"THE ETERNAL FEMININE."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 484, 17 April 1909, Page 10

"THE ETERNAL FEMININE."

Tho following elaborate and interesting answer is givon in an American paper to a coiv 1 respondent who asks tbo origin of tho'ejf- <] pression, "the eternall femihraV." "Tho, s words originated with Goethe." ' It appears < in tho concluding .lines of tho second part j of "Faust": i • "AH things transitory J ' But as symbole are sentj ' Earth's insufficiency 1 Here grows to event; ] Tho indescribable ] Here it is done, .■: ■■ : ' , r : : ~\ The eternal feminine 1 E'er draweth us on."- f This, in its obscurity a truly German 1 phrase, has given -rise to numerous allusions c and very learned dissertations. It is uttered £ by a mystical chorus after Marguerite, who £ figures in a chorus of penitents, I vailed upon the Virgin that Fnust's, soul 1 should be saved. _ ' _ * 1 ' Tho "eternal feminine" is tho-idoalisation ( of tho-female, principle as opposed to tho 't male principle, tho symbol of tho attraction o of tho sexes, refined and ennobled. 1 This ,eym- I bol is in Goethe's "Faust" also represented £ by Helen, tho beautiful Greek, .whom, tho r. magician .brings back to li{e- in order, tomarry T her, and whoso beauty perpetuates ita in- * vinciblo power through tho ages. Even be- t fore tho great Gorman poet "tho eternal J feminine" has boon symbolised by the creators o <5f tho myths of Aphrodite and Psycho, and ° by Dante, whoso Beatrice shows the same b type incarnate in religion and philosophy, j> iln, antiquity this symbol is Cybele,lsis, Juno, b Venus, who personify tho attraction of the P sexes or stand as the expression of tho fee- " undity of matter. It is one of tho first cle- B ments of every epic, every mythology, even every religion. "Tho eternal feminine" is Helen admired by tho old men, tho Indian f

■ ■'■■■• ".-.■,.■■•■> ■•'■■■ ■■'■ ■■ ..-. ■r-.. / -. ) ,.-;.'.-.-,r :r ' % Sita caitied off By Havana. and recovered by , | Rama, the-Kunhild of tho Eddas. and : "Nie r . | belungeflr.v All these women are symbolical in- § carnations of-that ,jirhipH;!-\&6g:r -S oyer, .passive it may appear, v ' ; is) the ;.cau£e "61 *r and occasion for all our energies ahd'actiyiticsj ;"Tho eternal femiiiino" has been baited "' , by-numerous names, such as charm, beauty,. , ftl love! inspiration, modesty, fervour,; but : hone el of theso singly'completely-'expresses .-it, and P! it is probably,a synthesis of ; 'all'.those virtues 3 ; takeir together, viz., tlie woman soul, as Bay- q ard Taylor fenders the expression. "lean o find, says Mr. Taylor in a note, "no Eug- ra lish equivalent ,for ' ewig-weibliche '■ except woman soul, which will express very noarly which breathes.and burns through the scene. * Love- is. the all-uplifting .and all-redeeming power oh earth and : in.heaven, and',to man.it T is revealed in its most pure and perfect form A through ",: , <\ ;,,.,, ~■.>„;;? ,T: In religion we .find ;"tho eternal feminine" as'Lackmi and Saraswate in India, Astartein : K Phoenicia, Venus in Greece "and Rome, Evya in' the Scandinavian, mvths,, and'. Mary., the mother, of Jesus in'. Christianity,. i... It, is a notable fact-that the more a reljgipn'develops m the more does it reveal "the eternal, feminine' : that, constitutes -its reall'nnd.'.mystioal m principle, and which, in tho-symbol in which " E ' it .is ...incarnated,- ultimately .rsupplauts "all 1 other religious symbols. ThusVAphrodite and Astarto have long outlived the-last: vloissi-' ■;•■.' tudes of polytheism, and the Dionysiari'cultus, — which was a feminine cultus, was the-last to becomei extinct in antiquity. And do we hot ' see how even to-day in the Roman Church the worship of tho'-Madonna is' steadily, in-(H[ creasing in importance? ''.. .' ■■-' '.'■" ■* ■•• •' ■■ ■'■' "■■• q« . ■ :- ■ — : —T" —~~—-.-. ~' '- .;. ,: ca Mr. Roger Bass, nephow of the late' Lord a b Burton,-died-at BuxtoriTccently-at'tlie-age mi of 64, as tho.result of a cold; ' ' •'.'•,' ;\ St