DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Inkster, Leonard: Imitation
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29342#0017
Imitation by Leonard Inkster
T seems to me that the nature of
Man is subject to a threefold need:
that for a man’s perfect satisfaction
at any, every, moment, he needs
topossess goodness, beauty,truth.
These three are the Trinity in
One. Of everything a man does or contemplates,
he asks (unwittingly may be) three questions.
the beneficiare nearer to beauty, truth, and preg-
nancy. That is to say it must have touched his
consciousness, and so must have been the fruit of
consciousness. The creation may have entailed
much evil, (if you like), but without creativeness
there could have been no good. Precisely less
according to his degree of imitativeness does the
imitator touch our consciousness. A medieval
mystic said,
NE can spin, another can make shoes;
and all these are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I tell you, if I were not a priest, I would
esteem it a great gift that I was able to
, and would try to make them so well as
tobeapatterntoall.” IamsureTauler’sshoeswould
have done us good. uThe measure with which
we shall be measured, is the faculty of love in the
soul,—the will . . .”
make shoe:
O the cold dispensers of charity, the
hypocrites and pharisees in letters, the
dull masters of mechanical war thrill us
like Francis, Shakespeare, even Han-
nibal? Let us leave them and their death. For all
have creations; all are creative; we all can develop
a genius because we all are souls. And to do it we
need that perfect receptivity which casteth out fear
and pride, till at last our souls have power.
uIs it a fact or an illusion; are it and its parts in
fitting order; will it be fruitful or is it sterile?”
Truthand Beautydo not refer to Time but good-
ness refers to the future, the peculiar pleasure
given by goodness being that in which we are
hopeful for the future, the good action, thought,
or word, being pregnant with benefits. These
benefits may accrue to ourselves or others, but at
any rate the desire to udo good” by our thoughts,
knowledge, poems, paintings, actions, lives, has
reference to the consequences of thesethings, and
it is a natural desire.
THE difficulty is, unless we will be simple,
to trace these consequences and to define
the word ‘A benefit.’ We may cast an
action into the pool of Time and watch in vain for
the ceasing of the ripples on the margin of Infinity.
YET at least we can be sure of this, that
a beneficial action must bear a relation to
man’s threefold need, must have brought
THE liberation of creative energy is to be
believed in, then, because though the
pursuit of Truth and the contemplation
of Beauty are sufficient for two parts of our nature,
we look also to the future, and live as men, in
relation to men whose hearts we wish to move.
T seems to me that the nature of
Man is subject to a threefold need:
that for a man’s perfect satisfaction
at any, every, moment, he needs
topossess goodness, beauty,truth.
These three are the Trinity in
One. Of everything a man does or contemplates,
he asks (unwittingly may be) three questions.
the beneficiare nearer to beauty, truth, and preg-
nancy. That is to say it must have touched his
consciousness, and so must have been the fruit of
consciousness. The creation may have entailed
much evil, (if you like), but without creativeness
there could have been no good. Precisely less
according to his degree of imitativeness does the
imitator touch our consciousness. A medieval
mystic said,
NE can spin, another can make shoes;
and all these are gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I tell you, if I were not a priest, I would
esteem it a great gift that I was able to
, and would try to make them so well as
tobeapatterntoall.” IamsureTauler’sshoeswould
have done us good. uThe measure with which
we shall be measured, is the faculty of love in the
soul,—the will . . .”
make shoe:
O the cold dispensers of charity, the
hypocrites and pharisees in letters, the
dull masters of mechanical war thrill us
like Francis, Shakespeare, even Han-
nibal? Let us leave them and their death. For all
have creations; all are creative; we all can develop
a genius because we all are souls. And to do it we
need that perfect receptivity which casteth out fear
and pride, till at last our souls have power.
uIs it a fact or an illusion; are it and its parts in
fitting order; will it be fruitful or is it sterile?”
Truthand Beautydo not refer to Time but good-
ness refers to the future, the peculiar pleasure
given by goodness being that in which we are
hopeful for the future, the good action, thought,
or word, being pregnant with benefits. These
benefits may accrue to ourselves or others, but at
any rate the desire to udo good” by our thoughts,
knowledge, poems, paintings, actions, lives, has
reference to the consequences of thesethings, and
it is a natural desire.
THE difficulty is, unless we will be simple,
to trace these consequences and to define
the word ‘A benefit.’ We may cast an
action into the pool of Time and watch in vain for
the ceasing of the ripples on the margin of Infinity.
YET at least we can be sure of this, that
a beneficial action must bear a relation to
man’s threefold need, must have brought
THE liberation of creative energy is to be
believed in, then, because though the
pursuit of Truth and the contemplation
of Beauty are sufficient for two parts of our nature,
we look also to the future, and live as men, in
relation to men whose hearts we wish to move.