Tree by Tolkien (5 page)

In the 1950s and early sixties, when the positivists and 'linguistic analysts' dominated the philosophy departments of almost every major university in the world, I would
never
have believed that the day would come when they would be not only be discredited, but half forgotten. Now it has come, I'm not sure it's entirely a good thing—there is something of the positivist in my make-up, as may be inferred from this essay. But the change has certainly come. The new generation is interested in Tolkien, Gurdjieff, Hesse, John Cowper Powys, and in wide, far-ranging speculations about the universe and the distant past. Whether this interest will exhaust itself
—as
it did at the turn of the present century—depends largely on the 'spearhead', on scientists and psychologists and parapsychologists who are trying to widen the boundaries of our knowledge. Obviously, Tolkien does not belong among these. But he belongs among the great stimulators of the 'occult revival'—in fact, he is perhaps even its originator. For a man who only set out to write an 'escapist' fairy story, this is a remarkable achievement.

1
In a long essay in
Poetry and Mysticism
(1970).

This chapbook, edited by Robert Durand (Yes! Press) and Noel Young (Copra Press), is printed in Santa Barbara by Capra Press. This edition was especially designed by Graham and Caitlin Mackintosh. This is the twentieth title in the series, published May 1974. Two hundred numbered copies, signed by the author, were handbound.