Enlightenment Principles Research Articles

John Quidor and the Demonic Imagination: Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman (c.1828)

John Quidor and the Demonic Imagination: Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman (c.1828) Rebecca Bedell (bio) John Quidor’s (1801–1881) works are closely linked to the writings of Washington Irving. Nearly two-thirds of his extant canvasses depict scenes drawn from Irving’s tales of old Dutch New York. Such marked allegiance to a single author would seem to suggest that Quidor found in Irving’s work plots, characters, and themes which admirably suited his own artistic ends. As many scholars have noted, however, Quidor was rarely content merely to illustrate Irving’s tales or echo his themes. 1 He rather used the stories as a base from which to explore ideas more distinctively his own. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. John Quidor (1800–1881), Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman. Oil on canvas; 225/9” x 30 1/6”. Yale University Art Gallery; Mabel Brady Garvan Collection. This is certainly the case with Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman of about 1828, a painting inspired by Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (figure 1). In none of Quidor’s other works does he distance himself so far from his literary source; in none of his other literary paintings does he suppress the narrative or subvert the themes of the text to the extent that he does in this, his earliest extant treatment of an Irving subject. In transferring the tale from printed page to canvas, Quidor altered both its mood and its message. Although both Irving and Quidor take the imagination as a central theme of their work, the painter offers a far bleaker, more frightening vision of this cerebral faculty. In the early nineteenth century, suspicion and hostility tinged American attitudes towards the imagination. 2 In a nation founded on Enlightenment principles, adhering to the doctrines of Scottish Common Sense philosophy, and committed to progress, rationality, and practicality, indulgence in imaginative endeavors was widely regarded as an avoidance of responsibility, as an activity that could render one incapable of distinguishing fact from fiction, and, hence, as a significant threat to the social order. Such attitudes deeply affected the way American artists and writers felt about their calling, evoking responses that ranged from defensive defiance to guilt and anxiety. Since their feelings about imaginative activities were central to their sense of their own self-worth and the value of their productions, it is hardly surprising that many explored them in their works—as Irving and Quidor did in their differing ways. Bryan Wolf, in his brilliant comparison of Quidor and Irving in Romantic Revision, has drawn out Quidor’s conservative attitude towards the imagination; the painter seems to have internalized his pragmatic society’s fear and distrust of it. Irving, on the other hand, while sharing some of Quidor’s trepidation, also saw positive uses for the imagination, deploying it to combat, in his own rather mild way, [End Page 111] what he saw as the relentlessly rationalist and materialist tenor of his times. 3 A comparison of Quidor’s Ichabod with Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” brings the distance between the two men into sharp focus. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is one of the tales from Irving’s The Sketch Book (1819–20). Set a decade or so after the Revolutionary War, the story takes place in a drowsy Dutch village on the eastern shore of the Hudson River. The slim plot revolves around a rivalry between the Yankee schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and the burly local hero Brom Bones, both of whom are set upon winning the hand of the plump Dutch coquette Katrina van Tassel. Through his delineation of the hapless Ichabod, whose name means “inglorious” or “without honor,” 4 Irving lampooned contemporary Yankee American culture—its restlessness, its instability, and, above all, its crass materialism. 5 Ichabod’s desire for Katrina, for example, was less an affair of the heart than a passion of the pocketbook. Her rosy cheeks and dainty feet, though appealing, roused him less than the thought of her paternal domain. This, he imagined, could “be readily turned into cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and...

Vindicating the founders: race, sex, class, and justice in the origins of America

According to the conventional wisdom of our time, our nation's Founders were guilty of racism, sexism, and elitism. They were hypocrites who failed to live up to their own enlightened principles. The fact that Washington and Jefferson held slaves is taken as definitive proof that they never really believed 'all men are created equal.' It is also widely asserted that women, even after the American Revolution, enjoyed virtually no rights, and that the poor and property-less were denied the basic tenets of democratic participation. Observing that our understanding of the Founders so profoundly influences our opinion of contemporary America, Thomas West demonstrates why the Founders were indeed sincere in their belief of universal human rights and in their commitment to democracy. More importantly, this landmark book explains why their views, and particularly the constitutional order they created, are still worthy of our highest respect. In a straightforward style, West debunks numerous widely held myths about the Founders' political thought. He contrasts the Founders' ideas of liberty and equality with today's, concluding that contemporary notions of liberalism bear almost no resemblance to the concepts originally articulated by the Founders. This controversial, convincing, and highly original book is important reading for everyone concerned about the origins, present, and future of the American experiment in self government.

The Practice of Belief

Recent developments in cultural theory apply the metaphor of haunting to explore traditional ways of knowing that have been displaced in academic discourse by the prevalence of science and reason but have remained viable aspects of daily life. In this article, I discuss the significance of folklore scholarship to this endeavor. I trace the relationship between this displacement of alternatives to Enlightenment principles and the creation and development of the discipline of folklore. I suggest that combining the study of performance with the study of traditional belief provides a theoretical and methodological framework within which to examine the practice of believing as a way of knowing that articulates the point of intersection of an individual, a group, a text, and an abstract concept.

Anxieties of Enthusiasm: Coleridge, Prophecy, and Popular Politics in the 1790s

Throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, as the essays in this volume demonstrate in their different ways, enthusiasm was a term used to draw cultural boundaries. Indeed, it was a term against which ideas about the Enlightenment and its public sphere were defined, although such definitions were always complicated by issues of inclusion and exclusion.2 In Britain, particularly after the publication of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1791-92), previously excluded voices, perhaps constituting counter-publics of their own, were clamoring more and more to be heard. The popular radical movement that sprang up in the 1790s, under the influence of Paine's book, is sometimes represented as seeking to remove the barriers of class and education that continued to obstruct the path to Reason. The radicals of the 1790s urged the extension of Enlightenment principles with this end in

Fictions of Freemasonry: Freemasonry and the German Novel (review)

Goethe Yearbook 283 Koepke weaves an admirably tight web of biographical data, adroitly linking it to major literary, social and political currents of the age. His remarks on interpretations of the tale will be useful to those approaching the work for the first time. He reviews major critical approaches to the text from the late nineteenth century to the present, balancing the pros and cons of the various interpretations. Rather than privileging any particular point of view, he provides the reader with tantalizing, provocative possibilities, what he aptly calls "teasers" (xxviii). This edition has many merits, but one wishes that the introduction had been given a more attentive final proofreading. Several instances of editorial oversight detract from the readability of the text. The last three lines of p. ν are repeated on p. vi, and on p. xi a complete sentence is sandwiched between two sentence fragments which, when they are linked, appear to yield a complete thought. Though hardly crucial, such deviations as "an lonely man" (xiii-xiv) tend to be distracting. The Camden House Peter Schlemihl is a handsome hardcover edition whose visual appeal is heightened by its reproduction of the eight droll and sprightly engravings by Peter Cruikshank which were included in Bowring's 1861 edition. Macalester College David Sanford Abbott, Scott, Fictions of Freemasonry: Freemasonry and the German Novel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991. While Freemasonry traced its origins to various ancient sources, the builders of the temple of Solomon, the creators of the Egyptian pyramids, even the Rosicrucians, the first Grand Lodge was founded in London in 1717. Dedicated to the principles of the Enlightenment, and aspiring to the goals of harmony and friendship in a sort of sectarian religion, it opened its doors to aristocrats, intellectuals, businessmen, and even prominent tradesmen . The lists of this and other lodges throughout the eighteenth century represent a sort of "who's who" of the Enlightenment, including such figures as Wren, Pope, Hogarth, Boswell, and Burns in Britain; Franklin, Washington, and Revere in America; Lafayette, Voltaire, and Montesquieu in France; and Klopstock, Kotzebue, Haydn, Mozart, Lessing, Goethe, and even Frederick the Great in the German-speaking countries. Because Freemasonry expressed the ideals of the Enlightenment through the use of elaborate symbols and rituals, it developed a dual identity and character. On the one hand it claimed to be non-political, but played a profound role in encouraging the transformation of authoritarian governments to democratic principles in the American, French, Italian, and German revolutions. On the other hand, it saw itself as nonsectarian, a demystifying and desacralizing religion of man, but its concern for ritual and symbol spawned a romantic fascination with mysticism and esoteric knowl- 284 Book Reviews edge. In turn, because of its egalitarian principles which allowed men of different classes and social strata to mingle on an equal footing, its secretiveness , and its conception of itself as a sectarian religion in opposition to the established institutions, many authorities looked suspiciously on the Freemasons as subversive and even revolutionary. These concerns led them either to suppress the lodges, or to encourage the foundation of various alternative secret societies as a sort of counterweight. This complex mix of dual identities, secret societies, international conspiracies , and mystical symbols has provided a rich and fertile supply of material for writers and artists over the last two centuries. Among the German -speaking peoples, the Geheimbundroman held a special fascination. In a lucid and illuminating study, Scott Abbott traces the dual identity of Freemasonry in the German league novel. Writing not a history of Freemasonry or masonic imagery in German literature per se, Abbott argues that an awareness of the concern for the dual nature of Freemasonry, political /nonpolitical as well as secularizing/mystical, helps us to trace a thematic continuity among a number of novels. Focusing primarily on Schiller's Der Geisterseher (1787-1789), Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (1829), Gutzkow's Die Ritter vom Geiste (1850/51), Hofmannsthal's Andreas oder Die Vereinigten (1930), Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg (1924), and Günther Grass's Die Blechtrommel (1959) and Hundejahre (1963), Abbott offers a series of cogent and suggestive readings. Despite its Enlightenment principles, Schiller always remained suspicious of Freemasonry...

Zur ärztlichen Aufklärungspflicht - juristische Aspekte - Erwartungen der Patienten*

There is some uncertainty among doctors and lawyers about the form and content of presurgical medical enlightenment of the patient. Presurgical enlightenment is of increasing significance with respect to malpractice suits. Current jurisdiction has developed principles of enlightenment that are often difficult for the doctor to handle. For routine procedures in major hospitals a standardized, pragmatically designed consent form is therefore necessary. At Würzburg University Eye Hospital the results of glaucoma and cataract surgery have been documented for years by using computer-readable forms. On the basis of these large-scale results from many thousands of procedures a written consent form was developed and tested for its suitability. Two hundred and twenty-two patients were questioned on their expectations as to proper enlightenment. The results of these broadly scattered interviews are summed up and presented. Especially with glaucoma patients, the best method of enlightenment, satisfying both medical and legal requirements, is an information booklet designed for lay people together with verbal information furnished by the doctor. Nearly all of the patients interviewed found the preoperative enlightenment complete and sufficiently clear. The majority ot them could repeat the contents of the enlightenment form four to six days after the operation. This speaks well for the adequacy of the enlightenment. As a rule, the written consent form was supplemented by verbal enlightenment from the operating physician immediately before hospitalization of the patient. A psychological investigation of preoperative anxiety with enlightened and non-enlightened patients revealed that the enlightenment form did not increase preoperative anxiety. Surgical ophthalmology lends itself to a written consent form more readily then other surgical disciplines, because diseases with poor prognoses for life are fortunately rare.

The Law and Mentally Retarded People: An Uncertain Future

Like any society that cherishes intelligence, America has traditionally treated retarded people essentially as deviants. The self-fulfilling prophecies that result from labeling people as retarded had until recently left the field of mental retardation in a state of despair, and left many parents with no effective alternative to institutionalization of their retarded children. But the prospects for decent habilitation and education of retarded persons have improved dramatically in the last two decades, chiefly because a number of new and enlightened principles have been applied to comprehending and solving the problems of mental retardation:'

The Global Democrat: Morality for the Postnational Age

Democracy, like God, is often said to be dying because its followers are too heartless to believe in it, and perhaps that is partly true. More likely, however, the adherents of democracy have failed to realize, as have the adherents of other ideologies, that static ideologies are as short-sighted as idolatrous concepts of Deity localized in time and space. The democratic principles of the European Enlightenment have, to date, remained local rather than global and have thereby, in an increasingly global age, become idolatrous travesties of their originals. To remain moral, then, one must rethink the application of dynamic democratic principles to the changed consciousness of global concerns.

Perspectives in Teaching Religion in Higher Education

The question is not whether higher education will include the teaching of religion. It is only in what context, in what per spectives and from what presuppositions. This often repeated thesis is a valid one. We need not deny that a great deal of confusion has been generated by claims made in the name of the separation of church and state. Of course, the establishment of religion is undesirable and illegal, but it was not the intent of recent Supreme Court decisions that religion should be ex cluded from public education. It was rather that teaching should remain non-sectarian. Secularism became dominant because of a growing pluralism rather than from any overt attack on religion. Now, hostility has moderated between adherents of the three major religious parties. However, a fourth has become vocal and insists on the exclusion of all religious affirmation from public life and education. Jefferson's Enlightenment prin ciple of religion with tolerance is called in question.1 No doubt, public education must be free of church control; it can inform but not convert. In this latter role, it cannot avoid responsibility for the treatment of religion. The present situation must be explained from a long history. Robert Michaelsen's research on Religion in the American Uni versities: Ten Case Studies with Special Reference to State Universities, published by the Society for Religion in Higher Education, describes a legacy of sectarianism as well as secular ism.2 Michaelsen calls attention to the difference between the Christian humanism which characterized American higher edu cation in the period before the Civil War as compared with the present ethos. An earlier Protestant consensus left the place of religion in public life unchallenged. The Northwest Ordinance reflected the common belief: Religion, morality and knowledge

Briefer Notices

BRIEFER NOTICES By Henry J. Cadbury Charles E. Strickland's article on "American Aid to Germany, 1919-1921" (Wisconsin Magazine oí History, XLV [1962], 256-270) deals with a complicated chapter of American postwar relief, when Herbert Hoover was alternately criticized by anti-Germans and by German-Americans. The Quaker Kinderspeisung was closely involved, as Friends were the A.R.A. agents. The author has full documentation and clear understanding. This substantial article is a good supplement to studies of the subject from the Quaker standpoint. The article concludes : "The Quakers were responsible for the little success [i.e., what little success] this experiment in reconciliation enjoyed." * * » Jean C. Dahlberg wrote in Minnesota History, XXXVIII (1962), 21-23, on "Laura A. Linton and Lintonite." The subject was born in Ohio in 1853 into a Quaker family. In 1879 as a senior student in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, she made the analysis of a mineral similar to but distinct from thomsonite , which was later named for her lintonite. In midlife she changed from science to medicine and served in the State Hospital, dying at Rochester in 1915. * * * LaVerne H. Forbush's article 'The Sufferings of Friends in Maryland" appeared in two instalments in The Maryland and Delaware Genealogist, III (196162 ), 35-37, 59-61. It is limited to the Western Shore and, with slight exception, to the period of the American Revolution and to military non-compliance.» · « W. Davis Lewis gives in New-York HistoricalSociety Quarterly, XLVII (1963), 137, with portrait and plans, an extended historical account of "Newgate of New-York, a Case History (1796-1828) of Early American Prison Reform." The moving spirit in establishing this prison with enlightened principles was the New York City Quaker merchant Thomas Eddy. But in less than thirty years, after financial and administrative difficulties, public sentiment reverted from the humanitarian ideals ofits eighteenth-century heritage and it was replaced by Auburn Prison and Sing Sing. * · * An article by Mrs. Mary Blue Coppock in The Chronicles of Oklahoma, XXXVII (1959), 175-181, dealt at length with Stella Friends Academy near Cherokee, Oklahoma. It was opened in 1897 and discontinued in 1921. See this Bulletin, 49:57, A state historical marker was erected in 1959. A brief account with pictures is included in the same magazine, XL (1962-63), 340-342, in an article by Frank A. Balyeat on "Some Church Academies in Early Oklahoma Territory." 112 Briefer Notices113 In Hennepin County History (Hennepin County Historical Society, Minneapolis [Summer 1960], 13-15) Avery Stubbs contributes an article on "The Quaker Settlers from Ohio and Indiana." The migration occurred about 1855-56, and includes a great variety of Quaker names with a great variety of occupations. They settled on Lake Independence and the Minnetonka. Apparently they built no meetinghouse, and perhaps for that reason they became absorbed among the pioneers of different religions, but their descendants do not forget their Quaker ancestry. Four of the early couples are represented in pictures that suggest the Quaker garb and mien of a century ago. * » » A handsome illustrated monograph by Grose Evans, Benjamin West and the Taste of his Times (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1959) deals faithfully with the topic described in its title. It does not, however, cast any light on the Quaker connection whether of himself, his associates, or his subjects, e. g., Penn'e Treaty. * * » "Joseph John Gurney's Mission to America, 1837-1840" by James A. Rawley in Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLIX (1963), 653-674, deals inclusively with this three-year visit of the notable English Quaker, his interests in Indian and Negro problems, his relations to Friends and others, including those in high places, his influence, and the impression he reported afterwards. He argued calmly with slavery advocates, but did not even meet its radical opponents. * * » In the Indiana Magazine of History, LIX (1963), 51-58, is an article edited by Donald F. Carmony and contributed by Luther M. Feeger, entitled "Message of Pennsylvania and New Jersey Quakers to Indians of the Old Northwest." It gives the text of an appeal to the Indians, April 1793, to preserve the peace, signed by forty-four Friends, together with a reply by...

Recipe for implementation of a program for hospitalizing the mentally ill.

IN OHIO, the laws which defined commitment procedures affecting the mentally ill were antique and ponderous and reflected long-extinct medical and social doctrine. Pressure and demand for change had been vociferous from psychiatrists, but leadership from them and from physicians generally had been virtually nonexistent. Lay mental health associations, the Probate Judges Association, bar associations, and the State Division of Mental Hygiene, in an insular manner, had perceived iniquity in the laws and in a desultory, uncoordinated manner, often conflicting with each other and with the medical profession, proposed remedies for obvious defects. In October, 1961, after a year of hard work and serendipity, a new hospitalization law was passed by the legislature of Ohio. This new statute incorporates many enlightened principles filling the requirement for caring for the mentally ill and protecting their civil rights. Provisions of the Law