315
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_35
Chapter 35
The Ratiocinations of Rakiura
35.1 Decidedly Ambiguous Reveries
Nietzsche writes in The Antichrist of “two physiological realities” abetting our
notion of salvation and labels them the “super-development of hedonism upon a
thoroughly unsalubrious soil”.
1
The book, praising all that was natural, condemning
all that sullied nature (in the name of a fundamentalist Christianity) was published
in 1895, one year after the death of the American luminist master, George Inness. In
concluding his biography of his father, George Inness Jr. wrote of his father’s painting, “Under the Greenwood,” (painted in 1881)
2
“…let’s cross this field that is
bathed with soft, gray, mellow light that gives a sense of stillness, not of the grave,
but of the kind that follows some great strain of music that has died away, and left a
hush of awe…”.
3
These two sentiments might well yield useful caveats for anyone
approaching New Zealand with an eye toward the solemnity of beauty and an inclination toward naturalism. They certainly did for the self-righteous Scottish historian
George Lillie Craik (1798–1866) in whose book The New Zealanders (1830) he
concluded, “Let us steadily impart as much as possible of the real blessings of civilized life … If we should stop at our present point of advancement in our attempt to
civilize the New Zealanders, it might well be doubted whether we had not rather
inflicted an injury than conferred a benefit on them”.
4
Craik acknowledges (from all
he has read of Captain Cook’s adventures and others) that New Zealanders were no
noble savages, but cannibals that could be tamed if one maintained vigilance over
1 The Antichrist, by F. W. Nietzsche, Translated From The German With An Introduction By H. L.
Mencken, Alfred A., Knopf, New York, 1920, p. 95
2 See George Inness, A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume Two, 1880–1894, by Michael Quick, Rutgers
University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 81–82.
3 Life, Art, And Letters Of George Inness, by George Inness, Jr., The Century Co., New York, 1917,
p. 290
4 The New Zealanders, Charles Knight, London, 1830, p. 423.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_35
Chapter 35
The Ratiocinations of Rakiura
35.1 Decidedly Ambiguous Reveries
Nietzsche writes in The Antichrist of “two physiological realities” abetting our
notion of salvation and labels them the “super-development of hedonism upon a
thoroughly unsalubrious soil”.
1
The book, praising all that was natural, condemning
all that sullied nature (in the name of a fundamentalist Christianity) was published
in 1895, one year after the death of the American luminist master, George Inness. In
concluding his biography of his father, George Inness Jr. wrote of his father’s painting, “Under the Greenwood,” (painted in 1881)
2
“…let’s cross this field that is
bathed with soft, gray, mellow light that gives a sense of stillness, not of the grave,
but of the kind that follows some great strain of music that has died away, and left a
hush of awe…”.
3
These two sentiments might well yield useful caveats for anyone
approaching New Zealand with an eye toward the solemnity of beauty and an inclination toward naturalism. They certainly did for the self-righteous Scottish historian
George Lillie Craik (1798–1866) in whose book The New Zealanders (1830) he
concluded, “Let us steadily impart as much as possible of the real blessings of civilized life … If we should stop at our present point of advancement in our attempt to
civilize the New Zealanders, it might well be doubted whether we had not rather
inflicted an injury than conferred a benefit on them”.
4
Craik acknowledges (from all
he has read of Captain Cook’s adventures and others) that New Zealanders were no
noble savages, but cannibals that could be tamed if one maintained vigilance over
1 The Antichrist, by F. W. Nietzsche, Translated From The German With An Introduction By H. L.
Mencken, Alfred A., Knopf, New York, 1920, p. 95
2 See George Inness, A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume Two, 1880–1894, by Michael Quick, Rutgers
University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 81–82.
3 Life, Art, And Letters Of George Inness, by George Inness, Jr., The Century Co., New York, 1917,
p. 290
4 The New Zealanders, Charles Knight, London, 1830, p. 423.