«aos ‘_> | smeennenen en - —=—====_ : x 9 - ——_—aae VOL. XXIV, No. 19 BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1938 g.f7R/WAWA'COLLEGE, iss | PRICE 10 CENTS ——— .-Hubener Lectures ‘On Heroic Exorcism In Beowulf Legend ‘Traditional Germanic Heroes Are Thought to be Actual Historic Figures GRENDEL REPRESENTED AS MALIGNANT’ GHOST Music Room, March 21.—The le- gerds of Siegfgied, Beowulf, and Her- acles are actual histories of famous primitive exorcists, stated Dr. Gustav Hiibener, in his second lecture «at Bryn Mawr. Only this explanation, he believes, will account for both the similarities and the discrepancies of their sagas. Previous research has tried to prove that all three were variations of some common Indo-Germanic folk-tale about a hero of supernatural power who pur- sued a monster to a cave and killed it there. However, Dr. Hiibener pointed out, the whole tone of the sagas is not mythological, but historical. More- over, there is no resemblance in the * heroes and the proper names, such as occurs in the different versions of the Hynd Horne legend. Instead, each hero is a distinct personality in a defi- nite epoch and a different country. “The heroic battles against the demon, therefore, seem to point back to real life—to an»wegjsting European custom of exorcism.” Furthermore, without these sagas, the Indo-Germanic culture is the only one that lacks a literature of exorcism. Among all primitive people, it stands for the recovery of self-control over fear and hallucination by means of spiritual authority. In. Bengal, the devil inhabiting the sufferer is beaten until he declares himself ready to leave. In Africa and India, he is propitiated with sacrifices. China, however, provides the closest parallel to the sagas. A Chinese priest lay- ing a ghost first names the demon, then threatens him, and finally attacks him with a ceremonial carved peach- wood sword, bound in red and adorned with magic inscriptions. This is rec- ognized to have no real significance as a weapon. Its power is purely mag- ical and psychological. This custom may explain the weapons that Beowulf takes against Grendel’s mother, although he himself realizes that devils are unreal “living corpses” and “do not heed weapons. the evil spirit he is wholly unarmed. “Waiting in the dark hall,” said Dr. Hiibener, “his expectation and panic led to hallucinations; he saw Grendel enter. Then his pride made him revolt in frenzy,|fear was overcome, and the demon withdrew.” The. detail of the severed arm, Dr. Hiibener traced back to the ancient-superstition that if the arm is cut from a corpse, its ghost will-be-deprived of further power. “He believes that the original Beowulf, failing to conquer “Grendel’’ entirely, went to his grave and mutilated him. . «adn ,his ; second fight | with , Grendel’s mother, Beowulf, since the ‘danger is greater, takes the magic sword of the Court Thyle, whose office was to ex- pel demons. It was his own failure against Grendel, said Dr. Hiibener, which explains his otherwise inexplica- Continued on Page Six LEAGUE MUSICALE WILL HAVE VARIED PROGRAM On Friday, April 8, the Bryn Mawr League is giving a musicale for its own benefit. It will begin at 8.30, and the price of admission will prob-} ably be 25 cents, although Jane Gam- ble, who is managing the entertain- ment, has been too busy to ‘worry about business details. The varied program includes a _ dance by Arsena Arroyo,.a Spanish graduate student, and new songs by the German Club, under:‘the)direction. of Nanette Beck. Patricia Robinson, Gordon Grosvenor, and Harriet Hutch- ison are the piarists. In addition there will be one violin solo by Doro- thy Auerbach, and fydia' Lyman will Graduate Fellows to Work In Greece and England Cum Laude Averages, Junior Year Awards Announced Goodhart Auditorium, March 18.— Miss Park announced in chapel the award of the two graduate European fellowships, and the’ list of wnder- ‘graduates who have an average of 80 ‘or above. Delight Tolles, fellow in the Greek department this year, will receive the Mary E., Garrett European Fellow- ship. Miss Tolles graduated. from Vassar in 1935, took her M.A. at Bryn Mawr in 1936, and has. been Scholar in Greek (1936-’87) and Fel- low in Greek (1987-88). She will use the fellowship to pursue her stu- dies in the field of the Greek house- hold cult, and for that purpose will attend the American School of Classi- cal Studies in Athens next year. She plans also to.travel in the Mediter-4 ranean to‘gather important archeo- logical material. The Fanny Bullock Wsoeaiis Fel- lowship is awarded this year to Mary Margaret Taylor. She studied at Mount Holyoke before coming to Bryn Mawr, receiving her A.B. there in 1935 and her M.A. in 1936. She plans to carry on research in the Public Record Office in London to complete her Ph.D. thesis, which is a study of the justices of the peace in Cambrige- shire in the fourteenth century. Miss Park said that she will report later the decisions of the Board of Di- rectors in regard to the plans for the new library wing and for the re- modeling of Dalton to house the de- partments of Biology, Physics and Mathematics. These plans are matur- ing rapidly, so that “in the coming year I think we shall not need to travel to be dazed by what we'see around us!” The new dormitory has been named after the first president of the college, James E. Rhoads, and will henceforth be known as Rhoads North and South. Miss Park announced the names of students who have been recommended by their departments for the junior year abroad: For the junior year in France—Jane Anne Jones, Janet Rus- sell, Jean Flender Small, Barbara Anderson Steel; for the junior year in Germany—Ruth Marie Lilienthal, Ruth Mary Penfield, Barbara Ander- Continued ‘én Page Six Cd] *|Phenomenologist is In fact, during his first struggle with) Against Self-Assertion Hubener’s Lecture. on Husserl And Scheler Deals With Ethics, State Common Room, March 18.—“The school of Phenomenology,” said Pro- fessor Htibener, in a lecture sponsored by the Philosophy department, “orew up in opposition to the growing spirit of individual and collective self-as- sertion,” of which the strongest ex- emplification is to be found in the philosophy > of Nietzsche.» Mt. Hiibe- ner spoke mainly on the work of Scheler in Ethics, but felt it necessary to show the background of his work in the general principles of Pheno- menology. ag 4 ° The early Phenomenologists reco; nized the danger of a merely biologi- cal theory of state and attempted to éstablish a substitution of high spirit- ual values. The work of Edmund Husserl .contains the belief in-the ontological meaning of absolute truth baséd’ on the understanding of logic and mathematics as absolute and not ‘presupposing thought. Husserl “re- discovered the existence of ideas, of an invisible, absolute world of mean- ing,”. in_whi¢h.the Be ries 1 a participates. The outside world is realized as other than ourselves, sim- ply given as existing, and it belongs to the essence of perception that we see it as such, The-laws of essence|m are realized by intuition as in the ‘structure of things; they* are not derived from a study of fact. ‘Philosophy has only the task of r{makiags people sevemiere- to Be Some : Continued on Page Five — COLLEGE. CALENDAR Wednesday, March 23—Ger- man Movie. Goodhart, 8.30. > Friday, March’25—Spying Va- cation begins, 12.45. Monday, April 4—Spring Va- cation ends, 9 a. m._ First Flex- ner Lecture, by Dr. Edwin Gay. Goodhart, 8.30. Tuesday, April 5 — Current Events, Mr. Fenwick. ‘Common Room, 7.30. Wednesday, April 6—Indus- trial Group Supper. Common Room, 6.30. Lecturer Discusses Philosophy of India Mr. Spiegelberg Denies Terms Usually Applied by Writers To Orientals LAUDS YOGA IDEOLOGY The Deanery, March 20.—Frieder- ich Spiegelberg spoke in the Deanery on What India Has to Offer Us Today. Defining first what he meant in lis statement of the subject, he analyzed spurious versions of Indian teachings im the western world, and at the same time pointed out what we could learn to advantage from “India’s. highest thinkers.” The use of “offer” in the statemenv of his subject Mr. Spiegelberg found misleading because what literally is offered is perhaps of least value. He cited as “a little too much offered” The Heritage of India, a well-known document of Indian thought today, and branded this compilation of the work of 100 scholars as an attempt to prove the supremacy of Indian thought. Several widespread misinterpreta- tions of Indian teachings are based on ideas actually possible only in a west- ern civilization. ‘Resignation,’ used as a blanket word to typify an Indian attitude, is an example of this kind of mistake. Rejected in Christian thought and western philosophies, nevertheless, he claimed, resignation could exist only in the West. A re- signed person is one who accepts his disappointments and-no longer strives to overcome them. This acceptance of evil_is purely western. People in In- dia, said Mr. Spiegelberg, do not flee the world but overcome it. Misfor- tune is unreal and to be vanquished. by -non-recognition. Study of the “elaborate doctrine” of Yoga meditation leads to the re- vision of our “too-much secular no-|- tion of reality.” We are forced to recognize a mythical consciousness manifest in dreams and neurotic phe- nomena. These ‘deep chaotic realms” are-never ignored in India. One of the greatest obstacles to presenting Indian thought to the Occi- dent is a language discrepancy. In Sanskrit, for instance, the words are so highly specialized that our modern languages cannot reproduce them. The- Scholastics, with their elaborate systems of the soul’s progress; have the mdést adequate’ variet¥ of words, and for that reason one great San- skrit scholar does all his translating into medieval Latin. ~ Another distorting element in the _| Fepresentation of. Indian ideas is the western mania for emphasizing the exotic, expressed in Heine’s fantasies and in the numerous modern stidies on Yoga. The authors of these books are concerned with things not typical of “highest Indian thought.” Buddha always rejected miracles. In a bud- dhistic community the first crime which makes a member liable to ex- pulsion is the crime of claiming super- natural powers and faculties. A constructive interest in Yoga asa means of achieving higher physical and spiritual powers is evinced by the analytical psychologists, notably Jung. They realize that western people have much to learn from the Yogi’s fac- ulty of diving deep into his soul. “Yoga is trying. to raise the deep- est of our animal being up and up and up... until at the top of the forehead this power is going out like : - Continued on siege Two Intercollegiate Peace Institute Delegates Discuss World P roblems at Swarthmore Dr. Blanshard Favors Collective Security as Best Method ” To Prevent War; Factors Molding Our Foreign Policy Discussed by Mr. Stone ‘ AIMS. OF INSTITUTE OUTLINED BY MORLEY The aim of the Intercollegiate Peace Institute at Swarthmore, Louise Morley, ’40, explained in an _ inter- view, was to coordinate and discuss student ideas on world affairs. The two speeches by William T. Stone and Harry F. Ward were both excellent. Moreover, the five commission ses- sions prepared by students from the five colleges taking part necessitated much ijluminating research on the | part of the representatives. The council presented a true cross- section of undergraduate opinion, shading from deep red to conservative white. To Bryn Mawr the contact with ‘these ideas which seldom pene- trate the campus was especially in- structive. Mr. Herbert A. Miller, the resource leader of the Bryn Mawr commission group, gave constructive | aid in guiding and preparing dis- cussion. The institute was planned by a committee of students from Swarth-/o more, Temple, Cheney State College, West Chester Teachers’ College and} Bryn Mawr. : Five members of this committee had been working previ- ously to draw up-plans for a regional United Peace Committee similar to the National United Peace Committee. This regional committee will be elected from the Youth organizations of the district which are interested in peace. After the plan was approved and adopted by the institute, Leuise Mor- ley was elected chairman. The work of the new committee will coordinate the peace activitiés of schools and col- leges in this area. At the first meet- ing, the new chairman expects to draw up plans for unifying the April}; 27 demonstration so that any action taken on that day will be part of a concerted move. The first English Peace Day was held on this date last year and it is hoped that it may be- come an international demonstration | in the future. Maids, Porters Produce’ Dunsany’s‘Mr. Faithful’ | Huldah Cheek Directs Capably;)' Between-Act Specialties Wittily Sung NECESSITY FOR SANE * ANALYSIS EMPHASIZED Swarthmore, March 19.—Students from 31 schools and colleges took part in the Intercollegiate Peace Institute © entitled’ Through Education to Peace. ‘Delegates worked on five commissions treating various aspécts of the peace situation’in the world today, and were addressed by Dr. Brand Blanshard, Professor of Philosophy at Swarth- more, and William T. Stone, of the Foreign Policy Association. Despite wrangling ae parliamen- tary procedure, and clashes between the opposing forces of collective secur- ity and isolation, the conference furally reached a somewhat unified, Fv Eleven resolutions were passedLouise Morley, ’40, was elected-thairman of the Rlanning Committee for the newly lorganized United Student Peace Com- ,. | mittee in this area. The delegates were welcomed by 'Dean Harold E. B. Speight, of Swarth- more, who emphasized the fact that students should contribute to public opinion in this country. .But to carry | weight, student discussions should be marked by the keenest intelligence, and should be both sane and objective. | Following Dean Speight, Mr. Blan- | shard addressed the conference on the Alternative Roads to Reace. There are three such roads, he pointed out, pacifism, neutrality, and collective se- curity. . Each has its arguments and objections. Pacifism believes that force should not be resorted to under any circum- stances to settle disputes. Defenders of this doctrine maintain that it is a requirement of the Christian position, especially of the Society of Friends; that it is required by the intellectual and moral nature of man; and that it is effective. However,.there are answers to these pacifist---arguments._-The-~ Christian position does not absolutely require this view, for while Jesus loved man- kind, He also hated iniquity. Dr. Blan- shard maintained that there comes a point beyond which tolerance cannot be extended. Among the Friends may be found ‘prominent men who advocated the most extreme force to right injustice. “The use of’reason is all right if one is dealing with rational, moral be- ings.” “But, when is a creature really rational and moral?” asked Professor Blanshard. “Proofs that patifism does Goodhart Hall, March 17.—The maids and porters, under the auspices | of the Bryn Mawr League, entertained | the college with a lively production of Lord Dunsany’s Mr. Faithful. Al- though the particularly British’ wit- ticism of the lines did not wholly coincide with the sense of humor of the cast, the, places where , these did come together were excellent, while either was able to stand alone. Slow- ness on their cues was the chief flaw _lin the actors’ otherwise smooth and spirited performance. Between the scenes Louise Simms, of Wyndham, and Carl Smith sang. The story concerns a Captain John- son who, in order to wed a profiteer’s daughter, must hold some kind of job for six months. His service as watch- dog, under’ the name “Mr. Faithful,” results. in many ridiculous situations and provides excuse for much social commentary of the early 20s. The moral, if’ it may be called such, is that although a man makes an efficient | watchdog, the conventional animal causes less-publicity. ‘Denbigh’s John Whittaker took full advantage: of the comedy in his part) as the watchdog. His canine enthusi- asm reached a peak when he bounded in front of his master shouting, “Sir Walter’s going for a walk—hooray, hooray, hooray!” Hilda Green, also of Denbigh, was assured and charm- ing as the profiteer’s daughter, and — not work may also be found in his- tory. Force too often does not work, ‘rise again.” Neutrality, the second road to peace, demands that we deliberately ketp out of war by obliterating all possible tions. It rejects both pacifism and militarism, and necessities of war should not be sent to either side; that citizens should not be allowed to volunteer for either side; that enemy ships should not be permitted in our ports; and that our own ships should not-be per- Continued on Page Six MAJORITY IN PLEBISCITE . SAYS “PRESERVE HOOPS” The College News plebiscite on the hoops resulted in a decision of 184 to 113 to “preserve” the tradition. The ~ alternative was to “destroy” it, not necessarily implying destruction of the jhoops. Pembroke East and the | French and.German houses were most evenly divided in opinion; the former was 22 to 21, against, the latter, six to rseven, in favor of preservation. Pem- ‘broke West was 40 to 26, Denbigh 44 to 17, Merion 27 to 17, and Rockefeller 46 to 25, all for preservation. At least sort. The issue will hot be considered closed until opinion has been further clarified. and truth_ crushed to earth does not _ points of .contact with warring na-. . 25 voters were for compromise of some — HE COLLEGE News _ It believes that munitions: » » > 0 @ #