Life — October 28, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page features a poem titled "To Ignorance" by A. L. Salmon, accompanied by an illustration labeled "THE THINKER." The poem is a mock-heroic celebration of ignorance as a liberating force. It praises ignorance for freeing people from "Fact's distressing fetters" and allowing imagination to "soar without ballast." The verse argues that knowledge constrains creativity and that ignorance enables freedom of thought and action. The accompanying illustration depicts a person in classical dress reclining on books and papers, appearing to contemplate or daydream—embodying the poem's theme of unfettered imagination. The satire targets anti-intellectualism: the poem ironically celebrates willful ignorance as superior to rigorous knowledge, mocking contemporary attitudes that dismiss scientific expertise or factual learning as obstacles to creative freedom. This likely critiques broader cultural trends of the era dismissing scholarship or evidence-based thinking.