The Unseen World and Other Essays | Page 3

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The Unseen World and Other Essays, by John Fiske

TO JAMES SIME.
MY DEAR SIME:

Life has now and then some supreme moments of pure happiness,
which in reminiscence give to single days the value of months or years.
Two or three such moments it has been my good fortune to enjoy with
you, in talking over the mysteries which forever fascinate while they
forever baffle us. It was our midnight talks in Great Russell Street and
the Addison Road, and our bright May holiday on the Thames, that led
me to write this scanty essay on the "Unseen World," and to whom
could I so heartily dedicate it as to you? I only wish it were more
worthy of its origin. As for the dozen papers which I have appended to
it, by way of clearing out my workshop, I hope you will read them
indulgently, and believe me
Ever faithfully yours, JOHN FISKE.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, February 3, 1876.

CONTENTS.
I. THE UNSEEN WORLD II. "THE TO-MORROW OF DEATH" III.
THE JESUS OF HISTORY IV. THE CHRIST OF DOGMA V. A
WORD ABOUT MIRACLES VI. DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND
RELIGION VII. NATHAN THE WISE VIII.HISTORICAL
DIFFICULTIES IX. THE FAMINE OF 1770 IN BENGAL X. SPAIN
AND THE NETHERLANDS XI. LONGFELLOW'S DANTE XII.
PAINE'S "ST. PETER" XIII.A PHILOSOPHY OF ART XIV.
ATHENIAN AND AMERICAN LIFE

ESSAYS.
I. THE UNSEEN WORLD.
PART FIRST.
"What are you, where did you come from, and whither are you
bound?"--the question which from Homer's days has been put to the

wayfarer in strange lands--is likewise the all-absorbing question which
man is ever asking of the universe of which he is himself so tiny yet so
wondrous a part. From the earliest times the ultimate purpose of all
scientific research has been to elicit fragmentary or partial responses to
this question, and philosophy has ever busied itself in piecing together
these several bits of information according to the best methods at its
disposal, in order to make up something like a satisfactory answer. In
old times the best methods which philosophy had at its disposal for this
purpose were such as now seem very crude, and accordingly ancient
philosophers bungled considerably in their task, though now and then
they came surprisingly near what would to-day be called the truth. It
was natural that their methods should be crude, for scientific inquiry
had as yet supplied but scanty materials for them to work with, and it
was only after a very long course of speculation and criticism that men
could find out what ways of going to work are likely to prove
successful and what are not. The earliest thinkers, indeed, were further
hindered from accomplishing much by the imperfections of the
language by the aid of which their thinking was done; for science and
philosophy have had to make a serviceable terminology by dint of long
and arduous trial and practice, and linguistic processes fit for
expressing general or abstract notions accurately grew up only through
numberless failures and at the expense of much inaccurate thinking and
loose talking. As in most of nature's processes, there was a great waste
of energy before a good result could be secured. Accordingly primitive
men were very wide of the mark in their views of nature. To them the
world was a sort of enchanted ground, peopled with sprites and goblins;
the quaint notions with which we now amuse our children in fairy tales
represent a style of thinking which once was current among grown men
and women, and which is still current wherever men remain in a savage
condition. The theories of the