Philosophically imported quote...

[RascalPuff]

Among the all time masterfully written and manifestly qualified books is the 1920-21 (Macmillan Co.)
vintage, H. G. Wells production: The Outline of History - albeit there still are dissentors of this title, who fault Wells for deigning to call it 'The' Outline of History. So be it then, as the - likewise dated - Iliad and Odyssey may be improved upon in hindsight (but that is likewise doubtful).

Be that as it may, Wells introduces his entire magnum opus with a quote of philosophical import
by Friedrich Ratzel:

"A philosophy of the history of the human race, worthy of its name, must begin with the heavens and descend to the earth, must be charged with the conviction that all existence is one - a single conception sustained from beginning to end upon one identical law."

This preciously rare book is out of print; 2nd hand stores sometimes stock it at a price much lower than its - ever increasing - value. Meanwhile you may access the entire work on line at the following url.

http://www.archive.org/stream/outlin...ge/n5/mode/2up

[austintorn@aol.com]

The Forest of Original Growth

What would it be like to stumble across lands
That no one else had ever been to,
And how could you know that?

After reading Sir Conan Doyle’s ‘Lost World’
About dinosaurs on a sealed off plateau of a volcano,
I wondered if there were any more undiscovered places
That the paths least followed could lead me to.

So, while at the Earth Summit in Rio last month,
I forayed into the uncharted regions of Brazil,
Having chosen from a map the remotest area.

After various vaccinations and preparations,
I trucked my one-man helicopter
To the last way station,
Loaded the extra gas tanks onto it
And flew into the heart of darkness,
Eventually gliding down onto a grassy field
Just as the gas ran out.

From here I walked for tens and tens of miles,
Always taking the most difficult path
Whenever there was a choice,
For this would insure that I could end up
In some totally unvisited region
That was near impossible
Or hard-to-get-at in any way.

After hundreds of these
“Improbable” path choices
I suddenly came across acres
Of Lady’s Slippers flowers.

These are very rare flowers
That usually appear in small bunches,
Growing only in conjunction with a rare fungus,
And, even, so, usually get picked—
But there were millions of them.

After taking one last really
Difficult choice of a path,
I discovered entire fields of other flowers
Long thought to be extinct.
Some were Eve’s Blossoms,
Which not been seen
For thousands of years,
Historically valued for
Their life extending elixir,
As well as the original, lost,
Strain of Pearly Everlasting,
The flower that never dies,
And so I suspected
That I might be in virgin territory.

How would I know?
Well, for one, there were no paths left,
For even animals and their hunters
Had either long left or had never even been here.

Also, the flower colors were not like any
That I had ever seen before,
Not new colors, mind you, but, just, well,
Colors of different intensities and hues
That were not thought to exist in nature.
I saw true-blue roses, legendary no more.

I had chanced upon a land
Of strange rainbows of elfin-hued flowers:
Red Delphiniums, Black Tulips,
Orange Fuchsias, White Marigolds, Bronze grass,
Yellow Violets, and even Adam’s Apple,
Now growing from the ground!

Was this the original forest—the Garden of Eden?
Was I the first to return to this legendary paradise?
And then I knew that it was indeed the Garden,
For there, right in front of me,
Was a field of thousands of undisturbed
Golden nuggets on the forest floor.
Surely no one had ever been here,
At least not for a long, long time.

I reached up and put the apple back on the Tree.

[Graybeard]

I think your mixing Evelyn Waugh's 'When the going was good' up with H. G. Wells 'outline of history'

cool bananas .... greg

[RascalPuff]

I think your mixing Evelyn Waugh's 'When the going was good' up with H. G. Wells 'outline of history'

cool bananas .... greg

Dear Greg:
I acquired a review of Waugh's "When the Going was Good".

Between 1929 and 1935 Evelyn Waugh travelled widely and wrote four books about his experiences. In this collection he writes about a cruise around the Mediterranean, a train trip from Djibouti to Abyssinia to attend Emperor Haile Selassie's coronation in 1930, his travels in Aden, Zanzibar, Kenya and the Congo, coping with heat and mosquitoes, a journey to Guyana and Brazil, and his return to Addis Ababa in 1935 to report on the war between Abyssinia and Italy. Waugh's experiences gave him the ideas for such novels as "Scoop" and "White Mischief".

Please let me know how these two authors and books are comparable to each other.

Chilled chinchillas... RP

[Graybeard]

Dear Greg:
I acquired a review of Waugh's "When the Going was Good".

Between 1929 and 1935 Evelyn Waugh travelled widely and wrote four books about his experiences. In this collection he writes about a cruise around the Mediterranean, a train trip from Djibouti to Abyssinia to attend Emperor Haile Selassie's coronation in 1930, his travels in Aden, Zanzibar, Kenya and the Congo, coping with heat and mosquitoes, a journey to Guyana and Brazil, and his return to Addis Ababa in 1935 to report on the war between Abyssinia and Italy. Waugh's experiences gave him the ideas for such novels as "Scoop" and "White Mischief".

Please let me know how these two authors and books are comparable to each other.

Chilled chinchillas... RP

Dear Rascal .... I was replying to Austin. Further, if you had read the book, there is a story which the review does not mention .... That he also traveled deeply into Brazil.

So, while at the Earth Summit in Rio last month,
I forayed into the uncharted regions of Brazil,
Having chosen from a map the remotest area.

Furthermore, the Garden of Eden is along the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Between Aden and Muscat, passing thru the Yemen Arab Republic, The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Oman ... everyone knows that ??

Was this the original forest—the Garden of Eden?
Was I the first to return to this legendary paradise?
And then I knew that it was indeed the Garden,
For there, right in front of me,
Was a field of thousands of undisturbed
Golden nuggets on the forest floor.
Surely no one had ever been here,
At least not for a long, long time.

I reached up and put the apple back on the Tree.

Chinchilla is a town, not far from where I live.

cool bananas ... greg

[austintorn@aol.com]

Furthermore, the Garden of Eden is along the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Between Aden and Muscat, passing thru the Yemen Arab Republic, The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Oman ... everyone knows that ?? — Graybeard

I thought it was in Africa, but either way I was way off.

[Graybeard]

Furthermore, the Garden of Eden is along the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Between Aden and Muscat, passing thru the Yemen Arab Republic, The People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Oman ... everyone knows that ?? — Graybeard

I thought it was in Africa, but either way I was way off.

That is Africa ... sort of ...... From Ethopia to the Arabian Peninsula, at the time of the leaving of Africa, was a sea crossing of 15-20Kilometres. The Unknown Peninsula due to the environment at the time, provided a Garden of Eden ... without which the first Humans to leave could not have survived. The crossing is referred to in old languages as 'The Gates of Hell' ??

[austintorn@aol.com]

Eden’s Long Line

Methuselah lived for 969 years.

He died on the 11th of Cheshvan
Of the year 1656 (Anno Mundi, after Creation),
7 days before the beginning of the Great Flood.

According to Rashi on Gen. 7:4,
The Holy One delayed the Flood
Specially because of the 7 days of mourning
For the righteous Methuselah in his honour.

Unknownst to all,
The recent find of Austi 2:5 scroll tells us
That Adam was yet alive on that day,
He, too, boarding the Ark of Noah.

In fact, I ran into him just the other day,
Looking innumerable years old,
But aging quite gracefully.

Eve was at his side,
Yet gleaming with the ripeness
Obtained from Eden’s apple.

They revealed the formula
For true apple cider,
Which would result
In an elixir not vinegar.

Eden’s sinful Apple, the cause of it,
Made for harsh apple cider, but, when it
Was heated with sulfurous brimstone it
Soon turned smooth, the Hell taken out of it!

(Methuselah was son of Enoch
And the grandfather of Noah.)

[RascalPuff]

The 'Read Online' books are really a good deal if you don't mind reading from the screen - there's often controls (bells, buttons and whistles?) that enable the reader to enlarge the print and/or change to presentation format.

Anyway, Dear Readers can access an 'Encylopedia of Philosophy' via:
http://www.iep.utm.edu/

Post Script:
Dear Greg and Austin:
Your inimitable satire - mixed with straight-lines - is not completely lost on Truly Yours.
Each and both of you sometimes remind me of combinations of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Voltaire. : )

[austintorn@aol.com]

Dear Greg and Austin:
Your inimitable satire - mixed with straight-lines - is not completely lost on Truly Yours.
Each and both of you sometimes remind me of combinations of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Voltaire. : )

Thanks, and thanks for the IEP link.

Hope your thread is not going too far off from "Heaven" and "Earth" and such, but at least it's going.

Now, back to the topic:

— Genesis Revealed —


A tale I’ve written, invented, yes, hence,
An attempt to unite the Christian pense
With the non-belief, in a middle ground,
Somewhere between mystery and good sense:

With flora mystical and magical,
Eden’s botanical garden was blest,
So Eve, taking more than just the Apple,
Plucked off the loveliest of the best.

Thus it’s to her that we must give our thanks
For Earth’s variety of fruits and plants,
For when she was out of Paradise thrown,
She stole all the flowers we’ve ever known.

Therewith, through sensuous beauty and grace,
Eve with Adam brought forth the human race,
But our world would never have come to be,
Had not GOD allowed them HIS mystery,

For when they were banished from HIS bosom,
Eve saw more than just the Apple Blossom,
And took, on her way through Eden’s bowers,
Many wondrous plants and fruitful flowers.

Mighty GOD, upon seeing this great theft,
At first was angered, but soon smiled and wept,
For human nature was made in HIS name—
So HE had no one but HIMSELF to blame!

But still HE made ready HIS thunderbolt,
As HIS Old Testament wrath cast its vote
To end this experiment gone so wrong—
And then HE felt the joy of life’s new song.

Eve had all the plants that she could carry—
GOD in HIS wisdom grew uncontrary.
Out of Eden she waved the flowered wands,
The seeds spilling upon the barren lands.

GOD held the lightning bolt already lit,
No longer knowing what to do with it,
So HE threw it into the heart of Hell,
Forming of it a place where all was well.

Thus the world from molten fire had birth,
As Hell faded and was turned into Earth.
This HE gave to Adam and Eve with love,
For them and theirs to make a Heaven of.

From HIS bolt grew the Hawthorn and Bluebell,
And HE be damned, for Eve stole these as well!
So HE laughed and pretended not to see,
Retreating into eternity.

“So be it,” HE said, when time was young,
“That such is the life MY design has wrung,
For in their souls some part of ME has sprung—
So let them enjoy all the songs I’ve sung.

“Life was much too easy in Paradise,
And lacked therefore of any real meaning,
For without the lows there can be no highs—
All that remains is a dull flat feeling!

“There’s no Devil to blame for their great zest—
This mix of good and ‘bad’ makes them best!
The human nature that lets them survive,
Also makes them feel very much alive.

“That same beastful soul that makes them glad
Does also make them seem a little bad.
If only I could strip the wrong from right,
But I cannot have the day without the night!”

…