Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers/She Refuses to Give Up the Cosmos
SHE REFUSES TO GIVE UP THE COSMOS
WE'VE taken up Gertrude Stein—our Little Group of Serious Thinkers, you know—and she's wonderful; simply wonderful.
She Suggests the Inexpressible, you know.
Of course, she is a Pioneer. And with all Pioneers—don't you think—the Reach is greater than the Grasp.
Not that you can tell what she means.
But in the New Art, one doesn't have to mean things, does one? One strikes the chords, and the chords vibrate.
Aren't Vibrations just too perfectly lovely for anything?
The loveliest man talked to us the other night about World Movements and Cosmic Vibrations.
You see, every time the Cosmos vibrates it means a new World Movement.
And the Souls that are in Tune with the Cosmos are benefited by these World Movements. The other souls will get harm out of them.
Frightfully interesting, isn't it?—the Cosmos, I mean.
I have given so much thought to it! It has become almost an obsession to me.
Only the other evening I was thinking about it. And without realizing that I spoke aloud I said, "I simply could not do without the Cosmos!"
Mamma—poor dear Mamma!—she is so terribly unadvanced, you know! Mamma said: "Hermione, I do not know what the Cosmos is. But this I do know—not another Sex Discussion or East Indian Swami will ever come into this house!"
"Mamma," I said to her, "I will not give up the Cosmos. It means everything to me; simply everything!"
I am always firm with Mamma; it is kinder, in the long run, to be quite positive. But what I suffer at home from objections to the advanced movements nobody knows!
Nobody but the Leaders of Thought can dream what Martyrdom is!
Sacrifice! Sacrifice! That is the keynote of the Liberal Life!
Nearly every night before I go to bed I ask myself: "Have I shown the Sacrificial Spirit to day? Or have I failed?"