Two Observations Thanks to C. S. Lewis

I know, I know, I still haven't written about my trip to Europe...

I'm reading C. S. Lewis' book The Discarded Image, which is an introduction to Medieval and Renaissance literature. Mostly the book is going about describing the Medieval sense of the organization of the universe and the relations between its parts. Lewis does this because when an author like Chaucer writes

Every kindly thing that is
Hath a kindly stede ther he
May best in hit conserved be;
Unto which place every thing
Through his kindly enclyning
Moveth for to come to.

It cannot be understood apart from the physics of Chaucer's day - that different elements have their proper places in the universe and will tend to move toward those places if ever they find themselves elsewhere - hence, objects made of dirt or wood or stone fall to the earth, air escapes upward, water flows between earth and air, and fire rises highest of all. So when Chaucer says that every natural (kindly) thing has its natural (kindly) place, unto which everything moves by its own natural (kindly) inclination, he is simply putting the physical understanding of his day into poetry. (Thanks to Lewis' other book, Studies in Words, which points out that "kindly" in this time means "natural" rather than "nice"). Chaucer is being very precise, not vaguely metaphorical or allegorical - Chaucer's readers would have understood him to be speaking directly about how things are, whereas we now look for a deeper half-concealed meaning. Lewis' prime concern is to read a text as its intended audience would have read it. Hence the need to understand the context in which that audience lived. Another example that I particularly like is Donne's poem Riding Westward, which I have posted here before, but I will post it again!

Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward

LET mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motions, lose their owne,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or business, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And turne all spheares at once, peirc'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

Why would Donne begin by imagining that man's soul is a sphere? Today one might as well suppose that he is simply simplifying the issue so as to be able to deal with it, like the engineering joke that begins "Suppose a horse is a perfect sphere..." But Donne isn't calling the soul a round ball - he is suggesting that its properties are those of "the spheres", the different levels of the heavens, where you have the successive spheres of the moon, of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the fixed stars, and the Primum Mobile. The universe is a vast cathedral with several levels of crystal ceilings. At the top is the Zenith, Donne's "endless height", and on the other side of the world, "humbled below us" from our perspective, are the Antipodes, the anti-pedestrians (who walk upside down). Each sphere moves in a love-harmony with its Creator (it is Jesus who turns "all Spheares at once"), and this movement is accomplished by the action of a separate "intelligence" for each sphere. So lines one and two, "Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this, the intelligence that moves, devotion is". Donne is saying that, just as each sphere has its natural motion which is carried out by its own "intelligence" (not in the sense of "smarts"), the human soul also has a natural motion (toward God) which is driven by devotion. But there is a problem. Just as the motions of the other spheres are not completely uniform because they are driven away from their natural places by "forraigne motions", so our souls admit "pleasure or business" "for their first mover, and are whirld by it". For this reason, Donne is "carryed towards the West" "when my Soules forme bends toward the East", toward "a Sunne, by rising set", which is his metaphor for Christ's crucifixion, as he makes clear two of lines later. And one last little comment: "the Sunne winke[s]" because the sun was considered to be the eye of the universe, enlightening all of the universe at all times (except for the parts where the earth's shadow is cast - this is what causes night to be dark). (On the other hand, it is interesting that in another very different poem - The Sun Rising - Donne claims that he could eclipse the sun's beams with a wink of his own!)

But this entry has so far been one long digression! I have two observations to make!

First, at church today we sang the hymn All Creatures of Our God and King, written by Francis of Assisi in the 13th century. 13th century - that's the Middle Ages. So the understanding of the universe that informs Chaucer's poetry (and Donne's, although Donne has many later influences as well, living post-Newton and post-Columbus as he did) also informs Francis' poetry. So:

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam:
O praise Him,
O praise Him!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along,
O praise Him!
Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice:
O praise Him,
O praise Him!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Alleluia!

And so on. There are two things I want to point out about this hymn, which I noticed this morning as we sang it in church. First: For Francis, the sun is golden and the moon is silver. Ok, that seems natural enough to us as well. But Francis is doing more than just telling us what color they are - he is bringing into his poem an entire worldview that assigns characteristics and personalities and influences to the heavenly bodies. Gold and silver are metals just as much as they are colors, and it is the metals as well as the color, I think, that Francis is referring to - in Medieval thought the sun was associated with gold, so that Spenser writes about Mammon bring his out out to "sun" it, to turn it into gold by the application of the sun's beams (cf. Lewis, p. 106). And the moon was associated with silver. Second: The medievals thought that the whole universe was full of music. The notion that space is a vast emptiness where little matter is and no sound is transmitted is a very modern one. We think it is self-evident, and the ancients who thought otherwise were merely superstitious or something. But think of it from their perspective: all the heavens move in circular motions within their proper spheres. Circular motion is mathematically very closely related to sinusoidal motion. In fact even today we talk about "the unit circle" in much of our mathematics and engineering where they relate to sinusoids. And sinusoids are the building blocks of music. Again, even today we call any period motion (which may be circular) "harmonic". So if the spheres are moving, of course they are moving harmonically, and of course they will produce music! Hence a couplet by Henryson (cf. Lewis, p. 112) to the effect that "every planet in his proper sphere/In moving makand harmony and sound." So for Francis to call on the golden sun and the silver moon to praise God - to call on the wind, the clouds, the rising morn, the lights of evening to "find a voice" - he is being poetical, yes, but he is also being quite straightforward. Why does he call on the stars to sing to God? Because he believes that they *do* sing to God!

And now my second observation. Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan gets more interesting all the time. If anyone tries to tell you that Coleridge was simply describing an opium dream, don't believe them! Yes, that's what Coleridge himself said, but don't believe him either! :-P The entire poem is about Paradise and how, in Coleridge's view, God is not to be praised for His Creation since under the surface there was a built-in sinisterness - "It was a miracle of rare device,/A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!". In the last part of the poem Coleridge speaks of "an Abyssinian maid [...] Singing of Mount Abora." I never really knew what to make of this, except that Milton also puts Abyssinia and Mount Amara in Paradise Lost, from which Coleridge draws extensively for his poem. But apparently (thanks to Lewis for pointing this out), it was commonly thought that the earthly Paradise, where Adam and Eve first lived, was in the mountains of Amara in Abyssinia! (Just as he makes up a new spelling/pronunciation of "Xanadu", Coleridge changes "Amara" to "Abora".) So I thought that was a neat connection to make. :-)