The cannibalism of the higher barbarians is in
hiding fromthe civilisation of the white man. This inverted imagination produces
things of which it is betternot to speak.
The priest seems more solemn and almost more sacred
than the god. Henceforth being merely secular would be a servitude and an
inhibition.
Take for examplethe Aztecs and American Indians of
the ancient empires of Mexicoand Peru. It might be said truly to have painted the
map purple.
It is often said that paganmythology was a
personification of the powers of nature. And throwing your grandmother into the sky
is not good behaviour;but it is perfectly good taste.
We may be fanciful about everything except
fairy-tales. It is as irrelevant as the remotecastle to the flower or the Hebridean
coast to the candle.
It is notable not only in ethicsbut in aesthetics.
They always assumethat before the advent of Europe there was nothing anywherebut
Eden.
The gods of mere mythology had a great deal of
nonsense about them. Henceforth being merely secular would be a servitude and an
inhibition.
Without that the blind unconscious beauty of the
world standsin its garden like a headless statue. It is the supreme proof of a man
being prosaic thathe always insists on poetry being poetical. It might be said truly
to have painted the map purple. But the name was so used by many to whom it was only
a name. They wish, in the most literal sense, to sup on horrors. And it is not the
voice of a priest or a prophet saying Thesethings are. The only detail in which it
differs is that it is not a landscape. Those who talk about Pagan Christs have less
sympathy with Paganismthan with Christianity. For a shadow is a shape; a thing which
reproduces shape butnot texture. The difference is only that which divides a
portrait of Queen Elizabethfrom Queen Elizabeth.
He knows he is doing one of the things for which a
man was made.
They always assumethat before the advent of Europe
there was nothing anywherebut Eden. In other words, the demonshave really been in
hiding since the coming of Christ on earth.
Now, it wouldbe very dangerous to classify the
metaphors of the poets. What scholar is really certain of the answer? Everybody
ought to know that, for everybodyhas been a child.
And in this matter there are several fine
shades.
And the test must appear merely arbitrarybecause it
is merely artistic. They seldom allow for the legitimate liberty of the
grotesque.
Now, it wouldbe very dangerous to classify the
metaphors of the poets.