The Green caldron - University Library

March, 1962 15
entire class to sleep had it not been for the hard, worn seats on which we
sat and the new interesting things which she said.
She taught history, not the usual history, although I do remember having
to memorize the capitals of all the states. In the small, dark, hot classroom,
that smelled like chalk dust, forgotten lunches and wet galoshes, she would
make us see events that occurred fifty, sixty, a hundred years ago.
We respected her and were slightly afraid of her. Sometimes on a hot
autumn afternoon, lulled by the warmth, the stillness of twenty young faces
staring blankly past her to the golden outdoors and the monotonous quality
of her own voice. Miss Carrington would fall asleep. Her head would cock
to one side and her thin eyelids would close, and we would sit quietly, waiting.
For some reason we never left the classroom. We would wait until
Miss Carrington woke up again or until the bell rang, when we would tip-toe
out of the battered old room, leaving the teacher huddled behind her desk,
withered and battered, like a brown leaf dashed against the wall.
THE
What "Metaphysical" Means
Mike Waltz
Rhetoric 101, Theme 8
WORD "METAPHYSICAL," BY ITS VERY NATURE AND
historical derivation, can have little more than a vague or hazy meaning,
subject (even more than most words) to individual interpretation and
mis-interpretation. The word has both it limited meanings, as when applied
to the arts, e.g., the metaphysical poets, when it means "far-fetched"
imagery," ^ and its deeper, philosophical implications, when it denotes, again
quite vaguely, everything "beyond what is physical," or "beyond the laws of
nature." -
The word has the dubious distinction of being used to describe, usually
in a derogatory manner, anything which is abstract or over-subtle. Thus
it is in many cases misused for convenience's sake and its validity as a word
with true philosophical meaning is impaired.
The metaphysical side of man is too often overlooked. His belief in
God, his behavior pattern, his very life and death are all immaterial and
transcend any physical processes which have yet been discovered. Much of
man, his world, and his relation to God, are distinctly mental or spiritual.
Admittedly, the relationships are abstract and general. When speaking of
the complexities of life, it is difficult to be otherwise. Yet "metaphysical" in
its broadest definition includes all of these thing's.
^ Oxford English Dictionary.
^Ibid.