Anyone who is familiar with T.S. Eliot will immediately recall that his poetry is comparable to a scavenger hunt across the history of literature. I would like to spend this week discussing my thoughts on the beginning of his “Burnt Norton” from the Four Quartets. The reason that I am choosing this piece is because when I was reading Augustine of Hippo’s On the Immortality of the Soul, I immediately recalled this poem upon stumbling across Augustine’s wonderful analysis of time.
Let us begin by observing the opening lines: “Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future”
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The first time that I read these two lines, I remember feeling that they made sense although my sense could not perceive why. The present – which Augustine symbolizes as memory – must be present as we move on because ideas are immortal and therefore: even if forgotten, the past remains present (or constant). Moving on, the present is identified as the intention to act. The present is therefore, always present because we always have the ability to make some action unless we are deceased.
The poem continues: “And time future contained in time past.”
Time future is symbolized as the expectation of the action (the present). One whose mind is steady and calm can already perceive the fabric of time cascading its seams to divide. Memory requires the future because a thing can only be remembered after its action has occurred. That being said, the same is true for the future. For in order for there to be expectation, one must always be in the present – which is precisely where one is. The present is where the future and the past meet.
Clear as mud, no? Let us examine the next two lines:”If all time is eternally present/ All time is unredeemable.”
This is not to say that nothing takes place, but only to reinforce Augustine’s philosophy that all action occurs on the plane of time. Further, because the past is memory – nothing can really be done about it.
“What might have been is an abstraction/ Remaining a perpetual possibility/ Only in a world of speculation.”
My readers with anxiety or depression shall immediately identify with this phrase. There can be nothing more said for the past except that it occurred as it did. What if’s are not very useful because ideas are eternal and therefore the past cannot be re-written: though try as men will. For this reason, a person can not stand in the past – nor in the future. For the future is not yet written.
Eliot’s next words will be what we close with as they will provide a perfect vantage point into next week’s installment of Philosophy Cornered: we will focus on Thomas Aquinas.
Eliot continues: “What might have been and what has been/ Point to one end, which is always present.”
This end, this is the telos -- as Aristotle called it – which points to the ultimate end of an action which points to the telos of the one making the actions. This is where men seem to disagree often in ideas. Do all men have an end? If so, how could they have been assigned it without their knowledge? For now, let us put these questions aside until my next installment. Instead, ponder them and my final words… The past is only that which has lead to now. The future is that to which a man aims to use to hit their mark (or telos). All one can work with is the present, and each action which shall be written into the past and immortalized as memory.
