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Pfoundes C. - Bird and Butterfly: Difference between revisions

Apply agreed Lucifer edition formatting, author categories, and journal text allocation.
(Proofread Lucifer volume II against original scans; correct OCR, footnotes, quotations, verse and illustrations)
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  | origin = English: C. Pfoundes, ''Bird and Butterfly''
  | origin = English: C. Pfoundes, ''Bird and Butterfly''
  | has text = yes
  | has text = yes
| hide heading = yes
| work type = articles
  | publications = [[Lucifer/Vol2|''Lucifer'', vol. 2]], no. 9, May 1888, pp. 182-184
  | publications = [[Lucifer/Vol2|''Lucifer'', vol. 2]], no. 9, May 1888, pp. 182-184
  | read links = [[Lucifer/Vol2/Text|Electronic journal edition in Teopedia]]
  | read links = [[Lucifer/Vol2/Text|Electronic journal edition in Teopedia]]
  | download links = [https://opusmagnum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/lucifer_v2.pdf Original volume (PDF)]
  | download links = [https://opusmagnum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/lucifer_v2.pdf Original volume (PDF)]
| title footnote = <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Note by Translator.</span> – This story is a characteristic example of a very numerous class of folk tale, in which natural objects, inanimate and animate, have the faculties of reason and speech attributed to them, forming a vehicle for the illustration of the abstruse teachings of ancient wisdom, and modern adaptations thereof, especially as regards psychological subjects. Oriental-Indian Sanskrit and Pali, &amp;c.), passing further eastward and becoming incorporated with the indigenous (Cultus, have been preserved to us, although obliterated in the land of their origin.
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{{Style P-Title|Bird and Butterfly}}<ref name="v2-p182-n1"><span style="font-variant:small-caps">Note by Translator.</span> – This story is a characteristic example of a very numerous class of folk tale, in which natural objects, inanimate and animate, have the faculties of reason and speech attributed to them, forming a vehicle for the illustration of the abstruse teachings of ancient wisdom, and modern adaptations thereof, especially as regards psychological subjects. Oriental-Indian Sanskrit and Pali, &amp;c.), passing further eastward and becoming incorporated with the indigenous (Cultus, have been preserved to us, although obliterated in the land of their origin.</ref>


A scrap of Theosophical Folk Lore of the Extreme Orient, rendered from the ''Sinico-Nihonese'' vernacular original of ''Itszusaichosan no Inaka Zoshi no Suzumi Cho no Henkwa,'' by <span style="font-variant:small-caps">C. Pfoundes</span><ref name="v2-p182-n2">Member Royal United Service Institution. Corresponding Member, Geographical Society, Tokio (Yedo), Japan.</ref> (''Omoie Tetzunostzuke'').
A scrap of Theosophical Folk Lore of the Extreme Orient, rendered from the ''Sinico-Nihonese'' vernacular original of ''Itszusaichosan no Inaka Zoshi no Suzumi Cho no Henkwa,'' by <span style="font-variant:small-caps">C. Pfoundes</span><ref name="v2-p182-n2">Member Royal United Service Institution. Corresponding Member, Geographical Society, Tokio (Yedo), Japan.</ref> (''Omoie Tetzunostzuke'').
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“Alas! to think of this. Oh! had I never been born otherwise than as a cockle, I should ever feel and think only as such, oblivious of a better state, a happier existence. As a cockle, I would have ever been conscious only of the ebb and flow of tides, over the sands in which I
“Alas! to think of this. Oh! had I never been born otherwise than as a cockle, I should ever feel and think only as such, oblivious of a better state, a happier existence. As a cockle, I would have ever been conscious only of the ebb and flow of tides, over the sands in which I


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grovelled, growing fat or lean, as the season and the tides affected me, the lowly, grosser, simpler needs of a cockle’s life, unconscious of and indifferent to all else. But having been once born a bird, accustomed to soar over hills, and fly amongst the trees of the forest, flit about the trees and gardens, joyous and free, thus condemned to such a future state, what is there for me to do? And why should I be humbled by being transformed into such an abject creature, whilst you, a butterfly, have been exalted from so mean and despicable an origin?
grovelled, growing fat or lean, as the season and the tides affected me, the lowly, grosser, simpler needs of a cockle’s life, unconscious of and indifferent to all else. But having been once born a bird, accustomed to soar over hills, and fly amongst the trees of the forest, flit about the trees and gardens, joyous and free, thus condemned to such a future state, what is there for me to do? And why should I be humbled by being transformed into such an abject creature, whilst you, a butterfly, have been exalted from so mean and despicable an origin?
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“In olden time there was an aged person who lay sick unto death; and a priest approached, and commenced reciting the prayers for the dying, but the aged one opened his eyes, looked surprised, and spoke thus to the priest, who was thereby greatly astonished: ‘Myriads of things originated in nothingness, and unto nothingness will all things return. The teachings of an existence prolonged hereafter, were all false doctrine.’ (''i.e.'' Of transmigration, re-incarnation, and transformation.)
“In olden time there was an aged person who lay sick unto death; and a priest approached, and commenced reciting the prayers for the dying, but the aged one opened his eyes, looked surprised, and spoke thus to the priest, who was thereby greatly astonished: ‘Myriads of things originated in nothingness, and unto nothingness will all things return. The teachings of an existence prolonged hereafter, were all false doctrine.’ (''i.e.'' Of transmigration, re-incarnation, and transformation.)


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“The priest in reply, said: ‘Ten thousand to one though the chances may be that it is so ''(i.e.'' immortality), therefore would it not be best to prepare for any eventualities, and offer up prayers.’
“The priest in reply, said: ‘Ten thousand to one though the chances may be that it is so ''(i.e.'' immortality), therefore would it not be best to prepare for any eventualities, and offer up prayers.’