Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-06-18

to him good confession in his Ire
iigio Medci," as follows!
For my Religion. though there be
several Circumstances that might per-
suadc the World have none at all, as
the general scandal OF my Profession,
the natural course OF my studies, the
indtffcrcncy OF my Behavior and DIS
course In matters of Religion, neither
violently Defending one, nor with that
! common ardor and contention opposing
another; yet in despite hereof, dare
without usurpation assume the honor
able style OF q Christian
Browns work was protest OF the
Imagination against the imperIous us
| urpations or the new science that was
apparently bauishinE the realms Of fam
cy. of intention. and of religious faith
by reducing the circle OF a mans life to
"a mere wheel spinning for an hour in
tho vast unconscious mechanism of
the world
Brown really supplied an essential
something that Bacon and Descartes
| lacked--the faculty. the primary or po-
| etic Imagination. by which the broken
and dispersed images given by science
| are reunited into a harmonious Whole
| directly In opposition to the precept of
| Bacon that the understanding mus.
not therefore be supplied with wings,
but rather huns with weights, TO keep
| it from leapng and flying
Sir Thomas somewhat clearly appre-
| hended what most men perceive more
| dimly or only sense in some vague way
the presence, that is, of things unseen,
the presence through all material
phenomena OF an omniprescnt and I'M
defined mystery that at times drifted In
upon him with such a feeling OF reality
that even the solid earth grew phan-
tom-likc IN comparison with this
present sense of something other
and different lurking underneath
all natural law. THE whole creation
is mystery he says a
dream or mock-show, and we all there
| In but pantaloons and antics" Rather:
lin this mass of Nature there is set
| of things that carry in their front,
| though not In capital letters. yet in
stenography and short characters.
| something of divinity, which to wiser
reasons serve as lunnaries in the abyss
| OF knowledge. and to judlcious beliefs
| as scales and roundles TO mount the
pinnacles and highest pieces of divinity.
f. This visible world is but pic
ture of the invisible, wherein as in a
| portrait things are not truly but in
oquivocal shapes, and as they counter
| felt some more real substance in that
! invisible fabric"
| Quaint as is his style. antiquated as
| are some Of the scientific theories which
| he seeks to interpret, these writings
make a foroeful appeal to the present
day reader a writer in the Post be-
lieves that something Of his power was
due to his age something to the solidty
of his training; but stlll more TO the
imaginative burden of his language
and cites the following passage:
"And although he had no Opinion of
rcputed Felicities below. and appre-
hended Men widely out in the Estimate
of such Happiness, yet his nober Con-
tempt of the World wrought no Demo-
critism Or Cynicism, no laughing or
snarling at IT, as well understanding
there are not Felicities in this World
to satisfy n serious Mind; and there
fore to soften the Stream of our Lives.
we are fain to take in the reputed Con-
tentations OF this World, to unite with
the Crowd in their Beautitudes, and to
make ourselves happy by Consortion,
Opinion, or Co-eXistimation: for strict
ly TO separate from received and GUS
tcary Feliclties, and TO confine unto the
II
Consolation of our Beings unto too UNI
comfortable Circumscriptions.
Echoes of that word felicity" this
reviewer says. come to mind from
Spanish and French and from the plea
of dying Hamlet to his friend,
II thou didst ever hold me In thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
Aud in this harsh world draw thy
breath in pain,
Can any one" continues the Post
reviewer. fail to perceive the lingering
sweetness and manifold associations of
the word felicity here as it Is contrast
| cd with the quick, singing Saxon words
| that follow? Such was the music OF the
! emotions sought and obtained by Sir
| Thomas Browne in the passage quoted.
| To vary the metaphor, his cunning use
| of Latin words affects the ear like the
hearing of some majestic fuGue. In
which the melody, taken up by voice
after voice, is repeated and varied and
interviewer until the listener by the
long accumulation of sound is rapt out
OF the solid world into mystic admira-
ton"
sELF-CoNFEsSED