Editing Mircea Eliade (section)

===Early contributions===
In addition to his political essays, the young Mircea Eliade authored others, philosophical in content. Connected with the ideology of [[Trăirism]], they were often prophetic in tone, and saw Eliade being hailed as a herald by various representatives of his generation.<ref name="ihincep"/> When Eliade was 21 years old and publishing his ''Itinerar spiritual'', literary critic [[Şerban Cioculescu]] described him as "the column leader of the spiritually mystical and [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] youth."<ref name="ihincep"/> Cioculescu discussed his "impressive erudition", but argued that it was "occasionally plethoric, poetically inebriating itself through abuse."<ref name="ihincep"/> Cioculescu's colleague [[Perpessicius]] saw the young author and his generation as marked by "the specter of war", a notion he connected to various essays of the 1920s and 30s in which Eliade threatened the world with the verdict that a new conflict was looming (while asking that young people be allowed to manifest their will and fully experience freedom before perishing).<ref name="ihincep"/>

One of Eliade's noted contributions in this respect was the 1932 ''Soliloquii'' ('Soliloquies'), which explored [[Existentialism|existential philosophy]]. [[George Călinescu]] who saw in it "an echo of [[Nae Ionescu]]'s lectures",<ref name="Călinescu, p.954">Călinescu, p. 954</ref> traced a parallel with the essays of another of Ionescu's disciples, [[Emil Cioran]], while noting that Cioran's were "of a more exulted tone and written in the [[Aphorism|aphoristic]] form of [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]]."<ref>Călinescu, p. 955</ref> Călinescu recorded Eliade's rejection of [[objectivity (philosophy)|objectivity]], citing the author's stated indifference towards any "naïveté" or "contradictions" that the reader could possibly reproach him, as well as his dismissive thoughts of "theoretical data" and mainstream philosophy in general (Eliade saw the latter as "inert, infertile and pathogenic").<ref name="Călinescu, p.954"/> Eliade thus argued, "a sincere brain is unassailable, for it denies itself to any relationship with outside truths."<ref name="Eliade Căl. p.954">Eliade, in Călinescu, p. 954</ref>

The young writer was however careful to clarify that the existence he took into consideration was not the life of "instincts and personal [[Idiosyncrasy|idiosyncrasies]]", which he believed determined the lives of many humans, but that of a distinct set comprising "personalities".<ref name="Eliade Căl. p.954"/> He described "personalities" as characterized by both "purpose" and "a much more complicated and dangerous alchemy."<ref name="Eliade Căl. p.954"/> This differentiation, George Călinescu believed, echoed Ionescu's metaphor of man, seen as "the only animal who can fail at living", and the duck, who "shall remain a duck no matter what it does".<ref>Ionescu, in Călinescu, pp. 953, 954</ref> According to Eliade, the purpose of personalities is infinity: "consciously and gloriously bringing [existence] to waste, into as many skies as possible, continuously fulfilling and polishing oneself, seeking ascent and not circumference."<ref name="Eliade Căl. p.954"/>

In Eliade's view, two roads await man in this process. One is glory, determined by either work or procreation, and the other the [[asceticism]] of religion or magic—both, Călinescu believed, were aimed at reaching the [[Absolute (philosophy)|absolute]], even in those cases where Eliade described the latter as an "abyssal experience" into which man may take the plunge.<ref name="Călinescu, p.954"/> The critic pointed out that the addition of "a magical solution" to the options taken into consideration seemed to be Eliade's own original contributions to his mentor's philosophy, and proposed that it may have owed inspiration to [[Julius Evola]] and his disciples.<ref name="Călinescu, p.954"/> He also recorded that Eliade applied this concept to human creation, and specifically to artistic creation, citing him describing the latter as "a magical joy, the victorious break of the iron circle" (a reflection of ''[[imitatio dei]]'', having salvation for its ultimate goal).<ref name="Călinescu, p.954"/>