The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-08-19
The Mystery Of the Human
Eve and Ear

! 6dia GhhEIiihA VA WI
| can essay1stA and he Ii as fine as
Maeterlinok in his poise and flight.
He should be known to nil lovers of
alert thinking. Here is a brief extract
from his pen:
The ear la q remarkable instrument
| that receives, collects and interprets
/ to the indwellins spirit vibrations
which we recognize as information. 1t
has a series Of wonderful chambers
and corridors through which every
| form OF atmospheric formulation
passes to the spirit. We sit within,
placing our souls ear to this tieshly
organ. as the operator holds the tele-
phonic receiver willie conversing with
| the distant speaker.
Its order is threefold. There is
| the concha, or shell. spread out to
the air--convex. built to catch noises
as the fishers net Is built to catch
| fish
There Is the transmitting chain Of
bones, the triple sounding board that
| throws the noise inward, where the
soul sits listening.
| Lastly, the three spiral avenues or
snail-sheli windings that reach the
inner invisible auditory. All these are
vestibules or guards protecting us
| from alien and incoherent voices,
which. IL admitted, would only con-
fuse and annoy.
The relation between the ear and
the eye IN significant We know that
they both deal with light The ears
see. The fishes OF Mammoth Cave
see with their ears.-All the Light
| they get is through sound and touch.
DO you seef" we say. when we
are trying to make some matter plain.
| We mean. DO you see with your
| ears IN opmnrahan6"
! Hearing is light borne on wave
sounds; seeing Is light borne on wave
sights. The eyes occasionally listen,
| the ears occasionally lcTk. Both are
used interchangeably
The eyes listen to the thought of
| a book, or the conversation of gesture
and facial expression; the ears see q
| truth when uttered. they see beauty
| in melody, poetry. literary form. Each
| may act separately. but both work
| together most intelligently. Do we not
| hear better when we look at the
speaker Shut your eyes when your
| friend Is talking and my point will
| be made.
Note the Interesting parallels: The
ear deals with fluctuations Of the air:
| the eye with fluctuations of the ether
The ear receives a million motley and
confusing noises battling at it's door,
| asserts and ularshals them in orderly
series before introducing them to the
mind
The eve receives like completely
| Of pictures and goes through similar
discriminating and selecting processes
before photographing them on the
brain for transmission to the souL
Sound passes through a series of
Transforming chambers and anterooms
to the waiting spirit: sight trayerses
| parallel way through the vestibules
OF the eye to the brain. Both are the
souls reporters They are its news
gatherers and detectives. constantly
searching the earth for what may be
interesting and Instructive and hast
ening home with their tales OF won
der and surprise
I'VE read with our eyes read the
| the book. the landscape. the changing
sky. the moving throng, the Individual
and expressive feature and gesture
We listen with OUT ears as, borne
| on every atmospheric billow. words,
| sentences. complex noises break
against the body: as the harmonies
and discords of the world come roll
ing IN like food.
These two newsmongers ara ever
busy working ct the same time We
arc frequently conscious Of the double
AVpOatt tAA4 aIid CJEN GSlibE Qp Ill
the same instant, insisting UPON an
| audience. And finally we become so
| adept at taking news that we can re-
ceive both messages at the same In
slant
Helen Keliar employs neither OF
these savesdropperr, her implements
OF sight and sound are both destroy
ed. or. rather. were never developed.
With fingers. nostrils. tongue and skin
she gathers what she can of the
doings OF this great world.
Every information teils us something
which we Involuntary build into 1t
sentence and pass to the soul Every
sound teaches a truth which is writ
ten upon the invisible parchment Of
the intellect IN characters that can
never fade
There Ia an ear within an ear. The
ear without In framed for Transmitting
the sounds OF the earth to the ear
within. It has to DO exclusively with
planetary matters
When the body is dead. or the ear
deaf. or the hearing machine destroy
ed in soma way. the soul cannot de-
tect a single oosmic sound. The storm
OF melody, the foods OF Mendelssohn
and Wagner. are a.S though they were
not.
There are tntonations audible and
inaudible What IL audible the spirit
| can In lie emily with. the acoustic tn
strument that links II TO the world
The natural ear reports the planet
only: and when II Is dead the planet
liz dead. II Ia as extinct as the land
sea pc is TO the sleepers in the graves
Yet there is a spirit in these world
noises which passes to the ear within
II disrobes sound. as II were, or its
outer covering. The chariot is dis
missed at the inner entrance hall and
the Invisible occupant becomes the
property OF the min0.
There are messages that are not
permitted to enter the deep sanctuary
OF being. There in hearing and hear
ing. lie that hath an ear let him
hear what the spirit saith Some
have not developed this inner listen
ing Having ears they hear not
They hear superficialy. They hear as
the brute--they get tie pod and shuck
OF sound. and lose the rest.
The natural man percefveth not
the things OF the spirit There are
things spiritually diYcerned and things
only naturally discerned There are
things seen by the minds eye seen
by the natural eye. seen microscope
cally and telescopically.
A War Time Relic