The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-01-13
THE PURPOSE OF "EARrkB uND
By Basil King


ences as copy" Ia kirg with 4
woman-writer en- this subject she
confessed to me that while going
through the agcnies of an unhappy
love affair she caught her elf saying.
at the p tch of angu sh, Il shall get
splendid material out of this by and
by" So it has always been with me
and my meditat;ons, specnlations and
cogitations. While primarily for my
cwn benefit the storytelling" in
stinct has seen them chiefly as ele-
ments of drama.
l wish | could underscore the fact
that the play and nothing but the
pay is the ''thing" in EARTH
BOUND. 1t is purely work of the
imagination 1t has no message to
deliver beyond the message inherent
in any view of life in which there is
basis of fundamental truth. 1t has
no theory to put over, no doctrine,
not thing in the way of psychic propa-
ganda. 1t tells story and does
nothing more.
Shou d the spectator see something
more in it, that would be his own
business. I cannot help the working
of his mind. My duty is to give the
play and let him do the thinking.
That thinking may judge that am
wrong, and to this l should have
nothing to object fer the reason that
have nothing to insist upon My
story is one of possibilities; but
there are other possibilities quite as
plausible. On subject as to which
we can only speculate there can be
neither affirmation nor denials. The
utmost we can do is to suggest trains
of thought, leaving each man free to
fo low them for himself.
At the same time could not have
written such play as EARTH
BOUND unless l had arrived at
working principle as to conditions
after death-a principle which seems
to me basic and along the lines of
common sense. That principle is one
| see as running through all nature
as far as nature comes under my OBJ
servation, that of growth l take it
for granted that growth is a primal
purpose of our life, and that nothing
can keep us from growing. We may
block the impulse, we may defect it,
we may abuse it in any way we
choose; but in the end it will prove
too strong fer any obstacle to put
s op to it. AS boy have tied
knots in tender sapling just to see
what the poor little tree would make
of this outrage on it's instinct to
shoot upwards. 1t grew crooked of
course, but it grew. 1t grew with, a
great hoe in its straightness; but it |
couldn't be kept from growing and
in the course of years the bulging
ugliness was softened and smoothed |
till by the time the tree has reached
its normal height the wrong done to
it was scarcely visible.
Along lines somewhat similar to
this, l take it, runs the natural de-
velopment of man. He does himself |
an injury-he stems the impulse that |
sends him upwards he cannot |
call permanent halt to the urge of |
life within him. He may tie a knot |
in his soul, he may tie a hundred
knots, but he can only render pro-
gress difficult, he cannot make it i'm
possible. Twisted, dwarfed, and suf-
fering though he become, the root of
his being will still send up the force
no scientist has ever been able to an
alyze or describe which impels him
skyward whether he will or no. The
first instant after death will seize
him just where the last instant pre-
vious to death has let him go. 1t can
not greatly change him, whether in
the way of reward or penitence; but
itI probably will take him one step. |
however shost step in advance.
In this concept of man there is
nothing specially original 1t lies at
the base of most religions, otherwise
religion would lack purpose. While
this play has no religious intention,
and is not meant to illustrate a re-
ligious principle, the idea from which
it springs may be found, for ex-
ample, in the Catholic doctrine of
Purgatory, or Publication, in the An
gelioan teaching of an Intermediate
or Progressive State, as we'll as in
the Christian Science belief that-to
quote Mrs. Eddy-"as death findeth
mortal man so shall he be after death
until probation and growth shall eff
feet the needed change" Even the
various doctrines of re-incarnation
have this idea of progress as their
tart ng point. While therefore 1
beg U emphasize the fact that this