Life, 1915-10-28 · page 9 of 52
Life — October 28, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
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.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
To Ignorance E hail thee, Goddess of the Great Unknowing! Beneath whose feet so many necks are bowed In low obeisances; to thee is owing A fond culogium—perhaps an ode. Thou freest us from Fact’s distressing fetters, Giving our fancies unrestricted play ; Placing us higher than our boastful betters, Because we scorn the ground on which they stay. They are constrained by fears of con- tradiction, Scruples of knowledge hamper and prevent; But we with gracious wings of easy fiction Soar without ballast in the firmament We cast away the weights with cheer- ful spurning That would restrain to hondage of the fact: Nothing so dangerous as a little learn- ing— . A peril that we shun in word and act. We note this danger of acquiring knowledge, How it impedes imagination’s flight, And so we graduate in the kindly college Where Ignorance confers a fuller right. We pity, not contemn, the dry and musty Dogmas of science, whatsoc’er they be; With gay invention, vigorous and lusty, We thrust the bait away and dare be free. A, L. Salmon. THE THINKER comicbooks.com