A metaphysical, humanitarian approach to our culture and Age
This brief account is based on A Short Guide to Nicholas Hagger’s Published Works (a pamphlet that was for sale for a number of years).
Nicholas Hagger, man of letters, thinker and educationalist in the mould of Matthew Arnold and cultural historian in the mould of T.S. Eliot, T.E. Hulme and Robert Graves, has mounted a revolution in modern thought and culture. Known for his Grand Unified Theory of history and his philosophy of Universalism, he is concerned about our secular higher culture. His Collected Poems (nearly 900 pages, some double-columned), Overlord (the first poetic epic in the English language since Milton, in over 41,000 lines of blank verse), Armageddon (his second poetic epic which is on the War on Terror, in 26,000 lines of blank verse), his Classical Odes, the three selections of his poems A Metaphysical’s Way of Fire, Quest for the One and Visions of England, his Collected Verse Plays and his Collected Stories (his 1,001 short stories) all reinforce this concern. In 2016 he brought out his latest 210 poems, Life Cycle and Other New Poems, and his latest 201 stories, The First Dazzling Chill of Winter.
Today we have branches of secular, humanistic cultural diversity and multi-culturalism, but we have lost the sap of the essential European vision that gave Europe its stupendous works of art. Hagger’s metaphysical vision unifies all disciplines (including philosophy, history, physics, religion, literature and art) and resupplies this sap as can be clearly seen in his two autobiographical works My Double Life 1: This Dark Wood and My Double Life 2: A Rainbow over the Hills, in which his work in seven disciplines is seen in terms of seven bands in one rainbow. In appendices in these two works he lists his 93 experiences of the metaphysical Light known to all the 17th-century Metaphysical poets.
His historical work in The Fire and the Stones and The Rise and Fall of Civilizations shows 25 civilizations passing through 61 similar stages and predicted the fall of Communism and that Britain would enter an integrated United States of Europe, the European Union, from 1997.
His philosophy has founded Universalism, a new philosophy that is fully stated in The Universe and the Light and in The One and the Many, in The New Philosophy of Universalism and in The World Government.
His literary work reflects our Age in the same way that Donne, Milton and Arnold reflected theirs. He has used the poem as a meeting-place for perceptions from many disciplines, as can be seen from his Collected Poems, and his poetic epics Overlord, a work in the tradition of Homer, Virgil and Milton which he discussed with Ezra Pound in 1970, and Armageddon. It is possible that his poetic work, Classical Odes (nearly 800 pages), will prove to be his most comprehensive and enduring attempt to present the complexity of our Age in unifying creative work. His odes catch the tension as the UK emerged from nation-statehood into membership of the regional European Union, a theme that anticipated Britain’s 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU. His poems Visions of England also catch this tension, as do his two poetic masques The Dream of Europa (about 70 years of peace in Europe) and King Charles the Wise (about the UK’s post-Brexit role, communicated by the goddess of wisdom Minerva to Prince Charles). A New Philosophy of Literature states the fundamental theme of world literature as a perpetual tussle between metaphysical and secular works – works that describe a quest and works that condemn vices – and sets out the Universalist literary tradition.
Says Hagger (as reported in the US publication, Contemporary Authors), “I have tried to reflect the Age in my work, its good and evil, overt and hidden aspects. Just as Donne included the new science and philosophy in his poems, so I have tried to reflect the intellectual, religious and philosophical ferment of our time and the political changes of the Age – the rise of America, the decline of Europe, the East-West conflict between democracy and Communism – and their effects on our inner selves as we seek through the rubble of old certainties a new unified vision that offers a new meaning to life. My ideal human being has journeyed the full length of the Mystic Way, has a unitive vision of the universe, instinctively understands the Theory of Everything and is filled with spiritual beauty and a deep sense of cosmic purpose.”
Nicholas Hagger has pursued a solitary path like the scholar-poet Robert Graves. Just as Graves kept apart from coteries and produced Greek Myths and The White Goddess, books of cultural history, as well as being a man of letters, Hagger has kept apart from coteries and produced The Fire and the Stones, The Light of Civilization, The Rise and Fall of Civilizations, The Universe and the Light, The One and the Many, The Secret History of the West, The Syndicate, The Secret Founding of America, The Secret American Dream and The Secret American Destiny, works that are also fundamental to understanding our culture, as well as being a man of letters. In some respects he has followed in the footsteps of Albert Camus, who wrote works of philosophy (The Myth of Sisyphus), history (The Rebel), literature (novels) and who wrote on a world without war (Neither Victims nor Executioners).
For Hagger art transcends the everyday because it is an affirmation of the nobility of man’s destiny and the reality of the existential/spiritual quest. His works are illumined by a transcendent ideal, and their energy and vast scope reflect (as with the poet John Donne) “an hydroptique, immoderate desire for learning.” Hagger writes about the big issues of the day, as did Shakespeare and Milton before him, and is not afraid to face up to the political taboos of the Age. Particularly conspicuous is his interest in the idea of world government, the hidden reality behind the growing illusion of national politics. He is a deeply responsible writer who stands apart from fashionable literary coteries and who, alone of his contemporaries, has inherited and developed the intellectual tradition of Dante, Michelangelo and Shakespeare.
In our time a Malthusian globalism has sought to reduce the world’s population. Its policies have led to war, disease and famine. By contrast, Nicholas Hagger’s Universalism values the soul of each human being and his or her right to life. This principle must be enshrined in the coming globalist Age which Hagger has foreseen in his studies of a contemporary world history and a new World State, and must shape the humanitarian vision of a new World State’s policies. In pursuit of this principle, drawing on books such as The World Government, The Secret American Dream and The Secret American Destiny (2016), and World State and World Constitution (both 2018), see Global Unity through a World State and a World Constitution, 11 July 2018, Hagger has devised a 16-point plan for a democratic, UN-based World State that will declare war illegal, begin disarmament and eliminate disease, famine and poverty. This plan is outlined in The Secret American Dream (pp.193-197). It is reflected in World State and World Constitution and is being communicated to the UN and world leaders.
