The Book of the Damned

ion of th

ed, I mean

ession of data that

ve exhumed, will march. You'll read them-or they'll march. Som

ngs that are rags: they'll go by like Euclid arm in arm with the spirit of anarchy. Here and there will flit little harlots. Many are clowns. But many are of the highest respectability. Some are assassins. There are pal

he patiently folded hand

table, but the c

oluteness: the aggregate voice is a defiant pra

ll these things that they ar

ey'll

rhythm of the whole with their buffooneries-but the solidity of the procession as a whole: the

n nor jeer nor defy, but arrange themselves in mass

mned, I mean

ean that which will som

ing that i

ing that is

, will be that

stence," is a rhythm of heavens and hells: that the damned won't stay damned; that salvation only precedes perdition. The inference is that

at that which is commonly called "being" is a state that is wrought more or less definitely proportiona

cheese. Mouse and a bug: no two things could seem more unlike. They're there a week, or they stay there a month: both are then

another degree of whatever vibrancy yellow is a degree of: th

l red things as veritable, and excluding all yellow things as false or illusory, the demarcation would have to be false an

we shall be impr

and exclusion, more reasonable than that of red

es, excluded a multitude of data. Then, if redness is continuous with yellowness: if every basis of admission is continuous with every basis of exclusion, Science must have excl

ct is illusion built upon the fallacy that

, formula, a major premise that is positive: that the best that has ever been done has been to s

n attained; but that Science has acted, ruled, pr

is a

as positively distinguished from anything

is not the standard to judge by, because we speak of dogs' houses; nor material, because we speak of snow houses of Eskimos-or a shell is a house to a hermit crab-o

tism or life. Metaphysicians and theologians and biologists have tried to define life. They have failed, because, in a positive sense, t

slands in a d

om another-but all are only projections from the same sea bottom. The difference between sea

a thing in itself, if it is only a projection from something else: that not one of us is a real person, if, physically

xpression has

entity of their own are only islands that are projections from

projections that are striving to break away from t

which all things are localizations of one attempt to break away and become real things, or to establish entity or positi

ization, self, soul, entity, individuality, can so attempt only by drawing a line about itself, or about t

not so act, it

a circle in the sea, including a few waves, saying that the other waves, with which the included are continuous, are

ce is animation of the local by an ideal

that if all seeming of existence perceptible to us is the product of exclusion, there is

science as a manifestation of thi

ards to judge by: that it has excluded things that, by its own ps

eral ex

stence," is a flow, or a current, or an attempt, from ne

iveness

ss, system, government, organization, liberty, independence, soul, self, perso

rd, or attempt toward, this state for which, or for aspects of which, there

ords are not synonyms: that "harmony" may mean "order," but that by "independence," for instance,

give different names. We speak of the "system" of the planets, and not of their "government": but in considering a store, for instance, and its management, we see that the words are interchangeable. It used to be customary to speak of chemic equilibrium, but not of social equ

mean that which

incomplete, or the m

s de

ild she

a completeness, even though, by physiologi

only as a hand,

ield-obviously a p

hing beautiful in our experience: only appearances that are intermediate to beauty and ugliness-that only universality is complete: that o

thing else. Though some things seem to have-or have-higher approximations to stability than have others, there are, in our experience, only various degrees of intermediateness to stability and instab

ven only two things, they must be continuous and mutually affective, if everything is only a reaction to so

Disorder, fail eventually because of their relations with outside forces. All are attempted completenesses. If to all local phenomena there a

nonyms, all meaning the state

ence" is a striving f

g paradox

g to become the universal

animate all expressions, in all fields of phenomena, o

e that is independent, and not a mere flux of vibrations or complex of reactions to environment

e away into something else would be th

ositive state, or that the quest for Trut

mic, or chemic, or biologic truths. But Truth is that besides which there is nothing: nothing to

mean the

at never has a chemical law, without exceptions, been discovered: because chemistry is continuous with astronomy, physics, biology-For instance, if the sun should greatly ch

th in the special are attempts t

uments that are differently and disturbingly adjusting to outside chemic and thermal and gravitational forces-again and again this oneness of all ideals, and that it is the attempt to be, or t

te to, or parts of, other nations. And that nothing but intermediateness has ever been attained, and that history is record

chieve Truth or Entity, but it is understood that all motions are toward Equilibrium: that there is n

adjust: there are no biologic

m. Equilibrium is the Universal, or that

librium unattained: that life-motions are expressions of equilibrium unattained: that all thought relates to the unattained: that to hav

t

te, represent this one attempt to organize, stabilize, har

press failure or intermediateness

ed by Continuity, or by outside forces-or by th

mpt by the relative to be the absolut

is in this attempt as ma

to be real, true, fina

d excluded continuous, the whole seeming system, or entity, of modern science is only quasi-system, or quasi-entity, wrought by the same false and

the data that I think are of the

a of th

and proceedings, ultra-respectable, but covered with the dust of disregard. I h

will

c of our expre

quasi-logic in ou

g ever has

re is nothi

r the merging away of all phenomena into other phenomena, without positive demarcations

bleness. There is then no positive test, standard, criterion, means of forming an opinion. As distinct from vegetables, animals do not exist. There is nothing to prove. Nothing could be proved to be good, for instance. There is nothing in our "e

w-I accept only. If I can't se

, that nothing eve

as ever they were, but that, by a hypnotizing process, the

ver were proved, because they are only localizations simulating the universal; but that the le

positiveness, or to defy and break Continuity, and are as

ng what the phenomena of inertia may be; that, if all things are reacting to an infinitude of forces, there is no way of knowing what the effects of only one impressed force wo

hree laws are thre

d inertias and reactions are

ce, they were almost as firmly bel

preposterousnes

ll as Moses or Darwin or Ly

e acceptance

e on different appeara

ablished, the more

organism i

elieve is to imp

arily to accept

u

ds of theologians and savages and scientists and children. Because, if all phenomena are continuous, there can be no positively different methods. By the inconclusive means and methods of cardin

expression of its e

egin with atte

er has bee

re is nothi

e The Origi

to tell what he me

possible

ver been fina

is nothing fin

dle that no one ever lost i

something, whereas really there is nothing to find o

ind it. But the dimmest of possibi

ce is more th

n: that it is an attempt to break away and locally estab

ibilities-that

nd that all appearances in it part

oximate far more highly to the

eness and negativeness, or realness and unrealness: that some seeming things are more n

t nothing is real, but that nothing is unreal: that all phenomena are

t

ermediate stage between positiveness and

gatory,

chily done, we omitted to make clear that

to, or an imitation of, something else. By a real hero, we mean one who is not partly a coward, or whose actions and motives do not merge away i

ximate successes may be translated out of Intermediateness into Realness-quite as, in a relative sense, the industrial world recruits itself by translating out of unreal

tability, organization, harmony, consistency,

ommonly called "existence," which we call Intermediateness, is quasi-existence, neither real nor

, unsavory messes, is an expression of this one spirit animating all Intermediateness: that, if Science could absolutely exclude all data but its own pres

ty, system-positiveness or realness-is sustained

uld be

ld be h

d would only