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diff --git a/12651.txt b/12651.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02b5573 --- /dev/null +++ b/12651.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9284 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Humour of Homer and Other Essays, by +Samuel Butler, Edited by R. A. Streatfeild + + +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: The Humour of Homer and Other Essays + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Release Date: June 18, 2004 [eBook #12651] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMOUR OF HOMER AND OTHER +ESSAYS*** + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +The Humour of Homer and Other Essays + + + + +Introduction +By R. A. Streatfeild + + +The nucleus of this book is the collection of essays by Samuel +Butler, which was originally published by Mr. Grant Richards in 1904 +under the title Essays on Life, Art and Science, and reissued by Mr. +Fifield in 1908. To these are now added another essay, entitled +"The Humour of Homer," a biographical sketch of the author kindly +contributed by Mr. Henry Festing Jones, which will add materially to +the value of the edition, and a portrait in photogravure from a +photograph taken in 1889--the period of the essays. + +[Photograph of Samuel Butler. Caption reads: From a photograph +made by Pizzetta in Varallo in 1889. Emery Walker Ltd., ph. sc. +butler.jpg] + +"The Humour of Homer" was originally delivered as a lecture at the +Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street on the 30th January, +1892, the day on which Butler first promulgated his theory of the +Trapanese origin of the Odyssey in a letter to the Athenaeum. Later +in the same year it was published with some additional matter by +Messrs. Metcalfe and Co. of Cambridge. For the next five years +Butler was engaged upon researches into the origin and authorship of +the Odyssey, the results of which are embodied in his book The +Authoress of the "Odyssey," originally published by Messrs. Longman +in 1897. Butler incorporated a good deal of "The Humour of Homer" +into The Authoress of the "Odyssey," but the section relating to the +Iliad naturally found no place in the later work. For the sake of +this alone "The Humour of Homer" deserves to be better known. +Written as it was for an artisan audience and professing to deal +only with one side of Homer's genius, "The Humour of Homer" must +not, of course, be taken as an exhaustive statement of Butler's +views upon Homeric questions. It touches but lightly on important +points, particularly regarding the origin and authorship of the +Odyssey, which are treated at much greater length in The Authoress +of the "Odyssey." + +Nevertheless, "The Humour of Homer" appears to me to have a special +value as a kind of general introduction to Butler's more detailed +study of the Odyssey. His attitude towards the Homeric poems is +here expressed with extraordinary freshness and force. What that +attitude was is best explained by his own words: "If a person would +understand either the Odyssey or any other ancient work, he must +never look at the dead without seeing the living in them, nor at the +living without thinking of the dead. We are too fond of seeing the +ancients as one thing and the moderns as another." Butler did not +undervalue the philological and archaeological importance of the +Iliad and the Odyssey, but it was mainly as human documents that +they appealed to him. This, I am inclined to suspect, was the root +of the objection of academic critics to him and his theories. They +did not so much resent the suggestion that the author of the Odyssey +was a woman; they could not endure that he should be treated as a +human being. + +Of the remaining essays two were originally delivered as lectures; +the others appeared first in The Universal Review in 1888, 1889 and +1890. I should perhaps explain why two other essays which also +appeared in The Universal Review are not included in this +collection. The first of these, entitled "L'Affaire Holbein- +Rippel," relates to a drawing of Holbein's "Danse des Paysans" in +the Basle Museum, which is usually described as a copy, but which +Butler believed to be the work of Holbein himself. This essay +requires to be illustrated in so elaborate a manner that it was +impossible to include it in a book of this size. The second essay, +which is a sketch of the career of the sculptor Tabachetti, was +published as the first section of an article, entitled "A Sculptor +and a Shrine," of which the second part is here given under the +title "The Sanctuary of Montrigone." The section devoted to the +sculptor contains all that Butler then knew about Tabachetti, but +since it was written various documents have come to light, +principally through the investigations of Cavaliere Francesco Negri, +of Casale Monferrato, which negative some of Butler's conclusions. +Had Butler lived, I do not doubt that he would have revised his +essay in the light of Cavaliere Negri's discoveries, the value of +which he fully recognized. As it stands the essay requires so much +revision that I have decided to omit it altogether and to postpone +giving English readers a full account of Tabachetti's career until a +second edition of Butler's "Ex Voto," in which Tabachetti's work is +discussed in detail, is required. Meanwhile I have given a brief +summary of the main facts of Tabachetti's life in a note (p. 195) to +the essay on "Art in the Valley of Saas." Anyone who desires +further details concerning the sculptor and his work will find them +in Cavaliere Negri's pamphlet "Il Santuario di Crea" (Alessandria, +1902). + +The three essays grouped together under the title The Deadlock in +Darwinism may be regarded as a postscript to Butler's four books on +evolution, viz. Life and Habit, Evolution Old and New, Unconscious +Memory, and Luck or Cunning? When these essays were first published +in book form in 1904, I ventured to give a brief summary of Butler's +position with regard to the main problem of evolution. I need now +only refer readers to Mr. Festing Jones's biographical sketch and, +for fuller details, to the masterly introduction contributed by +Professor Marcus Hartog to the new edition of Unconscious Memory (A. +C. Fifield, 1910), and recently reprinted in his Problems of Life +and Reproduction (John Murray, 1913), in which Butler's work in the +field of biology and his share in the various controversies +connected with the study of evolution are discussed with the +authority of a specialist. + +R. A. STREATFEILD. July, 1913. + + + + +Sketch of the Life of Samuel Butler +Author of Erewhon +(1835-1902) +by Henry Festing Jones + + +Note + + +This sketch of Butler's life, together with the portrait which forms +the frontispiece to this volume, first appeared in December, 1902, +in The Eagle, the magazine of St. John's College, Cambridge. I +revised the sketch and read it before the British Homoeopathic +Association at 43 Russell Square, London, W.C., on the 9th February, +1910; some of Butler's music was performed by Miss Grainger Kerr, +Mr. R. A. Streatfeild, Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland, and Mr. H. J. T. +Wood, the secretary of the Association. I again revised it and read +it before the Historical Society of St. John's College, Cambridge, +in the combination room of the college on the 16th November, 1910; +the Master (Mr. R. F. Scott), who was also Vice-Chancellor of the +University, was in the chair, and a vote of thanks was proposed by +Professor William Bateson, F.R.S. + +As the full Memoir of Butler on which I am engaged is not yet ready +for publication, I have again revised the sketch, and it is here +published in response to many demands for some account of his life. + +H. F. J. +August, 1913. + + +Sketch of the Life of Samuel Butler +Author of Erewhon (1835-1902) + + +Samuel Butler was born on the 4th December, 1835, at the Rectory, +Langar, near Bingham, in Nottinghamshire. His father was the Rev. +Thomas Butler, then Rector of Langar, afterwards one of the canons +of Lincoln Cathedral, and his mother was Fanny Worsley, daughter of +John Philip Worsley of Arno's Vale, Bristol, sugar-refiner. His +grandfather was Dr. Samuel Butler, the famous headmaster of +Shrewsbury School, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. The Butlers are +not related either to the author of Hudibras, or to the author of +the Analogy, or to the present Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. + +Butler's father, after being at school at Shrewsbury under Dr. +Butler, went up to St. John's College, Cambridge; he took his degree +in 1829, being seventh classic and twentieth senior optime; he was +ordained and returned to Shrewsbury, where he was for some time +assistant master at the school under Dr. Butler. He married in 1832 +and left Shrewsbury for Langar. He was a learned botanist, and made +a collection of dried plants which he gave to the Town Museum of +Shrewsbury. + +Butler's childhood and early life were spent at Langar among the +surroundings of an English country rectory, and his education was +begun by his father. In 1843, when he was only eight years old, the +first great event in his life occurred; the family, consisting of +his father and mother, his two sisters, his brother and himself, +went to Italy. The South-Eastern Railway stopped at Ashford, whence +they travelled to Dover in their own carriage; the carriage was put +on board the steamboat, they crossed the Channel, and proceeded to +Cologne, up the Rhine to Basle and on through Switzerland into +Italy, through Parma, where Napoleon's widow was still reigning, +Modena, Bologna, Florence, and so to Rome. They had to drive where +there was no railway, and there was then none in all Italy except +between Naples and Castellamare. They seemed to pass a fresh +custom-house every day, but, by tipping the searchers, generally got +through without inconvenience. The bread was sour and the Italian +butter rank and cheesy--often uneatable. Beggars ran after the +carriage all day long and when they got nothing jeered at the +travellers and called them heretics. They spent half the winter in +Rome, and the children were taken up to the top of St. Peter's as a +treat to celebrate their father's birthday. In the Sistine Chapel +they saw the cardinals kiss the toe of Pope Gregory XVI, and in the +Corso, in broad daylight, they saw a monk come rolling down a +staircase like a sack of potatoes, bundled into the street by a man +and his wife. The second half of the winter was spent in Naples. +This early introduction to the land which he always thought of and +often referred to as his second country made an ineffaceable +impression upon him. + +In January, 1846, he went to school at Allesley, near Coventry, +under the Rev. E. Gibson. He seldom referred to his life there, +though sometimes he would say something that showed he had not +forgotten all about it. For instance, in 1900 Mr. Sydney C. +Cockerell, now the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, +showed him a medieval missal, laboriously illuminated. He found +that it fatigued him to look at it, and said that such books ought +never to be made. Cockerell replied that such books relieved the +tedium of divine service, on which Butler made a note ending thus: + +Give me rather a robin or a peripatetic cat like the one whose +loss the parishioners of St. Clement Danes are still deploring. +When I was at school at Allesley the boy who knelt opposite me at +morning prayers, with his face not more than a yard away from +mine, used to blow pretty little bubbles with his saliva which he +would send sailing off the tip of his tongue like miniature soap +bubbles; they very soon broke, but they had a career of a foot or +two. I never saw anyone else able to get saliva bubbles right +away from him and, though I have endeavoured for some fifty years +and more to acquire the art, I never yet could start the bubble +off my tongue without its bursting. Now things like this really +do relieve the tedium of church, but no missal that I have ever +seen will do anything except increase it. + +In 1848 he left Allesley and went to Shrewsbury under the Rev. B. H. +Kennedy. Many of the recollections of his school life at Shrewsbury +are reproduced for the school life of Ernest Pontifex at +Roughborough in The Way of All Flesh, Dr. Skinner being Dr. Kennedy. + +During these years he first heard the music of Handel; it went +straight to his heart and satisfied a longing which the music of +other composers had only awakened and intensified. He became as one +of the listening brethren who stood around "when Jubal struck the +chorded shell" in the Song for Saint Cecilia's Day: + +Less than a god, they thought, there could not dwell +Within the hollow of that shell +That spoke so sweetly and so well. + +This was the second great event in his life, and henceforward Italy +and Handel were always present at the bottom of his mind as a kind +of double pedal to every thought, word, and deed. Almost the last +thing he ever asked me to do for him, within a few days of his +death, was to bring Solomon that he might refresh his memory as to +the harmonies of "With thee th' unsheltered moor I'd trace." He +often tried to like the music of Bach and Beethoven, but found +himself compelled to give them up--they bored him too much. Nor was +he more successful with the other great composers; Haydn, for +instance, was a sort of Horace, an agreeable, facile man of the +world, while Mozart, who must have loved Handel, for he wrote +additional accompaniments to the Messiah, failed to move him. It +was not that he disputed the greatness of these composers, but he +was out of sympathy with them, and never could forgive the last two +for having led music astray from the Handel tradition and paved the +road from Bach to Beethoven. Everything connected with Handel +interested him. He remembered old Mr. Brooke, Rector of Gamston, +North Notts, who had been present at the Handel Commemoration in +1784, and his great-aunt, Miss Susannah Apthorp, of Cambridge, had +known a lady who had sat upon Handel's knee. He often regretted +that these were his only links with "the greatest of all composers." + +Besides his love for Handel he had a strong liking for drawing, and, +during the winter of 1853-4, his family again took him to Italy, +where, being now eighteen, he looked on the works of the old masters +with intelligence. + +In October, 1854, he went into residence at St. John's College, +Cambridge. He showed no aptitude for any particular branch of +academic study, nevertheless he impressed his friends as being +likely to make his mark. Just as he used reminiscences of his own +schooldays at Shrewsbury for Ernest's life at Roughborough, so he +used reminiscences of his own Cambridge days for those of Ernest. +When the Simeonites, in The Way of All Flesh, "distributed tracts, +dropping them at night in good men's letter boxes while they slept, +their tracts got burnt or met with even worse contumely." Ernest +Pontifex went so far as to parody one of these tracts and to get a +copy of the parody "dropped into each of the Simeonites' boxes." +Ernest did this in the novel because Butler had done it in real +life. Mr. A. T. Bartholomew, of the University Library, has found, +among the Cambridge papers of the late J. Willis Clark's collection, +three printed pieces belonging to the year 1855 bearing on the +subject. He speaks of them in an article headed "Samuel Butler and +the Simeonites," and signed A. T. B. in the Cambridge Magazine, 1st +March, 1913; the first is "a genuine Simeonite tract; the other two +are parodies. All three are anonymous. At the top of the second +parody is written 'By S. Butler, March 31.'" The article gives +extracts from the genuine tract and the whole of Butler's parody. + +Besides parodying Simeonite tracts, Butler wrote various other +papers during his undergraduate days, some of which, preserved by +one of his contemporaries, who remained a lifelong friend, the Rev. +Canon Joseph M'Cormick, now Rector of St. James's, Piccadilly, are +reproduced in The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). + +He also steered the Lady Margaret first boat, and Canon M'Cormick +told me of a mishap that occurred on the last night of the races in +1857. Lady Margaret had been head of the river since 1854, Canon +M'Cormick was rowing 5, Philip Pennant Pearson (afterwards P. +Pennant) was 7, Canon Kynaston, of Durham (whose name formerly was +Snow), was stroke, and Butler was cox. When the cox let go of the +bung at starting, the rope caught in his rudder lines, and Lady +Margaret was nearly bumped by Second Trinity. They escaped, +however, and their pursuers were so much exhausted by their efforts +to catch them that they were themselves bumped by First Trinity at +the next corner. Butler wrote home about it: + +11 March, 1857. Dear Mamma: My foreboding about steering was on +the last day nearly verified by an accident which was more +deplorable than culpable the effects of which would have been +ruinous had not the presence of mind of No. 7 in the boat rescued +us from the very jaws of defeat. The scene is one which never +can fade from my remembrance and will be connected always with +the gentlemanly conduct of the crew in neither using opprobrious +language nor gesture towards your unfortunate son but treating +him with the most graceful forbearance; for in most cases when an +accident happens which in itself is but slight, but is visited +with serious consequences, most people get carried away with the +impression created by the last so as to entirely forget the +accidental nature of the cause and if we had been quite bumped I +should have been ruined, as it is I get praise for coolness and +good steering as much as and more than blame for my accident and +the crew are so delighted at having rowed a race such as never +was seen before that they are satisfied completely. All the +spectators saw the race and were delighted; another inch and I +should never have held up my head again. One thing is safe, it +will never happen again. + +The Eagle, "a magazine supported by members of St. John's College," +issued its first number in the Lent term of 1858; it contains an +article by Butler "On English Composition and Other Matters," signed +"Cellarius": + +Most readers will have anticipated me in admitting that a man +should be clear of his meaning before he endeavours to give it +any kind of utterance, and that, having made up his mind what to +say, the less thought he takes how to say it, more than briefly, +pointedly and plainly, the better. + +From this it appears that, when only just over twenty-two, Butler +had already discovered and adopted those principles of writing from +which he never departed. + +In the fifth number of the Eagle is an article, "Our Tour," also +signed "Cellarius"; it is an account of a tour made in June, 1857, +with a friend whose name he Italianized into Giuseppe Verdi, through +France into North Italy, and was written, so he says, to show how +they got so much into three weeks and spent only 25 pounds; they did +not, however, spend quite so much, for the article goes on, after +bringing them back to England, "Next day came safely home to dear +old St. John's, cash in hand 7d." {19} + +Butler worked hard with Shilleto, an old pupil of his grandfather, +and was bracketed 12th in the Classical Tripos of 1858. Canon +M'Cormick told me that he would no doubt have been higher but for +the fact that he at first intended to go out in mathematics; it was +only during the last year of his time that he returned to the +classics, and his being so high as he was spoke well for the +classical education of Shrewsbury. + +It had always been an understood thing that he was to follow in the +footsteps of his father and grandfather and become a clergyman; +accordingly, after taking his degree, he went to London and began to +prepare for ordination, living and working among the poor as lay +assistant under the Rev. Philip Perring, Curate of St. James's, +Piccadilly, an old pupil of Dr. Butler at Shrewsbury. {20} Placed +among such surroundings, he felt bound to think out for himself many +theological questions which at this time were first presented to +him, and, the conclusion being forced upon him that he could not +believe in the efficacy of infant baptism, he declined to be +ordained. + +It was now his desire to become an artist; this, however, did not +meet with the approval of his family, and he returned to Cambridge +to try for pupils and, if possible, to get a fellowship. He liked +being at Cambridge, but there were few pupils and, as there seemed +to be little chance of a fellowship, his father wished him to come +down and adopt some profession. A long correspondence took place in +the course of which many alternatives were considered. There are +letters about his becoming a farmer in England, a tutor, a +homoeopathic doctor, an artist, or a publisher, and the +possibilities of the army, the bar, and diplomacy. Finally it was +decided that he should emigrate to New Zealand. His passage was +paid, and he was to sail in the Burmah, but a cousin of his received +information about this vessel which caused him, much against his +will, to get back his passage money and take a berth in the Roman +Emperor, which sailed from Gravesend on one of the last days of +September, 1859. On that night, for the first time in his life, he +did not say his prayers. "I suppose the sense of change was so +great that it shook them quietly off. I was not then a sceptic; I +had got as far as disbelief in infant baptism, but no further. I +felt no compunction of conscience, however, about leaving off my +morning and evening prayers--simply I could no longer say them." + +The Roman Emperor, after a voyage every incident of which interested +him deeply, arrived outside Port Lyttelton. The captain shouted to +the pilot who came to take them in: + +"Has the Robert Small arrived?" + +"No," replied the pilot, "nor yet the Burmah." + +And Butler, writing home to his people, adds the comment: "You may +imagine what I felt." + +The Burmah was never heard of again. + +He spent some time looking round, considering what to do and how to +employ the money with which his father was ready to supply him, and +determined upon sheep-farming. He made several excursions looking +for country, and ultimately took up a run which is still called +Mesopotamia, the name he gave it because it is situated among the +head-waters of the Rangitata. + +It was necessary to have a horse, and he bought one for 55 pounds, +which was not considered dear. He wrote home that the horse's name +was "Doctor": "I hope he is a Homoeopathist." From this, and from +the fact that he had already contemplated becoming a homoeopathic +doctor himself, I conclude that he had made the acquaintance of Dr. +Robert Ellis Dudgeon, the eminent homoeopathist, while he was doing +parish work in London. After his return to England Dr. Dudgeon was +his medical adviser, and remained one of his most intimate friends +until the end of his life. Doctor, the horse, is introduced into +Erewhon Revisited; the shepherd in Chapter XXVI tells John Higgs +that Doctor "would pick fords better than that gentleman could, I +know, and if the gentleman fell off him he would just stay stock +still." + +Butler carried on his run for about four and a half years, and the +open-air life agreed with him; he ascribed to this the good health +he afterwards enjoyed. The following, taken from a notebook he kept +in the colony and destroyed, gives a glimpse of one side of his life +there; he preserved the note because it recalled New Zealand so +vividly. + +April, 1861. It is Sunday. We rose later than usual. There are +five of us sleeping in the hut. I sleep in a bunk on one side of +the fire; Mr. Haast, {22} a German who is making a geological +survey of the province, sleeps upon the opposite one; my bullock- +driver and hut-keeper have two bunks at the far end of the hut, +along the wall, while my shepherd lies in the loft among the tea +and sugar and flour. It was a fine morning, and we turned out +about seven o'clock. + +The usual mutton and bread for breakfast with a pudding made of +flour and water baked in the camp oven after a joint of meat-- +Yorkshire pudding, but without eggs. While we were at breakfast +a robin perched on the table and sat there a good while pecking +at the sugar. We went on breakfasting with little heed to the +robin, and the robin went on pecking with little heed to us. +After breakfast Pey, my bullock-driver, went to fetch the horses +up from a spot about two miles down the river, where they often +run; we wanted to go pig-hunting. + +I go into the garden and gather a few peascods for seed till the +horses should come up. Then Cook, the shepherd, says that a fire +has sprung up on the other side of the river. Who could have lit +it? Probably someone who had intended coming to my place on the +preceding evening and has missed his way, for there is no track +of any sort between here and Phillips's. In a quarter of an hour +he lit another fire lower down, and by that time, the horses +having come up, Haast and myself--remembering how Dr. Sinclair +had just been drowned so near the same spot--think it safer to +ride over to him and put him across the river. The river was +very low and so clear that we could see every stone. On getting +to the river-bed we lit a fire and did the same on leaving it; +our tracks would guide anyone over the intervening ground. + +Besides his occupation with the sheep, he found time to play the +piano, to read and to write. In the library of St. John's College, +Cambridge, are two copies of the Greek Testament, very fully +annotated by him at the University and in the colony. He also read +the Origin of Species, which, as everyone knows, was published in +1859. He became "one of Mr. Darwin's many enthusiastic admirers, +and wrote a philosophic dialogue (the most offensive form, except +poetry and books of travel into supposed unknown countries, that +even literature can assume) upon the Origin of Species" (Unconscious +Memory, close of Chapter I). This dialogue, unsigned, was printed +in the Press, Canterbury, New Zealand, on 20th December, 1862. A +copy of the paper was sent to Charles Darwin, who forwarded it to a, +presumably, English editor with a letter, now in the Canterbury +Museum, New Zealand, speaking of the dialogue as "remarkable from +its spirit and from giving so clear and accurate an account of Mr. +D's theory." It is possible that Butler himself sent the newspaper +containing his dialogue to Mr. Darwin; if so he did not disclose his +name, for Darwin says in his letter that he does not know who the +author was. Butler was closely connected with the Press, which was +founded by James Edward FitzGerald, the first Superintendent of the +Province, in May, 1861; he frequently contributed to its pages, and +once, during FitzGerald's absence, had charge of it for a short +time, though he was never its actual editor. The Press reprinted +the dialogue and the correspondence which followed its original +appearance on 8th June, 1912. + +On 13th June, 1863, the Press printed a letter by Butler signed +"Cellarius" and headed "Darwin among the Machines," reprinted in The +Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). The letter begins: + +"Sir: There are few things of which the present generation is more +justly proud than of the wonderful improvements which are daily +taking place in all sorts of mechanical appliances"; and goes on to +say that, as the vegetable kingdom was developed from the mineral, +and as the animal kingdom supervened upon the vegetable, "so now, in +the last few ages, an entirely new kingdom has sprung up of which we +as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the +antediluvian types of the race." He then speaks of the minute +members which compose the beautiful and intelligent little animal +which we call the watch, and of how it has gradually been evolved +from the clumsy brass clocks of the thirteenth century. Then comes +the question: Who will be man's successor? To which the answer is: +We are ourselves creating our own successors. Man will become to +the machine what the horse and the dog are to man; the conclusion +being that machines are, or are becoming, animate. In 1863 Butler's +family published in his name A First Year in Canterbury Settlement, +which, as the preface states, was compiled from his letters home, +his journal and extracts from two papers contributed to the Eagle. +These two papers had appeared in the Eagle as three articles +entitled "Our Emigrant" and signed "Cellarius." The proof sheets of +the book went out to New Zealand for correction and were sent back +in the Colombo, which was as unfortunate as the Burmah, for she was +wrecked. The proofs, however, were fished up, though so nearly +washed out as to be almost undecipherable. Butler would have been +just as well pleased if they had remained at the bottom of the +Indian Ocean, for he never liked the book and always spoke of it as +being full of youthful priggishness; but I think he was a little +hard upon it. Years afterwards, in one of his later books, after +quoting two passages from Mr. Grant Allen and pointing out why he +considered the second to be a recantation of the first, he wrote: +"When Mr. Allen does make stepping-stones of his dead selves he +jumps upon them to some tune." And he was perhaps a little inclined +to treat his own dead self too much in the same spirit. + +Butler did very well with the sheep, sold out in 1864 and returned +via Callao to England. He travelled with three friends whose +acquaintance he had made in the colony; one was Charles Paine Pauli, +to whom he dedicated Life and Habit. He arrived in August, 1864, in +London, where he took chambers consisting of a sitting-room, a +bedroom, a painting-room and a pantry, at 15 Clifford's Inn, second +floor (north). The net financial result of the sheep-farming and +the selling out was that he practically doubled his capital, that is +to say he had about 8000 pounds. This he left in New Zealand, +invested on mortgage at 10 per cent, the then current rate in the +colony; it produced more than enough for him to live upon in the +very simple way that suited him best, and life in the Inns of Court +resembles life at Cambridge in that it reduces the cares of +housekeeping to a minimum; it suited him so well that he never +changed his rooms, remaining there thirty-eight years till his +death. + +He was now his own master and able at last to turn to painting. He +studied at the art school in Streatham Street, Bloomsbury, which had +formerly been managed by Henry Sass, but, in Butler's time, was +being carried on by Francis Stephen Gary, son of the Rev. Henry +Francis Gary, who had been a school-fellow of Dr. Butler at Rugby +and is well known as the translator of Dante and the friend of +Charles Lamb. Among his fellow-students was Mr. H. R. Robertson, +who told me that the young artists got hold of the legend, which is +in some of the books about Lamb, that when Francis Stephen Gary was +a boy and there was a talk at his father's house as to what +profession he should take up, Lamb, who was present, said: + +"I should make him an apo-po-pothe-Cary." + +They used to repeat this story freely among themselves, being, no +doubt, amused by the Lamb-like pun, but also enjoying the malicious +pleasure of hinting that it might have been as well for their art +education if the advice of the gentle humorist had been followed. +Anyone who wants to know what kind of an artist F. S. Cary was can +see his picture of Charles and Mary Lamb in the National Portrait +Gallery. In 1865 Butler sent from London to New Zealand an article +entitled "Lucubratio Ebria," which was published in the Press of +29th July, 1865. It treated machines from a point of view different +from that adopted in "Darwin among the Machines," and was one of the +steps that led to Erewhon and ultimately to Life and Habit. The +article is reproduced in The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912). + +Butler also studied art at South Kensington, but by 1867 he had +begun to go to Heatherley's School of Art in Newman Street, where he +continued going for many years. He made a number of friends at +Heatherley's, and among them Miss Eliza Mary Anne Savage. There +also he first met Charles Gogin, who, in 1896, painted the portrait +of Butler which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. He +described himself as an artist in the Post Office Directory, and +between 1868 and 1876 exhibited at the Royal Academy about a dozen +pictures, of which the most important was "Mr. Heatherley's +Holiday," hung on the line in 1874. He left it by his will to his +college friend Jason Smith, whose representatives, after his death, +in 1910, gave it to the nation and it is now in the National Gallery +of British Art. Mr. Heatherley never went away for a holiday; he +once had to go out of town on business and did not return till the +next day; one of the students asked him how he had got on, saying no +doubt he had enjoyed the change and that he must have found it +refreshing to sleep for once out of London. + +"No," said Heatherley, "I did not like it. Country air has no +body." + +The consequence was that, whenever there was a holiday and the +school was shut, Heatherley employed the time in mending the +skeleton; Butler's picture represents him so engaged in a corner of +the studio. In this way he got his model for nothing. Sometimes he +hung up a looking-glass near one of his windows and painted his own +portrait. Many of these he painted out, but after his death we +found a little store of them in his rooms, some of the early ones +very curious. Of the best of them one is now at Canterbury, New +Zealand, one at St. John's College, Cambridge, and one at the +Schools, Shrewsbury. + +This is Butler's own account of himself, taken from a letter to Sir +Julius von Haast; although written in 1865 it is true of his mode of +life for many years: + +I have been taking lessons in painting ever since I arrived, I +was always very fond of it and mean to stick to it; it suits me +and I am not without hopes that I shall do well at it. I live +almost the life of a recluse, seeing very few people and going +nowhere that I can help--I mean in the way of parties and so +forth; if my friends had their way they would fritter away my +time without any remorse; but I made a regular stand against it +from the beginning and so, having my time pretty much in my own +hands, work hard; I find, as I am sure you must find, that it is +next to impossible to combine what is commonly called society and +work. + +But the time saved from society was not all devoted to painting. He +modified his letter to the Press about "Darwin among the Machines" +and, so modified, it appeared in 1865 as "The Mechanical Creation" +in the Reasoner, a paper then published in London by Mr. G. J. +Holyoake. And his mind returned to the considerations which had +determined him to decline to be ordained. In 1865 he printed +anonymously a pamphlet which he had begun in New Zealand, the result +of his study of the Greek Testament, entitled The Evidence for the +Resurrection of Jesus Christ as given by the four Evangelists +critically examined. After weighing this evidence and comparing one +account with another, he came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ +did not die upon the cross. It is improbable that a man officially +executed should escape death, but the alternative, that a man +actually dead should return to life, seemed to Butler more +improbable still and unsupported by such evidence as he found in the +gospels. From this evidence he concluded that Christ swooned and +recovered consciousness after his body had passed into the keeping +of Joseph of Arimathaea. He did not suppose fraud on the part of +the first preachers of Christianity; they sincerely believed that +Christ died and rose again. Joseph and Nicodemus probably knew the +truth but kept silence. The idea of what might follow from belief +in one single supposed miracle was never hereafter absent from +Butler's mind. + +In 1869, having been working too hard, he went abroad for a long +change. On his way back, at the Albergo La Luna, in Venice, he met +an elderly Russian lady in whose company he spent most of his time +there. She was no doubt impressed by his versatility and charmed, +as everyone always was, by his conversation and original views on +the many subjects that interested him. We may be sure he told her +all about himself and what he had done and was intending to do. At +the end of his stay, when he was taking leave of her, she said: + +"Et maintenant, Monsieur, vous allez creer," meaning, as he +understood her, that he had been looking long enough at the work of +others and should now do something of his own. + +This sank into him and pained him. He was nearly thirty-five, and +hitherto all had been admiration, vague aspiration and despair; he +had produced in painting nothing but a few sketches and studies, and +in literature only a few ephemeral articles, a collection of +youthful letters and a pamphlet on the Resurrection; moreover, to +none of his work had anyone paid the slightest attention. This was +a poor return for all the money which had been spent upon his +education, as Theobald would have said in The Way of All Flesh. He +returned home dejected, but resolved that things should be different +in the future. While in this frame of mind he received a visit from +one of his New Zealand friends, the late Sir F. Napier Broome, +afterwards Governor of Western Australia, who incidentally suggested +his rewriting his New Zealand articles. The idea pleased him; it +might not be creating, but at least it would be doing something. So +he set to work on Sundays and in the evenings, as relaxation from +his profession of painting, and, taking his New Zealand article, +"Darwin among the Machines," and another, "The World of the Unborn," +as a starting point and helping himself with a few sentences from A +First Year in Canterbury Settlement, he gradually formed Erewhon. +He sent the MS. bit by bit, as it was written, to Miss Savage for +her criticism and approval. He had the usual difficulty about +finding a publisher. Chapman and Hall refused the book on the +advice of George Meredith, who was then their reader, and in the end +he published it at his own expense through Messrs. Trubner. + +Mr. Sydney C. Cockerell told me that in 1912 Mr. Bertram Dobell, +second-hand bookseller of Charing Cross Road, offered a copy of +Erewhon for 1 pounds 10s.; it was thus described in his catalogue: +"Unique copy with the following note in the author's handwriting on +the half-title: 'To Miss E. M. A. Savage this first copy of Erewhon +with the author's best thanks for many invaluable suggestions and +corrections.'" When Mr. Cockerell inquired for the book it was +sold. After Miss Savage's death in 1885 all Butler's letters to her +were returned to him, including the letter he wrote when he sent her +this copy of Erewhon. He gave her the first copy issued of all his +books that were published in her lifetime, and, no doubt, wrote an +inscription in each. If the present possessors of any of them +should happen to read this sketch I hope they will communicate with +me, as I should like to see these books. I should also like to see +some numbers of the Drawing-Room Gazette, which about this time +belonged to or was edited by a Mrs. Briggs. Miss Savage wrote a +review of Erewhon, which appeared in the number for 8th June, 1872, +and Butler quoted a sentence from her review among the press notices +in the second edition. She persuaded him to write for Mrs. Briggs +notices of concerts at which Handel's music was performed. In 1901 +he made a note on one of his letters that he was thankful there were +no copies of the Drawing-Room Gazette in the British Museum, meaning +that he did not want people to read his musical criticisms; +nevertheless, I hope some day to come across back numbers containing +his articles. + +The opening of Erewhon is based upon Butler's colonial experiences; +some of the descriptions remind one of passages in A First Year in +Canterbury Settlement, where he speaks of the excursions he made +with Doctor when looking for sheep-country. The walk over the range +as far as the statues is taken from the Upper Rangitata district, +with some alterations; but the walk down from the statues into +Erewhon is reminiscent of the Leventina Valley in the Canton Ticino. +The great chords, which are like the music moaned by the statues, +are from the prelude to the first of Handel's Trois Lecons; he used +to say: + +"One feels them in the diaphragm--they are, as it were, the groaning +and labouring of all creation travailing together until now." + +There is a place in New Zealand named Erewhon, after the book; it is +marked on the large maps, a township about fifty miles west of +Napier in the Hawke Bay Province (North Island). I am told that +people in New Zealand sometimes call their houses Erewhon and +occasionally spell the word Erehwon which Butler did not intend; he +treated wh as a single letter, as one would treat th. Among other +traces of Erewhon now existing in real life are Butler's Stones on +the Hokitika Pass, so called because of a legend that they were in +his mind when he described the statues. + +The book was translated into Dutch in 1873 and into German in 1897. + +Butler wrote to Charles Darwin to explain what he meant by the "Book +of the Machines": "I am sincerely sorry that some of the critics +should have thought I was laughing at your theory, a thing which I +never meant to do and should be shocked at having done." Soon after +this Butler was invited to Down and paid two visits to Mr. Darwin +there; he thus became acquainted with all the family and for some +years was on intimate terms with Mr. (now Sir) Francis Darwin. + +It is easy to see by the light of subsequent events that we should +probably have had something not unlike Erewhon sooner or later, even +without the Russian lady and Sir F. N. Broome, to whose promptings, +owing to a certain diffidence which never left him, he was perhaps +inclined to attribute too much importance. But he would not have +agreed with this view at the time; he looked upon himself as a +painter and upon Erewhon as an interruption. It had come, like one +of those creatures from the Land of the Unborn, pestering him and +refusing to leave him at peace until he consented to give it bodily +shape. It was only a little one, and he saw no likelihood of its +having any successors. So he satisfied its demands and then, +supposing that he had written himself out, looked forward to a +future in which nothing should interfere with the painting. +Nevertheless, when another of the unborn came teasing him he yielded +to its importunities and allowed himself to become the author of The +Fair Haven, which is his pamphlet on the Resurrection, enlarged and +preceded by a realistic memoir of the pseudonymous author, John +Pickard Owen. In the library of St. John's College, Cambridge, are +two copies of the pamphlet with pages cut out; he used these pages +in forming the MS. of The Fair Haven. To have published this book +as by the author of Erewhon would have been to give away the irony +and satire. And he had another reason for not disclosing his name; +he remembered that as soon as curiosity about the authorship of +Erewhon was satisfied, the weekly sales fell from fifty down to only +two or three. But, as he always talked openly of whatever was in +his mind, he soon let out the secret of the authorship of The Fair +Haven, and it became advisable to put his name to a second edition. + +One result of his submitting the MS. of Erewhon to Miss Savage was +that she thought he ought to write a novel, and urged him to do so. +I have no doubt that he wrote the memoir of John Pickard Owen with +the idea of quieting Miss Savage and also as an experiment to +ascertain whether he was likely to succeed with a novel. The result +seems to have satisfied him, for, not long after The Fair Haven, he +began The Way of All Flesh, sending the MS. to Miss Savage, as he +did everything he wrote, for her approval and putting her into the +book as Ernest's Aunt Alethea. He continued writing it in the +intervals of other work until her death in February, 1885, after +which he did not touch it. It was published in 1903 by Mr. R. A. +Streatfeild, his literary executor. + +Soon after The Fair Haven Butler began to be aware that his letter +in the Press, "Darwin among the Machines," was descending with +further modifications and developing in his mind into a theory about +evolution which took shape as Life and Habit; but the writing of +this very remarkable and suggestive book was delayed and the +painting interrupted by absence from England on business in Canada. +He had been persuaded by a college friend, a member of one of the +great banking families, to call in his colonial mortgages and to put +the money into several new companies. He was going to make thirty +or forty per cent instead of only ten. One of these companies was a +Canadian undertaking, of which he became a director; it was +necessary for someone to go to headquarters and investigate its +affairs; he went, and was much occupied by the business for two or +three years. By the beginning of 1876 he had returned finally to +London, but most of his money was lost and his financial position +for the next ten years caused him very serious anxiety. His +personal expenditure was already so low that it was hardly possible +to reduce it, and he set to work at his profession more +industriously than ever, hoping to paint something that he could +sell, his spare time being occupied with Life and Habit, which was +the subject that really interested him more deeply than any other. + +Following his letter in the Press, wherein he had seen machines as +in process of becoming animate, he went on to regard them as living +organs and limbs which we had made outside ourselves. What would +follow if we reversed this and regarded our limbs and organs as +machines which we had manufactured as parts of our bodies? In the +first place, how did we come to make them without knowing anything +about it? But then, how comes anybody to do anything unconsciously? +The answer usually would be: By habit. But can a man be said to do +a thing by habit when he has never done it before? His ancestors +have done it, but not he. Can the habit have been acquired by them +for his benefit? Not unless he and his ancestors are the same +person. Perhaps, then, they are the same person. + +In February, 1876, partly to clear his mind and partly to tell +someone, he wrote down his thoughts in a letter to his namesake, +Thomas William Gale Butler, a fellow art-student who was then in New +Zealand; so much of the letter as concerns the growth of his theory +is given in The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912) and a resume of +the theory will be found at the end of the last of the essays in +this volume, "The Deadlock in Darwinism." In September, 1877, when +Life and Habit was on the eve of publication, Mr. Francis Darwin +came to lunch with him in Clifford's Inn and, in course of +conversation, told him that Professor Ray Lankester had written +something in Nature about a lecture by Dr. Ewald Hering of Prague, +delivered so long ago as 1870, "On Memory as a Universal Function of +Organized Matter." This rather alarmed Butler, but he deferred +looking up the reference until after December, 1877, when his book +was out, and then, to his relief, he found that Hering's theory was +very similar to his own, so that, instead of having something sprung +upon him which would have caused him to want to alter his book, he +was supported. He at once wrote to the Athenaeum, calling attention +to Hering's lecture, and then pursued his studies in evolution. + +Life and Habit was followed in 1879 by Evolution Old and New, +wherein he compared the teleological or purposive view of evolution +taken by Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck with the view taken +by Charles Darwin, and came to the conclusion that the old was +better. But while agreeing with the earlier writers in thinking +that the variations whose accumulation results in species were +originally due to intelligence, he could not take the view that the +intelligence resided in an external personal God. He had done with +all that when he gave up the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the +dead. He proposed to place the intelligence inside the creature +("The Deadlock in Darwinism" post). + +In 1880 he continued the subject by publishing Unconscious Memory. +Chapter IV of this book is concerned with a personal quarrel between +himself and Charles Darwin which arose out of the publication by +Charles Darwin of Dr. Krause's Life of Erasmus Darwin. We need not +enter into particulars here, the matter is fully dealt with in a +pamphlet, Charles Darwin and Samuel Butler: A Step towards +Reconciliation, which I wrote in 1911, the result of a +correspondence between Mr. Francis Darwin and myself. Before this +correspondence took place Mr. Francis Darwin had made several public +allusions to Life and Habit; and in September, 1908, in his +inaugural address to the British Association at Dublin, he did +Butler the posthumous honour of quoting from his translation of +Hering's lecture "On Memory," which is in Unconscious Memory, and of +mentioning Butler as having enunciated the theory contained in Life +and Habit. + +In 1886 Butler published his last book on evolution, Luck or Cunning +as the Main Means of Organic Modification? His other contributions +to the subject are some essays, written for the Examiner in 1879, +"God the Known and God the Unknown," which were re-published by Mr. +Fifield in 1909, and the articles "The Deadlock in Darwinism" which +appeared in the Universal Review in 1890 and are contained in this +volume; some further notes on evolution will be found in The Note- +Books of Samuel Butler (1912). + +It was while he was writing Life and Habit that I first met him. +For several years he had been in the habit of spending six or eight +weeks of the summer in Italy and the Canton Ticino, generally making +Faido his headquarters. Many a page of his books was written while +resting by the fountain of some subalpine village or waiting in the +shade of the chestnuts till the light came so that he could continue +a sketch. Every year he returned home by a different route, and +thus gradually became acquainted with every part of the Canton and +North Italy. There is scarcely a town or village, a point of view, +a building, statue or picture in all this country with which he was +not familiar. In 1878 he happened to be on the Sacro Monte above +Varese at the time I took my holiday; there I joined him, and nearly +every year afterwards we were in Italy together. + +He was always a delightful companion, and perhaps at his gayest on +these occasions. "A man's holiday," he would say, "is his garden," +and he set out to enjoy himself and to make everyone about him enjoy +themselves too. I told him the old schoolboy muddle about Sir +Walter Raleigh introducing tobacco and saying: "We shall this day +light up such a fire in England as I trust shall never be put out." +He had not heard it before and, though amused, appeared preoccupied, +and perhaps a little jealous, during the rest of the evening. Next +morning, while he was pouring out his coffee, his eyes twinkled and +he said, with assumed carelessness: + +"By the by, do you remember?--wasn't it Columbus who bashed the egg +down on the table and said 'Eppur non si muove'?" + +He was welcome wherever he went, full of fun and ready to play while +doing the honours of the country. Many of the peasants were old +friends, and every day we were sure to meet someone who remembered +him. Perhaps it would be an old woman labouring along under a +burden; she would smile and stop, take his hand and tell him how +happy she was to meet him again and repeat her thanks for the empty +wine bottle he had given her after an out-of-door luncheon in her +neighbourhood four or five years before. There was another who had +rowed him many times across the Lago di Orta and had never been in a +train but once in her life, when she went to Novara to her son's +wedding. He always remembered all about these people and asked how +the potatoes were doing this year and whether the grandchildren were +growing up into fine boys and girls, and he never forgot to inquire +after the son who had gone to be a waiter in New York. At Civiasco +there is a restaurant which used to be kept by a jolly old lady, +known for miles round as La Martina; we always lunched with her on +our way over the Colma to and from Varallo-Sesia. On one occasion +we were accompanied by two English ladies and, one being a +teetotaller, Butler maliciously instructed La Martina to make the +sabbaglione so that it should be forte and abbondante, and to say +that the Marsala, with which it was more than flavoured, was nothing +but vinegar. La Martina never forgot that when she looked in to see +how things were going, he was pretending to lick the dish clean. +These journeys provided the material for a book which he thought of +calling "Verdi Prati," after one of Handel's most beautiful songs; +but he changed his mind, and it appeared at the end of 1881 as Alps +and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino with more than +eighty illustrations, nearly all by Butler. Charles Gogin made an +etching for the frontispiece, drew some of the pictures, and put +figures into others; half a dozen are mine. They were all redrawn +in ink from sketches made on the spot, in oil, water-colour, and +pencil. There were also many illustrations of another kind-- +extracts from Handel's music, each chosen because Butler thought it +suitable to the spirit of the scene he wished to bring before the +reader. The introduction concludes with these words: "I have +chosen Italy as my second country, and would dedicate this book to +her as a thank-offering for the happiness she has afforded me." + +In the spring of 1883 he began to compose music, and in 1885 we +published together an album of minuets, gavottes, and fugues. This +led to our writing Narcissus, which is an Oratorio Buffo in the +Handelian manner--that is as nearly so as we could make it. It is a +mistake to suppose that all Handel's oratorios are upon sacred +subjects; some of them are secular. And not only so, but, whatever +the subject, Handel was never at a loss in treating anything that +came into his words by way of allusion or illustration. As Butler +puts it in one of his sonnets: + +He who gave eyes to ears and showed in sound +All thoughts and things in earth or heaven above-- +From fire and hailstones running along the ground +To Galatea grieving for her love-- +He who could show to all unseeing eyes +Glad shepherds watching o'er their flocks by night, +Or Iphis angel-wafted to the skies, +Or Jordan standing as an heap upright-- + +And so on. But there is one subject which Handel never treated--I +mean the Money Market. Perhaps he avoided it intentionally; he was +twice bankrupt, and Mr. R. A. Streatfeild tells me that the British +Museum possesses a MS. letter from him giving instructions as to the +payment of the dividends on 500 pounds South Sea Stock. Let us hope +he sold out before the bubble burst; if so, he was more fortunate +than Butler, who was at this time of his life in great anxiety about +his own financial affairs. It seemed a pity that Dr. Morell had +never offered Handel some such words as these: + +The steadfast funds maintain their wonted state +While all the other markets fluctuate. + +Butler wondered whether Handel would have sent the steadfast funds +up above par and maintained them on an inverted pedal with all the +other markets fluctuating iniquitously round them like the sheep +that turn every one to his own way in the Messiah. He thought +something of the kind ought to have been done, and in the absence of +Handel and Dr. Morell we determined to write an oratorio that should +attempt to supply the want. In order to make our libretto as +plausible as possible, we adopted the dictum of Monsieur Jourdain's +Maitre a danser: "Lorsqu'on a des personnes a faire parler en +musique, il faut bien que, pour la vraisemblance, on donne dans la +bergerie." Narcissus is accordingly a shepherd in love with +Amaryllis; they come to London with other shepherds and lose their +money in imprudent speculations on the Stock Exchange. In the +second part the aunt and godmother of Narcissus, having died at an +advanced age worth one hundred thousand pounds, all of which she has +bequeathed to her nephew and godson, the obstacle to his union with +Amaryllis is removed. The money is invested in consols and all ends +happily. + +In December, 1886, Butler's father died, and his financial +difficulties ceased. He engaged Alfred Emery Cathie as clerk, but +made no other change, except that he bought a pair of new hair +brushes and a larger wash-hand basin. Any change in his mode of +life was an event. When in London he got up at 6.30 in the summer +and 7.30 in the winter, went into his sitting-room, lighted the +fire, put the kettle on and returned to bed. In half an hour he got +up again, fetched the kettle of hot water, emptied it into the cold +water that was already in his bath, refilled the kettle and put it +back on the fire. After dressing, he came into his sitting-room, +made tea and cooked, in his Dutch oven, something he had bought the +day before. His laundress was an elderly woman, and he could not +trouble her to come to his rooms so early in the morning; on the +other hand, he could not stay in bed until he thought it right for +her to go out; so it ended in his doing a great deal for himself. +He then got his breakfast and read the Times. At 9.30 Alfred came, +with whom he discussed anything requiring attention, and soon +afterwards his laundress arrived. Then he started to walk to the +British Museum, where he arrived about 10.30, every alternate +morning calling at the butcher's in Fetter Lane to order his meat. +In the Reading Room at the Museum he sat at Block B ("B for Butler") +and spent an hour "posting his notes"--that is reconsidering, +rewriting, amplifying, shortening, and indexing the contents of the +little note-book he always carried in his pocket. After the notes +he went on till 1.30 with whatever book he happened to be writing. + +On three days of the week he dined in a restaurant on his way home, +and on the other days he dined in his chambers where his laundress +had cooked his dinner. At two o'clock Alfred returned (having been +home to dinner with his wife and children) and got tea ready for +him. He then wrote letters and attended to his accounts till 3.45, +when he smoked his first cigarette. He used to smoke a great deal, +but, believing it to be bad for him, took to cigarettes instead of +pipes, and gradually smoked less and less, making it a rule not to +begin till some particular hour, and pushing this hour later and +later in the day, till it settled itself at 3.45. There was no +water laid on in his rooms, and every day he fetched one can full +from the tap in the court, Alfred fetching the rest. When anyone +expostulated with him about cooking his own breakfast and fetching +his own water, he replied that it was good for him to have a change +of occupation. This was partly the fact, but the real reason, which +he could not tell everyone, was that he shrank from inconveniencing +anybody; he always paid more than was necessary when anything was +done for him, and was not happy then unless he did some of the work +himself. + +At 5.30 he got his evening meal, he called it his tea, and it was +little more than a facsimile of breakfast. Alfred left in time to +post the letters before six. Butler then wrote music till about 8, +when he came to see me in Staple Inn, returning to Clifford's Inn by +about 10. After a light supper, latterly not more than a piece of +toast and a glass of milk, he played one game of his own particular +kind of Patience, prepared his breakfast things and fire ready for +the next morning, smoked his seventh and last cigarette, and went to +bed at eleven o'clock. + +He was fond of the theatre, but avoided serious pieces. He +preferred to take his Shakespeare from the book, finding that the +spirit of the plays rather evaporated under modern theatrical +treatment. In one of his books he brightens up the old illustration +of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark by putting it thus: "If the +character of Hamlet be entirely omitted, the play must suffer, even +though Henry Irving himself be cast for the title-role." Anyone +going to the theatre in this spirit would be likely to be less +disappointed by performances that were comic or even frankly +farcical. Latterly, when he grew slightly deaf, listening to any +kind of piece became too much of an effort; nevertheless, he +continued to the last the habit of going to one pantomime every +winter. + +There were about twenty houses where he visited, but he seldom +accepted an invitation to dinner--it upset the regularity of his +life; besides, he belonged to no club and had no means of returning +hospitality. When two colonial friends called unexpectedly about +noon one day, soon after he settled in London, he went to the +nearest cook-shop in Fetter Lane and returned carrying a dish of hot +roast pork and greens. This was all very well once in a way, but +not the sort of thing to be repeated indefinitely. + +On Thursdays, instead of going to the Museum, he often took a day +off, going into the country sketching or walking, and on Sundays, +whatever the weather, he nearly always went into the country +walking; his map of the district for thirty miles round London is +covered all over with red lines showing where he had been. He +sometimes went out of town from Saturday to Monday, and for over +twenty years spent Christmas at Boulogne-sur-Mer. + +There is a Sacro Monte at Varallo-Sesia with many chapels, each +containing life-sized statues and frescoes illustrating the life of +Christ. Butler had visited this sanctuary repeatedly, and was a +great favourite with the townspeople, who knew that he was studying +the statues and frescoes in the chapels, and who remembered that in +the preface to Alps and Sanctuaries he had declared his intention of +writing about them. In August, 1887, the Varallesi brought matters +to a head by giving him a civic dinner on the Mountain. Everyone +was present, there were several speeches and, when we were coming +down the slippery mountain path after it was all over, he said to +me: + +"You know, there's nothing for it now but to write that book about +the Sacro Monte at once. It must be the next thing I do." + +Accordingly, on returning home, he took up photography and, +immediately after Christmas, went back to Varallo to photograph the +statues and collect material. Much research was necessary and many +visits to out-of-the-way sanctuaries which might have contained work +by the sculptor Tabachetti, whom he was rescuing from oblivion and +identifying with the Flemish Jean de Wespin. One of these visits, +made after his book was published, forms the subject of "The +Sanctuary of Montrigone," reproduced in this volume. Ex Voto, the +book about Varallo, appeared in 1888, and an Italian translation by +Cavaliere Angelo Rizzetti was published at Novara in 1894. + +"Quis Desiderio . . .?" the second essay in this volume, was +developed in 1888 from something in a letter from Miss Savage nearly +ten years earlier. On the 15th of December, 1878, in acknowledging +this letter, Butler wrote: + +I am sure that any tree or flower nursed by Miss Cobbe would be +the _very_ first to fade away and that her gazelles would die +long before they ever came to know her _well_. The sight of the +brass buttons on her pea-jacket would settle them out of hand. + +There was an enclosure in Miss Savage's letter, but it is +unfortunately lost; I suppose it must have been a newspaper cutting +with an allusion to Moore's poem and perhaps a portrait of Miss +Frances Power Cobbe--pea-jacket, brass buttons, and all. + +On the 10th November, 1879, Miss Savage, having been ill, wrote to +Butler: + +I have been dipping into the books of Moses, being sometimes at a +loss for something to read while shut up in my apartment. You +know that I have never read the Bible much, consequently there is +generally something of a novelty that I hit on. As you do know +your Bible well, perhaps you can tell me what became of Aaron. +The account given of his end in Numbers XX is extremely ambiguous +and unsatisfactory. Evidently he did not come by his death +fairly, but whether he was murdered secretly for the furtherance +of some private ends, or publicly in a State sacrifice, I can't +make out. I myself rather incline to the former opinion, but I +should like to know what the experts say about it. A very nice, +exciting little tale might be made out of it in the style of the +police stories in All the Year Round called "The Mystery of Mount +Hor or What became of Aaron?" Don't forget to write to me. + +Butler's people had been suggesting that he should try to earn money +by writing in magazines, and Miss Savage was falling in with the +idea and offering a practical suggestion. I do not find that he had +anything to tell her about the death of Aaron. On 23rd March, 1880, +she wrote: + +Dear Mr. Butler: Read the subjoined poem of Wordsworth and let +me know what you understand its meaning to be. Of course I have +my opinion, which I think of communicating to the Wordsworth +Society. You can belong to that Society for the small sum of 2/6 +per annum. I think of joining because it is cheap. + +"The subjoined poem" was the one beginning: "She dwelt among the +untrodden ways," and Butler made this note on the letter: + +To the foregoing letter I answered that I concluded Miss Savage +meant to imply that Wordsworth had murdered Lucy in order to +escape a prosecution for breach of promise. + +Miss Savage to Butler. + +2nd April, 1880: My dear Mr. Butler: I don't think you see all +that I do in the poem, and I am afraid that the suggestion of a +DARK SECRET in the poet's life is not so very obvious after all. +I was hoping you would propose to devote yourself for a few +months to reading the Excursion, his letters, &c., with a view to +following up the clue, and I am disappointed though, to say the +truth, the idea of a _crime_ had not flashed upon me when I wrote +to you. How well the works of _great_ men repay attention and +study! But you, who know your Bible so well, how was it that you +did not detect the plagiarism in the last verse? Just refer to +the account of the disappearance of Aaron (I have not a Bible at +hand, we want one sadly in the club) but I am sure that the words +are identical [I cannot see what Miss Savage meant. 1901. S. +B.] Cassell's Magazine have offered a prize for setting the poem +to music, and I fell to thinking how it could be treated +musically, and so came to a right comprehension of it. + +Although Butler, when editing Miss Savage's letters in 1901, could +not see the resemblance between Wordsworth's poem and Numbers XX., +he at once saw a strong likeness between Lucy and Moore's heroine +whom he had been keeping in an accessible pigeon-hole of his memory +ever since his letter about Miss Frances Power Cobbe. He now sent +Lucy to keep her company and often spoke of the pair of them as +probably the two most disagreeable young women in English +literature--an opinion which he must have expressed to Miss Savage +and with which I have no doubt she agreed. + +In the spring of 1888, on his return from photographing the statues +at Varallo, he found, to his disgust, that the authorities of the +British Museum had removed Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians from +its accustomed shelf in the Reading Room. Soon afterwards Harry +Quilter asked him to write for the Universal Review and he responded +with "Quis Desiderio . . .?" In this essay he compares himself to +Wordsworth and dwells on the points of resemblance between Lucy and +the book of whose assistance he had now been deprived in a passage +which echoes the opening of Chapter V of Ex Voto, where he points +out the resemblances between Varallo and Jerusalem. + +Early in 1888 the leading members of the Shrewsbury Archaeological +Society asked Butler to write a memoir of his grandfather and of his +father for their Quarterly Journal. This he undertook to do when he +should have finished Ex Voto. In December, 1888, his sisters, with +the idea of helping him to write the memoir, gave him his +grandfather's correspondence, which extended from 1790 to 1839. On +looking over these very voluminous papers he became penetrated with +an almost Chinese reverence for his ancestor and, after getting the +Archaeological Society to absolve him from his promise to write the +memoir, set about a full life of Dr. Butler, which was not published +till 1896. The delay was caused partly by the immense quantity of +documents he had to sift and digest, the number of people he had to +consult and the many letters he had to write, and partly by +something that arose out of Narcissus, which we published in June, +1888. + +Butler was not satisfied with having written only half of this work; +he wanted it to have a successor, so that by adding his two halves +together, he could say he had written a whole Handelian oratorio. +While staying with his sisters at Shrewsbury with this idea in his +mind, he casually took up a book by Alfred Ainger about Charles Lamb +and therein stumbled upon something about the Odyssey. It was years +since he had looked at the poem, but, from what he remembered, he +thought it might provide a suitable subject for musical treatment. +He did not, however, want to put Dr. Butler aside, so I undertook to +investigate. It is stated on the title-page of both Narcissus and +Ulysses that the words were written and the music composed by both +of us. As to the music, each piece bears the initials of the one +who actually composed it. As to the words, it was necessary first +to settle some general scheme and this, in the case of Narcissus, +grew in the course of conversation. The scheme of Ulysses was +constructed in a more formal way and Butler had perhaps rather less +to do with it. We were bound by the Odyssey, which is, of course, +too long to be treated fully, and I selected incidents that +attracted me and settled the order of the songs and choruses. For +this purpose, as I out-Shakespeare Shakespeare in the smallness of +my Greek, I used The Adventures of Ulysses by Charles Lamb, which we +should have known nothing about but for Ainger's book. Butler +acquiesced in my proposals, but, when it came to the words +themselves, he wrote practically all the libretto, as he had done in +the case of Narcissus; I did no more than suggest a few phrases and +a few lines here and there. + +We had sent Narcissus for review to the papers, and, as a +consequence, about this time, made the acquaintance of Mr. J. A. +Fuller Maitland, then musical critic of the Times; he introduced us +to that learned musician William Smith Rockstro, under whom we +studied medieval counterpoint while composing Ulysses. We had +already made some progress with it when it occurred to Butler that +it would not take long and might, perhaps, be safer if he were to +look at the original poem, just to make sure that Lamb had not +misled me. Not having forgotten all his Greek, he bought a copy of +the Odyssey and was so fascinated by it that he could not put it +down. When he came to the Phoeacian episode of Ulysses at Scheria +he felt he must be reading the description of a real place and that +something in the personality of the author was eluding him. For +months he was puzzled, and, to help in clearing up the mystery, set +about translating the poem. In August, 1891, he had preceded me to +Chiavenna and on a letter I wrote him, telling him when to expect +me, he made this note: + +It was during the few days I was at Chiavenna (at the Hotel +Grotta Crimee) that I hit upon the feminine authorship of the +Odyssey. I did not find out its having been written at Trapani +till January, 1892. + +He suspected that the authoress in describing both Scheria and +Ithaca was drawing from her native country and searched on the +Admiralty charts for the features enumerated in the poem; this led +him to the conclusion that the country could only be Trapani, Mount +Eryx, and the AEgadean Islands. As soon as he could after this +discovery he went to Sicily to study the locality and found it in +all respects suitable for his theory; indeed, it was astonishing how +things kept turning up to support his view. It is all in his book +The Authoress of the Odyssey, published in 1897 and dedicated to his +friend Cavaliere Biagio Ingroja of Calatafimi. + +His first visit to Sicily was in 1892, in August--a hot time of the +year, but it was his custom to go abroad in the autumn. He returned +to Sicily every year (except one), but latterly went in the spring. +He made many friends all over the island, and after his death the +people of Calatafimi called a street by his name, the Via Samuel +Butler, "thus," as Ingroja wrote when he announced the event to me, +"honouring a great man's memory, handing down his name to posterity, +and doing homage to the friendly English nation." Besides showing +that the Odyssey was written by a woman in Sicily and translating +the poem into English prose, he also translated the Iliad, and, in +March, 1895, went to Greece and the Troad to see the country therein +described, where he found nothing to cause him to disagree with the +received theories. + +It has been said of him in a general way that the fact of an opinion +being commonly held was enough to make him profess the opposite. It +was enough to make him examine the opinion for himself, when it +affected any of the many subjects which interested him, and if, +after giving it his best attention, he found it did not hold water, +then no weight of authority could make him say that it did. This +matter of the geography of the Iliad is only one among many commonly +received opinions which he examined for himself and found no reason +to dispute; on these he considered it unnecessary to write. + +It is characteristic of his passion for doing things thoroughly that +he learnt nearly the whole of the Odyssey and the Iliad by heart. +He had a Pickering copy of each poem, which he carried in his pocket +and referred to in railway trains, both in England and Italy, when +saying the poems over to himself. These two little books are now in +the library of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was, however, +disappointed to find that he could not retain more than a book or +two at a time and that, on learning more, he forgot what he had +learnt first; but he was about sixty at the time. Shakespeare's +Sonnets, on which he published a book in 1899, gave him less trouble +in this respect; he knew them all by heart, and also their order, +and one consequence of this was that he wrote some sonnets in the +Shakespearian form. He found this intimate knowledge of the poet's +work more useful for his purpose than reading commentaries by those +who were less familiar with it. "A commentary on a poem," he would +say, "may be useful as material on which to form an estimate of the +commentator, but the poem itself is the most important document you +can consult, and it is impossible to know it too intimately if you +want to form an opinion about it and its author." + +It was always the author, the work of God, that interested him more +than the book--the work of man; the painter more than the picture; +the composer more than the music. "If a writer, a painter, or a +musician makes me feel that he held those things to be lovable which +I myself hold to be lovable I am satisfied; art is only interesting +in so far as it reveals the personality of the artist." Handel was, +of course, "the greatest of all musicians." Among the painters he +chiefly loved Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio, Gaudenzio Ferrari, +Rembrandt, Holbein, Velasquez, and De Hooghe; in poetry Shakespeare, +Homer, and the Authoress of the Odyssey; and in architecture the +man, whoever he was, who designed the Temple of Neptune at Paestum. +Life being short, he did not see why he should waste any of it in +the company of inferior people when he had these. And he treated +those he met in daily life in the same spirit: it was what he found +them to be that attracted or repelled him; what others thought about +them was of little or no consequence. + +And now, at the end of his life, his thoughts reverted to the two +subjects which had occupied him more than thirty years previously-- +namely, Erewhon and the evidence for the death and resurrection of +Jesus Christ. The idea of what might follow from belief in one +single supposed miracle had been slumbering during all those years +and at last rose again in the form of a sequel to Erewhon. In +Erewhon Revisited Mr. Higgs returns to find that the Erewhonians now +believe in him as a god in consequence of the supposed miracle of +his going up in a balloon to induce his heavenly father to send the +rain. Mr. Higgs and the reader know that there was no miracle in +the case, but Butler wanted to show that whether it was a miracle or +not did not signify provided that the people believed it to be one. +And so Mr. Higgs is present in the temple which is being dedicated +to him and his worship. + +The existence of his son George was an after-thought and gave +occasion for the second leading idea of the book--the story of a +father trying to win the love of a hitherto unknown son by risking +his life in order to show himself worthy of it--and succeeding. + +Butler's health had already begun to fail, and when he started for +Sicily on Good Friday, 1902, it was for the last time: he knew he +was unfit to travel, but was determined to go, and was looking +forward to meeting Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Fuller Maitland, whom he was +to accompany over the Odyssean scenes at Trapani and Mount Eryx. +But he did not get beyond Palermo; there he was so much worse that +he could not leave his room. In a few weeks he was well enough to +be removed to Naples, and Alfred went out and brought him home to +London. He was taken to a nursing home in St. John's Wood where he +lay for a month, attended by his old friend Dr. Dudgeon, and where +he died on the 18th June, 1902. + +There was a great deal he still wanted to do. He had intended to +revise The Way of All Flesh, to write a book about Tabachetti, and +to publish a new edition of Ex Voto with the mistakes corrected. +Also he wished to reconsider the articles reprinted in this volume +and was looking forward to painting more sketches and composing more +music. While lying ill and very feeble within a few days of the +end, and not knowing whether it was to be the end or not, he said to +me: + +"I am much better to-day. I don't feel at all as though I were +going to die. Of course, it will be all wrong if I do get well, for +there is my literary position to be considered. First I write +Erewhon--that is my opening subject; then, after modulating freely +through all my other books and the music and so on, I return +gracefully to my original key and write Erewhon Revisited. +Obviously, now is the proper moment to come to a full close, make my +bow and retire; but I believe I am getting well after all. It's +very inartistic, but I cannot help it." + +Some of his readers complain that they often do not know whether he +is serious or jesting. He wrote of Lord Beaconsfield: "Earnestness +was his greatest danger, but if he did not quite overcome it (as +indeed who can? it is the last enemy that shall be subdued), he +managed to veil it with a fair amount of success." To veil his own +earnestness he turned most naturally to humour, employing it in a +spirit of reverence, as all the great humorists have done, to +express his deepest and most serious convictions. He was aware that +he ran the risk of being misunderstood by some, but he also knew +that it is useless to try to please all, and, like Mozart, he wrote +to please himself and a few intimate friends. + +I cannot speak at length of his kindness, consideration, and +sympathy; nor of his generosity, the extent of which was very great +and can never be known--it was sometimes exercised in unexpected +ways, as when he gave my laundress a shilling because it was "such a +beastly foggy morning"; nor of his slightly archaic courtliness-- +unless among people he knew well he usually left the room backwards, +bowing to the company; nor of his punctiliousness, industry, and +painstaking attention to detail--he kept accurate accounts not only +of all his property by double entry but also of his daily +expenditure, which he balanced to a halfpenny every evening, and his +handwriting, always beautiful and legible, was more so at sixty-six +than at twenty-six; nor of his patience and cheerfulness during +years of anxiety when he had few to sympathize with him; nor of the +strange mixture of simplicity and shrewdness that caused one who +knew him well to say: "II sait tout; il ne sait rien; il est +poete." + +Epitaphs always fascinated him, and formerly he used to say he +should like to be buried at Langar and to have on his tombstone the +subject of the last of Handel's Six Great Fugues. He called this +"The Old Man Fugue," and said it was like an epitaph composed for +himself by one who was very old and tired and sorry for things; and +he made young Ernest Pontifex in The Way of all Flesh offer it to +Edward Overton as an epitaph for his Aunt Alethea. Butler, however, +left off wanting any tombstone long before he died. In accordance +with his wish his body was cremated, and a week later Alfred and I +returned to Woking and buried his ashes under the shrubs in the +garden of the crematorium, with nothing to mark the spot. + + + + + +The Humour of Homer {59} + + +The first of the two great poems commonly ascribed to Homer is +called the Iliad--a title which we may be sure was not given it by +the author. It professes to treat of a quarrel between Agamemnon +and Achilles that broke out while the Greeks were besieging the city +of Troy, and it does, indeed, deal largely with the consequences of +this quarrel; whether, however, the ostensible subject did not +conceal another that was nearer the poet's heart--I mean the last +days, death, and burial of Hector--is a point that I cannot +determine. Nor yet can I determine how much of the Iliad as we now +have it is by Homer, and how much by a later writer or writers. +This is a very vexed question, but I myself believe the Iliad to be +entirely by a single poet. + +The second poem commonly ascribed to the same author is called the +Odyssey. It deals with the adventures of Ulysses during his ten +years of wandering after Troy had fallen. These two works have of +late years been believed to be by different authors. The Iliad is +now generally held to be the older work by some one or two hundred +years. + +The leading ideas of the Iliad are love, war, and plunder, though +this last is less insisted on than the other two. The key-note is +struck with a woman's charms, and a quarrel among men for their +possession. It is a woman who is at the bottom of the Trojan war +itself. Woman throughout the Iliad is a being to be loved, teased, +laughed at, and if necessary carried off. We are told in one place +of a fine bronze cauldron for heating water which was worth twenty +oxen, whereas a few lines lower down a good serviceable maid-of-all- +work is valued at four oxen. I think there is a spice of malicious +humour in this valuation, and am confirmed in this opinion by noting +that though woman in the Iliad is on one occasion depicted as a wife +so faithful and affectionate that nothing more perfect can be found +either in real life or fiction, yet as a general rule she is drawn +as teasing, scolding, thwarting, contradicting, and hoodwinking the +sex that has the effrontery to deem itself her lord and master. +Whether or no this view may have arisen from any domestic +difficulties between Homer and his wife is a point which again I +find it impossible to determine. + +We cannot refrain from contemplating such possibilities. If we are +to be at home with Homer there must be no sitting on the edge of +one's chair dazzled by the splendour of his reputation. He was +after all only a literary man, and those who occupy themselves with +letters must approach him as a very honoured member of their own +fraternity, but still as one who must have felt, thought, and acted +much as themselves. He struck oil, while we for the most part +succeed in boring only; still we are his literary brethren, and if +we would read his lines intelligently we must also read between +them. That one so shrewd, and yet a dreamer of such dreams as have +been vouchsafed to few indeed besides himself--that one so genially +sceptical, and so given to looking into the heart of a matter, +should have been in such perfect harmony with his surroundings as to +think himself in the best of all possible worlds--this is not +believable. The world is always more or less out of joint to the +poet--generally more so; and unfortunately he always thinks it more +or less his business to set it right--generally more so. We are all +of us more or less poets--generally, indeed, less so; still we feel +and think, and to think at all is to be out of harmony with much +that we think about. We may be sure, then, that Homer had his full +share of troubles, and also that traces of these abound up and down +his work if we could only identify them, for everything that +everyone does is in some measure a portrait of himself; but here +comes the difficulty--not to read between the lines, not to try and +detect the hidden features of the writer--this is to be a dull, +unsympathetic, incurious reader; and on the other hand to try and +read between them is to be in danger of running after every Will o' +the Wisp that conceit may raise for our delusion. + +I believe it will help you better to understand the broad humour of +the Iliad, which we shall presently reach, if you will allow me to +say a little more about the general characteristics of the poem. +Over and above the love and war that are his main themes, there is +another which the author never loses sight of--I mean distrust and +dislike of the ideas of his time as regards the gods and omens. No +poet ever made gods in his own image more defiantly than the author +of the Iliad. In the likeness of man created he them, and the only +excuse for him is that he obviously desired his readers not to take +them seriously. This at least is the impression he leaves upon his +reader, and when so great a man as Homer leaves an impression it +must be presumed that he does so intentionally. It may be almost +said that he has made the gods take the worse, not the better, side +of man's nature upon them, and to be in all respects as we +ourselves--yet without virtue. It should be noted, however, that +the gods on the Trojan side are treated far more leniently than +those who help the Greeks. + +The chief gods on the Grecian side are Juno, Minerva, and Neptune. +Juno, as you will shortly see, is a scolding wife, who in spite of +all Jove's bluster wears the breeches, or tries exceedingly hard to +do so. Minerva is an angry termagant--mean, mischief-making, and +vindictive. She begins by pulling Achilles' hair, and later on she +knocks the helmet from off the head of Mars. She hates Venus, and +tells the Grecian hero Diomede that he had better not wound any of +the other gods, but that he is to hit Venus if he can, which he +presently does 'because he sees that she is feeble and not like +Minerva or Bellona.' Neptune is a bitter hater. + +Apollo, Mars, Venus, Diana, and Jove, so far as his wife will let +him, are on the Trojan side. These, as I have said, meet with +better, though still somewhat contemptuous, treatment at the poet's +hand. Jove, however, is being mocked and laughed at from first to +last, and if one moral can be drawn from the Iliad more clearly than +another, it is that he is only to be trusted to a very limited +extent. Homer's position, in fact, as regards divine interference +is the very opposite of David's. David writes, "Put not your trust +in princes nor in any child of man; there is no sure help but from +the Lord." With Homer it is, "Put not your trust in Jove neither in +any omen from heaven; there is but one good omen--to fight for one's +country. Fortune favours the brave; heaven helps those who help +themselves." + +The god who comes off best is Vulcan, the lame, hobbling, old +blacksmith, who is the laughing-stock of all the others, and whose +exquisitely graceful skilful workmanship forms such an effective +contrast to the uncouth exterior of the workman. Him, as a man of +genius and an artist, and furthermore as a somewhat despised artist, +Homer treats, if with playfulness, still with respect, in spite of +the fact that circumstances have thrown him more on the side of the +Greeks than of the Trojans, with whom I understand Homer's +sympathies mainly to lie. + +The poet either dislikes music or is at best insensible to it. +Great poets very commonly are so. Achilles, indeed, does on one +occasion sing to his own accompaniment on the lyre, but we are not +told that it was any pleasure to hear him, and Patroclus, who was in +the tent at the time, was not enjoying it; he was only waiting for +Achilles to leave off. But though not fond of music, Homer has a +very keen sense of the beauties of nature, and is constantly +referring both in and out of season to all manner of homely +incidents that are as familiar to us as to himself. Sparks in the +train of a shooting-star; a cloud of dust upon a high road; +foresters going out to cut wood in a forest; the shrill cry of the +cicale; children making walls of sand on the sea-shore, or teasing +wasps when they have found a wasps' nest; a poor but very honest +woman who gains a pittance for her children by selling wool, and +weighs it very carefully; a child clinging to its mother's dress and +crying to be taken up and carried--none of these things escape him. +Neither in the Iliad nor the Odyssey do we ever receive so much as a +hint as to the time of year at which any of the events described are +happening; but on one occasion the author of the Iliad really has +told us that it was a very fine day, and this not from a business +point of view, but out of pure regard to the weather for its own +sake. + +With one more observation I will conclude my preliminary remarks +about the Iliad. I cannot find its author within the four corners +of the work itself. I believe the writer of the Odyssey to appear +in the poem as a prominent and very fascinating character whom we +shall presently meet, but there is no one in the Iliad on whom I can +put my finger with even a passing idea that he may be the author. +Still, if under some severe penalty I were compelled to find him, I +should say it was just possible that he might consider his own lot +to have been more or less like that which he forecasts for Astyanax, +the infant son of Hector. At any rate his intimate acquaintance +with the topography of Troy, which is now well ascertained, and +still more his obvious attempt to excuse the non-existence of a +great wall which, according to his story, ought to be there and +which he knew had never existed, so that no trace could remain, +while there were abundant traces of all the other features he +describes--these facts convince me that he was in all probability a +native of the Troad, or country round Troy. His plausibly concealed +Trojan sympathies, and more particularly the aggravated exaggeration +with which the flight of Hector is described, suggest to me, coming +as they do from an astute and humorous writer, that he may have been +a Trojan, at any rate by the mother's side, made captive, enslaved, +compelled to sing the glories of his captors, and determined so to +overdo them that if his masters cannot see through the irony others +sooner or later shall. This, however, is highly speculative, and +there are other views that are perhaps more true, but which I cannot +now consider. + +I will now ask you to form your own opinions as to whether Homer is +or is not a shrewd and humorous writer. + +Achilles, whose quarrel with Agamemnon is the ostensible subject of +the poem, is son to a marine goddess named Thetis, who had rendered +Jove an important service at a time when he was in great +difficulties. Achilles, therefore, begs his mother Thetis to go up +to Jove and ask him to let the Trojans discomfit the Greeks for a +time, so that Agamemnon may find he cannot get on without Achilles' +help, and may thus be brought to reason. + +Thetis tells her son that for the moment there is nothing to be +done, inasmuch as the gods are all of them away from home. They are +gone to pay a visit to Oceanus in Central Africa, and will not be +back for another ten or twelve days; she will see what can be done, +however, as soon as ever they return. This in due course she does, +going up to Olympus and laying hold of Jove by the knee and by the +chin. I may say in passing that it is still a common Italian form +of salutation to catch people by the chin. Twice during the last +summer I have been so seized in token of affectionate greeting, once +by a lady and once by a gentleman. + +Thetis tells her tale to Jove, and concludes by saying that he is to +say straight out 'yes' or 'no' whether he will do what she asks. Of +course he can please himself, but she should like to know how she +stands. + +"It will be a plaguy business," answers Jove, "for me to offend Juno +and put up with all the bitter tongue she will give me. As it is, +she is always nagging at me and saying I help the Trojans, still, go +away now at once before she finds out that you have been here, and +leave the rest to me. See, I nod my head to you, and this is the +most solemn form of covenant into which I can enter. I never go +back upon it, nor shilly-shally with anybody when I have once nodded +my head." Which, by the way, amounts to an admission that he does +shilly-shally sometimes. + +Then he frowns and nods, shaking the hair on his immortal head till +Olympus rocks again. Thetis goes off under the sea and Jove returns +to his own palace. All the other gods stand up when they see him +coming, for they do not dare to remain sitting while he passes, but +Juno knows he has been hatching mischief against the Greeks with +Thetis, so she attacks him in the following words: + +"You traitorous scoundrel," she exclaims, "which of the gods have +you been taking into your counsel now? You are always trying to +settle matters behind my back, and never tell me, if you can help +it, a single word about your designs." + +"'Juno,' replied the father of gods and men, 'you must not expect to +be told everything that I am thinking about: you are my wife, it is +true, but you might not be able always to understand my meaning; in +so far as it is proper for you to know of my intentions you are the +first person to whom I communicate them either among the gods or +among mankind, but there are certain points which I reserve entirely +for myself, and the less you try to pry into these, or meddle with +them, the better for you.'" + +"'Dread son of Saturn,' answered Juno, 'what in the world are you +talking about? I meddle and pry? No one, I am sure, can have his +own way in everything more absolutely than you have. Still I have a +strong misgiving that the old merman's daughter Thetis has been +talking you over. I saw her hugging your knees this very self-same +morning, and I suspect you have been promising her to kill any +number of people down at the Grecian ships, in order to gratify +Achilles.'" + +"'Wife,' replied Jove, 'I can do nothing but you suspect me. You +will not do yourself any good, for the more you go on like that the +more I dislike you, and it may fare badly with you. If I mean to +have it so, I mean to have it so, you had better therefore sit still +and hold your tongue as I tell you, for if I once begin to lay my +hands about you, there is not a god in heaven who will be of the +smallest use to you.' + +"When Juno heard this she thought it better to submit, so she sat +down without a word, but all the gods throughout Jove's mansion were +very much perturbed. Presently the cunning workman Vulcan tried to +pacify his mother Juno, and said, 'It will never do for you two to +go on quarrelling and setting heaven in an uproar about a pack of +mortals. The thing will not bear talking about. If such counsels +are to prevail a god will not be able to get his dinner in peace. +Let me then advise my mother (and I am sure it is her own opinion) +to make her peace with my dear father, lest he should scold her +still further, and spoil our banquet; for if he does wish to turn us +all out there can be no question about his being perfectly able to +do so. Say something civil to him, therefore, and then perhaps he +will not hurt us.' + +"As he spoke he took a large cup of nectar and put it into his +mother's hands, saying, 'Bear it, my dear mother, and make the best +of it. I love you dearly and should be very sorry to see you get a +thrashing. I should not be able to help you, for my father Jove is +not a safe person to differ from. You know once before when I was +trying to help you he caught me by the foot and chucked me from the +heavenly threshold. I was all day long falling from morn to eve, +but at sunset I came to ground on the island of Lemnos, and there +was very little life left in me, till the Sintians came and tended +me.' + +"On this Juno smiled, and with a laugh took the cup from her son's +hand. Then Vulcan went about among all other gods drawing nectar +for them from his goblet, and they laughed immoderately as they saw +him bustling about the heavenly mansion." + +Then presently the gods go home to bed, each one in his own house +that Vulcan had cunningly built for him or her. Finally Jove +himself went to the bed which he generally occupied; and Jove his +wife went with him. + +There is another quarrel between Jove and Juno at the beginning of +the fourth book. + +The gods are sitting on the golden floor of Jove's palace and +drinking one another's health in the nectar with which Hebe from +time to time supplies them. Jove begins to tease Juno, and to +provoke her with some sarcastic remarks that are pointed at her +though not addressed to her directly. + +"'Menelaus,' he exclaimed, 'has two good friends among the +goddesses, Juno and Minerva, but they only sit still and look on, +while Venus on the other hand takes much better care of Paris, and +defends him when he is in danger. She has only just this moment +been rescuing him when he made sure he was at death's door, for the +victory really did lie with Menelaus. We must think what we are to +do about all this. Shall we renew strife between the combatants or +shall we make them friends again? I think the best plan would be +for the City of Priam to remain unpillaged, but for Menelaus to have +his wife Helen sent back to him.' + +"Minerva and Juno groaned in spirit when they heard this. They were +sitting side by side, and thinking what mischief they could do to +the Trojans. Minerva for her part said not one word, but sat +scowling at her father, for she was in a furious passion with him, +but Juno could not contain herself, so she said-- + +"'What, pray, son of Saturn, is all this about? Is my trouble then +to go for nothing, and all the pains that I have taken, to say +nothing of my horses, and the way we have sweated and toiled to get +the people together against Priam and his children? You can do as +you please, but you must not expect all of us to agree with you.' + +"And Jove answered, 'Wife, what harm have Priam and Priam's children +done you that you rage so furiously against them, and want to sack +their city? Will nothing do for you but you must eat Priam with his +sons and all the Trojans into the bargain? Have it your own way +then, for I will not quarrel with you--only remember what I tell +you: if at any time I want to sack a city that belongs to any +friend of yours, it will be no use your trying to hinder me, you +will have to let me do it, for I only yield to you now with the +greatest reluctance. If there was one city under the sun which I +respected more than another it was Troy with its king and people. +My altars there have never been without the savour of fat or of +burnt sacrifice and all my dues were paid.' + +"'My own favourite cities,' answered Juno, 'are Argos, Sparta, and +Mycenae. Sack them whenever you may be displeased with them. I +shall not make the smallest protest against your doing so. It would +be no use if I did, for you are much stronger than I am, only I will +not submit to seeing my own work wasted. I am a goddess of the same +race as yourself. I am Saturn's eldest daughter and am not only +nearly related to you in blood, but I am wife to yourself, and you +are king over the gods. Let it be a case, then, of give and take +between us, and the other gods will follow our lead. Tell Minerva, +therefore, to go down at once and set the Greeks and Trojans by the +ears again, and let her so manage it that the Trojans shall break +their oaths and be the aggressors.'" + +This is the very thing to suit Minerva, so she goes at once and +persuades the Trojans to break their oath. + +In a later book we are told that Jove has positively forbidden the +gods to interfere further in the struggle. Juno therefore +determines to hoodwink him. First she bolted herself inside her own +room on the top of Mount Ida and had a thorough good wash. Then she +scented herself, brushed her golden hair, put on her very best dress +and all her jewels. When she had done this, she went to Venus and +besought her for the loan of her charms. + +"'You must not be angry with me, Venus,' she began, 'for being on +the Grecian side while you are yourself on the Trojan; but you know +every one falls in love with you at once, and I want you to lend me +some of your attractions. I have to pay a visit at the world's end +to Oceanus and Mother Tethys. They took me in and were very good to +me when Jove turned Saturn out of heaven and shut him up under the +sea. They have been quarrelling this long time past and will not +speak to one another. So I must go and see them, for if I can only +make them friends again I am sure that they will be grateful to me +for ever afterwards.'" + +Venus thought this reasonable, so she took off her girdle and lent +it to Juno, an act by the way which argues more good nature than +prudence on her part. Then Juno goes down to Thrace, and in search +of Sleep the brother of Death. She finds him and shakes hands with +him. Then she tells him she is going up to Olympus to make love to +Jove, and that while she is occupying his attention Sleep is to send +him off into a deep slumber. + +Sleep says he dares not do it. He would lull any of the other gods, +but Juno must remember that she had got him into a great scrape once +before in this way, and Jove hurled the gods about all over the +palace, and would have made an end of him once for all, if he had +not fled under the protection of Night, whom Jove did not venture to +offend. + +Juno bribes him, however, with a promise that if he will consent she +will marry him to the youngest of the Graces, Pasithea. On this he +yields; the pair then go up to the top of Mount Ida, and Sleep gets +into a high pine tree just in front of Jove. + +As soon as Jove sees Juno, armed as she for the moment was with all +the attractions of Venus, he falls desperately in love with her, and +says she is the only goddess he ever really loved. True, there had +been the wife of Ixion and Danae, and Europa and Semele, and +Alcmena, and Latona, not to mention herself in days gone by, but he +never loved any of these as he now loved her, in spite of his having +been married to her for so many years. What then does she want? + +Juno tells him the same rigmarole about Oceanus and Mother Tethys +that she had told Venus, and when she has done Jove tries to embrace +her. + +"What," exclaims Juno, "kiss me in such a public place as the top of +Mount Ida! Impossible! I could never show my face in Olympus +again, but I have a private room of my own and"--"What nonsense, my +love!" exclaims the sire of gods and men as he catches her in his +arms. On this Sleep sends him into a deep slumber, and Juno then +sends Sleep to bid Neptune go off to help the Greeks at once. + +When Jove awakes and finds the trick that has been played upon him, +he is very angry and blusters a good deal as usual, but somehow or +another it turns out that he has got to stand it and make the best +of it. + +In an earlier book he has said that he is not surprised at anything +Juno may do, for she always has crossed him and always will; but he +cannot put up with such disobedience from his own daughter Minerva. +Somehow or another, however, here too as usual it turns out that he +has got to stand it. "And then," Minerva exclaims in yet another +place (VIII. 373), "I suppose he will be calling me his grey-eyed +darling again, presently." + +Towards the end of the poem the gods have a set-to among themselves. +Minerva sends Mars sprawling, Venus comes to his assistance, but +Minerva knocks her down and leaves her. Neptune challenges Apollo, +but Apollo says it is not proper for a god to fight his own uncle, +and declines the contest. His sister Diana taunts him with +cowardice, so Juno grips her by the wrist and boxes her ears till +she writhes again. Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, then +challenges Mercury, but Mercury says that he is not going to fight +with any of Jove's wives, so if she chooses to say she has beaten +him she is welcome to do so. Then Latona picks up poor Diana's bow +and arrows that have fallen from her during her encounter with Juno, +and Diana meanwhile flies up to the knees of her father Jove, +sobbing and sighing till her ambrosial robe trembles all around her. + +"Jove drew her towards him, and smiling pleasantly exclaimed, 'My +dear child, which of the heavenly beings has been wicked enough to +behave in this way to you, as though you had been doing something +naughty?' + +"'Your wife, Juno,' answered Diana, 'has been ill-treating me; all +our quarrels always begin with her.'" + +* * * * * + +The above extracts must suffice as examples of the kind of divine +comedy in which Homer brings the gods and goddesses upon the scene. +Among mortals the humour, what there is of it, is confined mainly to +the grim taunts which the heroes fling at one another when they are +fighting, and more especially to crowing over a fallen foe. The +most subtle passage is the one in which Briseis, the captive woman +about whom Achilles and Agamemnon have quarrelled, is restored by +Agamemnon to Achilles. Briseis on her return to the tent of +Achilles finds that while she has been with Agamemnon, Patroclus has +been killed by Hector, and his dead body is now lying in state. She +flings herself upon the corpse and exclaims-- + +"How one misfortune does keep falling upon me after another! I saw +the man to whom my father and mother had married me killed before my +eyes, and my three own dear brothers perished along with him; but +you, Patroclus, even when Achilles was sacking our city and killing +my husband, told me that I was not to cry; for you said that +Achilles himself should marry me, and take me back with him to +Phthia, where we should have a wedding feast among the Myrmidons. +You were always kind to me, and I should never cease to grieve for +you." + +This may of course be seriously intended, but Homer was an acute +writer, and if we had met with such a passage in Thackeray we should +have taken him to mean that so long as a woman can get a new +husband, she does not much care about losing the old one--a +sentiment which I hope no one will imagine that I for one moment +endorse or approve of, and which I can only explain as a piece of +sarcasm aimed possibly at Mrs. Homer. + +* * * * * + +And now let us turn to the Odyssey, a work which I myself think of +as the Iliad's better half or wife. Here we have a poem of more +varied interest, instinct with not less genius, and on the whole I +should say, if less robust, nevertheless of still greater +fascination--one, moreover, the irony of which is pointed neither at +gods nor woman, but with one single and perhaps intercalated +exception, at man. Gods and women may sometimes do wrong things, +but, except as regards the intrigue between Mars and Venus just +referred to, they are never laughed at. The scepticism of the Iliad +is that of Hume or Gibbon; that of the Odyssey (if any) is like the +occasional mild irreverence of the Vicar's daughter. When Jove says +he will do a thing, there is no uncertainty about his doing it. +Juno hardly appears at all, and when she does she never quarrels +with her husband. Minerva has more to do than any of the other gods +or goddesses, but she has nothing in common with the Minerva whom we +have already seen in the Iliad. In the Odyssey she is the fairy +god-mother who seems to have no object in life but to protect +Ulysses and Telemachus, and keep them straight at any touch and turn +of difficulty. If she has any other function, it is to be patroness +of the arts and of all intellectual development. The Minerva of the +Odyssey may indeed sit on a rafter like a swallow and hold up her +aegis to strike panic into the suitors while Ulysses kills them; but +she is a perfect lady, and would no more knock Mars and Venus down +one after the other than she would stand on her head. She is, in +fact, a distinct person in all respects from the Minerva of the +Iliad. Of the remaining gods Neptune, as the persecutor of the +hero, comes worst off; but even he is treated as though he were a +very important person. + +In the Odyssey the gods no longer live in houses and sleep in four- +post bedsteads, but the conception of their abode, like that of +their existence altogether, is far more spiritual. Nobody knows +exactly where they live, but they say it is in Olympus, where there +is neither rain nor hail nor snow, and the wind never beats roughly; +but it abides in everlasting sunshine, and in great peacefulness of +light wherein the blessed gods are illumined for ever and ever. It +is hardly possible to conceive anything more different from the +Olympus of the Iliad. + +Another very material point of difference between the Iliad and the +Odyssey lies in the fact that the Homer of the Iliad always knows +what he is talking about, while the supposed Homer of the Odyssey +often makes mistakes that betray an almost incredible ignorance of +detail. Thus the giant Polyphemus drives in his ewes home from +their pasture, and milks them. The lambs of course have not been +running with them; they have been left in the yards, so they have +had nothing to eat. When he has milked the ewes, the giant lets +each one of them have her lamb--to get, I suppose, what strippings +it can, and beyond this what milk the ewe may yield during the +night. In the morning, however, Polyphemus milks the ewes again. +Hence it is plain either that he expected his lambs to thrive on one +pull per diem at a milked ewe, and to be kind enough not to suck +their mothers, though left with them all night through, or else that +the writer of the Odyssey had very hazy notions about the relations +between lambs and ewes, and of the ordinary methods of procedure on +an upland dairy-farm. + +In nautical matters the same inexperience is betrayed. The writer +knows all about the corn and wine that must be put on board; the +store-room in which these are kept and the getting of them are +described inimitably, but there the knowledge ends; the other things +put on board are "the things that are generally taken on board +ships." So on a voyage we are told that the sailors do whatever is +wanted doing, but we have no details. There is a shipwreck, which +does duty more than once without the alteration of a word. I have +seen such a shipwreck at Drury Lane. Anyone, moreover, who reads +any authentic account of actual adventures will perceive at once +that those of the Odyssey are the creation of one who has had no +history. Ulysses has to make a raft; he makes it about as broad as +they generally make a good big ship, but we do not seem to have been +at the pains to measure a good big ship. + +I will add no more however on this head. The leading +characteristics of the Iliad, as we saw, were love, war, and +plunder. The leading idea of the Odyssey is the infatuation of man, +and the key-note is struck in the opening paragraph, where we are +told how the sailors of Ulysses must needs, in spite of every +warning, kill and eat the cattle of the sun-god, and perished +accordingly. + +A few lines lower down the same note is struck with even greater +emphasis. The gods have met in council, and Jove happens at the +moment to be thinking of AEgisthus, who had met his death at the +hand of Agamemnon's son Orestes, in spite of the solemn warning that +Jove had sent him through the mouth of Mercury. It does not seem +necessary for Jove to turn his attention to Clytemnestra, the +partner of AEgisthus's guilt. Of this lady we are presently told +that she was naturally of an excellent disposition, and would never +have gone wrong but for the loss of the protector in whose charge +Agamemnon had left her. When she was left alone without an adviser-- +well, if a base designing man took to flattering and misleading +her--what else could be expected? The infatuation of man, with its +corollary, the superior excellence of woman, is the leading theme; +next to this come art, religion, and, I am almost ashamed to add, +money. There is no love-business in the Odyssey except the return +of a bald elderly married man to his elderly wife and grown-up son +after an absence of twenty years, and furious at having been robbed +of so much money in the meantime. But this can hardly be called +love-business; it is at the utmost domesticity. There is a charming +young princess, Nausicaa, but though she affects a passing +tenderness for the elderly hero of her creation as soon as Minerva +has curled his bald old hair for him and tittivated him up all over, +she makes it abundantly plain that she will not look at a single one +of her actual flesh and blood admirers. There is a leading young +gentleman, Telemachus, who is nothing if he is not [Greek], or +canny, well-principled, and discreet; he has an amiable and most +sensible young male friend who says that he does not like crying at +meal times--he will cry in the forenoon on an empty stomach as much +as anyone pleases, but he cannot attend properly to his dinner and +cry at the same time. Well, there is no lady provided either for +this nice young man or for Telemachus. They are left high and dry +as bachelors. Two goddesses indeed, Circe and Calypso, do one after +the other take possession of Ulysses, but the way in which he +accepts a situation which after all was none of his seeking, and +which it is plain he does not care two straws about, is, I believe, +dictated solely by a desire to exhibit the easy infidelity of +Ulysses himself in contrast with the unswerving constancy and +fidelity of his wife Penelope. Throughout the Odyssey the men do +not really care for women, nor the women for men; they have to +pretend to do so now and again, but it is a got-up thing, and the +general attitude of the sexes towards one another is very much that +of Helen, who says that her husband Menelaus is really not deficient +in person or understanding: or again of Penelope herself, who, on +being asked by Ulysses on his return what she thought of him, said +that she did not think very much of him nor very little of him; in +fact, she did not think much about him one way or the other. True, +later on she relents and becomes more effusive; in fact, when she +and Ulysses sat up talking in bed and Ulysses told her the story of +his adventures, she never went to sleep once. Ulysses never had to +nudge her with his elbow and say, "Come, wake up, Penelope, you are +not listening"; but, in spite of the devotion exhibited here, the +love-business in the Odyssey is artificial and described by one who +had never felt it, whereas in the Iliad it is spontaneous and +obviously genuine, as by one who knows all about it perfectly well. +The love-business in fact of the Odyssey is turned on as we turn on +the gas--when we cannot get on without it, but not otherwise. + +A fascinating brilliant girl, who naturally adopts for her patroness +the blue-stocking Minerva; a man-hatress, as clever girls so often +are, and determined to pay the author of the Iliad out for his +treatment of her sex by insisting on its superior moral, not to say +intellectual, capacity, and on the self-sufficient imbecility of man +unless he has a woman always at his elbow to keep him tolerably +straight and in his proper place--this, and not the musty fusty old +bust we see in libraries, is the kind of person who I believe wrote +the Odyssey. Of course in reality the work must be written by a +man, because they say so at Oxford and Cambridge, and they know +everything down in Oxford and Cambridge; but I venture to say that +if the Odyssey were to appear anonymously for the first time now, +and to be sent round to the papers for review, there is not even a +professional critic who would not see that it is a woman's writing +and not a man's. But letting this pass, I can hardly doubt, for +reasons which I gave in yesterday's Athenaeum, and for others that I +cannot now insist upon, that the poem was written by a native of +Trapani on the coast of Sicily, near Marsala. Fancy what the +position of a young, ardent, brilliant woman must have been in a +small Sicilian sea-port, say some eight or nine hundred years before +the birth of Christ. It makes one shudder to think of it. Night +after night she hears the dreary blind old bard Demodocus drawl out +his interminable recitals taken from our present Iliad, or from some +other of the many poems now lost that dealt with the adventures of +the Greeks before Troy or on their homeward journey. Man and his +doings! always the same old story, and woman always to be treated +either as a toy or as a beast of burden, or at any rate as an +incubus. Why not sing of woman also as she is when she is +unattached and free from the trammels and persecutions of this +tiresome tyrant, this insufferably self-conceited bore and booby, +man? + +"I wish, my dear," exclaims her mother Arete, after one of these +little outbreaks, "that you would do it yourself. I am sure you +could do it beautifully if you would only give your mind to it." + +"Very well, mother," she replies, "and I will bring in all about you +and father, and how I go out for a washing-day with the maids,"--and +she kept her word, as I will presently show you. + +I should tell you that Ulysses, having got away from the goddess +Calypso, with whom he had been living for some seven or eight years +on a lonely and very distant island in mid-ocean, is shipwrecked on +the coast of Phaeacia, the chief town of which is Scheria. After +swimming some forty-eight hours in the water he effects a landing at +the mouth of a stream, and, not having a rag of clothes on his back, +covers himself up under a heap of dried leaves and goes to sleep. I +will now translate from the Odyssey itself. + +"So here Ulysses slept, worn out with labour and sorrow; but Minerva +went off to the chief town of the Phaeacians, a people who used to +live in Hypereia near the wicked Cyclopes. Now the Cyclopes were +stronger than they and plundered them, so Nausithous settled them in +Scheria far from those who would loot them. He ran a wall round +about the city, built houses and temples, and allotted the lands +among his people; but he was gathered to his fathers, and the good +king Alcinous was now reigning. To his palace then Minerva hastened +that she might help Ulysses to get home. + +"She went straight to the painted bedroom of Nausicaa, who was +daughter to King Alcinous, and lovely as a goddess. Near her there +slept two maids-in-waiting, both very pretty, one on either side of +the doorway, which was closed with a beautifully made door. She +took the form of the famous Captain Dumas's daughter, who was a +bosom friend of Nausicaa and just her own age; then coming into the +room like a breath of wind she stood near the head of the bed and +said-- + +"'Nausicaa, what could your mother have been about to have such a +lazy daughter? Here are your clothes all lying in disorder, yet you +are going to be married almost directly, and should not only be +well-dressed yourself, but should see that those about you look +clean and tidy also. This is the way to make people speak well of +you, and it will please your father and mother, so suppose we make +to-morrow a washing day, and begin the first thing in the morning. +I will come and help you, for all the best young men among your own +people are courting you, and you are not going to remain a maid much +longer. Ask your father, then, to have a horse and cart ready for +us at daybreak to take the linen and baskets, and you can ride too, +which will be much pleasanter for you than walking, for the washing +ground is a long way out of the town.' + +"When she had thus spoken Minerva went back to Olympus. By and by +morning came, and as soon as Nausicaa woke she began thinking about +her dream. She went to the other end of the house to tell her +father and mother all about it, and found them in their own room. +Her mother was sitting by the fireside spinning with her maids-in- +waiting all around her, and she happened to catch her father just as +he was going out to attend a meeting of the Town Council which the +Phaeacian aldermen had convened. So she stopped him and said, +'Papa, dear, could you manage to let me have a good big waggon? I +want to take all our dirty clothes to the river and wash them. You +are the chief man here, so you ought to have a clean shirt on when +you attend meetings of the Council. Moreover, you have five sons at +home, two of them married and the other three are good-looking young +bachelors; you know they always like to have clean linen when they +go out to a dance, and I have been thinking about all this.'" + +You will observe that though Nausicaa dreams that she is going to be +married shortly, and that all the best young men of Scheria are in +love with her, she does not dream that she has fallen in love with +any one of them in particular, and that thus every preparation is +made for her getting married except the selection of the bridegroom. + +You will also note that Nausicaa has to keep her father up to +putting a clean shirt on when he ought to have one, whereas her +young brothers appear to keep herself up to having a clean shirt +ready for them when they want one. These little touches are so +lifelike and so feminine that they suggest drawing from life by a +female member of Alcinous's own family who knew his character from +behind the scenes. + +I would also say before proceeding further that in some parts of +France and Germany it is still the custom to have but one or at most +two great washing days in the year. Each household is provided with +an enormous quantity of linen, which when dirty is just soaked and +rinsed, and then put aside till the great washing day of the year. +This is why Nausicaa wants a waggon, and has to go so far afield. +If it was only a few collars and a pocket-handkerchief or two she +could no doubt have found water enough near at hand. The big spring +or autumn wash, however, is evidently intended. + +Returning now to the Odyssey, when he had heard what Nausicaa wanted +Alcinous said: + +"'You shall have the mules, my love, and whatever else you have a +mind for, so be off with you.' + +"Then he told the servants, and they got the waggon out and +harnessed the mules, while the princess brought the clothes down +from the linen room and placed them on the waggon. Her mother got +ready a nice basket of provisions with all sorts of good things, and +a goatskin full of wine. The princess now got into the waggon, and +her mother gave her a golden cruse of oil that she and her maids +might anoint themselves. + +"Then Nausicaa took the whip and reins and gave the mules a touch +which sent them off at a good pace. They pulled without nagging, +and carried not only Nausicaa and her wash of clothes, but the women +also who were with her. + +"When they got to the river they went to the washing pools, through +which even in summer there ran enough pure water to wash any +quantity of linen, no matter how dirty. Here they unharnessed the +mules and turned them out to feed in the sweet juicy grass that grew +by the river-side. They got the clothes out of the waggon, brought +them to the water, and vied with one another in treading upon them +and banging them about to get the dirt out of them. When they had +got them quite clean, they laid them out by the seaside where the +waves had raised a high beach of shingle, and set about washing and +anointing themselves with olive oil. Then they got their dinner by +the side of the river, and waited for the sun to finish drying the +clothes. By and by, after dinner, they took off their head-dresses +and began to play at ball, and Nausicaa sang to them." + +I think you will agree with me that there is no haziness--no milking +of ewes that have had a lamb with them all night--here. The writer +is at home and on her own ground. + +"When they had done folding the clothes and were putting the mules +to the waggon before starting home again, Minerva thought it was +time Ulysses should wake up and see the handsome girl who was to +take him to the city of the Phaeacians. So the princess threw a +ball at one of the maids, which missed the maid and fell into the +water. On this they all shouted, and the noise they made woke up +Ulysses, who sat up in his bed of leaves and wondered where in the +world he could have got to. + +"Then he crept from under the bush beneath which he had slept, broke +off a thick bough so as to cover his nakedness, and advanced towards +Nausicaa and her maids; these last all ran away, but Nausicaa stood +her ground, for Minerva had put courage into her heart, so she kept +quite still, and Ulysses could not make up his mind whether it would +be better to go up to her, throw himself at her feet, and embrace +her knees as a suppliant--[in which case, of course, he would have +to drop the bough] or whether it would be better for him to make an +apology to her at a reasonable distance, and ask her to be good +enough to give him some clothes and show him the way to the town. +On the whole he thought it would be better to keep at arm's length, +in case the princess should take offence at his coming too near +her." + +Let me say in passing that this is one of many passages which have +led me to conclude that the Odyssey is written by a woman. A girl, +such as Nausicaa describes herself, young, unmarried, unattached, +and hence, after all, knowing little of what men feel on these +matters, having by a cruel freak of inspiration got her hero into +such an awkward predicament, might conceivably imagine that he would +argue as she represents him, but no man, except such a woman's +tailor as could never have written such a masterpiece as the +Odyssey, would ever get his hero into such an undignified scrape at +all, much less represent him as arguing as Ulysses does. I suppose +Minerva was so busy making Nausicaa brave that she had no time to +put a little sense into Ulysses' head, and remind him that he was +nothing if not full of sagacity and resource. To return-- + +Ulysses now begins with the most judicious apology that his unaided +imagination can suggest. "I beg your ladyship's pardon," he +exclaims, "but are you goddess or are you a mortal woman? If you +are a goddess and live in heaven, there can be no doubt but you are +Jove's daughter Diana, for your face and figure are exactly like +hers," and so on in a long speech which I need not further quote +from. + +"Stranger," replied Nausicaa, as soon as the speech was ended, "you +seem to be a very sensible well-disposed person. There is no +accounting for luck; Jove gives good or ill to every man, just as he +chooses, so you must take your lot, and make the best of it." She +then tells him she will give him clothes and everything else that a +foreigner in distress can reasonably expect. She calls back her +maids, scolds them for running away, and tells them to take Ulysses +and wash him in the river after giving him something to eat and +drink. So the maids give him the little gold cruse of oil and tell +him to go and wash himself, and as they seem to have completely +recovered from their alarm, Ulysses is compelled to say, "Young +ladies, please stand a little on one side, that I may wash the brine +from off my shoulders and anoint myself with oil; for it is long +enough since my skin has had a drop of oil upon it. I cannot wash +as long as you keep standing there. I have no clothes on, and it +makes me very uncomfortable." + +So they stood aside and went and told Nausicaa. Meanwhile (I am +translating closely), "Minerva made him look taller and stronger +than before; she gave him some more hair on the top of his head, and +made it flow down in curls most beautifully; in fact she glorified +him about the head and shoulders as a cunning workman who has +studied under Vulcan or Minerva enriches a fine piece of plate by +gilding it." + +Again I argue that I am reading a description of as it were a +prehistoric Mr. Knightley by a not less prehistoric Jane Austen-- +with this difference that I believe Nausicaa is quietly laughing at +her hero and sees through him, whereas Jane Austen takes Mr. +Knightley seriously. + +"Hush, my pretty maids," exclaimed Nausicaa as soon as she saw +Ulysses coming back with his hair curled, "hush, for I want to say +something. I believe the gods in heaven have sent this man here. +There is something very remarkable about him. When I first saw him +I thought him quite plain and commonplace, and now I consider him +one of the handsomest men I ever saw in my life. I should like my +future husband [who, it is plain, then, is not yet decided upon] to +be just such another as he is, if he would only stay here, and not +want to go away. However, give him something to eat and drink." + +Nausicaa now says they must be starting homeward; so she tells +Ulysses that she will drive on first herself, but that he is to +follow after her with the maids. She does not want to be seen +coming into the town with him; and then follows another passage +which clearly shows that for all the talk she has made about getting +married she has no present intention of changing her name. + +"'I am afraid,' she says, 'of the gossip and scandal which may be +set on foot about me behind my back, for there are some very ill- +natured people in the town, and some low fellow, if he met us, might +say, 'Who is this fine-looking stranger who is going about with +Nausicaa? Where did she pick him up? I suppose she is going to +marry him, or perhaps he is some shipwrecked sailor from foreign +parts; or has some god come down from heaven in answer to her +prayers, and she is going to live with him? It would be a good +thing if she would take herself off and find a husband somewhere +else, for she will not look at one of the many excellent young +Phaeacians who are in love with her'; and I could not complain, for +I should myself think ill of any girl whom I saw going about with +men unknown to her father and mother, and without having been +married to him in the face of all the world.'" + +This passage could never have been written by the local bard, who +was in great measure dependent on Nausicaa's family; he would never +speak thus of his patron's daughter; either the passage is +Nausicaa's apology for herself, written by herself, or it is pure +invention, and this last, considering the close adherence to the +actual topography of Trapani on the Sicilian Coast, and a great deal +else that I cannot lay before you here, appears to me improbable. + +Nausicaa then gives Ulysses directions by which he can find her +father's house. "When you have got past the courtyard," she says, +"go straight through the main hall, till you come to my mother's +room. You will find her sitting by the fire and spinning her purple +wool by firelight. She will make a lovely picture as she leans back +against a column with her maids ranged behind her. Facing her +stands my father's seat in which he sits and topes like an immortal +god. Never mind him, but go up to my mother and lay your hands upon +her knees, if you would be forwarded on your homeward voyage." From +which I conclude that Arete ruled Alcinous, and Nausicaa ruled +Arete. + +Ulysses follows his instructions aided by Minerva, who makes him +invisible as he passes through the town and through the crowds of +Phaeacian guests who are feasting in the king's palace. When he has +reached the queen, the cloak of thick darkness falls off, and he is +revealed to all present, kneeling at the feet of Queen Arete, to +whom he makes his appeal. It has already been made apparent in a +passage extolling her virtue at some length, but which I have not +been able to quote, that Queen Arete is, in the eyes of the writer, +a much more important person than her husband Alcinous. + +Every one, of course, is very much surprised at seeing Ulysses, but +after a little discussion, from which it appears that the writer +considers Alcinous to be a person who requires a good deal of +keeping straight in other matters besides clean linen, it is settled +that Ulysses shall be feted on the following day and then escorted +home. Ulysses now has supper and remains with Alcinous and Arete +after the other guests are gone away for the night. So the three +sit by the fire while the servants take away the things, and Arete +is the first to speak. She has been uneasy for some time about +Ulysses' clothes, which she recognized as her own make, and at last +she says, "Stranger, there is a question or two that I should like +to put to you myself. Who in the world are you? And who gave you +those clothes? Did you not say you had come here from beyond the +seas?" + +Ulysses explains matters, but still withholds his name, nevertheless +Alcinous (who seems to have shared in the general opinion that it +was high time his daughter got married, and that, provided she +married somebody, it did not much matter who the bridegroom might +be) exclaimed, "By Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, now that I see +what kind of a person you are and how exactly our opinions coincide +upon every subject, I should so like it if you would stay with us +always, marry Nausicaa, and become my son-in-law." Ulysses turns +the conversation immediately, and meanwhile Queen Arete told her +maids to put a bed in the corridor, and make it with red blankets, +and it was to have at least one counterpane. They were also to put +a woollen nightgown for Ulysses. "The maids took a torch, and made +the bed as fast as they could: when they had done so they came up +to Ulysses and said, 'This way, sir, if you please, your room is +quite ready'; and Ulysses was very glad to hear them say so." + +On the following day Alcinous holds a meeting of the Phaeacians and +proposes that Ulysses should have a ship got ready to take him home +at once: this being settled he invites all the leading people, and +the fifty-two sailors who are to man Ulysses' ship, to come up to +his own house, and he will give them a banquet--for which he kills a +dozen sheep, eight pigs, and two oxen. Immediately after gorging +themselves at the banquet they have a series of athletic +competitions, and from this I gather the poem to have been written +by one who saw nothing very odd in letting people compete in sports +requiring very violent exercise immediately after a heavy meal. +Such a course may have been usual in those days, but certainly is +not generally adopted in our own. + +At the games Alcinous makes himself as ridiculous as he always does, +and Ulysses behaves much as the hero of the preceding afternoon +might be expected to do--but on his praising the Phaeacians towards +the close of the proceedings Alcinous says he is a person of such +singular judgment that they really must all of them make him a very +handsome present. "Twelve of you," he exclaims, "are magistrates, +and there is myself--that makes thirteen; suppose we give him each +one of us a clean cloak, a tunic, and a talent of gold,"--which in +those days was worth about two hundred and fifty pounds. + +This is unanimously agreed to, and in the evening, towards sundown, +the presents began to make their appearance at the palace of King +Alcinous, and the king's sons, perhaps prudently as you will +presently see, place them in the keeping of their mother Arete. + +When the presents have all arrived, Alcinous says to Arete, "Wife, +go and fetch the best chest we have, and put a clean cloak and a +tunic in it. In the meantime Ulysses will take a bath." + +Arete orders the maids to heat a bath, brings the chest, packs up +the raiment and gold which the Phaeacians have brought, and adds a +cloak and a good tunic as King Alcinous's own contribution. + +Yes, but where--and that is what we are never told--is the 250 +pounds which he ought to have contributed as well as the cloak and +tunic? And where is the beautiful gold goblet which he had also +promised? + +"See to the fastening yourself," says Queen Arete to Ulysses, "for +fear anyone should rob you while you are asleep in the ship." + +Ulysses, we may be sure, was well aware that Alcinous's 250 pounds +was not in the box, nor yet the goblet, but he took the hint at once +and made the chest fast without the delay of a moment, with a bond +which the cunning goddess Circe had taught him. + +He does not seem to have thought his chance of getting the 250 +pounds and the goblet, and having to unpack his box again, was so +great as his chance of having his box tampered with before he got it +away, if he neglected to double-lock it at once and put the key in +his pocket. He has always a keen eye to money; indeed the whole +Odyssey turns on what is substantially a money quarrel, so this time +without the prompting of Minerva he does one of the very few +sensible things which he does, on his own account, throughout the +whole poem. + +Supper is now served, and when it is over, Ulysses, pressed by +Alcinous, announces his name and begins the story of his adventures. + +It is with profound regret that I find myself unable to quote any of +the fascinating episodes with which his narrative abounds, but I +have said I was going to lecture on the humour of Homer--that is to +say of the Iliad and the Odyssey--and must not be diverted from my +subject. I cannot, however, resist the account which Ulysses gives +of his meeting with his mother in Hades, the place of departed +spirits, which he has visited by the advice of Circe. His mother +comes up to him and asks him how he managed to get into Hades, being +still alive. I will translate freely, but quite closely, from +Ulysses' own words, as spoken to the Phaeacians. + +"And I said, 'Mother, I had to come here to consult the ghost of the +old Theban prophet Teiresias, I have never yet been near Greece, nor +set foot on my native land, and have had nothing but one long run of +ill luck from the day I set out with Agamemnon to fight at Troy. +But tell me how you came here yourself? Did you have a long and +painful illness or did heaven vouchsafe you a gentle easy passage to +eternity? Tell me also about my father and my son? Is my property +still in their hands, or has someone else got hold of it who thinks +that I shall not return to claim it? How, again, is my wife +conducting herself? Does she live with her son and make a home for +him, or has she married again?' + +"My mother answered, 'Your wife is still mistress of your house, but +she is in very great straits and spends the greater part of her time +in tears. No one has actually taken possession of your property, +and Telemachus still holds it. He has to accept a great many +invitations, and gives much the sort of entertainments in return +that may be expected from one in his position. Your father remains +in the old place, and never goes near the town; he is very badly +off, and has neither bed nor bedding, nor a stick of furniture of +any kind. In winter he sleeps on the floor in front of the fire +with the men, and his clothes are in a shocking state, but in +summer, when the warm weather comes on again, he sleeps out in the +vineyard on a bed of vine leaves. He takes on very much about your +not having returned, and suffers more and more as he grows older: +as for me I died of nothing whatever in the world but grief about +yourself. There was not a thing the matter with me, but my +prolonged anxiety on your account was too much for me, and in the +end it just wore me out.'" + +In the course of time Ulysses comes to a pause in his narrative and +Queen Arete makes a little speech. + +"'What do you think,' she said to the Phaeacians, 'of such a guest +as this? Did you ever see anyone at once so good-looking and so +clever? It is true, indeed, that his visit is paid more +particularly to myself, but you all participate in the honour +conferred upon us by a visitor of such distinction. Do not be in a +hurry to send him off, nor stingy in the presents you make to one in +so great need; for you are all of you very well off.'" + +You will note that the queen does not say "_we_ are all of _us_ very +well off." + +"Then the hero Echeneus, who was the oldest man among them, added a +few words of his own. 'My friends,' he said, 'there cannot be two +opinions about the graciousness and sagacity of the remarks that +have just fallen from Her Majesty; nevertheless it is with His +Majesty King Alcinous that the decision must ultimately rest.' + +"'The thing shall be done,' exclaimed Alcinous, 'if I am still king +over the Phaeacians. As for our guest, I know he is anxious to +resume his journey, still we must persuade him if we can to stay +with us until to-morrow, by which time I shall be able to get +together the balance of the sum which I mean to press on his +acceptance.'" + +So here we have it straight out that the monarch knew he had only +contributed the coat and waistcoat, and did not know exactly how he +was to lay his hands on the 250 pounds. What with piracy--for we +have been told of at least one case in which Alcinous had looted a +town and stolen his housemaid Eurymedusa--what with insufficient +changes of linen, toping like an immortal god, swaggering at large, +and open-handed hospitality, it is plain and by no means surprising +that Alcinous is out at elbows; nor can there be a better example of +the difference between the occasional broad comedy of the Iliad and +the delicate but very bitter satire of the Odyssey than the way in +which the fact that Alcinous is in money difficulties is allowed to +steal upon us, as contrasted with the obvious humour of the quarrels +between Jove and Juno. At any rate we can hardly wonder at Ulysses +having felt that to a monarch of such mixed character the unfastened +box might prove a temptation greater than he could resist. To +return, however, to the story-- + +"If it please your Majesty," said he, in answer to King Alcinous, "I +should be delighted to stay here for another twelve months, and to +accept from your hands the vast treasures and the escort which you +are go generous as to promise me. I should obviously gain by doing +so, for I should return fuller-handed to my own people and should +thus be both more respected and more loved by my acquaintance. +Still to receive such presents--" + +The king perceived his embarrassment, and at once relieved him. "No +one," he exclaimed, "who looks at you can for one moment take you +for a charlatan or a swindler. I know there are many of these +unscrupulous persons going about just now with such plausible +stories that it is very hard to disbelieve them; there is, however, +a finish about your style which convinces me of your good +disposition," and so on for more than I have space to quote; after +which Ulysses again proceeds with his adventures. + +When he had finished them Alcinous insists that the leading +Phaeacians should each one of them give Ulysses a still further +present of a large kitchen copper and a three-legged stand to set it +on, "but," he continues, "as the expense of all these presents is +really too heavy for the purse of any private individual, I shall +charge the whole of them on the rates": literally, "We will repay +ourselves by getting it in from among the people, for this is too +heavy a present for the purse of a private individual." And what +this can mean except charging it on the rates I do not know. + +Of course everyone else sends up his tripod and his cauldron, but we +hear nothing about any, either tripod or cauldron, from King +Alcinous. He is very fussy next morning stowing them under the +ship's benches, but his time and trouble seem to be the extent of +his contribution. It is hardly necessary to say that Ulysses had to +go away without the 250 pounds, and that we never hear of the +promised goblet being presented. Still he had done pretty well. + +I have not quoted anything like all the absurd remarks made by +Alcinous, nor shown you nearly as completely as I could do if I had +more time how obviously the writer is quietly laughing at him in her +sleeve. She understands his little ways as she understands those of +Menelaus, who tells Telemachus and Pisistratus that if they like he +will take them a personally conducted tour round the Peloponnese, +and that they can make a good thing out of it, for everyone will +give them something--fancy Helen or Queen Arete making such a +proposal as this. They are never laughed at, but then they are +women, whereas Alcinous and Menelaus are men, and this makes all the +difference. + +And now in conclusion let me point out the irony of literature in +connection with this astonishing work. Here is a poem in which the +hero and heroine have already been married many years before it +begins: it is marked by a total absence of love-business in such +sense as we understand it: its interest centres mainly in the fact +of a bald elderly gentleman, whose little remaining hair is red, +being eaten out of house and home during his absence by a number of +young men who are courting the supposed widow--a widow who, if she +be fair and fat, can hardly also be less than forty. Can any +subject seem more hopeless? Moreover, this subject so initially +faulty is treated with a carelessness in respect of consistency, +ignorance of commonly known details, and disregard of ordinary +canons, that can hardly be surpassed, and yet I cannot think that in +the whole range of literature there is a work which can be +decisively placed above it. I am afraid you will hardly accept +this; I do not see how you can be expected to do so, for in the +first place there is no even tolerable prose translation, and in the +second, the Odyssey, like the Iliad, has been a school book for over +two thousand five hundred years, and what more cruel revenge than +this can dullness take on genius? The Iliad and Odyssey have been +used as text-books for education during at least two thousand five +hundred years, and yet it is only during the last forty or fifty +that people have begun to see that they are by different authors. +There was, indeed, so I learn from Colonel Mure's valuable work, a +band of scholars some few hundreds of years before the birth of +Christ, who refused to see the Iliad and Odyssey as by the same +author, but they were snubbed and snuffed out, and for more than two +thousand years were considered to have been finally refuted. Can +there be any more scathing satire upon the value of literary +criticism? It would seem as though Minerva had shed the same thick +darkness over both the poems as she shed over Ulysses, so that they +might go in and out among the dons of Oxford and Cambridge from +generation to generation, and none should see them. If I am right, +as I believe I am, in holding the Odyssey to have been written by a +young woman, was ever sleeping beauty more effectually concealed +behind a more impenetrable hedge of dulness?--and she will have to +sleep a good many years yet before anyone wakes her effectually. +But what else can one expect from people, not one of whom has been +at the very slight exertion of noting a few of the writer's main +topographical indications, and then looking for them in an Admiralty +chart or two? Can any step be more obvious and easy--indeed, it is +so simple that I am ashamed of myself for not having taken it forty +years ago. Students of the Odyssey for the most part are so +engrossed with the force of the zeugma, and of the enclitic particle +[Greek]; they take so much more interest in the digamma and in the +AEolic dialect, than they do in the living spirit that sits behind +all these things and alone gives them their importance, that, +naturally enough, not caring about the personality, it remains and +always must remain invisible to them. + +If I have helped to make it any less invisible to yourselves, let me +ask you to pardon the somewhat querulous tone of my concluding +remarks. + + + + +Quis Desiderio . . .? {99} + + +Like Mr. Wilkie Collins, I, too, have been asked to lay some of my +literary experiences before the readers of the Universal Review. It +occurred to me that the Review must be indeed universal before it +could open its pages to one so obscure as myself; but, nothing +daunted by the distinguished company among which I was for the first +time asked to move, I resolved to do as I was told, and went to the +British Museum to see what books I had written. Having refreshed my +memory by a glance at the catalogue, I was about to try and diminish +the large and ever-increasing circle of my non-readers when I became +aware of a calamity that brought me to a standstill, and indeed bids +fair, so far as I can see at present, to put an end to my literary +existence altogether. + +I should explain that I cannot write unless I have a sloping desk, +and the reading-room of the British Museum, where alone I can +compose freely, is unprovided with sloping desks. Like every other +organism, if I cannot get exactly what I want I make shift with the +next thing to it; true, there are no desks in the reading-room, but, +as I once heard a visitor from the country say, "it contains a large +number of very interesting works." I know it was not right, and +hope the Museum authorities will not be severe upon me if any of +them reads this confession; but I wanted a desk, and set myself to +consider which of the many very interesting works which a grateful +nation places at the disposal of its would-be authors was best +suited for my purpose. + +For mere reading I suppose one book is pretty much as good as +another; but the choice of a desk-book is a more serious matter. It +must be neither too thick nor too thin; it must be large enough to +make a substantial support; it must be strongly bound so as not to +yield or give; it must not be too troublesome to carry backwards and +forwards; and it must live on shelf C, D, or E, so that there need +be no stooping or reaching too high. These are the conditions which +a really good book must fulfil; simple, however, as they are, it is +surprising how few volumes comply with them satisfactorily; +moreover, being perhaps too sensitively conscientious, I allowed +another consideration to influence me, and was sincerely anxious not +to take a book which would be in constant use for reference by +readers, more especially as, if I did this, I might find myself +disturbed by the officials. + +For weeks I made experiments upon sundry poetical and philosophical +works, whose names I have forgotten, but could not succeed in +finding my ideal desk, until at length, more by luck than cunning, I +happened to light upon Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians, which I +had no sooner tried than I discovered it to be the very perfection +and ne plus ultra of everything that a book should be. It lived in +Case No. 2008, and I accordingly took at once to sitting in Row B, +where for the last dozen years or so I have sat ever since. + +The first thing I have done whenever I went to the Museum has been +to take down Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians and carry it to my +seat. It is not the custom of modern writers to refer to the works +to which they are most deeply indebted, and I have never, that I +remember, mentioned it by name before; but it is to this book alone +that I have looked for support during many years of literary labour, +and it is round this to me invaluable volume that all my own have +page by page grown up. There is none in the Museum to which I have +been under anything like such constant obligation, none which I can +so ill spare, and none which I would choose so readily if I were +allowed to select one single volume and keep it for my own. + +On finding myself asked for a contribution to the Universal Review, +I went, as I have explained, to the Museum, and presently repaired +to bookcase No. 2008 to get my favourite volume. Alas! it was in +the room no longer. It was not in use, for its place was filled up +already; besides, no one ever used it but myself. Whether the ghost +of the late Mr. Frost has been so eminently unchristian as to +interfere, or whether the authorities have removed the book in +ignorance of the steady demand which there has been for it on the +part of at least one reader, are points I cannot determine. All I +know is that the book is gone, and I feel as Wordsworth is generally +supposed to have felt when he became aware that Lucy was in her +grave, and exclaimed so emphatically that this would make a +considerable difference to him, or words to that effect. + +Now I think of it, Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians was very like +Lucy. The one resided at Dovedale in Derbyshire, the other in Great +Russell Street, Bloomsbury. I admit that I do not see the +resemblance here at this moment, but if I try to develop my +perception I shall doubtless ere long find a marvellously striking +one. In other respects, however, than mere local habitat the +likeness is obvious. Lucy was not particularly attractive either +inside or out--no more was Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians; +there were few to praise her, and of those few still fewer could +bring themselves to like her; indeed, Wordsworth himself seems to +have been the only person who thought much about her one way or the +other. In like manner, I believe I was the only reader who thought +much one way or the other about Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians, +but this in itself was one of the attractions of the book; and as +for the grief we respectively felt and feel, I believe my own to be +as deep as Wordsworth's, if not more so. + +I said above, "as Wordsworth is generally supposed to have felt"; +for anyone imbued with the spirit of modern science will read +Wordsworth's poem with different eyes from those of a mere literary +critic. He will note that Wordsworth is most careful not to explain +the nature of the difference which the death of Lucy will occasion +to him. He tells us that there will be a difference; but there the +matter ends. The superficial reader takes it that he was very sorry +she was dead; it is, of course, possible that he may have actually +been so, but he has not said this. On the contrary, he has hinted +plainly that she was ugly, and generally disliked; she was only like +a violet when she was half-hidden from the view, and only fair as a +star when there were so few stars out that it was practically +impossible to make an invidious comparison. If there were as many +as even two stars the likeness was felt to be at an end. If +Wordsworth had imprudently promised to marry this young person +during a time when he had been unusually long in keeping to good +resolutions, and had afterwards seen someone whom he liked better, +then Lucy's death would undoubtedly have made a considerable +difference to him, and this is all that he has ever said that it +would do. What right have we to put glosses upon the masterly +reticence of a poet, and credit him with feelings possibly the very +reverse of those he actually entertained? + +Sometimes, indeed, I have been inclined to think that a mystery is +being hinted at more dark than any critic has suspected. I do not +happen to possess a copy of the poem, but the writer, if I am not +mistaken, says that "few could know when Lucy ceased to be." +"Ceased to be" is a suspiciously euphemistic expression, and the +words "few could know" are not applicable to the ordinary peaceful +death of a domestic servant such as Lucy appears to have been. No +matter how obscure the deceased, any number of people commonly can +know the day and hour of his or her demise, whereas in this case we +are expressly told it would be impossible for them to do so. +Wordsworth was nothing if not accurate, and would not have said that +few could know, but that few actually did know, unless he was aware +of circumstances that precluded all but those implicated in the +crime of her death from knowing the precise moment of its +occurrence. If Lucy was the kind of person not obscurely portrayed +in the poem; if Wordsworth had murdered her, either by cutting her +throat or smothering her, in concert, perhaps, with his friends +Southey and Coleridge; and if he had thus found himself released +from an engagement which had become irksome to him, or possibly from +the threat of an action for breach of promise, then there is not a +syllable in the poem with which he crowns his crime that is not +alive with meaning. On any other supposition to the general reader +it is unintelligible. + +We cannot be too guarded in the interpretations we put upon the +words of great poets. Take the young lady who never loved the dear +gazelle--and I don't believe she did; we are apt to think that Moore +intended us to see in this creation of his fancy a sweet, amiable, +but most unfortunate young woman, whereas all he has told us about +her points to an exactly opposite conclusion. In reality, he wished +us to see a young lady who had been a habitual complainer from her +earliest childhood; whose plants had always died as soon as she +bought them, while those belonging to her neighbours had flourished. +The inference is obvious, nor can we reasonably doubt that Moore +intended us to draw it; if her plants were the very first to fade +away, she was evidently the very first to neglect or otherwise +maltreat them. She did not give them enough water, or left the door +of her fern-case open when she was cooking her dinner at the gas +stove, or kept them too near the paraffin oil, or other like folly; +and as for her temper, see what the gazelles did; as long as they +did not know her "well," they could just manage to exist, but when +they got to understand her real character, one after another felt +that death was the only course open to it, and accordingly died +rather than live with such a mistress. True, the young lady herself +said the gazelles loved her; but disagreeable people are apt to +think themselves amiable, and in view of the course invariably taken +by the gazelles themselves anyone accustomed to weigh evidence will +hold that she was probably mistaken. + +I must, however, return to Frost's Lives of Eminent Christians. I +will leave none of the ambiguity about my words in which Moore and +Wordsworth seem to have delighted. I am very sorry the book is +gone, and know not where to turn for its successor. Till I have +found a substitute I can write no more, and I do not know how to +find even a tolerable one. I should try a volume of Migne's +Complete Course of Patrology, but I do not like books in more than +one volume, for the volumes vary in thickness, and one never can +remember which one took; the four volumes, however, of Bede in +Giles's Anglican Fathers are not open to this objection, and I have +reserved them for favourable consideration. Mather's Magnalia might +do, but the binding does not please me; Cureton's Corpus Ignatianum +might also do if it were not too thin. I do not like taking +Norton's Genuineness of the Gospels, as it is just possible someone +may be wanting to know whether the Gospels are genuine or not, and +be unable to find out because I have got Mr. Norton's book. +Baxter's Church History of England, Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church, +and Cardwell's Documentary Annals, though none of them as good as +Frost, are works of considerable merit; but on the whole I think +Arvine's Cyclopedia of Moral and Religious Anecdote is perhaps the +one book in the room which comes within measurable distance of +Frost. I should probably try this book first, but it has a fatal +objection in its too seductive title. "I am not curious," as Miss +Lottie Venne says in one of her parts, "but I like to know," and I +might be tempted to pervert the book from its natural uses and open +it, so as to find out what kind of a thing a moral and religious +anecdote is. I know, of course, that there are a great many +anecdotes in the Bible, but no one thinks of calling them either +moral or religious, though some of them certainly seem as if they +might fairly find a place in Mr. Arvine's work. There are some +things, however, which it is better not to know, and take it all +round I do not think I should be wise in putting myself in the way +of temptation, and adopting Arvine as the successor to my beloved +and lamented Frost. + +Some successor I must find, or I must give up writing altogether, +and this I should be sorry to do. I have only as yet written about +a third, or from that--counting works written but not published--to +a half of the books which I have set myself to write. It would not +so much matter if old age was not staring me in the face. Dr. Parr +said it was "a beastly shame for an old man not to have laid down a +good cellar of port in his youth"; I, like the greater number, I +suppose, of those who write books at all, write in order that I may +have something to read in my old age when I can write no longer. I +know what I shall like better than anyone can tell me, and write +accordingly; if my career is nipped in the bud, as seems only too +likely, I really do not know where else I can turn for present +agreeable occupation, nor yet how to make suitable provision for my +later years. Other writers can, of course, make excellent provision +for their own old ages, but they cannot do so for mine, any more +than I should succeed if I were to try to cater for theirs. It is +one of those cases in which no man can make agreement for his +brother. + +I have no heart for continuing this article, and if I had, I have +nothing of interest to say. No one's literary career can have been +smoother or more unchequered than mine. I have published all my +books at my own expense, and paid for them in due course. What can +be conceivably more unromantic? For some years I had a little +literary grievance against the authorities of the British Museum +because they would insist on saying in their catalogue that I had +published three sermons on Infidelity in the year 1820. I thought I +had not, and got them out to see. They were rather funny, but they +were not mine. Now, however, this grievance has been removed. I +had another little quarrel with them because they would describe me +as "of St. John's College, Cambridge," an establishment for which I +have the most profound veneration, but with which I have not had the +honour to be connected for some quarter of a century. At last they +said they would change this description if I would only tell them +what I was, for, though they had done their best to find out, they +had themselves failed. I replied with modest pride that I was a +Bachelor of Arts. I keep all my other letters inside my name, not +outside. They mused and said it was unfortunate that I was not a +Master of Arts. Could I not get myself made a Master? I said I +understood that a Mastership was an article the University could not +do under about five pounds, and that I was not disposed to go +sixpence higher than three ten. They again said it was a pity, for +it would be very inconvenient to them if I did not keep to something +between a bishop and a poet. I might be anything I liked in reason, +provided I showed proper respect for the alphabet; but they had got +me between "Samuel Butler, bishop," and "Samuel Butler, poet." It +would be very troublesome to shift me, and bachelor came before +bishop. This was reasonable, so I replied that, under those +circumstances, if they pleased, I thought I would like to be a +philosophical writer. They embraced the solution, and, no matter +what I write now, I must remain a philosophical writer as long as I +live, for the alphabet will hardly be altered in my time, and I must +be something between "Bis" and "Poe." If I could get a volume of my +excellent namesake's Hudibras out of the list of my works, I should +be robbed of my last shred of literary grievance, so I say nothing +about this, but keep it secret, lest some worse thing should happen +to me. Besides, I have a great respect for my namesake, and always +say that if Erewhon had been a racehorse it would have been got by +Hudibras out of Analogy. Someone said this to me many years ago, +and I felt so much flattered that I have been repeating the remark +as my own ever since. + +But how small are these grievances as compared with those endured +without a murmur by hundreds of writers far more deserving than +myself. When I see the scores and hundreds of workers in the +reading-room who have done so much more than I have, but whose work +is absolutely fruitless to themselves, and when I think of the +prompt recognition obtained by my own work, I ask myself what I have +done to be thus rewarded. On the other hand, the feeling that I +have succeeded far beyond my deserts hitherto, makes it all the +harder for me to acquiesce without complaint in the extinction of a +career which I honestly believe to be a promising one; and once more +I repeat that, unless the Museum authorities give me back my Frost, +or put a locked clasp on Arvine, my career must be extinguished. +Give me back Frost, and, if life and health are spared, I will write +another dozen of volumes yet before I hang up my fiddle--if so +serious a confusion of metaphors may be pardoned. I know from long +experience how kind and considerate both the late and present +superintendents of the reading-room were and are, but I doubt how +far either of them would be disposed to help me on this occasion; +continue, however, to rob me of my Frost, and, whatever else I may +do, I will write no more books. + +Note by Dr. Garnett, British Museum.--The frost has broken up. Mr. +Butler is restored to literature. Mr. Mudie may make himself easy. +England will still boast a humorist; and the late Mr. Darwin (to +whose posthumous machinations the removal of the book was owing) +will continue to be confounded.--R. GARNETT. + + + + + +Ramblings in Cheapside {110} + + +Walking the other day in Cheapside I saw some turtles in Mr. +Sweeting's window, and was tempted to stay and look at them. As I +did so I was struck not more by the defences with which they were +hedged about, than by the fatuousness of trying to hedge that in at +all which, if hedged thoroughly, must die of its own defencefulness. +The holes for the head and feet through which the turtle leaks out, +as it were, on to the exterior world, and through which it again +absorbs the exterior world into itself--"catching on" through them +to things that are thus both turtle and not turtle at one and the +same time--these holes stultify the armour, and show it to have been +designed by a creature with more of faithfulness to a fixed idea, +and hence one-sidedness, than of that quick sense of relative +importances and their changes, which is the main factor of good +living. + +The turtle obviously had no sense of proportion; it differed so +widely from myself that I could not comprehend it; and as this word +occurred to me, it occurred also that until my body comprehended its +body in a physical material sense, neither would my mind be able to +comprehend its mind with any thoroughness. For unity of mind can +only be consummated by unity of body; everything, therefore, must be +in some respects both knave and fool to all that which has not eaten +it, or by which it has not been eaten. As long as the turtle was in +the window and I in the street outside, there was no chance of our +comprehending one another. + +Nevertheless, I knew that I could get it to agree with me if I could +so effectually buttonhole and fasten on to it as to eat it. Most +men have an easy method with turtle soup, and I had no misgiving but +that if I could bring my first premise to bear I should prove the +better reasoner. My difficulty lay in this initial process, for I +had not with me the argument that would alone compel Mr. Sweeting to +think that I ought to be allowed to convert the turtles--I mean I +had no money in my pocket. No missionary enterprise can be carried +on without any money at all, but even so small a sum as half a crown +would, I suppose, have enabled me to bring the turtle partly round, +and with many half-crowns I could in time no doubt convert the lot, +for the turtle needs must go where the money drives. If, as is +alleged, the world stands on a turtle, the turtle stands on money. +No money no turtle. As for money, that stands on opinion, credit, +trust, faith--things that, though highly material in connection with +money, are still of immaterial essence. + +The steps are perfectly plain. The men who caught the turtles +brought a fairly strong and definite opinion to bear upon them, that +passed into action, and later on into money. They thought the +turtles would come that way, and verified their opinion; on this, +will and action were generated, with the result that the men turned +the turtles on their backs and carried them off. Mr. Sweeting +touched these men with money, which is the outward and visible sign +of verified opinion. The customer touches Mr. Sweeting with money, +Mr. Sweeting touches the waiter and the cook with money. They touch +the turtle with skill and verified opinion. Finally, the customer +applies the clinching argument that brushes all sophisms aside, and +bids the turtle stand protoplasm to protoplasm with himself, to know +even as it is known. + +But it must be all touch, touch, touch; skill, opinion, power, and +money, passing in and out with one another in any order we like, but +still link to link and touch to touch. If there is failure anywhere +in respect of opinion, skill, power, or money, either as regards +quantity or quality, the chain can be no stronger than its weakest +link, and the turtle and the clinching argument will fly asunder. +Of course, if there is an initial failure in connection, through +defect in any member of the chain, or of connection between the +links, it will no more be attempted to bring the turtle and the +clinching argument together, than it will to chain up a dog with two +pieces of broken chain that are disconnected. The contact +throughout must be conceived as absolute; and yet perfect contact is +inconceivable by us, for on becoming perfect it ceases to be +contact, and becomes essential, once for all inseverable, identity. +The most absolute contact short of this is still contact by courtesy +only. So here, as everywhere else, Eurydice glides off as we are +about to grasp her. We can see nothing face to face; our utmost +seeing is but a fumbling of blind finger-ends in an overcrowded +pocket. + +Presently my own blind finger-ends fished up the conclusion, that as +I had neither time nor money to spend on perfecting the chain that +would put me in full spiritual contact with Mr. Sweeting's turtles, +I had better leave them to complete their education at someone +else's expense rather than mine, so I walked on towards the Bank. +As I did so it struck me how continually we are met by this melting +of one existence into another. The limits of the body seem well +defined enough as definitions go, but definitions seldom go far. +What, for example, can seem more distinct from a man than his banker +or his solicitor? Yet these are commonly so much parts of him that +he can no more cut them off and grow new ones, than he can grow new +legs or arms; neither must he wound his solicitor; a wound in the +solicitor is a very serious thing. As for his bank--failure of his +bank's action may be as fatal to a man _as_ failure of his heart. I +have said nothing about the medical or spiritual adviser, but most +men grow into the society that surrounds them by the help of these +four main tap-roots, and not only into the world of humanity, but +into the universe at large. We can, indeed, grow butchers, bakers, +and greengrocers, almost ad libitum, but these are low developments, +and correspond to skin, hair, or finger-nails. Those of us again +who are not highly enough organized to have grown a solicitor or +banker can generally repair the loss of whatever social organization +they may possess as freely as lizards are said to grow new tails; +but this with the higher social, as well as organic, developments is +only possible to a very limited extent. + +The doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls--a +doctrine to which the foregoing considerations are for the most part +easy corollaries--crops up no matter in what direction we allow our +thoughts to wander. And we meet instances of transmigration of body +as well as of soul. I do not mean that both body and soul have +transmigrated together, far from it; but that, as we can often +recognize a transmigrated mind in an alien body, so we not less +often see a body that is clearly only a transmigration, linked on to +someone else's new and alien soul. We meet people every day whose +bodies are evidently those of men and women long dead, but whose +appearance we know through their portraits. We see them going about +in omnibuses, railway carriages, and in all public places. The +cards have been shuffled, and they have drawn fresh lots in life and +nationalities, but anyone fairly well up in medieval and last- +century portraiture knows them at a glance. + +Going down once towards Italy I saw a young man in the train whom I +recognized, only he seemed to have got younger. He was with a +friend, and his face was in continual play, but for some little time +I puzzled in vain to recollect where it was that I had seen him +before. All of a sudden I remembered he was King Francis I of +France. I had hitherto thought the face of this king impossible, +but when I saw it in play I understood it. His great contemporary +Henry VIII keeps a restaurant in Oxford Street. Falstaff drove one +of the St. Gothard diligences for many years, and only retired when +the railway was opened. Titian once made me a pair of boots at +Vicenza, and not very good ones. At Modena I had my hair cut by a +young man whom I perceived to be Raffaelle. The model who sat to +him for his celebrated Madonnas is first lady in a confectionery +establishment at Montreal. She has a little motherly pimple on the +left side of her nose that is misleading at first, but on +examination she is readily recognized; probably Raffaelle's model +had the pimple too, but Raffaelle left it out--as he would. + +Handel, of course, is Madame Patey. Give Madame Patey Handel's wig +and clothes, and there would be no telling her from Handel. It is +not only that the features and the shape of the head are the same, +but there is a certain imperiousness of expression and attitude +about Handel which he hardly attempts to conceal in Madame Patey. +It is a curious coincidence that he should continue to be such an +incomparable renderer of his own music. Pope Julius II was the late +Mr. Darwin. Rameses II is a blind woman now, and stands in Holborn, +holding a tin mug. I never could understand why I always found +myself humming "They oppressed them with burthens" when I passed +her, till one day I was looking in Mr. Spooner's window in the +Strand, and saw a photograph of Rameses II. Mary Queen of Scots +wears surgical boots and is subject to fits, near the Horse Shoe in +Tottenham Court Road. + +Michael Angelo is a commissionaire; I saw him on board the Glen +Rosa, which used to run every day from London to Clacton-on-Sea and +back. It gave me quite a turn when I saw him coming down the stairs +from the upper deck, with his bronzed face, flattened nose, and with +the familiar bar upon his forehead. I never liked Michael Angelo, +and never shall, but I am afraid of him, and was near trying to hide +when I saw him coming towards me. He had not got his +commissionaire's uniform on, and I did not know he was one till I +met him a month or so later in the Strand. When we got to Blackwall +the music struck up and people began to dance. I never saw a man +dance so much in my life. He did not miss a dance all the way to +Clacton, nor all the way back again, and when not dancing he was +flirting and cracking jokes. I could hardly believe my eyes when I +reflected that this man had painted the famous "Last Judgment," and +had made all those statues. + +Dante is, or was a year or two ago, a waiter at Brissago on the Lago +Maggiore, only he is better-tempered-looking, and has a more +intellectual expression. He gave me his ideas upon beauty: "Tutto +ch' e vero e bello," he exclaimed, with all his old self-confidence. +I am not afraid of Dante. I know people by their friends, and he +went about with Virgil, so I said with some severity, "No, Dante, il +naso della Signora Robinson e vero, ma non e bello"; and he admitted +I was right. Beatrice's name is Towler; she is waitress at a small +inn in German Switzerland. I used to sit at my window and hear +people call "Towler, Towler, Towler," fifty times in a forenoon. +She was the exact antithesis to Abra; Abra, if I remember, used to +come before they called her name, but no matter how often they +called Towler, everyone came before she did. I suppose they spelt +her name Taula, but to me it sounded Towler; I never, however, met +anyone else with this name. She was a sweet, artless little hussy, +who made me play the piano to her, and she said it was lovely. Of +course I only played my own compositions; so I believed her, and it +all went off very nicely. I thought it might save trouble if I did +not tell her who she really was, so I said nothing about it. + +I met Socrates once. He was my muleteer on an excursion which I +will not name, for fear it should identify the man. The moment I +saw my guide I knew he was somebody, but for the life of me I could +not remember who. All of a sudden it flashed across me that he was +Socrates. He talked enough for six, but it was all in dialetto, so +I could not understand him, nor, when I had discovered who he was, +did I much try to do so. He was a good creature, a trifle given to +stealing fruit and vegetables, but an amiable man enough. He had +had a long day with his mule and me, and he only asked me five +francs. I gave him ten, for I pitied his poor old patched boots, +and there was a meekness about him that touched me. "And now, +Socrates," said I at parting, "we go on our several ways, you to +steal tomatoes, I to filch ideas from other people; for the rest-- +which of these two roads will be the better going, our father which +is in heaven knows, but we know not." + +I have never seen Mendelssohn, but there is a fresco of him on the +terrace, or open-air dining-room, of an inn at Chiavenna. He is not +called Mendelssohn, but I knew him by his legs. He is in the +costume of a dandy of some five-and-forty years ago, is smoking a +cigar, and appears to be making an offer of marriage to his cook. +Beethoven both my friend Mr. H. Festing Jones and I have had the +good fortune to meet; he is an engineer now, and does not know one +note from another; he has quite lost his deafness, is married, and +is, of course, a little squat man with the same refractory hair that +he always had. It was very interesting to watch him, and Jones +remarked that before the end of dinner he had become positively +posthumous. One morning I was told the Beethovens were going away, +and before long I met their two heavy boxes being carried down the +stairs. The boxes were so squab and like their owners, that I half +thought for a moment that they were inside, and should hardly have +been surprised to see them spring up like a couple of Jacks-in-the- +box. "Sono indentro?" said I, with a frown of wonder, pointing to +the boxes. The porters knew what I meant, and laughed. But there +is no end to the list of people whom I have been able to recognize, +and before I had got through it myself, I found I had walked some +distance, and had involuntarily paused in front of a second-hand +bookstall. + +I do not like books. I believe I have the smallest library of any +literary man in London, and I have no wish to increase it. I keep +my books at the British Museum and at Mudie's, and it makes me very +angry if anyone gives me one for my private library. I once heard +two ladies disputing in a railway carriage as to whether one of them +had or had not been wasting money. "I spent it in books," said the +accused, "and it's not wasting money to buy books." "Indeed, my +dear, I think it is," was the rejoinder, and in practice I agree +with it. Webster's Dictionary, Whitaker's Almanack, and Bradshaw's +Railway Guide should be sufficient for any ordinary library; it will +be time enough to go beyond these when the mass of useful and +entertaining matter which they provide has been mastered. +Nevertheless, I admit that sometimes, if not particularly busy, I +stop at a second-hand bookstall and turn over a book or two from +mere force of habit. + +I know not what made me pick up a copy of AEschylus--of course in an +English version--or rather I know not what made AEschylus take up +with me, for he took me rather than I him; but no sooner had he got +me than he began puzzling me, as he has done any time this forty +years, to know wherein his transcendent merit can be supposed to +lie. To me he is, like the greater number of classics in all ages +and countries, a literary Struldbrug, rather than a true ambrosia- +fed immortal. There are true immortals, but they are few and far +between; most classics are as great impostors dead as they were when +living, and while posing as gods are, five-sevenths of them, only +Struldbrugs. It comforts me to remember that Aristophanes liked +AEschylus no better than I do. True, he praises him by comparison +with Sophocles and Euripides, but he only does so that he may run +down these last more effectively. Aristophanes is a safe man to +follow, nor do I see why it should not be as correct to laugh with +him as to pull a long face with the Greek Professors; but this is +neither here nor there, for no one really cares about AEschylus; the +more interesting question is how he contrived to make so many people +for so many years pretend to care about him. + +Perhaps he married somebody's daughter. If a man would get hold of +the public ear, he must pay, marry, or fight. I have never +understood that AEschylus was a man of means, and the fighters do +not write poetry, so I suppose he must have married a theatrical +manager's daughter, and got his plays brought out that way. The ear +of any age or country is like its land, air, and water; it seems +limitless but is really limited, and is already in the keeping of +those who naturally enough will have no squatting on such valuable +property. It is written and talked up to as closely as the means of +subsistence are bred up to by a teeming population. There is not a +square inch of it but is in private hands, and he who would freehold +any part of it must do so by purchase, marriage, or fighting, in the +usual way--and fighting gives the longest, safest tenure. The +public itself has hardly more voice in the question who shall have +its ear, than the land has in choosing its owners. It is farmed as +those who own it think most profitable to themselves, and small +blame to them; nevertheless, it has a residuum of mulishness which +the land has not, and does sometimes dispossess its tenants. It is +in this residuum that those who fight place their hope and trust. + +Or perhaps AEschylus squared the leading critics of his time. When +one comes to think of it, he must have done so, for how is it +conceivable that such plays should have had such runs if he had not? +I met a lady one year in Switzerland who had some parrots that +always travelled with her and were the idols of her life. These +parrots would not let anyone read aloud in their presence, unless +they heard their own names introduced from time to time. If these +were freely interpolated into the text they would remain as still as +stones, for they thought the reading was about themselves. If it +was not about them it could not be allowed. The leaders of +literature are like these parrots; they do not look at what a man +writes, nor if they did would they understand it much better than +the parrots do; but they like the sound of their own names, and if +these are freely interpolated in a tone they take as friendly, they +may even give ear to an outsider. Otherwise they will scream him +off if they can. + +I should not advise anyone with ordinary independence of mind to +attempt the public ear unless he is confident that he can out-lung +and out-last his own generation; for if he has any force, people +will and ought to be on their guard against him, inasmuch as there +is no knowing where he may not take them. Besides, they have staked +their money on the wrong men so often without suspecting it, that +when there comes one whom they do suspect it would be madness not to +bet against him. True, he may die before he has out screamed his +opponents, but that has nothing to do with it. If his scream was +well pitched it will sound clearer when he is dead. We do not know +what death is. If we know so little about life which we have +experienced, how shall we know about death which we have not--and in +the nature of things never can? Everyone, as I said years ago in +Alps and Sanctuaries, is an immortal to himself, for he cannot know +that he is dead until he is dead, and when dead how can he know +anything about anything? All we know is, that even the humblest +dead may live long after all trace of the body has disappeared; we +see them doing it in the bodies and memories of those that come +after them; and not a few live so much longer and more effectually +than is desirable, that it has been necessary to get rid of them by +Act of Parliament. It is love that alone gives life, and the truest +life is that which we live not in ourselves but vicariously in +others, and with which we have no concern. Our concern is so to +order ourselves that we may be of the number of them that enter into +life--although we know it not. + +AEschylus did so order himself; but his life is not of that +inspiriting kind that can be won through fighting the good fight +only--or being believed to have fought it. His voice is the echo of +a drone, drone-begotten and drone-sustained. It is not a tone that +a man must utter or die--nay, even though he die; and likely enough +half the allusions and hard passages in AEschylus of which we can +make neither head nor tail are in reality only puffs of some of the +literary leaders of his time. + +The lady above referred to told me more about her parrots. She was +like a Nasmyth's hammer going slow--very gentle, but irresistible. +She always read the newspaper to them. What was the use of having a +newspaper if one did not read it to one's parrots? + +"And have you divined," I asked, "to which side they incline in +politics?" + +"They do not like Mr. Gladstone," was the somewhat freezing answer; +"this is the only point on which we disagree, for I adore him. +Don't ask more about this, it is a great grief to me. I tell them +everything," she continued, "and hide no secret from them." + +"But can any parrot be trusted to keep a secret?" + +"Mine can." + +"And on Sundays do you give them the same course of reading as on a +week-day, or do you make a difference?" + +"On Sundays I always read them a genealogical chapter from the Old +or New Testament, for I can thus introduce their names without +profanity. I always keep tea by me in case they should ask for it +in the night, and I have an Etna to warm it for them; they take milk +and sugar. The old white-headed clergyman came to see them last +night; it was very painful, for Jocko reminded him so strongly of +his late . . . " + +I thought she was going to say "wife," but it proved to have been +only of a parrot that he had once known and loved. + +One evening she was in difficulties about the quarantine, which was +enforced that year on the Italian frontier. The local doctor had +gone down that morning to see the Italian doctor and arrange some +details. "Then, perhaps, my dear," she said to her husband, "he is +the quarantine." "No, my love," replied her husband. "The +quarantine is not a person, it is a place where they put people"; +but she would not be comforted, and suspected the quarantine as an +enemy that might at any moment pounce out upon her and her parrots. +So a lady told me once that she had been in like trouble about the +anthem. She read in her Prayer Book that in choirs and places where +they sing "here followeth the anthem," yet the person with this most +mysteriously sounding name never did follow. They had a choir, and +no one could say the church was not a place where they sang, for +they did sing--both chants and hymns. Why, then, this persistent +slackness on the part of the anthem, who at this juncture should +follow her papa, the rector, into the reading-desk? No doubt he +would come some day, and then what would he be like? Fair or dark? +Tall or short? Would he be bald and wear spectacles like papa, +would he be young and good-looking? Anyhow, there was something +wrong, for it was announced that he would follow, and he never did +follow; therefore there was no knowing what he might not do next. + +I heard of the parrots a year or two later as giving lessons in +Italian to an English maid. I do not know what their terms were. +Alas! since then both they and their mistress have joined the +majority. When the poor lady felt her end was near she desired (and +the responsibility for this must rest with her, not me) that the +birds might be destroyed, as fearing that they might come to be +neglected, and knowing that they could never be loved again as she +had loved them. On being told that all was over, she said, "Thank +you," and immediately expired. + +Reflecting in such random fashion, and strolling with no greater +method, I worked my way back through Cheapside and found myself once +more in front of Sweeting's window. Again the turtles attracted me. +They were alive, and so far at any rate they agreed with me. Nay, +they had eyes, mouths, legs, if not arms, and feet, so there was +much in which we were both of a mind, but surely they must be +mistaken in arming themselves so very heavily. Any creature on +getting what the turtle aimed at would overreach itself and be +landed not in safety but annihilation. It should have no communion +with the outside world at all, for death could creep in wherever the +creature could creep out; and it must creep out somewhere if it was +to hook on to outside things. What death can be more absolute than +such absolute isolation? Perfect death, indeed, if it were +attainable (which it is not), is as near perfect security as we can +reach, but it is not the kind of security aimed at by any animal +that is at the pains of defending itself. For such want to have +things both ways, desiring the livingness of life without its +perils, and the safety of death without its deadness, and some of us +do actually get this for a considerable time, but we do not get it +by plating ourselves with armour as the turtle does. We tried this +in the Middle Ages, and no longer mock ourselves with the weight of +armour that our forefathers carried in battle. Indeed the more +deadly the weapons of attack become the more we go into the fight +slug-wise. + +Slugs have ridden their contempt for defensive armour as much to +death as the turtles their pursuit of it. They have hardly more +than skin enough to hold themselves together; they court death every +time they cross the road. Yet death comes not to them more than to +the turtle, whose defences are so great that there is little left +inside to be defended. Moreover, the slugs fare best in the long +run, for turtles are dying out, while slugs are not, and there must +be millions of slugs all the world over for every single turtle. Of +the two vanities, therefore, that of the slug seems most +substantial. + +In either case the creature thinks itself safe, but is sure to be +found out sooner or later; nor is it easy to explain this mockery +save by reflecting that everything must have its meat in due season, +and that meat can only be found for such a multitude of mouths by +giving everything as meat in due season to something else. This is +like the Kilkenny cats, or robbing Peter to pay Paul; but it is the +way of the world, and as every animal must contribute in kind to the +picnic of the universe, one does not see what better arrangement +could be made than the providing each race with a hereditary +fallacy, which shall in the end get it into a scrape, but which +shall generally stand the wear and tear of life for some time. "Do +ut des" is the writing on all flesh to him that eats it; and no +creature is dearer to itself than it is to some other that would +devour it. + +Nor is there any statement or proposition more invulnerable than +living forms are. Propositions prey upon and are grounded upon one +another just like living forms. They support one another as plants +and animals do; they are based ultimately on credit, or faith, +rather than the cash of irrefragable conviction. The whole universe +is carried on on the credit system, and if the mutual confidence on +which it is based were to collapse, it must itself collapse +immediately. Just or unjust, it lives by faith; it is based on +vague and impalpable opinion that by some inscrutable process passes +into will and action, and is made manifest in matter and in flesh: +it is meteoric--suspended in mid-air; it is the baseless fabric of a +vision so vast, so vivid, and so gorgeous that no base can seem more +broad than such stupendous baselessness, and yet any man can bring +it about his ears by being over-curious; when faith fails, a system +based on faith fails also. + +Whether the universe is really a paying concern, or whether it is an +inflated bubble that must burst sooner or later, this is another +matter. If people were to demand cash payment in irrefragable +certainty for everything that they have taken hitherto as paper +money on the credit of the bank of public opinion, is there money +enough behind it all to stand so great a drain even on so great a +reserve? Probably there is not, but happily there can be no such +panic, for even though the cultured classes may do so, the +uncultured are too dull to have brains enough to commit such +stupendous folly. It takes a long course of academic training to +educate a man up to the standard which he must reach before he can +entertain such questions seriously, and by a merciful dispensation +of Providence university training is almost as costly as it is +unprofitable. The majority will thus be always unable to afford it, +and will base their opinions on mother wit and current opinion +rather than on demonstration. + +So I turned my steps homewards; I saw a good many more things on my +way home, but I was told that I was not to see more this time than I +could get into twelve pages of the Universal Review; I must +therefore reserve any remark which I think might perhaps entertain +the reader for another occasion. + + + + + +The Aunt, the Nieces, and the Dog {127} + + +When a thing is old, broken, and useless we throw it on the dust- +heap, but when it is sufficiently old, sufficiently broken, and +sufficiently useless we give money for it, put it into a museum, and +read papers over it which people come long distances to hear. By +and by, when the whirligig of time has brought on another revenge, +the museum itself becomes a dust-heap, and remains so till after +long ages it is rediscovered, and valued as belonging to a neo- +rubbish age--containing, perhaps, traces of a still older paleo- +rubbish civilization. So when people are old, indigent, and in all +respects incapable, we hold them in greater and greater contempt as +their poverty and impotence increase, till they reach the pitch when +they are actually at the point to die, whereon they become sublime. +Then we place every resource our hospitals can command at their +disposal, and show no stint in our consideration for them. + +It is the same with all our interests. We care most about extremes +of importance and of unimportance; but extremes of importance are +tainted with fear, and a very imperfect fear casteth out love. +Extremes of unimportance cannot hurt us, therefore we are well +disposed towards them; the means may come to do so, therefore we do +not love them. Hence we pick a fly out of a milk-jug and watch with +pleasure over its recovery, for we are confident that under no +conceivable circumstances will it want to borrow money from us; but +we feel less sure about a mouse, so we show it no quarter. The +compilers of our almanacs well know this tendency of our natures, so +they tell us, not when Noah went into the ark, nor when the temple +of Jerusalem was dedicated, but that Lindley Murray, grammarian, +died January 16th, 1826. This is not because they could not find so +many as three hundred and sixty-five events of considerable interest +since the creation of the world, but because they well know we would +rather hear of something less interesting. We care most about what +concerns us either very closely, or so little that practically we +have nothing whatever to do with it. + +I once asked a young Italian, who professed to have a considerable +knowledge of English literature, which of all our poems pleased him +best. He replied without a moment's hesitation: + +"Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, + The cow jumped over the moon; +The little dog laughed to see such sport, + And the dish ran away with the spoon." + +He said this was better than anything in Italian. They had Dante +and Tasso, and ever so many more great poets, but they had nothing +comparable to "Hey diddle diddle," nor had he been able to conceive +how anyone could have written it. Did I know the author's name, and +had we given him a statue? On this I told him of the young lady of +Harrow who would go to church in a barrow, and plied him with +whatever rhyming nonsense I could call to mind, but it was no use; +all of these things had an element of reality that robbed them of +half their charm, whereas "Hey diddle diddle" had nothing in it that +could conceivably concern him. + +So again it is with the things that gall us most. What is it that +rises up against us at odd times and smites us in the face again and +again for years after it has happened? That we spent all the best +years of our life in learning what we have found to be a swindle, +and to have been known to be a swindle by those who took money for +misleading us? That those on whom we most leaned most betrayed us? +That we have only come to feel our strength when there is little +strength left of any kind to feel? These things will hardly much +disturb a man of ordinary good temper. But that he should have said +this or that little unkind and wanton saying; that he should have +gone away from this or that hotel and given a shilling too little to +the waiter; that his clothes were shabby at such or such a garden- +party--these things gall us _as_ a corn will sometimes do, though +the loss of a limb may not be seriously felt. + +I have been reminded lately of these considerations with more than +common force by reading the very voluminous correspondence left by +my grandfather, Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury, whose memoirs I am +engaged in writing. I have found a large number of interesting +letters on subjects of serious import, but must confess that it is +to the hardly less numerous lighter letters that I have been most +attracted, nor do I feel sure that my eminent namesake did not share +my predilection. Among other letters in my possession I have one +bundle that has been kept apart, and has evidently no connection +with Dr. Butler's own life. I cannot use these letters, therefore, +for my book, but over and above the charm of their inspired +spelling, I find them of such an extremely trivial nature that I +incline to hope the reader may derive as much amusement from them as +I have done myself, and venture to give them the publicity here +which I must refuse them in my book. The dates and signatures have, +with the exception of Mrs. Newton's, been carefully erased, but I +have collected that they were written by the two servants of a +single lady who resided at no great distance from London, to two +nieces of the said lady who lived in London itself. The aunt never +writes, but always gets one of the servants to do so for her. She +appears either as "your aunt" or as "She"; her name is not given, +but she is evidently looked upon with a good deal of awe by all who +had to do with her. + +The letters almost all of them relate to visits either of the aunt +to London, or of the nieces to the aunt's home, which, from +occasional allusions to hopping, I gather to have been in Kent, +Sussex, or Surrey. I have arranged them to the best of my power, +and take the following to be the earliest. It has no signature, but +is not in the handwriting of the servant who styles herself +Elizabeth, or Mrs. Newton. It runs:-- + +"MADAM,--Your Aunt Wishes me to inform you she will be glad if +you will let hir know if you think of coming To hir House thiss +month or Next as she cannot have you in September on a kount of +the Hoping If you ar coming she thinkes she had batter Go to +London on the Day you com to hir House she says you shall have +everry Thing raddy for you at hir House and Mrs. Newton to meet +you and stay with you till She returnes a gann. + +"if you arnot Coming thiss Summer She will be in London before +thiss Month is out and will Sleep on the Sofy As She willnot be +in London more thann two nits. and She Says she willnot truble +you on anny a kount as She Will returne the Same Day before She +will plage you anny more. but She thanks you for asking hir to +London. but She says She cannot leve the house at prassant She +sayhir Survants ar to do for you as she cannot lodge yours nor +she willnot have thim in at the house anny more to brake and +destroy hir thinks and beslive hir and make up Lies by hir and +Skandel as your too did She says she mens to pay fore 2 Nits and +one day, She says the Pepelwill let hir have it if you ask thim +to let hir: you Will be so good as to let hir know sun: wish +She is to do, as She says She dos not care anny thing a bout it. +which way tiss she is batter than She was and desirs hir Love to +bouth bouth. + +"Your aunt wises to know how the silk Clocks ar madup [how the +silk cloaks are made up] with a Cape or a wood as she is a goin +to have one madeup to rideout in in hir littel shas [chaise]. + +"Charles is a butty and so good. + +"Mr & Mrs Newton ar quite wall & desires to be remembered to +you." + +I can throw no light on the meaning of the verb to "beslive." Each +letter in the MS. is so admirably formed that there can be no +question about the word being as I have given it. Nor have I been +able to discover what is referred to by the words "Charles is a +butty and so good." We shall presently meet with a Charles who +"flies in the Fier," but that Charles appears to have been in +London, whereas this one is evidently in Kent, or wherever the aunt +lived. + +The next letter is from Mrs. Newton:-- + +"DER MISS ---, I Receve your Letter your Aunt is vary Ill and +Lowspireted I Donte think your Aunt wood Git up all Day if My +Sister Wasnot to Persage her We all Think hir lif is two +monopolous. you Wish to know Who Was Liveing With your Aunt. +that is My Sister and Willian --- and Cariline --- as Cock and +Old Poll Pepper is Come to Stay With her a Littel Wile and I +hoped [hopped] for Your Aunt, and Harry has Worked for your Aunt +all the Summer. Your Aunt and Harry Whent to the Wells Races and +Spent a very Pleasant Day your Aunt has Lost Old Fanney Sow She +Died about a Week a Go Harry he Wanted your Aunt to have her +killed and send her to London and Shee Wold Fech her 11 pounds +the Farmers have Lost a Great Deal of Cattel such as Hogs and +Cows What theay call the Plage I Whent to your Aunt as you Wish +Mee to Do But She Told Mee She Did not wont aney Boddy She Told +Mee She Should Like to Come up to see you But She Cant Come know +for she is Boddyley ill and Harry Donte Work there know But he Go +up there Once in Two or Three Day Harry Offered is self to Go up +to Live With your Aunt But She Made him know Ancer. I hav Been +up to your Aunt at Work for 5 Weeks Hopping and Ragluting Your +Aunt Donte Eat nor Drink But vary Littel indeed. + +"I am Happy to Say We are Both Quite Well and I am Glad no hear +you are Both Quite Well + +"MRS NEWTON." + +This seems to have made the nieces propose to pay a visit to their +aunt, perhaps to try and relieve the monopoly of her existence and +cheer her up a little. In their letter, doubtless, the dog motive +is introduced that is so finely developed presently by Mrs. Newton. +I should like to have been able to give the theme as enounced by the +nieces themselves, but their letters are not before me. Mrs. Newton +writes:-- + +"MY DEAR GIRLS,--Your Aunt receiv your Letter your Aunt will Be +vary glad to see you as it quite a greeable if it tis to you and +Shee is Quite Willing to Eair the beds and the Rooms if you Like +to Trust to hir and the Servantes; if not I may Go up there as +you Wish. My Sister Sleeps in the Best Room as she allways Did +and the Coock in the garret and you Can have the Rooms the same +as you allways Did as your Aunt Donte set in the Parlour She +Continlery Sets in the Ciching. your Aunt says she Cannot Part +from the dog know hows and She Says he will not hurt you for he +is Like a Child and I can safeley say My Self he wonte hurt you +as She Cannot Sleep in the Room With out him as he allWay Sleep +in the Same Room as She Dose. your Aunt is agreeable to Git in +What Coles and Wood you Wish for I am know happy to say your Aunt +is in as Good health as ever She Was and She is happy to hear you +are Both Well your Aunt Wishes for Ancer By Return of Post." + +The nieces replied that their aunt must choose between the dog and +them, and Mrs. Newton sends a second letter which brings her +development to a climax. It runs:-- + +"DEAR MISS --- I have Receve your Letter and i Whent up to your +Aunt as you Wish me and i Try to Perveal With her about the Dog +But she Wold not Put the Dog away nor it alow him to Be Tied up +But She Still Wishes you to Come as Shee says the Dog Shall not +interrup you for She Donte alow the Dog nor it the Cats to Go in +the Parlour never sence She has had it Donup ferfere of Spoiling +the Paint your Aunt think it vary Strange you Should Be so vary +Much afraid of a Dog and She says you Cant Go out in London But +What you are up a gance one and She says She Wonte Trust the Dog +in know one hands But her Owne for She is afraid theay Will not +fill is Belley as he Lives upon Rost Beeff and Rost and Boil +Moutten Wich he Eats More then the Servantes in the House there +is not aney One Wold Beable to Give Sattefacktion upon that +account Harry offerd to Take the Dog But She Wood not Trust him +in our hands so I Cold not Do aney thing With her your Aunt youse +to Tell Me When we was at your House in London She Did not know +how to make you amens and i Told her know it was the Time to Do +it But i Considder She sets the Dog Before you your Aunt keep +know Beer know Sprits know Wines in the House of aney Sort Oneley +a Little Barl of Wine I made her in the Summer the Workmen and +servantes are a Blige to Drink wauter Morning Noon and Night your +Aunt the Same She Donte Low her Self aney Tee nor Coffee But is +Loocking Wonderful Well + +"I Still Remane your Humble Servant Mrs Newton + +"I am vary sorry to think the Dog Perventes your Comeing + +"I am Glad to hear you are Both Well and we are the same." + +The nieces remained firm, and from the following letter it is plain +the aunt gave way. The dog motive is repeated pianissimo, and is +not returned to--not at least by Mrs. Newton. + +"DEAR MISS ---, I Receve your Letter on Thursday i Whent to your +Aunt and i see her and She is a Greable to everry thing i asked +her and seme so vary Much Please to see you Both Next Tuseday and +she has sent for the Faggots to Day and she Will Send for the +Coles to Morrow and i will Go up there to Morrow Morning and Make +the Fiers and Tend to the Beds and sleep in it Till you Come Down +your Aunt sends her Love to you Both and she is Quite well your +Aunt Wishes you wold Write againe Before you Come as she ma +Expeckye and the Dog is not to Gointo the Parlor a Tall + +"your Aunt kind Love to you Both & hopes you Wonte Fail in Coming +according to Prommis + +"MRS NEWTON." + +From a later letter it appears that the nieces did not pay their +visit after all, and what is worse a letter had miscarried, and the +aunt sat up expecting them from seven till twelve at night, and +Harry had paid for "Faggots and Coles quarter of Hund. Faggots Half +tun of Coles 1l. 1s. 3d." Shortly afterwards, however, "She" again +talks of coming up to London herself and writes through her +servant:-- + +"My Dear girls i Receve your kind letter & I am happy to hear you +ar both Well and I Was in hopes of seeing of you Both Down at My +House this spring to stay a Wile I am Quite well my self in Helth +But vary Low Spireted I am vary sorry to hear the Misforting of +Poor charles & how he cum to flie in the Fier I cannot think. I +should like to know if he is dead or a Live, and I shall come to +London in August & stay three or four daies if it is agreable to +you. Mrs. Newton has lost her mother in Law 4 day March & I hope +you send me word Wather charles is Dead or a Live as soon as +possible, and will you send me word what Little Betty is for I +cannot make her out." + +The next letter is a new handwriting, and tells the nieces of their +aunt's death in the following terms:-- + +"DEAR MISS ---, It is my most painful duty to inform you that +your dear aunt expired this morning comparatively easy as Hannah +informs me and in so doing restored her soul to the custody of +him whom she considered to be alone worthy of its care. + +"The doctor had visited her about five minutes previously and had +applied a blister. + +"You and your sister will I am sure excuse further details at +present and believe me with kindest remembrances to remain + +"Yours truly, &c." + +After a few days a lawyer's letter informs the nieces that their +aunt had left them the bulk of her not very considerable property, +but had charged them with an annuity of 1 pound a week to be paid +to Harry and Mrs. Newton so long as the dog lived. + +The only other letters by Mrs. Newton are written on paper of a +different and more modern size; they leave an impression of having +been written a good many years later. I take them as they come. +The first is very short:-- + +"DEAR MISS ---, i write to say i cannot possiblely come on +Wednesday as we have killed a pig. your's truely, + +"ELIZABETH NEWTON." + +The second runs:-- + +"DEAR MISS ---, i hope you are both quite well in health & your +Leg much better i am happy to say i am getting quite well again i +hope Amandy has reached you safe by this time i sent a small +parcle by Amandy, there was half a dozen Pats of butter & the +Cakes was very homely and not so light as i could wish i hope by +this time Sarah Ann has promised she will stay untill next monday +as i think a few daies longer will not make much diferance and as +her young man has been very considerate to wait so long as he has +i think he would for a few days Longer dear Miss --- I wash for +William and i have not got his clothes yet as it has been delayed +by the carrier & i cannot possiblely get it done before Sunday +and i do not Like traviling on a Sunday but to oblige you i would +come but to come sooner i cannot possiblely but i hope Sarah Ann +will be prevailed on once more as She has so many times i feel +sure if she tells her young man he will have patient for he is a +very kind young man + +"i remain your sincerely + +"ELIZABETH NEWTON." + +The last letter in my collection seems written almost within +measurable distance of the Christmas-card era. The sheet is headed +by a beautifully embossed device of some holly in red and green, +wishing the recipient of the letter a merry Xmas and a happy new +year, while the border is crimped and edged with blue. I know not +what it is, but there is something in the writer's highly finished +style that reminds me of Mendelssohn. It would almost do for the +words of one of his celebrated "Lieder ohne Worte":-- + +"DEAR MISS MARIA,--I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your +kind note with the inclosure for which I return my best thanks. +I need scarcely say how glad I was to know that the volumes +secured your approval, and that the announcement of the +improvement in the condition of your Sister's legs afforded me +infinite pleasure. The gratifying news encouraged me in the hope +that now the nature of the disorder is comprehended her legs +will--notwithstanding the process may be gradual--ultimately get +quite well. The pretty Robin Redbreast which lay ensconced in +your epistle, conveyed to me, in terms more eloquent than words, +how much you desired me those Compliments which the little +missive he bore in his bill expressed; the emblem is sweetly +pretty, and now that we are again allowed to felicitate each +other on another recurrence of the season of the Christian's +rejoicing, permit me to tender to yourself, and by you to your +Sister, mine and my Wife's heartfelt congratulations and warmest +wishes with respect to the coming year. It is a common belief +that if we take a retrospective view of each departing year, as +it behoves us annually to do, we shall find the blessings which +we have received to immeasurably outnumber our causes of sorrow. +Speaking for myself I can fully subscribe to that sentiment, and +doubtless neither Miss --- nor yourself are exceptions. Miss --- +'s illness and consequent confinement to the house has been a +severe trial, but in that trouble an opportunity was afforded you +to prove a Sister's devotion and she has been enabled to realise +a larger (if possible) display of sisterly affection. + +"A happy Christmas to you both, and may the new year prove a +Cornucopia from which still greater blessings than even those we +have hitherto received, shall issue, to benefit us all by +contributing to our temporal happiness and, what is of higher +importance, conducing to our felicity hereafter. + +"I was sorry to hear that you were so annoyed with mice and rats, +and if I should have an opportunity to obtain a nice cat I will +do so and send my boy to your house with it. + +"I remain, + +"Yours truly." + +How little what is commonly called education can do after all +towards the formation of a good style, and what a delightful volume +might not be entitled "Half Hours with the Worst Authors." Why, the +finest word I know of in the English language was coined, not by my +poor old grandfather, whose education had left little to desire, nor +by any of the admirable scholars whom he in his turn educated, but +by an old matron who presided over one of the halls, or houses of +his school. This good lady, whose name by the way was Bromfield, +had a fine high temper of her own, or thought it politic to affect +one. One night when the boys were particularly noisy she burst like +a hurricane into the hall, collared a youngster, and told him he was +the "rampingest-scampingest-rackety-tackety-tow-row-roaringest boy +in the whole school." Would Mrs. Newton have been able to set the +aunt and the dog before us so vividly if she had been more highly +educated? Would Mrs. Bromfield have been able to forge and hurl her +thunderbolt of a word if she had been taught how to do so, or indeed +been at much pains to create it at all? It came. It was her +[Greek]. She did not probably know that she had done what the +greatest scholar would have had to rack his brains over for many an +hour before he could even approach. Tradition says that having +brought down her boy she looked round the hall in triumph, and then +after a moment's lull said, "Young gentlemen, prayers are excused," +and left them. + +I have sometimes thought that, after all, the main use of a +classical education consists in the check it gives to originality, +and the way in which it prevents an inconvenient number of people +from using their own eyes. That we will not be at the trouble of +looking at things for ourselves if we can get anyone to tell us what +we ought to see goes without saying, and it is the business of +schools and universities to assist us in this respect. The theory +of evolution teaches that any power not worked at pretty high +pressure will deteriorate: originality and freedom from affectation +are all very well in their way, but we can easily have too much of +them, and it is better that none should be either original or free +from cant but those who insist on being so, no matter what +hindrances obstruct, nor what incentives are offered them to see +things through the regulation medium. To insist on seeing things +for oneself is to be an [Greek], or in plain English, an idiot; nor +do I see any safer check against general vigour and clearness of +thought, with consequent terseness of expression, than that provided +by the curricula of our universities and schools of public +instruction. If a young man, in spite of every effort to fit him +with blinkers, will insist on getting rid of them, he must do so at +his own risk. He will not be long in finding out his mistake. Our +public schools and universities play the beneficent part in our +social scheme that cattle do in forests: they browse the seedlings +down and prevent the growth of all but the luckiest and sturdiest. +Of course, if there are too many either cattle or schools, they +browse so effectually that they find no more food, and starve till +equilibrium is restored; but it seems to be a provision of nature +that there should always be these alternate periods, during which +either the cattle or the trees are getting the best of it; and, +indeed, without such provision we should have neither the one nor +the other. At this moment the cattle, doubtless, are in the +ascendant, and if university extension proceeds much farther, we +shall assuredly have no more Mrs. Newtons and Mrs. Bromfields; but +whatever is is best, and, on the whole, I should propose to let +things find pretty much their own level. + +However this may be, who can question that the treasures hidden in +many a country house contain sleeping beauties even fairer than +those that I have endeavoured to waken from long sleep in the +foregoing article? How many Mrs. Quicklys are there not living in +London at this present moment? For that Mrs. Quickly was an +invention of Shakespeare's I will not believe. The old woman from +whom he drew said every word that he put into Mrs. Quickly's mouth, +and a great deal more which he did not and perhaps could not make +use of. This question, however, would again lead me far from my +subject, which I should mar were I to dwell upon it longer, and +therefore leave with the hope that it may give my readers absolutely +no food whatever for reflection. + + + + +How to Make the Best of Life {142} + + +I have been asked to speak on the question how to make the best of +life, but may as well confess at once that I know nothing about it. +I cannot think that I have made the best of my own life, nor is it +likely that I shall make much better of what may or may not remain +to me. I do not even know how to make the best of the twenty +minutes that your committee has placed at my disposal, and as for +life as a whole, who ever yet made the best of such a colossal +opportunity by conscious effort and deliberation? In little things +no doubt deliberate and conscious effort will help us, but we are +speaking of large issues, and such kingdoms of heaven as the making +the best of these come not by observation. + +The question, therefore, on which I have undertaken to address you +is, as you must all know, fatuous, if it be faced seriously. Life +is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument +as one goes on. One cannot make the best of such impossibilities, +and the question is doubly fatuous until we are told which of our +two lives--the conscious or the unconscious--is held by the asker to +be the truer life. Which does the question contemplate--the life we +know, or the life which others may know, but which we know not? + +Death gives a life to some men and women compared with which their +so-called existence here is as nothing. Which is the truer life of +Shakespeare, Handel, that divine woman who wrote the Odyssey, and of +Jane Austen--the life which palpitated with sensible warm motion +within their own bodies, or that in virtue of which they are still +palpitating in ours? In whose consciousness does their truest life +consist--their own, or ours? Can Shakespeare be said to have begun +his true life till a hundred years or so after he was dead and +buried? His physical life was but as an embryonic stage, a coming +up out of darkness, a twilight and dawn before the sunrise of that +life of the world to come which he was to enjoy hereafter. We all +live for a while after we are gone hence, but we are for the most +part stillborn, or at any rate die in infancy, as regards that life +which every age and country has recognized as higher and truer than +the one of which we are now sentient. As the life of the race is +larger, longer, and in all respects more to be considered than that +of the individual, so is the life we live in others larger and more +important than the one we live in ourselves. This appears nowhere +perhaps more plainly than in the case of great teachers, who often +in the lives of their pupils produce an effect that reaches far +beyond anything produced while their single lives were yet +unsupplemented by those other lives into which they infused their +own. + +Death to such people is the ending of a short life, but it does not +touch the life they are already living in those whom they have +taught; and happily, as none can know when he shall die, so none can +make sure that he too shall not live long beyond the grave; for the +life after death is like money before it--no one can be sure that it +may not fall to him or her even at the eleventh hour. Money and +immortality come in such odd unaccountable ways that no one is cut +off from hope. We may not have made either of them for ourselves, +but yet another may give them to us in virtue of his or her love, +which shall illumine us for ever, and establish us in some heavenly +mansion whereof we neither dreamed nor shall ever dream. Look at +the Doge Loredano Loredani, the old man's smile upon whose face has +been reproduced so faithfully in so many lands that it can never +henceforth be forgotten--would he have had one hundredth part of the +life he now lives had he not been linked awhile with one of those +heaven-sent men who know che cosa e amor? Look at Rembrandt's old +woman in our National Gallery; had she died before she was eighty- +three years old she would not have been living now. Then, when she +was eighty-three, immortality perched upon her as a bird on a +withered bough. + +I seem to hear someone say that this is a mockery, a piece of +special pleading, a giving of stones to those that ask for bread. +Life is not life unless we can feel it, and a life limited to a +knowledge of such fraction of our work as may happen to survive us +is no true life in other people; salve it as we may, death is not +life any more than black is white. + +The objection is not so true as it sounds. I do not deny that we +had rather not die, nor do I pretend that much even in the case of +the most favoured few can survive them beyond the grave. It is only +because this is so that our own life is possible; others have made +room for us, and we should make room for others in our turn without +undue repining. What I maintain is that a not inconsiderable number +of people do actually attain to a life beyond the grave which we can +all feel forcibly enough, whether they can do so or not--that this +life tends with increasing civilization to become more and more +potent, and that it is better worth considering, in spite of its +being unfelt by ourselves, than any which we have felt or can ever +feel in our own persons. + +Take an extreme case. A group of people are photographed by +Edison's new process--say Titiens, Trebelli, and Jenny Lind, with +any two of the finest men singers the age has known--let them be +photographed incessantly for half an hour while they perform a scene +in Lohengrin; let all be done stereoscopically. Let them be +phonographed at the same time so that their minutest shades of +intonation are preserved, let the slides be coloured by a competent +artist, and then let the scene be called suddenly into sight and +sound, say a hundred years hence. Are those people dead or alive? +Dead to themselves they are, but while they live so powerfully and +so livingly in us, which is the greater paradox--to say that they +are alive or that they are dead? To myself it seems that their life +in others would be more truly life than their death to themselves is +death. Granted that they do not present all the phenomena of life-- +who ever does so even when he is held to be alive? We are held to +be alive because we present a sufficient number of living phenomena +to let the others go without saying; those who see us take the part +for the whole here as in everything else, and surely, in the case +supposed above, the phenomena of life predominate so powerfully over +those of death, that the people themselves must be held to be more +alive than dead. Our living personality is, as the word implies, +only our mask, and those who still own such a mask as I have +supposed have a living personality. Granted again that the case +just put is an extreme one; still many a man and many a woman has so +stamped him or herself on his work that, though we would gladly have +the aid of such accessories as we doubtless presently shall have to +the livingness of our great dead, we can see them very sufficiently +through the masterpieces they have left us. + +As for their own unconsciousness I do not deny it. The life of the +embryo was unconscious before birth, and so is the life--I am +speaking only of the life revealed to us by natural religion--after +death. But as the embryonic and infant life of which we were +unconscious was the most potent factor in our after life of +consciousness, so the effect which we may unconsciously produce in +others after death, and it may be even before it on those who have +never seen us, is in all sober seriousness our truer and more +abiding life, and the one which those who would make the best of +their sojourn here will take most into their consideration. + +Unconsciousness is no bar to livingness. Our conscious actions are +a drop in the sea as compared with our unconscious ones. Could we +know all the life that is in us by way of circulation, nutrition, +breathing, waste and repair, we should learn what an infinitesimally +small part consciousness plays in our present existence; yet our +unconscious life is as truly life as our conscious life, and though +it is unconscious to itself it emerges into an indirect and +vicarious consciousness in our other and conscious self, which +exists but in virtue of our unconscious self. So we have also a +vicarious consciousness in others. The unconscious life of those +that have gone before us has in great part moulded us into such men +and women as we are, and our own unconscious lives will in like +manner have a vicarious consciousness in others, though we be dead +enough to it in ourselves. + +If it is again urged that it matters not to us how much we may be +alive in others, if we are to know nothing about it, I reply that +the common instinct of all who are worth considering gives the lie +to such cynicism. I see here present some who have achieved, and +others who no doubt will achieve, success in literature. Will one +of them hesitate to admit that it is a lively pleasure to her to +feel that on the other side of the world someone may be smiling +happily over her work, and that she is thus living in that person +though she knows nothing about it? Here it seems to me that true +faith comes in. Faith does not consist, as the Sunday School pupil +said, "in the power of believing that which we know to be untrue." +It consists in holding fast that which the healthiest and most +kindly instincts of the best and most sensible men and women are +intuitively possessed of, without caring to require much evidence +further than the fact that such people are so convinced; and for my +own part I find the best men and women I know unanimous in feeling +that life in others, even though we know nothing about it, is +nevertheless a thing to be desired and gratefully accepted if we can +get it either before death or after. I observe also that a large +number of men and women do actually attain to such life, and in some +cases continue so to live, if not for ever, yet to what is +practically much the same thing. Our life then in this world is, to +natural religion as much as to revealed, a period of probation. The +use we make of it is to settle how far we are to enter into another, +and whether that other is to be a heaven of just affection or a hell +of righteous condemnation. + +Who, then, are the most likely so to run that they may obtain this +veritable prize of our high calling? Setting aside such lucky +numbers, drawn as it were in the lottery of immortality, which I +have referred to casually above, and setting aside also the chances +and changes from which even immortality is not exempt, who on the +whole are most likely to live anew in the affectionate thoughts of +those who never so much as saw them in the flesh, and know not even +their names? There is a nisus, a straining in the dull dumb economy +of things, in virtue of which some, whether they will it and know it +or no, are more likely to live after death than others, and who are +these? Those who aimed at it as by some great thing that they would +do to make them famous? Those who have lived most in themselves and +for themselves, or those who have been most ensouled consciously, +but perhaps better unconsciously, directly but more often +indirectly, by the most living souls past and present that have +flitted near them? Can we think of a man or woman who grips us +firmly, at the thought of whom we kindle when we are alone in our +honest daw's plumes, with none to admire or shrug his shoulders, can +we think of one such, the secret of whose power does not lie in the +charm of his or her personality--that is to say, in the wideness of +his or her sympathy with, and therefore life in and communion with +other people? In the wreckage that comes ashore from the sea of +time there is much tinsel stuff that we must preserve and study if +we would know our own times and people; granted that many a dead +charlatan lives long and enters largely and necessarily into our own +lives; we use them and throw them away when we have done with them. +I do not speak of these, I do not speak of the Virgils and Alexander +Popes, and who can say how many more whose names I dare not mention +for fear of offending. They are as stuffed birds or beasts in a +museum; serviceable no doubt from a scientific standpoint, but with +no vivid or vivifying hold upon us. They seem to be alive, but are +not. I am speaking of those who do actually live in us, and move us +to higher achievements though they be long dead, whose life thrusts +out our own and overrides it. I speak of those who draw us ever +more towards them from youth to age, and to think of whom is to feel +at once that we are in the hands of those we love, and whom we would +most wish to resemble. What is the secret of the hold that these +people have upon us? Is it not that while, conventionally speaking, +alive, they most merged their lives in, and were in fullest +communion with those among whom they lived? They found their lives +in losing them. We never love the memory of anyone unless we feel +that he or she was himself or herself a lover. + +I have seen it urged, again, in querulous accents, that the so- +called immortality even of the most immortal is not for ever. I see +a passage to this effect in a book that is making a stir as I write. +I will quote it. The writer says:-- + +"So, it seems to me, is the immortality we so glibly predicate of +departed artists. If they survive at all, it is but a shadowy +life they live, moving on through the gradations of slow decay to +distant but inevitable death. They can no longer, as heretofore, +speak directly to the hearts of their fellow-men, evoking their +tears or laughter, and all the pleasures, be they sad or merry, +of which imagination holds the secret. Driven from the market- +place they become first the companions of the student, then the +victims of the specialist. He who would still hold familiar +intercourse with them must train himself to penetrate the veil +which in ever-thickening folds conceals them from the ordinary +gaze; he must catch the tone of a vanished society, he must move +in a circle of alien associations, he must think in a language +not his own." {150} + +This is crying for the moon, or rather pretending to cry for it, for +the writer is obviously insincere. I see the Saturday Review says +the passage I have just quoted "reaches almost to poetry," and +indeed I find many blank verses in it, some of them very aggressive. +No prose is free from an occasional blank verse, and a good writer +will not go hunting over his work to rout them out, but nine or ten +in little more than as many lines is indeed reaching too near to +poetry for good prose. This, however, is a trifle, and might pass +if the tone of the writer was not so obviously that of cheap +pessimism. I know not which is cheapest, pessimism or optimism. +One forces lights, the other darks; both are equally untrue to good +art, and equally sure of their effect with the groundlings. The one +extenuates, the other sets down in malice. The first is the more +amiable lie, but both are lies, and are known to be so by those who +utter them. Talk about catching the tone of a vanished society to +understand Rembrandt or Giovanni Bellini! It is nonsense--the folds +do not thicken in front of these men; we understand them as well as +those among whom they went about in the flesh, and perhaps better. +Homer and Shakespeare speak to us probably far more effectually than +they did to the men of their own time, and most likely we have them +at their best. I cannot think that Shakespeare talked better than +we hear him now in Hamlet or Henry the Fourth; like enough he would +have been found a very disappointing person in a drawing-room. +People stamp themselves on their work; if they have not done so they +are naught, if they have we have them; and for the most part they +stamp themselves deeper on their work than on their talk. No doubt +Shakespeare and Handel will be one day clean forgotten, as though +they had never been born. The world will in the end die; mortality +therefore itself is not immortal, and when death dies the life of +these men will die with it--but not sooner. It is enough that they +should live within us and move us for many ages as they have and +will. Such immortality, therefore, as some men and women are born +to achieve, or have thrust upon them, is a practical if not a +technical immortality, and he who would have more let him have +nothing. + +I see I have drifted into speaking rather of how to make the best of +death than of life, but who can speak of life without his thoughts +turning instantly to that which is beyond it? He or she who has +made the best of the life after death has made the best of the life +before it; who cares one straw for any such chances and changes as +will commonly befall him here if he is upheld by the full and +certain hope of everlasting life in the affections of those that +shall come after? If the life after death is happy in the hearts of +others, it matters little how unhappy was the life before it. + +And now I leave my subject, not without misgiving that I shall have +disappointed you. But for the great attention which is being paid +to the work from which I have quoted above, I should not have +thought it well to insist on points with which you are, I doubt not, +as fully impressed as I am: but that book weakens the sanctions of +natural religion, and minimizes the comfort which it affords us, +while it does more to undermine than to support the foundations of +what is commonly called belief. Therefore I was glad to embrace +this opportunity of protesting. Otherwise I should not have been so +serious on a matter that transcends all seriousness. Lord +Beaconsfield cut it shorter with more effect. When asked to give a +rule of life for the son of a friend he said, "Do not let him try +and find out who wrote the letters of Junius." Pressed for further +counsel, he added, "Nor yet who was the man in the iron mask"--and +he would say no more. Don't bore people. And yet I am by no means +sure that a good many people do not think themselves ill-used unless +he who addresses them has thoroughly well bored them--especially if +they have paid any money for hearing him. My great namesake said, +"Surely the pleasure is as great of being cheated as to cheat," and +great as the pleasure both of cheating and boring undoubtedly is, I +believe he was right. So I remember a poem which came out some +thirty years ago in Punch, about a young lady who went forth in +quest to "Some burden make or burden bear, but which she did not +greatly care, oh Miserie." So, again, all the holy men and women +who in the Middle Ages professed to have discovered how to make the +best of life took care that being bored, if not cheated, should have +a large place in their programme. Still there are limits, and I +close not without fear that I may have exceeded them. + + + + + +The Sanctuary of Montrigone {153a} + + +The only place in the Valsesia, except Varallo, where I at present +suspect the presence of Tabachetti {153b} is at Montrigone, a +little-known sanctuary dedicated to St. Anne, about three-quarters +of a mile south of Borgo-Sesia station. The situation is, of +course, lovely, but the sanctuary does not offer any features of +architectural interest. The sacristan told me it was founded in +1631; and in 1644 Giovanni d'Enrico, while engaged in superintending +and completing the work undertaken here by himself and Giacomo +Ferro, fell ill and died. I do not know whether or no there was an +earlier sanctuary on the same site, but was told it was built on the +demolition of a stronghold belonging to the Counts of Biandrate. + +The incidents which it illustrates are treated with even more than +the homeliness usual in works of this description when not dealing +with such solemn events as the death and passion of Christ. Except +when these subjects were being represented, something of the +latitude, and even humour, allowed in the old mystery plays was +permitted, doubtless from a desire to render the work more +attractive to the peasants, who were the most numerous and most +important pilgrims. It is not until faith begins to be weak that it +fears an occasionally lighter treatment of semi-sacred subjects, and +it is impossible to convey an accurate idea of the spirit prevailing +at this hamlet of sanctuary without attuning oneself somewhat to the +more pagan character of the place. Of irreverence, in the sense of +a desire to laugh at things that are of high and serious import, +there is not a trace, but at the same time there is a certain +unbending of the bow at Montrigone which is not perceivable at +Varallo. + +The first chapel to the left on entering the church is that of the +Birth of the Virgin. St. Anne is sitting up in bed. She is not at +all ill--in fact, considering that the Virgin has only been born +about five minutes, she is wonderful; still the doctors think it may +be perhaps better that she should keep her room for half an hour +longer, so the bed has been festooned with red and white paper +roses, and the counterpane is covered with bouquets in baskets and +in vases of glass and china. These cannot have been there during +the actual birth of the Virgin, so I suppose they had been in +readiness, and were brought in from an adjoining room as soon as the +baby had been born. A lady on her left is bringing in some more +flowers, which St. Anne is receiving with a smile and most gracious +gesture of the hands. The first thing she asked for, when the birth +was over, was for her three silver hearts. These were immediately +brought to her, and she has got them all on, tied round her neck +with a piece of blue silk ribbon. + +Dear mamma has come. We felt sure she would, and that any little +misunderstandings between her and Joachim would ere long be +forgotten and forgiven. They are both so good and sensible, if they +would only understand one another. At any rate, here she is, in +high state at the right hand of the bed. She is dressed in black, +for she has lost her husband some few years previously, but I do not +believe a smarter, sprier old lady for her years could be found in +Palestine, nor yet that either Giovanni d'Enrico or Giacomo Ferro +could have conceived or executed such a character. The sacristan +wanted to have it that she was not a woman at all, but was a +portrait of St. Joachim, the Virgin's father. "Sembra una donna," +he pleaded more than once, "ma non e donna." Surely, however, in +works of art even more than in other things, there is no "is" but +seeming, and if a figure seems female it must be taken as such. +Besides, I asked one of the leading doctors at Varallo whether the +figure was man or woman. He said it was evident I was not married, +for that if I had been I should have seen at once that she was not +only a woman but a mother-in-law of the first magnitude, or, as he +called it, "una suocera tremenda," and this without knowing that I +wanted her to be a mother-in-law myself. Unfortunately she had no +real drapery, so I could not settle the question as my friend Mr. H. +F. Jones and I had been able to do at Varallo with the figure of Eve +that had been turned into a Roman soldier assisting at the capture +of Christ. I am not, however, disposed to waste more time upon +anything so obvious, and will content myself with saying that we +have here the Virgin's grandmother. I had never had the pleasure, +so far as I remembered, of meeting this lady before, and was glad to +have an opportunity of making her acquaintance. + +Tradition says that it was she who chose the Virgin's name, and if +so, what a debt of gratitude do we not owe her for her judicious +selection! It makes one shudder to think what might have happened +if she had named the child Keren-Happuch, as poor Job's daughter was +called. How could we have said, "Ave Keren-Happuch!" What would +the musicians have done? I forget whether Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz was +a man or a woman, but there were plenty of names quite as +unmanageable at the Virgin's grandmother's option, and we cannot +sufficiently thank her for having chosen one that is so euphonious +in every language which we need take into account. For this reason +alone we should not grudge her her portrait, but we should try to +draw the line here. I do not think we ought to give the Virgin's +great-grandmother a statue. Where is it to end? It is like Mr. +Crookes's ultimissimate atoms; we used to draw the line at ultimate +atoms, and now it seems we are to go a step farther back and have +ultimissimate atoms. How long, I wonder, will it be before we feel +that it will be a material help to us to have ultimissimissimate +atoms? Quavers stopped at demi-semi-demi, but there is no reason to +suppose that either atoms or ancestresses of the Virgin will be so +complacent. + +I have said that on St. Anne's left hand there is a lady who is +bringing in some flowers. St. Anne was always passionately fond of +flowers. There is a pretty story told about her in one of the +Fathers, I forget which, to the effect that when a child she was +asked which she liked best--cakes or flowers? She could not yet +speak plainly and lisped out, "Oh fowses, pretty fowses"; she added, +however, with a sigh and as a kind of wistful corollary, "but cakes +are very nice." She is not to have any cakes just now, but as soon +as she has done thanking the lady for her beautiful nosegay, she is +to have a couple of nice new-laid eggs, that are being brought her +by another lady. Valsesian women immediately after their +confinement always have eggs beaten up with wine and sugar, and one +can tell a Valsesian Birth of the Virgin from a Venetian or a +Florentine by the presence of the eggs. I learned this from an +eminent Valsesian professor of medicine, who told me that, though +not according to received rules, the eggs never seemed to do any +harm. Here they are evidently to be beaten up, for there is neither +spoon nor egg-cup, and we cannot suppose that they were hard-boiled. +On the other hand, in the Middle Ages Italians never used egg-cups +and spoons for boiled eggs. The medieval boiled egg was always +eaten by dipping bread into the yolk. + +Behind the lady who is bringing in the eggs is the under-under-nurse +who is at the fire warming a towel. In the foreground we have the +regulation midwife holding the regulation baby (who, by the way, was +an astonishingly fine child for only five minutes old). Then comes +the under-nurse--a good buxom creature, who, as usual, is feeling +the water in the bath to see that it is of the right temperature. +Next to her is the head-nurse, who is arranging the cradle. Behind +the head-nurse is the under-under-nurse's drudge, who is just going +out upon some errands. Lastly--for by this time we have got all +round the chapel--we arrive at the Virgin's grandmother's body- +guard, a stately, responsible-looking lady, standing in waiting upon +her mistress. I put it to the reader--is it conceivable that St. +Joachim should have been allowed in such a room at such a time, or +that he should have had the courage to avail himself of the +permission, even though it had been extended to him? At any rate, +is it conceivable that he should have been allowed to sit on St. +Anne's right hand, laying down the law with a "Marry, come up" here, +and a "Marry, go down" there, and a couple of such unabashed collars +as the old lady has put on for the occasion? + +Moreover (for I may as well demolish this mischievous confusion +between St. Joachim and his mother-in-law once and for all), the +merest tyro in hagiology knows that St. Joachim was not at home when +the Virgin was born. He had been hustled out of the temple for +having no children, and had fled desolate and dismayed into the +wilderness. It shows how silly people are, for all the time he was +going, if they had only waited a little, to be the father of the +most remarkable person of purely human origin who had ever been +born, and such a parent as this should surely not be hurried. The +story is told in the frescoes of the chapel of Loreto, only a +quarter of an hour's walk from Varallo, and no one can have known it +better than D'Enrico. The frescoes are explained by written +passages that tell us how, when Joachim was in the desert, an angel +came to him in the guise of a fair, civil young gentleman, and told +him the Virgin was to be born. Then, later on, the same young +gentleman appeared to him again, and bade him "in God's name be +comforted, and turn again to his content," for the Virgin had been +actually born. On which St. Joachim, who seems to have been of +opinion that marriage after all _was_ rather a failure, said that, +as things were going on so nicely without him, he would stay in the +desert just a little longer, and offered up a lamb as a pretext to +gain time. Perhaps he guessed about his mother-in-law, or he may +have asked the angel. Of course, even in spite of such evidence as +this, I may be mistaken about the Virgin's grandmother's sex, and +the sacristan may be right; but I can only say that if the lady +sitting by St. Anne's bedside at Montrigone is the Virgin's father-- +well, in that case I must reconsider a good deal that I have been +accustomed to believe was beyond question. + +Taken singly, I suppose that none of the figures in the chapel, +except the Virgin's grandmother, should be rated very highly. The +under-nurse is the next best figure, and might very well be +Tabachetti's, for neither Giovanni d'Enrico nor Giacomo Ferro was +successful with his female characters. There is not a single really +comfortable woman in any chapel by either of them on the Sacro Monte +at Varallo. Tabachetti, on the other hand, delighted in women; if +they were young he made them comely and engaging, if they were old +he gave them dignity and individual character, and the under-nurse +is much more in accordance with Tabachetti's habitual mental +attitude than with D'Enrico's or Giacomo Ferro's. Still there are +only four figures out of the eleven that are mere otiose supers, and +taking the work as a whole it leaves a pleasant impression as being +throughout naive and homely, and sometimes, which is of less +importance, technically excellent. + +Allowance must, of course, be made for tawdry accessories and +repeated coats of shiny oleaginous paint--very disagreeable where it +has peeled off and almost more so where it has not. What work could +stand against such treatment as the Valsesian terra-cotta figures +have had to put up with? Take the Venus of Milo; let her be done in +terra-cotta, and have run, not much, but still something, in the +baking; paint her pink, two oils, all over, and then varnish her--it +will help to preserve the paint; glue a lot of horsehair on to her +pate, half of which shall have come off, leaving the glue still +showing; scrape her, not too thoroughly, get the village drawing- +master to paint her again, and the drawing-master in the next +provincial town to put a forest background behind her with the +brightest emerald-green leaves that he can do for the money; let +this painting and scraping and repainting be repeated several times +over; festoon her with pink and white flowers made of tissue paper; +surround her with the cheapest German imitations of the cheapest +decorations that Birmingham can produce; let the night air and +winter fogs get at her for three hundred years, and how easy, I +wonder, will it be to see the goddess who will be still in great +part there? True, in the case of the Birth of the Virgin chapel at +Montrigone, there is no real hair and no fresco background, but time +has had abundant opportunities without these. I will conclude my +notice of this chapel by saying that on the left, above the door +through which the under-under-nurse's drudge is about to pass, there +is a good painted terra-cotta bust, said--but I believe on no +authority--to be a portrait of Giovanni d'Enrico. Others say that +the Virgin's grandmother is Giovanni d'Enrico, but this is even more +absurd than supposing her to be St. Joachim. + +The next chapel to the Birth of the Virgin is that of the +Sposalizio. There is no figure here which suggests Tabachetti, but +still there are some very good ones. The best have no taint of +barocco; the man who did them, whoever he may have been, had +evidently a good deal of life and go, was taking reasonable pains, +and did not know too much. Where this is the case no work can fail +to please. Some of the figures have real hair and some terra-cotta. +There is no fresco background worth mentioning. A man sitting on +the steps of the altar with a book on his lap, and holding up his +hand to another, who is leaning over him and talking to him, is +among the best figures; some of the disappointed suitors who are +breaking their wands are also very good. + +The angel in the Annunciation chapel, which comes next in order, is +a fine, burly, ship's-figurehead, commercial-hotel sort of being +enough, but the Virgin is very ordinary. There is no real hair and +no fresco background, only three dingy old blistered pictures of no +interest whatever. + +In the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth there are three pleasing +subordinate lady attendants, two to the left and one to the right of +the principal figures; but these figures themselves are not +satisfactory. There is no fresco background. Some of the figures +have real hair and some terra-cotta. + +In the Circumcision and Purification chapel--for both these events +seem contemplated in the one that follows--there are doves, but +there is neither dog nor knife. Still Simeon, who has the infant +Saviour in his arms, is looking at him in a way which can only mean +that, knife or no knife, the matter is not going to end here. At +Varallo they have now got a dreadful knife for the Circumcision +chapel. They had none last winter. What they have now got would do +very well to kill a bullock with, but could not be used +professionally with safety for any animal smaller than a rhinoceros. +I imagine that someone was sent to Novara to buy a knife, and that, +thinking it was for the Massacre of the Innocents chapel, he got the +biggest he could see. Then when he brought it back people said +"chow" several times, and put it upon the table and went away. + +Returning to Montrigone, the Simeon is an excellent figure, and the +Virgin is fairly good, but the prophetess Anna, who stands just +behind her, is by far the most interesting in the group, and is +alone enough to make me feel sure that Tabachetti gave more or less +help here, as he had done years before at Orta. She, too, like the +Virgin's grandmother, is a widow lady, and wears collars of a cut +that seems to have prevailed ever since the Virgin was born some +twenty years previously. There is a largeness and simplicity of +treatment about the figure to which none but an artist of the +highest rank can reach, and D'Enrico was not more than a second or +third-rate man. The hood is like Handel's Truth sailing upon the +broad wings of Time, a prophetic strain that nothing but the old +experience of a great poet can reach. The lips of the prophetess +are for the moment closed, but she has been prophesying all the +morning, and the people round the wall in the background are in +ecstasies at the lucidity with which she has explained all sorts of +difficulties that they had never been able to understand till now. +They are putting their forefingers on their thumbs and their thumbs +on their forefingers, and saying how clearly they see it all and +what a wonderful woman Anna is. A prophet indeed is not generally +without honour save in his own country, but then a country is +generally not without honour save with its own prophet, and Anna has +been glorifying her country rather than reviling it. Besides, the +rule may not have applied to prophetesses. + +The Death of the Virgin is the last of the six chapels inside the +church itself. The Apostles, who of course are present, have all of +them real hair, but, if I may say so, they want a wash and a brush- +up so very badly that I cannot feel any confidence in writing about +them. I should say that, take them all round, they are a good +average sample of apostle as apostles generally go. Two or three of +them are nervously anxious to find appropriate quotations in books +that lie open before them, which they are searching with eager +haste; but I do not see one figure about which I should like to say +positively that it is either good or bad. There is a good bust of a +man, matching the one in the Birth of the Virgin chapel, which is +said to be a portrait of Giovanni d'Enrico, but it is not known whom +it represents. + +Outside the church, in three contiguous cells that form part of the +foundations, are:-- + +1. A dead Christ, the head of which is very impressive, while the +rest of the figure is poor. I examined the treatment of the hair, +which is terra-cotta, and compared it with all other like hair in +the chapels above described; I could find nothing like it, and think +it most likely that Giacomo Ferro did the figure, and got Tabachetti +to do the head, or that they brought the head from some unused +figure by Tabachetti at Varallo, for I know no other artist of the +time and neighbourhood who could have done it. + +2. A Magdalene in the desert. The desert is a little coal-cellar +of an arch, containing a skull and a profusion of pink and white +paper bouquets, the two largest of which the Magdalene is hugging +while she is saying her prayers. She is a very self-sufficient +lady, who we may be sure will not stay in the desert a day longer +than she can help, and while there will flirt even with the skull if +she can find nothing better to flirt with. I cannot think that her +repentance is as yet genuine, and as for her praying there is no +object in her doing so, for she does not want anything. + +3. In the next desert there is a very beautiful figure of St. John +the Baptist kneeling and looking upwards. This figure puzzles me +more than any other at Montrigone; it appears to be of the fifteenth +rather than the sixteenth century; it hardly reminds me of +Gaudenzio, and still less of any other Valsesian artist. It is a +work of unusual beauty, but I can form no idea as to its authorship. + +I wrote the foregoing pages in the church at Montrigone itself, +having brought my camp-stool with me. It was Sunday; the church was +open all day, but there was no Mass said, and hardly anyone came. +The sacristan was a kind, gentle, little old man, who let me do +whatever I wanted. He sat on the doorstep of the main door, mending +vestments, and to this end was cutting up a fine piece of figured +silk from one to two hundred years old, which, if I could have got +it, for half its value, I should much like to have bought. I sat in +the cool of the church while he sat in the doorway, which was still +in shadow, snipping and snipping, and then sewing, I am sure with +admirable neatness. He made a charming picture, with the arched +portico over his head, the green grass and low church wall behind +him, and then a lovely landscape of wood and pasture and valleys and +hillside. Every now and then he would come and chirrup about +Joachim, for he was pained and shocked at my having said that his +Joachim was someone else and not Joachim at all. I said I was very +sorry, but I was afraid the figure was a woman. He asked me what he +was to do. He had known it, man and boy, this sixty years, and had +always shown it as St. Joachim; he had never heard anyone but myself +question his ascription, and could not suddenly change his mind +about it at the bidding of a stranger. At the same time he felt it +was a very serious thing to continue showing it as the Virgin's +father if it was really her grandmother. I told him I thought this +was a case for his spiritual director, and that if he felt +uncomfortable about it he should consult his parish priest and do as +he was told. + +On leaving Montrigone, with a pleasant sense of having made +acquaintance with a new and, in many respects, interesting work, I +could not get the sacristan and our difference of opinion out of my +head. What, I asked myself, are the differences that unhappily +divide Christendom, and what are those that divide Christendom from +modern schools of thought, but a seeing of Joachims as the Virgin's +grandmothers on a larger scale? True, we cannot call figures +Joachim when we know perfectly well that they are nothing of the +kind; but I registered a vow that henceforward when I called +Joachims the Virgin's grandmothers I would bear more in mind than I +have perhaps always hitherto done, how hard it is for those who have +been taught to see them as Joachims to think of them as something +different. I trust that I have not been unfaithful to this vow in +the preceding article. If the reader differs from me, let me ask +him to remember how hard it is for one who has got a figure well +into his head as the Virgin's grandmother to see it as Joachim. + + + + + +A Medieval Girl School {166} + + +This last summer I revisited Oropa, near Biella, to see what +connection I could find between the Oropa chapels and those at +Varallo. I will take this opportunity of describing the chapels at +Oropa, and more especially the remarkable fossil, or petrified girl +school, commonly known as the Dimora, or Sojourn of the Virgin Mary +in the Temple. + +If I do not take these works so seriously as the reader may expect, +let me beg him, before he blames me, to go to Oropa and see the +originals for himself. Have the good people of Oropa themselves +taken them very seriously? Are we in an atmosphere where we need be +at much pains to speak with bated breath? We, as is well known, +love to take even our pleasures sadly; the Italians take even their +sadness allegramente, and combine devotion with amusement in a +manner that we shall do well to study if not imitate. For this best +agrees with what we gather to have been the custom of Christ +himself, who, indeed, never speaks of austerity but to condemn it. +If Christianity is to be a living faith, it must penetrate a man's +whole life, so that he can no more rid himself of it than he can of +his flesh and bones or of his breathing. The Christianity that can +be taken up and laid down as if it were a watch or a book is +Christianity in name only. The true Christian can no more part from +Christ in mirth than in sorrow. And, after all, what is the essence +of Christianity? What is the kernel of the nut? Surely common +sense and cheerfulness, with unflinching opposition to the +charlatanisms and Pharisaisms of a man's own times. The essence of +Christianity lies neither in dogma, nor yet in abnormally holy life, +but in faith in an unseen world, in doing one's duty, in speaking +the truth, in finding the true life rather in others than in +oneself, and in the certain hope that he who loses his life on these +behalfs finds more than he has lost. What can Agnosticism do +against such Christianity as this? I should be shocked if anything +I had ever written or shall ever write should seem to make light of +these things. I should be shocked also if _I_ did not know how to +be amused with things that amiable people obviously intended to be +amusing. + +The reader may need to be reminded that Oropa is among the somewhat +infrequent sanctuaries at which the Madonna and infant Christ are +not white, but black. I shall return to this peculiarity of Oropa +later on, but will leave it for the present. For the general +characteristics of the place I must refer the reader to my book Alps +and Sanctuaries. I propose to confine myself here to the ten or a +dozen chapels containing life-sized terra-cotta figures, painted up +to nature, that form one of the main features of the place. At a +first glance, perhaps, all these chapels will seem uninteresting; I +venture to think, however, that some, if not most of them, though +falling a good deal short of the best work at Varallo and Crea, are +still in their own way of considerable importance. The first chapel +with which we need concern ourselves is numbered 4, and shows the +Conception of the Virgin Mary. It represents St. Anne as kneeling +before a terrific dragon or, as the Italians call it, "insect," +about the size of a Crystal Palace pleiosaur. This "insect" is +supposed to have just had its head badly crushed by St. Anne, who +seems to be begging its pardon. The text "Ipsa conteret caput tuum" +is written outside the chapel. The figures have no artistic +interest. As regards dragons being called insects, the reader may +perhaps remember that the island of S. Giulio, in the Lago d'Orta, +was infested with insetti, which S. Giulio destroyed, and which +appear, in a fresco underneath the church on the island, to have +been monstrous and ferocious dragons; but I cannot remember whether +their bodies are divided into three sections, and whether or no they +have exactly six legs--without which, I am told, they cannot be true +insects. + +The fifth chapel represents the Birth of the Virgin. Having +obtained permission to go inside it, I found the date 1715 cut large +and deep on the back of one figure before baking, and I imagine that +this date covers the whole. There is a Queen Anne feeling +throughout the composition, and if we were told that the sculptor +and Francis Bird, sculptor of the statue in front of St. Paul's +Cathedral, had studied under the same master, we could very well +believe it. The apartment in which the Virgin was born is spacious, +and in striking contrast to the one in which she herself gave birth +to the Redeemer. St. Anne occupies the centre of the composition, +in an enormous bed; on her right there is a lady of the George +Cruikshank style of beauty, and on the left an older person. Both +are gesticulating and impressing upon St. Anne the enormous +obligation she has just conferred upon mankind; they seem also to be +imploring her not to overtax her strength, but, strange to say, they +are giving her neither flowers nor anything to eat and drink. I +know no other birth of the Virgin in which St. Anne wants so little +keeping up. + +I have explained in my book Ex Voto, but should perhaps repeat here, +that the distinguishing characteristic of the Birth of the Virgin, +as rendered by Valsesian artists, is that St. Anne always has eggs +immediately after the infant is born, and usually a good deal more, +whereas the Madonna never has anything to eat or drink. The eggs +are in accordance with a custom that still prevails among the +peasant classes in the Valsesia, where women on giving birth to a +child generally are given a sabaglione--an egg beaten up with a +little wine, or rum, and sugar. East of Milan the Virgin's mother +does not have eggs, and I suppose, from the absence of the eggs at +Oropa, that the custom above referred to does not prevail in the +Biellese district. The Virgin also is invariably washed. St. John +the Baptist, when he is born at all, which is not very often, is +also washed; but I have not observed that St. Elizabeth has anything +like the attention paid her that is given to St. Anne. What, +however, is wanting here at Oropa in meat and drink is made up in +Cupids; they swarm like flies on the walls, clouds, cornices, and +capitals of columns. + +Against the right-hand wall are two lady-helps, each warming a towel +at a glowing fire, to be ready against the baby should come out of +its bath; while in the right-hand foreground we have the levatrice, +who having discharged her task, and being now so disposed, has +removed the bottle from the chimney-piece, and put it near some +bread, fruit and a chicken, over which she is about to discuss the +confinement with two other gossips. The levatrice is a very +characteristic figure, but the best in the chapel is the one of the +head-nurse, near the middle of the composition; she has now the +infant in full charge, and is showing it to St. Joachim, with an +expression as though she were telling him that her husband was a +merry man. I am afraid Shakespeare was dead before the sculptor was +born, otherwise I should have felt certain that he had drawn +Juliet's nurse from this figure. As for the little Virgin herself, +I believe her to be a fine boy of about ten months old. Viewing the +work as a whole, if I only felt more sure what artistic merit really +is, I should say that, though the chapel cannot be rated very highly +from some standpoints, there are others from which it may be praised +warmly enough. It is innocent of anatomy-worship, free from +affectation or swagger, and not devoid of a good deal of homely +naivete. It can no more be compared with Tabachetti or Donatello +than Hogarth can with Rembrandt or Giovanni Bellini; but as it does +not transcend the limitations of its age, so neither is it wanting +in whatever merits that age possessed; and there is no age without +merits of some kind. There is no inscription saying who made the +figures, but tradition gives them to Pietro Aureggio Termine, of +Biella, commonly called Aureggio. This is confirmed by their strong +resemblance to those in the Dimora Chapel, in which there is an +inscription that names Aureggio as the sculptor. + +The sixth chapel deals with the Presentation of the Virgin in the +Temple. The Virgin is very small, but it must be remembered that +she is only seven years old and she is not nearly so small as she is +at Crea, where though a life-sized figure is intended, the head is +hardly bigger than an apple. She is rushing up the steps with open +arms towards the High Priest, who is standing at the top. For her +it is nothing alarming; it is the High Priest who appears +frightened; but it will all come right in time. The Virgin seems to +be saying, "Why, don't you know me? I'm the Virgin Mary." But the +High Priest does not feel so sure about that, and will make further +inquiries. The scene, which comprises some twenty figures, is +animated enough, and though it hardly kindles enthusiasm, still does +not fail to please. It looks as though of somewhat older date than +the Birth of the Virgin chapel, and I should say shows more signs of +direct Valsesian influence. In Marocco's book about Oropa it is +ascribed to Aureggio, but I find it difficult to accept this. + +The seventh, and in many respects most interesting chapel at Oropa, +shows what is in reality a medieval Italian girl school, as nearly +like the thing itself as the artist could make it; we are expected, +however, to see in this the high-class kind of Girton College for +young gentlewomen that was attached to the Temple at Jerusalem, +under the direction of the Chief Priest's wife, or some one of his +near female relatives. Here all well-to-do Jewish young women +completed their education, and here accordingly we find the Virgin, +whose parents desired she should shine in every accomplishment, and +enjoy all the advantages their ample means commanded. + +I have met with no traces of the Virgin during the years between her +Presentation in the Temple and her becoming head girl at Temple +College. These years, we may be assured, can hardly have been other +than eventful; but incidents, or bits of life, are like living +forms--it is only here and there, as by rare chance, that one of +them gets arrested and fossilized; the greater number disappear like +the greater number of antediluvian molluscs, and no one can say why +one of these flies, as it were, of life should get preserved in +amber more than another. Talk, indeed, about luck and cunning; what +a grain of sand as against a hundredweight is cunning's share here +as against luck's. What moment could be more humdrum and unworthy +of special record than the one chosen by the artist for the chapel +we are considering? Why should this one get arrested in its flight +and made immortal when so many worthier ones have perished? Yet +preserved it assuredly is; it is as though some fairy's wand had +struck the medieval Miss Pinkerton, Amelia Sedley, and others who do +duty instead of the Hebrew originals. It has locked them up as +sleeping beauties, whose charms all may look upon. Surely the hours +are like the women grinding at the mill--the one is taken and the +other left, and none can give the reason more than he can say why +Gallio should have won immortality by caring for none of "these +things." + +It seems to me, moreover, that fairies have changed their practice +now in the matter of sleeping beauties, much as shopkeepers have +done in Regent Street. Formerly the shopkeeper used to shut up his +goods behind strong shutters, so that no one might see them after +closing hours. Now he leaves everything open to the eye and turns +the gas on. So the fairies, who used to lock up their sleeping +beauties in impenetrable thickets, now leave them in the most public +places they can find, as knowing that they will there most certainly +escape notice. Look at De Hooghe; look at The Pilgrim's Progress, +or even Shakespeare himself--how long they slept unawakened, though +they were in broad daylight and on the public thoroughfares all the +time. Look at Tabachetti, and the masterpieces he left at Varallo. +His figures there are exposed to the gaze of every passer-by; yet +who heeds them? Who, save a very few, even know of their existence? +Look again at Gaudenzio Ferrari, or the "Danse des Paysans," by +Holbein, to which I ventured to call attention in the Universal +Review. No, no; if a thing be in Central Africa, it is the glory of +this age to find it out; so the fairies think it safer to conceal +their proteges under a show of openness; for the schoolmaster is +much abroad, and there is no hedge so thick or so thorny as the +dulness of culture. + +It may be, again, that ever so many years hence, when Mr. Darwin's +earth-worms shall have buried Oropa hundreds of feet deep, someone +sinking a well or making a railway-cutting will unearth these +chapels, and will believe them to have been houses, and to contain +the exuviae of the living forms that tenanted them. In the +meantime, however, let us return to a consideration of the chapel as +it may now be seen by anyone who cares to pass that way. + +The work consists of about forty figures in all, not counting +Cupids, and is divided into four main divisions. First, there is +the large public sitting-room or drawing-room of the College, where +the elder young ladies are engaged in various elegant employments. +Three, at a table to the left, are making a mitre for the Bishop, as +may be seen from the model on the table. Some are merely spinning +or about to spin. One young lady, sitting rather apart from the +others, is doing an elaborate piece of needlework at a tambour-frame +near the window; others are making lace or slippers, probably for +the new curate; another is struggling with a letter, or perhaps a +theme, which seems to be giving her a good deal of trouble, but +which, when done, will, I am sure, be beautiful. One dear little +girl is simply reading Paul and Virginia underneath the window, and +is so concealed that I hardly think she can be seen from the outside +at all, though from inside she is delightful; it was with great +regret that I could not get her into any photograph. One most +amiable young woman has got a child's head on her lap, the child +having played itself to sleep. All are industriously and agreeably +employed in some way or other; all are plump; all are nice-looking; +there is not one Becky Sharp in the whole school; on the contrary, +as in "Pious Orgies," all is pious--or sub-pious--and all, if not +great, is at least eminently respectable. One feels that St. +Joachim and St. Anne could not have chosen a school more +judiciously, and that if one had a daughter oneself this is exactly +where one would wish to place her. If there is a fault of any kind +in the arrangements, it is that they do not keep cats enough. The +place is overrun with mice, though what these can find to eat I know +not. It occurs to me also that the young ladies might be kept a +little more free of spiders' webs; but in all these chapels, bats, +mice, and spiders are troublesome. + +Off the main drawing-room on the side facing the window there is a +dais, which is approached by a large raised semicircular step, +higher than the rest of the floor, but lower than the dais itself. +The dais is, of course, reserved for the venerable Lady Principal +and the under-mistresses, one of whom, by the way, is a little more +mondaine than might have been expected, and is admiring herself in a +looking-glass--unless, indeed, she is only looking to see if there +is a spot of ink on her face. The Lady Principal is seated near a +table, on which lie some books in expensive bindings, which I +imagine to have been presented to her by the parents of pupils who +were leaving school. One has given her a photographic album; +another a large scrapbook, for illustrations of all kinds; a third +volume has red edges, and is presumably of a devotional character. +If I dared venture another criticism, I should say it would be +better not to keep the ink-pot on the top of these books. The Lady +Principal is being read to by the monitress for the week, whose duty +it was to recite selected passages from the most approved Hebrew +writers; she appears to be a good deal outraged, possibly at the +faulty intonation of the reader, which she has long tried vainly to +correct; or perhaps she has been hearing of the atrocious way in +which her forefathers had treated the prophets, and is explaining to +the young ladies how impossible it would be, in their own more +enlightened age, for a prophet to fail of recognition. + +On the half-dais, as I suppose the large semicircular step between +the main room and the dais should be called, we find, first, the +monitress for the week, who stands up while she recites; and +secondly, the Virgin herself, who is the only pupil allowed a seat +so near to the august presence of the Lady Principal. She is +ostensibly doing a piece of embroidery which is stretched on a +cushion on her lap, but I should say that she was chiefly interested +in the nearest of four pretty little Cupids, who are all trying to +attract her attention, though they pay no court to any other young +lady. I have sometimes wondered whether the obviously scandalized +gesture of the Lady Principal might not be directed at these Cupids, +rather than at anything the monitress may have been reading, for she +would surely find them disquieting. Or she may be saying, "Why, +bless me! I do declare the Virgin has got another hamper, and St. +Anne's cakes are always so terribly rich!" Certainly the hamper is +there, close to the Virgin, and the Lady Principal's action may be +well directed at it, but it may have been sent to some other young +lady, and be put on the sub-dais for public exhibition. It looks as +if it might have come from Fortnum and Mason's, and I half expected +to find a label, addressing it to "The Virgin Mary, Temple College, +Jerusalem," but if ever there was one the mice have long since eaten +it. The Virgin herself does not seem to care much about it, but if +she has a fault it is that she is generally a little apathetic. + +Whose the hamper was, however, is a point we shall never now +certainly determine, for the best fossil is worse than the worst +living form. Why, alas! was not Mr. Edison alive when this chapel +was made? We might then have had a daily phonographic recital of +the conversation, and an announcement might be put outside the +chapels, telling us at what hours the figures would speak. + +On either side of the main room there are two annexes opening out +from it; these are reserved chiefly for the younger children, some +of whom, I think, are little boys. In the left annex, behind the +ladies who are making a mitre, there is a child who has got a cake, +and another has some fruit--possibly given them by the Virgin--and a +third child is begging for some of it. The light failed so +completely here that I was not able to photograph any of these +figures. It was a dull September afternoon, and the clouds had +settled thick round the chapel, which is never very light, and is +nearly 4000 feet above the sea. I waited till such twilight as made +it hopeless that more detail could be got--and a queer ghostly place +enough it was to wait in--but after giving the plate an exposure of +fifty minutes, I saw I could get no more, and desisted. + +These long photographic exposures have the advantage that one is +compelled to study a work in detail through mere lack of other +employment, and that one can take one's notes in peace without being +tempted to hurry over them; but even so I continually find I have +omitted to note, and have clean forgotten, much that I want later +on. + +In the other annex there are also one or two younger children, but +it seems to have been set apart for conversation and relaxation more +than any other part of the establishment. + +I have already said that the work is signed by an inscription inside +the chapel, to the effect that the sculptures are by Pietro Aureggio +Termine di Biella. It will be seen that the young ladies are +exceedingly like one another, and that the artist aimed at nothing +more than a faithful rendering of the life of his own times. Let us +be thankful that he aimed at nothing less. Perhaps his wife kept a +girls' school; or he may have had a large family of fat, good- +natured daughters, whose little ways he had studied attentively; at +all events the work is full of spontaneous incident, and cannot fail +to become more and more interesting as the age it renders falls +farther back into the past. It is to be regretted that many +artists, better-known men, have not been satisfied with the humbler +ambitions of this most amiable and interesting sculptor. If he has +left us no laboured life-studies, he has at least done something for +us which we can find nowhere else, which we should be very sorry not +to have, and the fidelity of which to Italian life at the beginning +of the eighteenth century will not be disputed. + +The eighth chapel is that of the Sposalizio, is certainly not by +Aureggio, and I should say was mainly by the same sculptor who did +the Presentation in the Temple. On going inside I found the figures +had come from more than one source; some of them are constructed so +absolutely on Valsesian principles, as regards technique, that it +may be assumed they came from Varallo. Each of these last figures +is in three pieces, that are baked separately and cemented together +afterwards, hence they are more easily transported; no more clay is +used than is absolutely necessary; and the off-side of the figure is +neglected; they will be found chiefly, if not entirely, at the top +of the steps. The other figures are more solidly built, and do not +remind me in their business features of anything in the Valsesia. +There was a sculptor, Francesco Sala, of Locarno (doubtless the +village a short distance below Varallo, and not the Locarno on the +Lago Maggiore), who made designs for some of the Oropa chapels, and +some of whose letters are still preserved, but whether the Valsesian +figures in this present work are by him or not I cannot say. + +The statues are twenty-five in number; I could find no date or +signature; the work reminds me of Montrigone; several of the figures +are not at all bad, and several have horsehair for hair, as at +Varallo. The effect of the whole composition is better than we have +a right to expect from any sculpture dating from the beginning of +the eighteenth century. + +The ninth chapel, the Annunciation, presents no feature of interest; +nor yet does the tenth, the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth. The +eleventh, the Nativity, though rather better, is still not +remarkable. + +The twelfth, the Purification, is absurdly bad, but I do not know +whether the expression of strong personal dislike to the Virgin +which the High Priest wears is intended as prophetic, or whether it +is the result of incompetence, or whether it is merely a smile gone +wrong in the baking. It is amusing to find Marocco, who has not +been strict about archaeological accuracy hitherto, complain here +that there is an anachronism, inasmuch as some young ecclesiastics +are dressed as they would be at present, and one of them actually +carries a wax candle. This is not as it should be; in works like +those at Oropa, where implicit reliance is justly placed on the +earnest endeavours that have been so successfully made to thoroughly +and carefully and patiently ensure the accuracy of the minutest +details, it is a pity that even a single error should have escaped +detection; this, however, has most unfortunately happened here, and +Marocco feels it his duty to put us on our guard. He explains that +the mistake arose from the sculptor's having taken both his general +arrangement and his details from some picture of the fourteenth or +fifteenth century, when the value of the strictest historical +accuracy was not yet so fully understood. + +It seems to me that in the matter of accuracy, priests and men of +science whether lay or regular on the one hand, and plain people +whether lay or regular on the other, are trying to play a different +game, and fail to understand one another because they do not see +that their objects are not the same. The cleric and the man of +science (who is only the cleric in his latest development) are +trying to develop a throat with two distinct passages--one that +shall refuse to pass even the smallest gnat, and another that shall +gracefully gulp even the largest camel; whereas we men of the street +desire but one throat, and are content that this shall swallow +nothing bigger than a pony. Everyone knows that there is no such +effectual means of developing the power to swallow camels as +incessant watchfulness for opportunities of straining at gnats, and +this should explain many passages that puzzle us in the work both of +our clerics and our scientists. I, not being a man of science, +still continue to do what I said I did in Alps and Sanctuaries, and +make it a rule to earnestly and patiently and carefully swallow a +few of the smallest gnats I can find several times a day, as the +best astringent for the throat I know of. + +The thirteenth chapel is the Marriage Feast at Cana of Galilee. +This is the best chapel as a work of art; indeed, it is the only one +which can claim to be taken quite seriously. Not that all the +figures are very good; those to the left of the composition are +commonplace enough; nor are the Christ and the giver of the feast at +all remarkable; but the ten or dozen figures of guests and +attendants at the right-hand end of the work are as good as anything +of their kind can be, and remind me so strongly of Tabachetti that I +cannot doubt they were done by someone who was indirectly influenced +by that great sculptor's work. It is not likely that Tabachetti was +alive long after 1640, by which time he would have been about eighty +years old; and the foundations of this chapel were not laid till +about 1690; the statues are probably a few years later; they can +hardly, therefore, be by one who had even studied under Tabachetti; +but until I found out the dates, and went inside the chapel to see +the way in which the figures had been constructed, I was inclined to +think they might be by Tabachetti himself, of whom, indeed, they are +not unworthy. On examining the figures I found them more heavily +constructed than Tabachetti's are, with smaller holes for taking out +superfluous clay, and more finished on the off-sides. Marocco says +the sculptor is not known. I looked in vain for any date or +signature. Possibly the right-hand figures (for the left-hand ones +can hardly be by the same hand) may be by some sculptor from Crea, +which is at no very great distance from Oropa, who was penetrated by +Tabachetti's influence; but whether as regards action and concert +with one another, or as regards excellence in detail, I do not see +how anything can be more realistic, and yet more harmoniously +composed. The placing of the musicians in a minstrels' gallery +helps the effect; these musicians are six in number, and the other +figures are twenty-three. Under the table, between Christ and the +giver of the feast, there is a cat. + +The fourteenth chapel, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is without +interest. + +The fifteenth, the Coronation of the Virgin, contains forty-six +angels, twenty-six cherubs, fifty-six saints, the Holy Trinity, the +Madonna herself, and twenty-four innocents, making 156 statues in +all. Of these I am afraid there is not one of more than ordinary +merit; the most interesting is a half-length nude life-study of +Disma--the good thief. After what had been promised him it was +impossible to exclude him, but it was felt that a half-length nude +figure would be as much as he could reasonably expect. + +Behind the sanctuary there is a semi-ruinous and wholly valueless +work, which shows the finding of the black image, which is now in +the church, but is only shown on great festivals. + +This leads us to a consideration that I have delayed till now. The +black image is the central feature of Oropa; it is the raison d'etre +of the whole place, and all else is a mere incrustation, so to +speak, around it. According to this image, then, which was carved +by St. Luke himself, and than which nothing can be better +authenticated, both the Madonna and the infant Christ were as black +as anything can be conceived. It is not likely that they were as +black as they have been painted; no one yet ever was so black as +that; yet, even allowing for some exaggeration on St. Luke's part, +they must have been exceedingly black if the portrait is to be +accepted; and uncompromisingly black they accordingly are on most of +the wayside chapels for many a mile around Oropa. Yet in the +chapels we have been hitherto considering--works in which, as we +know, the most punctilious regard has been shown to accuracy--both +the Virgin and Christ are uncompromisingly white. As in the shops +under the Colonnade where devotional knick-knacks are sold, you can +buy a black china image or a white one, whichever you like; so with +the pictures--the black and white are placed side by side--pagando +il danaro si puo scegliere. It rests not with history or with the +Church to say whether the Madonna and Child were black or white, but +you may settle it for yourself, whichever way you please, or rather +you are required, with the acquiescence of the Church, to hold that +they were both black and white at one and the same time. + +It cannot be maintained that the Church leaves the matter undecided, +and by tolerating both types proclaims the question an open one, for +she acquiesces in the portrait by St. Luke as genuine. How, then, +justify the whiteness of the Holy Family in the chapels? If the +portrait is not known as genuine, why set such a stumbling-block in +our paths as to show us a black Madonna and a white one, both as +historically accurate, within a few yards of one another? + +I ask this not in mockery, but as knowing that the Church must have +an explanation to give, if she would only give it, and as myself +unable to find any, even the most far-fetched, that can bring what +we see at Oropa, Loreto and elsewhere into harmony with modern +conscience, either intellectual or ethical. + +I see, indeed, from an interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly +for September, 1889, entitled "The Black Madonna of Loreto," that +black Madonnas were so frequent in ancient Christian art that "some +of the early writers of the Church felt obliged to account for it by +explaining that the Virgin was of a very dark complexion, as might +be proved by the verse of Canticles which says, 'I am black, but +comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.' Others maintained that she +became black during her sojourn in Egypt. . . . Priests, of to-day, +say that extreme age and exposure to the smoke of countless altar- +candles have caused that change in complexion which the more naive +fathers of the Church attributed to the power of an Egyptian sun"; +but the writer ruthlessly disposes of this supposition by pointing +out that in nearly all the instances of black Madonnas it is the +flesh alone that is entirely black, the crimson of the lips, the +white of the eyes, and the draperies having preserved their original +colour. The authoress of the article (Mrs. Hilliard) goes on to +tell us that Pausanias mentions two statues of the black Venus, and +says that the oldest statue of Ceres among the Phigalenses was +black. She adds that Minerva Aglaurus, the daughter of Cecrops, at +Athens, was black; that Corinth had a black Venus, as also the +Thespians; that the oracles of Dodona and Delphi were founded by +black doves, the emissaries of Venus, and that the Isis Multimammia +in the Capitol at Rome is black. + +Sometimes I have asked myself whether the Church does not intend to +suggest that the whole story falls outside the domain of history, +and is to be held as the one great epos, or myth, common to all +mankind; adaptable by each nation according to its own several +needs; translatable, so to speak, into the facts of each individual +nation, as the written word is translatable into its language, but +appertaining to the realm of the imagination rather than to that of +the understanding, and precious for spiritual rather than literal +truths. More briefly, I have wondered whether she may not intend +that such details as whether the Virgin was white or black are of +very little importance in comparison with the basing of ethics on a +story that shall appeal to black races as well as to white ones. + +If so, it is time we were made to understand this more clearly. If +the Church, whether of Rome or England, would lean to some such view +as this--tainted though it be with mysticism--if we could see either +great branch of the Church make a frank, authoritative attempt to +bring its teaching into greater harmony with the educated +understanding and conscience of the time, instead of trying to +fetter that understanding with bonds that gall it daily more and +more profoundly; then I, for one, in view of the difficulty and +graciousness of the task, and in view of the great importance of +historical continuity, would gladly sink much of my own private +opinion as to the value of the Christian ideal, and would gratefully +help either Church or both, according to the best of my very feeble +ability. On these terms, indeed, I could swallow not a few camels +myself cheerfully enough. + +Can we, however, see any signs as though either Rome or England will +stir hand or foot to meet us? Can any step be pointed to as though +either Church wished to make things easier for men holding the +opinions held by the late Mr. Darwin, or by Mr. Herbert Spencer and +Professor Huxley? How can those who accept evolution with any +thoroughness accept such doctrines as the Incarnation or the +Redemption with any but a quasi-allegorical and poetical +interpretation? Can we conceivably accept these doctrines in the +literal sense in which the Church advances them? And can the +leaders of the Church be blind to the resistlessness of the current +that has set against those literal interpretations which she seems +to hug more and more closely the more religious life is awakened at +all? The clergyman is wanted as supplementing the doctor and the +lawyer in all civilized communities; these three keep watch on one +another, and prevent one another from becoming too powerful. I, who +distrust the doctrinaire in science even more than the doctrinaire +in religion, should view with dismay the abolition of the Church of +England, as knowing that a blatant bastard science would instantly +step into her shoes; but if some such deplorable consummation is to +be avoided in England, it can only be through more evident leaning +on the part of our clergy to such an interpretation of the Sacred +History as the presence of a black and white Madonna almost side by +side at Oropa appears to suggest. + +I fear that in these last paragraphs I may have trenched on +dangerous ground, but it is not possible to go to such places as +Oropa without asking oneself what they mean and involve. As for the +average Italian pilgrims, they do not appear to give the matter so +much as a thought. They love Oropa, and flock to it in thousands +during the summer; the President of the Administration assured me +that they lodged, after a fashion, as many as ten thousand pilgrims +on the 15th of last August. It is astonishing how living the +statues are to these people, and how the wicked are upbraided and +the good applauded. At Varallo, since I took the photographs I +published in my book Ex Voto, an angry pilgrim has smashed the nose +of the dwarf in Tabachetti's Journey to Calvary, for no other reason +than inability to restrain his indignation against one who was +helping to inflict pain on Christ. It is the real hair and the +painting up to nature that does this. Here at Oropa I found a paper +on the floor of the Sposalizio Chapel, which ran as follows:-- + +"By the grace of God and the will of the administrative chapter of +this sanctuary, there have come here to work --- ---, mason, --- --- +, carpenter, and --- ---, plumber, all of Chiavazza, on the twenty- +first day of January, 1886, full of cold (pieni di freddo). + +"They write these two lines to record their visit. They pray the +Blessed Virgin that she will maintain them safe and sound from +everything equivocal that may befall them (sempre sani e salvi da +ogni equivoco li possa accadere). Oh, farewell! We reverently +salute all the present statues, and especially the Blessed Virgin, +and the reader." + +Through the Universal Review, I suppose, all its readers are to +consider themselves saluted; at any rate, these good fellows, in the +effusiveness of their hearts, actually wrote the above in pencil. I +was sorely tempted to steal it, but, after copying it, left it in +the Chief Priest's hands instead. + + + + + +Art in the Valley of Saas {188} + + +Having been told by Mr. Fortescue, of the British Museum, that there +were some chapels at Saas-Fee which bore analogy to those at +Varallo, described in my book Ex Voto, I went to Saas during this +last summer, and venture now to lay my conclusions before the +reader. + +The chapels are fifteen in number, and lead up to a larger and +singularly graceful one, rather more than half-way between Saas and +Saas-Fee. This is commonly but wrongly called the chapel of St. +Joseph, for it is dedicated to the Virgin, and its situation is of +such extreme beauty--the great Fee glaciers showing through the open +portico--that it is in itself worth a pilgrimage. It is surrounded +by noble larches and overhung by rock; in front of the portico there +is a small open space covered with grass, and a huge larch, the stem +of which is girt by a rude stone seat. The portico itself contains +seats for worshippers, and a pulpit from which the preacher's voice +can reach the many who must stand outside. The walls of the inner +chapel are hung with votive pictures, some of them very quaint and +pleasing, and not overweighted by those qualities that are usually +dubbed by the name of artistic merit. Innumerable wooden and waxen +representations of arms, legs, eyes, ears and babies tell of the +cures that have been effected during two centuries of devotion, and +can hardly fail to awaken a kindly sympathy with the long dead and +forgotten folks who placed them where they are. + +The main interest, however, despite the extreme loveliness of the +St. Mary's Chapel, centres rather in the small and outwardly +unimportant oratories (if they should be so called) that lead up to +it. These begin immediately with the ascent from the level ground +on which the village of Saas-im-Grund is placed, and contain scenes +in the history of the Redemption, represented by rude but spirited +wooden figures, each about two feet high, painted, gilt, and +rendered as life-like in all respects as circumstances would permit. +The figures have suffered a good deal from neglect, and are still +not a little misplaced. With the assistance, however, of the Rev. +E. J. Selwyn, English Chaplain at Saas-im-Grund, I have been able to +replace many of them in their original positions, as indicated by +the parts of the figures that are left rough-hewn and unpainted. +They vary a good deal in interest, and can be easily sneered at by +those who make a trade of sneering. Those, on the other hand, who +remain unsophisticated by overmuch art-culture will find them full +of character in spite of not a little rudeness of execution, and +will be surprised at coming across such works in a place so remote +from any art-centre as Saas must have been at the time these chapels +were made. It will be my business therefore to throw what light I +can upon the questions how they came to be made at all, and who was +the artist who designed them. + +The only documentary evidence consists in a chronicle of the valley +of Saas written in the early years of this century by the Rev. Peter +Jos. Ruppen, and published at Sion in 1851. This work makes +frequent reference to a manuscript by the Rev. Peter Joseph Clemens +Lommatter, cure of Saas-Fee from 1738 to 1751, which has +unfortunately been lost, so that we have no means of knowing how +closely it was adhered to. The Rev. Jos. Ant. Ruppen, the present +excellent cure of Saas-im-Grund, assures me that there is no +reference to the Saas-Fee oratories in the "Actes de l'Eglise" at +Saas, which I understand go a long way back; but I have not seen +these myself. Practically, then, we have no more documentary +evidence than is to be found in the published chronicle above +referred to. + +We there find it stated that the large chapel, commonly, but as +above explained, wrongly called St. Joseph's, was built in 1687, and +enlarged by subscription in 1747. These dates appear on the +building itself, and are no doubt accurate. The writer adds that +there was no actual edifice on this site before the one now existing +was built, but there was a miraculous picture of the Virgin placed +in a mural niche, before which the pious herdsmen and devout +inhabitants of the valley worshipped under the vault of heaven. +{190} A miraculous (or miracle-working) picture was always more or +less rare and important; the present site, therefore, seems to have +been long one of peculiar sanctity. Possibly the name Fee may point +to still earlier pagan mysteries on the same site. + +As regards the fifteen small chapels, the writer says they +illustrate the fifteen mysteries of the Psalter, and were built in +1709, each householder of the Saas-Fee contributing one chapel. He +adds that Heinrich Andenmatten, afterwards a brother of the Society +of Jesus, was an especial benefactor or promoter of the undertaking. +One of the chapels, the Ascension (No. 12 of the series), has the +date 1709 painted on it; but there is no date on any other chapel, +and there seems no reason why this should be taken as governing the +whole series. + +Over and above this, there exists in Saas a tradition, as I was told +immediately on my arrival, by an English visitor, that the chapels +were built in consequence of a flood, but I have vainly endeavoured +to trace this story to an indigenous source. + +The internal evidence of the wooden figures themselves--nothing +analogous to which, it should be remembered, can be found in the +chapel of 1687--points to a much earlier date. I have met with no +school of sculpture belonging to the early part of the eighteenth +century to which they can be plausibly assigned; and the supposition +that they are the work of some unknown local genius who was not led +up to and left no successors may be dismissed, for the work is too +scholarly to have come from anyone but a trained sculptor. I refer +of course to those figures which the artist must be supposed to have +executed with his own hand, as, for example, the central figure of +the Crucifixion group and those of the Magdalene and St. John. The +greater number of the figures were probably, as was suggested to me +by Mr. Ranshaw, of Lowth, executed by a local wood-carver from +models in clay and wax furnished by the artist himself. Those who +examine the play of line in the hair, mantle, and sleeve of the +Magdalene in the Crucifixion group, and contrast it with the greater +part of the remaining draperies, will find little hesitation in +concluding that this was the case, and will ere long readily +distinguish the two hands from which the figures have mainly come. +I say "mainly," because there is at least one other sculptor who may +well have belonged to the year 1709, but who fortunately has left us +little. Examples of his work may perhaps be seen in the nearest +villain with a big hat in the Flagellation chapel, and in two +cherubs in the Assumption of the Virgin. + +We may say, then, with some certainty, that the designer was a +cultivated and practised artist. We may also not less certainly +conclude that he was of Flemish origin, for the horses in the +Journey to Calvary and Crucifixion chapels, where alone there are +any horses at all, are of Flemish breed, with no trace of the Arab +blood adopted by Gaudenzio at Varallo. The character, moreover, of +the villains is Northern--of the Quentin Matsys, Martin Schongauer +type, rather than Italian; the same sub-Rubensesque feeling which is +apparent in more than one chapel at Varallo is not less evident +here--especially in the Journey to Calvary and Crucifixion chapels. +There can hardly, therefore, be a doubt that the artist was a +Fleming who had worked for several years in Italy. + +It is also evident that he had Tabachetti's work at Varallo well in +his mind. For not only does he adopt certain details of costume (I +refer particularly to the treatment of soldiers' tunics) which are +peculiar to Tabachetti at Varallo, but whenever he treats a subject +which Tabachetti had treated at Varallo, as in the Flagellation, +Crowning with Thorns, and Journey to Calvary chapels, the work at +Saas is evidently nothing but a somewhat modified abridgment of that +at Varallo. When, however, as in the Annunciation, the Nativity, +the Crucifixion, and other chapels, the work at Varallo is by +another than Tabachetti, no allusion is made to it. The Saas artist +has Tabachetti's Varallo work at his finger-ends, but betrays no +acquaintance whatever with Gaudenzio Ferrari, Gio. Ant. Paracca, or +Giovanni d'Enrico. + +Even, moreover, when Tabachetti's work at Varallo is being most +obviously drawn from, as in the Journey to Calvary chapel, the Saas +version differs materially from that at Varallo, and is in some +respects an improvement on it. The idea of showing other horsemen +and followers coming up from behind, whose heads can be seen over +the crown of the interposing hill, is singularly effective as +suggesting a number of others that are unseen, nor can I conceive +that anyone but the original designer would follow Tabachetti's +Varallo design with as much closeness as it has been followed here, +and yet make such a brilliantly successful modification. The +stumbling, again, of one horse (a detail almost hidden, according to +Tabachetti's wont) is a touch which Tabachetti himself might add, +but which no Saas wood-carver who was merely adapting from a +reminiscence of Tabachetti's Varallo chapel would be likely to +introduce. These considerations have convinced me that the designer +of the chapels at Saas is none other than Tabachetti himself, who, +as has been now conclusively shown, was a native of Dinant, in +Belgium. + +The Saas chronicler, indeed, avers that the chapels were not built +till 1709--a statement apparently corroborated by a date now visible +on one chapel; but we must remember that the chronicler did not +write until a century or so later than 1709, and though indeed, his +statement may have been taken from the lost earlier manuscript of +1738, we know nothing about this either one way or the other. The +writer may have gone by the still existing 1709 on the Ascension +chapel, whereas this date may in fact have referred to a +restoration, and not to an original construction. There is nothing, +as I have said, in the choice of the chapel on which the date +appears, to suggest that it was intended to govern the others. I +have explained that the work is isolated and exotic. It is by one +in whom Flemish and Italian influences are alike equally +predominant; by one who was saturated with Tabachetti's Varallo +work, and who can improve upon it, but over whom the other Varallo +sculptors have no power. The style of the work is of the sixteenth +and not of the eighteenth century--with a few obvious exceptions +that suit the year 1709 exceedingly well. Against such +considerations as these, a statement made at the beginning of this +century referring to a century earlier and a promiscuous date upon +one chapel, can carry but little weight. I shall assume, therefore, +henceforward, that we have here groups designed in a plastic +material by Tabachetti, and reproduced in wood by the best local +wood-sculptor available, with the exception of a few figures cut by +the artist himself. + +We ask, then, at what period in his life did Tabachetti design these +chapels, and what led to his coming to such an out-of-the-way place +as Saas at all? We should remember that, according both to Fassola +and Torrotti (writing in 1671 and 1686 respectively), Tabachetti +{195} became insane about the year 1586 or early in 1587, after +having just begun the Salutation chapel. I have explained in Ex +Voto that I do not believe this story. I have no doubt that +Tabachetti was declared to be mad, but I believe this to have been +due to an intrigue, set on foot in order to get a foreign artist out +of the way, and to secure the Massacre of the Innocents chapel, at +that precise time undertaken, for Gio. Ant. Paracca, who was an +Italian. + +Or he may have been sacrificed in order to facilitate the return of +the workers in stucco whom he had superseded on the Sacro Monte. He +may have been goaded into some imprudence which was seized upon as a +pretext for shutting him up; at any rate, the fact that when in 1587 +he inherited his father's property at Dinant, his trustee (he being +expressly stated to be "expatrie") was "datif," "dativus," appointed +not by himself but by the court, lends colour to the statement that +he was not his own master at the time; for in later kindred deeds, +now at Namur, he appoints his own trustee. I suppose, then, that +Tabachetti was shut up in a madhouse at Varallo for a considerable +time, during which I can find no trace of him, but that eventually +he escaped or was released. + +Whether he was a fugitive, or whether he was let out from prison, he +would in either case, in all reasonable probability, turn his face +homeward. If he was escaping, he would make immediately for the +Savoy frontier, within which Saas then lay. He would cross the +Baranca above Fobello, coming down on to Ponte Grande in the Val +Anzasca. He would go up the Val Anzasca to Macugnaga, and over the +Monte Moro, which would bring him immediately to Saas. Saas, +therefore, is the nearest and most natural place for him to make +for, if he were flying from Varallo, and here I suppose him to have +halted. + +It so happened that on the 9th of September, 1589, there was one of +the three great outbreaks of the Mattmark See that have from time to +time devastated the valley of Saas. {196} It is probable that the +chapels were decided upon in consequence of some grace shown by the +miraculous picture of the Virgin, which had mitigated a disaster +occurring so soon after the anniversary of her own Nativity. +Tabachetti, arriving at this juncture, may have offered to undertake +them if the Saas people would give him an asylum. Here, at any +rate, I suppose him to have stayed till some time in 1590, probably +the second half of it; his design of eventually returning home, if +he ever entertained it, being then interrupted by a summons to Crea +near Casale, where I believe him to have worked with a few brief +interruptions thenceforward for little if at all short of half a +century, or until about the year 1640. I admit, however, that the +evidence for assigning him so long a life rests solely on the +supposed identity of the figure known as "Il Vecchietto," in the +Varallo Descent from the Cross chapel, with the portrait of +Tabachetti himself in the Ecce Homo chapel, also at Varallo. + +I find additional reason for thinking the chapels owe their origin +to the inundation of 9th September, 1589, in the fact that the 8th +of September is made a day of pilgrimage to the Saas-Fee chapels +throughout the whole valley of Saas. It is true the 8th of +September is the festival of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, so +that under any circumstances this would be a great day, but the fact +that not only the people of Saas, but the whole valley down to Visp, +flock to this chapel on the 8th of September, points to the belief +that some special act of grace on the part of the Virgin was +vouchsafed on this day in connection with this chapel. A belief +that it was owing to the intervention of St. Mary of Fee that the +inundation was not attended with loss of life would be very likely +to lead to the foundation of a series of chapels leading up to the +place where her miraculous picture was placed, and to the more +special celebration of her Nativity in connection with this spot +throughout the valley of Saas. I have discussed the subject with +the Rev. Jos. Ant. Ruppen, and he told me he thought the fact that +the great fete of the year in connection with the Saas-Fee chapels +was on the 8th of September pointed rather strongly to the +supposition that there was a connection between these and the +recorded flood of 9th September, 1589. + +Turning to the individual chapels they are as follows:-- + +1. The Annunciation. The treatment here presents no more analogy +to that of the same subject at Varallo than is inevitable in the +nature of the subject. The Annunciation figures at Varallo have +proved to be mere draped dummies with wooden heads; Tabachetti, even +though he did the heads, which he very likely did, would take no +interest in the Varallo work with the same subject. The +Annunciation, from its very simplicity as well as from the +transcendental nature of the subject, is singularly hard to treat, +and the work here, whatever it may once have been, is now no longer +remarkable. + +2. The Salutation of Mary by Elizabeth. This group, again, bears +no analogy to the Salutation chapel at Varallo, in which +Tabachetti's share was so small that it cannot be considered as in +any way his. It is not to be expected, therefore, that the Saas +chapel should follow the Varallo one. The figures, four in number, +are pleasing and well arranged. St. Joseph, St. Elizabeth, and St. +Zacharias are all talking at once. The Virgin is alone silent. + +3. The Nativity is much damaged and hard to see. The treatment +bears no analogy to that adopted by Gaudenzio Ferrari at Varallo. +There is one pleasing young shepherd standing against the wall, but +some figures have no doubt (as in others of the chapels) +disappeared, and those that remain have been so shifted from their +original positions that very little idea can be formed of what the +group was like when Tabachetti left it. + +4. The Purification. I can hardly say why this chapel should +remind me, as it does, of the Circumcision chapel at Varallo, for +there are more figures here than space at Varallo will allow. It +cannot be pretended that any single figure is of extraordinary +merit, but amongst them they tell their story with excellent effect. +Two, those of St. Joseph and St. Anna (?), that doubtless were once +more important factors in the drama, are now so much in corners near +the window that they can hardly be seen. + +5. The Dispute in the Temple. This subject is not treated at +Varallo. Here at Saas there are only six doctors now; whether or no +there were originally more cannot be determined. + +6. The Agony in the Garden. Tabachetti had no chapel with this +subject at Varallo, and there is no resemblance between the Saas +chapel and that by D'Enrico. The figures are no doubt approximately +in their original positions, but I have no confidence that I have +rearranged them correctly. They were in such confusion when I first +saw them that the Rev. E. J. Selwyn and myself determined to +rearrange them. They have doubtless been shifted more than once +since Tabachetti left them. The sleeping figures are all good. St. +James is perhaps a little prosaic. One Roman soldier who is coming +into the garden with a lantern, and motioning silence with his hand, +does duty for the others that are to follow him. I should think +more than one of these figures is actually carved in wood by +Tabachetti, allowance being made for the fact that he was working in +a material with which he was not familiar, and which no sculptor of +the highest rank has ever found congenial. + +7. The Flagellation. Tabachetti has a chapel with this subject at +Varallo, and the Saas group is obviously a descent with modification +from his work there. The figure of Christ is so like the one at +Varallo that I think it must have been carved by Tabachetti himself. +The man with the hooked nose, who at Varallo is stooping to bind his +rods, is here upright: it was probably the intention to emphasize +him in the succeeding scenes as well as this, in the same way as he +has been emphasized at Varallo, but his nose got pared down in the +cutting of later scenes, and could not easily be added to. The man +binding Christ to the column at Varallo is repeated (longo +intervallo) here, and the whole work is one inspired by that at +Varallo, though no single figure except that of the Christ is +adhered to with any very great closeness. I think the nearer +malefactor, with a goitre, and wearing a large black hat, is either +an addition of the year 1709, or was done by the journeyman of the +local sculptor who carved the greater number of the figures. The +man stooping down to bind his rods can hardly be by the same hand as +either of the two black-hatted malefactors, but it is impossible to +speak with certainty. The general effect of the chapel is +excellent, if we consider the material in which it is executed, and +the rudeness of the audience to whom it addresses itself. + +8. The Crowning with Thorns. Here again the inspiration is derived +from Tabachetti's Crowning with Thorns at Varallo. The Christs in +the two chapels are strikingly alike, and the general effect is that +of a residuary impression left in the mind of one who had known the +Varallo Flagellation exceedingly well. + +9. Sta. Veronica. This and the next succeeding chapels are the +most important of the series. Tabachetti's Journey to Calvary at +Varallo is again the source from which the present work was taken, +but, as I have already said, it has been modified in reproduction. +Mount Calvary is still shown, as at Varallo, towards the left-hand +corner of the work, but at Saas it is more towards the middle than +at Varallo, so that horsemen and soldiers may be seen coming up +behind it--a stroke that deserves the name of genius none the less +for the manifest imperfection with which it has been carried into +execution. There are only three horses fully shown, and one partly +shown. They are all of the heavy Flemish type adopted by Tabachetti +at Varallo. The man kicking the fallen Christ and the goitred man +(with the same teeth missing), who are so conspicuous in the Varallo +Journey to Calvary, reappear here, only the kicking man has much +less nose than at Varallo, probably because (as explained) the nose +got whittled away and could not be whittled back again. I observe +that the kind of lapelled tunic which Tabachetti, and only +Tabachetti, adopts at Varallo, is adopted for the centurion in this +chapel, and indeed throughout the Saas chapels this particular form +of tunic is the most usual for a Roman soldier. The work is still a +very striking one, notwithstanding its translation into wood and the +decay into which it has been allowed to fall; nor can it fail to +impress the visitor who is familiar with this class of art as coming +from a man of extraordinary dramatic power and command over the +almost impossible art of composing many figures together effectively +in all-round sculpture. Whether all the figures are even now as +Tabachetti left them I cannot determine, but Mr. Selwyn has restored +Simon the Cyrenian to the position in which he obviously ought to +stand, and between us we have got the chapel into something more +like order. + +10. The Crucifixion. This subject was treated at Varallo not by +Tabachetti but by Gaudenzio Ferrari. It confirms therefore my +opinion as to the designer of the Saas chapels to find in them no +trace of the Varallo Crucifixion, while the kind of tunic which at +Varallo is only found in chapels wherein Tabachetti worked again +appears here. The work is in a deplorable state of decay. Mr. +Selwyn has greatly improved the arrangement of the figures, but even +now they are not, I imagine, quite as Tabachetti left them. The +figure of Christ is greatly better in technical execution than that +of either of the two thieves; the folds of the drapery alone will +show this even to an unpractised eye. I do not think there can be a +doubt but that Tabachetti cut this figure himself, as also those of +the Magdalene and St. John, who stand at the foot of the cross. The +thieves are coarsely executed, with no very obvious distinction +between the penitent and the impenitent one, except that there is a +fiend painted on the ceiling over the impenitent thief. The one +horse introduced into the composition is again of the heavy Flemish +type adopted by Tabachetti at Varallo. There is great difference in +the care with which the folds on the several draperies have been +cut, some being stiff and poor enough, while others are done very +sufficiently. In spite of smallness of scale, ignoble material, +disarrangement and decay, the work is still striking. + +11. The Resurrection. There being no chapel at Varallo with any of +the remaining subjects treated at Saas, the sculptor has struck out +a line for himself. The Christ in the Resurrection Chapel is a +carefully modelled figure, and if better painted might not be +ineffective. Three soldiers, one sleeping, alone remain. There +were probably other figures that have been lost. The sleeping +soldier is very pleasing. + +12. The Ascension is not remarkably interesting; the Christ appears +to be, but perhaps is not, a much more modern figure than the rest. + +13. The Descent of the Holy Ghost. Some of the figures along the +end wall are very good, and were, I should imagine, cut by +Tabachetti himself. Those against the two side walls are not so +well cut. + +14. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The two large cherubs here +are obviously by a later hand, and the small ones are not good. The +figure of the Virgin herself is unexceptionable. There were +doubtless once other figures of the Apostles which have disappeared; +of these a single St. Peter (?), so hidden away in a corner near the +window that it can only be seen with difficulty, is the sole +survivor. + +15. The Coronation of the Virgin is of later date, and has probably +superseded an earlier work. It can hardly be by the designer of the +other chapels of the series. Perhaps Tabachetti had to leave for +Crea before all the chapels at Saas were finished. + +Lastly, we have the larger chapel dedicated to St. Mary, which +crowns the series. Here there is nothing of more than common +artistic interest, unless we except the stone altar mentioned in +Ruppen's chronicle. This is of course classical in style, and is, I +should think, very good. + +Once more I must caution the reader against expecting to find highly +finished gems of art in the chapels I have been describing. A +wooden figure not more than two feet high clogged with many coats of +paint can hardly claim to be taken very seriously, and even those +few that were cut by Tabachetti himself were not meant to have +attention concentrated on themselves alone. As mere wood-carving +the Saas-Fee chapels will not stand comparison, for example, with +the triptych of unknown authorship in the Church of St. Anne at +Gliss, close to Brieg. But, in the first place, the work at Gliss +is worthy of Holbein himself; I know no wood-carving that can so +rivet the attention; moreover it is coloured with water-colour and +not oil, so that it is tinted, not painted; and, in the second +place, the Gliss triptych belongs to a date (1519) when artists held +neither time nor impressionism as objects, and hence, though greatly +better than the Saas-Fee chapels as regards a certain Japanese +curiousness of finish and naivete of literal transcription, it +cannot even enter the lists with the Saas work as regards elan and +dramatic effectiveness. The difference between the two classes of +work is much that between, say, John Van Eyck or Memling and Rubens +or Rembrandt, or, again, between Giovanni Bellini and Tintoretto; +the aims of the one class of work are incompatible with those of the +other. Moreover, in the Gliss triptych the intention of the +designer is carried out (whether by himself or no) with admirable +skill; whereas at Saas the wisdom of the workman is rather of Ober- +Ammergau than of the Egyptians, and the voice of the poet is not a +little drowned in that of his mouthpiece. If, however, the reader +will bear in mind these somewhat obvious considerations, and will +also remember the pathetic circumstances under which the chapels +were designed--for Tabachetti when he reached Saas was no doubt +shattered in body and mind by his four years' imprisonment--he will +probably be not less attracted to them than I observed were many of +the visitors both at Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee with whom I had the +pleasure of examining them. + +I will now run briefly through the other principal works in the +neighbourhood to which I think the reader would be glad to have his +attention directed. + +At Saas-Fee itself the main altar-piece is without interest, as also +one with a figure of St. Sebastian. The Virgin and Child above the +remaining altar are, so far as I remember them, very good, and +greatly superior to the smaller figures of the same altar-piece. + +At Almagel, an hour's walk or so above Saas-Grund--a village, the +name of which, like those of the Alphubel, the Monte Moro, and more +than one other neighbouring site, is supposed to be of Saracenic +origin--the main altar-piece represents a female saint with folded +arms being beheaded by a vigorous man to the left. These two +figures are very good. There are two somewhat inferior elders to +the right, and the composition is crowned by the Assumption of the +Virgin. I like the work, but have no idea who did it. Two bishops +flanking the composition are not so good. There are two other +altars in the church: the right-hand one has some pleasing figures, +not so the left-hand. + +In St. Joseph's Chapel, on the mule-road between Saas-Grund and +Saas-Fee, the St. Joseph and the two children are rather nice. In +the churches and chapels which I looked into between Saas and +Stalden, I saw many florid extravagant altar-pieces, but nothing +that impressed me favourably. + +In the parish church at Saas-Grund there are two altar-pieces which +deserve attention. In the one over the main altar the arrangement +of the Last Supper in a deep recess half-way up the composition is +very pleasing and effective; in that above the right-hand altar of +the two that stand in the body of the church there are a number of +round lunettes, about eight inches in diameter, each containing a +small but spirited group of wooden figures. I have lost my notes on +these altar-pieces and can only remember that the main one has been +restored, and now belongs to two different dates, the earlier date +being, I should imagine, about 1670. A similar treatment of the +Last Supper may be found near Brieg in the church of Naters, and no +doubt the two altar-pieces are by the same man. There are, by the +way, two very ambitious altars on either side the main arch leading +to the chancel in the church at Naters, of which the one on the +south side contains obvious reminiscences of Gaudenzio Ferrari's +Sta. Maria frescoes at Varallo; but none of the four altar-pieces +in the two transepts tempted me to give them much attention. As +regards the smaller altar-piece at Saas-Grund, analogous work may be +found at Cravagliana, half-way between Varallo and Fobello, but this +last has suffered through the inveterate habit which Italians have +of showing their hatred towards the enemies of Christ by mutilating +the figures that represent them. Whether the Saas work is by a +Valsesian artist who came over to Switzerland, or whether the +Cravagliana work is by a Swiss who had come to Italy, I cannot say +without further consideration and closer examination than I have +been able to give. The altar-pieces of Mairengo, Chiggiogna, and, I +am told, Lavertezzo, all in the Canton Ticino, are by a Swiss or +German artist who has migrated southward; but the reverse migration +was equally common. + +Being in the neighbourhood, and wishing to assure myself whether the +sculptor of the Saas-Fee chapels had or had not come lower down the +valley, I examined every church and village which I could hear of as +containing anything that might throw light on this point. I was +thus led to Vispertimenen, a village some three hours above either +Visp or Stalden. It stands very high, and is an almost untouched +example of a medieval village. The altar-piece of the main church +is even more floridly ambitious in its abundance of carving and +gilding than the many other ambitious altar-pieces with which the +Canton Valais abounds. The Apostles are receiving the Holy Ghost on +the first storey of the composition, and they certainly are +receiving it with an overjoyed alacrity and hilarious ecstasy of +allegria spirituale which it would not be easy to surpass. Above +the village, reaching almost to the limits beyond which there is no +cultivation, there stands a series of chapels like those I have been +describing at Saas-Fee, only much larger and more ambitious. They +are twelve in number, including the church that crowns the series. +The figures they contain are of wood (so I was assured, but I did +not go inside the chapels): they are life-size, and in some chapels +there are as many as a dozen figures. I should think they belonged +to the later half of the eighteenth century, and here, one would +say, sculpture touches the ground; at least, it is not easy to see +how cheap exaggeration can sink an art more deeply. The only things +that at all pleased me were a smiling donkey and an ecstatic cow in +the Nativity chapel. Those who are not allured by the prospect of +seeing perhaps the very worst that can be done in its own line, need +not be at the pains of climbing up to Vispertimenen. Those, on the +other hand, who may find this sufficient inducement will not be +disappointed, and they will enjoy magnificent views of the Weisshorn +and the mountains near the Dom. + +I have already referred to the triptych at Gliss. This is figured +in Wolf's work on Chamonix and the Canton Valais, but a larger and +clearer reproduction of such an extraordinary work is greatly to be +desired. The small wooden statues above the triptych, as also those +above its modern companion in the south transept, are not less +admirable than the triptych itself. I know of no other like work in +wood, and have no clue whatever as to who the author can have been +beyond the fact that the work is purely German and eminently +Holbeinesque in character. + +I was told of some chapels at Rarogne, five or six miles lower down +the valley than Visp. I examined them, and found they had been +stripped of their figures. The few that remained satisfied me that +we have had no loss. Above Brieg there are two other like series of +chapels. I examined the higher and more promising of the two, but +found not one single figure left. I was told by my driver that the +other series, close to the Pont Napoleon on the Simplon road, had +been also stripped of its figures, and, there being a heavy storm at +the time, have taken his word for it that this was so. + + + + + +Thought and Language {209} + + +Three well-known writers, Professor Max Muller, Professor Mivart, +and Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, have lately maintained that though +the theory of descent with modification accounts for the development +of all vegetable life, and of all animals lower than man, yet that +man cannot--not at least in respect of the whole of his nature--be +held to have descended from any animal lower than himself, inasmuch +as none lower than man possesses even the germs of language. +Reason, it is contended--more especially by Professor Max Muller in +his Science of Thought, to which I propose confining our attention +this evening--is so inseparably connected with language, that the +two are in point of fact identical; hence it is argued that, as the +lower animals have no germs of language, they can have no germs of +reason, and the inference is drawn that man cannot be conceived as +having derived his own reasoning powers and command of language +through descent from beings in which no germ of either can be found. +The relations therefore between thought and language, interesting in +themselves, acquire additional importance from the fact of their +having become the battle-ground between those who say that the +theory of descent breaks down with man, and those who maintain that +we are descended from some apelike ancestor long since extinct. + +The contention of those who refuse to admit man unreservedly into +the scheme of evolution is comparatively recent. The great +propounders of evolution, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck--not to +mention a score of others who wrote at the close of the last and +early part of this present century--had no qualms about admitting +man into their system. They have been followed in this respect by +the late Mr. Charles Darwin, and by the greatly more influential +part of our modern biologists, who hold that whatever loss of +dignity we may incur through being proved to be of humble origin, is +compensated by the credit we may claim for having advanced ourselves +to such a high pitch of civilization; this bids us expect still +further progress, and glorifies our descendants more than it abases +our ancestors. But to whichever view we may incline on sentimental +grounds the fact remains that, while Charles Darwin declared +language to form no impassable barrier between man and the lower +animals, Professor Max Muller calls it the Rubicon which no brute +dare cross, and deduces hence the conclusion that man cannot have +descended from an unknown but certainly speechless ape. + +It may perhaps be expected that I should begin a lecture on the +relations between thought and language with some definition of both +these things; but thought, as Sir William Grove said of motion, is a +phenomenon "so obvious to simple apprehension that to define it +would make it more obscure." {210} Definitions are useful where +things are new to us, but they are superfluous about those that are +already familiar, and mischievous, so far as they are possible at +all, in respect of all those things that enter so profoundly and +intimately into our being that in them we must either live or bear +no life. To vivisect the more vital processes of thought is to +suspend, if not to destroy them; for thought can think about +everything more healthily and easily than about itself. It is like +its instrument the brain, which knows nothing of any injuries +inflicted upon itself. As regards what is new to us, a definition +will sometimes dilute a difficulty, and help us to swallow that +which might choke us undiluted; but to define when we have once well +swallowed is to unsettle, rather than settle, our digestion. +Definitions, again, are like steps cut in a steep slope of ice, or +shells thrown on to a greasy pavement; they give us foothold, and +enable us to advance, but when we are at our journey's end we want +them no longer. Again, they are useful as mental fluxes, and as +helping us to fuse new ideas with our older ones. They present us +with some tags and ends of ideas that we have already mastered, on +to which we can hitch our new ones; but to multiply them in respect +of such a matter as thought, is like scratching the bite of a gnat; +the more we scratch the more we want to scratch; the more we define +the more we shall have to go on defining the words we have used in +our definitions, and shall end by setting up a serious mental raw in +the place of a small uneasiness that was after all quite endurable. +We know too well what thought is, to be able to know that we know +it, and I am persuaded there is no one in this room but understands +what is meant by thought and thinking well enough for all the +purposes of this discussion. Whoever does not know this without +words will not learn it for all the words and definitions that are +laid before him. The more, indeed, he hears, the more confused he +will become. I shall, therefore, merely premise that I use the word +"thought" in the same sense as that in which it is generally used by +people who say that they think this or that. At any rate, it will +be enough if I take Professor Max Muller's own definition, and say +that its essence consists in a bringing together of mental images +and ideas with deductions therefrom, and with a corresponding power +of detaching them from one another. Hobbes, the Professor tells us, +maintained this long ago, when he said that all our thinking +consists of addition and subtraction--that is to say, in bringing +ideas together, and in detaching them from one another. + +Turning from thought to language, we observe that the word is +derived from the French langue, or tongue. Strictly, therefore, it +means tonguage. This, however, takes account of but a very small +part of the ideas that underlie the word. It does, indeed, seize a +familiar and important detail of everyday speech, though it may be +doubted whether the tongue has more to do with speaking than lips, +teeth and throat have, but it makes no attempt at grasping and +expressing the essential characteristic of speech. Anything done +with the tongue, even though it involve no speaking at all, is +tonguage; eating oranges is as much tonguage as speech is. The +word, therefore, though it tells us in part how speech is effected, +reveals nothing of that ulterior meaning which is nevertheless +inseparable from any right use of the words either "speech" or +"language." It presents us with what is indeed a very frequent +adjunct of conversation, but the use of written characters, or the +finger-speech of deaf mutes, is enough to show that the word +"language" omits all reference to the most essential characteristics +of the idea, which in practice it nevertheless very sufficiently +presents to us. I hope presently to make it clear to you how and +why it should do so. The word is incomplete in the first place, +because it omits all reference to the ideas which words, speech or +language are intended to convey, and there can be no true word +without its actually or potentially conveying an idea. Secondly, it +makes no allusion to the person or persons to whom the ideas are to +be conveyed. Language is not language unless it not only expresses +fairly definite and coherent ideas, but unless it also conveys these +ideas to some other living intelligent being, either man or brute, +that can understand them. We may speak to a dog or horse, but not +to a stone. If we make pretence of doing so we are in reality only +talking to ourselves. The person or animal spoken to is half the +battle--a half, moreover, which is essential to there being any +battle at all. It takes two people to say a thing--a sayee as well +as a sayer. The one is as essential to any true saying as the +other. A. may have spoken, but if B. has not heard there has been +nothing said, and he must speak again. True, the belief on A.'s +part that he had a bona fide sayee in B., saves his speech qua him, +but it has been barren and left no fertile issue. It has failed to +fulfil the conditions of true speech, which involve not only that A. +should speak, but also that B. should hear. True, again, we often +speak of loose, incoherent, indefinite language; but by doing so we +imply, and rightly, that we are calling that language which is not +true language at all. People, again, sometimes talk to themselves +without intending that any other person should hear them, but this +is not well done, and does harm to those who practise it. It is +abnormal, whereas our concern is with normal and essential +characteristics; we may, therefore, neglect both delirious +babblings, and the cases in which a person is regarding him or +herself, as it were, from outside, and treating himself as though he +were someone else. + +Inquiring, then, what are the essentials, the presence of which +constitutes language, while their absence negatives it altogether, +we find that Professor Max Muller restricts them to the use of +grammatical articulate words that we can write or speak, and denies +that anything can be called language unless it can be written or +spoken in articulate words and sentences. He also denies that we +can think at all unless we do so in words; that is to say, in +sentences with verbs and nouns. Indeed, he goes so far as to say +upon his title-page that there can be no reason--which I imagine +comes to much the same thing as thought--without language, and no +language without reason. + +Against the assertion that there can be no true language without +reason I have nothing to say. But when the Professor says that +there can be no reason, or thought, without language, his opponents +contend, as it seems to me, with greater force, that thought, though +infinitely aided, extended and rendered definite through the +invention of words, nevertheless existed so fully as to deserve no +other name thousands, if not millions of years before words had +entered into it at all. Words, they say, are a comparatively recent +invention, for the fuller expression of something that was already +in existence. + +Children, they urge, are often evidently thinking and reasoning, +though they can neither think nor speak in words. If you ask me to +define reason, I answer as before that this can no more be done than +thought, truth or motion can be defined. Who has answered the +question, "What is truth?" Man cannot see God and live. We cannot +go so far back upon ourselves as to undermine our own foundations; +if we try to do so we topple over, and lose that very reason about +which we vainly try to reason. If we let the foundations be, we +know well enough that they are there, and we can build upon them in +all security. We cannot, then, define reason nor crib, cabin and +confine it within a thus-far-shalt-thou-go-and-no-further. Who can +define heat or cold, or night or day? Yet, so long as we hold fast +by current consent, our chances of error for want of better +definition are so small that no sensible person will consider them. +In like manner, if we hold by current consent or common sense, which +is the same thing, about reason, we shall not find the want of an +academic definition hinder us from a reasonable conclusion. What +nurse or mother will doubt that her infant child can reason within +the limits of its own experience, long before it can formulate its +reason in articulately worded thought? If the development of any +given animal is, as our opponents themselves admit, an epitome of +the history of its whole anterior development, surely the fact that +speech is an accomplishment acquired after birth so artificially +that children who have gone wild in the woods lose it if they have +ever learned it, points to the conclusion that man's ancestors only +learned to express themselves in articulate language at a +comparatively recent period. Granted that they learn to think and +reason continually the more and more fully for having done so, will +common sense permit us to suppose that they could neither think nor +reason at all till they could convey their ideas in words? + +I will return later to the reason of the lower animals, but will now +deal with the question what it is that constitutes language in the +most comprehensive sense that can be properly attached to it. I +have said already that language to be language at all must not only +convey fairly definite coherent ideas, but must also convey them to +another living being. Whenever two living beings have conveyed and +received ideas, there has been language, whether looks or gestures +or words spoken or written have been the vehicle by means of which +the ideas have travelled. Some ideas crawl, some run, some fly; and +in this case words are the wings they fly with, but they are only +the wings of thought or of ideas, they are not the thought or ideas +themselves, nor yet, as Professor Max Muller would have it, +inseparably connected with them. Last summer I was at an inn in +Sicily, where there was a deaf and dumb waiter; he had been born so, +and could neither write nor read. What had he to do with words or +words with him? Are we to say, then, that this most active, amiable +and intelligent fellow could neither think nor reason? One day I +had had my dinner and had left the hotel. A friend came in, and the +waiter saw him look for me in the place I generally occupied. He +instantly came up to my friend and moved his two forefingers in a +way that suggested two people going about together, this meant "your +friend"; he then moved his forefingers horizontally across his eyes, +this meant, "who wears divided spectacles"; he made two fierce marks +over the sockets of his eyes, this meant, "with the heavy eyebrows"; +he pulled his chin, and then touched his white shirt, to say that my +beard was white. Having thus identified me as a friend of the +person he was speaking to, and as having a white beard, heavy +eyebrows, and wearing divided spectacles, he made a munching +movement with his jaws to say that I had had my dinner; and finally, +by making two fingers imitate walking on the table, he explained +that I had gone away. My friend, however, wanted to know how long I +had been gone, so he pulled out his watch and looked inquiringly. +The man at once slapped himself on the back, and held up the five +fingers of one hand, to say it was five minutes ago. All this was +done as rapidly as though it had been said in words; and my friend, +who knew the man well, understood without a moment's hesitation. +Are we to say that this man had no thought, nor reason, nor +language, merely because he had not a single word of any kind in his +head, which I am assured he had not; for, as I have said, he could +not speak with his fingers? Is it possible to deny that a dialogue-- +an intelligent conversation--had passed between the two men? And +if conversation, then surely it is technical and pedantic to deny +that all the essential elements of language were present. The signs +and tokens used by this poor fellow were as rude an instrument of +expression, in comparison with ordinary language, as going on one's +hands and knees is in comparison with walking, or as walking +compared with going by train; but it is as great an abuse of words +to limit the word "language" to mere words written or spoken, as it +would be to limit the idea of a locomotive to a railway engine. +This may indeed pass in ordinary conversation, where so much must be +suppressed if talk is to be got through at all, but it is +intolerable when we are inquiring about the relations between +thought and words. To do so is to let words become as it were the +masters of thought, on the ground that the fact of their being only +its servants and appendages is so obvious that it is generally +allowed to go without saying. + +If all that Professor Max Muller means to say is, that no animal but +man commands an articulate language, with verbs and nouns, or is +ever likely to command one (and I question whether in reality he +means much more than this), no one will differ from him. No dog or +elephant has one word for bread, another for meat, and another for +water. Yet, when we watch a cat or dog dreaming, as they often +evidently do, can we doubt that the dream is accompanied by a mental +image of the thing that is dreamed of, much like what we experience +in dreams ourselves, and much doubtless like the mental images which +must have passed through the mind of my deaf and dumb waiter? If +they have mental images in sleep, can we doubt that waking, also, +they picture things before their mind's eyes, and see them much as +we do--too vaguely indeed to admit of our thinking that we actually +see the objects themselves, but definitely enough for us to be able +to recognize the idea or object of which we are thinking, and to +connect it with any other idea, object, or sign that we may think +appropriate? + +Here we have touched on the second essential element of language. +We laid it down, that its essence lay in the communication of an +idea from one intelligent being to another; but no ideas can be +communicated at all except by the aid of conventions to which both +parties have agreed to attach an identical meaning. The agreement +may be very informal, and may pass so unconsciously from one +generation to another that its existence can only be recognized by +the aid of much introspection, but it will be always there. A +sayer, a sayee, and a convention, no matter what, agreed upon +between them as inseparably attached to the idea which it is +intended to convey--these comprise all the essentials of language. +Where these are present there is language; where any of them are +wanting there is no language. It is not necessary for the sayee to +be able to speak and become a sayer. If he comprehends the sayer-- +that is to say, if he attaches the same meaning to a certain symbol +as the sayer does--if he is a party to the bargain whereby it is +agreed upon by both that any given symbol shall be attached +invariably to a certain idea, so that in virtue of the principle of +associated ideas the symbol shall never be present without +immediately carrying the idea along with it, then all the essentials +of language are complied with, and there has been true speech though +never a word was spoken. + +The lower animals, therefore, many of them, possess a part of our +own language, though they cannot speak it, and hence do not possess +it so fully as we do. They cannot say "bread," "meat," or "water," +but there are many that readily learn what ideas they ought to +attach to these symbols when they are presented to them. It is idle +to say that a cat does not know what the cat's-meat man means when +he says "meat." The cat knows just as well, neither better nor +worse than the cat's-meat man does, and a great deal better than I +myself understand much that is said by some very clever people at +Oxford or Cambridge. There is more true employment of language, +more bona fide currency of speech, between a sayer and a sayee who +understand each other, though neither of them can speak a word, than +between a sayer who can speak with the tongues of men and of angels +without being clear about his own meaning, and a sayee who can +himself utter the same words, but who is only in imperfect agreement +with the sayer as to the ideas which the words or symbols that he +utters are intended to convey. The nature of the symbols counts for +nothing; the gist of the matter is in the perfect harmony between +sayer and sayee as to the significance that is to be associated with +them. + +Professor Max Muller admits that we share with the lower animals +what he calls an emotional language, and continues that we may call +their interjections and imitations language if we like, as we speak +of the language of the eyes or the eloquence of mute nature, but he +warns us against mistaking metaphor for fact. It is indeed mere +metaphor to talk of the eloquence of mute nature, or the language of +winds and waves. There is no intercommunion of mind with mind by +means of a covenanted symbol; but it is only an apparent, not a +real, metaphor to say that two pairs of eyes have spoken when they +have signalled to one another something which they both understand. +A schoolboy at home for the holidays wants another plate of pudding, +and does not like to apply officially for more. He catches the +servant's eye and looks at the pudding; the servant understands, +takes his plate without a word, and gets him some. Is it metaphor +to say that the boy asked the servant to do this, or is it not +rather pedantry to insist on the letter of a bond and deny its +spirit, by denying that language passed, on the ground that the +symbols covenanted upon and assented to by both were uttered and +received by eyes and not by mouth and ears? When the lady drank to +the gentleman only with her eyes, and he pledged with his, was there +no conversation because there was neither noun nor verb? Eyes are +verbs, and glasses of wine are good nouns enough as between those +who understand one another. Whether the ideas underlying them are +expressed and conveyed by eyeage or by tonguage is a detail that +matters nothing. + +But everything we say is metaphorical if we choose to be captious. +Scratch the simplest expressions, and you will find the metaphor. +Written words are handage, inkage and paperage; it is only by +metaphor, or substitution and transposition of ideas, that we can +call them language. They are indeed potential language, and the +symbols employed presuppose nouns, verbs, and the other parts of +speech; but for the most part it is in what we read between the +lines that the profounder meaning of any letter is conveyed. There +are words unwritten and untranslatable into any nouns that are +nevertheless felt as above, about and underneath the gross material +symbols that lie scrawled upon the paper; and the deeper the feeling +with which anything is written the more pregnant will it be of +meaning which can be conveyed securely enough, but which loses +rather than gains if it is squeezed into a sentence, and limited by +the parts of speech. The language is not in the words but in the +heart-to-heartness of the thing, which is helped by words, but is +nearer and farther than they. A correspondent wrote to me once, +many years ago, "If I could think to you without words you would +understand me better." But surely in this he was thinking to me, +and without words, and I did understand him better. . . . So it is +not by the words that I am too presumptuously venturing to speak to- +night that your opinions will be formed or modified. They will be +formed or modified, if either, by something that you will feel, but +which I have not spoken, to the full as much as by anything that I +have actually uttered. You may say that this borders on mysticism. +Perhaps it does, but there really is some mysticism in nature. + +To return, however, to terra firma. I believe I am right in saying +that the essence of language lies in the intentional conveyance of +ideas from one living being to another through the instrumentality +of arbitrary tokens or symbols agreed upon and understood by both as +being associated with the particular ideas in question. The nature +of the symbol chosen is a matter of indifference; it may be anything +that appeals to human senses, and is not too hot or too heavy; the +essence of the matter lies in a mutual covenant that whatever it is +shall stand invariably for the same thing, or nearly so. + +We shall see this more easily if we observe the differences between +written and spoken language. The written word "stone," and the +spoken word, are each of them symbols arrived at in the first +instance arbitrarily. They are neither of them more like the other +than they are to the idea of a stone which rises before our minds, +when we either see or hear the word, or than this idea again is like +the actual stone itself, but nevertheless the spoken symbol and the +written one each alike convey with certainty the combination of +ideas to which we have agreed to attach them. + +The written symbol is formed with the hand, appeals to the eye, +leaves a material trace as long as paper and ink last, can travel as +far as paper and ink can travel, and can be imprinted on eye after +eye practically ad infinitum both as regards time and space. + +The spoken symbol is formed by means of various organs in or about +the mouth, appeals to the ear, not the eye, perishes instantly +without material trace, and if it lives at all does so only in the +minds of those who heard it. The range of its action is no wider +than that within which a voice can be heard; and every time a fresh +impression is wanted the type must be set up anew. + +The written symbol extends infinitely, as regards time and space, +the range within which one mind can communicate with another; it +gives the writer's mind a life limited by the duration of ink, paper +and readers, as against that of his flesh and blood body. On the +other hand, it takes longer to learn the rules so as to be able to +apply them with ease and security, and even then they cannot be +applied so quickly and easily as those attaching to spoken symbols. +Moreover, the spoken symbols admit of a hundred quick and subtle +adjuncts by way of action, tone and expression, so that no one will +use written symbols unless either for the special advantages of +permanence and travelling power, or because he is incapacitated from +using spoken ones. This, however, is hardly to the point; the point +is that these two conventional combinations of symbols, that are as +unlike one another as the Hallelujah Chorus is to St. Paul's +Cathedral, are the one as much language as the other; and we +therefore inquire what this very patent fact reveals to us about the +more essential characteristics of language itself. What is the +common bond that unites these two classes of symbols that seem at +first sight to have nothing in common, and makes the one raise the +idea of language in our minds as readily as the other? The bond +lies in the fact that both are a set of conventional tokens or +symbols, agreed upon between the parties to whom they appeal as +being attached invariably to the same ideas, and because they are +being made as a means of communion between one mind and another--for +a memorandum made for a person's own later use is nothing but a +communication from an earlier mind to a later and modified one; it +is therefore in reality a communication from one mind to another as +much as though it had been addressed to another person. + +We see, therefore, that the nature of the outward and visible sign +to which the inward and spiritual idea of language is attached does +not matter. It may be the firing of a gun; it may be an old +semaphore telegraph; it may be the movements of a needle; a look, a +gesture, the breaking of a twig by an Indian to tell someone that he +has passed that way: a twig broken designedly with this end in view +is a letter addressed to whomsoever it may concern, as much as +though it had been written out in full on bark or paper. It does +not matter one straw what it is, provided it is agreed upon in +concert, and stuck to. Just as the lowest forms of life +nevertheless present us with all the essential characteristics of +livingness, and are as much alive in their own humble way as the +most highly developed organisms, so the rudest intentional and +effectual communication between two minds through the +instrumentality of a concerted symbol is as much language as the +most finished oratory of Mr. Gladstone. I demur therefore to the +assertion that the lower animals have no language, inasmuch as they +cannot themselves articulate a grammatical sentence. I do not +indeed pretend that when the cat calls upon the tiles it uses what +it consciously and introspectively recognizes as language; it says +what it has to say without introspection, and in the ordinary course +of business, as one of the common forms of courtship. It no more +knows that it has been using language than M. Jourdain knew he had +been speaking prose, but M. Jourdain's knowing or not knowing was +neither here nor there. + +Anything which can be made to hitch on invariably to a definite idea +that can carry some distance--say an inch at the least, and which +can be repeated at pleasure, can be pressed into the service of +language. Mrs. Bentley, wife of the famous Dr. Bentley of Trinity +College, Cambridge, used to send her snuff-box to the college +buttery when she wanted beer, instead of a written order. If the +snuff-box came the beer was sent, but if there was no snuff-box +there was no beer. Wherein did the snuff-box differ more from a +written order, than a written order differs from a spoken one? The +snuff-box was for the time being language. It sounds strange to say +that one might take a pinch of snuff out of a sentence, but if the +servant had helped him or herself to a pinch while carrying it to +the buttery this is what would have been done; for if a snuff-box +can say "Send me a quart of beer," so efficiently that the beer is +sent, it is impossible to say that it is not a bona fide sentence. +As for the recipient of the message, the butler did not probably +translate the snuff-box into articulate nouns and verbs; as soon as +he saw it he just went down into the cellar and drew the beer, and +if he thought at all, it was probably about something else. Yet he +must have been thinking without words, or he would have drawn too +much beer or too little, or have spilt it in the bringing it up, and +we may be sure that he did none of these things. + +You will, of course, observe that if Mrs. Bentley had sent the +snuff-box to the buttery of St. John's College instead of Trinity, +it would not have been language, for there would have been no +covenant between sayer and sayee as to what the symbol should +represent, there would have been no previously established +association of ideas in the mind of the butler of St. John's between +beer and snuff-box; the connection was artificial, arbitrary, and by +no means one of those in respect of which an impromptu bargain might +be proposed by the very symbol itself, and assented to without +previous formality by the person to whom it was presented. More +briefly, the butler of St. John's would not have been able to +understand and read it aright. It would have been a dead letter to +him--a snuff-box and not a letter; whereas to the butler of Trinity +it was a letter and not a snuff-box. You will also note that it was +only at the moment when he was looking at it and accepting it as a +message that it flashed forth from snuff-box-hood into the light and +life of living utterance. As soon as it had kindled the butler into +sending a single quart of beer, its force was spent until Mrs. +Bentley threw her soul into it again and charged it anew by wanting +more beer, and sending it down accordingly. + +Again, take the ring which the Earl of Essex sent to Queen +Elizabeth, but which the queen did not receive. This was intended +as a sentence, but failed to become effectual language because the +sensible material symbol never reached those sentient organs which +it was intended to affect. A book, again, however full of excellent +words it may be, is not language when it is merely standing on a +bookshelf. It speaks to no one, unless when being actually read, or +quoted from by an act of memory. It is potential language as a +lucifer-match is potential fire, but it is no more language till it +is in contact with a recipient mind, than a match is fire till it is +struck, and is being consumed. + +A piece of music, again, without any words at all, or a song with +words that have nothing in the world to do with the ideas which it +is nevertheless made to convey, is very often effectual language. +Much lying, and all irony depends on tampering with covenanted +symbols, and making those that are usually associated with one set +of ideas convey by a sleight of mind others of a different nature. +That is why irony is intolerably fatiguing unless very sparingly +used. Take the song which Blondel sang under the window of King +Richard's prison. There was not one syllable in it to say that +Blondel was there, and was going to help the king to get out of +prison. It was about some silly love affair, but it was a letter +all the same, and the king made language of what would otherwise +have been no language, by guessing the meaning, that is to say, by +perceiving that he was expected to enter then and there into a new +covenant as to the meaning of the symbols that were presented to +him, understanding what this covenant was to be, and acquiescing in +it. + +On the other hand, no ingenuity can torture "language" into being a +fit word to use in connection with either sounds or any other +symbols that have not been intended to convey a meaning, or again in +connection with either sounds or symbols in respect of which there +has been no covenant between sayer and sayee. When we hear people +speaking a foreign language--we will say Welsh--we feel that though +they are no doubt using what is very good language as between +themselves, there is no language whatever as far as we are +concerned. We call it lingo, not language. The Chinese letters on +a tea-chest might as well not be there, for all that they say to us, +though the Chinese find them very much to the purpose. They are a +covenant to which we have been no parties--to which our intelligence +has affixed no signature. + +We have already seen that it is in virtue of such an understood +covenant that symbols so unlike one another as the written word +"stone" and the spoken word alike at once raise the idea of a stone +in our minds. See how the same holds good as regards the different +languages that pass current in different nations. The letters p, i, +e, r, r, e convey the idea of a stone to a Frenchman as readily as +s, t, o, n, e do to ourselves. And why? because that is the +covenant that has been struck between those who speak and those who +are spoken to. Our "stone" conveys no idea to a Frenchman, nor his +"pierre" to us, unless we have done what is commonly called +acquiring one another's language. To acquire a foreign language is +only to learn and adhere to the covenants in respect of symbols +which the nation in question has adopted and adheres to. Till we +have done this we neither of us know the rules, so to speak, of the +game that the other is playing, and cannot, therefore, play +together; but the convention being once known and consented to, it +does not matter whether we raise the idea of a stone by the words +"lapis," or by "lithos," "pietra," "pierre," "stein," "stane" or +"stone"; we may choose what symbols written or spoken we choose, and +one set, unless they are of unwieldy length, will do as well as +another, if we can get other people to choose the same and stick to +them; it is the accepting and sticking to them that matters, not the +symbols. The whole power of spoken language is vested in the +invariableness with which certain symbols are associated with +certain ideas. If we are strict in always connecting the same +symbols with the same ideas, we speak well, keep our meaning clear +to ourselves, and convey it readily and accurately to anyone who is +also fairly strict. If, on the other hand, we use the same +combination of symbols for one thing one day and for another the +next, we abuse our symbols instead of using them, and those who +indulge in slovenly habits in this respect ere long lose the power +alike of thinking and of expressing themselves correctly. The +symbols, however, in the first instance, may be anything in the wide +world that we have a fancy for. They have no more to do with the +ideas they serve to convey than money has with the things that it +serves to buy. + +The principle of association, as everyone knows, involves that +whenever two things have been associated sufficiently together, the +suggestion of one of them to the mind shall immediately raise a +suggestion of the other. It is in virtue of this principle that +language, as we so call it, exists at all, for the essence of +language consists, as I have said perhaps already too often, in the +fixity with which certain ideas are invariably connected with +certain symbols. But this being so, it is hard to see how we can +deny that the lower animals possess the germs of a highly rude and +unspecialized, but still true language, unless we also deny that +they have any ideas at all; and this I gather is what Professor Max +Muller in a quiet way rather wishes to do. Thus he says, "It is +easy enough to show that animals communicate, but this is a fact +which has never been doubted. Dogs who growl and bark leave no +doubt in the minds of other dogs or cats, or even of man, of what +they mean, but growling and barking are not language, nor do they +even contain the elements of language." {230} + +I observe the Professor says that animals communicate without saying +what it is that they communicate. I believe this to have been +because if he said that the lower animals communicate their ideas, +this would be to admit that they have ideas; if so, and if, as they +present every appearance of doing, they can remember, reflect upon, +modify these ideas according to modified surroundings, and +interchange them with one another, how is it possible to deny them +the germs of thought, language, and reason--not to say a good deal +more than the germs? It seems to me that not knowing what else to +say that animals communicated if it was not ideas, and not knowing +what mess he might not get into if he admitted that they had ideas +at all, he thought it safer to omit his accusative case altogether. + +That growling and barking cannot be called a very highly specialized +language goes without saying; they are, however, so much diversified +in character, according to circumstances, that they place a +considerable number of symbols at an animal's command, and he +invariably attaches the same symbol to the same idea. A cat never +purrs when she is angry, nor spits when she is pleased. When she +rubs her head against anyone affectionately it is her symbol for +saying that she is very fond of him, and she expects, and usually +finds that it will be understood. If she sees her mistress raise +her hand as though to pretend to strike her, she knows that it is +the symbol her mistress invariably attaches to the idea of sending +her away, and as such she accepts it. Granted that the symbols in +use among the lower animals are fewer and less highly differentiated +than in the case of any known human language, and therefore that +animal language is incomparably less subtle and less capable of +expressing delicate shades of meaning than our own, these +differences are nevertheless only those that exist between highly +developed and inchoate language; they do not involve those that +distinguish language from no language. They are the differences +between the undifferentiated protoplasm of the amoeba and our own +complex organization; they are not the differences between life and +no life. In animal language as much as in human there is a mind +intentionally making use of a symbol accepted by another mind as +invariably attached to a certain idea, in order to produce that idea +in the mind which it is desired to affect--more briefly, there is a +sayer, a sayee, and a covenanted symbol designedly applied. Our own +speech is vertebrated and articulated by means of nouns, verbs, and +the rules of grammar. A dog's speech is invertebrate, but I do not +see how it is possible to deny that it possesses all the essential +elements of language. + +I have said nothing about Professor R. L. Garner's researches into +the language of apes, because they have not yet been so far verified +and accepted as to make it safe to rely upon them; but when he lays +it down that all voluntary sounds are the products of thought, and +that, if they convey a meaning to another, they perform the +functions of human speech, he says what I believe will commend +itself to any unsophisticated mind. I could have wished, however, +that he had not limited himself to sounds, and should have preferred +his saying what I doubt not he would readily accept--I mean, that +all symbols or tokens of whatever kind, if voluntarily adopted as +such, are the products of thought, and perform the functions of +human speech; but I cannot too often remind you that nothing can be +considered as fulfilling the conditions of language, except a +voluntary application of a recognized token in order to convey a +more or less definite meaning, with the intention doubtless of thus +purchasing as it were some other desired meaning and consequent +sensation. It is astonishing how closely in this respect money and +words resemble one another. Money indeed may be considered as the +most universal and expressive of all languages. For gold and silver +coins are no more money when not in the actual process of being +voluntarily used in purchase, than words not so in use are language. +Pounds, shillings and pence are recognized covenanted tokens, the +outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual purchasing +power, but till in actual use they are only potential money, as the +symbols of language, whatever they may be, are only potential +language till they are passing between two minds. It is the power +and will to apply the symbols that alone gives life to money, and as +long as these are in abeyance the money is in abeyance also; the +coins may be safe in one's pocket, but they are as dead as a log +till they begin to burn in it, and so are our words till they begin +to burn within us. + +The real question, however, as to the substantial underlying +identity between the language of the lower animals and our own, +turns upon that other question whether or no, in spite of an +immeasurable difference of degree, the thought and reason of man and +of the lower animals is essentially the same. No one will expect a +dog to master and express the varied ideas that are incessantly +arising in connection with human affairs. He is a pauper as against +a millionaire. To ask him to do so would be like giving a street- +boy sixpence and telling him to go and buy himself a founder's share +in the New River Company. He would not even know what was meant, +and even if he did it would take several millions of sixpences to +buy one. + +It is astonishing what a clever workman will do with very modest +tools, or again how far a thrifty housewife will make a very small +sum of money go, or again in like manner how many ideas an +intelligent brute can receive and convey with its very limited +vocabulary; but no one will pretend that a dog's intelligence can +ever reach the level of a man's. What we do maintain is that, +within its own limited range, it is of the same essential character +as our own, and that though a dog's ideas in respect of human +affairs are both vague and narrow, yet in respect of canine affairs +they are precise enough and extensive enough to deserve no other +name than thought or reason. We hold moreover that they communicate +their ideas in essentially the same manner as we do--that is to say, +by the instrumentality of a code of symbols attached to certain +states of mind and material objects, in the first instance +arbitrarily, but so persistently, that the presentation of the +symbol immediately carries with it the idea which it is intended to +convey. Animals can thus receive and impart ideas on all that most +concerns them. As my great namesake said some two hundred years +ago, they know "what's what, and that's as high as metaphysic wit +can fly." And they not only know what's what themselves, but can +impart to one another any new what's-whatness that they may have +acquired, for they are notoriously able to instruct and correct one +another. + +Against this Professor Max Muller contends that we can know nothing +of what goes on in the mind of any lower animal, inasmuch as we are +not lower animals ourselves. "We can imagine anything we like about +what passes in the mind of an animal," he writes, "we can know +absolutely nothing." {234} It is something to have it in evidence +that he conceives animals as having a mind at all, but it is not +easy to see how they can be supposed to have a mind, without being +able to acquire ideas, and having acquired, to read, mark, learn and +inwardly digest them. Surely the mistake of requiring too much +evidence is hardly less great than that of being contented with too +little. We, too, are animals, and can no more refuse to infer +reason from certain visible actions in their case than we can in our +own. If Professor Max Muller's plea were allowed, we should have to +deny our right to infer confidently what passes in the mind of +anyone not ourselves, inasmuch as we are not that person. We never, +indeed, can obtain irrefragable certainty about this or any other +matter, but we can be sure enough in many cases to warrant our +staking all that is most precious to us on the soundness of our +opinion. Moreover, if the Professor denies our right to infer that +animals reason, on the ground that we are not animals enough +ourselves to be able to form an opinion, with what right does he +infer so confidently himself that they do not reason? And how, if +they present every one of those appearances which we are accustomed +to connect with the communication of an idea from one mind to +another, can we deny that they have a language of their own, though +it is one which in most cases we can neither speak nor understand? +How can we say that a sentinel rook, when it sees a man with a gun +and warns the other rooks by a concerted note which they all show +that they understand by immediately taking flight, should not be +credited both with reason and the germs of language? + +After all, a professor, whether of philology, psychology, biology, +or any other ology, is hardly the kind of person to whom we should +appeal on such an elementary question as that of animal intelligence +and language. We might as well ask a botanist to tell us whether +grass grows, or a meteorologist to tell us if it has left off +raining. If it is necessary to appeal to anyone, I should prefer +the opinion of an intelligent gamekeeper to that of any professor, +however learned. The keepers, again, at the Zoological Gardens, +have exceptional opportunities for studying the minds of animals-- +modified, indeed, by captivity, but still minds of animals. Grooms, +again, and dog-fanciers, are to the full as able to form an +intelligent opinion on the reason and language of animals as any +University Professor, and so are cat's-meat men. I have repeatedly +asked gamekeepers and keepers at the Zoological Gardens whether +animals could reason and converse with one another, and have always +found myself regarded somewhat contemptuously for having even asked +the question. I once said to a friend, in the hearing of a keeper +at the Zoological Gardens, that the penguin was very stupid. The +man was furious, and jumped upon me at once. "He's not stupid at +all," said he; "he's very intelligent." + +Who has not seen a cat, when it wishes to go out, raise its fore +paws on to the handle of the door, or as near as it can get, and +look round, evidently asking someone to turn it for her? Is it +reasonable to deny that a reasoning process is going on in the cat's +mind, whereby she connects her wish with the steps necessary for its +fulfilment, and also with certain invariable symbols which she knows +her master or mistress will interpret? Once, in company with a +friend, I watched a cat playing with a house-fly in the window of a +ground-floor room. We were in the street, while the cat was inside. +When we came up to the window she gave us one searching look, and, +having satisfied herself that we had nothing for her, went on with +her game. She knew all about the glass in the window, and was sure +we could do nothing to molest her, so she treated us with absolute +contempt, never even looking at us again. + +The game was this. She was to catch the fly and roll it round and +round under her paw along the window-sill, but so gently as not to +injure it nor prevent it from being able to fly again when she had +done rolling it. It was very early spring, and flies were scarce, +in fact there was not another in the whole window. She knew that if +she crippled this one, it would not be able to amuse her further, +and that she would not readily get another instead, and she liked +the feel of it under her paw. It was soft and living, and the +quivering of its wings tickled the ball of her foot in a manner that +she found particularly grateful; so she rolled it gently along the +whole length of the window-sill. It then became the fly's turn. He +was to get up and fly about in the window, so as to recover himself +a little; then she was to catch him again, and roll him softly all +along the window-sill, as she had done before. + +It was plain that the cat knew the rules of her game perfectly well, +and enjoyed it keenly. It was equally plain that the fly could not +make head or tail of what it was all about. If it had been able to +do so it would have gone to play in the upper part of the window, +where the cat could not reach it. Perhaps it was always hoping to +get through the glass, and escape that way; anyhow, it kept pretty +much to the same pane, no matter how often it was rolled. At last, +however, the fly, for some reason or another, did not reappear on +the pane, and the cat began looking everywhere to find it. Her +annoyance when she failed to do so was extreme. It was not only +that she had lost her fly, but that she could not conceive how she +should have ever come to do so. Presently she noted a small knot in +the woodwork of the sill, and it flashed upon her that she had +accidentally killed the fly, and that this was its dead body. She +tried to move it gently with her paw, but it was no use, and for the +time she satisfied herself that the knot and the fly had nothing to +do with one another. Every now and then, however, she returned to +it as though it were the only thing she could think of, and she +would try it again. She seemed to say she was certain there had +been no knot there before--she must have seen it if there had been; +and yet, the fly could hardly have got jammed so firmly into the +wood. She was puzzled and irritated beyond measure, and kept +looking in the same place again and again, just as we do when we +have mislaid something. She was rapidly losing temper and dignity +when suddenly we saw the fly reappear from under the cat's stomach +and make for the window-pane, at the very moment when the cat +herself was exclaiming for the fiftieth time that she wondered where +that stupid fly ever could have got to. No man who has been hunting +twenty minutes for his spectacles could be more delighted when he +suddenly finds them on his own forehead. "So that's where you +were," we seemed to hear her say, as she proceeded to catch it, and +again began rolling it very softly without hurting it, under her +paw. + +My friend and I both noticed that the cat, in spite of her +perplexity, never so much as hinted that we were the culprits. The +question whether anything outside the window could do her good or +harm had long since been settled by her in the negative, and she was +not going to reopen it; she simply cut us dead, and though her +annoyance was so great that she was manifestly ready to lay the +blame on anybody or anything with or without reason, and though she +must have perfectly well known that we were watching the whole +affair with amusement, she never either asked us if we had happened +to see such a thing as a fly go down our way lately, or accused us +of having taken it from her--both of which ideas she would, I am +confident, have been very well able to convey to us if she had been +so minded. + +Now what are thought and reason if the processes that were going +through this cat's mind were not both one and the other? It would +be childish to suppose that the cat thought in words of its own, or +in anything like words. Its thinking was probably conducted through +the instrumentality of a series of mental images. We so habitually +think in words ourselves that we find it difficult to realize +thought without words at all; our difficulty, however, in imagining +the particular manner in which the cat thinks has nothing to do with +the matter. We must answer the question whether she thinks or no, +not according to our own ease or difficulty in understanding the +particular manner of her thinking, but according as her action does +or does not appear to be of the same character as other action that +we commonly call thoughtful. To say that the cat is not +intelligent, merely on the ground that we cannot ourselves fathom +her intelligence--this, as I have elsewhere said, is to make +intelligence mean the power of being understood, rather than the +power of understanding. This nevertheless is what, for all our +boasted intelligence, we generally do. The more we can understand +an animal's ways, the more intelligent we call it, and the less we +can understand these, the more stupid do we declare it to be. As +for plants--whose punctuality and attention to all the details and +routine of their somewhat restricted lines of business is as obvious +as it is beyond all praise--we understand the working of their minds +so little that by common consent we declare them to have no +intelligence at all. + +Before concluding I should wish to deal a little more fully with +Professor Max Muller's contention that there can be no reason +without language, and no language without reason. Surely when two +practised pugilists are fighting, parrying each other's blows, and +watching keenly for an unguarded point, they are thinking and +reasoning very subtly the whole time, without doing so in words. +The machination of their thoughts, as well as its expression, is +actual--I mean, effectuated and expressed by action and deed, not +words. They are unaware of any logical sequence of thought that +they could follow in words as passing through their minds at all. +They may perhaps think consciously in words now and again, but such +thought will be intermittent, and the main part of the fighting will +be done without any internal concomitance of articulated phrases. +Yet we cannot doubt that their action, however much we may +disapprove of it, is guided by intelligence and reason; nor should +we doubt that a reasoning process of the same character goes on in +the minds of two dogs or fighting-cocks when they are striving to +master their opponents. + +Do we think in words, again, when we wind up our watches, put on our +clothes, or eat our breakfasts? If we do, it is generally about +something else. We do these things almost as much without the help +of words as we wink or yawn, or perform any of those other actions +that we call reflex, as it would almost seem because they are done +without reflection. They are not, however, the less reasonable +because wordless. + +Even when we think we are thinking in words, we do so only in half +measure. A running accompaniment of words no doubt frequently +attends our thoughts; but, unless we are writing or speaking, this +accompaniment is of the vaguest and most fitful kind, as we often +find out when we try to write down or say what we are thinking +about, though we have a fairly definite notion of it, or fancy that +we have one, all the time. The thought is not steadily and +coherently governed by and moulded in words, nor does it steadily +govern them. Words and thought interact upon and help one another, +as any other mechanical appliances interact on and help the +invention that first hit upon them; but reason or thought, for the +most part, flies along over the heads of words, working its own +mysterious way in paths that are beyond our ken, though whether some +of our departmental personalities are as unconscious of what is +passing, as that central government is which we alone dub with the +name of "we" or "us," is a point on which I will not now touch. + +I cannot think, then, that Professor Max Muller's contention that +thought and language are identical--and he has repeatedly affirmed +this--will ever be generally accepted. Thought is no more identical +with language than feeling is identical with the nervous system. +True, we can no more feel without a nervous system than we can +discern certain minute organisms without a microscope. Destroy the +nervous system, and we destroy feeling. Destroy the microscope, and +we can no longer see the animalcules; but our sight of the +animalcules is not the microscope, though it is effectuated by means +of the microscope, and our feeling is not the nervous system, though +the nervous system is the instrument that enables us to feel. + +The nervous system is a device which living beings have gradually +perfected--I believe I may say quite truly--through the will and +power which they have derived from a fountain-head, the existence of +which we can infer, but which we can never apprehend. By the help +of this device, and in proportion as they have perfected it, living +beings feel ever with great definiteness, and hence formulate their +feelings in thought with more and more precision. The higher +evolution of thought has reacted on the nervous system, and the +consequent higher evolution of the nervous system has again reacted +upon thought. These things are as power and desire, or supply and +demand, each one of which is continually outstripping, and being in +turn outstripped by the other; but, in spite of their close +connection and interaction, power is not desire, nor demand supply. +Language is a device evolved sometimes by leaps and bounds, and +sometimes exceedingly slowly, whereby we help ourselves alike to +greater ease, precision, and complexity of thought, and also to more +convenient interchange of thought among ourselves. Thought found +rude expression, which gradually among other forms assumed that of +words. These reacted upon thought, and thought again on them, but +thought is no more identical with words than words are with the +separate letters of which they are composed. + +To sum up, then, and to conclude. I would ask you to see the +connection between words and ideas as in the first instance +arbitrary. No doubt in some cases an imitation of the cry of some +bird or wild beast would suggest the name that should be attached to +it; occasionally the sound of an operation such as grinding may have +influenced the choice of the letters g, r, as the root of many words +that denote a grinding, grating, grasping, crushing action; but I +understand that the number of words due to direct imitation is +comparatively few in number, and that they have been mainly coined +as the result of connections so far-fetched and fanciful as to +amount practically to no connection at all. Once chosen, however, +they were adhered to for a considerable time among the dwellers in +any given place, so as to become acknowledged as the vulgar tongue, +and raise readily in the mind of the inhabitants of that place the +ideas with which they had been artificially associated. + +As regards our being able to think and reason without words, the +Duke of Argyll has put the matter as soundly as I have yet seen it +stated. "It seems to me," he wrote, "quite certain that we can and +do constantly think of things without thinking of any sound or word +as designating them. Language seems to me to be necessary for the +progress of thought, but not at all for the mere act of thinking. +It is a product of thought, an expression of it, a vehicle for the +communication of it, and an embodiment which is essential to its +growth and continuity; but it seems to me altogether erroneous to +regard it as an inseparable part of cogitation." + +The following passages, again, are quoted from Sir William Hamilton +in Professor Max Muller's own book, with so much approval as to lead +one to suppose that the differences between himself and his +opponents are in reality less than he believes them to be. + +"Language," says Sir W. Hamilton, "is the attribution of signs to +our cognitions of things. But as a cognition must have already been +there before it could receive a sign, consequently that knowledge +which is denoted by the formation and application of a word must +have preceded the symbol that denotes it. A sign, however, is +necessary to give stability to our intellectual progress--to +establish each step in our advance as a new starting-point for our +advance to another beyond. A country may be overrun by an armed +host, but it is only conquered by the establishment of fortresses. +Words are the fortresses of thought. They enable us to realize our +dominion over what we have already overrun in thought; to make every +intellectual conquest the base of operations for others still +beyond." + +"This," says Professor Max Muller, "is a most happy illustration," +and he proceeds to quote the following, also from Sir William +Hamilton, which he declares to be even happier still. + +"You have all heard," says Sir William Hamilton, "of the process of +tunnelling through a sandbank. In this operation it is impossible +to succeed unless every foot, nay, almost every inch of our progress +be secured by an arch of masonry before we attempted the excavation +of another. Now language is to the mind precisely what the arch is +to the tunnel. The power of thinking and the power of excavation +are not dependent on the words in the one case or on the mason-work +in the other; but without these subsidiaries neither could be +carried on beyond its rudimentary commencement. Though, therefore, +we allow that every movement forward in language must be determined +by an antecedent movement forward in thought, still, unless thought +be accompanied at each point of its evolutions by a corresponding +evolution of language, its further development is arrested." + +Man has evolved an articulate language, whereas the lower animals +seem to be without one. Man, therefore, has far outstripped them in +reasoning faculty as well as in power of expression. This, however, +does not bar the communications which the lower animals make to one +another from possessing all the essential characteristics of +language, and, as a matter of fact, wherever we can follow them we +find such communications effectuated by the aid of arbitrary symbols +covenanted upon by the living beings that wish to communicate, and +persistently associated with certain corresponding feelings, states +of mind, or material objects. Human language is nothing more than +this in principle, however much further the principle has been +carried in our own case than in that of the lower animals. + +This being admitted, we should infer that the thought or reason on +which the language of men and animals is alike founded differs as +between men and brutes in degree but not in kind. More than this +cannot be claimed on behalf of the lower animals, even by their most +enthusiastic admirer. + + + + + +The Deadlock in Darwinism: Part I {245} + + +It will be readily admitted that of all living writers Mr. Alfred +Russel Wallace is the one the peculiar turn of whose mind best fits +him to write on the subject of natural selection, or the +accumulation of fortunate but accidental variations through descent +and the struggle for existence. His mind in all its more essential +characteristics closely resembles that of the late Mr. Charles +Darwin himself, and it is no doubt due to this fact that he and Mr. +Darwin elaborated their famous theory at the same time, and +independently of one another. I shall have occasion in the course +of the following article to show how misled and misleading both +these distinguished men have been, in spite of their unquestionable +familiarity with the whole range of animal and vegetable phenomena. +I believe it will be more respectful to both of them to do this in +the most outspoken way. I believe their work to have been as +mischievous as it has been valuable, and as valuable as it has been +mischievous; and higher, whether praise or blame, I know not how to +give. Nevertheless I would in the outset, and with the utmost +sincerity, admit concerning Messrs. Wallace and Darwin that neither +can be held as the more profound and conscientious thinker; neither +can be put forward as the more ready to acknowledge obligation to +the great writers on evolution who had preceded him, or to place his +own developments in closer and more conspicuous historical +connection with earlier thought upon the subject; neither is the +more ready to welcome criticism and to state his opponent's case in +the most pointed and telling way in which it can be put; neither is +the more quick to encourage new truth; neither is the more genial, +generous adversary, or has the profounder horror of anything even +approaching literary or scientific want of candour; both display the +same inimitable power of putting their opinions forward in the way +that shall best ensure their acceptance; both are equally unrivalled +in the tact that tells them when silence will be golden, and when on +the other hand a whole volume of facts may be advantageously brought +forward. Less than the foregoing tribute both to Messrs. Darwin and +Wallace I will not, and more I cannot pay. + +Let us now turn to the most authoritative exponent of latter-day +evolution--I mean to Mr. Wallace, whose work, entitled Darwinism, +though it should have been entitled Wallaceism, is still so far +Darwinistic that it develops the teaching of Mr. Darwin in the +direction given to it by Mr. Darwin himself--so far, indeed, as this +can be ascertained at all--and not in that of Lamarck. Mr. Wallace +tells us, on the first page of his preface, that he has no intention +of dealing even in outline with the vast subject of evolution in +general, and has only tried to give such an account of the theory of +natural selection as may facilitate a clear conception of Darwin's +work. How far he has succeeded is a point on which opinion will +probably be divided. Those who find Mr. Darwin's works clear will +also find no difficulty in understanding Mr. Wallace; those, on the +other hand, who find Mr. Darwin puzzling are little likely to be +less puzzled by Mr. Wallace. He continues:-- + +"The objections now made to Darwin's theory apply solely to the +particular means by which the change of species has been brought +about, not to the fact of that change." + +But "Darwin's theory"--as Mr. Wallace has elsewhere proved that he +understands--has no reference "to the fact of that change"--that is +to say, to the fact that species have been modified in course of +descent from other species. This is no more Mr. Darwin's theory +than it is the reader's or my own. Darwin's theory is concerned +only with "the particular means by which the change of species has +been brought about"; his contention being that this is mainly due to +the natural survival of those individuals that have happened by some +accident to be born most favourably adapted to their surroundings, +or, in other words, through accumulation in the common course of +nature of the more lucky variations that chance occasionally +purveys. Mr. Wallace's words, then, in reality amount to this, that +the objections now made to Darwin's theory apply solely to Darwin's +theory, which is all very well as far as it goes, but might have +been more easily apprehended if he had simply said, "There are +several objections now made to Mr. Darwin's theory." + +It must be remembered that the passage quoted above occurs on the +first page of a preface dated March, 1889, when the writer had +completed his task, and was most fully conversant with his subject. +Nevertheless, it seems indisputable either that he is still +confusing evolution with Mr. Darwin's theory, or that he does not +know when his sentences have point and when they have none. + +I should perhaps explain to some readers that Mr. Darwin did not +modify the main theory put forward, first by Buffon, to whom it +indisputably belongs, and adopted from him by Erasmus Darwin, +Lamarck, and many other writers in the latter half of the eighteenth +century and the earlier years of the nineteenth. The early +evolutionists maintained that all existing forms of animal and +vegetable life, including man, were derived in course of descent +with modification from forms resembling the lowest now known. + +Mr. Darwin went as far as this, and farther no one can go. The +point at issue between him and his predecessors involves neither the +main fact of evolution, nor yet the geometrical ratio of increase, +and the struggle for existence consequent thereon. Messrs. Darwin +and Wallace have each thrown invaluable light upon these last two +points, but Buffon, as early as 1756, had made them the keystone of +his system. "The movement of nature," he then wrote, "turns on two +immovable pivots: one, the illimitable fecundity which she has +given to all species: the other, the innumerable difficulties which +reduce the results of that fecundity." Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck +followed in the same sense. They thus admit the survival of the +fittest as fully as Mr. Darwin himself, though they do not make use +of this particular expression. The dispute turns not upon natural +selection, which is common to all writers on evolution, but upon the +nature and causes of the variations that are supposed to be selected +from and thus accumulated. Are these mainly attributable to the +inherited effects of use and disuse, supplemented by occasional +sports and happy accidents? Or are they mainly due to sports and +happy accidents, supplemented by occasional inherited effects of use +and disuse? + +The Lamarckian system has all along been maintained by Mr. Herbert +Spencer, who, in his Principles of Biology, published in 1865, +showed how impossible it was that accidental variations should +accumulate at all. I am not sure how far Mr. Spencer would consent +to being called a Lamarckian pure and simple, nor yet how far it is +strictly accurate to call him one; nevertheless, I can see no +important difference in the main positions taken by him and by +Lamarck. + +The question at issue between the Lamarckians, supported by Mr. +Spencer and a growing band of those who have risen in rebellion +against the Charles-Darwinian system on the one hand, and Messrs. +Darwin and Wallace with the greater number of our more prominent +biologists on the other, involves the very existence of evolution as +a workable theory. For it is plain that what Nature can be supposed +able to do by way of choice must depend on the supply of the +variations from which she is supposed to choose. She cannot take +what is not offered to her; and so again she cannot be supposed able +to accumulate unless what is gained in one direction in one +generation, or series of generations, is little likely to be lost in +those that presently succeed. Now variations ascribed mainly to use +and disuse can be supposed capable of being accumulated, for use and +disuse are fairly constant for long periods among the individuals of +the same species, and often over large areas; moreover, conditions +of existence involving changes of habit, and thus of organization, +come for the most part gradually; so that time is given during which +the organism can endeavour to adapt itself in the requisite +respects, instead of being shocked out of existence by too sudden +change. Variations, on the other hand, that are ascribed to mere +chance cannot be supposed as likely to be accumulated, for chance is +notoriously inconstant, and would not purvey the variations in +sufficiently unbroken succession, or in a sufficient number of +individuals, modified similarly in all the necessary correlations at +the same time and place to admit of their being accumulated. It is +vital therefore to the theory of evolution, as was early pointed out +by the late Professor Fleeming Jenkin and by Mr. Herbert Spencer, +that variations should be supposed to have a definite and persistent +principle underlying them, which shall tend to engender similar and +simultaneous modification, however small, in the vast majority of +individuals composing any species. The existence of such a +principle and its permanence is the only thing that can be supposed +capable of acting as rudder and compass to the accumulation of +variations, and of making it hold steadily on one course for each +species, till eventually many havens, far remote from one another, +are safely reached. + +It is obvious that the having fatally impaired the theory of his +predecessors could not warrant Mr. Darwin in claiming, as he most +fatuously did, the theory of evolution. That he is still generally +believed to have been the originator of this theory is due to the +fact that he claimed it, and that a powerful literary backing at +once came forward to support him. It seems at first sight +improbable that those who too zealously urged his claims were +unaware that so much had been written on the subject, but when we +find even Mr. Wallace himself as profoundly ignorant on this subject +as he still either is, or affects to be, there is no limit +assignable to the ignorance or affected ignorance of the kind of +biologists who would write reviews in leading journals thirty years +ago. Mr. Wallace writes:-- + +"A few great naturalists, struck by the very slight difference +between many of these species, and the numerous links that exist +between the most different forms of animals and plants, and also +observing that a great many species do vary considerably in their +forms, colours and habits, conceived the idea that they might be all +produced one from the other. The most eminent of these writers was +a great French naturalist, Lamarck, who published an elaborate work, +the Philosophie Zoologique, in which he endeavoured to prove that +all animals whatever are descended from other species of animals. +He attributed the change of species chiefly to the effect of changes +in the conditions of life--such as climate, food, etc.; and +especially to the desires and efforts of the animals themselves to +improve their condition, leading to a modification of form or size +in certain parts, owing to the well-known physiological law that all +organs are strengthened by constant use, while they are weakened or +even completely lost by disuse. . . . + +"The only other important work dealing with the question was the +celebrated Vestiges of Creation, published anonymously, but now +acknowledged to have been written by the late Robert Chambers." + +None are so blind as those who will not see, and it would be waste +of time to argue with the invincible ignorance of one who thinks +Lamarck and Buffon conceived that all species were produced from one +another, more especially as I have already dealt at some length with +the early evolutionists in my work Evolution, Old and New, first +published ten years ago, and not, so far as I am aware, detected in +serious error or omission. If, however, Mr. Wallace still thinks it +safe to presume so far on the ignorance of his readers as to say +that the only two important works on evolution before Mr. Darwin's +were Lamarck's Philosophie Zoologique and the Vestiges of Creation, +how fathomable is the ignorance of the average reviewer likely to +have been thirty years ago, when the Origin of Species was first +published? Mr. Darwin claimed evolution as his own theory. Of +course, he would not claim it if he had no right to it. Then by all +means give him the credit of it. This was the most natural view to +take, and it was generally taken. It was not, moreover, surprising +that people failed to appreciate all the niceties of Mr. Darwin's +"distinctive feature" which, whether distinctive or no, was +assuredly not distinct, and was never frankly contrasted with the +older view, as it would have been by one who wished it to be +understood and judged upon its merits. It was in consequence of +this omission that people failed to note how fast and loose Mr. +Darwin played with his distinctive feature, and how readily he +dropped it on occasion. + +It may be said that the question of what was thought by the +predecessors of Mr. Darwin is, after all, personal, and of no +interest to the general public, comparable to that of the main +issue--whether we are to accept evolution or not. Granted that Buff +on, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck bore the burden and heat of the day +before Mr. Charles Darwin was born, they did not bring people round +to their opinion, whereas Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace did, and the +public cannot be expected to look beyond this broad and indisputable +fact. + +The answer to this is, that the theory which Messrs. Darwin and +Wallace have persuaded the public to accept is demonstrably false, +and that the opponents of evolution are certain in the end to +triumph over it. Paley, in his Natural Theology, long since brought +forward far too much evidence of design in animal organization to +allow of our setting down its marvels to the accumulation of +fortunate accident, undirected by will, effort and intelligence. +Those who examine the main facts of animal and vegetable +organization without bias will, no doubt, ere long conclude that all +animals and vegetables are derived ultimately from unicellular +organisms, but they will not less readily perceive that the +evolution of species without the concomitance and direction of mind +and effort is as inconceivable as is the independent creation of +every individual species. The two facts, evolution and design, are +equally patent to plain people. There is no escaping from either. +According to Messrs. Darwin and Wallace, we may have evolution, but +are on no account to have it as mainly due to intelligent effort, +guided by ever higher and higher range of sensations, perceptions, +and ideas. We are to set it down to the shuffling of cards, or the +throwing of dice without the play, and this will never stand. + +According to the older men, cards did indeed count for much, but +play counted for more. They denied the teleology of the time--that +is to say, the teleology that saw all adaptation to surroundings as +part of a plan devised long ages since by a quasi-anthropomorphic +being who schemed everything out much as a man would do, but on an +infinitely vaster scale. This conception they found repugnant alike +to intelligence and conscience, but, though they do not seem to have +perceived it, they left the door open for a design more true and +more demonstrable than that which they excluded. By making their +variations mainly due to effort and intelligence, they made organic +development run on all-fours with human progress, and with +inventions which we have watched growing up from small beginnings. +They made the development of man from the amoeba part and parcel of +the story that may be read, though on an infinitely smaller scale, +in the development of our most powerful marine engines from the +common kettle, or of our finest microscopes from the dew-drop. + +The development of the steam-engine and the microscope is due to +intelligence and design, which did indeed utilize chance +suggestions, but which improved on these, and directed each step of +their accumulation, though never foreseeing more than a step or two +ahead, and often not so much as this. The fact, as I have elsewhere +urged, that the man who made the first kettle did not foresee the +engines of the Great Eastern, or that he who first noted the +magnifying power of the dew-drop had no conception of our present +microscopes--the very limited amount, in fact, of design and +intelligence that was called into play at any one point--this does +not make us deny that the steam-engine and microscope owe their +development to design. If each step of the road was designed, the +whole journey was designed, though the particular end was not +designed when the journey was begun. And so is it, according to the +older view of evolution, with the development of those living +organs, or machines, that are born with us, as part of the +perambulating carpenter's chest we call our bodies. The older view +gives us our design, and gives us our evolution too. If it refuses +to see a quasi-anthropomorphic God modelling each species from +without as a potter models clay, it gives us God as vivifying and +indwelling in all His creatures--He in them, and they in Him. If it +refuses to see God outside the universe, it equally refuses to see +any part of the universe as outside God. If it makes the universe +the body of God, it also makes God the soul of the universe. The +question at issue, then, between the Darwinism of Erasmus Darwin and +the neo-Darwinism of his grandson, is not a personal one, nor +anything like a personal one. It not only involves the existence of +evolution, but it affects the view we take of life and things in an +endless variety of most interesting and important ways. It is +imperative, therefore, on those who take any interest in these +matters, to place side by side in the clearest contrast the views of +those who refer the evolution of species mainly to accumulation of +variations that have no other inception than chance, and of that +older school which makes design perceive and develop still further +the goods that chance provides. + +But over and above this, which would be in itself sufficient, the +historical mode of studying any question is the only one which will +enable us to comprehend it effectually. The personal element cannot +be eliminated from the consideration of works written by living +persons for living persons. We want to know who is who--whom we can +depend upon to have no other end than the making things clear to +himself and his readers, and whom we should mistrust as having an +ulterior aim on which he is more intent than on the furthering of +our better understanding. We want to know who is doing his best to +help us, and who is only trying to make us help him, or to bolster +up the system in which his interests are vested. There is nothing +that will throw more light upon these points than the way in which a +man behaves towards those who have worked in the same field with +himself, and, again, than his style. A man's style, as Buffon long +since said, is the man himself. By style, I do not, of course, mean +grammar or rhetoric, but that style of which Buffon again said that +it is like happiness, and vient de la douceur de l'ame. When we +find a man concealing worse than nullity of meaning under sentences +that sound plausibly enough, we should distrust him much as we +should a fellow-traveller whom we caught trying to steal our watch. +We often cannot judge of the truth or falsehood of facts for +ourselves, but we most of us know enough of human nature to be able +to tell a good witness from a bad one. + +However this may be, and whatever we may think of judging systems by +the directness or indirectness of those who advance them, +biologists, having committed themselves too rashly, would have been +more than human if they had not shown some pique towards those who +dared to say, first, that the theory of Messrs. Darwin and Wallace +was unworkable; and secondly, that even though it were workable it +would not justify either of them in claiming evolution. When +biologists show pique at all they generally show a good deal of +pique, but pique or no pique, they shunned Mr. Spencer's objection +above referred to with a persistency more unanimous and obstinate +than I ever remember to have seen displayed even by professional +truth-seekers. I find no rejoinder to it from Mr. Darwin himself, +between 1865 when it was first put forward, and 1882 when Mr. Darwin +died. It has been similarly "ostrichized" by all the leading +apologists of Darwinism, so far at least as I have been able to +observe, and I have followed the matter closely for many years. Mr. +Spencer has repeated and amplified it in his recent work The Factors +of Organic Evolution, but it still remains without so much as an +attempt at serious answer, for the perfunctory and illusory remarks +of Mr. Wallace at the end of his Darwinism cannot be counted as +such. The best proof of its irresistible weight is that Mr. Darwin, +though maintaining silence in respect to it, retreated from his +original position in the direction that would most obviate Mr. +Spencer's objection. + +Yet this objection has been repeatedly urged by the more prominent +anti-Charles-Darwinian authorities, and there is no sign that the +British public is becoming less rigorous in requiring people either +to reply to objections repeatedly urged by men of even moderate +weight, or to let judgment go by default. As regards Mr. Darwin's +claim to the theory of evolution generally, Darwinians are beginning +now to perceive that this cannot be admitted, and either say with +some hardihood that Mr. Darwin never claimed it, or after a few +saving clauses to the effect that this theory refers only to the +particular means by which evolution has been brought about, imply +forthwith thereafter none the less that evolution is Mr. Darwin's +theory. Mr. Wallace has done this repeatedly in his recent +Darwinism. Indeed, I should be by no means sure that on the first +page of his preface, in the passage about "Darwin's theory," which I +have already somewhat severely criticized, he was not intending +evolution by "Darwin's theory," if in his preceding paragraph he had +not so clearly shown that he knew evolution to be a theory of +greatly older date than Mr. Darwin's. + +The history of science--well exemplified by that of the development +theory--is the history of eminent men who have fought against light +and have been worsted. The tenacity with which Darwinians stick to +their accumulation of fortuitous variations is on a par with the +like tenacity shown by the illustrious Cuvier, who did his best to +crush evolution altogether. It always has been thus, and always +will be; nor is it desirable in the interests of Truth herself that +it should be otherwise. Truth is like money--lightly come, lightly +go; and if she cannot hold her own against even gross +misrepresentation, she is herself not worth holding. +Misrepresentation in the long run makes Truth as much as it mars +her; hence our law courts do not think it desirable that pleaders +should speak their bona fide opinions, much less that they should +profess to do so. Rather let each side hoodwink judge and jury as +best it can, and let truth flash out from collision of defence and +accusation. When either side will not collide, it is an axiom of +controversy that it desires to prevent the truth from being +elicited. + +Let us now note the courses forced upon biologists by the +difficulties of Mr. Darwin's distinctive feature. Mr. Darwin and +Mr. Wallace, as is well known, brought the feature forward +simultaneously and independently of one another, but Mr. Wallace +always believed in it more firmly than Mr. Darwin did. Mr. Darwin +as a young man did not believe in it. He wrote before 1839, +"Nature, by making habit omnipotent and its effects hereditary, has +fitted the Fuegian for the climate and productions of his country," +{259a} a sentence than which nothing can coincide more fully with +the older view that use and disuse were the main purveyors of +variations, or conflict more fatally with his own subsequent +distinctive feature. Moreover, as I showed in my last work on +evolution, {259b} in the peroration to his Origin of Species, he +discarded his accidental variations altogether, and fell back on the +older theory, so that the body of the Origin of Species supports one +theory, and the peroration another that differs from it toto coelo. +Finally, in his later editions, he retreated indefinitely from his +original position, edging always more and more continually towards +the theory of his grandfather and Lamarck. These facts convince me +that he was at no time a thoroughgoing Darwinian, but was throughout +an unconscious Lamarckian, though ever anxious to conceal the fact +alike from himself and from his readers. + +Not so with Mr. Wallace, who was both more outspoken in the first +instance, and who has persevered along the path of Wallaceism just +as Mr. Darwin with greater sagacity was ever on the retreat from +Darwinism. Mr. Wallace's profounder faith led him in the outset to +place his theory in fuller daylight than Mr. Darwin was inclined to +do. Mr. Darwin just waved Lamarck aside, and said as little about +him as he could, while in his earlier editions Erasmus Darwin and +Buffon were not so much as named. Mr. Wallace, on the contrary, at +once raised the Lamarckian spectre, and declared it exorcized. He +said the Lamarckian hypothesis was "quite unnecessary." The giraffe +did not "acquire its long neck by desiring to reach the foliage of +the more lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its neck for this +purpose, but because any varieties which occurred among its +antitypes with a longer neck than usual at once secured a fresh +range of pasture over the same ground as their shorter-necked +companions, and on the first scarcity of food were thus enabled to +outlive them." {260} + +"Which occurred" is evidently "which happened to occur" by some +chance of accident unconnected with use and disuse. The word +"accident" is never used, but Mr. Wallace must be credited with this +instance of a desire to give his readers a chance of perceiving that +according to his distinctive feature evolution is an affair of luck, +rather than of cunning. Whether his readers actually did understand +this as clearly as Mr. Wallace doubtless desired that they should, +and whether greater development at this point would not have helped +them to fuller apprehension, we need not now inquire. What was +gained in distinctness might have been lost in distinctiveness, and +after all he did technically put us upon our guard. + +Nevertheless, he too at a pinch takes refuge in Lamarckism. In +relation to the manner in which the eyes of soles, turbots, and +other flat-fish travel round the head so as to become in the end +unsymmetrically placed, he says:-- + +"The eyes of these fish are curiously distorted in order that both +eyes may be upon the upper side, where alone they would be of any +use. . . . Now if we suppose this process, which in the young is +completed in a few days or weeks, to have been spread over thousands +of generations during the development of these fish, those usually +surviving _whose eyes retained more and more of the position into +which the young fish tried to twist them_ [italics mine], the change +becomes intelligible." {261} When it was said by Professor Ray +Lankester--who knows as well as most people what Lamarck taught-- +that this was "flat Lamarckism," Mr. Wallace rejoined that it was +the survival of the modified individuals that did it all, not the +efforts of the young fish to twist their eyes, and the transmission +to descendants of the effects of those efforts. But this, as I said +in my book Evolution, Old and New, is like saying that horses are +swift runners, not by reason of the causes, whatever they were, that +occasioned the direct line of their progenitors to vary towards ever +greater and greater swiftness, but because their more slow-going +uncles and aunts go away. Plain people will prefer to say that the +main cause of any accumulation of favourable modifications consists +rather in that which brings about the initial variations, and in the +fact that these can be inherited at all, than in the fact that the +unmodified individuals were not successful. People do not become +rich because the poor in large numbers go away, but because they +have been lucky, or provident, or more commonly both. If they would +keep their wealth when they have made it they must exclude luck +thenceforth to the utmost of their power and their children must +follow their example, or they will soon lose their money. The fact +that the weaker go to the wall does not bring about the greater +strength of the stronger; it is the consequence of this last and not +the cause--unless, indeed, it be contended that a knowledge that the +weak go to the wall stimulates the strong to exertions which they +would not otherwise so make, and that these exertions produce +inheritable modifications. Even in this case, however, it would be +the exertions, or use and disuse, that would be the main agents in +the modification. But it is not often that Mr. Wallace thus +backslides. His present position is that acquired (as distinguished +from congenital) modifications are not inherited at all. He does +not indeed put his faith prominently forward and pin himself to it +as plainly as could be wished, but under the heading "The Non- +Heredity of Acquired Characters," he writes as follows on p. 440 of +his recent work in reference to Professor Weismann's Theory of +Heredity:-- + +"Certain observations on the embryology of the lower animals are +held to afford direct proof of this theory of heredity, but they are +too technical to be made clear to ordinary readers. A logical +result of the theory is the impossibility of the transmission of +acquired characters, since the molecular structure of the germ-plasm +is already determined within the embryo; and Weismann holds that +there are no facts which really prove that acquired characters can +be inherited, although their inheritance has, by most writers, been +considered so probable as hardly to stand in need of direct proof. + +"We have already seen in the earlier part of this chapter that many +instances of change, imputed to the inheritance of acquired +variations, are really cases of selection." + +And the rest of the remarks tend to convey the impression that Mr. +Wallace adopts Professor Weismann's view, but, curiously enough, +though I have gone through Mr. Wallace's book with a special view to +this particular point, I have not been able to find him definitely +committing himself either to the assertion that acquired +modifications never are inherited, or that they sometimes are so. +It is abundantly laid down that Mr. Darwin laid too much stress on +use and disuse, and a residuary impression is left that Mr. Wallace +is endorsing Professor Weismann's view, but I have found it +impossible to collect anything that enables me to define his +position confidently in this respect. + +This is natural enough, for Mr. Wallace has entitled his book +Darwinism, and a work denying that use and disuse produced any +effect could not conceivably be called Darwinism. Mr. Herbert +Spencer has recently collected many passages from The Origin of +Species and from Animals and Plants under Domestication," {263} +which show how largely, after all, use and disuse entered into Mr. +Darwin's system, and we know that in his later years he attached +still more importance to them. It was out of the question, +therefore, that Mr. Wallace should categorically deny that their +effects were inheritable. On the other hand, the temptation to +adopt Professor Weismann's view must have been overwhelming to one +who had been already inclined to minimize the effects of use and +disuse. On the whole, one does not see what Mr. Wallace could do, +other than what he has done--unless, of course, he changed his +title, or had been no longer Mr. Wallace. + +Besides, thanks to the works of Mr. Spencer, Professor Mivart, +Professor Semper, and very many others, there has for some time been +a growing perception that the Darwinism of Charles Darwin was +doomed. Use and disuse must either do even more than is officially +recognized in Mr. Darwin's later concessions, or they must do a +great deal less. If they can do as much as Mr. Darwin himself said +they did, why should they not do more? Why stop where Mr. Darwin +did? And again, where in the name of all that is reasonable did he +really stop? He drew no line, and on what principle can we say that +so much is possible as effect of use and disuse, but so much more +impossible? If, as Mr. Darwin contended, disuse can so far reduce +an organ as to render it rudimentary, and in many cases get rid of +it altogether, why cannot use create as much as disuse can destroy, +provided it has anything, no matter how low in structure, to begin +with? Let us know where we stand. If it is admitted that use and +disuse can do a good deal, what does a good deal mean? And what is +the proportion between the shares attributable to use and disuse and +to natural selection respectively? If we cannot be told with +absolute precision, let us at any rate have something more definite +than the statement that natural selection is "the most important +means of modification." + +Mr. Darwin gave us no help in this respect; and worse than this, he +contradicted himself so flatly as to show that he had very little +definite idea upon the subject at all. Thus in respect to the +winglessness of the Madeira beetles he wrote:-- + +"In some cases we might easily put down to disuse modifications of +structure, which are wholly or mainly due to natural selection. Mr. +Wollaston has discovered the remarkable fact that 200 beetles, out +of the 550 species (but more are now known) inhabiting Madeira, are +so far deficient in wings that they cannot fly; and that of the 29 +endemic genera no less than 23 have all their species in this +condition! Several facts--namely, that beetles in many parts of the +world are frequently blown out to sea and perish; that the beetles +in Madeira, as observed by Mr. Wollaston, lie much concealed until +the wind lulls and the sun shines; that the proportion of wingless +beetles is larger on the exposed Desertas than in Madeira itself; +and especially the extraordinary fact, so strongly insisted on by +Mr. Wollaston, that certain large groups of beetles, elsewhere +excessively numerous, which absolutely require the use of their +wings are here almost entirely absent;--these several considerations +make me believe that the wingless condition of so many Madeira +beetles is mainly due to the action of natural selection, _combined +probably with disuse_ [italics mine]. For during many successive +generations each individual beetle which flew least, either from its +wings having been ever so little less perfectly developed or from +indolent habit, will have had the best chance of surviving, from not +being blown out to sea; and, on the other hand, those beetles which +most readily took to flight would oftenest have been blown to sea, +and thus destroyed." {265} + +We should like to know, first, somewhere about how much disuse was +able to do after all, and moreover why, if it can do anything at +all, it should not be able to do all. Mr. Darwin says: "Any change +in structure and function which can be effected by small stages is +within the power of natural selection." "And why not," we ask, +"within the power of use and disuse?" Moreover, on a later page we +find Mr. Darwin saying:-- + +"_It appears probable that disuse has been the main agent in +rendering organs rudimentary_ [italics mine]. It would at first +lead by slow steps to the more and more complete reduction of a +part, until at last it has become rudimentary--as in the case of the +eyes of animals inhabiting dark caverns, and of the wings of birds +inhabiting oceanic islands, which have seldom been forced by beasts +of prey to take flight, and have ultimately lost the power of +flying. Again, an organ, useful under certain conditions, might +become injurious under others, as _with the wings of beetles living +on small and exposed islands_; and in this case natural selection +will have aided in reducing the organ, until it was rendered +harmless and rudimentary [italics mine]." {266} + +So that just as an undefined amount of use and disuse was introduced +on the earlier page to supplement the effects of natural selection +in respect of the wings of beetles on small and exposed islands, we +have here an undefined amount of natural selection introduced to +supplement the effects of use and disuse in respect of the identical +phenomena. In the one passage we find that natural selection has +been the main agent in reducing the wings, though use and disuse +have had an appreciable share in the result; in the other, it is use +and disuse that have been the main agents, though an appreciable +share in the result must be ascribed to natural selection. + +Besides, who has seen the uncles and aunts going away with the +uniformity that is necessary for Mr. Darwin's contention? We know +that birds and insects do often get blown out to sea and perish, but +in order to establish Mr. Darwin's position we want the evidence of +those who watched the reduction of the wings during the many +generations in the course of which it was being effected, and who +can testify that all, or the overwhelming majority, of the beetles +born with fairly well-developed wings got blown out to sea, while +those alone survived whose wings were congenitally degenerate. Who +saw them go, or can point to analogous cases so conclusive as to +compel assent from any equitable thinker? + +Darwinians of the stamp of Mr. Thiselton Dyer, Professor Ray +Lankester, or Mr. Romanes, insist on their pound of flesh in the +matter of irrefragable demonstration. They complain of us for not +bringing forward someone who has been able to detect the movement of +the hour-hand of a watch during a second of time, and when we fail +to do so, declare triumphantly that we have no evidence that there +is any connection between the beating of a second and the movement +of the hour-hand. When we say that rain comes from the condensation +of moisture in the atmosphere, they demand of us a rain-drop from +moisture not yet condensed. If they stickle for proof and cavil on +the ninth part of a hair, as they do when we bring forward what we +deem excellent instances of the transmission of an acquired +characteristic, why may not we, too, demand at any rate some +evidence that the unmodified beetles actually did always, or nearly +always, get blown out to sea, during the reduction above referred +to, and that it is to this fact, and not to the masterly inactivity +of their fathers and mothers, that the Madeira beetles owe their +winglessness? If we begin stickling for proof in this way, our +opponents would not be long in letting us know that absolute proof +is unattainable on any subject, that reasonable presumption is our +highest certainty, and that crying out for too much evidence is as +bad as accepting too little. Truth is like a photographic +sensitized plate, which is equally ruined by over and by under +exposure, and the just exposure for which can never be absolutely +determined. + +Surely if disuse can be credited with the vast powers involved in +Mr. Darwin's statement that it has probably "been the main agent in +rendering organs rudimentary," no limits are assignable to the +accumulated effects of habit, provided the effects of habit, or use +and disuse, are supposed, as Mr. Darwin supposed them, to be +inheritable at all. Darwinians have at length woke up to the +dilemma in which they are placed by the manner in which Mr. Darwin +tried to sit on the two stools of use and disuse, and natural +selection of accidental variations, at the same time. The knell of +Charles-Darwinism is rung in Mr. Wallace's present book, and in the +general perception on the part of biologists that we must either +assign to use and disuse such a predominant share in modification as +to make it the feature most proper to be insisted on, or deny that +the modifications, whether of mind or body, acquired during a single +lifetime, are ever transmitted at all. If they can be inherited at +all, they can be accumulated. If they can be accumulated at all, +they can be so, for anything that appears to the contrary, to the +extent of the specific and generic differences with which we are +surrounded. The only thing to do is to pluck them out root and +branch: they are as a cancer which, if the smallest fibre be left +unexcised, will grow again, and kill any system on to which it is +allowed to fasten. Mr. Wallace, therefore, may well be excused if +he casts longing eyes towards Weismannism. + +And what was Mr. Darwin's system? Who can make head or tail of the +inextricable muddle in which he left it? The Origin of Species in +its latest shape is the reduction of hedging to an absurdity. How +did Mr. Darwin himself leave it in the last chapter of the last +edition of the Origin of Species? He wrote:-- + +"I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have +thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified during a +long course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the +natural selection of numerous, successive, slight, favourable +variations; aided in an important manner by the inherited effects of +the use and disuse of parts, and in an unimportant manner--that is, +in relation to adaptive structures whether past or present--by the +direct action of external conditions, and by variations which seem +to us in our ignorance to arise spontaneously. It appears that I +formerly underrated the frequency and value of these latter forms of +variation, as leading to permanent modifications of structure +independently of natural selection." + +The "numerous, successive, slight, favourable variations" above +referred to are intended to be fortuitous, accidental, spontaneous. +It is the essence of Mr. Darwin's theory that this should be so. +Mr. Darwin's solemn statement, therefore, of his theory, after he +had done his best or his worst with it, is, when stripped of +surplusage, as follows:-- + +"The modification of species has been mainly effected by +accumulation of spontaneous variations; it has been aided in an +important manner by accumulation of variations due to use and +disuse, and in an unimportant manner by spontaneous variations; I do +not even now think that spontaneous variations have been very +important, but I used once to think them less important than I do +now." + +It is a discouraging symptom of the age that such a system should +have been so long belauded, and it is a sign of returning +intelligence that even he who has been more especially the alter ego +of Mr. Darwin should have felt constrained to close the chapter of +Charles-Darwinism as a living theory, and relegate it to the +important but not very creditable place in history which it must +henceforth occupy. It is astonishing, however, that Mr. Wallace +should have quoted the extract from the Origin of Species just +given, as he has done on p. 412 of his Darwinism, without betraying +any sign that he has caught its driftlessness--for drift, other than +a desire to hedge, it assuredly has not got. The battle now turns +on the question whether modifications of either structure or +instinct due to use or disuse are ever inherited, or whether they +are not. Can the effects of habit be transmitted to progeny at all? +We know that more usually they are not transmitted to any +perceptible extent, but we believe also that occasionally, and +indeed not infrequently, they are inherited and even intensified. +What are our grounds for this opinion? It will be my object to put +these forward in the following number of the Universal Review. + + + + + +The Deadlock in Darwinism: Part II {271} + + +At the close of my article in last month's number of the Universal +Review, I said I would in this month's issue show why the opponents +of Charles-Darwinism believe the effects of habits acquired during +the lifetime of a parent to produce an effect on their subsequent +offspring, in spite of the fact that we can rarely find the effect +in any one generation, or even in several, sufficiently marked to +arrest our attention. + +I will now show that offspring can be, and not very infrequently is, +affected by occurrences that have produced a deep impression on the +parent organism--the effect produced on the offspring being such as +leaves no doubt that it is to be connected with the impression +produced on the parent. Having thus established the general +proposition, I will proceed to the more particular one--that habits, +involving use and disuse of special organs, with the modifications +of structure thereby engendered, produce also an effect upon +offspring, which, though seldom perceptible as regards structure in +a single, or even in several generations, is nevertheless capable of +being accumulated in successive generations till it amounts to +specific and generic difference. I have found the first point as +much as I can treat within the limits of this present article, and +will avail myself of the hospitality of the Universal Review next +month to deal with the second. + +The proposition which I have to defend is one which no one till +recently would have questioned, and even now those who look most +askance at it do not venture to dispute it unreservedly; they every +now and then admit it as conceivable, and even in some cases +probable; nevertheless they seek to minimize it, and to make out +that there is little or no connection between the great mass of the +cells of which the body is composed, and those cells that are alone +capable of reproducing the entire organism. The tendency is to +assign to these last a life of their own, apart from, and +unconnected with that of the other cells of the body, and to cheapen +all evidence that tends to prove any response on their part to the +past history of the individual, and hence ultimately of the race. + +Professor Weismann is the foremost exponent of those who take this +line. He has naturally been welcomed by English Charles-Darwinians; +for if his view can be sustained, then it can be contended that use +and disuse produce no transmissible effect, and the ground is cut +from under Lamarck's feet; if, on the other hand, his view is +unfounded, the Lamarckian reaction, already strong, will gain still +further strength. The issue, therefore, is important, and is being +fiercely contested by those who have invested their all of +reputation for discernment in Charles-Darwinian securities. + +Professor Weismann's theory is, that at every new birth a part of +the substance which proceeds from parents and which goes to form the +new embryo is not used up in forming the new animal, but remains +apart to generate the germ-cells--or perhaps I should say "germ- +plasm"--which the new animal itself will in due course issue. + +Contrasting the generally received view with his own, Professor +Weismann says that according to the first of these "the organism +produces germ-cells afresh again and again, and that it produces +them entirely from its own substance." While by the second "the +germ-cells are no longer looked upon as the product of the parent's +body, at least as far as their essential part--the specific germ- +plasm--is concerned; they are rather considered as something which +is to be placed in contrast with the tout ensemble of the cells +which make up the parent's body, and the germ-cells of succeeding +generations stand in a similar relation to one another as a series +of generations of unicellular organisms arising by a continued +process of cell-division." {274a} On another page he writes:-- + +"I believe that heredity depends upon the fact that a small portion +of the effective substance of the germ, the germ-plasm, remains +unchanged during the development of the ovum into an organism, and +that this part of the germ-plasm serves as a foundation from which +the germ-cells of the new organism are produced. There is, +therefore, continuity of the germ-plasm from one generation to +another. One might represent the germ-plasm by the metaphor of a +long creeping root-stock from which plants arise at intervals, these +latter representing the individuals of successive generations." +{274b} + +Mr. Wallace, who does not appear to have read Professor Weismann's +essays themselves, but whose remarks are, no doubt, ultimately +derived from the sequel to the passage just quoted from page 266 of +Professor Weismann's book, contends that the impossibility of the +transmission of acquired characters follows as a logical result from +Professor Weismann's theory, inasmuch as the molecular structure of +the germ-plasm that will go to form any succeeding generation is +already predetermined within the still unformed embryo of its +predecessor; "and Weismann," continues Mr. Wallace, "holds that +there are no facts which really prove that acquired characters can +be inherited, although their inheritance has, by most writers, been +considered so probable as hardly to stand in need of direct proof." +{275} + +Professor Weismann, in passages too numerous to quote, shows that he +recognizes this necessity, and acknowledges that the non- +transmission of acquired characters "forms the foundation of the +views" set forth in his book, p. 291. + +Professor Ray Lankester does not commit himself absolutely to this +view, but lends it support by saying (Nature, December 12, 1889): +"It is hardly necessary to say that it has never yet been shown +experimentally that _anything_ acquired by one generation is +transmitted to the next (putting aside diseases)." + +Mr. Romanes, writing in Nature, March 13, 1890, and opposing certain +details of Professor Weismann's theory, so far supports it as to say +that "there is the gravest possible doubt lying against the +supposition that any really inherited decrease is due to the +inherited effects of disuse." The "gravest possible doubt" should +mean that Mr. Romanes regards it as a moral certainty that disuse +has no transmitted effect in reducing an organ, and it should follow +that he holds use to have no transmitted effect in its development. +The sequel, however, makes me uncertain how far Mr. Romanes intends +this, and I would refer the reader to the article which Mr. Romanes +has just published on Weismann in the Contemporary Review for this +current month. + +The burden of Mr. Thiselton Dyer's controversy with the Duke of +Argyll (see Nature, January 16, 1890, et seq.) was that there was no +evidence in support of the transmission of any acquired +modification. The orthodoxy of science, therefore, must be held as +giving at any rate a provisional support to Professor Weismann, but +all of them, including even Professor Weismann himself, shrink from +committing themselves to the opinion that the germ-cells of any +organisms remain in all cases unaffected by the events that occur to +the other cells of the same organism, and until they do this they +have knocked the bottom out of their case. + +From among the passages in which Professor Weismann himself shows a +desire to hedge I may take the following from page 170 of his book:-- + +"I am also far from asserting that the germ-plasm which, as I hold, +is transmitted as the basis of heredity from one generation to +another, is absolutely unchangeable or totally uninfluenced by +forces residing in the organism within which it is transformed into +germ-cells. I am also compelled to admit it as conceivable that +organisms may exert a modifying influence upon their germ-cells, and +even that such a process is to a certain extent inevitable. The +nutrition and growth of the individual must exercise some influence +upon its germ-cells . . . " + +Professor Weismann does indeed go on to say that this influence must +be extremely slight, but we do not care how slight the changes +produced may be, provided they exist and can be transmitted. On an +earlier page (p. 101) he said in regard to variations generally that +we should not expect to find them conspicuous; their frequency would +be enough, if they could be accumulated. The same applies here, if +stirring events that occur to the somatic cells can produce any +effect at all on offspring. A very small effect, provided it can be +repeated and accumulated in successive generations, is all that even +the most exacting Lamarckian will ask for. + +Having now made the reader acquainted with the position taken by the +leading Charles-Darwinian authorities, I will return to Professor +Weismann himself, who declares that the transmission of acquired +characters "at first sight certainly seems necessary," and that "it +appears rash to attempt to dispense with its aid." He continues:-- + +"Many phenomena only appear to be intelligible if we assume the +hereditary transmission of such acquired characters as the changes +which we ascribe to the use or disuse of particular organs, or to +the direct influence of climate. Furthermore, how can we explain +instinct as hereditary habit, unless it has gradually arisen by the +accumulation, through heredity, of habits which were practised in +succeeding generations?" {277} + +I may say in passing that Professor Weismann appears to suppose that +the view of instinct just given is part of the Charles-Darwinian +system, for on page 389 of his book he says "that many observers had +followed Darwin in explaining them [instincts] as inherited habits." +This was not Mr. Darwin's own view of the matter. He wrote:-- + +"If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited--and I think +it can be shown that this does sometimes happen--then the +resemblance between what originally was a habit and an instinct +becomes so close as not to be distinguished. . . . But it would be +the most serious error to suppose that the greater number of +instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation, and then +transmitted by inheritance to succeeding generations. It can be +clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts with which we are +acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could +not possibly have been thus acquired."--[Origin of Species, ed. +1859, p. 209.] + +Again we read: "Domestic instincts are sometimes spoken of as +actions which have become inherited solely from long-continued and +compulsory habit, but this, I think, is not true."--Ibid., p. 214. + +Again: "I am surprised that no one has advanced this demonstrative +case of neuter insects, against the well-known doctrine of inherited +habit, as advanced by Lamarck."--[Origin of Species, ed. 1872, p. +233.] + +I am not aware that Lamarck advanced the doctrine that instinct is +inherited habit, but he may have done so in some work that I have +not seen. + +It is true, as I have more than once pointed out, that in the later +editions of the Origin of Species it is no longer "the _most_ +serious" error to refer instincts generally to inherited habit, but +it still remains "a serious error," and this slight relaxation of +severity does not warrant Professor Weismann in ascribing to Mr. +Darwin an opinion which he emphatically condemned. His tone, +however, is so off-hand, that those who have little acquaintance +with the literature of evolution would hardly guess that he is not +much better informed on this subject than themselves. + +Returning to the inheritance of acquired characters, Professor +Weismann says that this has never been proved either by means of +direct observation or by experiment. "It must be admitted," he +writes, "that there are in existence numerous descriptions of cases +which tend to prove that such mutilations as the loss of fingers, +the scars of wounds, etc., are inherited by the offspring, but in +these descriptions the previous history is invariably obscure, and +hence the evidence loses all scientific value." + +The experiments of M. Brown-Sequard throw so much light upon the +question at issue that I will quote at some length from the summary +given by Mr. Darwin in his Variation of Animals and Plants under +Domestication. {279} Mr. Darwin writes:-- + +"With respect to the inheritance of structures mutilated by injuries +or altered by disease, it was until lately difficult to come to any +definite conclusion." [Then follow several cases in which +mutilations practised for many generations are not found to be +transmitted.] "Notwithstanding," continues Mr. Darwin, "the above +several negative cases, we now possess conclusive evidence that the +effects of operations are sometimes inherited. Dr. Brown-Sequard +gives the following summary of his observations on guinea-pigs, and +this summary is so important that I will quote the whole:-- + +"'1st. Appearance of epilepsy in animals born of parents having +been rendered epileptic by an injury to the spinal cord. + +"'2nd. Appearance of epilepsy also in animals born of parents +having been rendered epileptic by the section of the sciatic nerve. + +"'3rd. A change in the shape of the ear in animals born of parents +in which such a change was the effect of a division of the cervical +sympathetic nerve. + +"'4th. Partial closure of the eyelids in animals born of parents in +which that state of the eyelids had been caused either by the +section of the cervical sympathetic nerve or the removal of the +superior cervical ganglion. + +"'5th. Exophthalmia in animals born of parents in which an injury +to the restiform body had produced that protrusion of the eyeball. +This interesting fact I have witnessed a good many times, and I have +seen the transmission of the morbid state of the eye continue +through four generations. In these animals modified by heredity, +the two eyes generally protruded, although in the parents usually +only one showed exophthalmia, the lesion having been made in most +cases only on one of the corpora restiformia. + +"'6th. Haematoma and dry gangrene of the ears in animals born of +parents in which these ear-alterations had been caused by an injury +to the restiform body near the nib of the calamus. + +"'7th. Absence of two toes out of the three of the hind leg, and +sometimes of the three, in animals whose parents had eaten up their +hind-leg toes which had become anaesthetic from a section of the +sciatic nerve alone, or of that nerve and also of the crural. +Sometimes, instead of complete absence of the toes, only a part of +one or two or three was missing in the young, although in the parent +not only the toes but the whole foot was absent (partly eaten off, +partly destroyed by inflammation, ulceration, or gangrene). + +"'8th. Appearance of various morbid states of the skin and hair of +the neck and face in animals born of parents having had similar +alterations in the same parts, as effects of an injury to the +sciatic nerve.' + +"It should be especially observed that Brown-Sequard had bred during +thirty years many thousand guinea-pigs from animals which had not +been operated upon, and not one of these manifested the epileptic +tendency. Nor has he ever seen a guinea-pig born without toes, +which was not the offspring of parents which had gnawed off their +own toes owing to the sciatic nerve having been divided. Of this +latter fact thirteen instances were carefully recorded, and a +greater number were seen; yet Brown-Sequard speaks of such cases as +one of the rarer forms of inheritance. It is a still more +interesting fact, 'that the sciatic nerve in the congenitally +toeless animal has inherited the power of passing through all the +different morbid states which have occurred in one of its parents +from the time of the division till after its reunion with the +peripheric end. It is not, therefore, simply the power of +performing an action which is inherited, but the power of performing +a whole series of actions, in a certain order.' + +"In most of the cases of inheritance recorded by Brown-Sequard only +one of the two parents had been operated upon and was affected. He +concludes by expressing his belief that 'what is transmitted is the +morbid state of the nervous system,' due to the operation performed +on the parents." + +Mr. Darwin proceeds to give other instances of inherited effects of +mutilations:-- + +"With the horse there seems hardly a doubt that exostoses on the +legs, caused by too much travelling on hard roads, are inherited. +Blumenbach records the case of a man who had his little finger on +the right hand almost cut off, and which in consequence grew +crooked, and his sons had the same finger on the same hand similarly +crooked. A soldier, fifteen years before his marriage, lost his +left eye from purulent ophthalmia, and his two sons were +microphthalmic on the same side." + +The late Professor Rolleston, whose competence as an observer no one +is likely to dispute, gave Mr. Darwin two cases as having fallen +under his own notice, one of a man whose knee had been severely +wounded, and whose child was born with the same spot marked or +scarred, and the other of one who was severely cut upon the cheek, +and whose child was born scarred in the same place. Mr. Darwin's +conclusion was that "the effects of injuries, especially when +followed by disease, or perhaps exclusively when thus followed, are +occasionally inherited." + +Let us now see what Professor Weismann has to say against this. He +writes:-- + +"The only cases worthy of discussion are the well-known experiments +upon guinea-pigs conducted by the French physiologist, Brown- +Sequard. But the explanation of his results is, in my opinion, open +to discussion. In these cases we have to do with the apparent +transmission of artificially produced malformations. . . . All +these effects were said to be transmitted to descendants as far as +the fifth or sixth generation. + +"But we must inquire whether these cases are really due to heredity, +and not to simple infection. In the case of epilepsy, at any rate, +it is easy to imagine that the passage of some specific organism +through the reproductive cells may take place, as in the case of +syphilis. We are, however, entirely ignorant of the nature of the +former disease. This suggested explanation may not perhaps apply to +the other cases; but we must remember that animals which have been +subjected to such severe operations upon the nervous system have +sustained a great shock, and if they are capable of breeding, it is +only probable that they will produce weak descendants, and such as +are easily affected by disease. Such a result does not, however, +explain why the offspring should suffer from the same disease as +that which was artificially induced in the parents. But this does +not appear to have been by any means invariably the case. Brown- +Sequard himself says: 'The changes in the eye of the offspring were +of a very variable nature, and were only occasionally exactly +similar to those observed in the parents.' + +"There is no doubt, however, that these experiments demand careful +consideration, but before they can claim scientific recognition, +they must be subjected to rigid criticism as to the precautions +taken, the nature and number of the control experiments, etc. + +"Up to the present time such necessary conditions have not been +sufficiently observed. The recent experiments themselves are only +described in short preliminary notices, which, as regards their +accuracy, the possibility of mistake, the precautions taken, and the +exact succession of individuals affected, afford no data on which a +scientific opinion can be founded" (pp. 81, 82). + +The line Professor Weismann takes, therefore, is to discredit the +facts; yet on a later page we find that the experiments have since +been repeated by Obersteiner, "who has described them in a very +exact and unprejudiced manner," and that "the fact"--(I imagine that +Professor Weismann intends "the facts")--"cannot be doubted." + +On a still later page, however, we read:-- + +"If, for instance, it could be shown that artificial mutilation +spontaneously reappears in the offspring with sufficient frequency +to exclude all possibilities of chance, then such proof [i.e. that +acquired characters can be transmitted] would be forthcoming. The +transmission of mutilations has been frequently asserted, and has +been even recently again brought forward, but all the supposed +instances have broken down when carefully examined" (p. 390). + +Here, then, we are told that proof of the occasional transmission of +mutilations would be sufficient to establish the fact, but on p. 267 +we find that no single fact is known which really proves that +acquired characters can be transmitted, "_for the ascertained facts +which seem to point to the transmission of artificially produced +diseases cannot be considered as proof_." [Italics mine.] Perhaps; +but it was mutilation in many cases that Professor Weismann +practically admitted to have been transmitted when he declared that +Obersteiner had verified Brown-Sequard's experiments. + +That Professor Weismann recognizes the vital importance to his own +theory of the question whether or no mutilations can be transmitted +under any circumstances, is evident from a passage on p. 425 of his +work, on which he says: "It can hardly be doubted that mutilations +are acquired characters; they do not arise from any tendency +contained in the germ, but are merely the reaction of the body under +certain external influences. They are, as I have recently expressed +it, purely somatogenic characters--viz. characters which emanate +from the body (soma) only, as opposed to the germ-cells; they are, +therefore, characters that do not arise from the germ itself. + +"If mutilations must necessarily be transmitted" [which no one that +I know of has maintained], "or even if they might occasionally be +transmitted" [which cannot, I imagine, be reasonably questioned], "a +powerful support would be given to the Lamarckian principle, and the +transmission of functional hypertrophy or atrophy would thus become +highly probable." + +I have not found any further attempt in Professor Weismann's book to +deal with the evidence adduced by Mr. Darwin to show that +mutilations, if followed by diseases, are sometimes inherited; and I +must leave it to the reader to determine how far Professor Weismann +has shown reason for rejecting Mr. Darwin's conclusion. I do not, +however, dwell upon these facts now as evidence of a transmitted +change of bodily form, or of instinct due to use and disuse or +habit; what they prove is that the germ-cells within the parent's +body do not stand apart from the other cells of the body so +completely as Professor Weismann would have us believe, but that, as +Professor Hering, of Prague, has aptly said, they echo with more or +less frequency and force to the profounder impressions made upon +other cells. + +I may say that Professor Weismann does not more cavalierly wave +aside the mass of evidence collected by Mr. Darwin and a host of +other writers, to the effect that mutilations are sometimes +inherited, than does Mr. Wallace, who says that, "as regards +mutilations, it is generally admitted that they are not inherited, +and there is ample evidence on this point." It is indeed generally +admitted that mutilations, when not followed by disease, are very +rarely, if ever, inherited; and Mr. Wallace's appeal to the "ample +evidence" which he alleges to exist on this head, is much as though +he should say that there is ample evidence to show that the days are +longer in summer than in winter. "Nevertheless," he continues, "a +few cases of apparent inheritance of mutilations have been recorded, +and these, if trustworthy, are difficulties in the way of the +theory." . . . "The often-quoted case of a disease induced by +mutilation being inherited (Brown-Sequard's epileptic guinea-pigs) +has been discussed by Professor Weismann and shown to be not +conclusive. The mutilation itself--a section of certain nerves--was +never inherited, but the resulting epilepsy, or a general state of +weakness, deformity, or sores, was sometimes inherited. It is, +however, possible that the mere injury introduced and encouraged the +growth of certain microbes, which, spreading through the organism, +sometimes reached the germ-cells, and thus transmitted a diseased +condition to the offspring." {286} + +I suppose a microbe which made guinea-pigs eat their toes off was +communicated to the germ-cells of an unfortunate guinea-pig which +had been already microbed by it, and made the offspring bite its +toes off too. The microbe has a good deal to answer for. + +On the case of the deterioration of horses in the Falkland Islands +after a few generations, Professor Weismann says:-- + +"In such a case we have only to assume that the climate which is +unfavourable, and nutriment which is insufficient for horses, affect +not only the animal as a whole but also its germ-cells. This would +result in the diminution in size of the germ-cells, the effects upon +the offspring being still further intensified by the insufficient +nourishment supplied during growth. But such results would not +depend upon the transmission by the germ-cells of certain +peculiarities due to the unfavourable climate, which only appear in +the full-grown horse." + +But Professor Weismann does not like such cases, and admits that he +cannot explain the facts in connection with the climatic varieties +of certain butterflies, except "by supposing the passive acquisition +of characters produced by the direct influence of climate." + +Nevertheless, in his next paragraph but one he calls such cases +"doubtful," and proposes that for the moment they should be left +aside. He accordingly leaves them, but I have not yet found what +other moment he considered auspicious for returning to them. He +tells us that "new experiments will be necessary, and that he has +himself already begun to undertake them." Perhaps he will give us +the results of these experiments in some future book--for that they +will prove satisfactory to him can hardly, I think, be doubted. He +writes:-- + +"Leaving on one side, for the moment, these doubtful and +insufficiently investigated cases, we may still maintain that the +assumption that changes induced by external conditions in the +organism as a whole are communicated to the germ-cells after the +manner indicated in Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis, is wholly +unnecessary for the explanation of these phenomena. Still we cannot +exclude the possibility of such a transmission occasionally +occurring, for even if the greater part of the effects must be +attributable to natural selection, there might be a smaller part in +certain cases which depends on this exceptional factor." + +I repeatedly tried to understand Mr. Darwin's theory of pangenesis, +and so often failed that I long since gave the matter up in despair. +I did so with the less unwillingness because I saw that no one else +appeared to understand the theory, and that even Mr. Darwin's +warmest adherents regarded it with disfavour. If Mr. Darwin means +that every cell of the body throws off minute particles that find +their way to the germ-cells, and hence into the new embryo, this is +indeed difficult of comprehension and belief. If he means that the +rhythms or vibrations that go on ceaselessly in every cell of the +body communicate themselves with greater or less accuracy or +perturbation, as the case may be, to the cells that go to form +offspring, and that since the characteristics of matter are +determined by vibrations, in communicating vibrations they in effect +communicate matter, according to the view put forward in the last +chapter of my book Luck or Cunning, then we can better understand +it. I have nothing, however, to do with Mr. Darwin's theory of +pangenesis beyond avoiding the pretence that I understand either the +theory itself or what Professor Weismann says about it; all I am +concerned with is Professor Weismann's admission, made immediately +afterwards, that the somatic cells may, and perhaps sometimes do, +impart characteristics to the germ-cells. + +"A complete and satisfactory refutation of such an opinion," he +continues, "cannot be brought forward at present"; so I suppose we +must wait a little longer, but in the meantime we may again remark +that, if we admit even occasional communication of changes in the +somatic cells to the germ-cells, we have let in the thin end of the +wedge, as Mr. Darwin did when he said that use and disuse did a good +deal towards modification. Buffon, in his first volume on the lower +animals, {288} dwells on the impossibility of stopping the breach +once made by admission of variation at all. "If the point," he +writes, "were once gained, that among animals and vegetables there +had been, I do not say several species, but even a single one, which +had been produced in the course of direct descent from another +species; if, for example, it could be once shown that the ass was +but a degeneration from the horse--then there is no farther limit to +be set to the power of Nature, and we should not be wrong in +supposing that with sufficient time she could have evolved all other +organized forms from one primordial type." So with use and disuse +and transmission of acquired characteristics generally--once show +that a single structure or instinct is due to habit in preceding +generations, and we can impose no limit on the results achievable by +accumulation in this respect, nor shall we be wrong in conceiving it +as possible that all specialization, whether of structure or +instinct, may be due ultimately to habit. + +How far this can be shown to be probable is, of course, another +matter, but I am not immediately concerned with this; all I am +concerned with now is to show that the germ-cells not unfrequently +become permanently affected by events that have made a profound +impression upon the somatic cells, in so far that they transmit an +obvious reminiscence of the impression to the embryos which they go +subsequently towards forming. This is all that is necessary for my +case, and I do not find that Professor Weismann, after all, disputes +it. + +But here, again, comes the difficulty of saying what Professor +Weismann does, and what he does not, dispute. One moment he gives +all that is wanted for the Lamarckian contention, the next he denies +common sense the bare necessaries of life. For a more exhaustive +and detailed criticism of Professor Weismann's position, I would +refer the reader to an admirably clear article by Mr. Sidney H. +Vines, which appeared in Nature, October 24, 1889. I can only say +that while reading Professor Weismann's book, I feel as I do when I +read those of Mr. Darwin, and of a good many other writers on +biology whom I need not name. I become like a fly in a window-pane. +I see the sunshine and freedom beyond, and buzz up and down their +pages, ever hopeful to get through them to the fresh air without, +but ever kept back by a mysterious something, which I feel but +cannot either grasp or see. It was not thus when I read Buffon, +Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck; it is not thus when I read such +articles as Mr. Vines's just referred to. Love of self-display, and +the want of singleness of mind that it inevitably engenders--these, +I suppose, are the sins that glaze the casements of most men's +minds; and from these, no matter how hard he tries to free himself, +nor how much he despises them, who is altogether exempt? + +Finally, then, when we consider the immense mass of evidence +referred to briefly, but sufficiently, by Mr. Charles Darwin, and +referred to without other, for the most part, than off-hand +dismissal by Professor Weismann in the last of the essays that have +been recently translated, I do not see how anyone who brings an +unbiased mind to the question can hesitate as to the side on which +the weight of testimony inclines. Professor Weismann declares that +"the transmission of mutilations may be dismissed into the domain of +fable." {290} If so, then, whom can we trust? What is the use of +science at all if the conclusions of a man as competent as I readily +admit Mr. Darwin to have been, on the evidence laid before him from +countless sources, is to be set aside lightly and without giving the +clearest and most cogent explanation of the why and wherefore? When +we see a person "ostrichizing" the evidence which he has to meet, as +clearly as I believe Professor Weismann to be doing, we shall in +nine cases out of ten be right in supposing that he knows the +evidence to be too strong for him. + + + + + +The Deadlock in Darwinism: Part III + + +Now let me return to the recent division of biological opinion into +two main streams--Lamarckism and Weismannism. Both Lamarckians and +Weismannists, not to mention mankind in general, admit that the +better adapted to its surroundings a living form may be, the more +likely it is to outbreed its compeers. The world at large, again, +needs not to be told that the normal course is not unfrequently +deflected through the fortunes of war; nevertheless, according to +Lamarckians and Erasmus-Darwinians, habitual effort, guided by ever- +growing intelligence--that is to say, by continued increase of power +in the matter of knowing our likes and dislikes--has been so much +the main factor throughout the course of organic development, that +the rest, though not lost sight of, may be allowed to go without +saying. According, on the other hand, to extreme Charles-Darwinians +and Weismannists, habit, effort and intelligence acquired during the +experience of any one life goes for nothing. Not even a little +fraction of it endures to the benefit of offspring. It dies with +him in whom it is acquired, and the heirs of a man's body take no +interest therein. To state this doctrine is to arouse instinctive +loathing; it is my fortunate task to maintain that such a nightmare +of waste and death is as baseless as it is repulsive. + +The split in biological opinion occasioned by the deadlock to which +Charles-Darwinism has been reduced, though comparatively recent, +widens rapidly. Ten years ago Lamarck's name was mentioned only as +a byword for extravagance; now, we cannot take up a number of Nature +without seeing how hot the contention is between his followers and +those of Weismann. This must be referred, as I implied earlier, to +growing perception that Mr. Darwin should either have gone farther +towards Lamarckism or not so far. In admitting use and disuse as +freely as he did, he gave Lamarckians leverage for the overthrow of +a system based ostensibly on the accumulation of fortunate +accidents. In assigning the lion's share of development to the +accumulation of fortunate accidents, he tempted fortuitists to try +to cut the ground from under Lamarck's feet by denying that the +effects of use and disuse can be inherited at all. When the public +had once got to understand what Lamarck had intended, and wherein +Mr. Charles Darwin had differed from him, it became impossible for +Charles-Darwinians to remain where they were, nor is it easy to see +what course was open to them except to cast about for a theory by +which they could get rid of use and disuse altogether. Weismannism, +therefore, is the inevitable outcome of the straits to which +Charles-Darwinians were reduced through the way in which their +leader had halted between two opinions. + +This is why Charles-Darwinians, from Professor Huxley downwards, +have kept the difference between Lamarck's opinions and those of Mr. +Darwin so much in the background. Unwillingness to make this +understood is nowhere manifested more clearly than in Dr. Francis +Darwin's life of his father. In this work Lamarck is sneered at +once or twice and told to go away, but there is no attempt to state +the two cases side by side; from which, as from not a little else, I +conclude that Dr. Francis Darwin has descended from his father with +singularly little modification. + +Proceeding to the evidence for the transmissions of acquired habits, +I will quote two recently adduced examples from among the many that +have been credibly attested. The first was contributed to Nature +(March 14, 1889) by Professor Marcus M. Hartog, who wrote:-- + +"A. B. is moderately myopic and very astigmatic in the left eye; +extremely myopic in the right. As the left eye gave such bad images +for near objects, he was compelled in childhood to mask it, and +acquired the habit of leaning his head on his left arm for writing, +so as to blind that eye, or of resting the left temple and eye on +the hand, with the elbow on the table. At the age of fifteen the +eyes were equalized by the use of suitable spectacles, and he soon +lost the habit completely and permanently. He is now the father of +two children, a boy and a girl, whose vision (tested repeatedly and +fully) is emmetropic in both eyes, so that they have not inherited +the congenital optical defect of their father. All the same, they +have both of them inherited his early acquired habit, and need +constant watchfulness to prevent their hiding the left eye when +writing, by resting the head on the left forearm or hand. Imitation +is here quite out of the question. + +"Considering that every habit involves changes in the proportional +development of the muscular and osseous systems, and hence probably +of the nervous system also, the importance of inherited habits, +natural or acquired, cannot be overlooked in the general theory of +inheritance. I am fully aware that I shall be accused of flat +Lamarckism, but a nickname is not an argument." + +To this Professor Ray Lankester rejoined (Nature, March 21, 1889):-- + +"It is not unusual for children to rest the head on the left forearm +or hand when writing, and I doubt whether much value can be attached +to the case described by Professor Hartog. The kind of observation +which his letter suggests is, however, likely to lead to results +either for or against the transmission of acquired characters. An +old friend of mine lost his right arm when a schoolboy, and has ever +since written with his left. He has a large family and +grandchildren, but I have not heard of any of them showing a +disposition to left-handedness." + +From Nature (March 21, 1889) I take the second instance communicated +by Mr. J. Jenner-Weir, who wrote as follows:-- + +"Mr. Marcus M. Hartog's letter of March 6th, inserted in last week's +number (p. 462), is a very valuable contribution to the growing +evidence that acquired characters may be inherited. I have long +held the view that such is often the case, and I have myself +observed several instances of the, at least I may say, apparent +fact. + +"Many years ago there was a very fine male of the Capra megaceros in +the gardens of the Zoological Society. To restrain this animal from +jumping over the fence of the enclosure in which he was confined, a +long and heavy chain was attached to the collar round his neck. He +was constantly in the habit of taking this chain up by his horns and +moving it from one side to another over his back; in doing this he +threw his head very much back, his horns being placed in a line with +the back. The habit had become quite chronic with him, and was very +tiresome to look at. I was very much astonished to observe that his +offspring inherited the habit, and although it was not necessary to +attach a chain to their necks, I have often seen a young male +throwing his horns over his back and shifting from side to side an +imaginary chain. The action was exactly the same as that of his +ancestor. The case of the kid of this goat appears to me to be +parallel to that of child and parent given by Mr. Hartog. I think +at the time I made this observation I informed Mr. Darwin of the +fact by letter, and he did not accuse me of 'flat Lamarckism.'" + +To this letter there was no rejoinder. It may be said, of course, +that the action of the offspring in each of these cases was due to +accidental coincidence only. Anything can be said, but the question +turns not on what an advocate can say, but on what a reasonably +intelligent and disinterested jury will believe; granted they might +be mistaken in accepting the foregoing stories, but the world of +science, like that of commerce, is based on the faith or confidence +which both creates and sustains them. Indeed the universe itself is +but the creature of faith, for assuredly we know of no other +foundation. There is nothing so generally and reasonably accepted-- +not even our own continued identity--but questions may be raised +about it that will shortly prove unanswerable. We cannot so test +every sixpence given us in change as to be sure that we never take a +bad one, and had better sometimes be cheated than reduce caution to +an absurdity. Moreover, we have seen from the evidence given in my +preceding article that the germ-cells issuing from a parent's body +can, and do, respond to profound impressions made on the somatic +cells. This being so, what impressions are more profound, what +needs engage more assiduous attention than those connected with +self-protection, the procuring of food, and the continuation of the +species? If the mere anxiety connected with an ill-healing wound +inflicted on but one generation is sometimes found to have so +impressed the germ-cells that they hand down its scars to offspring, +how much more shall not anxieties that have directed action of all +kinds from birth till death, not in one generation only but in a +longer series of generations than the mind can realize to itself, +modify, and indeed control, the organization of every species? + +I see Professor S. H. Vines, in the article on Weismann's theory +referred to in my preceding article, says Mr. Darwin "held that it +was not the sudden variations due to altered external conditions +which become permanent, but those slowly produced by what he termed +'the accumulative action of changed conditions of life.'" Nothing +can be more soundly Lamarckian, and nothing should more conclusively +show that, whatever else Mr. Darwin was, he was not a Charles- +Darwinian; but what evidence other than inferential can from the +nature of the case be adduced in support of this, as I believe, +perfectly correct judgment? None know better than they who clamour +for direct evidence that their master was right in taking the +position assigned to him by Professor Vines, that they cannot +reasonably look for it. With us, as with themselves, modification +proceeds very gradually, and it violates our principles as much as +their own to expect visible permanent progress, in any single +generation, or indeed in any number of generations of wild species +which we have yet had time to observe. Occasionally we can find +such cases, as in that of Branchipus stagnalis, quoted by Mr. +Wallace, or in that of the New Zealand Kea whose skin, I was assured +by the late Sir Julius von Haast, has already been modified as a +consequence of its change of food. Here we can show that in even a +few generations structure is modified under changed conditions of +existence, but as we believe these cases to occur comparatively +rarely, so it is still more rarely that they occur when and where we +can watch them. Nature is eminently conservative, and fixity of +type, even under considerable change of conditions, is surely more +important for the well-being of any species than an over-ready power +of adaptation to, it may be, passing changes. There could be no +steady progress if each generation were not mainly bound by the +traditions of those that have gone before it. It is evolution and +not incessant revolution that both parties are upholding; and this +being so, rapid visible modification must be the exception, not the +rule. I have quoted direct evidence adduced by competent observers, +which is, I believe, sufficient to establish the fact that offspring +can be and is sometimes modified by the acquired habits of a +progenitor. I will now proceed to the still more, as it appears to +me, cogent proof afforded by general considerations. + +What, let me ask, are the principal phenomena of heredity? There +must be physical continuity between parent, or parents, and +offspring, so that the offspring is, as Erasmus Darwin well said, a +kind of elongation of the life of the parent. + +Erasmus Darwin put the matter so well that I may as well give his +words in full; he wrote:-- + +"Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new +animal, but is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent, since +a part of the embryon animal is, or was, a part of the parent, and +therefore, in strict language, cannot be said to be entirely new at +the time of its production; and therefore it may retain some of the +habits of the parent system. + +"At the earliest period of its existence the embryon would seem to +consist of a living filament with certain capabilities of +irritation, sensation, volition, and association, and also with some +acquired habits or propensities peculiar to the parent; the former +of these are in common with other animals; the latter seem to +distinguish or produce the kind of animal, whether man or quadruped, +with the similarity of feature or form to the parent." {299} + +Those who accept evolution insist on unbroken physical continuity +between the earliest known life and ourselves, so that we both are +and are not personally identical with the unicellular organism from +which we have descended in the course of many millions of years, +exactly in the same ways as an octogenarian both is and is not +personally identical with the microscopic impregnate ovum from which +he grew up. Everything both is and is not. There is no such thing +as strict identity between any two things in any two consecutive +seconds. In strictness they are identical and yet not identical, so +that in strictness they violate a fundamental rule of strictness-- +namely, that a thing shall never be itself and not itself at one and +the same time; we must choose between logic and dealing in a +practical spirit with time and space; it is not surprising, +therefore, that logic, in spite of the show of respect outwardly +paid to her, is told to stand aside when people come to practice. +In practice identity is generally held to exist where continuity is +only broken slowly and piecemeal; nevertheless, that occasional +periods of even rapid change are not held to bar identity, appears +from the fact that no one denies this to hold between the +microscopically small impregnate ovum and the born child that +springs from it, nor yet, therefore, between the impregnate ovum and +the octogenarian into which the child grows; for both ovum and +octogenarian are held personally identical with the new-born baby, +and things that are identical with the same are identical with one +another. + +The first, then, and most important element of heredity is that +there should be unbroken continuity, and hence sameness of +personality, between parents and offspring, in neither more nor less +than the same sense as that in which any other two personalities are +said to be the same. The repetition, therefore, of its +developmental stages by any offspring must be regarded as something +which the embryo repeating them has already done once, in the person +of one or other parent; and if once, then, as many times as there +have been generations between any given embryo now repeating it, and +the point in life from which we started--say, for example, the +amoeba. In the case of asexually and sexually produced organisms +alike, the offspring must be held to continue the personality of the +parent or parents, and hence on the occasion of every fresh +development, to be repeating something which in the person of its +parent or parents it has done once, and if once, then any number of +times, already. + +It is obvious, therefore, that the germ-plasm (or whatever the fancy +word for it may be) of any one generation is as physically identical +with the germ-plasm of its predecessor as any two things can be. +The difference between Professor Weismann and, we will say, +Heringians consists in the fact that the first maintains the new +germ-plasm when on the point of repeating its developmental +processes to take practically no cognisance of anything that has +happened to it since the last occasion on which it developed itself; +while the latter maintain that offspring takes much the same kind of +account of what has happened to it in the persons of its parents +since the last occasion on which it developed itself, as people in +ordinary life take things that happen to them. In daily life people +let fairly normal circumstances come and go without much heed as +matters of course. If they have been lucky they make a note of it +and try to repeat their success. If they have been unfortunate but +have recovered rapidly they soon forget it; if they have suffered +long and deeply they grizzle over it and are scared and scarred by +it for a long time. The question is one of cognisance or non- +cognisance on the part of the new germs, of the more profound +impressions made on them while they were one with their parents, +between the occasion of their last preceding development and the new +course on which they are about to enter. Those who accept the +theory put forward independently by Professor Hering of Prague +(whose work on this subject is translated in my book Unconscious +Memory) and by myself in Life and Habit, believe in cognisance as do +Lamarckians generally. Weismannites, and with them the orthodoxy of +English science, find non-cognisance more acceptable. + +If the Heringian view is accepted, that heredity is only a mode of +memory, and an extension of memory from one generation to another, +then the repetition of its development by any embryo thus becomes +only the repetition of a lesson learned by rote; and, as I have +elsewhere said, our view of life is simplified by finding that it is +no longer an equation of, say, a hundred unknown quantities, but of +ninety-nine only, inasmuch as two of the unknown quantities prove to +be substantially identical. In this case the inheritance of +acquired characteristics cannot be disputed, for it is postulated in +the theory that each embryo takes note of, remembers and is guided +by the profounder impressions made upon it while in the persons of +its parents, between its present and last preceding development. To +maintain this is to maintain use and disuse to be the main factors +throughout organic development; to deny it is to deny that use and +disuse can have any conceivable effect. For the detailed reasons +which led me to my own conclusions I must refer the reader to my +books Life and Habit and Unconscious Memory, the conclusions of +which have been often adopted, but never, that I have seen, +disputed. A brief resume of the leading points in the argument is +all that space will here allow me to give. + +We have seen that it is a first requirement of heredity that there +shall be physical continuity between parents and offspring. This +holds good with memory. There must be continued identity between +the person remembering and the person to whom the thing that is +remembered happened. We cannot remember things that happened to +someone else, and in our absence. We can only remember having heard +of them. We have seen, however, that there is as much bona-fide +sameness of personality between parents and offspring up to the time +at which the offspring quits the parent's body, as there is between +the different states of the parent himself at any two consecutive +moments; the offspring therefore, being one and the same person with +its progenitors until it quits them, can be held to remember what +happened to them within, of course, the limitations to which all +memory is subject, as much as the progenitors can remember what +happened earlier to themselves. Whether it does so remember can +only be settled by observing whether it acts as living beings +commonly do when they are acting under guidance of memory. I will +endeavour to show that, though heredity and habit based on memory go +about in different dresses, yet if we catch them separately--for +they are never seen together--and strip them there is not a mole nor +strawberry-mark nor trick nor leer of the one, but we find it in the +other also. + +What are the moles and strawberry-marks of habitual action, or +actions remembered and thus repeated? First, the more often we +repeat them the more easily and unconsciously we do them. Look at +reading, writing, walking, talking, playing the piano, etc.; the +longer we have practised any one of these acquired habits, the more +easily, automatically and unconsciously, we perform it. Look, on +the other hand, broadly, at the three points to which I called +attention in Life and Habit:-- + +I. That we are most conscious of and have most control over such +habits as speech, the upright position, the arts and sciences--which +are acquisitions peculiar to the human race, always acquired after +birth, and not common to ourselves and any ancestor who had not +become entirely human. + +II. That we are less conscious of and have less control over eating +and drinking [provided the food be normal], swallowing, breathing, +seeing, and hearing--which were acquisitions of our prehuman +ancestry, and for which we had provided ourselves with all the +necessary apparatus before we saw light, but which are still, +geologically speaking, recent. + +III. That we are most unconscious of and have least control over +our digestion and circulation--powers possessed even by our +invertebrate ancestry, and, geologically speaking, of extreme +antiquity. + +I have put the foregoing very broadly, but enough is given to show +the reader the gist of the argument. Let it be noted that +disturbance and departure, to any serious extent, from normal +practice tends to induce resumption of consciousness even in the +case of such old habits as breathing, seeing, and hearing, digestion +and the circulation of the blood. So it is with habitual actions in +general. Let a player be never so proficient on any instrument, he +will be put out if the normal conditions under which he plays are +too widely departed from, and will then do consciously, if indeed he +can do it at all, what he had hitherto been doing unconsciously. It +is an axiom as regards actions acquired after birth, that we never +do them automatically save as the result of long practice; the +stages in the case of any acquired facility, the inception of which +we have been able to watch, have invariably been from a nothingness +of ignorant impotence to a little somethingness of highly self- +conscious, arduous performance, and thence to the +unselfconsciousness of easy mastery. I saw one year a poor blind +lad of about eighteen sitting on a wall by the wayside at Varese, +playing the concertina with his whole body, and snorting like a +child. The next year the boy no longer snorted, and he played with +his fingers only; the year after that he seemed hardly to know +whether he was playing or not, it came so easily to him. I know no +exception to this rule. Where is the intricate and at one time +difficult art in which perfect automatic ease has been reached +except as the result of long practice? If, then, wherever we can +trace the development of automatism we find it to have taken this +course, is it not most reasonable to infer that it has taken the +same even when it has risen in regions that are beyond our ken? +Ought we not, whenever we see a difficult action performed +automatically, to suspect antecedent practice? Granted that without +the considerations in regard to identity presented above it would +not have been easy to see where a baby of a day old could have had +the practice which enables it to do as much as it does +unconsciously, but even without these considerations it would have +been more easy to suppose that the necessary opportunities had not +been wanting, than that the easy performance could have been gained +without practice and memory. + +When I wrote Life and Habit (originally published in 1877) I said in +slightly different words:-- + +"Shall we say that a baby of a day old sucks (which involves the +whole principle of the pump and hence a profound practical knowledge +of the laws of pneumatics and hydrostatics), digests, oxygenizes its +blood--millions of years before anyone had discovered oxygen--sees +and hears, operations that involve an unconscious knowledge of the +facts concerning optics and acoustics compared with which the +conscious discoveries of Newton are insignificant--shall we say that +a baby can do all these things at once, doing them so well and so +regularly without being even able to give them attention, and yet +without mistake, and shall we also say at the same time that it has +not learnt to do them, and never did them before? + +"Such an assertion would contradict the whole experience of +mankind." + +I have met with nothing during the thirteen years since the +foregoing was published that has given me any qualms about its +soundness. From the point of view of the law courts and everyday +life it is, of course, nonsense; but in the kingdom of thought, as +in that of heaven, there are many mansions, and what would be +extravagance in the cottage or farm-house, as it were, of daily +practice, is but common decency in the palace of high philosophy, +wherein dwells evolution. If we leave evolution alone, we may stick +to common practice and the law courts; touch evolution and we are in +another world; not higher, nor lower, but different as harmony from +counterpoint. As, however, in the most absolute counterpoint there +is still harmony, and in the most absolute harmony still +counterpoint, so high philosophy should be still in touch with +common sense, and common sense with high philosophy. + +The common-sense view of the matter to people who are not over- +curious and to whom time is money, will be that a baby is not a baby +until it is born, and that when born it should be born in wedlock. +Nevertheless, as a sop to high philosophy, every baby is allowed to +be the offspring of its father and mother. + +The high-philosophy view of the matter is that every human being is +still but a fresh edition of the primordial cell with the latest +additions and corrections; there has been no leap nor break in +continuity anywhere; the man of to-day is the primordial cell of +millions of years ago as truly as he is the himself of yesterday; he +can only be denied to be the one on grounds that will prove him not +to be the other. Everyone is both himself and all his direct +ancestors and descendants as well; therefore, if we would be +logical, he is one also with all his cousins, no matter how distant, +for he and they are alike identical with the primordial cell, and we +have already noted it as an axiom that things which are identical +with the same are identical with one another. This is practically +making him one with all living things, whether animal or vegetable, +that ever have existed or ever will--something of all which may have +been in the mind of Sophocles when he wrote:-- + +"Nor seest thou yet the gathering hosts of ill +That shall en-one thee both with thine own self +And with thine offspring." + +And all this has come of admitting that a man may be the same person +for two days running! As for sopping common sense it will be enough +to say that these remarks are to be taken in a strictly scientific +sense, and have no appreciable importance as regards life and +conduct. True they deal with the foundations on which all life and +conduct are based, but like other foundations they are hidden out of +sight, and the sounder they are, the less we trouble ourselves about +them. + +What other main common features between heredity and memory may we +note besides the fact that neither can exist without that kind of +physical continuity which we call personal identity? First, the +development of the embryo proceeds in an established order; so must +all habitual actions based on memory. Disturb the normal order and +the performance is arrested. The better we know "God save the +Queen," the less easily can we play or sing it backwards. The +return of memory again depends on the return of ideas associated +with the particular thing that is remembered--we remember nothing +but for the presence of these, and when enough of these are +presented to us we remember everything. So, if the development of +an embryo is due to memory, we should suppose the memory of the +impregnate ovum to revert not to yesterday, when it was in the +persons of its parents, but to the last occasion on which it was an +impregnate ovum. The return of the old environment and the presence +of old associations would at once involve recollection of the course +that should be next taken, and the same should happen throughout the +whole course of development. The actual course of development +presents precisely the phenomena agreeable with this. For fuller +treatment of this point I must refer the reader to the chapter on +the abeyance of memory in my book Life and Habit, already referred +to. + +Secondly, we remember best our last few performances of any given +kind, so our present performance will probably resemble some one or +other of these; we remember our earlier performances by way of +residuum only, but every now and then we revert to an earlier habit. +This feature of memory is manifested in heredity by the way in which +offspring commonly resembles most its nearer ancestors, but +sometimes reverts to earlier ones. Brothers and sisters, each as it +were giving their own version of the same story, but in different +words, should generally resemble each other more closely than more +distant relations. And this is what actually we find. + +Thirdly, the introduction of slightly new elements into a method +already established varies it beneficially; the new is soon fused +with the old, and the monotony ceases to be oppressive. But if the +new be too foreign, we cannot fuse the old and the new--nature +seeming to hate equally too wide a deviation from ordinary practice +and none at all. This fact reappears in heredity as the beneficial +effects of occasional crossing on the one hand, and on the other, in +the generally observed sterility of hybrids. If heredity be an +affair of memory, how can an embryo, say of a mule, be expected to +build up a mule on the strength of but two mule-memories? Hybridism +causes a fault in the chain of memory, and it is to this cause that +the usual sterility of hybrids must be referred. + +Fourthly, it requires many repeated impressions to fix a method +firmly, but when it has been engrained into us we cease to have much +recollection of the manner in which it came to be so, or indeed of +any individual repetition, but sometimes a single impression if +prolonged as well as profound, produces a lasting impression and is +liable to return with sudden force, and then to go on returning to +us at intervals. As a general rule, however, abnormal impressions +cannot long hold their own against the overwhelming preponderance of +normal authority. This appears in heredity as the normal non- +inheritance of mutilations on the one hand, and on the other as +their occasional inheritance in the case of injuries followed by +disease. + +Fifthly, if heredity and memory are essentially the same, we should +expect that no animal would develop new structures of importance +after the age at which its species begins ordinarily to continue its +race; for we cannot suppose offspring to remember anything that +happens to the parent subsequently to the parent's ceasing to +contain the offspring within itself. From the average age, +therefore, of reproduction, offspring should cease to have any +further steady, continuous memory to fall back upon; what memory +there is should be full of faults, and as such unreliable. An +organism ought to develop as long as it is backed by memory--that is +to say, until the average age at which reproduction begins; it +should then continue to go for a time on the impetus already +received, and should eventually decay through failure of any memory +to support it, and tell it what to do. This corresponds absolutely +with what we observe in organisms generally, and explains, on the +one hand, why the age of puberty marks the beginning of completed +development--a riddle hitherto not only unexplained but, so far as I +have seen, unasked; it explains, on the other hand, the phenomena of +old age--hitherto without even attempt at explanation. + +Sixthly, those organisms that are the longest in reaching maturity +should on the average be the longest-lived, for they will have +received the most momentous impulse from the weight of memory behind +them. This harmonizes with the latest opinion as to the facts. In +his article of Weismann in the Contemporary Review for May, 1890, +Mr. Romanes writes: "Professor Weismann has shown that there is +throughout the metazoa a general correlation between the natural +lifetime of individuals composing any given species, and the age at +which they reach maturity or first become capable of procreation." +This, I believe, has been the conclusion generally arrived at by +biologists for some years past. + +Lateness, then, in the average age of reproduction appears to be the +principle underlying longevity. There does not appear at first +sight to be much connection between such distinct and apparently +disconnected phenomena as 1, the orderly normal progress of +development; 2, atavism and the resumption of feral characteristics; +3, the more ordinary resemblance inter se of nearer relatives; 4, +the benefit of an occasional cross, and the usual sterility of +hybrids; 5, the unconsciousness with which alike bodily development +and ordinary physiological functions proceed, so long as they are +normal; 6, the ordinary non-inheritance, but occasional inheritance +of mutilations; 7, the fact that puberty indicates the approach of +maturity; 8, the phenomena of middle life and old age; 9, the +principle underlying longevity. These phenomena have no conceivable +bearing on one another until heredity and memory are regarded as +part of the same story. Identify these two things, and I know no +phenomenon of heredity that does not immediately become infinitely +more intelligible. Is it conceivable that a theory which harmonizes +so many facts hitherto regarded as without either connection or +explanation should not deserve at any rate consideration from those +who profess to take an interest in biology? + +It is not as though the theory were unknown, or had been condemned +by our leading men of science. Professor Ray Lankester introduced +it to English readers in an appreciative notice of Professor +Hering's address, which appeared in Nature, July 13, 1876. He wrote +to the Athenaeum, March 24, 1884, and claimed credit for having done +so, but I do not believe he has ever said more in public about it +than what I have here referred to. Mr. Romanes did indeed try to +crush it in Nature, January 27,1881, but in 1883, in his Mental +Evolution in Animals, he adopted its main conclusion without +acknowledgment. The Athenaeum, to my unbounded surprise, called him +to task for this (March 1, 1884), and since that time he has given +the Heringian theory a sufficiently wide berth. Mr. Wallace showed +himself favourably enough disposed towards the view that heredity +and memory are part of the same story when he reviewed my book Life +and Habit in Nature, March 27, 1879, but he has never since betrayed +any sign of being aware that such a theory existed. Mr. Herbert +Spencer wrote to the Athenaeum (April 5, 1884), and claimed the +theory for himself, but, in spite of his doing this, he has never, +that I have seen, referred to the matter again. I have dealt +sufficiently with his claim in my book Luck or Cunning. Lastly, +Professor Hering himself has never that I know of touched his own +theory since the single short address read in 1870, and translated +by me in 1881. Everyone, even its originator, except myself, seems +afraid to open his mouth about it. Of course the inference suggests +itself that other people have more sense than I have. I readily +admit it; but why have so many of our leaders shown such a strong +hankering after the theory, if there is nothing in it? + +The deadlock that I have pointed out as existing in Darwinism will, +I doubt not, lead ere long to a consideration of Professor Hering's +theory. English biologists are little likely to find Weismann +satisfactory for long, and if he breaks down there is nothing left +for them but Lamarck, supplemented by the important and elucidatory +corollary on his theory proposed by Professor Hering. When the time +arrives for this to obtain a hearing it will be confirmed, +doubtless, by arguments clearer and more forcible than any I have +been able to adduce; I shall then be delighted to resign the +championship which till then I shall continue, as for some years +past, to have much pleasure in sustaining. Heretofore my +satisfaction has mainly lain in the fact that more of our prominent +men of science have seemed anxious to claim the theory than to +refute it; in the confidence thus engendered I leave it to any +fuller consideration which the outline I have above given may +incline the reader to bestow upon it. + + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{19} I am indebted to one of Butler's contemporaries at Cambridge, +the Rev Dr. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., and also to Mr. John F. Harris, +both of St. John's College, for help in finding and dating Butler's +youthful contributions to the Eagle. + +{20} This gentleman, on the death of his father in 1866, became the +Rev. Sir Philip Perring, Bart. + +{22} The late Sir Julius von Haast, K.C.M.G., appointed Provincial +Geologist in 1860, was ennobled by the Austrian Government and +knighted by the British. He died in 1887. + +{59} A lecture delivered at the Working Men's College, Great Ormond +Street, 30th January, 1892. + +{99} Published in the Universal Review, July, 1888. + +{110} Published in the Universal Review, December, 1890. + +{127} Published in the Universal Review, May, 1889. As I have +several times been asked if the letters here reprinted were not +fabricated by Butler himself, I take this opportunity of stating +that they are authentic in every particular, and that the originals +are now in my possession.--R. A. S. + +{142} An address delivered at the Somerville Club, February 27th, +1895. + +{150} The Foundations of Belief, by the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour. +Longmans, 1895, p. 48. + +{153a} Published in the Universal Review, November, 1888. + +{153b} Since this essay was written it has been ascertained by +Cavaliere Francesco Negri, of Casale Monferrato, that Tabachetti +died in 1615. If, therefore, the Sanctuary of Montrigone was not +founded until 1631, it is plain that Tabachetti cannot have worked +there. All the latest discoveries about Tabachetti's career will be +found in Cavaliere Negri's pamphlet Il Santuario di Crea +(Alessandria, 1902). See also note on p. 195.--R. A. S. + +{166} Published in the Universal Review, December, 1889. + +{188} Published in the Universal Review, November, 1890. + +{190} M. Ruppen's words run: "1687 wurde die Kapelle zur hohen +Stiege gebaut, 1747 durch Zusatz vergrossert und 1755 mit Orgeln +ausgestattet. Anton Ruppen, ein geschickter Steinhauer und +Maurermeister leitete den Kapellebau, und machte darin das kleinere +Altarlein. Bei der hohen Stiege war fruher kein Gebetshauslein; nur +ein wunderthatiges Bildlein der Mutter Gottes stand da in einer +Mauer vor dem fromme Hirten und viel andachtiges Volk unter freiem +Himmel beteten. + +"1709 wurden die kleinen Kapellelein die 15 Geheimnisse des Psalters +vorstellend auf dem Wege zur hohen Stiege gebaut. Jeder Haushalter +des Viertels Fee ubernahm den Bau eines dieser Geheimnisskapellen, +und ein besonderer Gutthater dieser frommen Unternehmung war +Heinrich Andenmatten, nachhet Bruder der Gesellschaft Jesu." + +{195} The story of Tabachetti's insanity and imprisonment is very +doubtful, and it is difficult to make his supposed visit to Saas fit +in with the authentic facts of his life. Cavaliere Negri, to whose +pamphlet on Tabachetti I have already referred the reader, mentions +neither. Tabachetti left his native Dinant in 1585, and from that +date until his death he appears to have lived chiefly at Varallo and +Crea. In 1588 he was working at Crea; in 1590 he was at Varallo and +again in 1594, 1599, and 1602. He died in 1615, possibly during a +visit to Varallo, though his home at the time was at Costigliole, +near Asti.--R. A. S. + +{196} This is thus chronicled by M. Ruppen: "1589 den 9 September +war eine Wassergrosse, die viel Schaden verursachte. Die +Thalstrasse, die von den Steinmatten an bis zur Kirche am Ufer der +Visp lag, wurde ganz zerstort. Man ward gezwungen eine neue Strasse +in einiger Entfernung vom Wasser durch einen alten Fussweg +auszuhauen welche vier und einerhalben Viertel der Klafter, oder 6 +Schuh und 9 Zoll breit sollte" (p. 43). + +{209} A lecture delivered at the Working Men's College in Great +Ormond Street, March 15th, 1890; rewritten and delivered again at +the Somerville Club, February 13th, 1894. + +{210} Correlation of Forces, Longmans, 1874, p. 15. + +{230} Three Lectures on the Science of Language, Longmans, 1889, p. +4. + +{234} Science of Thought, Longmans, 1887, p. 9. + +{245} Published in the Universal Review, April, May, and June, +1890. + +{259a} Voyages of the "Adventure" and "Beagle," iii. p. 237. + +{259b} Luck or Cunning, pp. 170, 180. + +{260} Journals of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Zoology, +vol. iii.), 1859, p. 62. + +{261} Darwinism (Macmillan, 1889), p. 129. + +{263} See Nature, March 6, 1890. + +{265} Origin of Species, sixth edition, 1888, vol. i. p. 168. + +{266} Origin of Species, sixth edition, 1888, vol. ii. p. 261. + +{271} Mr. J. T. Cunningham, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, +Plymouth, has called my attention to the fact that I have ascribed +to Professor Ray Lankester a criticism on Mr. Wallace's remarks upon +the eyes of certain flat-fish, which Professor Ray Lankester was, in +reality, only adopting--with full acknowledgment--from Mr. +Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham has left it to me whether to correct my +omission publicly or not, but he would so plainly prefer my doing so +that I consider myself bound to insert this note. Curiously enough, +I find that in my book Evolution, Old and New I gave what Lamarck +actually said upon the eyes of flat-fish, and, having been led to +return to the subject, I may as well quote his words. He wrote:-- + +"Need--always occasioned by the circumstances in which an animal is +placed, and followed by sustained efforts at gratification--can not +only modify an organ--that is to say, augment or reduce it--but can +change its position when the case requires its removal. + +"Ocean fishes have occasion to see what is on either side of them, +and have their eyes accordingly placed on either side of their head. +Some fishes, however, have their abode near coasts on submarine +banks and inclinations, and are thus forced to flatten themselves as +much as possible in order to get as near as they can to the shore. +In this situation they receive more light from above than from +below, and find it necessary to pay attention to whatever happens to +be above them; this need has involved the displacement of their +eyes, which now take the remarkable position which we observe in the +case of soles, turbots, plaice, etc. The transfer of position is +not even yet complete in the case of these fishes, and the eyes are +not, therefore, symmetrically placed; but they are so with the +skate, whose head and whole body are equally disposed on either side +a longitudinal section. Hence the eyes of this fish are placed +symmetrically upon the uppermost side."--Philosophie Zoologique, +tom. i. pp. 250, 251. Edition C. Martins. Paris, 1873. + +{274a} Essays on Heredity, etc., Oxford, 1889, p. 171. + +{274b} Ibid., p. 266. + +{275} Darwinism, 1889, p. 440. + +{277} Page 83. + +{279} Vol. i. p. 466, etc. Ed. 1885. + +{286} Darwinism, p. 440. + +{288} Tom. iv. p. 383. Ed. 1753. + +{290} Essays, etc., p. 447. + +{299} Zoonomia, 1794, vol. i. p. 480. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMOUR OF HOMER AND OTHER +ESSAYS*** + + +******* This file should be named 12651.txt or 12651.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/5/12651 + + + +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. 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