The Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, May 15, 1953 Page: 4 of 12
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.., Book Review
"To contemplate the social scene is as
effective a purification as to withdraw from
the world." Thus a remarkable woman jus-
tified her existence is striving for grace
through, not beyond, life. Simone Weil
made of her life a symbol, to which the
younger generation of English poets is
reacting. Though her life was intricately
involved in the politics of contemporary
France, her thought transcends politics into
metaphysics and into spirit.
The title of her book, Gravity and Grace
(Putnam, 1952), reveals one of the central
problems in her thought: Good and Evil.
"All the natural movements of the soul are
controlled by laws analogous to those of
physical gravity. Grace is the only excep-
tion." Her technique is one of paradox,
equilibrium of contradictions, metaphors,
aphorisms, and myths, all given insight by
flashes of inspirations.
There are some remarkable passages in
the essay "To Accept the Void" which must
approximate the spiritual biography of Si-
mone Weil:
"Not to exercise all the power at
one's disposal is to endure the void.
This is contrary to all the laws of na-
ture (Gravity). Grace alone can do it.
Grace fills empty spaces, but it can
only enter where there is a void to
receive it, and it is grace itself which
makes this void.
To accept a void in ourselves is super-
natural. Where is the energy to he found
for an act which has nothing to coun-
terbalance it ? The energy has to come
from elsewhere. Yet first there must
be a tearing out, something desperate
has to take place, the void created.
Void: the dark night.
Man only escapes from the laws of this
world in lightning flashes. Instants
when everything stands still, instants
of contemplation, of pure intuition, of
mental void, of acceptance of the moral
void. It is through such instances that
he is capable of the supernatural.
Whoever endures a moment of the void
either receives the supernatural bread
or falls. It is a terrible risk but one
that must be run, even during the in-
stant when hope fails. But we must
throw ourselves into it."
Weil sought what she called "nakedness of
spirit," and she wrote: "There are only two
instances of perfect nudity and purity in
human life: birth and death."
Though a Jew by religion, Weil recog-
nized the sublimity of the naked Christ on
cross in this medetation:
"The cross. The tree of sin was a real
tree, the tree of life was a wooden
beam. Something which does not give
fruit, but only vertical movement. 'The
Son of Man must be lifted up and he
will draw all men unto" himself.* We
can -kill the vital energy in ourselves
while keeping only the vertical move-
ment. Leaves and fruit are ia waste of
<& energy if our only wish is to rise.
Adam and Eve sought for divinity in
vital energy. A tree, fruit. But it was
prepared for us on dead wood, geo-
metrically squared, where a corpse is
hanging. We must look for the secret
of our kinship with God in our mortal-
ity."
The final chapter, "The Mysticism of
Work," links Gravity and Grace with The
Need For Roots (Putnams, 1952). Weil be-
lieved that to prevent the complete degreda-
SONG OF ACHATES
One burnished leaf alone recalls the day
When you and I explored the fabled wood
And marvelled at the laurels as we stood
Hoping for sight of that famed golden spray.
Entangled in the green leaves to delay,
The golden bough resiliently withstood;
Save for one leaf, you claimed it, that it
should
Guide and illuminate your foreknown way.
But you are gone, and this alone I know:
The laurels all are gathered. One leaf now
Must wear its prophecy unread. No more
To the enchanted forest may we go
Together; you have laid the golden bough
Forever by, at Proserpine's grim door.
By Ann Gossman
tion of modern man we must emphasise
"the spirituality of work." She says: "The
great hardship in manual work is that we
are compelled to expand our efforts for -
such long hourB, simply in order to exist."
Only if we can see work as beauty, as crea-
tion, as manifestation of spirit in some ob-
ject (not as repetition) will we find salva-
tion from complete slavery to work.
In 1942 the French Provisional Go-
vernment in London commissioned her to
write on the degredation of France. In The
Need For Roots she outlines the rights and
duties, either reciprocal or united, of the
State and of the Individual. Subtitled "Pre-
lude to a Declaration of Duties Toward
Mankind," she outlines obligations, respon-
sibilities, liberties, and the need to recover
our spiritual roots. Uprootedness, she says,
is the disease.of our times, being motivated
by military conquest, money power, econ-
omic domination, and the unquestioned im-
portance of the desire to gain for the sake
of gaining.
Her scope in literary references, her
insight into the forms of governments con-
temporary and ancient, is astonishing and
cannot be given full reportage here. It is
not for me to say whether or not her work
will survive, whether or not mankind will
ever heed the message she reiterates. She
is, however, that peculiar combination of
prophet-poet-saint which philosophy seldom
produces. She is a source from which we
may derive strength in our* present need
for roots.
Congratulations...
to Rice Institute on its 40th
anniversary! May the following years
be as rich in educational distinction ... bringing
further honors to one of the world's finest
and most respected universities!
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The Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, May 15, 1953, newspaper, May 15, 1953; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230943/m1/4/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.