The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (October 1900)

127 The Relation of Man to the | Optical System of the Human Life of the Universe. By ALBERT TRANTER. =) (ves N order to utilise the optical lantern , to illustrate a fine philosophical idea, I have following diagram, and which I » think will be of considerable interest to those who believe in looking beyond the beauty of mere material things to the beauty of spiritual or intellectual light, and to which beauty that of all material things must at all times be subgervient to, though the one is not, perhaps, complete without the other, notwithstanding what is said by ascetics on the matter :— Lamp.—The Human Body. O1L.—Material Foroes of Nature. The Optical Magic Lantern Journal and Photographic Enlarger. thought out the ; | apace, till one becomes alarmed at the numbers, Guass.--The Brain or Mind of Man. Pictures.—Thoughts or Inspirations. back to his mind’s eye, through the smokeclouds of mystery, the quiet demeanour of a | bygone personage, George Buckland by name, | who would (as was his wont) have sung :— “Say what shall my song be to-night ; And its strain at your bidding shall flow, Shall its measure be sportive and light. Or its murmur be mournful and low?” Surely the foodstuffs in the field grow daily and which makes the task of selection difficult in the extreme. The many purposes, both intellectual and recreative, to which the optical magic lantern is put, are numberless, and no matter what the purpose be, it is food for the lecturer in that particular groove of thought. There is nothing in Nature that is not a main factor for debate, so if that be accepted, every Life and Actions. OPERATOR.—Deity or Satan (or Spirits of Good and Kyil). Platform Foodstuffs. By W. SMITH. LONE in his ‘‘ Sanctum Sanctorum,” the lanternist sits wonderingly bewildered, for is he not there for ‘(fixing up’? purposes, and finds the task somewhat puzzling. His subject for the coming session does not come so readily as it used to do ; somehow or other it has strayed into the maze and got mixed with wars, and rumours of wars, with successes and failures of expositions, with the attractions and difficulties that attend the opening up of new territory; it has knocked against tragic assassination of potentates whose lives have been blameiess, stumbled against flesh and blood heroes, of whom, until yesterday, nobody had either heard of or cared about; it has made impact with China, and impinged South Africa; truly what has become of it ? And our friend is scared, lights a pipe of collectiveness, tries to bring blade of grass, the grain of the field, the earth’s productions generally, all forms of animal and vegetable life, the raindrop, from the time it leaves the cloud in its purity to the close of its purpose, the metals and minerals that are stored beneath the surface, and limitless others, have been made, or can be made, subjects for lantern ‘treatment. Experience has shown us, that though the foodstuffs for lecturers are so many and various, so algo are the lecturers many and various, and might be divided into several classes. It would be absurd to infer here, that all lecturers wanted, or cared to know anything of a variety of subjects, because the majority simply don’t ; one subject as a rule is sufficient for the lecturer proper, and at that he will hammer away all his life long. The manof science, taken in the abstract, abhors to be thought anything else than a man of science, and he will teach that branch of his research and nothing more or less ; in other words, he has gained knowledge from study, is anxious to be a philanthropist, and