{"product_id":"2940013613157","title":"The Browning Cyclop\u0026aelig;dia","description":"\"Evil is more frail than nonentity.\"\u003cbr\u003e                        (Proclus, _De Prov._, in Cory's _Fragm._)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Let no one therefore say that there are precedaneous productive\u003cbr\u003eprinciples of evil in the nature of intellectual paradigms of evil in the\u003cbr\u003esame manner as there are of good, or that there is a malefic soul or an\u003cbr\u003eevil-producing cause in the gods, nor let him introduce sedition or\u003cbr\u003eeternal war against the First God\" (Proclus, _Six Books_, trans. Thomas\u003cbr\u003eTaylor, B. i., c. 27). In heaven, then, we are to find \"the perfect\u003cbr\u003eround,\" \"the broken arcs\" are all we can discover here. Rising in the\u003cbr\u003etenth stanza to the highest stature of the philosophical truth, the poet\u003cbr\u003eproclaims his faith in the existence of a home of pure ideals. The harmony\u003cbr\u003eof a few bars of music on earth suggests the eternal harmonies of the\u003cbr\u003eAuthor of order; the rays of goodness which brighten our path here suggest\u003cbr\u003ea Sun of Righteousness from which they emanate. The lover and the bard\u003cbr\u003esend up to God their feeble aspirations after the beautiful and the true,\u003cbr\u003eand these aspirations are stored in His treasury. Failure? It is but the\u003cbr\u003epause in the music, the discords that set off the harmony. To the musician\u003cbr\u003ethis is not something to be reasoned about mathematically; it is\u003cbr\u003eknowledge, it is a revelation which, however informing and consoling while\u003cbr\u003eit lasts, must not too long divert a man from the common things of life;\u003cbr\u003epatient to bear and suffer because strengthened by the beautiful vision of\u003cbr\u003ethe Mount of Transfiguration, proud that he has been permitted to have\u003cbr\u003epart and lot with such high matters, he can solemnly acquiesce in the\u003cbr\u003ecommon round and daily task. He feels for the common chord, descends the\u003cbr\u003emount, gliding by semitones, glancing back at the heights he is leaving,\u003cbr\u003etill at last, finding his true resting-place in the C Major of this life,\u003cbr\u003esoothed and sweetly lulled by the heavenly harmonies, he falls asleep. The\u003cbr\u003eEsoteric system of the Cabbalah was largely the outcome of Neo-Platonism\u003cbr\u003eand Gnosticism, and from these have sprung the theosophy of Meister\u003cbr\u003eEckhart and Jacob Boehme. It is certain that Mr. Browning was a student of\u003cbr\u003ethe latter \"theosophist\" _par excellence_. In his poem _Transcendentalism_\u003cbr\u003ehe refers to the philosopher by name, and there are evidences that the\u003cbr\u003epoet's mind was deeply tinctured with his ideas. The influence of\u003cbr\u003eParacelsus on Boehme's mind is conspicuous in his works, and the sympathy\u003cbr\u003ewith that great medical reformer which the poem of _Paracelsus_ betrays on\u003cbr\u003eevery page was no doubt largely due to Boehme's teaching. The curious\u003cbr\u003eblending of theosophy and science which is found in the poem of\u003cbr\u003e_Paracelsus_ is not a less faithful picture of Mr. Browning's\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical system than of that of his hero. Professor Andrew Seth, in\u003cbr\u003ethe article on theosophy in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, thus expounds\u003cbr\u003eBoehme's speculation on evil: it turns \"upon the necessity of reconciling\u003cbr\u003ethe existence and the might of evil with the existence of an all-embracing\u003cbr\u003eand all-powerful God.... He faces the difficulty boldly--he insists on the\u003cbr\u003enecessity of the Nay to the Yea, of the negative to the positive.\" Eckhart\u003cbr\u003eseems to have largely influenced Boehme. We have in this poem what has\u003cbr\u003ebeen aptly called \"the richest, deepest, fullest poem on music in the\u003cbr\u003elanguage.\" (Symons.) Mr. Browning was a thorough musician himself, and no\u003cbr\u003epoet ever wrote what the musician felt till he penned the wonderful\u003cbr\u003emusic-poems _Abt Vogler_, _Master Hugues of Saxe Gotha_ and _A Toccata of\u003cbr\u003eGaluppi's_. The comparison between music and architecture is as old as it\u003cbr\u003eis beautiful. Amphion built the walls of Thebes to the sound of his\u003cbr\u003elyre--fitting the stones together by the power of his music, and \"Ilion's\u003cbr\u003etowers,\" they say, \"rose with life to Apollo's song.\" The \"Keeley Motor\"\u003cbr\u003ewas an attempt in this direction. Coleridge, too, in _Kubla Khan_, with\u003cbr\u003e\"music loud and long would build that dome in air.\" In the May 1891 number\u003cbr\u003eof the _Century Magazine_ there is a very curious and a very interesting\u003cbr\u003eaccount by Mrs. Watts Hughes of certain \"Voice-figures\" which have lately\u003cbr\u003eexcited so much interest in scientific and musical circles. \"By a simple\u003cbr\u003emethod figures of sounds are produced which remain permanent. On a thin\u003cbr\u003eindiarubber membrane, stretched across the bottom of a tube of sufficient\u003cbr\u003ediameter for the purpose, is poured a small quantity of water or some\u003cbr\u003edenser liquid, such as glycerine; and into this liquid are sprinkled a few\u003cbr\u003egrains of some ordinary solid pigment.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147589665008,"sku":"2940013613157","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013613157_p0.jpg?v=1763583319","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013613157","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}