TRAGIC DESTINY
Sir.-Under the title "Tragic Destiny" (Listener, February 19), Mr. J. Malton Murray presents his rationalistic view of human mortality and the question of immortality. There is another approach, equally rationalistic, but leading to a very different conclusion, which I would like to reveal. It is generally accepted that religion has been, and still is, one of the great nutrients of the
poetic sense. Everyone knows how the arts-poetry, music, sculpture and paint-ing-flourished during the religious age. It is therefore rational to consider the function of the poetic sense. Obviously the major function of that sense is to interpose the poetic vision between the mind and the harsh realities of life. In this position poetry acts as the great mental lubricant, preserving human sanity. When the prophet proclaims, "This mortality shall put on immortality, this corruption incorruption," the mind moves easily away from the aspect of the corrupting flesh, and such movement is necessary to mental health, No rationalist will disapprove of the ancient custom of burning or burying the dead; and the belief in immortality is a way, and a very important and effective way, of burying, not only the dead, but death itself, ~
A. C.
NICHOLSON
(Wellington),
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540305.2.12.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 763, 5 March 1954, Page 5
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200TRAGIC DESTINY New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 763, 5 March 1954, Page 5
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