The Blind Men and the Elephant

Saxe’s poem calls for religious tolerance to a nation, founded as an experiment in radical Protestantism, during an often contentious cross-examination of the efficacy of Christianity itself. However, the parable’s own historical context is perhaps more cogent. The story itself is not Saxe’s. Rather, he draws on a parable attributed to Gautama Buddha, an ascetic and spiritual teacher who lived in India in the 6th century BCE. Although historic records of the era are scant and no written version of the parable from that time exists, the poem has been traced to the Indian subcontinent. It most likely began as an oral tale passed through generations as a lesson in the dangers of pride and the foolishness of those who pretend to understand the mysteries of the world. In this, the parable reflected a decidedly Eastern mindset. Iterations of the story have defined different cultures: one version uses a statue instead of an elephant; in another, the wise men are not blind but merely in the dark; and in yet another, the elephant attacks the prodding wise men.

Saxe, reeling from the emotional traumas of losing virtually his entire family and unable to tap into the consolation he had always been taught was the special agency of the Christian God, would see the poem’s original argument—defending philosophical inquiry without the expectation of resolution and defending the logic of relativism in matters moral and spiritual—as a necessary counterbalance to his own Western culture, with its pragmatic emphasis on confident self-reliance and its faith in absolutes in matters moral and spiritual.