which we publish this
morning, THE Man without the Hoe"
there IL something Of the wholesome
corrective that Is required by the ut
teriy false point Of view established in
Mr.. Markham's THE Man With the
Hoe" 1t Is In order to remind the SEN
timentalist that there are other sor-
rows than those Of either jacques Or
Werther. The failure Of any life to reai-
lie its ideal IL tragedy as high as the
stars, 40 deep a. eternity. The rejec-
tion or Acceptance OF opportunity il the
elimination Of the drama Of the soul.
It Is a fault Of the wide view as well
a. Of the narrow to separate divine pity
and tender regret from any recognition
of responsibility The eye OF Markham
sees in ''The Man With the Hoe" only
a victim of the pitiless ages. Mans in
humanity and unsympathetic nature
have combined to degrade the SEM
blance and hopeful rival OF the divine
to a level separated from the brute only
by traces of aspiration, scarcely disap-
pointed because so dimly understood.
and the mute expression of q redeeming
despair In this supplement to his
rhythmic picture we have an enlarged
circle, and one ray Of light cleaves
through the murky sky. But still there
Is the apparent rejection OF responsible
ity in the individual for any element
in his destiny; still that note. though
this time triumphant rather than wall
ingly minor. Of a paradise lost to whose
golden gates and crystal battlements
mankind may sometime climb once
more.
Perhaps the older theology is mainly
responsible for this mlsversion Of the
human legend. Men whose hopes are
high and whose views noble look about
them and see squalor, vice. brutishness-
They turn to the pagan legend and find
solace only in the last inmate of PAN
dora's box. They lean upon a greater
tradition insensibly received, and every
ignoble form becomes to them a degra-
dation of the pristine perfect. Milton's
poetic scheme of things still chains the
reason, and we look at man as de-
clining instead of rising sun; at the
system about us, with its contradictions
and enormities, as the relic of moider-
Svs<~ fa,, fv,cf oP ha haer Al, Nd
promise of an unspeakable glory that
is yet to be.
The true comparison is not between
the man with the hoe. or his more mis-
cradle fellow without the hoe. and the
demigods Of mythology or the perfect
= man in the innocence Of Eden. 1t is
between these figures and those which
we find sketched with flint points on
shreds of bone or sandstone. The
companion piece to the man with the
hoe Ia the man with the war club: the
hairy. savage thing in whom as yet i'm
agination only can detect the presence
even of a spark, but in whom lie the
promise and potency Of all the ages.
Set the stored procession in its due
array. Fix the point Of true departure.
that we may look before and after and
see not from what immeasurable
heights the world has fallen. but rather
from what low and poor beginnings 1t
has come within sight of that far-off
divine event toward which the whole
Creation moves"
The poetic error is most important
because 1t eolors for many men their
view Of society. Of civilization. OF eco
Monies, Of politics, even of morals. They
are like engineers who know the desti-
nation Of their trains, but are striving
to reverse the lever and start backward
to goal that lies instead far OF ahead
of them along the level shining ways.
This wrong Interpretation OF life
through history Is disastrous in its re-
action upon conduct. Man looked upon