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diff --git a/old/10648.txt b/old/10648.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cb2e72 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10648.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10517 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIII, by +John Lord + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + + + + +Title: Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIII + +Author: John Lord + +Release Date: January 8, 2004 [eBook #10648] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME +XIII*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +LORD'S LECTURES + +BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME XIII + +GREAT WRITERS. + +Dr Lord's Uncompleted Plan, Supplemented with Essays by +Emerson, Macaulay, Hedge, And Mercer Adam + +BY JOHN LORD, LL.D., + +AUTHOR OF "THE OLD ROMAN WORLD," "MODERN EUROPE," +ETC., ETC. + + + + + + + +PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. + + +This being the last possible volume in the series of "Beacon Lights of +History" from the pen of Dr. Lord, its readers will be interested to +know that it contains all the lectures that he had completed (although +not all that he had projected) for his review of certain of the chief +Men of Letters. Lectures on other topics were found among his papers, +but none that would perfectly fit into this scheme; and it was thought +best not to attempt any collection of his material which he himself had +not deemed worthy or appropriate for use in this series, which embodies +the best of his life's work,--all of his books and his lectures that he +wished to have preserved. For instance, "The Old Roman World," enlarged +in scope and rewritten, is included in the volumes on "Old Pagan +Civilizations," "Ancient Achievements," and "Imperial Antiquity;" much +of his "Modern Europe" reappears in "Great Rulers," "Modern European +Statesmen," and "European National Leaders," etc. + +The consideration of "Great Writers" was reserved by Dr. Lord for his +final task,--a task interrupted by death and left unfinished. In order +to round out and complete this volume, recourse has been had to some +other masters in literary art, whose productions are added to Dr. Lord's +final writings. + +In the present volume, therefore, are included the paper on +"Shakspeare" by Emerson, reprinted from his "Representative Men" by +permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers +of Emerson's works; the famous essay on "Milton" by Macaulay; the +principal portion--biographical and generally critical--of the article +on "Goethe," from "Hours with the German Classics," by the late Dr. +Frederic H. Hedge, by permission of Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., the +publishers of that work; and a chapter on "Tennyson: the Spirit of +Modern Poetry," by G. Mercer Adam. + +A certain advantage may accrue to the reader in finding these masters +side by side for comparison and for gauging Dr. Lord's unique life-work +by recognized standards, keeping well in view the purpose no less than +the perfection of these literary performances, all of which, like those +of Dr. Lord, were aimed at setting forth the services of _selected +forces_ in the world's life. + +NEW YORK, September 15, 1902. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +ROUSSEAU. + +SOCIALISM AND EDUCATION. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke +Rousseau representative of his century +Birth +Education and early career; engraver, footman +Secretary, music teacher, and writer +Meets Therese +His first public essay in literature +Operetta and second essay +Geneva; the Hermitage; Madame d'Epinay. +The "Nouvelle Heloise;" Comtesse d'Houdetot +"Emile;" "The Social Contract" +Books publicly burned; author flees +England; Hume; the "Confessions" +Death, career reviewed +Character of Rousseau +Essay on the Arts and Sciences +"Origin of Human Inequalities" +"The Social Contract" +"Emile" +The "New Heloise" +The "Confessions" +Influence of Rousseau + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT. + +THE MODERN NOVEL. + +Scott and Byron +Evanescence of literary fame +Parentage of Scott +Birth and childhood +Schooling and reading +Becomes an advocate +His friends and pleasures +Personal peculiarities +Writing of poetry; first publication +Marriage and settlement +"Scottish Minstrelsy" +"Lay of the Last Minstrel;" Ashestiel rented +The Edinburgh Review: Jeffrey, Brougham, Smith +The Ballantynes +"Marmion" +Jeffrey as a critic +Quarrels of author and publishers; Quarterly Review +Scott's poetry +Duration of poetic fame +Clerk of Sessions; Abbotsford bought +"Lord of the Isles;" "Rokeby" +Fiction; fame of great authors +"Waverley" +"Guy Mannering" +Great popularity of Scott +"The Antiquary" +"Old Mortality;" comparisons +"Rob Roy" +Scotland's debt to Scott +Prosperity; rank; correspondence +Personal habits +Life at Abbotsford +Chosen friends +Works issued in 1820-1825 +Bankruptcy through failure of his publishers +Scott's noble character and action +Works issued in 1825-1831 +Illness and death +Payment of his enormous debt +Vast pecuniary returns from his works + + +LORD BYRON. + +POETIC GENIUS. + +Difficulty of depicting Byron +Descent; birth; lameness +Schooling; early reading habits +College life +Temperament and character +First publication of poems +Savage criticism by Edinburgh Review +"English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" +Byron becomes a peer +Loneliness and melancholy; determines to travel +Portugal; Spain +Malta; Greece; Turkey +Profanity of language in Byron's time +"Childe Harold" +Instant fame and popularity +Consideration of the poem +Marries Miss Milbanke; separation +Genius and marriage +"The Corsair;" "Bride of Abydos" +Evil reputation; loss of public favor +Byron leaves England forever +Switzerland; the Shelleys; new poems +Degrading life in Venice +Wonderful labors amid dissipation +The Countess Guiccioli +Two sides to Byron's character +His power and fertility +Inexcusable immorality; "Don Juan" +"Manfred" and "Cain" not irreligious but dramatic +Byron not atheistical but morbid +Many noble traits and actions +Generosity and fidelity in friendship +Eulogies by Scott and Moore +Byron's interest in the Greek Revolution +Devotes himself to that cause +Raises L10,000 and embarks for Greece +Collects troops in his own pay +His latest verses +Illness from vexation and exposure +Death and burial +The verdict + + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + +CRITICISM AND BIOGRAPHY. + +Froude's Biography of Carlyle +Brief resume of Carlyle's career +Parentage and birth +Slender education; school-teaching +Abandons clerical intentions to become a writer +"Elements of Geometry;" "Life of Schiller;" "Wilhelm Meister" +Marries Jane Welsh +Her character +Edinburgh and Craigenputtock +Essays: "German Literature" +Goethe's "Helena" +"Burns" +"Life of Heyne;" "Voltaire" +"Characteristics" +Wholesome and productive life at Craigenputtock +"Dr. Johnson" +Friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson +"Sartor Resartus" +Carlyle removes to London +Begins "The French Revolution" +Manuscript accidentally destroyed +Habits of great authors in rewriting +Publication of the work; Carlyle's literary style +Better reception in America than in England +Carlyle begins lecturing +Popular eloquence in England +Carlyle and the Chartists +"Heroes and Hero Worship" +"Past and Present" +Carlyle becomes bitter +"Latter-Day Pamphlets" +"Life of Oliver Cromwell" +Carlyle's confounding right with might +Great merits of Carlyle as historian +Death of Mrs. Carlyle +Success of Carlyle established +"Frederick the Great" +Decline of the author's popularity +Public honors; private sorrow +Final illness and death +Carlyle's place in literature + + +LORD MACAULAY. + +ARTISTIC HISTORICAL WRITING. + +Macaulay's varied talents +Descent and parentage +Birth and youth +Education +Character; his greatness intellectual rather than moral +College career +Enters the law +His early writings; poetry; essay on Milton +Social success; contemporaries +Enters politics and Parliament +Sent to India; secretary board of education +Essays in the Reviews +Limitations as a statesman +Devotion to literature +Personal characteristics +Return to London and public office +Still writing essays; "Warren Hastings," "Clive" +Special public appreciation in America +Drops out of Parliament; begins "History of England" +Prodigious labor; extent and exactness of his knowledge +Self-criticism; brilliancy of style +Some inconsistencies +Public honors +Remarkable successes; re-enters Parliament +Illness and growing weakness +Conclusion of the History; foreign and domestic honors +Resigns seat in Parliament +Social habits +Literary tastes +Final illness and death; his fame + + +SHAKSPEARE; OR, THE POET. + +BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON. + +The debt of genius to its age and preceding time. + +The era of Shakspeare favorable to dramatic entertainments. + +The stage a substitute for the newspaper of his era. + +The poet draws upon extant materials--the lime and mortar to his hand. + +Plays which show the original rock on which his own finer stratum is +laid. + +In drawing upon tradition and upon earlier plays the poet's memory is +taxed equally with his invention. + +All originality is relative; every thinker is retrospective. + +The world's literary treasure the result of many a one's labor; +centuries have contributed to its existence and perfection. + +Shakspeare's contemporaries, correspondents, and acquaintances. + +Work of the Shakspeare Society in gathering material to throw light upon +the poet's life, and to illustrate the development of the drama. + +His external history meagre; Shakspeare is the only biographer of +Shakspeare. + +What the sonnets and the dramas reveal of the poet's mind and character. + +His unique creative power, wisdom of life, and great gifts of +imagination. + +Equality of power in farce, tragedy, narrative, and love-songs. + +Notable traits in the poet's character and disposition; his tone pure, +sovereign, and cheerful. + +Despite his genius, he shares the halfness and imperfection of humanity. + +A seer who saw all things to convert them into entertainments, as master +of the revels to mankind. + + +JOHN MILTON: POET AND PATRIOT. + +BY THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. + +His long-lost essay on Doctrines of Christianity. + +As a poet, his place among the greatest masters of the art. + +Unfavorable circumstances of his era, born "an age too late". + +A rude era more favorable to poetry. + +The poetical temperament highest in a rude state of society. + +Milton distinguished by the excellence of his Latin verse. + +His genius gives to it an air of nobleness and freedom. + +Characteristics and magical influence of Milton's poetry. + +Mechanism of his language attains exquisite perfection. + +"L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso," "Comus" and "Samson Agonistes" +described. + +"Comus" properly more lyrical than dramatic. + +Milton's preference for "Paradise Regained" over "Paradise Lost". + +Contrasts between Milton and Dante. + +Milton's handling of supernatural beings in his poetry. + +His art of communicating his meaning through succession of associated +ideas. + +Other contrasts between Milton and Dante--the mysterious and the +picturesque in their verse. + +Milton's fiends wonderful creations, not metaphysical abstractions. + +Moral qualities of Milton and Dante. + +The Sonnets simple but majestic records of the poet's feelings. + +Milton's public conduct that of a man of high spirit and powerful +intellect. + +Eloquent champion of the principles of freedom. + +His public conduct to be esteemed in the light of the times, and of its +great question whether the resistance of the people to Charles I. was +justifiable or criminal. + +Approval of the Great Rebellion and of Milton's attitude towards it. + +Eulogium on Cromwell and approval of Milton's taking office (Latin +Secretaryship) under him. + +The Puritans and Royalists, or Roundheads and Cavaliers. + +The battle Milton fought for freedom of the human mind. + +High estimate of Milton's prose works. + + +JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. + +GERMANY'S GREATEST WRITER. + +BY FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE. + +Fills highest place among the poets and prose-writers of Germany. + +Influences that made the man. + +Self-discipline and educational training. + +Counsellor to Duke Karl August at Weimar, where he afterwards resides. + +Visits Italy; makes Schiller's acquaintance; Goethe's personal +appearance. + +His unflagging industry; defence of the poet's personal character. + +The "Maerchen," its interpretation and the light it throws on Goethe's +political career. + +Lyrist, dramatist, novelist, and mystic seer. + +His drama "Goetz von Berlichingen," and "Sorrows of Werther". + +Popularity of his ballads; his elegies, and "Hermann und Dorothea". + +"Iphigenie auf Tauris;" his stage plays "Faust" (First Part) and +"Egmont". + +The prose works "Wilhelm Meister" and the "Elective Affinities". + +His skill in the delineation of female character. + +"Faust;" contrasts in spirit and style between the two Parts. + +Import of the work, key to or analysis of the plot. + + +ALFRED (LORD) TENNYSON. + +THE SPIRIT OF MODERN POETRY. + +BY G. MERCER ADAM. + +Tennyson's supreme excellence--his transcendent art. + +His work the perfection of literary form; his melody exquisite. + +Representative of the age's highest thought and culture. + +Keen interpreter of the deep underlying spirit of his time. + +Contemplative and brooding verse, full of rhythmic beauty. + +The "Idylls of the King," their deep ethical motive and underlying +purpose. + +His profound religious convictions and belief in the eternal verities. + +Hallam Tennyson's memoir of the poet; his friends and intimates. + +The poet's birth, family, and youthful characteristics + +Early publishing ventures; his volume of 1842 gave him high rank. + +Personal appearance, habits, and mental traits. + +"In Memoriam," its noble, artistic expression of sorrow for Arthur +Hallam. + +"The Princess" and its moral, in the treatment of its "Woman Question" +theme. + +The metrical romance "Maud," and "The Idylls of the King," an epic of +chivalry. + +"Enoch Arden," and the dramas "Harold," "Becket," and "Queen Mary". + +Other dramatic compositions: "The Falcon," "The Cup," and "The Promise +of May". + +The pastoral play, "The Foresters," and later collections of poems and +ballads. + +The poet's high faith, and belief that "good is the final goal of ill". + +His exalted place among the great literary influences of his era. + +Expressive to his age of the high and hallowing Spirit of Modern +Poetry. + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME XIII. + +The Young Goethe at Frankfort _Frontispiece_ +_After the painting by Frank Kirchbach_. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau +_After the painting by M. Q. de la Tour, Chantilly, France_. + +Sir Walter Scott +_After the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A_. + +Lord Byron +_After the painting by P. Kraemer_. + +Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire +_After the painting by M. Q. de la Tour, Endoxe Marville +Collection, Paris_. + +Thomas Carlyle +_After a photograph from life_ + +Thomas Babington Macaulay +_After a photograph by Maule, London_. + +William Shakspeare +_After the "Chandos Portrait," National Portrait Gallery, London_. + +John Milton +_After the painting by Pieter van der Plaas_. + +Milton Visits the Aged Galileo +_After the painting by T. Lessi_. + +Goethe +_After the painting by C. Jaeger_. + +Alfred (Lord) Tennyson +_After the painting by G. F. Watts, R. A_. + +Tennyson's Elaine +_After the painting by T. E. Rosenthal_. + + + + +BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY. + + +JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. + + +1712-1778. + +SOCIALISM AND EDUCATION. + + +Two great political writers in the eighteenth century, of antagonistic +views, but both original and earnest, have materially affected the whole +science of government, and even of social life, from their day to ours, +and in their influence really belong to the nineteenth century. One was +the apostle of radicalism; the other of conservatism. The one, more than +any other single man, stimulated, though unwittingly, the French +Revolution; the other opposed that mad outburst with equal eloquence, +and caused in Europe a reaction from revolutionary principles. While one +is far better known to-day than the other, to the thoughtful both are +exponents and representatives of conflicting political and social +questions which agitate this age. + +These men were Jean Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke,--one Swiss, and +the other English. Burke I have already treated of in a former volume. +His name is no longer a power, but his influence endures in all the +grand reforms of which he was a part, and for which his generation in +England is praised; while his writings remain a treasure-house of +political and moral wisdom, sure to be drawn upon during every public +discussion of governmental principles. Rousseau, although a writer of a +hundred years ago, seems to me a fit representative of political, +social, and educational ideas in the present day, because his theories +are still potent, and even in this scientific age more widely diffused +than ever before. Not without reason, it is true, for he embodied +certain germinant ideas in a fascinating literary style; but it is hard +to understand how so weak a man could have exercised such far-reaching +influence. + +Himself a genuine and passionate lover of Nature; recognizing in his +principles of conduct no duties that could conflict with personal +inclinations; born in democratic and freedom-loving Switzerland, and +early imbued through his reading of German and English writers with +ideas of liberty,--which in those conservative lands were +wholesome,--he distilled these ideas into charming literary creations +that were eagerly read by the restless minds of France and wrought in +them political frenzy. The reforms he projected grew out of his theories +of the "rights" of man, without reference to the duties that limit those +rights; and his appeal for their support to men's passions and selfish +instincts and to a sentimental philosophy, in an age of irreligion and +immorality, aroused a political tempest which he little contemplated. + +In an age so infidel and brilliant as that which preceded the French +Revolution, the writings of Rousseau had a peculiar charm, and produced +a great effect even on men who despised his character and ignored his +mission. He engendered the Robespierres and Condorcets of the +Revolution,--those sentimental murderers, who under the guise of +philosophy attacked the fundamental principles of justice and destroyed +the very rights which they invoked. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau was born at Geneva in the year 1712, when Voltaire +was first rising into notice. He belonged to the plebeian ranks, being +the son of a watchmaker; was sickly, miserable, and morbid from a child; +was poorly educated, but a great devourer of novels (which his +father--sentimental as he--read with him), poetry, and gushing +biographies; although a little later he became, with impartial facility, +equally delighted with the sturdy Plutarch. His nature was passionate +and inconstant, his sensibilities morbidly acute, and his imagination +lively. He hated all rules, precedents, and authority. He was lazy, +listless, deceitful, and had a great craving for novelties and +excitement,--as he himself says, "feeling everything and knowing +nothing." At an early age, without money or friends, he ran away from +the engraver to whom he had been apprenticed, and after various +adventures was first kindly received by a Catholic priest in Savoy; then +by a generous and erring woman of wealth lately converted to +Catholicism; and again by the priests of a Catholic Seminary in +Sardinia, under whose tuition, and in order to advance his personal +fortunes, he abjured the religion in which he had been brought up, and +professed Catholicism. This, however, cost him no conscientious +scruples, for his religious training had been of the slimmest, and +principles he had none. + +We next see Rousseau as a footman in the service of an Italian Countess, +where he was mean enough to accuse a servant girl of a theft he had +himself committed, thereby causing her ruin. Again, employed as a +footman in the service of another noble family, his extraordinary +talents were detected, and he was made secretary. But all this kindness +he returned with insolence, and again became a wanderer. In his +isolation he sought the protection of the Swiss lady who had before +befriended him, Madame de Warens. He began as her secretary, and ended +in becoming her lover. In her house he saw society and learned music. + +A fit of caprice induced Rousseau to throw up this situation, and he +then taught music in Chambery for a living, studied hard, read Voltaire, +Descartes, Locke, Hobbes, Leibnitz, and Puffendorf, and evinced an +uncommon vivacity and talent for conversation, which made him a favorite +in social circles. His chief labor, however, for five years was in +inventing a system of musical notation, which led him to Lyons, and +then, in 1741, to Paris. + +He was now twenty-nine years old,--a visionary man, full of schemes, +with crude opinions and unbounded self-conceit, but poor and unknown,--a +true adventurer, with many agreeable qualities, irregular habits, and +not very scrupulous morals. Favored by letters of introduction to ladies +of distinction,--for he was a favorite with ladies, who liked his +enthusiasm, freshness, elegant talk, and grand sentiments,--he succeeded +in getting his system of musical notation examined, although not +accepted, by the French Academy, and secured an appointment as +secretary in the suite of the Ambassador to Venice. + +In this city Rousseau remained but a short time, being disgusted with +what he called "official insolence," which did not properly recognize +native genius. He returned to Paris as poor as when he left it, and +lived in a cheap restaurant. There he made the acquaintance of his +Therese, a healthy, amiable woman, but low, illiterate, unappreciative, +and coarse, the author of many of his subsequent miseries. She lived +with him till he died,--at first as his mistress and housekeeper, +although later in life he married her. She was the mother of his five +children, every one of whom he sent to a foundling hospital, justifying +his inhumanity by those sophistries and paradoxes with which his +writings abound,--even in one of his letters appealing for pity because +he "had never known the sweetness of a father's embrace." With +extraordinary self-conceit, too, he looked upon himself, all the while, +in his numerous illicit loves, as a paragon of virtue, being apparently +without any moral sense or perception of moral distinctions. + +It was not till Rousseau was thirty-nine years of age that he attracted +public attention by his writings, although earlier known in literary +circles,--especially in that infidel Parisian _coterie_, where Diderot, +Grimm, D'Holbach, D'Alembert, David Hume, the Marquis de Mirabeau, +Helvetius, and other wits shined, in which circle no genius was +acknowledged and no profundity of thought was deemed possible unless +allied with those pagan ideas which Saint Augustine had exploded and +Pascal had ridiculed. Even while living among these people, Rousseau had +all the while a kind of sentimental religiosity which revolted at their +ribald scoffing, although he never protested. + +He had written some fugitive pieces of music, and had attempted and +failed in several slight operettas, composing both music and words; but +the work which made Rousseau famous was his essay on a subject +propounded in 1749 by the Academy of Dijon: "Has the Progress of Science +and the Arts Contributed to Corrupt or to Purify Morals?" This was a +strange subject for a literary institution to propound, but one which +exactly fitted the genius of Rousseau. The boldness of his paradox--for +he maintained the evil effects of science and art--and the brilliancy of +his style secured readers, although the essay was crude in argument and +false in logic. In his "Confessions" he himself condemns it as the +weakest of all his works, although "full of force and fire;" and he +adds: "With whatever talent a man may be born, the art of writing is not +easily learned." It has been said that Rousseau got the idea of taking +the "off side" of this question from his literary friend Diderot, and +that his unexpected success with it was the secret of his life-long +career of opposition to all established institutions. This is +interesting, but not very authentic. + +The next year, his irregular activity having been again stimulated by +learning that his essay had gained the premium at Dijon, and by the fact +of its great vogue as a published pamphlet, another performance fairly +raised Rousseau to the pinnacle of fashion; and this was an opera which +he composed, "Le Devin du Village" (The Village Sorcerer), which was +performed at Fontainebleau before the Court, and received with +unexampled enthusiasm. His profession, so far as he had any, was that of +a copyist of music, and his musical taste and facile talents had at last +brought him an uncritical recognition. + +But Rousseau soon abandoned music for literature. In 1753 he wrote +another essay for the Academy of Dijon, on the "Origin of the Inequality +of Man," full of still more startling paradoxes than his first, in which +he attempted to show, with great felicity of language, the superiority +of savage life over civilization. + +At the age of forty-two Rousseau revisited Protestant Geneva, abjured in +its turn the Catholic faith, and was offered the post of librarian of +the city. But he could not live out of the atmosphere of Paris; nor did +he wish to remain under the shadow of Voltaire, living in his villa near +the City Gate of Geneva, who had but little admiration for Rousseau, and +whose superior social position excited the latter's envy. Yet he +professed to hate Paris with its conventionalities and fashions, and +sought a quiet retreat where he could more leisurely pursue his studies +and enjoy Nature, which he really loved. This was provided for him by an +enthusiastic friend,--Madame d'Epinay,--in the beautiful valley of +Montmorenci, and called "The Hermitage," situated in the grounds of her +Chateau de la Chevrette. Here he lived with his wife and mother-in-law, +he himself enjoying the hospitalities of the Chateau besides,--society +of a most cultivated kind, also woods, lawns, parks, gardens,--all for +nothing; the luxuries of civilization, the glories of Nature, and the +delights of friendship combined. It was an earthly paradise, given him +by enthusiastic admirers of his genius and conversation. + +In this retreat, one of the most favored which a poor author ever had, +Rousseau, ever craving some outlet for his passionate sentiments, +created an ideal object of love. He wrote imaginary letters, dwelling +with equal rapture on those he wrote and those he fancied he received +in return, and which he read to his lady friends, after his rambles in +the forests and parks, during their reunions at the supper-table. Thus +was born the "Nouvelle Heloise,"--a novel of immense fame, in which the +characters are invested with every earthly attraction, living in +voluptuous peace, yet giving vent to those passions which consume the +unsatisfied soul. It was the forerunner of "Corinne," "The Sorrows of +Werther," "Thaddeus of Warsaw," and all those sentimental romances which +amused our grandfathers and grandmothers, but which increased the +prejudice of religious people against novels. It was not until Sir +Walter Scott arose with his wholesome manliness that the embargo against +novels was removed. + +The life which Rousseau lived at the Hermitage--reveries in the +forest, luxurious dinners, and sentimental friendships--led to a +passionate love-affair with the Comtesse d'Houdetot, a sister-in-law +of his patroness Madame d'Epinay,--a woman not only married, +but who had another lover besides. The result, of course, was +miserable,--jealousies, piques, humiliations, misunderstandings, and the +sundering of the ties of friendship, which led to the necessity of +another retreat: a real home the wretched man never had. This was +furnished, still in the vicinity of Montmorenci, by another aristocratic +friend, the Marechal de Luxembourg, the fiscal agent of the Prince de +Conde. And nothing to me is stranger than that this wandering, morbid, +irritable man, without birth or fortune, the father of the wildest +revolutionary and democratic doctrines, and always hated both by the +Court and the Church, should have found his friends and warmest admirers +and patrons in the highest circles of social life. It can be explained +only by the singular fascination of his eloquence, and by the extreme +stolidity of his worshippers in appreciating his doctrines, and the +state of society to which his principles logically led. + +In this second retreat Rousseau had the _entree_ to the palace of the +Duke of Luxembourg, where he read to the friends assembled at its +banquets his new production, "Emile,"--a singular treatise on education, +not so faulty as his previous works, but still false in many of its +principles, especially in regard to religion. This book contained an +admirable and powerful impulse away from artificiality and towards +naturalness in education, which has exerted an immense influence for +good; we shall revert to it later. + +A few months before the publication of "Emile," Rousseau had issued "The +Social Contract," the most revolutionary of all his works, subversive of +all precedents in politics, government, and the organization of society, +while also confounding Christianity with ecclesiasticism and attacking +its influence in the social order. All his works obtained a wide fame +before publication by reason of his habit of reading them to +enthusiastic and influential friends who made them known. + +"The Social Contract," however, dangerous as it was, did not when +published arouse so much opposition as "Emile." The latter book, as we +now see, contained much that was admirable; but its freedom and +looseness in religious discussion called down the wrath of the clergy, +excited the alarm of the government, and finally compelled the author to +fly for his life to Switzerland. + +Rousseau is now regarded as an enemy to Christian doctrine, even as he +was a foe to the existing institutions of society. In Geneva his books +are publicly burned. Henceforth his life is embittered by constant +persecution. He flies from canton to canton in the freest country in +Europe, obnoxious not only for his opinions but for his habits of life. +He affectedly adopts the Armenian dress, with its big fur bonnet and +long girdled caftan, among the Swiss peasantry. He is as full of +personal eccentricities as he is of intellectual crotchets. He becomes a +sort of literary vagabond, with every man's hand against him. He now +writes a series of essays, called "Letters from the Mountain," full of +bitterness and anti-Christian sentiments. So incensed by these writings +are the country people among whom he dwells that he is again forced +to fly. + +David Hume, regarding him as a mild, affectionate, and persecuted man, +gives Rousseau a shelter in England. The wretched man retires to +Derbyshire, and there writes his "Confessions,"--the most interesting +and most dangerous of his books, showing a diseased and irritable mind, +and most sophistical views on the immutable principles of both morality +and religion. A victim of mistrust and jealousy, he quarrels with Hume, +who learns to despise his character, while pitying the sensitive +sufferings of one whom he calls "a man born without a skin." + +Rousseau returns to France at the age of fifty-five. After various +wanderings he is permitted to settle in Paris, where he lives with great +frugality in a single room, poorly furnished,--supporting himself by +again copying music, sought still in high society, yet shy, reserved, +forlorn, bitter; occasionally making new friends, who are attracted by +the infantine simplicity of his manners and apparent amiability, but +losing them almost as soon as made by his petty jealousies and +irritability, being "equally indignant at neglect and intolerant of +attention." + +Rousseau's declining health and the fear of his friends that he was on +the borders of insanity led to his last retreat, offered by a +munificent friend, at Ermenonville, near Paris, where he died at +sixty-six years of age, in 1778, as some think from poison administered +by his own hand. The revolutionary National Assembly of France in 1790 +bestowed a pension of fifteen hundred francs on his worthless widow, who +had married a stable-boy soon after the death of her husband. + +Such was the checkered life of Rousseau. As to his character, Lord +Brougham says that "never was so much genius before united with so much +weakness." The leading spring of his life was egotism. He never felt +himself wrong, and the sophistries he used to justify his immoralities +are both ludicrous and pitiable. His treatment of Madame de Warens, his +first benefactor, was heartless, while the abandonment of his children +was infamous. He twice changed his religion without convictions, for the +advancement of his fortunes. He pretended to be poor when he was +independent in his circumstances. He supposed himself to be without +vanity, while he was notoriously the most conceited man in France. He +quarrelled with all his friends. He made war on society itself. He +declared himself a believer in Christianity, but denied all revelation, +all miracles, all inspiration, all supernaturalism, and everything he +could not reconcile with his reason. His bitterest enemies were the +atheists themselves, who regarded him as a hypocrite, since he professed +to believe in what he undermined. The hostility of the Church was +excited against him, not because he directly assailed Christianity, but +because he denied all its declarations and sapped its authority. + +Rousseau was, however, a sentimentalist rather than a rationalist, an +artist rather than a philosopher. He was not a learned man, but a bold +thinker. He would root out all distinctions in society, because they +could not be reconciled with his sense of justice. He preached a gospel +of human rights, based not on Christianity but on instinct. He was full +of impracticable theories. He would have no war, no suffering, no +hardship, no bondage, no fear, and even no labor, since these were +evils, and, according to his notions of moral government, unnecessary. +But in all his grand theories he ignored the settled laws of +Providence,--even those of that "Nature" he so fervently +worshipped,--all that is decreed concerning man or woman, all that is +stern and real in existence; and while he uttered such sophistries, he +excited discontent with the inevitable condition of man, he loosened +family ties, he relaxed wholesome restraints, he infused an intense +hatred of all conditions subject to necessary toil. + +The life of this embittered philanthropist was as great a contradiction +as were his writings. This benevolent man sends his own children to a +foundling hospital. This independent man lives for years on the bounty +of an erring woman, whom at last he exposes and deserts. This +high-minded idealizer of friendship quarrels with every man who seeks to +extricate him from the consequences of his own imprudence. This +affectionate lover refuses a seat at his table to the woman with whom he +lives and who is the mother of his children. This proud republican +accepts a pension from King George III., and lives in the houses of +aristocratic admirers without payment. This religious teacher rarely +goes to church, or respects the outward observances of the Christianity +he affects. This moral theorizer, on his own confession, steals and lies +and cheats. This modest innocent corrupts almost every woman who listens +to his eloquence. This lofty thinker consumes his time in frivolity and +senseless quarrels. This patriot makes war on the institutions of his +country and even of civilized life. This humble man turns his back on +every one who will not do him reverence. + +Such was this precursor of revolutions, this agitator, this hypocrite, +this egotist, this lying prophet,--a man admired and despised, brilliant +but indefinite, original but not true, acute but not wise; logical, but +reasoning on false premises; advancing some great truths, but spoiling +their legitimate effect by sophistries and falsehoods. + +Why, then, discuss the ideas and influence of so despicable a creature? +Because, sophistical as they were, those ideas contained truths of +tremendous germinant power; because in the rank soil of his times they +produced a vast crop of bitter, poisonous fruit, while in the more open, +better aerated soil of this century they have borne and have yet to bear +a fruitage of universal benefit. God's ways seem mysterious; it is for +men patiently to study, understand, and utilize them. + +Let us turn to the more definite consideration of the writings which +have given this author so brilliant a fame. I omit any review of his +operas and his system of musical notation, as not bearing on the +opinions of society. + +The first work, as I have said, which brought Rousseau into notice was +the treatise for the Academy of Dijon, as to whether the arts and +sciences have contributed to corrupt or to purify morals. Rousseau +followed the bent of his genius, in maintaining that they have done more +harm than good; and he was so fresh and original and brilliant that he +gained the prize. This little work contains the germ of all his +subsequent theories, especially that in which he magnifies the state of +nature over civilization,--an amazing paradox, which, however, appealed +to society when men were wearied with the very pleasures for which +they lived. + +Rousseau's cant about the virtues engendered by ignorance, idleness, and +barbarism is repulsive to every sound mind, Civilization may present +greater temptations than a state of nature, but these are inseparable +from any growth, and can be overcome by the valorous mind. Who but a +madman would sweep away civilization with its factitious and remediable +evils for barbarism with its untutored impulses and animal life? Here +Rousseau makes war upon society, upon all that is glorious in the +advance of intellect and the growth of morality,--upon the reason and +aspirations of mankind. Can inexperience be a better guide than +experience, when it encounters crime and folly? Yet, on the other hand, +a plea for greater simplicity of life, a larger study of Nature, and a +freer enjoyment of its refreshing contrasts to the hot-house life of +cities, is one of the most reasonable and healthful impulses of our +own day. + +What can be more absurd, although bold and striking, than Rousseau's +essay on the "Origin of Human Inequalities"! In this he pushes out the +doctrine of personal liberty to its utmost logical sequence, so as to do +away with government itself, and with all regulation for the common +good. We do not quarrel with his abstract propositions in respect to +political equality; but his deductions strike a blow at civilization, +since he maintains that inequalities of human condition are the source +of all political and social evils, while Christianity, confirmed by +common-sense, teaches that the source of social evils is in the selfish +nature of man rather than in his outward condition. And further, if it +were possible to destroy the inequalities of life, they would soon again +return, even with the most boundless liberty. Here common-sense is +sacrificed to a captivating theory, and all the experiences of the world +are ignored. + +This shows the folly of projecting any abstract theory, however true, to +its remote and logical sequence. In the attempt we are almost certain to +be landed in absurdity, so complicated are the relations of life, +especially in governmental and political science. What doctrine of civil +or political economy would be applicable in all ages and all countries +and all conditions? Like the ascertained laws of science, or the great +and accepted truths of the Bible, political axioms are to be considered +in their relation with other truths equally accepted, or men are soon +brought into a labyrinth of difficulties, and the strongest intellect is +perplexed. + +And especially will this be the case when a theory under consideration +is not a truth but an assumption. That was the trouble with Rousseau. +His theories, disdainful of experience, however logically treated, +became in their remotest sequence and application insulting to the human +understanding, because they were often not only assumptions, but +assumptions of what was not true, although very specious and flattering +to certain classes. + +Rousseau confounded the great truth of the justice of moral and +political equality with the absurd and unnatural demand for social and +material equality. The great modern cry for equal opportunity for all is +sound and Christian; but any attempt to guarantee individual success in +using opportunity, to insure the lame and the lazy an equal rank in the +race, must end in confusion and distraction. + +The evil of Rousseau's crude theories or false assumptions was +practically seen in the acceptance of their logical conclusions, which +led to anarchy, murder, pillage, and outrageous excess. The great danger +attending his theories is that they are generally half-truths,--truth +and falsehood blended. His writings are sophistical. It is difficult to +separate the truth from the error, by reason of the marvellous felicity +of his language. I do not underrate his genius or his style. He was +doubtless an original thinker and a most brilliant and artistic writer; +and by so much did he confuse people, even by the speciousness of his +logic. There is nothing indefinite in what he advances. He is not a poet +dealing in mysticisms, but a rhetorical philosopher, propounding +startling theories, partly true and partly false, which he logically +enforces with matchless eloquence. + +Probably the most influential of Rousseau's writings was "The Social +Contract,"--the great textbook of the Revolution. In this famous +treatise he advanced some important ideas which undoubtedly are based on +ultimate truth, such as that the people are the source of power, that +might does not make right, that slavery is an aggression on human +rights; but with these ideal truths he combines the assertion that +government is a contract between the governor and the governed. In a +perfect state of society this may be the ideal; but society is not and +never has been perfect, and certainly in all the early ages of the world +governments were imposed upon people by the strong hand, irrespective of +their will and wishes,--and these were the only governments which were +fit and useful in that elder day. Governments, as a plain matter of +fact, have generally arisen from circumstances and relations with which +the people have had little to do. The Oriental monarchies were the +gradual outgrowth of patriarchal tradition and successful military +leadership, and in regard to them the people were never consulted at +all. The Roman Empire was ruled without the consent of the governed. +Feudal monarchies in Europe were based on the divine rights of kings. +There was no state in Europe where a compact or social contract had been +made or implied. Even later, when the French elected Napoleon, they +chose a monarch because they feared anarchy, without making any +stipulation. There were no contracting parties. + +The error of Rousseau was in assuming a social contract as a fact, and +then reasoning upon the assumption. His premises are wrong, or at least +they are nothing more than statements of what abstractly might be made +to follow from the assumption that the people actually are the source of +power,--a condition most desirable and in the last analysis correct, +since even military despots use the power of the people in order to +oppress the people, but which is practically true only in certain +states. Yet, after all, when brought under the domain of law by the +sturdy sense and utilitarian sagacity of the Anglo-Saxon race, +Rousseau's doctrine of the sovereignty of the people is the great +political motor of this century, in republics and monarchies alike. + +Again, Rousseau maintains that, whatever acquisitions an individual or +a society may make, the right to this property must be always +subordinate to the right which the community at large has over the +possessions of all. Here is the germ of much of our present-day +socialism. Whatever element of truth there may be in the theory that +would regard land and capital, the means of production, as the joint +possession of all the members of the community,--the basic doctrine of +socialism,--any forcible attempt to distribute present results of +individual production and accumulation would be unjust and dangerous to +the last degree. In the case of the furious carrying out of this +doctrine by the crazed French revolutionists, it led to outrageous +confiscation, on the ground that all property belonged to the state, and +therefore the representatives of the nation could do what they pleased +with it. This shallow sophistry was accepted by the French National +Convention when it swept away estates of nobles and clergy, not on the +tenable ground that the owners were public enemies, but on the baseless +pretext that their property belonged to the nation. + +From this sophistry about the rights of property, Rousseau advanced +another of still worse tendency, which was that the general will is +always in the right and constantly tends to the public good. The theory +is inconsistent with itself. Light and truth do not come from the +universal reason, but from the thoughts of great men stimulated into +growth among the people. The teachers of the world belong to a small +class. Society is in need of constant reforms, which are not suggested +by the mass, but by a few philosophers or reformers,--the wise men who +save cities. + +Rousseau further says that a whole people can never become corrupted,--a +most barefaced assertion. Have not all nations suffered periods of +corruption? This notion, that the whole people cannot err, opens the +door for any license. It logically leads to that other idea, of the +native majesty of man and the perfectibility of society, which this +sophist boldly accepted. Rousseau thought that if society were released +from all law and all restraint, the good impulses and good sense of the +majority would produce a higher state of virtue and wisdom than what he +saw around him, since majorities could do no wrong and the universal +reason could not err. In this absurdity lay the fundamental principle of +the French Revolution, so far as it was produced by the writings of +philosophers. This doctrine was eagerly seized upon by the French +people, maddened by generations of oppression, poverty, and degradation, +because it appealed to the pride and vanity of the masses, at that time +congregated bodies of ignorance and wickedness. + +Rousseau had an unbounded trust in human nature,--that it is good and +wise, and will do the best thing if left to itself. But can anything be +more antagonistic to all the history of the race? I doubt if Rousseau +had any profound knowledge, or even really extensive reading. He was a +dreamer, a theorist, a sentimentalist. He was the arch-priest of all +sensationalism in the guise of logic. What more acceptable to the vile +people of his age than the theory that in their collective capacity they +could not err, that the universal reason was divine? What more logical +than its culmination in that outrageous indecency, the worship of Reason +in the person of a prostitute! + +Again, Rousseau's notion of the limitations of law and the prerogative +of the people, carried out, would lead to the utter subversion of +central authority, and reduce nations to an absolute democracy of small +communities. They would divide and subdivide until society was resolved +into its original elements. This idea existed among the early Greek +states, when a state rarely comprised more than a single city or town or +village, such as might be found among the tribes of North American +Indians. The great political question in Ancient Greece was the autonomy +of cities, which kept the whole land in constant wars and dissensions +and quarrels and jealousies, and prevented that centralization of power +which would have made Greece unconquerable and the mistress of the +world. Our wholesome American system of autonomy in local affairs, with +a common authority in matters affecting the general good, is organized +liberty. But the ancient and outgrown idea of unregulated autonomy was +revived by Rousseau; and though it could not be carried out by the +French Revolutionists who accepted nearly all his theories, it led to +the disintegration of France, and the multiplication of offices fatal to +a healthy central power. Napoleon broke up all this in his centralized +despotism, even if, to keep the Revolutionary sympathy, he retained the +Departments which were substituted for the ancient Provinces. + +The extreme spirit of democratic liberty which is the characteristic of +Rousseau's political philosophy led to the advocacy of the wildest +doctrines of equality. He would prevent the accumulation of wealth, so +that, to use his words, "no one citizen should be rich enough to buy +another, and no one so poor as to be obliged to sell himself." He would +have neither rich people nor beggars. What could flow from such +doctrines but discontent and unreasonable expectations among the poor, +and a general fear and sense of insecurity among the rich? This "state +of nature," moreover, in his view, could be reached only by going +backward and destroying all civilization,--and it was civilization which +he ever decried,--a very pleasant doctrine to vagabonds, but likely to +be treated with derisive mockery by all those who have something +to conserve. + +Another and most dangerous principle which was advocated in the "Social +Contract" was that religion has nothing to do with the affairs of civil +and political life; that religious obligations do not bind a citizen; +that Christianity, in fact, ignores all the great relations of man in +society. This is distinct from the Puritan doctrine of the separation of +the Church from the State, by which is simply meant that priests ought +not to interfere in matters purely political, nor the government meddle +with religious affairs,--a prime doctrine in a free State. But no body +of men were ever more ardent defenders of the doctrine that all +religious ideas ought to bear on the social and political fabric than +the Puritans, They would break up slavery, if it derogated from the +doctrine of the common brotherhood of man as declared by Christ; they +would use their influence as Christians to root out all evil +institutions and laws, and bring the sublime truths of the Master to +bear on all the relations of life,--on citizens at the ballot-box, at +the helm of power, and in legislative bodies. Christianity was to them +the supreme law, with which all human laws must harmonize. But Rousseau +would throw out Christianity altogether, as foreign to the duties and +relations of both citizens and rulers, pretending that it ignored all +connection with mundane affairs and had reference only to the salvation +of the soul,--as if all Christ's teachings were not regulative of the +springs of conduct between man and man, as indicative of the relations +between man and God! Like Voltaire, Rousseau had the excuse of a corrupt +ecclesiasticism to be broken into; but the Church and Christianity are +two different things. This he did not see. No one was more impatient of +all restraints than Rousseau; yet he maintained that men, if calling +themselves Christians, must submit to every wrong and injustice, looking +for a remedy in the future world,--thus pouring contempt on those who +had no right, according to his view of their system, to complain of +injustice or strive to rise above temporal evils. Christianity, he said, +inculcates servitude and dependence; its spirit is favorable to tyrants; +true Christians are formed to be slaves, and they know it, and never +trouble themselves about conspiracies and insurrections, since this +transitory world has no value in their eyes. He denied that Christians +could be good soldiers,--a falsehood rebuked for us by the wars of the +Reformation, by the troops of Cromwell and Gustavus Adolphus, by our +American soldiers in the late Civil War. Thus he would throw away the +greatest stimulus to heroism,--even the consciousness of duty, and +devotion to great truths and interests. + +I cannot follow out the political ideas of Rousseau in his various other +treatises, in which he prepared the way for revolution and for the +excesses of the Reign of Terror. The truth is, Rousseau's feelings were +vastly superior to his thinking. Whatever of good is to result from his +influence will arise out of the impulse he gave toward the search for +ideals that should embrace the many as well as the few in their +benefits; when he himself attempted to apply this impulse to philosophic +political thought, his unregulated mind went all astray. + +Let us now turn to consider a moment his doctrines pertaining to +education, as brought out in his greatest and most unexceptionable work, +his "Emile." + +In this remarkable book everything pertaining to human life appears to +be discussed. The duties of parents, child-management, punishments, +perception and the beginning of thinking; toys, games, catechisms, all +passions and sentiments, religion, friendship, love, jealousy, pity; the +means of happiness, the pleasures and profits of travel, the principles +of virtue, of justice and liberty; language, books; the nature of man +and of woman, the arts of conventional life, politeness, riches, +poverty, society, marriage,--on all these and other questions he +discourses with great sagacity and good sense, and with unrivalled +beauty of expression, often rising to great eloquence, never dull or +uninstructive, aiming to present virtue and vice in their true colors, +inspiring exalted sentiments, and presenting happiness in simple +pleasures and natural life. + +This treatise is both full and original. The author supposes an +imaginary pupil, named Emile, and he himself, intrusted with the care of +the boy's education, attends him from his cradle to his manhood, assists +him with the necessary directions for his general improvement, and +finally introduces him to an amiable and unsophisticated girl, whose +love he wins by his virtues and whom he honorably marries; so that, +although a treatise, the work is invested with the fascination of +a novel. + +In reading this book, which made so great a noise in Europe, with so +much that is admirable I find but little to criticise, except three +things, which mar its beauty and make it both dangerous and false, in +which the unsoundness of Rousseau's mind and character--the strange +paradoxes of his life in mixing up good with evil--are brought out, and +that so forcibly that the author was hunted and persecuted from one part +of Europe to another on account of it. + +The first is that he makes all natural impulses generous and virtuous, +and man, therefore, naturally good instead of perverse,--thus throwing +not only Christianity but experience entirely aside, and laying down +maxims which, logically carried out, would make society perfect if only +Nature were always consulted. This doctrine indirectly makes all the +treasures of human experience useless, and untutored impulse the guide +of life. It would break the restraints which civilization and a +knowledge of life impose, and reduce man to a primitive state. In the +advocacy of this subtle falsehood, Rousseau pours contempt on all the +teachings of mankind,--on all schools and colleges, on all +conventionalities and social laws, yea, on learning itself. He always +stigmatizes scholars as pedants. + +Secondly, he would reduce woman to insignificance, having her rule by +arts and small devices; making her the inferior of man, on whom she is +dependent and to whose caprice she is bound to submit,--a sort of toy or +slave, engrossed only with domestic duties, like the woman of antiquity. +He would give new rights and liberties to man, but none to woman as +man's equal,--thus keeping her in a dependence utterly irreconcilable +with the bold freedom which he otherwise advocates. The dangerous +tendency of his writings is somewhat checked, however, by the +everlasting hostility with which women of character and force of +will--such as they call "strong-minded"--will ever pursue him. He will +be no oracle to them. + +But a still more marked defect weakens "Emile" as one of the guide-books +of the world, great as are its varied excellencies. The author +undermines all faith in Christianity as a revelation, or as a means of +man's communion with the Divine, for guidance, consolation, or +inspiration. Nor does he support one of his moral or religious doctrines +by an appeal to the Sacred Scriptures, which have been so deep a well of +moral and spiritual wisdom for so many races of men. Practically, he is +infidel and pagan, although he professes to admire some of the moral +truths which he never applies to his system. He is a pure Theist or +Deist, recognizing, like the old Greeks, no religion but that of Nature, +and valuing no attainments but such as are suggested by Nature and +Reason, which are the gods he worships from first to last in all his +writings. The Confession of Faith by the Savoyard Vicar introduced into +the fourth of the six "Books" of this work, which, having nothing to do +with his main object, he unnecessarily drags in, is an artful and +specious onslaught on all doctrines and facts revealed in the Bible,--on +all miracles, all prophecies, and all supernatural revelation,--thus +attacking Christianity in its most vital points, and making it of no +more authority than Buddhism or Mohammedanism. Faith is utterly +extinguished. A cold reason is all that he would leave to man,--no +consolation but what the mind can arrive at unaided, no knowledge but +what can be reached by original scientific investigation. He destroys +not only all faith but all authority, by a low appeal to prejudices, and +by vulgar wit such as the infidels of a former age used in their +heartless and flippant controversies. I am not surprised at the +hostility displayed even in France against him by both Catholics and +Protestants. When he advocated his rights of man, from which Thomas +Paine and Jefferson himself drew their maxims, he appealed to the +self-love of the great mass of men ground down by feudal injustices and +inequalities,--to the sense of justice, sophistically it is true, but in +a way which commanded the respect of the intellect. When he assailed +Christianity in its innermost fortresses, while professing to be a +Christian, he incurred the indignation of all Christians and the +contempt of all infidels,--for he added hypocrisy to scepticism, which +they did not. Diderot, D'Alembert, and others were bold unbelievers, and +did not veil their hostilities under a weak disguise. I have never read +a writer who in spirit was more essentially pagan than Rousseau, or who +wrote maxims more entirely antagonistic to Christianity. + +Aside from these great falsities,--the perfection of natural impulse, +the inferiority of woman, and the worthlessness of Christianity,--as +inculcated in this book, "Emile" must certainly be ranked among the +great classics of educational literature. With these expurgated it +confirms the admirable methods inspired by its unmethodical suggestions. +Noting the oppressiveness of the usual order of education through books +and apparatus, he scorns all tradition, and cries, "Let the child learn +direct from Nature!" Himself sensitive and humane, having suffered as a +child from the tyranny of adults, he demands the tenderest care and +sympathy for children, a patient study of their characteristics, a +gentle, progressive leading of them to discover for themselves rather +than a cramming of them with facts. The first moral education should be +negative,--no preaching of virtue and truth, but shielding from vice and +error. He says: "Take the very reverse of the current practice, and you +will almost always do right." This spirit, indeed, is the key to his +entire plan. His ideas were those of the nineteenth, not the eighteenth +century. Free play to childish vitality; punishment the natural +inconvenience consequent on wrong-doing; the incitement of the desire to +learn; the training of sense-activity rather than reflection, in early +years; the acquirement of the power to learn rather than the +acquisition of learning,--in short, the natural and scientifically +progressive rather than the bookish and analytically literary method was +the end and aim of "Emile." + +Actually, this book accomplished little in its own time, chiefly because +of its attack on established religion. Influentially, it reappeared in +Pestalozzi, the first practical reformer of methods; in Froebel, the +inventor of the Kindergarten; in Spencer, the great systematizer of the +philosophy of development; and through these its spirit pervades the +whole world of education at the present time. + +In Rousseau's "New Heloise" there are the same contradictions, the same +paradoxes, the same unsoundness as in his other works, but it is more +eloquent than any. It is a novel in which he paints all the aspirations +of the soul, all its unrest, all its indefinite longings, its raptures, +and its despair; in which he unfetters the imagination and sanctifies +every impulse, not only of affection, but of passion. This novel was the +pioneer of the sentimental romances which rapidly followed in France and +England and Germany,--worse than our sensational literature, since the +author veiled his immoralities by painting the transports of passion +under the guise of love, which ever has its seat in the affections and +is sustained only by respect. Here Rousseau was a disguised seducer, a +poisoner of the moral sentiments, a foe to what is most sacred; and he +was the more dangerous from his irresistible eloquence. His sophistries +in regard to political and social rights may be met by reason, but not +his attacks on the heart, with his imaginary sorrows and joys, his +painting of raptures which can never be found. Here he undermines virtue +as he had undermined truth and law. Here reprobation must become +unqualified, and he appears one of the very worst men who ever exercised +a commanding influence on a wicked and perverse generation. + +And this view of the man is rather confirmed by his own +"Confessions,"--a singularly attractive book, yet from which, after the +perusal of the long catalogue of his sorrows, joys, humiliations, +triumphs, ecstasies and miseries, glories and shame, one rises with +great disappointment, since no great truths, useful lessons, or even +ennobling sentiments are impressed upon the mind to make us wiser or +better. The "Confessions" are only a revelation of that sensibility, +excessive and morbid, which reminds us of Byron and his misanthropic +poetry,--showing a man defiant, proud, vain, unreasonable, unsatisfied, +supremely worldly and egotistic. The first six Books are mere annals of +sentimental debauchery; the last six, a kind of thermometer of +friendship, containing an accurate account of kisses given and +received, with slights, huffs, visits, quarrels, suspicions, and +jealousies, interspersed with grand sentiments and profound views of +life and human nature, yet all illustrative of the utter vanity of +earth, and the failure of all mortal pleasures to satisfy the cravings +of an immortal mind. The "Confessions" remind us of "Manfred" and +"Ecclesiastes" blended,--exceedingly readable, and often +unexceptionable, where virtue is commended and vice portrayed in its +true light, but on the whole a book which no unsophisticated or +inexperienced person can read without the consciousness of receiving a +moral taint; a book in no respect leading to repose or lofty +contemplation, or to submission to the evils of life, which it +catalogues with amazing detail; a book not even conducive to innocent +entertainment. It is the revelation of the inner life of a sensualist, +an egotist, and a hypocrite, with a maudlin although genuine admiration +for Nature and virtue and friendship and love. And the book reveals one +of the most miserable and dissatisfied men that ever walked the earth, +seeking peace in solitude and virtue, while yielding to unrestrained +impulses; a man of morbid sensibility, ever yearning for happiness and +pursuing it by impossible and impracticable paths. No sadder +autobiography has ever been written. It is a lame and impotent attempt +at self-justification, revealing on every page the writer's distrust of +the virtues which he exalts, and of man whose reason and majesty he +deifies,--even of the friendships in which he sought consolation, and of +the retirements where he hoped for rest. + +The book reveals the man. The writer has no hope or repose or faith. +Nothing pleases him long, and he is driven by his wild and undisciplined +nature from one retreat to another, by persecution more fancied than +real, until he dies, not without suspicion of having taken his own life. + +Such was Rousseau: the greatest literary genius of his age, the apostle +of the reforms which were attempted in the French Revolution, and of +ideas which still have a wondrous power,--some of which are grand and +true, but more of which are sophistical, false, and dangerous. His +theories are all plausible; and all are enforced with matchless +eloquence of style, but not with eloquence of thought or true feeling, +like the soaring flights of Pascal,--in every respect his superior in +genius, because more profound and lofty. Rousseau's writings, like his +life, are one vast contradiction, the blending of truth with error,--the +truth valuable even when commonplace, the error subtle and +dangerous,--so that his general influence must be considered bad +wherever man is weak or credulous or inexperienced or perverse. I wish +I could speak better of a man whom so many honestly admire, and whose +influence has been so marked during the last hundred years, and will be +equally great for a hundred years to come; a man from whom Madame de +Stael, Jefferson, and Lamartine drew so much of their inspiration, whose +ideas about childhood have so helpfully transformed the educational +methods of our own time. But I must speak my honest conviction, from the +light I have, at the same time hoping that fuller light may justify more +leniency to one of the great oracles whose doctrines are still cherished +by many of the guides of modern thought. + + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT. + + +1771-1832. + +THE MODERN NOVEL. + +In the early decades of the nineteenth century the two most prominent +figures in English literature were Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. They +are still read and admired, especially Scott; but it is not easy to +understand the enormous popularity of these two men in their own day. +Their busts or pictures were in every cultivated family and in almost +every shop-window. Everybody was familiar with the lineaments of their +countenances, and even with every peculiarity of their dress. Who did +not know the shape of the Byronic collar and the rough, plaided form of +"the Wizard of the North"? Who could not repeat the most famous passages +in the writings of these two authors? + +Is it so now? If not, what a commentary might be written on human fame! +How transitory are the judgments of men in regard to every one whom +fashion stamps! The verdict of critics is that only some half-dozen +authors are now read with the interest and glow which their works called +out a hundred years ago. Even the novels of Sir Walter, although to be +found in every library, kindle but little enthusiasm compared with that +excited by the masterpieces of Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, and of +the favorites of the passing day. Why is this? Will these later lights +also cease to burn? Will they too pass away? Is this age so much +advanced that what pleased our grandfathers and grandmothers has no +charm for us, but is often "flat, stale, and unprofitable,"--at least, +decidedly uninteresting? + +I am inclined to the opinion that only a very small part of any man's +writings is really immortal. Take out the "Elegy in a Country +Churchyard," and how much is left of Gray for other generations to +admire? And so of Goldsmith: besides the "Vicar of Wakefield" and the +"Deserted Village," there is little in his writings that is likely to +prove immortal. Johnson wrote but little poetry that is now generally +valued. Certainly his dictionary, his greatest work, is not immortal, +and is scarcely a standard. Indeed, we have outgrown nearly everything +which was prized so highly a century ago, not only in poetry and +fiction, but in philosophy, theology, and science. Perhaps that is least +permanent which once was regarded as most certain. + +If, then, the poetry and novels of Sir Walter Scott are not so much +read or admired as they once were, we only say that he is no exception +to the rule. I have in mind but two authors in the whole range of +English literature that are read and prized as much to-day as they were +two hundred years ago. And if this is true, what shall we say of +rhetoricians like Macaulay, of critics like Carlyle, of theologians like +Jonathan Edwards, of historians like Hume and Guizot, and of many other +great men of whom it has been the fashion to say that their works are +lasting as the language in which they were written? Some few books will +doubtless live, but, alas, how few! Where now are the eight hundred +thousand in the Alexandrian library, which Ptolemy collected with so +great care,--what, even, their titles? Where are the writings of Varro, +said to have been the most learned man of all antiquity? + +I make these introductory remarks to show how shallow is the criticism +passed upon a novelist or poet like Scott, in that he is not now so +popular or so much read as he was in his own day. It is the fate of most +great writers,--the Augustines, the Voltaires, the Bayles of the world. +It is enough to say that they were lauded and valued in their time, +since this is about all we can say of most of the works supposed to be +immortal. But when we remember the enthusiasm with which the novels of +Scott were at first received, the great sums of money which were paid +for them, and the honors he received from them, he may well claim a +renown and a popularity such as no other literary man ever enjoyed. His +eyes beheld the glory of a great name; his ears rang with the plaudits +of idolaters; he had the consciousness of doing good work, universally +acknowledged and gratefully remembered. Scarcely any other novelist ever +created so much healthy pleasure combined with so much sound +instruction. And, further, he left behind him a reproachless name, +having fewer personal defects than any literary man of his time, being +everywhere beloved, esteemed, and almost worshipped; whom distant +travellers came to see,--sure of kind and gracious treatment; a hero in +their eyes to the last, with no drawbacks such as marred the fame of +Byron or of Burns. That so great a genius as Scott is fading in the +minds of this generation may be not without comfort to those honest and +hard-working men in every walk of human life who can say: We too were +useful in our day, and had our share of honors and rewards,--all perhaps +that we deserved, or even more. What if we are forgotten, as most men +are destined to be? To live in the mouths of men is not the greatest +thing or the best. "Act well your part, there all the honor lies," for +life after all is a drama or a stage. The supremest happiness is not in +being praised; it is in the consciousness of doing right and being +possessed with the power of goodness. + +When, however, a man has been seated on such a lofty pinnacle as was Sir +Walter Scott, we wish to know something of his personal traits, and the +steps by which he advanced to fame. Was he overrated, as most famous men +have been? What is the niche he will probably occupy in the temple of +literary fame? What are the characteristics of his productions? What +gave him his prodigious and extraordinary popularity? Was he a born +genius, like Byron and Burns, or was he merely a most industrious +worker, aided by fortunate circumstances and the caprices of fashion? +What were the intellectual forces of his day, and how did he come to be +counted among them? + +All these points it is difficult to answer satisfactorily, but some +light may be shed upon them. The bulky volumes of Lockhart's Biography +constitute a mine of information about Scott, but are now heavy reading, +without much vivacity,--affording a strong contrast to Boswell's Life of +Johnson, which concealed nothing that we would like to know. A +son-in-law is not likely to be a dispassionate biographer, especially +when family pride and interests restrain him. On the other hand, it is +not wise for a biographer to be too candid, and belittle his hero by the +enumeration of foibles not consistent with the general tenor of the +man's life. Lockhart's knowledge of his subject and his literary skill +have given us much; and, with Scott's own letters and the critical +notice of his contemporaries, both the man and his works may be fairly +estimated. + +Most biographers aim to make the birth and parentage of their heroes as +respectable as possible. Of authors who are "nobly born" there are very +few; most English and Scotch literary men are descended from ancestors +of the middle class,--lawyers, clergymen, physicians, small landed +proprietors, merchants, and so on,--who were able to give their sons an +education in the universities. Sir Walter Scott traced his descent to an +ancient Scottish chief. His grandfather, Robert Scott, was bred to the +sea, but, being ship-wrecked near Dundee, he became a farmer, and was +active in the cattle-trade. Scott's father was a Writer to the Signet in +Edinburgh,--what would be called in England a solicitor,--a thriving, +respectable man, having a large and lucrative legal practice, and being +highly esteemed for his industry and integrity; a zealous Presbyterian, +formal and precise in manner, strict in the observance of the Sabbath, +and of all that he considered to be right. His wife, Anne Rutherford, +was the daughter of a professor of medicine in the University of +Edinburgh,--a lady of rather better education than the average of her +time; a mother whom Sir Walter remembered with great tenderness, and to +whose ample memory and power of graphic description he owed much of his +own skill in reproducing the past. Twelve children were the offspring of +this marriage, although only five survived very early youth. + +Walter, the ninth child, was born on the 15th of August, 1771, and when +quite young, in consequence of a fever, lost for a time the use of his +right leg. By the advice of his grandfather, Dr. Rutherford, he was sent +into the country for his health. As his lameness continued, he was, at +the age of four, removed to Bath, going to London by sea. Bath was then +a noted resort, and its waters were supposed to cure everything. Here +little Walter remained a year under the care of his aunt, when he +returned to Edinburgh, to his father's house in George Square, which was +his residence until his marriage, with occasional visits to the county +seat of his maternal grandfather. He completely regained his health, +although he was always lame. + +From the autobiography which Scott began but did not complete, it would +appear that his lameness and solitary habits were favorable to reading; +that even as a child he was greatly excited by tales and poems of +adventure; and that as a youth he devoured everything he could find +pertaining to early Scottish poetry and romance, of which he was +passionately fond. He was also peculiarly susceptible to the beauties of +Scottish scenery, being thus led to enjoy the country and its sports at +a much earlier age than is common with boys,--which love was never lost, +but grew with his advancing years. Among his fellows he was a hearty +player, a forward fighter in boyish "bickers," and a teller of tales +that delighted his comrades. He was sweet-tempered, merry, generous, and +well-beloved, yet peremptory and pertinacious in pursuit of his +own ideas. + +In 1779, Walter was sent to the High School in Edinburgh; but his +progress here was by no means remarkable, although he laid a good +foundation for the acquisition of the Latin language. He also had a +tutor at home, and from him learned the rudiments of French. With a head +all on fire for chivalry and Scottish ballads, he admired the old Tory +cavaliers and hated the Roundheads and Presbyterians. In three years he +had become fairly familiar with Caesar, Livy, Sallust, Virgil, Horace, +and Terence. He also distinguished himself by making Latin verses. From +the High School he entered the University of Edinburgh, very well +grounded in French and Latin. For Greek and mathematics he had an +aversion, but made up for this deficiency by considerable acquisitions +in English literature. He was delighted with both Ossian and Spenser, +and could repeat the "Faerie Queene" by heart. His memory, like that of +Macaulay, was remarkable. What delighted him more than Spenser were +Hoole's translations of Tasso and Ariosto (later he learned Italian, and +read these in the original), and Percy's "Reliques of Ancient Poetry." +At college he also read the best novels of the day, especially the works +of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett. He made respectable progress in +philosophy under the teaching of the celebrated Dugald Stewart and +Professor Bruce, and in history under Lord Woodhouselee. On the whole, +he was not a remarkable boy, except for his notable memory (which, +however, kept only what pleased him), and his very decided bent toward +the poetic and chivalric in history, life, and literature. + +Walter was trained by his father to the law, and on leaving college he +served the ordinary apprenticeship of five years in his father's office +and attendance upon the law classes in the University; but the drudgery +of the law was irksome to him. When the time came to select his +profession, as a Writer to the Signet or an advocate, he preferred the +latter; although success here was more uncertain than as a solicitor. Up +to the time of his admission to the bar he had read an enormous number +of books, in a desultory way, and made many friends, some of whom +afterwards became distinguished. His greatest pleasures were in long +walks in the country with chosen companions. His love of Nature amounted +to a passion, and in his long rambles he acquired not only vigorous +health, but the capacity of undergoing great fatigue. + +Scott's autobiography closes with his admission to the bar. From his own +account his early career had not been particularly promising, although +he was neither idle nor immoral. He was fond of convivial pleasures, but +ever had uncommon self-control. All his instructors were gentlemanly, +and he had access to the best society in Edinburgh, when that city was +noted for its number of distinguished men in literature and in the +different professions. His most intimate friends were John Irving, Sir +Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Dalhousie, and Adam Ferguson, with whom +he made excursions to the Highlands, and to ruined castles and abbeys of +historic interest,--following with tireless search the new trail of an +old Border ballad, or taking a thirty-mile walk to clear up some local +legend of battle, foray, or historic event. In all these antiquarian +raids the young fellows mingled freely with the people, and tramped the +counties round about in most hilarious mood, by no means escaping the +habits of the day in tavern sprees and drinking-bouts,--although Scott's +companions testify to his temperate indulgence. + +The young lawyer was, indeed, unwittingly preparing for his mission to +paint Scottish scenery so vividly, and Scottish character so charmingly, +that he may almost be said to have created a new country which +succeeding generations delight to visit. No man was ever a greater +benefactor to Scotland, whose glories and beauties he was the first to +reveal, showing how the most thrifty, practical, and parsimonious people +may be at the same time the most poetic. Here Burns and he go hand in +hand, although as a poet Scott declared that he was not to be named in +the same day with the most unfortunate man of genius that his country +and his century produced. How singular that in all worldly matters the +greater genius should have been a failure, while he, who as a born poet +was the lesser light, should have been the greatest popular success of +which Scotland can boast! And yet there is something almost as pathetic +and tragical in the career of the man who worked himself to death, as in +that of the man who drank himself to death. The most supremely fortunate +writer of his day came to a mournful end, notwithstanding his +unparalleled honors and his magnificent rewards. + +At the time Scott was admitted to the bar he was not, of course, aware +of his great original creative powers, nor could he have had very +sanguine expectations of a brilliant career. The profession he had +chosen was not congenial with his habits or his genius, and hence as a +lawyer he was not a success. And yet he was not a failure, for he had +the respect of some of the finest minds in Edinburgh, and at once gained +as an advocate enough to support himself respectably among aristocratic +people,--aided no doubt by his father who, as a prosperous Writer to the +Signet, threw business into his hands. Amid his practice at the courts +he found time to visit some of the most interesting spots in Scotland, +and he had money enough to gratify his tastes. He was a thriving rather +than a prosperous lawyer; that is to say, he earned his living. + +But Scott was too much absorbed in literary studies and in writing +ballads, to give to his numerous friends the hope of a distinguished +legal career. No man can serve two masters. "His heart" was "in the +Highlands a-chasing the deer," or ransacking distant villages for +antiquarian lore, or collecting ancient Scottish minstrelsy, or visiting +moss-covered and ivy-clad ruins, famous before John Knox swept +monasteries and nunneries away as cages of unclean birds; but most of +all was he interested in the feuds between the Lowland and Highland +chieftains, and in the contest between Roundheads and Cavaliers when +Scotland lost her political independence. He did, however, find much in +Scotch law to enrich his mind, with entanglements and antiquarian +records, as well as the humors and tragedies of the courts; and of this +his writings show many traces. + +No young lawyer ever had more efficient friends than Walter Scott. And +richly he deserved them, for he was generous, companionable, loyal, a +brilliant story-teller, a good hunter and sportsman, bright, cheerful, +and witty, doubtless one of the most interesting young men in his +beautiful city; modest, too, and unpretentious, yet proud, claiming +nothing that nothing might be denied him, a favorite in the most select +circles. His most striking peculiarity was his good sense, keeping him +from all exaggerations, which were always offensive to him. He was a +Tory, indeed; but no aristocrat ever had a more genial humanity, taking +pleasure in any society where he could learn anything. His appetite was +so healthy, from his rural sports and pedestrian feats, that he could +dine equally well on a broiled haddock or a saddle of venison, although +from the minuteness of his descriptions of Scottish banquets one might +infer that he had great appreciation of the pleasures of the table. + +It is not easy to tell when Scott began to write poetry, but probably +when he was quite young. He wrote for the pleasure of it, without any +idea of devoting his life to literature. Writing ballads was the solace +of his leisure hours. His acquaintance with Francis, Lord Jeffrey began +in 1791, at a club, where he read an essay on ballads which so much +interested the future critic that he sought an introduction to its +author, and the acquaintance thus begun between these two young men, +both of whom unconsciously stood on the threshold of great careers, +ripened into friendship. This happened before Scott was called to the +bar in 1792. It was two years afterwards that he produced a poem which +took by surprise a literary friend, Miss Cranstoun, and caused her to +exclaim, "Upon my word, Walter Scott is going to turn out a poet, +something of a cross between Burns and Gray!" + +In 1795 Scott was appointed one of the Curators of the Advocates' +Library,--a compliment bestowed only on those members of the bar known +to have a zeal in literary affairs; but I do not read that he published +anything until 1796, when appeared his translation from the German of +Buerger's ballads, "The Wild Huntsman" and "Lenore." This called out high +commendation from Dugald Stewart, the famous professor of moral +philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, and from other men of note, +but obtained no recognition in England. + +It was during one of his rambles with his friend Ferguson to the English +Lakes in 1797 that Scott met Miss Charlotte Margaret Carpenter, or +Charpentier, a young French lady of notable beauty and lovely character. +She had an income of about L200 a year, which, added to his earnings as +an advocate, then about L150, encouraged him to offer to her his hand. +For a young couple just starting in life L350 was an independence. The +engagement met with no opposition from the lady's family; and in +December of 1797 Scott was married, and took a modest house in Castle +Street, being then twenty-six years of age. The marriage turned out to +be a happy one, although _convenance_ had something to do with it. + +Of course, so healthy and romantic a nature as Scott's had not passed +through the susceptible time of youth without a love affair. From so +small a circumstance as the lending of his umbrella to a young lady +(Margaret, the beautiful daughter of Sir John Belches) he enjoyed five +years of affection and of what seems to have been a reasonable hope, +which, however, was finally ended by the young lady's marrying Mr. +William Forbes, a well-to-do banker, and later one of Scott's best +friends. "Three years of dreaming and two years of waking," Scott calls +it in one of his diaries, thirty years later; and his own marriage +followed within a year after that of his lost love. + +With an income sufficient only for the necessities of life, as a married +man in society Scott had not much to spare for expensive dinners, +although given to hospitality. What money he could save was spent for +books and travel. At twenty-six, he had visited what was most +interesting in Scotland, either in scenery or historical associations, +and some parts of England, especially the Cumberland Lakes. He took a +cottage at Lasswade, near Edinburgh, and began there the fascinating +pursuit of tree-planting and "place"-making. His vacations when the +Courts were not in session were spent in excursions to mountain scenery +and those retired villages where he could pick up antiquarian lore, +particularly old Border ballads, heroic traditions of the times of +chivalry, and of the conflicts of Scottish chieftains. Concerning these +no man in Scotland knew so much as he, his knowledge furnishing the +foundation alike of his lays and his romances. His enthusiasm for these +scenic and historic interests was unquenchable,--a source of perpetual +enjoyment, which made him a most acceptable visitor wherever he chose to +go, both among antiquaries and literary men, and ladies of rank +and fashion. + +In March, 1799, Mr. and Mrs. Scott visited London, where they were +introduced to many distinguished literary men. On their return to +Edinburgh, the office of sheriff depute of Selkirkshire having become +vacant, worth L300 a year, Scott received the appointment, which +increased his income to about L700. Although his labors were light, the +office entailed the necessity of living in that county a few months in +each year. It was a pastoral, quiet, peaceful part of the country, +belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, his friend and patron. His published +translation in this year of Goethe's "Goetz of Berlichingen" added to +his growing reputation, and led him on towards his career. + +With a secure and settled income, Scott now meditated a literary life. A +hundred years ago such a life was impossible without independent means, +if a man would mingle in society and live conventionally, and what was +called respectably. Even Burns had to accept a public office, although +it was a humble one, and far from lucrative; but it gave him what poetry +could not,--his daily bread. Hogg, peasant-poet of the Ettrick forest, +was supported in all his earlier years by tending sheep and borrowing +money from his friends. + +The first genuine literary adventure of Scott was his collection of a +"Scottish Minstrelsy," printed for him by James Ballantyne, a former +schoolfellow, who had been encouraged by Scott to open a shop in +Edinburgh. The preparation of this labor of love occupied the editor a +year, assisted by John Leyden, a man of great promise, who died in India +in 1811, having made a mark as an Orientalist. About this time began +Scott's memorable friendship with George Ellis, the most discriminating +and useful of all his literary friends. In the same year he made the +acquaintance of Thomas Campbell, the poet, who had already achieved fame +by his "Pleasures of Hope." + +It was in 1802 that the first and second volumes of the "Minstrelsy" +appeared, in an edition of eight hundred copies, Scott's share of the +profits amounting to L78 10 _s_., which did not pay him for the actual +expenditure in the collection of his materials. The historical notes +with which he elucidated the value of the ancient ballads, and the +freshness and vigor of those which he himself wrote for the collection, +secured warm commendations from Ellis, Ritson, and other friends, and +the whole edition was sold; yet the work did not bring him wide fame. +The third and last volume was issued in 1803. + +The work is full of Scott's best characteristics,--wide historical +knowledge, wonderful industry, humor, pathos, and a sympathetic +understanding of life--that of the peasant as well as the knight--such +as seizes the imagination. Lockhart quotes a passage of Scott's own +self-criticism: "I am sensible that if there be anything good about my +poetry, or prose either, it is _a hurried frankness of composition_, +which pleases soldiers, sailors, and young people of bold and active +dispositions." His ability to "toil terribly" in accumulating choice +material, and then, fusing it in his own spirit, to throw it forth among +men with this "hurried frankness" that stirs the blood, was the secret +of his power. + +Scott did not become famous, however, until his first original poem +appeared,--"The Lay of the Last Minstrel," printed by Ballantyne in +1805, and published by Longman of London, and Constable of Edinburgh. It +was a great success; nearly fifty thousand copies were sold in Great +Britain alone by 1830. For the first edition of seven hundred and fifty +copies quarto, Scott received L169 6 s., and then sold the copyright +for L500. + +In the meantime, a rich uncle died without children, and Scott's share +of the property enabled him, in 1804, to rent from his cousin, +Major-General Sir James Russell, the pretty property called +Ashestiel,--a cottage and farm on the banks of the Tweed, altogether a +beautiful place, where he lived when discharging his duties of sheriff +of Selkirkshire. He has celebrated the charms of Ashestiel in the canto +introduction to "Marmion." His income at this time amounted to about +L1000 a year, which gave him a position among the squires of the +neighborhood, complete independence, and leisure to cultivate his taste. +His fortune was now made: with poetic fame besides, and powerful +friends, he was a man every way to be envied. + +"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" placed Scott among the three great poets +of Scotland, for originality and beauty of rhyme. It is not marked by +pathos or by philosophical reflections. It is a purely descriptive poem +of great vivacity and vividness, easy to read, and true to nature. It is +a tale of chivalry, and is to poetry what Froissart's "Chronicles" are +to history. Nothing exactly like it had before appeared in English +literature. It appealed to all people of romantic tastes, and was +reproachless from a moral point of view. It was a book for a lady's +bower, full of chivalric sentiments and stirring incidents, and of +unflagging interest from beginning to end,--partly warlike and partly +monastic, describing the adventures of knights and monks. It deals with +wizards, harpers, dwarfs, priests, warriors, and noble dames. It sings +of love and wassailings, of gentle ladies' tears, of castles and festal +halls, of pennons and lances,-- + + "Of ancient deeds, so long forgot, + Of feuds whose memory was not, + Of forests now laid waste and bare, + Of towers which harbor now the hare." + +In "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" there is at least one immortal stanza +which would redeem the poem even if otherwise mediocre. How few poets +can claim as much as this! Very few poems live except for some splendid +passages which cannot be forgotten, and which give fame. I know of +nothing, even in Burns, finer than the following lines:-- + + "Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, + Who never to himself hath said, + This is my own, my native land! + Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, + As home his footsteps he hath turned + From wandering on a foreign strand? + If such there breathe, go, mark him well! + For him no minstrel raptures swell; + High though his titles, proud his name, + Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,-- + Despite those titles, power, and pelf, + The wretch, concentred all in self, + Living shall forfeit fair renown, + And, doubly dying, shall go down + To the vile dust from whence he sprung, + Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." + +The favor with which "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" was received, +greater than that of any narrative poem of equal length which had +appeared for two generations, even since Dryden's day, naturally brought +great commendation from Jeffrey, the keenest critic of the age, in the +famous magazine of which he was the editor. The Edinburgh Review had +been started only in 1802 by three young men of genius,--Jeffrey, +Brougham, and Sydney Smith,--and had already attained great popularity, +but not such marvellous influence as it wielded ten years afterwards, +when nine thousand copies were published every three months, and at +such a price as gave to its contributors a splendid remuneration, and to +its editors absolute critical independence. The only objection to this +powerful periodical was the severity of its criticisms, which often also +were unjust. It seemed to be the intent of the reviewers to demolish +everything that was not of extraordinary merit. Fierce attacks are not +criticism. The articles in the Edinburgh Review were of a different sort +from the polished and candid literary dissections which made Ste.-Beuve +so justly celebrated. In the beginning of the century, however, these +savage attacks were all the fashion and to be expected; yet they stung +authors almost to madness, as in the case of the review of Byron's early +poetry. Literary courtesy did not exist. Justice gave place generally to +ridicule or sarcasm. The Edinburgh Review was a terror to all +pretenders, and often to men of real merit. But it was published when +most judges were cruel and severe, even in the halls of justice. + +The friendship between Scott and Jeffrey had been very close for ten +years before the inception of the Edinburgh Review; and although Scott +was (perhaps growing out of his love for antiquarian researches and +admiration of the things that had been) an inveterate conservative and +Tory, while the new Review was slashingly liberal and progressive, he +was drawn in by friendship and literary interest to be a frequent +contributor during its first three or four years. The politics of the +Edinburgh Review, however, and the establishment in 1808 of the +conservative Quarterly Review, caused a gradual cessation of this +literary connection, without marring the friendly relations between +the two men. + +About this time began Scott's friendship with Wordsworth, for whom he +had great respect. Indeed, his modesty led him to prefer everybody's +good poetry to his own. He felt himself inferior not only to Burns, but +also to Wordsworth and Campbell and Coleridge and Byron,--as in many +respects he undoubtedly was; but it requires in an author discernment +and humility of a rare kind, to make him capable of such a +discrimination. + +More important to him than any literary friendship was his partnership +with James Ballantyne, the printer, whom he had known from his youth. +This in the end proved unfortunate, and nearly ruined him; for +Ballantyne, though an accomplished man and a fine printer, as well as +enterprising and sensible, was not a safe business man, being +over-sanguine. For a time, however, this partnership, which was kept +secret, was an advantage to both parties, although Scott embarked in the +enterprise his whole available capital, about L5000. In connection with +the publishing business, soon added to the printing, with James +Ballantyne's brother John as figure-head of the concern,--a talented but +dissipated and reckless "good fellow," with no more head for business +than either James Ballantyne or Scott,--the association bound Scott hand +and foot for twenty years, and prompted him to adventurous undertakings. +But it must be said that the Ballantynes always deferred to him, having +for him a sentiment little short of veneration. One of the first results +of this partnership was an eighteen-volume edition of Dryden's poems, +with a Life, which must have been to Scott little more than drudgery. He +was well paid for his work, although it added but little to his fame, +except for intelligent literary industry. + +Before the Dryden, however, in the same year, 1808, appeared the poem of +"Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field," which was received by the public +with great avidity, and unbounded delight. Jeffrey wrote a chilling +review, for which Scott with difficulty forgave him, since with all his +humility and amiability he could not bear unfriendly or severe +criticism. + +In a letter to Joanna Baillie, Scott makes some very sensible remarks as +to the incapability of such a man as Jeffrey appreciating a work of the +imagination, distinguished as he was:-- + +"I really have often told him that I think he wants the taste for +poetry which is essentially necessary to enjoy, and of course to +criticize with justice. He is learned with the most learned in its +canons and laws, skilled in its modulations, and an excellent judge of +the justice of the sentiments which it conveys; but he wants that +enthusiastic feeling which, like sunshine upon a landscape, lights up +every beauty, and palliates if it cannot hide every defect. To offer a +poem of imagination to a man whose whole life and study have been to +acquire a stoical indifference towards enthusiasm of every kind, would +be the last, as it would surely be the silliest, action of my life." + +As stated above, it was about this time that Scott broke off his +connection with the Edinburgh Review. Perhaps that was what Jeffrey +wished, since the Review became thenceforth more intensely partisan, and +Scott's Toryism was not what was wanted. + +It is fair to add that in 1810 Jeffrey sent Scott advance proofs of his +critique on "The Lady of the Lake," with a frank and friendly letter in +which he says:-- + +"I am now sensible that there were needless asperities in my review of +'Marmion,' and from the hurry in which I have been forced to write, I +dare say there may be some here also.... I am sincerely proud both of +your genius and of your glory, and I value your friendship more highly +than most either of my literary or political opinions." + +Southey, Ellis, and Wordsworth, Erskine, Heber, and other friends wrote +congratulatory letters about "Marmion," with slight allusions to minor +blemishes. Lockhart thought that it was on the whole the greatest of +Scott's poems, in strength and boldness. Most critics regarded the long +introduction to each canto as a defect, since it broke the continuity of +the narrative; but it may at least be said that these preludes give an +interesting insight into the author's moods and views. The opinions of +literary men of course differ as to the relative excellence of the +different poems. "Marmion" certainly had great merit, and added to the +fame of the author. There is here more variety of metre than in his +other poems, and also some passages of such beauty as to make the poem +immortal,--like the death of Marmion, and those familiar lines in +reference to Clara's constancy:-- + + "O woman! in our hours of ease, + Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, + And variable as the shade + By the light, quivering aspen made,-- + When pain and anguish wring the brow, + A ministering angel thou." + +The sale of "Marmion" ultimately reached fifty thousand copies in Great +Britain. The poem was originally published in a luxurious quarto at +thirty-one and a-half shillings. Besides one thousand guineas in +advance, half the profits went to Scott, and must have reached several +thousand pounds,--a great sale, when we remember that it was confined to +libraries and people of wealth. In America, the poem was sold for two or +three shillings,--less than one-tenth of what it cost the English +reader. A successful poem or novel in England is more remunerative to +the author, from the high price at which it is published, than in the +United States, where prices are lower and royalties rarely exceed ten +per cent. It must be borne in mind, however, that in England editions +are ordinarily very small, sometimes consisting of not more than two +hundred and fifty copies. The first edition of "Marmion" was only of two +thousand copies. The largest edition published was in 1811, of five +thousand copies octavo; but even this did not circulate largely among +the people. The popularity of Scott in England was confined chiefly to +the upper classes, at least until the copyright of his books had +expired. The booksellers were not slow in availing themselves of Scott's +popularity. They employed him to edit an edition of Swift for L1500, and +tried to induce him to edit a general edition of English poets. That +scheme was abandoned in consequence of a disagreement between Scott and +Murray, the London publisher, as to the selection of poets. + +I think the quarrels of authors eighty or one hundred years ago with +their publishers were more frequent than they are in these times. We +read of a long alienation between Scott and Constable, the publisher, +who enjoyed a sort of monopoly of the poet's contributions to +literature. Constable soon after found a great rival in Murray, who was +at this time an obscure London bookseller in Fleet Street. Both these +great publishers were remarkable for sagacity, and were bold in their +ventures. The foundation of Constable's wealth was laid when he was +publishing the Edinburgh Review. In 1809, Murray started the Quarterly +Review, its great political rival, with the aid of Scott, who wrote many +of its most valuable articles; and William Gilford, satirist and critic, +became its first editor. Growing out of the quarrel between Scott and +Constable was the establishment of John Ballantyne & Co. as publishers +and booksellers in Edinburgh. + +Shortly after the establishment of the Quarterly Review as a Tory +journal, Scott began his third great poem, "The Lady of the Lake," which +was published in 1810, in all the majesty of a quarto, at the price of +two guineas a copy. He received for it two thousand guineas. The first +edition of two thousand copies disappeared at once, and was followed the +same year by four octavo editions. In a few months the sale reached +twenty thousand copies. The poem received great commendation both from +the Quarterly and the Edinburgh Review. + +Mr. Ellis, in his article in the Quarterly, thus wrote: + +"There is nothing in Scott of the severe majesty of Milton, or of the +terse composition of Pope, or the elaborate elegance of Campbell, or the +flowing and redundant diction of Southey; but there is a medley of +bright images, and a diction tinged successively with the careless +richness of Shakespeare, the antique simplicity of the old romances, the +homeliness of vulgar ballads, and the sentimental glitter of the most +modern poetry,--passing from the borders of the ludicrous to the +sublime, alternately minute and energetic, sometimes artificial, and +frequently negligent, but always full of spirit and vivacity, abounding +in images that are striking at first sight to minds of every contexture, +and never expressing a sentiment which it can cost the most ordinary +reader any exertion to comprehend." + +This seems to me to be a fair criticism, although the lucidity of +Scott's poetry is not that which is most admired by modern critics. +Fashion in these times delights in what is obscure and difficult to be +understood, as if depth and profundity must necessarily be +unintelligible to ordinary readers. In Scott's time, however, the +fashion was different, and the popularity of his poems became almost +universal. However, there are the same fire, vivacity, and brilliant +coloring in all three of these masterpieces, as they were regarded two +generations ago, reminding one of the witchery of Ariosto; yet there is +no great variety in these poems such as we find in Byron, no great force +of passion or depth of sentiment, but a sort of harmonious rhythm,--more +highly prized in the earlier part of the century than in the latter, +since Wordsworth and Tennyson have made us familiar with what is deeper +and richer, as well as more artistic, in language and versification. But +no one has denied Scott's originality and high merits, in contrast with +the pompous tameness and conventionality of the poetry which arose when +Johnson was the oracle of literary circles, and which still held the +stage in Scott's day. + +Even Scott's admirers, however, like Canning and Ellis, did not hesitate +to say that they would like something different from anything he had +already written. But this was not to be; and perhaps the reason why he +soon after gave up writing poetry was the conviction that his genius as +a poet did not lie in variety and richness, either of style or matter. +His great fame was earned by his novels. + +One thing greatly surprises me: Scott regarded Joanna Baillie as the +greatest poetical genius of that day, and be derived more pleasure from +reading Johnson's "London" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes" than from +any other poetical composition. Indeed, there is nothing more +remarkable in literary history than Scott's admiration of poetry +inferior to his own, and his extraordinary modesty in the estimate of +his own productions. Most poets are known for their morbid vanity, their +self-consciousness, their feeling of superiority, and their depreciation +of superior excellence; but Scott had eminently a healthy mind, as he +had a healthy body, and shrank from exaggeration as he did from +vulgarity in all its forms. It is probable that his own estimate of his +poetry was nearer the truth than that of his admirers, who were +naturally inclined to be partial. + +There has been so much poetry written since "The Lady of the Lake" was +published,--not only by celebrated poets like Wordsworth, Southey, +Moore, Byron, Campbell, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning, Longfellow, +Lowell, Whittier, Bryant, but also by many minor authors,--that the +standard is now much higher than it was in the early part of the +century. Much of that which then was regarded as very fine is now smiled +at by the critics, and neglected by cultivated readers generally; and +Scott has not escaped unfavorable criticism. + +It has been my object to present the subject of this Lecture +historically rather than critically,--to show the extraordinary +popularity of Scott as a poet among his contemporaries, rather than to +estimate his merit at the present time. I confess that most of +"Marmion," as also of the "Lady of the Lake," is tame to me, and +deficient in high poetic genius. Doubtless we are all influenced by the +standards of our own time, and the advances making in literature as well +as in science and art. Yet this change in the opinions of critics does +not apply to Byron's "Childe Harold," which is as much, if not as +widely, admired now as when it was first published. We think as highly +too of "The Deserted Village," the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," and +the "Cotter's Saturday Night," as our fathers did. And men now think +much more highly of the merits of Shakspeare than they have at any +period since he lived; so that after all there is an element in true +poetry which does not lose by time. In another hundred years, the +verdicts of critics as to the greater part of the poems of Tennyson, +Wordsworth, Browning, and Longfellow, may be very different from what +they now are, while some of their lyrics may be, as they are now, +pronounced immortal. + +Poetry is both an inspiration and an art. The greater part of that which +is now produced is made, not born. Those daintily musical and elaborate +measures which are now the fashion, because they claim novelty, or +reproduce the quaintness of an art so old as to be practically new, +perhaps will soon again be forgotten or derided. What is simple, +natural, appealing to the heart rather than to the head, may last when +more pretentious poetry shall have passed away. Neither criticism nor +contemporary popularity can decide such questions. + +Scott himself seemed to take a true view. In a letter to Miss Seward, he +said:-- + +"The immortality of poetry is not so firm a point in my creed as the +immortality of the soul." + + 'I've lived too long, + And seen the death of much immortal song.' + +"Nay, those that have really attained their literary immortality have +gained it under very hard conditions. To some it has not attached till +after death. To others it has been the means of lauding personal vices +and follies which had otherwise been unremembered in their epitaphs; and +all enjoy the same immortality under a condition similar to that of +Noureddin in an Eastern tale. Noureddin, you remember, was to enjoy the +gift of immortality, but with this qualification,--that he was subjected +to long naps of forty, fifty, or a hundred years at a time. Even so +Homer and Virgil slumbered through whole centuries. Shakspeare himself +enjoyed undisturbed sleep from the age of Charles I., until Garrick +waked him. Dryden's fame has nodded; that of Pope begins to be drowsy; +Chaucer is as sound as a top, and Spenser is snoring in the midst of his +commentators. Milton, indeed, is quite awake; but, observe, he was at +his very outset refreshed with a nap of half-a-century; and in the midst +of all this we sons of degeneracy talk of immortality! Let me please my +own generation, and let those who come after us judge of their facts and +my performances as they please; the anticipation of their neglect or +censure will affect me very little." + +In 1812 the poet-lawyer was rewarded with the salary of a place whose +duties he had for some years performed without pay,--that of Clerk of +Sessions, worth L800 per annum. Thus having now about L1500 as an +income, independently of his earnings by the pen, Scott gave up his +practice as an advocate, and devoted himself entirely to literature. At +the same time he bought a farm of somewhat more than a hundred acres on +the banks of the beautiful Tweed, about five miles from Ashestiel, and +leaving to its owners the pretty place in which he had for six years +enjoyed life and work, he removed to the cottage at Abbotsford,--for +thus he named his new purchase, in memory of the abbots of Melrose, who +formerly owned all the region, and the ruins of whose lovely abbey stood +not far away. Of the L4000 for this purchase half was borrowed from his +brother, and the other half on the pledge of the profits of a poem that +was projected but not written,--"Rokeby." + +Scott ought to have been content with Ashestiel; or, since every man +wishes to own his home, he should have been satisfied with the +comfortable cottage which he built at Abbotsford, and the modest +improvements that his love for trees and shrubs enabled him to make. +But his aspirations led him into serious difficulties. With all his +sagacity and good sense, Scott never seemed to know when he was well +off. It was a fatal mistake both for his fame and happiness to attempt +to compete with those who are called great in England and +Scotland,--that is, peers and vast landed proprietors. He was not alone +in this error, for it has generally been the ambition of fortunate +authors to acquire social as well as literary distinction,--thus paying +tribute to riches, and virtually abdicating their own true position, +which is higher than any that rank or wealth can give. It has too +frequently been the misfortune of literary genius to bow down to vulgar +idols; and the worldly sentiments which this idolatry involves are seen +in almost every fashionable novel which has appeared for a hundred +years. In no country is this melancholy social slavery more usual than +in England, with all its political freedom, although there are noble +exceptions. The only great flaw in Scott's character was this homage to +rank and wealth. + +On the other hand, rank and wealth also paid homage to him as a man of +genius; both Scotland and England received him into the most select +circles, not only of their literary and political, but of their +fashionable, life. + +In 1811 Scott published "The Lord of the Isles," and in 1813, "Rokeby," +neither of which was remarkable for either literary or commercial +success, although both were well received. In 1814 he edited a +nineteen-volume edition of Dean Swift's works, with a Life, and in the +same year began--almost by accident--the real work of his own career, in +"Waverley." + +If public opinion is far different to-day from what it was in Scott's +time in reference to his poetry, we observe the same change in regard to +the source of his widest fame, his novels,--but not to so marked a +degree, for it was in fiction that Scott's great gifts had their full +fruition. Many a fine intellect still delights in his novels, though +cultivated readers and critics differ as to their comparative merits. No +two persons will unite in their opinions as to the three of those +productions which they like most or least. It is so with all famous +novels. Then, too, what man of seventy will agree with a man of thirty +as to the comparative merits of Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, +George Eliot, Eugene Sue, Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand? How few read +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," compared with the multitudes who read that most +powerful and popular book forty years ago? How changing, if not +transient, is the fame of the novelist as well as of the poet! With +reference to him even the same generation changes its tastes. What +filled us with delight as young men or women of twenty, is at fifty +spurned with contempt or thrown aside with indifference. No books ever +filled my mind and soul with the delight I had when, at twelve years of +age, I read "The Children of the Abbey" and "Thaddeus of Warsaw," What +man of eighty can forget the enthusiasm with which he read "Old +Mortality" or "Ivanhoe" when he was in college? + +Perhaps one test of a great book is the pleasure derived from reading it +over and over again,--as we read "Don Quixote," or the dramas of +Shakspeare, of whose infinite variety we never tire. Measured by this +test, the novels of Sir Walter Scott are among the foremost works of +fiction which have appeared in our world. They will not all retain their +popularity from generation to generation, like "Don Quixote" or "The +Pilgrim's Progress" or "The Vicar of Wakefield;" but these are single +productions of their authors, while not a few of Scott's many novels are +certainly still read by cultivated people,--if not with the same +interest they excited when first published, yet with profit and +admiration. They have some excellencies which are immortal,--elevation +of sentiment, chivalrous regard for women, fascination of narrative +(after one has waded through the learned historical introductory +chapters), the absence of exaggeration, the vast variety of characters +introduced and vividly maintained, and above all the freshness and +originality of description, both of Nature and of man. Among the +severest and most bigoted of New England Puritans, none could find +anything corrupting or demoralizing in his romances; whereas Byron and +Bulwer were never mentioned without a shudder, and even Shakspeare was +locked up in book-cases as unfit for young people to read, and not +particularly creditable for anybody to own. The unfavorable comments +which the most orthodox ever made upon Scott were as to the +repulsiveness of the old Covenanters, as he described them, and his +sneers at Puritan perfections. Scott, however, had contempt, not for the +Puritans, but for many of their peculiarities,--especially for their +cant when it degenerated into hypocrisy. + +One thing is certain, that no works of fiction have had such universal +popularity both in England and America for so long a period as the +Waverley Novels. Scott reigned as the undisputed monarch of the realm of +fiction and romance for twenty-five years. He gave undiminished +entertainment to an entire generation--and not that merely, but +instruction--in his historical novels, although his views were not +always correct,--as whose ever are? He who could charm millions of +readers, learned and unlearned, for a quarter of a century must have +possessed remarkable genius. Indeed, he was not only the central figure +in English literature for a generation, but he was regarded as +peculiarly original. Another style of novels may obtain more passing +favor with modern readers, but Scott was justly famous; his works are +to-day in every library, and form a delightful part of the education of +every youth and maiden who cares to read at all; and he will as a +novelist probably live after some who are now prime favorites will be +utterly forgotten or ignored. + +About 1830 Bulwer was in his early successes; about 1840 Dickens was the +rage of his day; about 1850 Thackeray had taken his high grade; and it +was about 1860 that George Eliot's power appeared. These still retain +their own peculiar lines of popularity,--Bulwer with the romantic few, +Thackeray with the appreciative intelligent, George Eliot with a still +wider clientage, and Dickens with everybody, on account of his appeal to +the universal sentiments of comedy and pathos. Scott's influence, +somewhat checked during the growth of these reputations and the +succession of fertile and accomplished writers on both sides of the +Atlantic,--including the introspective analysts of the past fifteen +years,--has within a decade been rising again, and has lately burst +forth in a new group of historical romancers who seem to have "harked +back" from the subjective fad of our day to Scott's healthy, adventurous +objectivity. Not only so, but new editions of the Waverley Novels are +coming one by one from the shrewd publishers who keep track of the +popular taste, one of the most attractive being issued in Edinburgh at +half-a-crown a volume. + +The first of Scott's remarkable series of novels, "Waverley," published +in 1814 when the author was forty-three years of age and at the height +of his fame as a poet, took the fashionable and literary world by storm. +The novel had been partly written for several years, but was laid aside, +as his edition of Swift and his essays for the supplement of the +"Encyclopaedia Britannica," and other prose writings, employed all the +time he had to spare. + +This hack-work was done by Scott without enthusiasm, to earn money for +his investment in real estate, and is not of transcendent merit. +Obscurer men than he had performed such literary drudgery with more +ability, but no writer was ever more industrious. The amount of work +which he accomplished at this period was prodigious, especially when we +remember that his duties as sheriff and clerk of Sessions occupied eight +months of the year. He was more familiar with the literary history of +Queen Anne's reign than any subsequent historian, if we except Macaulay, +whose brilliant career had not yet begun. He took, of course, a +different view of Swift from the writers of the Edinburgh Review, and +was probably too favorable in his description of the personal character +of the Dean of St. Patrick's, who is now generally regarded as +"inordinately ambitious, arrogant, and selfish; of a morose, vindictive, +and haughty temper, utterly destitute of generosity and magnanimity, as +well as of tenderness, fidelity, and compassion." Lord Jeffrey, in his +Review, attacked Swift's moral character with such consummate ability as +to check materially the popularity of his writings, which are +universally admitted to be full of genius. His superb intellect and his +morality present a sad contrast,--as in the cases of Bacon, Burns, and +Byron,--which Scott, on account of the force of his Tory prejudices, did +not sufficiently point out. + +But as to the novel, when it suddenly appeared, it is not surprising +that "Waverley" should at once have attained an unexampled popularity +when we consider the mediocrity of all works of fiction at that time, if +we except the Irish tales of Maria Edgeworth. Scott received from +Constable L1000 for this romance, then deemed a very liberal +remuneration for what cost him but a few months' work. The second and +third volumes were written in one month. He wrote with remarkable +rapidity when his mind was full of the subject; and his previous studies +as an antiquary and as a collector of Scottish poetry and legends fitted +him for his work, which was in no sense a task, but a most +lively pleasure. + +It is not known why Scott published this strikingly original work +anonymously; perhaps it was because of his unusual modesty, and the fear +that he might lose the popularity he had already enjoyed as a poet. But +it immediately placed him on a higher literary elevation, since it was +generally suspected that he was the author. He could not altogether +disguise himself from the keen eyes of Jeffrey and other critics. + +The book was received as a revelation. The first volume is not +particularly interesting, but the story continually increases in +interest to its close. It is not a dissection of the human heart; it is +not even much of a love-story, but a most vivid narrative, without +startling situations or adventures. Its great charm is its quiet +humor,--not strained into witty expressions which provoke laughter, but +a sort of amiable delineation of the character of a born gentleman, with +his weaknesses and prejudices, all leaning to virtue's side. It is a +description of manners peculiar to the Scottish gentry in the middle of +the eighteenth century, especially among the Jacobite families then +passing away. + +Of course the popularity of this novel, at that time, was chiefly +confined to the upper classes. In the first place the people could not +afford to pay the price of the book; and, secondly, it was outside their +sympathies and knowledge. Indeed, I doubt if any commonplace person, +without culture or extended knowledge, can enjoy so refined a work, with +so many learned allusions, and such exquisite humor, which appeals to a +knowledge of the world in its higher aspects. It is one of the last +books that an ignorant young lady brought up on the trash of ordinary +fiction would relish or comprehend. Whoever turns uninterested from +"Waverley" is probably unable to see its excellencies or enjoy its +peculiar charms. It is not a book for a modern school-boy or +school-girl, but for a man or woman in the highest maturity of mind, +with a poetic or imaginative nature, and with a leaning perhaps to +aristocratic sentiments. It is a rebuke to vulgarity and ignorance, +which the minute and exaggerated descriptions of low life in the pages +of Dickens certainly are not. + +In February, 1815, "Guy Mannering" was published, the second in the +series of the Waverley Novels, and was received by the intelligent +reading classes with even more _eclat_ than "Waverley," to which it is +superior in many respects. It plunges at once _in medias res_, without +the long and labored introductory chapters of its predecessor. It is +interesting from first to last, and is an elaborate and well-told tale, +written _con amore_, when Scott was in the maturity of his powers. It is +full of incident and is delightful in humor. Its chief excellence is in +the loftiness of its sentiments,--being one of the healthiest and +wholesomest novels ever written, appealing to the heart as well as to +the intellect, to be read over and over again, like "The Vicar of +Wakefield," without weariness. It may be too aristocratic in its tone to +please everybody, but it portrays the sentiments of its age in reference +to squires and Scottish lairds, who were more distinguished for +uprightness and manly duties than for brains and culture. + +The fascination with which Scott always depicts the virtues of +hospitality and trust in humanity makes a strong impression on the +imagination. His heroes and heroines are not remarkable for genius, but +shine in the higher glories of domestic affection and fidelity to +trusts. Two characters in particular are original creations,--"Dominie +Sampson" and "Meg Merrilies," whom no reader can forget,--the one, +ludicrous for his simplicity; and the other a gypsy woman, weird and +strange, more like a witch than a sibyl, but intensely human, and +capable of the strongest attachment for those she loved. + +"The easy and transparent flow of the style of this novel; its beautiful +simplicity; the wild magnificence of its sketches of scenery; the rapid +and ever brightening interest of the narrative; the unaffected kindness +of feeling; the manly purity of thought, everywhere mingled with a +gentle humor and homely sagacity,--but, above all, the rich variety and +skilful contrast of character and manners, at once fresh in fiction, and +stamped with the unforgeable seal of truth and nature, spoke to every +heart and mind; and the few murmurs of pedantic criticism were lost in +the voice of general delight which never fails to welcome the invention +that introduces to the sympathy of the imagination a new group of +immortal realities." + +Scott received about L2000 for this favorite romance,--one entirely new +in the realm of fiction,--which enabled him to pay off his most pressing +debts, and indulge his taste for travel. He visited the Field of +Waterloo, and became a social lion in both Paris and London. The Prince +of Wales sent him a magnificent snuff-box set with diamonds, and +entertained him with admiring cordiality at Carlton House,--for his +authorship of "Waverley" was more than surmised, while his fame as a +poet was second only to that of Byron. Then (in the spring of 1815) took +place the first meeting of these two great bards, and their successive +interviews were graced with mutual compliments. Scott did not think that +Byron's reading was extensive either in poetry or history, in which +opinion the industrious Scottish bard was mistaken; but he did justice +ta Byron's transcendent genius, and with more charity than severity +mourned over his departure from virtue. After a series of brilliant +banquets at the houses of the great, both of rank and of fame, Scott +returned to his native land to renew his varied and exhausting labors, +having furnished his publishers with a volume of letters on the subjects +which most interested him during his short tour. Everything he touched +now brought him gold. + +"Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk," as he called this volume concerning +his tour, was well received, but not with the enthusiasm which marked +the publication of "Guy Mannering;" indeed, it had no special claim to +distinction. "The Antiquary" followed in May of the next year, and +though it lacked the romance of "Waverley" and the adventure of "Guy +Mannering," it had even a larger sale. Scott himself regarded it as +superior to both; but an author is not always the best judge of his own +productions, and we do not accept his criticism. It probably cost him +more labor; but it is an exhibition of his erudition rather than a +revelation of himself or of Nature. It is certainly very learned; but +learning does not make a book popular, nor is a work of fiction the +place for a display of learning. If "The Antiquary" were published in +these times, it would be pronounced pedantic. Readers are apt to skip +names and learned allusions and scraps of Latin. As a story I think it +inferior to "Guy Mannering," although it has great merits,--"a kind of +simple, unsought charm,"--and is a transcript of actual Scottish life. +It had a great success; Scott says in a letter to his friend Terry: "It +is at press again, six thousand having been sold in six days." Before +the novel was finished, the author had already projected his "Tales of +My Landlord." + +Scott was now at the flood-tide of his creative power, and his industry +was as remarkable as his genius. There was but little doubt in the +public mind as to the paternity of the Waverley Novels, and whatever +Scott wrote was sure to have a large sale; so that every publisher of +note was eager to have a hand in bringing his productions before the +public. In 1816 appeared the "Edinburgh Annual Register," containing +Scott's sketch of the year 1814, which, though very good, showed that +the author was less happy in history than in fiction. + +The first series of "Tales of My Landlord" was published by Murray, and +not by Constable, who had brought out Scott's other works, and the book +was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Many critics place "Old +Mortality" in the highest niche of merit and fame. Frere of the +Quarterly Review, Hallam, Boswell, Lamb, Lord Holland, all agreed that +it surpassed his other novels. Bishop Heber said, "There are only two +men in the world,--Walter Scott and Lord Byron." Lockhart regarded "Old +Mortality" as the "Marmion" of Scott's novels; but the painting of the +Covenanters gave offence to the more rigid of the Presbyterians. For +myself, I have doubt as to the correctness of their criticisms. "Old +Mortality," in contrast with the previous novels of Scott, has a place +similar to the later productions of George Eliot as compared with her +earlier ones. It is not so vivid a sketch of Scotch life as is given in +"Guy Mannering." Like "The Antiquary," it is bookish rather than +natural. From a literary point of view, it is more artistic than "Guy +Mannering," and more learned. "The canvas is a broader one." Its +characters are portrayed with great skill and power, but they lack the +freshness which comes from actual contact with the people described, and +with whom Scott was familiar as a youth in the course of his wanderings. +It is more historical than realistic. In short, "Old Mortality" is +another creation of its author's brain rather than a painting of real +life. But it is justly famous, for it was the precursor of those +brilliant historical romances from which so much is learned of great men +already known to students. It was a new departure in literature. + +Before Scott arose, historical novels were comparatively unknown. He +made romance instructive, rather than merely amusing, and added the +charm of life to the dry annals of the past. Cervantes does not portray +a single great character known in Spanish history in his "Don Quixote," +but he paints life as he has seen it. So does Goldsmith. So does George +Eliot in "Silas Marner." She presents life, indeed, in "Romola,"--not, +however, as she had personally observed it, but as drawn from books, +recreating the atmosphere of a long gone time by the power of +imagination. + +The earlier works of Scott are drawn from memory and personal feeling, +rather than from the knowledge he had gained by study. Of "Old +Mortality" he writes to Lady Louisa Stuart: "I am complete master of the +whole history of these strange times, both of persecutors and +persecuted; so I trust I have come decently off." + +The divisional grouping of these earlier novels by Scott himself is +interesting. In the "Advertisement" to "The Antiquary" he says: "The +present work completes a series of fictitious narratives, intended to +illustrate the manners of Scotland at three different periods. WAVERLEY +embraced the age of our fathers [''Tis Sixty Years Since'], GUY +MANNERING that of our own youth, and THE ANTIQUARY refers to the last +ten years of the eighteenth century." The dedication of "Tales of My +Landlord" describes them as "tales illustrative of ancient Scottish +manners, and of the traditions of their [his countrymen's] respective +districts." They were--_First Series_: "The Black Dwarf" and "Old +Mortality;" _Second Series:_ "The Heart of Mid-Lothian;" _Third Series:_ +"The Bride of Lammermoor" and "A Legend of Montrose;" _Fourth Series:_ +"Count Robert of Paris" and "Castle Dangerous." These all (except the +fourth series, in 1832) appeared in the six years from 1814 to 1820, and +besides these, "Rob Roy," "Ivanhoe," and "The Monastery." + +With the publication of "Old Mortality" in 1816, then, Scott introduced +the first of his historical novels, which had great fascination for +students. Who ever painted the old Cameronian with more felicity? Who +ever described the peculiarities of the Scottish Calvinists during the +reign of the last of the Stuarts with more truthfulness,--their +severity, their strict and Judaical observance of the Sabbath, their +hostility to popular amusements, their rigid and legal morality, their +love of theological dogmas, their inflexible prejudices, their lofty +aspirations? Where shall we find in literature a sterner fanatical +Puritan than John Balfour of Burley, or a fiercer royalist than Graham +of Claverhouse? As a love-story this novel is not remarkable. It is not +in the description of passionate love that Scott anywhere excels. His +heroines, with two or three exceptions, would be called rather tame by +the modern reader, although they win respect for their domestic virtues +and sterling elements of character. His favorite heroes are either +Englishmen of good family, or Scotchmen educated in England,--gallant, +cultivated, and reproachless, but without any striking originality or +intellectual force. + +"Rob Roy" was published in the latter part of 1817, and was received by +the public with the same unabated enthusiasm which marked the appearance +of "Guy Mannering" and the other romances. An edition of ten thousand +was disposed of in two weeks, and the subsequent sale amounted to forty +thousand more. The scene of this story is laid in the Highlands of +Scotland, with an English hero and a Scottish heroine; and in this +fascinating work the political history of the times (forty years earlier +than the period of "Waverley") is portrayed with great impartiality. It +is a description of the first Jacobite rising against George I. in the +year 1715. In this novel one of the greatest of Scott's creations +appears in the heroine, Diana Vernon,--rather wild and masculine, but +interesting from her courage and virtue. The character of Baillie Jarvie +is equally original and more amusing. + +The general effect of "Rob Roy," as well as of "Waverley" and "Old +Mortality," was to make the Scottish Highlanders and Jacobites +interesting to English readers of opposite views and feelings, without +arousing hostility to the reigning royal family. The Highlanders a +hundred years ago were viewed by the English with sentiments nearly +similar to those with which the Puritan settlers of New England looked +upon the Indians,--at any rate, as freebooters, robbers, and murderers, +who were dangerous to civilization; and the severities of the English +government toward these lawless clans, both as outlaws and as foes of +the Hanoverian succession, were generally condoned by public opinion. +Scott succeeded in producing a better feeling among both the conquerors +and the conquered. He modified general sentiment by his impartial and +liberal views, and allayed prejudices. The Highlanders thenceforth were +regarded as a body of men with many interesting traits, and capable of +becoming good subjects of the Crown; while their own hatred and contempt +of the Lowland Saxon were softened by the many generous and romantic +incidents of these tales. Two hitherto hostile races were drawn into +neighborly sympathy. Travellers visited the beautiful Highland retreats, +and returned with enthusiastic impressions of the country. To no other +man does Scotland owe so great a debt of gratitude as to Walter Scott, +not only for his poetry and novels, but for showing the admirable traits +of a barren country and a fierce population, and contributing to bring +them within the realm of civilization. A century or two ago the +Highlands of Scotland were peopled by a race in a state of perpetual +conflict with civilization, averse to labor, gaining (except such of +them as were enrolled in the English Army) a precarious support by +plunder, black-mailing, smuggling, and other illegal pursuits. Now they +compose a body of hard-working, intelligent, and law-abiding laborers, +cultivating farms, raising cattle and sheep, and pursuing the various +branches of industry which lead to independence, if not to wealth. The +traveller among the Highlanders feels as secure and is made as +comfortable as in any part of the island; while revelations of their +shrewd intelligence and unsuspected wit, in the stories of Barrie and +Crockett, show what a century of Calvinistic theology--as the chief +mental stimulant--has done in developing blossoms from that +thistle-like stock. + +Scott had now all the fame and worldly prosperity which any literary man +could attain to,--for his authorship of the novels, although +unacknowledged, was more and more generally believed, and after 1821 not +denied. He lived above the atmosphere of envy, honored by all classes of +people, surrounded with admiring friends and visitors. He had an income +of at least L10,000 a year. Wherever he journeyed he was treated with +the greatest distinction. In London he was cordially received as a +distinguished guest in any circle he chose. The highest nobles paid +homage to him. The King made him a baronet,--the first purely literary +man in England to receive that honor. He now became ambitious to +increase his lands; and the hundred acres of farm at Abbotsford were +enlarged by new purchases, picturesquely planted with trees and +shrubberies, while "the cottage grew to a mansion, and the mansion to a +castle," with its twelve hundred surrounding acres, cultivated and made +beautiful. + +Scott's correspondence with famous people was immense, besides his other +labors as farmer, lawyer, and author. Few persons of rank or fame +visited Edinburgh without paying their respects to its most eminent +citizen. His country house was invaded by tourists. He was on terms of +intimacy with some of the proudest nobles of Scotland. His various works +were the daily food not only of his countrymen, but of all educated +Europe. "Station, power, wealth, beauty, and genius strove with each +other in every demonstration of respect and worship." + +And yet in the midst of this homage and increasing prosperity, one of +the most fortunate of human beings, Scott's head was not turned. His +habitual modesty preserved his moral health amid all sorts of +temptation. He never lost his intellectual balance. He assumed no airs +of superiority. His manners were simple and unpretending to the last. He +praised all literary productions except his own. His life in Edinburgh +was plain, though hospitable and free; and he seemed to care for few +luxuries aside from books, of which life made a large collection. The +furniture of his houses in Edinburgh and at Abbotsford was neither showy +nor luxurious. He was extraordinarily fond of dogs and all domestic +animals, who--sympathetic creatures as they are--unerringly sought him +out and lavished affection upon him. + +When Scott lived in Castle Street he was not regarded by Edinburgh +society as particularly brilliant in conversation, since he never +aspired to lead by learned disquisitions. He told stories well, with +great humor and pleasantry, to amuse rather than to instruct. His talk +was almost homely. The most noticeable thing about it was common-sense. +Lord Cockburn said of him that "his sense was more wonderful than his +genius." He did not blaze like Macaulay or Mackintosh at the +dinner-table, nor absorb conversation like Coleridge and Sydney Smith. +"He disliked," says Lockhart, "mere disquisitions in Edinburgh and +prepared impromptus in London." A _doctrinaire_ in society was to him an +abomination. Hence, until his fame was established by the admiration of +the world, Edinburgh professors did not see his greatness. To them he +seemed commonplace, but not to such men as Hallam or Moore or Rogers or +Croker or Canning. + +Notwithstanding Scott gave great dinners occasionally, they appear to +have been a bore to him, and he very rarely went out to evening +entertainments, although at public dinners his wit and sense made him a +favorite chairman. He retired early at night and rose early in the +morning, and his severest labors were before breakfast,--his principal +meal. He always dined at home on Sunday, with a few intimate friends, +and his dinner was substantial and plain. He drank very little wine, and +preferred a glass of whiskey-toddy to champagne or port. He could not +distinguish between madeira and sherry. He was neither an epicure nor +a gourmand. + +After Scott had become world-famous, his happiest hours were spent in +enlarging and adorning his land at Abbotsford, and in erecting and +embellishing his baronial castle. In this his gains were more than +absorbed. He loved that castle more than any of his intellectual +creations, and it was not completed until nearly all his novels were +written. Without personal extravagance, he was lavish in the sums he +spent on Abbotsford. Here he delighted to entertain his distinguished +visitors, of whom no one was more welcome than Washington Irving, whom +he liked for his modesty and quiet humor and unpretending manners. +Lockhart writes: "It would hardly, I believe, be too much to affirm that +Sir Walter Scott entertained under his roof, in the course of the seven +or eight brilliant seasons when his prosperity was at its height, as +many persons of distinction in rank, in politics, in art, in literature, +and in science, as the most princely nobleman of his age ever did in the +like space of time." + +One more unconscious, apparently, of his great powers has been rarely +seen among literary men, especially in England and France,--affording a +striking contrast in this respect to Dryden, Pope, Voltaire, Byron, +Bulwer, Macaulay, Carlyle, Hugo, Dumas, and even Tennyson. Great lawyers +and great statesmen are rarely so egotistical and conceited as poets, +novelists, artists, and preachers. Scott made no pretensions which were +offensive, or which could be controverted. His greatest aspiration seems +to have been to be a respectable landed proprietor, and to found a +family. An English country gentleman was his beau-ideal of happiness and +contentment. Perhaps this was a weakness; but it was certainly a +harmless and amiable one, and not so offensive as intellectual pride. +Scott indeed, while without vanity, had pride; but it was of a lofty +kind, disdaining meanness and cowardice as worse even than +transgressions which have their origin in unregulated passions. + +From the numerous expletives which abound in Scott's letters, such as +are not now considered in good taste among gentlemen, I infer that like +most gentlemen of his social standing in those times he was in the habit +of using, when highly excited or irritated, what is called profane +language. After he had once given vent to his feelings, however, he was +amiable and forgiving enough for a Christian sage, who never harbored +malice or revenge. He had great respect for the military +profession,--probably because it was the great prop and defence of +government and established institutions, for he was the most +conservative of aristocrats. And yet his aristocratic turn of mind never +conflicted with his humane disposition,--never made him a snob. He +abhorred all vulgarity. He admired genius and virtue in whatever garb +they appeared. He was as kind to his servants, and to poor and +unfortunate people, as he was to his equals in society, being eminently +big-hearted. It was only fools, who made great pretensions, that he +despised and treated with contempt. + +No doubt Scott was bored by the numerous visitors, whether invited or +uninvited, who came from all parts of Great Britain, from America, and +even from continental Europe, to do homage to his genius, or to gratify +their curiosity. Sometimes as many as thirty guests sat down to his +banqueting-table at once. He entertained in baronial style, but without +ostentation or prodigality, and on old-fashioned dishes. He did not +like French cooking, and his simple taste in the matters of beverage we +have already noted. The people to whom he was most attentive were the +representatives of ancient families, whether rich or poor. + +Scott was very kind to literary men in misfortune, and his chosen +friends were authors of eminence,--like Miss Edgeworth, Joanna Baillie, +Thomas Moore, Crabbe, Southey, Wordsworth, Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. +Wollaston the chemist, Henry Mackenzie, etc. He was very intimate with +the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Montagu, and other noblemen. He was visited +by dukes and princes, as well as by ladies of rank and fame. George IV. +sent him valuable presents, and showed him every mark of high +consideration. Cambridge and Oxford tendered to him honorary degrees. +Wherever he travelled, he was received with honor and distinction and +flatteries. But he did not like flatteries; and this was one reason why +he did not openly acknowledge his authorship of his novels, until all +doubt was removed by the masterly papers of John Leycester Adolphus +in 1821. + +Scott's correspondence must have been enormous, for his postage bills +amounted to L150 per annum, besides the aid he received from franks, +which with his natural economy he made no scruple in liberally using. +Perhaps his most confidential letters were, like Byron's, written to his +publishers and printers, though many such were addressed to his +son-in-law Lockhart, and to his dearest friend William Erskine. But he +had also some admirable women friends, with whom he corresponded freely. +Some of the choicest of his recently-published Letters are to Lady +Abercorn, who was an intimate and helpful friend; to Miss Anna Seward, a +literary confidant of many years; to Lady Louisa Stuart, daughter of the +Earl of Bute, and granddaughter of Mary Wortley Montagu, one of the few +who knew from the first of his "Waverley" authorship; and to Mrs. John +Hughes, an early and most affectionate friend, whose grandson, Thomas +Hughes, has made famous the commonplace name of "Tom Brown" in our +own day. + +Scott's letters show the man,--frank, cordial, manly, tender, generous, +finding humor in difficulties, pleasure in toil, satisfaction in +success, a proud courage in adversity, and the purest happiness in the +affection of his friends. + +How Scott found time for so much work is a mystery,--writing nearly +three novels a year, besides other literary labors, attending to his +duties in the Courts, overlooking the building of Abbotsford and the +cultivation of his twelve hundred acres, and entertaining more guests +than Voltaire did at Ferney. He was too much absorbed by his legal +duties and his literary labors to be much of a traveller; yet he was a +frequent visitor to London, saw something of Paris, journeyed through +Ireland, was familiar with the Lake region in England, and penetrated to +every interesting place in Scotland. He did not like London, and took +little pleasure in the ovations he received from people of rank and +fashion. As a literary lion at the tables of "the great," he +disappointed many of his admirers, since he made no effort to shine. It +was only in his modest den in Castle Street, or in rambles in the +country or at Abbotsford, that he felt himself at home, and appeared to +the most advantage. + +It would be pleasant to leave this genuinely great man in the full flush +of health, creative power, inward delight and outward prosperity; but +that were to leave unwritten the finest and noblest part of his life. It +is to the misfortunes which came upon him that we owe both a large part +of his splendid achievements in literature and our knowledge of the most +admirable characteristics of the man. + +My running record of his novels last mentioned "The Monastery," issued +in 1820, in the same year with perhaps the prime favorite of all his +works, "Ivanhoe," the romantic tale of England in the crusading age of +Richard the Lion-Hearted. In 1821 he put forth the fascinating +Elizabethan tale of "Kenilworth." In 1822 came "The Pirate" (the tale of +sea and shore that inspired James Fenimore Cooper to write "The Pilot" +and his other sea-stories) and "The Fortunes of Nigel;" in 1823, +"Peveril of the Peak" and "Quentin Durward," both among his best; in +1824, "St. Ronan's Well" and "Redgauntlet;" and in 1825, two more Tales +of the Crusaders,--"The Betrothed" and "The Talisman," the latter +probably sharing with "Ivanhoe" the greatest popularity. + +In the winter of 1825-1826, a widespread area of commercial distress +resulted in the downfall of many firms; and among others to succumb were +Hurst & Robinson, publishers, whose failure precipitated that of +Constable & Co., Scott's publishers, and of the Ballantynes his +printers, with whom he was a secret partner, who were largely indebted +to the Constables and so to the creditors of that house. The crash came +January 16, 1826, and Scott found himself in debt to the amount of about +L147,000,--or nearly $735,000. + +Such a vast misfortune, overwhelming a man at the age of fifty-five, +might well crush out all life and hope and send him into helpless +bankruptcy, with the poor consolation that, though legally responsible, +he was not morally bound to pay other people's debts. But Scott's own +sanguine carelessness had been partly to blame for the Ballantyne +failure; and he faced the billow as it suddenly appeared, bowed to it in +grief but not in shame, and, while not pretending to any stoicism, +instantly resolved to devote the remainder of his life to the repayment +of the creditors. + +The solid substance of manliness, honor, and cheerful courage in his +character; the genuine piety with which he accepted the "dispensation," +and wrote "Blessed be the name of the Lord;" the unexampled steadiness +with which he comforted his wife and daughters while girding himself to +the daily work of intellectual production amidst his many distresses; +the sweetness of heart with which he acknowledged the sympathy and +declined the offers of help that poured in upon him from every side (one +poor music teacher offering his little savings of L600, and an anonymous +admirer urging upon him a loan of L30,000),--all this is the beauty that +lighted up the black cloud of Scott's adversity. His efforts were +finally successful, although at the cost of his bodily existence. +Lockhart says: "He paid the penalty of health and life, but he saved his +honor and his self-respect. + + "'The glory dies not, and the grief is past.'" + +"Woodstock," then about half-done, was completed in sixty-nine days, and +issued in March, 1826, bringing in about $41,000 to his creditors. His +"Life of Napoleon," published in June, 1827, produced $90,000. In 1827, +also, Scott issued "Chronicles of the Canongate," First Series (several +minor stories), and the First Series of "Tales of a Grandfather;" in +1828, "The Fair Maid of Perth" (Second Series of the "Chronicles"), and +more "Tales of a Grandfather;" in 1829, "Anne of Geierstein," more +"Tales of a Grandfather," the first volume of a "History of Scotland," +and a collective edition of the Waverley Novels in forty-eight volumes, +with new Introductions, Notes, and careful corrections and improvements +of the text throughout,--in itself an immense labor; in 1830, more +"Tales of a Grandfather," a three volume "History of France," and Volume +II. of the "History of Scotland;" in 1831, and finally, a Fourth Series +of "Tales of My Landlord," including "Count Robert of Paris" and "Castle +Dangerous." + +This completes the list of Scott's greater productions; but it should be +remembered that during all the years of his creative work he was +incessantly doing critical and historical writing,--producing numerous +reviews, essays, ballads; introductions to divers works; biographical +sketches for Ballantyne's "Novelist's Library,"--the works of fifteen +celebrated English writers of fiction, Fielding, Smollett, etc.; letters +and pamphlets; dramas; even a few religious discourses; and his very +extensive and interesting private correspondence. He was such a marvel +of productive brain-power as has seldom, if ever, been known +to humanity. + +The illness and death of Scott's beloved wife, but four short months +after his commercial disaster, was a profound grief to him; and under +the exhausting pressure of incessant work during the five years +following, his bodily power began to fail,--so that in October, 1831, +after a paralytic shock, he stopped all literary labor and went to Italy +for recuperation. The following June he returned to London, weaker in +both mind and body; was taken to Abbotsford in July; and on the 21st +September, 1832, with his children about him, the kindly, manly, brave, +and tender spirit passed away. + +At the time of his death Sir Walter had reduced his great indebtedness +to $270,000. A life insurance of $110,000, $10,000 in the hands of his +trustees, and $150,000 advanced by Robert Cadell, an Edinburgh +bookseller, on the copyrights of Scott's works, cleared away the last +remnant of the debt; and within twenty years Cadell had reimbursed +himself, and made a handsome profit for his own account and that of the +family of Sir Walter. + +The moneyed details of Scott's literary life have been made a part of +this brief sketch, both because his phenomenal fecundity and popularity +offer a convenient measure of his power, and because the fiscal +misfortune of his later life revealed a simple grandeur of character +even more admirable than his mental force. "Scott ruined!" exclaimed the +Earl of Dudley when he heard of the trouble. "The author of Waverley +ruined! Good God! let every man to whom he has given months of delight +give him a sixpence, and he will rise to-morrow morning richer than +Rothschild!" But the sturdy Scotchman accepted no dole; he set himself +to work out his own salvation. William Howitt, in his "Homes and Haunts +of Eminent British Poets," estimated that Scott's works had produced as +profits to the author or his trustees at least L500,000,--nearly +$2,500,000: this in 1847, over fifty years ago, and only forty-five +years from Scott's first original publication. Add the results of the +past fifty years, and, remembering that this gives but the profits, +conceive the immense sums that have been freely paid by the intelligent +British public for their enjoyment of this great author's writings. +Then, besides all this, recall the myriad volumes of Scott sold in +America, which paid no profit to the author or his heirs. There is +no parallel. + +Voltaire's renown and monetary rewards, as the master-writer of the +eighteenth century, offer the only case in modern times that approaches +Scott's success; yet Voltaire's vast wealth was largely the result of +successful speculation. As a purely popular author, whose wholesome +fancy, great heart, and tireless industry, has delighted millions of his +fellow-men, Scott stands alone; while, as a man, he holds the affection +and respect of the world. Even though it be that the fashion of his +workmanship passeth away, wonder not, lament not. With Mithridates he +could say, "I have lived." What great man can say more? + + + +LORD BYRON. + + +1788-1824. + +POETIC GENIUS. + +It is extremely difficult to depict Lord Byron, and even presumptuous to +attempt it. This is not only because he is a familiar subject, the +triumphs and sorrows of whose career have been often portrayed, but also +because he presents so many contradictions in his life and +character,--lofty yet degraded, earnest yet frivolous, an impersonation +of noble deeds and sentiments, and also of almost every frailty which +Christianity and humanity alike condemn. No great man has been more +extravagantly admired, and none more bitterly assailed; but generally he +is regarded as a fallen star,--a man with splendid gifts which he +wasted, for whom pity is the predominant sentiment in broad and generous +minds. With all his faults, the English-speaking people are proud of him +as one of the greatest lights in our literature; and in view of the +brilliancy of his literary career his own nation in particular does not +like to have his defects and vices dwelt upon. It blushes and condones. +It would fain blot out his life and much of his poetry if, without them, +it could preserve the best and grandest of his writings,--that +ill-disguised autobiography which goes by the name of "Childe Harold's +Pilgrimage," in which he soars to loftier flights than any English poet +from Milton to his own time. Like Shakespeare, like Dryden, like Pope, +like Burns, he was a born poet; while most of the other poets, however +eminent and excellent, were simply made,--made by study and labor on a +basis of talent, rather than exalted by native genius as he was, +speaking out what he could not help, and revelling in the richness of +unconscious gifts, whether for good or evil. + +Byron was a man with qualities so generous, yet so wild, that Lamartine +was in doubt whether to call him angel or devil. But, whether angel or +devil, his life is the saddest and most interesting among all the men of +letters in the nineteenth century. + +Of course, most of our material comes from his Life and Letters, as +edited by his friend and brother-poet, Thomas Moore. This biographer, I +think, has been unwisely candid in the delineation of Byron's character, +making revelations that would better have remained in doubt, and on +which friendship at least should have prompted him to a +discreet silence. + +Lord Byron was descended from the Byrons of Normandy who accompanied +William the Conqueror in his invasion of England, of which illustrious +lineage the poet was prouder than of his poetry. In the reign of Henry +VIII., on the dissolution of the monasteries, a Byron came into +possession of the old mediaeval abbey of Newstead. In the reign of James +I., Sir John Byron was made a knight of the Order of the Bath. In 1784 +the father of the poet, a dissipated captain of the Guards, being in +embarrassed circumstances, married a rich Scotch heiress of the name of +Gordon. Handsome and reckless, "Mad Jack Byron" speedily spent his +wife's fortune; and when he died, his widow, being reduced to a pittance +of L150 a year, retired to Scotland to live, with her infant son who had +been born in London. She was plain Mrs. Byron, widow of a "younger son," +with but little expectation of future rank. She was a woman of caprices +and eccentricities, and not at all fitted to superintend the education +of her wayward boy. + +Hence the childhood and youth of Byron were sad and unfortunate. His +temper was violent and passionate. A malformation of his foot made him +peculiarly sensitive, and the unwise treatment of his mother, fond and +harsh by turns, destroyed maternal authority. At five years of age, he +was sent to a day-school in Aberdeen, where he made but slim +attainments. Though excitable and ill-disciplined, he is said to have +been affectionate and generous, and perfectly fearless. A fit of +sickness rendered his removal from this school necessary, and he was +sent to a summer resort among the Highlands. His early impressions were +therefore favorable to the development of the imagination, coming as +they did from mountains and valleys, rivulets and lakes, near the +sources of the Dee. At the age of eight, he wrote verses and fell in +love, like Dante at the age of nine. + +On the death of the grandson of the old Lord Byron in 1794, this +unpromising youth became the heir-apparent to the barony. Nor did he +have to wait long; for soon after, his grand-uncle died, and the young +Byron, whose mother was struggling with poverty, became a ward of +Chancery; and the Earl of Carlisle--one of the richest and most powerful +noblemen of the realm, a nephew by marriage of the deceased peer--was +appointed his guardian. This cold, formal, and politic nobleman took but +little interest in his ward, leaving him to the mismanagement of his +mother, who, with her boy, at the age of ten, now removed to Newstead, +the seat of his ancestors,--the government, meanwhile, for some reason +which is not explained, having conferred on her a pension of L300 +a year. + +One of the first things that Mrs. Byron did on her removal to Newstead +was to intrust her son to the care of a quack in Nottingham, in order to +cure him of his lameness. As the doctor was not successful, the boy was +removed to London with the double purpose of effecting a cure under an +eminent surgeon, and of educating him according to his rank; for his +education thus far had been sadly neglected, although it would appear +that he was an omnivorous reader in a desultory kind of way. The +lameness was never cured, and through life was a subject of bitter +sensitiveness on his part. Dr. Glennie of Dulwich, to whose instruction +he was now confided, found him hard to manage, because of his own +undisciplined nature and the perpetual interference of his mother. His +progress was so slow in Latin and Greek that at the end of two years, in +1801, he was removed to Harrow,--one of the great public schools of +England, of which Dr. Drury was head-master. For a year or two, owing to +that constitutional shyness which is so often mistaken for pride, young +Byron made but few friendships, although he had for school-fellows many +who were afterwards distinguished, including Sir Robert Peel. Before he +left this school for Cambridge, however, he had made many friends whom +he never forgot, being of a very generous and loving disposition. I +think that those years at Harrow were the happiest he ever knew, for he +was under a strict discipline, and was too young to indulge in those +dissipations which were the bane of his subsequent life. But he was not +distinguished as a scholar, in the ordinary sense, although in his +school-boy days he wrote some poetry remarkable for his years, and read +a great many books. He read in bed, read when no one else read, read +while eating, read all sorts of books, and was capable of great sudden +exertions, but not of continuous drudgeries, which he always abhorred. +In the year 1803, when a youth of fifteen, he formed a strong attachment +for a Miss Chaworth, two years his senior, who, looking upon him as a +mere schoolboy, treated him cavalierly, and made some slighting allusion +to "that lame boy." This treatment both saddened and embittered him. +When he left school for college he had the reputation of being an idle +and a wilful boy, with a very imperfect knowledge of Latin and Greek. + +Young Byron entered Trinity College in 1805, poorly prepared, and was +never distinguished there for those attainments which win the respect of +tutors and professors. He wasted his time, and gave himself up to +pleasures,--riding, boating, bathing, and social hilarities,--yet +reading more than anybody imagined, and writing poetry, for which he had +an extraordinary facility, yet not contending for college prizes. His +intimate friends were few, but to his chosen circle he was faithful and +affectionate. No one at this time would have predicted his future +eminence. A more unpromising youth did not exist within the walls of his +college. He had a most unfortunate temper, which would have made him +unhappy under any circumstances in which he could be placed. This +temper, which he inherited from his mother--passionate, fitful, defiant, +restless, wayward, melancholy--inclined him naturally to solitude, and +often isolated him even from his friends and companions. He brooded upon +supposed wrongs, and created in his soul strong likes and dislikes. What +is worse, he took no pains to control this temperament; and at last it +mastered him, drove him into every kind of folly and rashness, and made +him appear worse than he really was. + +This inborn tendency to moodiness, pride, and recklessness should be +considered in our estimate of Byron, and should modify any harshness of +judgment in regard to his character, which, in some other respects, was +interesting and noble. He was not at all envious, but frank, +warm-hearted, and true to those he loved, who were, however, very few. +If he had learned self-control, and had not been spoiled by his mother, +his career might have been far different from what it was, and would +have sustained the admiration which his brilliant genius called out +from both high and low. + +As it was, Byron left college with dangerous habits, with no reputation +for scholarship, with but few friends, and an uncertain future. His +bright and witty bursts of poetry, wonderful as the youthful effusions +of Dryden and Pope, had made him known to a small circle, but had not +brought fame, for which his soul passionately thirsted from first to +last. For a nobleman he was poor and embarrassed, and his youthful +extravagances had tied up his inherited estate. He was cast upon the +world like a ship without a rudder and without ballast. He was aspiring +indeed, but without a plan, tired out and disgusted before he was +twenty-one, having prematurely exhausted the ordinary pleasures of life, +and being already inclined to that downward path which leadeth to +destruction. This was especially marked in his relations with women, +whom generally he flattered, despised, and deserted, as the amusements +of an idle hour, and yet whose society he could not do without in the +ardor of his impulsive and ungoverned affections. In that early career +of unbridled desire for excitement and pleasure, nowhere do we see a +sense of duty, a respect for the opinions of the good, a reverence for +religious institutions, or self-restraint of any kind; but these defects +were partly covered over by his many virtues and his exalted rank. + +Thus far Byron was comparatively unknown. Not yet was he even a +favorite in society, beautiful and brilliant as he was; for he had few +friends, not much money, and many enemies, whom he made by his scorn and +defiance,--a born aristocrat, without having penetrated those exclusive +circles to which his birth entitled him. He was always quarrelling with +his mother, and was treated with indifference by his guardian. He was +shunned by those who adhered to the conventionalities of life, and was +pursued by bailiffs and creditors,--since his ancestral estates, small +for his rank, were encumbered and mortgaged, and Newstead Abbey itself +was in a state of dilapidation. + +Within a year from leaving Cambridge, in 1807, Byron published a volume +of his juvenile poems; and although they were remarkable for a young man +of twenty, they were not of sufficient merit to attract the attention of +the public. At this time he was abstemious in eating, wishing to reduce +a tendency to corpulence. He could practise self-denial if it were to +make his person attractive, especially to ladies. Nor was he idle. His +reading, if desultory, was vast; and from the list of books which his +biographer has noted it would seem that Macaulay never read more than +Byron in a given time,--all the noted historians of England, Germany, +Rome, and Greece, with innumerable biographies, miscellanies, and even +divinity, the raw material which he afterwards worked into his poems. +How he found time to devour so many solid books is to me a mystery. +These were not merely European works, but Asiatic also. He was not a +critical scholar, but he certainly had a passing familiarity with almost +everything in literature worth knowing, which he subsequently utilized, +as seen in his "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." A college reputation was +nothing to him, any more than it was to Swift, Goldsmith, Churchill, +Gibbon, and many other famous men of letters, who left on record their +dislike of the English system of education. Among these were even such +men as Addison, Cowper, Milton, and Dryden, who were scholars, but who +alike felt that college honors and native genius did not go hand in +hand,--which might almost be regarded as the rule, but for a few +remarkable exceptions, like Sir Robert Peel and Gladstone. And yet it +would be unwise to decry college honors, since not one in a hundred of +those who obtain them by their industry, aptness, and force of will can +lay claim to what is called genius,--the rarest of all gifts. Moreover, +how impossible it is for college professors to detect in students, with +whom they are imperfectly acquainted, extraordinary faculties, more +especially if the young men are apparently idle and negligent, and +contemptuous of the college curriculum. + +It was a bitter pill for Lord Byron when his juvenile poems, called +"Hours of Idleness," were so severely attacked by the Edinburgh Review. +They might have escaped the searching eyes of the critics had the author +not been a lord. At that time the great Reviews had just been started; +and it was the especial object of the Edinburgh Review to handle authors +roughly,--to condemn and not to praise. Criticism was not then a +science, as it became fifty years later, in the hands of Sainte-Beuve, +who endeavored to review every production fairly and justly. There was +nothing like justice entering into the head of Jeffrey or Sydney Smith +or Brougham, or later on of Macaulay, whose articles were often written +for political party effect. Critics, from the time of Swift down to the +middle of the century, aimed to demolish enemies, and to make party +capital; hence, as a general thing, their articles were not criticisms +at all, but attacks. And as even an Achilles was vulnerable in his heel, +so most intellectual giants have some weak point for the shafts of +malice to penetrate. Yet it is the weaknesses of great men that people +like to quote. + +If Byron was humiliated, enraged, and embittered by the severity of the +Edinburgh Review, he was not crushed. He rallied, collected his +unsuspected strength, and shattered his opponents by one of the +wittiest, most brilliant, and most unscrupulous satires in our +literature, which he called "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." At the +height of his fame he regretted and suppressed this youthful production +of malice and bitterness. Yet it was the beginning of his great career, +both as to a consciousness of his own powers and in attracting the +public attention. It was doubtless unwise, since he attacked many who +were afterwards his friends, and since he sowed the seeds of hatred +among those who might otherwise have been his admirers or apologists. He +had to learn the truth that "with what measure ye mete it shall be +measured to you again." The creators of public opinion in reference to +Byron have not been women of fashion, or men of the world, but literary +lions themselves,--like Thackeray, who detested him, and the whole +school of pharisaic ecclesiastical dignitaries, who abhorred in him +sentiments which they condoned in Fielding, in Burns, in Rousseau, and +in Voltaire. + +Before his bitter satire was published, however, Byron took his seat in +the House of Lords, not knowing any peer sufficiently to be introduced +by him. His guardian, Lord Carlisle, treated him very shabbily, refusing +to furnish to the Lord Chancellor some important information, of a +technical kind, which refusal delayed the ceremony for several weeks, +until the necessary papers could be procured from Cornwall relating to +the marriage of one of his ancestors. Unfriended and alone, Byron sat on +the scarlet benches of the House of Lords until he was formally admitted +as a peer. But when the Lord Chancellor left the woolsack to +congratulate him, and with a smiling face extended his hand, the +embittered young peer bowed coldly and stiffly, and simply held out two +or three of his fingers,--an act of impudence for which there was +no excuse. + +It is difficult to understand why Lord Byron should have had so few +friends or even acquaintances at that time among people of his rank. At +twenty-one, he was a lonely and solitary man, mortified by the attack of +the Edinburgh Review, exasperated by injustice, morose even to +misanthropy, and decidedly sceptical in his religious opinions. Newstead +Abbey was a burden to him, since he could not keep it up. He owed +L10,000. He had no domestic ties, except to a mother with whom he could +not live. His poetry had not brought him fame, for which of all things +he most ardently thirsted. His love affairs were unfortunate, and tinged +his soul with sadness and melancholy. Nor had fashion as yet marked him +for her own. He craved excitement, and society to him was dull and +conventional. + +It is not surprising that under these circumstances Byron made up his +mind to travel: he did not much care whither, provided he had new +experiences. "The grand tour" which educated young men of leisure and +fortune took in that day had no charm for him, since he wished to avoid +rather than to seek society in those cities which the English +frequented. He did not care to see the literary lions of France or +Germany or Italy, for though a nobleman, he was too young and +unimportant to be much noticed, and he was too shy and too proud to make +advances which might be rebuffed, wounding his _amour propre._ + +He set out on his pilgrimage the latter part of June, 1809, in a ship +bound for Lisbon, with a small suite of servants. Going to a land where +Nature was most enchanting, he was sufficiently enthusiastic over the +hills and vales and villages of Portugal. As for comfort, he expected +little, and found less; but to this he was indifferent so long as he +could swim in the Tagus, and ride on a mule, and procure eggs and wine. +He was delighted with Cadiz, to him a Cythera, with its beautiful but +uneducated women, where the wives of peasants were on a par with the +wives of dukes in cultivation, and where the minds of both had but one +idea,--that of intrigue. He hastily travelled through Spain on +horseback, in August, reaching Gibraltar, from which he embarked for +Malta and the East. + +It was Greece and Turkey that Byron most wished to see and know; and, +favored by introductions, he was cordially received by governors and +pashas. At Athens, and other classical spots, he lingered enchanted, yet +suppressing his enthusiasm in the contempt he had for the affected +raptures of ordinary travellers. It was not the country alone, with its +classical associations, which interested him, but also its maidens, with +their dark hair and eyes, whom he idealized almost into goddesses. +Everything he saw was picturesque, unique, and fascinating. The days and +weeks flew rapidly away in dreamy enchantment. + +After nearly three months at Athens, Byron embarked for Smyrna, and +explored the ruins of the old Ionian cities, thence proceeding to +Constantinople, with a view of visiting Persia and the farther East. In +a letter to Mr. Henry Drury, he says:-- + +"I have left my home, and seen part of Africa and Asia, and a tolerable +portion of Europe. I have been with generals and admirals, princes and +pashas, governors and ungovernables. Albania, indeed, I have seen more +than any Englishman, except Mr. Leake,--a country rarely visited, from +the savage character of the natives, but abounding more in natural +beauties than the classical regions of Greece." + +A glimpse of Byron's inner life at this time is caught in the following +extract from a letter to another friend: + +"I have now been nearly a year abroad, and hope you will find me an +altered personage,--I do not mean in body, but in manners; for I begin +to find out that nothing but virtue will do in this d--d world. I am +tolerably sick of vice, which I have tried in its agreeable varieties, +and mean on my return to cut all my dissolute acquaintance, leave off +wine and carnal company, and betake myself to politics and decorum." + +One thing we notice in most of the familiar letters of Byron,--that he +makes frequent use of a vulgar expletive. But when I remember that the +Prince of Wales, the Lord Chancellor, the judges, the lawyers, the +ministers of the Crown, and many other distinguished people were +accustomed to use the same expression, I would fain hope that it was not +meant for profanity, but was a sort of fashionable slang intended only +to be emphatic. Fifty years have seen a great improvement in the use of +language, and the vulgarism which then appeared to be of slight +importance is now regarded, almost universally with gentlemen, to be at +least in very bad taste. How far Byron transgressed beyond the frequent +use of this expletive, does not appear either in his letters or in his +biography; yet from his irreverent nature, and the society with which he +was associated, it is more than probable that in him profanity was +added to the other vices of his times. + +Especially did he indulge in drinking to excess in all convivial +gatherings. It was seldom that gentlemen sat down to a banquet without +each despatching two or three bottles of wine in the course of an +evening. No wonder that gout was the pervading disease among county +squires, and even among authors and statesman. Morality was not one of +the features of English society one hundred years ago, except as it +consisted in a scrupulous regard for domesticity, truth, and honor, and +abhorrence of meanness and hypocrisy. + +It would be difficult to point out any defects and excesses of which +Byron was guilty at this period beyond what were common to other +fashionable young men of rank and leisure, except a spirit of religious +scepticism and impiety, and a wanton and inexcusable recklessness in +regard to women, which made him a slave to his passions. The first +alienated him, so far as he was known, from the higher respectable +classes, who generally were punctilious in the outward observances of +religion; and the second made him abhorred by the virtuous middle class, +who never condoned his transgressions in this respect. But at this time +his character was not generally known. It was not until he was seated on +the pinnacle of fame that public curiosity penetrated the scandals of +his private life. He was known only as a young nobleman in quest of the +excitements of foreign travel, and his letters of introduction procured +him all the society he craved. Not yet had he expressed bitterness and +wrath against the country which gave him birth; he simply found England +dull, and craved adventures in foreign lands as unlike England as he +could find. The East stimulated his imagination, and revived his +classical associations. He saw the Orient only as an enthusiastic poet +would see it, and as Lamartine saw Jerusalem. But Byron was more curious +about the pagan cities of antiquity than concerning the places +consecrated by the sufferings of our Lord. He cared more to swim across +the Hellespont with Leander than to wander over the sacred hills of +Judaea; to idealize a beautiful peasant girl among the ruins of Greece, +than converse with the monks of Palestine in their gloomy retreats. + +The result of Byron's travels was seen in the first two cantos of +"Childe Harold," showing alike the fertility of his mind and the +aspirations of a lofty genius. These were published in 1812, soon after +his return to England, at the age of twenty-four. They took England by +storm, creating both surprise and admiration. Public curiosity and +enthusiasm for the young poet, who had mounted to the front ranks of +literature at a single leap, was unbounded and universal. As he himself +wrote: "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." + +Young Byron was now sought, courted, and adored, especially by ladies of +the highest rank. Everybody was desirous to catch even a glimpse of the +greatest poet that had appeared since Pope and Dryden; any palace or +drawing-room he desired to enter was open to him. He was surfeited with +roses and praises and incense. He alone took precedence over Scott and +Coleridge and Moore and Campbell. For a time his pre-eminence in +literature was generally conceded. He was the foremost man of letters of +his day, and the greatest popular idol. His rank added to his _eclat_, +since not many noblemen were distinguished for genius or literary +excellence. His singular beauty of face and person, despite his slight +lameness, attracted the admiring gaze of women. What Abelard was in the +schools of philosophy, Byron was in the drawing-rooms of London. People +forgot his antecedents, so far as they were known, in the intoxication +of universal admiration and unbounded worship of genius. No poet in +English history was ever seated on a prouder throne, and no heathen +deity was ever more indifferent than he to the incense of idolaters. + +Far be it from me to attempt an analysis of the merits of the poem with +which the fame of Byron will be forever identified. Its great merits +are universally conceded; and while it has defects,--great inequalities +in both style and matter; some stanzas supernal in beauty, and others +only mediocre,--on the whole, the poem is extraordinary. Byron adopted +the Spenserian measure,--perhaps the most difficult of all measures, +hard even to read aloud,--in which blank verse seems to blend with +rhyme. It might be either to the ear, though to the eye it is elaborate +rhyme,--such as would severely task a made poet, but which this born +poet seems to have thrown off without labor. The leading peculiarity of +the poem is description,--of men and places; of the sea, the mountain, +and the river; of Nature in her loveliness and mysteries; of cities and +battle-fields consecrated by the heroism of brave and gifted men, in +Greece, in Rome, in mediaeval Europe,--with swift passing glances at +salient points in history, showing extensive reading and deep +meditation. + +As to the spirit of "Childe Harold," it is not satirical; it is more +pensive than bitter, and reveals the loneliness and sorrows of an +unsatisfied soul,--the unrest of a pilgrim in search for something new. +It seeks to penetrate the secrets of struggling humanity, at war often +with those certitudes which are the consolation of our inner life. It +everywhere recognizes the soul as that which gives greatest dignity to +man. It invokes love as the noblest joy of life. The poem is one of the +most ideal of human productions, soaring beyond what is material and +transient. It is not religious, not reverential, not Christian, like the +"Divine Comedy" and the "Paradise Lost;" and yet it is lofty, aspiring, +exulting in what is greatest in deed or song, destined to immortality of +fame and admiration. It is a confession, indirectly, of the follies and +shortcomings of the author, and of their retribution, but complains +not of the Nemesis that avenges everything. It is sensitive of +wrongs and injustices and misrepresentations, but does not hurl +anathemas,--speaking in sorrow rather than in anger, except in regard to +hypocrisies and shams and lies, when its scorn is intense and terrible. + +The whole poem is brilliant and original, but does not flash like fire +in a dark night. It was written with the heart's blood, and is as +earnest as it is penetrating. It does not ascend to the higher mysteries +forever veiled from mortal eye, nor descend to the deepest depths of +hatred and despair, but confines itself to those passions which have +marked gifted mortals, and those questionings in which all thoughtful +minds have ever delighted. It does not make revelations like "Hamlet" or +"Macbeth;" it does not explore secrets hidden forever from ordinary +minds, like "Faust;" but it muses and meditates on what Fate and Time +have brought to pass,--such events as have been revealed in history. It +invokes the neglected but impressive monuments of antiquity to tell the +tales of glory and of shame. In moral wisdom it is vastly inferior to +Shakspeare, and it is not rich in those wise and striking lines which +pass into the proverbs of the world; but it has the glow of a poetic +soul, longing for fame, craving love, and not unmindful of immortality. +Its most beautiful stanzas are full of tenderness and sadness for lost +or unrequited affections; of reproachless sorrow for broken friendships, +in which the soul would fain have lived but for inconsistencies and +contradictions which made true and permanent love impossible. The poem +paints a paradise lost, rather than a paradise regained. I wonder at its +popularity, for it seems to me too deep and learned for popular +appreciation, except in those stanzas where pathos or enthusiasm, +expressed in matchless language, appeal to the heart and soul. + +Of all modern poets, Byron is the most human and outspoken, daring to +say what many would fear or blush to meditate upon. He fearlessly +reveals the infirmities and audacities of a double and mysterious +nature, made up of dust and deity, now grovelling in the mire, then +borne aloft to the skies,--the football of the eternal powers of good +and evil, enslaved and yet to be emancipated, as we may hope, in the +last and final struggle, when the soul is rescued by Omnipotence. + +I have alluded to the triumphs of Byron on the publication of "Childe +Harold,"--but his joys were more than balanced by his sorrows. His +mother died suddenly without seeing him. His dearest friend Mathews was +drowned. He was hampered by creditors. He made no mark in the House of +Lords, and was sick of what he called "parliamentary mummeries." His +habits became more and more dissipated among the boon companions who +courted his society. His reputation after a while began to wane, for +people became ashamed of their enthusiasm. Some critics disparaged his +poetry, and conventional circles were shocked by his morals. Three years +of London life told on his constitution, and he was completely +disenchanted. He sought retirement and solitude, for not even the most +brilliant society satisfied him. He wearied of such a woman and admirer +as Madame de Stael. He went to Holland House--that resort of all the +eminent ones of the time--as seldom as he could. He buried himself with +a few intimate friends, chiefly poets, among whom were Moore and Rogers. +He saw and liked Sir Walter Scott, but did not push his acquaintance to +intimacy. The larger part of his letters were written to Murray, the +publisher, who treated him generously; but Byron gave away his literary +gains to personal friends in need. He seemed to scorn copyrights for +support. He would write only for fame. + +At the age of twenty-seven, in January, 1815, Byron married Miss +Milbanke,--a lady whom he did not love, but to whom he was attracted by +her supposed wealth, which would patch up his own fortunes. He had great +respect for this lady and some friendship; but with all her virtues and +attainments she was cold, conventional, and exacting. A mystery shrouds +this unfortunate affair, which has never been fully revealed. The upshot +was that, to Byron's inexpressible humiliation, in less than a year she +left him, never to return. No reasons were given. It was enough that +both parties were unhappy, and had cause to be; and both kept silence. + +But the voice of rumor and scandal was not silent. All the failings of +Byron were now exaggerated and dwelt upon by those who envied him, and +by those who hated him,--for his enemies were more numerous than his +friends. Those whom he had snubbed or ridiculed or insulted now openly +turned against him. The conventional public had a rare subject for their +abuse or indignation. Proper people, religious people, and commonplace +people, joined in the cry against a man with whom a virtuous woman could +not live. Indeed, no woman could have lived happily with Byron; and +very few were the women with whom he could have lived happily, by reason +of that irritability and unrest which is so common with genius. The +habits of abstraction and contemplation which absorbed much of his time +at home were not easily understood by an ordinary woman, to whom social +life is necessary. + +Byron lived much in his library, which was his solitary luxury. In the +revelry of the imagination his heart became cold. "To follow poetry," +says Pope, "one must leave father and mother, and cleave to it +alone,"--as Dante and Petrarch and Milton did. Not even Byron's intense +craving for affection could be satisfied when he was dwelling on the +ideals which his imagination created, and which scarcely friendship +could satisfy. Even so good a man as Carlyle lived among his books +rather than in the society of his wife, whom he really loved, and whose +virtues and attainments he appreciated and admired. An affectionate +woman runs a great risk in marrying an absorbed and preoccupied man of +genius, even if his character be reproachless. Unfortunately, the +character of Byron was anything but reproachless, and no one knew this +better than his wife, which knowledge doubtless alienated what little +affection she had for him. He seems to have sought low company even +after his marriage, and Lady Byron has intimated that she did not think +him altogether sane. Living with him as his wife was insupportable; but +though she separated from him, she did not seek a divorce. + +Byron would not have married at all if he had consulted his happiness, +and still more his fame. "In reviewing the great names of philosophy and +science, we shall find that those who have most distinguished themselves +have virtually admitted their own unfitness for the marriage tie by +remaining in celibacy,--Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Bayle, +Locke, Leibnitz, Boyle, Hume, Gibbon, Macaulay, and a host of others." + +The scandal which Byron's separation from his wife created, and his +known and open profligacy, at last shut him out from the society of +which he had been so bright an ornament. It is a peculiarity of the +English people, which redounds to their honor, to exclude from public +approbation any man, however gifted or famous, who has outraged the +moral sense by open and ill-disguised violation of the laws of morality. +The cases of Dilke and Parnell in our own day are illustrations known to +all. What in France or Italy is condoned, is never pardoned or forgotten +in England. Not even a Voltaire, a Rousseau, or a Mirabeau, had they +lived in England, could have been accepted by English society,--much +less a man who scorned and ridiculed it. Even Byron--for a few years +the pet, the idol, and the glory of the country--was not too high to +fall. To quote one of his own stanzas,-- + + "He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find + The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; + He who surpasses or subdues mankind + Must look down on the hate of those below. + Though high above the sun of glory glow, + And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, + Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow + Contending tempests on his naked head." + +Embarrassed in his circumstances; filled with disgust, mortification, +and shame; excluded from the proudest circles,--Byron now resolved to +leave England forever, and bury himself in such foreign lands as were +most congenial to his tastes and habits. But for his immorality he might +still have shined at an exalted height; for he had not yet written +anything which shocked the practical English mind. The worst he had +written was bitter satire, yet not more bitter than that of Swift or +Pope. No defiance, no blasphemous sentiments, or what seemed to many to +be such, had yet escaped him. His "Corsair" and his "Bride of Abydos" +appeared soon after the "Childe Harold," and added to his fame by their +exquisite melody of rhyme and sentimental admiration for Oriental +life,--though even these were tinged with that _abandon_ which +afterwards made his latter poems a scandal and reproach. "The +disappointment of youthful passion, the lassitude and remorse of +premature excess, the lone friendlessness of his life," and, I may add, +the reproaches of society, induced him to fly from the scene of his +brilliant successes, filled with blended sentiments of scorn, hatred, +defiance, and despair. + +In the Spring of 1816, at the age of twenty-eight, Byron left England +forever,--a voluntary exile on the face of the earth, saddened, +embittered, and disappointed. It was to Italy that he turned his steps, +passing through Brussels and Flanders, lingering on the Rhine, enamored +with its ruined castles, still more with Nature, and making a long stay +in Switzerland. Here he visited the Castle of Chillon, all the spots +made memorable by the abodes of Rousseau, Gibbon, and Madame de Stael, +and all the most interesting scenery of the Bernese Alps,--Lake Leman, +Interlaken, Thun, the Jungfrau, the glaciers, Brientz, Chamouni, Berne, +and on to Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Shelley and his +wife. The Shelleys he found most congenial, and stayed with them some +time. While in the neighborhood of Geneva he produced the third canto of +"Childe Harold," "The Prisoner of Chillon," "A Dream," and other things. +In October, he passed on to Milan, Verona, and Venice; and in this +latter city he took up his residence. + +Oh that we could blot out Byron's life in Venice, made up of love +adventures and dissipation and utter abandonment to those pleasures that +appealed to his lower nature, as if he were possessed by a demon, +utterly reckless of his health, his character, and his fame! Venice was +then the most immoral city in Italy, given over to idleness and +pleasure. It was here that Byron's contempt for woman became fixed, +seeing only her weaknesses and follies; and it was this contempt of +woman which intensified the abhorrence in which his character was +generally held, in the most respectable circles in England. Even in +distant Venice his baleful light was not under a bushel, and the +scandals of his life extended far and wide,--especially that in +reference to Margherita Cogni, an illiterate virago who could neither +read nor write, and whom he was finally compelled to discard on account +of the violence of her temper, after living with her in the most +open manner. + +And yet, in all this degradation, he was not idle. How could so prolific +a writer be idle! Byron did not ordinarily rise till two o'clock in the +afternoon, and spent the interval between his breakfast and dinner in +riding on the Lido,--one of those long narrow islands which lie between +the Adriatic and the Lagoon, in the midst of which Venice is built, on +the islets arising from its shallow waters. Yet he found time to begin +his "Don Juan," besides writing the "Lament of Tasso," the tragedy of +"Manfred," and an Armenian grammar, all which appeared in 1817; in 1818, +"Beppo," and in 1819, "Mazeppa." He also made a flying trip to Florence +and Rome, and some of the finest stanzas of "Childe Harold" are +descriptions of the classic ruins and the masterpieces of Grecian and +mediaeval art,--the beauties and the associations of Italy's +great cities. + + "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs; + A palace and a prison on each hand: + I saw from out the wave her structures rise + As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand! + A thousand years their cloudy wings expand + Around me, and a dying glory smiles + O'er the far times, when many a subject land + Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles, + Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!" + +Byron's correspondence was small, being chiefly confined to his +publisher, to Moore, and to a few intimate friends. These letters are +interesting because of their frankness and wit, although they are not +models of fine writing. Indeed, I do not know where to find any +specimens of masterly prose in all his compositions. He was simply a +poet, facile in every form of measure from Spenser to Campbell. No +remarkable prose writings appeared in England at all, at that time, +until Sir Walter Scott's novels were written, and until Macaulay, +Carlyle, and Lamb wrote their inimitable essays. Nothing is more heavy +and unartistic than Moore's "Life of Byron;" there is hardly a brilliant +paragraph in it,--and yet Moore is one of the most musical and melodious +of all the English poets. Milton, indeed, was equally great in prose and +verse, but very few men have been distinguished as prose writers and +poets at the same time. Sir Walter Scott and Southey are the most +remarkable exceptions. I think that Macaulay could have been +distinguished as a poet, if he had so pleased; but he would have been a +literary poet like Wordsworth or Tennyson or Coleridge,--not a man who +sings out of his soul because he cannot help it, like Byron or Burns, or +like Whittier among our American poets. + +It was not until 1819, when Byron had been three years in Venice, that +he fell in love with the Countess Guiccioli, the wife of one of the +richest nobles of Italy,--young, beautiful, and interesting. This love +seems to have been disinterested and lasting; and while it was a +violation of all the rules of morality, and would not have been allowed +in any other country than Italy, it did not further degrade him. It was +pretty much such a love as Voltaire had for Madame de Chatelet; and with +it he was at last content. There is no evidence that Byron ever afterward +loved any other woman; and what is very singular about the affair +is that it was condoned by the husband, until it became a scandal +even in Italy. + +The countess was taken ill on her way to Ravenna, and thither Byron +followed her, and lived in the same palace with her,--the palace of her +husband, who courted the poet's society, and who afterward left his +young countess to free intercourse with Byron at Bologna,--not without a +compensation in revenue, which was more disgraceful than the amour +itself. About this time Byron would probably have returned to England +but for the enchantment which enslaved him. He could not part from the +countess, nor she from him. + +The Pope pronounced the separation of the count from his wife, and she +returned to her father's house on a pittance of L200 a year. She +sacrificed everything for the young English poet,--her splendid home, +her relatives, her honor, and her pride. Never was there a sadder +episode in the life of a man of letters. If Byron had married such a +woman in his early life, how different might have been his history! With +such a love as she inspired, had he been faithful to it, he might have +lived in radiant happiness, the idol and the pride of all admirers of +genius wherever the English language is spoken, seated on a throne +which kings might envy. So much have circumstances to do with human +destinies! Since Abelard, never was there a man more capable of a +genuine fervid love than Byron; and yet he threw himself away. He was +his own worst enemy, and all from an ill-regulated nature which he +inherited both from his father and his mother, with no Mentor to whom he +would listen. And thus his star sunk down in the eternal shades,--a +fallen Lucifer expelled from bliss. + +I would not condone the waywardness and vices of Byron, or weaken the +eternal distinctions between right and wrong. The impression I wish to +convey is that there were two very distinctly marked sides to his +character; that his conduct was not without palliations, in view of his +surroundings, the force of his temptations, and his wayward nature, +uncurbed by parental care or early training, indeed rather goaded on by +the unfortunate conditions of his youth to find consolation in doing as +he liked, without regard to duty or the opinions of society. Born with +the keenest sensibilities, with emotive powers of tremendous sweep and +force; neglected, crossed, mortified, with no wise guidance,--he was +driven in upon himself, and developed an intense self-will, which would +endure no control. Unhappy will be the future of that man, however +amiable, affectionate, and generous, who, whether from neglect in +youth, like Byron, or from sheer wilfulness in manhood, determines to +act as the mood takes him, because he has freedom of will, without +regard to the social restraints imposed upon conscience by the unwritten +law, which pursues him wherever he goes, even should he fly to the +uttermost parts of the earth. No one can escape from moral +accountability, whether in a seductive paradise, or in a dungeon, or in +a desert. The only stability, for society must be in the character of +its individual members. Before pleasure comes duty,--to family, to +friends, to country, to self, and to the Maker. + +This sense of moral accountability Byron seems never to have had, in +regard to anybody or anything, his self-indulgence culminating in an +egotism melancholy to behold. He would go where he pleased, say what he +pleased, write as he pleased, do what he pleased, without any +constraint, whether in opposition or not to the customs and rules of +society, his own welfare, or the laws of God. It was moral madness +pursuing him to destruction,--the logical and necessary sequence of +unrestrained self-will, sometimes assuming the form of angelic +loveliness and inspiration in the eyes of his idolaters. No counsellor +guided him wiser than Moore or Shelley. Even the worldly advice of +Rogers and Madame de Stael was thrown away, whenever they presumed to +counsel him. Nobody could influence him. His abandonment to fitful +labors or pleasures was alike his glory and his shame. After a day of +frivolity he would consume the midnight hours in the intensest studies, +stimulated by gin, to awake in the morning in lassitude or pain,--for +work he must, as well as play. The consequence of this burning the +candle at both ends was failing health and diminished energies, until +his short race was run. He had produced more poetry at thirty-four years +of age than any other English poet at the age of fifty,--some of almost +transcendent merit, but more of questionable worth, though not of +questionable power. Aside from the "Childe Harold," the "Hebrew +Melodies," the "Prisoner of Chillon," and perhaps the "Corsair," the +"Bride of Abydos," "Lara," and the "Siege of Corinth," the rest, +excepting minor poems, however beautiful in measure and grand in +thought, give a shock to the religious or to the moral sentiments. +"Cain" and "Manfred" are regarded as almost blasphemous, though probably +not so meant to be by the poet, in view of the stirring questions of +Grecian tragedy; while the longest of his poems, "Don Juan," is an +insult to womanhood and a disgrace to genius; for although containing +some of the most exquisite touches of description and finest flights of +poetic feeling, its theme is along the lowest level of human passion. + +Whatever Byron wrote was unhesitatingly published and read, whether +good or evil, whatever were those follies and defiances which excluded +him from the best society; and it is a matter of surprise to me that any +noted and wealthy publisher could be found, in respectable and +conventional England, venal enough to publish perhaps the most +corrupting poem in our language,--worse than anything which Boccaccio +wrote for his Italian readers, or anything which plain-spoken Fielding +and the dramatists of the reign of Charles II. ever allowed to go into +print; for though they were coarser in their language, they were not so +seductive in their spirit, and did not poison the soul like "Don Juan," +the very name of which has become a synonym for extreme depravity. That +abominable poem was read because Lord Byron wrote it, and because its +immorality was slightly veiled by the beauty of the language, even when +a copy could not be found on the table of any respectable drawing-room, +and the name of the author was seldom mentioned except with stern and +honest censure. It is perhaps fair to quote Murray's own words, throwing +the responsibility on the public: "They talked of his immoral writings; +but there is a whole row of sermons glued to my shelf. I hate the sight +of them. Why don't they buy those?" A fair enough retort; and yet, like +the newspaper purveyors of the records of vice in our own day, the +publisher was responsible for making the vile stuff accessible, and thus +debasing the public taste. + +How different was Byron's painting of Spanish life from that of the +immortal Cervantes, whom Lowell places among the five master geniuses of +the world! In "Don Quixote" there is not a sentence which does not exalt +woman, or which degrades man. A lofty ideal of purity and chivalrous +honor permeates every page, even in the most ludicrous scenes. The whole +work blazes with wit, and with the wisdom of a proverbial philosophy, +uttered by the ignorant squire of a fanatical and bewildered knight; but +amidst the practical jokes and follies of all the characters in that +marvellous work of fiction, we see also a moral beauty, idealized of +course, such as was rivalled only in Spanish art in the Madonnas of +Murillo. I believe that in the imaginary sketches of Spanish life as +portrayed by Byron, slanders and lies deface the poem from beginning to +end. Who is the best authority for truthfulness in the description of +Spanish people, Cervantes or Byron? The spiritual loftiness portrayed in +the lives of Spanish heroes and heroines, mixed up as it was with the +most ludicrous pictures of common life, has made the Spaniard's work of +fiction one of the most treasured and enduring monuments of human fame; +whereas the insulting innuendoes of the English poet have gone far to +rob him of the glory which he had justly won in his earlier productions, +and to make his name a doubt. If, in the course of generations yet to +come, the evil which Byron did by that one poem alone shall be forgotten +in the services he rendered to our literature by other works, which +cannot die, then he may some day be received into the Pantheon of the +benefactors of mind. + +I would speak with less vehemence in reference to those poems which are +generally supposed to be permeated with defiance, scorn, and +misanthropy. In "Manfred" and "Cain," it was with Byron a work of art to +describe the utterances of impious spirits against the sovereign rule of +God. Had he not fallen from high estate as an interpreter of the soul, +the critics might have seen here nothing more to condemn than in some of +the Grecian tragedies, many passages in the "Paradise Lost," and in the +general spirit of "Faust." It is no proof that he was a blasphemer in +his heart because he painted blasphemy. To describe a wanderer on the +face of the earth, driven hither and thither by pursuing vengeance as +the first recorded murderer, the poet was obliged by all the rules of +art to put such sentiments into his mouth as accorded with his +unrepented crime and his dreadful agonies of mind and soul. Where is the +proof that they were _his own_ agonies, remorse, despair? Surely, we may +pardon in Byron what we excuse in Goethe in the delineation of unique +characters,--the great creations which belong to the realm of the +imagination alone. The imputation that the sayings of his fallen fiends +were the cherished sentiments of the poet himself, may have been one +cause of his contempt for the average intelligence of his countrymen, +and for their inveterate and incurable prejudices. Nothing in Dante is +more intense and concentrated in language than the malediction of Eve +upon her fratricidal son:-- + + "May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods + Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust + A gravel the Sun his light! and Heaven her God!" + +Yet the reader feels the naturalness of this bitter cursing of her own +son by the frenzied mother. How could a great artist like Byron put +sentiments into the mouth of Cain such as would be harmless in the +essays of a country parson? If he painted Lucifer, he must make him +speak like Lucifer, not like a theological professor. Nothing could be +more ungenerous and narrow than to abuse Byron for a dramatic poem in +which some of his characters were fiends rather than men. We have no +more right to say that he was an infidel because Cain or Lucifer +blasphemed, than to say that Goethe was an atheist because +Mephistopheles denied God. + +If Byron had avowed atheistical opinions in letters or conversations, +that would be another thing; but there is no evidence that he did, and +much to the contrary. A few months before he died he was visited by a +pious crank, who out of curiosity or Christian zeal sought to know his +theological views. Byron treated him with the greatest courtesy, and +freely communicated his opinions on religious subjects,--from which it +would appear that he differed from church people generally only on the +matter of eternal punishment, which he did not believe was consistent +with infinite love or infinite justice. Perhaps it would have been wiser +if he had not written "Cain" at all, considering how many readers there +are without brains, and how large was the class predisposed to judge him +harshly in everything. No doubt he was irreligious and sceptical, but it +does not follow from this that he was atheistical or blasphemous. + +There is doubtless a misanthropic vein in all Byron's later poetry which +is not wholesome for many people to read,--especially in "Manfred," one +of the bitterest of his productions by reason of sorrows and +disappointments and misrepresentations. It was Byron's misfortune to +appear worse than he really was, owing to his unconcealed contempt for +the opinions of mankind. Yet he could not complain that he reaped what +he had not sown. Some of his biographers thought him to be at this time +even morbidly desirous of a bad reputation,--going so far as to write +paragraphs against himself in foreign journals, and being filled with +glee at the joke, when they were republished in English newspapers. He +despised and defied all conventionalities, and conventional England +dropped him from her list of favorites. + +The life of Byron, strange to say, was less exposed to scandal after he +made the acquaintance of the countess who enslaved him, and who was also +enslaved in turn. His heart now opened to many noble sentiments. He +returned, in a degree, to society, and gave dinners and suppers. He +associated with many distinguished patriots and men of genius. He had a +strong sympathy with the Italians in their struggle for freedom. One +quarter of his income he devoted to charities. He was regular in his +athletic exercises, and could swim four hours at a time; he was always +proud of swimming across the Hellespont. He was devoted to his natural +daughter, and educated her in a Catholic school. He studied more +severely all works of art, though his admiration for art was never so +great as it was for Nature. The glories and wonders of Nature inspired +him with perpetual joys. There is nothing finer in all his poetry than +the following stanza:-- + + "Ye stars! which are the poetry of Heaven, + If in your bright leaves we would read the fate + Of men and empires,--'t is to be forgiven + That in our aspirations to be great + Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, + And claim a kindred with you; for ye are + A beauty and a mystery, and create + In us such love and reverence from afar, + That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star." + +There never was a time when Byron did not seek out beautiful retreats in +Nature as the source of his highest happiness. Hence, solitude was +nothing to him when he could commune with the works of God. His +biographer declares that in 1821 "he was greatly improved in every +respect,--in genius, in temper, in moral views, in health and happiness. +He has had mischievous passions, but these he seems to have subdued." He +was always temperate in his diet, living chiefly on fish and vegetables; +and if he drank more wine and spirits than was good for him, it was to +rally his exhausted energies. His powers of production were never +greater than at this period, but his literary labors were slowly wearing +him out. He could not live without work, while pleasure palled upon him. +In a letter to a stranger who sought to convert him, he showed anything +but anger or contempt. "Do me," says he, "the justice to suppose, that +_Video meliora proboque_, however the _deteriora sequor_ may have been +applied to my conduct." Writing to Murray in 1822, he says: "It is not +impossible that I may have three or four cantos of 'Don Juan' ready by +autumn, as I obtained a permission from my dictatress [the Countess +Guiccioli] to continue it,--provided always it was to be more guarded +and decorous in the continuation than in the commencement." Alas, he +could not undo the mischief he had done! + +About this time Byron received a visit from Lord Clare, his earliest +friend at Cambridge, to whom through life he was devotedly attached,--a +friendship which afforded exceeding delight. He never forgot his few +friends, although he railed at his enemies. He was ungenerously treated +by Leigh Hunt, to whom he rendered every kindness. He says,-- + +"I have done all I could for him since he came here [Genoa], but it is +all most useless. His wife is ill, his six children far from tractable, +and in worldly affairs he himself is a child. The death of Shelley left +them totally aground; and I could not see them in such a state without +using the common feelings of humanity, and what means were in my power, +to set them afloat again.... As to any community of feeling, thought, or +opinion between him and me there is little or none; but I think him a +good-principled man, and must do as I would be done by." + +Toward Shelley, Byron entertained the greatest respect and affection for +his suavity, gentleness, and good breeding; and Shelley's accidental +death was a great shock to him. Among his other intimate acquaintances +in Italy were Lord and Lady Blessington, with whom he kept up a pleasant +correspondence. The most plaintive, sad, and generous of all his letters +was the one he wrote to Lady Byron from Pisa, in 1821, in acknowledgment +of the receipt of a tress of his daughter Ada's hair:-- + +"The time which has elapsed since our separation has been considerably +more than the whole brief period of our union and of our prior +acquaintance. We both made a bitter mistake; but now it is over, and +irrecoverably so.... But this very impossibility of reunion seems to me +at least a reason why on all the few points of discussion which can +arise between us, we should preserve the courtesies of life, and as much +of its kindness as people who are never to meet may preserve more easily +than nearer connections.... I assure you I bear you now no resentment +whatever. Whether the offence has been solely on my side, or reciprocal, +or on yours chiefly, I have ceased to reflect upon any but two +things,--that you are the mother of my child, and that we shall never +meet again." + +At this period, about a year before Byron's death, Moore thus writes:-- + +"To the world, and more especially England, he presented himself in no +other aspect than that of a stern, haughty misanthrope, self-banished +from the society of men, and most of all from that of Englishmen. The +more beautiful and genial inspirations of his muse were looked upon but +as lucid intervals between the paroxysms of an inherent malignancy of +nature. But how totally all this differed from the Byron of the social +hour, they who lived in familiar intercourse with him may be safely left +to tell. As it was, no English gentleman ever approached him with the +common forms of introduction, that did not come away at once surprised +and charmed by the kind courtesy of his manners, the unpretending play +of his conversation, and on nearer intercourse the frank, youthful +spirits, to the flow of which he gave way with such zest as to produce +the impression that gaiety was after all the true bent of his +disposition." + +Scott, writing of him after his death, says,-- + +"In talents he was unequalled; and his faults were those rather of a +bizarre temper, arising from an eager and irritable nervous habit, than +any depravity of disposition. He was devoid of selfishness, which I take +to be the basest ingredient in the human composition. He was generous, +humane, and noble-minded, when passion did not blind him." + +About this time, 1823, the great struggle of the Greeks to shake off the +Ottoman yoke was in progress. I have already in another volume[1] +attempted to give the facts in relation to that memorable movement. +Christendom sympathized with the gallant but apparently hopeless +struggle of a weak nation to secure its independence, both from a +sentiment of admiration for the freedom of ancient Greece in the period +of its highest glories, and from the love of liberty which animated the +liberal classes amid the political convulsions of the day. But the +governments of Europe were loath to complicate the difficulties which +existed between nations in that stormy period, and dared not extend any +open aid to struggling Greece, beyond giving their moral aid to the +Greek cause, lest it should embroil Europe in war, of which she was +weary. Less than ten years had elapsed since Europe had combined to +dethrone Napoleon, and some of her leading powers, like Austria and +Russia, had a detestation of popular insurrections. + +In this complicated state of political affairs, when any indiscretion on +the part of friendly governments might kindle anew the flames of war, +Lord Byron was living in Genoa, taking such an interest in the Greek +struggle that he abandoned poetry for politics. He had always +sympathized with enslaved nations struggling for independence, and was +driven from Ravenna on account of his alliance with the revolutionary +Society of the Carbonari. A new passion now seized him. He entered heart +and soul into the struggles of the Greeks. Their cause absorbed him. He +would aid them to the full extent of his means, with money and arms, as +a private individual. He would be a political or military hero,--a man +of action, not of literary leisure. + +Every lover of liberty must respect Byron's noble aspirations to assist +the Greeks. It was a new field for him, but one in which he might +retrieve his reputation,--for it must be borne in mind that his ruling +passion was fame, and that he had gained all he could expect by his +literary productions. Whether loved or hated, admired or censured, his +poetry had placed him in the front rank of literary geniuses throughout +the world. As a poet his immortality was secured. In literary efforts he +had also probably exhausted himself; he could write nothing more which +would add to his fame, unless he took a long rest and recreation. He was +wearied of making poetry; but by plunging into a sea of fresh +adventures, and by giving a new direction to his powers, he might be +sufficiently renovated, in the course of time, to write something +grander and nobler than even "Childe Harold" or "Cain." + +Lord Byron at this time was only thirty-five years old, a period when +most men begin their best work. His constitution, it is true, was +impaired, but he was still full of life and enterprise. He could ride or +swim as well as he ever could. The call of a gallant people summoned him +to arms, and of all nations he most loved the Greeks. He was an +enthusiast in their cause; he believed that the day of their deliverance +was at hand. So he made up his mind to consecrate his remaining energies +to effect their independence. He opened a correspondence with the Greek +committee in London. He selected a party, including a physician, to sail +with him from Geneva. He raised a sum of about L10,000, and on the 13th +of July, 1823, embarked with his small party and eight servants, on +board the "Hercules" for Greece. + +After a short delay at Leghorn the poet reached Cephalonia on the 24th +of July. He was enthusiastically received by the Greeks of Argostoli, +the principal port, but deemed it prudent to remain there until he could +get further intelligence from Corfu and Missolonghi,--visiting, in the +interval, some of the neighboring islands consecrated by the muse +of Homer. + +The dissensions among the Greek leaders greatly embarrassed Byron, but +did not destroy his ardor. He saw that the people were degenerate, +faithless, and stained with atrocities as disgraceful as those of the +Turks themselves. He dared not commit himself to any one of the +struggling, envious parties which rallied round their respective +chieftains. He lingered for six weeks in Cephalonia without the ordinary +comforts of life, yet, against all his habits, rising at an early hour +and attending to business, negotiating bills, and corresponding with the +government, so far as there was a recognized central power. + +At last, after the fall of Corinth, taken from the Turks, and the +arrival at Missolonghi of Prince Mavrocordato, the only leader of the +Greeks worthy of the name of statesman, Byron sailed for that city, then +invested by a Turkish fleet, and narrowly escaped capture. Here he did +all he could to produce union among the chieftains, and took into his +pay five hundred Suliotes, acting as their leader. He meditated an +attack on Lepanto, which commanded the navigation of the Gulf of +Corinth, and received from the government a commission for that +enterprise; but dissensions among his men, and intrigues between rival +generals, prevented the execution of his project. + +It was in Missolonghi, Jan. 22, 1824, that, with the memorandum, "On +this day I completed my thirty-sixth year," Byron wrote his latest +verses, most pathetically regretting his youth and his unfortunate life, +but arousing himself to find in a noble cause a glorious death:-- + + "The fire that in my bosom preys + Is like to some volcanic isle; + No torch is kindled at its blaze,-- + A funeral pile." + + * * * * * + + "Awake!--not Greece: she is awake!-- + Awake, my spirit! think through whom + Thy life-blood tastes its parent lake, + And then strike home!" + + * * * * * + + "Seek out--less often sought than found-- + A soldier's grave, for thee the best; + Then look around, and choose thy ground, + And take thy rest!" + +Vexations, disappointments, and exposure to the rains of February so +wrought upon Byron's eager spirit and weakened body that he was attacked +by convulsive fits. The physicians, in accordance with the custom of +that time, bled their patient several times, against the protest of +Byron himself, which reduced him to extreme weakness. He rallied from +the attack for a time, and devoted himself to the affairs of Greece, +hoping for the restoration of his health when spring should come. He +spent in three months thirty thousand dollars for the cause into which +he had so cordially entered. In April he took another cold from severe +exposure, and fever set in,--to relieve which bleeding was again +resorted to, and often repeated. He was now confined to his room, which +he never afterwards left. He at last realized that he was dying, and +sent incoherent messages to his sister, to his daughter, and to a few +intimate friends. The end came on the 19th of April. The Greek +government rendered all the honor possible to the illustrious dead. His +remains were transferred to England. He was not buried in Westminster +Abbey, however, but in the church of Hucknal, near Newstead, where a +tablet was erected to his memory by his sister, the Hon. Augusta +Maria Leigh. + + "So Harold ends in Greece, his pilgrimage + There fitly ending,--in that land renowned, + Whose mighty genius lives in Glory's page, + He on the Muses' consecrated ground + Sinking to rest, while his young brows are bound + With their unfading wreath! To bands of mirth + No more in Tempe let the pipe resound! + Harold, I follow to thy place of birth + The slow hearse,--and thy last sad pilgrimage on earth." + +I can add but little to what I have already said in reference to Byron, +either as to his character or his poetry. The Edinburgh Review, which in +Brougham's article on his early poems had stung him into satire and +aroused him to a sense of his own powers, in later years by Jeffrey's +hand gave a most appreciative account of his poems, while mourning over +his morbid gloom: "'Words that breathe and thoughts that burn' are not +merely the ornaments but the common staple of his poetry; and he is not +inspired or impressive only in some happy passages, but through the +whole body and tissue of his composition." The keen insight and +exceptional intellect of the philosopher-poet Goethe recognized in him +"the greatest talent of our century." His marvellous poetic genius was +universally acknowledged in his own day; and more than that, so human +was it that it attracted the sympathies of all civilized nations, and, +as Lamartine said, "made English literature known throughout Europe." +Byron's poetry was politically influential also, by reason of its +liberty-loving spirit,--arousing Italy, inspiring the young +revolutionists of Germany, and awaking a generous sympathy for Greece. +Without the consciousness of any "mission" beyond the expression of his +own ebullient nature, this poet contributed no mean impulse to the +general emancipation of spirit which has signalized the +nineteenth century. + +Two generations have passed away since Byron's mortal remains were +committed to the dust, and the verdict of his country has not since +materially changed,--admiration for his genius _alone_. The light of +lesser stars than he shines with brighter radiance. What the enlightened +verdict of mankind may be two generations hence, no living mortal can +tell. The worshippers of intellect may attempt to reverse or modify the +judgment already passed, but the impressive truth remains that no man, +however great his genius, will be permanently judged aside from +character. When Lord Bacon left his name and memory to men's charitable +judgments and the next age, he probably had in view his invaluable +legacy to mankind of earnest searchings after truth, which made him one +of the greatest of human benefactors. How far the poetry of Byron has +proved a blessing to the world must be left to an abler critic than I +lay claim to be. In him the good and evil went hand in hand in the +eternal warfare which ancient Persian sages saw between the powers of +light and darkness in every human soul,--a consciousness of which +warfare made Byron himself in his saddest hours wish he had never +lived at all. + +If we could, in his life and in his works, separate the evil from the +good, and let only the good remain,--then his services to literature +could hardly be exaggerated, and he would be honored as the greatest +English poet, so far as native genius goes, after Shakespeare +and Milton. + + + +THOMAS CARLYLE. + + +1795-1881. + +CRITICISM AND BIOGRAPHY. + +The now famous biography of Thomas Carlyle, by Mr. Froude, shed a new +light on the eccentric Scotch essayist, and in some respects changed the +impressions produced by his own "Reminiscences" and the Letters of his +wife. It is with the aid of those two brilliant and interesting volumes +on Carlyle's "Earlier Life" and "Life in London," issued about two years +after the death of their distinguished subject, that I have rewritten my +own view of one of the most remarkable men of the nineteenth century. + +Of the men of genius who have produced a great effect on their own time, +there is no one concerning whom such fluctuating opinions have prevailed +within forty years as in regard to Carlyle. His old admirers became his +detractors, and those who first disliked him became his friends. When +his earlier works appeared they attracted but little general notice, +though there were many who saw in him a new light, or a new power to +brush away cobwebs and shams, and to exalt the spiritual and eternal in +man over all materialistic theories and worldly conventionalities. + +Carlyle's "Miscellanies"--essays published first in the leading Reviews, +when he lived in his moorland retreat--created enthusiasm among young +students and genuine thinkers of every creed. Lord Jeffrey detected the +new genius and gave him a lift. Carlyle's "French Revolution" took the +world by surprise, and established his fame. His "Oliver Cromwell" +modified and perhaps changed the opinions of English and American people +respecting the Great Protector. It was then that his popularity was +greatest, and that the eccentric genius of Cheyne Row, so long +struggling with poverty, was assured of a competence, and was received +in some of the proudest families of the kingdom as a teacher and a sage. +Thus far he was an optimist, taking cheerful views of human life, and +encouraging those who had noble aspirations. + +But for some unaccountable reason, whether from discontent or dyspepsia +or disappointment, or disgust with this world, Carlyle gradually became +a pessimist, and attacked all forms of philanthropy, thus alienating +those who had been his warmest supporters. He grew more bitter and +morose, until at last he howled almost like a madman, and was steeped +in cynicism and gloom. He put forth the doctrine that might was right, +and that thrones belong to the strongest. He saw no reliance in +governments save upon physical force, and expressed the most boundless +contempt for all institutions established by the people. Then he wrote +his "Frederic the Great,"--his most ambitious and elaborate production, +received as an authority from its marvellous historical accuracy, but +not so generally read as his "French Revolution," and not, like his +"Cromwell," changing the opinions of mankind. + +Soon after this the death of his wife plunged him into renewed gloom, +from which he never emerged; and he virtually retired from the world, +and was lost sight of by the younger generation, until his +"Reminiscences" appeared, injudiciously published at his request by his +friend and pupil Froude, in which his scorn and contempt for everybody +and everything turned the current of public opinion strongly against +him. This was still further increased when the Letters of his +wife appeared. + +Carlyle's bitterest assailants were now agnostics of every shade and +degree, especially of the humanitarian school,--that to which Mill and +George Eliot belonged. It was seen that this reviler of hypocrisy and +shams, this disbeliever in miracles and in mechanisms to save society, +was after all a believer in God Almighty and in immortality; a stern +advocate of justice and duty, appealing to the conscience of mankind; a +man who detested Comte the positivist as much as he despised Mill the +agnostic, and who exalted the old religion of his fathers, stripped of +supernaturalism, as the only hope of the world. The biography by Froude, +while it does not conceal the atrabilious temperament of Carlyle, his +bad temper, his intense egotism, his irritability, his overweening +pride, his scorn, his profound loneliness and sorrow, and the deep gloom +into which he finally settled, made clear at the same time his honest +and tender nature, his noble independence, his heroic struggles with +poverty of which he never complained, his generous charities, his +conscientiousness and allegiance to duty, his constant labors amid +disease and excessive nervousness, and his profound and unvarying love +for his wife, although he was deficient in those small attentions and +demonstrations of affection which are so much prized by women. If it be +asked whether he was happy in his domestic relations, I would say that +he was as much so as such a man could be. But it was a physical and +moral impossibility that with his ailments and temper he _could_ be +happy. He was not sent into this world to be happy, but to do a work +which only such a man as he could do. + +So displeasing, however, were the personal peculiarities of Carlyle +that the man can never be popular. This hyperborean literary giant, +speaking a Babylonian dialect, smiting remorselessly all pretenders and +quacks, and even honest fools, was himself personally a bundle of +contradictions, fierce and sad by turns. He was a compound of Diogenes, +Jeremiah, and Dr. Johnson: like the Grecian cynic in his contempt and +scorn, like the Jewish prophet in his melancholy lamentations, like the +English moralist in his grim humor and overbearing dogmatism. + +It is unfortunate that we know so much of the man. Better would it be +for his fame if we knew nothing at all of his habits and peculiarities. +In our blended admiration and contempt, our minds are diverted from the +lasting literary legacy he has left, which, after all, is the chief +thing that concerns us. The mortal man is dead, but his works live. The +biography of a great man is interesting, but his thoughts go coursing +round the world, penetrating even the distant ages, modifying systems +and institutions. What a mighty power is law! Yet how little do we know +or care, comparatively, for lawgivers! + +Thomas Carlyle was born in the year 1795, of humble parentage, in an +obscure Scotch village. His father was a stone-mason, much respected for +doing good work, and for his virtue and intelligence,--a rough, rugged +man who appreciated the value of education. Although kind-hearted and +religious, it would seem that he was as hard and undemonstrative as an +old-fashioned Puritan farmer,--one of those men who never kiss their +children, or even their wives, before people. His mother also was +sagacious and religious, and marked by great individuality of character. +For these stern parents Carlyle ever cherished the profoundest respect +and affection, regularly visiting them once a year wherever he might be, +writing to them frequently, and yielding as much to their influence as +to that of anybody. + +At the age of fourteen the boy was sent to the University of Edinburgh, +with but little money in his pocket, and forced to practise the most +rigid economy. He did not make a distinguished mark at college, nor did +he cultivate many friendships. He was reserved, shy, awkward, and proud. +After leaving college he became a school-teacher, with no aptness and +much disdain for his calling. It was then that he formed the +acquaintance of Edward Irving, which ripened into the warmest friendship +of his life. He was much indebted to this celebrated preacher for the +intellectual impulse received from him. Irving was at the head of a +school at Kirkcaldy, and Carlyle became his assistant. Both these young +men were ambitious, and aspired to pre-eminence. Like Napoleon at the +military school of Brienne, they would not have been contented with +anything less, because they were conscious of their gifts; and both +attained their end. Irving became the greatest preacher of his day, and +Carlyle the greatest writer; but Carlyle had the most self-sustained +greatness. Irving was led by the demon of popularity into extravagances +of utterance which destroyed his influence. Carlyle, on the other hand, +never courted popularity; but becoming bitter and cynical in the rugged +road he climbed to fame, he too lost many of his admirers. + +In ceasing to be a country schoolmaster, Carlyle did not abandon +teaching. He removed to Edinburgh for the study of divinity, and +supported himself by giving lessons. He had been destined by his parents +to be a minister of the Kirk of Scotland; but at the age of twenty-three +he entered upon a severe self-examination to decide whether he honestly +believed and could preach its doctrines. Weeks of intense struggle freed +him from the intellectual bonds of the kirk, but fastened upon him the +chronic disorder of his stomach which embittered his life, and in later +years distorted his vision of the world about him. At the recommendation +of his friend Irving, then preacher at Hatton Gardens, Carlyle now +became private tutor to the son of Mr. Charles Buller, an Anglo-Indian +merchant, on a salary of L200; and the tutor had the satisfaction of +seeing his pupil's political advancement as a member of the House of +Commons and one of the most promising men in England. + +About this time Carlyle, who had been industriously studying German and +French, published a translation of Legendre's "Elements of Geometry;" +and in 1824 brought out a "Life of Schiller," a work that he never +thought much of, but which was a very respectable performance. In fact, +he never thought much of any of his works: they were always behind his +ideal. He wrote slowly, and took great pains to be accurate; and in this +respect he reminds us of George Eliot. Carlyle had no faith in rapid +writing of any sort, any more than Daniel Webster had in extempore +speaking. After he had become a master of composition, it took him +thirteen years of steady work to write "Frederick the Great,"--about the +same length of time it took Macaulay to write the history of fifteen +years of England's life, whereas Gibbon wrote the whole of his +voluminous and exhaustive "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire" in twenty years. + +"Schiller" being finished, Carlyle was now launched upon his life-work +as "a writer of books." He translated Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister," for +which he received L180. I do not see the transcendent excellence of +this novel, except in its original and forcible criticism, and its +undercurrent of philosophy; but it is nevertheless famous. These two +works gave Carlyle some literary reputation among scholars, but not +much fame. + +Although Carlyle was thus fairly embarked on a literary career, the +"trade" of literature he always regarded as a poor one, and never +encouraged a young man to pursue it as a profession unless forced into +it by his own irresistible impulses. Its nobility he ranked very high, +but not its remunerativeness. He regarded it as a luxury for the rich +and leisurely, but a very thorny and discouraging path for a poor man. +How few have ever got a living by it, unless allied with other +callings,--as a managing clerk, or professor, or lecturer, or editor! +The finest productions of Emerson were originally delivered as lectures. +Novelists and dramatists, I think, are the only class, who, without +doing anything else, have earned a comfortable support by their +writings. Historians have, with very few exceptions, been independent in +their circumstances. + +In the year 1826, at the age of thirty-one, Carlyle married Jane Welsh, +the only child of a deceased physician of Haddington, who had some +little property in expectancy from the profits of a farm in the +moorlands of Scotland. She was beautiful, intellectual, and nervously +intense. She had been a pupil of Edward Irving, who had introduced his +friend Carlyle to her. On the whole, it was a fortunate marriage for +Carlyle, although it would have been impossible for him to have or to +give happiness in constant and intimate companionship with any woman. He +was very fond of his wife, but in an undemonstrative sort of +way,--except in his letters to her, which are genuine love-letters, +tender and considerate. As in the case of most superior women, clouds at +times gathered over her, which her husband did not or could not +dissipate. But she was very proud of him, and faithful to him, and +careful of his interest and fame. Nor is there evidence from her +letters, or from the late biography which Froude has written, that she +was, on the whole, unhappy. She was very frank, very sharp with her +tongue, and sometimes did not spare her husband. She had a good deal to +put up with from his irritable temper; but she also was irritable, +nervous, and sickly, although in her loyalty she rarely complained, +while she had many privations to endure,--for Carlyle until he was +nearly fifty was a poor man. During the first two years of their +residence in London they were obliged to live on L100 a year. He was +never in even moderately easy circumstances until after his "Oliver +Cromwell" was published. + +After his marriage, Carlyle lived eighteen months near Edinburgh; but +there was no opening for him in the exclusive society there. His merits +were not then recognized as a man of genius in that cultivated capital, +as it pre-eminently was at that time; but he made the acquaintance of +Jeffrey, who acknowledged his merit, admired his wife, and continued to +be as good a friend as that worldly but accomplished man could be to one +so far beneath him in social rank. + +The next seven years of Carlyle's life were spent at the Scotch moorland +farm of Craigenputtock, belonging to his wife's mother, which must have +contributed to his support. How any brilliant woman, fond of society as +Mrs. Carlyle was, could have lived contentedly in that dreary solitude, +fifteen miles from any visiting neighbor or town, is a mystery. She had +been delicately reared, and the hard life wore upon her health. Yet it +was here that the young couple established themselves, and here that +some of the young author's best works were written,--as the +"Miscellanies" and "Sartor Resartus." From here it was that he sent +forth those magnificent articles on Heyne, Goethe, Novalis, Voltaire, +Burns, and Johnson, which, published in the Edinburgh and other Reviews, +attracted the attention of the reading world, and excited boundless +admiration among students. + +The earlier of these remarkable productions, like those on Burns and +Jean Paul Richter, were free from those eccentricities of style which +Carlyle persisted in retaining with amazing pertinacity as he advanced +in life,--except, again, in his letters to his wife, which are models of +clear writing. + +The essay on "German Literature" appeared in the same year, 1827,--a +longer and more valuable article, a blended defence and eulogium of a +_terra incognita_, somewhat similar in spirit to that of Madame de +Stael's revelations twenty years before, and in which the writer shows +great admiration of German poetry and criticism. Perhaps no Englishman, +with the possible exceptions of Julius Hare and Coleridge,--the latter +then a broken-down old man,--had at that time so profound an +acquaintance as Carlyle with German literature, which was his food and +life during the seven years' retirement on his moorland farm. This essay +also was comparatively free from the involved, grotesque, but vivid +style of his later works; and it was religious in its tone. "It is +mournful," writes he, "to see so many noble, tender, and aspiring minds +deserted of that light which once guided all such; mourning in the +darkness because there is no home for the soul; or, what is worse, +pitching tents among the ashes, and kindling weak, earthly lamps which +we are to take for stars. But this darkness is very transitory. These +ashes are the soil of future herbage and richer harvests. Religion +dwells in the soul of man, and is as eternal as the being of man." + +In this extract we see the optimism which runs through Carlyle's earlier +writings,--the faith in creation which is to succeed destruction, the +immortal hopes which sustain the soul. He believed in the God of +Abraham, and was as far from being a scoffer as the heavens are higher +than the earth. He had renounced historical Christianity, but he adhered +to its essential spirit. + +The next article which Carlyle published seems to have been on Werner, +followed the same year, 1828, by one on Goethe's "Helena,"--a +continuation of his "Faust." This transcendent work of German art, which +should be studied rather than read, is commented on by the reviewer with +boundless admiration. If there was one human being whom Carlyle +worshipped it was the dictator of German literature, who reigned at +Weimar as Voltaire had reigned at Ferney. If he was not the first to +introduce the writings of Goethe into England, he was the great German's +warmest admirer. If Goethe had faults, they were to Carlyle the faults +of a god, and he exalted him as the greatest light of modern times,--a +new force in the world, a new fire in the soul, who inaugurated a new +era in literature which went to the heart of cultivated Europe, weary of +the doubts and denials that Voltaire had made fashionable. It seemed to +Carlyle that Goethe entered into the sorrows, the solemn questionings +and affirmations of the soul, seeking emancipation from dogmas and +denials alike, and, in the spirit of Plato, resting on the certitudes of +a higher life,--calm, self-poised, many-sided, having subdued passion as +he had outgrown cant; full of benignity, free from sarcasm; a man of +mighty and deep experiences, with knowledge of himself, of the world, +and the whole realm of literature; a great artist as well as a great +genius, seated on the throne of letters, not to scatter thunderbolts, +but to instruct the present and future generations. + +The next great essay which Carlyle published, this time in the Edinburgh +Review, was on Burns,--a hackneyed subject, yet treated with masterly +ability. This article, in some respects his best, entirely free from +mannerisms and affectation of style, is just in its criticism, glowing +with eloquence, and full of sympathy with the infirmities of a great +poet, showing a remarkable insight into what is noblest and truest. This +essay is likely to live for style alone, aside from its various other +merits. It is complete, exhaustive, brilliant, such as only a Scotchman +could have written who was familiar with the laborious lives of the +peasantry, living in the realm of art and truth, careless of outward +circumstances and trappings, and exalting only what is immortal and +lofty. While Carlyle sees in Goethe the impersonation of human +wisdom,--in every aspect a success, outwardly and inwardly, serene and +potent as an Olympian deity,--he sees in Burns a highly gifted genius +also, but yet a wreck and a failure; a man broken down by the force of +that degrading habit which unfortunately and peculiarly and even +mysteriously robs a man of all dignity, all honor, and all sense of +shame. Amid the misfortunes, the mistakes, and the degradations of the +born poet, whom he alike admires and pities and mildly blames, he sees +also the noble elements of the poet's gifted soul, and loves him, +especially for his sincerity, which next to labor he uniformly praises. +It was the truthfulness he saw in Burns which constrained Carlyle's +affection,--the poet's sympathy and humanity, speaking out of his heart +in unconscious earnestness and plaintive melody; sad and sorrowful, of +course, since his life was an unsuccessful battle with himself, but free +from egotism, and full of a love which no misery could crush,--so unlike +that other greatest poet of our century, "whose exemplar was Satan, the +hero of his poetry and the model of his life." In this most beautiful +and finished essay Carlyle paints the man in his true colors,--sinning +and sinned against, courageous while yielding, poor but proud, scornful +yet affectionate; singing in matchless lyrics the sentiments of the +people from whom he sprung and among whom he died, which lyrics, though +but fragments indeed, are precious and imperishable. + +In the same year appeared the Life of Heyne,--the great German scholar, +pushing his way from the depths of poverty and obscurity, by force of +patient industry and genius, to a proud position and a national fame. +"Let no unfriended son of genius despair," exclaims Carlyle. "If he have +the will, the power will not be denied him. Like the acorn, carelessly +cast abroad in the wilderness, yet it rises to be an oak; on the wild +soil it nourishes itself; it defies the tempest, and lives for a +thousand years." The whole outward life of Carlyle himself, like that of +Heyne, was an example of heroism amid difficulties, and hope amid +the storms. + +The next noticeable article which Carlyle published was on Voltaire, and +appeared in the Quarterly Review in 1829. It would appear that he hoped +to find in this great oracle and guide of the eighteenth century +something to admire and praise commensurate with his great fame. But +vainly. Voltaire, though fortunate beyond example in literary history, +versatile, laborious, brilliant in style,--poet, satirist, historian, +and essayist,--seemed to Carlyle to be superficial, irreligious, and +egotistical. The critic ascribes his power to ridicule,--a Lucian, who +destroyed but did not reconstruct; worldly, material, sceptical, +defiant, utterly lacking that earnestness without which nothing +permanently great can be effected. Carlyle says:-- + +"Voltaire read history, not with the eye of a devout seer, or even +critic, but through a pair of mere anti-Catholic spectacles. It is not a +mighty drama, enacted on the theatre of infinitude, with suns for lamps +and eternity as a background, whose author is God and whose purport +leads to the throne of God, but a poor, wearisome debating-club dispute, +spun through ten centuries, between the Encyclopedie and the Sorbonne." + +Carlyle's essays for the next two years, chiefly on German literature, +which he admired and sought to introduce to his countrymen, were +published in various Reviews. I can only allude to one on Richter, whose +whimsicality of style he unconsciously copied, and whose original ideas +he made his own. In this essay Carlyle introduced to the English people +a great German, but a grotesque, whose writings will probably never be +read much out of Germany, excellent as they are, on account of the +"jarring combination of parentheses, dashes, hyphens, figures without +limit, one tissue of metaphors and similes, interlaced with epigrammatic +bursts and sardonic turns,--a heterogeneous, unparalleled imbroglio of +perplexity and extravagance." There was another, on Schiller, not an +idol to Carlyle as Goethe was, yet a great poet and a true man, with +deep insight and intense earnestness. "His works," said Carlyle, "and +the memory of what he was, will arise afar off, like a towering landmark +in the solitude of the past, when distance shall have dwarfed into +invisibility many lesser people that once encompassed him, and hid them +forever from the near beholder." + +Thus far Carlyle had confined himself to biography and essays on German +literature, in which his extraordinary insight is seen; but now he +enters another field, and writes a strictly original essay, called +"Characteristics," published in the Edinburgh Review in the prolific +year of 1831, in which essay we see the germs of his philosophy. The +article is hard to read, and is disfigured by obscurities which leave a +doubt on the mind of the reader as to whether the author understood the +subject about which he was writing,--for Carlyle was not a philosopher, +but a painter and prose-poet. There is no stream of logic running +consistently through his writings. In "Characteristics" he seems to have +had merely glimpses of great truths which he could not clearly express, +and which won him the reputation of being a German transcendentalist. +Its leading idea is the commonplace one of the progress of society, +which no sane and Christian man has ever seriously questioned,--not an +uninterrupted progress, but a general advance, brought about by +Christian ideas. Any other view of progress is dreary and discouraging; +nor is this inconsistent with great catastrophes and national +backslidings, with the fall of empires, and French Revolutions. + +We note at this time in Carlyle's writings, on the whole, a cheerful +view of human life in spite of sorrows, hardships, and disappointments, +which are made by Divine Providence to act as healthy discipline. We see +nothing of the angry pessimism of his later writings. Those years at +Craigenputtock were healthy and wholesome; he labored in hope, and had +great intellectual and artistic enjoyment, which reconciled him to +solitude,--the chief evil with which he had to contend, after dyspepsia. +His habits were frugal, but poverty did not stare him in the face, since +he had the income of the farm. It does not appear that the deep gloom +which subsequently came over his soul oppressed him in his moorland +retreat. He did not sympathize with any religion of denials, but felt +that out of the jargon of false and pretentious philosophies would come +at last a positive belief which would once more enthrone God in +the world. + +After writing another characteristic article, on Biography, he furnished +for Fraser's Magazine one of the finest biographical portraits ever +painted,--that of Dr. Johnson, in which that cyclopean worker stands +out, with even more distinctness than in Boswell's "Life," as one of the +most honest, earnest, patient laborers in the whole field of literature. +Carlyle makes us almost love this man, in spite of his awkwardness, +dogmatism, and petulance. Johnson in his day was an acknowledged +dictator on all literary questions, surrounded by admirers of the +highest gifts, who did homage to his learning,--a man of more striking +individuality than any other celebrity in England, and a man of intense +religious convictions in an age of religious indifference. We now wonder +why this struggling, poorly paid, and disagreeable man of letters should +have had such an ascendency over men superior to himself in learning, +genius, and culture, as Burke and Gibbon doubtless were. Even Goldsmith, +whom he snubbed and loved, is now more popular than he. It was the +heroism of his character which Carlyle so much admired and so vividly +described,--contending with so many difficulties, yet surmounting them +all by his persistent industry and noble aspirations; never losing faith +in himself or his Maker, never servilely bowing down to rank and wealth, +as others did, and maintaining his self-respect in whatever condition he +was placed. In this delightful biography we are made to see the +superiority of character to genius, and the dignity of labor when +idleness was the coveted desire of most fortunate men, as well as the +almost universal vice of the magnates of the land. Labor, to the mind of +Johnson as well as to that of Carlyle, is not only honorable, but is a +necessity which Nature imposes as the condition of happiness and +usefulness. Nor does Carlyle sneer at the wedded life of Johnson, made +up of "drizzle and dry weather," but reverences his fidelity to his best +friend, uninteresting as she was to the world, and his plaintive and +touching grief when she passed away. + +Carlyle in this essay exalts a life of letters, however poorly paid +(which Pope in his "Dunciad" did so much to depreciate), showing how it +contributes to the elevation of a nation, and to those lofty pleasures +which no wealth can purchase. But it is the moral dignity of Johnson +which the essay makes to shine most conspicuously in his character, +supported as he was by the truths of religion, in which under all +circumstances he proudly glories, and without which he must have made +shipwreck of himself amid so many discouragements, maladies, and +embarrassments,--for his greatest labors were made with poverty, +distress, and obscurity for his companions,--until at last, victorious +over every external evil and vile temptation, he emerged into the realm +of peace and light, and became an oracle and a sage wherever he chose +to go. + +Johnson was the greatest master of conversation in his day, whose +detached sayings are still quoted more often than his most elaborate +periods. I apprehend that there was a great contrast between Johnson's +writings and his conversation. While the former are Ciceronian, his talk +was epigrammatic, terse, and direct; and its charm and power were in his +pointed and vehement Saxon style. Had he talked as he wrote, he would +have been wearisome and pedantic. Still, like Coleridge and Robert Hall, +he preached rather than conversed, thinking what he himself should say +rather than paying attention to what others said, except to combat and +rebuke them,--a discourser, as Macaulay was; not one to suggest +interchange of ideas, as Addison did. But neither power of conversation +nor learning would have made Johnson a literary dictator. His power was +in the force of his character, his earnestness, and sincerity, even more +than in his genius. + +I will not dwell on the other Review articles which Carlyle wrote in his +isolated retreat, since published as "Miscellanies," on which his fame +in no small degree rests,--even as the essays of Macaulay may be read +when his more elaborate History will lie neglected on the shelves of +libraries. Carlyle put his soul into these miscellanies, and the labor +and enjoyment of writing made him partially forget his ailments. I look +upon those years at Craigenputtock as the brightest and healthiest of +his life, removed as he was from the sight of levities and follies which +tormented his soul and irritated his temper. + +Carlyle contrived to save about L200 from his literary earnings, so +frugal was his life and so free from temptations. His recreation was in +wandering on foot or horseback over the silent moors and unending hills, +watered by nameless rills and shadowed by mists and vapors. His life was +solitary, but not more so than that of Moses amid the deserts of +Midian,--isolation, indeed, but in which the highest wisdom is matured. +Into this retreat Emerson penetrated, a young man, with boundless +enthusiasm for his teacher,--for Carlyle was a teacher to him as to +hundreds of others in this country. Carlyle never had a truer and better +friend than Emerson, who opened to him the great reward of recognition +in distant America while yet his own land refused to take knowledge of +him; and this friendship continued to the end, an honor to both,--for +Carlyle never saw in Emerson's writings the genius and wisdom which his +American friend admired in the Scottish sage. Nor were their opinions so +harmonious as some suppose. Emerson despised Calvinism, and had no +definite opinions on any theological subject; Carlyle was a Calvinist +without the theology of Calvinism, if that be possible. He did not, +indeed, believe in historical Christianity, but he had the profoundest +convictions of an overruling God, reigning in justice, and making the +wrath of man to praise Him. Carlyle, too, despised everything visionary +and indefinite, and had more respect for what is brought about by +revolution than by evolution. But of all things he held in profoundest +abhorrence the dreary theories of materialists and political economists. +It was the spirit and not the body which stood out in his eyes as of +most importance; it was the manly virtues which he reverenced in man, +not his clothes and surroundings. And it was on this lofty spiritual +plane that Carlyle and Emerson stood in complete harmony together. + +I cannot quit this part of Carlyle's life without mention of what I +conceive to be his most original and remarkable production,--"Sartor +Resartus,"--The Stitcher Restitched: or, The Tailor Done Over,--the +title of an old Scotch song. It is a quaintly conceived reproduction of +the work of an imaginary German professor on "The Philosophy of +Clothes,"--under which external figure he includes all institutions, +customs, beliefs, in which humanity has draped itself, as distinguished +from the inner reality of man himself. "The beginning of all Wisdom," he +says, "is to look fixedly on Clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till +they become _transparent_." And thus, in grotesque fashion, with amazing +vigor he ranges the universe in search of the Real. In one of his +letters to Emerson, Carlyle, discussing a project of lecturing in +America, takes on his sartorial professor's name, and writes: "Could any +one but appoint me Lecturing Professor of Teufelsdroeckh's +Science,--'Things in General'!" This work was written in his remote +solitude, yet not published for years after it was finished,--and for +the best of reasons, because with all his literary repute Carlyle could +not find a publisher. The "Sartor" was not appreciated; and Carlyle, +knowing its value, locked it up in his drawer, and waited for his time. + +The "Sartor Resartus" is a sort of prose poem, written with the heart's +blood, vivid as fire in a dark night; a Dantean production; a revelation +probably of the author's own struggles and experiences from the dark +gulf of the "Everlasting Nay" to the clear and serene heights of the +"Everlasting Yea." To me the book is full of consolation and +encouragement,--a battle of the spirit with infernal doubts, a victory +over despair, over all external evils and all spiritual foes. It is also +a bold and grotesque but scorching sarcasm of the conventionalities and +hypocrisies of society, and a savage thrust at those quackeries which +seem to reign in this world in spite of their falsity and shallowness. +It is not, I grant, easy to read. It is full of conceits and +affectations of style,--a puzzle to some, a rebuke to others. "Every +page of this unique collection of confessions and meditations, of +passionate invective and solemn reflection," is stamped with the seal of +genius, and yet was the last of Carlyle's writings to be appreciated. I +believe that this is the ordinary fate of truly original works, those +that are destined to live the longest, especially if they burn no +incense to the idols of prevailing worship, and be characterized by a +style which, to say the least, is extraordinary. Flashy, brilliant, +witty, yet superficial pictures of external life which everybody has +seen and knows, are the soonest to find admirers; but a revelation of +what is not seen, this is the work of seers and prophets whose ordinary +destiny has been anything other than to wear soft raiment and sit in +king's palaces. The "Sartor" was at last, in 1833-1834, printed in +Fraser's Magazine, meeting no appreciation in England, but very +enthusiastically received by Emerson, Channing, Ripley, and a group of +advanced thinkers in New England, through whose efforts it was published +here in book form. And so, in spite of timid London publishers, it +drifted back to London and a slow-growing fame. In our time, sixty years +later, it sells by scores of thousands annually, in cheap and in +luxurious editions, throughout the English-speaking world. + +In respect of early recognition and popularity, Carlyle differs from his +great contemporary Macaulay, who was so immediately and so magnificently +rewarded, and yet received no more than his due as the finest prose +writer of his day. Macaulay's Essays are generally word-pictures of +remarkable men and remarkable events, but of men of action rather than +of quiet meditation. His heroes are such men as Clive and Hastings and +Pitt, not such men as Pascal or Augustine or Leibnitz or Goethe. But +Carlyle in his heroes paints the struggling soul in its deepest +aspirations, and the truths evolved by profound meditations. These are +not such as gain instant popular acceptance; yet they are the +longer-lived. + +The time came at last for Carlyle to leave his retirement among moors +and hills, and in 1831 he directed his steps to London, spending the +winter with his wife in the great centre of English life and thought, +and being well received; so that in 1834 he removed permanently to the +metropolis. But he was scarcely less buried at his modest house in +Chelsea than he had been on his farm, for he came to London with only +L200, and was obliged to practise the most rigid economy. For two years +he labored in his London workshop without earning a shilling, and with +a limited acquaintance. Not yet was his society sought by the great +world which he mocked and despised. He fortunately had the genial and +agreeable Leigh Hunt for a neighbor, and Edward Irving for his friend. +He was known to the critics by his writings, but his circle of personal +friends was small. He was more or less intimate with John Stuart Mill, +Charles Austin, Sir William Molesworth, and the advanced section of the +philosophical radicals,--the very class of men from whom he afterwards +was most estranged. None of these men forwarded his fortunes; but they +lent him books, and helped him at the libraries, for no carpenter can +work without tools. + +The work to which Carlyle now devoted himself was a history of the +French Revolution, the principal characters of which he had already +studied and written about. It was a subject adapted to his genius for +dramatic writing, and for the presentation of his views as to +retribution. His whole theology, according to Froude, was underlaid by +the belief in punishment for sin, which was impressed upon his mind by +his God-fearing parents, and was one of his firmest convictions. The +French were to his mind the greatest sinners among Christian nations, +and therefore were to reap a fearful penalty. To paint in a new and +impressive form the inevitable calamities attendant on violated law and +justice, was the aspiration of Carlyle. He had money enough to last him +with economy for two years. In this time he hoped to complete his work. +The possibility was due to the intelligent thrift of his wife. +Commenting on one of her letters describing their snug little house, +he writes:-- + +"From birth upwards she had lived in opulence; and now, for my sake, had +become poor,--so nobly poor. Truly, her pretty little brag [in this +letter] was well founded. No such house, for beautiful thrift, quiet, +spontaneous, nay, as it were, unconscious--minimum of money reconciled +to human comfort and human dignity--have I anywhere looked upon." + +He devoted himself to his task with intense interest, and was completely +preoccupied. + +In the winter of 1835, after a year of general study, collection of +material and writing, and at last "by dint of continual endeavor for +many weary weeks," the first volume was completed and submitted to his +friend Mill. The valuable manuscript was accidentally and ignorantly +destroyed by a servant, and Mill was in despair. Carlyle bore the loss +like a hero. He did not chide or repine. If his spirit sunk within him, +it was when he was alone in his library or in the society of his +sympathizing wife. He generously writes to Emerson,-- + +"I could not complain, or the poor man would have shot himself: we had +to gather ourselves together, and show a smooth front to it,--which +happily, though difficult, was not impossible to do. I began again at +the beginning, to such a wretched, paralyzing torpedo of a task as my +hand never found to do." + +Mill made all the reparation possible. He gave his friend L200, but +Carlyle would accept only L100. Few men could have rewritten with any +heart that first volume: it would be almost impossible to revive +sufficient interest; the precious inspiration would have been wanting. +Yet Carlyle manfully accomplished his task, and I am inclined to think +that the second writing was better than the first; that he probably left +out what was unessential, and made a more condensed narrative,--a more +complete picture, for his memory was singularly retentive. I do not +believe that any man can do his best at the first heat. See how the +great poets revise and rewrite. Brougham rewrote his celebrated +peroration on the trial of Queen Caroline seventeen times. Carlyle had +to rewrite his book, but his materials remained; his great pictures were +all in his mind. In this second writing there may have been less +emotion,--less fire in his descriptions; but there was fire enough, for +his vivacity was excessive. Even _his_ work could be pruned, not by +others, but by himself. "The household at Chelsea was never closer drawn +together than in those times of trial." Carlyle lost time and spirits, +but he could afford the loss. The entire work was delayed, but was done +at last. The final sentence of Vol. III. was written at ten o'clock on a +damp evening, January 14, 1837. + +This great work, the most ambitious and famous of all Carlyle's +writings, and in many respects his best, was not received by the public +with the enthusiam it ought to have awakened. It was not appreciated by +the people at large. "Ordinary readers were not enraptured by the Iliad +swiftness and vividness of the narrative, its sustained passion, the +flow of poetry, the touches of grandeur and tenderness, and the masterly +touches by which he made the great actors stand out in their +individuality." It seemed to many to be extravagant, exaggerated, at war +with all the "feudalities of literature." Partisans of all kinds were +offended. The style was startlingly broken, almost savage in strength, +vivid and distinct as lightning. Doubtless the man himself had grown +away from the quieter moods of his earlier essays. Froude quotes this +from Carlyle's journal: "The poor people seem to think a style can be +put off or on, not like a skin but like a coat. Is not a skin verily a +product and close kinsfellow of all that lies under it, exact type of +the nature of the beast, not to be plucked off without flaying and +death? The Public is an old woman. Let her maunder and mumble." + +But the extraordinary merits of the book made a great impression on the +cultivated intellects of England,--such men as Jeffrey, Macaulay, +Southey, Hallam, Brougham, Thackeray, Dickens,--who saw and admitted +that a great genius had arisen, whether they agreed with his views or +not. In America, we may be proud to say, the work created general +enthusiasm, and its republication through Emerson's efforts brought some +money as well as larger fame to its author. Of the first moneys that +Emerson sent Carlyle as fruits of this adventure, the dyspeptic +Scotchman wrote that he was "half-resolved to buy myself a sharp little +nag with twenty of these trans-Atlantic pounds, and ride him till the +other thirty be eaten. I will call the creature 'Yankee.' ... My kind +friends!" And _Yankee_ was duly bought and ridden. + +Carlyle still remained in straitened circumstances, although his +reputation was now established. In order to assist him in his great +necessities his friends got up lectures for him, which were attended by +the _elite_ of London. He gave several courses in successive years +during the London season, which brought him more money than his writings +at that time, gave him personal _eclat_, and added largely to his circle +of admirers. His second course of twelve lectures brought him L300,--a +year's harvest, and a large sum for lectures in England, where the +literary institutions rarely paid over L5 for a single lecture. Even in +later times the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, which commanded the +finest talent, paid only L10 to such men as Froude and the archbishop +of York. + +But lecturing, to many men an agreeable excitement, seems to have been +very unpleasant to Carlyle,--even repulsive. Though the lectures brought +both money and fame, he abominated the delivery of them. They broke his +rest, destroyed his peace of mind, and depressed his spirits. Nothing +but direst necessity reconciled him to the disagreeable task. He never +took any satisfaction or pride in his success in this field; nor was his +success probably legitimate. People went to see him as a new literary +lion,--to hear him roar, not to be edified. He had no peculiar +qualification for public speaking, and he affected to despise it. Very +few English men of letters have had this gift. Indeed, popular eloquence +is at a discount among the cultivated classes in England. They prefer to +read at their leisure. Popular eloquence best thrives in democracies, as +in that of ancient Athens; aristocrats disdain it, and fear it. In their +contempt for it they even affect hesitation and stammering, not only +when called upon to speak in public, but also in social converse, until +the halting style has come to be known among Americans as "very +English." In absolute monarchies eloquence is rare except in the pulpit +or at the bar. Cicero would have had no field, and would not probably +have been endured, in the reign of Nero; yet Bossuet and Bourdaloue were +the delight of Louis XIV. What would that monarch have said to the +speeches of Mirabeau? + +After the publication in 1837 of the "French Revolution,"--that "roaring +conflagration of anarchies," that series of graphic pictures rather than +a history or even a criticism,--it was some time before Carlyle could +settle down upon another great work. He delivered lectures, wrote tracts +and essays, gave vent to his humors, and nursed his ailments. He was now +famous,--a man whom everybody wished to see and know, especially +Americans when they came to London, but whom he generally snubbed (as he +did me) and pronounced them bores. It was at this time that he made the +acquaintance of Monckton Milnes, afterward Lord Houghton, who invited +him to breakfast, where he met other notabilities,--among them Bunsen +the Prussian Ambassador at London; Lord Mahon the historian; and Mr. +Baring, afterward Lord Ashburton, the warmest and the truest of his +friends, who extended to him the most generous hospitalities. + +Carlyle was now in what is called "high society," and was "taking life +easy,"--writing but little, yet reading much, especially about Oliver +Cromwell, whose Life he thought of writing. His lectures at this period +were more successful than ever, attended by great and fashionable +people; and from them his chief income was derived. + +While collecting materials for his Life of Cromwell, Carlyle became +deeply interested in the movements of the Chartists, composed chiefly of +working-men with socialistic tendencies. He was called a "radical,"--and +he did believe in a radical reform of men's lives, especially of the +upper classes who showed but little sympathy for the poor. He was not +satisfied with the Whigs, who believed that the Reform Bill would usher +in a political millennium. He had more sympathy with the "conservative" +Tories than the "liberal" Whigs; but his opinions were not acceptable to +either of the great political parties. They alike distrusted him. Even +Mill had a year before declined an article on the working classes for +his Review, the Westminster. Carlyle took it to Lockhart of the +Quarterly, but Lockhart was afraid to publish it. Mill, then about to +leave the Westminster, wished to insert it as a final shout; but Carlyle +declined, and in 1839 expanded his article into a book called +"Chartism," which was rapidly sold and loudly noticed. It gave but +little satisfaction, however. It offended the conservatives by exposing +sores that could not be healed, while on the other hand the radicals did +not wish to be told that men were far from being equal,--that in fact +they were very unequal; and that society could not be advanced by +debating clubs or economical theories, but only by gifted individuals as +instruments of Divine Providence, guiding mankind by their +superior wisdom. + +These views were expanded in a new course of lectures, on "Heroes and +Hero Worship," and subsequently printed,--the most able and suggestive +of all Carlyle's lectures, delivered in the spring of 1840 with great +_eclat_. He never appeared on the platform again. Lecturing, as we have +said, was not to his taste; he preferred to earn his living by his pen, +and his writings had now begun to yield a comfortable support. He +received on account of them L400 from America alone, thanks to the +influence of his friend Emerson. + +Carlyle now began to weary of the distraction of London life, and pined +for the country. But his wife would not hear a word about it; she had +had enough of the country, at Craigenputtock. Meanwhile preparations for +the Life of Cromwell went on slowly, varied by visits to his relatives +in Scotland, travels on the Continent, and interviews with distinguished +men. His mind at this period (1842) was most occupied with the sad +condition of the English people,--everywhere riots, disturbances, +physical suffering and abject poverty among the masses, for the Corn +Laws had not then been repealed; and to Carlyle's vision there was a +most melancholy prospect ahead,--not revolution, but universal +degradation, and the reign of injustice. This sad condition of the +people was contrasted in his mind with what it had been centuries +before, as it appeared from an old book which he happened to read, +Jocelin's Chronicles, which painted English life in the twelfth century. +He fancied that the world was going on from bad to worse; and in this +gloomy state of mind he wrote his "Past and Present," which appeared in +1843, and created a storm of anger as well as admiration. It was a sort +of protest against the political systems of economy then so popular. +Lockhart said of it that he could accept none of his friend's inferences +except one,--"that we were all wrong, and were all like to be damned." + +Gloomy and satirical as the book was, it made a great impression on the +thinkers of the day, while it did not add to the author's popularity. It +seemed as if he were a prophet of wrath,--an Ishmaelite whose hand was +against everybody. He offended all political parties,--"the Tories by +his radicalism, and the Radicals by his scorn of their formulas; the +High Churchman by his Protestantism, and the Low Churchman by evident +unorthodoxy." Yet all parties and sects admitted that much that he said +was true, while at the same time they had no sympathy with his +fierce ravings. + +For ten years after the publication of the "French Revolution" Carlyle +assumed the functions of a prophet, hurling anathemas and pronouncing +woes. To his mind everything was alike disjointed or false or +pretentious, in view of which he uttered groans and hisses and +maledictions. The very name of a society designed to ameliorate evils +seemed to put him into a passion. Every reformer appeared to him to be a +blind teacher of the blind. Exeter Hall, then the scene of every variety +of social and religious and political discussion, was to him a veritable +pandemonium. Everybody at that period of agitation and reform was giving +lectures, and everybody went to hear them; and Carlyle ridiculed them +all alike as pedlers of nostrums to heal diseases which were incurable. +He lived in an atmosphere of disdain. "The English people," said he, +"number some thirty millions,--mostly fools." His friends expostulated +with him for giving utterance to such bitter expressions, and for +holding such gloomy views. John Mill was mortally offended, and walked +no more with him. De Quincey said, "You have made a new hole in your +society kettle: how do you propose to mend it?" + +Yet all this while Carlyle had not lost faith in Providence, as it +might seem, but felt that God would inflict calamities on peoples for +their sins. He resembled Savonarola more than he did Voltaire. What +seemed to some to be mockeries were really the earnest protests of his +soul against universal corruption, to be followed by downward courses +and retribution. His mind was morbid from intense reflection on certain +evils, and from his physical ailments. He doubtless grieved and +alienated his best friends by his diatribes against popular education +and free institutions. He even appeared to lean to despotism and the +rule of tyrants, provided only they were strong. + +Thus Carlyle destroyed his influence, even while he moved the mind to +reflection. It was seen and felt that he had no sympathy with many +movements designed to benefit society, and that he cherished utter scorn +for many active philanthropists. In his bitterness, wrath, and disdain +he became himself intolerant. In some of his wild utterances he brought +upon himself almost universal reproach, as when he said, "I never +thought the rights of negroes worth much discussing, nor the rights of +man in any form,"--a sentiment which militated against his whole +philosophy. In this strange and unhappy mood of mind, the "Latter Day +Pamphlets," "Past and Present," and other essays were written, which +undermined the reverence in which he had been held. These were the +blots on his great career, which may be traced to sickness and a +disordered mind. + +In fact, Carlyle cannot be called a sound writer at any period. He +contradicts himself. He is a great painter, a prose-poet, a +satirist,--not a philosopher; perhaps the most suggestive writer of the +nineteenth century, often giving utterance to the grandest thoughts, yet +not a safe guide at all times, since he is inconsistent and full of +exaggerations. + +The morbid and unhealthy tone of Carlyle's mind at this period may be +seen by an extract from one of his letters to Sterling:-- + +"I see almost nobody. I avoid sight, rather, and study to consume my own +smoke. I wish you would build me, among your buildings, some small +Prophet Chamber, fifteen feet square, with a flue for smoking, sacred +from all noises of dogs, cocks, and piano-fortes, engaging some dumb old +woman to light a fire for me daily, and boil some kind of a kettle." + +Thus quaintly he expressed his desire for uninterrupted solitude, where +he could work to advantage. + +He was then engaged on Cromwell, and the few persons with whom he +exchanged letters show how retired was his life. His friends were also +few, although he could have met as many persons as pleased him. He was +too much absorbed with work to be what is called a society man; but +what society he did see was of the best. + +At last Carlyle's task on the "Life of Oliver Cromwell" was finished in +August, 1845, when he was fifty years of age. It was the greatest +contribution to English history; Mr. Froude thinks, which has been made +in the present century. "Carlyle was the first to make Cromwell and his +age intelligible to mankind." Indeed, he reversed the opinions of +mankind respecting that remarkable man, which was a great +accomplishment. No one doubts the genuineness of the portrait. Cromwell +was almost universally supposed, fifty years ago, to be a hypocrite as +well as a usurper. In Carlyle's hands he stands out visionary, perhaps, +but yet practical, sincere, earnest, God-fearing,--a patriot devoted to +the good of his country. Carlyle rescued a great historical personage +from the accumulated slanders of two centuries, and did his work so well +that no hostile criticisms have modified his verdict. He has painted a +picture which is immortal. The insight, the sagacity, the ability, and +the statesmanship of Cromwell are impressed upon the minds of all +readers. That England never had a greater or more enlightened ruler, +everybody is now forced to admit,--and not merely a patriotic but a +Christian ruler, who regarded himself simply as the instrument of +Providence. + +People still differ as to the cause in which Cromwell embarked, and few +defend the means he used to accomplish his ends. He does not stand out +as a perfect man; he made mistakes, and committed political crimes which +can be defended only on grounds of expediency. But his private life was +above reproach, and he died in the triumph of Christian faith, after +having raised his country to a higher pitch of glory than had been seen +since the days of Queen Elizabeth. + +The faults of the biographer centre in confounding right with might; and +this conspicuously false doctrine is the leading defect of the +philosophy of Carlyle, runs through all his writings, and makes him an +unsound teacher. If this doctrine be true, then all the usurpers of the +world from Caesar to Napoleon can be justified. If this be true, then an +irresistible imperialism becomes the best government for mankind. It is +but fair to say that Carlyle himself denied this inference. Writing of +Lecky's having charged him with believing in the divine right of +strength, he says:-- + +"With respect to that poor heresy of might being the symbol of right 'to +a certain great and venerable author,' I shall have to tell Lecky one +day that quite the converse or _re_verse is the great and venerable +author's real opinion,--namely, that right is the eternal symbol of +might; ... in fact, he probably never met with a son of Adam more +contemptuous of might except when it rests on the above origin." + +Yet the impression of all his strongest work is the other way. + +Certain other kindred doctrines may be inferentially drawn from +Carlyle's defence of Cromwell; namely, that a popular assembly is +incapable of guiding successfully the destinies of a nation; that behind +all constitutions lies an ultimate law of force; that majorities, as +such, have no more right to rule than kings and nobles; that the +strongest are the best, and the best are the strongest; that the right +to rule lies with those who are right in mind and heart, as he supposed +Cromwell to be, and who can execute their convictions. Such teachings, +it need not be shown, are at war with the whole progress of modern +society and the enlightened opinion of mankind. + +The great merit of Carlyle's History is in the clearness and vividness +with which he paints his hero and the exposure of the injustice with +which he has been treated by historians. It is an able vindication of +Cromwell's character. But the deductions drawn from his philosophy lead +to absurdity, and are an insult to the understanding of the world. + +It was about this time, on the conclusion of the "Cromwell," when he was +on the summit of his literary fame, and the world began to shower its +favors upon him, that Carlyle's days were saddened by a domestic trouble +which gave him inexpressible solicitude and grief. His wife, with whom +he had lived happily for so many years, was exceedingly disturbed on +account of his intimate friendship with Lady Ashburton. Nothing can be +more plaintive and sadly beautiful than the letters he wrote to her on +the occasion of her starting off in a fit of spleen, after a stormy +scene, to visit friends at a distance; and what is singular is that we +do not find in those letters, when his soul was moved to its very +depths, any of his peculiarities of style. They are remarkably simple as +well as serious. + +Carlyle's friendship for one of the most brilliant and cultivated women +of England, which the breath of scandal never for a moment assailed, was +reasonable and natural, and was a great comfort to him. He persisted in +enjoying it, knowing that his wife disliked it. In this matter, which +was a cloud upon his married life, and saddened the family hearth for +years, Mrs. Carlyle was doubtless exacting and unreasonable; though some +men would have yielded the point for the sake of a faithful wife,--or +even for peace. There are those who think that Carlyle was selfish in +keeping up an intercourse which was hateful to his wife; but the +Ashburtons were the best friends that Carlyle ever had, after he became +famous,--and in their various country seats he enjoyed a hospitality +rarely extended to poor literary men. There he met in enjoyable and +helpful intercourse, when he could not have seen them in his own house, +some of the most distinguished men of the day,--men of rank and +influence as well as those of literary fame. + +Until this intimacy with the Ashburtons, no domestic disturbances of +note had taken place in the Carlyle household. The wife may occasionally +have been sad and lonely when her husband was preoccupied with his +studies; but this she ought to have anticipated in marrying a literary +man whose only support was from his pen. Carlyle, too, was an inveterate +smoker, and she detested tobacco, so that he did not spend as much time +in the parlor as he did in his library, where he could smoke to his +heart's content. On the whole, however, their letters show genuine +mutual affection, and as much connubial happiness as is common to most +men and women, with far more of intimate intellectual and spiritual +congeniality. Carlyle, certainly, in all his letters, ever speaks of his +wife with admiration and gratitude. He regarded her as not only the most +talented woman that he had ever known, but as the one without whom he +was miserable. They were the best of comrades and companions from first +to last, when at home together. + +For a considerable period after the publication of the Life of Cromwell, +Carlyle was apparently idle. He wrote for several years nothing of note +except his "Latter Day Pamphlets" (1850), and a Life of his friend John +Sterling (1851), to whom he was tenderly attached. It would seem that he +was now in easy circumstances, although he retained to the end his +economical habits. He amused himself with travelling, and with frequent +visits to distinguished people in the country. If not a society man, he +was much sought; he dined often at the tables of the great, and +personally knew almost every man of note in London. He sturdily took his +place among distinguished men,--the intellectual peer of the greatest. +He often met Macaulay, but was not intimate with him. I doubt if they +even exchanged visits. The reason for this may have been that they were +not congenial to each other in anything, and that the social position of +Macaulay was immeasurably higher than Carlyle's. It would be hard to say +which was the greater man. + +It was not until 1852 or 1853, when Carlyle was fifty-eight, that he +seriously set himself to write his Life of Frederic II., his last great +work, on which he perseveringly labored for thirteen years. It is an +exhaustive history of the Prussian hero, and is regarded in Germany as +the standard work on that great monarch and general. The first volume +came out in 1858, and the last in 1865. It is a marvel of industry and +accuracy,--the most elaborate of all his works, but probably the least +read because of its enormous length and scholastic pedantries. It might +be said to bear the same relation to his "French Revolution" that +"Romola" does to "Adam Bede." In this book Carlyle made no new +revelations, as he did in his Life of Cromwell. He did not change +essentially the opinion of mankind. Frederick the Great, in his hands, +still stands out as an unscrupulous public enemy,--a robber and a +tyrant. His crimes are only partially redeemed by his heroism, +especially when Europe was in arms against him. There is the same defect +in this great work that there is in the Life of Cromwell,--the +inculcation of the doctrine that might makes right; that we may do evil +that good may come,--thus putting expediency above eternal justice, and +palliating crimes because of their success. It is difficult to account +for Carlyle's decline in moral perceptions, when we consider that his +personal life was so far above reproach. + +Although the Life of Frederick is a work of transcendent industry, it +did not add to Carlyle's popularity, which had been undermined by his +bitter attacks on society in his various pamphlets. At this period he +was still looked up to with reverence as a great intellectual giant; but +that love for him which had been felt by those who were aroused to +honest thinking by his earlier writings had passed away. A new +generation looked upon him as an embittered and surly old man. His +services were not forgotten, but he was no longer a favorite,--no longer +an inspiring guide. His writings continued to stimulate thought, but +were no longer regarded as sound. Commonplace people never did like him, +probably because they never understood him. His admirers were among the +young, the enthusiastic, the hopeful, the inquiring; and when their +veneration passed away, there were few left to uphold his real greatness +and noble character. One might suppose that Carlyle would have been +unhappy to alienate so many persons, especially old admirers. In fact, I +apprehend that he cared little for anybody's admiration or flattery. He +lived in an atmosphere so infinitely above small and envious and +detracting people that he was practically independent of human +sympathies. Had he been doomed to live with commonplace persons, he +might have sought to conciliate them; but he really lived in another +sphere,--not perhaps higher than theirs, but eternally distinct,--in the +sphere of abstract truth. To him most people were either babblers or +bores. What did he care for their envious shafts, or even for their +honest disapprobation! + +Hence, the last days of this great man were not his best days, although +he was not without honor. He was made Lord Rector of the University of +Edinburgh, and delivered a fine address on the occasion; and later, +Disraeli, when prime minister, offered him knighthood, with the Grand +Cross of the Order of the Bath and a pension, which he declined. The +author of the "Sartor Resartus" did not care for titles. He preferred to +remain simply Thomas Carlyle. + +While Carlyle was in the midst of honors in Edinburgh, his wife, who had +long been in poor health, suddenly died, April 21, 1866. This affliction +was a terrible blow to Carlyle, from which he never recovered. It filled +out his measure of sorrow, deep and sad, and hard to be borne. His +letters after this are full of pathos and plaintive sadness. He could +not get resigned to his loss, for his wife had been more and more his +staff and companion as years had advanced. The Queen sent her sympathy, +but nothing could console him. He was then seventy-one years old, and +his work was done. His remaining years were those of loneliness and +sorrow and suffering. He visited friends, but they amused him not. He +wrote reminiscences, but his isolation remained. He sought out +charities when he himself was the object of compassion,--a sad old man +who could not sleep. He tried to interest himself in politics, but time +hung heavy on his hands. He read much and thought more, but assumed no +fresh literary work. He had enough to do to correct proof-sheets of new +editions of his works. His fiercest protests were now against atheism in +its varied forms. In 1870, Mr. Erskine, his last Scotch friend, died. In +1873 he writes: "More and more dreary, barren, base, and ugly seem to me +all the aspects of this poor, diminishing quack-world,--fallen openly +anarchic, doomed to a death which one can wish to be speedy." + +Poor old man! He has survived his friends, his pleasures, his labors, +almost his fame; he is sick, and weary of life, which to him has become +a blank. Pity it is, he could not have died when "Cromwell" was +completed. He drags on his forlorn life, without wife or children, and +with only a few friends, in disease and ennui and discontent, almost +alone, until he is eighty-five. + + "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, + Creeps on this petty pace from day to day + To the last syllable of recorded time; + And all our yesterdays have lighted fools + The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! + Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player + That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, + And then is heard no more. It is a tale + Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing." + +The relief came at last. It was on a cold day in February, 1881, that +Lecky, Froude, and Tyndall, alone of his London friends, accompanied his +mortal remains to Ecclefechan, where he was buried by the graves of his +father and mother. He might have rested in the vaults of Westminster; +but he chose to lie in a humble churchyard, near where he was born. + +"In future years," says his able and interesting biographer, "Scotland +will have raised a monument over his remains; but no monument is needed +for one who has made an eternal memorial for himself in the hearts of +all to whom truth is the dearest possession. + +"'For, giving his soul to the common cause, he won for himself a wreath +which will not fade, and a tomb the most honorable,--not where his dust +is decaying, but where his glory lives in everlasting remembrance. For +of illustrious men all the earth is the sepulchre; and it is not the +inscribed column in their own land which is the record of their virtues, +but the unwritten memories of them in the hearts and minds of all +mankind.'" [1] + +[Footnote 1: Quoted by Froude from the Funeral Oration of Pericles in +honor of the Athenians slain during the first summer of the +Peloponnesian War, as given by Thucydides,--"their," "they," etc. being +changed to "his," "he," etc.] + +Thomas Carlyle will always have an honorable place among the great men +of his time. He was pre-eminently a profound thinker, a severe critic, a +great word-painter,--a man of uncommon original gifts, who aroused and +instructed his generation. In the literal sense, he was neither +philosopher nor poet nor statesman, but a man of genius, who cast his +searching and fearless glance into all creeds, systems, and public +movements, denouncing hypocrisies, shams, and lies with such power that +he lost friends almost as fast as he made them,--without, however, +losing the respect and admiration of his literary rivals, or of the +ablest and best men both in England and America. Although no believer in +the scientific philosophies of our time, he was a great breaker of +ground for them, having been a pioneer in the cause of honest thinking +and plain speaking. His passion for truth, and courage in declaring his +own vision of it, were potent for spiritual liberty. He stands as one of +the earliest and stoutest champions of that revolt against authority in +religious, intellectual, and social matters which has chiefly marked the +Nineteenth Century. + + + +LORD MACAULAY. + + +1800-1859. + +ARTISTIC HISTORICAL WRITING. + +Among the eminent men of letters of the present century, Thomas +Babington Macaulay takes a very high position. In original genius he was +inferior to Carlyle, but was greater in learning, in judgment, and +especially in felicity of style. He was an historical artist of the +foremost rank, the like of whom has not appeared since Voltaire; and he +was, moreover, no mean poet, and might have been distinguished as such, +had poetry been his highest pleasure and ambition. The same may be said +of him as a political orator. Very few men in the House of Commons ever +surpassed him in the power of making an eloquent speech. He was too +impetuous and dogmatic to be a great debater, like Fox or Pitt or Peel +or Gladstone; but he might have reached a more exalted and influential +position as a statesman had he confined his remarkable talents +to politics. + +But letters were the passion of Macaulay, from his youth up; and his +remarkably tenacious memory--abnormal, as it seems to me--enabled him to +bring his vast store of facts to support plausibly any position he chose +to take. At fifty years of age, he had probably read more books than any +man in Europe since Gibbon and Niebuhr; he literally devoured everything +he could put his hands upon, without cramming for a special +object,--especially the Greek and Latin Classics, which he read over and +over again, not so much for knowledge as for the pleasure it gave him as +a literary critic and a student of artistic excellence. + +Macaulay was of Scotch descent, like so many eminent historians, poets, +critics, and statesmen who adorned the early and middle part of the +nineteenth century,--Scott, Burns, Carlyle, Jeffrey, Dundas, Playfair, +Wilson, Napier, Mackintosh, Robertson, Alison; a group of geniuses that +lived in Edinburgh, and made its society famous,--to say nothing of +great divines and philosophers like Chalmers and Stewart and Hamilton. +Macaulay belonged to a good family, the most distinguished members of +which were clergymen,--with the exception of his uncle, General +Macaulay, who made a fortune in India; and his father, the celebrated +merchant and philanthropist, Zachary Macaulay, who did more than any +other man, Wilberforce excepted, to do away with the slave-trade, and +to abolish slavery in the West India Islands. + +Zachary Macaulay was the most modest and religious of men, and after an +eventful life in Africa as governor of the colony of Sierra Leone, +settled in Clapham, near London, with a handsome fortune. He belonged to +that famous evangelical set who made Clapham famous, and whose +extraordinary piety and philanthropy are commemorated by Sir James +Stephen in one of his most interesting essays. They resembled in +peculiarities the early Quakers and primitive Methodists, and though +very narrow were much respected for their unostentatious benevolence, +blended with public spirit. + +Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple, in Leicestershire, Oct. 25, 1800, +but it was at Clapham that his boyhood was chiefly spent. His precocity +startled every one who visited his father's hospitable home. At the age +of three he would lie at full length on the carpet eagerly reading. He +was never seen without an open book in his hands, even during his walks. +He cared nothing for the sports of his companions. He could neither +ride, nor drive, nor swim, nor row a boat, nor play a game of tennis or +foot-ball. He cared only for books of all sorts, which he seized upon +with inextinguishable curiosity, and stored their contents in his +memory. When a boy, he had learned the "Paradise Lost" by heart. He did +not care to go to school, because it interrupted his reading. Hannah +More, a frequent visitor at Clapham and a warm friend of the family, +gazed upon him with amazement, but was too wise and conscientious to +spoil him by her commendations. At eight years of age he also had great +facility in making verses, which were more than tolerable. + +Zachary Macaulay objected to his son being educated in one of the great +schools in England, like Westminster and Harrow, and he was therefore +sent to a private school kept by an evangelical divine who had been a +fellow at Cambridge,--a good scholar, but narrow in his theological +views. Indeed, Macaulay got enough of Calvinism before he went to +college, and was so unwisely crammed with it at home and at school, that +through life he had a repugnance to the evangelical doctrines of the Low +Church, with which, much to the grief of his father, he associated cant, +always his especial abhorrence and disgust. While Macaulay venerated his +father, he had little sympathy with his views, and never loved him as he +did his own sisters. He did his filial duty, and that was +all,--contributed largely to his father's support in later life, treated +him with profound respect, but was never drawn to him in affectionate +frankness and confidence. + +It cannot be disguised that Macaulay was worldly in his turn of mind, +intensely practical, and ambitious of distinction as soon as he became +conscious of his great powers, although in his school-days he was very +modest and retiring. He was not religiously inclined, nor at all +spiritually minded. An omnivorous reader seldom is narrow, and seldom is +profound. Macaulay was no exception. He admired Pascal, but only for his +exquisite style and his trenchant irony. He saw little in Augustine +except his vast acquaintance with Latin authors. He carefully avoided +writing on the Schoolmen, or Calvin, or the great divines of the +seventeenth century. Bunyan he admired for his genius and perspicuous +style rather than for his sentiments. Even his famous article on Bacon +is deficient in spiritual insight; it is a description of the man rather +than a dissertation on his philosophy. Macaulay's greatness was +intellectual rather than moral; and his mental power was that of the +scholar and the rhetorical artist rather than the thinker. In his +masterly way of arraying facts he has never been surpassed; and in this +he was so skilful that it mattered little which side he took. Like +Daniel Webster, he could make any side appear plausible. Doubtless in +the law he might have become a great advocate, had he not preferred +literary composition instead. Had he lived in the times of the Grecian +Sophists, he might have baffled Socrates,--not by his logic, but by his +learning and his aptness of illustration. + +Macaulay entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1818, being a healthy, +robust young man of eighteen, after five years' training in Greek and +Latin, having the eldest son of Wilberforce for a school companion. +Among his contemporaries and friends at Cambridge were Charles Austin, +Praed, Derwent Coleridge, Hyde Villiers, and Romilly; but I infer from +his Life by Trevelyan that his circle of intimate friends was not so +large as it would have been had he been fitted for college at +Westminster or Eton. Nor at this time were his pecuniary circumstances +encouraging. After he had obtained his first degree he supported +himself, while studying for a fellowship, by taking a couple of pupils +for L100 a year. Eventually he gained a fellowship worth L300 a year, +which was his main support for seven years, until he obtained a +government office in London. He probably would have found it easier to +get a fellowship at Oxford than at Cambridge, since mathematics were +uncongenial to him, his forte being languages. He was most distinguished +at college for English composition and Latin declamation. In 1819 he +wrote a poem, "Pompeii," which gained him the chancellor's medal,--a +distinction won again in 1821 by a poem on "Evening," while the same +year gave him the Craven scholarship for his classical attainments. He +took his bachelor's degree in 1822, and was made a fellow of Trinity +College. He did not obtain his fellowship, however, until his third +trial, being no favorite with those who had prizes and honors to bestow, +because of his neglect of science and mathematics. + +As a profession, Macaulay made choice of the law, being called to the +bar in 1826, and at Leeds joined the Northern Circuit, of which Brougham +was the leading star. But the law was not his delight. He did not like +its technicalities. He spent most of his time in his chambers in +literary composition, or in the galleries of the House of Commons +listening to the debates. He never applied himself seriously to anything +which "went against the grain." At Court he got no briefs, but his +fellowship enabled him to live by practising economy. He also wrote +occasional essays--excellent but not remarkable--for Knight's Quarterly +Magazine. It was in this periodical, too, that his early poems were +published; but he did not devote much time to this field of letters, +although, as we have said, he might undoubtedly have succeeded in it. +His poetry, if he had never written anything else, would not be +considered much inferior to that of Sir Walter Scott, being full of life +and action, and, like most everything else he did, winning him applause. +Years later he felt the risk of publishing his "Lays of Ancient Rome;" +but as he knew what he could do and what he could not do, or rather what +would be popular, he was not disappointed. The poems were well +received, for they were eminently picturesque and vital, as well as +strong, masculine, and unadorned; the rhyme and metre were also +felicitous. He had no obscurities, and the spirit of his Lays was +patriotic and ardent, showing his love of liberty. I think his "Battle +of Ivry" is equal to anything that Scott wrote. Yet Macaulay is not +regarded by the critics as a true poet; that is, he did not write poetry +because he must, like Burns and Byron. His poetry was not spontaneous; +it was a manufactured article,--very good of its kind, but not such as +to have given him the fame which his prose writings made for him. + +It was not, however, until his article on Milton appeared in the +Edinburgh Review in 1825, that Macaulay's great career began. Like +Byron, he woke up one morning to find himself famous. Everybody read and +admired an essay the style of which was new and striking. "Where did you +pick up that style?" wrote Jeffrey to the briefless barrister. It +transcended in brilliancy anything which had yet appeared in the +Edinburgh or Quarterly. Brougham became envious, and treated the rising +light with no magnanimity or admiration. + +Of course, the author of such an uncommon article as that on Milton, the +praise of which was in everybody's mouth, had invitations to dinner from +distinguished people; and these were most eagerly accepted. Macaulay +rapidly became a social favorite, sought for his brilliant conversation, +which was as remarkable for a young man of twenty-six as were his +writings in the foremost literary journal of the world. He was not +handsome, and was carelessly dressed; but he had a massive head, and +rugged yet benevolent features, which lighted up with peculiar animation +when he was excited. One of the first persons of note to welcome him to +her table was Lady Holland, an accomplished but eccentric and +plain-spoken woman, who seems to have greatly admired him. He was a +frequent guest at Holland House, where for nearly half-a-century the +courtly and distinguished Lord Holland and his wife entertained the most +eminent men and women of the time. This gratified young Macaulay's +inordinate social ambition. He scarcely mentions in his letters at this +time any but peers and peeresses. + +And yet he did not court the society of those he did not respect. He was +not a parasite or a flatterer even of the great, but met them apparently +on equal terms, as a monarch of the mind. He was at home in any circle +that was not ignorant or frivolous. He was more easy than genial, for +his prejudices or intellectual pride made him unkind to persons of +mediocrity. It was a bold thing to cross his path, for he came down +like an avalanche on those who opposed him, not so much in anger as in +contempt. I do not find that his circle of literary friends was large or +intimate. He seldom alludes to Carlyle or Bulwer or Thackeray or +Dickens. He has more to say of Rogers and Lord Jeffrey, and other pets +of aristocratic circles,--those who were conventionally favored, like +Sydney Smith; or those who gave banquets to people of fashion, like Lord +Lansdowne. These were the people he loved best to associate with, who +listened to his rhetoric with rapt admiration, who did not pique his +vanity, and who had something to give to him,--position and _eclat_. + +Macaulay was not a vain man, nor even egotistical; but he had a +tremendous self-consciousness, which annoyed his equals in literary +fame, and repelled such a giant as Brougham, who had no idea of sharing +his throne with any one,--being more overbearing even than Macaulay, but +more human. This new rival in the Edinburgh Review, of which for a long +time Brougham had been dictator, was, much to Jeffrey's annoyance, not +convivial. He did not drink two bottles at a sitting, but guarded his +health and preserved his simple habits. Though he speaks with gusto of +Lord Holland's turtle and turbot and venison and grouse, he was content +when alone with a mutton-chop and a few glasses of sherry, or the +October ale of Cambridge, which was a part of his perquisites as +Fellow. He was very exclusive, in view of the fact that he was a poor +man, without aristocratic antecedents or many powerful friends. Outside +the class of rank and fashion, his friends seem to have been leading +politicians of the Liberal school, the stanch Whigs who passed the +Reform Bill, to whom he was true. To his credit, his happiest hours were +spent with his sisters in the quiet seclusion of his father's modest +home. All his best letters were to them; and in these he detailed his +intercourse with the great, and the splendor of their banquets +and balls. + +Macaulay's rise, after he had written his famous article on Milton, was +rapid. The article itself, striking as it is, must be confessed to be +disappointing in so far as it attempted to criticise the "Paradise Lost" +and Milton's other poems. Macaulay's genius was historical, not +critical; and the essay is notable rather for its review of the times of +Charles I. and Archbishop Laud, of the Puritans and the Royalists, than +for its literary flavor, except as a brilliant piece of composition. It +was, however, the picturesque style of the new writer which was the +chief attraction, and the fact that the essay came from so young a man. +Macaulay followed the Milton essay with others on Macchiavelli, Dryden, +Hallam's "Constitutional History," and on history in general, which +displayed to great advantage his unusual learning, his keen historic +instinct, and his splendor of style. He became the most popular +contributor to the Edinburgh Review, which was beginning to be dull and +heavy; and this kept him before the eyes of politicians and +professional men. + +Macaulay's ambition was now divided between literature and politics. His +first appearance as a public speaker was at an annual anti-slavery +convention in London, in 1826, when he made a marked impression. He +eagerly embraced the offer of a seat in the House of Commons, which was +secured to him in 1830; and as soon as he entered Parliament he began to +make speeches, which were carefully composed and probably committed to +memory. At a single bound he became one of the leading orators of that +renowned assembly. Some of his orations were masterpieces of argument +and rhetoric in favor of reform, and of all liberal movements in +philanthropy and education. In the opinion of eminent statesmen he was +the most "rising" member of the House, and sure to become a leader among +the Whigs. But he was poor, having only about L500 a year--the proceeds +of his fellowship and his literary productions--to support his dignity +as a legislator and meet the calls of society; so that in 1833 he was +rewarded with an office in the Board of Control, which regulated the +affairs of India; this doubled his income, and made him independent. +But he wanted an office in which he could lay up money for future +contingencies. Therefore, in 1834, he gladly resigned his seat in +Parliament and accepted the situation of a member of the Supreme Council +of India, on a salary of L10,000 a year, L7000 of which he continued to +save yearly; so that at the end of four years, when he returned to +England, he had become a rich man, or at least independent, with leisure +to do whatever he pleased. + +In India, as chairman of the Board of Education, as legal adviser of the +Council, and in drafting a code of penal laws for that part of the +Empire, he was very useful,--although as a matter of fact the new code +was too theoretically fine to be practical, and was never put in force. +His personal good sense was equal to his industry and his talents, and +he preserved his health by strict habits of temperance. Even in that +tropical country he presented a strong contrast to the sallow, bilious +officials with whom he was surrounded, and in due time returned to +England in perfect health, one of the most robust of men, capable of +indefinite work, which never seemed to weary him. + +But in Calcutta, as in London, he employed his leisure hours in writing +for the Edinburgh Review, and gave an immense impulse to its sale, for +which he was amply rewarded. Brougham complained to Jeffrey that his +essays took up too much space in the Review, but the politic editor knew +what was for its interest and popularity. Macaulay's long articles of +sometimes over a hundred pages were received without a murmur; and every +article he wrote added to his fame, since he always did his best. His +essays in 1830 on Southey and Montgomery, and one in 1831 on Croker's +edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, were fierce, scathing onslaughts, +even cruel and crushing,--revealing Macaulay's tremendous powers of +invective and remorseless criticism, but reflecting little credit on his +disposition or his judgment. His Hampden (1831) and his Burleigh (1832) +remain among his finest and most inspiring historical paintings. His +first essay on Lord Chatham (1834) is a notable piece of +characterization; the one on Sir James Mackintosh (1835) is a most acute +and brilliant historical criticism; the one on Lord Bacon (1837) is +striking and has become famous, but shows Macaulay's deficiency in +philosophic thought, besides being sophistical in spirit; and the +article on Sir William Temple (1837)--really a history of England during +the reign of William III.--is thoroughly fine. + +Macaulay's residence in India, so far as political ambition was +concerned, may have been a mistake. It withdrew him from an arena in +which he could have risen to great distinction and influence as a +parliamentary orator. He might have been a second Fox, whom he resembled +in the impetuosity of his rhetoric, if he had also possessed Fox's +talents as a debater. Yet he was not a born leader of men. As a +parliamentary orator he was simply a speech-maker, like the Unitarian +minister Fox, or that still abler man the Quaker Bright, both of whom +were great rhetoricians. It is probable that he himself understood his +true sphere, which was that of a literary man,--an historical critic, +appealing to intelligent people rather than to learned pedants in the +universities. His service in India enabled him to write for the +remainder of his life with an untrammelled pen, and to live in comfort +and ease, enjoying the _otium cum dignitate_, to which he attached +supreme importance,--so different from Carlyle, who toiled in poverty at +Chelsea to declare truth for truth's sake, grumbling, yet lofty in his +meditations, the depth of which Macaulay was incapable of appreciating. + +It is, then, as a man of letters rather than as a politician that our +author merits his exalted fame. Respectable as a member of the House of +Commons, or as a jurist in India in compiling a code of laws, yet +neither as a statesman nor as a jurist was he in his right place. The +leaders of his party may have admired and praised his oratory, but they +wanted something more practical than orations,--they wanted the control +of men; and so, too, the government demanded a code which would exact +the esteem of lawyers and meet the wants of India rather than a +composition which would read well. But as an historical critic and a +luminous writer, Macaulay had no superior,--a fact which no one knew +better than himself. + +In 1838, on his return from India,--where he had regarded himself as in +honorable exile,--Macaulay had accumulated a fortune of L30,000, to him +more than a competency. This, added to the legacy of L10,000 which he +had received from his uncle, General Macaulay, secured to him +independence and leisure to pursue his literary work, which was +paramount to every other consideration. If both from pleasure and +ambition there ever was a man devoted heart and soul and body to a +literary career, it was Macaulay. Nor would he now accept any political +office which seriously interfered with the passion of his life. Still +less would he waste his time at the dinner parties of the great, no +longer to him a novelty. He was eminently social by nature, and fond of +talk and controversy, with a superb physique capable of digesting the +richest dishes, and of enduring the fatigues and ceremonies of +fashionable life; but even the pleasures of the banquet and of +cultivated society, to many a mere relaxation, were sacrificed to his +fondness for books,--to him the greatest and truest companionship, +especially when they introduced him to the life and manners of by-gone +ages, and to communion with the master-minds of the world. + +For relaxation, Macaulay preferred to take long walks; lounge around the +book-stalls; visit the sights of London with his nieces; invite his +intimate friends to simple dinners at The Albany; amuse himself with +trifles, especially in company with those he loved best, in the domestic +circle of his relatives, whom he treated ever with the most familiar and +affectionate sympathy,--so that while they loved and revered him, they +had no idea that "Uncle Tom" was a great man. His most interesting +letters were to his sisters and nieces, whose amusement and welfare he +had constantly in view, and who were more to him than all the world +besides. Indeed, he did not write many letters except to his relatives, +his publishers, and his intimate friends, who were few, considering the +number of persons he was obliged to meet. He was a thoroughly domestic +man, although he never married or wished to marry. + +It surprises me that Macaulay's intercourse with eminent authors was so +constrained. He saw very little of them; but while he did not avoid +talking with them when thrown among them, and keeping up the courtesies +of life even with those he thoroughly disliked, I cannot see any +evidence that he sought the society of those who were regarded as his +equals in genius. He liked Milman and Mackintosh and Napier and Jeffrey +and Rogers, and a few others; but his intimate intercourse was confined +chiefly to these and to his family. + +Macaulay's fame, however, was substantially founded and built. Sydney +Smith's witty characterization of him is worth recalling:-- + +"I always prophesied his greatness from the first moment I saw him, then +a very young and unknown man on the Northern Circuit. There are no +limits to his knowledge, on small subjects as well as great; he is like +a book in breeches. + +"Yes, I agree, he is certainly more agreeable since his return from +India. His enemies might have said before (though _I_ never did so) that +he talked rather too much; but now he has occasional flashes of silence +that make his conversation perfectly delightful. But what is far better +and more important than all this is, that I believe Macaulay to be +incorruptible. You might lay ribbons, stars, garters, wealth, title, +before him in vain. He has an honest, genuine love of his country; and +the world could not bribe him to neglect her interests." + +Macaulay now devoted several weeks of every year to travel, visiting +different parts of England and the Continent as the mood took him. In +the autumn of 1838 he visited Italy, it would seem for the first time, +and was, of course, enchanted. He appreciated natural scenery, but was +not enthusiastic over it; nor did it make a very deep impression on him +except for the moment. He loved best to visit cities and places +consecrated by classical associations. + +While at Rome, Macaulay received from Lord Melbourne the offer of the +office of Judge Advocate; but he unhesitatingly declined it. The salary +of L2500 was nothing to a scholar who already had a comfortable +independence; and the duties the situation imposed were not only +uncongenial, but would interfere with his literary labors. + +In February, 1839, he returned to London; and now the pressure on him by +his political friends to re-enter public life was greater than he could +resist. He was elected to Parliament as one of the members from +Edinburgh, and gave his usual support to his party. In September he +became War Secretary, with a seat in the Whig Cabinet under Lord +Melbourne. Consequently he suspended for a while his literary tasks, +conducting the business of his department with commendable industry, but +without enthusiasm. In the session of 1840 and 1841, during the angry +discussions pertaining to the registration of votes in Ireland, he gave +proof of having profited by the severe legal training he had received +from his labors in India. During these years he found time to write a +few reviews, the one on Lord Olive being the most prominent. + +The great subject of political agitation at this period was the repeal +of the Corn Laws. The Whig leaders had lost the earnestness which had +marked their grand efforts when they carried the Reform Bill of 1832, +and were more indifferent to further reforms than suited their +constituents; so that, at a dangerous financial crisis in 1841, the +direction of public affairs fell into the hands of the Tories, under Sir +Robert Peel. This great man not only rescued the nation from its fiscal +embarrassments, but having been convinced by the arguments of Cobden of +the necessity of repealing the Corn Laws, he carried through that great +reform, to the disgust of his party and to his own undying fame. I have +treated of this period more at large in another volume of this +series.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Beacon Lights of History: European Leaders.] + +Macaulay was not much moved by the fall of the ministry to which he +belonged, and gladly resumed his literary labors,--the first fruits of +his leisure being an essay on Warren Hastings, a companion piece to the +one on Clive. + +These East Indian essays constitute the most picturesque and graphic +account of British conquests in that ancient land that has been given +to the public. Macaulay's intimate knowledge of the ground, and his +literary resources, enabled him to picture the dazzling successes of +Clive and Hastings; so that the careers of those superb military +chieftains and commercial robber-statesmen, in securing for their +country the control of a distant province larger than France, and in +enriching the British Empire and themselves beyond all precedent in +conquest, stand splendidly portrayed forever. + +Macaulay had now taken apartments in The Albany, on the second floor, to +which he removed his large library, and in which he comfortably lived +for fifteen years. His article on Warren Hastings was followed by that +on Frederic the Great. His numerous articles in the Edinburgh Review had +now become so popular that there was a great demand for them in a +separate form. Curiously enough, as in the case of Carlyle, it was in +America that the public appreciation of these essays first took the form +of book publication; and Macaulay's "Miscellanies" were published in +Boston in 1840, and in Philadelphia in 1842. As these volumes began to +go to England, for Macaulay's own protection they were republished by +Longman, revised by the author, in 1843, and obtained an immediate and +immense sale,--reaching one hundred and twenty thousand copies in +England,--which added to the fame and income of Macaulay. But he was +never satisfied with the finish of his own productions; the only thing +which seemed to comfort him was that the last essays were better than +the first. In addition to his labors for the Edinburgh, was the +publication of a volume of his poems in 1842, which was also +enthusiastically received by his admirers. His last notable essays were +a chivalrous article on Madame D'Arblay (January, 1843); an entirely +charming account of Addison and the wits of Queen Anne's reign (July, +1843); an interesting review of the Memoirs of Barere, the French +revolutionist and writer (April, 1844); and finally a second article on +Lord Chatham (October, 1844), which is considered finer than the first +one written twenty years earlier. More and more, however, the project of +writing a History of England had taken possession of him, and he began +now to forego all other literary occupation, and to devote all his +leisure time to that great work. + +During much of the time that Macaulay had continued writing his reviews, +at the rate of about two in a year, he was an active member of +Parliament, frequently addressing the House of Commons, and earning the +gratitude of the country by his liberal and enlightened +views,--especially those in reference to the right of Unitarians to +their chapels, to the enlarged money-grant given to the Irish Roman +Catholic Maynooth College, and to the extension of copyrights. He +rarely spoke without careful preparation. His speeches were forcible and +fine. In the higher field of debate, however, as we have already +intimated, he was not successful. In 1845 Sir Robert Peel retired, the +Whigs again coming into power; and in 1846 Macaulay accepted the office +of Paymaster of the Forces, because its duties were comparatively light +and would not much interfere with his literary labors, while it added +L2000 a year to his income. During the session of 1846 and 1847, while +still in Parliament, he spoke only five times, although the House was +ever ready to listen to him. + +In the year 1847 the disruption of the Scotch Church was effected, and +in the bitterness engendered by that movement Macaulay lost his +popularity with his Edinburgh constituents. He seemed indifferent to +their affairs; he answered their letters irregularly and with almost +contemptuous brevity. He had no sympathy with the radicals who at that +time controlled a large number of votes, and he refused to contribute +towards electioneering expenses. Above all, he was absorbed in his +History, and had lost much of his interest in politics. In consequence +he failed to be re-elected, and not unwillingly retired to private life. + +Macaulay now concentrated all his energies on the History, which +occupied his thoughts, his studies, and his pen for the most part during +the remainder of his life. The first two volumes were published in the +latter part of 1848; and the sale was immense, surpassing that of any +historical work in the history of literature, and coming near to the +sale of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The popularity of the work was +not confined to scholars and statesmen and critics, but it was equally +admired by ordinary readers; and not in England and Scotland alone, but +in the United States, in France, in Holland, in Germany, and other +countries. + +The labor expended on these books was prodigious. The author visited in +person nearly all the localities in England and Ireland where the events +he narrated took place. He ransacked the archives of most of the +governments of Europe, and all the libraries to which he could gain +access, public and private. He worked twelve hours a day, and yet +produced on an average only two printed pages daily,--so careful was he +in verifying his facts and in arranging his materials, writing and +rewriting until no further improvement could be made. + +This book was not merely the result of his researches for the last +fifteen years of his life, but of his general reading for nearly fifty +years, when everything he read he remembered. Says Thackeray, "He reads +twenty books to write a sentence; he travels one hundred miles to make a +line of description." The extent and exactness of his knowledge were not +only marvellous, but almost incredible. Mr. Buckle declared that +Macaulay was perfectly accurate in all the facts which Buckle had +himself investigated to write his "History of Civilization;" and so +particular was he in the selection of words that he never allowed a +sentence to pass muster until it was as good as he could make it. "He +thought little of reconstructing a paragraph," says his biographer, "for +the sake of one happy illustration." He submitted to the most tiresome +mechanical drudgery in the correction of his proof-sheets. The clearness +of his thought amid the profusion of his knowledge was represented in +his writing by a remarkable conciseness of expression. His short, +vigorous sentences are compact with details of fact, yet rich with +color. His terseness has been compared to that of Tacitus. His power of +condensation, aptness of phrase and epithet, and indomitable industry +made him a master of rhetorical effect, in the use of his multifarious +learning for the illustration of his themes. + +As soon as his last proof-sheet had been despatched to the printers, +Macaulay at once fell to reading a series of historians from Herodotus +downward, to measure his writings with theirs. Thucydides especially +utterly destroyed all the conceit which naturally would arise from his +unbounded popularity, as expressed in every social and literary circle, +as well as in the Reviews. Like Michael Angelo, this Englishman was +never satisfied with his own productions; and the only comfort he took +in the impossibility of realizing his ideal was in the comparison he +made of his own works with similar ones by contemporary authors. Then he +was content; and then only appeared in his letters and diary that +good-natured, self-satisfied feeling which arose from the consciousness +that he was one of the most fortunate authors who had ever lived. There +was nothing cynical in his sense of superiority, but an amiable +self-assertion and self-confidence that only made men smile,--as when +Lord Palmerston remarked that "he wished he was as certain of any one +thing as Tom Macaulay was of everything." This self-confidence rarely +provoked opposition, except when he was positive as to things outside +his sphere. He wrote and talked sensibly and luminously on financial and +social questions, on art, on poetry and the drama, on philosophy and +theology; but on these subjects he was not an authority with +specialists. In other words, he did not, so to speak, know everything +profoundly, but only superficially; yet in history, especially English +history, he was profound in analysis as well as brilliant in the +narration of facts, even when there was disagreement between himself and +others as to inductions he drew from those facts,--inductions colored by +his strong prejudices and aristocratic surroundings. + +Macaulay was not always consistent with his own theories, however. For +instance, he was a firm believer in the progress of society and of +civilization. He saw the enormous gulf between the ninth and the +nineteenth centuries, and the unmistakable advance which, since the +times of Hildebrand, the world had made in knowledge, in the arts, in +liberty, and in the comforts of life, although the tide of progress had +its ebb and flow in different ages and countries. Yet when he cast his +eye on America, where perhaps the greatest progress had been made in the +world's history within fifty years, he saw nothing but melancholy signs +of anarchy and decay,--signs portending the collapse of liberty and the +triumph of ignorance and crime. Thus he writes in 1857 to an American +correspondent:-- + +"As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, +your laboring population will be far more at ease than the laboring +population of the Old World; but the time will come when wages will be +as low, and will fluctuate as much, with you as with us. Then your +institutions will fairly be brought to the test. Distress everywhere +makes the laborer mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen +with eagerness to agitators who tell him that it is a monstrous +iniquity that one man should have a million, while another cannot get a +full meal. In bad years there is plenty of grumbling here, and sometimes +a little rioting; but it matters little, for here the sufferers are not +the rulers. The supreme power is in the hands of a class deeply +interested in the security of property and the maintenance of order; +accordingly the malcontents are restrained. But with you the majority is +the government, and has the rich, who are always in a minority, +absolutely at its mercy. The day will come when the multitude of people, +none of whom has had more than a half a breakfast, or expects to have +more than a half a dinner, will choose a legislature. Is it possible to +doubt what sort of legislature will be chosen? On the one side is a +statesman preaching patience, respect for vested rights, strict +observance of the public faith; and on the other a demagogue ranting +about the tyranny of capitalists and usurers, and asking why anybody +should be permitted to drink champagne and ride in a carriage, while +thousands of honest folks are in want of necessaries: which of the two +candidates is likely to be preferred by a working-man who hears his +children cry for more bread? There will be, I fear, spoliation. The +spoliation will increase the distress; the distress will produce fresh +spoliation. There is nothing to stop you; your Constitution is all sail +and no anchor. Either civilization or liberty will perish. Either some +Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong +hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by +barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in +the fifth." + +I do not deny that there is great force in Macaulay's reasoning and +prophecy. History points to decline and ruin when public virtue has fled +and government is in the hands of demagogues; for their reign has ever +been succeeded by military usurpers who have preserved civilization +indeed, but at the expense of liberty. Yet this reasoning applies not +only to America but to England as well,--especially since, by the Reform +Bill and subsequent enactments of Parliament, she has opened the gates +to an increase of suffrage, which now threatens to become universal. The +enfranchisement of the people--the enlarged powers of the individual +under the protection and control of the commonwealth--is the Anglo-Saxon +contribution to progress. It is dangerous. So is all power until its use +is learned. But there is no backward step possible; the tremendous +experiment must go forward, for England and America alike. + +Macaulay himself was one of the most prominent of English statesmen and +orators, in 1830, 1831, and 1832, to advocate the extension of the right +of suffrage and the increase of popular liberties. All his writings are +on the side of liberty in England; and all are in opposition to the +Toryism which was so triumphant during the reign of George III. Why did +he have faith in the English people of England, and yet show so little +in the English people of America? He believed in political and social +progress for his own countrymen; why should he doubt the utility of the +same in other countries? If vandalism is to be the fate of America, +where education, the only truly conservative element, is more diffused +than in England, why should it not equally triumph in that country when +the masses have gained political power, as they surely will at some +time, and even speedily, if the policy inaugurated by Gladstone is to +triumph? For England Macaulay had unbounded hope, because he believed in +progress,--in liberty, in education, in the civilizing influence of +machinery, in the increasing comforts of life through the constant +increase of wealth among the middle classes, and especially through the +power of Christianity, in spite of the dissensions of sects, the attacks +of crude philosophers, socialists, anarchists, scientists, and atheists, +from one end of Christendom to the other. Why should he not have equal +faith in American civilization, which, in spite of wars and strikes and +commercial distresses and political corruption, has yet made a marked +progress from the time of Jefferson, the apostle of equality, down to +our day,--as seen especially in the multiplication of schools and +colleges, in an untrammelled and watchful press, and in the active +benevolence of the rich in the foundation of every kind of institution +to relieve misery and want? The truth is that he, in common with most +educated Englishmen of his day,--and of too many even of our own +day,--cherished a silent contempt for Americans, for their literature +and their institutions; and hence he was not only inconsistent in the +principles which he advocated, but showed that he was not emancipated, +with all his learning, from prejudices of which he ought to have +been ashamed. + +As time made inroads on Macaulay's strong constitution, he gave up both +politics and society in the absorbing interest which he took in his +History, confining himself to his library, and sometimes allowing months +to pass without accepting any invitation whatever to a social gathering. +No man was ever more disenchanted with society. He begrudged his time +even when tempted by the calls of friendship. When visitors penetrated +to his den, he bowed them out with ironical politeness. He had no favors +to ask from friends or foes, for he declined political office, and was +as independent as wealth or fame could make him. In 1849 he was made +Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and the acclamations following +his address were prodigious. Lord John Russell gave to Macaulay's +brother John a living worth L1100. Macaulay himself was offered the +professorship of History at Cambridge. In one year he received for the +first edition of his third and fourth volumes of the History, published +in 1855, L20,000 in a single check from Longman. At the age of +forty-nine, he writes in his diary: "I have no cause for +complaint,--tolerable health, competence, liberty, leisure, dear +relatives and friends, and a very great literary reputation." + +With all this prosperity, Macaulay now naturally set up his carriage. He +dined often with the Queen, and was a great man, according to English +notions, more even from his wealth and social position than from his +success in letters. Lord John Russell pressed him to accept a seat in +his cabinet, but "I told him," Macaulay writes, "that I should be of no +use,--that I was not a debater; that it was too late to become one; that +my temper, taste, and literary habits alike prevented." He was, however, +induced to become again a member of Parliament, and in 1852 was elected +once more for Edinburgh, which had repented of its rejection of him in +1847. But he insisted on perfect independence to vote as he pleased. He +regarded this re-entrance into public life as a great personal +sacrifice, since it might postpone the appearance of his next two +volumes of the History. His election, however, was received with great +acclamation. Even Professor Wilson, the most conservative of Scotch +Tories, voted for him. It was not a party victory, but purely a +personal triumph. + +A serious illness now follows,--a weakness of the heart, from the +effects of which Macaulay died a few years afterwards. He retires to +Clifton, and gives himself up to getting well, visiting Barley Wood, and +driving in his private carriage among the most interesting scenery in +the west of England. But he was never perfectly well again, although he +continued to work on his History. His intimate friends saw the change in +him with sadness, but he himself was serene and uncomplaining. Although +he suffered from an oppression of the chest, he still on great occasions +addressed the House. His mind was clear, but his voice was faint. The +last speech he made was in behalf of the independence of the Scottish +Church. The strain of the House of Commons proved to be too great for +his now enfeebled constitution. "Nor could he conceal from himself and +his friends," says Trevelyan, "that it was a grievous waste, while the +reign of Anne still remained unwritten, for him to consume his scanty +stock of vigor in the tedious and exhaustive routine of political +existence; waiting whole evenings for the vote, and then ... trudging +home at three in the morning through the slush of a February thaw." He +therefore spared himself as a member of Parliament, and carefully +husbanded his powers in order to work upon his book. He gave himself +more time for his annual vacation, yet would write when he could on the +subjects which engrossed his life. His labors were too severe for his +strength, but he worked on, and even harder and harder. + +At length on the 25th of November, 1855, Macaulay sent to the printer +the last twenty pages of his History, and an edition of twenty-five +thousand was ordered. Within a generation one hundred and forty thousand +copies of the work were sold in the United Kingdom alone. Six rival +translators were engaged in turning it into German; and it was published +in the Polish, the Danish, the Swedish, the Italian, the French, the +Dutch, the Spanish, the Hungarian, the Russian, and the Bohemian +languages, to say nothing of its immense circulation in the United +States. Such extraordinary literary popularity was accompanied by great +honors. In 1857 Macaulay was created a British Peer and elected Lord +High Steward of the borough of Cambridge. The academies of Utrecht, +Munich, and Turin elected him to honorary membership. The King of +Prussia made him a member of the Order of Merit. Oxford conferred on him +the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, and he was elected president of the +Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh. He could have little more in the +way of academic and governmental honors. + +The failing health of Macaulay now compelled him to resign his seat in +the House of Commons. It was also thought desirable for him to vacate +his apartments at The Albany, which he had occupied for fifteen years, +that he might be more retired and perhaps more comfortable. His +friends, at the suggestion of Dean Milman, selected a house in +Kensington, the rooms of which were small, except the library, which +opened upon a beautiful lawn, adorned with flowers and shrubs; it was +called Holly Lodge, and was very secluded and attractive. Here his +latter days were spent, in the society of his nieces and a few devoted +friends, and in dispensing simple hospitalities. His favorite form of +entertainment was the breakfast, at which his guests would linger till +twelve, enchanted by his conversation, for his mind showed no signs +of decay. + +From this charming retreat Lord Macaulay very seldom appeared in London +society. Years passed without his even accepting invitations. An +occasional night at a friend's house in the country, one or two nights +at Windsor Castle, and one or two visits to Lord Stanhope's seat in Kent +in order to consult his magnificent library, were the only visits which +Macaulay made in the course of the year. He always had a dislike of +visiting in private houses, much preferring hotels, where he could be +free from conventional life. + +Macaulay was always careful in his expenditures, wasting nothing that he +might enjoy the pleasure of charity,--for he gave liberally, especially +to needy and unfortunate men of letters. Once he gave L100 to a total +stranger who implored his aid. In his household he was revered, for he +was the kindest and most considerate of masters, while his relatives +absolutely worshipped him. At home he made no claim to the privileges of +genius; he had few eccentricities; he never interfered with the +pleasures of others; he never obtruded his advice, or demanded that his +own views or tastes should be consulted; he was especially careful not +to wound the feelings of those with whom he lived. Children were his +delight and solace. Over them he seemed to have unbounded influence. He +would spend the half of a busy day in playing with them, and in +inventing new games for their diversion. One of his pleasures was to +take them to see the sights of London. His sympathies were quick and +generous; although apparently so cynical in his opinions of books, he +was always affected at any touches of pathos, even to tears. + +It was hard for Macaulay to realize that the time had come when he must +leave untold that portion of English history with which he was more +familiar than any other living man; but he submitted to the inevitable +without repining. He had done what he could. Even when he was compelled +to give up his daily task, his love of reading remained; a book was his +solace to the last. He had no extensive acquaintance with the works of +some of the best writers of his own generation, preferring the classic +authors of antiquity, and of England in the time of Anne. He did not +relish Coleridge or Carlyle or Buckle or Ruskin, or indeed any writer +who seemed to strain after originality of style, in defiance of the old +and conservative canons. He preferred Miss Austen to Dickens. He felt +that he owed a great debt to the master-minds of by-gone ages, who +reached perfection of style, so far as it can be attained. Even the +English writers of the reign of Anne, to his mind, have never been +surpassed. His admiration for Addison was unbounded. Dryden and Pope to +him were greater poets than any who have succeeded them. Such a poet as +Tennyson or Wordsworth he pretended he did not understand. He wanted +transparent clearness of expression. Browning would have been to him an +abomination. He despised the poetry of his own age, with its involved +sentences, its obscurity, and its strange metres. His own poetry was as +direct as Homer, as simple as Chaucer, and as graphic as Scott. + +In 1859, Macaulay contrived to visit once more the English lakes and the +western highlands, where he was received with great veneration, being +recognized everywhere on steamers and railway stations. But his +cheerfulness had now departed, although he made an effort to be +agreeable. In December of this year he ceased writing in his diary. The +physicians pretended to think that he was better, but fainting fits set +in. On Christmas he said but little, and was constantly dropping to +sleep. His relatives did not seem to think that he was in immediate +danger, but the end was near. He died without pain, and was buried in +Westminster Abbey on the 9th of January, 1860, having for pall-bearers +the most illustrious men in England. He rests in the Poet's Corner, amid +the tombs of Johnson and Garrick, Handel and Goldsmith, Gay and Addison, +leaving behind him an immortal fame. + +And what is this fame? It is not that of a philosophical historian like +Guizot, for his History is not marked by profound generalizations, or +even thoughtful reflections. He was not a judicial historian like +Hallam, seeking to present the truth alone; for he was a partisan, full +of party prejudices. Nor was he an historian like Ranke, raking out the +hidden facts of a remote period, and unveiling the astute diplomacy of +past ages. Macaulay was a great historical painter of the realistic +school, whose pictures have never been surpassed, or even equalled, for +vividness and interest. In this class of historians he stands out alone +and peerless, the most exciting and the most interesting of all the +historians who have depicted the manners, the events, and the characters +of a former age,--never by any accident dull, but fatiguing, if at all, +only by his wealth of illustration and the over-brilliancy of his +coloring. He is the Titian of word-painting, and as such will live like +that immortal colorist. Critics may say what they please about his +rhetoric, about his partial statements, about his want of insight into +deep philosophical questions; but as a painter who made his figures +stand out on the historical canvas with unique vividness, Macaulay +cannot fail to be regarded, as long as the English language is spoken or +written, as one of the great masters of literary composition. This was +the verdict pronounced by the English nation at large; and its great +political and literary leaders expressed and confirmed it, when they +gave him fortune and fame, elevated him to the peerage, bestowed on him +stars and titles, and buried him with august solemnity among those +illustrious men who gave to England its power and glory. + + + +SHAKSPEARE; OR, THE POET.[3] + + +1564-1616. + +BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON. + +Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by +originality. If we require the originality which consists in weaving, +like a spider, their web from their own bowels; in finding clay and +making bricks and building the house; no great men are original. Nor +does valuable originality consist in unlikeness to other men. The hero +is in the press of knights and the thick of events; and seeing what men +want and sharing their desire, he adds the needful length of sight and +of arm to come at the desired point. The greatest genius is the most +indebted man. A poet is no rattle-brain, saying what comes uppermost, +and, because he says everything, saying at last something good; but a +heart in unison with his time and country. There is nothing whimsical +and fantastic in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, freighted +with the weightiest convictions and pointed with the most determined +aim which any man or class knows of in his times. + +[Footnote 3: Reprinted from "Representative Men," by permission of +Messrs. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN, AND CO., publishers of Emerson's works.] + +The Genius of our life is jealous of individuals, and will not have any +individual great, except through the general. There is no choice to +genius. A great man does not wake up on some fine morning and say, 'I am +full of life, I will go to sea and find an Antarctic continent: to-day I +will square the circle: I will ransack botany and find a new food for +man: I have a new architecture in my mind: I foresee a new mechanic +power:' no, but he finds himself in the river of the thoughts and +events, forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his +contemporaries. He stands where all the eyes of men look one way, and +their hands all point in the direction in which he should go. The Church +has reared him amidst rites and pomps, and he carries out the advice +which her music gave him, and builds a cathedral needed by her chants +and processions. He finds a war raging: it educates him, by trumpet, in +barracks, and he betters the instruction. He finds two counties groping +to bring coal, or flour, or fish, from the place of production to the +place of consumption, and he hits on a railroad. Every master has found +his materials collected, and his power lay in his sympathy with his +people and in his love of the materials he wrought in. What an economy +of power! and what a compensation for the shortness of life! All is +done to his hand. The world has brought him thus far on his way. The +human race has gone out before him, sunk the hills, filled the hollows, +and bridged the rivers. Men, nations, poets, artisans, women, all have +worked for him, and he enters into their labors. Choose any other thing, +out of the line of tendency, out of the national feeling and history, +and he would have all to do for himself: his powers would be expended in +the first preparations. Great genial power, one would almost say, +consists in not being original at all; in being altogether receptive, in +letting the world do all, and suffering the spirit of the hour to pass +unobstructed through the mind. + +Shakspeare's youth fell in a time when the English people were +importunate for dramatic entertainments. The court took offence easily +at political allusions and attempted to suppress them. The Puritans, a +growing and energetic party, and the religious among the Anglican +church, would suppress them. But the people wanted them. Inn-yards, +houses without roofs, and extemporaneous enclosures at country fairs +were the ready theatres of strolling players. The people had tasted this +new joy; and, as we could not hope to suppress newspapers now,--no, not +by the strongest party,--neither then could king, prelate, or puritan, +alone or united, suppress an organ which was ballad, epic, newspaper, +caucus, lecture, Punch and library, at the same time. Probably king, +prelate, and puritan all found their own account in it. It had become, +by all causes, a national interest,--by no means conspicuous, so that +some great scholar would have thought of treating it in an English +history,--but not a whit less considerable because it was cheap and of +no account, like a baker's-shop. The best proof of its vitality is the +crowd of writers which suddenly broke into this field: Kyd, Marlow, +Greene, Jonson, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Peele, +Ford, Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher. + +The secure possession, by the stage, of the public mind, is of the first +importance to the poet who works for it. He loses no time in idle +experiments. Here is audience and expectation prepared. In the case of +Shakspeare there is much more. At the time when he left Stratford and +went up to London, a great body of stage-plays of all dates and writers +existed in manuscript and were in turn produced on the boards. Here is +the Tale of Troy, which the audience will bear hearing some part of, +every week; the Death of Julius Caesar, and other stories out of +Plutarch, which they never tire of; a shelf full of English history, +from the chronicles of Brut and Arthur down to the royal Henries, which +men hear eagerly; and a string of doleful tragedies, merry Italian +tales, and Spanish voyages, which all the London 'prentices know. All +the mass has been treated, with more or less skill, by every playwright, +and the prompter has the soiled and tattered manuscripts. It is now no +longer possible to say who wrote them first. They have been the property +of the Theatre so long, and so many rising geniuses have enlarged or +altered them, inserting a speech or a whole scene, or adding a song, +that no man can any longer claim copyright in this work of numbers. +Happily, no man wishes to. They are not yet desired in that way. We have +few readers, many spectators and hearers. They had best lie where +they are. + +Shakspeare, in common with his comrades, esteemed the mass of old plays +waste stock, in which any experiment could be freely tried. Had the +_prestige_ which hedges about a modern tragedy existed, nothing could +have been done. The rude warm blood of the living England circulated in +the play, as in street-ballads, and gave body which he wanted to his +airy and majestic fancy. The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on +which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due +temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his +edifice, and in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at +leisure and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination. In +short, the poet owes to his legend what sculpture owed to the temple. +Sculpture in Egypt and in Greece grew up in subordination to +architecture. It was the ornament of the temple wall: at first a rude +relief carved on pediments, then the relief became bolder and a head or +arm was projected from the wall; the groups being still arranged with +reference to the building, which serves also as a frame to hold the +figures; and when at last the greatest freedom of style and treatment +was reached, the prevailing genius of architecture still enforced a +certain calmness and continence in the statue. As soon as the statue was +begun for itself, and with no reference to the temple or palace, the art +began to decline: freak, extravagance, and exhibition took the place of +the old temperance. This balance-wheel, which the sculptor found in +architecture, the perilous irritability of poetic talent found in the +accumulated dramatic materials to which the people were already wonted, +and which had a certain excellence which no single genius, however +extraordinary, could hope to create. + +In point of fact it appears that Shakspeare did owe debts in all +directions, and was able to use whatever he found, and the amount of +indebtedness may be inferred from Malone's laborious computations in +regard to the First, Second, and Third parts of Henry VI., in which, +"out of 6,043 lines, 1,771 were written by some author preceding +Shakspeare, 2,373 by him, on the foundations laid by his predecessors, +and 1,899 were entirely his own." And the proceeding investigation +hardly leaves a single drama of his absolute invention. Malone's +sentence is an important piece of external history. In Henry VIII. I +think I see plainly the cropping out of the original rock on which his +own finer stratum was laid. The first play was written by a superior, +thoughtful man, with a vicious ear. I can mark his lines, and know well +their cadence. See Wolsey's soliloquy, and the following scene with +Cromwell, where, instead of the metre of Shakspeare, whose secret is +that the thought constructs the tune, so that reading for the sense will +best bring out the rhythm,--here the lines are constructed on a given +tune, and the verse has even a trace of pulpit eloquence. But the play +contains through all its length unmistakable traits of Shakspeare's +hand, and some passages, as the account of the coronation, are like +autographs. What is odd, the compliment to Queen Elizabeth is in the +bad rhythm. + +Shakespeare knew that tradition supplies a better fable than any +invention can. If he lost any credit of design, he augmented his +resources; and, at that day, our petulant demand for originality was not +so much pressed. There was no literature for the million. The universal +reading, the cheap press, were unknown. A great poet who appears in +illiterate times, absorbs into his sphere all the light which is +anywhere radiating. Every intellectual jewel, every flower of sentiment +it is his fine office to bring to his people; and he comes to value his +memory equally with his invention. He is therefore little solicitous +whence his thoughts have been derived; whether through translation, +whether through tradition, whether by travel in distant countries, +whether by inspiration; from whatever source, they are equally welcome +to his uncritical audience. Nay, he borrows very near home. Other men +say wise things as well as he; only they say a good many foolish things, +and do not know when they have spoken wisely. He knows the sparkle of +the true stone, and puts it in high place, wherever he finds it. Such is +the happy position of Homer perhaps; of Chaucer, of Saadi. They felt +that all wit was their wit. And they are librarians and +historiographers, as well as poets. Each romancer was heir and dispenser +of all the hundred tales of the world,-- + + "Presenting Thebes' and Pelops' line + And the tale of Troy divine." + +The influence of Chaucer is conspicuous in all our early literature; and +more recently not only Pope and Dryden have been beholden to him, but, +in the whole society of English writers, a large unacknowledged debt is +easily traced. One is charmed with the opulence which feeds so many +pensioners. But Chaucer is a huge borrower. Chaucer, it seems, drew +continually, through Lydgate and Caxton, from Guido di Colonna, whose +Latin romance of the Trojan war was in turn a compilation from Bares +Phrygius, Ovid and Statius. Then Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the Provencal +poets are his benefactors; the Romaunt of the Rose is only judicious +translation from William of Lorris and John of Meung; Troilus and +Creseide, from Lollius of Urbino; The Cock and the Fox, from the _Lais_ +of Marie; The House of Fame, from the French or Italian; and poor Gower +he uses as if he were only a brick-kiln or stone-quarry out of which to +build his house. He steals by this apology,--that what he takes has no +worth where he finds it and the greatest where he leaves it. It has come +to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man having once +shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to +steal from the writings of others at discretion. Thought is the property +of him who can entertain it and of him who can adequately place it. A +certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but as soon as +we have learned what to do with them they become our own. + +Thus all originality is relative. Every thinker is retrospective. The +learned member of the legislature, at Westminster or at Washington, +speaks and votes for thousands. Show us the constituency, and the now +invisible channels by which the senator is made aware of their wishes; +the crowd of practical and knowing men, who, by correspondence or +conversation, are feeding him with evidence, anecdotes, and estimates, +and it will bereave his fine attitudes and resistance of something of +their impressiveness. As Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Webster vote, so Locke +and Rousseau think, for thousands; and so there were fountains all +around Homer, Manu, Saadi, or Milton, from which they drew; friends, +lovers, books, traditions, proverbs,--all perished--which, if seen, +would go to reduce the wonder. Did the bard speak with authority? Did he +feel himself overmatched by any companion? The appeal is to the +consciousness of the writer. Is there at last in his breast a Delphi +whereof to ask concerning any thought or thing, whether it be verily so, +yea or nay? and to have answer, and to rely on that? All the debts which +such a man could contract to other wit would never disturb his +consciousness of originality; for the ministrations of books and of +other minds are a whiff of smoke to that most private reality with which +he has conversed. + +It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius in the +world, was no man's work, but came by wide social labor, when a thousand +wrought like one, sharing the same impulse. Our English Bible is a +wonderful specimen of the strength and music of the English language. +But it was not made by one man, or at one time; but centuries and +churches brought it to perfection. There never was a time when there was +not some translation existing. The Liturgy, admired for its energy and +pathos, is an anthology of the piety of ages and nations, a translation +of the prayers and forms of the Catholic church,--these collected, too, +in long periods, from the prayers and meditations of every saint and +sacred writer all over the world. Grotius makes the like remark in +respect to the Lord's Prayer, that the single clauses of which it is +composed were already in use in the time of Christ, in the Rabbinical +forms. He picked out the grains of gold. The nervous language of the +Common Law, the impressive forms of our courts and the precision and +substantial truth of the legal distinctions, are the contribution of all +the sharp-sighted, strong-minded men who have lived in the countries +where these laws govern. The translation of Plutarch gets its excellence +by being translation on translation. There never was a time when there +was none. All the truly idiomatic and national phrases are kept, and all +others successively picked out and thrown away. Something like the same +process had gone on, long before, with the originals of these books. The +world takes liberties with world-books. Vedas, Aesop's Fables, Pilpay, +Arabian Nights, Cid, Iliad, Robin Hood, Scottish Minstrelsy, are not the +work of single men. In the composition of such works the time thinks, +the market thinks, the mason, the carpenter, the merchant, the farmer, +the fop, all think for us. Every book supplies its time with one good +word; every municipal law, every trade, every folly of the day; and the +generic catholic genius who is not afraid or ashamed to owe his +originality to the originality of all, stands with the next age as the +recorder and embodiment of his own. + +We have to thank the researches of antiquaries, and the Shakspeare +Society, for ascertaining the steps of the English drama, from the +Mysteries celebrated in churches and by churchmen, and the final +detachment from the church, and the completion of secular plays, from +Ferrex and Porrex, and Gammer Gurton's Needle, down to the possession of +the stage by the very pieces which Shakspeare altered, remodelled, and +finally made his own. Elated with success and piqued by the growing +interest of the problem, they have left no bookstall unsearched, no +chest in a garret unopened, no file of old yellow accounts to decompose +in damp and worms, so keen was the hope to discover whether the boy +Shakspeare poached or not, whether he held horses at the theatre door, +whether he kept school, and why he left in his will only his second-best +bed to Anne Hathaway, his wife. + +There is something touching in the madness with which the passing age +mischooses the object on which all candles shine and all eyes are +turned; the care with which it registers every trifle touching Queen +Elizabeth and King James, and the Essexes, Leicesters, Burleighs, and +Buckinghams; and lets pass without a single valuable note the founder of +another dynasty, which alone will cause the Tudor dynasty to be +remembered,--the man who carries the Saxon race in him by the +inspiration which feeds him, and on whose thoughts the foremost people +of the world are now for some ages to be nourished, and minds to receive +this and not another bias. A popular player;--nobody suspected he was +the poet of the human race; and the secret was kept as faithfully from +poets and intellectual men as from courtiers and frivolous people. +Bacon, who took the inventory of the human understanding for his times, +never mentioned his name. Ben Jonson, though we have strained his few +words of regard and panegyric, had no suspicion of the elastic fame +whose first vibrations he was attempting. He no doubt thought the praise +he has conceded to him generous, and esteemed himself, out of all +question, the better poet of the two. + +If it need wit to know wit, according to the proverb, Shakspeare's time +should be capable of recognizing it. Sir Henry Wotton was born four +years after Shakspeare, and died twenty-three years after him; and I +find, among his correspondents and acquaintances, the following persons: +Theodore Beza, Isaac Casaubon, Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, +Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Isaac +Walton, Dr. Donne, Abraham Cowley, Bellarmine, Charles Cotton, John +Pym, John Hales, Kepler, Vieta, Albericus Gentilis, Paul Sarpi, +Arminius; with all of whom exists some token of his having communicated, +without enumerating many others whom doubtless he saw,--Shakspeare, +Spenser, Jonson, Beaumont, Massinger, the two Herberts, Marlow, Chapman +and the rest. Since the constellation of great men who appeared in +Greece in the time of Pericles, there was never any such society;--yet +their genius failed them to find out the best head in the universe. Our +poet's mask was impenetrable. You cannot see the mountain near. It took +a century to make it suspected; and not until two centuries had passed, +after his death, did any criticism which we think adequate begin to +appear. It was not possible to write the history of Shakspeare till now; +for he is the father of German literature: it was with the introduction +of Shakspeare into German, by Lessing, and the translation of his works +by Wieland and Schlegel, that the rapid burst of German literature was +most intimately connected. It was not until the nineteenth century, +whose speculative genius is a sort of living Hamlet, that the tragedy of +Hamlet could find such wondering readers. Now, literature, philosophy, +and thought, are Shakspearized. His mind is the horizon beyond which, at +present, we do not see. Our ears are educated to music by his rhythm. +Coleridge and Goethe are the only critics who have expressed our +convictions with any adequate fidelity: but there is in all cultivated +minds a silent appreciation of his superlative power and beauty, which, +like Christianity, qualifies the period. + +The Shakspeare Society have inquired in all directions, advertised the +missing facts, offered money for any information that will lead to +proof,--and with what result? Beside some important illustration of the +history of the English stage, to which I have adverted, they have +gleaned a few facts touching the property, and dealings in regard to +property, of the poet. It appears that from year to year he owned a +larger share in the Blackfriars' Theatre: its wardrobe and other +appurtenances were his: that he bought an estate in his native village +with his earnings as writer and shareholder; that he lived in the best +house in Stratford; was intrusted by his neighbors with their +commissions in London, as of borrowing money, and the like; that he was +a veritable farmer. About the time when he was writing Macbeth, he sues +Philip Rogers, in the Borough-court of Stratford, for thirty-five +shillings, ten pence, for corn delivered to him at different times; and +in all respects appears as a good husband, with no reputation for +eccentricity or excess. He was a good-natured sort of man, an actor and +shareholder in the theatre, not in any striking manner distinguished +from other actors and managers. I admit the importance of this +information. It was well worth the pains that have been taken to +procure it. + +But whatever scraps of information concerning his condition these +researches may have rescued, they can shed no light upon that infinite +invention which is the concealed magnet of his attraction for us. We are +very clumsy writers of history. We tell the chronicle of parentage, +birth, birthplace, schooling, schoolmates, earning of money, marriage, +publication of books, celebrity, death; and when we have come to an end +of this gossip no ray of relation appears between it and the +goddess-born; and it seems as if, had we dipped at random into the +"Modern Plutarch," and read any other life there, it would have fitted +the poems as well. It is the essence of poetry to spring, like the +rainbow daughter of Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past and +refuse all history. Malone, Warburton, Dyce, and Collier, have wasted +their oil. The famed theatres, Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the Park, and +Tremont have vainly assisted. Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, Kean, and +Macready dedicate their lives to this genius; him they crown, elucidate, +obey, and express. The genius knows them not. The recitation begins; one +golden word leaps out immortal from all this painted pedantry and +sweetly torments us with invitations to its own inaccessible homes. I +remember I went once to see the Hamlet of a famed performer, the pride +of the English stage; and all I then heard and all I now remember of the +tragedian was that in which the tragedian had no part; simply Hamlet's +question to the ghost:-- + + "What may this mean, + That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel + Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon?" + +That imagination which dilates the closet he writes in to the world's +dimension, crowds it with agents in rank and order, as quickly reduces +the big reality to be the glimpses of the moon. These tricks of his +magic spoil for us the illusions of the green-room. Can any biography +shed light on the localities into which the Midsummer Night's Dream +admits me? Did Shakspeare confide to any notary or parish recorder, +sacristan, or surrogate in Stratford, the genesis of that delicate +creation? The forest of Arden, the nimble air of Scone Castle, the +moonlight of Portia's villa, "the antres vast and desarts idle" of +Othello's captivity,--where is the third cousin, or grand-nephew, the +chancellor's file of accounts, or private letter, that has kept one word +of those transcendent secrets? In fine, in this drama, as in all great +works of art,--in the Cyclopaean architecture of Egypt and India, in the +Phidian sculpture, the Gothic minsters, the Italian painting, the +Ballads of Spain and Scotland,--the Genius draws up the ladder after +him, when the creative age goes up to heaven, and gives way to a new +age, which sees the works and asks in vain for a history. + +Shakspeare is the only biographer of Shakspeare; and even he can tell +nothing, except to the Shakspeare in us,--that is, to our most +apprehensive and sympathetic hour. He cannot step from off his tripod +and give us anecdotes of his inspirations. Read the antique documents +extricated, analysed and compared by the assiduous Dyce and Collier; and +now read one of these skyey sentences,--aerolites,--which seem to have +fallen out of heaven, and which not your experience but the man within +the breast has accepted as words of fate, and tell me if they match--if +the former account in any manner for the latter; or which gives the most +historical insight into the man. + +Hence, though our external history is so meagre, yet, with Shakspeare +for biographer, instead of Aubrey and Rowe, we have really the +information which is material; that which describes character and +fortune; that which, if we were about to meet the man and deal with him, +would most import us to know. We have his recorded convictions on those +questions which knock for answer at every heart,--on life and death, on +love, on wealth and poverty, on the prizes of life and the ways whereby +we come at them; on the characters of men, and the influences, occult +and open, which affect their fortunes; and on those mysterious and +demoniacal powers which defy our science and which yet interweave their +malice and their gift in our brightest hours. Who ever read the volume +of the Sonnets without finding that the poet had there revealed, under +masks that are no masks to the intelligent, the lore of friendship and +of love; the confusion of sentiments in the most susceptible, and, at +the same time, the most intellectual of men? What trait of his private +mind has he hidden in his dramas? One can discern, in his ample pictures +of the gentleman and the king, what forms and humanities pleased him; +his delight in troops of friends, in large hospitality, in cheerful +giving. Let Timon, let Warwick, let Antonio the merchant answer for his +great heart. So far from Shakspeare's being the least known, he is the +one person, in all modern history, known to us. What point of morals, of +manners, of economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the +conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery has he not signified +his knowledge of? What office, or function, or district of man's work +has he not remembered? What king has he not taught state, as Talma +taught Napoleon? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? +What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What +gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior? + +Some able and appreciating critics think no criticism on Shakspeare +valuable that does not rest purely on the dramatic merit; that he is +falsely judged as poet and philosopher. I think as highly as these +critics of his dramatic merit, but still think it secondary. He was a +full man, who liked to talk; a brain exhaling thoughts and images, +which, seeking vent, found the drama next at hand. Had he been less, we +should have had to consider how well he filled his place, how good a +dramatist he was,--and he is the best in the world. But it turns out +that what he has to say is of that weight as to withdraw some attention +from the vehicle; and he is like some saint whose history is to be +rendered into all languages, into verse and prose, into songs and +pictures, and cut up into proverbs; so that the occasion which gave the +saint's meaning the form of a conversation, or of a prayer, or of a code +of laws, is immaterial compared with the universality of its +application. So it fares with the wise Shakspeare and his book of life. +He wrote the airs for all our modern music; he wrote the text of modern +life; the text of manners; he drew the man of England and Europe, the +father of the man in America; he drew the man, and described the day, +and what is done in it; he read the hearts of men and women, their +probity, and their second thought and wiles; the wiles of innocence, and +the transitions by which virtues and vices slide into their contraries; +he could divide the mother's part from the father's part in the face of +the child, or draw the fine demarcations of freedom and of fate; he +knew the laws of repression which make the police of nature; and all the +sweets and all the terrors of human lot lay in his mind as truly but as +softly as the landscape lies on the eye. And the importance of this +wisdom of life sinks the form, as of Drama or Epic, out of notice. 'T is +like making a question concerning the paper on which a king's message +is written. + +Shakspeare is as much out of the category of eminent authors, as he is +out of the crowd. He is inconceivably wise; the others, conceivably. A +good reader can, in a sort, nestle into Plato's brain and think from +thence; but not into Shakspeare's. We are still out of doors. For +executive faculty, for creation, Shakspeare is unique. No man can +imagine it better. He was the farthest reach of subtlety compatible with +an individual self,--the subtilest of authors, and only just within the +possibility of authorship. With this wisdom of life is the equal +endowment of imaginative and of lyric power. He clothed the creatures of +his legend with form and sentiments as if they were people who had lived +under his roof; and few real men have left such distinct characters as +these fictions. And they spoke in language as sweet as it was fit. Yet +his talents never seduced him into an ostentation, nor did he harp on +one string. An omnipresent humanity co-ordinates all his faculties. Give +a man of talents a story to tell, and his partiality will presently +appear. He has certain observations, opinions, topics, which have some +accidental prominence, and which he disposes all to exhibit. He crams +this part and starves that other part, consulting not the fitness of the +thing, but his fitness and strength. But Shakspeare has no peculiarity, +no importunate topic; but all is duly given; no veins, no curiosities; +no cow-painter, no bird-fancier, no mannerist is he; he has no +discoverable egotism: the great he tells greatly; the small, +subordinately. He is wise without emphasis or assertion; he is strong, +as nature is strong, who lifts the land into mountain slopes without +effort and by the same rule as she floats a bubble in the air, and likes +as well to do the one as the other. This makes that equality of power in +farce, tragedy, narrative, and love-songs; a merit so incessant that +each reader is incredulous of the perception of other readers. + +This power of expression, or of transferring the inmost truth of things +into music and verse, makes him the type of the poet and has added a new +problem to metaphysics. This is that which throws him into natural +history, as a main production of the globe, and as announcing new eras +and ameliorations. Things were mirrored in his poetry without loss or +blur: he could paint the fine with precision, the great with compass, +the tragic and the comic indifferently and without any distortion or +favor. He carried his powerful execution into minute details, to a hair +point, finishes an eyelash or a dimple as firmly as he draws a mountain; +and yet these, like nature's, will bear the scrutiny of the solar +microscope. + +In short, he is the chief example to prove that more or less of +production, more or fewer pictures, is a thing indifferent. He had the +power to make one picture. Daguerre learned how to let one flower etch +its image on his plate of iodine, and then proceeds at leisure to etch a +million. There are always objects; but there was never representation. +Here is perfect representation, at last; and now let the world of +figures sit for their portraits. No recipe can be given for the making +of a Shakspeare; but the possibility of the translation of things into +song is demonstrated. + +His lyric power lies in the genius of the piece. The sonnets, though +their excellence is lost in the splendor of the dramas, are as +inimitable as they; and it is not a merit of lines, but a total merit of +the piece; like the tone of voice of some incomparable person, so is +this a speech of poetic beings, and any clause as unproducible now as a +whole poem. + +Though the speeches in the plays, and single lines, have a beauty which +tempts the ear to pause on them for their euphuism, yet the sentence is +so loaded with meaning and so linked with its foregoers and followers, +that the logician is satisfied. His means are as admirable as his ends; +every subordinate invention, by which he helps himself to connect some +irreconcilable opposites, is a poem too. He is not reduced to dismount +and walk because his horses are running off with him in some distant +direction: he always rides. + +The finest poetry was first experience; but the thought has suffered a +transformation since it was an experience. Cultivated men often attain a +good degree of skill in writing verses; but it is easy to read, through +their poems, their personal history: any one acquainted with the parties +can name every figure; this is Andrew and that is Rachel. The sense thus +remains prosaic. It is a caterpillar with wings, and not yet a +butterfly. In the poet's mind the fact has gone quite over into the new +element of thought, and has lost all that is exuvial. This generosity +abides with Shakspeare. We say, from the truth and closeness of his +pictures, that he knows the lesson by heart. Yet there is not a trace +of egotism. + +One more royal trait properly belongs to the poet. I mean his +cheerfulness, without which no man can be a poet,--for beauty is his +aim. He loves virtue, not for its obligation but for its grace: he +delights in the world, in man, in woman, for the lovely light that +sparkles from them. Beauty, the spirit of joy and hilarity, he sheds +over the universe. Epicurus relates that poetry hath such charms that a +lover might forsake his mistress to partake of them. And the true bards +have been noted for their firm and cheerful temper. Homer lies in +sunshine; Chaucer is glad and erect; and Saadi says, "It was rumored +abroad that I was penitent; but what had I to do with repentance?" Not +less sovereign and cheerful,--much more sovereign and cheerful, is the +tone of Shakspeare. His name suggests joy and emancipation to the heart +of men. If he should appear in any company of human souls, who would not +march in his troop? He touches nothing that does not borrow health and +longevity from his festal style. + +And now, how stands the account of man with this bard and benefactor, +when, in solitude, shutting our ears to the reverberations of his fame, +we seek to strike the balance? Solitude has austere lessons; it can +teach us to spare both heroes and poets; and it weighs Shakspeare also, +and finds him to share the halfness and imperfection of humanity. + +Shakspeare, Homer, Dante, Chaucer, saw the splendor of meaning that +plays over the visible world; knew that a tree had another use than for +apples, and corn another than for meal, and the ball of the earth, than +for tillage and roads: that these things bore a second and finer harvest +to the mind, being emblems of its thoughts, and conveying in all their +natural history a certain mute commentary on human life. Shakspeare +employed them as colors to compose his picture. He rested in their +beauty; and never took the step which seemed inevitable to such genius, +namely, to explore the virtue which resides in these symbols and imparts +this power:--what is that which they themselves say? He converted the +elements which waited on his command, into entertainments. He was master +of the revels to mankind. Is it not as if one should have, through +majestic powers of science, the comets given into his hand, or the +planets and their moons, and should draw them from their orbits to glare +with the municipal fireworks on a holiday night, and advertise in all +towns, "Very superior pyrotechny this evening"? Are the agents of +nature, and the power to understand them, worth no more than a street +serenade, or the breath of a cigar? One remembers again the trumpet-text +in the Koran,--"The heavens and the earth and all that is between them, +think ye we have created them in jest?" As long as the question is of +talent and mental power, the world of men has not his equal to show. But +when the question is, to life and its materials and its auxiliaries, how +does it profit me? What does it signify? It is but a Twelfth Night, or +Midsummer Night's Dream, or Winter Evening's Tale: what signifies +another picture more or less? The Egyptian verdict of the Shakspeare +Societies comes to mind; that he was a jovial actor and manager. I +cannot marry this fact to his verse. Other admirable men have led lives +in some sort of keeping with their thought; but this man, in wide +contrast. Had he been less, had he reached only the common measure of +great authors, of Bacon, Milton, Tasso, Cervantes, we might leave the +fact in the twilight of human fate: but that this man of men, he who +gave to the science of mind a new and larger subject than had ever +existed, and planted the standard of humanity some furlongs forward into +Chaos,--that he should not be wise for himself;--it must even go into +the world's history that the best poet led an obscure and profane life, +using his genius for the public amusement. + +Well, other men, priest and prophet, Israelite, German and Swede, beheld +the same objects: they also saw through them that which was contained. +And to what purpose? The beauty straightway vanished; they read +commandments, all-excluding mountainous duty; an obligation, a sadness, +as of piled mountains, fell on them, and life became ghastly, joyless, a +pilgrim's progress, a probation, beleaguered round with doleful +histories of Adam's fall and curse behind us; with doomsdays and +purgatorial and penal fires before us; and the heart of the seer and the +heart of the listener sank in them. + +It must be conceded that these are half-views of half-men. The world +still wants its poet-priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle, with +Shakspeare the player, nor shall grope in graves, with Swedenborg the +mourner; but who shall see, speak, and act, with equal inspiration. For +knowledge will brighten the sunshine; right is more beautiful than +private affection; and love is compatible with universal wisdom. + + + +JOHN MILTON: POET AND PATRIOT.[4] + + +1608-1674. + +BY THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. + +Toward the close of the year 1823, Mr. Lemon, deputy keeper of the +state-papers, in the course of his researches among the presses of his +office, met with a large Latin manuscript. With it were found corrected +copies of the foreign despatches written by Milton while he filled the +office of secretary, and several papers relating to the Popish Trials +and the Rye-house Plot. The whole was wrapped up in an envelope, +subscribed _To Mr. Skinner, Merchant_. On examination, the large +manuscript proved to be the long lost essay on the doctrines of +Christianity, which, according to Wood and Toland, Milton finished after +the Restoration, and deposited with Cyriac Skinner. Skinner, it is well +known, held the same political opinions with his illustrious friend. It +is therefore probable, as Mr. Lemon conjectures, that he may have fallen +under the suspicions of the Government during that persecution of the +Whigs which followed the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, and that, +in consequence of a general seizure of his papers, this work may have +been brought to the office in which it has been found. But whatever the +adventures of the manuscript may have been, no doubt can exist that it +is a genuine relic of the great poet.... + +[Footnote 4: _Joannis Miltoni, Angli, de Doctrina Christiana libri duo +posthumi_. A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy +Scriptures alone. By JOHN MILTON, translated from the Original by +Charles R. Sumner, M.A., etc., etc.: 1825. From the _Edinburgh Review_, +August, 1825; slightly abridged.] + +The book itself will not add much to the fame of Milton.... Were it far +more orthodox or far more heretical than it is, it would not much edify +or corrupt the present generation. The men of our time are not to be +converted or perverted by quartos. A few more days, and this essay will +follow the _Defensio Populi_ to the dust and silence of the upper shelf. +The name of its author, and the remarkable circumstances attending its +publication, will secure to it a certain degree of attention. For a +month or two it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, +and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then, to borrow the +elegant language of the play-bills, be withdrawn, to make room for the +forthcoming novelties. + +We wish, however, to avail ourselves of the interest, transient as it +may be, which this work has excited. The dexterous Capuchins never +choose to preach on the life and miracles of a saint till they have +awakened the devotional feelings of their auditors by exhibiting some +relic of him--a thread of his garment, a lock of his hair, or a drop of +his blood. On the same principle, we intend to take advantage of the +late interesting discovery, and, while this memorial of a great and good +man is still in the hands of all, to say something of his moral and +intellectual qualities. Nor, we are convinced, will the severest of our +readers blame us if, on an occasion like the present, we turn for a +short time from the topics of the day to commemorate, in all love and +reverence, the genius and virtues of John Milton, the poet, the +statesman, the philosopher, the glory of English literature, the +champion and the martyr of English liberty. + +It is by his poetry that Milton is best known; and it is of his poetry +that we wish first to speak. By the general suffrage of the civilized +world, his place has been assigned among the greatest masters of the +art. His detractors, however, though outvoted, have not been silenced. +There are many critics, and some of great name, who contrive in the same +breath to extol the poems and to decry the poet. The works, they +acknowledge, considered in themselves, may be classed among the noblest +productions of the human mind. But they will not allow the author to +rank with those great men who, born in the infancy of civilization, +supplied, by their own powers, the want of instruction, and, though +destitute of models themselves, bequeathed to posterity models which +defy imitation. Milton, it is said, inherited what his predecessors +created; he lived in an enlightened age; he received a finished +education; and we must therefore, if we would form a just estimate of +his powers, make large deductions in consideration of these advantages. + +We venture to say, on the contrary, paradoxical as the remark may +appear, that no poet has ever had to struggle with more unfavorable +circumstances than Milton. He doubted, as he has himself owned, whether +he had not been born "an age too late." For this notion Johnson has +thought fit to make him the butt of much clumsy ridicule. The poet, we +believe, understood the nature of his art better than the critic. He +knew that his poetical genius derived no advantage from the civilization +which surrounded him, or from the learning which he had acquired; and he +looked back with something like regret to the ruder age of simple words +and vivid impressions. + +We think that, as civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily +declines. Therefore, though we fervently admire those great works of +imagination which have appeared in dark ages, we do not admire them the +more because they have appeared in dark ages. On the contrary, we hold +that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem +produced in a civilized age. We cannot understand why those who believe +in that most orthodox article of literary faith, that the earliest +poets are generally the best, should wonder at the rule as if it were +the exception. Surely the uniformity of the phenomenon indicates a +corresponding uniformity in the cause. + +The fact is, that common observers reason from the progress of the +experimental sciences to that of the imitative arts. The improvement of +the former is gradual and slow. Ages are spent in collecting materials, +ages more in separating and combining them. Even when a system has been +formed, there is still something to add, to alter, or to reject. Every +generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed to it by antiquity, +and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to future +ages. In these pursuits, therefore, the first speculators lie under +great disadvantages, and, even when they fail, are entitled to praise. +Their pupils, with far inferior intellectual powers, speedily surpass +them in actual attainments. Every girl who has read Mrs. Marcet's little +dialogues on political economy could teach Montague or Walpole many +lessons in finance. Any intelligent man may now, by resolutely applying +himself for a few years to mathematics, learn more than the great Newton +knew after half a century of study and meditation. + +But it is not thus with music, with painting, or with sculpture. Still +less is it thus with poetry. The progress of refinement rarely supplies +these arts with better objects of imitation. It may indeed improve the +instruments which are necessary to the mechanical operations of the +musician, the sculptor, and the painter. But language, the machine of +the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, +like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from +particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an +enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people +is poetical. + +This change in the language of men is partly the cause and partly the +effect of a corresponding change in the nature of their intellectual +operations, of a change by which science gains and poetry loses. +Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but +particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In +proportion as men know more and think more, they look less at +individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and +worse poems. They give us vague phrases instead of images, and +personified qualities instead of men. They may be better able to analyze +human nature than their predecessors. But analysis is not the business +of the poet. His office is to portray, not to dissect. He may believe in +a moral sense, like Shaftesbury; he may refer all human actions to +self-interest, like Helvetius; or he may never think about the matter at +all. His creed on such subjects will no more influence his poetry, +properly so called, than the notions which a painter may have conceived +respecting the lachrymal glands, or the circulation of the blood, will +affect the tears of his Niobe, or the blushes of his Aurora. If +Shakespeare had written a book on the motives of human actions, it is by +no means certain that it would have been a good one. It is extremely +improbable that it would have contained half so much able reasoning on +the subject as is to be found in the Fable of the Bees. But could +Mandeville have created an Iago? Well as he knew how to resolve +characters into their elements, would he have been able to combine those +elements in such a manner as to make up a man--a real, living, +individual man? + +Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a +certain unsoundness of mind, if anything which gives so much pleasure +ought to be called unsoundness. By poetry we mean not all writing in +verse, nor even all good writing in verse. Our definition excludes many +metrical compositions which, on other grounds, deserve the highest +praise. By poetry we mean the art of employing words in such a manner as +to produce an illusion on the imagination, the art of doing by means of +words what the painter does by means of colors. Thus the greatest of +poets has described it, in lines universally admired for the vigor and +felicity of their diction, and still more valuable on account of the +just notion which they convey of the art in which he excelled:-- + + "As imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing + A local habitation and a name." + +These are the fruits of the "fine frenzy" which he ascribes to the +poet--a fine frenzy, doubtless, but still a frenzy. Truth, indeed, is +essential to poetry; but it is the truth of madness. The reasonings are +just; but the premises are false. After the first suppositions have been +made, everything ought to be consistent; but those first suppositions +require a degree of credulity which almost amounts to a partial and +temporary derangement of the intellect. Hence of all people children are +the most imaginative. They abandon themselves without reserve to every +illusion. Every image which is strongly presented to their mental eye +produces on them the effect of reality. No man, whatever his sensibility +may be, is ever affected by Hamlet or Lear as a little girl is affected +by the story of poor Red Riding-hood. She knows that it is all false, +that wolves cannot speak, that there are no wolves in England. Yet, in +spite of her knowledge, she believes; she weeps; she trembles; she dares +not go into a dark room lest she should feel the teeth of the monster +at her throat. Such is the despotism of the imagination over +uncultivated minds. + +In a rude state of society, men are children with a greater variety of +ideas. It is therefore in such a state of society that we may expect to +find the poetical temperament in its highest perfection. In an +enlightened age there will be much intelligence, much science, much +philosophy, abundance of just classification and subtle analysis, +abundance of wit and eloquence, abundance of verses, and even of good +ones; but little poetry. Men will judge and compare; but they will not +create. They will talk about the old poets, and comment on them, and to +a certain degree enjoy them. But they will scarcely be able to conceive +the effect which poetry produced on their ruder ancestors, the agony, +the ecstasy, the plenitude of belief. The Greek rhapsodists, according +to Plato, could scarce recite Homer without falling into convulsions. +The Mohawk hardly feels the scalping-knife while he shouts his +death-song. The power which the ancient bards of Wales and Germany +exercised over their auditors seems to modern readers almost miraculous. +Such feelings are very rare in a civilized community, and most rare +among those who participate most in its improvements. They linger +longest among the peasantry. + +Poetry produces an illusion on the eye of the mind, as a magic lantern +produces an illusion on the eye of the body. And, as the magic lantern +acts best in a dark room, poetry effects its purpose most completely in +a dark age. As the light of knowledge breaks in upon its exhibitions, as +the outlines of certainty become more and more definite, and the shades +of probability more and more distinct, the hues and lineaments of the +phantoms which the poet calls up grow fainter and fainter. We cannot +unite the incompatible advantages of reality and deception, the clear +discernment of truth and the exquisite enjoyment of fiction. + +He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great +poet, must first become a little child. He must take to pieces the whole +web of his mind. He must unlearn much of that knowledge which has, +perhaps, constituted hitherto his chief title to superiority. His very +talents will be a hinderance to him. His difficulties will be +proportioned to his proficiency in the pursuits which are fashionable +among his contemporaries; and that proficiency will in general be +proportioned to the vigor and activity of his mind. And it is well if, +after all his sacrifices and exertions, his works do not resemble a +lisping man or a modern ruin. We have seen in our own time great +talents, intense labor, and long meditation employed in this struggle +against the spirit of the age, and employed, we will not say absolutely +in vain, but with dubious success and feeble applause. + +If these reasonings be just, no poet has ever triumphed over greater +difficulties than Milton. He received a learned education: he was a +profound and elegant classical scholar: he had studied all the mysteries +of rabbinical literature: he was intimately acquainted with every +language in modern Europe from which either pleasure or information was +then to be derived. He was perhaps the only poet of later times who has +been distinguished by the excellence of his Latin verse. The genius of +Petrarch was scarcely of the first order; and his poems in the ancient +language, though much praised by those who have never read them, are +wretched compositions. Cowley, with all his admirable wit and ingenuity, +had little imagination: nor, indeed, do we think his classical diction +comparable to that of Milton. The authority of Johnson is against us on +this point. But Johnson had studied the bad writers of the Middle Ages +till he had become utterly insensible to the Augustan elegance, and was +as ill-qualified to judge between two Latin styles as an habitual +drunkard to set up for a wine-taster. + +Versification in a dead language is an exotic, a far-fetched, costly, +sickly imitation of that which elsewhere may be found in healthful and +spontaneous perfection. The soils on which this rarity flourishes are in +general as ill-suited to the production of vigorous native poetry as the +flower-pots of a hot-house to the growth of oaks. That the author of +the Paradise Lost should have written the epistle to Manso was truly +wonderful. Never before were such marked originality and such exquisite +mimicry found together. Indeed, in all the Latin poems of Milton the +artificial manner indispensable to such works is admirably preserved, +while, at the same time, his genius gives to them a peculiar charm, an +air of nobleness and freedom, which distinguishes them from all other +writings of the same class. They remind us of the amusements of those +angelic warriors who composed the cohort of Gabriel:-- + + "About him exercised heroic games + The unarmed youth of heaven. But o'er their heads + Celestial armory, shield, helm, and spear, + Hung high, with diamond flaming and with gold." + +We cannot look upon the sportive exercises for which the genius of +Milton ungirds itself without catching a glimpse of the gorgeous and +terrible panoply which it is accustomed to wear. The strength of his +imagination triumphed over every obstacle. So intense and ardent was the +fire of his mind, that it not only was not suffocated beneath the weight +of fuel, but penetrated the whole superincumbent mass with its own heat +and radiance. + +It is not our intention to attempt anything like a complete examination +of the poetry of Milton. The public has long been agreed as to the +merit of the most remarkable passages, the incomparable harmony of the +numbers, and the excellence of that style which no rival has been able +to equal and no parodist to degrade; which displays in their highest +perfection the idiomatic powers of the English tongue, and to which +every ancient and every modern language has contributed something of +grace, of energy, or of music. In the vast field of criticism on which +we are entering, innumerable reapers have already put their sickles. Yet +the harvest is so abundant that the negligent search of a straggling +gleaner may be rewarded with a sheaf. + +The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the extreme +remoteness of the associations by means of which it acts on the reader. +Its effect is produced, not so much by what it expresses, as by what it +suggests; not so much by the ideas which it directly conveys, as by +other ideas which are connected with them. He electrifies the mind +through conductors. The most unimaginative man must understand the +Iliad. Homer gives him no choice, and requires from him no exertion, but +takes the whole upon himself, and sets the images in so clear a light +that it is impossible to be blind to them. The works of Milton cannot be +comprehended or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader co-operate with +that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture, or play for a +mere passive listener. He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the +outline. He strikes the key-note, and expects his hearer to make out +the melody. + +We often hear of the magical influence of poetry. The expression in +general means nothing; but, applied to the writings of Milton, it is +most appropriate. His poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies +less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. There would seem, +at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. But they +are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced, than the past +is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once into +existence, and all the burial-places of the memory give up their dead. +Change the structure of the sentence; substitute one synonyme for +another, and the whole effect is destroyed. The spell loses its power; +and he who should then hope to conjure with it would find himself as +much mistaken as Cassim in the Arabian tale, when he stood crying "Open +Wheat," "Open Barley," to the door that obeyed no sound but "Open +Sesame." The miserable failure of Dryden in his attempt to translate +into his own diction some parts of the Paradise Lost is a remarkable +instance of this. + +In support of these observations, we may remark that scarcely any +passages in the poems of Milton are more generally known or more +frequently repeated than those which are little more than muster-rolls +of names. They are not always more appropriate or more melodious than +other names. But they are charmed names. Every one of them is the first +link in a long chain of associated ideas. Like the dwelling-place of our +infancy revisited in manhood, like the song of our country heard in a +strange land, they produce upon us an effect wholly independent of their +intrinsic value. One transports us back to a remote period of history. +Another places us among the novel scenes and manners of a distant +region. A third evokes all the dear classical recollections of +childhood, the school-room, the dog-eared Virgil, the holiday, and the +prize. A fourth brings before us the splendid phantoms of chivalrous +romance, the trophied lists, the embroidered housings, the quaint +devices, the haunted forests, the enchanted gardens, the achievements of +enamoured knights, and the smiles of rescued princesses. + +In none of the works of Milton is his peculiar manner more happily +displayed than in the Allegro and the Penseroso. It is impossible to +conceive that the mechanism of language can be brought to a more +exquisite degree of perfection. These poems differ from others as ottar +of roses differs from ordinary rose-water, the close-packed essence from +the thin, diluted mixture. They are, indeed, not so much poems as +collections of hints, from each of which the reader is to make out a +poem for himself. Every epithet is a text for a stanza. + +The Comus and the Samson Agonistes are works which, though of very +different merit, offer some marked points of resemblance. Both are lyric +poems in the form of plays. There are perhaps no two kinds of +composition so essentially dissimilar as the drama and the ode. The +business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight, and to let +nothing appear but his characters. As soon as he attracts notice to his +personal feelings, the illusion is broken. The effect is as unpleasant +as that which is produced on the stage by the voice of a prompter or the +entrance of a scene-shifter. Hence it was that the tragedies of Byron +were his least successful performances. They resemble those pasteboard +pictures invented by the friend of children, Mr. Newbery, in which a +single movable head goes round twenty different bodies, so that the same +face looks out upon us successively, from the uniform of a hussar, the +furs of a judge, and the rags of a beggar. In all the characters, +patriots and tyrants, haters and lovers, the frown and sneer of Harold +were discernible in an instant. But this species of egotism, though +fatal to the drama, is the inspiration of the ode. It is the part of the +lyric poet to abandon himself, without reserve, to his own emotions. + +Between these hostile elements many great men have endeavored to effect +an amalgamation, but never with complete success. The Greek drama, on +the model of which the Samson was written, sprang from the ode. The +dialogue was ingrafted on the chorus, and naturally partook of its +character. The genius of the greatest of the Athenian dramatists +co-operated with the circumstances under which tragedy made its first +appearance. Aeschylus was, head and heart, a lyric poet. In his time, +the Greeks had far more intercourse with the East than in the days of +Homer; and they had not yet acquired that immense superiority in war, in +science, and in the arts, which, in the following generation, led them +to treat the Asiatics with contempt. From the narrative of Herodotus it +should seem that they still looked up, with the veneration of disciples, +to Egypt and Assyria. At this period, accordingly, it was natural that +the literature of Greece should be tinctured with the Oriental style. +And that style, we think, is discernible in the works of Pindar and +Aeschylus. The latter often reminds us of the Hebrew writers. The Book +of Job, indeed, in conduct and diction, bears a considerable resemblance +to some of his dramas. Considered as plays, his works are absurd; +considered as choruses they are above all praise. If, for instance, we +examine the address of Clytemnestra to Agamemnon on his return, or the +description of the seven Argive chiefs, by the principles of dramatic +writing, we shall instantly condemn them as monstrous. But if we forget +the characters, and think only of the poetry, we shall admit that it +has never been surpassed in energy and magnificence. Sophocles made the +Greek drama as dramatic as was consistent with its original form. His +portraits of men have a sort of similarity; but it is the similarity, +not of a painting, but of a bass-relief. It suggests a resemblance; but +it does not produce an illusion. Euripides attempted to carry the reform +further. But it was a task far beyond his powers, perhaps beyond any +powers. Instead of correcting what was bad, he destroyed what was +excellent. He substituted crutches for stilts, bad sermons for +good odes. + +Milton, it is well known, admired Euripides highly, much more highly +than, in our opinion, Euripides deserved. Indeed, the caresses which +this partiality leads our countryman to bestow on "sad Electra's poet" +sometimes remind us of the beautiful Queen of Fairy-land kissing the +long ears of Bottom. At all events, there can be no doubt that this +veneration for the Athenian, whether just or not, was injurious to the +Samson Agonistes. Had Milton taken Aeschylus for his model, he would +have given himself up to the lyric inspiration, and poured out profusely +all the treasures of his mind, without bestowing a thought on those +dramatic properties which the nature of the work rendered it impossible +to preserve. In the attempt to reconcile things in their own nature +inconsistent he has failed, as every one else must have failed. We +cannot identify ourselves with the characters, as in a good play. We +cannot identify ourselves with the poet, as in a good ode. The +conflicting ingredients, like an acid and an alkali mixed, neutralize +each other. We are by no means insensible to the merits of this +celebrated piece, to the severe dignity of the style, the graceful and +pathetic solemnity of the opening speech, or the wild and barbaric +melody which gives so striking an effect to the choral passages. But we +think it, we confess, the least successful effort of the genius +of Milton. + +The Comus is framed on the model of the Italian Masque, as the Samson is +framed on the model of the Greek Tragedy. It is certainly the noblest +performance of the kind which exists in any language. It is as far +superior to The Faithful Shepherdess, as The Faithful Shepherdess is to +the Aminta, or the Aminta to the Pastor Fido. It was well for Milton +that he had here no Euripides to mislead him. He understood and loved +the literature of modern Italy. But he did not feel for it the same +veneration which he entertained for the remains of Athenian and Roman +poetry, consecrated by so many lofty and endearing recollections. The +faults, moreover, of his Italian predecessors were of a kind to which +his mind had a deadly antipathy. He could stoop to a plain style, +sometimes even to a bald style; but false brilliancy was his utter +aversion. His muse had no objection to a russet attire; but she turned +with disgust from the finery of Guarini, as tawdry and as paltry as the +rags of a chimney-sweeper on May-day. Whatever ornaments she wears are +of massive gold, not only dazzling to the sight, but capable of standing +the severest test of the crucible. + +Milton attended in the Comus to the distinction which he afterward +neglected in the Samson. He made his Masque what it ought to be, +essentially lyrical, and dramatic only in semblance. He has not +attempted a fruitless struggle against a defect inherent in the nature +of that species of composition; and he has therefore succeeded, wherever +success was not impossible. The speeches must be read as majestic +soliloquies; and he who so reads them will be enraptured with their +eloquence, their sublimity, and their music. The interruptions of the +dialogue, however, impose a constraint upon the writer, and break the +illusion of the reader. The finest passages are those which are lyric in +form as well as in spirit. "I should much commend," says the excellent +Sir Henry Wotton in a letter to Milton, "the tragical part if the +lyrical did not ravish me with a certain Dorique delicacy in your songs +and odes, whereunto, I must plainly confess to you, I have seen yet +nothing parallel in our language." The criticism was just. It is when +Milton escapes from the shackles of the dialogue, when he is discharged +from the labor of uniting two incongruous styles, when he is at liberty +to indulge his choral raptures without reserve, that he rises even +above himself. Then, like his own good Genius bursting from the earthly +form and weeds of Thyrsis, he stands forth in celestial freedom and +beauty; he seems to cry exultingly, + + "Now my task is smoothly done, + I can fly or I can run," + +to skim the earth, to soar above the clouds, to bathe in the Elysian dew +of the rainbow, and to inhale the balmy smells of nard and cassia, which +the musky winds of the zephyr scatter through the cedared alleys of the +Hesperides. + +There are several of the minor poems of Milton on which we would +willingly make a few remarks. Still more willingly would we enter into a +detailed examination of that admirable poem, the Paradise Regained, +which, strangely enough, is scarcely ever mentioned except as an +instance of the blindness of the parental affection which men of letters +bear toward the offspring of their intellects. That Milton was mistaken +in preferring this work, excellent as it is, to the Paradise Lost, we +readily admit. But we are sure that the superiority of the Paradise Lost +to the Paradise Regained is not more decided than the superiority of the +Paradise Regained to every poem which has since made its appearance. Our +limits, however, prevent us from discussing the point at length. We +hasten on to that extraordinary production which the general suffrage of +critics has placed in the highest class of human compositions. + +The only poem of modern times which can be compared with the Paradise +Lost is the Divine Comedy. The subject of Milton, in some points, +resembled that of Dante; but he has treated it in a widely different +manner. We cannot, we think, better illustrate our opinion respecting +our own great poet than by contrasting him with the father of Tuscan +literature. + +The poetry of Milton differs from that of Dante as the hieroglyphics of +Egypt differed from the picture-writing of Mexico. The images which +Dante employs speak for themselves; they stand simply for what they are. +Those of Milton have a signification which is often discernible only to +the initiated. Their value depends less on what they directly represent +than on what they remotely suggest. However strange, however grotesque, +may be the appearance which Dante undertakes to describe, he never +shrinks from describing it. He gives us the shape, the color, the sound, +the smell, the taste; he counts the numbers; he measures the size. His +similes are the illustrations of a traveller. Unlike those of other +poets, and especially of Milton, they are introduced in a plain, +business-like manner; not for the sake of any beauty in the objects from +which they are drawn; not for the sake of any ornament which they may +impart to the poem; but simply in order to make the meaning of the +writer as clear to the reader as it is to himself. The ruins of the +precipice which led from the sixth to the seventh circle of hell were +like those of the rock which fell into the Adige on the south of Trent. +The cataract of Phlegethon was like that of Aqua Cheta at the Monastery +of St. Benedict. The place where the heretics were confined in burning +tombs resembled the vast cemetery of Arles. + +Now let us compare with the exact details of Dante the dim intimations +of Milton. We will cite a few examples. The English poet has never +thought of taking the measure of Satan. He gives us merely a vague idea +of vast bulk. In one passage the fiend lies stretched out huge in +length, floating many a rood, equal in size to the earth-born enemies of +Jove, or to the sea-monster which the mariner mistakes for an island. +When he addresses himself to battle against the guardian angels he +stands like Teneriffe or Atlas: his stature reaches the sky. Contrast +with these descriptions the lines in which Dante has described the +gigantic spectre of Nimrod. "His face seemed to me as long and as broad +as the ball of St. Peter's at Rome; and his other limbs were in +proportion; so that the bank, which concealed him from the waist +downwards, nevertheless showed so much of him that three tall Germans +would in vain have attempted to reach to his hair." We are sensible +that we do no justice to the admirable style of the Florentine poet. But +Mr. Cary's translation is not at hand; and our version, however rude, is +sufficient to illustrate our meaning. + +Once more, compare the lazar-house in the eleventh book of the Paradise +Lost with the last ward of Malebolge in Dante. Milton avoids the +loathsome details, and takes refuge in indistinct but solemn and +tremendous imagery--Despair hurrying from couch to couch to mock the +wretches with his attendance, Death shaking his dart over them, but, in +spite of supplications, delaying to strike. What says Dante? "There was +such a moan there as there would be if all the sick who, between July +and September, are in the hospitals of Valdichiana, and of the Tuscan +swamps, and of Sardinia, were in one pit together; and such a stench was +issuing forth as is wont to issue from decayed limbs." + +We will not take upon ourselves the invidious office of settling +precedency between two such writers. Each in his own department is +incomparable; and each, we may remark, has wisely, or fortunately, taken +a subject adapted to exhibit his peculiar talent to the greatest +advantage. The Divine Comedy is a personal narrative. Dante is the +eye-witness and ear-witness of that which he relates. He is the very man +who has heard the tormented spirits crying out for the second death, +who has read the dusky characters on the portal within which there is no +hope, who has hidden his face from the terrors of the Gorgon, who has +fled from the hooks and the seething pitch of Barbariccia and +Draghignazzo. His own hands have grasped the shaggy sides of Lucifer. +His own feet have climbed the mountain of expiation. His own brow has +been marked by the purifying angel. The reader would throw aside such a +tale in incredulous disgust, unless it were told with the strongest air +of veracity, with a sobriety even in its horrors, with the greatest +precision and multiplicity in its details. The narrative of Milton in +this respect differs from that of Dante as the adventures of Amadis +differ from those of Gulliver. The author of Amadis would have made his +book ridiculous if he had introduced those minute particulars which give +such a charm to the work of Swift, the nautical observations, the +affected delicacy about names, the official documents transcribed at +full length, and all the unmeaning gossip and scandal of the court, +springing out of nothing, and tending to nothing. We are not shocked at +being told that a man who lived, nobody knows when, saw many very +strange sights, and we can easily abandon ourselves to the illusion of +the romance. But when Lemuel Gulliver, surgeon, resident at Rotherhithe, +tells us of pigmies and giants, flying islands, and philosophizing +horses, nothing but such circumstantial touches could produce for a +single moment a deception on the imagination. + +Of all the poets who have introduced into their works the agency of +supernatural beings, Milton has succeeded best. Here Dante decidedly +yields to him; and as this is a point on which many rash and +ill-considered judgments have been pronounced, we feel inclined to dwell +on it a little longer. The most fatal error which a poet can possibly +commit in the management of his machinery is that of attempting to +philosophize too much. Milton has been often censured for ascribing to +spirits many functions of which spirits must be incapable. But these +objections, though sanctioned by eminent names, originate, we venture to +say, in profound ignorance of the art of poetry. + +What is spirit? What are our own minds, the portion of spirit with which +we are best acquainted? We observe certain phenomena. We cannot explain +them into material causes. We therefore infer that there exists +something which is not material. But of this something we have no idea. +We can define it only by negatives. We can reason about it only by +symbols. We use the word, but we have no image of the thing; and the +business of poetry is with images, and not with words. The poet uses +words, indeed; but they are merely the instruments of his art, not its +objects. They are the materials which he is to dispose in such a manner +as to present a picture to the mental eye. And if they are not so +disposed, they are no more entitled to be called poetry than a bale of +canvas and a box of colors to be called a painting. + +Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must +have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and +nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle. The first +inhabitants of Greece, there is reason to believe, worshipped one +invisible Deity. But the necessity of having something more definite to +adore produced, in a few centuries, the innumerable crowd of gods and +goddesses. In like manner the ancient Persians thought it impious to +exhibit the creator under a human form. Yet even these transferred to +the sun the worship which, in speculation, they considered due only to +the Supreme Mind. The history of the Jews is the record of a continued +struggle between pure Theism, supported by the most terrible sanctions, +and the strangely fascinating desire of having some visible and tangible +object of adoration. Perhaps none of the secondary causes which Gibbon +has assigned for the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the +world, while Judaism scarcely ever acquired a proselyte, operated more +powerfully than this feeling. God, the uncreated, the incomprehensible, +the invisible, attracted few worshippers. A philosopher might admire so +noble a conception; but the crowd turned away in disgust from words +which presented no image to their minds. It was before Deity embodied in +a human form, walking among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning +on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger, +bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of the Synagogue, and the +doubts of the Academy, and the pride of the Portico, and the fasces of +the Lictor, and the swords of thirty legions, were humbled in the dust. +Soon after Christianity had achieved its triumph, the principle which +had assisted it began to corrupt it. It became a new paganism. Patron +saints assumed the offices of household gods. St. George took the place +of Mars. St. Elmo consoled the mariner for the loss of Castor and +Pollux. The Virgin Mother and Cecilia succeeded to Venus and Muses. The +fascination of sex and loveliness was again joined to that of celestial +dignity; and the homage of chivalry was blended with that of religion. +Reformers have often made a stand against these feelings; but never with +more than apparent and partial success. The men who demolished the +images in cathedrals have not always been able to demolish those which +were enshrined in their minds. It would not be difficult to show that in +politics the same rule holds good. Doctrines, we are afraid, must +generally be embodied before they can excite a strong public feeling. +The multitude is more easily interested for the most unmeaning badge, or +the most insignificant name, than for the most important principle. + +From these considerations, we infer that no poet who should affect that +metaphysical accuracy for the want of which Milton has been blamed would +escape a disgraceful failure. Still, however, there was another extreme +which, though far less dangerous, was also to be avoided. The +imaginations of men are in a great measure under the control of their +opinions. The most exquisite art of poetical coloring can produce no +illusion when it is employed to represent that which is at once +perceived to be incongruous and absurd. Milton wrote in an age of +philosophers and theologians. It was necessary, therefore, for him to +abstain from giving such a shock to their understandings as might break +the charm which it was his object to throw over their imaginations. This +is the real explanation of the indistinctness and inconsistency with +which he has often been reproached. Dr. Johnson acknowledges that it was +absolutely necessary that the spirit should be clothed with material +forms. "But," says he, "the poet should have secured the consistency of +his system by keeping immateriality out of sight, and seducing the +reader to drop it from his thoughts." This is easily said; but what if +Milton could not seduce his readers to drop immateriality from their +thoughts? What if the contrary opinion had taken so full a possession +of the minds of men as to leave no room even for the half-belief which +poetry requires? Such we suspect to have been the case. It was +impossible for the poet to adopt altogether the material or the +immaterial system. He therefore took his stand on the debatable ground. +He left the whole in ambiguity. He has doubtless, by so doing, laid +himself open to the charge of inconsistency. But, though philosophically +in the wrong, we cannot but believe that he was poetically in the right. +This task, which almost any other writer would have found impracticable, +was easy to him. The peculiar art which he possessed of communicating +his meaning circuitously through a long succession of associated ideas, +and of intimating more than he expressed, enabled him to disguise those +incongruities which he could not avoid. + +Poetry which relates to the beings of another world ought to be at once +mysterious and picturesque. That of Milton is so. That of Dante is +picturesque, indeed, beyond any that ever was written. Its effect +approaches to that produced by the pencil or the chisel. But it is +picturesque to the exclusion of all mystery. This is a fault on the +right side, a fault inseparable from the plan of Dante's poem, which, as +we have already observed, rendered the utmost accuracy of description +necessary. Still it is a fault. The supernatural agents excite an +interest; but it is not the interest which is proper to supernatural +agents. We feel that we could talk to the ghosts and demons without any +emotion of unearthly awe. We could, like Don Juan, ask them to supper, +and eat heartily in their company. Dante's angels are good men with +wings. His devils are spiteful, ugly executioners. His dead men are +merely living men in strange situations. The scene which passes between +the poet and Farinata is justly celebrated. Still, Farinata in the +burning tomb is exactly what Farinata would have been at an +_auto-da-fe_. Nothing can be more touching than the first interview of +Dante and Beatrice. Yet what is it but a lovely woman chiding, with +sweet, austere composure, the lover for whose affection she is grateful, +but whose vices she reprobates? The feelings which give the passage its +charm would suit the streets of Florence as well as the summit of the +Mount of Purgatory. + +The spirits of Milton are unlike those of almost all other writers. His +fiends, in particular, are wonderful creations. They are not +metaphysical abstractions. They are not wicked men. They are not ugly +beasts. They have no horns, no tails, none of the fee-faw-fum of Tasso +and Klopstock. They have just enough in common with human nature to be +intelligible to human beings. Their characters are, like their forms, +marked by a certain dim resemblance to those of men, but exaggerated to +gigantic dimensions, and veiled in mysterious gloom. + +Perhaps the gods and demons of Aeschylus may best bear a comparison with +the angels and devils of Milton. The style of the Athenian had, as we +have remarked, something of the Oriental character; and the same +peculiarity may be traced in his mythology. It has nothing of the +amenity and elegance which we generally find in the superstitions of +Greece. All is rugged, barbaric, and colossal. The legends of Aeschylus +seem to harmonize less with the fragrant groves and graceful porticos in +which his countrymen paid their vows to the God of Light and Goddess of +Desire than with those huge and grotesque labyrinths of eternal granite +in which Egypt enshrined her mystic Osiris, or in which Hindostan still +bows down to her seven-headed idols. His favorite gods are those of the +elder generation, the sons of heaven and earth, compared with whom +Jupiter himself was a stripling and an upstart, the gigantic Titans, and +the inexorable Furies. Foremost among his creations of this class +stands Prometheus, half fiend, half redeemer, the friend of man, the +sullen and implacable enemy of heaven. Prometheus bears undoubtedly a +considerable resemblance to the Satan of Milton. In both we find the +same impatience of control, the same ferocity, the same unconquerable +pride. In both characters also are mingled, though in very different +proportions, some kind and generous feelings. Prometheus, however, is +hardly superhuman enough. He talks too much of his chains and his uneasy +posture; he is rather too much depressed and agitated. His resolution +seems to depend on the knowledge which he possesses that he holds the +fate of his torturer in his hands, and that the hour of his release will +surely come. But Satan is a creature of another sphere. The might of his +intellectual nature is victorious over the extremity of pain. Amidst +agonies which cannot be conceived without horror, he deliberates, +resolves, and even exults. Against the sword of Michael, against the +thunder of Jehovah, against the flaming lake, and the marl burning with +solid fire, against the prospect of an eternity of unintermitted misery, +his spirit bears up unbroken, resting on its own innate energies, +requiring no support from anything external, nor even from hope itself. + +To return for a moment to the parallel which we have been attempting to +draw between Milton and Dante, we would add that the poetry of these +great men has in a considerable degree taken its character from their +moral qualities. They are not egotists. They rarely obtrude their +idiosyncrasies on their readers. They have nothing in common with those +modern beggars for fame who extort a pittance from the compassion of the +inexperienced by exposing the nakedness and sores of their minds. Yet +it would be difficult to name two writers whose works have been more +completely, though undesignedly, colored by their personal feelings. + +The character of Milton was peculiarly distinguished by loftiness of +spirit; that of Dante by intensity of feeling. In every line of the +Divine Comedy we discern the asperity which is produced by pride +struggling with misery. There is perhaps no work in the world so deeply +and uniformly sorrowful. The melancholy of Dante was no fantastic +caprice. It was not, as far as at this distance of time can be judged, +the effect of external circumstances. It was from within. Neither love +nor glory, neither the conflicts of earth nor the hope of heaven, could +dispel it. It turned every consolation and every pleasure into its own +nature. It resembled that noxious Sardinian soil of which the intense +bitterness is said to have been perceptible even in its honey. His mind +was, in the noble language of the Hebrew poet, "a land of darkness, as +darkness itself, and where the light was as darkness." The gloom of his +character discolors all the passions of men, and all the face of nature, +and tinges with its own livid hue the flowers of Paradise and the +glories of the eternal throne. All the portraits of him are singularly +characteristic. No person can look on the features, noble even to +ruggedness--the dark furrows of the cheek, the haggard and woful stare +of the eye the sullen and contemptuous curve of the lip--and doubt that +they belong to a man too proud and too sensitive to be happy. + +Milton was, like Dante, a statesman and a lover; and, like Dante, he had +been unfortunate in ambition and in love. He had survived his health and +his sight, the comforts of his home, and the prosperity of his party. Of +the great men by whom he had been distinguished at his entrance into +life, some had been taken away from the evil to come; some had carried +into foreign climates their unconquerable hatred of oppression; some +were pining in dungeons; and some had poured forth their blood on +scaffolds. Venal and licentious scribblers, with just sufficient talent +to clothe the thoughts of a pander in the style of a bellman, were now +the favorite writers of the Sovereign and of the public. It was a +loathsome herd, which could be compared to nothing so fitly as to the +rabble of Comus, grotesque monsters, half bestial, half human, dropping +with wine, bloated with gluttony, and reeling in obscene dances. Amidst +these that fair Muse was placed, like the chaste lady of the Masque, +lofty, spotless, and serene, to be chattered at, and pointed at, and +grinned at, by the whole rout of Satyrs and Goblins. If ever despondency +and asperity could be excused in any man, they might have been excused +in Milton. But the strength of his mind overcame every calamity. +Neither blindness, nor gout, nor age, nor penury, nor domestic +afflictions, nor political disappointments, nor abuse, nor proscription, +nor neglect had power to disturb his sedate and majestic patience. His +spirits do not seem to have been high, but they were singularly equable. +His temper was serious, perhaps stern; but it was a temper which no +sufferings could render sullen or fretful. Such as it was when, on the +eve of great events, he returned from his travels, in the prime of +health and manly beauty, loaded with literary distinctions, and glowing +with patriotic hopes, such it continued to be when, after having +experienced every calamity which is incident to our nature, old, poor, +sightless, and disgraced, he retired to his hovel to die. + +Hence it was that, though he wrote the Paradise Lost at a time of life +when images of beauty and tenderness are in general beginning to fade, +even from those minds in which they have not been effaced by anxiety and +disappointment, he adorned it with all that is most lovely and +delightful in the physical and in the moral world. Neither Theocritus +nor Ariosto had a finer or a more healthful sense of the pleasantness of +external objects, or loved better to luxuriate amidst sunbeams and +flowers, the songs of nightingales, the juice of summer fruits, and the +coolness of shady fountains. His conception of love unites all the +voluptuousness of the Oriental harem, and all the gallantry of the +chivalric tournament with all the pure and quiet affection of an English +fireside. His poetry reminds us of the miracles of Alpine scenery. Nooks +and dells, beautiful as fairyland, are embosomed in its most rugged and +gigantic elevations. The roses and myrtles bloom unchilled on the verge +of the avalanche. + +Traces, indeed, of the peculiar character of Milton may be found in all +his works; but it is most strongly displayed in the Sonnets. Those +remarkable poems have been undervalued by critics who have not +understood their nature. They have no epigrammatic point. There is none +of the ingenuity of Filicaja in the thought, none of the hard and +brilliant enamel of Petrarch in the style. They are simple but majestic +records of the feelings of the poet; as little tricked out for the +public eye as his diary would have been. A victory, an expected attack +upon the city, a momentary fit of depression or exultation, a jest +thrown out against one of his books, a dream which for a short time +restored to him that beautiful face over which the grave had closed +forever, led him to musings, which, without effort, shaped themselves +into verse. The unity of sentiment and severity of style which +characterize these little pieces remind us of the Greek Anthology, or +perhaps still more of the Collects of the English Liturgy. The noble +poem on the massacres of Piedmont is strictly a collect in verse. + +The Sonnets are more or less striking, according as the occasions which +gave birth to them are more or less interesting. But they are, almost +without exception, dignified by a sobriety and greatness of mind to +which we know not where to look for a parallel. It would, indeed, be +scarcely safe to draw any decided inferences as to the character of a +writer from passages directly egotistical. But the qualities which we +have ascribed to Milton, though perhaps most strongly marked in those +parts of his works which treat of his personal feelings, are +distinguishable in every page, and impart to all his writings, prose and +poetry, English, Latin, and Italian, a strong family likeness. + +His public conduct was such as was to be expected from a man of spirit +so high and of an intellect so powerful. He lived at one of the most +memorable eras in the history of mankind, at the very crisis of the +great conflict between Oromasdes and Arimanes, liberty and despotism, +reason and prejudice. That great battle was fought for no single +generation, for no single land. The destinies of the human race were +staked on the same cast with the freedom of the English people. Then +were first proclaimed those mighty principles which have since worked +their way into the depths of the American forests, which have roused +Greece from the slavery and degradation of two thousand years, and +which, from one end of Europe to the other, have kindled an +unquenchable fire in the hearts of the oppressed, and loosed the knees +of the oppressors with an unwonted fear. + +Of those principles, then struggling for their infant existence, Milton +was the most devoted and eloquent literary champion. We need not say how +much we admire his public conduct. But we cannot disguise from ourselves +that a large portion of his countrymen still think it unjustifiable. The +civil war, indeed, has been more discussed, and is less understood, than +any event in English history. The friends of liberty labored under the +disadvantage of which the lion in the fable complained so bitterly. +Though they were the conquerors, their enemies were the painters. As a +body, the Roundheads had done their utmost to decry and ruin +literature; and literature was even with them, as, in the long run, it +always is with its enemies. The best book on their side of the question +is the charming narrative of Mrs. Hutchinson. May's History of the +Parliament is good; but it breaks off at the most interesting crisis of +the struggle. The performance of Ludlow is foolish and violent; and most +of the later writers who have espoused the same cause--Oldmixon, for +instance, and Catherine Macaulay--have, to say the least, been more +distinguished by zeal than either by candor or by skill. On the other +side are the most authoritative and the most popular historical works in +our language, that of Clarendon, and that of Hume. The former is not +only ably written and full of valuable information, but has also an air +of dignity and sincerity which makes even the prejudices and errors with +which it abounds respectable. Hume, from whose fascinating narrative the +great mass of the reading public are still contented to take their +opinions, hated religion so much that he hated liberty for having been +allied with religion, and has pleaded the cause of tyranny with the +dexterity of an advocate while affecting the impartiality of a judge. + +The public conduct of Milton must be approved or condemned according as +the resistance of the people to Charles the First shall appear to be +justifiable or criminal.... + +Every man who approves of the Revolution of 1688 [which dethroned James +II., son of Charles I., on the ground that he "had broken the +fundamental laws of the kingdom," and enthroned William of Orange in his +stead], must hold that the breach of fundamental laws on the part of the +sovereign justifies resistance. The question, then, is this: Had Charles +the First broken the fundamental laws of England? + +No person can answer in the negative, unless he refuses credit, not +merely to all the accusations brought against Charles by his opponents, +but to the narratives of the warmest Royalists, and to the confessions +of the king himself. If there be any truth in any historian of any +party who has related the events of that reign, the conduct of Charles, +from his accession to the meeting of the Long Parliament, had been a +continued course of oppression and treachery. Let those who applaud the +Revolution and condemn the Rebellion mention one act of James the Second +to which a parallel is not to be found in the history of his father. Let +them lay their fingers on a single article in the Declaration of Right, +presented by the two Houses to William and Mary, which Charles is not +acknowledged to have violated. He had, according to the testimony of his +own friends, usurped the functions of the legislature, raised taxes +without the consent of Parliament, and quartered troops on the people in +the most illegal and vexatious manner. Not a single session of +Parliament had passed without some unconstitutional attack on the +freedom of debate; the right of petition was grossly violated; arbitrary +judgments, exorbitant fines, and unwarranted imprisonments were +grievances of daily occurrence. If these things do not justify +resistance, the Revolution was treason; if they do, the Great Rebellion +was laudable. + +But, it is said, why not adopt milder measures? Why, after the king had +consented to so many reforms, and renounced so many oppressive +prerogatives, did the Parliament continue to rise in their demands at +the risk of provoking a civil war? The ship-money had been given up. +The Star-chamber had been abolished. Provision had been made for the +frequent convocation and secure deliberation of parliaments. Why not +pursue an end confessedly good by peaceable and regular means? We recur +again to the analogy of the Revolution. Why was James driven from the +throne? Why was he not retained upon conditions? He too had offered to +call a free parliament, and to submit to its decision all the matters in +dispute. Yet we are in the habit of praising our forefathers, who +preferred a revolution, a disputed succession, a dynasty of strangers, +twenty years of foreign and intestine war, a standing army, and a +national debt, to the rule, however restricted, of a tried and proved +tyrant. The Long Parliament acted on the same principle, and is entitled +to the same praise. They could not trust the king. He had, no doubt, +passed salutary laws; but what assurance was there that he would not +break them? He had renounced oppressive prerogatives; but where was the +security that he would not resume them? The nation had to deal with a +man whom no tie could bind, a man who made and broke promises with equal +facility, a man whose honor had been a hundred times pawned, and +never redeemed. + +Here, indeed, the Long Parliament stands on still stronger ground than +the Convention of 1688. No action of James can be compared to the +conduct of Charles with respect to the Petition of Right. The Lords and +Commons present him with a bill in which the constitutional limits of +his power are marked out. He hesitates; he evades; at last he bargains +to give his assent for five subsidies. The bill receives his solemn +assent; the subsidies are voted; but no sooner is the tyrant relieved +than he returns at once to all the arbitrary measures which he had bound +himself to abandon, and violates all the clauses of the very act which +he had been paid to pass. + +For more than ten years the people had seen the rights which were theirs +by a double claim, by immemorial inheritance and by recent purchase, +infringed by the perfidious king who had recognized them. At length +circumstances compelled Charles to summon another Parliament; another +chance was given to our fathers: were they to throw it away as they had +thrown away the former? Were they again to be cozened by _le Roi le +veut_? Were they again to advance their money on pledges which had been +forfeited over and over again? Were they to lay a second Petition of +Right at the foot of the throne, to grant another lavish aid in exchange +for another unmeaning ceremony, and then to take their departure, till, +after ten years more of fraud and oppression, their prince should again +require a supply, and again repay it with a perjury? They were compelled +to choose whether they would trust a tyrant or conquer him. We think +that they chose wisely and nobly. + +The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other malefactors +against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, generally decline all +controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling +testimony to character. He had so many private virtues! And had James +the Second no private virtues? Was Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest +enemies themselves being judges, destitute of private virtues? And what, +after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal, not +more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, +and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones +in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father! A good +husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, +tyranny, and falsehood! + +We charge him with having broken his coronation oath; and we are told +that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given up his +people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and +hard-hearted of prelates; and the defence is, that he took his little +son on his knee and kissed him! We censure him for having violated the +articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable +consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he +was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is to +such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his +handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, +most of his popularity with the present generation. + +For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the common phrase, a +good man, but a bad king. We can as easily conceive a good man and an +unnatural father, or a good man and a treacherous friend. We cannot, in +estimating the character of an individual, leave out of our +consideration his conduct in the most important of all human relations; +and if in that relation we find him to have been selfish, cruel, and +deceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a bad man, in spite of +all his temperance at table, and all his regularity at chapel. + +We cannot refrain from adding a few words respecting a topic on which +the defenders of Charles are fond of dwelling. If, they say, he governed +his people ill, he at least governed them after the example of his +predecessors. If he violated their privileges, it was because their +privileges had not been accurately defined. No act of oppression has +ever been imputed to him which has not a parallel in the annals of the +Tudors. This point Hume has labored, with an art which is as +discreditable in a historical work as it would be admirable in a +forensic address. The answer is short, clear, and decisive. Charles had +assented to the Petition of Right. He had renounced the oppressive +powers said to have been exercised by his predecessors, and he had +renounced them for money. He was not entitled to set up his antiquated +claims against his own recent release. + +These arguments are so obvious that it may seem superfluous to dwell +upon them. But those who have observed how much the events of that time +are misrepresented and misunderstood will not blame us for stating the +case simply. It is a case of which the simplest statement is the +strongest. + +The enemies of the Parliament, indeed, rarely choose to take issue on +the great points of the question. They content themselves with exposing +some of the crimes and follies to which public commotions necessarily +give birth. They bewail the unmerited fate of Strafford. They execrate +the lawless violence of the army. They laugh at the Scriptural names of +the preachers. Major-generals fleecing their districts; soldiers +revelling on the spoils of a ruined peasantry; upstarts, enriched by the +public plunder, taking possession of the hospitable firesides and +hereditary trees of the old gentry; boys smashing the beautiful windows +of cathedrals; Quakers riding naked through the market-place; +Fifth-monarchy-men shouting for King Jesus; agitators lecturing from the +tops of tubs on the fate of Agag; all these, they tell us, were the +offspring of the Great Rebellion. + +Be it so. We are not careful to answer in this matter. These charges, +were they infinitely more important, would not alter our opinion of an +event which alone has made us to differ from the slaves who crouch +beneath despotic sceptres. Many evils, no doubt, were produced by the +civil war. They were the price of our liberty. Has the acquisition been +worth the sacrifice? It is the nature of the devil of tyranny to tear +and rend the body which he leaves. Are the miseries of continued +possession less horrible than the struggles of the tremendous exorcism? + +If it were possible that a people brought up under an intolerant and +arbitrary system could subvert that system without acts of cruelty and +folly, half the objections to despotic power would be removed. We +should, in that case, be compelled to acknowledge that it at least +produces no pernicious effects on the intellectual and moral character +of a nation. We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But +the more violent the outrages, the more assured we feel that a +revolution was necessary. The violence of these outrages will always be +proportioned to the ferocity and ignorance of the people; and the +ferocity and ignorance of the people will be proportioned to the +oppression and degradation under which they have been accustomed to +live. Thus it was in our civil war. The heads of the Church and State +reaped only that which they had sown. The Government had prohibited free +discussion; it had done its best to keep the people unacquainted with +their duties and their rights. The retribution was just and natural. If +our rulers suffered from popular ignorance, it was because they had +themselves taken away the key of knowledge. If they were assailed with +blind fury, it was because they had exacted an equally blind submission. + +It is the character of such revolutions that we always see the worst of +them at first. Till men have been some time free, they know not how to +use their freedom. The natives of wine countries are generally sober. In +climates where wine is a rarity intemperance abounds. A newly liberated +people may be compared to a Northern army encamped on the Rhine or the +Xeres. It is said that when soldiers in such a situation find themselves +able to indulge without restraint in such a rare and expensive luxury, +nothing is to be seen but intoxication. Soon, however, plenty teaches +discretion; and, after wine has been for a few months their daily fare, +they become more temperate than they had ever been in their own country. +In the same manner, the final and permanent fruits of liberty are +wisdom, moderation, and mercy. Its immediate effects are often atrocious +crimes, conflicting errors, scepticism on points the most clear, +dogmatism on points the most mysterious. It is just at this crisis that +its enemies love to exhibit it. They pull down the scaffolding from the +half-finished edifice; they point to the flying dust, the falling +bricks, the comfortless rooms, the frightful irregularity of the whole +appearance; and then ask in scorn where the promised splendor and +comfort is to be found. If such miserable sophisms were to prevail, +there would never be a good house or a good government in the world. + +Ariosto tells a pretty story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of +her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a +foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of her +disguise were forever excluded from participation in the blessings which +she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied +and protected her, she afterwards revealed herself in the beautiful and +celestial form which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, +granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them +happy in love and victorious in war. Such a spirit is Liberty. At times +she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she +stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her! And +happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and +frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her +beauty and her glory! + +There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom +produces; and that cure is freedom. When a prisoner first leaves his +cell he cannot bear the light of day; he is unable to discriminate +colors or recognize faces. But the remedy is, not to remand him into his +dungeon, but to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth +and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become +half-blind in the house of bondage. But let them gaze on, and they will +soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme +violence of opinions subsides. Hostile theories correct each other. The +scattered elements of truth cease to contend, and begin to coalesce; and +at length a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos. + +Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a +self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are +fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old +story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to +swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in +slavery, they may indeed wait forever. + +Therefore it is that we decidedly approve of the conduct of Milton and +the other wise and good men who, in spite of much that was ridiculous +and hateful in the conduct of their associates, stood by the cause of +public liberty. We are not aware that the poet has been charged with +personal participation in any of the blamable excesses of that time. The +favorite topic of his enemies is the line of conduct which he pursued +with regard to the execution of the King. Of that celebrated proceeding +we by no means approve. Still, we must say, in justice to the many +eminent persons who, concurred in it, and in justice, more particularly, +to the eminent person who defended it, that nothing can be more absurd +than the imputations which, for the last hundred and sixty years, it has +been the fashion to cast upon the Regicides.... + +We disapprove, we repeat, of the execution of Charles; not because the +constitution exempts the king from responsibility, for we know that all +such maxims, however excellent, have their exceptions; nor because we +feel any peculiar interest in his character, for we think that his +sentence describes him with perfect justice as "a tyrant, a traitor, a +murderer, and a public enemy;" but because we are convinced that the +measure was most injurious to the cause of freedom. He whom it removed +was a captive and a hostage: his heir, to whom the allegiance of every +Royalist was instantly transferred, was at large. The Presbyterians +could never have been perfectly reconciled to the father: they had no +such rooted enmity to the son. The great body of the people, also, +contemplated that proceeding with feelings which, however unreasonable, +no government could safely venture to outrage. + +But though we think the conduct of the Regicides blamable, that of +Milton appears to us in a very different light. The deed was done. It +could not be undone. The evil was incurred; and the object was to render +it as small as possible. We censure the chiefs of the army for not +yielding to the popular opinion; but we cannot censure Milton for +wishing to change that opinion. The very feeling which would have +restrained us from committing the act would have led us, after it had +been committed, to defend it against the ravings of servility and +superstition. For the sake of public liberty, we wish that the thing had +not been done, while the people disapproved of it. But, for the sake of +public liberty, we should also have wished the people to approve of it +when it was done.... + +We wish to add a few words relative to another subject on which the +enemies of Milton delight to dwell,--his conduct during the +administration of the Protector. That an enthusiastic votary of liberty +should accept office under a military usurper seems, no doubt, at first +sight, extraordinary. But all the circumstances in which the country was +then placed were extraordinary. The ambition of Oliver was of no vulgar +kind. He never seems to have coveted despotic power. He at first fought +sincerely and manfully for the Parliament, and never deserted it till +it had deserted its duty. If he dissolved it by force, it was not till +he found that the few members who remained after so many deaths, +secessions, and expulsions, were desirous to appropriate to themselves a +power which they held only in trust, and to inflict upon England the +curse of a Venetian oligarchy. But even when thus placed by violence at +the head of affairs, he did not assume unlimited power. He gave the +country a constitution far more perfect than any which had at that time +been known in the world. He reformed the representative system in a +manner which has extorted praise even from Lord Clarendon. For himself +he demanded indeed the first place in the commonwealth; but with powers +scarcely so great as those of a Dutch stadtholder, or an American +president. He gave the Parliament a voice in the appointment of +ministers, and left to it the whole legislative authority, not even +reserving to himself a veto on its enactments; and he did not require +that the chief magistracy should be hereditary in his family. Thus far, +we think, if the circumstances of the time and the opportunities which +he had of aggrandizing himself be fairly considered, he will not lose by +comparison with Washington or Bolivar. Had his moderation been met by +corresponding moderation, there is no reason to think that he would have +overstepped the line which he had traced for himself. But when he found +that his parliaments questioned the authority under which they met, and +that he was in danger of being deprived of the restricted power which +was absolutely necessary to his personal safety, then, it must be +acknowledged, he adopted a more arbitrary policy. + +Yet, though we believe that the intentions of Cromwell were at first +honest, though we believe that he was driven from the noble course which +he had marked out for himself by the almost irresistible force of +circumstances, though we admire, in common with all men of all parties, +the ability and energy of his splendid administration, we are not +pleading for arbitrary and lawless power, even in his hands. We know +that a good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot. But +we suspect that, at the time of which we speak, the violence of +religious and political enmities rendered a stable and happy settlement +next to impossible. The choice lay, not between Cromwell and liberty, +but between Cromwell and the Stuarts. That Milton chose well, no man can +doubt who fairly compares the events of the protectorate with those of +the thirty years which succeeded it, the darkest and most disgraceful in +the English annals. Cromwell was evidently laying, though in an +irregular manner, the foundations of an admirable system. Never before +had religious liberty and the freedom of discussion been enjoyed in a +greater degree. Never had the national honor been better upheld abroad, +or the seat of justice better filled at home. And it was rarely that any +opposition which stopped short of open rebellion provoked the resentment +of the liberal and magnanimous usurper. The institutions which he had +established, as set down in the Instrument of Government, and the Humble +Petition and Advice, were excellent. His practice, it is true, too often +departed from the theory of these institutions. But had he lived a few +years longer, it is probable that his institutions would have survived +him, and that his arbitrary practice would have died with him. His power +had not been consecrated by ancient prejudices. It was upheld only by +his great personal qualities. Little, therefore, was to be dreaded from +a second protector, unless he were also a second Oliver Cromwell. The +events which followed his decease are the most complete vindication of +those who exerted themselves to uphold his authority. His death +dissolved the whole frame of society. The army rose against the +Parliament, the different corps of the army against each other. Sect +raved against sect. Party plotted against party. The Presbyterians, in +their eagerness to be revenged on the Independents, sacrificed their own +liberty, and deserted all their old principles. Without casting one +glance on the past, or requiring one stipulation for the future, they +threw down their freedom at the feet of the most frivolous and heartless +of tyrants. + +Then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush, the days of +servitude without loyalty and sensuality without love, of dwarfish +talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and narrow +minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave. The King +cringed to his rival that he might trample on his people, sank into a +viceroy of France, and pocketed, with complacent infamy, her degrading +insults and her more degrading gold. The caresses of harlots and the +jests of buffoons regulated the policy of the State. The government had +just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. +The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and +the Anathema Maranatha of every fawning dean. In every high place, +worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch; and England +propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and +bravest children. Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, +till the race accursed of God and man was a second time driven forth, to +wander on the face of the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of +the head to the nations. + +Most of the remarks which we have hitherto made on the public character +of Milton apply to him only as one of a large body. We shall proceed to +notice some of the peculiarities which distinguished him from his +contemporaries. And, for that purpose, it is necessary to take a short +survey of the parties into which the political world was at that time +divided. We must premise that our observations are intended to apply +only to those who adhered, from a sincere preference, to one or to the +other side. In days of public commotion, every faction, like an Oriental +army, is attended by a crowd of camp-followers, a useless and heartless +rabble, who prowl round its line of march in the hope of picking up +something under its protection, but desert it in the day of battle, and +often join to exterminate it after a defeat. England, at the time of +which we are treating, abounded with fickle and selfish politicians, who +transferred their support to every government as it rose; who kissed the +hand of the king in 1640, and spat in his face in 1649; who shouted with +equal glee when Cromwell was inaugurated at Westminster Hall and when he +was dug up to be hanged at Tyburn; who dined on calves' heads, or stuck +up oak-branches, as circumstances altered, without the slightest shame +or repugnance. These we leave out of the account. We take our estimate +of parties from those who really deserve to be called partisans. + +We would speak first of the Puritans, the most remarkable body of men, +perhaps, which the world has ever produced. The odious and ridiculous +parts of their character lie on the surface. He that runs may read them; +nor have there been wanting attentive and malicious observers to point +them out. For many years after the Restoration they were the theme of +unmeasured invective and derision. They were exposed to the utmost +licentiousness of the press and of the stage, at the time when the press +and the stage were most licentious. They were not men of letters; they +were, as a body, unpopular; they could not defend themselves; and the +public would not take them under its protection. They were therefore +abandoned, without reserve, to the tender mercies of the satirists and +dramatists. The ostentatious simplicity of their dress, their sour +aspect, their nasal twang, their stiff posture, their long graces, their +Hebrew names, the Scriptural phrases which they introduced on every +occasion, their contempt of human learning, their detestation of polite +amusements, were indeed fair game for the laughers. But it is not from +the laughers alone that the philosophy of history is to be learned. And +he who approaches this subject should carefully guard against the +influence of that potent ridicule which has already misled so many +excellent writers. + + "Ecco il fonte del riso, ed ecco il rio + Che mortali perigli in se contiene: + Hor qui tener a fren nostro desio, + Ed esser cauti molto a noi conviene." + +Those who roused the people to resistance; who directed their measures +through a long series of eventful years; who formed, out of the most +unpromising materials, the finest army that Europe had ever seen; who +trampled down King, Church, and Aristocracy; who, in the short intervals +of domestic sedition and rebellion, made the name of England terrible to +every nation on the face of the earth--were no vulgar fanatics. Most of +their absurdities were mere external badges, like the signs of +freemasonry or the dresses of friars. We regret that these badges were +not more attractive. We regret that a body to whose courage and talents +mankind has owed inestimable obligations had not the lofty elegance +which distinguished some of the adherents of Charles the First, or the +easy good-breeding for which the court of Charles the Second was +celebrated. But, if we must make our choice, we shall, like Bassanio in +the play, turn from the specious caskets which contain only the Death's +head and the Fool's head, and fix on the plain leaden chest which +conceals the treasure. + +The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from +the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not +content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling Providence, +they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for +whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too +minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the +great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious +homage which other sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. +Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an +obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on his intolerable brightness, +and to commune with him face to face. Hence originated their contempt +for terrestrial distinctions. The difference between the greatest and +the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when compared with the boundless +interval which separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes +were constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but his +favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the +accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they were +unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply +read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the +registers of heralds, they were recorded in the Book of Life. If their +steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of +ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not +made with hands; their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade +away. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked +down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious +treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right +of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier +hand. The very meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious +and terrible importance belonged; on whose slightest action the spirits +of light and darkness looked with anxious interest; who had been +destined, before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity +which should continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. +Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes had +been ordained on his account. For his sake empires had risen, and +flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his +will by the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet. He had +been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He +had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony by the blood of no +earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that +the rocks had been rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had +shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God. + +Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men, the one all +self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, passion, the other proud, calm, +inflexible, sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust before his +Maker; but he set his foot on the neck of his king. In his devotional +retirement, he prayed with convulsions, and groans, and tears. He was +half maddened by glorious or terrible illusions. He heard the lyres of +angels or the tempting whispers of fiends. He caught a gleam of the +Beatific Vision, or woke screaming from dreams of everlasting fire. Like +Vane, he thought himself intrusted with the sceptre of the millennial +year. Like Fleetwood, he cried in the bitterness of his soul that God +had hid his face from him. But when he took his seat in the council, or +girt on his sword for war, these tempestuous workings of the soul had +left no perceptible trace behind them. People who saw nothing of the +godly but their uncouth visages, and heard nothing from them but their +groans and their whining hymns, might laugh at them. But those had +little reason to laugh who encountered them in the hall of debate or on +the field of battle. These fanatics brought to civil and military +affairs a coolness of judgment and an immutability of purpose which some +writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which +were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their +feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other. One +overpowering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition +and fear. Death had lost its terrors and pleasure its charms. They had +their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but not +for the things of this world. Enthusiasm had made them stoics, had +cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and raised +them above the influence of danger and of corruption. It sometimes might +lead them to pursue unwise ends, but never to choose unwise means. They +went through the world, like Sir Artegal's iron man Talus with his +flail, crushing and trampling down oppressors, mingling with human +beings, but having neither part nor lot in human infirmities; insensible +to fatigue, to pleasure, and to pain; not to be pierced by any weapon, +not to be withstood by any barrier. + +Such we believe to have been the character of the Puritans. We perceive +the absurdity of their manners. We dislike the sullen gloom of their +domestic habits. We acknowledge that the tone of their minds was often +injured by straining after things too high for mortal reach; and we know +that, in spite of their hatred of popery, they too often fell into the +worst vices of that bad system, intolerance and extravagant austerity, +that they had their anchorites and their crusades, their Dunstans and +their De Montforts, their Dominics and their Escobars. Yet, when all +circumstances are taken into consideration, we do not hesitate to +pronounce them a brave, a wise, an honest, and a useful body. + +The Puritans espoused the cause of civil liberty mainly because it was +the cause of religion. There was another party, by no means numerous, +but distinguished by learning and ability, which acted with them on very +different principles. We speak of those whom Cromwell was accustomed to +call the Heathens, men who were, in the phraseology of that time, +doubting Thomases or careless Gallios with regard to religious +subjects, but passionate worshippers of freedom. Heated by the study of +ancient literature, they set up their country as their idol, and +proposed to themselves the heroes of Plutarch as their examples. They +seem to have borne some resemblance to the Brissotines of the French +Revolution. But it is not very easy to draw the line of distinction +between them and their devout associates, whose tone and manner they +sometimes found it convenient to affect, and sometimes, it is probable, +imperceptibly adopted. + +We now come to the Royalists. We shall attempt to speak of them, as we +have spoken of their antagonists, with perfect candor. We shall not +charge upon a whole party the profligacy and baseness of the horse-boys, +gamblers, and bravoes, whom the hope of license and plunder attracted +from the dens of Whitefriars to the standard of Charles, and who +disgraced their associates by excesses which, under the stricter +discipline of the Parliamentary armies, were never tolerated. We will +select a more favorable specimen. Thinking as we do that the cause of +the king was the cause of bigotry and tyranny, we yet cannot refrain +from looking with complacency on the character of the honest old +Cavaliers. We feel a national pride in comparing them with the +instruments which the despots of other countries are compelled to +employ, with the mutes who throng their antechambers, and the +Janizaries who mount guard at their gates. Our Royalist countrymen were +not heartless, dangling courtiers, bowing at every step, and simpering +at every word. They were not mere machines for destruction, dressed up +in uniforms, caned into skill, intoxicated into valor, defending without +love, destroying without hatred. There was a freedom in their +subserviency, a nobleness in their very degradation. The sentiment of +individual independence was strong within them. They were indeed misled, +but by no base or selfish motive. Compassion and romantic honor, the +prejudices of childhood, and the venerable names of history, threw over +them a spell potent as that of Duessa; and, like the Red Cross Knight, +they thought that they were doing battle for an injured beauty, while +they defended a false and loathsome sorceress. In truth, they scarcely +entered at all into the merits of the political question. It was not for +a treacherous king or an intolerant church that they fought, but for the +old banner which had waved in so many battles over the heads of their +fathers, and for the altars at which they had received the hands of +their brides. Though nothing could be more erroneous than their +political opinions, they possessed, in a far greater degree than their +adversaries, those qualities which are the grace of private life. With +many of the vices of the Round Table, they had also many of its virtues, +courtesy, generosity, veracity, tenderness, and respect for women. They +had far more both of profound and of polite learning than the Puritans. +Their manners were more engaging, their tempers more amiable, their +tastes more elegant, and their households more cheerful. + +Milton did not strictly belong to any of the classes which we have +described. He was not a Puritan. He was not a freethinker. He was not a +Royalist. In his character the noblest qualities of every party were +combined in harmonious union. From the Parliament and from the court, +from the conventicle and from the Gothic cloister, from the gloomy and +sepulchral circles of the Roundheads, and from the Christmas revel of +the hospitable Cavalier, his nature selected and drew to itself whatever +was great and good, while it rejected all the base and pernicious +ingredients by which those finer elements were defiled. Like the +Puritans, he lived + + "As ever in his great taskmaster's eye." + +Like them, he kept his mind continually fixed on the Almighty Judge and +an eternal reward. And hence he acquired their contempt of external +circumstances, their fortitude, their tranquillity, their inflexible +resolution. But not the coolest sceptic or the most profane scoffer was +more perfectly free from the contagion of their frantic delusions, their +savage manners, their ludicrous jargon, their scorn of science, and +their aversion to pleasure. Hating tyranny with a perfect hatred, he had +nevertheless all the estimable and ornamental qualities which were +almost entirely monopolized by the party of the tyrant. There was none +who had a stronger sense of the value of literature, a finer relish for +every elegant amusement, or a more chivalrous delicacy of honor and +love. Though his opinions were democratic, his tastes and his +associations were such as best harmonize with monarchy and aristocracy. +He was under the influence of all the feelings by which the gallant +Cavaliers were misled. But of those feelings he was the master, and not +the slave. Like the hero of Homer, he enjoyed all the pleasures of +fascination; but he was not fascinated. He listened to the song of the +Sirens; yet he glided by without being seduced to their fatal shore. He +tasted the cup of Circe; but he bore about him a sure antidote against +the effects of its bewitching sweetness. The illusions which captivated +his imagination never impaired his reasoning powers. The statesman was +proof against the splendor, the solemnity, and the romance which +enchanted the poet. Any person who will contrast the sentiments +expressed in his treatises on Prelacy with the exquisite lines on +ecclesiastical architecture and music in the Penseroso, which was +published about the same time, will understand our meaning. This is an +inconsistency which, more than anything else, raises his character in +our estimation, because it shows how many private tastes and feelings he +sacrificed, in order to do what he considered his duty to mankind. It is +the very struggle of the noble Othello. His heart relents; but his hand +is firm. He does naught in hate, but all in honor. He kisses the +beautiful deceiver before he destroys her. + +That from which the public character of Milton derives its great and +peculiar splendor still remains to be mentioned. If he exerted himself +to overthrow a forsworn king and a persecuting hierarchy, he exerted +himself in conjunction with others. But the glory of the battle which he +fought for the species of freedom which is the most valuable, and which +was then the least understood, the freedom of the human mind, is all his +own. Thousands and tens of thousands among his contemporaries raised +their voices against ship-money and the Star-chamber. But there were few +indeed who discerned the more fearful evils of moral and intellectual +slavery, and the benefits which would result from liberty of the press +and the unfettered exercise of private judgment. These were the objects +which Milton justly conceived to be the most important. He was desirous +that the people should think for themselves as well as tax themselves, +and should be emancipated from the dominion of prejudice as well as from +that of Charles. He knew that those who, with the best intentions, +overlooked these schemes of reform, and contented themselves with +pulling down the King and imprisoning the malignants, acted like the +heedless brothers in his own poem, who, in their eagerness to disperse +the train of the sorcerer, neglected the means of liberating the +captive. They thought only of conquering when they should have thought +of disenchanting. + + "Oh, ye mistook! Ye should have snatched his wand + And bound him fast. Without the rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the lady that sits here + Bound in strong fetters fixed and motionless." + +To reverse the rod, to spell the charm backward, to break the ties which +bound a stupefied people to the seat of enchantment, was the noble aim +of Milton. To this all his public conduct was directed. For this he +joined the Presbyterians; for this he forsook them. He fought their +perilous battle; but he turned away with disdain from their insolent +triumph. He saw that they, like those whom they had vanquished, were +hostile to the liberty of thought. He therefore joined the Independents, +and called upon Cromwell to break the secular chain, and to save free +conscience from the paw of the Presbyterian wolf. With a view to the +same great object, he attacked the licensing system, in that sublime +treatise which every statesman should wear as a sign upon his hand and +as frontlets between his eyes. His attacks were, in general, directed +less against particular abuses than against those deeply-seated errors +on which almost all abuses are founded, the servile worship of eminent +men and the irrational dread of innovation. + +That he might shake the foundations of these debasing sentiments more +effectually, he always selected for himself the boldest literary +services. He never came up in the rear, when the outworks had been +carried and the breach entered. He pressed into the forlorn hope. At the +beginning of the changes, he wrote with incomparable energy and +eloquence against the bishops. But when his opinion seemed likely to +prevail, he passed on to other subjects, and abandoned prelacy to the +crowd of writers who now hastened to insult a falling party. There is no +more hazardous enterprise than that of bearing the torch of truth into +those dark and infected recesses in which no light has ever shone. But +it was the choice and the pleasure of Milton to penetrate the noisome +vapors, and to brave the terrible explosion. Those who most disapprove +of his opinions must respect the hardihood with which he maintained +them. He, in general, left to others the credit of expounding and +defending the popular parts of his religious and political creed. He +took his own stand upon those which the great body of his countrymen +reprobated as criminal, or derided as paradoxical. He stood up for +divorce and regicide. He attacked the prevailing systems of education. +His radiant and beneficent career resembled that of the god of light and +fertility. + + "Nitor in adversum; nec me, qui caetera, vincit + Impetus, et rapido contrarius evehor orbi." + +It is to be regretted that the prose writings of Milton should, in our +time, be so little read. As compositions, they deserve the attention of +every man who wishes to become acquainted with the full power of the +English language. They abound with passages compared with which the +finest declamations of Burke sink into insignificance. They are a +perfect field of cloth of gold. The style is stiff with gorgeous +embroidery. Not even in the earlier books of the Paradise Lost has the +great poet ever risen higher than in those parts of his controversial +works in which his feelings, excited by conflict, find a vent in bursts +of devotional and lyrical rapture. It is, to borrow his own majestic +language, "a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies." + +We had intended to look more closely at these performances, to analyze +the peculiarities of the diction, to dwell at some length on the sublime +wisdom of the Areopagitica and the nervous rhetoric of the Iconoclast +and to point out some of those magnificent passages which occur in the +Treatise of Reformation, and the Animadversions on the Remonstrant. But +the length to which our remarks have already extended renders this +impossible. + +We must conclude. And yet we can scarcely tear ourselves away from the +subject. The days immediately following the publication of this relic of +Milton appear to be peculiarly set apart, and consecrated to his memory. +And we shall scarcely be censured if, on this his festival, we be found +lingering near his shrine, how worthless soever may be the offering +which we bring to it. While this book lies on our table, we seem to be +contemporaries of the writer. We are transported a hundred and fifty +years back. We can almost fancy that we are visiting him in his small +lodging; that we see him sitting at the old organ beneath the faded +green hangings; that we can catch the quick twinkle of his eyes, rolling +in vain to find the day; that we are reading in the lines of his noble +countenance the proud and mournful history of his glory and his +affliction. We imagine to ourselves the breathless silence in which we +should listen to his slightest word, the passionate veneration with +which we should kneel to kiss his hand and weep upon it, the earnestness +with which we should endeavor to console him, if indeed such a spirit +could need consolation, for the neglect of an age unworthy of his +talents and his virtues, the eagerness with which we should contest +with his daughters, or with his Quaker friend Elwood, the privilege of +reading Homer to him, or of taking down the immortal accents which +flowed from his lips. + +These are perhaps foolish feelings. Yet we cannot be ashamed of them; +nor shall we be sorry if what we have written shall in any degree excite +them in other minds. We are not much in the habit of idolizing either +the living or the dead. And we think that there is no more certain +indication of a weak and ill-regulated intellect than that propensity +which, for want of a better name, we will venture to christen +Boswellism. But there are a few characters which have stood the closest +scrutiny and the severest tests, which have been tried in the furnace +and have proved pure, which have been weighed in the balance and have +not been found wanting, which have been declared sterling by the general +consent of mankind, and which are visibly stamped with the image and +superscription of the Most High. These great men we trust that we know +how to prize; and of these was Milton. The sight of his books, the sound +of his name, are pleasant to us. His thoughts resemble those celestial +fruits and flowers which the Virgin Martyr of Massinger sent down from +the gardens of Paradise to the earth, and which were distinguished from +the productions of other soils, not only by superior bloom and +sweetness, but by miraculous efficacy to invigorate and to heal. They +are powerful, not only to delight, but to elevate and purify. Nor do we +envy the man who can study either the life or the writings of the great +poet and patriot without aspiring to emulate, not indeed the sublime +works with which his genius has enriched our literature, but the zeal +with which he labored for the public good, the fortitude with which he +endured every private calamity, the lofty disdain with which he looked +down on temptations and dangers, the deadly hatred which he bore to +bigots and tyrants, and the faith which he so sternly kept with his +country and with his fame. + + + +JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE.[5] + + +1749-1832. + +GERMANY'S GREATEST WRITER. + +BY FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE. + + +I. THE MAN. + +Genius of the supreme order presupposes a nature of equal scope as the +prime condition of its being. The Gardens of Adonis require little +earth, but the oak will not flourish in a tub; and the wine of Tokay is +the product of no green-house, nor gotten of sour grapes. Given a +genuine great poet, you will find a greater man behind, in whom, among +others, these virtues predominate,--courage, generosity, truth. + +[Footnote 5: From "Hours with the German Classics," by FREDERIC HENRY +HEDGE (copyright by him in 1886). With permission of Messrs. LITTLE, +BROWN, & CO., Publishers, Boston, Mass.] + +Pre-eminent among the poets of the modern world stands Goethe, chief of +his own generation, challenging comparison with the greatest of all +time. His literary activity embraces a span of nigh seventy years in a +life of more than fourscore, beginning, significantly enough, with a +poem on "Christ's Descent into Hell" (his earliest extant composition), +and ending with Faust's--that is, Man's--ascent into heaven. The rank +of a writer--his spiritual import to human kind--may be inferred from +the number and worth of the writings of which he has furnished the topic +and occasion. "When kings build," says Schiller, speaking of Kant's +commentators, "the draymen have plenty to do." Dante and Shakspeare have +created whole libraries through the interest inspired by their writings. +The Goethe-literature, so-called,--though scarce fifty years have +elapsed since the poet's death,--already numbers its hundreds +of volumes. + +I note in this man, first of all, as a literary phenomenon, the +unexampled fact of supreme excellence in several quite distinct +provinces of literary action. Had we only his minor poems, he would rank +as the first of lyrists. Had he written only "Faust," he would be the +first of philosophic poets. Had he written only "Hermann and Dorothea," +the sweetest idyllist; if only the "Maerchen," the subtlest of +allegorists. Had he written never a verse, but only prose, he would hold +the highest place among the prose-writers of Germany. And lastly, had he +written only on scientific subjects, in that line also--in the field of +science--he would be, as he is, an acknowledged leader. + +Noticeable in him also is the combination of extraordinary genius with +extraordinary fortune. A magnificent person, a sound physique, inherited +wealth, high social position, official dignity, with eighty-three years +of earthly existence, compose the framework of this illustrious life. + +Behind the author, behind the poet, behind the world-renowned genius, a +not unreasonable curiosity seeks the original man, the human individual, +as he walked among men, his manner of being, his characteristics, as +shown in the converse of life. In what soil grew the flowers and ripened +the fruits which have been the delight and the aliment of nations? In +proportion, of course, to the eminence attained by a writer,--in +proportion to the worth of his works, to their hold on the world,--is +the interest felt in his personality and behavior, in the incidents of +his life. Unfortunately, our knowledge of the person is not always +proportioned to the lustre of the name. Of the two great poets to whom +the world's unrepealable verdict has assigned the foremost place in +their several kinds, we know in one case absolutely nothing, and next to +nothing in the other. To the question, Who sung the wrath of Achilles +and the wanderings of the much-versed Odysseus? tradition answers with a +name to which no faintest shadow of a person corresponds. To the +question, Who composed "Hamlet" and "Othello"? history answers with a +person so indistinct that recent speculation has dared to question the +agency of Shakspeare in those creations. What would not the old +scholiasts have given for satisfactory proofs of the existence of a +Homer identical with the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey? What +would not the Shakspeare clubs give for one more authentic anecdote of +the world's great dramatist? + +Of Goethe we know more--I mean of his externals--than of any other +writer of equal note. This is due in part to his wide relations, +official and other, with his contemporaries; to his large correspondence +with people of note, of which the documents have been preserved by the +parties addressed; to the interest felt in him by curious observers +living in the day of his greatness. It is due in part also to the fact +that, unlike the greatest of his predecessors, he flourished in an +all-communicating, all-recording age; and partly it is due to +autobiographical notices, embracing important portions of his history. + +Two seemingly opposite factors--limiting and qualifying the one the +other--determined the course and topics of his life. One was the aim +which he proposed to himself as the governing principle and purpose of +his being,--to perfect himself, to make the most of the nature which God +had given him; the other was a constitutional tendency to come out of +himself, to lose himself in objects, especially in natural objects, so +that in the study of nature--to which he devoted a large part of his +life--he seems not so much a scientific observer as a chosen confidant, +to whom the discerning Mother revealed her secrets. + +In no greatest genius are all its talents self-derived. Countless +influences mould our intellect and mould our heart. One of these, and +often one of the most potent, is heredity. Consciously or unconsciously, +for good or for evil, physically and mentally, the father and mother are +in the child, as indeed all his ancestors are in every man. + +Of Goethe's father we know only what the son himself has told us in his +memoirs. A man of austere presence, from whom Goethe, as he tells us, +inherited his bodily stature and his serious treatment of life,-- + + "Vom Vater hab ich die Statur, + Des Lebens ernstes fuehren." + +By profession a lawyer, but without practice, living in grim seclusion +amid his books and collections; a man of solid acquirements and large +culture, who had travelled in Italy and first awakened in Wolfgang the +longing for that land; a man of ample means, inhabiting a stately +mansion. For the rest, a stiff, narrow-minded, fussy pedant, with small +toleration for any methods or aims but his own; who, while he +appreciated the superior gifts of his son, was obstinately bent on +guiding them in strict professional grooves, and teased him with the +friction of opposing wills. + +The opposite, in most respects, of this stately and pedantic worthy was +the Frau Raethin, his youthful wife, young enough to have been his +daughter,--a jocund, exuberant nature, a woman to be loved; one who +blessed society with her presence, and possessed uncommon gifts of +discourse. She was but eighteen when Wolfgang was born,--a companion to +him and his sister Cornelia; one in whom they were sure to find sympathy +and ready indulgence. Goethe was indebted to her, as he tells us, for +his joyous spirit and his narrative talent,-- + + "Von Muetterchen die Frohnatur + Und Lust zu fabuliren." + +Outside of the poet's household, the most important figure in the circle +of his childish acquaintance was his mother's father, from whom he had +his name, Johann Wolfgang Textor, the _Schultheiss_, or chief +magistrate, of the city. From him Goethe seems to have inherited the +superstition of which some curious examples are recorded in his life. He +shared with Napoleon and other remarkable men, says Von Mueller, the +conceit that little mischances are prophetic of greater evils. On a +journey to Baden-Baden with a friend, his carriage was upset and his +companion slightly injured. He thought it a bad omen, and instead of +proceeding to Baden-Baden chose another watering-place for his summer +resort. If in his almanac there happened to be a blot on any date, he +feared to undertake anything important on the day so marked. He had +noted certain fatal days; one of these was the 22d of March. On that day +he had lost a valued friend; on that day the theatre to which he had +devoted so much time and labor was burned; and on that day, curiously +enough, he died. He believed in oracles; and as Rousseau threw stones at +a tree to learn whether or no he was to be saved (the hitting or not +hitting the tree was to be the sign), so Goethe tossed a valuable +pocket-knife into the river Lahn to ascertain whether he would succeed +as a painter. If behind the bushes which bordered the stream, he saw the +knife plunge, it should signify success; if not, he would take it as an +omen of failure. Rousseau was careful, he tells us, to choose a stout +tree, and to stand very near. Goethe, more honest with himself, adopted +no such precaution; the plunge of the knife was not seen, and the +painter's career was abandoned. + +Wordsworth's saying, "the child is the father of the man,"--a saying +which owes its vitality more to its form than its substance,--is not +always verified, or its truth is not always apparent in the lives of +distinguished men. I find not much in Goethe the child prophetic of +Goethe the man. But the singer and the seeker, the two main tendencies +of his being, are already apparent in early life. Of moral traits, the +most conspicuous in the child is a power of self-control,--a moral +heroism, which secured to him in after life a natural leadership +unattainable by mere intellectual supremacy. An instance of this +self-control is recorded among the anecdotes of his boyhood. At one of +the lessons which he shared with other boys, the teacher failed to +appear. The young people awaited his coming for a while, but toward the +close of the hour most of them departed, leaving behind three who were +especially hostile to Goethe. "These," he says, "thought to torment, to +mortify, and to drive me away. They left me a moment, and returned with +rods taken from a broom which they had cut to pieces. I perceived their +intention, and, supposing the expiration of the hour to be near, I +immediately determined to make no resistance until the clock should +strike. Unmercifully, thereupon, they began to scourge in the cruellest +manner my legs and calves. I did not stir, but soon felt that I had +miscalculated the time, and that such pain greatly lengthens the +minutes." When the hour expired, his superior activity enabled him to +master all three, and to pin them to the ground. + +In later years the same zeal of self-discipline which prompted the child +to exercise himself in bearing pain, impelled the man to resist and +overcome constitutional weaknesses by force of will. A student of +architecture, he conquered a tendency to giddiness by standing on +pinnacles and walking on narrow rafters over perilous abysses. In like +manner he overcame the ghostly terrors instilled in the nursery, by +midnight visits to churchyards and uncanny places. + +To real peril, to fear of death, he seems to have had that native +insensibility so notable always in men of genius, in whom the conviction +of a higher destiny begets the feeling of a charmed life,--such as +Plutarch records of the first Caesar in peril of shipwreck on the river +Anio. In the French campaign (1793), in which Goethe accompanied the +Duke of Weimar against the armies of the Republic, a sudden impulse of +scientific curiosity prompted him, in spite of warnings and +remonstrances, to experiment on what is called the "cannon-fever." For +this purpose he rode to a place in which he was exposed to a cross-fire +of the two armies, and coolly watched the sensations experienced in that +place of peril. + +Command of himself, acquired by long and systematic discipline, gave him +that command over others which he exercised in several memorable +instances. Coming from a ball one night,--a young man fresh from the +University,--he saw that a fire had broken out in the Judengasse, and +that people were standing about helpless and confused without a leader; +he immediately jumped from his carriage, and, full dressed as he was, in +silk stockings and pumps, organized on the spot a fire-brigade, which +averted a dangerous conflagration. On another occasion, voyaging in the +Mediterranean, he quelled a mutiny on board an Italian ship, when +captain and mates were powerless, and the vessel drifting on the rocks, +by commanding sailors and passengers to fall on their knees and pray to +the Virgin,--adopting the idiom of their religion as well as their +speech, of which he was a master. + +As a student, first at Leipsic, then at Strasburg, including the years +from 1766 to 1771, he seems not to have been a very diligent attendant +on the lectures in either university, and to have profited little by +professional instruction. In compliance with the wishes of his father, +who intended him for a jurist, he gave some time to the study of the +law; but on the whole the principal gain of those years was derived from +intercourse with distinguished intellectual men and women, whose +acquaintance he cultivated, and the large opportunities of social life. + +In Strasburg occurred the famous love-passage with Friederike Brion, +which terminated so unhappily at the time, and so fortunately in the +end, for both. + +Goethe has been blamed for not marrying Friederike. His real blame +consists in the heedlessness with which, in the beginning of their +acquaintance, he surrendered himself to the charm of her presence, +thereby engaging her affection without a thought of the consequences to +either. Besides the disillusion, which showed him, when he came fairly +to face the question, that he did not love her sufficiently to justify +marriage, there were circumstances--material, economical--which made it +practically impossible. Her suffering in the separation, great as it +was,--so great indeed as to cause a dangerous attack of bodily +disease,--could not outweigh the pangs which he endured in his penitent +contemplation of the consequences of his folly. + +The next five years were spent partly in Frankfort and partly in +Wetzlar, partly in the forced exercise of his profession, but chiefly in +literary labors and the use of the pencil, which for a time disputed +with the pen the devotion of the poet-artist. They may be regarded as +perhaps the most fruitful, certainly the most growing, years of his +life. They gave birth to "Goetz von Berlichingen" and the "Sorrows of +Werther," to the first inception of "Faust," and to many of his sweetest +lyrics. It was during this period that he made the acquaintance of +Charlotte Buff, the heroine of the "Sorrows of Werther," from whom he +finally tore himself away, leaving Wetzlar when he discovered that their +growing interest in each other was endangering her relation with +Kestner, her betrothed. In those years, also, he formed a matrimonial +engagement with Elizabeth Schoenemann (Lili), the rupture of which, I +must think, was a real misfortune for the poet. It came about by no +fault of his. Her family had from the first opposed themselves to the +match on the ground of social disparity. For even in mercantile +Frankfort rank was strongly marked; and the Goethes, though respectable +people, were beneath the Schoenemanns in the social scale. Goethe's +genius went for nothing with Madame Schoenemann; she wanted for her +daughter an aristocratic husband, not a literary one,--one who had +wealth in possession, and not merely, as Goethe had, in prospect. How +far Lili was influenced by her mother's and brother's representations it +is impossible to say; however, she showed herself capricious, was +sometimes cold, or seemed so to him, while favoring the advances of +others. Goethe was convinced that she did not entertain for him that +devoted love without which he felt that their union could not be a happy +one. They separated; but on her death-bed she confessed to a friend that +all she was, intellectually and morally, she owed to him. + +In 1775 our poet was invited by the young Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl +August,--whose acquaintance he had made at Frankfort and at Mentz, his +junior by two or three years,--to establish himself in civil service at +the Grand-Ducal Court. The father, who had other views for his son, and +was not much inclined to trust in princes, objected; many wondered, some +blamed. Goethe himself appears to have wavered with painful indecision, +and at last to have followed a mysterious impulse rather than a clear +conviction or deliberate choice. His Heidelberg friend and hostess +sought still to detain him, when the last express from Weimar drove up +to the door. To her he replied in the words of his own Egmont:-- + +"Say no more! Goaded by invisible spirits, the sun-steeds of time run +away with the light chariot of our destiny; there is nothing for it but +to keep our courage, hold tight the reins, and guide the wheels now +right, now left, avoiding a stone here, a fall there. Whither away? Who +knows? Scarcely one remembers whence he came." + +It does not appear that he ever repented this most decisive step of his +life-journey, nor does there appear to have been any reason why he +should. A position, an office of some kind, he needs must have. Even +now, the life of a writer by profession, with no function but that of +literary composition, is seldom a prosperous one; in Goethe's day, when +literature was far less remunerative than it is in ours, it was seldom +practicable. Unless he had chosen to be maintained by his father, some +employment besides that of book-making was an imperative necessity. The +alternative of that which was offered--the one his father would have +chosen--was that of a plodding jurist in a country where forensic +pleading was unknown, and where the lawyer's profession offered no scope +for any of the higher talents with which Goethe was endowed. On the +whole, it was a happy chance that called him to the little capital of +the little Grand-Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. If the State was one of petty +dimensions (a kind of pocket-kingdom, like so many of the +principalities of Germany), it nevertheless included some of the fairest +localities, and one at least of the most memorable in Europe,--the +Wartburg, where Luther translated the Bible, where Saint Elizabeth +dispensed the blessings of her life, where the Minnesingers are said to +have held their poetic tournament,-- + + "Heinrich von Ofterdingen, + Wolfram von Eschenbach." + +It included also the University of Jena, which at that time numbered +some of the foremost men of Germany among its professors. It was a +miniature State and a miniature town; one wonders that Goethe, who would +have shone the foremost star in Berlin or Vienna, could content himself +with so narrow a field. But Vienna and Berlin did not call him until it +was too late,--until patronage was needless; and Weimar did. A miniature +State,--but so much the greater his power and freedom and the +opportunity of beneficent action. + +No prince was ever more concerned to promote in every way the welfare of +his subjects than Karl August; and in all his works undertaken for this +purpose, Goethe was his foremost counsellor and aid. The most important +were either suggested by him or executed under his direction. Had he +never written a poem, or given to the world a single literary +composition, he would still have led, as a Weimar official, a useful and +beneficent life. But the knowledge of the world and of business, the +social and other experience gained in this way, was precisely the +training which he needed,--and which every poet needs,--for the +broadening and deepening and perfection of his art. Friedrich von +Mueller, in his valuable treatise of "Goethe as a Man of Affairs," tells +us how he traversed every portion of the country to learn what advantage +might be taken of topographical peculiarities, what provision made for +local necessities. "Everywhere--on hilltops crowned with primeval +forests, in the depths of gorges and shafts--Nature met her favorite +with friendly advances, and revealed to him many a desired secret." +Whatever was privately gained in this way was applied to public uses. He +endeavored to infuse new life into the mining business, and to make +himself familiar with all its technical requirements. For that end he +revived his chemical experiments. New roads were built, hydraulic +operations were conducted on more scientific principles, fertile meadows +were won from the river Saale by systematic drainage, and in many a +struggle with Nature an intelligently persistent will obtained +the victory. + +Nor was it with material obstacles only that the poet-minister had to +contend. In the exercise of the powers intrusted to him he often +encountered the fierce opposition of party interest and stubborn +prejudice, and was sometimes driven to heroic and despotic measures in +order to accomplish a desired result,--as when he foiled the +machinations of the Jena professors in his determination to save the +University library, and when, in spite of the opposition of the leading +burghers, he demolished the city wall. + +In 1786 Goethe was enabled to realize his cherished dream of a journey +to Italy. There he spent a year and a half in the diligent study and +admiring enjoyment of the treasures of art which made that country then, +even more than now, the mark and desire of the civilized world. He came +back an altered man. Intellectually and morally he had made in that +brief space, under new influences, a prodigious stride. His sudden +advance while they had remained stationary separated him from his +contemporaries. The old associations of the Weimar world, which still +revolved its little round, the much-enlightened traveller had outgrown. +People thought him cold and reserved. It was only that the gay, +impulsive youth had ripened into an earnest, sedate man. He found +Germany jubilant over Schiller's "Robbers" and other writings +representative of the "storm-and-stress" school, which his maturity had +left far behind, his own contributions to which he had come to hate. +Schiller, who first made his acquaintance at this time, writes +to Koerner:-- + +"I doubt that we shall ever become intimate. Much that to me is still of +great interest he has already outlived. He is so far beyond me, not so +much in years as in experience and culture, that we can never come +together in one course." + +How greatly Schiller erred in the supposition that they never could +become intimate, how close the intimacy which grew up between them, what +harmony of sentiment, how friendly and mutually helpful their +co-operation, is sufficiently notorious. + +But such was the first aspect which Goethe presented to strangers at +this period of his life; he rather repelled than attracted, until nearer +acquaintance learned rightly to interpret the man, and intellectual or +moral affinity bridged the chasm which seemed to divide him from his +kind. In part, too, the distance and reserve of which people complained +was a necessary measure of self-defence against the disturbing +importunities of social life. "From Rome," says Friedrich von Mueller, +"from the midst of the richest and grandest life, dates the stern maxim +of 'Renunciation' which governed his subsequent being and doing, and +which furnished his only guarantee of mental equipoise and peace." + +His literary works hitherto had been spasmodic and lawless effusions, +the escapes of a gushing, turbulent youth. In Rome he had learned the +sacred significance of art. The consciousness of his true vocation had +been awakened in him; and to that, on the eve of his fortieth year, he +thenceforth solemnly devoted the remainder of his life. He obtained +release from the more onerous of his official engagements, retaining +only such functions as accorded with his proper calling as a man of +letters and of science. He renounced his daily intercourse with Frau von +Stein, though still retaining and manifesting his unabated friendship +for the woman to whom in former years he had devoted so large a portion +of his time, and employed himself in giving forth those immortal words +which have settled forever his place among the stars of first magnitude +in the intellectual world. + +Noticeable and often noted was the charm and (when arrived to maturity) +the grand effect of his personal presence. Physical beauty is not the +stated accompaniment, nor even the presumable adjunct, of intellectual +greatness. In Goethe, as perhaps in no other, the two were combined. A +wondrous presence!--on this point the voices are one and the witnesses +many. "Goethe was with us," so writes Heinse to one of his friends; "a +beautiful youth of twenty-five, full of genius and force from the crown +of his head to the sole of his foot; a heart full of feeling, a spirit +full of fire, who with eagle wings _ruit immensus ore profundo_." Jacobi +writes: "The more I think of it, the more impossible it seems to me to +communicate to any one who has not seen Goethe any conception of this +extraordinary creature of God." Lavater says: "Unspeakably sweet, an +indescribable appearance, the most terrible and lovable of men." +Hufeland, the chief medical celebrity of Germany, describes his +appearance in early manhood: "Never shall I forget the impression which +he made as 'Orestes' in Greek costume. You thought you beheld an Apollo. +Never was seen in any man such union of physical and spiritual +perfection and beauty as at that time in Goethe." More remarkable still +is the testimony of Wieland, who had reason to be offended, having been +before their acquaintance the subject of Goethe's sharp satire. But +immediately at their first meeting, sitting at table "by the side," he +says, "of this glorious youth, I was radically cured of all my +vexation.... Since this morning," he wrote to Jacobi, "my soul is as +full of Goethe as a dewdrop is of the morning sun." And to Zimmermann: +"He is in every respect the greatest, best, most splendid human being +that ever God created." Goethe was then twenty-six. Henry Crabbe +Robinson, who saw him at the age of fifty-two, reports him one of the +most "oppressively handsome" men he had ever seen, and speaks +particularly as all who have described him speak, of his wonderfully +brilliant eyes. Those eyes, we are told, had lost nothing of their +lustre, nor his head its natural covering, at the age of eighty. + +Among the heroic qualities notable in Goethe, I reckon his faithful and +unflagging industry. Here was a man who took pains with himself,--_liess +sich's sauer werden,_--and made the most of himself. He speaks of +wasting, while a student in Leipsic, "the beautiful time;" and certainly +neither at Leipsic nor afterward at Strasburg did he toil as his Wagner +in "Faust" would have done. But he was always learning. In the +lecture-room or out of it, with pen and books or gay companions, he was +taking in, to give forth again in dramatic or philosophic form the world +of his experience. + +A frolicsome youth may leave something to regret in the way of time +misspent; but Goethe the man was no dawdler, no easy-going Epicurean. On +the whole, he made the most of himself, and stands before the world a +notable instance of a complete life. He would do the work which was +given him to do. He would not die till the second part of "Faust" was +brought to its predetermined close. By sheer force of will he lived till +that work was done. Smitten at fourscore by the death of his son, and by +deaths all around, he kept to his task. "The idea of duty alone sustains +me; the spirit is willing, the flesh must." When "Faust" was finished, +the strain relaxed. "My remaining days," he said, "I may consider a free +gift; it matters little what I do now, or whether I do anything." And +six months later he died. + +A complete life! A life of strenuous toil! At home and abroad,--in +Italy and Sicily, at Ilmenau and Carlsbad, as in his study at +Weimar,--with eye or pen or speech, he was always at work. A man of +rigid habits; no lolling or lounging. "He showed me," says Eckermann, +"an elegant easy-chair which he had bought to-day at auction. 'But,' +said he, 'I shall never or rarely use it; all indolent habits are +against my nature. You see in my chamber no sofa; I sit always in my old +wooden chair, and never, till a few weeks ago, have permitted even a +leaning place for my head to be added. If surrounded by tasteful +furniture, my thoughts are arrested; I am placed in an agreeable but +passive state. Unless we are accustomed to them from early youth, +splendid chambers and elegant furniture had better be left to people +without thoughts.'" This in his eighty-second year! + +A widely diffused prejudice regarding the personal character of Goethe +refuses to credit him with any moral worth accordant with his bodily and +mental gifts. It figures him a libertine,--heartless, loveless, bad. I +do not envy the mental condition of those who can rest in the belief +that a really great poet can be a bad man. Be assured that the fruits of +genius have never grown, and will never grow, in such a soil. Of all +great poets Byron might seem at first glance to constitute an exception +to this--I venture to call it--law of Nature. Yet hear what Walter +Scott, a sufficient judge, said of Byron:-- + +"The errors of Lord Byron arose neither from depravity of heart--for +nature had not committed the anomaly of uniting to such extraordinary +talents an imperfect moral sense--nor from feelings dead to the +admiration of virtue. No man had ever a kinder heart for sympathy, or a +more open hand for the relief of distress; and no mind was ever more +formed for enthusiastic admiration of noble actions." + +The case of Goethe requires no appeal to general principles. It only +requires that the charges against him be fairly investigated; that he be +tried by documentary evidence, and by the testimony of competent +witnesses. The mistake is made of confusing breaches of conventional +decorum with essential depravity. + +That Goethe was faulty in many ways may be freely conceded. But surely +there is a wide difference between not being faultless and being +definitely bad. To call a man bad is to say that the evil in him +preponderates over the good. In the case of Goethe the balance was +greatly the other way. It has been said that he abused the confidence +reposed in him by women; that he encouraged affection which he did not +reciprocate for artistic purposes. The charge is utterly groundless; and +in the case of Bettine has been refuted by irrefragable proof. To say +that he was wanting in love, heartless, cold, is ridiculously false. Yet +the charge is constantly reiterated in the face of facts,--reiterated +with undoubting assurance and a certain complacency which seems to say, +"Thank God! we are not as this man was." There is a satisfaction which +some people feel in _spotting_ their man,--Burns drank; Coleridge took +opium; Byron was a rake; Goethe was cold: by these marks we know them. +The poet found it necessary, as I have said, in later years, under +social pressure, for the sake of the work which was given him to do, to +fortify himself with a mail of reserve. And this, indeed, contrasted +strangely with his former _abandon_, and with the customary gush of +German sentimentality. It was common then for Germans who had known each +other by report, and were mutually attracted, when first they met, to +fall on each other's necks and kiss and weep. Goethe, as a young man, +had indulged such fervors; but in old age he had lost this effusiveness, +or saw fit to restrain himself outwardly, while his kindly nature still +glowed with its pristine fires. He wrote to Frau von Stein, "I may truly +say that my innermost condition does not correspond to my outward +behavior." Hence the charge of coldness. Say that Mount Aetna is cold: +do we not see the snow on its sides? + +But he was unpatriotic; he occupied himself with poetry, and did not cry +out while his country was in the death-throes--so it seemed--of the +struggle with France! But what should he have done? What _could_ he +have done? What would his single arm or declamation have availed? No man +more than Goethe longed for the rehabilitation of Germany. In his own +way he wrought for that end; he could work effectually in no other. That +enigmatical composition,--the "Maerchen,"--according to the latest +interpretation, indicates how, in Goethe's view, that end was to be +accomplished. To one who considers the relation of ideas to events, it +will not seem extravagant when I say that to Goethe, more than to any +one individual, Germany is indebted for her emancipation, independence, +and present political regeneration.[6] + +[Footnote 6: (The following interpretation of the "Maerchen" is condensed +from a later portion of this essay, and used here as a foot-note for the +light it throws upon Goethe's political career.) + +In the summer of 1795 Goethe composed for Schiller's new magazine, "Die +Horen," a prose poem known in German literature as _Das Maerchen,_--" +_The_ Tale;" as if it were the only one, or the one which more than +another deserves that appellation.... + +Goethe gave this essay to the public as a riddle which would probably be +unintelligible at the time, but which might perhaps find an interpreter +after many days, when the hints contained in it should be verified. +Since its first appearance commentators have exercised their ingenuity +upon it, perceiving it to be allegorical, but until recently without +success.... I follow Dr. Herman's Baumgart's lead in the exposition +which I now offer. + +"The Tale" is a prophetic vision of the destinies of Germany,--an +allegorical foreshowing at the close of the eighteenth century of what +Germany was yet to become, and has in great part already become. A +position is predicted for her like that which she occupied from the time +of Charles the Great to the time of Charles V.,--a period during which +the Holy Roman Empire of Germany was the leading secular power in +Western Europe. That time had gone by. Since the middle of the sixteenth +century Germany had declined, and at the date of this writing (1795) had +nearly reached her darkest day. Disintegrated, torn by conflicting +interests, pecked by petty rival princes, despairing of her own future, +it seemed impossible that she should ever again become a power among the +nations. Goethe felt this; he felt it as profoundly as any German of his +day ... and he characteristically went into himself and studied the +situation. The result was this wonderful composition,--"Das Maerchen." He +perceived that Germany must die to be born again. She did die, and is +born again. He had the sagacity to foresee the dissolution of the Holy +Roman Empire,--an event which took place eleven years later, in 1806. +The Empire is figured by the composite statue of the fourth King in the +subterranean Temple, which crumbles to pieces when that Temple, +representing Germany's past, emerges and stands above ground by the +River. The resurrection of the Temple and its stand by the River is the +_denouement_ of the Tale. And that signifies, allegorically, the +rehabilitation of Germany.] + +It is true, his writings contain no declamations against tyrants, and +no tirades in favor of liberty. He believed that oppression existed only +through ignorance and blindness, and these he was all his life long +seeking to remove. He believed that true liberty is attainable only +through mental illumination, and that he was all his life long seeking +to promote. + +He was no agitator, no revolutionist; he had no faith in violent +measures. Human welfare, he judged, is not to be advanced in that way; +is less dependent on forms of polity than on the life within. But if the +test of patriotism is the service rendered to one's country, who more +patriotic than he? Lucky for us and the world that he persisted to serve +her in his own way, and not as the agitators claimed that he should. It +was clear to him then, and must be clear to us now, that he could not +have been what they demanded, and at the same time have given to his +country and the world what he did. + +As a courtier and favorite of Fortune, it was inevitable that Goethe +should have enemies. They have done what they could to blacken his name; +and to this day the shadow they have cast upon it in part remains. But +of this be sure, that no selfish, loveless egoist could have had and +retained such friends. The man whom the saintly Fraulein von Klettenberg +chose for her friend, whom clear-sighted, stern-judging Herder declared +that he loved as he did his own soul; the man whose thoughtful kindness +is celebrated by Herder's incomparable wife, whom Karl August and the +Duchess Luise cherished as a brother; the man whom children everywhere +welcomed as their ready playfellow and sure ally, of whom pious Jung +Stilling lamented that admirers of Goethe's genius knew so little of the +goodness of his heart,--can this have been a bad man, heartless, cold? + +II. THE WRITER. + +I have said that to Goethe, above all writers, belongs the distinction +of having excelled, not experimented merely,--that, others have also +done,--but excelled in many distinct kinds. To the lyrist he added the +dramatist, to the dramatist the novelist, to the novelist the mystic +seer, and to all these the naturalist and scientific discoverer. The +history of literature exhibits no other instance in which a great poet +has supplemented his proper orbit with so wide an epicyle. + +In poetry, as in science, the ground of his activity was a passionate +love of Nature, which dates from his boyhood. At the age of fifteen, +recovering from a sickness caused by disappointment in a boyish affair +of the heart, he betook himself with his sketch-book to the woods. "In +the farthest depth of the forest," he says, "I sought out a solemn spot, +where ancient oaks and beeches formed a shady retreat. A slight +declivity of the soil made the merit of the ancient boles more +conspicuous. This space was inclosed by a thicket of bushes, between +which peeped moss-covered rocks, mighty and venerable, affording a rapid +fall to an affluent brook." + +The sketches made of these objects at that early age could have had no +artistic value, although the methodical father was careful to mount and +preserve them. But what the pencil, had it been the pencil of the +greatest master, could never glean from scenes like these, what art +could never grasp, what words can never formulate, the heart of the boy +then imbibed, assimilated, resolved in his innermost being. There awoke +in him then those mysterious feelings, those unutterable yearnings, that +pensive joy in the contemplation of Nature, which leavened all his +subsequent life, and the influence of which is so perceptible in his +poetry, especially in his lyrics.... + +The first literary venture by which Goethe became widely known was "Goetz +von Berlichingen," a dramatic picture of the sixteenth century, in which +the principal figure is a predatory noble of that name. A dramatic +picture, but not in any true sense a play, it owed its popularity at the +time partly to the truth of its portraitures, partly to its choice of a +native subject and the truly German feeling which pervades it. It was a +new departure in German literature, and perplexed the critics as much as +it delighted the general public. It anticipated by a quarter of a +century what is technically called the Romantic School. + +"Goetz von Berlichingen" was soon followed by the "Sorrows of +Werther,"--one of those books which, on their first appearance have +taken the world by storm, and of which Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" +is the latest example. It is a curious circumstance that a great poet +should have won his first laurels by prose composition. Sir Walter Scott +eclipsed the splendor of his poems by the popularity of the Waverley +novels. Goethe eclipsed the world-wide popularity of his "Werther" by +the splendor of his poems. + +Of one who was great in so many kinds, it may seem difficult to decide +in what department he most excelled. Without undertaking to measure and +compare what is incommensurable, I hold that Goethe's genius is +essentially lyrical. Whatever else may be claimed for him, he is, first +of all, and chiefly, a singer. Deepest in his nature, the most innate of +all his faculties, was the faculty of song, of rhythmical utterance. The +first to manifest itself in childhood, it was still active at the age of +fourscore. The lyrical portions of the second part of "Faust," some of +which were written a short time before his death, are as spirited, the +versification as easy, the rhythm as perfect, as the songs of his youth. + +As a lyrist he is unsurpassed, I venture to say unequalled, if we take +into view the whole wide range of his performance in this kind,--from +the ballads, the best-known of his smaller poems, and those light +fugitive pieces, those bursts of song which came to him without effort, +and with such a rush that in order to arrest and preserve them he +seized, as he tells us, the first scrap of paper that came to hand and +wrote upon it diagonally, if it happened so to lie on his table, lest, +through the delay of selecting and placing, the inspiration should be +checked and the poem evaporate,--from these to such stately compositions +as the "Zueignung," or dedication of his poems, the "Weltseele" and the +"Orphic Sayings,"--in short, from poetry that writes itself, that +springs spontaneously in the mind, to poetry that is written with +elaborate art. There is this distinction, and it is one of the most +marked in lyric verse. Compare in English poetry, by way of +illustration, the snatches of song in Shakspeare's plays with +Shakspeare's sonnets; compare Burns with Gray; compare Jean Ingelow +with Browning. + +Goethe's ballads have an undying popularity; they have been translated, +and most of them are familiar to English readers.... + +In the Elegies written after his return from Italy, the author figures +as a classic poet inspired by the Latin Muse. The choicest of these +elegies--the "Alexis and Dora"--is not so much an imitation of the +ancients as it is the manifestation of a side of the poet's nature which +he had in common with the ancients. He wrote as a Greek or Roman might +write, because he felt his subject as a Greek or Roman might feel it. + +"Hermann und Dorothea," which Schiller pronounced +the acme not only of Goethean but of all modern art, +was written professedly as an attempt in the Homeric[7] +style, motived by Wolf's "Prolegomena" and Voss's +"Luise." It is Homeric only in its circumstantiality, +in the repetition of the same epithets applied to the +same persons, and in the Greek realism of Goethe's +nature. The theme is very un-Homeric; it is thoroughly +modern and German,-- + "Germans themselves I present, to the humbler dwelling I lead you, + Where with Nature as guide man is natural still." [8] + +[Footnote 7: "Doch Homeride zu sein, auch noch als letzter, ist schoen."] + +[Footnote 8: From the Elegy entitled "Hermann und Dorothea."] + +This exquisite poem has been translated into English hexameters with +great fidelity by Miss Ellen Frothingham. + +"Iphigenie auf Tauris" handles a Greek theme, exhibits Greek characters, +and was hailed on its first appearance as a genuine echo of the Greek +drama. Mr. Lewes denies it that character; and certainly it is not +Greek, but Christian, in sentiment. It differs from the extant drama of +Euripides, who treats the same subject, in the Christian feeling which +determines its _denouement_.... + +A large portion of Goethe's productions have taken the dramatic form; +yet he cannot be said, theatrically speaking, to have been, like +Schiller, a successful dramatist. His plays, with the exception of +"Egmont" and the First Part of "Faust," have not commanded the stage; +they form no part, I believe, of the stock of any German theatre. The +characterizations are striking, but the positions are not dramatic. +Single scenes in some of them are exceptions,--like that in "Egmont," +where Clara endeavors to rouse her fellow-citizens to the rescue of the +Count, while Brackenburg seeks to restrain her, and several of the +scenes in the First Part of "Faust." But, on the whole, the interest of +Goethe's dramas is psychological rather than scenic. Especially is this +the case with "Tasso," one of the author's noblest works, where the +characters are not so much actors as metaphysical portraitures. +Schiller, in his plays, had always the stage in view. Goethe, on the +contrary, wrote for readers, or cultivated, reflective hearers, not +spectators..... + +When I say, then, that Goethe, compared with Schiller, failed of +dramatic success, I mean that his talent did not lie in the line of +plays adapted to the stage as it is; or if the talent was not wanting, +his taste did not incline to such performance. He was no playwright. + +But there is another and higher sense of the word _dramatic_, where +Goethe is supreme,--the sense in which Dante's great poem is called +_Commedia_, a play. There is a drama whose scope is beyond the compass +of any earthly stage,--a drama not for theatre-goers, to be seen on the +boards, but for intellectual contemplation of men and angels. Such a +drama is "Faust," of which I shall speak hereafter. + +Of Goethe's prose works,--I mean works of prose fiction,--the most +considerable are two philosophical novels, "Wilhelm Meister" and the +"Elective Affinities." + +In the first of these the various and complex motives which have shaped +the composition may be comprehended in the one word _education_,--the +education of life for the business of life. The main thread of the +narrative traces through a labyrinth of loosely connected scenes and +events the growth of the hero's character,--a progressive training by +various influences, passional, intellectual, social, moral, and +religious. These are represented by the _personnel_ of the story. In +accordance with this design, the hero himself, if so he may be called, +has no pronounced traits, is more negative than positive, but is brought +into contact with many very positive characters. His life is the stage +on which these characters perform. A ground is thus provided for the +numerous portraits of which the author's large experience furnished the +originals, and for lessons of practical wisdom derived from his close +observation of men and things and his lifelong reflection thereon. + +"Wilhelm Meister," if not the most artistic, is the most instructive, +and in that view, next to "Faust," the most important, of Goethe's +works. In it he has embodied his philosophy of life,--a philosophy far +enough removed from the epicurean views which ignorance has ascribed to +him,--a philosophy which is best described by the term _ascetic_. Its +keynote is Renunciation. "With renunciation begins the true life," was +the author's favorite maxim; and the second part of "Wilhelm +Meister"--the _Wanderjahre_--bears the collateral title _Die +Entsagenden_; that is, the "Renouncing" or the "Self-denying." The +characters that figure in this second part--most of whom have had their +training in the first--form a society whose principle of union is +self-renunciation and a life of beneficent activity.... + +The most fascinating character in "Wilhelm Meister"--the wonder and +delight of the reader--is Mignon, the child-woman,--a pure creation of +Goethe's genius, without a prototype in literature. Readers of Scott +will remember Fenella, the elfish maiden in "Peveril of the Peak." Scott +says in his Preface to that novel: "The character of Fenella, which from +its peculiarity made a favorable impression on the public, was far from +being original. The fine sketch of Mignon in Wilhelm Meister's +_Lehrjahre_--a celebrated work from the pen of Goethe--gave the idea of +such a being. But the copy will be found to be greatly different from my +great prototype; nor can I be accused of borrowing anything save the +general idea." + +As I remember Fenella, the resemblance to Mignon is merely superficial. +A certain weirdness is all they have in common. The intensity of the +inner life, the unspeakable longing, the cry of the unsatisfied heart, +the devout aspiration, the presentiment of the heavenly life which +characterize Mignon are peculiar to her; they constitute her +individuality. Wilhelm has found her a kidnapped child attached to a +strolling circus company, and has rescued her from the cruel hands of +the manager. Thenceforth she clings to him with a passionate devotion, +in which gratitude for her deliverance, filial affection, and the love +of a maiden for her hero are strangely blended. Afflicted with a disease +of the heart, she is subject to terrible convulsions, which increase the +tenderness of her protector for the doomed child. After one of these +attacks, in which she had been suffering frightful pain, we read:-- + +"He held her fast. She wept; and no tongue can express the force of +those tears. Her long hair had become unfastened and hung loose over her +shoulders. Her whole being seemed to be melting away.... At last she +raised herself up. A mild cheerfulness gleamed from her face. 'My +father!' she cried, 'you will not leave me! You will be my father! I +will be your child.' Softly, before the door, a harp began to sound. The +old Harper was bringing his heartiest songs as an evening sacrifice to +his friend." + +Then bursts on the reader that world-famed song, in which the soul of +Mignon, with its unconquerable yearnings, is forever embalmed,--"Kennst +du das Land":-- + + "Know'st thou the land that bears the citron's bloom? + The golden orange glows 'mid verdant gloom, + A gentle wind from heaven's deep azure blows, + The myrtle low, and high the laurel grows,-- + Know'st thou the land?[9] + Oh, there! oh, there! + Would I with thee, my best beloved, repair." ... + +[Footnote 9: Literally, "Know'st thou it well?" But the word "well," in +this case, does not answer to the German _wohl_.] + +The "Elective Affinities" has been strangely misinterpreted as having +an immoral tendency, as encouraging conjugal infidelity, and approving +"free love." That any one who has read the work with attention to the +end could so misjudge it seems incredible. Precisely the reverse of +this, its aim is to enforce the sanctity of the nuptial bond by showing +the tragic consequences resulting from its violation, though only in +thought and feeling.... + +Here, a word concerning one merit of Goethe which seems to me not to +have been sufficiently appreciated by even his admirers,--his loving +skill in the delineation of female character; the commanding place he +assigns to woman in his writings; his full recognition of the importance +of feminine influence in human destiny. The prophetic utterance, which +forms the conclusion of "Faust,"--"The ever womanly draws us on,"--is +the summing up of Goethe's own experience of life. Few men had ever such +wide opportunities of acquaintance with women. If, on the one hand, his +loves had revealed to him the passional side of feminine nature, he had +enjoyed, on the other, the friendship of some of the purest and noblest +of womankind. Conspicuous among these are Fraeulein von Klettenberg and +the Duchess Luise, whom no one, says Lewes, ever speaks of but in terms +of veneration. No poet but Shakspeare, and scarcely Shakspeare, has set +before the world so rich a gallery of female portraits. They range from +the lowest to the highest,--from the wanton to the saint; they are drawn +in firm lines, and limned in imperishable colors, ... each bearing the +stamp of her own individuality, and each confessing a master's hand. +These may be considered as representing different phases of the poet's +experience,--different _stadia_ in his view of life. "The ever womanly +draws us on." So Goethe, of all men most susceptible of feminine +influence, was led by it from weakness to strength, from dissipation to +concentration, from doubt to clearness, from tumult to repose, from the +earthly to the heavenly. + + "FAUST." + +Goethe appears to have derived his knowledge of the Faust legend partly +from the work of Widmann, published in 1599,[10] partly from another +more modern in its form, which appeared in 1728, and partly from the +puppet plays exhibited in Frankfort and other cities of Germany, of +which that legend was then a favorite theme. He was not the only writer +of that day who made use of it. Some thirty of his contemporaries had +produced their "Fausts" during the interval which elapsed between the +inception and publication of his great work. Oblivion overtook them all, +with the exception of Lessing's, of which a few fragments are left; the +manuscript of the complete work was unaccountably lost on its way to the +publisher, between Dresden and Leipsic. + +[Footnote 10: The earlier work of Spiess (1588) was translated into +English and furnished Marlowe with the subject-matter of his "Dr. +Faustus."] + +The composition of "Faust," as we learn from Goethe's biography, +proceeded spasmodically, with many and long interruptions between the +inception and conclusion. Projected in 1769 at the age of twenty, it was +not completed till the year 1831, at the age of eighty-two.... + +But the effect of the long arrest, which after Goethe's removal to +Weimar delayed the completion of the "Faust," is most apparent in the +wide gulf which separates, as to character and style, the Second Part +from the First. So great, indeed, is the distance between the two that, +without external historical proofs of identity, it would seem from +internal evidence altogether improbable, in spite of the slender thread +of the fable which connects them, that both poems were the work of one +and the same author. And really the author was not the same. The change +which had come over Goethe on his return from Italy had gone down to the +very springs of his intellectual life. The fervor and the rush, the +sparkle and foam of his early productions, had been replaced by the +stately calm and the luminous breadth of view that is born of +experience. The torrent of the mountains had become the river of the +plain; romantic impetuosity had changed to classic repose. He could +still, by occasional efforts of the will, cast himself back into the old +moods, resume the old thread, and so complete the first "Faust." But we +may confidently assert that he could not, after the age of forty, have +originated the poem, any more than before his Italian tour he could have +written the second "Faust," purporting to be a continuation of the +first. The difference in spirit and style is enormous. + +As to the question which of the two is the greater production, it is +like asking which is the greater, Dante's "Commedia" or Shakspeare's +"Macbeth"? They are incommensurable. As to which is the more generally +interesting, no question can arise. There are thousands who enjoy and +admire the First Part to one who even reads the Second. The interest of +the former is poetic and thoroughly human; the interest of the other is +partly poetic, but mostly philosophic and scientific.... + +The symbolical character of "Faust" is assumed by all the critics, and +in part confessed by the author himself. Besides the general symbolism +pervading and motiving the whole,--a symbolism of human destiny,--and +here and there a shadowing forth of the poet's private experience, there +are special allusions--local, personal, enigmatic conceits--which have +furnished topics of learned discussion and taxed the ingenuity of +numerous commentators. We need not trouble ourselves with these +subtleties. But little exegesis is needed for a right comprehension of +the true and substantial import of the work. + +The key to the plot is given in the Prologue in Heaven. The devil, in +the character of Mephistopheles, asks permission to tempt Faust; he +boasts his ability to get entire possession of his soul and drag him +down to hell. The Lord grants the permission, and prophesies the failure +of the attempt:-- + +"Be it allowed! Draw this spirit from its Source if you can lay hold of +him; bear him with you on your downward path, and stand ashamed when you +are forced to confess that a good man in his dark strivings has a +consciousness of the right way." + +Here we have a hint of the author's design. He does not intend that the +devil shall succeed; he does not mean to adopt the conclusion of the +legend and send Faust to hell. He had the penetration to see, and he +meant to show, that the notion implied in the old popular superstition +of selling one's soul to the devil--the notion that evil can obtain the +entire and final possession of the soul--is a fallacy; that the soul is +not man's to dispose of, and cannot be so traded away. We are the +soul's, not the soul ours. Evil is self-limited; the good in man must +finally prevail. So long as he strives he is not lost; Heaven will come +to the aid of his better nature. This is the doctrine, the philosophy, +of "Faust." In the First Part, stung by disappointment in his search of +knowledge, by failure to lay hold of the superhuman, and urged on by his +baser propensities personified in Mephistopheles, Faust abandons himself +to sensual pleasure,--seduces innocence, burdens his soul with heavy +guilt, and seems to be entirely given over to evil. This Part ends with +Mephistopheles' imperious call,--"Her zu mir,"--as if secure of his +victim. Before the appearance of the Second Part, the reader was at +liberty to accept that conclusion. But in the Second Part Faust +gradually wakes from the intoxication of passion, outgrows the dominion +of appetite, plans great and useful works, whereby Mephistopheles loses +more and more his hold of him; and after his death is baffled in his +attempt to appropriate Faust's immortal part, to which the heavenly +Powers assert their right.... + +The character of Margaret is unique; its duplicate is not to be found in +all the picture galleries of fiction. Shakspeare, in the wide range of +his feminine _personnel_, has no portrait like this. A girl of low birth +and vulgar circumstance, imbued with the ideas and habits of her class, +speaking the language of that class from which she never for a moment +deviates into finer phrase, takes on, through the magic handling of the +poet, an ideal beauty. Externally common and prosaic in all her ways, +she is yet thoroughly poetic, transfigured in our conception by her +perfect love. To that love, unreasoning, unsuspecting,--to the excess of +that which in itself is no fault, but beautiful and good,--her fall and +ruin are due. Her story is the tragedy of her sex in all time. As +Schlegel said of the "Prometheus Bound,"--"It is not a single tragedy, +but tragedy itself." ... + +[The First Part ends with the prison scene, where poor Margaret, +escaping by death, ascends to heaven, while Mephistopheles, shouting an +imperious "Hither to me!" disappears with Faust.] The reader is allowed +to suppose--and most readers did suppose--that the author meant it +should be inferred that the devil had secured his victim, and that +Faust, according to the legend, had paid the forfeit of his soul to the +powers of hell. + +But Faust reappears in a new poem,--the Second Part. He is there +introduced sleeping, as if burying in torpor the lusts and crimes and +sorrows of his past career. Pitying spirits are about him, to heal his +woes and promote his return to a better life.... + +[At the end of his hundred years of earthly life,] Mephistopheles ... +fails to secure the immortal part of Faust, which the angels appropriate +and bear aloft: + + "This member of the upper spheres + We rescue from the devil; + For whoso strives and perseveres + May be redeemed from evil." + +The last two lines may be supposed to contain the author's justification +of Mephistopheles' defeat and Faust's salvation. Though a man surrender +himself to evil, if there is that in him which evil cannot satisfy, an +impulse by which he outgrows the gratifications of vice, extends his +horizon and lifts his desires, pursues an onward course until he learns +to place his aims outside of himself, and to seek satisfaction in works +of public utility,--he is beyond the power of Satan: he may be redeemed +from evil. + +One could wish, indeed, that more decisive marks of moral development +had been exhibited in the latter stages of Faust's career. But here +comes in the Christian doctrine of Grace, which Goethe applies to the +problem of man's destiny. Faust is represented as saved by no merit of +his own, but by the interest which Heaven has in every soul in which +there is the possibility of a heavenly life. + +And so the new-born ascending spirit is committed by the Mater gloriosa +to the tutelage of Gretchen [Margaret],--_una poenitentium,_--now +purified from all the stains of her earthly life, to whom is given the +injunction:-- + + "Lift thyself up to higher spheres! + When he divines, he'll follow thee." + +And the Mystic Choir chants the epilogue which embodies the moral of +the play:-- + + "All that is perishing + Types the ideal; + Dream of our cherishing + Thus becomes real. + Superhumanly + Here it is done; + The ever womanly + Draweth us on." + + + +ALFRED (LORD) TENNYSON. + + +1809-1892. + +THE SPIRIT OF MODERN POETRY. + +BY G. MERCER ADAM. + +Of Tennyson what can one write freshly to-day that will not seem but an +echo of what has been said or written of England's noble singer who, on +the death of Wordsworth, now over half a century ago, assumed the +official bays of the English laureateship? Personal homage, of course, +one can pay to the illustrious name, so dear to the heart of the +English-speaking race; but how freshly or vitally can any writer now +speak of that magnificent body of his verse which is the glory of his +age, of the nobility and knightly virtues of its author's character, of +the splendor of his genius, or of the breadth of intellectual and +spiritual interests which was so signally manifested in all that +Tennyson thought and wrote? Among the "Beacon Lights" in the present +series of volumes the Laureate of the age has not hitherto been +included, and to fill the gap the writer of this sketch has ventured, +not, of course, to say all that might be said of the great poet, but +modestly to deal with the man and his art, so that neither his era nor +his work shall go unchronicled or fail of some recognition, however +inadequate, in these pages. + +Tennyson's supreme excellence, it is admitted, lies not so much in his +themes as in his transcendent art. It is this that has given him his +hold upon a cultured age and won for him immortality. His work is the +perfection of literary form, and, in his lyrical pieces especially, his +melody is exquisite. Not less masterly is his power of construction, +while his sensibility to beauty is phenomenal. His secluded life brought +him close to nature's heart and made him familiar with her every voice +and mood. In interpreting these, much of the charm lies in the fidelity +of his descriptions and in the surpassing beauty of the word-painting. +In the Shakespearian sense he lacked the dramatic faculty, and he had +but slender gifts of invention and creation. But broad, if not always +strong, was his intelligence, and keen his interest in the problems of +the time. Though living apart from the world, he was yet of it; and in +many of his poems may be traced not only the doings, but the thought and +tendencies, of his age. His Christianity, though undogmatic, was real +and pervasive, and his love for nature was a devotion. In national +affairs, as befitted the official singer of his country (witness his +fine 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington'), he showed himself +the historic as well as the modern Englishman, and great was his +reverence for law and freedom. Attractive also, if at times somewhat +commonplace, is the quiet domestic sphere which Tennyson has hallowed in +the many modern idylls which depict the joys and sorrows of humble life. +No trait in the poet's many-sided character is more beautiful than the +sympathy he has manifested in these poems with the world's toilers; +while nothing could well be more touching than the pathos with which he +invests their simple annals. + +Typical of the Victorian age in which he lived, Tennyson is also +representative of its highest thought and culture. This is seen not only +in the thought of his verse, but in its splendid forms, and especially +in the technical equipment of the poet. In his dialogues there is much +movement and action, and he had consummate skill in the handling of +metres. Few poets have approached him in the successful writing of blank +verse, which has a delightful cadence as well as calm strength. Above +all his gifts, he was an artist in words, his ear being most sensitively +attuned and his taste pure and refined for the delicate artistry of the +poet's work. In this respect he is a matchless literary workman. Besides +the music of his verse, his thought is ever high, and in his serious +moods consecrated to noble and reverent purposes. In the midst of the +negations and convulsive movements of his day his spirit is always +serene, and his thought, while at times dreamily melancholy, is +conserving and full of faith's highest assurance. His sympathy with his +fellow-man was keen and wide-souled; and though he stood aloof from the +conflict and struggle of his day, he was far from indifferent to its +movements, and with high purpose strove if not to direct at least to +reflect them. This was specially characteristic of the man, and in the +conflict with doubt no poet has more keenly interpreted the mental +struggles of the thoughtful soul and the deep underlying spirit of his +time, or more beneficently given the age an assured ground of faith +while conserving its highest and dearest hopes. Happily, too, unlike +many poets, his own character was lofty and blameless, and hence his +message comes with more consistency, as well as with a higher +inspiration and power. Nor is the message the less impressive for the +note of honest doubt which finds utterance in many a poem, or for the +intimation of a creed that is at once liberal and conservative. With the +evidences before the reader that the poet himself had had his own +soul-wrestlings and periods of mental conflict, his counsellings of +courage and faith are all the more effective, as they are in unison with +his belief in the upward progress of the race, and his unshaken trust in +a higher Power. + +Lacking in intensity of passion and dramatic force, Tennyson here again +is but typical of his era, to him one of reposeful content and calm, +reasoning progress. Of permanent, lasting value much of his verse +undoubtedly is, but not all of it will escape the indifference of +posterity or the measuring-rod and censure, it may be, of the future +critic. He had not the stirring strains or the careless rapture of other +and earlier poets of the motherland,--his characteristic is more +contemplative and brooding,--yet his range is unusually comprehensive +and his power varied and sustained, as well as marked by the highest +qualities of rhythmic beauty. In the idyll, where he specially shines, +we have much that is lovely and limpid, with abounding instances of that +felicitous word-painting for which he was noted. This is especially seen +in the simple pastoral idylls, such as 'Dora,' 'The May Queen,' and 'The +Miller's Daughter,' or in those tender lyrics such as 'Mariana,' 'Sir +Galahad,' 'The Dying Swan,' and 'The Talking Oak.' In the ballads and +songs, how felicitous again is the poet's work, and how rich yet +mellifluous is the strain! Had Tennyson written nothing else but these, +with the verse included in the volumes issued by him in 1832 and 1842, +how high would he have been placed in the choir of song, and how supreme +should we have deemed his art! In "The Princess" alone there are songs +that would have made any poet's reputation, while for music and color, +and especially for perfection of poetic workmanship, they are almost +matchless in their beauty. + +Fortunately, however, the poet was to give us much even beyond these +surpassingly beautiful things, and make a more unique and distinctive +contribution to the verse of his era. In the years that followed the +production of his early writings the poet matures in thought as his art +ripens and reaches still higher qualities of craftsmanship. Recluse as +he was, he moreover had his experiences of life and drank deeply of +sorrow's cup, as we see in "In Memoriam,"--that noble tribute to his +youthful friend, Arthur Hallam, with its grand hymnal qualities and +powerful and reverent lessons for an age shifting in its beliefs and +unconfirmed in its faith. In later work from his pen we also see the +Laureate--for he has now received official recognition from his +nation--in his relations to the culture as well as to the thought of his +time, keeping pace with the age in all its complex engrossments and +problems. This is shown in much and varied work turned out with its +author's loving interest in the poetic art, and with characteristic +delicacy and finish. The most important labor of this later time +includes "The Princess," "Maud and Other Poems," "Enoch Arden," the +dramas "Becket," "Queen Mary," and "Harold," "Tiresias," "Demeter," "The +Foresters," but above all, and most notably, that grand epic of King +Arthur's time,--"The Idylls of the King." In the latter, the most +characteristic, and perhaps the most permanent, of Tennyson's work, the +poet manifests his historic sense and love for England's legendary past, +and achieves his design not only to glorify it, but to imbue it with a +deep ethical motive and underlying purpose, the expression of his own +chivalrous, knightly soul and strenuous, thoughtful, and blameless life. +In these splendid tales of knight-errantry we have the full flower of +the poet's genius, narrated in the true romantic spirit, but with an +ideality and imagination quite Tennysonian, and with a spiritualistic +touch in harmony with "the voice of the age" that reminds us that,-- + + "Our little systems have their day; + They have their day and cease to be: + They are but broken lights of thee, + And thou, O Lord, art more than they." + +It is with such themes and speculations that Tennyson has powerfully and +impressively influenced his age. Beyond and above the mere artistry of +the poet, we recognize his interest in man's higher, spiritual being, +his love for nature, and awe in contemplating the heights and depths of +infinite time and space, ever looking upward and inward at the mysteries +of the world behind the phenomena of sense. It is difficult, in set +theological terms, to define the poet's creed, though we know that he +was won by the Broad Church teaching of his friends, Frederick Robertson +and Denison Maurice, and had himself many a battle to fight with honest +doubts until--as his 'Crossing the Bar' shows us--he finally conquered +and laid them. But while there is an absence of definite doctrine in his +work there is no question about his religious convictions or of his +belief in the eternal verities, the immanence of God in man and the +universe. Throughout his poems he assumes the existence of a great +Spirit and recognizes that our souls are a part of Him, however Faith at +times seems to veil her face from the poet, and all appears a mystery, +though a mystery presided over by infinite Power and Love. The great +problems of metaphysics and of man's origin and destiny, we are told, +occupied much of his thought, and he dwelt upon them with eager, intense +interest, and touched upon them with great candor, earnestness, and +truthfulness. No sophistry could shake his belief in man's immortality, +for without belief in this doctrine the human race, he was convinced, +had not incentive enough to virtue, while all man's inspirations were +otherwise meaningless. For the doctrine of Evolution, in its +materialistic aspect, he had nothing but scorn, though he accepted it in +the more spiritual guise with which Russel Wallace propounded it. If we +come from the brutes we are nevertheless linked with the Divine, he +believed, and it was the Divine in man that was to conquer the brute +within him, and, in the upward struggle, work out salvation. So, in the +realm of physical science, on the principles of which, as Huxley tells +us, he had a great grasp, the poet, while appalled by the mystery, +accepts and indeed rejoices in its truths, though he cannot acquiesce in +a godless world or in the denial of a life to come, in which the race, +through infinite love, shall be brought into union with God. + +But leaving here Tennyson's speculations and beliefs,--a most +interesting part of the poet's analytical and reflective character,--let +us look for a little at the man personally, and record briefly the chief +incidents in his quiet though ideal home-life. To those who know the +Memoir by his son, Hallam Tennyson,--a memoir that while paying honor to +filial reverence and devotion is at the same time and in all respects +most worthy of its high theme,--the events in the poet's life will +hardly need dwelling upon, though they throw much light on, and impart +the distinction of a high dignity to, the Laureate's work. The life +Hallam Tennyson describes was, we know, not lived in the public eye, and +was wholly without sensational elements or any of the vapid interests +which usually attach to a man whose name is, in a special sense, public +property, and about whom the world was eagerly, and often officiously, +curious. The life the poet lived, in a popular sense, lacked all that +usually attracts the masses, for he was personally little known to his +generation, rarely seen among large gatherings of the people, and, great +Englishman as he was, was almost a stranger, in his later years at +least, in the English metropolis, or, if we except the seats of the +universities, in any of the chief towns of the kingdom. And yet, in +another and a higher sense, the century has hardly known among its many +intellectual forces one that has been more influential in its effect +upon literary art, or in certain directions has more potently influenced +the ideals and more profoundly given expression to the ethical and +philosophic thought of the time. Secluded as his life was, it was one +not of obscurity or of mere asceticism; on the contrary, it was rich in +all the elements that make for a great reputation, and ever devoted to +strenuous, elevating purpose, and to an ideal poetic career. + +So far as his tastes and opportunity offered, Tennyson's life, moreover, +was enriched by many wise and noble friendships, and by intimacy with +not a few of the best and most thoughtful minds of his age. It was +spent, we rejoice to think also, in unceasing toil in and for his high +art, with a resulting productiveness which proved the extent and varied +range of his labors as well as the mastery of his craft. + +Until the appearance of the biography referred to, we had known the +Laureate almost wholly through his books. Now, thanks to the +authoritative record of his accomplished surviving son, we know the poet +as he lived, and feel that behind his writings there is a personality of +the most interesting and impressive kind. It is a personality such as +consorts with the opinions which most thoughtful readers of Tennyson's +writings must have had of one of the greatest and serenest minds of the +age,--a poet who, aside from the splendor of his workmanship and the +beauty and melody of his verse, has greatly enriched the poetic +literature of the century, and has, we feel, given profound thought to +the intellectual problems and spiritual aspirations of his era. Nor does +the Memoir, as a revelation of the poet's intellectual and personal +life, fall away, on any page of it, from the high plane on which it has +been prepared and written. There is no undue invasion, which a son's +pride might be apt to make, of domestic privacy, and no dealing with +irrelevant topics or elaboration of those set forth with becoming +modesty and restraint; far less is there the discussion of any subject, +for a trivial or vain purpose. Throughout the work we meet with no +unnecessary lifting of veils or treatment of themes merely to satisfy +morbid curiosity. Everywhere there is the evidence of sound judgment, +unimpeachable taste, and a wholesome sanity. This is especially the case +in the frank revelation of the poet's views on religion and his attitude +towards scientific and theological thought, to which we have ourselves +referred. In this respect, a large debt is due to the biographer for +setting before the reader, not only the high ethical purpose which +Tennyson had in view in selecting the themes of his poems and in the +mode of handling them, but, as we have said, in showing us what beyond +peradventure were his religious opinions, and, despite a certain +curtaining of gloom, how profoundly he was influenced by faith in the +Divine life. Nor is the least interest in the Memoir to be found in the +light the biographer throws on the poet's writings as a whole--how they +were conceived and elaborated, and on the often hidden meaning that +underlies some of the most thoughtful verse. This, to students of the +Laureate's writings, is of high value, in addition to the service +rendered by the biographer in tracing in his father's poetic work the +influences which fashioned it and the pains he took to give it its +marvellous beauty and artistic finish of expression. + +It is this instructive as well as skilled and dignified treatment, with +the vast literary and deep personal interest in the life, that will +commend the Memoir to all who are proud of the Laureate's fame, and +wished to have nothing written that was unworthy of either the poet or +the man, or that would in the least detract from his laurels. Nor does +the restraint which the biographer imposes upon himself conceal from us +the man in his human aspects, or lead him to set before the reader an +imaginary, rather than a veritable and real, portraiture. We have a +picture, it is true, of an almost ideal domestic life, and of a man of +rare gifts and fine culture, whose work and career have been and are the +pride and glory of the English-speaking race. But we have also the story +of an author not free from human weaknesses, and though endowed with +manifold and great gifts, yet who had to labor long and earnestly to +perfect himself in his art, and in his early years had much +discouragement and not a little adversity to contend with. With all the +toil and stress his early years had known, when success came to the poet +no one was less unspoiled by it; and when sunshine fell upon and gilded +his life, maturing years brought him serenity, happiness, and, at +length, peace. + +Alfred Tennyson was born at his father's rectory, Somersby, +Lincolnshire, August 6,1809. He was the fourth of twelve children, seven +of whom were sons, two of them, Frederick and Charles, being endowed, +like Alfred, with poetic gifts. The poet's mother, a woman of sweet and +tender disposition, had much to do in moulding the future Laureate's +character; while from his father, a man of fine culture, he received not +only much of his education, but his bent towards a recluse, bookish +career. Alfred was from his earliest days a retired, shy child, fond of +reading and given to rhyming, and with a characteristic love of nature +and of quiet rural life. Later on he had a passion for the sea-coast, +and for those scenes of storm and stress about the seagirt shores of old +England which he was so feelingly and with such poetic beauty to depict +in "Sea Dreams," and in those incomparable songs, embodiments at once of +sorrow and of faith, 'Break, break, break,' and 'Crossing the Bar.' +Besides the education he received from his scholarly father, and at a +school at Louth for four years, young Tennyson spent some years at +Trinity College, Cambridge, where, though he did not take a degree, he +won in 1829 the Chancellor's medal for the best English poem of the +year, the subject of which was 'Timbuctoo.' At college he had the good +fortune to number among his friends several men who later in life were, +like himself, to rise to eminence,--such as Henry Alford (afterwards +Dean of Canterbury), R.C. Trench (later Archbishop of Dublin), C. +Merivale (historian and Dean of Ely), Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), +James Spedding (editor of Lord Bacon's Works), Macaulay, Thackeray, and, +most endeared of all, Arthur Henry Hallam, son of the historian, whose +memory Tennyson has immortalized in "In Memoriam." With him at college +was also his brother Charles, one year his senior, with whom he +collaborated in the collection of verse, issued in 1827, under the title +of "Poems by Two Brothers." In 1830, Tennyson made a journey to the +Pyrenees with Arthur Hallam, who was engaged to the poet's sister +Emilia, and in the same year he published an independent volume, +entitled "Poems chiefly Lyrical." In this, his first venture alone in +poetry, and in another issued in 1832, Tennyson was to manifest to the +world his poetic powers and art, for they contained, besides much +rhythmical and contemplative verse, such poems as 'Mariana,' 'Claribel; +'Lilian,' 'Lady Clare,' 'The Lotus Eaters,' 'A Dream of Pair Women,' +'The May Queen,' and 'The Miller's Daughter,' In spite of the great +promise bodied forth in these works, the volumes were subject to not a +little unfavorable criticism, which stayed his further publishing for a +period of ten years, though not the furtherance of his creative work, +nor his enthusiastic efforts towards increasing the perfection of +his art. + +It was not until 1842 that the poet again appeared in print, this time +with a volume to which he appended his name, "Poems by Alfred Tennyson," +and which gave him high rank among the acknowledged singers of his +day,--Wordsworth, Southey, Landor, Campbell, Rogers, and Leigh Hunt, in +England; and in the New World, Longfellow, Bryant, Lowell, Whittier, and +Emerson. The poet-contemporaries of his youth--Byron, Scott, Coleridge, +Shelley, and Keats--had by this time all died, and in 1843 Southey died, +when Wordsworth, whom Tennyson reverenced, became Poet Laureate. The +gap occasioned by the death of these early English poets of the century +was now to be filled in large measure by Tennyson, though among the +writers of song to arise were the Brownings, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold, +and Swinburne. Critical appreciation of the volume of 1842 was happily +encouraging to the poet; indeed, it was most gratifying, for its many +remarkable beauties were now justly and adequately appraised, +particularly such fine new themes as the volume contained--'Ulysses,' +'Godiva,' 'The Two Voices,' 'The Talking Oak,' 'Oenone,' 'Locksley +Hall,' 'The Vision of Sin,' and 'Morte D'Arthur,' the germ of the future +"Idylls of the King." Nor on this side the Atlantic did the new volume +lack substantial recognition, and from such competent critics as Emerson +and Hawthorne; while among his English contemporaries Tennyson became, +if we except for the time Wordsworth, the acknowledged head of English +song. At this period the poet resided in London or its neighborhood, his +family home in Lincolnshire having been broken up in 1837, six years +after the death of his father. Here, in spite of the secluded life he +led, he became a notable figure in literary circles, and greatly +increased the range of his friends, correspondents, and admirers. Among +the latter were the Carlyles, Thomas and his clever wife Jane being +especially drawn to the poet, and to them we owe interesting sketches +of the personal appearance of Tennyson at this time. Mrs. Carlyle, in +one of her delightful letters gossiping about Dickens, Bulwer-Lytton, +and Tennyson, esteems the latter "the greatest genius of the three," +adding that "besides, he is a very handsome man, and a noble-hearted +one, with something of the gypsy in his appearance, which for me is +perfectly charming." This is the historian, her husband's, piece of +portraiture: "A fine, large-featured, dim-eyed, bronze-colored, +shaggy-headed man, dusty, smoky, free-and-easy; who swims, outwardly and +inwardly, with great composure in an articulate element as of tranquil +chaos and tobacco smoke; great now and then when he does emerge; a most +restful, brotherly, solid-hearted man." Another portrait we have from +the Chelsea philosopher and scorner of shams which describes the poet +very humanly as "one of the finest-looking men in the world, with a +great shock of rough, dusky, dark hair; bright, laughing, hazel eyes; +massive, aquiline face, most massive, yet most delicate; of sallow-brown +complexion, almost Indian looking; clothes cynically loose, +free-and-easy; smokes infinite tobacco. His voice is musical, metallic, +fit for loud laughter and piercing wail, and all that may lie between; +speech and speculation free and plenteous. I do not meet in these late +decades such company over a pipe! We shall see what he will grow to." +Besides the Carlyles and other notable contemporaries, Tennyson numbered +at this time among his intimates John Sterling, whose life was written +by the author of "Sartor Resartus," James Spedding, Bacon's editor, who +wrote a fine critique of the 1842 volume of poems for the Edinburgh +Review, Aubrey De Vere, Edmund Lushington, A.P. Stanley (afterwards +Dean of Westminster), and Edward Fitzgerald, the future translator of +the "Rubaiyat," or Quatrains of the Persian Poet, Omar Khayyam. These +were all enthusiastic admirers of Tennyson's work and art, and his close +personal friends, who have left on record many interesting sketches of +the poet in their published writings, or in letters to him, and +especially in reminiscences furnished for the Memoir by the poet's son. + +Nine years before the appearance of the 1842 volume of Tennyson's verse +the poet's bosom friend, Arthur Hallam, died at an immature age at +Vienna, and his death was the subject of much brooding in noble, elegiac +verse, written, as was Milton's 'Lycidas,' to commemorate the loss of +one very dear to the poet. In "In Memoriam," as all know, Tennyson +sought to assuage his grief and give fine, artistic expression to his +profound sorrow at the loss of his companion and friend; but the work is +more than a labored monument of woe, since it enshrines reflections of +the most exalted and inspiring character on the eternally momentous +themes of life, death, and immortality. The work was published in 1850, +and it at once challenged the admiration of the world for the perfection +of its art, no less than for its high contemplative beauty. This was the +year when Wordsworth passed to the grave, and Tennyson, in his room, was +given the English laureateship. In this year, also, we find him happily +married to Emily S. Sellwood, a lady of Berks, to whom the poet had been +engaged since 1837. With his bride he took up house at Twickenham, near +London, where his son, Hallam Tennyson, was born in 1852. In the +following year he removed to Farringford, on the Isle of Wight, which +was to be his home for forty years, and where, as his son tells us, some +of his best-known works were written. Here, in 1854, his second son, +Lionel, was born, whose young life of promise was terminated by jungle +fever thirty-two years later on a return voyage from India,--all that +was mortal of him finding repose in the depths of the Red Sea. To +complete the chief incidents in the poet's personal career, we may here +record that while Tennyson acquired another home at Aldworth, +Surrey,--where he died Oct. 6, 1892, followed some four years later by +his wife,--his happiest days were spent at Farringford, the pilgrimage +place of many eminent worshippers of the poet's muse, where was +dispensed an unostentatious but open-handed and genial British +hospitality. It should be added that, besides the perquisites which +attach to the office of the Poet Laureate, Tennyson was given from 1845 +a pension of L200 ($1000) and that, while in 1865 he refused a +baronetcy, in 1884 he accepted a peerage, and had the honor of burial +(Oct. 12, 1892) in Westminster Abbey. + +We now revert to the poet's early, or, rather, to his middle-age, +creative years, and to a resume of his principal writings, with a brief, +running comment on his message and art. In 1847, three years before he +became Laureate, he published "The Princess," a charming narrative poem +in blank verse, which, though it abounds in fine descriptions and has an +obvious moral in the treatment of the theme,--the woman question of +today,--is inherently lacking in unity and strength, as well as weak in +the depicting of the characters. In later editions the poem was amended +in several faulty respects, and was especially enriched by the insertion +between the cantos of many lovely and now familiar songs, which serve +not only to bind together the whole structure of the poem, but to +enhance and enforce its high moral meaning. Any analysis of "The +Princess" is here deemed unnecessary, since it must not only be familiar +to most readers of the poet's works, but familiar also in the varied +annotated editions of such editors as Rolfe, Woodberry, and Wilson +Farrand. Familiar, it is believed, also, that it will be to Tennysonian +students in the "Study of the Princess," with critical and explanatory +notes by Dr. S.E. Dawson, of Montreal (now of Ottawa, Canada),--an able +commentary which received the approval of Lord Tennyson himself, and +elicited from him a highly interesting letter to the author on points in +the poem either misunderstood or not discerningly apprehended by other +critics and reviewers. The purport of the poem, it may be said, however, +is to frown upon revolutionary attempts to alter the position of women, +of scholastically be-gowned and college-capped dames, who would seek by +other than nature's ways to put the sex upon an equality with man, while +repressing their own individuality, doing violence to their maternal +instincts, and trampling upon their "gracious household ways." In the +handling of the "medley" Tennyson brings into exercise not only his +far-seeing powers, which were greatly in advance of his time, but his +gifts of raillery and humor, especially in the early divisions of the +poem, as well as his high, serious motives in the moral lessons to which +he points in the later cantos, where he aims at the elevation of women +in correspondence with the diversity of their natures, for, as he +himself says, "Woman is not undeveloped man, but diverse." His ideal of +perfect womanhood he would attain through the awakening power of the +affections and the transforming power of love, rather than by ignoring +the difference of physique, founding women's universities, and becoming +blue-stockinged high priestesses of learning. Of the medley of +characters in the poem, poet-princes in disguise at the college, +violet-hooded lady principals, + + "With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, + And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair," + +it is Lady Psyche's child that is the true, effective heroine of the +story, as Dr. Dawson aptly points out. "Ridiculous in the lecture room, +the babe in the poem, as in the songs, is made the central point upon +which the plot turns, for the unconscious child is the concrete +embodiment of Nature herself, clearing away all merely intellectual +theories by her silent influence." This is the explanation, then, of the +appearance of the babe--symbol of the power and tenderness of Nature--in +critical passages of the poem, as well as in the unsurpassably beautiful +intercalary songs, for it is the child that enables the poet to soften +the Princess's nature toward the Prince, and to effect the +reconciliation between the Princess and Lady Psyche, while imparting +beauty as well as high meaning in the recital of the incidents and +development of the tale. + +"In Memoriam," as we have stated, appeared in 1850, and was unique in +its appeal to the mind of the era as a stately meditative poem on a +single theme,--the death of the poet's friend, Arthur Hallam. The +English language, if we except Milton's 'Lycidas' and 'Hymn to the +Nativity,' and Wordsworth's grand 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality,' +has no poem so noble or so faultless in its art as this magnificent +series of detached elegies. The high thought, philosophic reflection, +and passionate religious sentiment that mark the whole work, added to +the exquisiteness of the versification, place it wellnigh supreme in the +literature of elegiac poetry. Its grave, majestic hymnal measure adds to +its solemn beauty and stateliness, while the varied phases of +spiritualized thought and emotional grief which find expression in the +poem seem to elevate it in its harmonies to the rank of a profound +psalm-chant from the choir of heaven. In the sumptuously embellished +edition of the elegy, embodying Mr. Harry Fenn's drawings, with a +sympathetic preface by the Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, there is a brief but +luminous analysis of the nine divisions of the poem, or commentary on +the great classic. To those who desire to read the great elegy +understandingly, the value of Dr. Van Dyke's work is earnestly +commended, since without this commentary, or such as are to be obtained +in other critical sources, there is much of poetic beauty, of +sorrow-brooding thought, and especially of emotional reflection on life, +death, and immortality, in the hundred and thirty lyrics of which the +poem consists, which will be lost to even the thoughtful reader. The +poem, as a critic truthfully observes, has done much "to express and to +consolidate all that is best in the life of England, its domestic +affection, its patriotic feeling, its healthful morality, its rational +and earnest religion." + +The sentimental metrical romance "Maud" appeared in 1855 (the year of +the Crimean War), with some additional poems, including 'The Charge of +the Light Brigade,' written after Raglan's repulse of the Russians at +Balaclava, and the fine 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.' +The lyrical love-drama, "Maud," we are told, was one of Tennyson's +favorite productions, of which he was wont to read parts to his guests. +As the poet has himself said of the monodrama, "it is a little Hamlet," +"the history of a morbid poetic soul, under the blighting influence of a +recklessly speculative age. He is the heir of madness, an egotist with +the makings of a cynic, raised to sanity by a pure and holy love which +elevates his whole nature, passing from the heights of triumph to the +lowest depths of misery, driven into madness by the loss of her whom he +has loved, and when he has at length passed through the fiery furnace, +and has recovered his reason, giving himself up to work for the good of +mankind through the unselfishness born of his great passion." The poem, +when it appeared, was reviled by some critics as an allegory of the war +with Russia, and they did its author the injustice of supposing that he +lauded war for war's sake, instead of, as is the case, applauding war +only in defence of liberty. Apart from this misunderstanding, due to +abhorrence of the war-frenzy of the period, the poem has outlived the +mistaken objections to it when it appeared, and is now admired in its +vindicated light, and especially for the rich and copious beauty +manifest throughout the work, and for the magnificent lyric art with +which it is composed. + +We now come to Tennyson's masterpiece, the "Idylls of the King," an epic +of chivalry, interpreted as personifying in its various characters the +soul at war with the senses. These appeared during the years 1859 and +1872. Each of the Idylls, which has a connecting thread binding it to +its fellow-allegory, takes its plot or fable from the legendary lore +that has clustered round the name of Arthur, mythical King of the +Britons about the era of the first invasion by the English. Out of the +mass of material which was gathered by Sir Thomas Malory for his prose +history of Arthur and his Knights, Tennyson takes the chief incidents +and noblest heroic traits of character in the legends and blends them in +a fashion of his own, steeping them in an atmosphere which his +imagination creates, and lighting up all with a passion and glory of +knightly adventure, as well as with a chasteness, purity, and high +fervor of ethical thought, that must perpetuate the romance, as he has +given it us, unto all time. The sections of the work as it now stands, +in addition to its introductory dedication to the late Prince Consort, +and the closing poem to the late Queen Victoria, are as follows: 'The +Coming of Arthur,' which relates the mystery of the birth of the King, +his marriage to Guinevere, daughter of Leodogran, King of Cameliard, and +the wonders attending his crowning and establishment on the throne; next +comes 'Gareth and Lynette,' a tale of love and scorn, and of the +conflict between a false pride and a true ambition; to this is appended +'The Marriage of Geraint,' of Arthur's court, and a member of the great +order of the Round Table. Next follows 'Geraint and Enid,'--Enid, the +gentle and timid, whom Geraint had married after wooing the haughty +Lynette,--a tale of pure and loyal womanhood, darkened for awhile by the +clouds of jealousy and suspicion, yet closing happily long after the +"spiteful whispers" had died down, and Geraint, assured of Enid's +fealty, had ruled his kingdom well and gone forth to "crown a happy life +with a fair death" against the heathen of the Northern Sea, "fighting +for the blameless King." The next Idyll relates how the venerable +magician Merlin succumbs to the thrall of the wily harlot Vivien, decked +in her rare robe of samite, and yields to her the charm which was his +secret. 'Lancelot and Elaine' follows with its conflict between the +virgin innocence of Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat, and the guilty +passion of the noble though erring Lancelot. To this, in order, succeeds +'The Holy Grail,' telling of the vain quest of Arthur's Knights for the +sacred relic. Despite its mystic character, this is admittedly one of +the finest of the series of Idylls, and rich in its spiritual +teaching,--that the heavenly vision is to be seen only by the eyes of +purity and grace. 'Pelleas and Ettarre' is a tale of dole, showing the +evil at work at the court, and the wrecking effect of another woman's +perfidy. 'The Last Tournament' has for its hero the court fool, who, +amid the treason of Arthur's knights, is firm in his loyal allegiance to +the King. In contrast to him is Sir Tristram, who, despite his prowess, +in jousts on the tilting-field, is "one to whom faith is foolishness, +and the higher life an idle delusion." The climax is reached in +'Guinevere,' whom, in spite of her faithlessness and guilty intrigue +with Lancelot, Arthur, with his great high soul, pityingly loves and +forgives. The end comes with the sad though shadowy 'Passing of Arthur,' +the royal barge mysteriously carrying him out into the beyond, whence +issue sounds of hail and greeting to the victor-hero + + "----as if some fair city were one voice + Around a king returning from his wars." + +In 1864 Tennyson published "Enoch Arden," an idyll of the hearth, +depicting a pathetic incident in a seafarer's career, of much simple +idyllic beauty. The poem has some fine descriptive passages, and many +examples of the poet's rich word-painting in treating of the splendid +tropic scenery among which the mariner is for the time cast. The volume +contained also some minor pieces, including the dialect poem, 'The +Northern Farmer,' with its humorous rendering of yokel speech. This was +followed (1875-84) by three dramas on English historical themes, which, +as the poet had not, as we have already hinted, the gifts of a +Shakespeare, were somewhat unsuccessful, though written, despite +Tennyson's advanced years, with much fine force and vividness of +character delineation. These dramas (to enumerate them in their historic +order) were "Harold," "Becket," and "Queen Mary." "Becket" is the best +and most ambitious of them, though not, as "Queen Mary" is, a play +designed for the stage. It is a vigorous Englishman's closet study of a +prolonged and bitter struggle--the conflict in Henry II.'s time between +the church and the crown--as exhibited in the person and dominant +ecclesiastical attitude of the audacious prelate who met his tragic end +by Canterbury's altar. "Harold" strikingly realizes to the modern reader +the stirring activities of a strenuous time,--that of the English +conquest by Norman William, opposed to the death by Harold at Senlac in +1066. The drama is as rich in character as it is swift and energetic in +action. "Queen Mary" deals with the religious and political dissensions +(the struggle between the Papacy and the Reformation) of Mary Tudor's +era, with her love for and marriage with Philip of Spain, and her +hopeless yearning for an heir to the double crown of England and Spain. +An important and prized addition to our English literature the drama +undoubtedly is, but it is not more than a careful, accurate, and +elaborate historical study. It lacks, both in spirit and movement, the +characteristics of the Shakespearian drama. Its characters, however, are +vividly brought out, and its situations are often picturesque and +telling. The personages, moreover, are wanting in the play of creative +effect, and the incidents lack the stir of inventive resource. Further, +though the story of Mary's life is essentially dramatic, and the +incidents of her reign are tragic in the extreme, the poet does not seem +to have extracted from either that which goes to the making of a great +drama. This evidently is the result of following too faithfully the +events of history and the records of the time, as well as, in some +degree, from want of sympathy, which Tennyson could not impart, with the +leading characters and their actions. Still, much is made of the +materials; and though the personages and incidents appear in the +narrative in the neutral tints of history, yet the period is made to +reappear with a freshness and distinctness which, while it satisfies the +scholar, gives a true charm to every lover of the drama. Again and +again, as we read, are we reminded of the Laureate's rare poetical fancy +and fine literary instinct, and the dialogues contain many passages of +striking thought and noble utterance. But the work is overcast by the +great gloom of its central figure,--the gloom of bigotry, passion, +jealousy, disappointment, and despair which ever environs the miserable +Queen; and much though the poet has striven to brighten the picture and +awaken sympathy for the weakness of the woman, who, royal mistress +though she was, could not command her love to be requited, the poetic +measure of his lines roughens and hardens to the close, when the curtain +falls on what is felt to be a tragic and unlovely life. + +We can only briefly refer to the other _dramatis personae_ introduced to +us, who are among the notable historical characters that figure during +Mary Tudor's reign. They are those who take part in the incidents, +religious, civil, and political, of the period, and are, for the most +part, both in speech and bearing, the portraits familiar to us in Mr. +Froude's history. Of these the most pleasing is the Princess Elizabeth, +whose portrait is drawn with masterly skill, and engages our interest as +the fortunes of its original oscillates "'Twixt Axe and Crown":-- + + "A Tudor + Schooled by the shadow of death, a Boleyn too + Glancing across the Tudor." + +But, aside from the interest in the safety of her person, which is in +constant jeopardy from the jealousy of her half-sister, Elizabeth wins +upon the reader by her modest, maidenly bearing, her frankness of +manner, and by a playfulness of disposition which readily adapts itself +to the restraints which the Queen is ever placing upon her person, and +which endears her to the people, who, could the hated Mary be got rid +of, would fain become her subjects. The civil strife of the period +furnishes material for some powerful passages, which are wrought up with +excellent effect, and in this connection Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Thomas +Stafford, the Earl of Devon, Sir William Cecil, and other historical +personages appear upon the stage. The other incidents introduced are +those which attach themselves to the religious persecutions of the time, +and which brought Cranmer to the stake, and give play to the papal +intrigues of Pole, Gardiner, and the emissaries of the Spanish court. +The second and third scenes in the fourth act devoted to Cranmer, which +detail his martyrdom, are hardly so satisfactory as we think they might +have been, though the poet here again follows closely the historical +accounts. The scenes, however, give occasion for the introduction of a +couple of local gossips whose provincial dialect and keen interest in +the national and religious policy of the time, here as in occasional +street scenes, are cleverly portrayed. This sapient reflection in the +mouth of one of these gossips, Tib, is a specimen at hand:-- + +"A-burnin' and a-burnin', and a-making o' volk madder and madder; but +tek thou my word vor't, Joan,--and I bean't wrong not twice i' ten +year,--the burnin' o' the owld archbishop 'ill burn the Pwoap out o' +this 'ere land for iver and iver." + +Philip we have not spoken of; but he fills such a hateful niche in the +historical gallery of the time, and the poet introduces him but to act +his pitiful role, that we pass him by, though many of the grandest +passages in the drama are those which give expression to Mary's +passionate love for him, and her longing desire for an issue of their +marriage, which afterwards culminates in her madness and death. + +We have to speak of but one other character in the drama, whose death, +it has been said, was sufficient to honor and to dishonor an age. The +beautiful Lady Jane Grey appears for a little among the shadows of the +poem, and moves to her tragic fate. + + "Seventeen,--a rose of grace! + Girl never breathed to rival such a rose! + Rose never blew that equalled such a bud." + +A few songs of genuine Tennysonian harmony, pitched in the keys that +most fittingly suit the singer's mood, are interspersed through the +drama, and serve to relieve the narratives of their gloom and plaint. +Their presence, we cannot help thinking, recalls work better done, and +more within the limitations of the poet's genius, than this drama of +"Queen Mary." As a dramatic representation the drama had the advantage +of being produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London, with all the historic +art and sumptuous stage-setting with which Sir Henry Irving could well +give it,--Irving himself personating Philip, while Miss Bateman took the +part of Queen Mary. "Becket," we should here add, was also given on the +stage, and with much dramatic effectiveness, by Irving,--over fifty +performances of it being called for. None of the dramas, however, as we +have said, was a success, though each has its merit, while all are +distinguished by many passages of noble and strenuous thought. + +Other dramatic compositions the poet attempted, though of minor +importance to the trilogy just spoken of. These were "The Falcon," the +groundwork of which is to be found in "The Decameron;" "The Cup," a +tragedy, rich in action, with an incisive dialogue, borrowed from +Plutarch. The former was staged by Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, and had a run of +sixty-seven nights; the latter also was staged with liberal +magnificence, by Irving, and met with considerable success. "The Promise +of May" is another play which was staged, in 1882, by Mrs. Bernard +Beere, but met with failure by the critics, owing, in some degree, to +its supposed caricature of modern agnostics, and to the repellent +portrayal of one of the characters in the piece, the sensualist, Philip +Edgar. Later, in (1892) appeared "The Foresters," a pretty pastoral +play, on the theme of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, which was produced on +the boards in New York by Mr. Daly and his company, with a charming +woodland setting. The later publications of the Laureate, in his own +distinctive field of verse, embrace "The Lover's Tale" (1879), "Ballads +and other Poems" (1880), "Tiresias and Other Poems" (1885), "Locksley +Hall Sixty Years After" (1886), "Demeter and Other Poems" (1889), and +"The Death of Oenone, Akbar's Dream, and Other Poems," in the year of +the Poet's death (1892). In these various volumes there is much +admirable work and many tuneful lyrics in the old charming, lilting +strain, with not a few serious, thoughtful, stately pieces of verse, +"the after-glow," as Stedman phrases it, "of a still radiant genius.... +His after-song," continues this fine critic, "does not wreak itself upon +the master passions of love and ambition, and hence fastens less +strongly on the thoughts of the young; nor does it come with the unused +rhythm, the fresh and novel cadence, that stamped the now hackneyed +measure with a lyric's name. Yet, as to its art and imagery, the same +effects are there, differing only in a more vigorous method, an +intentional roughness, from the individual early verse. The new burthen +is termed pessimistic, but for all its impatient summary of ills, it +ends with a cry of faith." + +We must now hasten to a close, delightful as it would be to linger over +so attractive a theme, and to dwell upon the personality of one who so +uniquely represents the mind, as he has so remarkably influenced the +thought, of his age. But considering the length of the present paper, +this cannot be. Happily, however, the fruitage is ever with us of the +poet's full fourscore years of splendid achievement with the hallowing +memory of a forceful, opulent, and blameless life. To few men of the +past century can the reflecting mind of a coming time more interestingly +or more instructively turn than to this profound thinker and mighty +musical singer, steeped as he was in the varied culture of the ages, +endowed with great prophetic powers, with phenomenal gifts of poetic +expression, and with a soul so attuned to the harmonies of heaven as to +make him at once the counsellor and the inspiring teacher of his time. +Who, in comparison with him, has so felt the subtle charm, or so +interpreted to us the infinite beauty, of the world in which we live, or +more impressively deepened in the mind and conscience of the age belief +in the verities of religion, while quelling its doubts and quickening +its highest hopes and faith? "Tennyson was a passionate believer in the +immortal life; this was so real to him that he had no patience with +scepticism on the subject. To question it in his presence was to bring +upon one's head a torrent of denunciation and wrath. His great soul was +intuitively conscious of spiritual realities, and he could not +understand how little soulless microbes of men and women were destitute +of his deep perception. Prayer was to him a living fact and power, and +some of his words about it are among the noblest ever written. When some +one asked him about Christ, he pointed to a flower and said, 'What the +sun is to that flower, Christ is to my soul.'" + +Apart as he stood from the tumult and the frivolities of his age, he was +yet of it, and sensibly and beneficently influenced it for its higher +and nobler weal. In politics, as we know, he was a liberal +conservative,--a conserver of what was best in the present and the past, +and an advancer of all that tended to true and harmonious progress. His +knowledge of men and things was wide and deep; in the philosophic +thought and even in the science of his time he was deeply read; while he +was lovingly interested in all nature, and especially in the common +people, whom he often wrote of and touchingly depicted in their humble +ways of toil as well as of joy and sorrow. Above all, he was a man of +high and real faith, who believed that "good" was "the final goal of +ill;" and in "the dumb hour clothed in black" that at last came to him, +as it comes to all, he confidingly put his trust in Loving Omnipotence +and reverently and beautifully expressed the hope of seeing the guiding +Pilot of his life when, with the outflow of its river-current into the +ocean of the Divine Unseen, he crossed the bar. For humanity's sake and +the weal of the world in a coming time this was his joyous cry:-- + + "Ring in the nobler modes of life, + With sweeter manners, purer laws. + + * * * * * + + "Ring in the love of truth and right, + Ring in the common love of good. + + * * * * * + + "Ring in the valiant man and free, + The larger heart, the kindlier hand; + Ring out the darkness of the land, + Ring in the Christ that is to be!" + +What our formative, high-wrought English literature has suffered in +Tennyson's passing from the age on which he has shed so much glory those +can best say who are of his era, and have been intimate, as each +appeared, with every successive issue of his works. To the latter, as to +all thoughtful students of his writings, his has been the supreme +interpreting voice of the past century, while his influence on the +literary thought of his time has been of the highest and most potent +kind. Especially influential has Tennyson been in carrying forward, with +new impulses and inspiration, the poetic traditions of that grand old +motherland of English song to which our own poets in the New World, as +well as the younger bards of the British Isles, owe so much. If we +except the Laureate, there have been few who have worn the singing robe +of the poet who, in these later years at least, have spoken so +impressively to cultured minds on either side of the ocean, or have more +effectively expressed to his age the high and hallowing spirit of modern +poetry. It is this that has given the Laureate his exalted place among +the great literary influences of the century, and made him the one +indubitable representative of English song, with all its tuneful music +and rare and delicate art. To a few of the great choir of singers of the +past Tennyson admittedly owed something, both in tradition and in +art,--for each new impulse has caught and embodied not a little of the +spirit and temper, as well as the culture and inspiration, of the +old,--but his it was to impart new and fresher thought and a wider range +of harmony and emotion than had been reached by almost any of his +predecessors, and to speak to the mind and soul of his time as none +other has spoken or could well speak. From the era of Shakespeare and +Milton and their chief successors, it is to Tennyson's honor and fame +that he has given continuity as well as high perfection to the great +coursing stream of noble British verse. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Brooke, Stopford A. Tennyson: his Art and Relation to Modern Life. + +Van Dyke, Henry. The Poetry of Tennyson. +Bayne, Peter. Tennyson and his Teachers. +Brimley, George. Essays on Tennyson. +Tainsh, Ed. C. Study of the Works of Tennyson. +Waugh, Arthur. Tennyson: A Study of his Life and Work. +Stedman, E. C. Victorian Poets. +Buchanan, R. Master Spirits. +Forman. Our Living Poets. +Dowden, Ed. Tennyson and Browning. +Tennyson, Hallam. Memoir of the Poet (by his Son). +Kingsley, C. Miscellanies. + +Thackeray-Ritchie, Anne. Records of Tennyson and Others. +Robertson, F. W. In Memoriam. +Dawson, Dr. S. E. Study of the Princess, annotated. +Genung, J. F. In Memoriam, its Purpose and Structure. +Woodberry, G. E. The Princess, with Notes and Introduction. +Farrand, Wilson. The Princess, with Notes and Introduction. +Gatty, Alfred. Key to In Memoriam. +Harrison, Frederic. Tennyson, Ruskin, and Mill. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME +XIII*** + + +******* This file should be named 10648.txt or 10648.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/4/10648 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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