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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Humanly Speaking, by Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+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: Humanly Speaking
+
+Author: Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2005 [EBook #15866]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMANLY SPEAKING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+BY SAMUEL McCHORD CROTHERS
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+MDCCCCXII
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY SAMUEL MCCHORD CROTHERS
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published November 1912_
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  By Samuel M. Crothers
+
+  HUMANLY SPEAKING.
+  AMONG FRIENDS.
+  BY THE CHRISTMAS FIRE.
+  THE PARDONER'S WALLET.
+  THE ENDLESS LIFE.
+  THE GENTLE READER.
+  OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: THE AUTOCRAT AND HIS FELLOW BOARDERS.
+    With Portrait.
+  MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY. Illustrated.
+
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+
+THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+
+THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+
+THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+
+THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+
+THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+
+THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+
+ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+
+TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+
+
+
+The author wishes to express his thanks to the Editors of the _Atlantic
+Monthly_ and the _Century Magazine_ for their courtesy in permitting the
+publication in this volume of certain essays which have appeared in
+their magazines.
+
+
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+
+"Humanly speaking, it is impossible." So the old theologian would say
+when denying any escape from his own argument. His logical machine was
+going at full speed, and the grim engineer had no notion of putting on
+the brakes. His was a non-stop train and there was to be no slowing-down
+till he reached the terminus.
+
+But in the middle of the track was an indubitable fact. By all the rules
+of argumentation it had no business to be there, trespassing on the
+right of way. But there it was! We trembled to think of the impending
+collision.
+
+But the collision between the argument and the fact never happened. The
+"humanly speaking" was the switch that turned the argument safely on a
+parallel track, where it went whizzing by the fact without the least
+injury to either. Many things which are humanly speaking impossible are
+of the most common occurrence and the theologian knew it.
+
+It is only by the use of this saving clause that one may safely moralize
+or generalize or indulge in the mildest form of prediction. Strictly
+speaking, no one has a right to express any opinion about such complex
+and incomprehensible aggregations of humanity as the United States of
+America or the British Empire. Humanly speaking, they both are
+impossible. Antecedently to experience the Constitution of Utopia as
+expounded by Sir Thomas More would be much more probable. It has a
+certain rational coherence. If it existed at all it would hang together,
+being made out of whole cloth. But how does the British Empire hold
+together? It seems to be made of shreds and patches. It is full of
+anomalies and temporary makeshifts. Why millions of people, who do not
+know each other, should be willing to die rather than to be separated
+from each other, is something not easily explained. Nevertheless the
+British Empire exists, and, through all the changes which threaten it,
+grows in strength.
+
+The perils that threaten the United States of America are so obvious
+that anybody can see them. So far as one can see, the Republic ought to
+have been destroyed long ago by political corruption, race prejudice,
+unrestricted immigration and the growth of monopolies. The only way to
+account for its present existence is that there is something about it
+that is not so easily seen. Disease is often more easily diagnosed than
+health. But we should remember that the Republic is not out of danger.
+It is a very salutary thing to bring its perils to the attention of the
+too easy-going citizens. It is well to have a Jeremiah, now and then, to
+speak unwelcome truths.
+
+But even Jeremiah, when he was denouncing the evils that would befall
+his country, had a saving clause in his gloomy predictions. All manner
+of evils would befall them unless they repented, and humanly speaking he
+was of the opinion that they couldn't repent. Said he: "Can the
+Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do
+good that are accustomed to do evil." Nevertheless this did not prevent
+him from continually exhorting them to do good, and blaming them when
+they didn't do it. Like all great moral teachers he acted on the
+assumption that there is more freedom of will than seemed theoretically
+possible. It was the same way with his views of national affairs.
+Jeremiah's reputation is that of a pessimist. Still, when the country
+was in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and he was in prison for predicting
+it, he bought a piece of real estate which was in the hands of the
+enemy. He considered it a good investment. "I subscribed the deed and
+sealed it, and called witnesses and weighed him the money in the
+balances." Then he put the deeds in an earthen vessel, "that they may
+continue many days." For in spite of the panic that his own words had
+caused, he believed that the market would come up again. "Houses and
+vineyards shall yet be bought in this land." If I were an archæologist
+with a free hand, I should like to dig in that field in Anathoth in the
+hope of finding the earthen jar with the deed which Hanameel gave to his
+cousin Jeremiah, for a plot of ground that nobody else would buy.
+
+It is the moralists and the reformers who have after all the most
+cheerful message for us. They are all the time threatening us, yet for
+our own good. They see us plunging heedlessly to destruction. They cry,
+"Look out!" They often do not themselves see the way out, but they have
+a well-founded hope that we will discover a way when our attention is
+called to an imminent danger. The fact that the race has survived thus
+far is an evidence that its instinct for self-preservation is a strong
+one. It has a wonderful gift for recovering after the doctors have given
+it up.
+
+The saving clause is a great help to those idealists who are inclined to
+look unwelcome facts in the face. It enables them to retain faith in
+their ideals, and at the same time to hold on to their intellectual
+self-respect.
+
+There are idealists of another sort who know nothing of their struggles
+and self-contradictions. Having formed their ideal of what ought to be,
+they identify it with what is. For them belief in the existence of good
+is equivalent to the obliteration of evil. Their world is equally good
+in all its parts, and is to be viewed in all its aspects with serene
+complacency.
+
+Now this is very pleasant for a time, especially if one is tired and
+needs a complete rest. But after a while it becomes irksome, and one
+longs for a change, even if it should be for the worse. We are floating
+on a sea of beneficence, in which it is impossible for us to sink. But
+though one could not easily drown in the Dead Sea, one might starve. And
+when goodness is of too great specific gravity it is impossible to get
+on in it or out of it. This is disconcerting to one of an active
+disposition. It is comforting to be told that everything is completely
+good, till you reflect that that is only another way of saying that
+nothing can be made any better, and that there is no use for you to try.
+
+Now the idealist of the sterner sort insists on criticizing the existing
+world. He refuses to call good evil or evil good. The two things are, in
+his judgment, quite different. He recognizes the existence of good, but
+he also recognizes the fact that there is not enough of it. This he
+looks upon as a great evil which ought to be remedied. And he is glad
+that he is alive at this particular juncture, in a world in which there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Besides the ordinary Christian virtues I would recommend to any one, who
+would fit himself to live happily as well as efficiently, the
+cultivation of that auxiliary virtue or grace which Horace Walpole
+called "Serendipity." Walpole defined it in a letter to Sir Horace Mann:
+"It is a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell
+you, I shall endeavor to explain to you; you will understand it better
+by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale
+called 'The Three Princes of Serendip.' As their Highnesses traveled,
+they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of
+things which they were not in quest of.... Now do you understand
+_Serendipity_?" In case the reader does not understand, Walpole goes on
+to define "Serendipity" as "accidental sagacity (for you must know that
+no discovery you _are_ looking for comes under this description)."
+
+I am inclined to think that in such a world as this, where our hold on
+all good is precarious, a man should be on the lookout for dangers.
+Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for all that is worth having. But
+when, prepared for the worst, he goes forward, his journey will be more
+pleasant if he has also a "serendipitaceous" mind. He will then, by a
+sort of accidental sagacity, discover that what he encounters is much
+less formidable than what he feared. Half of his enemies turn out to be
+friends in disguise, and half of the other half retire at his approach.
+After a while such words as "impracticable" and "impossible" lose their
+absoluteness and become only synonyms for the relatively difficult. He
+has so often found a way out, where humanly speaking there was none,
+that he no longer looks upon a logical dilemma as a final negation of
+effort.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following essays were written partly at home and partly abroad. They
+therefore betray the influence of some of the mass movements of the day.
+Anyone with even a little leisure from his own personal affairs must
+realize that we are living in one of the most stirring times in human
+history. Everywhere the old order is changing. Everywhere there are
+confused currents both of thought and feeling.
+
+That the old order is passing is obvious enough. That a new order is
+arising, and that it is on the whole beneficent, is not merely a pious
+hope. It is more than this: it is a matter of observation to any one
+with a moderate degree of "Serendipity."
+
+
+
+
+IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+
+
+It sometimes happens that a business man who is in reality solvent
+becomes temporarily embarrassed. His assets are greater than his
+liabilities, but they are not quick enough to meet the situation. The
+liabilities have become mutinous and bear down upon him in a threatening
+mob. If he had time to deal with them one by one, all would be well; but
+he cannot on the instant mobilize his forces.
+
+Under such circumstances the law allows him to surrender, not to the
+mob, but to a friendly power which shall protect the interests of all
+concerned. He goes into the hands of a receiver, who will straighten out
+his affairs for him. I can imagine the relief which would come to one
+who could thus get rid, for a while, of his harassing responsibilities,
+and let some one else do the worrying.
+
+In these days some of the best people I know are in this predicament in
+regard to their moral and social affairs. These friends of mine have
+this peculiarity, that they are anxious to do their duty. Now, in all
+generations, there have been persons who did their duty, according to
+their lights. But in these days it happens that a new set of lights has
+been turned on suddenly, and we all see more duties than we had
+bargained for. In the glare we see an army of creditors, each with an
+overdue bill in hand. Each demands immediate payment, and shakes his
+head when we suggest that he call again next week. We realize that our
+moral cash in hand is not sufficient for the crisis. If all our
+obligations must be met at once, there will be a panic in which most of
+our securities will be sacrificed.
+
+We are accustomed to grumble over the increase in the cost of living.
+But the enhancement of price in the necessities of physical life is
+nothing compared to the increase in the cost of the higher life.
+
+There are those now living who can remember when almost any one could
+have the satisfaction of being considered a good citizen and neighbor.
+All one had to do was to attend to one's own affairs and keep within the
+law. He would then be respected by all, and would deserve the most
+eulogistic epitaph when he came to die. By working for private profit he
+could have the satisfaction of knowing that all sorts of public benefits
+came as by-products of his activity.
+
+But now all such satisfactions are denied. To be a good citizen you must
+put your mind on the job, and it is no easy one. You must be up and
+doing. And when you are doing one good thing there will be keen-eyed
+critics who will ask why you have not been doing other things which are
+much more important; and they will sternly demand of you, "What do you
+mean by such criminal negligence?"
+
+What we call the awakening of the social conscience marks an important
+step in progress, But, like all progress, it involves hardship to
+individuals. For the higher moral classes, the saints and the reformers,
+it is the occasion of wholehearted rejoicing. It is just what they have,
+all the while, been trying to bring about. But I confess to a sympathy
+for the middle class, morally considered, the plain people, who feel the
+pinch. They have invested their little all in the old-fashioned
+securities, and when these are depreciated they feel that there is
+nothing to keep the wolf from the door. After reading a few searching
+articles in the magazines they feel that, so far from being excellent
+citizens, they are little better than enemies of society. I am not
+pleading for the predatory rich, but only for the well-meaning persons
+in moderately comfortable circumstances, whose predatoriness has been
+suddenly revealed to them.
+
+Many of the most conscientious persons go about with an habitually
+apologetic manner. They are rapidly acquiring the evasive air of the
+conscious criminal. It is only a very hardened philanthropist, or an
+unsophisticated beginner in good works, who can look a sociologist in
+the eye. Most persons, when they do one thing, begin to apologize for
+not doing something else. They are like a one-track railroad that has
+been congested with traffic. They are not sure which train has the right
+of way, and which should go on the siding. Progress is a series of
+rear-end collisions.
+
+There is little opportunity for self-satisfaction. The old-fashioned
+private virtues which used to be exhibited with such innocent pride as
+family heirlooms are now scrutinized with suspicion. They are subjected
+to rigid tests to determine their value as public utilities.
+
+Perhaps I may best illustrate the need of some receivership by drawing
+attention to the case of my friend the Reverend Augustus Bagster.
+
+Bagster is not by nature a spiritual genius; he is only a modern man who
+is sincerely desirous of doing what is expected of him. I do not think
+that he is capable of inventing a duty, but he is morally
+impressionable, and recognizes one when it is pointed out to him. A
+generation ago such a man would have lived a useful and untroubled life
+in a round of parish duties. He would have been placidly contented with
+himself and his achievements. But when he came to a city pulpit he heard
+the Call of the Modern. The multitudinous life around him must be
+translated into immediate action. His conscience was not merely
+awakened: it soon reached a state of persistent insomnia.
+
+When he told me that he had preached a sermon on the text, "Let him that
+stole steal no more," I was interested. But shortly after, he told me
+that he could not let go of that text. It was a live wire. He had
+expanded the sermon into a course on the different kinds of stealing. He
+found few things that did not come under the category of Theft.
+Spiritual goods as well as material might be stolen. If a person
+possessed a cheerful disposition, you should ask, "How did he get it?"
+
+"It seems to me," I said, "that a cheerful disposition is one of the
+things where possession is nine tenths of the law. I don't like to think
+of such spiritual wealth as ill-gotten."
+
+"I am sorry," said Bagster, "to see that your sympathies are with the
+privileged classes."
+
+Several weeks ago I received a letter which revealed his state of
+mind:--
+
+"I believe that you are acquainted with the Editor of the 'Atlantic
+Monthly.' I suppose he means well, but persons in his situation are
+likely to cater to mere literature. I hope that I am not uncharitable,
+but I have a suspicion that our poets yield sometimes to the desire to
+please. They are perhaps unconscious of the subtle temptation. They are
+not sufficiently direct and specific in their charges. I have been
+reading Walt Whitman's 'Song of Joys.' The subject does not attract me,
+but I like the way in which it is treated. There is no beating around
+the bush. The poet is perfectly fearless, and will not let any guilty
+man escape.
+
+        "'O the farmer's joys!
+  Ohioans, Illinoisans, Wisconsonese, Kanadians,
+  Iowans, Kansans, Oregonese joys.'
+
+"That is the way one should write if he expects
+to get results. He should point to each individual
+and say, 'Thou art the man.'
+
+"I am no poet,--though I am painfully conscious
+that I ought to be one,--but I have written
+what I call, 'The Song of Obligations.' I
+think it may arouse the public. In such matters
+we ought to unite as good citizens. You might
+perhaps drop a postal card, just to show where
+you stand."
+
+            THE SONG OF OBLIGATIONS
+
+  "O the citizen's obligations.
+  The obligation of every American citizen to see that
+     every other American citizen does his duty, and
+     to be quick about it.
+  The janitor's duties, the Board of Health's duties, the
+     milkman's duties, resting upon each one of us individually
+     with the accumulated weight of every
+     cubic foot of vitiated air, and multiplied by the
+     number of bacteria in every cubic centimeter of
+     milk.
+  The motorman's duties, and the duty of every spry citizen
+     not to allow himself to be run over by the motorman.
+  The obligation of teachers in the public schools to supply
+     their pupils with all the aptitudes and graces
+     formerly supposed to be the result of heredity and
+     environment.
+  The duty of each teacher to consult daily a card catalogue
+     of duties, beginning with Apperception and
+     Adenoids and going on to Vaccination, Ventilation,
+     and the various vivacious variations on the
+     three R's.
+  The obligation resting upon the well-to-do citizen not
+     to leave for his country place, but to remain in the
+     city in order to give the force of his example, in
+     his own ward, to a safe and sane Fourth of July.
+  The obligation resting upon every citizen to write to
+     his Congressman.
+  The obligation to speak to one's neighbor who may
+     think he is living a moral life, and who yet
+     has never written to his Congressman.
+  The obligation to attend hearings at the State House.
+  The obligation to protest against the habit of employees
+     at the State House of professing ignorance
+     of the location of the committee-room where
+     the hearings are to be held; also to protest against
+     the habit of postponing the hearings after one has
+     at great personal inconvenience come to the State
+     House in order to protest.
+  The duty of doing your Christmas shopping early
+     enough in July to allow the shop-girls to enjoy
+     their summer vacation.
+  The duty of knowing what you are talking about, and
+     of talking about all the things you ought to know
+     about.
+  The obligation of feeling that it is a joy and a privilege
+     to live in a country where eternal vigilance is
+     the price of liberty, and where even if you have
+     the price you don't get all the liberty you pay for."
+
+I was a little troubled over this effusion, as it seemed to indicate
+that Bagster had reached the limit of elasticity. A few days later I
+received a letter asking me to call upon him. I found him in a state of
+uncertainty over his own condition.
+
+"I want you," he said, "to listen to the report my stenographer has
+handed me, of an address which I gave day before yesterday. I have been
+doing some of my most faithful work recently, going from one meeting to
+another and helping in every good cause. But at this meeting I had a
+rare sensation of freedom of utterance. I had the sense of liberation
+from the trammels of time and space. It was a realization of moral
+ubiquity. All the audiences I had been addressing seemed to flow
+together into one audience, and all the good causes into one good cause.
+Incidentally I seemed to have solved the Social Question. But now that I
+have the stenographic report I am not so certain."
+
+"Read it," I said.
+
+He began to read, but the confidence of his pulpit tone, which was one
+of the secrets of his power, would now and then desert him, and he would
+look up to me as if waiting for an encouraging "Amen."
+
+"Your secretary, when she called me up by telephone, explained to me the
+object of your meeting. It is an object with which I deeply sympathize.
+It is Rest. You stand for the idea of poise and tranquillity of spirit.
+You would have a place for tranquil meditation. The thought I would
+bring to you this afternoon is this: We are here not to be doing, but to
+be.
+
+"But of course the thought at once occurs to us, How can we _be_
+considering the high cost of the necessaries of life? It will be seen at
+once that the question is at bottom an economic one. You must have a
+living wage, and how can there be a living wage unless we admit the
+principle of collective bargaining. It is because I believe in the
+principle of collective bargaining that I have come here to-night to say
+to you working-men that I believe this strike is justifiable.
+
+"I must leave to other speakers many interesting aspects of this
+subject, and confine myself to the aspect which the committee asked me
+to consider more in detail, namely, Juvenile Delinquency in its relation
+to Foreign Immigration. The relation is a real one. Statistics prove
+that among immigrants the proportion of the juvenile element is greater
+than among the native-born. This increase in juvenility gives
+opportunity for juvenile delinquency from which many of our American
+communities might otherwise be free. But is the remedy to be found in
+the restriction of immigration? My opinion is that the remedy is to be
+found only in education.
+
+"It is our interest in education that has brought us together on this
+bright June morning. Your teacher tells me that this is the largest
+class that has ever graduated from this High School, You may well be
+proud. Make your education practical. Learn to concentrate, that is the
+secret of success. There are those who will tell you to concentrate on a
+single point. I would go even further. Concentrate on every point.
+
+"I admit, as the gentleman who has preceded me has pointed out, that
+concentration in cities is a great evil. It is an evil that should be
+counteracted. As I was saying last evening to the Colonial
+Dames,--Washington, if he had done nothing else, would be remembered
+to-day as the founder of the Order of the Cincinnati. The figure of
+Cincinnatus at the plough appeals powerfully to American manhood. Many a
+time in after years Cincinnatus wished that he had never left that
+plough. Often amid the din of battle he heard the voice saying to him,
+'Back to the Land!'
+
+"It was the same voice I seemed to hear when I received the letter of
+your secretary asking me to address this grange. As I left the smoke of
+the city behind me and looked up at your granite hills, I said, 'Here is
+where they make men!' As I have been partaking of the bountiful repast
+prepared by the ladies of the grange, your chairman has been telling me
+something about this community. It is a grand community to live in. Here
+are no swollen fortunes; here industry, frugality, and temperance reign.
+These are the qualities which have given New England its great place in
+the councils of the nation. I know there are those who say that it is
+the tariff that has given it that place; but they do not know New
+England. There are those at this table who can remember the time when
+eighty-two ruddy-cheeked boys and girls trooped merrily to the little
+red schoolhouse under the hill. In the light of such facts as these, who
+can be a pessimist?
+
+"But I must not dwell upon the past; the Boy Scouts of America prepare
+for the future. I am reminded that I am not at this moment addressing
+the Boy Scouts of America,--they come to-morrow at the same hour,--but
+the principle is the same. Even as the Boy Scouts of America look only
+at the future, so do you. We must not linger fondly on the days when
+cows grazed on Boston Common. The purpose of this society is to save
+Boston Common. That the Common has been saved many times before is true;
+but is that any reason why we should falter now? 'New occasions teach
+new duties.' Let us not be satisfied with a supetficial view. While
+fresh loam is being scattered on the surface, commercial interests and
+the suburban greed to get home quick are striking at the vitals of the
+Common. Citizens of Boston, awake!
+
+"Your pastor had expected to be with you this evening, but he has at the
+last moment discovered that he has two other engagements, each of them
+of long standing. He has therefore asked me to take his place in this
+interesting course of lectures on Church History. The subject of the
+lecture for the evening is--and if I am mistaken some one will please
+correct me--Ulphilas, or Christianity among the Goths. I cannot treat
+this subject from that wealth of historical information possessed by
+your pastor; but I can at least speak from the heart. I feel that it is
+well for us to turn aside from the questions of the day, for the quiet
+consideration of such a character as Ulphilas.
+
+"Ulphilas seems to me to be one of those characters we ought all to know
+more about. I shall not weary you by discussing the theology of Ulphilas
+or the details of his career. It would seem more fitting that these
+things should be left for another occasion. I shall proceed at once to
+the main lesson of his life. As briefly as possible let me state the
+historical situation that confronted him. It is immaterial for us to
+inquire where the Goths were at that time, or what they were doing. It
+is sufficient for us to know that the Goths at that time were pagans,
+mere heathen. Under those circumstances what did Ulphilas do? He went to
+the Goths. That one act reveals his character. If in the remaining
+moments of this lecture I can enforce the lesson for us of that one act,
+I shall feel that my coming here has not been in vain.
+
+"But some one who has followed my argument thus far may say, 'All that
+you have said is true, lamentably true; but what has it to do with the
+Advancement of Woman?' I answer, it _is_ the Advancement of Woman."
+
+"How do you make that out?" I asked.
+
+Bagster looked vaguely troubled. "There is no such thing as an isolated
+moral phenomenon," he said, as if he were repeating something from a
+former sermon; "when you attempt to remedy one evil you find it related
+to a whole moral series. But perhaps I did not make the connection
+plain. My address doesn't seem to be as closely reasoned as it did when
+I was delivering it. Does it seem to you to be cogent?"
+
+"Cogent is not precisely the word I would use. But it seems earnest."
+
+"Thank you," said Bagster. "I always try to be earnest. It's hard to be
+earnest about so many things. I am always afraid that I may not give to
+all an equal emphasis."
+
+"And now that you have stopped for a moment," I suggested, "perhaps you
+would be willing to skip to the last page. When I read a story I am
+always anxious to get to the end. I should like to know how your address
+comes out,--if it does come out."
+
+Bagster turned over a dozen pages and read in a more animated manner.
+
+"Your chairman has the reputation of making the meetings over which he
+presides brisk and crisp. He has given me just a minute and a half in
+which to tell what the country expects of this Federation of Young
+People. I shall not take all the time. I ask you to remember two
+letters--E and N. _What_ does the country expect this Federation to do?
+E--everything. _When_ does the country expect you to do it? N--now.
+Remember these two letters--E and N. Young people, I thank you for your
+attention.
+
+"The hour is late. You, my young brother, have listened to a charge in
+which your urgent duties have been fearlessly declared to you. When you
+have performed these duties, others will be presented to you. And now,
+in token of our confidence in you, I give you the right hand of
+fellowship.
+
+"And do you know," said Bagster, "that when I reached to give him the
+right hand of fellowship, he wasn't there."
+
+We sat in silence for some time. At last he asked, hesitatingly, "What
+do you think of it? In your judgment is it organic or functional?"
+
+"I do not think it is organic. I am afraid that your conscience has been
+over-functioning of late, and needs a rest. I know a nook in the woods
+of New Hampshire, under the shadow of Mount Chocorua, where you might go
+for six months while your affairs are in the hands of a receiver. I
+can't say that you would find everything satisfactory, even there. The
+mountain is not what it used to be. It is decadent, geologically
+speaking, and it suffered a good deal during the last glacial period.
+But you can't do much about it in six months. You might take it just as
+it is,--some things have to be taken that way.
+
+"You will start to-morrow morning and begin your life of temporary
+irresponsibility. You will have to give up your problems for six months,
+but you may rest assured that they will keep. You will go by Portsmouth,
+where you will have ten minutes for lunch. Take that occasion for a
+leisurely meal. A card will be handed to you assuring you that 'The bell
+will ring one minute before the departure of the train. You can't get
+left.' Hold that thought: you can't get left; the railroad authorities
+say so."
+
+"Did you ever try it," asked Bagster.
+
+"Once," I answered.
+
+"And did you get left?"
+
+"Portsmouth," I said, "is a beautiful old town. I had always wanted to
+see it. You can see a good deal of Portsmouth in an afternoon."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The predicament in which my friend Bagster finds himself is a very
+common one. It is no longer true that the good die young; they become
+prematurely middle-aged. In these days conscience doth make
+neurasthenics of us all. Now it will not do to flout conscience, and by
+shutting our eyes to the urgencies and complexities of life purchase for
+ourselves a selfish calm. Neither do we like the idea of neurasthenia.
+
+My notion is that the twentieth-century man is morally solvent, though
+he is temporarily embarrassed. He will find himself if he is given
+sufficient time. In the mean time it is well for him to consider the
+nature of his embarrassment. He has discovered that the world is "so
+full of a number of things," and he is disappointed that he is not as
+"happy as kings"--that is, as kings in the fairy books. Perhaps "sure
+enough" kings are not as happy as the fairy-book royalties, and perhaps
+the modern man is only experiencing the anxieties that belong to his new
+sovereignty over the world.
+
+There are tribes which become confused when they try to keep in mind
+more than three or four numbers. It is the same kind of confusion which
+comes when we try to look out for more than Number One. We mean well,
+but we have not the facilities for doing it easily. In fact, we are not
+so civilized as we sometimes think.
+
+For example, we have never carried out to its full extent the most
+important invention that mankind has ever made--money. Money is a device
+for simplifying life by providing a means of measuring our desires, and
+gratifying a number of them without confusion.
+
+Money is a measure, not of commodities, but of states of mind. The man
+in the street expresses a profound philosophy when he says, "I feel like
+thirty cents." That is all that "thirty cents" means. It is a certain
+amount of feeling.
+
+You see an article marked "$1.50." You pass by unmoved. The next day you
+see it on the bargain counter marked "98 cents," and you say, "Come to
+my arms," and carry it home. You did not feel like a dollar and a half
+toward it, but you did feel exactly like ninety-eight cents.
+
+It is because of this wonderful measure of value that we are able to
+deal with a multitude of diverse articles without mental confusion.
+
+I am asked to stop at the department store and discover in that vast
+aggregation of goods a skein of silk of a specified shade, and having
+found it bring it safely home. Now, I am not fitted for such an
+adventure. Left to my own devices I should be helpless.
+
+But the way is made easy for me. The floorwalker meets me graciously,
+and without chiding me for not buying the things I do not want, directs
+me to the one thing which would gratify my modest desire. I find myself
+in a little place devoted to silk thread, and with no other articles to
+molest me or make me afraid. The world of commodities is simplified to
+fit my understanding. I feel all the gratitude of the shorn lamb for the
+tempered wind.
+
+At the silken shrine stands a Minerva who imparts her wisdom and guides
+my choice. The silk thread she tells me is equivalent to five cents.
+Now, I have not five cents, but only a five-dollar bill. She does not
+act on the principle of taking all that the traffic will bear. She sends
+the five-dollar bill through space, and in a minute or two she gives me
+the skein and four dollars and ninety-five cents, and I go out of the
+store a free man. I have no misgivings and no remorse because I did not
+buy all the things I might have bought. No one reproached me because I
+did not buy a four-hundred-dollar pianola. Thanks to the great
+invention, the transaction was complete in itself. Five cents
+represented one choice, and I had in my pocket ninety-nine choices which
+I might reserve for other occasions.
+
+But there are some things which, as we say, money cannot buy. In all
+these things of the higher life we have no recognized medium of
+exchange. We are still in the stage of primitive barter. We must bring
+all our moral goods with us, and every transaction involves endless
+dickering. If we express an appreciation for one good thing, we are at
+once reproached by all the traffickers in similar articles for not
+taking over bodily their whole stock in trade.
+
+For example, you have a desire for culture. You haven't the means to
+indulge in very much, but you would like a little. You are immediately
+beset by all the eager Matthew Arnolds who have heard of your desire,
+and they insist that you should at once devote yourself to the knowledge
+of the best that has been known and said in the world. All this is very
+fine, but you don't see how you can afford it. Isn't there a little of a
+cheaper quality that they could show you? Perhaps the second best would
+serve your purpose. At once you are covered with reproaches for your
+philistinism.
+
+You had been living a rather prosaic life and would like to brighten it
+up with a little poetry. What you would really like would be a modest
+James Whitcomb Riley's worth of poetry. But the moment you express the
+desire the University Extension lecturer insists that what you should
+take is a course of lectures on Dante. No wonder that you conclude that
+a person in your circumstances will have to go without any poetry at
+all.
+
+It is the same way with efforts at social righteousness. You find it
+difficult to engage in one transaction without being involved in others
+that you are not ready for. You are interested in a social reform that
+involves collective action. At once you are told that it is socialistic.
+You do not feel that it is any worse for that, and you are quite willing
+to go on. But at once your socialistic friends present you with the
+whole programme of their party. It is all or nothing. When it is
+presented in that way you are likely to become discouraged and fall back
+on nothing.
+
+Now, if we had a circulating medium you would express the exact state of
+your desires somewhat in this way: "Here is my moral dollar. I think I
+will take a quarter's worth of Socialism, and twelve and a half cents'
+worth of old-time Republicanism, and twelve and a half cents of genuine
+Jeffersonian democracy, if there is any left, and a quarter's worth of
+miscellaneous insurgency. Let me see, I have a quarter left. Perhaps I
+may drop in to-morrow and see if you have anything more that I want."
+
+The sad state of my good friend Bagster arises from the fact that he
+can't do one good thing without being confused by a dozen other things
+which are equally good. He feels that he is a miserable sinner because
+his moral dollar is not enough to pay the national debt.
+
+But though we have not yet been able adequately to extend the notion of
+money to the affairs of the higher life, there have been those who have
+worked on the problem.
+
+That was what Socrates had in mind. The Sophists talked eloquently about
+the Good, the True, and the Beautiful; but they dealt in these things in
+the bulk. They had no way of dividing them into sizable pieces for
+everyday use. Socrates set up in Athens as a broker in ideas. He dealt
+on the curb. He measured one thing in terms of another, and tried to
+supply a sufficient amount of change for those who were not ashamed to
+engage in retail trade.
+
+Socrates draws the attention of Phædrus to the fact that when we talk of
+iron and silver the same objects are present to our minds, "but when any
+one speaks of justice and goodness, there is every sort of disagreement,
+and we are at odds with one another and with ourselves."
+
+What we need to do he says is to have an idea that is big enough to
+include all the particular actions or facts. Then, in order to do
+business, we must be able to divide this so that it may serve our
+convenience. This is what Socrates called Philosophy.
+
+"I am a great lover," he said, "of the processes of division and
+generalization; they help me to speak and think. And if I find any man
+who is able to see unity and plurality in nature, him I follow, and walk
+in his steps as if he were a god."
+
+Even in the Forest of Arden life was not so simple as at first it
+seemed. The shepherd's life which "in respect of itself was a good life"
+was in other respects quite otherwise. Its unity seemed to break up into
+a confusing plurality. Honest Touchstone, in trying to reconcile the
+different points of view, blurted out the test question, "Hast any
+philosophy in thee, Shepherd?" After Bagster has communed with Chocorua
+for six months, I shall put that question to him.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+
+I
+
+
+"You here, Bagster?" I exclaimed, as in the Sistine Chapel I saw an
+anxious face gazing down into a mirror in which were reflected the
+dimmed glories of the ceiling. There was an anxiety as of one who was
+seeking the Truth of Art at the bottom of the well.
+
+One who is in the habit of giving unsolicited advice is likely to take
+for granted that his advice has been acted upon, even though experience
+should teach him that this is seldom the case. I had sagely counseled
+Bagster to go to the New Hampshire woods, in order to recuperate after
+his multifarious labors. I was therefore surprised to find him playing
+truant in Rome.
+
+My salutation did not at first cause him to look up. He only made a
+mysterious sign with his hand. It was evidently a gesture which he had
+recently learned, and was practiced as a sort of exorcism.
+
+"I am not going to sell you cameos or post cards," I explained.
+
+When he recognized a familiar face, Bagster forgot all about the Last
+Judgment, and we were soon out-of-doors and he was telling me about
+himself.
+
+"I meant to go to Chocorua as you suggested, but the congregation
+advised otherwise, so I came over here. It seemed the better thing to
+do. Up in New Hampshire you can't do much but rest, but here you can
+improve your taste and collect a good deal of homiletic material. So
+I've settled down in Rome. I want to have time to take it all in."
+
+"Do you begin to feel rested?" I asked.
+
+"Not yet. It's harder work than I thought it would be. There's so much
+to take in, and it's all so different. I don't know how to arrange my
+material. What I want to do, in the first place, is to have a realizing
+sense of being in Rome. What's the use of being here unless you are here
+in the spirit?
+
+"What I mean is that I should like to feel as I did when I went to Mount
+Vernon. It was one of those dreamy autumn days when the leaves were just
+turning. There was the broad Potomac, and the hospitable Virginia
+mansion. I had the satisfying sense that I was in the home of
+Washington. Everything seemed to speak of Washington. He filled the
+whole scene. It was a great experience. Why can't I feel that way about
+the great events that happened down there?"
+
+We were by this time on the height of the Janiculum near the statue of
+Garibaldi. Bagster made a vague gesture toward the city that lay beneath
+us. There seemed to be something in the scene that worried him. "I can't
+make it seem real," he said. "I have continually to say to myself, 'That
+is Rome, Italy, and not Rome, New York.' I can't make the connection
+between the place and the historical personages I have read about. I
+can't realize that the Epistle to the Romans was written to the people
+who lived down there. Just back of that new building is the very spot
+where Romulus would have lived if he had ever existed. On those very
+streets Scipio Africanus walked, and Cæsar and Cicero and Paul and
+Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus and Belisarius, and Hildebrand and
+Michelangelo, and at one time or another about every one you ever heard
+of. And how many people came to get emotions they couldn't get anywhere
+else! There was Goethe. How he felt! He took it all in. And there was
+Shelley writing poetry in the Baths of Caracalla. And there was Gibbon."
+
+"But we can't all expect to be Shelleys or even Gibbons," I suggested.
+
+"I know it," said Bagster, ruefully. "But if one has only a little
+vessel, he ought to fill it. But somehow the historical associations
+crowd each other out. When I left home I bought Hare's 'Walks in Rome.'
+I thought I would take a walk a day as long as they lasted. It seemed a
+pleasant way of combining physical and intellectual exercise. But do you
+know, I could not keep up those walks. They were too concentrated for my
+constitution. I wasn't equal to them. Out in California they used to
+make wagers with the stranger that he couldn't eat a broiled quail every
+day for ten days. I don't see why he couldn't, but it seemed that the
+thought of to-morrow's quail, and the feeling that it was compulsory,
+turned him against what otherwise might have been a pleasure. It's so
+with the 'Walks.' It's appalling to think that every morning you have to
+start out for a constitutional, and be confronted with the events of the
+last twenty-five centuries. The events are piled up one on another.
+There they are, and here you are, and what are you going to do about
+them?"
+
+"I suppose that there isn't much that you can do about them," I
+remarked.
+
+"But we ought to do what we can," said Bagster. "When I do have an
+emotion, something immediately turns up to contradict it. It's like
+wandering through a big hotel, looking for your room, when you are on
+the wrong floor. Here you are as likely as not to find yourself in the
+wrong century. In Rome everything turns out, on inquiry, to be something
+else. There's something impressive about a relic if it's the relic of
+one thing. But if it's the relic of a dozen different kinds of things
+it's hard to pick out the appropriate emotion. I find it hard to adjust
+my mind to these composite associations."
+
+"Now just look at this," he said, opening his well-thumbed Baedeker:
+"'Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Pl. D. 4), erected on the ruins of
+Domitian's temple of Minerva, the only mediæval Gothic church in Rome.
+Begun A.D., 1280; was restored and repainted in 1848-55. It contains
+several admirable works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Christ.'"
+
+"It's that sort of thing that gets on my nerves. The Virgin and Minerva
+and Domitian and Michelangelo are all mixed together, and then
+everything is restored and repainted in 1848. And just round the corner
+from Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the Pantheon. The inscription on the
+porch says that it was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. I
+try to take that in. But when I have partially done that, I learn that
+the building was struck by lightning and entirely rebuilt by the Emperor
+Hadrian.
+
+"That information comes like the call of the conductor to change cars,
+just as one has comfortably settled down on the train. We must forget
+all about Agrippa and Augustus, and remember that this building was
+built by Hadrian. But it turns out that in 609 Boniface turned it into a
+Christian church. Which Boniface? The Pantheon was adorned with bronze
+columns. If you wish to see them you must go to St. Peter's, where they
+are a part of the high altar. So Baedeker says, but I'm told that isn't
+correct either. When you go inside you see that you must let by-gones be
+by-gones. You are confronted with the tomb of Victor Emmanuel and set to
+thinking on the recent glories of the House of Savoy. Really to
+appreciate the Pantheon you must be well-posted in nineteenth-century
+history. You keep up this train of thought till you happen to stumble on
+the tomb of Raphael. That, of course, is what you ought to have come to
+see in the first place.
+
+"When you look at the column of Trajan you naturally think of Trajan,
+you follow the spiral which celebrates his victories, till you come to
+the top of the column; and there stands St. Peter as if it were _his_
+monument. You meditate on the column of Marcus Aurelius, and look up and
+see St. Paul in the place of honor.
+
+"I must confess that I have had difficulty about the ruins. Brick,
+particularly in this climate, doesn't show its age. I find it hard to
+distinguish between a ruin and a building in the course of construction.
+When I got out of the station I saw a huge brick building across the
+street, which had been left unfinished as if the workmen had gone on
+strike. I learned that it was the remains of the Baths of Diocletian.
+Opening a door I found myself in a huge church, which had a long history
+I ought to have known something about, but didn't.
+
+"Now read this, and try to take it in: 'Returning to the Cancelleria, we
+proceed to the Piazza Campo de' Fiori, where the vegetable market is
+held in the morning, and where criminals were formerly executed. The
+bronze statue of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned here as
+a heretic in 1600, was erected in 1889. To the east once lay the Theatre
+of Pompey. Behind it lay the Porticus of Pompey where Cæsar was
+murdered, B.C. 44.'
+
+"It economizes space to have the vegetable market and the martyrdom of
+Giordano Bruno and the assassination of Julius Cæsar all close together.
+But they are too close. The imagination hasn't room to turn round.
+Especially as the market-women are very much alive and cannot conceive
+that any one would come into the Piazza unless he intended to buy
+vegetables. Somehow the great events you have read about don't seem to
+have impressed themselves on the neighborhood. At any rate, you are
+conscious that you are the only person in the Piazza Campo de' Fiori who
+is thinking about Giordano Bruno or Julius Cæsar; while the price of
+vegetables is as intensely interesting as it was in the year 1600 A.D.
+or in 44 B.C.
+
+"How am I to get things in their right perspective? When I left home I
+had a pretty clear and connected idea of history. There was a logical
+sequence. One period followed another. But in these walks in Rome the
+sequence is destroyed. History seems more like geology than like logic,
+and the strata have all been broken up by innumerable convulsions of
+nature. The Middle Ages were not eight or ten centuries ago; they are
+round the next block. A walk from the Quirinal to the Vatican takes you
+from the twentieth century to the twelfth. And one seems as much alive
+as the other. You may go from schools where you have the last word in
+modern education, to the Holy Stairs at the Lateran, where you will see
+the pilgrims mounting on their knees as if Luther and his protest had
+never happened. Or you can, in five minutes, walk from the Renaissance
+period to 400 B.C.
+
+"When I was in the theological seminary I had a very clear idea of the
+difference between Pagan Rome and Christian Rome. When Constantine came,
+Christianity was established. It was a wonderful change and made
+everything different. But when you stroll across from the Arch of Titus
+to the Arch of Constantine you wonder what the difference was. The two
+things look so much alike. And in the Vatican that huge painting of the
+triumph of Constantine over Maxentius doesn't throw much light on the
+subject. Suppose the pagan Maxentius had triumphed over Constantine,
+what difference would it have made in the picture?
+
+"They say that seeing is believing, but here you see so many things that
+are different from what you have always believed. The Past doesn't seem
+to be in the past, but in the present. There is an air of
+contemporaneousness about everything. Do you remember that story of
+Jules Verne about a voyage to the moon? When the voyagers got a certain
+distance from the earth they couldn't any longer drop things out of the
+balloon. The articles they threw out didn't fall down. There wasn't any
+down; everything was round about. Everything they had cast out followed
+them. That's the way Rome makes you feel about history. That which
+happened a thousand years ago is going on still. You can't get rid of
+it. The Roman Republic is a live issue, and so is the Roman Empire, and
+so is the Papacy.
+
+"The other day they found a ruined Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli,
+and began to restore it. New Italy is delighted at this confirmation of
+its claims to sovereignty in North Africa. The newspapers treat Marcus
+Aurelius as only a forerunner of Giolitti. By the way, I never heard of
+Giolitti till I came over here. But it seems that he is a very great
+man. But when ancient and modern history are mixed up it's hard to do
+any clear thinking. And when you do get a clear thought you find out
+that it isn't true. You know Dr. Johnson said something to the effect
+that that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain
+force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose feelings would not grow
+warmer among the ruins of Rome. Marathon is a simple proposition. But
+when one is asked to warm his enthusiasm by means of the Roman
+monuments, he naturally asks, 'Enthusiasm over what?' Of course, I don't
+mean to give up. I'm faint though pursuing. But I'm afraid that Rome is
+not a good place to rest in."
+
+"I'm afraid not," I said, "if you insist on keeping on thinking. It is
+not a good place in which to rest your mind."
+
+
+II
+
+I think Bagster is not the first person who has found intellectual
+difficulty here. Rome exists for the confusion of the sentimental
+traveler. Other cities deal tenderly with our preconceived ideas of
+them. There is one simple impression made upon the mind. Once out of the
+railway station and in a gondola, and we can dream our dream of Venice
+undisturbed. There is no doge at present, but if there were one we
+should know where to place him. The city still furnishes the proper
+setting for his magnificence. And London with all its vastness has, at
+first sight, a familiar seeming. The broad and simple outlines of
+English history make it easy to reconceive the past.
+
+But Rome is disconcerting. The actual refuses to make terms with the
+ideal. It is a vast storehouse of historical material, but the
+imagination is baffled in the attempt to put the material together.
+
+When Scott was in Rome his friend "advised him to wait to see the
+procession of Corpus Domini, and hear the Pope
+
+  Saying the high, high mass
+  All on St. Peter's day.
+
+He smiled and said that these things were more poetical in the
+description than in reality, and that it was all the better for him
+not to have seen it before he wrote about it."
+
+Sir Walter's instinct was a true one. Rome is not favorable to
+historical romance. Its atmosphere is eminently realistic. The
+historical romancer is flying through time as the air-men fly through
+space. But the air-men complain that they sometimes come upon what
+they call "air holes." The atmosphere seems suddenly to give way under
+them. In Rome the element of Time on which the imagination has been
+flying seems to lose its usual density. We drop through a Time-hole,
+and find ourselves in an inglorious anachronism.
+
+I am not sure that Bagster has had a more difficult time than his
+predecessors, who have attempted to assort their historical material.
+For in the days before historical criticism was invented, the history
+of Rome was very luxuriant. "Seeing Rome" was a strenuous undertaking,
+if one tried to be intelligent.
+
+There was an admirable little guide-book published in the twelfth
+century called "Mirabilia Urbis Romæ." One can imagine the old-time
+tourist with this mediæval Baedeker in hand, issuing forth, resolved
+to see Rome in three days. At the end of the first day his courage
+would ooze away as he realized the extent of his ignorance. With a
+hurried look at the guide-book and a glance at the varied assortment
+of ruins, he would try to get his bearings. All the worthies of sacred
+and profane history would be passing by in swift procession.
+
+"After the sons of Noah built the tower of confusion, Noah with all
+his sons came to Italy. And not far from the place where Rome now is
+they founded a city in his name, where he brought his travail and life
+to an end." To come to the city of Noah was worth a long journey. Just
+think of actually standing on the spot where Shem, Ham, and Japhet
+soothed the declining years of their father! It was hard to realize
+it all. And it appears that Japhet, always an enterprising person,
+built a city of his own on the Palatine Hill. There is the Palatine,
+somewhat cluttered up with modern buildings of the Cæsars, but
+essentially, in its outlines, as Japhet saw it.
+
+But there were other pioneers to be remembered. "Saturn, being
+shamefully entreated by his son Jupiter," founded a city on the
+Capitoline Hill. One wonders what Shem, Ham, and Japhet thought of
+this, and whether their sympathies were with Jupiter who was seeking
+to get a place in the sun.
+
+It is hard to understand the complicated politics of the day. At any
+rate, a short time after, Hercules came with a band of Argives and
+established a rival civic centre. In the meantime, Janus had become
+mixed up with Roman history and was working manfully for the New
+Italy. On very much the same spot "Tibris, King of the Aborigines"
+built a city, which must be carefully distinguished from those before
+mentioned.
+
+All this happened before Romulus appeared upon the scene. One with a
+clear and comprehensive understanding of this early history might
+enjoy his first morning's walk in Rome. But to the middle-aged pilgrim
+from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who had come to Rome merely to see
+the tomb of St. Peter, it was exhausting.
+
+But perhaps mediæval tradition did not form a more confusing
+atmosphere than the sentimental admiration of a later day. In the
+early part of the nineteenth century a writer begins a book on Rome in
+this fashion: "I have ventured to hope that this work may be a guide
+to those who visit this wonderful city, which boasts at once the
+noblest remains of antiquity, and the most faultless works of art;
+which possesses more claims to interest than any other city; which has
+in every age stood foremost in the world; which has been the light of
+the earth in ages past, the guiding star through the long night of
+ignorance, the fountain of civilization to the whole Western world,
+and which every nation reverences as the common nurse, preceptor, and
+parent."
+
+This notion of Rome as the venerable parent of civilization, to be
+approached with tenderly reverential feelings, was easier to hold a
+hundred years ago than it is to-day. There was nothing to contradict
+it. One might muse on "the grandeur that was Rome," among picturesque
+ruins covered with flowering weeds. But now a Rome that is obtrusively
+modern claims attention. And it is not merely that the modern world is
+here, but that our view of antiquity is modernized. We see it, not
+through the mists of time, but as a contemporary might.
+
+When Ferrero published his history we were startled by his realistic
+treatment. It was as if we were reading a newspaper and following the
+course of current events. Cæsar and Pompey and Cicero were treated as
+if they were New York politicians. Where we had expected to see
+stately figures in togas we were made to see hustling real-estate
+speculators, and millionaires, and labor leaders, and ward
+politicians, who were working for the prosperity of the city and,
+incidentally, for themselves. It was all very different from our
+notions of classic times which we had imbibed from our Latin lessons
+in school. But it is the impression which Rome itself makes upon the
+mind.
+
+One afternoon, among the vast ruins of Hadrian's Villa, I tried to
+picture the villa as it was when its first owner walked among the
+buildings which his whim had created. The moment Hadrian himself
+appeared upon the scene, antiquity seemed an illusion. How
+ultra-modern he was, this man whom his contemporaries called "a
+searcher out of strange things"! These ruins could not by the mere
+process of time become venerable, for they were in their very nature
+novelties. They were the playthings of a very rich man. There they lie
+upon the ground like so many broken toys. They are just such things as
+an enormously rich man would make to-day if he had originality enough
+to think of them. Why should not Hadrian have a Vale of Tempe and a
+Greek theatre and a Valley of Canopus, and ever so many other things
+which he had seen in his travels, reproduced on his estate near
+Tivoli?
+
+An historian of the Empire says: "The character of Hadrian was in the
+highest degree complex, and this presents to the student a series of
+apparently unreconciled contrasts which have proved so hard for many
+modern historians to resolve. A thorough soldier and yet the
+inaugurator of a peace policy, a 'Greekling' as his Roman subjects
+called him, and saturated with Hellenic ideas, and yet a lover of
+Roman antiquity; a poet and an artist, but with a passion for
+business and finance; a voluptuary determined to drain the cup of
+human experience and, at the same time, a ruler who labored
+strenuously for the well-being of his subjects; such were a few of the
+diverse parts which Hadrian played."
+
+It is evident that the difficulty with the historians who find these
+unreconciled contrasts is that they try to treat Hadrian as an
+"ancient" rather than as a modern. The enormously rich men who are at
+present most in the public eye present the same contradictions.
+Hadrian was a thorough man of the world. There was nothing venerable
+about him, though much that was interesting and admirable.
+
+Now what a man of the world is to a simple character like a saint or a
+hero, that Rome has been to cities of the simpler sort. It has been a
+city of the world. It has been cosmopolitan. "Urbs et orbis" suggests
+the historic fact. The fortunes of the city have become inextricably
+involved in the fortunes of the world.
+
+A part of the confusion of the traveler comes from the fact that the
+Roman city and the Roman world are not clearly distinguished one from
+the other. The New Testament writer distinguishes between Jerusalem as
+a geographical fact and Jerusalem as a spiritual ideal. There has
+been, he says, a Jerusalem that belongs to the Jews, but there is also
+Jerusalem which belongs to humanity, which is free, which is "the
+mother of us all."
+
+So there has been a local Rome with its local history. And there has
+been the greater Rome that has impressed itself on the imagination of
+the world. Since the destruction of Carthage the meaning of the word
+"Roman" has been largely allegorical. It has stood for the successive
+ideas of earthly power and spiritual authority.
+
+Rome absorbed the glory of deeds done elsewhere. Battles were fought
+in far-off Asia and Africa. But the battlefield did not become the
+historic spot. The victor must bring his captives to Rome for his
+triumph. Here the pomp of war could be seen, on a carefully arranged
+stage, and before admiring thousands. It was the triumph rather than
+the battle that was remembered. All the interest culminated at this
+dramatic moment. Rome thus became, not the place where history was
+made, but the place where it was celebrated. Here the trumpets of
+fame perpetually sounded.
+
+This process continued after the Empire of the Cæsars passed away. The
+continuity of Roman history has been psychological. Humanity has "held
+a thought." Rome became a fixed idea. It exerted an hypnotic influence
+over the barbarians who had overcome all else. The Holy Roman Empire
+was a creation of the Germanic imagination, and yet it was a real
+power. Many a hard-headed Teutonic monarch crossed the Alps at the
+head of his army to demand a higher sanction for his own rule of
+force. When he got himself crowned in the turbulent city on the Tiber
+he felt that something very important had happened. Just how important
+it was he did not fully realize till he was back among his own people
+and saw how much impressed they were by his new dignities.
+
+Hans Christian Andersen begins one of his stories with the assertion,
+"You must know that the Emperor of China is a Chinaman and that all
+whom he has about him are Chinamen also." The assertion is so logical
+in form that we are inclined to accept it without question. Then we
+remember that in Hans Christian Andersen's day, and for a long time
+before, the Emperor of China was not a Chinaman and the great
+grievance was that Chinamen were the very people he would not have
+about him.
+
+When we speak of the Roman Catholic Church, we jump at the conclusion
+that it is the church of the Romans and that the people of Rome have
+had the most to do with its extension. This theory has nothing to
+recommend it but its extreme verbal simplicity. As a matter of fact,
+Rome has never been noted for its pious zeal. Such warmth as it has
+had has been imparted to it by the faithful who have been drawn from
+other lands; as, according to some theorists, the sun's heat is kept
+up by a continuous shower of meteors falling into it.
+
+To-day, the Roman Church is more conscious of its strength in
+Massachusetts than it is near the Vatican. At the period when the
+Papacy was at its height, and kings and emperors trembled before it in
+England and in Germany, the Popes had a precarious hold on their own
+city. Rome was a religious capital rather than a religious centre. It
+did not originate new movements. Missionaries of the faith have not
+gone forth from it, as they went from Ireland. It is not in Rome that
+we find the places where the saints received their spiritual
+illuminations, and fought the good fight, and gathered their
+disciples. Rome was the place to which they came for judgment, as Paul
+did when he appealed to Cæsar. Here heretics were condemned, and here
+saints, long dead, were canonized. Neither the doctrines nor the
+institutions of the Catholic Church originated here. Rome was the
+mint, not the mine. That which received the Roman stamp passed current
+throughout the world.
+
+In the political struggle for the New Italy, Rome had the same
+symbolic character. Mazzini was never so eloquent as when portraying
+the glories of the free Rome that was to be recognized, indeed, as the
+mother of us all. The Eternal City, he believed, was to be the
+regenerating influence, not only for Europe but for all the world. All
+the romantic enthusiasm of Garibaldi flamed forth at the sight of
+Rome. All other triumphs signified nothing till Rome was the
+acknowledged capital of Italy. Silently and steadily Cavour worked
+toward the same end. And at last Rome gathered to herself the glory
+of the heroes who were not her own children.
+
+If we recognize the symbolic and representative character of Roman
+history, we can begin to understand the reason for the bewilderment
+which comes to the traveler who attempts to realize it in imagination.
+Roman history is not, like the tariff, a local issue. The most
+important events in that history did not occur here at all, though
+they were here commemorated. So it happens that every nation finds
+here its own, and reinforces its traditions. In the Middle Ages, the
+Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, found much to interest him. In
+Rome were to be found two brazen pillars of Solomon's Temple, and
+there was a crypt where Titus hid the holy vessels taken from
+Jerusalem. There was also a statue of Samson and another of Absalom.
+
+The worthy Benjamin doubtless felt the same thrill that I did when
+looking up at the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. I was
+told that it was gilded with the first gold brought from America. The
+statement, that the church was founded on this spot because of a
+vision that came to Pope Liberius in the year 305 A.D., left me
+unmoved. It was of course a long time ago; but then, I had no mental
+associations with Pope Liberius, and there was no encyclopædia at hand
+in which I might look him up. Besides, "the church was reërected by
+Sixtus III in the year 432, and was much altered in the twelfth
+century." But the gold on the ceiling was a different matter. That was
+romantically historical. It came from America in the heroic age. I
+thought of the Spanish galleons that brought it over, and of Columbus
+and Cortés and Alvarado. After that, to go into the Church of Santa
+Maria Maggiore was like taking a trip to Mexico.
+
+In the course of my daily walks, I passed the Church of Santa
+Pudenziana, said to be the oldest in Rome, and recently modernized. It
+is on the spot where Pudens, the host of St. Peter, is said to have
+lived with his daughters Praxedis and Pudentiana. This is interesting,
+but the English-speaking traveler is likely to pass by Pudaentiana's
+church, and seek out the church of her sister St. Praxed. And this not
+for the sake of St. Praxed or her father Pudens or even of his guest
+St. Peter, but for the sake of a certain English poet who had visited
+the church once.
+
+Close to the Porta San Paolo is the great tomb of the Roman magnate,
+Gaius Cestius, which was built before the birth of Christ. One can
+hardly miss seeing it, because it is near one of the most sacred
+pilgrimage places of Rome, the grave of John Keats.
+
+Each traveler makes his own Rome; and the memories which he takes away
+are the memories which he brought with him.
+
+
+III
+
+As for my friend Bagster, now that he has come to Rome, I hope he may
+stay long enough to allow it to produce a more tranquilizing effect
+upon him. When he gives up the attempt to take it all in by an
+intellectual and moral effort, he may, as the saying is, "relax."
+
+There is no other place in which one may so readily learn the meaning
+of that misused word "urbanity." Urbanity is the state of mind adapted
+to a city, as rusticity is adapted to the country. In each case the
+perfection of the adaptation is evidenced by a certain ease of manner
+in the presence of the environment. There is an absence of fret and
+worry over what is involved in the situation. A countryman does not
+fret over dust or mud; he knows that they are forms of the good earth
+out of which he makes his living. He may grumble at the weather, but
+he is not surprised at it, and he is ready to make the best of it.
+
+This adaptation to nature is easy for us, for we are rustics by
+inheritance. Our ancestors lived in the open, and kept their flocks
+and were mighty hunters long before towns were ever thought of. So
+when we go into the woods in the spring, our self-consciousness leaves
+us and we speedily make ourselves at home. We take things for granted,
+and are not careful about trifles. A great many things are going on,
+but the multiplicity does not distract us. We do not need to
+understand.
+
+For we have primal sympathies which are very good substitutes for
+intelligence. We do not worry because nature does not get on faster
+with her work. When we go out on the hills on a spring morning, as our
+forbears did ten thousand years ago, it does not fret us to consider
+that things are going on very much as they did then. The sap is
+mounting in the trees; the wild flowers are pushing out of the sod;
+the free citizens of the woods are pursuing their vocations without
+regard to our moralities. A great deal is going on, but nothing has
+come to a dramatic culmination.
+
+Our innate rusticity makes us accept all this in the spirit in which
+it is offered to us. It is nature's way and we like it, because we are
+used to it. We take what is set before us and ask no questions. It is
+spring. We do not stop to inquire as to whether this spring is an
+improvement on last spring or on the spring of the year 400 B.C. There
+is a timelessness about our enjoyment. We are not thinking of events
+set in a chronological order, but of a process which loses nothing by
+reason of repetition.
+
+Our attitude toward a city is usually quite different. We are not at
+our ease. We are querulous and anxious, and our interest takes a
+feverish turn. For the cities of our Western world are new-fangled
+contrivances which we are not used to, and we are worried as we try to
+find out whether they will work. These aggregations of humanity have
+not existed long enough to seem to belong to the nature of things. It
+is exciting to be invited to "see Seattle grow," but the exhibition
+does not yield a "harvest of a quiet eye." If Seattle should cease to
+grow while we are looking at it, what should we do then?
+
+But with Rome it is different. Here is a city which has been so long
+in existence that we look upon it as a part of nature. It is not
+accidental or artificial. Nothing can happen to it but what has
+happened already. It has been burned with fire, it has been ravaged by
+the sword, it has been ruined by luxury, it has been pillaged by
+barbarians and left for dead. And here it is to-day the scene of eager
+life. Pagans, Christians, reformers, priests, artists, soldiers,
+honest workmen, idlers, philosophers, saints, were here centuries ago.
+They are here to-day. They have continuously opposed each other, and
+yet no species has been exterminated. Their combined activities make
+the city.
+
+When one comes to feel the stirring of primal sympathies for the
+manifold life of the city, as he does for the manifold life of the
+woods, Rome ceases to be distracting. The old city is like the
+mountain which has withstood the hurts of time, and remains for us,
+"the grand affirmer of the present tense."
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+
+I
+
+
+Stopping at some selected spot on the mountain road, the stage-driver
+will direct the stranger's attention to a projecting mass of rock
+which bears some resemblance to a human countenance. There is the "Old
+Man of the Mountains," or the "Old Woman," as the case may be.
+
+If the stranger be of a docile disposition he will see what he is told
+to see. But he will be content with the vague suggestion and will not
+push the analogy too far. The similitude is strictly confined to the
+locality. It is enough if from a single point the mountain seems
+almost human. From any other point it will seem to be merely
+mountainous.
+
+A similar caution is necessary in regard to the resemblances between a
+nation and an individual. When we talk of a national character or
+temperament, we are using an interesting and bold figure of speech.
+We speak of millions of people as if they were one. Of course, a
+nation is not one kind of person; it is composed of many kinds of
+persons. These persons are diverse in character. All Scotchmen are not
+canny, nor all Irishmen happy-go-lucky. Those who know a great many
+Chinamen are acquainted with those who are idealists with little taste
+for plodding industry. It is only the outsider who is greatly
+impressed by the family resemblance. To the more analytic mind of the
+parent each child is, in a most remarkable degree, different from the
+others.
+
+When we take such typical characters as John Bull and Brother Jonathan
+as representing actual Englishmen or Americans, we put ourselves in
+the way of contradiction. They are not good likenesses. An English
+writer says: "As the English, a particularly quick-witted race, tinged
+with the colors of romance, have long cherished a false pride in their
+reputed stolidity, and have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+figure of John Bull as their national signboard, though he does not
+resemble them, so Americans plume themselves on the thought that they
+are dying of nervous energy."
+
+There is much truth in this. One may stand at Charing Cross and watch
+the hurrying crowds and only now and then catch sight of any one who
+suggests the burly John Bull of tradition. The type is not a common
+one, at least among city dwellers.
+
+But when we attribute a temperament to a nation, we do not necessarily
+mean that all the people are alike. We only mean that there are
+certain ways of thinking and feeling that are common to those who have
+had the same general experience. The national temperament is
+manifested not so much in what the people are as in what they admire
+and instinctively appreciate.
+
+Let us accept the statement that the English are a quick-witted and
+romantic people who have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+reputation for being quite otherwise. Why should they do this? Why
+should they take pride in their reputed stolidity rather than in their
+actual cleverness. Here is a temperamental peculiarity that is worth
+looking into.
+
+John Bull may be a myth, but Englishmen have been the mythmakers. They
+have for generations delighted in picturing him. He represents a
+combination of qualities which they admire. Dogged, unimaginative,
+well-meaning, honest, full of whimsical prejudices, and full of common
+sense, he is loved and honored by those who are much more brilliant
+than he.
+
+John Bull is not a composite photograph of the inhabitants of the
+British Isles. He is not an average man. He is a totem. When an Indian
+tribe chooses a fox or a bear as a totem, they must not be taken too
+literally. But the symbol has a real meaning. It indicates that there
+are some qualities in these animals that they admire. They have proved
+valuable in the tribal struggle for existence.
+
+Those who belong to the cult of John Bull take him as the symbol of
+that which has been most vital and successful in the island story.
+England has had more than its share of men of genius. It has had its
+artists, its wits, its men of quick imagination. But these have not
+been the builders of the Empire, or those who have sustained it in the
+hours of greatest need. Men of a slower temper, more solid than
+brilliant, have been the nation's main dependence. "It's dogged as
+does it." On many a hard-fought field men of the bull-dog breed have
+with unflinching tenacity held their own. In times of revolution they
+have maintained order, and never yielded to a threat. Had they been
+more sensitive they would have failed. Their foibles have been easily
+forgiven and their virtues have been gratefully recognized.
+
+When we try to form an idea of that which is most distinctive in the
+American temperament, we need not inquire what Americans actually are.
+The answer to that question would be a generalization as wide as
+humanity. They are of all kinds. Among the ninety-odd millions of
+human beings inhabiting the territory of the United States are
+representatives of all the nations of the Old World, and they bring
+with them their ancestral traits.
+
+But we may ask, When these diverse peoples come together on common
+ground, what sort of man do they choose as their symbol? There is a
+typical character understood and appreciated by all. In every
+caricature of Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan we can detect the
+lineaments of the American frontiersman.
+
+James Russell Lowell, gentleman and scholar that he was, describes a
+type of man unknown to the Old World:--
+
+  "This brown-fisted rough, this shirt-sleeved Cid,
+  This backwoods Charlemagne of Empires new.
+  Who meeting Cæsar's self would slap his back,
+  Call him 'Old Horse' and challenge to a drink."
+
+Mr. Lowell bore no resemblance to this brown-fisted rough. He would
+not have slapped Cæsar on the back, and he would have resented being
+himself greeted in such an unconventional fashion. Nevertheless he was
+an American and was able to understand that a man might be capable of
+such improprieties and at the same time be a pillar of the State. It
+tickled his fancy to think of a fellow citizen meeting the imperial
+Roman on terms of hearty equality.
+
+  "My lungs draw braver air, my breast dilates
+  With ampler manhood, and I face both worlds."
+
+Dickens, with all his boisterous humor and democratic sympathies, could
+not interpret Jefferson Brick and Lafayette Kettle and the other
+expansive patriots whom he met on his travels. Their virtues were as a
+sealed book to him. Their boastful familiarity was simply odious.
+
+To understand Lowell's exhilaration one must enter into the spirit of
+American history. It has been the history of what has been done by
+strong men who owed nothing to the refinements of civilization. The
+interesting events have taken place not at the centre, but on the
+circumference of the country. The centrifugal force has always been the
+strongest. There has been no capital to which ambitious youths went up
+to seek their fortune. In each generation they have gone to the frontier
+where opportunities awaited them. There they encountered, on the rough
+edges of society, rough-and-ready men in whom they recognized their
+natural superiors. These men, rude of speech and of manner, were
+resourceful, bold, far-seeing. They were conscious of their power. They
+were laying the foundations of cities and of states and they knew it.
+They were as boastful as Homeric heroes, and for the same reason. There
+was in them a rude virility that found expression in word as well as in
+deed.
+
+Davy Crockett, coon-hunter, Indian fighter, and Congressman, was a great
+man in his day. It does not detract from his worth that he was well
+aware of the fact. There was no false modesty about this backwoods
+Charlemagne. He wrote of himself, "If General Jackson, Black Hawk, and
+me were to travel through the United States we would bring out, no
+matter what kind of weather, more people to see us than any other three
+people now living among the fifteen millions now inhabiting the United
+States. And what would it be for? As I am one of the persons mentioned I
+would not press the question further. What I am driving at is this. When
+a man rises from a low degree to a place he ain't used to, such a man
+starts the curiosity of the world to know how he got along."
+
+Davy Crockett understood the temper of his fellow citizens. A man who
+rises by his own exertions from a low position to "a place he ain't used
+to" is not only an object of curiosity, but he elicits enthusiastic
+admiration. Any awkwardness which he exhibits in the position which he
+has achieved is overlooked. We are anxious to know how he got along.
+
+Every country has its self-made men, but usually they are made to feel
+very uncomfortable. They are accounted intruders in circles reserved for
+the choicer few. But in America they are assured of a sympathetic
+audience when they tell of the way they have risen in the world. There
+is no need for them to apologize for any lack of early advantages, for
+they are living in a self-made country. We are in the habit of giving
+the place of honor to the beginner rather than to the continuer. For the
+finisher the time is not ripe.
+
+
+II
+
+The most vivid impressions of Americans have always been anticipatory.
+They have felt themselves borne along by a resistless current, and that
+current has, on the whole, been flowing in the right direction. They
+have never been confronted with ruins that tell that the land they
+inhabit has seen better days. Yesterday is vague; To-day may be
+uncertain; To-morrow is alluring; and the Day after to-morrow is
+altogether glorious. George Herbert pictured religion as standing on
+tiptoe waiting to pass to the American strand. Not only religion but
+every other good thing has assumed that attitude of expectant curiosity.
+
+Even Cotton Mather could not avoid a tone of pious boastfulness when he
+narrated the doings of New England. Everything was remarkable. New
+England had the most remarkable providences, the most remarkable painful
+preachers, the most remarkable heresies, the most remarkable witches.
+Even the local devils were in his judgment more enterprising than those
+of the old country. They had to be in order to be a match for the New
+England saints.
+
+The staid Judge Sewall, after a study of the prophecies, was of the
+opinion that America was the only country in which they could be
+adequately fulfilled. Here was a field large enough for those future
+battles between good and evil which enthralled the Puritan imagination.
+To be sure, it would be said, there isn't much just now to attract the
+historian whose mind dwells exclusively on the past. But to one who dips
+into the future it is thrilling. Here is the battlefield of Armageddon.
+Some day we shall see "the spirits of devils working miracles, which go
+forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather
+them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Just _when_ that
+might take place might be uncertain but _where_ it would take place was
+to them more obvious.
+
+In the days of small things the settlers in the wilderness had large
+thoughts. They felt themselves to be historical characters, as indeed
+they were. They were impressed by the magnitude of the country and by
+the importance of their relation to it. Their language took on a cosmic
+breadth.
+
+Ethan Allen could not have assumed a more masterful tone if he had had
+an Empire at his back instead of undisciplined bands of Green Mountain
+Boys. Writing to the Continental Congress, he declares that unless the
+demands of Vermont are complied with "we will retire into the fastnesses
+of our Green Mountains and will wage eternal warfare against Hell, the
+Devil, and Human Nature in general." And Ethan Allen meant it.
+
+The love of the superlative is deeply seated in the American mind. It is
+based on no very careful survey of the existing world. It is a
+conclusion to which it is easy to jump. I remember one week, traveling
+through the Mississippi Valley, stopping every night in some town that
+had something which was advertised as the biggest in the world. On
+Friday I reached a sleepy little village which seemed the picture of
+contented mediocrity. Here, thought I, I shall find no bigness to molest
+me or make me afraid. But when I sat down to write a letter on the hotel
+stationery I was confronted with the statement, "This is the biggest
+little hotel in the State."
+
+When one starts a tune it is safer to start it rather low, so as not to
+come to grief on the upper notes. In discussing the American temperament
+it is better to start modestly. Instead of asking what excellent
+qualities we find in ourselves, we should ask what do other nations most
+dislike in us. We can then have room to rise to better things. There is
+a family resemblance between the worst and the best of any national
+group. Kipling, in his lines "To an American," may set the tune for us.
+It is not too high. His American is boastful, careless, and irrationally
+optimistic.
+
+  "Enslaved, illogical, elate,
+    He greets the embarrassed gods, nor fears
+  To shake the iron hand of Fate
+    Or match with Destiny for beers."
+
+A person who would offer to shake hands with Fate is certainly lacking
+in a fine sense of propriety. His belief in equality makes him
+indifferent to the note of distinction. "He dubs his dreary brethren
+kings." Of course they are not kings, but that makes no difference. It
+makes little difference whether anything corresponds to the name he
+chooses to give to it. For there is
+
+       "A cynic devil in his blood
+  That bids him mock his hurrying soul."
+
+This impression of a mingling of optimism, cynicism, and hurry is one
+which is often made upon those who are suddenly plunged into American
+society. In any company of Americans who are discussing public affairs
+the stranger is struck by what seems the lack of logical connection
+between the statements of facts and the judgments passed upon them. The
+facts may be most distressing and yet nobody seems much distressed,
+still less is any one depressed. The city government is in the hands of
+grafters, the police force is corrupt, the prices of the necessaries of
+life are extortionate, the laws on the statute book are not enforced,
+and new laws are about to be enacted that are foolish in the extreme.
+Vast numbers of undesirable aliens are coming into the country and
+bringing with them ideas that are opposed to the fundamental principles
+of the republic. All this is told with an air of illogical elation. The
+conversation is interspersed with anecdotes of the exploits of
+good-natured rascals. These are received with smiles or tolerant
+laughter. Everyone seems to have perfect confidence that the country is
+a grand and glorious place to live in, and that all will come out well
+in the end.
+
+Is this an evidence of a cynic humor in the blood, or is it a
+manifestation of childish optimism? Let us frankly answer that it may be
+one or the other or both. There are cynics and sentimentalists who are
+the despair of all who are seriously working for better citizenship. But
+the chances are that the men to whom our stranger was listening were
+neither cynics nor sentimentalists, but idealists who had the American
+temperament.
+
+Among those who laughed good-naturedly over the temporary success of the
+clever rascal may have been those who had been giving their energies to
+the work of prevention of just such misdeeds. They are reformers with a
+shrewd twinkle in their eyes. They take a keen intellectual pleasure in
+their work, and are ready to give credit to any natural talent in their
+antagonist. If they are inclined to take a cheerful view of the whole
+situation it is because they are in the habit of looking at the
+situation as a whole. The predominance of force is actually on their
+side and they see no reason to doubt the final result. They have learned
+the meaning of the text, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers." In
+fact the evildoer may not have done so much harm as one might think. Nor
+is he really such a hopeless character. There is good stuff in him, and
+he yet may be used for many good purposes. They laugh best who laugh
+last, and their good-natured laughter was anticipatory. There are forces
+working for righteousness which they have experienced. On the whole
+things are moving in the right direction and they can afford to be
+cheerful.
+
+This is the kind of experience which comes to those who are habitually
+dealing with crude materials rather than with finished products. They
+cannot afford to be fastidious; they learn to take things as they come
+and make the best of them. The doctrine that things are not as they seem
+is a cheerful one, to a person who is accustomed to dealing with things
+which turn out to be better than at first they seemed. The unknown takes
+on a friendly guise and awakens a pleasant curiosity. That is the
+experience of generations of pioneers and prospectors. They have found
+a continent full of resources awaking men of courage and industry. The
+opportunities were there; all that was needed was the ability to
+recognize them when they appeared in disguise.
+
+
+III
+
+And the human problem has been the same as the material one. Europe has
+sent to America not the finished products of her schools and her courts,
+but millions of people for whom she had no room. They were in the rough;
+they had to be made over into a new kind of citizen. This material has
+often been of the most unpromising appearance. It has often seemed to
+superficial observers that little could be made of it. But the attempt
+has been made. And those who have worked with it, putting skill and
+patience into their work, have been agreeably surprised. They have come
+to see the highest possibilities in the commonest lumps of clay.
+
+The satisfaction that is taken in the common man is not in what he
+is at the present moment, but in what he has shown himself capable of
+becoming. Give him a chance and all the graces may be his. The American
+idealist admits that many of his fellow citizens may be rather dreary
+brethren, but so were many of the kings of whom nothing is remembered
+but their names and dates. Only now and then is one seen who is every
+inch a king. But such a person is a proof of what may be accomplished.
+It may take a long time for the rank and file to catch up with their
+leaders. But where the few are to-day the many will be to-morrow; for
+they are all travelling the same road.
+
+The visitor in the United States, especially if he has spent his time in
+the great cities of the East, may go away with the idea that democracy
+is a spent force. He will see great inequalities in wealth and position.
+He will be struck by the fact that autocratic powers are wielded which
+would not be tolerated in many countries of Europe. He will notice that
+it is very difficult to give direct expression to the will of the
+people.
+
+But he will make a mistake if he attributes these things to the growth
+of an aristocratic sentiment. They are a part of an evolution that is
+thoroughly democratic. The distinctive thing in an aristocracy is not
+the fact that certain people enjoy privileges. It lies in the fact that
+these privileged people form a class that is looked upon as superior. An
+aristocratic class must not only take itself seriously; it must be taken
+seriously by others.
+
+In America there are groups of persons more successful than the average.
+They are objects of curiosity, and, if they are well-behaved, of
+respect. Their comings and goings are chronicled in the newspapers, and
+their names are familiar. But it does not occur to the average man that
+they are anything more than fortunate persons who emerged from the
+crowd, and who by and by may be lost in the crowd again. What they have
+done, others may do when their time comes. The inequalities are
+inequalities of circumstance and not of nature.
+
+The commonplace American follows unworthy leaders and has admiration for
+cheap success. But he cherishes no illusions in regard to the objects of
+his admiration. They have done what he would like to do, and what he
+hopes to be able to do sometime. He thinks of the successful men as
+being of the same kind with himself. They are more fortunate, that is
+all.
+
+
+IV
+
+The same temperamental quality is seen in the American idealist.
+His attitude toward his spiritual leaders is seldom that of meek
+discipleship. It is rather that of frank, outspoken comradeship. No
+mysterious barrier separates the great man from the common man. One has
+more, the other has less, that is all.
+
+The men who have cherished the finest ideals have insisted that these
+should be shared by the multitude. In a newspaper of sixty years ago
+there is this contemporary character sketch: "Ralph Waldo Emerson is
+the most erratic and capricious man in America. He is emphatically a
+democrat of the world, and believes that what Plato thought, another man
+may think. What Shakespeare sang, another man may know as well. As for
+emperors, kings, queens, princes, or presidents, he looks upon them as
+children in masquerade. He has no patience with the chicken-hearted who
+refer to mouldy records or old almanacs to ascertain if they may say
+that their souls are their own. Mr. Emerson is a strange compound of
+contradictions. Always right in practice, and sometimes in theory. He is
+a sociable, accessible, republican sort of man, and a great admirer of
+nature."
+
+Could any better description be given of the kind of man whom Americans
+delight to honor? This "sociable, accessible, republican sort of man"
+happened to be endowed with gifts denied in such full measure to his
+countrymen. But they were gifts which they understood and appreciated.
+He was one of them, and expressed and interpreted their habitual
+thought. Luther used to declare that no one who had never had trials and
+temptations could understand the Holy Scriptures. And one might say that
+no one who had never taken part in a town meeting, or listened to the
+talk of neighbors at the country store, or traveled in an "accommodation
+train" in the Middle West, can fully understand Emerson.
+
+Critics have often written of the optimism of Emerson as if he were one
+of those who did not perceive the darker side of things. Nothing could
+be more untrue to his temper of mind. Emerson was cheerful, but he never
+pretended that the world was an altogether cheerful place to live in.
+Indeed, it distinctly needed cheering up, and that, according to him, is
+what we are here for.
+
+It might be possible to make out a list of matters of fact treated by
+Emerson and his friend Carlyle. They would be essentially the same. When
+it came to hard facts, one was as unflinching in his recognition as the
+other. There was nothing smug in Emerson's philosophy. He never took an
+apologetic attitude nor attempted to minimize difficulties. There was no
+attempt to justify the ways of God to man. But while agreeing in regard
+to the facts the friends differed as to their conclusions. In reading
+Carlyle one seems to stand at the end of a world struggle that has
+proved unavailing. Everything has been tried, and everything has failed.
+Alas! Alas!
+
+Emerson sees the same facts, but he seems to be standing at the
+beginning. The moral world is still without form and void, but the
+creative spirit is brooding upon it. "Sweet is the genesis of things."
+Emerson is pleased with the world, not because he thinks its present
+condition is very good, but because he sees so much room for it to
+become better. It is a most promising experiment. It furnishes an
+abundance of the raw materials of righteousness.
+
+Nor does he flatter himself that the task of betterment is an easy one,
+or that the end is in sight. It is not a world where wishes, even good
+wishes, are fulfilled without effort. There are inexorable laws not of
+our making. The whims of good people are not respected.
+
+  "For Destiny never swerves
+     Nor yields to man the helm."
+
+The struggle is stem and unrelenting. It taxes all our energies. And
+yet it is exhilarating. There is a moral quick-wittedness which sees
+the smile behind the threatening mask of Fate. Destiny is after all a
+good comrade for the brave and the self-reliant.
+
+  "He forbids to despair,
+     His cheeks mantle with mirth,
+   And the unimagined good of man
+     Is yeaning at the birth."
+
+The riddle of existence is seen not from the Old World point of view,
+but from that of the new. It is of the nature of a surprise. The Sphinx
+of Emerson is not carved in stone. It is not silent and motionless,
+waiting for answers that do not come.
+
+It is the American Sphinx leading in a game of hide-and-seek. The
+mystery of existence baffles us, not because there is no answer, but
+because there are so many. They are infinite in number, and all of them
+are true. They wait for the mind large enough to harbor them in all
+their variety, and serene enough not to be annoyed because their
+contradictions are not at once reconciled.
+
+The catalogue of ills may be never so long, but it fails to depress one
+who sees everything in the making.
+
+  "I heard a poet answer
+    Aloud and cheerfully,
+  'Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges
+    Are pleasant songs to me.'
+
+       *      *       *       *       *
+
+  "Uprose the merry Sphinx,
+    And crouched no more in stone;
+  She melted into purple cloud.
+    She silvered in the moon."
+
+This conception of the merry Sphinx may seem strange to the dyspeptic
+philosopher pondering on the inscrutableness of the universe. But the
+prospectors in the mining camps of the Far West, and the builders of new
+cities understand what Emerson meant. Their experience of the ups and
+downs of fortune has taught them how to find pleasure in uncertainty.
+You never can tell how anything will turn out till you try. That's the
+fun of it. They are quite ready to believe that the same thing holds
+good in the higher life.
+
+Or take the lines on "Worship." How can Worship be personified?
+Emerson's picture is not that of a patriarch on bended knee; it is that
+of a vigorous youth picking himself up after he has been knocked down by
+his antagonist.
+
+  "This is he, who, felled by foes,
+   Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows."
+
+Religion is a kind of spiritual resilience. It is that which makes a man
+come back with new vigor to his work after his first failure. It is the
+ability to make a new beginning.
+
+In Emerson the American hurry is transformed into something of spiritual
+significance. A new commandment is given to the good man--Be quick! Keep
+moving!
+
+  "Trenchant Time behoves to hurry,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  O wise man, hearest thou the least part,
+  Seest them the rushing metamorphosis,
+
+  Dissolving all that fixture is,
+  Melts things that be to things that seem."
+
+Morality and religion must be speeded up if they are to do any useful
+work in this swift world.
+
+If the ideals of the saints and reformers were criticized, so were those
+of the scholars. Matthew Arnold's definition of culture was that of a
+man of books. It was the knowledge of the best that had been said and
+known in the past. Emerson's lines entitled "Culture" begin with a
+characteristic question and end with an equally characteristic
+affirmation. The question is--
+
+  "Can rules or tutors educate
+   The semigod whom we await?"
+
+The affirmation is that the man of culture is one who
+
+            "to his native centre fast,
+      Shall into Future fuse the Past,
+  And the world's flowing fates in his own mould recast."
+
+According to this definition Abraham Lincoln, with his slight knowledge
+of the best things of the past, but with the power to fuse such
+knowledge as he had and to recast it in his own mould, was a man of
+culture. And all true Americans would agree with him.
+
+Emerson, like the "sociable, accessible, republican sort of man" that he
+was, was the foe of special privilege. The best things were, in his
+judgment, the property of all. He would take religion from the custody
+of the priests, and culture from the hands of schoolmasters, and restore
+them to their proper place, among the inalienable rights of man. They
+were simply forms of the pursuit of happiness of which the Declaration
+of Independence speaks. It is a right of which no potentates can justly
+deprive the citizen.
+
+Above all, he would protest against everything which tends to deprive
+anyone of the happiness of the forward look. There was a cheerful
+confidence that the great forces are on our side. Now and then the
+clouds gather and obscure the vision, but:
+
+  "There are open hours
+   When God's will sallies free
+   And the dull idiot may see
+   The flowing fortunes of a thousand years."
+
+This is the American doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" spiritually
+discerned.
+
+
+V
+
+But one need not go so far back as Emerson to see the higher reaches of
+the American temperament. Perhaps in no one have they been revealed with
+more distinctness than in William James. There are those who consider it
+dispraise of a philosopher to suggest that his work has local color.
+However that may be, William James thought as an American as certainly
+as Plato thought as a Greek. His way of philosophizing was one that
+belonged to the land of his birth.
+
+He was as distinctly American as was Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone was no
+renegade taking to the woods that he might relapse into savagery. He was
+a civilized man who preferred to be the maker of civilization rather
+than to be its victim. He preferred to blaze his own way through the
+forest. When he saw the smoke of a neighbor's chimney it was time for
+him to move on. So William James was led by instinct from the crowded
+highways to the dim border-lands of human experience. He preferred to
+dwell in the debatable lands. With a quizzical smile he listened to the
+dignitaries of philosophy. He found their completed systems too stuffy.
+He loved the wildernesses of thought where shy wild things hide--half
+hopes, half realities. They are not quite true now,--but they may be by
+and by.
+
+As other men are interested in the actual, so he was interested in the
+possible. The possibilities are not so highly finished as the facts that
+have been proved, but there are a great many more of them, and they are
+much more important. There are more things in the unexplored forest than
+in the clearing at its edge. Truth to him was not a field with metes
+and bounds. It was a continent awaiting settlement. First the bold
+pathfinders must adventure into it. Its vast spaces were infinitely
+inviting, its undeveloped resources were alluring. And not only did
+the path-finder interest him but the path-loser as well. But for his
+heedless audacity the work of exploration would languish. Was ever a
+philosopher so humorously tender to the intellectual vagabonds, the
+waifs and strays of the spiritual world!
+
+Their reports of vague meanderings in the border-land were listened
+to without scorn. They might be ever so absent-minded and yet have
+stumbled upon something which wiser men had missed. No one was more
+keen to criticize the hard-and-fast dogmas of the wise and prudent or
+more willing to learn what might, by chance, have been revealed unto
+babes. The one thing he demanded was space. His universe must not be
+finished or inclosed. After a rational system had been formulated and
+declared to be the Whole, his first instinct was to get away from it.
+He was sure that there must be more outside than there was inside.
+"The 'through-and-through' universe seems to suffocate me with its
+infallible, impeccable all-pervasiveness. Its necessity with no
+possibilities, its relations with no subjects, make me feel as if
+I had entered into a contract with no reserved rights."
+
+Formal philosophy seemed to him to be "too buttoned-up and
+white-chokered and clean-shaven a thing to speak for the vast,
+slow-breathing, unconscious Kosmos with its dread abysses and its
+unknown tides. The freedom we want is not the freedom, with a string
+tied to its leg and warranted not to fly away, of that philosophy. Let
+it fly away, we say, from _us_. What then?"
+
+To this American there must be a true democracy among the faculties of
+the mind. The logical understanding must not be allowed to put on
+priggish airs. The feelings have their rights also. "They may be as
+prophetic and as anticipatory of truth as anything else we have." There
+must be give and take; "what hope is there of squaring and settling
+opinions unless Absolutism will hold parley on this common ground and
+admit that all philosophies are hypotheses, to which all our faculties,
+emotional as well as logical, help us, and the truest of which will in
+the final integration of things be found in possession of the men whose
+faculties on the whole had the best divining power?"
+
+Do not those words give us a glimpse of the American mind in its natural
+working. Its genius is anticipatory. It is searching for a common ground
+on which all may meet. It puts its trust not in the thinker who can put
+his thoughts in the most neat form, but the man whose faculties have _on
+the whole the best divining power_.
+
+To listen to William James was to experience an illogical elation--and
+to feel justified in it. He was an unsparing critic of things as they
+are, but his criticism left us in no mood of depression. Our interest is
+with things as they are going to be. The universe is growing. Let us
+grow with it.
+
+
+
+
+THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+
+I
+
+
+When, as a child, I learned the Westminster Catechism by heart I found
+the Ten Commandments easy to remember. There was something
+straightforward in these prohibitions. Once started in the right
+direction one could hardly stray from the path. But I stumbled over the
+question, in regard to certain Commandments, "What are the reasons
+annexed?"
+
+That a commandment should be committed to memory seemed just. I was
+prepared to submit to the severest tests of verbal accuracy. But that
+there should be "reasons annexed," and that these also should be
+remembered, seemed to my youthful understanding a grievance. It made the
+path of the obedient hard. To this day there is a haziness about the
+"reasons" that contrasts with the sharp outlines of the commandments.
+
+I fancy that news-gatherers have the same experience. They are diligent
+in collecting items of news and reporting them to the world, but it is a
+real hardship to them to have to give any rational account of these bits
+of fact. They tell what is done in different parts of the world, but
+they forget to mention "the moving why they did it." The consequence is
+that, in this age of instantaneous communication, we know what is going
+on in other countries, but it seems very irrational. The rational
+elements have been lost in the process of transmission.
+
+There has, for example, been no lack of news cabled across the Atlantic
+in regard to the nominations for President of the United States. The
+European reader is made aware that a great deal of strong feeling has
+been evoked, and strong language used. When a picturesque term of
+reproach has been hurled by one candidate at another it is promptly
+reported to a waiting world. But the "reasons annexed" are calmly
+ignored. The consequence is that the reader is confirmed in his
+exaggerated idea of the nervous irritability of the American people.
+There seems to be a periodicity in their seizures. At intervals of four
+years they indulge in an orgy of mutual recrimination, and then suddenly
+return to their normal state of money-getting. It is all very
+unaccountable. Doubtless the most charitable explanation is the climate.
+
+It was after giving prominence to an unusually vivid bit of political
+vituperation that a conservative London newspaper remarked, "All this is
+characteristically American, but it shocks the unaccustomed ears of
+Europe."
+
+As I read the rebuke I felt positively ashamed of my country and its
+untutored ways. I pictured Europe as a dignified lady of mature years
+listening to the screams issuing from her neighbor's nursery. She had
+not been used to hearing naughty words called out in such a loud tone of
+voice. Instead of discussing their grievances calmly, they were actually
+calling one another names.
+
+It was therefore with a feeling of chastened humility that I turned to
+the columns devoted to the more decorous doings of Europe. Here I should
+find examples worthy of consideration. They are drawn from the homes of
+ancient civility. Would that our rude politicians might be brought under
+these refining influences and learn how to behave!
+
+But alas! When we drop in upon our neighbors, unannounced, things are
+sometimes not so tidy as they are on the days "at home." The hostess is
+flustered and evidently has troubles of her own. So, as ill-luck would
+have it, it is with Dame Europe's household. The visitor from across the
+Atlantic is surprised at the obstreperousness of the more vigorous
+members of the family. Evidently a great many interesting things are
+going on, but the standard of deportment is not high.
+
+While the unaccustomed ears of Europe were shocked at the shrill cries
+from the rival conventions at Chicago and Baltimore, there was equal
+turbulence in the Italian Parliament at Rome. There were shouts and
+catcalls and every sign of uncontrollable violence. What are the
+"reasons annexed" to all this uproar? I do not know. In Budapest such
+unparliamentary expressions as "swine," "liar," "thief," and "assassin"
+were freely used in debate. An honorable member who had been expelled
+for the use of too strong language, returned to "shoot up" the House.
+The chairman, after dodging three shots, declared that he must
+positively insist on better order.
+
+In the German Reichstag a member threatens the Kaiser with the fate of
+Charles the First, if he does not speedily mend his ways. He suggests as
+a fit Imperial residence the castle where the Mad King of Bavaria was
+allowed to exercise his erratic energies without injury to the
+commonweal. At the mention of Charles the First the chamber was in an
+uproar, and amid a tumult of angry voices the session was brought to a
+close.
+
+In Russia, unseemly clamor is kept from the carefully guarded ears of
+the Czar. There art conspires with nature to produce peace. We read of
+the Czar's recent visit to his ancient capital: "The police during the
+previous night made three thousand arrests. The Czar and Czarina drove
+through the city amid the ringing of bells, and with banners flying."
+
+On reading this item the American reader plucks up heart. If, during the
+Chicago convention, the police had made three thousand arrests the
+sessions might have been as quiet as those of the Duma.
+
+Even the proceedings of the British House of Commons are disappointing
+to the pilgrim in search of decorum. The Mother of Parliaments has
+trouble with her unruly brood.
+
+We enter the sacred precincts as a Member rises to a point of order.
+
+"I desire to ask your ruling, Mr. Speaker, as to whether the honorable
+gentleman is entitled to allude to Members of the House as miscreants."
+
+The Speaker: "I do not think the term 'miscreant' is a proper
+Parliamentary expression."
+
+This is very elementary teaching, but it appears that Mr. Speaker is not
+infrequently compelled to repeat his lesson. It is "line upon line and
+precept upon precept."
+
+The records of the doings of the House contain episodes which would be
+considered exciting in Arizona. We read: "For five minutes the Honorable
+George Lansbury defied the Speaker, insulted the Prime Minister, and
+scorned the House of Commons. He raved in an ecstasy of passion;
+challenging, taunting, and defying." The trouble began with a statement
+of Mr. Asquith's. "Then up jumped Mr. Lansbury, his face contorted with
+passion, and his powerful rasping voice dominating the whole House.
+Shouting and waving his arms, he approached the Government Front Bench
+with a curious crouching gait, like a boxer leaving his corner in the
+ring. One or two Liberals on the bench behind Mr. Asquith half rose, but
+the Prime Minister sat stolidly gazing above the heads of the
+opposition, his arms folded, and his lips pursed. Mr. Lansbury had
+worked himself up into a state of frenzy and, facing the Prime Minister,
+he shouted, 'You are beneath my contempt! Call yourself a gentleman! You
+ought to be driven from public life.'"
+
+I cannot remember any scene like this in Disraeli's novels. The House of
+Commons used to be called the best club in Europe. But that, says the
+Conservative critic, was before the members were paid.
+
+
+II
+
+But certain changes, like the increased cost of living, are going on
+everywhere. The fact seems to be that all over the civilized world there
+is a noticeable falling-off in good manners in public discussion. It is
+useless for one country to point the finger of scorn at another, or to
+assume an air of injured politeness. It is more conducive to good
+understanding to join in a general confession of sin. We are all
+miserable offenders, and there is little to choose between us. The
+conventionalities which bind society together are like the patent glue
+we see advertised on the streets. A plate has been broken and then
+joined together. The strength of the adhesive substance is shown by the
+way it holds up a stone of considerable weight attached to it. The plate
+thus mended holds together admirably till it is put in hot water.
+
+I have no doubt but that a conservative Chinese gentleman would tell you
+that since the Republic came in there has been a sad falling-off in the
+observance of the rules of propriety as laid down by Confucius. The
+Conservative newspapers of England bewail the fact that there has been a
+lamentable change since the present Government came in. The arch
+offender is "that political Mahdi, Lloyd George, whose false prophecies
+have made deluded dervishes of hosts of British workmen, and who has
+corrupted the manners of Parliament itself."
+
+This wicked Mahdi, by his appeals to the passions of the populace, has
+destroyed the old English reverence for Law.
+
+I do not know what may be the cause, but the American visitor does
+notice that the English attitude towards the laws of the realm is not so
+devout as he had been led to expect. We have from our earliest youth
+been taught to believe that the law-abidingness of the Englishman was
+innate and impeccable. It was not that, like the good man of whom the
+Psalmist speaks, he meditated on the law day and night. He didn't need
+to. Decent respect for the law was in his blood. He simply could not
+help conforming to it.
+
+And this impression is confirmed by the things which the tourist goes to
+see. The stately mansions embowered in green and guarded by immemorial
+oaks are accepted as symbolic of an ordered life. The multitudinous
+rooks suggest security which comes from triumphant legality. No
+irresponsible person shoots them. When one enters a cathedral close he
+feels that he is in a land that frowns on the crudity of change. Here
+everything is a "thousand years the same." And how decent is the
+demeanor of a verger!
+
+When the pilgrim from Kansas arrives at an ancient English inn he feels
+that he must be on his good behavior. Boots in his green apron is a
+lesson to him. He is not like a Western hotel bell-boy on the way to
+becoming something else. He knows his place. Everybody, he imagines, in
+this country knows his place, and there is no unseemly crowding and
+pushing. And what stronger proof can there be that this is a land where
+law is reverenced than the demeanor of a London policeman. There is no
+truculence about him, no show of physical force. He is so mild-eyed and
+soft of speech that one feels that he has been shielded from rude
+contact with the world. He represents the Law in a land where law is
+sacred. He is instinctively obeyed. He has but to wave his hand and
+traffic stops.
+
+When the traveler is told that in the vicinity of the House of Commons
+traffic is stopped to allow a Member to cross the street, his admiration
+increases. Fancy a Congressman being treated with such respect! But the
+argument which, on the whole, makes the deepest impression is the
+deferential manners of the tradesmen with their habit of saying, "Thank
+you," apropos of nothing at all. It seems an indication of perpetual
+gratitude over the fact that things are as they are.
+
+But when one comes to listen to the talk of the day one is surprised to
+find a surprising lack of docility. I doubt whether the Englishman has
+the veneration for the abstract idea of Law which is common among
+Americans. Indeed, he is accustomed to treat most abstractions with
+scant courtesy. There is nothing quite corresponding to the average
+American's feeling about a decision of the Supreme Court. The Law has
+spoken, let all the land keep silent. It seems like treason to criticize
+it, like anarchy to defy it.
+
+Tennyson's words about "reverence for the laws ourselves have made"
+needs to be interpreted by English history. It is a peculiar kind of
+reverence and has many limitations. A good deal depends on what is meant
+by "ourselves." An act of Parliament does not at once become an object
+of reverence by the members of the opposition party. It was not, they
+feel, made by _them_, it was made by a Government which was violently
+opposed to them and which was bent on ruining the country.
+
+It is only after a sufficient time has elapsed to allow for the partisan
+origin to be forgotten, and for it to become assimilated to the habits
+of thought and manner of life of the people that it is deeply respected.
+The English reverence is not for statute law, but for the common law
+which is the slow accretion of ages. A new enactment is treated like the
+new boy at school. He must submit to a period of severe hazing before he
+is given a place of any honor.
+
+To the American when an act of Congress has been declared
+constitutional, a decent respect for the opinion of mankind seems to
+suggest that verbal criticism should cease. The council of perfection is
+that the law should be obeyed till such time as it can be repealed or
+explained away. If it should become a dead letter, propriety would
+demand that no evil should be spoken of it. Since the days of Andrew
+Jackson the word "nullification" has had an ugly and dangerous sound.
+
+But to the Englishman this attitude seems somewhat superstitious. The
+period of opposition to a measure is not ended when it has passed
+Parliament and received the royal assent. The question is whether it
+will receive the assent of the people. Can it get itself obeyed? If it
+can, then its future is assured for many generations. But it must pass
+through an exciting period of probation.
+
+If it is a matter that arouses much feeling the British way is for some
+one to disobey and take the consequences. Passive resistance--with such
+active measures as may make the life of the enforcers of the law a
+burden to them--is a recognized method of political and religious
+propagandism.
+
+In periods when the national life has run most swiftly this kind of
+resistance to what has been considered the tyranny of lawmakers has
+always been notable. Emerson's "the chambers of the great are jails" was
+literally true of the England of the seventeenth century. Every one who
+made any pretension to moral leadership was intent on going to jail in
+behalf of some principle or another.
+
+John Bunyan goes to jail rather than attend the parish church, George
+Fox goes to jail rather than take off his hat in the presence of the
+magistrate. Why should he do so when there was no Scripture for it? When
+it was said that the Scripture had nothing to say about hats, he was
+ready with his triumphant reference to Daniel III, 21, where it is said
+that the three Hebrew children wore "their coats, their hosen, their
+hats and their other garments" in the fiery furnace. If Shadrach,
+Meshach, and Abed-nego wore their hats before Nebuchadnezzar and kept
+them on even in the fiery furnace, why should a free-born Englishman
+take his hat off in the presence of a petty Justice of the Peace?
+Fervent Fifth Monarchy men were willing to die rather than acknowledge
+any king but King Jesus who was about to come to reign. Non-juring
+bishops were willing to go to jail rather than submit to the judgment of
+Parliament as to who should be king in England. Puritans and Covenanters
+of the more logical sort refused to accept toleration unless it were
+offered on their own terms. They had been a "persecuted remnant" and
+they proposed to remain such or know the reason why.
+
+Beneath his crust of conformity the Briton has an admiration for these
+recalcitrant individuals who will neither bow the knee to Baal nor to
+his betters. He likes a man who is a law unto himself. Though he has
+little enthusiasm for the abstract "rights of man," he is a great
+believer in "the liberty of prophesying." The prophet is not without
+honor, even while he is being stoned.
+
+Just at this time things are moving almost as rapidly as they did in the
+seventeenth century. There is the same clash of opinion and violence of
+party spirit. All sorts of non-conformities struggle for a hearing. One
+is reminded of that most stirring period, which is so delightful to read
+about, and which must have been so trying for quiet people to live
+through.
+
+A host of earnest and wide-awake persons are engaged in the task of
+doing what they are told not to do. Their enthusiasm takes the form of
+resistance to some statute made or proposed.
+
+The conscientious women who throw stones through shop windows, and lay
+violent hands on cabinet ministers, do so, avowedly, to bring certain
+laws into disrepute. They go on hunger-strikes, not in order to be
+released from prison, but in order to be treated as political prisoners.
+They insist that their methods should be recognized as acts of
+legitimate warfare. They may be extreme in their actions, but they are
+not alone in their theory.
+
+The Insurance Law, by which all workers whose wages are below a certain
+sum are compulsorily insured against sickness and the losses that follow
+it, is just going into effect. Its provisions are necessarily
+complicated, and its administration must at first be difficult. The
+Insurance-Law Resisters are organized to nullify the act. Its enormities
+are held up before all eyes, and it is flouted in every possible way.
+According to this law, a lady is compelled to pay three-pence a week
+toward the insurance fund for each servant in her employ. Will she pay
+that three-pence? No! Though twenty acts of Parliament should declare
+that it must be done, she will resist. As for keeping accounts, and
+putting stamps in a book, she will do nothing of the kind. What is it
+about a stamp act that arouses such fierceness of resistance?
+
+High-born ladies declare that they would rather go to jail than obey
+such a law. At a meeting at Albert Hall the Resisters were addressed by
+a duchess who was "supported by a man-servant." What can a mere Act of
+Parliament do when confronted by such a combination as that? Passive
+resistance takes on heroic proportions when a duchess and a man-servant
+confront the Law with haughty immobility.
+
+In the mean time, Mr. Tom Mann goes to jail, amid the applause of
+organized labor, for advising the British soldier not to obey orders
+when he is commanded to fire on British working-men.
+
+Mr. Tom Mann is a labor agitator, while Mr. Bonar Law is the leader of
+the Conservative party; but when it comes to legislation which he does
+not like, Mr. Bonar Law's language is fully as incendiary. He is not
+content with opposing the Irish Home Rule Bill: he gives notice that
+when it has become a law the opposition will be continued in a more
+serious form. The passage of the bill, he declares, will be the signal
+for civil war. Ulster will fight. Parliament may pass the Home Rule
+Bill, but when it does so its troubles will have just begun. Where will
+it find the troops to coerce the province?
+
+One of the most distinguished Unionist Members of Parliament, addressing
+a great meeting at Belfast says, "You are sometimes asked whether you
+propose to resist the English army? I reply that even if this Government
+had the wickedness (which, on the whole, I believe), it is wholly
+lacking in the nerve required to give an order which in my deliberate
+judgment would shatter for years the civilization of these islands." If
+the Government does not have the nerve to employ its troops, "It will be
+for the moon-lighters and the cattle-maimers to conquer Ulster
+themselves, and it will be for you to show whether you are worse men, or
+your enemies better men, than the forefathers of you both. But I note
+with satisfaction that you are preparing yourselves by the practice of
+exercises, and by the submission to discipline, for the struggle which
+is not unlikely to test your determination. The Nationalists are
+determined to rule you. You are determined not to be ruled. A collision
+of wills so sharp may well defy the resources of a peaceful solution....
+On this we are agreed, that the crisis has called into existence one of
+those supreme issues of conscience amid which the ordinary landmarks of
+permissible resistance to technical law are submerged."
+
+When one goes to the Church to escape from these sharp antagonisms, he
+is confronted with huge placards giving notice of meetings to protest
+against "The Robbery of God." The robber in this case is the Government,
+which proposes to disendow, as well as disestablish, the Church in
+Wales. Noble lords denounce the outrage. Mr. Lloyd George replies by
+reminding their lordships that their landed estates were, before the
+dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, Church property. If
+they wish to make restitution of the spoil which their ancestors took,
+well and good. But let them not talk about the robbery of God, while
+their hands are "dripping with the fat of sacrilege."
+
+The retort is effective, but it does not make Mr. Lloyd George beloved
+by the people to whom it is addressed. Twitting on facts has always been
+considered unmannerly.
+
+
+III
+
+When we hear the acrimonious discussions and the threats of violence, it
+is well to consider the reason for it all. I think the reason is one
+that is not discreditable to those concerned. These are not ordinary
+times, and they are not to be judged by ordinary standards. England is
+at the present time passing through a revolution, the issues of which
+are still in doubt. Revolutionary passions have been liberated by the
+rapid course of events. "Every battle of the warrior is with confused
+noise." The confused noise may be disagreeable to persons of sensitive
+nerves, but it is a part of the situation.
+
+When we consider the nature of the changes that have been made in the
+last few years, and the magnitude of those which are proposed, we do not
+wonder at the tone of exasperation which is common to all parties.
+
+It is seldom that a constitutional change, like that which deprived the
+House of Lords of powers exercised for a thousand years, has been made
+without an appeal to arms. But there was no civil war. Perhaps the old
+fashion of sturdy blows would have been less trying to the temper.
+
+A revolution is at the best an unmannerly proceeding. It cannot be
+carried on politely, because it involves not so much a change of ideas
+and methods as a change of masters. A change of ideas may be discussed
+in an amiable and orderly way. The honorable gentlemen who have the
+responsibility for the decision are respectfully asked to revise their
+opinions in the light of new evidence which, by their leave, will be
+presented.
+
+But a change of masters cannot be managed so inoffensively. The
+honorable gentlemen are not asked to revise their opinions. They are
+told that their opinions are no longer important. The matter is severely
+personal. The statement is not, "We do not believe in your ideas"; it
+is, "We do not believe in _you_."
+
+When political discussion takes this turn, then there is an end to the
+amenities suited to a more quiet time. It is no longer a question as to
+which is the better cause, but as to which is the better man.
+
+Mr. Asquith, who has retained in this revolutionary period the manners
+of the old school, recently said in his reply to a delegation of his
+opponents, "When people are on opposite sides of a chasm they may be
+courteous to one another, and regret the impossibility of their shaking
+hands, or doing more than wave a courteous gesture across so wide a
+space."
+
+These are the words of a gentleman in politics, and express a beautiful
+ideal. But they hardly describe the present situation. As to waving a
+courteous salutation to the people on the other side,--that depends on
+who the people are. If you know them and have been long familiar with
+their good qualities, the courteous salutation is natural. They are, as
+you know, much better than their opinions.
+
+But it is different when they are people whom you do not know, and with
+whom you have nothing in common. You suspect their motives, and feel a
+contempt for their abilities. They are not of your set. The word
+"gentleman" is derived from the word _gens_. People of the same _gens_
+learn to treat each other in a considerate way. Even when they differ
+they remember what is due to gentle blood and gentle training.
+
+It is quite evident that the challenge of the new democracy to the old
+ruling classes has everywhere produced exasperation. It is no longer
+easy to wave courteous salutations across the chasms which divide
+parties. Political discussion takes a rude turn. It is no longer
+possible to preserve the proprieties. We may expect the minor moralities
+to suffer while the major moralities are being determined by hard
+knocks.
+
+Good manners depend on the tacit understanding of all parties as to
+their relations to one another. Nothing can be more brutal than for one
+to claim superiority, or more rude than for another to dispute the
+claim. Such differences of station should, if they exist, be taken for
+granted.
+
+Relations which were established by force may, after a time, be made so
+beautiful that their origin is forgotten. There must be no display of
+unnecessary force. The battle having been decided, victor and vanquished
+change parts. It pleases the conqueror to sign himself, "Your obedient
+servant," and to inquire whether certain terms would be agreeable. Of
+course they would be agreeable. So says the disarmed man looking upward
+to his late foe, now become his protector.
+
+And the conqueror with grave good will takes up the burden which
+Providence has imposed upon him. Is not the motto of the true knight,
+_Ich dien_? Such service as he can render shall be given ungrudgingly.
+
+Now, this is not hypocrisy. It may be Christianity and Chivalry and all
+sorts of fine things. It is making the best of an accepted situation.
+When relations which were established by force have been sanctioned by
+custom, and embodied in law, and sanctified by religion, they form a
+soil in which many pleasant things may grow. In the vicinity of Vesuvius
+they will tell you that the best soils are of volcanic origin.
+
+Hodge and Sir Lionel meet in the garden which one owns, and in which the
+other digs with the sweat of his brow. There is kindly interest on the
+one hand, and decent respect on the other. But all this sense of ordered
+righteousness is dependent on one condition. Neither must eat of the
+fruit of the tree of knowledge that grows in the midst of the garden. A
+little knowledge is dangerous, a good deal of knowledge may be even more
+dangerous, to the relations which custom has established.
+
+What right has Sir Lionel to lay down the law for Hodge? Why should not
+Hodge have a right to have his point of view considered? When Hodge
+begins seriously to ponder this question his manners suffer. And when
+Sir Lionel begins to assert his superiority, instead of taking it for
+granted, his behavior lacks its easy charm. It is very hard to explain
+such things in a gentlemanly way.
+
+Now, the exasperation in the tone of political discussion in Great
+Britain, as elsewhere in the world, is largely explained by the fact
+that all sorts of superiorities have been challenged at the same time.
+Everywhere the issue is sharply made. "Who shall rule?"
+
+Shall Ireland any longer submit to be ruled by the English? The Irish
+Nationalists swear by all the saints that, rather than submit, they will
+overthrow the present Government and return to their former methods of
+agitation.
+
+If the Home Rule Bill be enacted into law, will Ulster submit to be
+ruled by a Catholic majority? The men of Ulster call upon the spirits of
+their heroic sires, who triumphed at the Boyne, to bear witness that
+they will never yield.
+
+Will the masses of the people submit any longer to the existing
+inequalities in political representation? No! They demand immediate
+recognition of the principle, "One man, one vote." The many will not
+allow the few to make laws for them.
+
+Will the women of England kindly wait a little till their demands can be
+considered in a dignified way? No! They will not take their place in the
+waiting-line. Others get what they want by pushing; so will they.
+
+Will the Labor party be a little less noisy and insistent in its
+demands? All will come in time, but one Reform must say to another,
+"After you." Hoarse voices cry, "We care nothing for etiquette, we must
+have what we demand, and have it at once. We cannot stand still. If we
+are pushing, we are also pushed from behind. If you do not give us what
+we ask for, the Socialists and the Syndicalists will be upon you." There
+is always the threat of a General Strike. Laborers have hitherto been
+starved into submission. But two can play at that game.
+
+
+IV
+
+This is not the England of Sir Roger de Coverley with its cheerful
+contentment with the actual, and its deference for all sorts of
+dignitaries. It is not, in its present temper, a model of propriety.
+But, in my judgment, it is all the more interesting, and full of hope.
+To say that England is in the midst of a revolution is not to say that
+some dreadful disaster is impending. It only means that this is a time
+when events move very rapidly, and when precedents count for little. But
+it is a time when common sense and courage and energy count for a great
+deal; and there is no evidence that these qualities are lacking. I
+suspect that the alarmists are not so alarmed as their language would
+lead us to suppose. They know their countrymen, and that they have the
+good sense to avoid most of the collisions that they declare to be
+inevitable.
+
+I take comfort in the philosophy which I glean from the top of a London
+motor-bus. From my point of vantage I look down upon pedestrian humanity
+as a Superman might look down upon it. It seems to consist of a vast
+multitude of ignorant folk who are predestined to immediate
+annihilation. As the ungainly machine on which I am seated rushes down
+the street, it seems admirably adapted for its mission of destruction.
+The barricade in front of me, devoted to the praise of BOVRIL, is just
+high enough to prevent my seeing what actually happens, but it gives a
+bloodcurdling view of catastrophes that are imminent. I have an
+impression of a procession of innocent victims rushing heedlessly upon
+destruction. Three yards in front of the onrushing wheels is an old
+gentleman crossing the street. He suddenly stops. There is, humanly
+speaking, no hope for him. Two nursemaids appear in the field of danger.
+A butcher's boy on a bicycle steers directly for the bus. He may be
+given up for lost. I am not able to see what becomes of them, but I am
+prepared for the worst. Still the expected crunch does not come, and the
+bus goes on.
+
+Between Notting Hill Gate and Charing Cross I have seen eighteen persons
+disappear in this mysterious fashion. I could swear that when I last saw
+them it seemed too late for them to escape their doom.
+
+But on sober reflection I come to the conclusion that I should have
+taken a more hopeful view if I had not been so high up; if, for example,
+I had been sitting with the driver where I could have seen what happened
+at the last moment.
+
+There was much comfort in the old couplet:--
+
+  "Betwixt the saddle and the ground,
+  He mercy sought and mercy found."
+
+And betwixt the pedestrian and the motor-bus, there are many chances of
+safety that I could not foresee. The old gentleman was perhaps more spry
+than he looked. The nursemaids and the butcher's boy must assuredly have
+perished unless they happened to have their wits about them. But in all
+probability they did have their wits about them, and so did the driver
+of the motor-bus.
+
+
+
+
+THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+
+I
+
+
+When we think of a thorough-going conservative we are likely to picture
+him as a stay-at-home person, a barnacle fastened to one spot. We take
+for granted that aversion to locomotion and aversion to change are the
+same thing. But in thinking thus we leave out of account the inherent
+instability of human nature. Everybody likes a little change now and
+then. If a person cannot get it in one way, he gets it in another. The
+stay-at-home gratifies his wandering fancy by making little alterations
+in his too-familiar surroundings. Even the Vicar of Wakefield in the
+days of his placid prosperity would occasionally migrate from the blue
+bed to the brown. A life that had such vicissitudes could not be called
+uneventful.
+
+When you read the weekly newspaper published in the quietest hill-town
+in Vermont, you become aware that a great deal is going on. Deacon Pratt
+shingled his barn last week. Miss Maria Jones had new shutters put on
+her house, and it is a great improvement. These revolutions in
+Goshenville are matters of keen interest to those concerned. They
+furnish inexhaustible material for conversation.
+
+The true enemy to innovation is the traveler who sets out to see
+historic lands. His natural love of change is satiated by rapid change
+of locality. But his natural conservatism asserts itself in his
+insistence that the places which he visits shall be true to their own
+reputations. Having journeyed, at considerable expense, to a celebrated
+spot, he wants to see the thing it was celebrated for, and he will
+accept no substitute. From his point of view the present inhabitants are
+merely caretakers who should not be allowed to disturb the remains
+intrusted to their custody. Everything must be kept as it used to be.
+
+The moment any one packs his trunk and puts money in his purse to visit
+lands old in story he becomes a hopeless reactionary. He is sallying
+forth to see things not as they are, but as they were "once upon a
+time." He is attracted to certain localities by something which happened
+long ago. A great many things may have happened since, but these must be
+put out of the way. One period of time must be preserved to satisfy his
+romantic imagination. He loves the good old ways, and he has a curiosity
+to see the bad old ways that may still be preserved. It is only the
+modern that offends him.
+
+The American who, in his own country, is in feverish haste to improve
+conditions, when he sets foot in Europe becomes the fanatical foe to
+progress. The Old World, in his judgment, ought to look old. He longs to
+hear the clatter of wooden shoes. If he had his way he would have laws
+enacted forbidding peasant folk to change their ancient costumes. He
+would preserve every relic of feudalism. He bitterly laments the
+division of great estates. A nobleman's park with its beautiful idle
+acres, its deer, its pheasants, and its scurrying rabbits, is so much
+more pleasant to look at than a succession of market-gardens. Poachers,
+game-keepers, and squires are alike interesting, if only they would
+dress so that he could know them apart. He is enchanted with thatched
+cottages which look damp and picturesque. He detests the model dwellings
+which are built with a too obvious regard for sanitation. He seeks
+narrow and ill-smelling streets where the houses nod at each other, as
+if in the last stages of senility, muttering mysterious reminiscences of
+old tragedies. He frequents scenes of ancient murders, and places where
+bandits once did congregate. He leaves the railway carriage, to cross a
+heath where romantic highwaymen used to ask the traveler to stand and
+deliver. He is indignant to find electric lights and policemen. A heath
+ought to be lonely, and fens ought to be preserved from drainage.
+
+He seeks dungeons and instruments of torture. The dungeons must be
+underground, and only a single ray of light must penetrate. He is much
+troubled to find that the dungeon in the Castle of Chillon is much more
+cheerful than he had supposed it was. The Bridge of Sighs in Venice
+disappoints him in the same way. Indeed, there are few places mentioned
+by Lord Byron that are as gloomy as they are in the poetical
+description.
+
+The traveler is very insistent in his plea for the preservation of
+battlefields. Now, Europe is very rich in battlefields, many of the most
+fertile sections having been fought over many times. But the ravages of
+agriculture are everywhere seen. There is no such leveler as the
+ploughman. Often when one has come to refresh his mind with the events
+of one terrible day, he finds that there is nothing whatever to remind
+him of what happened. For centuries there has been ploughing and
+harvesting. Nature takes so kindly to these peaceful pursuits that one
+is tempted to think of the battle as merely an episode.
+
+Commerce is almost as destructive. Cities that have been noted for their
+sieges often turn out to be surprisingly prosperous. The old walls are
+torn down to give way to parks and boulevards. Massacres which in their
+day were noted leave no trace behind. One can get more of an idea of the
+Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve by reading a book by one's fireside
+than by going to Paris. For all one can see there, there might have been
+no such accident.
+
+Moral considerations have little place in the traveler's mind. The
+progressive ameliorations that have taken place tend to obscure our
+sense of the old conflicts. A reform once accomplished becomes a part of
+our ordinary consciousness. We take it for granted, and find it hard to
+understand what the reformer was so excited about.
+
+As a consequence, the chief object of an historical pilgrimage is to
+discover some place where the old conditions have not been improved
+away. The religious pilgrim does not expect to find the old prophets,
+but he has a pious hope of finding the abuses which the prophets
+denounced.
+
+I have in mind a clergyman who, in his own home, is progressive to a
+fault. He is impatient of any delay. He is all the time seeking out the
+very latest inventions in social and economic reforms. But several years
+ago he made a journey to the Holy Land, and when he came back he
+delivered a lecture on his experiences. A more reactionary attitude
+could not be imagined. Not a word did he say about the progress of
+education or civil-service reform in Palestine. There was not a
+sympathetic reference to sanitation or good roads. The rights of women
+were not mentioned. Representative government seemed to be an
+abomination to him. All his enthusiasm was for the other side. He was
+for Oriental conservatism in all its forms. He was for preserving every
+survival of ancient custom. He told of the delight with which he watched
+the laborious efforts of the peasants ploughing with a forked stick. He
+believed that there had not been a single improvement in agriculture
+since the days of Abraham.
+
+The economic condition of the people had not changed for the better
+since patriarchal times, and one could still have a good idea of a
+famine such as sent the brothers of Joseph down into Egypt. Turkish
+misgovernment furnished him with a much clearer idea of the publicans,
+and the hatred they aroused in the minds of the people, than he had ever
+hoped to obtain. In fact, one could hardly appreciate the term
+"publicans and sinners" without seeing the Oriental tax-gatherers. He
+was very fortunate in being able to visit several villages which had
+been impoverished by their exactions. The rate of wages throws much
+light on the Sunday-School lessons. A penny a day does not seem such an
+insufficient minimum wage to a traveler, as it does to a stay-at-home
+person. On going down from Jerusalem to Jericho he fell among thieves,
+or at least among a group of thievish-looking Bedouins who gave him a
+new appreciation of the parable of the Samaritan. It was a wonderful
+experience. And he found that the animosity between the Jews and the
+Samaritans had not abated. To be sure, there are very few Samaritans
+left, and those few are thoroughly despised.
+
+The good-roads movement has not yet invaded Palestine, and we can still
+experience all the discomforts of the earlier times. Many a time when he
+took his life in his hands and wandered across the Judæan hills, my
+friend repeated to himself the text, "In the days of Shamgar the son of
+Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the people
+walked through by-ways."
+
+To most people Shamgar is a mere name. But after you have walked for
+hours over those rocky by-ways, never knowing at what moment you may be
+attacked by a treacherous robber, you know how Shamgar felt. He becomes
+a real person. You are carried back into the days when "there was no
+king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
+
+The railway between Joppa and Jerusalem is to be regretted, but
+fortunately it is a small affair. There are rumors of commercial
+enterprises which, if successful, would change the appearance of many of
+the towns. Fortunately they are not likely to be successful, at least in
+our day. The brooding spirit of the East can be trusted to defend itself
+against the innovating West. For the present, at least, Palestine is a
+fascinating country to travel in.
+
+A traveler in Ceylon and India writes to a religious paper of his
+journey. He says, "Colombo has little to interest the tourist, yet it is
+a fine city." One who reads between the lines understands that the fact
+that it is a fine city is the cause of its uninterestingness. His
+impression of Madura was more satisfactory. There one can see the
+Juggernaut car drawn through the streets by a thousand men, though it is
+reluctantly admitted that the self-immolation of fanatics under the
+wheels is no longer allowed. "The Shiva temple at Madura is the more
+interesting as its towers are ornamented with six thousand idols."
+
+The writer who rejoiced at the sight of six thousand idols in Madura,
+would have been shocked at the exhibition of a single crucifix in his
+meeting-house at home.
+
+I confess that I have not been able to overcome the Tory prejudice in
+favor of vested interests in historical places. If one has traveled
+to see "the old paths which wicked men have trodden," it is a
+disappointment to find that they are not there. I had such an experience
+in Capri. We had wandered through the vineyards and up the steep, rocky
+way to the Villa of Tiberius. On the top of the cliff are the ruins of
+the pleasure-house which the Emperor in his wicked old age built for
+himself. Was there ever a greater contrast between an earthly paradise
+and abounding sinfulness? Here, indeed, was "spiritual wickedness in
+high places." The marvelously blue sea and all the glories of the Bay of
+Naples ought to have made Tiberius a better man; but apparently they
+didn't. We were prepared for the thrilling moment when we were led to
+the edge of the cliff, and told to look down. Here was the very place
+where Tiberius amused himself by throwing his slaves into the sea to
+feed the fishes. Cruel old monster! But it was a long time ago. Time
+had marvelously softened the atrocity of the act, and heightened its
+picturesque character. If Tiberius must exhibit his colossal inhumanity,
+could he have anywhere in all the world chosen a better spot? Just think
+of his coming to this island and, on this high cliff above the azure
+sea, building this palace! And then to think of him on a night when the
+moon was full, and the nightingales were singing, coming out and hurling
+a shuddering slave into the abyss!
+
+When we returned to the hotel, our friend the Professor, who had made a
+study of the subject, informed us that it was all a mistake. The stories
+of the wicked doings of Tiberius in Capri were malicious slanders. The
+Emperor was an elderly invalid living in dignified retirement. As for
+the slaves, we might set our minds at rest in regard to them. If any of
+them fell over the cliff it was pure accident. We must give up the idea
+that the invalid Emperor pushed them off.
+
+All this was reassuring to my better nature, and yet I cherished a
+grudge against the Professor. For it was a stiff climb to the Villa of
+Tiberius, and I wanted something to show for it. It was difficult to
+adjust one's mind to the fact that nothing had happened there which
+might not have happened in any well-conducted country house.
+
+I like to contrast this with our experience in Algiers. We knew
+beforehand what Algiers was like in the days of its prime. It had been
+the nest of as desperate pirates as ever infested the seas. For
+generations innocent Christians had been carried hither to pine in
+doleful captivity. But the French, we understood, had built a miniature
+Paris in the vicinity and were practicing liberty, fraternity, and
+equality on the spot dedicated to gloomily romantic memories. We feared
+the effect of this civilization. We had our misgivings. Perhaps Algiers
+might be no longer worth visiting.
+
+Luckily our steamer was delayed till sunset. We were carefully
+shepherded, so that we hardly noticed the French city. We were hurried
+through the darkness into old Algiers. Everything was full of sinister
+suggestion. The streets were as narrow and perilous as any which Haroun
+Al Raschid explored on his more perilous nights. Here one could believe
+the worst of his fellow men. Suspicion and revenge were in the air. We
+were not taking a stroll, we were escaping from something. Mysterious
+muffled figures glided by and disappeared through slits in the walls.
+There were dark corners so suggestive of homicide that one could hardly
+think that any one with an Oriental disposition could resist the
+temptation. In crypt-like recesses we could see assassins sharpening
+their daggers or, perhaps, executioners putting the finishing touches on
+their scimitars. There were cavernous rooms where conspirators were
+crouched round a tiny charcoal fire. Groups of truculent young Arabs
+followed us shouting objurgations, and accepting small coins as ransom.
+We had glimpses of a mosque, the outside of a prison, and the inside of
+what once was a harem. On returning to the steamer one gentleman fell
+overboard and, swimming to the shore, was rescued by a swarthy ruffian
+who robbed him of his watch and disappeared in the darkness. When the
+victim of Algerian piracy stood on the deck, dripping and indignant, and
+told his tale of woe, we were delighted. Algiers would always be
+something to remember. It was one of the places that had not been
+spoiled.
+
+I am afraid that the sunlight might have brought disillusion. Some of
+the stealthy figures which gave rise to such thrilling suspicions may
+have turned out to be excellent fathers and husbands returning from
+business. As it is, thanks to the darkness, Algiers remains a city of
+vague atrocities. It does not belong to the commonplace world; it is of
+such stuff as dreams, including nightmares, are made of.
+
+It is not without some compunction of conscience that I recall two
+historical pilgrimages, one to Assisi, the other to Geneva. Assisi I
+found altogether rewarding, while in Geneva I was disappointed. In each
+case my object was purely selfish, and had nothing in common with the
+welfare of the present inhabitants. I wanted to see the city of St.
+Francis and the city of John Calvin.
+
+In Assisi one may read again the Franciscan legends in their proper
+settings. I should like to think that my pleasure in Assisi arose from
+the fact that I saw some one there who reminded me of St. Francis. But
+I was not so fortunate. If one is anxious to come in contact with the
+spirit of St. Francis, freed from its mediæval limitations, a visit to
+Hull House, Chicago, would be more rewarding.
+
+But it was not the spirit of St. Francis, but his limitations, that we
+were after. Assisi has preserved them all. We see the gray old town on
+the hillside, the narrow streets, the old walls. We are beset by swarms
+of beggars. They are not like the half-starved creatures one may see in
+the slums of northern cities. They are very likable. They are natural
+worshipers of my Lady Poverty. They have not been spoiled by commonplace
+industrialism or scientific philanthropy. One is taken back into the
+days when there was a natural affinity between saints and beggars. The
+saints would joyously give away all that they had, and the beggars would
+as joyously accept it. After the beggars had used up all the saints had
+given them, the saints would go out and beg for more. The community, you
+say, would be none the better. Perhaps not. But the moment you begin to
+talk about the community you introduce ideas that are modern and
+disturbing. One thing is certain, and that is that if Assisi were more
+thrifty, it would be less illuminating historically.
+
+St. Francis might come back to Assisi and take up his work as he left
+it. But I sought in vain for John Calvin in Geneva. The city was too
+prosperous and gay. The cheerful houses, the streets with their
+cosmopolitan crowds, the parks, the schools, the university, the little
+boats skimming over the lake, all bore witness to the well-being of
+to-day. But what of yesterday? The citizens were celebrating the
+anniversary of Jean Jacques Rousseau. I realized that it was not
+yesterday but the day before yesterday that I was seeking. Where was the
+stern little city which Calvin taught and ruled? The place that knew him
+knows him no more.
+
+Disappointed in my search for Calvin, I sought compensation in Servetus.
+I found the stone placed by modern Calvinists to mark the spot where the
+Spanish heretic was burned. On it they had carved an inscription
+expressing their regret for the act of intolerance on the part of the
+reformer, and attributing the blame to the age in which he lived. But
+even this did not satisfy modern Geneva. The inscription had been
+chipped away in order to give place I was told, to something more
+historically accurate.
+
+But whether Calvin was to blame, or the sixteenth century, did not seem
+to matter. The spot was so beautiful that it seemed impossible that
+anything tragical could ever have happened here. A youth and maiden were
+sitting by the stone, engaged in a most absorbing conversation. Of one
+thing I was certain, that the theological differences between Calvin and
+Servetus were nothing to them. They had something more important to
+think about--at least for them.
+
+
+II
+
+After a time one comes to have a certain modesty of expectation. Time
+and Space are different elements, and each has its own laws. At the
+price of a steamship ticket one may be transported to another country,
+but safe passage to another age is not guaranteed. It is enough if some
+slight suggestion is given to the imagination. A walk through a pleasant
+neighborhood is all the pleasanter if one knows that something memorable
+has happened there. If one is wise he will not attempt to realize it to
+the exclusion of the present scene. It is enough to have a slight flavor
+of historicity.
+
+It was this pleasure which I enjoyed in a ramble with a friend through
+the New Forest. The day was fine, and it would have been a joy to be
+under the greenwood trees if no one had been before us. But the New
+Forest had a human interest; for on such a day as this, William Rufus
+rode into it to hunt the red deer, and was found with an arrow through
+his body. And to this day no man knows who killed William Rufus, or why.
+Though, of course, some people have their suspicions.
+
+Many other things may have happened in the New Forest in the centuries
+that have passed, but they have never been brought vividly to my
+attention. So far as I was concerned there were no confusing incidents.
+The Muse of History told one tragic tale and then was silent.
+
+On the other side of the Forest was the Rufus stone marking the spot
+where the Red King's body was found. At Brockenhurst we inquired the
+way, which we carefully avoided. The road itself was an innovation, and
+was infested with motor-cars, machines unknown to the Normans. The Red
+King had plunged into the Forest and quickly lost himself; so would we.
+There were great oaks and wide-spreading beeches and green glades such
+as one finds only in England. It was pleasant to feel that it all
+belonged to the Crown. I could not imagine a county council allowing
+this great stretch of country to remain in its unspoiled beauty through
+these centuries.
+
+We took our frugal lunch under a tree that had looked down on many
+generations. Then we wandered on through a green wilderness. We saw no
+one but some women gathering fagots. I was glad to see that they were
+exercising their ancestral rights in the royal domain. They looked
+contented, though I should have preferred to have their dress more
+antique.
+
+All day we followed William Rufus through the Forest. I began to feel
+that I had a real acquaintance with him, having passed through much the
+same experience. The forest glades have been little changed since the
+day when he hunted the red deer. Nature is the true conservative, and
+repeats herself incessantly.
+
+Toward evening my friend pointed out the hill at the foot of which was
+the Rufus stone. It was still some two miles away. Should we push on to
+it?
+
+What should we see when we got there? The stone was not much. There was
+a railing round it as a protection against relic-hunters. And there was
+an inscription which, of course, was comparatively modern. That settled
+it. We would not go to the stone with its modern inscription. The
+ancient trees brought us much nearer to William Rufus. Besides, there
+was just time, if we walked briskly, to catch the train at Brockenhurst.
+
+
+III
+
+A week which stands out in my memory as one of perfect communion with
+the past was spent with another English friend in Llanthony Abbey, in
+the Vale of Ewyas, in the Black Mountains of Wales. We had gone prepared
+for camping with a tent of ethereal lightness, which was to protect us
+from the weather.
+
+For the first night we were to tarry amid the ruins of the
+twelfth-century abbey, some parts of which had been roofed over and used
+as an inn. When we arrived, the rain was falling in torrents. Soon after
+supper we took our candles and climbed the winding stone stairs to our
+rooms in the tower. The stones were uneven and worn by generations of
+pious feet. Outside we could see the ruined nave of the church, with all
+the surrounding buildings. We were in another age.
+
+Had the sun shined next morning we should have gone on our gypsy
+journey, and Llanthony Abbey would have been only an incident. But for
+five days and five nights the rain descended. We could make valiant
+sallies, but were driven back for shelter. Shut in by "the tumultuous
+privacy of storm," one felt a sense of ownership. Only one book could be
+obtained, the "Life and Letters" of Walter Savage Landor. I had always
+wanted to know more of Landor and here was the opportunity.
+
+A little over a hundred years ago he came to the vale of Ewyas and
+bought this estate, and hither he brought his young bride. They occupied
+our rooms, it appeared. In 1809, Landor writes to Southey, "I am about
+to do what no man hath ever done in England, plant a wood of cedars of
+Lebanon. These trees will look magnificent on the mountains of
+Llanthony." He planted a million of them, so he said. How eloquently he
+growled over those trees! He prophesied that none of them would live.
+
+After reading, I donned my raincoat and started out through the driving
+storm to see how Landor's trees were getting on. It seemed that it was
+only yesterday that they were planted. It was worth going out to see
+what had become of them. They were all gone. I felt that secret
+satisfaction which all right-minded persons feel on being witnesses to
+the fulfilment of prophecy.
+
+And then there was the house which Landor started to build when he and
+his wife were living in our tower. "I hope," he writes, "before the
+close not of the next but of the succeeding summer, to have one room to
+sit in with two or three bedrooms." Then he begins to growl about the
+weather and the carpenters. After a while he writes again of the house:
+"It's not half finished and has cost me two thousand pounds. I think
+seriously of filling it with straw and setting fire to it. Never was
+anything half so ugly."
+
+I inquired about the house and was told that it was not far away on the
+hillside, and was yet unfinished. I was pleased with this, and meant to
+go up and see it when the spell of bad weather of which Landor
+complained had passed by.
+
+Beside Landor there was only one other historic association which one
+could enjoy without getting drenched--that was St. David. In wading
+across the barnyard, I encountered "Boots," an intelligent young man
+though unduly respectful. He informed me that the old building just
+across from the stable was the cell of St. David.
+
+I was not prepared for this. All I knew was that St. David was the
+patron saint of Wales and had a cathedral and a number of other churches
+dedicated to him. Without too grossly admitting my ignorance, I tried to
+draw out from my mentor some further biographical facts that my
+imagination might work on during my stay. He thought that St. David was
+some relation to King Arthur, but just what the relation was, and
+whether he was only a relative by marriage, he didn't know. It wasn't
+very much information, but I was profoundly grateful to him.
+
+I have since read a long article on St. David in the "Cambrian
+Plutarch." The author goes into the question of the family relations
+between King Arthur and St. David with great thoroughness, but what
+conclusion he comes to is not quite evident. He thinks that the people
+are wrong who say that St. David was a nephew, because he was fifty
+years older than Arthur. That would make him more likely his uncle.
+But as he admits that King Arthur may possibly be another name for the
+constellation Ursa Major, it is difficult to fix the dates exactly.
+At any rate, the "Cambrian Plutarch" is sure that King Arthur was a
+Welshman and a credit to the country--and so was St. David. The author
+was as accurate in regard to the dates as the nature of his subject
+would allow. He adds apologetically, "It will appear that the life of
+St. David is rather misplaced with respect to chronological order. But
+as he was contemporary with all those whose lives have already been
+given, the anachronism, if such it may be called, can be of no great
+importance."
+
+That is just the way I feel about it. After living for a whole week
+in such close contact with the residence of St. David, I feel a real
+interest in him. Just who he was and when he lived, if at all, is a
+matter of no great importance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Yet there are limits to the historical imagination. It must have
+something to work on, even though that something may be very vague. We
+must draw the line somewhere in our pursuit of antiquity. A relic may be
+too old to be effective. Instead of gently stimulating the imagination
+it may paralyze it. What we desire is not merely the ancient but the
+familiar. The relic must bring with it the sense of auld lang-syne. The
+Tory squire likes to preserve what has been a long time in his family.
+The traveler has the same feeling for the possessions of the family of
+humanity.
+
+The family-feeling does not go back of a certain point. I draw the line
+at the legendary period when the heroes have names, and more or less
+coherent stories are told of their exploits, People who had a local
+habitation, but not a name, seem to belong to Geology only. For all
+their flint arrow-heads, or bronze instruments, I cannot think of them
+as fellow men.
+
+It was with this feeling that I visited one of the most ancient places
+of worship in Ireland, the tumulus at Newgrange. It was on a day filled
+with historic sight-seeing. We started from Drogheda, the great
+stronghold of the Pale in the Middle Ages, and the scene of Cromwell's
+terrible vengeance in 1649. Three miles up the river is the site of the
+Battle of the Boyne. It was one of the great indecisive battles of the
+world, it being necessary to fight it over again every year. The Boyne
+had overflowed its banks, and in the fields forlorn hay-cocks stood like
+so many little islands. We stopped at the battle monument and read its
+Whiggish inscription, which was scorned by our honest driver. We could
+form some idea of how the field appeared on the eventful day when King
+William and King James confronted each other across the narrow stream.
+Then the scene changed and we found ourselves in Mellefont Abbey, the
+first Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded by St. Malachy, the
+friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. King William and King James were at
+once relegated to their proper places among the moderns, while we went
+back to the ages of faith.
+
+Four miles farther we came to Monasterboice, where stood two great
+Celtic crosses. There are two ruined churches and a round tower. Here
+was an early religious establishment which existed before the times of
+St. Columba.
+
+This would be enough for one day's reminiscence, but my heart leaped up
+at the sight of a long green ridge. "There is the hill of Tara!"
+
+Having traversed the period from King William to the dwellers in the
+Halls of Tara, what more natural than to take a further plunge into the
+past?
+
+We drive into an open field and alight near a rock-strewn hill. Candles
+are given us and we grope our way through narrow passages till we come
+to the centre of the hill. Here is a chamber some twenty feet in height.
+On the great stones which support the roof are mystic emblems. On the
+floor is a large stone hollowed out in the shape of a bowl. It suggests
+human sacrifices. My guide did not encourage this suggestion. There was,
+he thought, no historical evidence for it. But it seemed to me that if
+these people ever practised such sacrifices this was the place for them.
+A gloomier chamber for weird rites could not be imagined.
+
+Who were the worshipers? Druids or pre-Druids? The archæologists tell us
+that they belonged to the Early Bronze period. Now Early Bronze is a
+good enough term for articles in a museum, but it does not suggest a
+human being. We cannot get on terms of spiritual intimacy with the Early
+Bronze people. We may know what they did, but there is no intimation of
+"the moving why they did it." What spurred them on to their feats of
+prodigious industry? Was it fear or love? First they built their chapel
+of great stones and then piled a huge hill on top of it. Were they still
+under the influence of the glacial period and attempting to imitate the
+wild doings of Nature? The passage of the ages does not make these men
+seem venerable, because their deeds are no longer intelligible.
+Mellefont Abbey is in ruins, but we can easily restore it in
+imagination. We can picture the great buildings as they were before the
+iconoclasts destroyed them. The prehistoric place of worship in the
+middle of the hill is practically unchanged. But the clue to its meaning
+is lost.
+
+I could not make the ancient builders and worshipers seem real. It was
+a relief to come up into the sunshine where people of our own kind had
+walked, the Kings of Tara and their harpers, and St. Patrick and St.
+Malachy and Oliver Cromwell and William III. After the unintelligible
+symbols on the rocks, how familiar and homelike seemed the sculptures on
+the Celtic crosses. They were mostly about people, and people whom we
+had known from earliest childhood. There were Adam and Eve, and Cain
+slaying Abel, and the Magi. They were members of our family.
+
+But between us and the builders of the under-ground chapel there was a
+great gulf. There was no means of spiritual communication across the
+abyss. A scrap of writing, a bit of poetry, a name handed down by
+tradition, would have been worth all the relics discovered by
+archæologists.
+
+There is justification for the traveler's preference for the things he
+has read about, for these are the things which resist the changes of
+time. Only he must remember that they are better preserved in the book
+than in the places where they happened. The impression which any
+generation makes on the surface of the earth is very slight. It cannot
+give the true story of the brief occupancy. That requires some more
+direct interpretation.
+
+The magic carpet which carries us into any age not our own is woven by
+the poets and historians. Without their aid we may travel through Space,
+but not through Time.
+
+
+
+
+THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+
+
+In the college world it is a point of honor for the successive classes
+to treat each other with contumely. The feud between freshman and
+sophomore goes on automatically. Only when one has become a senior may
+he, without losing caste, recognize a freshman as a youth of promise,
+and admit that a sophomore is not half bad. Such disinterested criticism
+is tolerated because it is evidently the result of the mellowing
+influence of time.
+
+The same tendency is seen in literary and artistic judgments. It is
+never good taste to admit the good taste of the generation that
+immediately precedes us. Its innocent admirations are flouted and its
+standards are condemned as provincial. For we are always emerging from
+the dark ages and contrasting their obscurity with our marvelous light.
+The sixteenth century scorned the fifteenth century for its manifold
+superstitions. Thomas Fuller tells us that his enlightened contempories
+in the seventeenth century treated the enthusiasms of the sixteenth
+century with scant respect. The price of martyrs' ashes rises and falls
+in Smithfield market. At a later period Pope writes,--
+
+  "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow:
+  Our wiser sons, perhaps, will think us so."
+
+He need not have put in the "perhaps."
+
+The nineteenth century had its fling at the artificiality of the
+eighteenth century, and treated it with contempt as the age of
+doctrinaires. And now that the twentieth century is coming to the age of
+discretion, we hear a new term of reproach, Mid-Victorian. It expresses
+the sum of all villainies in taste. For some fifty years in the
+nineteenth century the English-speaking race, as it now appears, was
+under the sway of Mrs. Grundy. It was living in a state of most
+reprehensible respectability, and Art was tied to the apron-strings of
+Morality. Everybody admired what ought not to be admired. We are only
+now beginning to pass judgment on the manifold mediocrity of this era.
+
+All this must, for the time, count against Dickens; for of all the
+Victorians he was the midmost. He flourished in that most absurd period
+of time--the time just before most of us were born. And how he did
+flourish! Grave lord chancellors confessed to weeping over Little Nell.
+A Mid-Victorian bishop relates that after administering consolation to
+a man in his last illness he heard him saying, "At any rate, a new
+'Pickwick Paper' will be out in ten days."
+
+Everywhere there was a wave of hysterical appreciation. Describing his
+reading in Glasgow, Dickens writes: "Such pouring of hundreds into a
+place already full to the throat, such indescribable confusion, such
+rending and tearing of dresses, and yet such a scene of good humor, I
+never saw the slightest approach to.... Fifty frantic men got up in all
+parts of the hall and addressed me all at once. Other frantic men made
+speeches to the wall. The whole B family were borne on the top of a wave
+and landed with their faces against the front of the platform. I read
+with the platform crammed with people. I got them to lie down upon it,
+and it was like some impossible tableau, or gigantic picnic,--one pretty
+girl lying on her side all night, holding on to the legs of my table."
+
+In New York eager seekers after fiction would "lie down on the pavement
+the whole of the night before the tickets were sold, generally taking up
+their position about ten." There would be free fights, and the police
+would be called to quell the riot.
+
+Such astonishing actions on the part of people who were unfortunate
+enough to live in the middle of the nineteenth century put us on our
+guard. It could not have been a serious interest in English literature
+that evoked the mob spirit. Dickens must have been writing the kind of
+books which these people liked to hear read. We remember with some
+misgivings that in the days of our youth we wept over Little Nell, just
+as the lord chancellor did. The question which disturbs us is, Ought we
+to have done so?
+
+Let us by a soft answer turn away the wrath of the critic. Doubtless we
+ought not to have done so. Our excuse is that, at the time, we could not
+help it. We may make the further plea, common to all soft-hearted
+sinners, that if we hadn't wept, other people would, so that no great
+harm was done, after all.
+
+But letting bygones be bygones, and not seeking to justify the
+enthusiasms of the nineteenth century, one may return to Dickens as to
+the home of one's childhood. How do the old scenes affect us? Does the
+charm remain? When thus we return to Dickens, we are compelled to
+confess the justice of the latter-day criticism. In all his writings he
+deals with characters and situations which are wholly obvious; at least
+they are obvious after he deals with them. Not only is he without the
+art which conceals art, but, unlike some novelists of more recent fame,
+he is without the art that conceals the lack of art He produces an
+impression by the crude method of "rubbing it in." There are no
+subtleties to pique our curiosity, no problems left us for discussion,
+no room for difference of opinion. There is no more opportunity for
+speculation than in a one-price clothing store where every article is
+marked in plain figures. To have heartily disliked Mr. Pecksniff and to
+have loved the Cheeryble Brothers indicates no sagacity on our part. The
+author has distinctly and repeatedly told us that the one is an odious
+hypocrite and that the others are benevolent to an unusual degree. Our
+appreciation of Sam Weller does not prove that we have any sense of
+humor save that which is common to man. For Mr. Weller's humor is a
+blessing that is not in disguise. It is a pump which needs no priming.
+There is no denying that the humor, the pathos, and the sentiment of
+Dickens are obvious.
+
+All this, according to certain critics, goes to prove that Dickens lacks
+distinction, and that the writing of his novels was a commonplace
+achievement. This judgment seems to me to arise from a confusion of
+thought. The _perception_ of the obvious is a commonplace achievement;
+the _creation_ of the obvious, and making it interesting, is the work of
+genius. There is no intellectual distinction in the enjoyment of "The
+Pickwick Papers"; to write "The Pickwick Papers" would be another
+matter.
+
+It is only in the last quarter of a century that English literature has
+been accepted not as a recreation, but as a subject of serious study.
+Now, the first necessity for a study is that it should be "hard." Some
+of the best brains in the educational world have been enlisted in the
+work of giving a disciplinary value to what was originally an innocent
+pleasure. It is evident that one cannot give marks for the number of
+smiles or tears evoked by a tale of true love. The novel or the play
+that is to hold its own in the curriculum in competition with
+trigonometry must have some knotty problem which causes the harassed
+reader to knit his brows in anxious thought.
+
+In answer to this demand, the literary craftsman has arisen who takes
+his art with a seriousness which makes the "painful preacher" of the
+Puritan time seem a mere pleasure-seeker. Equipped with instruments of
+precision drawn from the psychological laboratory, he is prepared to
+satisfy our craving for the difficult By the method of suggestion he
+tries to make us believe that we have never seen his characters before,
+and sometimes he succeeds. He deals in descriptions which leave us with
+the impression of an indescribable something which we should recognize
+if we were as clever as he is. As we are not nearly so clever, we are
+left with a chastened sense of our inferiority, which is doubtless good
+for us. And all this groping for the un-obvious is connected with an
+equally insistent demand for realism. The novel must not only be as real
+as life, but it must be more so. For life, as it appears in our ordinary
+consciousness, is full of illusions. When these are stripped off and the
+residuum is compressed into a book, we have that which is at once
+intensely real and painfully unfamiliar.
+
+Now, there is a certain justification for this. A psychologist may show
+us aspects of character which we could not see by ourselves, as the
+X-rays will reveal what is not visible to the naked eye. But if the
+insides of things are real, so also are the outsides. Surfaces and forms
+are not without their importance.
+
+It may be said in extenuation of Dickens that the blemish of obviousness
+is one which he shared with the world he lived in. It would be too much
+to say that all realities are obvious. There is a great deal that we do
+not see at the first glance; but there is a great deal that we do see.
+To reproduce the freshness and wonder of the first view of the obvious
+world is one of the greatest achievements of the imagination.
+
+The reason why the literary artist shuns the obvious is that there is
+too much of it. It is too big for the limited resources of his art. In
+the actual world, realities come in big chunks. Nature continually
+repeats herself. She hammers her facts into our heads with a persistency
+which is often more than a match for our stupidity. If we do not
+recognize a fact to-day, it will hit us in the same place to-morrow.
+
+We are so used to this educational method of reiteration that we make it
+a test of reality. An impression made upon us must be repeated before it
+has validity to our reason. If a thing really happened, we argue that it
+will happen again under the same conditions. That is what we mean by
+saying that we are under the reign of law. There is a great family
+resemblance between happenings.
+
+We make acquaintance with people by the same method. The recognition of
+identity depends upon the ability which most persons have of appearing
+to be remarkably like themselves. The reason why we think that the
+person whom we met to-day is the same person we met yesterday is that he
+_seems_ the same. There are obvious resemblances that strike us at once.
+He looks the same, he acts the same, he has the same mannerisms, the
+same kind of voice, and he answers to the same name. If Proteus, with
+the best intention in the world, but with an unlimited variety of
+self-manifestations, were to call every day, we should greet him always
+as a stranger. We should never feel at home with so versatile a person.
+A character must have a certain degree of monotony about it before we
+can trust it. Unexpectedness is an agreeable element in wit, but not in
+friendship. Our friend must be one who can say with honest Joe Gargery,
+"It were understood, and it are understood, and it ever will be similar,
+according."
+
+But in the use of this effective method of reiteration there is a
+difference between nature and a book. Nature does not care whether she
+bores us or not: she has us by the buttonhole, and we cannot get away.
+Not so with a book. When we are bored, we lay it down, and that brings
+the interview to an end. It is from the fear of our impatience that most
+writers abstain from the natural method of producing an impression.
+
+And they are quite right. It is only now and then that an audience will
+grant an extension of time to a speaker in order that he may make his
+point more clear. They would rather miss the point. And it is still more
+rare for the reader to grant a similar extension in order that the
+author may tell again what he has told before. It is much easier to shut
+up a book than to shut up a speaker.
+
+The criticism of Dickens that his characters repeat themselves quite
+misses the mark. As well object to an actor that he frequently responds
+to an encore. If indicted for the offense, he could at least insist that
+the audience be indicted with him as accessory before the fact.
+
+Dickens tells us that when he read at Harrogate, "There was a remarkably
+good fellow of thirty or so who found something so very ludicrous in
+Toots that he could not compose himself at all, but laughed until he sat
+wiping his eyes with his handkerchief, and whenever he felt Toots coming
+again he began to laugh and wipe his eyes afresh."
+
+"Whenever he felt Toots coming again"--there you have the whole
+philosophy of the matter. The young fellow found Toots amusing when he
+first laid eyes on him. He wanted to see him again, and it must always
+be the same Toots.
+
+It is useless to cavil at an author because of the means by which he
+produces his effects. The important thing is that he does produce an
+effect. That the end justifies the means may be a dangerous doctrine in
+ethics, but much may be said for it in literature. The situation is like
+that of a middle-aged gentleman beset by a small boy on a morning just
+right for snowballing. "Give me leave, mister?" cries the youthful
+sharpshooter. The good-natured citizen gives leave by pulling up his
+coat-collar and quickening his pace. If the small boy can hit him, he is
+forgiven, if he cannot hit him, he is scorned. The fact is that Dickens
+with a method as broad and repetitious as that of Nature herself does
+succeed in hitting our fancy. That is, he succeeds nine times out of
+ten.
+
+It is the minor characters of Dickens that are remembered. And we
+remember them for the same reason that we remember certain faces which
+we have seen in a crowd. There is some salient feature or trick of
+manner which first attracts and then holds our attention. A person must
+have some tag by which he is identified, or, so far as we are concerned,
+he becomes one of the innumerable lost articles. There are persons who
+are like umbrellas, very useful, but always liable to be forgotten. The
+memory is an infirm faculty, and must be humored. It often clings to
+mere trifles. The man with the flamboyant necktie whom you saw on the
+8.40 train may also be the author of a volume of exquisite lyrics; but
+you never saw the lyrics, and you did see the necktie. In the scale of
+being, the necktie may be the least important parcel of this good man's
+life, but it is the only thing about him which attracts your attention.
+When you see it day after day at the same hour you feel that you have a
+real, though perhaps not a deep, acquaintance with the man behind it. It
+is thus we habitually perceive the human world. We see things, and infer
+persons to correspond. One peculiarity attracts us. It is not the whole
+man, but it is all of him that is for us. In all this we are very
+Dickensy.
+
+We may read an acute character study and straightway forget the person
+who was so admirably analyzed; but the lady in the yellow curl-papers is
+unforgettable. We really see very little of her, but she is real, and
+she would not be so real without her yellow curl-papers. A
+yellow-curl-paper-less lady in the Great White Horse Inn would be as
+unthinkable to us as a white-plume-less Henry of Navarre at Ivry.
+
+In ecclesiastical art the saints are recognized by their emblems. Why
+should not the sinners have the same means of identification? Dickens
+has the courage to furnish us these necessary aids to recollection.
+Micawber, Mrs. Gummidge, Barkis, Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep, Betsy Trotwood,
+Dick Swiveiler, Mr. Mantalini, Harold Skimpole, Sairey Gamp, always
+appear with their appropriate insignia. We should remember that it is
+for our sakes.
+
+According to the canons of literary art, a fact should be stated clearly
+once and for all. It would be quite proper to mention the fact that
+Silas Wegg had a wooden leg; but this fact having been made plain, why
+should it be referred to again? There is a sufficient reason based on
+sound psychology. If the statement were not repeated, we should forget
+that Mr. Wegg had a wooden leg, and by and by we should forget Silas
+Wegg himself. He would fade away among the host of literary gentlemen
+who are able to read "The Decline and Fall," but who are not able to
+keep themselves out of the pit of oblivion. But when we repeatedly see
+Mr. Wegg as Mr. Boffin saw him, "the literary gentleman _with_ a wooden
+leg," we feel that we really have the pleasure of his acquaintance.
+There is not only perception of him, but what the pedagogical people
+call apperception. Our idea of Mr. Wegg is inseparably connected with
+our antecedent ideas of general woodenness.
+
+Again, we are introduced to "a large, hard-breathing, middle-aged man,
+with a mouth like a fish, dull, staring eyes, and sandy hair standing
+upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had been choked and had
+at that moment come to." This is Mr. Pumblechook. He does not emerge
+slowly like a ship from below the horizon. We see him all at once, eyes,
+mouth, hair, and character to match. It is a case of falling into
+acquaintance at first sight. We are now ready to hear what Mr.
+Pumblechook says and see what he does. We have a reasonable assurance
+that whatever he says and does it will be just like Mr. Pumblechook.
+
+We enter a respectable house in a shady angle adjoining Portman Square.
+We go out to dinner in solemn procession. We admire the preternatural
+solidity of the furniture and the plate. The hostess is a fine woman,
+"with neck and nostrils like a rocking-horse, hard features and majestic
+headdress." Her husband, large and pompous, with little light-colored
+wings "more like hairbrushes than hair" on the sides of his otherwise
+bald head, begins to discourse on the British Constitution. We now know
+as much of Mr. Podsnap as we shall know at the end of the book. But it
+is a real knowledge conveyed by the method that gives dinner-parties
+their educational value. We forgive Dickens his superfluous discourse on
+Podsnappery in general. For his remarks are precisely of the kind which
+we make when the party is over, and we sit by the fire generalizing and
+allegorizing the people we have met.
+
+That Mr. Thomas Gradgrind was unduly addicted to hard facts might have
+been delicately insinuated in the course of two hundred pages. We might
+have felt a mild pleasure in the discovery which we had made, and then
+have gone our way forgetting what manner of man he was. What is
+Gradgrind to us or we to Gradgrind? Dickens introduces him to us in all
+his uncompromising squareness--"square coat, square legs, square
+shoulders, nay, his very neckcloth is trained to take him by the throat
+with an unaccommodating grasp." We are made at once to see "the square
+wall of a forehead which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes
+found commodious cellarage in the two dark caves overshadowed by the
+wall." Having taken all this in at a glance, there is nothing more to be
+done in the development of the character of Mr. Gradgrind. He takes his
+place among the obvious facts of existence. But in so much as we were
+bound to find him out sometime, shall we quarrel with Dickens because we
+were enabled to do so in the first chapter?
+
+Nor do the obvious exaggerations of Dickens arising from the exuberance
+of his fancy interfere with the sense of reality. A truth is not less
+true because it is in large print. We recognize creatures who are
+prodigiously like ourselves, and we laugh at the difference in scale.
+Did not all Lilliput laugh over the discovery of Gulliver? How they
+rambled over the vast expanse of countenance, recognizing each
+feature--lips, cheek, nose, chin, brow. "How very odd," they would say
+to themselves, "and how very like!"
+
+It is to the wholesome obviousness of Dickens that we owe the atmosphere
+of good cheer that surrounds his characters. No writer has pictured more
+scenes of squalid misery, and yet we are not depressed. There is bad
+weather enough, but we are not "under the weather." There are characters
+created to be hated. It is a pleasure to hate them. As to the others,
+whenever their trials and tribulations abate for an instant, they
+relapse into a state of unabashed contentment.
+
+This is unusual in literature, for most literary men are saddest when
+they write. The fact is that happiness is much more easy to experience
+than to describe, as any one may learn in trying to describe a good time
+he has had. One good time is very much like another good time. Moreover,
+we are shy, and dislike to express our enthusiasm. We wouldn't for the
+world have any one know what simple creatures we are and how little it
+takes to make us happy. So we talk critically about a great many things
+we do not care very much about, and complain of the absence of many
+things which we do not really miss. We feel badly about not being
+invited to a party which we don't want to go to.
+
+We are like a horse that has been trained to be a "high-stepper." By
+prancing over imaginary difficulties and shying at imaginary dangers he
+gives an impression of mettlesomeness which is foreign to his native
+disposition.
+
+The story-teller is on the lookout for these eager attitudes. He cannot
+afford to let his characters be too happy. There is a literary value in
+misery that he cannot afford to lose.
+
+That "the course of true love never did run smooth" is an assertion of
+story-tellers rather than of ordinary lovers. The fact is that nothing
+is so easy as falling in love and staying there. It is a very common
+experience, so common that it attracts little attention. The course of
+true love usually runs so smoothly that there is nothing that causes
+remark. It is not an occasion of gossip. Two good-tempered and healthy
+persons are obviously made for each other. They know it, and everybody
+else knows it, and they keep on knowing it, and act, as Joe Gargery
+would say, "similar, according."
+
+The trouble is that the literary man finds that this does not afford
+exciting material for a best seller. So he must invent hazards to make
+the game interesting to the spectators. In a story the course of true
+love must not run smooth or no one would read it. The old-time romancer
+brought his young people through all sorts of misadventures. When all
+the troubles he could think of were over, he left them abruptly at the
+church door, murmuring feebly to the gentle reader, "they were happy
+ever after."
+
+The present-day novelist is offended at this ending. "How absurd!" he
+says. "They are still in the early twenties. The world is all before
+them, and they have time to fall into all sorts of troubles which the
+romanticist has not thought of. Middle age is just as dangerous a period
+as youth, and matrimony has its pitfalls. Let me take up the story and
+tell you how they didn't live happily ever afterwards, but, on the
+contrary, had a cat-and-dog life of it."
+
+Now I would pardon the novelist if he were perfectly honest and were to
+say, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am trying to interest you. I have not the
+skill to make a story of placid happiness interesting. So I will do the
+next best thing. I will tell you a story of a different kind. It is the
+picture of a kind of life that is easier to make readable."
+
+In making such a confession he would be in good company. Even
+Shakespeare, with all his dramatic genius, confessed that he could not
+avoid monotony in his praise of true love. Its ways were ways of
+pleasantness, but did not afford much incentive to originality.
+
+  "Since all alike my songs and praises be
+  To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
+  Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
+  Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
+  Therefore my verse to constancy confined,
+  One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
+  'Fair, kind, and true' is all my argument,
+  'Fair, kind, and true' varying to other words;
+  And in this change is my invention spent."
+
+But the novelist, when he takes himself too seriously as the man who is
+to show us "life as it is," is not content to acknowledge his
+limitations. When he pictures a situation in which there is nothing but
+a succession of problems and misunderstandings, he asks us to admire his
+austere faithfulness. Faithful he may be to his Art, as he understands
+it, but he is not faithful to reality, unless he is able to make us see
+ordinary people in the act of enjoying themselves.
+
+The most obvious thing in life is that people are seldom as unhappy as
+their circumstances would lead us to expect. Nobody is happy all the
+time, and if he were, nobody is enough of a genius to make his
+undeviating felicity interesting. But a great many people are happy most
+of the time, and almost everybody has been happy at some time or other.
+It may have been only a momentary experience, but it was very real, and
+he likes to think about it. He is excessively grateful to any one who
+recalls the feeling. The point is that the aggregate of these good times
+makes a considerable amount of cheerfulness.
+
+Dickens does not attempt the impossible literary feat of showing us one
+person who is happy all the time, but he does what is more obvious, he
+makes us see a great many people who have snatches of good cheer in the
+midst of their humdrum lives. He lets us see another obvious fact, that
+happiness is more a matter of temperament than of circumstance. It is
+not given as a reward of merit or as a mark of distinguished
+consideration. There is one perennial fountain of pleasure. Any one can
+have a good time who can _enjoy himself_. Dickens was not above
+celebrating the kind of happiness which comes to the natural man and the
+natural boy through what we call the "creature comforts." He could
+sympathize with the unadulterated self-satisfaction of little Jack
+Horner when
+
+  "He put in his thumb
+  And pulled out a plum,
+  And said, 'What a great boy am I!'"
+
+The finding of the plum was not a matter of world-wide importance, but
+it was a great pleasure for Jack Horner, and he did not care who knew
+it.
+
+What joy Mr. Micawber gets out of his own eloquence! We cannot begrudge
+him this unearned increment. We sympathize, as, "much affected, but
+still intensely enjoying himself, Mr. Micawber folded up his letter and
+handed it with a bow to my aunt as something she might like to keep."
+
+And R. Wilfer, despite his meagre salary, and despite Mrs. Wilfer,
+enjoys himself whenever he gets a chance. When he goes to Greenwich with
+Bella he finds everything as it should be. "Everything was delightful.
+The Park was delightful; the punch was delightful, the dishes of fish
+were delightful; the wine was delightful." If that was not happiness,
+what was it?
+
+Said R. Wilfer: "Supposing a man to go through life, we won't say with a
+companion, but we will say with a tune. Very good. Supposing the tune
+allotted to him was the 'Dead March' in 'Saul.' Well. It would be a very
+suitable tune for particular occasions--none more so--but it would be
+difficult to keep time with it in the ordinary run of domestic
+transactions."
+
+It is a matter of common observation that those who have allotted to
+them the most solemn music do not always keep time with it. In the
+"ordinary run of domestic transactions" they find many little
+alleviations. In the aggregate these amount to a considerable blessing.
+The world may be rough, and many of its ways may be cruel, but for all
+that it is a joyful sensation to be alive, and the more alive we are,
+the better we like it. All of which is very obvious, and it is what we
+want somebody to point out for us again and again.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+
+
+To spoil a child is no easy task, for Nature is all the time working in
+behalf of the childish virtues and veracities, and is gently correcting
+the abnormalities of education. Still it can be done. The secret of it
+is never to let the child alone, and to insist on doing for him all that
+he would otherwise do for himself--and more.
+
+In that "more" lies the spoiling power. The child must be early made
+acquainted with the feeling of satiety. There must be too much of
+everything. If he were left to himself to any extent, this would be an
+unknown experience. For he is a hungry little creature, with a growing
+appetite, and naturally is busy ministering to his own needs. He is
+always doing something for himself, and enjoys the exercise. The little
+egoist, even when he has "no language but a cry," uses that language to
+make known to the world that he wants something and wants it very much.
+As his wants increase, his exertions increase also. Arms and legs,
+fingers and toes, muscles and nerves and busy brain are all at work to
+get something which he desires. He is a mechanic fashioning his little
+world to his own uses. He is a despot who insists on his divine right to
+rule the subservient creatures around him. He is an inventor devising
+ways and means to secure all the ends which he has the wit to see. That
+these great works on which he has set his heart end in self is obvious
+enough, but we forgive him. Altruism will come in its own time.
+
+In natural play a boy will be a horse or a driver. Either occupation
+gives him plenty to do. But the role of an elderly passenger, given a
+softly cushioned seat and deposited respectfully at the journey's end,
+he rejects with violent expressions of scorn. It is ignominious. He will
+be a policeman or robber or judge or executioner, just as the exigencies
+of the game demand. These are honorable positions worthy of one who
+belongs to the party of action. But do not impose upon him by asking him
+to act the part of the respectable citizen who is robbed and who does
+nothing but telephone for the police. He is not fastidious and will take
+up almost anything that is suggested, if it gives him the opportunity of
+exerting himself. The demand for exertion is the irreducible minimum.
+
+Now to spoil all this fine enthusiasm you must arrange everything in
+such a manner that the eager little worker shall find everything done
+before he has time to put his hand to it. There must be no alluring
+possibilities in his tiny universe. The days of creation, when "the sons
+of God shouted for joy," must be passed before he is ushered in. He must
+be presented only with accomplished facts. There must be nothing left
+for him to make or discover. He must be told everything. All his designs
+must be anticipated, by nurses and parents and teachers. They must give
+him whatever good things they can think of before he has time to desire
+them. From the time when elaborate mechanical toys are put into his
+reluctant hands, it is understood that he is to be amused, and need not
+amuse himself His education is arranged for him. His companions are
+chosen for him. There is nothing for him to do, and if there were, there
+is no incentive for him to do it. In the game of life he is never
+allowed to be the horse. It is his fate to be the passenger.
+
+A child is spoiled when he accepts the position into which fond, foolish
+parents thrust him. Being a passenger on what was presumably intended to
+be a pleasure excursion, he begins to find fault as soon as the journey
+becomes a little wearisome. He must find fault, because that is the only
+thing left for him to find. Having no opportunity to exercise his
+creative faculties, he becomes a petulant critic of a world he can
+neither enjoy nor understand. Taking for granted that everything should
+be done for him, he is angry because it is not done better. His
+ready-made world does not please him--why should it? It never occurs to
+him that if he does not like it he should try and make it better.
+
+Unfortunately, the characteristics of the spoiled child do not vanish
+with childhood or even with adolescence. A university training does not
+necessarily transform petulance into ripe wisdom. Literary ability may
+only give fluent expression to a peevish spirit.
+
+Among the innumerable children of an advanced civilization there are
+those who have been spoiled by the petting to which they have been
+subjected. Life has been made so easy for them that when they come upon
+hard places which demand sturdy endurance they break forth into angry
+complaints. They have been given the results of the complicated
+activities of mankind, without having done their share in the common
+tasks. They have not through personal endeavor learned how much
+everything costs. They are not able, therefore, to pay cheerfully for
+any future good. If it is not given to them at once they feel that they
+have a grievance. For friendly coöperation they are not prepared. They
+must have their own way or they will not play the game. Their fretful
+complaints are like those of the children in the old-time market-places:
+"We have piped unto you and you have not danced, we have mourned unto
+you and you have not lamented."
+
+There is a fashionable attitude of mind among many who pride themselves
+on their acute intellectualism. It manifests itself in a supercilious
+compassion for the efforts and ambitions of the man of action. He, poor
+fellow, is well-meaning, but unilluminated. He is eager and energetic
+because he imagines that he is accomplishing something. If he were a
+serious thinker he would see that all effort is futile. We are here in
+an unintelligible world, a world of mighty forces, moving we know not
+whither. We are subject to passions and impulses which we cannot resist.
+We are never so helpless as when we are in the midst of human affairs.
+We have great words which we utter proudly. We talk of Civilization,
+Christianity, Democracy, and the like. What miserable failures they all
+are. Civilization has failed to produce contentment. It has failed to
+secure perfect justice between man and man, or to satisfy the hungry
+with bread. Christianity after all these centuries of preaching leaves
+mankind as we see it to-day--an armed camp, nation fighting nation,
+class warring against class. The democratic movement about which we hear
+so much is equally unsuccessful. After its brilliant promises it leaves
+us helpless against the passion and stupidity of the mob. Popular
+education adds to the tribulations of society. It rapidly increases the
+number of the discontented. The half-educated are led astray by quacks
+and demagogues who flourish mightily. The higher technical education
+increases that intellectual proletariat which Bismarck saw to be a
+peril. Science, which once was hailed as a deliverer, is now perceived
+to bring only the disillusioning knowledge of our limitations. The
+bankruptcy of Science follows closely upon the bankruptcy of Faith.
+Mechanical inventions, instead of decreasing the friction of life,
+enormously increase it. We are destined to be dragged along by our own
+machines which are to go faster and faster. Philanthropy increases the
+number of the unfit. The advances of medicine are only apparent, while
+statistics show that tuberculosis, a disease of early life, decreases,
+cancer and diseases of later life increase.
+
+As for the general interest in social amelioration, that is the worst
+sign of all. "Coming events cast their shadows before," and we may see
+the shadow of the coming Revolution. Is there any symptom of decadence
+more sure than when the moral temperature suddenly rises above normal?
+Watch the clinical charts of Empire. In the period of national vigor the
+blood is cool. But the time arrives when the period of growth has
+passed. Then a boding sense comes on. The huge frame of the patient is
+feverish. The social conscience is sensitive. All sorts of soft-hearted
+proposals for helping the masses are proposed. The world rulers become
+too tenderhearted for their business. Then comes the end.
+
+Read again the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. How
+admirable were the efforts of the "good emperors," and how futile!
+Consider again the oft-repeated story of the way the humanitarianism of
+Rousseau ushered in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
+
+With such gloomy forebodings do the over-civilized thinkers and writers
+try to discourage the half-civilized and half-educated workers, who are
+trying to make things better. How shall we answer the prophets of ill?
+
+Not by denying the existence of the evils they see, or the possibility
+of the calamities which they fear. What we object to is the mental
+attitude toward the facts that are discovered. The spoiled child, when
+it discovers something not to its liking, exaggerates the evil, and
+indulges its ill-temper.
+
+The well-trained man faces the evil, studies it, measures it, and then
+sets to work. He is well aware that nothing human is perfect, and that
+to accomplish one thing is only to reveal another thing which needs to
+be done. There must be perpetual readjustment, and reconsideration. What
+was done yesterday must be done over again to-day in a somewhat
+different way. But all this does not prove the futility of effort. It
+only proves that the effort must be unceasing, and that it must be more
+and more wisely directed.
+
+He compares, for example, Christianity as an ideal with Christianity as
+an actual achievement. He places in parallel columns the maxims of
+Jesus, and the policies of Christian nations and the actual state of
+Christian churches. The discrepancy is obvious enough. But it does not
+prove that Christianity is a failure; it only proves that its work is
+unfinished.
+
+A political party may adopt a platform filled with excellent proposals
+which if thoroughly carried out would bring in the millennium. But it is
+too much to expect that it would all be accomplished in four years. At
+the end of that period we should not be surprised if the reformers
+should ask for a further extension of time.
+
+The spoiled children of civilization eliminate from their problem the
+one element which is constant and significant--human effort. They forget
+that from the beginning human life has been a tremendous struggle
+against great odds. Nothing has come without labor, no advance has been
+without daring leadership. New fortunes have always had their hazards.
+
+Forgetting all this, and accepting whatever comforts may have come to
+them as their right, they are depressed and discouraged by their vision
+of the future with its dangers and its difficulties. They habitually
+talk of the civilized world as on the brink of some great catastrophe
+which it is impossible to avoid. This gloomy foreboding is looked upon
+as an indication of wisdom.
+
+It should be dismissed, I think, as an indication of childish unreason,
+unworthy of any one who faces realities. It is still true that "the
+morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the
+day is the evil thereof."
+
+The notion that coming events cast shadows before is a superstition. How
+can they? A shadow must be the shadow of something. The only events that
+can cast a shadow are those which have already taken place. Behind them
+is the light of experience, shining upon actualities which intercept its
+rays.
+
+The shadows which affright us are of our own making. They are
+projections into the future of our own experiences. They are sharply
+denned silhouettes, rather than vague omens. When we look at them
+closely we can recognize familiar features. We are dealing with cause
+and effect. What is done foreshadows what remains to be done. Every act
+implies some further acts as its results. When a principle is recognized
+its practical applications must follow. When men begin to reason from
+new premises they are bound to come to new conclusions.
+
+It is evident that in the last half-century enough discoveries have been
+made to keep us busy for a long time. Every scientific advance upsets
+some custom and interferes with some vested interest. You cannot
+discover the truth about tuberculosis without causing a great deal of
+trouble to the owners of unsanitary dwellings. Some of them are widows
+whose little all is invested in this kind of property. The health
+inspectors make life more difficult for them.
+
+Scholarly research among ancient manuscripts is the cause of destructive
+criticism. The scholar with the most peaceable intentions in the world
+disturbs some one's faith. His discovery perhaps involves the
+reconstruction of a whole system of philosophy.
+
+A law is passed. The people are pleased with it, and then forget all
+about it. But by and by a conscientious executive comes into office who
+thinks it his duty to enforce the law. Such accidents are liable to
+happen in the most good-humored democracy. When he tries to enforce it
+there is a burst of angry surprise. He is treated as a revolutionist who
+is attacking the established order. And yet to the moderately
+philosophic observer the making of the law and its enforcement belong to
+the same process. The difficulty is that though united logically they
+are often widely separated chronologically.
+
+The adjustment to a new theory involves changes in practice. But the
+practical man who has usually little interest in new theories is
+surprised and angry when the changes come. He looks upon them as
+arbitrary interferences with his rights.
+
+Even when it is admitted that when considered in a large way the change
+is for the better, the question arises, Who is to pay for it? The
+discussion on this point is bound to be acrimonious, as we are not
+saints and nobody wants to pay more than his share of the costs of
+progress. Even the price of liberty is something which we grumble over.
+
+You have noticed how it is when a new boulevard is laid in any part of
+the city. There is always a dispute between the municipality and the
+abutters. Should the abutters be assessed for betterments or should they
+sue for damages? Usually both actions are instituted. The cost of such
+litigation should be included in the price which the community pays for
+the improvement.
+
+If people always knew what was good for them and acted accordingly, this
+would be a very different world, though not nearly so interesting. But
+we do not know what is good for us till we try; and human life is spent
+in a series of experiments. The experiments are costly, but there is no
+other way of getting results. All that we can say to a person who
+refuses to interest himself in these experiments, or who looks upon all
+experiments as futile which do not turn out as he wished, is that his
+attitude is childish. The great commandment to the worker or thinker
+is,--Thou shalt not sulk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sulking is no more admirable in those of great reputation than it is in
+the nursery. Thackeray declared that, in his opinion, "love is a higher
+intellectual exercise than hate." And looked at as an exercise of mental
+power courage must always be greater than the most highly
+intellectualized form of fear or despair.
+
+I cannot take with perfect seriousness Matthew Arnold's oft-quoted
+lines:--
+
+  "Achilles ponders in his tent,
+  The kings of modern thought are dumb.
+  Silent they are, though not content,
+  And wait to see the future come.
+  They have the grief men had of yore,
+  But they contend and cry no more."
+
+If that is ever the attitude of the best minds, it is only a momentary
+one of which they are quickly ashamed. Achilles sulked in his tent when
+he was pondering not a big problem, but a small grievance. The kings of
+modern thought who are described seem like kings out of a job. We are
+inclined to turn from them to the intellectual monarchs _de facto_. They
+are the ones who take up the hard job which the representatives of the
+old régime give up as hopeless. For when the king has abdicated and
+contends no more--Long live the King!
+
+The real thinkers of any age do not remain long in a blue funk. They
+always find something important to think about. They always point out
+something worth doing. They cannot passively wait to see the future
+come. They are too busy making it.
+
+Matthew Arnold struck a truer note in Rugby Chapel. The true leaders of
+mankind can never be mere intellectualists. There must be a union of
+intellectual and moral energy like that which he recognized in his
+father. To the fainting, dispirited race,--
+
+  "Ye like angels appear,
+  Radiant with ardour divine,
+  Beacons of hope, ye appear!
+  Languor is not in your heart,
+  Weakness is not in your word,
+  Weariness not on your brow;
+  Ye alight in our van: at your voice
+  Panic, despair, flee away."
+
+When those whom we have looked upon as our intellectual leaders grow
+disheartened, we must remember that a lost leader does not necessarily
+mean a lost cause. When those whom we had called the kings of modern
+thought are dumb, we can find new leadership. "Change kings with us,"
+replied an Irish officer after the panic of the Boyne; "change kings
+with us, and we will fight you again."
+
+
+
+
+ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+
+_From a Real-Estate Dealer to a Realistic Novelist_
+
+
+Dear Sir:--
+
+I have been for some time interested in your projects for the
+improvement of literature. When I saw your name in the newspapers, I
+looked you up in "Who's Who," and found that your rating is excellent
+What pleased me was the bold way you attacked the old firms which have
+been living on their reputations. The way you showed up Dickens,
+Thackeray & Co. showed that you know a thing or two. As for W. Scott and
+the other speculators who have been preying on the credulity of the
+public, you gave them something to think about. You showed conclusively
+that instead of dealing in hard facts, they have been handing out
+fiction under the guise of novels.
+
+Our minds run in the same channel: you deal in reality and I deal in
+realty, but the principle is the same. I inclose some of the literature
+which I am sending out. You see, I warn people against investing in
+stocks and bonds. These are mere paper securities, which take to
+themselves wings and fly away. But if you can get hold of a few acres of
+dirt, there you are. When a panic comes along, and Wall Street goes to
+smash, you can sit on your front porch in South Canaan without a care.
+You have your little all in something real.
+
+You followed the same line of argumentation. You showed that there was
+nothing imaginative about your work. You could give a warranty deed for
+every fact which you put on the market. I was so pleased with your
+method that I bought a job lot of your books, so that I could see for
+myself how you conducted your business. Will you allow me, as one in the
+same line, to indulge in a little criticism? I am afraid that you are
+making the same mistake I made when I first went into real estate. I was
+so possessed with the idea of the value of land that I became "land
+poor." It strikes me that a novelist may become reality poor in the same
+way; that is, by investing in a great many realities that are not worth
+what he pays for them.
+
+You see, there is a fact which we do not mention in our circulars. There
+is a great deal of land lying out of doors. _Some_ land is in great
+demand, and the real trick is to find out what that land is. You can't
+go out on the plains of Wyoming and give an acre of land the same value
+which an acre has in the Wall Street district. I speak from experience,
+having tried to convince the public that if the acres are real, the
+values I suggested must be real also. People wouldn't believe me, and I
+lost money.
+
+And the same thing is true about improvements. They must be related to
+the market value of the land on which they are placed. A forty-story
+building at Goshenville Corners would be a mistake. There is no call for
+it.
+
+This is the mistake which I fear you have been making. Your novel is a
+carefully prepared structure, and must have cost a great deal, but it is
+built on ground which is not worth enough to justify the investment. It
+has not what we call "site value." You yourself declare that you have no
+particular interest in the characters you describe at such length. All
+that you have to say for them is that they are real. It is as if I were
+to put up an expensive apartment-house on a vacant lot I have at North
+Ovid. North Ovid is real, and so would be the apartment-house; but what
+of it?
+
+There are ninety millions of people in this country, all with characters
+which might be carefully studied, if we had time. But we haven't the
+time. So we have to choose our intimates. We prefer to know those who
+seem to us most worth knowing. You should remember that the novelist has
+no monopoly on realism. The newspapers are full of all sorts of
+realities. The historian is a keen competitor.
+
+Do you know that when I went to the bookstore to get your works I fell
+in with a book on Garibaldi by a man named Trevelyan. When I got home I
+sat down with it and couldn't let it go. Garibaldi was all the time
+doing things, which you never allow your characters to do because you
+think they would not be real. He was acting in the most romantic and
+heroic manner possible. And his Thousand trooped after him as gayly as
+if they were in a melodrama. And yet I understand that Garibaldi was a
+real person, and that his exploits can be authenticated.
+
+The competition in your line of business is fierce. You try to hold the
+reader's attention to the states of mind of a few futile persons who
+never did anything in particular that would make people want to know
+them exhaustively. And then along comes the historian who tells all
+about some one who does things they are interested in.
+
+You can't wonder at the result. People who ought to be interested in
+fiction are carried away by biography, and the chances are that some of
+them will never come back. When they once get a taste for highly spiced
+intellectual victuals, you can't get them to relish the breakfast food
+you set before them. It seems to them insipid.
+
+I know what you will say about Garibaldi. He was not your kind. You
+wouldn't touch such a character if it was offered to you at a bargain.
+After looking over that expedition to Sicily you would say that there
+was nothing in it for you. The motives weren't complicated enough. It
+was just plain heroics. You don't care so much for passions as for
+problems. You want something to analyze.
+
+Well, what do you say to Cavour? When I was deep in Garibaldi I found I
+couldn't understand what he was driving at without knowing something
+about Cavour who was always mixed up with what was going on in that
+section of the world.
+
+So I took up a Life of Cavour by a man named Thayer. It's the way I
+have; one thing suggests another. Once I went up to Duluth and invested
+in some corner lots on Superior Street. That suggested Superior City,
+just across the river. The two towns were running each other down at a
+great rate just then, so I stopped at West Superior to see what it had
+to say for itself. The upshot of the matter was that I sized up the
+situation about like this. A big city has _got_ to grow up at the head
+of Lake Superior. If Duluth grows as much as it thinks it will, it's
+bound to take in Superior. And if Superior grows as much as it thinks it
+will, it can't help taking in Duluth. So I concluded that the best thing
+for me was to take a flier in both.
+
+When I saw what a big proposition the Unification of Italy was, I knew
+that there was room for the development of some mighty interesting
+characters before they got through with the business. So I plunged into
+the Life of Cavour, and I've never regretted it.
+
+Talk about problems! That hero of yours in your last book--I know you
+don't believe in heroes,--at any rate, the leading man--was an innocent
+child walking with his nurse along Easy Street, when compared with
+Cavour. Cavour had fifty problems at the same time, and all of them were
+insoluble to every one except himself.
+
+His project, as I have just told you, was the unification of Italy. But
+he hadn't any regulated monopoly in the business. A whole bunch of
+unifiers were ahead of him; each one of them was trying to unify Italy
+in his own way. They were all working at cross-purposes.
+
+Now Cavour didn't try, as you might have expected, to reconcile these
+people. He saw that it couldn't be done. He didn't mind their hating one
+another; when they got too peaceable he would make an occasion for them
+to hate him. He kept them all irreconcilably at work, till, in spite of
+themselves, they got to working together. And when they began to do
+that, Cavour would encourage them in it. As long as they were all
+working for Italy he didn't care what they thought of each other or of
+him. He had his eye on the main chance--for Italy.
+
+I notice that in your novel, when your man got into trouble he threw up
+the sponge. That rather turned me against him and I wished I hadn't
+wasted so much time on his affairs. That wasn't the way with Thayer's
+hero. One of the largest deals Cavour ever made was with Napoleon III,
+who at that time had the reputation of being the biggest promoter of
+free institutions in Europe. He was a regular wizard in diplomacy.
+Whatever he said went. You see they hadn't realized then that he was
+doing business on borrowed capital.
+
+Well, Napoleon agreed to underwrite, for Cavour, the whole project of
+Italian Unity. Everybody thought it was going through all right, when
+suddenly Napoleon, from a place called Villafranca, wired that the deal
+was off.
+
+That floored Cavour. He was down and out. He couldn't realize ten cents
+on the dollar on his securities. If he had been like your man, Thayer
+would have had to bring his book to an end with that chapter. He would
+have left the reader plunged in gloom.
+
+Cavour was mad for awhile and went up to Switzerland to cool off. Thayer
+describes the way he went up to a friend's house, near Lake Geneva, with
+his coat on his arm. "Unannounced, he strode into the drawing-room,
+threw himself into an easy-chair, and asked for a glass of iced water."
+
+Then he poured out his wrath over the Villafranca incident, but he
+didn't waste much time over that. In a few moments he was
+enthusiastically telling of the new projects he had formed. "We must not
+look back, but forward," he told his friends. "We have followed one
+road. It is blocked. Very well, we will follow another."
+
+That's the kind of man Cavour was. You forgot that he was a European
+statesman. When you saw him with his coat off, drinking ice-water and
+talking about the future, you felt toward him just as you would toward a
+first-rate American who was of Presidential size.
+
+Now, I'm not saying that there's any more realism to the square inch in
+a Life of Cavour than in a Life of Napoleon III. It would take as much
+labor on the part of a biographer to tell what Napoleon III really was
+as to tell what Cavour really was--perhaps more. But you come up against
+the law of supply and demand. You can't get around that. There isn't
+much inquiry for Napoleon, now that his boom is over.
+
+The way Thayer figured it was, I suppose, something like this. It would
+take eight or ten years to assemble the materials for a first-rate
+biography such as he wished to make. If he chose Napoleon there would be
+steady deterioration in the property, and when the improvements were put
+on there would be no demand. If he put the same work on Cavour, he would
+get the unearned increment. I think he showed his sense.
+
+Of course the biographer has the advantage of you in one important
+particular. He knows how his story is coming out In a way, he's betting
+on a certainty. Now you, as I judge, don't know how your story is coming
+out, and if it doesn't come out, all you have to do is to say that is
+the way you meant it to be. You cut off so many square feet of reality,
+and let it go at that. Now that is very convenient for you, but from the
+reader's point of view, it's unsatisfactory. It mixes him up, and he
+feels a grudge against you whenever he thinks how much better he might
+have spent his time than in following a plot that came to nothing. You
+see you are running up against that same law of supply and demand. There
+are so many failures in the world that the market is overstocked with
+them. There is a demand for successes.
+
+When I was in an old house which I took on the foreclosure of a mortgage
+the other day, I came upon a little old novel, of a hundred years ago.
+It was the sentimental kind that you despise. It was called "Alonzo and
+Melissa," which was enough to condemn it in your eyes. But the preface
+seemed to me to have some sense.
+
+The author says: "It is believed that this story contains no indecorous
+stimulants, nor is it filled with inexplicated incidents imperceptible
+to the understanding. When anxieties have been excited by involved and
+doubtful events, they are afterwards elucidated by their consequences.
+In this the writer believes that he has generally copied Nature."
+
+I have a feeling that those inexplicated incidents in your novel might
+have been elucidated by their consequences if you had chosen a person
+whose actions were of the kind to have some important consequences. In
+tying up to an inconsequential person you lost that chance.
+
+I don't mean to discourage you, because I believe you have it in you to
+make a novel that would be as interesting as half the biographies that
+are written. But you must learn a trick from the successful biographers,
+and not invest in second-rate realities. The best is none too good. You
+have to exercise judgment in your initial investment.
+
+Now, if I were going to build a realistic novel, and had as much skill
+in detail as you have, and as much intellectual capital to invest, I
+would go right down to the business centre, so to speak, and invest in a
+really valuable piece of reality; and then I would develop it. The first
+investment might seem pretty steep, but it would pay in the end. If you
+could get a big man, enthusiastic over a big cause, in conflict with big
+forces, and bring in a lot of worth-while people to back him up, and
+then bring the whole thing to some big conclusion, you would have a
+novel that would be as real as the biographies I have been reading, and
+as interesting. I think it would be worth trying.
+
+Respectfully yours,
+
+R.S. LANDMANN.
+
+P.S. If you don't feel that you can afford to make such a heavy
+investment as I have suggested, why don't you put your material into a
+short story?
+
+
+
+
+TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+
+
+Our talk last night set me to thinking. It was the first time during all
+the years of our acquaintance that I had ever heard you speak in a
+discouraged tone. You have always been healthy to a fault, and your
+good-humor has been contagious. Especially has it been pleasant to hear
+you talk about the country and its Manifest Destiny.
+
+I remember, some years ago, how merrily you used to laugh about the
+"calamity-howler," whose habitat at that time was Kansas. The farmers of
+Kansas were not then as prosperous as they are now. When several bad
+years came together they didn't like it, and began to make complaints.
+Their raucous cries you found very amusing.
+
+The calamity-howler, being ignorant of the laws of political economy and
+of the conditions of progress, did not take his calamities in the spirit
+in which they were offered to him by the rest of the country. He did not
+find satisfaction in the thought that other people were prosperous
+though he was not. Instead of acting reasonably and voting the straight
+ticket from motives of party loyalty, he raised all sorts of irrelevant
+issues. He treated Prosperity as if it were a local issue, instead of a
+plank in the National Platform.
+
+Now, all this was opposed to your good-natured philosophy of progress.
+You were eminently practical, and it was a part of your creed never to
+"go behind the returns." As to Prosperity, it was "first come, first
+served." In this land of opportunity the person who first sees an
+opportunity should take it, asking no questions as to why he came by it.
+It is his by right of discovery.
+
+You were always a great believer in the good old American doctrine of
+Manifest Destiny. This was a big country and destined to grow bigger. To
+you bigness was its own excuse for being. Optimism was as natural as
+breathing. It was manifest destiny that cities and corporations and
+locomotives and armies and navies and national debts and daily
+newspapers, with their Sunday supplements, and bank clearances and
+tariffs and insurance companies and the price of living should go up. It
+was all according to a beautiful natural law, "as fire ascending seeks
+the sun." Besides these things, it was manifest destiny that other
+things not so good should grow bigger also,--graft and slums and foolish
+luxury. They were all involved in the increasing bigness of things.
+
+Sometimes you would grumble about them, but in a good-natured way, as
+one who recognized their inevitability. Just as you said, boys will be
+boys, so you said, politicians will be politicians, and business is
+business. If one is living in a growing country he must not begrudge the
+cost of the incidentals.
+
+In your talk there was a cheerful cynicism which amazed the
+slower-witted foreigner. You talked of the pickings and stealings of
+your elected officers as you would of the pranks of a precocious
+youngster. It was all a part of the day's growth. Yet you were really
+public-spirited. You would have sprung to arms in a moment if you had
+thought that your country was in danger or that its institutions were
+being undermined.
+
+Your good-natured tolerance was a part of your philosophy of life. It
+was bound up in your triumphant Americanism. You were a hero-worshipper,
+and you delighted in "big men." The big men who gained the prizes were
+efficient and unscrupulous and unassuming; that is, they never assumed
+to be better than their neighbors. They looked ahead, they saw how
+things were going, and went with them. And on the whole, things, you
+believed, were going well. Though they were not scrupulously just, these
+big men were generous, and were willing to give away what they had
+acquired. Though grasping, they were not avaricious. They grasped things
+with the strong prehensile grasp of the infant, rather than with the
+clutch of the miser. They took them because they were there, and not
+because they had any well-defined idea as to whether they belonged to
+them or not.
+
+These big men were very likable. They were engrossed in big projects,
+and they were doing necessary work in the development of the country.
+They naturally took the easiest and most direct methods to get at
+results. They would not go out of the way to corrupt a legislature any
+more than they would go out of the way to find a range of mountains. But
+if the mountain stood in the way of the railroad, they would go through
+it regardless of expense. If the legislature was in their way, they
+would deal with it as best they could. They were willing to pay what it
+cost to accomplish a purpose which they believed was good.
+
+Their attitude toward the Public was one which you did not criticize,
+for it seemed to you to be reasonable. The Public was an abstraction,
+like Nature. We are all under the laws of Nature. But Nature doesn't
+mind whether we consciously obey or not. She goes her way, and we go
+ours. We get all she will let us have. So with the Public. The Public
+was not regarded as a person or as an aggregate of persons, it was the
+potentiality of wealth. They never thought of the Public as being
+starved or stunted, or even as being seriously inconvenienced because of
+what they took from it, any more than they thought of Nature being the
+poorer because of the electricity which they induced to run along their
+wires. A public franchise was a plum growing on a convenient tree. A
+wise man would wait till it was ripe and then, when no one was looking,
+would pick it for himself The whole transaction was a trial of wits
+between rival pickers. A special privilege, according to this view,
+involved no special obligations; it was a reward for special abilities.
+Once given, it was property to be enjoyed in perpetuity.
+
+This was the code of ethics which you, in common with multitudes of
+American citizens, accepted. You have yourself prospered. Indeed, things
+had gone so well with you in this best of all countries that any
+fundamental change seemed unthinkable.
+
+But that a change has come seems evident from your conversation last
+night. All that fine optimism which your friends have admired seemed to
+have deserted you. There was a querulous note which was strangely out of
+keeping with your usual disposition. It was what you have been
+accustomed to stigmatize as un-American. When you discussed the present
+state of the country, you talked--you will pardon me for saying it--for
+all the world like a calamity-howler.
+
+The country, you said, is in a bad way, and it must be awakened from its
+lethargy. After a period of unexampled prosperity and marvelous
+development, something has happened. Just what it is you don't really
+know, but it's very alarming. Instead of working together for
+Prosperity, the people are listening to demagogues, and trying all sorts
+of experiments, half of which you are sure are unconstitutional. The
+captains of industry who have made this the biggest country in the world
+are thwarted in their plans for further expansion.
+
+There are people who are criticizing the courts, and there are courts
+which are criticizing business enterprises that they don't understand.
+There are so-called experts--mere college professors--who are tinkering
+the tariff. There are over-zealous executives who are currying favor
+with the crowd by enforcing laws which are well enough on the statute
+books, but which were never meant to go further. As if matters were not
+bad enough already, there are demagogues who are stirring up class
+feeling by proposing new laws. Party loyalty is being undermined, and
+the new generation doesn't half understand the great issues which have
+been settled for all time. It is rashly interested in new issues. For
+the life of you, you say, you can't understand what these issues are.
+
+New and divisive questions which lead only to faction are propounded so
+that the voters are confused. The great principle of Representative
+Government, on which the Republic was founded, is being attacked.
+Instead of choosing experienced men to direct public policy, there is an
+appeal to the passions of the mob. The result of all this agitation is
+an unsettlement that paralyzes business. The United States is in danger
+of losing the race for commercial supremacy. Germany will forge ahead of
+us. Japan will catch us. Socialism and the Yellow Peril will be upon us.
+The Man on Horseback will appear, and what shall we do then?
+
+I did not understand whether you looked for these perils to come
+together, or whether they were to appear in orderly succession. But I
+came to the conclusion that either the country is in a bad way, or you
+are. You will pardon me if I choose the latter alternative, for I too am
+an optimistic American, and I like to choose the lesser of two evils. If
+there is an attack of "hysteria," I should like to think of it as
+somewhat localized, rather than having suddenly attacked the whole
+country.
+
+Now, my opinion is that the American people were never minding their own
+business more good-humoredly and imperturbably than at the present
+moment. They have been slowly and silently making up their minds, and
+now they are beginning to express a deliberate judgment. What you take
+to be the noise of demagogues, I consider to be the sober sense of a
+great people which is just finding adequate expression.
+
+You seem to be afraid of an impending revolution, and picture it as a
+sort of French Revolution, a destructive overturn of all existing
+institutions. But may not the revolution which we are passing through be
+something different,--a great American revolution, which is being
+carried through in the characteristic American fashion?
+
+Walt Whitman expresses the great characteristic of American history:
+"Here is what moves in magnificent masses careless of particulars."
+
+It is this mass movement, slow at first, but swift and irresistible when
+the mass has come to consciousness of its own tendency, which has always
+confounded astute persons who have been interested only in particulars.
+It is a movement like that of the Mississippi at flood-time. The great
+river flows within its banks as long as it can. But the time comes when
+the barriers are too frail to hold back the mighty waters. Then the
+river makes, very quickly, a channel for itself. You cannot understand
+what has happened till you take into account the magnitude of the river
+itself.
+
+Now, the successful man of affairs, who has been intent on the incidents
+of the passing day, is often strangely oblivious of the mass movements.
+You, for example, are disturbed by the unrest which is manifest, and you
+look for some one whom you can blame for the disturbance. But perhaps no
+one is to blame.
+
+I think that what is happening may be traced to a sufficient cause. We
+are approaching the end of one great era in American history and we are
+preparing, as best we may, for a new era. The consciousness of the
+magnitude of the change has come to us rather suddenly. One big job
+which has absorbed the energies and stimulated the ambition of Americans
+for three hundred years is practically finished. Some work still remains
+to be done on it, but it no longer demands the highest ability. The end
+is in sight.
+
+This work has been the settlement of a vast territory, lying between the
+Atlantic and Pacific, with a population of white men. It was a task so
+big in itself that it fired the imagination and developed that peculiar
+type of character which we call American. In its outlines the task was
+so broad and simple that it could be comprehended by the most ordinary
+intelligence. It was so inevitable that it impressed upon all those
+engaged in it the belief in Manifest Destiny.
+
+What has been treated by incompetent critics as mere boastfulness has
+in reality been practical sagacity and foresight. Sam Slick was only
+expressing a truth when he said, "The Yankees see further than most
+folks." This was not because of any innate cleverness but because of
+their advantage in position. Americans have had a more unobstructed view
+of the future than had the people of the overcrowded Old World. The
+settlers on the shores of the Atlantic had behind them a region which
+belonged to them and their children. They soon became aware of the
+riches of this hinterland and of its meaning for the future. This vast
+region must be settled. Roads must be built over the mountains, the
+forests must be felled, mines must be opened up, farms must be brought
+under the plow, great cities must be built by the rivers and lakes,
+there must be schools and churches and markets established where now the
+tribes of Indians roam. The surplus millions of Europe must be
+transported to this wilderness.
+
+It was a big task and yet a simple one. The movement was as obvious as
+that of Niagara--Niagara is wonderful but inevitable. A great deal of
+water flowing over a great deal of rock, that is all there is of it. The
+destiny of America was equally obvious from the beginning. Here was a
+great deal of land which was destined to be inhabited by a great many
+people. It didn't matter very much what kind of people they were so that
+they were healthy and industrious. The greatness of the country was
+assured if only there were enough of them.
+
+From the very first the future greatness of the land was seen by
+open-eyed explorers. They all were able to appreciate it. Captain John
+Smith does not compare Virginia with Great Britain; he compares it to
+the whole of Europe. After mentioning the natural resources of each
+country, he declares that the new land had all these and more, and
+needed only men to develop them. And Captain John Smith's forecast has
+proved to be correct.
+
+In the first half of the last century, a party of twenty young men from
+Cambridge, Massachusetts, started on what at that time was a great
+adventure, the overland journey to Oregon. The preface to Wyeth's
+"Oregon Expedition" throws light on the ideas of those who were not
+statesmen or captains of industry, but only plain American citizens
+sharing the vision which was common.
+
+"The spot where our adventurer was born and grew up had many peculiar
+and desirable advantages over most others in the County of Middlesex.
+Besides rich pasturage, numerous dairies, and profitable orchards, it
+possessed the luxuries of well-cultivated gardens of all sorts of
+culinary vegetables, and all within three miles of Boston Market House,
+and two miles of the largest live-cattle market in New England." Besides
+these blessings there is enumerated "a body of water commonly called
+Fresh Pond."
+
+"But Mr. Wyeth said, 'All this availeth me nothing, so long as I read
+books in which I find that by going only about four thousand miles
+overland, from the shore of our Atlantic to the shore of the Pacific,
+after we have there entrapped and killed the beavers and otters, we
+shall be able, after building vessels for the purpose, to carry our most
+valuable peltry to China and Cochin China, our sealskins to Japan, and
+our superfluous grain to various Asiatic ports, and lumber to the
+Spanish settlements on the Pacific; and to become rich by underworking
+and underselling the people of Hindustan; and, to crown all, to extend
+far and wide the traffic in oil, by killing tame whales on the spot,
+instead of sailing around the stormy region of Cape Horn.'
+
+"All these advantages and more were suggested to divers discontented and
+impatient young men. Talk to them of the great labor, toil, risk, and
+they would turn a deaf ear to you; argue with them and you might as well
+reason with a snowstorm."
+
+If you would understand the driving power of America, you must
+understand "the divers discontented and impatient young men" who in each
+generation have found in the American wilderness an outlet for their
+energies. In the rough contacts with untamed Nature they learned to be
+resourceful. Emerson declared that the country went on most
+satisfactorily, not when it was in the hands of the respectable Whigs,
+but when in the hands of "these rough riders--legislators in
+shirt-sleeves--Hoosier, Sucker, Wolverine, Badger--or whatever hard-head
+Arkansas, Oregon, or Utah sends, half-orator, half-assassin, to
+represent its wrath and cupidity at Washington."
+
+The men who made America had an "excess of virility." "Men of this
+surcharge of arterial blood cannot live on nuts, herb-tea, and elegies;
+cannot read novels and play whist; cannot satisfy all their wants at the
+Thursday Lecture and the Boston Athenæum. They pine for adventure and
+must go to Pike's Peak; had rather die by the hatchet of the Pawnee than
+sit all day and every day at the counting-room desk. They are made for
+war, for the sea, for mining, hunting, and clearing, and the joy of
+eventful living."
+
+In Emerson's day there was ample scope for all these varied energies on
+the frontier. "There are Oregons, Californias, and Exploring Expeditions
+enough appertaining to America to find them in files to gnaw and
+crocodiles to eat."
+
+But it must have occurred to some one to ask, "What will happen when the
+Oregons and Californias are filled up?" Well, the answer is, "See what
+is happening now." Instead of settling down to herb-tea and elegies,
+Young America, having finished one big job, is looking for another. The
+noises which disturb you are not the cries of an angry proletariat, but
+are the shouts of eager young fellows who are finding new opportunities.
+They have the same desire to do big things, the same joy in eventful
+living, that you had thirty years ago. Only the tasks that challenge
+them have taken a different form.
+
+When you hear the words "Conservation," "Social Service," "Social
+Justice," and the like, you are apt to dismiss them as mere fads. You
+think of the catchwords of ineffective reformers whom you have known
+from your youth. But the fact is that they represent to-day the
+enthusiasms of a new generation. They are big things, with big men
+behind them. They represent the Oregons and Californias toward which
+sturdy pioneers are moving, undeterred by obstacles.
+
+The live questions to-day concern not the material so much as the moral
+development of the nation. For it is seen that the future welfare of the
+people depends on the creation of a finer type of civic life. Is this
+still to be a land of opportunity? Ninety millions of people are already
+here. What shall be done with the next ninety millions? That wealth is
+to increase goes without saying. But how is it to be distributed? Are we
+tending to a Plutocracy, or can a real Democracy hold its own? Powerful
+machinery has been invented. How can this machinery be controlled and
+used for truly human ends? We have learned the economies that result
+from organization. Who is to get the benefit of these economies?
+
+So long as such questions were merely academic, practical persons like
+yourself paid little attention to them. Now they are being asked by
+persons as practical as yourself who are intent on 'getting results.'
+And what is more, they employ the instruments of precision furnished by
+modern science.
+
+You have been pleased over the millions of dollars which have been
+lavished on education. The fruits of this are now being seen. Hosts of
+able young men have been studying Government and Sociology and Economics
+and History. These have been the most popular courses in all our
+colleges. And they have been studied in a new way. The old formulas and
+the old methods have been fearlessly criticized. New standards of
+efficiency have been presented. The scientific method has been extended
+to the sphere of moral relations. It has been demonstrated to these
+young men that the resources of the country may be indefinitely
+increased by the continuous application of trained intelligence to
+definite ends. The old Malthusian doctrine has given way before applied
+science. The population may be doubled and the standard of living
+increased at the same time, if we plan intelligently. The expert can
+serve the public as efficiently as he has served private interests, if
+only the public can be educated to appreciate him, and persuaded to
+employ him.
+
+This is what the "social unrest" means in America. It is not the unrest
+of the weak and the unsuccessful. It is the unrest of the strong and
+ambitious. You cannot still it by talking about prosperity: of course we
+are prosperous, after a fashion, but it is a fashion that no longer
+pleases us. We want something better and we propose to get it. What
+disturbs you is the appearance in force of a generation that has turned
+its attention to a new set of problems, and is attempting to solve them
+by scientific methods. It is believed that there is a Science of
+Government as well as an Art of Politics. The new generation has a
+respect, born of experience, for the expert. It seeks the man who knows
+rather than the clever manager. It demands of public servants not simply
+that they be honest, but that they be efficient.
+
+Its attitude to the political boss is decidedly less respectful than
+that to which you were accustomed. You looked upon him as a remarkably
+astute character, and you attributed to him an uncanny ability to
+forecast the future. These young men have discovered that his ability is
+only a vulgar error. Remove the conditions created by public
+indifference and ignorance, and he vanishes. In restoring power to the
+people, they find that a hundred useful things can be done which the
+political wiseacres declared to be impossible.
+
+When I consider the new and vigorous forces in American life I cannot
+agree with your apprehensions; but there is one thing which you said
+with which I heartily agree. You said that you wished we might settle
+down to sound and constructive work, and get rid of the "muck-raker."
+
+I agree with you that the muck-raker stands in the way of large plans
+for betterment. But it might be well to refresh our minds in regard to
+what is really meant by the man with the muck-rake. He is not the man
+who draws our attention to abuses which can be abolished by determined
+effort. He is the man who apologizes for abuses that are profitable to
+himself. He prefers his petty interests to any ideal good. His character
+was most admirably drawn by Bunyan:--
+
+"The Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room
+where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck-rake
+in his hand. There stood also one over his head with a celestial crown
+in His hand, and proffered him that crown for his muck-rake, but the man
+did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the
+small sticks, and the dust of the floor.
+
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'I persuade myself that I know somewhat the
+meaning of this; for this is the figure of a man of this world, is it
+not, good sir?'
+
+"'Thou hast said right,' said he....
+
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'O deliver me from this muck-rake.'
+
+"'That prayer,' said the Interpreter, 'has lain by till it is almost
+rusty. "Give me not riches," is scarce the prayer of one in ten
+thousand.'"
+
+The man with the muck-rake, then, is one who can look no way but
+downward, and is so intent on collecting riches for himself that he does
+not see or regard any higher interests. I agree with you that if we are
+to have any constructive work in American society the first thing is to
+get rid of the man with the muck-rake, and to put in his place the Man
+with a Vision.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
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+THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET
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+Being some familiar correspondence of PETER HARDING, M.D.
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+ROUTINE AND IDEALS
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+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of
+    Humanly Speaking,
+    by Samuel M. Crothers.
+</title>
+<style type="text/css">
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Humanly Speaking, by Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+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: Humanly Speaking
+
+Author: Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2005 [EBook #15866]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMANLY SPEAKING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
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+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h1>
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+</h1>
+<h2>
+BY SAMUEL McCHORD CROTHERS
+</h2>
+<br/>
+<hr>
+<br/>
+<h5>
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK <br/>
+<b>
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+</b></h5>
+<h5>
+MDCCCCXII
+<br/>
+COPYRIGHT, 1912.<br/>
+<br/>
+ BY SAMUEL MCCHORD CROTHERS
+<br/>
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+<br/>
+<br/>
+<i>Published November 1912</i>
+</h5>
+<hr>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<hr>
+<h3><b>
+By Samuel M. Crothers
+</b></h3>
+<center>
+HUMANLY SPEAKING. <br/>
+AMONG FRIENDS.<br/>
+BY THE CHRISTMAS FIRE.<br/>
+THE PARDONER'S WALLET.<br/>
+THE ENDLESS LIFE.<br/>
+THE GENTLE READER.<br/>
+OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: THE AUTOCRAT AND HIS FELLOW BOARDERS.<br/> With Portrait.<br/>
+MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY.<br/> Illustrated.
+</center>
+<center>
+<b>HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br/>
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK</b>
+</center>
+<hr>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<p><b>Contents</b></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0001">
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0002">
+IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0003">
+THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0004">
+THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0005">
+THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0006">
+THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0007">
+THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0008">
+THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0009">
+ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+</a></p>
+<p class="toc"><a href="#2H_4_0010">
+TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+</a></p>
+
+<hr>
+<br>
+<p>
+The author wishes to express his thanks to the Editors of the
+<i>Atlantic Monthly</i> and the <i>Century Magazine</i> for their courtesy in
+permitting the publication in this volume of certain essays which have
+appeared in their magazines.
+</p>
+<hr>
+
+
+<a name="2H_4_0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    HUMANLY SPEAKING
+</h2>
+<p>
+"Humanly speaking, it is impossible." So the old theologian would say
+when denying any escape from his own argument. His logical machine was
+going at full speed, and the grim engineer had no notion of putting on
+the brakes. His was a non-stop train and there was to be no
+slowing-down till he reached the terminus.
+</p>
+<p>
+But in the middle of the track was an indubitable fact. By all the
+rules of argumentation it had no business to be there, trespassing on
+the right of way. But there it was! We trembled to think of the
+impending collision.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the collision between the argument and the fact never happened.
+The "humanly speaking" was the switch that turned the argument safely
+on a parallel track, where it went whizzing by the fact without the
+least injury to either. Many things which are humanly speaking
+impossible are of the most common occurrence and the theologian knew
+it.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is only by the use of this saving clause that one may safely
+moralize or generalize or indulge in the mildest form of prediction.
+Strictly speaking, no one has a right to express any opinion about
+such complex and incomprehensible aggregations of humanity as the
+United States of America or the British Empire. Humanly speaking, they
+both are impossible. Antecedently to experience the Constitution of
+Utopia as expounded by Sir Thomas More would be much more probable. It
+has a certain rational coherence. If it existed at all it would hang
+together, being made out of whole cloth. But how does the British
+Empire hold together? It seems to be made of shreds and patches. It is
+full of anomalies and temporary makeshifts. Why millions of people,
+who do not know each other, should be willing to die rather than to be
+separated from each other, is something not easily explained.
+Nevertheless the British Empire exists, and, through all the changes
+which threaten it, grows in strength.
+</p>
+<p>
+The perils that threaten the United States of America are so obvious
+that anybody can see them. So far as one can see, the Republic ought
+to have been destroyed long ago by political corruption, race
+prejudice, unrestricted immigration and the growth of monopolies. The
+only way to account for its present existence is that there is
+something about it that is not so easily seen. Disease is often more
+easily diagnosed than health. But we should remember that the Republic
+is not out of danger. It is a very salutary thing to bring its perils
+to the attention of the too easy-going citizens. It is well to have a
+Jeremiah, now and then, to speak unwelcome truths.
+</p>
+<p>
+But even Jeremiah, when he was denouncing the evils that would befall
+his country, had a saving clause in his gloomy predictions. All manner
+of evils would befall them unless they repented, and humanly speaking
+he was of the opinion that they couldn't repent. Said he: "Can the
+Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also
+do good that are accustomed to do evil." Nevertheless this did not
+prevent him from continually exhorting them to do good, and blaming
+them when they didn't do it. Like all great moral teachers he acted on
+the assumption that there is more freedom of will than seemed
+theoretically possible. It was the same way with his views of
+national affairs. Jeremiah's reputation is that of a pessimist. Still,
+when the country was in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and he was in
+prison for predicting it, he bought a piece of real estate which was
+in the hands of the enemy. He considered it a good investment. "I
+subscribed the deed and sealed it, and called witnesses and weighed
+him the money in the balances." Then he put the deeds in an earthen
+vessel, "that they may continue many days." For in spite of the panic
+that his own words had caused, he believed that the market would come
+up again. "Houses and vineyards shall yet be bought in this land." If
+I were an archæologist with a free hand, I should like to dig in that
+field in Anathoth in the hope of finding the earthen jar with the deed
+which Hanameel gave to his cousin Jeremiah, for a plot of ground that
+nobody else would buy.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is the moralists and the reformers who have after all the most
+cheerful message for us. They are all the time threatening us, yet for
+our own good. They see us plunging heedlessly to destruction. They
+cry, "Look out!" They often do not themselves see the way out, but
+they have a well-founded hope that we will discover a way when our
+attention is called to an imminent danger. The fact that the race has
+survived thus far is an evidence that its instinct for
+self-preservation is a strong one. It has a wonderful gift for
+recovering after the doctors have given it up.
+</p>
+<p>
+The saving clause is a great help to those idealists who are inclined
+to look unwelcome facts in the face. It enables them to retain faith
+in their ideals, and at the same time to hold on to their intellectual
+self-respect.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are idealists of another sort who know nothing of their
+struggles and self-contradictions. Having formed their ideal of what
+ought to be, they identify it with what is. For them belief in the
+existence of good is equivalent to the obliteration of evil. Their
+world is equally good in all its parts, and is to be viewed in all its
+aspects with serene complacency.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now this is very pleasant for a time, especially if one is tired and
+needs a complete rest. But after a while it becomes irksome, and one
+longs for a change, even if it should be for the worse. We are
+floating on a sea of beneficence, in which it is impossible for us to
+sink. But though one could not easily drown in the Dead Sea, one
+might starve. And when goodness is of too great specific gravity it
+is impossible to get on in it or out of it. This is disconcerting to
+one of an active disposition. It is comforting to be told that
+everything is completely good, till you reflect that that is only
+another way of saying that nothing can be made any better, and that
+there is no use for you to try.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now the idealist of the sterner sort insists on criticizing the
+existing world. He refuses to call good evil or evil good. The two
+things are, in his judgment, quite different. He recognizes the
+existence of good, but he also recognizes the fact that there is not
+enough of it. This he looks upon as a great evil which ought to be
+remedied. And he is glad that he is alive at this particular juncture,
+in a world in which there is yet room for improvement.
+</p>
+<p>
+Besides the ordinary Christian virtues I would recommend to any one,
+who would fit himself to live happily as well as efficiently, the
+cultivation of that auxiliary virtue or grace which Horace Walpole
+called "Serendipity." Walpole defined it in a letter to Sir Horace
+Mann: "It is a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better
+to tell you, I shall endeavor to explain to you; you will understand
+it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a
+silly fairy tale called 'The Three Princes of Serendip.' As their
+Highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents
+and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.... Now do you
+understand <i>Serendipity</i>?" In case the reader does not understand,
+Walpole goes on to define "Serendipity" as "accidental sagacity (for
+you must know that no discovery you <i>are</i> looking for comes under this
+description)."
+</p>
+<p>
+I am inclined to think that in such a world as this, where our hold on
+all good is precarious, a man should be on the lookout for dangers.
+Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for all that is worth having.
+But when, prepared for the worst, he goes forward, his journey will be
+more pleasant if he has also a "serendipitaceous" mind. He will then,
+by a sort of accidental sagacity, discover that what he encounters is
+much less formidable than what he feared. Half of his enemies turn out
+to be friends in disguise, and half of the other half retire at his
+approach. After a while such words as "impracticable" and
+"impossible" lose their absoluteness and become only synonyms for the
+relatively difficult. He has so often found a way out, where humanly
+speaking there was none, that he no longer looks upon a logical
+dilemma as a final negation of effort.
+</p>
+<p>
+The following essays were written partly at home and partly abroad.
+They therefore betray the influence of some of the mass movements of
+the day. Anyone with even a little leisure from his own personal
+affairs must realize that we are living in one of the most stirring
+times in human history. Everywhere the old order is changing.
+Everywhere there are confused currents both of thought and feeling.
+</p>
+<p>
+That the old order is passing is obvious enough. That a new order is
+arising, and that it is on the whole beneficent, is not merely a pious
+hope. It is more than this: it is a matter of observation to any one
+with a moderate degree of "Serendipity."
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+</h2>
+<p>
+It sometimes happens that a business man who is in reality solvent
+becomes temporarily embarrassed. His assets are greater than his
+liabilities, but they are not quick enough to meet the situation. The
+liabilities have become mutinous and bear down upon him in a
+threatening mob. If he had time to deal with them one by one, all
+would be well; but he cannot on the instant mobilize his forces.
+</p>
+<p>
+Under such circumstances the law allows him to surrender, not to the
+mob, but to a friendly power which shall protect the interests of all
+concerned. He goes into the hands of a receiver, who will straighten
+out his affairs for him. I can imagine the relief which would come to
+one who could thus get rid, for a while, of his harassing
+responsibilities, and let some one else do the worrying.
+</p>
+<p>
+In these days some of the best people I know are in this predicament
+in regard to their moral and social affairs. These friends of mine
+have this peculiarity, that they are anxious to do their duty. Now, in
+all generations, there have been persons who did their duty, according
+to their lights. But in these days it happens that a new set of lights
+has been turned on suddenly, and we all see more duties than we had
+bargained for. In the glare we see an army of creditors, each with an
+overdue bill in hand. Each demands immediate payment, and shakes his
+head when we suggest that he call again next week. We realize that our
+moral cash in hand is not sufficient for the crisis. If all our
+obligations must be met at once, there will be a panic in which most
+of our securities will be sacrificed.
+</p>
+<p>
+We are accustomed to grumble over the increase in the cost of living.
+But the enhancement of price in the necessities of physical life is
+nothing compared to the increase in the cost of the higher life.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are those now living who can remember when almost any one could
+have the satisfaction of being considered a good citizen and neighbor.
+All one had to do was to attend to one's own affairs and keep within
+the law. He would then be respected by all, and would deserve the
+most eulogistic epitaph when he came to die. By working for private
+profit he could have the satisfaction of knowing that all sorts of
+public benefits came as by-products of his activity.
+</p>
+<p>
+But now all such satisfactions are denied. To be a good citizen you
+must put your mind on the job, and it is no easy one. You must be up
+and doing. And when you are doing one good thing there will be
+keen-eyed critics who will ask why you have not been doing other
+things which are much more important; and they will sternly demand of
+you, "What do you mean by such criminal negligence?"
+</p>
+<p>
+What we call the awakening of the social conscience marks an important
+step in progress, But, like all progress, it involves hardship to
+individuals. For the higher moral classes, the saints and the
+reformers, it is the occasion of wholehearted rejoicing. It is just
+what they have, all the while, been trying to bring about. But I
+confess to a sympathy for the middle class, morally considered, the
+plain people, who feel the pinch. They have invested their little all
+in the old-fashioned securities, and when these are depreciated
+they feel that there is nothing to keep the wolf from the door. After
+reading a few searching articles in the magazines they feel that, so
+far from being excellent citizens, they are little better than enemies
+of society. I am not pleading for the predatory rich, but only for the
+well-meaning persons in moderately comfortable circumstances, whose
+predatoriness has been suddenly revealed to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Many of the most conscientious persons go about with an habitually
+apologetic manner. They are rapidly acquiring the evasive air of the
+conscious criminal. It is only a very hardened philanthropist, or an
+unsophisticated beginner in good works, who can look a sociologist in
+the eye. Most persons, when they do one thing, begin to apologize for
+not doing something else. They are like a one-track railroad that has
+been congested with traffic. They are not sure which train has the
+right of way, and which should go on the siding. Progress is a series
+of rear-end collisions.
+</p>
+<p>
+There is little opportunity for self-satisfaction. The old-fashioned
+private virtues which used to be exhibited with such innocent pride as
+family heirlooms are now scrutinized with suspicion. They are
+subjected to rigid tests to determine their value as public utilities.
+</p>
+<p>
+Perhaps I may best illustrate the need of some receivership by drawing
+attention to the case of my friend the Reverend Augustus Bagster.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bagster is not by nature a spiritual genius; he is only a modern man
+who is sincerely desirous of doing what is expected of him. I do not
+think that he is capable of inventing a duty, but he is morally
+impressionable, and recognizes one when it is pointed out to him. A
+generation ago such a man would have lived a useful and untroubled
+life in a round of parish duties. He would have been placidly
+contented with himself and his achievements. But when he came to a
+city pulpit he heard the Call of the Modern. The multitudinous life
+around him must be translated into immediate action. His conscience
+was not merely awakened: it soon reached a state of persistent
+insomnia.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he told me that he had preached a sermon on the text, "Let him
+that stole steal no more," I was interested. But shortly after, he
+told me that he could not let go of that text. It was a live wire. He
+had expanded the sermon into a course on the different kinds of
+stealing. He found few things that did not come under the category of
+Theft. Spiritual goods as well as material might be stolen. If a
+person possessed a cheerful disposition, you should ask, "How did he
+get it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It seems to me," I said, "that a cheerful disposition is one of the
+things where possession is nine tenths of the law. I don't like to
+think of such spiritual wealth as ill-gotten."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am sorry," said Bagster, "to see that your sympathies are with the
+privileged classes."
+</p>
+<p>
+Several weeks ago I received a letter which revealed his state of
+mind:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"I believe that you are acquainted with the Editor of the 'Atlantic
+Monthly.' I suppose he means well, but persons in his situation are
+likely to cater to mere literature. I hope that I am not uncharitable,
+but I have a suspicion that our poets yield sometimes to the desire to
+please. They are perhaps unconscious of the subtle temptation. They
+are not sufficiently direct and specific in their charges. I have been
+reading Walt Whitman's 'Song of Joys.' The subject does not attract
+me, but I like the way in which it is treated. There is no beating
+around the bush. The poet is perfectly fearless, and will not let any
+guilty man escape.
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">    "'O the farmer's joys! </p>
+<p class="i2">   Ohioans, Illinoisans, Wisconsonese, Kanadians,</p>
+<p class="i2">   Iowans, Kansans, Oregonese joys.'</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>
+"That is the way one should write if he expects
+to get results. He should point to each individual
+and say, 'Thou art the man.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am no poet,&mdash;though I am painfully conscious
+that I ought to be one,&mdash;but I have written
+what I call, 'The Song of Obligations.' I
+think it may arouse the public. In such matters
+we ought to unite as good citizens. You might
+perhaps drop a postal card, just to show where
+you stand."
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i8"><b>THE SONG OF OBLIGATIONS</b></p><br/>
+<p class="i5">"O the citizen's obligations.</p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">The obligation of every American citizen
+     to see that every other  American citizen does his duty,
+     and to be quick about it. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">The janitor's duties, the Board of Health's duties, the milkman's duties,
+     resting upon each one of us individually with the accumulated weight of every
+     cubic foot of vitiated air, and multiplied by the number of bacteria in every cubic centimeter of
+     milk. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5"> The motorman's duties, and the duty of every spry citizen
+     not to allow himself to be run over by the motorman. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">  The obligation of teachers in the public schools to supply <br/>
+     their pupils with all the aptitudes and graces
+     formerly supposed to be the result of heredity and
+     environment.  </p> <br/>
+
+<p class="i5"> The duty of each teacher to consult daily a card catalogue
+     of duties, beginning with Apperception and
+     Adenoids and going on to Vaccination, Ventilation,
+     and the various vivacious variations on the
+     three R's.  </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">The obligation resting upon every citizen to write to
+     his Congressman.</p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">  The obligation to speak to one's neighbor who may
+     think he is living a moral life, and who yet
+     has never written to his Congressman. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5"> The obligation to protest against the habit of employees
+     at the State House of professing ignorance
+     of the location of the committee-room where
+     the hearings are to be held; also to protest against
+     the habit of postponing the hearings after one has
+     at great personal inconvenience come to the State
+     House in order to protest. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5"> The duty of doing your Christmas shopping early
+     enough in July to allow the shop-girls to enjoy
+     their summer vacation. </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5"> The duty of knowing what you are talking about, and
+     of talking about all the things you ought to know
+     about.  </p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">The obligation of feeling that it is a joy and a privilege
+     to live in a country where eternal vigilance is
+     the price of liberty, and where even if you have
+     the price you don't get all the liberty you pay for." </p><br/>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+I was a little troubled over this effusion, as it seemed to indicate
+that Bagster had reached the limit of elasticity. A few days later I
+received a letter asking me to call upon him. I found him in a state
+of uncertainty over his own condition.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I want you," he said, "to listen to the report my stenographer has
+handed me, of an address which I gave day before yesterday. I have
+been doing some of my most faithful work recently, going from one
+meeting to another and helping in every good cause. But at this
+meeting I had a rare sensation of freedom of utterance. I had the
+sense of liberation from the trammels of time and space. It was a
+realization of moral ubiquity. All the audiences I had been addressing
+seemed to flow together into one audience, and all the good causes
+into one good cause. Incidentally I seemed to have solved the Social
+Question. But now that I have the stenographic report I am not so
+certain."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Read it," I said.
+</p>
+<p>
+He began to read, but the confidence of his pulpit tone, which was one
+of the secrets of his power, would now and then desert him, and he
+would look up to me as if waiting for an encouraging "Amen."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your secretary, when she called me up by telephone, explained to me
+the object of your meeting. It is an object with which I deeply
+sympathize. It is Rest. You stand for the idea of poise and
+tranquillity of spirit. You would have a place for tranquil
+meditation. The thought I would bring to you this afternoon is this:
+We are here not to be doing, but to be.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But of course the thought at once occurs to us, How can we <i>be</i>
+considering the high cost of the necessaries of life? It will be seen
+at once that the question is at bottom an economic one. You must have
+a living wage, and how can there be a living wage unless we admit the
+principle of collective bargaining. It is because I believe in the
+principle of collective bargaining that I have come here to-night to
+say to you working-men that I believe this strike is justifiable.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must leave to other speakers many interesting aspects of this
+subject, and confine myself to the aspect which the committee asked me
+to consider more in detail, namely, Juvenile Delinquency in its
+relation to Foreign Immigration. The relation is a real one.
+Statistics prove that among immigrants the proportion of the juvenile
+element is greater than among the native-born. This increase in
+juvenility gives opportunity for juvenile delinquency from which many
+of our American communities might otherwise be free. But is the remedy
+to be found in the restriction of immigration? My opinion is that the
+remedy is to be found only in education.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is our interest in education that has brought us together on this
+bright June morning. Your teacher tells me that this is the largest
+class that has ever graduated from this High School, You may well be
+proud. Make your education practical. Learn to concentrate, that is
+the secret of success. There are those who will tell you to
+concentrate on a single point. I would go even further. Concentrate on
+every point.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I admit, as the gentleman who has preceded me has pointed out, that
+concentration in cities is a great evil. It is an evil that should be
+counteracted. As I was saying last evening to the Colonial
+Dames,&mdash;Washington, if he had done nothing else, would be remembered
+to-day as the founder of the Order of the Cincinnati. The figure of
+Cincinnatus at the plough appeals powerfully to American manhood. Many
+a time in after years Cincinnatus wished that he had never left that
+plough. Often amid the din of battle he heard the voice saying to him,
+'Back to the Land!'
+</p>
+<p>
+"It was the same voice I seemed to hear when I received the letter of
+your secretary asking me to address this grange. As I left the smoke
+of the city behind me and looked up at your granite hills, I said,
+'Here is where they make men!' As I have been partaking of the
+bountiful repast prepared by the ladies of the grange, your chairman
+has been telling me something about this community. It is a grand
+community to live in. Here are no swollen fortunes; here industry,
+frugality, and temperance reign. These are the qualities which have
+given New England its great place in the councils of the nation. I
+know there are those who say that it is the tariff that has given it
+that place; but they do not know New England. There are those at this
+table who can remember the time when eighty-two ruddy-cheeked boys and
+girls trooped merrily to the little red schoolhouse under the hill. In
+the light of such facts as these, who can be a pessimist?
+</p>
+<p>
+"But I must not dwell upon the past; the Boy Scouts of America prepare
+for the future. I am reminded that I am not at this moment addressing
+the Boy Scouts of America,&mdash;they come to-morrow at the same hour,&mdash;but
+the principle is the same. Even as the Boy Scouts of America look only
+at the future, so do you. We must not linger fondly on the days when
+cows grazed on Boston Common. The purpose of this society is to save
+Boston Common. That the Common has been saved many times before is
+true; but is that any reason why we should falter now? 'New occasions
+teach new duties.' Let us not be satisfied with a supetficial view.
+While fresh loam is being scattered on the surface, commercial
+interests and the suburban greed to get home quick are striking at the
+vitals of the Common. Citizens of Boston, awake!
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your pastor had expected to be with you this evening, but he has at
+the last moment discovered that he has two other engagements, each of
+them of long standing. He has therefore asked me to take his place in
+this interesting course of lectures on Church History. The subject of
+the lecture for the evening is&mdash;and if I am mistaken some one will
+please correct me&mdash;Ulphilas, or Christianity among the Goths. I cannot
+treat this subject from that wealth of historical information
+possessed by your pastor; but I can at least speak from the heart. I
+feel that it is well for us to turn aside from the questions of the
+day, for the quiet consideration of such a character as Ulphilas.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ulphilas seems to me to be one of those characters we ought all to
+know more about. I shall not weary you by discussing the theology of
+Ulphilas or the details of his career. It would seem more fitting that
+these things should be left for another occasion. I shall proceed at
+once to the main lesson of his life. As briefly as possible let me
+state the historical situation that confronted him. It is immaterial
+for us to inquire where the Goths were at that time, or what they were
+doing. It is sufficient for us to know that the Goths at that time
+were pagans, mere heathen. Under those circumstances what did Ulphilas
+do? He went to the Goths. That one act reveals his character. If in
+the remaining moments of this lecture I can enforce the lesson for us
+of that one act, I shall feel that my coming here has not been in
+vain.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But some one who has followed my argument thus far may say, 'All that
+you have said is true, lamentably true; but what has it to do with the
+Advancement of Woman?' I answer, it <i>is</i> the Advancement of Woman."
+</p>
+<p>
+"How do you make that out?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bagster looked vaguely troubled. "There is no such thing as an
+isolated moral phenomenon," he said, as if he were repeating something
+from a former sermon; "when you attempt to remedy one evil you find it
+related to a whole moral series. But perhaps I did not make the
+connection plain. My address doesn't seem to be as closely reasoned as
+it did when I was delivering it. Does it seem to you to be cogent?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Cogent is not precisely the word I would use. But it seems earnest."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Thank you," said Bagster. "I always try to be earnest. It's hard to
+be earnest about so many things. I am always afraid that I may not
+give to all an equal emphasis."
+</p>
+<p>
+"And now that you have stopped for a moment," I suggested, "perhaps
+you would be willing to skip to the last page. When I read a story I
+am always anxious to get to the end. I should like to know how your
+address comes out,&mdash;if it does come out."
+</p>
+<p>
+Bagster turned over a dozen pages and read in a more animated manner.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your chairman has the reputation of making the meetings over which he
+presides brisk and crisp. He has given me just a minute and a half in
+which to tell what the country expects of this Federation of Young
+People. I shall not take all the time. I ask you to remember two
+letters&mdash;E and N. <i>What</i> does the country expect this Federation to
+do? E&mdash;everything. <i>When</i> does the country expect you to do it?
+N&mdash;now. Remember these two letters&mdash;E and N. Young people, I thank you
+for your attention.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The hour is late. You, my young brother, have listened to a charge in
+which your urgent duties have been fearlessly declared to you. When
+you have performed these duties, others will be presented to you. And
+now, in token of our confidence in you, I give you the right hand of
+fellowship.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And do you know," said Bagster, "that when I reached to give him the
+right hand of fellowship, he wasn't there."
+</p>
+<p>
+We sat in silence for some time. At last he asked, hesitatingly, "What
+do you think of it? In your judgment is it organic or functional?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I do not think it is organic. I am afraid that your conscience has
+been over-functioning of late, and needs a rest. I know a nook in the
+woods of New Hampshire, under the shadow of Mount Chocorua, where you
+might go for six months while your affairs are in the hands of a
+receiver. I can't say that you would find everything satisfactory,
+even there. The mountain is not what it used to be. It is decadent,
+geologically speaking, and it suffered a good deal during the last
+glacial period. But you can't do much about it in six months. You
+might take it just as it is,&mdash;some things have to be taken that way.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You will start to-morrow morning and begin your life of temporary
+irresponsibility. You will have to give up your problems for six
+months, but you may rest assured that they will keep. You will go by
+Portsmouth, where you will have ten minutes for lunch. Take that
+occasion for a leisurely meal. A card will be handed to you assuring
+you that 'The bell will ring one minute before the departure of the
+train. You can't get left.' Hold that thought: you can't get left; the
+railroad authorities say so."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Did you ever try it," asked Bagster.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Once," I answered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And did you get left?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Portsmouth," I said, "is a beautiful old town. I had always wanted to
+see it. You can see a good deal of Portsmouth in an afternoon."
+</p>
+<p>
+The predicament in which my friend Bagster finds himself is a very
+common one. It is no longer true that the good die young; they become
+prematurely middle-aged. In these days conscience doth make
+neurasthenics of us all. Now it will not do to flout conscience, and
+by shutting our eyes to the urgencies and complexities of life
+purchase for ourselves a selfish calm. Neither do we like the idea of
+neurasthenia.
+</p>
+<p>
+My notion is that the twentieth-century man is morally solvent, though
+he is temporarily embarrassed. He will find himself if he is given
+sufficient time. In the mean time it is well for him to consider the
+nature of his embarrassment. He has discovered that the world is "so
+full of a number of things," and he is disappointed that he is not as
+"happy as kings"&mdash;that is, as kings in the fairy books. Perhaps "sure
+enough" kings are not as happy as the fairy-book royalties, and
+perhaps the modern man is only experiencing the anxieties that belong
+to his new sovereignty over the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are tribes which become confused when they try to keep in mind
+more than three or four numbers. It is the same kind of confusion
+which comes when we try to look out for more than Number One. We mean
+well, but we have not the facilities for doing it easily. In fact, we
+are not so civilized as we sometimes think.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, we have never carried out to its full extent the most
+important invention that mankind has ever made&mdash;money. Money is a
+device for simplifying life by providing a means of measuring our
+desires, and gratifying a number of them without confusion.
+</p>
+<p>
+Money is a measure, not of commodities, but of states of mind. The man
+in the street expresses a profound philosophy when he says, "I feel
+like thirty cents." That is all that "thirty cents" means. It is a
+certain amount of feeling.
+</p>
+<p>
+You see an article marked "$1.50." You pass by unmoved. The next day
+you see it on the bargain counter marked "98 cents," and you say,
+"Come to my arms," and carry it home. You did not feel like a dollar
+and a half toward it, but you did feel exactly like ninety-eight
+cents.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is because of this wonderful measure of value that we are able to
+deal with a multitude of diverse articles without mental confusion.
+</p>
+<p>
+I am asked to stop at the department store and discover in that vast
+aggregation of goods a skein of silk of a specified shade, and having
+found it bring it safely home. Now, I am not fitted for such an
+adventure. Left to my own devices I should be helpless.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the way is made easy for me. The floorwalker meets me graciously,
+and without chiding me for not buying the things I do not want,
+directs me to the one thing which would gratify my modest desire. I
+find myself in a little place devoted to silk thread, and with no
+other articles to molest me or make me afraid. The world of
+commodities is simplified to fit my understanding. I feel all the
+gratitude of the shorn lamb for the tempered wind.
+</p>
+<p>
+At the silken shrine stands a Minerva who imparts her wisdom and
+guides my choice. The silk thread she tells me is equivalent to five
+cents. Now, I have not five cents, but only a five-dollar bill. She
+does not act on the principle of taking all that the traffic will
+bear. She sends the five-dollar bill through space, and in a minute or
+two she gives me the skein and four dollars and ninety-five cents, and
+I go out of the store a free man. I have no misgivings and no remorse
+because I did not buy all the things I might have bought. No one
+reproached me because I did not buy a four-hundred-dollar pianola.
+Thanks to the great invention, the transaction was complete in itself.
+Five cents represented one choice, and I had in my pocket ninety-nine
+choices which I might reserve for other occasions.
+</p>
+<p>
+But there are some things which, as we say, money cannot buy. In all
+these things of the higher life we have no recognized medium of
+exchange. We are still in the stage of primitive barter. We must bring
+all our moral goods with us, and every transaction involves endless
+dickering. If we express an appreciation for one good thing, we are at
+once reproached by all the traffickers in similar articles for not
+taking over bodily their whole stock in trade.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, you have a desire for culture. You haven't the means to
+indulge in very much, but you would like a little. You are immediately
+beset by all the eager Matthew Arnolds who have heard of your desire,
+and they insist that you should at once devote yourself to the
+knowledge of the best that has been known and said in the world. All
+this is very fine, but you don't see how you can afford it. Isn't
+there a little of a cheaper quality that they could show you? Perhaps
+the second best would serve your purpose. At once you are covered with
+reproaches for your philistinism.
+</p>
+<p>
+You had been living a rather prosaic life and would like to brighten
+it up with a little poetry. What you would really like would be a
+modest James Whitcomb Riley's worth of poetry. But the moment you
+express the desire the University Extension lecturer insists that
+what you should take is a course of lectures on Dante. No wonder that
+you conclude that a person in your circumstances will have to go
+without any poetry at all.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is the same way with efforts at social righteousness. You find it
+difficult to engage in one transaction without being involved in
+others that you are not ready for. You are interested in a social
+reform that involves collective action. At once you are told that it
+is socialistic. You do not feel that it is any worse for that, and you
+are quite willing to go on. But at once your socialistic friends
+present you with the whole programme of their party. It is all or
+nothing. When it is presented in that way you are likely to become
+discouraged and fall back on nothing.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, if we had a circulating medium you would express the exact state
+of your desires somewhat in this way: "Here is my moral dollar. I
+think I will take a quarter's worth of Socialism, and twelve and a
+half cents' worth of old-time Republicanism, and twelve and a half
+cents of genuine Jeffersonian democracy, if there is any left, and a
+quarter's worth of miscellaneous insurgency. Let me see, I have a
+quarter left. Perhaps I may drop in to-morrow and see if you have
+anything more that I want."
+</p>
+<p>
+The sad state of my good friend Bagster arises from the fact that he
+can't do one good thing without being confused by a dozen other things
+which are equally good. He feels that he is a miserable sinner because
+his moral dollar is not enough to pay the national debt.
+</p>
+<p>
+But though we have not yet been able adequately to extend the notion
+of money to the affairs of the higher life, there have been those who
+have worked on the problem.
+</p>
+<p>
+That was what Socrates had in mind. The Sophists talked eloquently
+about the Good, the True, and the Beautiful; but they dealt in these
+things in the bulk. They had no way of dividing them into sizable
+pieces for everyday use. Socrates set up in Athens as a broker in
+ideas. He dealt on the curb. He measured one thing in terms of
+another, and tried to supply a sufficient amount of change for those
+who were not ashamed to engage in retail trade.
+</p>
+<p>
+Socrates draws the attention of Phædrus to the fact that when we talk
+of iron and silver the same objects are present to our minds, "but
+when any one speaks of justice and goodness, there is every sort of
+disagreement, and we are at odds with one another and with ourselves."
+</p>
+<p>
+What we need to do he says is to have an idea that is big enough to
+include all the particular actions or facts. Then, in order to do
+business, we must be able to divide this so that it may serve our
+convenience. This is what Socrates called Philosophy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am a great lover," he said, "of the processes of division and
+generalization; they help me to speak and think. And if I find any man
+who is able to see unity and plurality in nature, him I follow, and
+walk in his steps as if he were a god."
+</p>
+<p>
+Even in the Forest of Arden life was not so simple as at first it
+seemed. The shepherd's life which "in respect of itself was a good
+life" was in other respects quite otherwise. Its unity seemed to break
+up into a confusing plurality. Honest Touchstone, in trying to
+reconcile the different points of view, blurted out the test question,
+"Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd?" After Bagster has communed
+with Chocorua for six months, I shall put that question to him.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    I
+</h3>
+<p>
+"You here, Bagster?" I exclaimed, as in the Sistine Chapel I saw an
+anxious face gazing down into a mirror in which were reflected the
+dimmed glories of the ceiling. There was an anxiety as of one who was
+seeking the Truth of Art at the bottom of the well.
+</p>
+<p>
+One who is in the habit of giving unsolicited advice is likely to take
+for granted that his advice has been acted upon, even though
+experience should teach him that this is seldom the case. I had sagely
+counseled Bagster to go to the New Hampshire woods, in order to
+recuperate after his multifarious labors. I was therefore surprised to
+find him playing truant in Rome.
+</p>
+<p>
+My salutation did not at first cause him to look up. He only made a
+mysterious sign with his hand. It was evidently a gesture which he had
+recently learned, and was practiced as a sort of exorcism.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I am not going to sell you cameos or post cards," I explained.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he recognized a familiar face, Bagster forgot all about the Last
+Judgment, and we were soon out-of-doors and he was telling me about
+himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I meant to go to Chocorua as you suggested, but the congregation
+advised otherwise, so I came over here. It seemed the better thing to
+do. Up in New Hampshire you can't do much but rest, but here you can
+improve your taste and collect a good deal of homiletic material. So
+I've settled down in Rome. I want to have time to take it all in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you begin to feel rested?" I asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not yet. It's harder work than I thought it would be. There's so much
+to take in, and it's all so different. I don't know how to arrange my
+material. What I want to do, in the first place, is to have a
+realizing sense of being in Rome. What's the use of being here unless
+you are here in the spirit?
+</p>
+<p>
+"What I mean is that I should like to feel as I did when I went to
+Mount Vernon. It was one of those dreamy autumn days when the leaves
+were just turning. There was the broad Potomac, and the hospitable
+Virginia mansion. I had the satisfying sense that I was in the home of
+Washington. Everything seemed to speak of Washington. He filled the
+whole scene. It was a great experience. Why can't I feel that way
+about the great events that happened down there?"
+</p>
+<p>
+We were by this time on the height of the Janiculum near the statue of
+Garibaldi. Bagster made a vague gesture toward the city that lay
+beneath us. There seemed to be something in the scene that worried
+him. "I can't make it seem real," he said. "I have continually to say
+to myself, 'That is Rome, Italy, and not Rome, New York.' I can't make
+the connection between the place and the historical personages I have
+read about. I can't realize that the Epistle to the Romans was written
+to the people who lived down there. Just back of that new building is
+the very spot where Romulus would have lived if he had ever existed.
+On those very streets Scipio Africanus walked, and Cæsar and Cicero
+and Paul and Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus and Belisarius, and
+Hildebrand and Michelangelo, and at one time or another about every
+one you ever heard of. And how many people came to get emotions they
+couldn't get anywhere else! There was Goethe. How he felt! He took it
+all in. And there was Shelley writing poetry in the Baths of
+Caracalla. And there was Gibbon."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But we can't all expect to be Shelleys or even Gibbons," I suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I know it," said Bagster, ruefully. "But if one has only a little
+vessel, he ought to fill it. But somehow the historical associations
+crowd each other out. When I left home I bought Hare's 'Walks in
+Rome.' I thought I would take a walk a day as long as they lasted. It
+seemed a pleasant way of combining physical and intellectual exercise.
+But do you know, I could not keep up those walks. They were too
+concentrated for my constitution. I wasn't equal to them. Out in
+California they used to make wagers with the stranger that he couldn't
+eat a broiled quail every day for ten days. I don't see why he
+couldn't, but it seemed that the thought of to-morrow's quail, and the
+feeling that it was compulsory, turned him against what otherwise
+might have been a pleasure. It's so with the 'Walks.' It's appalling
+to think that every morning you have to start out for a
+constitutional, and be confronted with the events of the last
+twenty-five centuries. The events are piled up one on another. There
+they are, and here you are, and what are you going to do about them?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I suppose that there isn't much that you can do about them," I
+remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+"But we ought to do what we can," said Bagster. "When I do have an
+emotion, something immediately turns up to contradict it. It's like
+wandering through a big hotel, looking for your room, when you are on
+the wrong floor. Here you are as likely as not to find yourself in the
+wrong century. In Rome everything turns out, on inquiry, to be
+something else. There's something impressive about a relic if it's the
+relic of one thing. But if it's the relic of a dozen different kinds
+of things it's hard to pick out the appropriate emotion. I find it
+hard to adjust my mind to these composite associations."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now just look at this," he said, opening his well-thumbed Baedeker:
+"'Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Pl. D. 4), erected on the ruins of
+Domitian's temple of Minerva, the only mediæval Gothic church in Rome.
+Begun A.D., 1280; was restored and repainted in 1848-55. It contains
+several admirable works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Christ.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's that sort of thing that gets on my nerves. The Virgin and
+Minerva and Domitian and Michelangelo are all mixed together, and then
+everything is restored and repainted in 1848. And just round the
+corner from Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the Pantheon. The inscription
+on the porch says that it was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of
+Augustus. I try to take that in. But when I have partially done that,
+I learn that the building was struck by lightning and entirely rebuilt
+by the Emperor Hadrian.
+</p>
+<p>
+"That information comes like the call of the conductor to change cars,
+just as one has comfortably settled down on the train. We must forget
+all about Agrippa and Augustus, and remember that this building was
+built by Hadrian. But it turns out that in 609 Boniface turned it into
+a Christian church. Which Boniface? The Pantheon was adorned with
+bronze columns. If you wish to see them you must go to St. Peter's,
+where they are a part of the high altar. So Baedeker says, but I'm
+told that isn't correct either. When you go inside you see that you
+must let by-gones be by-gones. You are confronted with the tomb of
+Victor Emmanuel and set to thinking on the recent glories of the House
+of Savoy. Really to appreciate the Pantheon you must be well-posted in
+nineteenth-century history. You keep up this train of thought till you
+happen to stumble on the tomb of Raphael. That, of course, is what you
+ought to have come to see in the first place.
+</p>
+<p>
+"When you look at the column of Trajan you naturally think of Trajan,
+you follow the spiral which celebrates his victories, till you come to
+the top of the column; and there stands St. Peter as if it were <i>his</i>
+monument. You meditate on the column of Marcus Aurelius, and look up
+and see St. Paul in the place of honor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I must confess that I have had difficulty about the ruins. Brick,
+particularly in this climate, doesn't show its age. I find it hard to
+distinguish between a ruin and a building in the course of
+construction. When I got out of the station I saw a huge brick
+building across the street, which had been left unfinished as if the
+workmen had gone on strike. I learned that it was the remains of the
+Baths of Diocletian. Opening a door I found myself in a huge church,
+which had a long history I ought to have known something about, but
+didn't.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Now read this, and try to take it in: 'Returning to the Cancelleria,
+we proceed to the Piazza Campo de' Fiori, where the vegetable market
+is held in the morning, and where criminals were formerly executed.
+The bronze statue of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned
+here as a heretic in 1600, was erected in 1889. To the east once lay
+the Theatre of Pompey. Behind it lay the Porticus of Pompey where
+Cæsar was murdered, B.C. 44.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"It economizes space to have the vegetable market and the martyrdom of
+Giordano Bruno and the assassination of Julius Cæsar all close
+together. But they are too close. The imagination hasn't room to turn
+round. Especially as the market-women are very much alive and cannot
+conceive that any one would come into the Piazza unless he intended to
+buy vegetables. Somehow the great events you have read about don't
+seem to have impressed themselves on the neighborhood. At any rate,
+you are conscious that you are the only person in the Piazza Campo de'
+Fiori who is thinking about Giordano Bruno or Julius Cæsar; while the
+price of vegetables is as intensely interesting as it was in the year
+1600 A.D. or in 44 B.C.
+</p>
+<p>
+"How am I to get things in their right perspective? When I left home I
+had a pretty clear and connected idea of history. There was a logical
+sequence. One period followed another. But in these walks in Rome the
+sequence is destroyed. History seems more like geology than like
+logic, and the strata have all been broken up by innumerable
+convulsions of nature. The Middle Ages were not eight or ten centuries
+ago; they are round the next block. A walk from the Quirinal to the
+Vatican takes you from the twentieth century to the twelfth. And one
+seems as much alive as the other. You may go from schools where you
+have the last word in modern education, to the Holy Stairs at the
+Lateran, where you will see the pilgrims mounting on their knees as if
+Luther and his protest had never happened. Or you can, in five
+minutes, walk from the Renaissance period to 400 B.C.
+</p>
+<p>
+"When I was in the theological seminary I had a very clear idea of the
+difference between Pagan Rome and Christian Rome. When Constantine
+came, Christianity was established. It was a wonderful change and made
+everything different. But when you stroll across from the Arch of
+Titus to the Arch of Constantine you wonder what the difference was.
+The two things look so much alike. And in the Vatican that huge
+painting of the triumph of Constantine over Maxentius doesn't throw
+much light on the subject. Suppose the pagan Maxentius had triumphed
+over Constantine, what difference would it have made in the picture?
+</p>
+<p>
+"They say that seeing is believing, but here you see so many things
+that are different from what you have always believed. The Past
+doesn't seem to be in the past, but in the present. There is an air of
+contemporaneousness about everything. Do you remember that story of
+Jules Verne about a voyage to the moon? When the voyagers got a
+certain distance from the earth they couldn't any longer drop things
+out of the balloon. The articles they threw out didn't fall down.
+There wasn't any down; everything was round about. Everything they had
+cast out followed them. That's the way Rome makes you feel about
+history. That which happened a thousand years ago is going on still.
+You can't get rid of it. The Roman Republic is a live issue, and so is
+the Roman Empire, and so is the Papacy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The other day they found a ruined Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli,
+and began to restore it. New Italy is delighted at this confirmation
+of its claims to sovereignty in North Africa. The newspapers treat
+Marcus Aurelius as only a forerunner of Giolitti. By the way, I never
+heard of Giolitti till I came over here. But it seems that he is a
+very great man. But when ancient and modern history are mixed up it's
+hard to do any clear thinking. And when you do get a clear thought you
+find out that it isn't true. You know Dr. Johnson said something to
+the effect that that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would
+not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose feelings would not
+grow warmer among the ruins of Rome. Marathon is a simple proposition.
+But when one is asked to warm his enthusiasm by means of the Roman
+monuments, he naturally asks, 'Enthusiasm over what?' Of course, I
+don't mean to give up. I'm faint though pursuing. But I'm afraid that
+Rome is not a good place to rest in."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm afraid not," I said, "if you insist on keeping on thinking. It is
+not a good place in which to rest your mind."
+</p>
+<h3>
+II
+</h3>
+<p>
+I think Bagster is not the first person who has found intellectual
+difficulty here. Rome exists for the confusion of the sentimental
+traveler. Other cities deal tenderly with our preconceived ideas of
+them. There is one simple impression made upon the mind. Once out of
+the railway station and in a gondola, and we can dream our dream of
+Venice undisturbed. There is no doge at present, but if there were one
+we should know where to place him. The city still furnishes the proper
+setting for his magnificence. And London with all its vastness has, at
+first sight, a familiar seeming. The broad and simple outlines of
+English history make it easy to reconceive the past.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Rome is disconcerting. The actual refuses to make terms with the
+ideal. It is a vast storehouse of historical material, but the
+imagination is baffled in the attempt to put the material together.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Scott was in Rome his friend "advised him to wait to see the
+procession of Corpus Domini, and hear the Pope
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ Saying the high, high mass<br/>
+ All on St. Peter's day.
+</div>
+<p>
+He smiled and said that these things were more poetical in the
+description than in reality, and that it was all the better for him
+not to have seen it before he wrote about it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Sir Walter's instinct was a true one. Rome is not favorable to
+historical romance. Its atmosphere is eminently realistic. The
+historical romancer is flying through time as the air-men fly through
+space. But the air-men complain that they sometimes come upon what
+they call "air holes." The atmosphere seems suddenly to give way under
+them. In Rome the element of Time on which the imagination has been
+flying seems to lose its usual density. We drop through a Time-hole,
+and find ourselves in an inglorious anachronism.
+</p>
+<p>
+I am not sure that Bagster has had a more difficult time than his
+predecessors, who have attempted to assort their historical material.
+For in the days before historical criticism was invented, the history
+of Rome was very luxuriant. "Seeing Rome" was a strenuous undertaking,
+if one tried to be intelligent.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was an admirable little guide-book published in the twelfth
+century called "Mirabilia Urbis Romæ." One can imagine the old-time
+tourist with this mediæval Baedeker in hand, issuing forth, resolved
+to see Rome in three days. At the end of the first day his courage
+would ooze away as he realized the extent of his ignorance. With a
+hurried look at the guide-book and a glance at the varied assortment
+of ruins, he would try to get his bearings. All the worthies of sacred
+and profane history would be passing by in swift procession.
+</p>
+<p>
+"After the sons of Noah built the tower of confusion, Noah with all
+his sons came to Italy. And not far from the place where Rome now is
+they founded a city in his name, where he brought his travail and life
+to an end." To come to the city of Noah was worth a long journey. Just
+think of actually standing on the spot where Shem, Ham, and Japhet
+soothed the declining years of their father! It was hard to realize
+it all. And it appears that Japhet, always an enterprising person,
+built a city of his own on the Palatine Hill. There is the Palatine,
+somewhat cluttered up with modern buildings of the Cæsars, but
+essentially, in its outlines, as Japhet saw it.
+</p>
+<p>
+But there were other pioneers to be remembered. "Saturn, being
+shamefully entreated by his son Jupiter," founded a city on the
+Capitoline Hill. One wonders what Shem, Ham, and Japhet thought of
+this, and whether their sympathies were with Jupiter who was seeking
+to get a place in the sun.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is hard to understand the complicated politics of the day. At any
+rate, a short time after, Hercules came with a band of Argives and
+established a rival civic centre. In the meantime, Janus had become
+mixed up with Roman history and was working manfully for the New
+Italy. On very much the same spot "Tibris, King of the Aborigines"
+built a city, which must be carefully distinguished from those before
+mentioned.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this happened before Romulus appeared upon the scene. One with a
+clear and comprehensive understanding of this early history might
+enjoy his first morning's walk in Rome. But to the middle-aged pilgrim
+from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who had come to Rome merely to see
+the tomb of St. Peter, it was exhausting.
+</p>
+<p>
+But perhaps mediæval tradition did not form a more confusing
+atmosphere than the sentimental admiration of a later day. In the
+early part of the nineteenth century a writer begins a book on Rome in
+this fashion: "I have ventured to hope that this work may be a guide
+to those who visit this wonderful city, which boasts at once the
+noblest remains of antiquity, and the most faultless works of art;
+which possesses more claims to interest than any other city; which has
+in every age stood foremost in the world; which has been the light of
+the earth in ages past, the guiding star through the long night of
+ignorance, the fountain of civilization to the whole Western world,
+and which every nation reverences as the common nurse, preceptor, and
+parent."
+</p>
+<p>
+This notion of Rome as the venerable parent of civilization, to be
+approached with tenderly reverential feelings, was easier to hold a
+hundred years ago than it is to-day. There was nothing to contradict
+it. One might muse on "the grandeur that was Rome," among picturesque
+ruins covered with flowering weeds. But now a Rome that is obtrusively
+modern claims attention. And it is not merely that the modern world is
+here, but that our view of antiquity is modernized. We see it, not
+through the mists of time, but as a contemporary might.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Ferrero published his history we were startled by his realistic
+treatment. It was as if we were reading a newspaper and following the
+course of current events. Cæsar and Pompey and Cicero were treated as
+if they were New York politicians. Where we had expected to see
+stately figures in togas we were made to see hustling real-estate
+speculators, and millionaires, and labor leaders, and ward
+politicians, who were working for the prosperity of the city and,
+incidentally, for themselves. It was all very different from our
+notions of classic times which we had imbibed from our Latin lessons
+in school. But it is the impression which Rome itself makes upon the
+mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+One afternoon, among the vast ruins of Hadrian's Villa, I tried to
+picture the villa as it was when its first owner walked among the
+buildings which his whim had created. The moment Hadrian himself
+appeared upon the scene, antiquity seemed an illusion. How
+ultra-modern he was, this man whom his contemporaries called "a
+searcher out of strange things"! These ruins could not by the mere
+process of time become venerable, for they were in their very nature
+novelties. They were the playthings of a very rich man. There they lie
+upon the ground like so many broken toys. They are just such things as
+an enormously rich man would make to-day if he had originality enough
+to think of them. Why should not Hadrian have a Vale of Tempe and a
+Greek theatre and a Valley of Canopus, and ever so many other things
+which he had seen in his travels, reproduced on his estate near
+Tivoli?
+</p>
+<p>
+An historian of the Empire says: "The character of Hadrian was in the
+highest degree complex, and this presents to the student a series of
+apparently unreconciled contrasts which have proved so hard for many
+modern historians to resolve. A thorough soldier and yet the
+inaugurator of a peace policy, a 'Greekling' as his Roman subjects
+called him, and saturated with Hellenic ideas, and yet a lover of
+Roman antiquity; a poet and an artist, but with a passion for
+business and finance; a voluptuary determined to drain the cup of
+human experience and, at the same time, a ruler who labored
+strenuously for the well-being of his subjects; such were a few of the
+diverse parts which Hadrian played."
+</p>
+<p>
+It is evident that the difficulty with the historians who find these
+unreconciled contrasts is that they try to treat Hadrian as an
+"ancient" rather than as a modern. The enormously rich men who are at
+present most in the public eye present the same contradictions.
+Hadrian was a thorough man of the world. There was nothing venerable
+about him, though much that was interesting and admirable.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now what a man of the world is to a simple character like a saint or a
+hero, that Rome has been to cities of the simpler sort. It has been a
+city of the world. It has been cosmopolitan. "Urbs et orbis" suggests
+the historic fact. The fortunes of the city have become inextricably
+involved in the fortunes of the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+A part of the confusion of the traveler comes from the fact that the
+Roman city and the Roman world are not clearly distinguished one from
+the other. The New Testament writer distinguishes between Jerusalem as
+a geographical fact and Jerusalem as a spiritual ideal. There has
+been, he says, a Jerusalem that belongs to the Jews, but there is also
+Jerusalem which belongs to humanity, which is free, which is "the
+mother of us all."
+</p>
+<p>
+So there has been a local Rome with its local history. And there has
+been the greater Rome that has impressed itself on the imagination of
+the world. Since the destruction of Carthage the meaning of the word
+"Roman" has been largely allegorical. It has stood for the successive
+ideas of earthly power and spiritual authority.
+</p>
+<p>
+Rome absorbed the glory of deeds done elsewhere. Battles were fought
+in far-off Asia and Africa. But the battlefield did not become the
+historic spot. The victor must bring his captives to Rome for his
+triumph. Here the pomp of war could be seen, on a carefully arranged
+stage, and before admiring thousands. It was the triumph rather than
+the battle that was remembered. All the interest culminated at this
+dramatic moment. Rome thus became, not the place where history was
+made, but the place where it was celebrated. Here the trumpets of
+fame perpetually sounded.
+</p>
+<p>
+This process continued after the Empire of the Cæsars passed away. The
+continuity of Roman history has been psychological. Humanity has "held
+a thought." Rome became a fixed idea. It exerted an hypnotic influence
+over the barbarians who had overcome all else. The Holy Roman Empire
+was a creation of the Germanic imagination, and yet it was a real
+power. Many a hard-headed Teutonic monarch crossed the Alps at the
+head of his army to demand a higher sanction for his own rule of
+force. When he got himself crowned in the turbulent city on the Tiber
+he felt that something very important had happened. Just how important
+it was he did not fully realize till he was back among his own people
+and saw how much impressed they were by his new dignities.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hans Christian Andersen begins one of his stories with the assertion,
+"You must know that the Emperor of China is a Chinaman and that all
+whom he has about him are Chinamen also." The assertion is so logical
+in form that we are inclined to accept it without question. Then we
+remember that in Hans Christian Andersen's day, and for a long time
+before, the Emperor of China was not a Chinaman and the great
+grievance was that Chinamen were the very people he would not have
+about him.
+</p>
+<p>
+When we speak of the Roman Catholic Church, we jump at the conclusion
+that it is the church of the Romans and that the people of Rome have
+had the most to do with its extension. This theory has nothing to
+recommend it but its extreme verbal simplicity. As a matter of fact,
+Rome has never been noted for its pious zeal. Such warmth as it has
+had has been imparted to it by the faithful who have been drawn from
+other lands; as, according to some theorists, the sun's heat is kept
+up by a continuous shower of meteors falling into it.
+</p>
+<p>
+To-day, the Roman Church is more conscious of its strength in
+Massachusetts than it is near the Vatican. At the period when the
+Papacy was at its height, and kings and emperors trembled before it in
+England and in Germany, the Popes had a precarious hold on their own
+city. Rome was a religious capital rather than a religious centre. It
+did not originate new movements. Missionaries of the faith have not
+gone forth from it, as they went from Ireland. It is not in Rome that
+we find the places where the saints received their spiritual
+illuminations, and fought the good fight, and gathered their
+disciples. Rome was the place to which they came for judgment, as Paul
+did when he appealed to Cæsar. Here heretics were condemned, and here
+saints, long dead, were canonized. Neither the doctrines nor the
+institutions of the Catholic Church originated here. Rome was the
+mint, not the mine. That which received the Roman stamp passed current
+throughout the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the political struggle for the New Italy, Rome had the same
+symbolic character. Mazzini was never so eloquent as when portraying
+the glories of the free Rome that was to be recognized, indeed, as the
+mother of us all. The Eternal City, he believed, was to be the
+regenerating influence, not only for Europe but for all the world. All
+the romantic enthusiasm of Garibaldi flamed forth at the sight of
+Rome. All other triumphs signified nothing till Rome was the
+acknowledged capital of Italy. Silently and steadily Cavour worked
+toward the same end. And at last Rome gathered to herself the glory
+of the heroes who were not her own children,
+</p>
+<p>
+If we recognize the symbolic and representative character of Roman
+history, we can begin to understand the reason for the bewilderment
+which comes to the traveler who attempts to realize it in imagination.
+Roman history is not, like the tariff, a local issue. The most
+important events in that history did not occur here at all, though
+they were here commemorated. So it happens that every nation finds
+here its own, and reinforces its traditions. In the Middle Ages, the
+Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, found much to interest him. In
+Rome were to be found two brazen pillars of Solomon's Temple, and
+there was a crypt where Titus hid the holy vessels taken from
+Jerusalem. There was also a statue of Samson and another of Absalom.
+</p>
+<p>
+The worthy Benjamin doubtless felt the same thrill that I did when
+looking up at the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. I was
+told that it was gilded with the first gold brought from America. The
+statement, that the church was founded on this spot because of a
+vision that came to Pope Liberius in the year 305 A.D., left me
+unmoved. It was of course a long time ago; but then, I had no mental
+associations with Pope Liberius, and there was no encyclopædia at hand
+in which I might look him up. Besides, "the church was reërected by
+Sixtus III in the year 432, and was much altered in the twelfth
+century." But the gold on the ceiling was a different matter. That was
+romantically historical. It came from America in the heroic age. I
+thought of the Spanish galleons that brought it over, and of Columbus
+and Cortés and Alvarado. After that, to go into the Church of Santa
+Maria Maggiore was like taking a trip to Mexico.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the course of my daily walks, I passed the Church of Santa
+Pudenziana, said to be the oldest in Rome, and recently modernized. It
+is on the spot where Pudens, the host of St. Peter, is said to have
+lived with his daughters Praxedis and Pudentiana. This is interesting,
+but the English-speaking traveler is likely to pass by Pudaentiana's
+church, and seek out the church of her sister St. Praxed. And this not
+for the sake of St. Praxed or her father Pudens or even of his guest
+St. Peter, but for the sake of a certain English poet who had visited
+the church once.
+</p>
+<p>
+Close to the Porta San Paolo is the great tomb of the Roman magnate,
+Gaius Cestius, which was built before the birth of Christ. One can
+hardly miss seeing it, because it is near one of the most sacred
+pilgrimage places of Rome, the grave of John Keats.
+</p>
+<p>
+Each traveler makes his own Rome; and the memories which he takes away
+are the memories which he brought with him.
+</p>
+<h3>
+III
+</h3>
+<p>
+As for my friend Bagster, now that he has come to Rome, I hope he may
+stay long enough to allow it to produce a more tranquilizing effect
+upon him. When he gives up the attempt to take it all in by an
+intellectual and moral effort, he may, as the saying is, "relax."
+</p>
+<p>
+There is no other place in which one may so readily learn the meaning
+of that misused word "urbanity." Urbanity is the state of mind adapted
+to a city, as rusticity is adapted to the country. In each case the
+perfection of the adaptation is evidenced by a certain ease of manner
+in the presence of the environment. There is an absence of fret and
+worry over what is involved in the situation. A countryman does not
+fret over dust or mud; he knows that they are forms of the good earth
+out of which he makes his living. He may grumble at the weather, but
+he is not surprised at it, and he is ready to make the best of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+This adaptation to nature is easy for us, for we are rustics by
+inheritance. Our ancestors lived in the open, and kept their flocks
+and were mighty hunters long before towns were ever thought of. So
+when we go into the woods in the spring, our self-consciousness leaves
+us and we speedily make ourselves at home. We take things for granted,
+and are not careful about trifles. A great many things are going on,
+but the multiplicity does not distract us. We do not need to
+understand.
+</p>
+<p>
+For we have primal sympathies which are very good substitutes for
+intelligence. We do not worry because nature does not get on faster
+with her work. When we go out on the hills on a spring morning, as our
+forbears did ten thousand years ago, it does not fret us to consider
+that things are going on very much as they did then. The sap is
+mounting in the trees; the wild flowers are pushing out of the sod;
+the free citizens of the woods are pursuing their vocations without
+regard to our moralities. A great deal is going on, but nothing has
+come to a dramatic culmination.
+</p>
+<p>
+Our innate rusticity makes us accept all this in the spirit in which
+it is offered to us. It is nature's way and we like it, because we are
+used to it. We take what is set before us and ask no questions. It is
+spring. We do not stop to inquire as to whether this spring is an
+improvement on last spring or on the spring of the year 400 B.C. There
+is a timelessness about our enjoyment. We are not thinking of events
+set in a chronological order, but of a process which loses nothing by
+reason of repetition.
+</p>
+<p>
+Our attitude toward a city is usually quite different. We are not at
+our ease. We are querulous and anxious, and our interest takes a
+feverish turn. For the cities of our Western world are new-fangled
+contrivances which we are not used to, and we are worried as we try to
+find out whether they will work. These aggregations of humanity have
+not existed long enough to seem to belong to the nature of things. It
+is exciting to be invited to "see Seattle grow," but the exhibition
+does not yield a "harvest of a quiet eye." If Seattle should cease to
+grow while we are looking at it, what should we do then?
+</p>
+<p>
+But with Rome it is different. Here is a city which has been so long
+in existence that we look upon it as a part of nature. It is not
+accidental or artificial. Nothing can happen to it but what has
+happened already. It has been burned with fire, it has been ravaged by
+the sword, it has been ruined by luxury, it has been pillaged by
+barbarians and left for dead. And here it is to-day the scene of eager
+life. Pagans, Christians, reformers, priests, artists, soldiers,
+honest workmen, idlers, philosophers, saints, were here centuries ago.
+They are here to-day. They have continuously opposed each other, and
+yet no species has been exterminated. Their combined activities make
+the city.
+</p>
+<p>
+When one comes to feel the stirring of primal sympathies for the
+manifold life of the city, as he does for the manifold life of the
+woods, Rome ceases to be distracting. The old city is like the
+mountain which has withstood the hurts of time, and remains for us,
+"the grand affirmer of the present tense."
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    I
+</h3>
+<p>
+Stopping at some selected spot on the mountain road, the stage-driver
+will direct the stranger's attention to a projecting mass of rock
+which bears some resemblance to a human countenance. There is the "Old
+Man of the Mountains," or the "Old Woman," as the case may be.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the stranger be of a docile disposition he will see what he is told
+to see. But he will be content with the vague suggestion and will not
+push the analogy too far. The similitude is strictly confined to the
+locality. It is enough if from a single point the mountain seems
+almost human. From any other point it will seem to be merely
+mountainous.
+</p>
+<p>
+A similar caution is necessary in regard to the resemblances between a
+nation and an individual. When we talk of a national character or
+temperament, we are using an interesting and bold figure of speech.
+We speak of millions of people as if they were one. Of course, a
+nation is not one kind of person; it is composed of many kinds of
+persons. These persons are diverse in character. All Scotchmen are not
+canny, nor all Irishmen happy-go-lucky. Those who know a great many
+Chinamen are acquainted with those who are idealists with little taste
+for plodding industry. It is only the outsider who is greatly
+impressed by the family resemblance. To the more analytic mind of the
+parent each child is, in a most remarkable degree, different from the
+others.
+</p>
+<p>
+When we take such typical characters as John Bull and Brother Jonathan
+as representing actual Englishmen or Americans, we put ourselves in
+the way of contradiction. They are not good likenesses. An English
+writer says: "As the English, a particularly quick-witted race, tinged
+with the colors of romance, have long cherished a false pride in their
+reputed stolidity, and have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+figure of John Bull as their national signboard, though he does not
+resemble them, so Americans plume themselves on the thought that they
+are dying of nervous energy."
+</p>
+<p>
+There is much truth in this. One may stand at Charing Cross and watch
+the hurrying crowds and only now and then catch sight of any one who
+suggests the burly John Bull of tradition. The type is not a common
+one, at least among city dwellers.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when we attribute a temperament to a nation, we do not necessarily
+mean that all the people are alike. We only mean that there are
+certain ways of thinking and feeling that are common to those who have
+had the same general experience. The national temperament is
+manifested not so much in what the people are as in what they admire
+and instinctively appreciate.
+</p>
+<p>
+Let us accept the statement that the English are a quick-witted and
+romantic people who have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+reputation for being quite otherwise. Why should they do this? Why
+should they take pride in their reputed stolidity rather than in their
+actual cleverness. Here is a temperamental peculiarity that is worth
+looking into.
+</p>
+<p>
+John Bull may be a myth, but Englishmen have been the mythmakers. They
+have for generations delighted in picturing him. He represents a
+combination of qualities which they admire. Dogged, unimaginative,
+well-meaning, honest, full of whimsical prejudices, and full of common
+sense, he is loved and honored by those who are much more brilliant
+than he.
+</p>
+<p>
+John Bull is not a composite photograph of the inhabitants of the
+British Isles. He is not an average man. He is a totem. When an Indian
+tribe chooses a fox or a bear as a totem, they must not be taken too
+literally. But the symbol has a real meaning. It indicates that there
+are some qualities in these animals that they admire. They have proved
+valuable in the tribal struggle for existence.
+</p>
+<p>
+Those who belong to the cult of John Bull take him as the symbol of
+that which has been most vital and successful in the island story.
+England has had more than its share of men of genius. It has had its
+artists, its wits, its men of quick imagination. But these have not
+been the builders of the Empire, or those who have sustained it in the
+hours of greatest need. Men of a slower temper, more solid than
+brilliant, have been the nation's main dependence. "It's dogged as
+does it." On many a hard-fought field men of the bull-dog breed have
+with unflinching tenacity held their own. In times of revolution they
+have maintained order, and never yielded to a threat. Had they been
+more sensitive they would have failed. Their foibles have been easily
+forgiven and their virtues have been gratefully recognized.
+</p>
+<p>
+When we try to form an idea of that which is most distinctive in the
+American temperament, we need not inquire what Americans actually are.
+The answer to that question would be a generalization as wide as
+humanity. They are of all kinds. Among the ninety-odd millions of
+human beings inhabiting the territory of the United States are
+representatives of all the nations of the Old World, and they bring
+with them their ancestral traits.
+</p>
+<p>
+But we may ask, When these diverse peoples come together on common
+ground, what sort of man do they choose as their symbol? There is a
+typical character understood and appreciated by all. In every
+caricature of Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan we can detect the
+lineaments of the American frontiersman.
+</p>
+<p>
+James Russell Lowell, gentleman and scholar that he was, describes a
+type of man unknown to the Old World:&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "This brown-fisted rough, this shirt-sleeved Cid,<br />
+  This backwoods Charlemagne of Empires new. <br />
+  Who meeting Cæsar's self would slap his back, <br />
+  Call him 'Old Horse' and challenge to a drink." <br/>
+
+</div>
+<p>
+Mr. Lowell bore no resemblance to this brown-fisted rough. He would
+not have slapped Cæsar on the back, and he would have resented being
+himself greeted in such an unconventional fashion. Nevertheless he was
+an American and was able to understand that a man might be capable of
+such improprieties and at the same time be a pillar of the State. It
+tickled his fancy to think of a fellow citizen meeting the imperial
+Roman on terms of hearty equality.
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+   "My lungs draw braver air, my breast dilates<br>
+   With ampler manhood, and I face both worlds."
+</div>
+<p>
+Dickens, with all his boisterous humor and democratic sympathies,
+could not interpret Jefferson Brick and Lafayette Kettle and the other
+expansive patriots whom he met on his travels. Their virtues were as a
+sealed book to him. Their boastful familiarity was simply odious.
+</p>
+<p>
+To understand Lowell's exhilaration one must enter into the spirit of
+American history. It has been the history of what has been done by
+strong men who owed nothing to the refinements of civilization. The
+interesting events have taken place not at the centre, but on the
+circumference of the country. The centrifugal force has always been
+the strongest. There has been no capital to which ambitious youths
+went up to seek their fortune. In each generation they have gone to
+the frontier where opportunities awaited them. There they encountered,
+on the rough edges of society, rough-and-ready men in whom they
+recognized their natural superiors. These men, rude of speech and of
+manner, were resourceful, bold, far-seeing. They were conscious of
+their power. They were laying the foundations of cities and of states
+and they knew it. They were as boastful as Homeric heroes, and for the
+same reason. There was in them a rude virility that found expression
+in word as well as in deed.
+</p>
+<p>
+Davy Crockett, coon-hunter, Indian fighter, and Congressman, was a
+great man in his day. It does not detract from his worth that he was
+well aware of the fact. There was no false modesty about this
+backwoods Charlemagne. He wrote of himself, "If General Jackson,
+Black Hawk, and me were to travel through the United States we would
+bring out, no matter what kind of weather, more people to see us than
+any other three people now living among the fifteen millions now
+inhabiting the United States. And what would it be for? As I am one of
+the persons mentioned I would not press the question further. What I
+am driving at is this. When a man rises from a low degree to a place
+he ain't used to, such a man starts the curiosity of the world to know
+how he got along."
+</p>
+<p>
+Davy Crockett understood the temper of his fellow citizens. A man who
+rises by his own exertions from a low position to "a place he ain't
+used to" is not only an object of curiosity, but he elicits
+enthusiastic admiration. Any awkwardness which he exhibits in the
+position which he has achieved is overlooked. We are anxious to know
+how he got along.
+</p>
+<p>
+Every country has its self-made men, but usually they are made to feel
+very uncomfortable. They are accounted intruders in circles reserved
+for the choicer few. But in America they are assured of a sympathetic
+audience when they tell of the way they have risen in the world. There
+is no need for them to apologize for any lack of early advantages,
+for they are living in a self-made country. We are in the habit of
+giving the place of honor to the beginner rather than to the
+continuer. For the finisher the time is not ripe.
+</p>
+<h3>
+II
+</h3>
+<p>
+The most vivid impressions of Americans have always been anticipatory.
+They have felt themselves borne along by a resistless current, and
+that current has, on the whole, been flowing in the right direction.
+They have never been confronted with ruins that tell that the land
+they inhabit has seen better days. Yesterday is vague; To-day may be
+uncertain; To-morrow is alluring; and the Day after to-morrow is
+altogether glorious. George Herbert pictured religion as standing on
+tiptoe waiting to pass to the American strand. Not only religion but
+every other good thing has assumed that attitude of expectant
+curiosity.
+</p>
+<p>
+Even Cotton Mather could not avoid a tone of pious boastfulness when
+he narrated the doings of New England. Everything was remarkable. New
+England had the most remarkable providences, the most remarkable
+painful preachers, the most remarkable heresies, the most remarkable
+witches. Even the local devils were in his judgment more enterprising
+than those of the old country. They had to be in order to be a match
+for the New England saints.
+</p>
+<p>
+The staid Judge Sewall, after a study of the prophecies, was of the
+opinion that America was the only country in which they could be
+adequately fulfilled. Here was a field large enough for those future
+battles between good and evil which enthralled the Puritan
+imagination. To be sure, it would be said, there isn't much just now
+to attract the historian whose mind dwells exclusively on the past.
+But to one who dips into the future it is thrilling. Here is the
+battlefield of Armageddon. Some day we shall see "the spirits of
+devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth,
+and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day
+of God Almighty." Just <i>when</i> that might take place might be uncertain
+but <i>where</i> it would take place was to them more obvious.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the days of small things the settlers in the wilderness had large
+thoughts. They felt themselves to be historical characters, as indeed
+they were. They were impressed by the magnitude of the country and by
+the importance of their relation to it. Their language took on a
+cosmic breadth.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ethan Allen could not have assumed a more masterful tone if he had had
+an Empire at his back instead of undisciplined bands of Green Mountain
+Boys. Writing to the Continental Congress, he declares that unless the
+demands of Vermont are complied with "we will retire into the
+fastnesses of our Green Mountains and will wage eternal warfare
+against Hell, the Devil, and Human Nature in general." And Ethan Allen
+meant it.
+</p>
+<p>
+The love of the superlative is deeply seated in the American mind. It
+is based on no very careful survey of the existing world. It is a
+conclusion to which it is easy to jump. I remember one week, traveling
+through the Mississippi Valley, stopping every night in some town that
+had something which was advertised as the biggest in the world. On
+Friday I reached a sleepy little village which seemed the picture of
+contented mediocrity. Here, thought I, I shall find no bigness to
+molest me or make me afraid. But when I sat down to write a letter on
+the hotel stationery I was confronted with the statement, "This is
+the biggest little hotel in the State."
+</p>
+<p>
+When one starts a tune it is safer to start it rather low, so as not
+to come to grief on the upper notes. In discussing the American
+temperament it is better to start modestly. Instead of asking what
+excellent qualities we find in ourselves, we should ask what do other
+nations most dislike in us. We can then have room to rise to better
+things. There is a family resemblance between the worst and the best
+of any national group. Kipling, in his lines "To an American," may set
+the tune for us. It is not too high. His American is boastful,
+careless, and irrationally optimistic.
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">  "Enslaved, illogical, elate,</p>
+<p class="i2">He greets the embarrassed gods, nor fears</p>
+<p class="i5">  To shake the iron hand of Fate</p>
+<p class="i2">Or match with Destiny for beers."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+A person who would offer to shake hands with Fate is certainly lacking
+in a fine sense of propriety. His belief in equality makes him
+indifferent to the note of distinction. "He dubs his dreary brethren
+kings." Of course they are not kings, but that makes no difference. It
+makes little difference whether anything corresponds to the name he
+chooses to give to it. For there is
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i2">  "A cynic devil in his blood</p>
+<p class="i5">   That bids him mock his hurrying soul."</p>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+This impression of a mingling of optimism, cynicism, and hurry is one
+which is often made upon those who are suddenly plunged into American
+society. In any company of Americans who are discussing public affairs
+the stranger is struck by what seems the lack of logical connection
+between the statements of facts and the judgments passed upon them.
+The facts may be most distressing and yet nobody seems much
+distressed, still less is any one depressed. The city government is in
+the hands of grafters, the police force is corrupt, the prices of the
+necessaries of life are extortionate, the laws on the statute book are
+not enforced, and new laws are about to be enacted that are foolish in
+the extreme. Vast numbers of undesirable aliens are coming into the
+country and bringing with them ideas that are opposed to the
+fundamental principles of the republic. All this is told with an air
+of illogical elation. The conversation is interspersed with anecdotes
+of the exploits of good-natured rascals. These are received with
+smiles or tolerant laughter. Everyone seems to have perfect confidence
+that the country is a grand and glorious place to live in, and that
+all will come out well in the end.
+</p>
+<p>
+Is this an evidence of a cynic humor in the blood, or is it a
+manifestation of childish optimism? Let us frankly answer that it may
+be one or the other or both. There are cynics and sentimentalists who
+are the despair of all who are seriously working for better
+citizenship. But the chances are that the men to whom our stranger was
+listening were neither cynics nor sentimentalists, but idealists who
+had the American temperament.
+</p>
+<p>
+Among those who laughed good-naturedly over the temporary success of
+the clever rascal may have been those who had been giving their
+energies to the work of prevention of just such misdeeds. They are
+reformers with a shrewd twinkle in their eyes. They take a keen
+intellectual pleasure in their work, and are ready to give credit to
+any natural talent in their antagonist. If they are inclined to take a
+cheerful view of the whole situation it is because they are in the
+habit of looking at the situation as a whole. The predominance of
+force is actually on their side and they see no reason to doubt the
+final result. They have learned the meaning of the text, "Fret not
+thyself because of evildoers." In fact the evildoer may not have done
+so much harm as one might think. Nor is he really such a hopeless
+character. There is good stuff in him, and he yet may be used for many
+good purposes. They laugh best who laugh last, and their good-natured
+laughter was anticipatory. There are forces working for righteousness
+which they have experienced. On the whole things are moving in the
+right direction and they can afford to be cheerful.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is the kind of experience which comes to those who are habitually
+dealing with crude materials rather than with finished products. They
+cannot afford to be fastidious; they learn to take things as they come
+and make the best of them. The doctrine that things are not as they
+seem is a cheerful one, to a person who is accustomed to dealing with
+things which turn out to be better than at first they seemed. The
+unknown takes on a friendly guise and awakens a pleasant curiosity.
+That is the experience of generations of pioneers and prospectors.
+They have found a continent full of resources awaking men of courage
+and industry. The opportunities were there; all that was needed was
+the ability to recognize them when they appeared in disguise.
+</p>
+<h3>
+III
+</h3>
+<p>
+And the human problem has been the same as the material one. Europe
+has sent to America not the finished products of her schools and her
+courts, but millions of people for whom she had no room. They were in
+the rough; they had to be made over into a new kind of citizen. This
+material has often been of the most unpromising appearance. It has
+often seemed to superficial observers that little could be made of it.
+But the attempt has been made. And those who have worked with it,
+putting skill and patience into their work, have been agreeably
+surprised. They have come to see the highest possibilities in the
+commonest lumps of clay.
+</p>
+<p>
+The satisfaction that is taken in the common man is not in what he is
+at the present moment, but in what he has shown himself capable of
+becoming. Give him a chance and all the graces may be his. The
+American idealist admits that many of his fellow citizens may be
+rather dreary brethren, but so were many of the kings of whom nothing
+is remembered but their names and dates. Only now and then is one seen
+who is every inch a king. But such a person is a proof of what may be
+accomplished. It may take a long time for the rank and file to catch
+up with their leaders. But where the few are to-day the many will be
+to-morrow; for they are all travelling the same road.
+</p>
+<p>
+The visitor in the United States, especially if he has spent his time
+in the great cities of the East, may go away with the idea that
+democracy is a spent force. He will see great inequalities in wealth
+and position. He will be struck by the fact that autocratic powers are
+wielded which would not be tolerated in many countries of Europe. He
+will notice that it is very difficult to give direct expression to the
+will of the people.
+</p>
+<p>
+But he will make a mistake if he attributes these things to the growth
+of an aristocratic sentiment. They are a part of an evolution that is
+thoroughly democratic. The distinctive thing in an aristocracy is not
+the fact that certain people enjoy privileges. It lies in the fact
+that these privileged people form a class that is looked upon as
+superior. An aristocratic class must not only take itself seriously;
+it must be taken seriously by others.
+</p>
+<p>
+In America there are groups of persons more successful than the
+average. They are objects of curiosity, and, if they are well-behaved,
+of respect. Their comings and goings are chronicled in the newspapers,
+and their names are familiar. But it does not occur to the average man
+that they are anything more than fortunate persons who emerged from
+the crowd, and who by and by may be lost in the crowd again. What they
+have done, others may do when their time comes. The inequalities are
+inequalities of circumstance and not of nature.
+</p>
+<p>
+The commonplace American follows unworthy leaders and has admiration
+for cheap success. But he cherishes no illusions in regard to the
+objects of his admiration. They have done what he would like to do,
+and what he hopes to be able to do sometime. He thinks of the
+successful men as being of the same kind with himself. They are more
+fortunate, that is all.
+</p>
+<h3>
+IV
+</h3>
+<p>
+The same temperamental quality is seen in the American idealist. His
+attitude toward his spiritual leaders is seldom that of meek
+discipleship. It is rather that of frank, outspoken comradeship. No
+mysterious barrier separates the great man from the common man. One
+has more, the other has less, that is all.
+</p>
+<p>
+The men who have cherished the finest ideals have insisted that these
+should be shared by the multitude. In a newspaper of sixty years ago
+there is this contemporary character sketch: "Ralph Waldo Emerson is
+the most erratic and capricious man in America. He is emphatically a
+democrat of the world, and believes that what Plato thought, another
+man may think. What Shakespeare sang, another man may know as well. As
+for emperors, kings, queens, princes, or presidents, he looks upon
+them as children in masquerade. He has no patience with the
+chicken-hearted who refer to mouldy records or old almanacs to
+ascertain if they may say that their souls are their own. Mr. Emerson
+is a strange compound of contradictions. Always right in practice,
+and sometimes in theory. He is a sociable, accessible, republican sort
+of man, and a great admirer of nature."
+</p>
+<p>
+Could any better description be given of the kind of man whom
+Americans delight to honor? This "sociable, accessible, republican
+sort of man" happened to be endowed with gifts denied in such full
+measure to his countrymen. But they were gifts which they understood
+and appreciated. He was one of them, and expressed and interpreted
+their habitual thought. Luther used to declare that no one who had
+never had trials and temptations could understand the Holy Scriptures.
+And one might say that no one who had never taken part in a town
+meeting, or listened to the talk of neighbors at the country store, or
+traveled in an "accommodation train" in the Middle West, can fully
+understand Emerson.
+</p>
+<p>
+Critics have often written of the optimism of Emerson as if he were
+one of those who did not perceive the darker side of things. Nothing
+could be more untrue to his temper of mind. Emerson was cheerful, but
+he never pretended that the world was an altogether cheerful place to
+live in. Indeed, it distinctly needed cheering up, and that,
+according to him, is what we are here for.
+</p>
+<p>
+It might be possible to make out a list of matters of fact treated by
+Emerson and his friend Carlyle. They would be essentially the same.
+When it came to hard facts, one was as unflinching in his recognition
+as the other. There was nothing smug in Emerson's philosophy. He never
+took an apologetic attitude nor attempted to minimize difficulties.
+There was no attempt to justify the ways of God to man. But while
+agreeing in regard to the facts the friends differed as to their
+conclusions. In reading Carlyle one seems to stand at the end of a
+world struggle that has proved unavailing. Everything has been tried,
+and everything has failed. Alas! Alas!
+</p>
+<p>
+Emerson sees the same facts, but he seems to be standing at the
+beginning. The moral world is still without form and void, but the
+creative spirit is brooding upon it. "Sweet is the genesis of things."
+Emerson is pleased with the world, not because he thinks its present
+condition is very good, but because he sees so much room for it to
+become better. It is a most promising experiment. It furnishes an
+abundance of the raw materials of righteousness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nor does he flatter himself that the task of betterment is an easy
+one, or that the end is in sight. It is not a world where wishes, even
+good wishes, are fulfilled without effort. There are inexorable laws
+not of our making. The whims of good people are not respected.
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">  "For Destiny never swerves</p>
+<p class="i2"> Nor yields to man the helm."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The struggle is stem and unrelenting. It taxes all our energies. And
+yet it is exhilarating. There is a moral quick-wittedness which sees
+the smile behind the threatening mask of Fate. Destiny is after all a
+good comrade for the brave and the self-reliant.
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">  "He forbids to despair,</p>
+<p class="i2">His cheeks mantle with mirth,</p>
+<p class="i5">  And the unimagined good of man</p>
+<p class="i2">  Is yeaning at the birth."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The riddle of existence is seen not from the Old World point of view,
+but from that of the new. It is of the nature of a surprise. The
+Sphinx of Emerson is not carved in stone. It is not silent and
+motionless, waiting for answers that do not come.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is the American Sphinx leading in a game of hide-and-seek. The
+mystery of existence baffles us, not because there is no answer, but
+because there are so many. They are infinite in number, and all of
+them are true. They wait for the mind large enough to harbor them in
+all their variety, and serene enough not to be annoyed because their
+contradictions are not at once reconciled.
+</p>
+<p>
+The catalogue of ills may be never so long, but it fails to depress
+one who sees everything in the making.
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<p class="i5">   "I heard a poet answer</p>
+<p class="i2"> Aloud and cheerfully,</p>
+<p class="i5">  'Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges</p>
+<p class="i2"> Are pleasant songs to me.'</p><br/>
+
+<p class="i5">  "Uprose the merry Sphinx,</p>
+<p class="i2">And crouched no more in stone;</p>
+<p class="i5">   She melted into purple cloud.</p>
+<p class="i2">  She silvered in the moon."</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+This conception of the merry Sphinx may seem strange to the dyspeptic
+philosopher pondering on the inscrutableness of the universe. But the
+prospectors in the mining camps of the Far West, and the builders of
+new cities understand what Emerson meant. Their experience of the ups
+and downs of fortune has taught them how to find pleasure in
+uncertainty. You never can tell how anything will turn out till you
+try. That's the fun of it. They are quite ready to believe that the
+same thing holds good in the higher life.
+</p>
+<p>
+Or take the lines on "Worship." How can Worship be personified?
+Emerson's picture is not that of a patriarch on bended knee; it is
+that of a vigorous youth picking himself up after he has been knocked
+down by his antagonist.
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem" >
+ "This is he, who, felled by foes,<br/>
+  Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows."
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Religion is a kind of spiritual resilience. It is that which makes a
+man come back with new vigor to his work after his first failure. It
+is the ability to make a new beginning.
+</p>
+<p>
+In Emerson the American hurry is transformed into something of
+spiritual significance. A new commandment is given to the good man&mdash;Be
+quick! Keep moving!
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "Trenchant Time behoves to hurry,<br/> <br/>
+
+  O wise man, hearest thou the least part,<br/>
+  Seest them the rushing metamorphosis,<br/> <br/>
+
+  Dissolving all that fixture is,<br/>
+  Melts things that be to things that seem."
+</div>
+<p>
+Morality and religion must be speeded up if they are to do any useful
+work in this swift world.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the ideals of the saints and reformers were criticized, so were
+those of the scholars. Matthew Arnold's definition of culture was that
+of a man of books. It was the knowledge of the best that had been said
+and known in the past. Emerson's lines entitled "Culture" begin with a
+characteristic question and end with an equally characteristic
+affirmation. The question is&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "Can rules or tutors educate<br/>
+  The semigod whom we await?"
+</div>
+<p>
+The affirmation is that the man of culture is one who
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i8"> "to his native centre fast,</p>
+<p class="i2">  Shall into Future fuse the Past,</p>
+<p class="i5"> And the world's flowing fates in his own mould recast."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+According to this definition Abraham Lincoln, with his slight
+knowledge of the best things of the past, but with the power to fuse
+such knowledge as he had and to recast it in his own mould, was a man
+of culture. And all true Americans would agree with him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Emerson, like the "sociable, accessible, republican sort of man" that
+he was, was the foe of special privilege. The best things were, in
+his judgment, the property of all. He would take religion from the
+custody of the priests, and culture from the hands of schoolmasters,
+and restore them to their proper place, among the inalienable rights
+of man. They were simply forms of the pursuit of happiness of which
+the Declaration of Independence speaks. It is a right of which no
+potentates can justly deprive the citizen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Above all, he would protest against everything which tends to deprive
+anyone of the happiness of the forward look. There was a cheerful
+confidence that the great forces are on our side. Now and then the
+clouds gather and obscure the vision, but:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem" >
+ "There are open hours<br/>
+  When God's will sallies free<br/>
+  And the dull idiot may see<br/>
+  The flowing fortunes of a thousand years."
+</div>
+<p>
+This is the American doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" spiritually
+discerned.
+</p>
+<h3>
+V
+</h3>
+<p>
+But one need not go so far back as Emerson to see the higher reaches
+of the American temperament. Perhaps in no one have they been
+revealed with more distinctness than in William James. There are those
+who consider it dispraise of a philosopher to suggest that his work
+has local color. However that may be, William James thought as an
+American as certainly as Plato thought as a Greek. His way of
+philosophizing was one that belonged to the land of his birth.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was as distinctly American as was Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone was no
+renegade taking to the woods that he might relapse into savagery. He
+was a civilized man who preferred to be the maker of civilization
+rather than to be its victim. He preferred to blaze his own way
+through the forest. When he saw the smoke of a neighbor's chimney it
+was time for him to move on. So William James was led by instinct from
+the crowded highways to the dim border-lands of human experience. He
+preferred to dwell in the debatable lands. With a quizzical smile he
+listened to the dignitaries of philosophy. He found their completed
+systems too stuffy. He loved the wildernesses of thought where shy
+wild things hide&mdash;half hopes, half realities. They are not quite true
+now,&mdash;but they may be by and by.
+</p>
+<p>
+As other men are interested in the actual, so he was interested in the
+possible. The possibilities are not so highly finished as the facts
+that have been proved, but there are a great many more of them, and
+they are much more important. There are more things in the unexplored
+forest than in the clearing at its edge. Truth to him was not a field
+with metes and bounds. It was a continent awaiting settlement. First
+the bold pathfinders must adventure into it. Its vast spaces were
+infinitely inviting, its undeveloped resources were alluring. And not
+only did the path-finder interest him but the path-loser as well. But
+for his heedless audacity the work of exploration would languish. Was
+ever a philosopher so humorously tender to the intellectual vagabonds,
+the waifs and strays of the spiritual world!
+</p>
+<p>
+Their reports of vague meanderings in the border-land were listened to
+without scorn. They might be ever so absent-minded and yet have
+stumbled upon something which wiser men had missed. No one was more
+keen to criticize the hard-and-fast dogmas of the wise and prudent or
+more willing to learn what might, by chance, have been revealed unto
+babes. The one thing he demanded was space. His universe must not be
+finished or inclosed. After a rational system had been formulated and
+declared to be the Whole, his first instinct was to get away from it.
+He was sure that there must be more outside than there was inside.
+"The 'through-and-through' universe seems to suffocate me with its
+infallible, impeccable all-pervasiveness. Its necessity with no
+possibilities, its relations with no subjects, make me feel as if I
+had entered into a contract with no reserved rights."
+</p>
+<p>
+Formal philosophy seemed to him to be "too buttoned-up and
+white-chokered and clean-shaven a thing to speak for the vast,
+slow-breathing, unconscious Kosmos with its dread abysses and its
+unknown tides. The freedom we want is not the freedom, with a string
+tied to its leg and warranted not to fly away, of that philosophy. Let
+it fly away, we say, from <i>us</i>. What then?"
+</p>
+<p>
+To this American there must be a true democracy among the faculties of
+the mind. The logical understanding must not be allowed to put on
+priggish airs. The feelings have their rights also. "They may be as
+prophetic and as anticipatory of truth as anything else we have."
+There must be give and take; "what hope is there of squaring and
+settling opinions unless Absolutism will hold parley on this common
+ground and admit that all philosophies are hypotheses, to which all
+our faculties, emotional as well as logical, help us, and the truest
+of which will in the final integration of things be found in
+possession of the men whose faculties on the whole had the best
+divining power?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Do not those words give us a glimpse of the American mind in its
+natural working. Its genius is anticipatory. It is searching for a
+common ground on which all may meet. It puts its trust not in the
+thinker who can put his thoughts in the most neat form, but the man
+whose faculties have <i>on the whole the best divining power</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+To listen to William James was to experience an illogical elation&mdash;and
+to feel justified in it. He was an unsparing critic of things as they
+are, but his criticism left us in no mood of depression. Our interest
+is with things as they are going to be. The universe is growing. Let
+us grow with it.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    I
+</h3>
+<p>
+When, as a child, I learned the Westminster Catechism by heart I found
+the Ten Commandments easy to remember. There was something
+straightforward in these prohibitions. Once started in the right
+direction one could hardly stray from the path. But I stumbled over
+the question, in regard to certain Commandments, "What are the reasons
+annexed?"
+</p>
+<p>
+That a commandment should be committed to memory seemed just. I was
+prepared to submit to the severest tests of verbal accuracy. But that
+there should be "reasons annexed," and that these also should be
+remembered, seemed to my youthful understanding a grievance. It made
+the path of the obedient hard. To this day there is a haziness about
+the "reasons" that contrasts with the sharp outlines of the
+commandments.
+</p>
+<p>
+I fancy that news-gatherers have the same experience. They are
+diligent in collecting items of news and reporting them to the world,
+but it is a real hardship to them to have to give any rational account
+of these bits of fact. They tell what is done in different parts of
+the world, but they forget to mention "the moving why they did it."
+The consequence is that, in this age of instantaneous communication,
+we know what is going on in other countries, but it seems very
+irrational. The rational elements have been lost in the process of
+transmission.
+</p>
+<p>
+There has, for example, been no lack of news cabled across the
+Atlantic in regard to the nominations for President of the United
+States. The European reader is made aware that a great deal of strong
+feeling has been evoked, and strong language used. When a picturesque
+term of reproach has been hurled by one candidate at another it is
+promptly reported to a waiting world. But the "reasons annexed" are
+calmly ignored. The consequence is that the reader is confirmed in his
+exaggerated idea of the nervous irritability of the American people.
+There seems to be a periodicity in their seizures. At intervals of
+four years they indulge in an orgy of mutual recrimination, and then
+suddenly return to their normal state of money-getting. It is all very
+unaccountable. Doubtless the most charitable explanation is the
+climate.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was after giving prominence to an unusually vivid bit of political
+vituperation that a conservative London newspaper remarked, "All this
+is characteristically American, but it shocks the unaccustomed ears of
+Europe."
+</p>
+<p>
+As I read the rebuke I felt positively ashamed of my country and its
+untutored ways. I pictured Europe as a dignified lady of mature years
+listening to the screams issuing from her neighbor's nursery. She had
+not been used to hearing naughty words called out in such a loud tone
+of voice. Instead of discussing their grievances calmly, they were
+actually calling one another names.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was therefore with a feeling of chastened humility that I turned to
+the columns devoted to the more decorous doings of Europe. Here I
+should find examples worthy of consideration. They are drawn from the
+homes of ancient civility. Would that our rude politicians might be
+brought under these refining influences and learn how to behave!
+</p>
+<p>
+But alas! When we drop in upon our neighbors, unannounced, things are
+sometimes not so tidy as they are on the days "at home." The hostess
+is flustered and evidently has troubles of her own. So, as ill-luck
+would have it, it is with Dame Europe's household. The visitor from
+across the Atlantic is surprised at the obstreperousness of the more
+vigorous members of the family. Evidently a great many interesting
+things are going on, but the standard of deportment is not high.
+</p>
+<p>
+While the unaccustomed ears of Europe were shocked at the shrill cries
+from the rival conventions at Chicago and Baltimore, there was equal
+turbulence in the Italian Parliament at Rome. There were shouts and
+catcalls and every sign of uncontrollable violence. What are the
+"reasons annexed" to all this uproar? I do not know. In Budapest such
+unparliamentary expressions as "swine," "liar," "thief," and
+"assassin" were freely used in debate. An honorable member who had
+been expelled for the use of too strong language, returned to "shoot
+up" the House. The chairman, after dodging three shots, declared that
+he must positively insist on better order.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the German Reichstag a member threatens the Kaiser with the fate of
+Charles the First, if he does not speedily mend his ways. He suggests
+as a fit Imperial residence the castle where the Mad King of Bavaria
+was allowed to exercise his erratic energies without injury to the
+commonweal. At the mention of Charles the First the chamber was in an
+uproar, and amid a tumult of angry voices the session was brought to a
+close.
+</p>
+<p>
+In Russia, unseemly clamor is kept from the carefully guarded ears of
+the Czar. There art conspires with nature to produce peace. We read of
+the Czar's recent visit to his ancient capital: "The police during the
+previous night made three thousand arrests. The Czar and Czarina drove
+through the city amid the ringing of bells, and with banners flying."
+</p>
+<p>
+On reading this item the American reader plucks up heart. If, during
+the Chicago convention, the police had made three thousand arrests the
+sessions might have been as quiet as those of the Duma.
+</p>
+<p>
+Even the proceedings of the British House of Commons are disappointing
+to the pilgrim in search of decorum. The Mother of Parliaments has
+trouble with her unruly brood.
+</p>
+<p>
+We enter the sacred precincts as a Member rises to a point of order.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I desire to ask your ruling, Mr. Speaker, as to whether the honorable
+gentleman is entitled to allude to Members of the House as
+miscreants."
+</p>
+<p>
+The Speaker: "I do not think the term 'miscreant' is a proper
+Parliamentary expression."
+</p>
+<p>
+This is very elementary teaching, but it appears that Mr. Speaker is
+not infrequently compelled to repeat his lesson. It is "line upon line
+and precept upon precept."
+</p>
+<p>
+The records of the doings of the House contain episodes which would be
+considered exciting in Arizona. We read: "For five minutes the
+Honorable George Lansbury defied the Speaker, insulted the Prime
+Minister, and scorned the House of Commons. He raved in an ecstasy of
+passion; challenging, taunting, and defying." The trouble began with a
+statement of Mr. Asquith's. "Then up jumped Mr. Lansbury, his face
+contorted with passion, and his powerful rasping voice dominating the
+whole House. Shouting and waving his arms, he approached the
+Government Front Bench with a curious crouching gait, like a boxer
+leaving his corner in the ring. One or two Liberals on the bench
+behind Mr. Asquith half rose, but the Prime Minister sat stolidly
+gazing above the heads of the opposition, his arms folded, and his
+lips pursed. Mr. Lansbury had worked himself up into a state of frenzy
+and, facing the Prime Minister, he shouted, 'You are beneath my
+contempt! Call yourself a gentleman! You ought to be driven from
+public life.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+I cannot remember any scene like this in Disraeli's novels. The House
+of Commons used to be called the best club in Europe. But that, says
+the Conservative critic, was before the members were paid.
+</p>
+<h3>
+II
+</h3>
+<p>
+But certain changes, like the increased cost of living, are going on
+everywhere. The fact seems to be that all over the civilized world
+there is a noticeable falling-off in good manners in public
+discussion. It is useless for one country to point the finger of
+scorn at another, or to assume an air of injured politeness. It is
+more conducive to good understanding to join in a general confession
+of sin. We are all miserable offenders, and there is little to choose
+between us. The conventionalities which bind society together are like
+the patent glue we see advertised on the streets. A plate has been
+broken and then joined together. The strength of the adhesive
+substance is shown by the way it holds up a stone of considerable
+weight attached to it. The plate thus mended holds together admirably
+till it is put in hot water.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have no doubt but that a conservative Chinese gentleman would tell
+you that since the Republic came in there has been a sad falling-off
+in the observance of the rules of propriety as laid down by Confucius.
+The Conservative newspapers of England bewail the fact that there has
+been a lamentable change since the present Government came in. The
+arch offender is "that political Mahdi, Lloyd George, whose false
+prophecies have made deluded dervishes of hosts of British workmen,
+and who has corrupted the manners of Parliament itself."
+</p>
+<p>
+This wicked Mahdi, by his appeals to the passions of the populace, has
+destroyed the old English reverence for Law.
+</p>
+<p>
+I do not know what may be the cause, but the American visitor does
+notice that the English attitude towards the laws of the realm is not
+so devout as he had been led to expect. We have from our earliest
+youth been taught to believe that the law-abidingness of the
+Englishman was innate and impeccable. It was not that, like the good
+man of whom the Psalmist speaks, he meditated on the law day and
+night. He didn't need to. Decent respect for the law was in his blood.
+He simply could not help conforming to it.
+</p>
+<p>
+And this impression is confirmed by the things which the tourist goes
+to see. The stately mansions embowered in green and guarded by
+immemorial oaks are accepted as symbolic of an ordered life. The
+multitudinous rooks suggest security which comes from triumphant
+legality. No irresponsible person shoots them. When one enters a
+cathedral close he feels that he is in a land that frowns on the
+crudity of change. Here everything is a "thousand years the same." And
+how decent is the demeanor of a verger!
+</p>
+<p>
+When the pilgrim from Kansas arrives at an ancient English inn he
+feels that he must be on his good behavior. Boots in his green apron
+is a lesson to him. He is not like a Western hotel bell-boy on the way
+to becoming something else. He knows his place. Everybody, he
+imagines, in this country knows his place, and there is no unseemly
+crowding and pushing. And what stronger proof can there be that this
+is a land where law is reverenced than the demeanor of a London
+policeman. There is no truculence about him, no show of physical
+force. He is so mild-eyed and soft of speech that one feels that he
+has been shielded from rude contact with the world. He represents the
+Law in a land where law is sacred. He is instinctively obeyed. He has
+but to wave his hand and traffic stops.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the traveler is told that in the vicinity of the House of Commons
+traffic is stopped to allow a Member to cross the street, his
+admiration increases. Fancy a Congressman being treated with such
+respect! But the argument which, on the whole, makes the deepest
+impression is the deferential manners of the tradesmen with their
+habit of saying, "Thank you," apropos of nothing at all. It seems an
+indication of perpetual gratitude over the fact that things are as
+they are.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when one comes to listen to the talk of the day one is surprised
+to find a surprising lack of docility. I doubt whether the Englishman
+has the veneration for the abstract idea of Law which is common among
+Americans. Indeed, he is accustomed to treat most abstractions with
+scant courtesy. There is nothing quite corresponding to the average
+American's feeling about a decision of the Supreme Court. The Law has
+spoken, let all the land keep silent. It seems like treason to
+criticize it, like anarchy to defy it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tennyson's words about "reverence for the laws ourselves have made"
+needs to be interpreted by English history. It is a peculiar kind of
+reverence and has many limitations. A good deal depends on what is
+meant by "ourselves." An act of Parliament does not at once become an
+object of reverence by the members of the opposition party. It was
+not, they feel, made by <i>them</i>, it was made by a Government which was
+violently opposed to them and which was bent on ruining the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is only after a sufficient time has elapsed to allow for the
+partisan origin to be forgotten, and for it to become assimilated to
+the habits of thought and manner of life of the people that it is
+deeply respected. The English reverence is not for statute law, but
+for the common law which is the slow accretion of ages. A new
+enactment is treated like the new boy at school. He must submit to a
+period of severe hazing before he is given a place of any honor.
+</p>
+<p>
+To the American when an act of Congress has been declared
+constitutional, a decent respect for the opinion of mankind seems to
+suggest that verbal criticism should cease. The council of perfection
+is that the law should be obeyed till such time as it can be repealed
+or explained away. If it should become a dead letter, propriety would
+demand that no evil should be spoken of it. Since the days of Andrew
+Jackson the word "nullification" has had an ugly and dangerous sound.
+</p>
+<p>
+But to the Englishman this attitude seems somewhat superstitious. The
+period of opposition to a measure is not ended when it has passed
+Parliament and received the royal assent. The question is whether it
+will receive the assent of the people. Can it get itself obeyed? If it
+can, then its future is assured for many generations. But it must pass
+through an exciting period of probation.
+</p>
+<p>
+If it is a matter that arouses much feeling the British way is for
+some one to disobey and take the consequences. Passive
+resistance&mdash;with such active measures as may make the life of the
+enforcers of the law a burden to them&mdash;is a recognized method of
+political and religious propagandism.
+</p>
+<p>
+In periods when the national life has run most swiftly this kind of
+resistance to what has been considered the tyranny of lawmakers has
+always been notable. Emerson's "the chambers of the great are jails"
+was literally true of the England of the seventeenth century. Every
+one who made any pretension to moral leadership was intent on going to
+jail in behalf of some principle or another.
+</p>
+<p>
+John Bunyan goes to jail rather than attend the parish church, George
+Fox goes to jail rather than take off his hat in the presence of the
+magistrate. Why should he do so when there was no Scripture for it?
+When it was said that the Scripture had nothing to say about hats, he
+was ready with his triumphant reference to Daniel III, 21, where it is
+said that the three Hebrew children wore "their coats, their hosen,
+their hats and their other garments" in the fiery furnace. If
+Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego wore their hats before Nebuchadnezzar
+and kept them on even in the fiery furnace, why should a free-born
+Englishman take his hat off in the presence of a petty Justice of the
+Peace? Fervent Fifth Monarchy men were willing to die rather than
+acknowledge any king but King Jesus who was about to come to reign.
+Non-juring bishops were willing to go to jail rather than submit to
+the judgment of Parliament as to who should be king in England.
+Puritans and Covenanters of the more logical sort refused to accept
+toleration unless it were offered on their own terms. They had been a
+"persecuted remnant" and they proposed to remain such or know the
+reason why.
+</p>
+<p>
+Beneath his crust of conformity the Briton has an admiration for these
+recalcitrant individuals who will neither bow the knee to Baal nor to
+his betters. He likes a man who is a law unto himself. Though he has
+little enthusiasm for the abstract "rights of man," he is a great
+believer in "the liberty of prophesying." The prophet is not without
+honor, even while he is being stoned.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just at this time things are moving almost as rapidly as they did in
+the seventeenth century. There is the same clash of opinion and
+violence of party spirit. All sorts of non-conformities struggle for a
+hearing. One is reminded of that most stirring period, which is so
+delightful to read about, and which must have been so trying for quiet
+people to live through.
+</p>
+<p>
+A host of earnest and wide-awake persons are engaged in the task of
+doing what they are told not to do. Their enthusiasm takes the form of
+resistance to some statute made or proposed.
+</p>
+<p>
+The conscientious women who throw stones through shop windows, and lay
+violent hands on cabinet ministers, do so, avowedly, to bring certain
+laws into disrepute. They go on hunger-strikes, not in order to be
+released from prison, but in order to be treated as political
+prisoners. They insist that their methods should be recognized as acts
+of legitimate warfare. They may be extreme in their actions, but they
+are not alone in their theory.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Insurance Law, by which all workers whose wages are below a
+certain sum are compulsorily insured against sickness and the losses
+that follow it, is just going into effect. Its provisions are
+necessarily complicated, and its administration must at first be
+difficult. The Insurance-Law Resisters are organized to nullify the
+act. Its enormities are held up before all eyes, and it is flouted in
+every possible way. According to this law, a lady is compelled to pay
+three-pence a week toward the insurance fund for each servant in her
+employ. Will she pay that three-pence? No! Though twenty acts of
+Parliament should declare that it must be done, she will resist. As
+for keeping accounts, and putting stamps in a book, she will do
+nothing of the kind. What is it about a stamp act that arouses such
+fierceness of resistance?
+</p>
+<p>
+High-born ladies declare that they would rather go to jail than obey
+such a law. At a meeting at Albert Hall the Resisters were addressed
+by a duchess who was "supported by a man-servant." What can a mere Act
+of Parliament do when confronted by such a combination as that?
+Passive resistance takes on heroic proportions when a duchess and a
+man-servant confront the Law with haughty immobility.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the mean time, Mr. Tom Mann goes to jail, amid the applause of
+organized labor, for advising the British soldier not to obey orders
+when he is commanded to fire on British working-men.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Tom Mann is a labor agitator, while Mr. Bonar Law is the leader of
+the Conservative party; but when it comes to legislation which he does
+not like, Mr. Bonar Law's language is fully as incendiary. He is not
+content with opposing the Irish Home Rule Bill: he gives notice that
+when it has become a law the opposition will be continued in a more
+serious form. The passage of the bill, he declares, will be the signal
+for civil war. Ulster will fight. Parliament may pass the Home Rule
+Bill, but when it does so its troubles will have just begun. Where
+will it find the troops to coerce the province?
+</p>
+<p>
+One of the most distinguished Unionist Members of Parliament,
+addressing a great meeting at Belfast says, "You are sometimes asked
+whether you propose to resist the English army? I reply that even if
+this Government had the wickedness (which, on the whole, I believe),
+it is wholly lacking in the nerve required to give an order which in
+my deliberate judgment would shatter for years the civilization of
+these islands." If the Government does not have the nerve to employ
+its troops, "It will be for the moon-lighters and the cattle-maimers
+to conquer Ulster themselves, and it will be for you to show whether
+you are worse men, or your enemies better men, than the forefathers of
+you both. But I note with satisfaction that you are preparing
+yourselves by the practice of exercises, and by the submission to
+discipline, for the struggle which is not unlikely to test your
+determination. The Nationalists are determined to rule you. You are
+determined not to be ruled. A collision of wills so sharp may well
+defy the resources of a peaceful solution.... On this we are agreed,
+that the crisis has called into existence one of those supreme issues
+of conscience amid which the ordinary landmarks of permissible
+resistance to technical law are submerged."
+</p>
+<p>
+When one goes to the Church to escape from these sharp antagonisms,
+he is confronted with huge placards giving notice of meetings to
+protest against "The Robbery of God." The robber in this case is the
+Government, which proposes to disendow, as well as disestablish, the
+Church in Wales. Noble lords denounce the outrage. Mr. Lloyd George
+replies by reminding their lordships that their landed estates were,
+before the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, Church
+property. If they wish to make restitution of the spoil which their
+ancestors took, well and good. But let them not talk about the robbery
+of God, while their hands are "dripping with the fat of sacrilege."
+</p>
+<p>
+The retort is effective, but it does not make Mr. Lloyd George beloved
+by the people to whom it is addressed. Twitting on facts has always
+been considered unmannerly.
+</p>
+<h3>
+III
+</h3>
+<p>
+When we hear the acrimonious discussions and the threats of violence,
+it is well to consider the reason for it all. I think the reason is
+one that is not discreditable to those concerned. These are not
+ordinary times, and they are not to be judged by ordinary standards.
+England is at the present time passing through a revolution, the
+issues of which are still in doubt. Revolutionary passions have been
+liberated by the rapid course of events. "Every battle of the warrior
+is with confused noise." The confused noise may be disagreeable to
+persons of sensitive nerves, but it is a part of the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+When we consider the nature of the changes that have been made in the
+last few years, and the magnitude of those which are proposed, we do
+not wonder at the tone of exasperation which is common to all parties.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is seldom that a constitutional change, like that which deprived
+the House of Lords of powers exercised for a thousand years, has been
+made without an appeal to arms. But there was no civil war. Perhaps
+the old fashion of sturdy blows would have been less trying to the
+temper.
+</p>
+<p>
+A revolution is at the best an unmannerly proceeding. It cannot be
+carried on politely, because it involves not so much a change of ideas
+and methods as a change of masters. A change of ideas may be discussed
+in an amiable and orderly way. The honorable gentlemen who have the
+responsibility for the decision are respectfully asked to revise their
+opinions in the light of new evidence which, by their leave, will be
+presented.
+</p>
+<p>
+But a change of masters cannot be managed so inoffensively. The
+honorable gentlemen are not asked to revise their opinions. They are
+told that their opinions are no longer important. The matter is
+severely personal. The statement is not, "We do not believe in your
+ideas"; it is, "We do not believe in <i>you</i>."
+</p>
+<p>
+When political discussion takes this turn, then there is an end to the
+amenities suited to a more quiet time. It is no longer a question as
+to which is the better cause, but as to which is the better man.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Asquith, who has retained in this revolutionary period the manners
+of the old school, recently said in his reply to a delegation of his
+opponents, "When people are on opposite sides of a chasm they may be
+courteous to one another, and regret the impossibility of their
+shaking hands, or doing more than wave a courteous gesture across so
+wide a space."
+</p>
+<p>
+These are the words of a gentleman in politics, and express a
+beautiful ideal. But they hardly describe the present situation. As
+to waving a courteous salutation to the people on the other
+side,&mdash;that depends on who the people are. If you know them and have
+been long familiar with their good qualities, the courteous salutation
+is natural. They are, as you know, much better than their opinions.
+</p>
+<p>
+But it is different when they are people whom you do not know, and
+with whom you have nothing in common. You suspect their motives, and
+feel a contempt for their abilities. They are not of your set. The
+word "gentleman" is derived from the word <i>gens</i>. People of the same
+<i>gens</i> learn to treat each other in a considerate way. Even when they
+differ they remember what is due to gentle blood and gentle training.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is quite evident that the challenge of the new democracy to the old
+ruling classes has everywhere produced exasperation. It is no longer
+easy to wave courteous salutations across the chasms which divide
+parties. Political discussion takes a rude turn. It is no longer
+possible to preserve the proprieties. We may expect the minor
+moralities to suffer while the major moralities are being determined
+by hard knocks.
+</p>
+<p>
+Good manners depend on the tacit understanding of all parties as to
+their relations to one another. Nothing can be more brutal than for
+one to claim superiority, or more rude than for another to dispute the
+claim. Such differences of station should, if they exist, be taken for
+granted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Relations which were established by force may, after a time, be made
+so beautiful that their origin is forgotten. There must be no display
+of unnecessary force. The battle having been decided, victor and
+vanquished change parts. It pleases the conqueror to sign himself,
+"Your obedient servant," and to inquire whether certain terms would be
+agreeable. Of course they would be agreeable. So says the disarmed man
+looking upward to his late foe, now become his protector.
+</p>
+<p>
+And the conqueror with grave good will takes up the burden which
+Providence has imposed upon him. Is not the motto of the true knight,
+<i>Ich dien</i>? Such service as he can render shall be given ungrudgingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, this is not hypocrisy. It may be Christianity and Chivalry and
+all sorts of fine things. It is making the best of an accepted
+situation. When relations which were established by force have been
+sanctioned by custom, and embodied in law, and sanctified by religion,
+they form a soil in which many pleasant things may grow. In the
+vicinity of Vesuvius they will tell you that the best soils are of
+volcanic origin.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hodge and Sir Lionel meet in the garden which one owns, and in which
+the other digs with the sweat of his brow. There is kindly interest on
+the one hand, and decent respect on the other. But all this sense of
+ordered righteousness is dependent on one condition. Neither must eat
+of the fruit of the tree of knowledge that grows in the midst of the
+garden. A little knowledge is dangerous, a good deal of knowledge may
+be even more dangerous, to the relations which custom has established.
+</p>
+<p>
+What right has Sir Lionel to lay down the law for Hodge? Why should
+not Hodge have a right to have his point of view considered? When
+Hodge begins seriously to ponder this question his manners suffer. And
+when Sir Lionel begins to assert his superiority, instead of taking it
+for granted, his behavior lacks its easy charm. It is very hard to
+explain such things in a gentlemanly way.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, the exasperation in the tone of political discussion in Great
+Britain, as elsewhere in the world, is largely explained by the fact
+that all sorts of superiorities have been challenged at the same time.
+Everywhere the issue is sharply made. "Who shall rule?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Shall Ireland any longer submit to be ruled by the English? The Irish
+Nationalists swear by all the saints that, rather than submit, they
+will overthrow the present Government and return to their former
+methods of agitation.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the Home Rule Bill be enacted into law, will Ulster submit to be
+ruled by a Catholic majority? The men of Ulster call upon the spirits
+of their heroic sires, who triumphed at the Boyne, to bear witness
+that they will never yield.
+</p>
+<p>
+Will the masses of the people submit any longer to the existing
+inequalities in political representation? No! They demand immediate
+recognition of the principle, "One man, one vote." The many will not
+allow the few to make laws for them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Will the women of England kindly wait a little till their demands can
+be considered in a dignified way? No! They will not take their place
+in the waiting-line. Others get what they want by pushing; so will
+they.
+</p>
+<p>
+Will the Labor party be a little less noisy and insistent in its
+demands? All will come in time, but one Reform must say to another,
+"After you." Hoarse voices cry, "We care nothing for etiquette, we
+must have what we demand, and have it at once. We cannot stand still.
+If we are pushing, we are also pushed from behind. If you do not give
+us what we ask for, the Socialists and the Syndicalists will be upon
+you." There is always the threat of a General Strike. Laborers have
+hitherto been starved into submission. But two can play at that game.
+</p>
+<h3>
+IV
+</h3>
+<p>
+This is not the England of Sir Roger de Coverley with its cheerful
+contentment with the actual, and its deference for all sorts of
+dignitaries. It is not, in its present temper, a model of propriety.
+But, in my judgment, it is all the more interesting, and full of hope.
+To say that England is in the midst of a revolution is not to say that
+some dreadful disaster is impending. It only means that this is a time
+when events move very rapidly, and when precedents count for little.
+But it is a time when common sense and courage and energy count for a
+great deal; and there is no evidence that these qualities are lacking.
+I suspect that the alarmists are not so alarmed as their language
+would lead us to suppose. They know their countrymen, and that they
+have the good sense to avoid most of the collisions that they declare
+to be inevitable.
+</p>
+<p>
+I take comfort in the philosophy which I glean from the top of a
+London motor-bus. From my point of vantage I look down upon pedestrian
+humanity as a Superman might look down upon it. It seems to consist of
+a vast multitude of ignorant folk who are predestined to immediate
+annihilation. As the ungainly machine on which I am seated rushes down
+the street, it seems admirably adapted for its mission of destruction.
+The barricade in front of me, devoted to the praise of BOVRIL, is just
+high enough to prevent my seeing what actually happens, but it gives a
+bloodcurdling view of catastrophes that are imminent. I have an
+impression of a procession of innocent victims rushing heedlessly upon
+destruction. Three yards in front of the onrushing wheels is an old
+gentleman crossing the street. He suddenly stops. There is, humanly
+speaking, no hope for him. Two nursemaids appear in the field of
+danger. A butcher's boy on a bicycle steers directly for the bus. He
+may be given up for lost. I am not able to see what becomes of them,
+but I am prepared for the worst. Still the expected crunch does not
+come, and the bus goes on.
+</p>
+<p>
+Between Notting Hill Gate and Charing Cross I have seen eighteen
+persons disappear in this mysterious fashion. I could swear that when
+I last saw them it seemed too late for them to escape their doom.
+</p>
+<p>
+But on sober reflection I come to the conclusion that I should have
+taken a more hopeful view if I had not been so high up; if, for
+example, I had been sitting with the driver where I could have seen
+what happened at the last moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was much comfort in the old couplet:&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+  "Betwixt the saddle and the ground,<br/>
+  He mercy sought and mercy found."
+</div>
+<p>
+And betwixt the pedestrian and the motor-bus, there are many chances
+of safety that I could not foresee. The old gentleman was perhaps more
+spry than he looked. The nursemaids and the butcher's boy must
+assuredly have perished unless they happened to have their wits about
+them. But in all probability they did have their wits about them, and
+so did the driver of the motor-bus.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    I
+</h3>
+<p>
+When we think of a thorough-going conservative we are likely to
+picture him as a stay-at-home person, a barnacle fastened to one spot.
+We take for granted that aversion to locomotion and aversion to change
+are the same thing. But in thinking thus we leave out of account the
+inherent instability of human nature. Everybody likes a little change
+now and then. If a person cannot get it in one way, he gets it in
+another. The stay-at-home gratifies his wandering fancy by making
+little alterations in his too-familiar surroundings. Even the Vicar of
+Wakefield in the days of his placid prosperity would occasionally
+migrate from the blue bed to the brown. A life that had such
+vicissitudes could not be called uneventful.
+</p>
+<p>
+When you read the weekly newspaper published in the quietest hill-town
+in Vermont, you become aware that a great deal is going on. Deacon
+Pratt shingled his barn last week. Miss Maria Jones had new shutters
+put on her house, and it is a great improvement. These revolutions in
+Goshenville are matters of keen interest to those concerned. They
+furnish inexhaustible material for conversation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The true enemy to innovation is the traveler who sets out to see
+historic lands. His natural love of change is satiated by rapid change
+of locality. But his natural conservatism asserts itself in his
+insistence that the places which he visits shall be true to their own
+reputations. Having journeyed, at considerable expense, to a
+celebrated spot, he wants to see the thing it was celebrated for, and
+he will accept no substitute. From his point of view the present
+inhabitants are merely caretakers who should not be allowed to disturb
+the remains intrusted to their custody. Everything must be kept as it
+used to be.
+</p>
+<p>
+The moment any one packs his trunk and puts money in his purse to
+visit lands old in story he becomes a hopeless reactionary. He is
+sallying forth to see things not as they are, but as they were "once
+upon a time." He is attracted to certain localities by something which
+happened long ago. A great many things may have happened since, but
+these must be put out of the way. One period of time must be preserved
+to satisfy his romantic imagination. He loves the good old ways, and
+he has a curiosity to see the bad old ways that may still be
+preserved. It is only the modern that offends him.
+</p>
+<p>
+The American who, in his own country, is in feverish haste to improve
+conditions, when he sets foot in Europe becomes the fanatical foe to
+progress. The Old World, in his judgment, ought to look old. He longs
+to hear the clatter of wooden shoes. If he had his way he would have
+laws enacted forbidding peasant folk to change their ancient costumes.
+He would preserve every relic of feudalism. He bitterly laments the
+division of great estates. A nobleman's park with its beautiful idle
+acres, its deer, its pheasants, and its scurrying rabbits, is so much
+more pleasant to look at than a succession of market-gardens.
+Poachers, game-keepers, and squires are alike interesting, if only
+they would dress so that he could know them apart. He is enchanted
+with thatched cottages which look damp and picturesque. He detests the
+model dwellings which are built with a too obvious regard for
+sanitation. He seeks narrow and ill-smelling streets where the houses
+nod at each other, as if in the last stages of senility, muttering
+mysterious reminiscences of old tragedies. He frequents scenes of
+ancient murders, and places where bandits once did congregate. He
+leaves the railway carriage, to cross a heath where romantic
+highwaymen used to ask the traveler to stand and deliver. He is
+indignant to find electric lights and policemen. A heath ought to be
+lonely, and fens ought to be preserved from drainage.
+</p>
+<p>
+He seeks dungeons and instruments of torture. The dungeons must be
+underground, and only a single ray of light must penetrate. He is much
+troubled to find that the dungeon in the Castle of Chillon is much
+more cheerful than he had supposed it was. The Bridge of Sighs in
+Venice disappoints him in the same way. Indeed, there are few places
+mentioned by Lord Byron that are as gloomy as they are in the poetical
+description.
+</p>
+<p>
+The traveler is very insistent in his plea for the preservation of
+battlefields. Now, Europe is very rich in battlefields, many of the
+most fertile sections having been fought over many times. But the
+ravages of agriculture are everywhere seen. There is no such leveler
+as the ploughman. Often when one has come to refresh his mind with the
+events of one terrible day, he finds that there is nothing whatever to
+remind him of what happened. For centuries there has been ploughing
+and harvesting. Nature takes so kindly to these peaceful pursuits that
+one is tempted to think of the battle as merely an episode.
+</p>
+<p>
+Commerce is almost as destructive. Cities that have been noted for
+their sieges often turn out to be surprisingly prosperous. The old
+walls are torn down to give way to parks and boulevards. Massacres
+which in their day were noted leave no trace behind. One can get more
+of an idea of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve by reading a book
+by one's fireside than by going to Paris. For all one can see there,
+there might have been no such accident.
+</p>
+<p>
+Moral considerations have little place in the traveler's mind. The
+progressive ameliorations that have taken place tend to obscure our
+sense of the old conflicts. A reform once accomplished becomes a part
+of our ordinary consciousness. We take it for granted, and find it
+hard to understand what the reformer was so excited about.
+</p>
+<p>
+As a consequence, the chief object of an historical pilgrimage is to
+discover some place where the old conditions have not been improved
+away. The religious pilgrim does not expect to find the old prophets,
+but he has a pious hope of finding the abuses which the prophets
+denounced.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have in mind a clergyman who, in his own home, is progressive to a
+fault. He is impatient of any delay. He is all the time seeking out
+the very latest inventions in social and economic reforms. But several
+years ago he made a journey to the Holy Land, and when he came back he
+delivered a lecture on his experiences. A more reactionary attitude
+could not be imagined. Not a word did he say about the progress of
+education or civil-service reform in Palestine. There was not a
+sympathetic reference to sanitation or good roads. The rights of women
+were not mentioned. Representative government seemed to be an
+abomination to him. All his enthusiasm was for the other side. He was
+for Oriental conservatism in all its forms. He was for preserving
+every survival of ancient custom. He told of the delight with which
+he watched the laborious efforts of the peasants ploughing with a
+forked stick. He believed that there had not been a single improvement
+in agriculture since the days of Abraham.
+</p>
+<p>
+The economic condition of the people had not changed for the better
+since patriarchal times, and one could still have a good idea of a
+famine such as sent the brothers of Joseph down into Egypt. Turkish
+misgovernment furnished him with a much clearer idea of the publicans,
+and the hatred they aroused in the minds of the people, than he had
+ever hoped to obtain. In fact, one could hardly appreciate the term
+"publicans and sinners" without seeing the Oriental tax-gatherers. He
+was very fortunate in being able to visit several villages which had
+been impoverished by their exactions. The rate of wages throws much
+light on the Sunday-School lessons. A penny a day does not seem such
+an insufficient minimum wage to a traveler, as it does to a
+stay-at-home person. On going down from Jerusalem to Jericho he fell
+among thieves, or at least among a group of thievish-looking Bedouins
+who gave him a new appreciation of the parable of the Samaritan. It
+was a wonderful experience. And he found that the animosity between
+the Jews and the Samaritans had not abated. To be sure, there are very
+few Samaritans left, and those few are thoroughly despised.
+</p>
+<p>
+The good-roads movement has not yet invaded Palestine, and we can
+still experience all the discomforts of the earlier times. Many a time
+when he took his life in his hands and wandered across the Judæan
+hills, my friend repeated to himself the text, "In the days of Shamgar
+the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,
+and the people walked through by-ways."
+</p>
+<p>
+To most people Shamgar is a mere name. But after you have walked for
+hours over those rocky by-ways, never knowing at what moment you may
+be attacked by a treacherous robber, you know how Shamgar felt. He
+becomes a real person. You are carried back into the days when "there
+was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his
+own eyes."
+</p>
+<p>
+The railway between Joppa and Jerusalem is to be regretted, but
+fortunately it is a small affair. There are rumors of commercial
+enterprises which, if successful, would change the appearance of many
+of the towns. Fortunately they are not likely to be successful, at
+least in our day. The brooding spirit of the East can be trusted to
+defend itself against the innovating West. For the present, at least,
+Palestine is a fascinating country to travel in.
+</p>
+<p>
+A traveler in Ceylon and India writes to a religious paper of his
+journey. He says, "Colombo has little to interest the tourist, yet it
+is a fine city." One who reads between the lines understands that the
+fact that it is a fine city is the cause of its uninterestingness. His
+impression of Madura was more satisfactory. There one can see the
+Juggernaut car drawn through the streets by a thousand men, though it
+is reluctantly admitted that the self-immolation of fanatics under the
+wheels is no longer allowed. "The Shiva temple at Madura is the more
+interesting as its towers are ornamented with six thousand idols."
+</p>
+<p>
+The writer who rejoiced at the sight of six thousand idols in Madura,
+would have been shocked at the exhibition of a single crucifix in his
+meeting-house at home.
+</p>
+<p>
+I confess that I have not been able to overcome the Tory prejudice in
+favor of vested interests in historical places. If one has traveled
+to see "the old paths which wicked men have trodden," it is a
+disappointment to find that they are not there. I had such an
+experience in Capri. We had wandered through the vineyards and up the
+steep, rocky way to the Villa of Tiberius. On the top of the cliff are
+the ruins of the pleasure-house which the Emperor in his wicked old
+age built for himself. Was there ever a greater contrast between an
+earthly paradise and abounding sinfulness? Here, indeed, was
+"spiritual wickedness in high places." The marvelously blue sea and
+all the glories of the Bay of Naples ought to have made Tiberius a
+better man; but apparently they didn't. We were prepared for the
+thrilling moment when we were led to the edge of the cliff, and told
+to look down. Here was the very place where Tiberius amused himself by
+throwing his slaves into the sea to feed the fishes. Cruel old
+monster! But it was a long time ago. Time had marvelously softened the
+atrocity of the act, and heightened its picturesque character. If
+Tiberius must exhibit his colossal inhumanity, could he have anywhere
+in all the world chosen a better spot? Just think of his coming to
+this island and, on this high cliff above the azure sea, building
+this palace! And then to think of him on a night when the moon was
+full, and the nightingales were singing, coming out and hurling a
+shuddering slave into the abyss!
+</p>
+<p>
+When we returned to the hotel, our friend the Professor, who had made
+a study of the subject, informed us that it was all a mistake. The
+stories of the wicked doings of Tiberius in Capri were malicious
+slanders. The Emperor was an elderly invalid living in dignified
+retirement. As for the slaves, we might set our minds at rest in
+regard to them. If any of them fell over the cliff it was pure
+accident. We must give up the idea that the invalid Emperor pushed
+them off.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this was reassuring to my better nature, and yet I cherished a
+grudge against the Professor. For it was a stiff climb to the Villa of
+Tiberius, and I wanted something to show for it. It was difficult to
+adjust one's mind to the fact that nothing had happened there which
+might not have happened in any well-conducted country house.
+</p>
+<p>
+I like to contrast this with our experience in Algiers. We knew
+beforehand what Algiers was like in the days of its prime. It had been
+the nest of as desperate pirates as ever infested the seas. For
+generations innocent Christians had been carried hither to pine in
+doleful captivity. But the French, we understood, had built a
+miniature Paris in the vicinity and were practicing liberty,
+fraternity, and equality on the spot dedicated to gloomily romantic
+memories. We feared the effect of this civilization. We had our
+misgivings. Perhaps Algiers might be no longer worth visiting.
+</p>
+<p>
+Luckily our steamer was delayed till sunset. We were carefully
+shepherded, so that we hardly noticed the French city. We were hurried
+through the darkness into old Algiers. Everything was full of sinister
+suggestion. The streets were as narrow and perilous as any which
+Haroun Al Raschid explored on his more perilous nights. Here one could
+believe the worst of his fellow men. Suspicion and revenge were in the
+air. We were not taking a stroll, we were escaping from something.
+Mysterious muffled figures glided by and disappeared through slits in
+the walls. There were dark corners so suggestive of homicide that one
+could hardly think that any one with an Oriental disposition could
+resist the temptation. In crypt-like recesses we could see assassins
+sharpening their daggers or, perhaps, executioners putting the
+finishing touches on their scimitars. There were cavernous rooms where
+conspirators were crouched round a tiny charcoal fire. Groups of
+truculent young Arabs followed us shouting objurgations, and accepting
+small coins as ransom. We had glimpses of a mosque, the outside of a
+prison, and the inside of what once was a harem. On returning to the
+steamer one gentleman fell overboard and, swimming to the shore, was
+rescued by a swarthy ruffian who robbed him of his watch and
+disappeared in the darkness. When the victim of Algerian piracy stood
+on the deck, dripping and indignant, and told his tale of woe, we were
+delighted. Algiers would always be something to remember. It was one
+of the places that had not been spoiled.
+</p>
+<p>
+I am afraid that the sunlight might have brought disillusion. Some of
+the stealthy figures which gave rise to such thrilling suspicions may
+have turned out to be excellent fathers and husbands returning from
+business. As it is, thanks to the darkness, Algiers remains a city of
+vague atrocities. It does not belong to the commonplace world; it is
+of such stuff as dreams, including nightmares, are made of.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is not without some compunction of conscience that I recall two
+historical pilgrimages, one to Assisi, the other to Geneva. Assisi I
+found altogether rewarding, while in Geneva I was disappointed. In
+each case my object was purely selfish, and had nothing in common with
+the welfare of the present inhabitants. I wanted to see the city of
+St. Francis and the city of John Calvin.
+</p>
+<p>
+In Assisi one may read again the Franciscan legends in their proper
+settings. I should like to think that my pleasure in Assisi arose from
+the fact that I saw some one there who reminded me of St. Francis. But
+I was not so fortunate. If one is anxious to come in contact with the
+spirit of St. Francis, freed from its mediæval limitations, a visit to
+Hull House, Chicago, would be more rewarding.
+</p>
+<p>
+But it was not the spirit of St. Francis, but his limitations, that we
+were after. Assisi has preserved them all. We see the gray old town on
+the hillside, the narrow streets, the old walls. We are beset by
+swarms of beggars. They are not like the half-starved creatures one
+may see in the slums of northern cities. They are very likable. They
+are natural worshipers of my Lady Poverty. They have not been spoiled
+by commonplace industrialism or scientific philanthropy. One is taken
+back into the days when there was a natural affinity between saints
+and beggars. The saints would joyously give away all that they had,
+and the beggars would as joyously accept it. After the beggars had
+used up all the saints had given them, the saints would go out and beg
+for more. The community, you say, would be none the better. Perhaps
+not. But the moment you begin to talk about the community you
+introduce ideas that are modern and disturbing. One thing is certain,
+and that is that if Assisi were more thrifty, it would be less
+illuminating historically.
+</p>
+<p>
+St. Francis might come back to Assisi and take up his work as he left
+it. But I sought in vain for John Calvin in Geneva. The city was too
+prosperous and gay. The cheerful houses, the streets with their
+cosmopolitan crowds, the parks, the schools, the university, the
+little boats skimming over the lake, all bore witness to the
+well-being of to-day. But what of yesterday? The citizens were
+celebrating the anniversary of Jean Jacques Rousseau. I realized that
+it was not yesterday but the day before yesterday that I was seeking.
+Where was the stern little city which Calvin taught and ruled? The
+place that knew him knows him no more.
+</p>
+<p>
+Disappointed in my search for Calvin, I sought compensation in
+Servetus. I found the stone placed by modern Calvinists to mark the
+spot where the Spanish heretic was burned. On it they had carved an
+inscription expressing their regret for the act of intolerance on the
+part of the reformer, and attributing the blame to the age in which he
+lived. But even this did not satisfy modern Geneva. The inscription
+had been chipped away in order to give place I was told, to something
+more historically accurate.
+</p>
+<p>
+But whether Calvin was to blame, or the sixteenth century, did not
+seem to matter. The spot was so beautiful that it seemed impossible
+that anything tragical could ever have happened here. A youth and
+maiden were sitting by the stone, engaged in a most absorbing
+conversation. Of one thing I was certain, that the theological
+differences between Calvin and Servetus were nothing to them. They had
+something more important to think about&mdash;at least for them.
+</p>
+
+<h3>
+II
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+After a time one comes to have a certain modesty of expectation. Time
+and Space are different elements, and each has its own laws. At the
+price of a steamship ticket one may be transported to another country,
+but safe passage to another age is not guaranteed. It is enough if
+some slight suggestion is given to the imagination. A walk through a
+pleasant neighborhood is all the pleasanter if one knows that
+something memorable has happened there. If one is wise he will not
+attempt to realize it to the exclusion of the present scene. It is
+enough to have a slight flavor of historicity.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was this pleasure which I enjoyed in a ramble with a friend through
+the New Forest. The day was fine, and it would have been a joy to be
+under the greenwood trees if no one had been before us. But the New
+Forest had a human interest; for on such a day as this, William Rufus
+rode into it to hunt the red deer, and was found with an arrow
+through his body. And to this day no man knows who killed William
+Rufus, or why. Though, of course, some people have their suspicions.
+</p>
+<p>
+Many other things may have happened in the New Forest in the centuries
+that have passed, but they have never been brought vividly to my
+attention. So far as I was concerned there were no confusing
+incidents. The Muse of History told one tragic tale and then was
+silent.
+</p>
+<p>
+On the other side of the Forest was the Rufus stone marking the spot
+where the Red King's body was found. At Brockenhurst we inquired the
+way, which we carefully avoided. The road itself was an innovation,
+and was infested with motor-cars, machines unknown to the Normans. The
+Red King had plunged into the Forest and quickly lost himself; so
+would we. There were great oaks and wide-spreading beeches and green
+glades such as one finds only in England. It was pleasant to feel that
+it all belonged to the Crown. I could not imagine a county council
+allowing this great stretch of country to remain in its unspoiled
+beauty through these centuries.
+</p>
+<p>
+We took our frugal lunch under a tree that had looked down on many
+generations. Then we wandered on through a green wilderness. We saw no
+one but some women gathering fagots. I was glad to see that they were
+exercising their ancestral rights in the royal domain. They looked
+contented, though I should have preferred to have their dress more
+antique.
+</p>
+<p>
+All day we followed William Rufus through the Forest. I began to feel
+that I had a real acquaintance with him, having passed through much
+the same experience. The forest glades have been little changed since
+the day when he hunted the red deer. Nature is the true conservative,
+and repeats herself incessantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Toward evening my friend pointed out the hill at the foot of which was
+the Rufus stone. It was still some two miles away. Should we push on
+to it?
+</p>
+<p>
+What should we see when we got there? The stone was not much. There
+was a railing round it as a protection against relic-hunters. And
+there was an inscription which, of course, was comparatively modern.
+That settled it. We would not go to the stone with its modern
+inscription. The ancient trees brought us much nearer to William
+Rufus. Besides, there was just time, if we walked briskly, to catch
+the train at Brockenhurst.
+</p>
+<h3>
+III
+</h3>
+<p>
+A week which stands out in my memory as one of perfect communion with
+the past was spent with another English friend in Llanthony Abbey, in
+the Vale of Ewyas, in the Black Mountains of Wales. We had gone
+prepared for camping with a tent of ethereal lightness, which was to
+protect us from the weather.
+</p>
+<p>
+For the first night we were to tarry amid the ruins of the
+twelfth-century abbey, some parts of which had been roofed over and
+used as an inn. When we arrived, the rain was falling in torrents.
+Soon after supper we took our candles and climbed the winding stone
+stairs to our rooms in the tower. The stones were uneven and worn by
+generations of pious feet. Outside we could see the ruined nave of the
+church, with all the surrounding buildings. We were in another age.
+</p>
+<p>
+Had the sun shined next morning we should have gone on our gypsy
+journey, and Llanthony Abbey would have been only an incident. But
+for five days and five nights the rain descended. We could make
+valiant sallies, but were driven back for shelter. Shut in by "the
+tumultuous privacy of storm," one felt a sense of ownership. Only one
+book could be obtained, the "Life and Letters" of Walter Savage
+Landor. I had always wanted to know more of Landor and here was the
+opportunity.
+</p>
+<p>
+A little over a hundred years ago he came to the vale of Ewyas and
+bought this estate, and hither he brought his young bride. They
+occupied our rooms, it appeared. In 1809, Landor writes to Southey, "I
+am about to do what no man hath ever done in England, plant a wood of
+cedars of Lebanon. These trees will look magnificent on the mountains
+of Llanthony." He planted a million of them, so he said. How
+eloquently he growled over those trees! He prophesied that none of
+them would live.
+</p>
+<p>
+After reading, I donned my raincoat and started out through the
+driving storm to see how Landor's trees were getting on. It seemed
+that it was only yesterday that they were planted. It was worth going
+out to see what had become of them. They were all gone. I felt that
+secret satisfaction which all right-minded persons feel on being
+witnesses to the fulfilment of prophecy.
+</p>
+<p>
+And then there was the house which Landor started to build when he and
+his wife were living in our tower. "I hope," he writes, "before the
+close not of the next but of the succeeding summer, to have one room
+to sit in with two or three bedrooms." Then he begins to growl about
+the weather and the carpenters. After a while he writes again of the
+house: "It's not half finished and has cost me two thousand pounds. I
+think seriously of filling it with straw and setting fire to it. Never
+was anything half so ugly."
+</p>
+<p>
+I inquired about the house and was told that it was not far away on
+the hillside, and was yet unfinished. I was pleased with this, and
+meant to go up and see it when the spell of bad weather of which
+Landor complained had passed by.
+</p>
+<p>
+Beside Landor there was only one other historic association which one
+could enjoy without getting drenched&mdash;that was St. David. In wading
+across the barnyard, I encountered "Boots," an intelligent young man
+though unduly respectful. He informed me that the old building just
+across from the stable was the cell of St. David.
+</p>
+<p>
+I was not prepared for this. All I knew was that St. David was the
+patron saint of Wales and had a cathedral and a number of other
+churches dedicated to him. Without too grossly admitting my ignorance,
+I tried to draw out from my mentor some further biographical facts
+that my imagination might work on during my stay. He thought that St.
+David was some relation to King Arthur, but just what the relation
+was, and whether he was only a relative by marriage, he didn't know.
+It wasn't very much information, but I was profoundly grateful to him.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have since read a long article on St. David in the "Cambrian
+Plutarch." The author goes into the question of the family relations
+between King Arthur and St. David with great thoroughness, but what
+conclusion he comes to is not quite evident. He thinks that the people
+are wrong who say that St. David was a nephew, because he was fifty
+years older than Arthur. That would make him more likely his uncle.
+But as he admits that King Arthur may possibly be another name for the
+constellation Ursa Major, it is difficult to fix the dates exactly.
+At any rate, the "Cambrian Plutarch" is sure that King Arthur was a
+Welshman and a credit to the country&mdash;and so was St. David. The author
+was as accurate in regard to the dates as the nature of his subject
+would allow. He adds apologetically, "It will appear that the life of
+St. David is rather misplaced with respect to chronological order. But
+as he was contemporary with all those whose lives have already been
+given, the anachronism, if such it may be called, can be of no great
+importance."
+</p>
+<p>
+That is just the way I feel about it. After living for a whole week in
+such close contact with the residence of St. David, I feel a real
+interest in him. Just who he was and when he lived, if at all, is a
+matter of no great importance.
+</p>
+<hr>
+<p>
+Yet there are limits to the historical imagination. It must have
+something to work on, even though that something may be very vague. We
+must draw the line somewhere in our pursuit of antiquity. A relic may
+be too old to be effective. Instead of gently stimulating the
+imagination it may paralyze it. What we desire is not merely the
+ancient but the familiar. The relic must bring with it the sense of
+auld lang-syne. The Tory squire likes to preserve what has been a long
+time in his family. The traveler has the same feeling for the
+possessions of the family of humanity.
+</p>
+<p>
+The family-feeling does not go back of a certain point. I draw the
+line at the legendary period when the heroes have names, and more or
+less coherent stories are told of their exploits, People who had a
+local habitation, but not a name, seem to belong to Geology only. For
+all their flint arrow-heads, or bronze instruments, I cannot think of
+them as fellow men.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was with this feeling that I visited one of the most ancient places
+of worship in Ireland, the tumulus at Newgrange. It was on a day
+filled with historic sight-seeing. We started from Drogheda, the great
+stronghold of the Pale in the Middle Ages, and the scene of Cromwell's
+terrible vengeance in 1649. Three miles up the river is the site of
+the Battle of the Boyne. It was one of the great indecisive battles of
+the world, it being necessary to fight it over again every year. The
+Boyne had overflowed its banks, and in the fields forlorn hay-cocks
+stood like so many little islands. We stopped at the battle monument
+and read its Whiggish inscription, which was scorned by our honest
+driver. We could form some idea of how the field appeared on the
+eventful day when King William and King James confronted each other
+across the narrow stream. Then the scene changed and we found
+ourselves in Mellefont Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery in
+Ireland, founded by St. Malachy, the friend of St. Bernard of
+Clairvaux. King William and King James were at once relegated to their
+proper places among the moderns, while we went back to the ages of
+faith.
+</p>
+<p>
+Four miles farther we came to Monasterboice, where stood two great
+Celtic crosses. There are two ruined churches and a round tower. Here
+was an early religious establishment which existed before the times of
+St. Columba.
+</p>
+<p>
+This would be enough for one day's reminiscence, but my heart leaped
+up at the sight of a long green ridge. "There is the hill of Tara!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Having traversed the period from King William to the dwellers in the
+Halls of Tara, what more natural than to take a further plunge into
+the past?
+</p>
+<p>
+We drive into an open field and alight near a rock-strewn hill.
+Candles are given us and we grope our way through narrow passages till
+we come to the centre of the hill. Here is a chamber some twenty feet
+in height. On the great stones which support the roof are mystic
+emblems. On the floor is a large stone hollowed out in the shape of a
+bowl. It suggests human sacrifices. My guide did not encourage this
+suggestion. There was, he thought, no historical evidence for it. But
+it seemed to me that if these people ever practised such sacrifices
+this was the place for them. A gloomier chamber for weird rites could
+not be imagined.
+</p>
+<p>
+Who were the worshipers? Druids or pre-Druids? The archæologists tell
+us that they belonged to the Early Bronze period. Now Early Bronze is
+a good enough term for articles in a museum, but it does not suggest a
+human being. We cannot get on terms of spiritual intimacy with the
+Early Bronze people. We may know what they did, but there is no
+intimation of "the moving why they did it." What spurred them on to
+their feats of prodigious industry? Was it fear or love? First they
+built their chapel of great stones and then piled a huge hill on top
+of it. Were they still under the influence of the glacial period and
+attempting to imitate the wild doings of Nature? The passage of the
+ages does not make these men seem venerable, because their deeds are
+no longer intelligible. Mellefont Abbey is in ruins, but we can easily
+restore it in imagination. We can picture the great buildings as they
+were before the iconoclasts destroyed them. The prehistoric place of
+worship in the middle of the hill is practically unchanged. But the
+clue to its meaning is lost.
+</p>
+<p>
+I could not make the ancient builders and worshipers seem real. It was
+a relief to come up into the sunshine where people of our own kind had
+walked, the Kings of Tara and their harpers, and St. Patrick and St.
+Malachy and Oliver Cromwell and William III. After the unintelligible
+symbols on the rocks, how familiar and homelike seemed the sculptures
+on the Celtic crosses. They were mostly about people, and people whom
+we had known from earliest childhood. There were Adam and Eve, and
+Cain slaying Abel, and the Magi. They were members of our family.
+</p>
+<p>
+But between us and the builders of the under-ground chapel there was
+a great gulf. There was no means of spiritual communication across the
+abyss. A scrap of writing, a bit of poetry, a name handed down by
+tradition, would have been worth all the relics discovered by
+archæologists.
+</p>
+<p>
+There is justification for the traveler's preference for the things he
+has read about, for these are the things which resist the changes of
+time. Only he must remember that they are better preserved in the book
+than in the places where they happened. The impression which any
+generation makes on the surface of the earth is very slight. It cannot
+give the true story of the brief occupancy. That requires some more
+direct interpretation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The magic carpet which carries us into any age not our own is woven by
+the poets and historians. Without their aid we may travel through
+Space, but not through Time.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+</h2>
+<p>
+In the college world it is a point of honor for the successive classes
+to treat each other with contumely. The feud between freshman and
+sophomore goes on automatically. Only when one has become a senior may
+he, without losing caste, recognize a freshman as a youth of promise,
+and admit that a sophomore is not half bad. Such disinterested
+criticism is tolerated because it is evidently the result of the
+mellowing influence of time.
+</p>
+<p>
+The same tendency is seen in literary and artistic judgments. It is
+never good taste to admit the good taste of the generation that
+immediately precedes us. Its innocent admirations are flouted and its
+standards are condemned as provincial. For we are always emerging from
+the dark ages and contrasting their obscurity with our marvelous
+light. The sixteenth century scorned the fifteenth century for its
+manifold superstitions. Thomas Fuller tells us that his enlightened
+contempories in the seventeenth century treated the enthusiasms of
+the sixteenth century with scant respect. The price of martyrs' ashes
+rises and falls in Smithfield market. At a later period Pope writes,&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+  "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow:<br/>
+  Our wiser sons, perhaps, will think us so."
+</div>
+<p>
+He need not have put in the "perhaps."
+</p>
+<p>
+The nineteenth century had its fling at the artificiality of the
+eighteenth century, and treated it with contempt as the age of
+doctrinaires. And now that the twentieth century is coming to the age
+of discretion, we hear a new term of reproach, Mid-Victorian. It
+expresses the sum of all villainies in taste. For some fifty years in
+the nineteenth century the English-speaking race, as it now appears,
+was under the sway of Mrs. Grundy. It was living in a state of most
+reprehensible respectability, and Art was tied to the apron-strings of
+Morality. Everybody admired what ought not to be admired. We are only
+now beginning to pass judgment on the manifold mediocrity of this era.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this must, for the time, count against Dickens; for of all the
+Victorians he was the midmost. He flourished in that most absurd
+period of time&mdash;the time just before most of us were born. And how he
+did flourish! Grave lord chancellors confessed to weeping over Little
+Nell. A Mid-Victorian bishop relates that after administering
+consolation to a man in his last illness he heard him saying, "At any
+rate, a new 'Pickwick Paper' will be out in ten days."
+</p>
+<p>
+Everywhere there was a wave of hysterical appreciation. Describing his
+reading in Glasgow, Dickens writes: "Such pouring of hundreds into a
+place already full to the throat, such indescribable confusion, such
+rending and tearing of dresses, and yet such a scene of good humor, I
+never saw the slightest approach to.... Fifty frantic men got up in
+all parts of the hall and addressed me all at once. Other frantic men
+made speeches to the wall. The whole B family were borne on the top of
+a wave and landed with their faces against the front of the platform.
+I read with the platform crammed with people. I got them to lie down
+upon it, and it was like some impossible tableau, or gigantic
+picnic,&mdash;one pretty girl lying on her side all night, holding on to
+the legs of my table."
+</p>
+<p>
+In New York eager seekers after fiction would "lie down on the
+pavement the whole of the night before the tickets were sold,
+generally taking up their position about ten." There would be free
+fights, and the police would be called to quell the riot.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such astonishing actions on the part of people who were unfortunate
+enough to live in the middle of the nineteenth century put us on our
+guard. It could not have been a serious interest in English literature
+that evoked the mob spirit. Dickens must have been writing the kind of
+books which these people liked to hear read. We remember with some
+misgivings that in the days of our youth we wept over Little Nell,
+just as the lord chancellor did. The question which disturbs us is,
+Ought we to have done so?
+</p>
+<p>
+Let us by a soft answer turn away the wrath of the critic. Doubtless
+we ought not to have done so. Our excuse is that, at the time, we
+could not help it. We may make the further plea, common to all
+soft-hearted sinners, that if we hadn't wept, other people would, so
+that no great harm was done, after all.
+</p>
+<p>
+But letting bygones be bygones, and not seeking to justify the
+enthusiasms of the nineteenth century, one may return to Dickens as to
+the home of one's childhood. How do the old scenes affect us? Does the
+charm remain? When thus we return to Dickens, we are compelled to
+confess the justice of the latter-day criticism. In all his writings
+he deals with characters and situations which are wholly obvious; at
+least they are obvious after he deals with them. Not only is he
+without the art which conceals art, but, unlike some novelists of more
+recent fame, he is without the art that conceals the lack of art He
+produces an impression by the crude method of "rubbing it in." There
+are no subtleties to pique our curiosity, no problems left us for
+discussion, no room for difference of opinion. There is no more
+opportunity for speculation than in a one-price clothing store where
+every article is marked in plain figures. To have heartily disliked
+Mr. Pecksniff and to have loved the Cheeryble Brothers indicates no
+sagacity on our part. The author has distinctly and repeatedly told us
+that the one is an odious hypocrite and that the others are benevolent
+to an unusual degree. Our appreciation of Sam Weller does not prove
+that we have any sense of humor save that which is common to man. For
+Mr. Weller's humor is a blessing that is not in disguise. It is a pump
+which needs no priming. There is no denying that the humor, the
+pathos, and the sentiment of Dickens are obvious.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this, according to certain critics, goes to prove that Dickens
+lacks distinction, and that the writing of his novels was a
+commonplace achievement. This judgment seems to me to arise from a
+confusion of thought. The <i>perception</i> of the obvious is a commonplace
+achievement; the <i>creation</i> of the obvious, and making it interesting,
+is the work of genius. There is no intellectual distinction in the
+enjoyment of "The Pickwick Papers"; to write "The Pickwick Papers"
+would be another matter.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is only in the last quarter of a century that English literature
+has been accepted not as a recreation, but as a subject of serious
+study. Now, the first necessity for a study is that it should be
+"hard." Some of the best brains in the educational world have been
+enlisted in the work of giving a disciplinary value to what was
+originally an innocent pleasure. It is evident that one cannot give
+marks for the number of smiles or tears evoked by a tale of true love.
+The novel or the play that is to hold its own in the curriculum in
+competition with trigonometry must have some knotty problem which
+causes the harassed reader to knit his brows in anxious thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+In answer to this demand, the literary craftsman has arisen who takes
+his art with a seriousness which makes the "painful preacher" of the
+Puritan time seem a mere pleasure-seeker. Equipped with instruments of
+precision drawn from the psychological laboratory, he is prepared to
+satisfy our craving for the difficult By the method of suggestion he
+tries to make us believe that we have never seen his characters
+before, and sometimes he succeeds. He deals in descriptions which
+leave us with the impression of an indescribable something which we
+should recognize if we were as clever as he is. As we are not nearly
+so clever, we are left with a chastened sense of our inferiority,
+which is doubtless good for us. And all this groping for the
+un-obvious is connected with an equally insistent demand for realism.
+The novel must not only be as real as life, but it must be more so.
+For life, as it appears in our ordinary consciousness, is full of
+illusions. When these are stripped off and the residuum is compressed
+into a book, we have that which is at once intensely real and
+painfully unfamiliar.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, there is a certain justification for this. A psychologist may
+show us aspects of character which we could not see by ourselves, as
+the X-rays will reveal what is not visible to the naked eye. But if
+the insides of things are real, so also are the outsides. Surfaces and
+forms are not without their importance.
+</p>
+<p>
+It may be said in extenuation of Dickens that the blemish of
+obviousness is one which he shared with the world he lived in. It
+would be too much to say that all realities are obvious. There is a
+great deal that we do not see at the first glance; but there is a
+great deal that we do see. To reproduce the freshness and wonder of
+the first view of the obvious world is one of the greatest
+achievements of the imagination.
+</p>
+<p>
+The reason why the literary artist shuns the obvious is that there is
+too much of it. It is too big for the limited resources of his art. In
+the actual world, realities come in big chunks. Nature continually
+repeats herself. She hammers her facts into our heads with a
+persistency which is often more than a match for our stupidity. If we
+do not recognize a fact to-day, it will hit us in the same place
+to-morrow.
+</p>
+<p>
+We are so used to this educational method of reiteration that we make
+it a test of reality. An impression made upon us must be repeated
+before it has validity to our reason. If a thing really happened, we
+argue that it will happen again under the same conditions. That is
+what we mean by saying that we are under the reign of law. There is a
+great family resemblance between happenings.
+</p>
+<p>
+We make acquaintance with people by the same method. The recognition
+of identity depends upon the ability which most persons have of
+appearing to be remarkably like themselves. The reason why we think
+that the person whom we met to-day is the same person we met yesterday
+is that he <i>seems</i> the same. There are obvious resemblances that
+strike us at once. He looks the same, he acts the same, he has the
+same mannerisms, the same kind of voice, and he answers to the same
+name. If Proteus, with the best intention in the world, but with an
+unlimited variety of self-manifestations, were to call every day, we
+should greet him always as a stranger. We should never feel at home
+with so versatile a person. A character must have a certain degree of
+monotony about it before we can trust it. Unexpectedness is an
+agreeable element in wit, but not in friendship. Our friend must be
+one who can say with honest Joe Gargery, "It were understood, and it
+are understood, and it ever will be similar, according."
+</p>
+<p>
+But in the use of this effective method of reiteration there is a
+difference between nature and a book. Nature does not care whether she
+bores us or not: she has us by the buttonhole, and we cannot get away.
+Not so with a book. When we are bored, we lay it down, and that brings
+the interview to an end. It is from the fear of our impatience that
+most writers abstain from the natural method of producing an
+impression.
+</p>
+<p>
+And they are quite right. It is only now and then that an audience
+will grant an extension of time to a speaker in order that he may make
+his point more clear. They would rather miss the point. And it is
+still more rare for the reader to grant a similar extension in order
+that the author may tell again what he has told before. It is much
+easier to shut up a book than to shut up a speaker.
+</p>
+<p>
+The criticism of Dickens that his characters repeat themselves quite
+misses the mark. As well object to an actor that he frequently
+responds to an encore. If indicted for the offense, he could at least
+insist that the audience be indicted with him as accessory before the
+fact.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dickens tells us that when he read at Harrogate, "There was a
+remarkably good fellow of thirty or so who found something so very
+ludicrous in Toots that he could not compose himself at all, but
+laughed until he sat wiping his eyes with his handkerchief, and
+whenever he felt Toots coming again he began to laugh and wipe his
+eyes afresh."
+</p>
+<p>
+"Whenever he felt Toots coming again"&mdash;there you have the whole
+philosophy of the matter. The young fellow found Toots amusing when he
+first laid eyes on him. He wanted to see him again, and it must always
+be the same Toots.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is useless to cavil at an author because of the means by which he
+produces his effects. The important thing is that he does produce an
+effect. That the end justifies the means may be a dangerous doctrine
+in ethics, but much may be said for it in literature. The situation is
+like that of a middle-aged gentleman beset by a small boy on a morning
+just right for snowballing. "Give me leave, mister?" cries the
+youthful sharpshooter. The good-natured citizen gives leave by pulling
+up his coat-collar and quickening his pace. If the small boy can hit
+him, he is forgiven, if he cannot hit him, he is scorned. The fact is
+that Dickens with a method as broad and repetitious as that of Nature
+herself does succeed in hitting our fancy. That is, he succeeds nine
+times out of ten.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is the minor characters of Dickens that are remembered. And we
+remember them for the same reason that we remember certain faces which
+we have seen in a crowd. There is some salient feature or trick of
+manner which first attracts and then holds our attention. A person
+must have some tag by which he is identified, or, so far as we are
+concerned, he becomes one of the innumerable lost articles. There are
+persons who are like umbrellas, very useful, but always liable to be
+forgotten. The memory is an infirm faculty, and must be humored. It
+often clings to mere trifles. The man with the flamboyant necktie whom
+you saw on the 8.40 train may also be the author of a volume of
+exquisite lyrics; but you never saw the lyrics, and you did see the
+necktie. In the scale of being, the necktie may be the least important
+parcel of this good man's life, but it is the only thing about him
+which attracts your attention. When you see it day after day at the
+same hour you feel that you have a real, though perhaps not a deep,
+acquaintance with the man behind it. It is thus we habitually perceive
+the human world. We see things, and infer persons to correspond. One
+peculiarity attracts us. It is not the whole man, but it is all of him
+that is for us. In all this we are very Dickensy.
+</p>
+<p>
+We may read an acute character study and straightway forget the person
+who was so admirably analyzed; but the lady in the yellow curl-papers
+is unforgettable. We really see very little of her, but she is real,
+and she would not be so real without her yellow curl-papers. A
+yellow-curl-paper-less lady in the Great White Horse Inn would be as
+unthinkable to us as a white-plume-less Henry of Navarre at Ivry.
+</p>
+<p>
+In ecclesiastical art the saints are recognized by their emblems. Why
+should not the sinners have the same means of identification? Dickens
+has the courage to furnish us these necessary aids to recollection.
+Micawber, Mrs. Gummidge, Barkis, Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep, Betsy Trotwood,
+Dick Swiveiler, Mr. Mantalini, Harold Skimpole, Sairey Gamp, always
+appear with their appropriate insignia. We should remember that it is
+for our sakes.
+</p>
+<p>
+According to the canons of literary art, a fact should be stated
+clearly once and for all. It would be quite proper to mention the fact
+that Silas Wegg had a wooden leg; but this fact having been made
+plain, why should it be referred to again? There is a sufficient
+reason based on sound psychology. If the statement were not repeated,
+we should forget that Mr. Wegg had a wooden leg, and by and by we
+should forget Silas Wegg himself. He would fade away among the host of
+literary gentlemen who are able to read "The Decline and Fall," but
+who are not able to keep themselves out of the pit of oblivion. But
+when we repeatedly see Mr. Wegg as Mr. Boffin saw him, "the literary
+gentleman <i>with</i> a wooden leg," we feel that we really have the
+pleasure of his acquaintance. There is not only perception of him, but
+what the pedagogical people call apperception. Our idea of Mr. Wegg is
+inseparably connected with our antecedent ideas of general woodenness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Again, we are introduced to "a large, hard-breathing, middle-aged man,
+with a mouth like a fish, dull, staring eyes, and sandy hair standing
+upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had been choked and
+had at that moment come to." This is Mr. Pumblechook. He does not
+emerge slowly like a ship from below the horizon. We see him all at
+once, eyes, mouth, hair, and character to match. It is a case of
+falling into acquaintance at first sight. We are now ready to hear
+what Mr. Pumblechook says and see what he does. We have a reasonable
+assurance that whatever he says and does it will be just like Mr.
+Pumblechook.
+</p>
+<p>
+We enter a respectable house in a shady angle adjoining Portman
+Square. We go out to dinner in solemn procession. We admire the
+preternatural solidity of the furniture and the plate. The hostess is
+a fine woman, "with neck and nostrils like a rocking-horse, hard
+features and majestic headdress." Her husband, large and pompous, with
+little light-colored wings "more like hairbrushes than hair" on the
+sides of his otherwise bald head, begins to discourse on the British
+Constitution. We now know as much of Mr. Podsnap as we shall know at
+the end of the book. But it is a real knowledge conveyed by the method
+that gives dinner-parties their educational value. We forgive Dickens
+his superfluous discourse on Podsnappery in general. For his remarks
+are precisely of the kind which we make when the party is over, and we
+sit by the fire generalizing and allegorizing the people we have met.
+</p>
+<p>
+That Mr. Thomas Gradgrind was unduly addicted to hard facts might have
+been delicately insinuated in the course of two hundred pages. We
+might have felt a mild pleasure in the discovery which we had made,
+and then have gone our way forgetting what manner of man he was. What
+is Gradgrind to us or we to Gradgrind? Dickens introduces him to us in
+all his uncompromising squareness&mdash;"square coat, square legs, square
+shoulders, nay, his very neckcloth is trained to take him by the
+throat with an unaccommodating grasp." We are made at once to see "the
+square wall of a forehead which had his eyebrows for its base, while
+his eyes found commodious cellarage in the two dark caves overshadowed
+by the wall." Having taken all this in at a glance, there is nothing
+more to be done in the development of the character of Mr. Gradgrind.
+He takes his place among the obvious facts of existence. But in so
+much as we were bound to find him out sometime, shall we quarrel with
+Dickens because we were enabled to do so in the first chapter?
+</p>
+<p>
+Nor do the obvious exaggerations of Dickens arising from the
+exuberance of his fancy interfere with the sense of reality. A truth
+is not less true because it is in large print. We recognize creatures
+who are prodigiously like ourselves, and we laugh at the difference in
+scale. Did not all Lilliput laugh over the discovery of Gulliver? How
+they rambled over the vast expanse of countenance, recognizing each
+feature&mdash;lips, cheek, nose, chin, brow. "How very odd," they would say
+to themselves, "and how very like!"
+</p>
+<p>
+It is to the wholesome obviousness of Dickens that we owe the
+atmosphere of good cheer that surrounds his characters. No writer has
+pictured more scenes of squalid misery, and yet we are not depressed.
+There is bad weather enough, but we are not "under the weather." There
+are characters created to be hated. It is a pleasure to hate them. As
+to the others, whenever their trials and tribulations abate for an
+instant, they relapse into a state of unabashed contentment.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is unusual in literature, for most literary men are saddest when
+they write. The fact is that happiness is much more easy to experience
+than to describe, as any one may learn in trying to describe a good
+time he has had. One good time is very much like another good time.
+Moreover, we are shy, and dislike to express our enthusiasm. We
+wouldn't for the world have any one know what simple creatures we are
+and how little it takes to make us happy. So we talk critically about
+a great many things we do not care very much about, and complain of
+the absence of many things which we do not really miss. We feel badly
+about not being invited to a party which we don't want to go to.
+</p>
+<p>
+We are like a horse that has been trained to be a "high-stepper." By
+prancing over imaginary difficulties and shying at imaginary dangers
+he gives an impression of mettlesomeness which is foreign to his
+native disposition.
+</p>
+<p>
+The story-teller is on the lookout for these eager attitudes. He
+cannot afford to let his characters be too happy. There is a literary
+value in misery that he cannot afford to lose.
+</p>
+<p>
+That "the course of true love never did run smooth" is an assertion of
+story-tellers rather than of ordinary lovers. The fact is that nothing
+is so easy as falling in love and staying there. It is a very common
+experience, so common that it attracts little attention. The course of
+true love usually runs so smoothly that there is nothing that causes
+remark. It is not an occasion of gossip. Two good-tempered and healthy
+persons are obviously made for each other. They know it, and everybody
+else knows it, and they keep on knowing it, and act, as Joe Gargery
+would say, "similar, according."
+</p>
+<p>
+The trouble is that the literary man finds that this does not afford
+exciting material for a best seller. So he must invent hazards to make
+the game interesting to the spectators. In a story the course of true
+love must not run smooth or no one would read it. The old-time
+romancer brought his young people through all sorts of misadventures.
+When all the troubles he could think of were over, he left them
+abruptly at the church door, murmuring feebly to the gentle reader,
+"they were happy ever after."
+</p>
+<p>
+The present-day novelist is offended at this ending. "How absurd!" he
+says. "They are still in the early twenties. The world is all before
+them, and they have time to fall into all sorts of troubles which the
+romanticist has not thought of. Middle age is just as dangerous a
+period as youth, and matrimony has its pitfalls. Let me take up the
+story and tell you how they didn't live happily ever afterwards, but,
+on the contrary, had a cat-and-dog life of it."
+</p>
+<p>
+Now I would pardon the novelist if he were perfectly honest and were
+to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am trying to interest you. I have not
+the skill to make a story of placid happiness interesting. So I will
+do the next best thing. I will tell you a story of a different kind.
+It is the picture of a kind of life that is easier to make readable."
+</p>
+<p>
+In making such a confession he would be in good company. Even
+Shakespeare, with all his dramatic genius, confessed that he could not
+avoid monotony in his praise of true love. Its ways were ways of
+pleasantness, but did not afford much incentive to originality.
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+  "Since all alike my songs and praises be <br/>
+  To one, of one, still such, and ever so. <br/>
+  Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, <br/>
+  Still constant in a wondrous excellence; <br/>
+  Therefore my verse to constancy confined, <br/>
+  One thing expressing, leaves out difference. <br/>
+  'Fair, kind, and true' is all my argument, <br/>
+  'Fair, kind, and true' varying to other words; <br/>
+  And in this change is my invention spent."
+</div>
+<p>
+But the novelist, when he takes himself too seriously as the man who
+is to show us "life as it is," is not content to acknowledge his
+limitations. When he pictures a situation in which there is nothing
+but a succession of problems and misunderstandings, he asks us to
+admire his austere faithfulness. Faithful he may be to his Art, as he
+understands it, but he is not faithful to reality, unless he is able
+to make us see ordinary people in the act of enjoying themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+The most obvious thing in life is that people are seldom as unhappy as
+their circumstances would lead us to expect. Nobody is happy all the
+time, and if he were, nobody is enough of a genius to make his
+undeviating felicity interesting. But a great many people are happy
+most of the time, and almost everybody has been happy at some time or
+other. It may have been only a momentary experience, but it was very
+real, and he likes to think about it. He is excessively grateful to
+any one who recalls the feeling. The point is that the aggregate of
+these good times makes a considerable amount of cheerfulness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dickens does not attempt the impossible literary feat of showing us
+one person who is happy all the time, but he does what is more
+obvious, he makes us see a great many people who have snatches of good
+cheer in the midst of their humdrum lives. He lets us see another
+obvious fact, that happiness is more a matter of temperament than of
+circumstance. It is not given as a reward of merit or as a mark of
+distinguished consideration. There is one perennial fountain of
+pleasure. Any one can have a good time who can <i>enjoy himself</i>.
+Dickens was not above celebrating the kind of happiness which comes to
+the natural man and the natural boy through what we call the
+"creature comforts." He could sympathize with the unadulterated
+self-satisfaction of little Jack Horner when
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "He put in his thumb<br/>
+ And pulled out a plum,<br/>
+ And said, 'What a great boy am I!'"
+</div>
+<p>
+The finding of the plum was not a matter of world-wide importance, but
+it was a great pleasure for Jack Horner, and he did not care who knew
+it.
+</p>
+<p>
+What joy Mr. Micawber gets out of his own eloquence! We cannot
+begrudge him this unearned increment. We sympathize, as, "much
+affected, but still intensely enjoying himself, Mr. Micawber folded up
+his letter and handed it with a bow to my aunt as something she might
+like to keep."
+</p>
+<p>
+And R. Wilfer, despite his meagre salary, and despite Mrs. Wilfer,
+enjoys himself whenever he gets a chance. When he goes to Greenwich
+with Bella he finds everything as it should be. "Everything was
+delightful. The Park was delightful; the punch was delightful, the
+dishes of fish were delightful; the wine was delightful." If that was
+not happiness, what was it?
+</p>
+<p>
+Said R. Wilfer: "Supposing a man to go through life, we won't say with
+a companion, but we will say with a tune. Very good. Supposing the
+tune allotted to him was the 'Dead March' in 'Saul.' Well. It would be
+a very suitable tune for particular occasions&mdash;none more so&mdash;but it
+would be difficult to keep time with it in the ordinary run of
+domestic transactions."
+</p>
+<p>
+It is a matter of common observation that those who have allotted to
+them the most solemn music do not always keep time with it. In the
+"ordinary run of domestic transactions" they find many little
+alleviations. In the aggregate these amount to a considerable
+blessing. The world may be rough, and many of its ways may be cruel,
+but for all that it is a joyful sensation to be alive, and the more
+alive we are, the better we like it. All of which is very obvious, and
+it is what we want somebody to point out for us again and again.
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+</h2>
+<p>
+To spoil a child is no easy task, for Nature is all the time working
+in behalf of the childish virtues and veracities, and is gently
+correcting the abnormalities of education. Still it can be done. The
+secret of it is never to let the child alone, and to insist on doing
+for him all that he would otherwise do for himself&mdash;and more.
+</p>
+<p>
+In that "more" lies the spoiling power. The child must be early made
+acquainted with the feeling of satiety. There must be too much of
+everything. If he were left to himself to any extent, this would be an
+unknown experience. For he is a hungry little creature, with a growing
+appetite, and naturally is busy ministering to his own needs. He is
+always doing something for himself, and enjoys the exercise. The
+little egoist, even when he has "no language but a cry," uses that
+language to make known to the world that he wants something and wants
+it very much. As his wants increase, his exertions increase also. Arms
+and legs, fingers and toes, muscles and nerves and busy brain are all
+at work to get something which he desires. He is a mechanic fashioning
+his little world to his own uses. He is a despot who insists on his
+divine right to rule the subservient creatures around him. He is an
+inventor devising ways and means to secure all the ends which he has
+the wit to see. That these great works on which he has set his heart
+end in self is obvious enough, but we forgive him. Altruism will come
+in its own time.
+</p>
+<p>
+In natural play a boy will be a horse or a driver. Either occupation
+gives him plenty to do. But the role of an elderly passenger, given a
+softly cushioned seat and deposited respectfully at the journey's end,
+he rejects with violent expressions of scorn. It is ignominious. He
+will be a policeman or robber or judge or executioner, just as the
+exigencies of the game demand. These are honorable positions worthy of
+one who belongs to the party of action. But do not impose upon him by
+asking him to act the part of the respectable citizen who is robbed
+and who does nothing but telephone for the police. He is not
+fastidious and will take up almost anything that is suggested, if it
+gives him the opportunity of exerting himself. The demand for exertion
+is the irreducible minimum.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now to spoil all this fine enthusiasm you must arrange everything in
+such a manner that the eager little worker shall find everything done
+before he has time to put his hand to it. There must be no alluring
+possibilities in his tiny universe. The days of creation, when "the
+sons of God shouted for joy," must be passed before he is ushered in.
+He must be presented only with accomplished facts. There must be
+nothing left for him to make or discover. He must be told everything.
+All his designs must be anticipated, by nurses and parents and
+teachers. They must give him whatever good things they can think of
+before he has time to desire them. From the time when elaborate
+mechanical toys are put into his reluctant hands, it is understood
+that he is to be amused, and need not amuse himself His education is
+arranged for him. His companions are chosen for him. There is nothing
+for him to do, and if there were, there is no incentive for him to do
+it. In the game of life he is never allowed to be the horse. It is his
+fate to be the passenger.
+</p>
+<p>
+A child is spoiled when he accepts the position into which fond,
+foolish parents thrust him. Being a passenger on what was presumably
+intended to be a pleasure excursion, he begins to find fault as soon
+as the journey becomes a little wearisome. He must find fault, because
+that is the only thing left for him to find. Having no opportunity to
+exercise his creative faculties, he becomes a petulant critic of a
+world he can neither enjoy nor understand. Taking for granted that
+everything should be done for him, he is angry because it is not done
+better. His ready-made world does not please him&mdash;why should it? It
+never occurs to him that if he does not like it he should try and make
+it better.
+</p>
+<p>
+Unfortunately, the characteristics of the spoiled child do not vanish
+with childhood or even with adolescence. A university training does
+not necessarily transform petulance into ripe wisdom. Literary ability
+may only give fluent expression to a peevish spirit.
+</p>
+<p>
+Among the innumerable children of an advanced civilization there are
+those who have been spoiled by the petting to which they have been
+subjected. Life has been made so easy for them that when they come
+upon hard places which demand sturdy endurance they break forth into
+angry complaints. They have been given the results of the complicated
+activities of mankind, without having done their share in the common
+tasks. They have not through personal endeavor learned how much
+everything costs. They are not able, therefore, to pay cheerfully for
+any future good. If it is not given to them at once they feel that
+they have a grievance. For friendly coöperation they are not prepared.
+They must have their own way or they will not play the game. Their
+fretful complaints are like those of the children in the old-time
+market-places: "We have piped unto you and you have not danced, we
+have mourned unto you and you have not lamented."
+</p>
+<p>
+There is a fashionable attitude of mind among many who pride
+themselves on their acute intellectualism. It manifests itself in a
+supercilious compassion for the efforts and ambitions of the man of
+action. He, poor fellow, is well-meaning, but unilluminated. He is
+eager and energetic because he imagines that he is accomplishing
+something. If he were a serious thinker he would see that all effort
+is futile. We are here in an unintelligible world, a world of mighty
+forces, moving we know not whither. We are subject to passions and
+impulses which we cannot resist. We are never so helpless as when we
+are in the midst of human affairs. We have great words which we utter
+proudly. We talk of Civilization, Christianity, Democracy, and the
+like. What miserable failures they all are. Civilization has failed to
+produce contentment. It has failed to secure perfect justice between
+man and man, or to satisfy the hungry with bread. Christianity after
+all these centuries of preaching leaves mankind as we see it
+to-day&mdash;an armed camp, nation fighting nation, class warring against
+class. The democratic movement about which we hear so much is equally
+unsuccessful. After its brilliant promises it leaves us helpless
+against the passion and stupidity of the mob. Popular education adds
+to the tribulations of society. It rapidly increases the number of the
+discontented. The half-educated are led astray by quacks and
+demagogues who flourish mightily. The higher technical education
+increases that intellectual proletariat which Bismarck saw to be a
+peril. Science, which once was hailed as a deliverer, is now perceived
+to bring only the disillusioning knowledge of our limitations. The
+bankruptcy of Science follows closely upon the bankruptcy of Faith.
+Mechanical inventions, instead of decreasing the friction of life,
+enormously increase it. We are destined to be dragged along by our own
+machines which are to go faster and faster. Philanthropy increases the
+number of the unfit. The advances of medicine are only apparent, while
+statistics show that tuberculosis, a disease of early life, decreases,
+cancer and diseases of later life increase.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for the general interest in social amelioration, that is the worst
+sign of all. "Coming events cast their shadows before," and we may see
+the shadow of the coming Revolution. Is there any symptom of decadence
+more sure than when the moral temperature suddenly rises above normal?
+Watch the clinical charts of Empire. In the period of national vigor
+the blood is cool. But the time arrives when the period of growth has
+passed. Then a boding sense comes on. The huge frame of the patient is
+feverish. The social conscience is sensitive. All sorts of
+soft-hearted proposals for helping the masses are proposed. The world
+rulers become too tenderhearted for their business. Then comes the
+end.
+</p>
+<p>
+Read again the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
+How admirable were the efforts of the "good emperors," and how futile!
+Consider again the oft-repeated story of the way the humanitarianism
+of Rousseau ushered in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
+</p>
+<p>
+With such gloomy forebodings do the over-civilized thinkers and
+writers try to discourage the half-civilized and half-educated
+workers, who are trying to make things better. How shall we answer the
+prophets of ill?
+</p>
+<p>
+Not by denying the existence of the evils they see, or the possibility
+of the calamities which they fear. What we object to is the mental
+attitude toward the facts that are discovered. The spoiled child, when
+it discovers something not to its liking, exaggerates the evil, and
+indulges its ill-temper.
+</p>
+<p>
+The well-trained man faces the evil, studies it, measures it, and then
+sets to work. He is well aware that nothing human is perfect, and that
+to accomplish one thing is only to reveal another thing which needs to
+be done. There must be perpetual readjustment, and reconsideration.
+What was done yesterday must be done over again to-day in a somewhat
+different way. But all this does not prove the futility of effort. It
+only proves that the effort must be unceasing, and that it must be
+more and more wisely directed.
+</p>
+<p>
+He compares, for example, Christianity as an ideal with Christianity
+as an actual achievement. He places in parallel columns the maxims of
+Jesus, and the policies of Christian nations and the actual state of
+Christian churches. The discrepancy is obvious enough. But it does not
+prove that Christianity is a failure; it only proves that its work is
+unfinished.
+</p>
+<p>
+A political party may adopt a platform filled with excellent proposals
+which if thoroughly carried out would bring in the millennium. But it
+is too much to expect that it would all be accomplished in four
+years. At the end of that period we should not be surprised if the
+reformers should ask for a further extension of time.
+</p>
+<p>
+The spoiled children of civilization eliminate from their problem the
+one element which is constant and significant&mdash;human effort. They
+forget that from the beginning human life has been a tremendous
+struggle against great odds. Nothing has come without labor, no
+advance has been without daring leadership. New fortunes have always
+had their hazards.
+</p>
+<p>
+Forgetting all this, and accepting whatever comforts may have come to
+them as their right, they are depressed and discouraged by their
+vision of the future with its dangers and its difficulties. They
+habitually talk of the civilized world as on the brink of some great
+catastrophe which it is impossible to avoid. This gloomy foreboding is
+looked upon as an indication of wisdom.
+</p>
+<p>
+It should be dismissed, I think, as an indication of childish
+unreason, unworthy of any one who faces realities. It is still true
+that "the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
+Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
+</p>
+<p>
+The notion that coming events cast shadows before is a superstition.
+How can they? A shadow must be the shadow of something. The only
+events that can cast a shadow are those which have already taken
+place. Behind them is the light of experience, shining upon
+actualities which intercept its rays.
+</p>
+<p>
+The shadows which affright us are of our own making. They are
+projections into the future of our own experiences. They are sharply
+denned silhouettes, rather than vague omens. When we look at them
+closely we can recognize familiar features. We are dealing with cause
+and effect. What is done foreshadows what remains to be done. Every
+act implies some further acts as its results. When a principle is
+recognized its practical applications must follow. When men begin to
+reason from new premises they are bound to come to new conclusions.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is evident that in the last half-century enough discoveries have
+been made to keep us busy for a long time. Every scientific advance
+upsets some custom and interferes with some vested interest. You
+cannot discover the truth about tuberculosis without causing a great
+deal of trouble to the owners of unsanitary dwellings. Some of them
+are widows whose little all is invested in this kind of property. The
+health inspectors make life more difficult for them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Scholarly research among ancient manuscripts is the cause of
+destructive criticism. The scholar with the most peaceable intentions
+in the world disturbs some one's faith. His discovery perhaps involves
+the reconstruction of a whole system of philosophy.
+</p>
+<p>
+A law is passed. The people are pleased with it, and then forget all
+about it. But by and by a conscientious executive comes into office
+who thinks it his duty to enforce the law. Such accidents are liable
+to happen in the most good-humored democracy. When he tries to enforce
+it there is a burst of angry surprise. He is treated as a
+revolutionist who is attacking the established order. And yet to the
+moderately philosophic observer the making of the law and its
+enforcement belong to the same process. The difficulty is that though
+united logically they are often widely separated chronologically.
+</p>
+<p>
+The adjustment to a new theory involves changes in practice. But the
+practical man who has usually little interest in new theories is
+surprised and angry when the changes come. He looks upon them as
+arbitrary interferences with his rights.
+</p>
+<p>
+Even when it is admitted that when considered in a large way the
+change is for the better, the question arises, Who is to pay for it?
+The discussion on this point is bound to be acrimonious, as we are not
+saints and nobody wants to pay more than his share of the costs of
+progress. Even the price of liberty is something which we grumble
+over.
+</p>
+<p>
+You have noticed how it is when a new boulevard is laid in any part of
+the city. There is always a dispute between the municipality and the
+abutters. Should the abutters be assessed for betterments or should
+they sue for damages? Usually both actions are instituted. The cost of
+such litigation should be included in the price which the community
+pays for the improvement.
+</p>
+<p>
+If people always knew what was good for them and acted accordingly,
+this would be a very different world, though not nearly so
+interesting. But we do not know what is good for us till we try; and
+human life is spent in a series of experiments. The experiments are
+costly, but there is no other way of getting results. All that we can
+say to a person who refuses to interest himself in these experiments,
+or who looks upon all experiments as futile which do not turn out as
+he wished, is that his attitude is childish. The great commandment to
+the worker or thinker is,&mdash;Thou shalt not sulk.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sulking is no more admirable in those of great reputation than it is
+in the nursery. Thackeray declared that, in his opinion, "love is a
+higher intellectual exercise than hate." And looked at as an exercise
+of mental power courage must always be greater than the most highly
+intellectualized form of fear or despair.
+</p>
+<p>
+I cannot take with perfect seriousness Matthew Arnold's oft-quoted
+lines:&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "Achilles ponders in his tent,<br/>
+ The kings of modern thought are dumb.<br/>
+ Silent they are, though not content,<br/>
+ And wait to see the future come.<br/>
+ They have the grief men had of yore,<br/>
+ But they contend and cry no more."
+</div>
+<p>
+If that is ever the attitude of the best minds, it is only a momentary
+one of which they are quickly ashamed. Achilles sulked in his tent
+when he was pondering not a big problem, but a small grievance. The
+kings of modern thought who are described seem like kings out of a
+job. We are inclined to turn from them to the intellectual monarchs
+<i>de facto</i>. They are the ones who take up the hard job which the
+representatives of the old régime give up as hopeless. For when the
+king has abdicated and contends no more&mdash;Long live the King!
+</p>
+<p>
+The real thinkers of any age do not remain long in a blue funk. They
+always find something important to think about. They always point out
+something worth doing. They cannot passively wait to see the future
+come. They are too busy making it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Matthew Arnold struck a truer note in Rugby Chapel. The true leaders
+of mankind can never be mere intellectualists. There must be a union
+of intellectual and moral energy like that which he recognized in his
+father. To the fainting, dispirited race,&mdash;
+</p>
+<div class="poem" >
+ "Ye like angels appear,<br/>
+ Radiant with ardour divine,<br/>
+ Beacons of hope, ye appear!<br/>
+ Languor is not in your heart,<br/>
+ Weakness is not in your word,<br/>
+ Weariness not on your brow;<br/>
+ Ye alight in our van: at your voice<br/>
+ Panic, despair, flee away."
+</div>
+<p>
+When those whom we have looked upon as our intellectual leaders grow
+disheartened, we must remember that a lost leader does not necessarily
+mean a lost cause. When those whom we had called the kings of modern
+thought are dumb, we can find new leadership. "Change kings with us,"
+replied an Irish officer after the panic of the Boyne; "change kings
+with us, and we will fight you again."
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+</h2>
+<h3>
+    <i>From a Real-Estate Dealer to a Realistic Novelist</i>
+</h3>
+<p>
+Dear Sir:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+I have been for some time interested in your projects for the
+improvement of literature. When I saw your name in the newspapers, I
+looked you up in "Who's Who," and found that your rating is excellent
+What pleased me was the bold way you attacked the old firms which have
+been living on their reputations. The way you showed up Dickens,
+Thackeray &amp; Co. showed that you know a thing or two. As for W. Scott
+and the other speculators who have been preying on the credulity of
+the public, you gave them something to think about. You showed
+conclusively that instead of dealing in hard facts, they have been
+handing out fiction under the guise of novels.
+</p>
+<p>
+Our minds run in the same channel: you deal in reality and I deal in
+realty, but the principle is the same. I inclose some of the
+literature which I am sending out. You see, I warn people against
+investing in stocks and bonds. These are mere paper securities, which
+take to themselves wings and fly away. But if you can get hold of a
+few acres of dirt, there you are. When a panic comes along, and Wall
+Street goes to smash, you can sit on your front porch in South Canaan
+without a care. You have your little all in something real.
+</p>
+<p>
+You followed the same line of argumentation. You showed that there was
+nothing imaginative about your work. You could give a warranty deed
+for every fact which you put on the market. I was so pleased with your
+method that I bought a job lot of your books, so that I could see for
+myself how you conducted your business. Will you allow me, as one in
+the same line, to indulge in a little criticism? I am afraid that you
+are making the same mistake I made when I first went into real estate.
+I was so possessed with the idea of the value of land that I became
+"land poor." It strikes me that a novelist may become reality poor in
+the same way; that is, by investing in a great many realities that are
+not worth what he pays for them.
+</p>
+<p>
+You see, there is a fact which we do not mention in our circulars.
+There is a great deal of land lying out of doors. <i>Some</i> land is in
+great demand, and the real trick is to find out what that land is. You
+can't go out on the plains of Wyoming and give an acre of land the
+same value which an acre has in the Wall Street district. I speak from
+experience, having tried to convince the public that if the acres are
+real, the values I suggested must be real also. People wouldn't
+believe me, and I lost money.
+</p>
+<p>
+And the same thing is true about improvements. They must be related to
+the market value of the land on which they are placed. A forty-story
+building at Goshenville Corners would be a mistake. There is no call
+for it.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is the mistake which I fear you have been making. Your novel is a
+carefully prepared structure, and must have cost a great deal, but it
+is built on ground which is not worth enough to justify the
+investment. It has not what we call "site value." You yourself declare
+that you have no particular interest in the characters you describe at
+such length. All that you have to say for them is that they are real.
+It is as if I were to put up an expensive apartment-house on a vacant
+lot I have at North Ovid. North Ovid is real, and so would be the
+apartment-house; but what of it?
+</p>
+<p>
+There are ninety millions of people in this country, all with
+characters which might be carefully studied, if we had time. But we
+haven't the time. So we have to choose our intimates. We prefer to
+know those who seem to us most worth knowing. You should remember that
+the novelist has no monopoly on realism. The newspapers are full of
+all sorts of realities. The historian is a keen competitor.
+</p>
+<p>
+Do you know that when I went to the bookstore to get your works I fell
+in with a book on Garibaldi by a man named Trevelyan. When I got home
+I sat down with it and couldn't let it go. Garibaldi was all the time
+doing things, which you never allow your characters to do because you
+think they would not be real. He was acting in the most romantic and
+heroic manner possible. And his Thousand trooped after him as gayly as
+if they were in a melodrama. And yet I understand that Garibaldi was a
+real person, and that his exploits can be authenticated.
+</p>
+<p>
+The competition in your line of business is fierce. You try to hold
+the reader's attention to the states of mind of a few futile persons
+who never did anything in particular that would make people want to
+know them exhaustively. And then along comes the historian who tells
+all about some one who does things they are interested in.
+</p>
+<p>
+You can't wonder at the result. People who ought to be interested in
+fiction are carried away by biography, and the chances are that some
+of them will never come back. When they once get a taste for highly
+spiced intellectual victuals, you can't get them to relish the
+breakfast food you set before them. It seems to them insipid.
+</p>
+<p>
+I know what you will say about Garibaldi. He was not your kind. You
+wouldn't touch such a character if it was offered to you at a bargain.
+After looking over that expedition to Sicily you would say that there
+was nothing in it for you. The motives weren't complicated enough. It
+was just plain heroics. You don't care so much for passions as for
+problems. You want something to analyze.
+</p>
+<p>
+Well, what do you say to Cavour? When I was deep in Garibaldi I found
+I couldn't understand what he was driving at without knowing
+something about Cavour who was always mixed up with what was going on
+in that section of the world.
+</p>
+<p>
+So I took up a Life of Cavour by a man named Thayer. It's the way I
+have; one thing suggests another. Once I went up to Duluth and
+invested in some corner lots on Superior Street. That suggested
+Superior City, just across the river. The two towns were running each
+other down at a great rate just then, so I stopped at West Superior to
+see what it had to say for itself. The upshot of the matter was that I
+sized up the situation about like this. A big city has <i>got</i> to grow
+up at the head of Lake Superior. If Duluth grows as much as it thinks
+it will, it's bound to take in Superior. And if Superior grows as much
+as it thinks it will, it can't help taking in Duluth. So I concluded
+that the best thing for me was to take a flier in both.
+</p>
+<p>
+When I saw what a big proposition the Unification of Italy was, I knew
+that there was room for the development of some mighty interesting
+characters before they got through with the business. So I plunged
+into the Life of Cavour, and I've never regretted it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Talk about problems! That hero of yours in your last book&mdash;I know you
+don't believe in heroes,&mdash;at any rate, the leading man&mdash;was an
+innocent child walking with his nurse along Easy Street, when compared
+with Cavour. Cavour had fifty problems at the same time, and all of
+them were insoluble to every one except himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+His project, as I have just told you, was the unification of Italy.
+But he hadn't any regulated monopoly in the business. A whole bunch of
+unifiers were ahead of him; each one of them was trying to unify Italy
+in his own way. They were all working at cross-purposes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now Cavour didn't try, as you might have expected, to reconcile these
+people. He saw that it couldn't be done. He didn't mind their hating
+one another; when they got too peaceable he would make an occasion for
+them to hate him. He kept them all irreconcilably at work, till, in
+spite of themselves, they got to working together. And when they began
+to do that, Cavour would encourage them in it. As long as they were
+all working for Italy he didn't care what they thought of each other
+or of him. He had his eye on the main chance&mdash;for Italy.
+</p>
+<p>
+I notice that in your novel, when your man got into trouble he threw
+up the sponge. That rather turned me against him and I wished I hadn't
+wasted so much time on his affairs. That wasn't the way with Thayer's
+hero. One of the largest deals Cavour ever made was with Napoleon III,
+who at that time had the reputation of being the biggest promoter of
+free institutions in Europe. He was a regular wizard in diplomacy.
+Whatever he said went. You see they hadn't realized then that he was
+doing business on borrowed capital.
+</p>
+<p>
+Well, Napoleon agreed to underwrite, for Cavour, the whole project of
+Italian Unity. Everybody thought it was going through all right, when
+suddenly Napoleon, from a place called Villafranca, wired that the
+deal was off.
+</p>
+<p>
+That floored Cavour. He was down and out. He couldn't realize ten
+cents on the dollar on his securities. If he had been like your man,
+Thayer would have had to bring his book to an end with that chapter.
+He would have left the reader plunged in gloom.
+</p>
+<p>
+Cavour was mad for awhile and went up to Switzerland to cool off.
+Thayer describes the way he went up to a friend's house, near Lake
+Geneva, with his coat on his arm. "Unannounced, he strode into the
+drawing-room, threw himself into an easy-chair, and asked for a glass
+of iced water."
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he poured out his wrath over the Villafranca incident, but he
+didn't waste much time over that. In a few moments he was
+enthusiastically telling of the new projects he had formed. "We must
+not look back, but forward," he told his friends. "We have followed
+one road. It is blocked. Very well, we will follow another."
+</p>
+<p>
+That's the kind of man Cavour was. You forgot that he was a European
+statesman. When you saw him with his coat off, drinking ice-water and
+talking about the future, you felt toward him just as you would toward
+a first-rate American who was of Presidential size.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, I'm not saying that there's any more realism to the square inch
+in a Life of Cavour than in a Life of Napoleon III. It would take as
+much labor on the part of a biographer to tell what Napoleon III
+really was as to tell what Cavour really was&mdash;perhaps more. But you
+come up against the law of supply and demand. You can't get around
+that. There isn't much inquiry for Napoleon, now that his boom is
+over.
+</p>
+<p>
+The way Thayer figured it was, I suppose, something like this. It
+would take eight or ten years to assemble the materials for a
+first-rate biography such as he wished to make. If he chose Napoleon
+there would be steady deterioration in the property, and when the
+improvements were put on there would be no demand. If he put the same
+work on Cavour, he would get the unearned increment. I think he showed
+his sense.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of course the biographer has the advantage of you in one important
+particular. He knows how his story is coming out In a way, he's
+betting on a certainty. Now you, as I judge, don't know how your story
+is coming out, and if it doesn't come out, all you have to do is to
+say that is the way you meant it to be. You cut off so many square
+feet of reality, and let it go at that. Now that is very convenient
+for you, but from the reader's point of view, it's unsatisfactory. It
+mixes him up, and he feels a grudge against you whenever he thinks how
+much better he might have spent his time than in following a plot that
+came to nothing. You see you are running up against that same law of
+supply and demand. There are so many failures in the world that the
+market is overstocked with them. There is a demand for successes.
+</p>
+<p>
+When I was in an old house which I took on the foreclosure of a
+mortgage the other day, I came upon a little old novel, of a hundred
+years ago. It was the sentimental kind that you despise. It was called
+"Alonzo and Melissa," which was enough to condemn it in your eyes. But
+the preface seemed to me to have some sense.
+</p>
+<p>
+The author says: "It is believed that this story contains no
+indecorous stimulants, nor is it filled with inexplicated incidents
+imperceptible to the understanding. When anxieties have been excited
+by involved and doubtful events, they are afterwards elucidated by
+their consequences. In this the writer believes that he has generally
+copied Nature."
+</p>
+<p>
+I have a feeling that those inexplicated incidents in your novel might
+have been elucidated by their consequences if you had chosen a person
+whose actions were of the kind to have some important consequences. In
+tying up to an inconsequential person you lost that chance.
+</p>
+<p>
+I don't mean to discourage you, because I believe you have it in you
+to make a novel that would be as interesting as half the biographies
+that are written. But you must learn a trick from the successful
+biographers, and not invest in second-rate realities. The best is none
+too good. You have to exercise judgment in your initial investment.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, if I were going to build a realistic novel, and had as much skill
+in detail as you have, and as much intellectual capital to invest, I
+would go right down to the business centre, so to speak, and invest in
+a really valuable piece of reality; and then I would develop it. The
+first investment might seem pretty steep, but it would pay in the end.
+If you could get a big man, enthusiastic over a big cause, in conflict
+with big forces, and bring in a lot of worth-while people to back him
+up, and then bring the whole thing to some big conclusion, you would
+have a novel that would be as real as the biographies I have been
+reading, and as interesting. I think it would be worth trying.
+</p>
+<p>
+Respectfully yours,
+</p>
+<center>
+R.S. LANDMANN.
+</center>
+<p>
+P.S. If you don't feel that you can afford to make such a heavy
+investment as I have suggested, why don't you put your material into a
+short story?
+</p>
+<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+<hr>
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+<h2>
+    TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+</h2>
+<p>
+Our talk last night set me to thinking. It was the first time during
+all the years of our acquaintance that I had ever heard you speak in a
+discouraged tone. You have always been healthy to a fault, and your
+good-humor has been contagious. Especially has it been pleasant to
+hear you talk about the country and its Manifest Destiny.
+</p>
+<p>
+I remember, some years ago, how merrily you used to laugh about the
+"calamity-howler," whose habitat at that time was Kansas. The farmers
+of Kansas were not then as prosperous as they are now. When several
+bad years came together they didn't like it, and began to make
+complaints. Their raucous cries you found very amusing.
+</p>
+<p>
+The calamity-howler, being ignorant of the laws of political economy
+and of the conditions of progress, did not take his calamities in the
+spirit in which they were offered to him by the rest of the country.
+He did not find satisfaction in the thought that other people were
+prosperous though he was not. Instead of acting reasonably and voting
+the straight ticket from motives of party loyalty, he raised all sorts
+of irrelevant issues. He treated Prosperity as if it were a local
+issue, instead of a plank in the National Platform.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, all this was opposed to your good-natured philosophy of progress.
+You were eminently practical, and it was a part of your creed never to
+"go behind the returns." As to Prosperity, it was "first come, first
+served." In this land of opportunity the person who first sees an
+opportunity should take it, asking no questions as to why he came by
+it. It is his by right of discovery.
+</p>
+<p>
+You were always a great believer in the good old American doctrine of
+Manifest Destiny. This was a big country and destined to grow bigger.
+To you bigness was its own excuse for being. Optimism was as natural
+as breathing. It was manifest destiny that cities and corporations and
+locomotives and armies and navies and national debts and daily
+newspapers, with their Sunday supplements, and bank clearances and
+tariffs and insurance companies and the price of living should go up.
+It was all according to a beautiful natural law, "as fire ascending
+seeks the sun." Besides these things, it was manifest destiny that
+other things not so good should grow bigger also,&mdash;graft and slums and
+foolish luxury. They were all involved in the increasing bigness of
+things.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sometimes you would grumble about them, but in a good-natured way, as
+one who recognized their inevitability. Just as you said, boys will be
+boys, so you said, politicians will be politicians, and business is
+business. If one is living in a growing country he must not begrudge
+the cost of the incidentals.
+</p>
+<p>
+In your talk there was a cheerful cynicism which amazed the
+slower-witted foreigner. You talked of the pickings and stealings of
+your elected officers as you would of the pranks of a precocious
+youngster. It was all a part of the day's growth. Yet you were really
+public-spirited. You would have sprung to arms in a moment if you had
+thought that your country was in danger or that its institutions were
+being undermined.
+</p>
+<p>
+Your good-natured tolerance was a part of your philosophy of life. It
+was bound up in your triumphant Americanism. You were a
+hero-worshipper, and you delighted in "big men." The big men who
+gained the prizes were efficient and unscrupulous and unassuming; that
+is, they never assumed to be better than their neighbors. They looked
+ahead, they saw how things were going, and went with them. And on the
+whole, things, you believed, were going well. Though they were not
+scrupulously just, these big men were generous, and were willing to
+give away what they had acquired. Though grasping, they were not
+avaricious. They grasped things with the strong prehensile grasp of
+the infant, rather than with the clutch of the miser. They took them
+because they were there, and not because they had any well-defined
+idea as to whether they belonged to them or not.
+</p>
+<p>
+These big men were very likable. They were engrossed in big projects,
+and they were doing necessary work in the development of the country.
+They naturally took the easiest and most direct methods to get at
+results. They would not go out of the way to corrupt a legislature any
+more than they would go out of the way to find a range of mountains.
+But if the mountain stood in the way of the railroad, they would go
+through it regardless of expense. If the legislature was in their way,
+they would deal with it as best they could. They were willing to pay
+what it cost to accomplish a purpose which they believed was good.
+</p>
+<p>
+Their attitude toward the Public was one which you did not criticize,
+for it seemed to you to be reasonable. The Public was an abstraction,
+like Nature. We are all under the laws of Nature. But Nature doesn't
+mind whether we consciously obey or not. She goes her way, and we go
+ours. We get all she will let us have. So with the Public. The Public
+was not regarded as a person or as an aggregate of persons, it was the
+potentiality of wealth. They never thought of the Public as being
+starved or stunted, or even as being seriously inconvenienced because
+of what they took from it, any more than they thought of Nature being
+the poorer because of the electricity which they induced to run along
+their wires. A public franchise was a plum growing on a convenient
+tree. A wise man would wait till it was ripe and then, when no one was
+looking, would pick it for himself The whole transaction was a trial
+of wits between rival pickers. A special privilege, according to this
+view, involved no special obligations; it was a reward for special
+abilities. Once given, it was property to be enjoyed in perpetuity.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was the code of ethics which you, in common with multitudes of
+American citizens, accepted. You have yourself prospered. Indeed,
+things had gone so well with you in this best of all countries that
+any fundamental change seemed unthinkable.
+</p>
+<p>
+But that a change has come seems evident from your conversation last
+night. All that fine optimism which your friends have admired seemed
+to have deserted you. There was a querulous note which was strangely
+out of keeping with your usual disposition. It was what you have been
+accustomed to stigmatize as un-American. When you discussed the
+present state of the country, you talked&mdash;you will pardon me for
+saying it&mdash;for all the world like a calamity-howler.
+</p>
+<p>
+The country, you said, is in a bad way, and it must be awakened from
+its lethargy. After a period of unexampled prosperity and marvelous
+development, something has happened. Just what it is you don't really
+know, but it's very alarming. Instead of working together for
+Prosperity, the people are listening to demagogues, and trying all
+sorts of experiments, half of which you are sure are unconstitutional.
+The captains of industry who have made this the biggest country in the
+world are thwarted in their plans for further expansion.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are people who are criticizing the courts, and there are courts
+which are criticizing business enterprises that they don't understand.
+There are so-called experts&mdash;mere college professors&mdash;who are
+tinkering the tariff. There are over-zealous executives who are
+currying favor with the crowd by enforcing laws which are well enough
+on the statute books, but which were never meant to go further. As if
+matters were not bad enough already, there are demagogues who are
+stirring up class feeling by proposing new laws. Party loyalty is
+being undermined, and the new generation doesn't half understand the
+great issues which have been settled for all time. It is rashly
+interested in new issues. For the life of you, you say, you can't
+understand what these issues are.
+</p>
+<p>
+New and divisive questions which lead only to faction are propounded
+so that the voters are confused. The great principle of Representative
+Government, on which the Republic was founded, is being attacked.
+Instead of choosing experienced men to direct public policy, there is
+an appeal to the passions of the mob. The result of all this agitation
+is an unsettlement that paralyzes business. The United States is in
+danger of losing the race for commercial supremacy. Germany will forge
+ahead of us. Japan will catch us. Socialism and the Yellow Peril will
+be upon us. The Man on Horseback will appear, and what shall we do
+then?
+</p>
+<p>
+I did not understand whether you looked for these perils to come
+together, or whether they were to appear in orderly succession. But I
+came to the conclusion that either the country is in a bad way, or you
+are. You will pardon me if I choose the latter alternative, for I too
+am an optimistic American, and I like to choose the lesser of two
+evils. If there is an attack of "hysteria," I should like to think of
+it as somewhat localized, rather than having suddenly attacked the
+whole country.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, my opinion is that the American people were never minding their
+own business more good-humoredly and imperturbably than at the present
+moment. They have been slowly and silently making up their minds, and
+now they are beginning to express a deliberate judgment. What you take
+to be the noise of demagogues, I consider to be the sober sense of a
+great people which is just finding adequate expression.
+</p>
+<p>
+You seem to be afraid of an impending revolution, and picture it as a
+sort of French Revolution, a destructive overturn of all existing
+institutions. But may not the revolution which we are passing through
+be something different,&mdash;a great American revolution, which is being
+carried through in the characteristic American fashion?
+</p>
+<p>
+Walt Whitman expresses the great characteristic of American history:
+"Here is what moves in magnificent masses careless of particulars."
+</p>
+<p>
+It is this mass movement, slow at first, but swift and irresistible
+when the mass has come to consciousness of its own tendency, which has
+always confounded astute persons who have been interested only in
+particulars. It is a movement like that of the Mississippi at
+flood-time. The great river flows within its banks as long as it can.
+But the time comes when the barriers are too frail to hold back the
+mighty waters. Then the river makes, very quickly, a channel for
+itself. You cannot understand what has happened till you take into
+account the magnitude of the river itself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, the successful man of affairs, who has been intent on the
+incidents of the passing day, is often strangely oblivious of the mass
+movements. You, for example, are disturbed by the unrest which is
+manifest, and you look for some one whom you can blame for the
+disturbance. But perhaps no one is to blame.
+</p>
+<p>
+I think that what is happening may be traced to a sufficient cause. We
+are approaching the end of one great era in American history and we
+are preparing, as best we may, for a new era. The consciousness of the
+magnitude of the change has come to us rather suddenly. One big job
+which has absorbed the energies and stimulated the ambition of
+Americans for three hundred years is practically finished. Some work
+still remains to be done on it, but it no longer demands the highest
+ability. The end is in sight.
+</p>
+<p>
+This work has been the settlement of a vast territory, lying between
+the Atlantic and Pacific, with a population of white men. It was a
+task so big in itself that it fired the imagination and developed that
+peculiar type of character which we call American. In its outlines the
+task was so broad and simple that it could be comprehended by the most
+ordinary intelligence. It was so inevitable that it impressed upon all
+those engaged in it the belief in Manifest Destiny.
+</p>
+<p>
+What has been treated by incompetent critics as mere boastfulness has
+in reality been practical sagacity and foresight. Sam Slick was only
+expressing a truth when he said, "The Yankees see further than most
+folks." This was not because of any innate cleverness but because of
+their advantage in position. Americans have had a more unobstructed
+view of the future than had the people of the overcrowded Old World.
+The settlers on the shores of the Atlantic had behind them a region
+which belonged to them and their children. They soon became aware of
+the riches of this hinterland and of its meaning for the future. This
+vast region must be settled. Roads must be built over the mountains,
+the forests must be felled, mines must be opened up, farms must be
+brought under the plow, great cities must be built by the rivers and
+lakes, there must be schools and churches and markets established
+where now the tribes of Indians roam. The surplus millions of Europe
+must be transported to this wilderness.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a big task and yet a simple one. The movement was as obvious as
+that of Niagara&mdash;Niagara is wonderful but inevitable. A great deal of
+water flowing over a great deal of rock, that is all there is of it.
+The destiny of America was equally obvious from the beginning. Here
+was a great deal of land which was destined to be inhabited by a great
+many people. It didn't matter very much what kind of people they were
+so that they were healthy and industrious. The greatness of the
+country was assured if only there were enough of them.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the very first the future greatness of the land was seen by
+open-eyed explorers. They all were able to appreciate it. Captain John
+Smith does not compare Virginia with Great Britain; he compares it to
+the whole of Europe. After mentioning the natural resources of each
+country, he declares that the new land had all these and more, and
+needed only men to develop them. And Captain John Smith's forecast has
+proved to be correct.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the first half of the last century, a party of twenty young men
+from Cambridge, Massachusetts, started on what at that time was a
+great adventure, the overland journey to Oregon. The preface to
+Wyeth's "Oregon Expedition" throws light on the ideas of those who
+were not statesmen or captains of industry, but only plain American
+citizens sharing the vision which was common.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The spot where our adventurer was born and grew up had many peculiar
+and desirable advantages over most others in the County of Middlesex.
+Besides rich pasturage, numerous dairies, and profitable orchards, it
+possessed the luxuries of well-cultivated gardens of all sorts of
+culinary vegetables, and all within three miles of Boston Market
+House, and two miles of the largest live-cattle market in New
+England." Besides these blessings there is enumerated "a body of water
+commonly called Fresh Pond."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But Mr. Wyeth said, 'All this availeth me nothing, so long as I read
+books in which I find that by going only about four thousand miles
+overland, from the shore of our Atlantic to the shore of the Pacific,
+after we have there entrapped and killed the beavers and otters, we
+shall be able, after building vessels for the purpose, to carry our
+most valuable peltry to China and Cochin China, our sealskins to
+Japan, and our superfluous grain to various Asiatic ports, and lumber
+to the Spanish settlements on the Pacific; and to become rich by
+underworking and underselling the people of Hindustan; and, to crown
+all, to extend far and wide the traffic in oil, by killing tame whales
+on the spot, instead of sailing around the stormy region of Cape
+Horn.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"All these advantages and more were suggested to divers discontented
+and impatient young men. Talk to them of the great labor, toil, risk,
+and they would turn a deaf ear to you; argue with them and you might
+as well reason with a snowstorm."
+</p>
+<p>
+If you would understand the driving power of America, you must
+understand "the divers discontented and impatient young men " who in
+each generation have found in the American wilderness an outlet for
+their energies. In the rough contacts with untamed Nature they learned
+to be resourceful. Emerson declared that the country went on most
+satisfactorily, not when it was in the hands of the respectable Whigs,
+but when in the hands of "these rough riders&mdash;legislators in
+shirt-sleeves&mdash;Hoosier, Sucker, Wolverine, Badger&mdash;or whatever
+hard-head Arkansas, Oregon, or Utah sends, half-orator, half-assassin,
+to represent its wrath and cupidity at Washington."
+</p>
+<p>
+The men who made America had an "excess of virility." "Men of this
+surcharge of arterial blood cannot live on nuts, herb-tea, and
+elegies; cannot read novels and play whist; cannot satisfy all their
+wants at the Thursday Lecture and the Boston Athenæum. They pine for
+adventure and must go to Pike's Peak; had rather die by the hatchet of
+the Pawnee than sit all day and every day at the counting-room desk.
+They are made for war, for the sea, for mining, hunting, and clearing,
+and the joy of eventful living."
+</p>
+<p>
+In Emerson's day there was ample scope for all these varied energies
+on the frontier. "There are Oregons, Californias, and Exploring
+Expeditions enough appertaining to America to find them in files to
+gnaw and crocodiles to eat."
+</p>
+<p>
+But it must have occurred to some one to ask, "What will happen when
+the Oregons and Californias are filled up?" Well, the answer is, "See
+what is happening now." Instead of settling down to herb-tea and
+elegies, Young America, having finished one big job, is looking for
+another. The noises which disturb you are not the cries of an angry
+proletariat, but are the shouts of eager young fellows who are finding
+new opportunities. They have the same desire to do big things, the
+same joy in eventful living, that you had thirty years ago. Only the
+tasks that challenge them have taken a different form.
+</p>
+<p>
+When you hear the words "Conservation," "Social Service," "Social
+Justice," and the like, you are apt to dismiss them as mere fads. You
+think of the catchwords of ineffective reformers whom you have known
+from your youth. But the fact is that they represent to-day the
+enthusiasms of a new generation. They are big things, with big men
+behind them. They represent the Oregons and Californias toward which
+sturdy pioneers are moving, undeterred by obstacles.
+</p>
+<p>
+The live questions to-day concern not the material so much as the
+moral development of the nation. For it is seen that the future
+welfare of the people depends on the creation of a finer type of civic
+life. Is this still to be a land of opportunity? Ninety millions of
+people are already here. What shall be done with the next ninety
+millions? That wealth is to increase goes without saying. But how is
+it to be distributed? Are we tending to a Plutocracy, or can a real
+Democracy hold its own? Powerful machinery has been invented. How can
+this machinery be controlled and used for truly human ends? We have
+learned the economies that result from organization. Who is to get the
+benefit of these economies?
+</p>
+<p>
+So long as such questions were merely academic, practical persons like
+yourself paid little attention to them. Now they are being asked by
+persons as practical as yourself who are intent on 'getting results.'
+And what is more, they employ the instruments of precision furnished
+by modern science.
+</p>
+<p>
+You have been pleased over the millions of dollars which have been
+lavished on education. The fruits of this are now being seen. Hosts
+of able young men have been studying Government and Sociology and
+Economics and History. These have been the most popular courses in all
+our colleges. And they have been studied in a new way. The old
+formulas and the old methods have been fearlessly criticized. New
+standards of efficiency have been presented. The scientific method has
+been extended to the sphere of moral relations. It has been
+demonstrated to these young men that the resources of the country may
+be indefinitely increased by the continuous application of trained
+intelligence to definite ends. The old Malthusian doctrine has given
+way before applied science. The population may be doubled and the
+standard of living increased at the same time, if we plan
+intelligently. The expert can serve the public as efficiently as he
+has served private interests, if only the public can be educated to
+appreciate him, and persuaded to employ him.
+</p>
+<p>
+This is what the "social unrest" means in America. It is not the
+unrest of the weak and the unsuccessful. It is the unrest of the
+strong and ambitious. You cannot still it by talking about
+prosperity: of course we are prosperous, after a fashion, but it is a
+fashion that no longer pleases us. We want something better and we
+propose to get it. What disturbs you is the appearance in force of a
+generation that has turned its attention to a new set of problems, and
+is attempting to solve them by scientific methods. It is believed that
+there is a Science of Government as well as an Art of Politics. The
+new generation has a respect, born of experience, for the expert. It
+seeks the man who knows rather than the clever manager. It demands of
+public servants not simply that they be honest, but that they be
+efficient.
+</p>
+<p>
+Its attitude to the political boss is decidedly less respectful than
+that to which you were accustomed. You looked upon him as a remarkably
+astute character, and you attributed to him an uncanny ability to
+forecast the future. These young men have discovered that his ability
+is only a vulgar error. Remove the conditions created by public
+indifference and ignorance, and he vanishes. In restoring power to the
+people, they find that a hundred useful things can be done which the
+political wiseacres declared to be impossible.
+</p>
+<p>
+When I consider the new and vigorous forces in American life I cannot
+agree with your apprehensions; but there is one thing which you said
+with which I heartily agree. You said that you wished we might settle
+down to sound and constructive work, and get rid of the "muck-raker."
+</p>
+<p>
+I agree with you that the muck-raker stands in the way of large plans
+for betterment. But it might be well to refresh our minds in regard to
+what is really meant by the man with the muck-rake. He is not the man
+who draws our attention to abuses which can be abolished by determined
+effort. He is the man who apologizes for abuses that are profitable to
+himself. He prefers his petty interests to any ideal good. His
+character was most admirably drawn by Bunyan:&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>
+"The Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a
+room where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a
+muck-rake in his hand. There stood also one over his head with a
+celestial crown in His hand, and proffered him that crown for his
+muck-rake, but the man did neither look up nor regard, but raked to
+himself the straws, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor.
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'I persuade myself that I know somewhat the
+meaning of this; for this is the figure of a man of this world, is it
+not, good sir?'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Thou hast said right,' said he....
+</p>
+<p>
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'O deliver me from this muck-rake.'
+</p>
+<p>
+"'That prayer,' said the Interpreter, 'has lain by till it is almost
+rusty. "Give me not riches," is scarce the prayer of one in ten
+thousand.'"
+</p>
+<p>
+The man with the muck-rake, then, is one who can look no way but
+downward, and is so intent on collecting riches for himself that he
+does not see or regard any higher interests. I agree with you that if
+we are to have any constructive work in American society the first
+thing is to get rid of the man with the muck-rake, and to put in his
+place the Man with a Vision.
+</p>
+<h2>
+THE END
+</h2>
+<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a>
+
+<div style="height: 4em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+<hr>
+<h2>
+    The Riverside Press
+</h2>
+<center>
+CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS<br>
+U.S.A.
+</center>
+<hr>
+<h3>
+THE CORNER OF
+HARLEY STREET
+</h3>
+<center>
+Being some familiar correspondence of<br>
+PETER HARDING, M.D.
+</center>
+<p>
+"A fair criticism, a complete defence, and some high praise of the
+doctoring trade."&mdash;<i>London Punch</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+"The book is ripe, well written, thoughtful, piquant and highly human.
+A thread of romance runs happily through it."&mdash;<i>Chicago
+Record-Herald.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"There is nothing upon which the genial Dr. Harding has not something
+to say that is worth listening to."&mdash;<i>-London Daily Mail</i>,
+</p>
+<p>
+"The publishers of 'The Corner of Harley Street' are really justified
+in comparing these critical papers with Dr. Holmes' 'The Autocrat of
+the Breakfast Table'.... They are charmingly discursive, often witty,
+and always full of a genial sympathy with humanity and the significant
+facts of life."&mdash;<i>The Outlook.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+$1.25 <i>net</i>. Postage 11 cents.
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+
+<hr>
+<h3>
+PEOPLE OF POPHAM
+</h3>
+<center>
+By MARY C.E. WEMYSS
+</center>
+<p>
+"As vivid in its way as 'Cranford'."&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"One of the most charming chronicles of village life ever
+written."&mdash;<i>Living Age.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Such a book as this may be read aloud evening after evening, with
+recurrent zest, with enjoyment of its humor, its quaint and human
+personages as they take their unhurried way through agreeable
+pages."&mdash;<i>Louisville Courier Journal.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"A book which will give many readers a rare pleasure."&mdash;<i>Chicago
+Evening Post.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"A sort of modern 'Cranford', good to read all the way
+through."&mdash;<i>Minneapolis Journal.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Illustrated. $1.20 <i>net.</i> Postage 11 cents.
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+<hr>
+<h3>
+A YEAR IN A COAL-MINE
+</h3>
+<center>
+By JOSEPH HUSBAND
+</center>
+<p>
+"Mr. Husband enables the reader to carry away a vitalized impression
+of a coal-mine, its working and its workers, and a grasp of vivid
+details."&mdash;<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It is a story of vivid and compelling interest and every word bears
+the impress of truth."&mdash;<i>Living Age.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Apart from its informative value, this is a book that no one can fail
+to enjoy."&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Press.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"A refreshingly frank narrative."&mdash;<i>New York Sun</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+With frontispiece. $1.10 <i>net</i>. Postage 9 cents.
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+<hr>
+<h3>
+THE CONFESSIONS OF A
+RAILROAD SIGNALMAN
+</h3>
+<center>
+By J.O. FAGAN
+</center>
+<p>
+"Extremely well written and forcible."&mdash;<i>The Outlook.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"A terrible indictment of our railway management."&mdash;<i>New York Post.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"The literature of the day contains few things more interesting than
+these confessions. They relate to railroad accidents, and the
+confessor is manifestly a man not only of remarkable discernment, but
+likewise of rhetorical skill."&mdash;<i>Stone and Webster Public Service
+Journal.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Throws much light on the frequency of railroad accidents and will
+stimulate serious thought on the part of readers."&mdash;<i>Troy Times.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Remarkable and interesting."&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Illustrated from photographs. 12mo, $1.00 <i>net.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Postage 10 cents.
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+
+<hr>
+<h3>
+ROUTINE AND IDEALS
+</h3>
+<center>
+BY LE BARON R. BRIGGS, <i>President of Radcliffe College</i>.
+</center>
+<p>
+16mo, $1.00, <i>net</i>. Postage 9 cents.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Common sense enriched by culture describes everything which Dean, or,
+as he ought now to be called, President, Briggs says or writes. The
+genius of sanity, sound judgment, and high aim seems to preside over
+his thought, and he combines in an unusual degree the faculty of
+vision and the power of dealing with real things in a reaL way."&mdash;<i>The
+Outlook</i>, New York.
+</p>
+<br/>
+<h3>
+SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND
+CHARACTER
+</h3>
+<center>
+BY THE AUTHOR OF "ROUTINE AND IDEALS."
+</center>
+<p>
+16mo, $1.00, <i>net</i>. Postage 8 cents.
+</p>
+<p>
+"With the soundest good sense and with frequent humorous flashes, Dean
+Briggs takes students and parents into his confidence, and shows them
+the solution of college problems from the point of view, not of the
+'office' but of a very clear-thinking, whole-souled man <i>in</i> the
+'office'"&mdash;<i>The World's Work</i>, New York.
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+<hr>
+<h3>
+JOHN PERCYFIELD
+</h3>
+<center>
+By C. HANFORD HENDERSON
+</center>
+<p>
+"<i>John Percyfield</i> is twisted of a double thread&mdash;delightful, wise,
+sunshiny talks on the lines laid down by the Autocrat, and an
+autobiographical love story. It is full of wisdom and of beauty, of
+delicate delineation, and of inspiring sentiment" <i>New York Times</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Its merits will rank it among the few sterling books of the day."
+<i>Boston Transcript</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A book of rare charm and unusual character ... fresh and sweet in
+tone and admirably written throughout." <i>The Outlook, New York</i>.
+</p>
+<p>
+Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.50
+</p>
+<center>
+HOUGHTON
+MIFFLIN
+COMPANY
+<br/>
+BOSTON
+AND
+NEW YORK</center>
+
+
+<div style="height: 6em;"><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Humanly Speaking, by Samuel McChord Crothers
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+
diff --git a/15866.txt b/15866.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,5129 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Humanly Speaking, by Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+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: Humanly Speaking
+
+Author: Samuel McChord Crothers
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2005 [EBook #15866]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUMANLY SPEAKING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Bethanne M. Simms and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+BY SAMUEL McCHORD CROTHERS
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+MDCCCCXII
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY SAMUEL MCCHORD CROTHERS
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published November 1912_
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  By Samuel M. Crothers
+
+  HUMANLY SPEAKING.
+  AMONG FRIENDS.
+  BY THE CHRISTMAS FIRE.
+  THE PARDONER'S WALLET.
+  THE ENDLESS LIFE.
+  THE GENTLE READER.
+  OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: THE AUTOCRAT AND HIS FELLOW BOARDERS.
+    With Portrait.
+  MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY. Illustrated.
+
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+
+THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+
+THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+
+THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+
+THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+
+THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+
+THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+
+ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+
+TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+
+
+
+The author wishes to express his thanks to the Editors of the _Atlantic
+Monthly_ and the _Century Magazine_ for their courtesy in permitting the
+publication in this volume of certain essays which have appeared in
+their magazines.
+
+
+
+
+HUMANLY SPEAKING
+
+
+"Humanly speaking, it is impossible." So the old theologian would say
+when denying any escape from his own argument. His logical machine was
+going at full speed, and the grim engineer had no notion of putting on
+the brakes. His was a non-stop train and there was to be no slowing-down
+till he reached the terminus.
+
+But in the middle of the track was an indubitable fact. By all the rules
+of argumentation it had no business to be there, trespassing on the
+right of way. But there it was! We trembled to think of the impending
+collision.
+
+But the collision between the argument and the fact never happened. The
+"humanly speaking" was the switch that turned the argument safely on a
+parallel track, where it went whizzing by the fact without the least
+injury to either. Many things which are humanly speaking impossible are
+of the most common occurrence and the theologian knew it.
+
+It is only by the use of this saving clause that one may safely moralize
+or generalize or indulge in the mildest form of prediction. Strictly
+speaking, no one has a right to express any opinion about such complex
+and incomprehensible aggregations of humanity as the United States of
+America or the British Empire. Humanly speaking, they both are
+impossible. Antecedently to experience the Constitution of Utopia as
+expounded by Sir Thomas More would be much more probable. It has a
+certain rational coherence. If it existed at all it would hang together,
+being made out of whole cloth. But how does the British Empire hold
+together? It seems to be made of shreds and patches. It is full of
+anomalies and temporary makeshifts. Why millions of people, who do not
+know each other, should be willing to die rather than to be separated
+from each other, is something not easily explained. Nevertheless the
+British Empire exists, and, through all the changes which threaten it,
+grows in strength.
+
+The perils that threaten the United States of America are so obvious
+that anybody can see them. So far as one can see, the Republic ought to
+have been destroyed long ago by political corruption, race prejudice,
+unrestricted immigration and the growth of monopolies. The only way to
+account for its present existence is that there is something about it
+that is not so easily seen. Disease is often more easily diagnosed than
+health. But we should remember that the Republic is not out of danger.
+It is a very salutary thing to bring its perils to the attention of the
+too easy-going citizens. It is well to have a Jeremiah, now and then, to
+speak unwelcome truths.
+
+But even Jeremiah, when he was denouncing the evils that would befall
+his country, had a saving clause in his gloomy predictions. All manner
+of evils would befall them unless they repented, and humanly speaking he
+was of the opinion that they couldn't repent. Said he: "Can the
+Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do
+good that are accustomed to do evil." Nevertheless this did not prevent
+him from continually exhorting them to do good, and blaming them when
+they didn't do it. Like all great moral teachers he acted on the
+assumption that there is more freedom of will than seemed theoretically
+possible. It was the same way with his views of national affairs.
+Jeremiah's reputation is that of a pessimist. Still, when the country
+was in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and he was in prison for predicting
+it, he bought a piece of real estate which was in the hands of the
+enemy. He considered it a good investment. "I subscribed the deed and
+sealed it, and called witnesses and weighed him the money in the
+balances." Then he put the deeds in an earthen vessel, "that they may
+continue many days." For in spite of the panic that his own words had
+caused, he believed that the market would come up again. "Houses and
+vineyards shall yet be bought in this land." If I were an archaeologist
+with a free hand, I should like to dig in that field in Anathoth in the
+hope of finding the earthen jar with the deed which Hanameel gave to his
+cousin Jeremiah, for a plot of ground that nobody else would buy.
+
+It is the moralists and the reformers who have after all the most
+cheerful message for us. They are all the time threatening us, yet for
+our own good. They see us plunging heedlessly to destruction. They cry,
+"Look out!" They often do not themselves see the way out, but they have
+a well-founded hope that we will discover a way when our attention is
+called to an imminent danger. The fact that the race has survived thus
+far is an evidence that its instinct for self-preservation is a strong
+one. It has a wonderful gift for recovering after the doctors have given
+it up.
+
+The saving clause is a great help to those idealists who are inclined to
+look unwelcome facts in the face. It enables them to retain faith in
+their ideals, and at the same time to hold on to their intellectual
+self-respect.
+
+There are idealists of another sort who know nothing of their struggles
+and self-contradictions. Having formed their ideal of what ought to be,
+they identify it with what is. For them belief in the existence of good
+is equivalent to the obliteration of evil. Their world is equally good
+in all its parts, and is to be viewed in all its aspects with serene
+complacency.
+
+Now this is very pleasant for a time, especially if one is tired and
+needs a complete rest. But after a while it becomes irksome, and one
+longs for a change, even if it should be for the worse. We are floating
+on a sea of beneficence, in which it is impossible for us to sink. But
+though one could not easily drown in the Dead Sea, one might starve. And
+when goodness is of too great specific gravity it is impossible to get
+on in it or out of it. This is disconcerting to one of an active
+disposition. It is comforting to be told that everything is completely
+good, till you reflect that that is only another way of saying that
+nothing can be made any better, and that there is no use for you to try.
+
+Now the idealist of the sterner sort insists on criticizing the existing
+world. He refuses to call good evil or evil good. The two things are, in
+his judgment, quite different. He recognizes the existence of good, but
+he also recognizes the fact that there is not enough of it. This he
+looks upon as a great evil which ought to be remedied. And he is glad
+that he is alive at this particular juncture, in a world in which there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Besides the ordinary Christian virtues I would recommend to any one, who
+would fit himself to live happily as well as efficiently, the
+cultivation of that auxiliary virtue or grace which Horace Walpole
+called "Serendipity." Walpole defined it in a letter to Sir Horace Mann:
+"It is a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell
+you, I shall endeavor to explain to you; you will understand it better
+by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale
+called 'The Three Princes of Serendip.' As their Highnesses traveled,
+they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of
+things which they were not in quest of.... Now do you understand
+_Serendipity_?" In case the reader does not understand, Walpole goes on
+to define "Serendipity" as "accidental sagacity (for you must know that
+no discovery you _are_ looking for comes under this description)."
+
+I am inclined to think that in such a world as this, where our hold on
+all good is precarious, a man should be on the lookout for dangers.
+Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for all that is worth having. But
+when, prepared for the worst, he goes forward, his journey will be more
+pleasant if he has also a "serendipitaceous" mind. He will then, by a
+sort of accidental sagacity, discover that what he encounters is much
+less formidable than what he feared. Half of his enemies turn out to be
+friends in disguise, and half of the other half retire at his approach.
+After a while such words as "impracticable" and "impossible" lose their
+absoluteness and become only synonyms for the relatively difficult. He
+has so often found a way out, where humanly speaking there was none,
+that he no longer looks upon a logical dilemma as a final negation of
+effort.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following essays were written partly at home and partly abroad. They
+therefore betray the influence of some of the mass movements of the day.
+Anyone with even a little leisure from his own personal affairs must
+realize that we are living in one of the most stirring times in human
+history. Everywhere the old order is changing. Everywhere there are
+confused currents both of thought and feeling.
+
+That the old order is passing is obvious enough. That a new order is
+arising, and that it is on the whole beneficent, is not merely a pious
+hope. It is more than this: it is a matter of observation to any one
+with a moderate degree of "Serendipity."
+
+
+
+
+IN THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
+
+
+It sometimes happens that a business man who is in reality solvent
+becomes temporarily embarrassed. His assets are greater than his
+liabilities, but they are not quick enough to meet the situation. The
+liabilities have become mutinous and bear down upon him in a threatening
+mob. If he had time to deal with them one by one, all would be well; but
+he cannot on the instant mobilize his forces.
+
+Under such circumstances the law allows him to surrender, not to the
+mob, but to a friendly power which shall protect the interests of all
+concerned. He goes into the hands of a receiver, who will straighten out
+his affairs for him. I can imagine the relief which would come to one
+who could thus get rid, for a while, of his harassing responsibilities,
+and let some one else do the worrying.
+
+In these days some of the best people I know are in this predicament in
+regard to their moral and social affairs. These friends of mine have
+this peculiarity, that they are anxious to do their duty. Now, in all
+generations, there have been persons who did their duty, according to
+their lights. But in these days it happens that a new set of lights has
+been turned on suddenly, and we all see more duties than we had
+bargained for. In the glare we see an army of creditors, each with an
+overdue bill in hand. Each demands immediate payment, and shakes his
+head when we suggest that he call again next week. We realize that our
+moral cash in hand is not sufficient for the crisis. If all our
+obligations must be met at once, there will be a panic in which most of
+our securities will be sacrificed.
+
+We are accustomed to grumble over the increase in the cost of living.
+But the enhancement of price in the necessities of physical life is
+nothing compared to the increase in the cost of the higher life.
+
+There are those now living who can remember when almost any one could
+have the satisfaction of being considered a good citizen and neighbor.
+All one had to do was to attend to one's own affairs and keep within the
+law. He would then be respected by all, and would deserve the most
+eulogistic epitaph when he came to die. By working for private profit he
+could have the satisfaction of knowing that all sorts of public benefits
+came as by-products of his activity.
+
+But now all such satisfactions are denied. To be a good citizen you must
+put your mind on the job, and it is no easy one. You must be up and
+doing. And when you are doing one good thing there will be keen-eyed
+critics who will ask why you have not been doing other things which are
+much more important; and they will sternly demand of you, "What do you
+mean by such criminal negligence?"
+
+What we call the awakening of the social conscience marks an important
+step in progress, But, like all progress, it involves hardship to
+individuals. For the higher moral classes, the saints and the reformers,
+it is the occasion of wholehearted rejoicing. It is just what they have,
+all the while, been trying to bring about. But I confess to a sympathy
+for the middle class, morally considered, the plain people, who feel the
+pinch. They have invested their little all in the old-fashioned
+securities, and when these are depreciated they feel that there is
+nothing to keep the wolf from the door. After reading a few searching
+articles in the magazines they feel that, so far from being excellent
+citizens, they are little better than enemies of society. I am not
+pleading for the predatory rich, but only for the well-meaning persons
+in moderately comfortable circumstances, whose predatoriness has been
+suddenly revealed to them.
+
+Many of the most conscientious persons go about with an habitually
+apologetic manner. They are rapidly acquiring the evasive air of the
+conscious criminal. It is only a very hardened philanthropist, or an
+unsophisticated beginner in good works, who can look a sociologist in
+the eye. Most persons, when they do one thing, begin to apologize for
+not doing something else. They are like a one-track railroad that has
+been congested with traffic. They are not sure which train has the right
+of way, and which should go on the siding. Progress is a series of
+rear-end collisions.
+
+There is little opportunity for self-satisfaction. The old-fashioned
+private virtues which used to be exhibited with such innocent pride as
+family heirlooms are now scrutinized with suspicion. They are subjected
+to rigid tests to determine their value as public utilities.
+
+Perhaps I may best illustrate the need of some receivership by drawing
+attention to the case of my friend the Reverend Augustus Bagster.
+
+Bagster is not by nature a spiritual genius; he is only a modern man who
+is sincerely desirous of doing what is expected of him. I do not think
+that he is capable of inventing a duty, but he is morally
+impressionable, and recognizes one when it is pointed out to him. A
+generation ago such a man would have lived a useful and untroubled life
+in a round of parish duties. He would have been placidly contented with
+himself and his achievements. But when he came to a city pulpit he heard
+the Call of the Modern. The multitudinous life around him must be
+translated into immediate action. His conscience was not merely
+awakened: it soon reached a state of persistent insomnia.
+
+When he told me that he had preached a sermon on the text, "Let him that
+stole steal no more," I was interested. But shortly after, he told me
+that he could not let go of that text. It was a live wire. He had
+expanded the sermon into a course on the different kinds of stealing. He
+found few things that did not come under the category of Theft.
+Spiritual goods as well as material might be stolen. If a person
+possessed a cheerful disposition, you should ask, "How did he get it?"
+
+"It seems to me," I said, "that a cheerful disposition is one of the
+things where possession is nine tenths of the law. I don't like to think
+of such spiritual wealth as ill-gotten."
+
+"I am sorry," said Bagster, "to see that your sympathies are with the
+privileged classes."
+
+Several weeks ago I received a letter which revealed his state of
+mind:--
+
+"I believe that you are acquainted with the Editor of the 'Atlantic
+Monthly.' I suppose he means well, but persons in his situation are
+likely to cater to mere literature. I hope that I am not uncharitable,
+but I have a suspicion that our poets yield sometimes to the desire to
+please. They are perhaps unconscious of the subtle temptation. They are
+not sufficiently direct and specific in their charges. I have been
+reading Walt Whitman's 'Song of Joys.' The subject does not attract me,
+but I like the way in which it is treated. There is no beating around
+the bush. The poet is perfectly fearless, and will not let any guilty
+man escape.
+
+        "'O the farmer's joys!
+  Ohioans, Illinoisans, Wisconsonese, Kanadians,
+  Iowans, Kansans, Oregonese joys.'
+
+"That is the way one should write if he expects
+to get results. He should point to each individual
+and say, 'Thou art the man.'
+
+"I am no poet,--though I am painfully conscious
+that I ought to be one,--but I have written
+what I call, 'The Song of Obligations.' I
+think it may arouse the public. In such matters
+we ought to unite as good citizens. You might
+perhaps drop a postal card, just to show where
+you stand."
+
+            THE SONG OF OBLIGATIONS
+
+  "O the citizen's obligations.
+  The obligation of every American citizen to see that
+     every other American citizen does his duty, and
+     to be quick about it.
+  The janitor's duties, the Board of Health's duties, the
+     milkman's duties, resting upon each one of us individually
+     with the accumulated weight of every
+     cubic foot of vitiated air, and multiplied by the
+     number of bacteria in every cubic centimeter of
+     milk.
+  The motorman's duties, and the duty of every spry citizen
+     not to allow himself to be run over by the motorman.
+  The obligation of teachers in the public schools to supply
+     their pupils with all the aptitudes and graces
+     formerly supposed to be the result of heredity and
+     environment.
+  The duty of each teacher to consult daily a card catalogue
+     of duties, beginning with Apperception and
+     Adenoids and going on to Vaccination, Ventilation,
+     and the various vivacious variations on the
+     three R's.
+  The obligation resting upon the well-to-do citizen not
+     to leave for his country place, but to remain in the
+     city in order to give the force of his example, in
+     his own ward, to a safe and sane Fourth of July.
+  The obligation resting upon every citizen to write to
+     his Congressman.
+  The obligation to speak to one's neighbor who may
+     think he is living a moral life, and who yet
+     has never written to his Congressman.
+  The obligation to attend hearings at the State House.
+  The obligation to protest against the habit of employees
+     at the State House of professing ignorance
+     of the location of the committee-room where
+     the hearings are to be held; also to protest against
+     the habit of postponing the hearings after one has
+     at great personal inconvenience come to the State
+     House in order to protest.
+  The duty of doing your Christmas shopping early
+     enough in July to allow the shop-girls to enjoy
+     their summer vacation.
+  The duty of knowing what you are talking about, and
+     of talking about all the things you ought to know
+     about.
+  The obligation of feeling that it is a joy and a privilege
+     to live in a country where eternal vigilance is
+     the price of liberty, and where even if you have
+     the price you don't get all the liberty you pay for."
+
+I was a little troubled over this effusion, as it seemed to indicate
+that Bagster had reached the limit of elasticity. A few days later I
+received a letter asking me to call upon him. I found him in a state of
+uncertainty over his own condition.
+
+"I want you," he said, "to listen to the report my stenographer has
+handed me, of an address which I gave day before yesterday. I have been
+doing some of my most faithful work recently, going from one meeting to
+another and helping in every good cause. But at this meeting I had a
+rare sensation of freedom of utterance. I had the sense of liberation
+from the trammels of time and space. It was a realization of moral
+ubiquity. All the audiences I had been addressing seemed to flow
+together into one audience, and all the good causes into one good cause.
+Incidentally I seemed to have solved the Social Question. But now that I
+have the stenographic report I am not so certain."
+
+"Read it," I said.
+
+He began to read, but the confidence of his pulpit tone, which was one
+of the secrets of his power, would now and then desert him, and he would
+look up to me as if waiting for an encouraging "Amen."
+
+"Your secretary, when she called me up by telephone, explained to me the
+object of your meeting. It is an object with which I deeply sympathize.
+It is Rest. You stand for the idea of poise and tranquillity of spirit.
+You would have a place for tranquil meditation. The thought I would
+bring to you this afternoon is this: We are here not to be doing, but to
+be.
+
+"But of course the thought at once occurs to us, How can we _be_
+considering the high cost of the necessaries of life? It will be seen at
+once that the question is at bottom an economic one. You must have a
+living wage, and how can there be a living wage unless we admit the
+principle of collective bargaining. It is because I believe in the
+principle of collective bargaining that I have come here to-night to say
+to you working-men that I believe this strike is justifiable.
+
+"I must leave to other speakers many interesting aspects of this
+subject, and confine myself to the aspect which the committee asked me
+to consider more in detail, namely, Juvenile Delinquency in its relation
+to Foreign Immigration. The relation is a real one. Statistics prove
+that among immigrants the proportion of the juvenile element is greater
+than among the native-born. This increase in juvenility gives
+opportunity for juvenile delinquency from which many of our American
+communities might otherwise be free. But is the remedy to be found in
+the restriction of immigration? My opinion is that the remedy is to be
+found only in education.
+
+"It is our interest in education that has brought us together on this
+bright June morning. Your teacher tells me that this is the largest
+class that has ever graduated from this High School, You may well be
+proud. Make your education practical. Learn to concentrate, that is the
+secret of success. There are those who will tell you to concentrate on a
+single point. I would go even further. Concentrate on every point.
+
+"I admit, as the gentleman who has preceded me has pointed out, that
+concentration in cities is a great evil. It is an evil that should be
+counteracted. As I was saying last evening to the Colonial
+Dames,--Washington, if he had done nothing else, would be remembered
+to-day as the founder of the Order of the Cincinnati. The figure of
+Cincinnatus at the plough appeals powerfully to American manhood. Many a
+time in after years Cincinnatus wished that he had never left that
+plough. Often amid the din of battle he heard the voice saying to him,
+'Back to the Land!'
+
+"It was the same voice I seemed to hear when I received the letter of
+your secretary asking me to address this grange. As I left the smoke of
+the city behind me and looked up at your granite hills, I said, 'Here is
+where they make men!' As I have been partaking of the bountiful repast
+prepared by the ladies of the grange, your chairman has been telling me
+something about this community. It is a grand community to live in. Here
+are no swollen fortunes; here industry, frugality, and temperance reign.
+These are the qualities which have given New England its great place in
+the councils of the nation. I know there are those who say that it is
+the tariff that has given it that place; but they do not know New
+England. There are those at this table who can remember the time when
+eighty-two ruddy-cheeked boys and girls trooped merrily to the little
+red schoolhouse under the hill. In the light of such facts as these, who
+can be a pessimist?
+
+"But I must not dwell upon the past; the Boy Scouts of America prepare
+for the future. I am reminded that I am not at this moment addressing
+the Boy Scouts of America,--they come to-morrow at the same hour,--but
+the principle is the same. Even as the Boy Scouts of America look only
+at the future, so do you. We must not linger fondly on the days when
+cows grazed on Boston Common. The purpose of this society is to save
+Boston Common. That the Common has been saved many times before is true;
+but is that any reason why we should falter now? 'New occasions teach
+new duties.' Let us not be satisfied with a supetficial view. While
+fresh loam is being scattered on the surface, commercial interests and
+the suburban greed to get home quick are striking at the vitals of the
+Common. Citizens of Boston, awake!
+
+"Your pastor had expected to be with you this evening, but he has at the
+last moment discovered that he has two other engagements, each of them
+of long standing. He has therefore asked me to take his place in this
+interesting course of lectures on Church History. The subject of the
+lecture for the evening is--and if I am mistaken some one will please
+correct me--Ulphilas, or Christianity among the Goths. I cannot treat
+this subject from that wealth of historical information possessed by
+your pastor; but I can at least speak from the heart. I feel that it is
+well for us to turn aside from the questions of the day, for the quiet
+consideration of such a character as Ulphilas.
+
+"Ulphilas seems to me to be one of those characters we ought all to know
+more about. I shall not weary you by discussing the theology of Ulphilas
+or the details of his career. It would seem more fitting that these
+things should be left for another occasion. I shall proceed at once to
+the main lesson of his life. As briefly as possible let me state the
+historical situation that confronted him. It is immaterial for us to
+inquire where the Goths were at that time, or what they were doing. It
+is sufficient for us to know that the Goths at that time were pagans,
+mere heathen. Under those circumstances what did Ulphilas do? He went to
+the Goths. That one act reveals his character. If in the remaining
+moments of this lecture I can enforce the lesson for us of that one act,
+I shall feel that my coming here has not been in vain.
+
+"But some one who has followed my argument thus far may say, 'All that
+you have said is true, lamentably true; but what has it to do with the
+Advancement of Woman?' I answer, it _is_ the Advancement of Woman."
+
+"How do you make that out?" I asked.
+
+Bagster looked vaguely troubled. "There is no such thing as an isolated
+moral phenomenon," he said, as if he were repeating something from a
+former sermon; "when you attempt to remedy one evil you find it related
+to a whole moral series. But perhaps I did not make the connection
+plain. My address doesn't seem to be as closely reasoned as it did when
+I was delivering it. Does it seem to you to be cogent?"
+
+"Cogent is not precisely the word I would use. But it seems earnest."
+
+"Thank you," said Bagster. "I always try to be earnest. It's hard to be
+earnest about so many things. I am always afraid that I may not give to
+all an equal emphasis."
+
+"And now that you have stopped for a moment," I suggested, "perhaps you
+would be willing to skip to the last page. When I read a story I am
+always anxious to get to the end. I should like to know how your address
+comes out,--if it does come out."
+
+Bagster turned over a dozen pages and read in a more animated manner.
+
+"Your chairman has the reputation of making the meetings over which he
+presides brisk and crisp. He has given me just a minute and a half in
+which to tell what the country expects of this Federation of Young
+People. I shall not take all the time. I ask you to remember two
+letters--E and N. _What_ does the country expect this Federation to do?
+E--everything. _When_ does the country expect you to do it? N--now.
+Remember these two letters--E and N. Young people, I thank you for your
+attention.
+
+"The hour is late. You, my young brother, have listened to a charge in
+which your urgent duties have been fearlessly declared to you. When you
+have performed these duties, others will be presented to you. And now,
+in token of our confidence in you, I give you the right hand of
+fellowship.
+
+"And do you know," said Bagster, "that when I reached to give him the
+right hand of fellowship, he wasn't there."
+
+We sat in silence for some time. At last he asked, hesitatingly, "What
+do you think of it? In your judgment is it organic or functional?"
+
+"I do not think it is organic. I am afraid that your conscience has been
+over-functioning of late, and needs a rest. I know a nook in the woods
+of New Hampshire, under the shadow of Mount Chocorua, where you might go
+for six months while your affairs are in the hands of a receiver. I
+can't say that you would find everything satisfactory, even there. The
+mountain is not what it used to be. It is decadent, geologically
+speaking, and it suffered a good deal during the last glacial period.
+But you can't do much about it in six months. You might take it just as
+it is,--some things have to be taken that way.
+
+"You will start to-morrow morning and begin your life of temporary
+irresponsibility. You will have to give up your problems for six months,
+but you may rest assured that they will keep. You will go by Portsmouth,
+where you will have ten minutes for lunch. Take that occasion for a
+leisurely meal. A card will be handed to you assuring you that 'The bell
+will ring one minute before the departure of the train. You can't get
+left.' Hold that thought: you can't get left; the railroad authorities
+say so."
+
+"Did you ever try it," asked Bagster.
+
+"Once," I answered.
+
+"And did you get left?"
+
+"Portsmouth," I said, "is a beautiful old town. I had always wanted to
+see it. You can see a good deal of Portsmouth in an afternoon."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The predicament in which my friend Bagster finds himself is a very
+common one. It is no longer true that the good die young; they become
+prematurely middle-aged. In these days conscience doth make
+neurasthenics of us all. Now it will not do to flout conscience, and by
+shutting our eyes to the urgencies and complexities of life purchase for
+ourselves a selfish calm. Neither do we like the idea of neurasthenia.
+
+My notion is that the twentieth-century man is morally solvent, though
+he is temporarily embarrassed. He will find himself if he is given
+sufficient time. In the mean time it is well for him to consider the
+nature of his embarrassment. He has discovered that the world is "so
+full of a number of things," and he is disappointed that he is not as
+"happy as kings"--that is, as kings in the fairy books. Perhaps "sure
+enough" kings are not as happy as the fairy-book royalties, and perhaps
+the modern man is only experiencing the anxieties that belong to his new
+sovereignty over the world.
+
+There are tribes which become confused when they try to keep in mind
+more than three or four numbers. It is the same kind of confusion which
+comes when we try to look out for more than Number One. We mean well,
+but we have not the facilities for doing it easily. In fact, we are not
+so civilized as we sometimes think.
+
+For example, we have never carried out to its full extent the most
+important invention that mankind has ever made--money. Money is a device
+for simplifying life by providing a means of measuring our desires, and
+gratifying a number of them without confusion.
+
+Money is a measure, not of commodities, but of states of mind. The man
+in the street expresses a profound philosophy when he says, "I feel like
+thirty cents." That is all that "thirty cents" means. It is a certain
+amount of feeling.
+
+You see an article marked "$1.50." You pass by unmoved. The next day you
+see it on the bargain counter marked "98 cents," and you say, "Come to
+my arms," and carry it home. You did not feel like a dollar and a half
+toward it, but you did feel exactly like ninety-eight cents.
+
+It is because of this wonderful measure of value that we are able to
+deal with a multitude of diverse articles without mental confusion.
+
+I am asked to stop at the department store and discover in that vast
+aggregation of goods a skein of silk of a specified shade, and having
+found it bring it safely home. Now, I am not fitted for such an
+adventure. Left to my own devices I should be helpless.
+
+But the way is made easy for me. The floorwalker meets me graciously,
+and without chiding me for not buying the things I do not want, directs
+me to the one thing which would gratify my modest desire. I find myself
+in a little place devoted to silk thread, and with no other articles to
+molest me or make me afraid. The world of commodities is simplified to
+fit my understanding. I feel all the gratitude of the shorn lamb for the
+tempered wind.
+
+At the silken shrine stands a Minerva who imparts her wisdom and guides
+my choice. The silk thread she tells me is equivalent to five cents.
+Now, I have not five cents, but only a five-dollar bill. She does not
+act on the principle of taking all that the traffic will bear. She sends
+the five-dollar bill through space, and in a minute or two she gives me
+the skein and four dollars and ninety-five cents, and I go out of the
+store a free man. I have no misgivings and no remorse because I did not
+buy all the things I might have bought. No one reproached me because I
+did not buy a four-hundred-dollar pianola. Thanks to the great
+invention, the transaction was complete in itself. Five cents
+represented one choice, and I had in my pocket ninety-nine choices which
+I might reserve for other occasions.
+
+But there are some things which, as we say, money cannot buy. In all
+these things of the higher life we have no recognized medium of
+exchange. We are still in the stage of primitive barter. We must bring
+all our moral goods with us, and every transaction involves endless
+dickering. If we express an appreciation for one good thing, we are at
+once reproached by all the traffickers in similar articles for not
+taking over bodily their whole stock in trade.
+
+For example, you have a desire for culture. You haven't the means to
+indulge in very much, but you would like a little. You are immediately
+beset by all the eager Matthew Arnolds who have heard of your desire,
+and they insist that you should at once devote yourself to the knowledge
+of the best that has been known and said in the world. All this is very
+fine, but you don't see how you can afford it. Isn't there a little of a
+cheaper quality that they could show you? Perhaps the second best would
+serve your purpose. At once you are covered with reproaches for your
+philistinism.
+
+You had been living a rather prosaic life and would like to brighten it
+up with a little poetry. What you would really like would be a modest
+James Whitcomb Riley's worth of poetry. But the moment you express the
+desire the University Extension lecturer insists that what you should
+take is a course of lectures on Dante. No wonder that you conclude that
+a person in your circumstances will have to go without any poetry at
+all.
+
+It is the same way with efforts at social righteousness. You find it
+difficult to engage in one transaction without being involved in others
+that you are not ready for. You are interested in a social reform that
+involves collective action. At once you are told that it is socialistic.
+You do not feel that it is any worse for that, and you are quite willing
+to go on. But at once your socialistic friends present you with the
+whole programme of their party. It is all or nothing. When it is
+presented in that way you are likely to become discouraged and fall back
+on nothing.
+
+Now, if we had a circulating medium you would express the exact state of
+your desires somewhat in this way: "Here is my moral dollar. I think I
+will take a quarter's worth of Socialism, and twelve and a half cents'
+worth of old-time Republicanism, and twelve and a half cents of genuine
+Jeffersonian democracy, if there is any left, and a quarter's worth of
+miscellaneous insurgency. Let me see, I have a quarter left. Perhaps I
+may drop in to-morrow and see if you have anything more that I want."
+
+The sad state of my good friend Bagster arises from the fact that he
+can't do one good thing without being confused by a dozen other things
+which are equally good. He feels that he is a miserable sinner because
+his moral dollar is not enough to pay the national debt.
+
+But though we have not yet been able adequately to extend the notion of
+money to the affairs of the higher life, there have been those who have
+worked on the problem.
+
+That was what Socrates had in mind. The Sophists talked eloquently about
+the Good, the True, and the Beautiful; but they dealt in these things in
+the bulk. They had no way of dividing them into sizable pieces for
+everyday use. Socrates set up in Athens as a broker in ideas. He dealt
+on the curb. He measured one thing in terms of another, and tried to
+supply a sufficient amount of change for those who were not ashamed to
+engage in retail trade.
+
+Socrates draws the attention of Phaedrus to the fact that when we talk of
+iron and silver the same objects are present to our minds, "but when any
+one speaks of justice and goodness, there is every sort of disagreement,
+and we are at odds with one another and with ourselves."
+
+What we need to do he says is to have an idea that is big enough to
+include all the particular actions or facts. Then, in order to do
+business, we must be able to divide this so that it may serve our
+convenience. This is what Socrates called Philosophy.
+
+"I am a great lover," he said, "of the processes of division and
+generalization; they help me to speak and think. And if I find any man
+who is able to see unity and plurality in nature, him I follow, and walk
+in his steps as if he were a god."
+
+Even in the Forest of Arden life was not so simple as at first it
+seemed. The shepherd's life which "in respect of itself was a good life"
+was in other respects quite otherwise. Its unity seemed to break up into
+a confusing plurality. Honest Touchstone, in trying to reconcile the
+different points of view, blurted out the test question, "Hast any
+philosophy in thee, Shepherd?" After Bagster has communed with Chocorua
+for six months, I shall put that question to him.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF ROME
+
+I
+
+
+"You here, Bagster?" I exclaimed, as in the Sistine Chapel I saw an
+anxious face gazing down into a mirror in which were reflected the
+dimmed glories of the ceiling. There was an anxiety as of one who was
+seeking the Truth of Art at the bottom of the well.
+
+One who is in the habit of giving unsolicited advice is likely to take
+for granted that his advice has been acted upon, even though experience
+should teach him that this is seldom the case. I had sagely counseled
+Bagster to go to the New Hampshire woods, in order to recuperate after
+his multifarious labors. I was therefore surprised to find him playing
+truant in Rome.
+
+My salutation did not at first cause him to look up. He only made a
+mysterious sign with his hand. It was evidently a gesture which he had
+recently learned, and was practiced as a sort of exorcism.
+
+"I am not going to sell you cameos or post cards," I explained.
+
+When he recognized a familiar face, Bagster forgot all about the Last
+Judgment, and we were soon out-of-doors and he was telling me about
+himself.
+
+"I meant to go to Chocorua as you suggested, but the congregation
+advised otherwise, so I came over here. It seemed the better thing to
+do. Up in New Hampshire you can't do much but rest, but here you can
+improve your taste and collect a good deal of homiletic material. So
+I've settled down in Rome. I want to have time to take it all in."
+
+"Do you begin to feel rested?" I asked.
+
+"Not yet. It's harder work than I thought it would be. There's so much
+to take in, and it's all so different. I don't know how to arrange my
+material. What I want to do, in the first place, is to have a realizing
+sense of being in Rome. What's the use of being here unless you are here
+in the spirit?
+
+"What I mean is that I should like to feel as I did when I went to Mount
+Vernon. It was one of those dreamy autumn days when the leaves were just
+turning. There was the broad Potomac, and the hospitable Virginia
+mansion. I had the satisfying sense that I was in the home of
+Washington. Everything seemed to speak of Washington. He filled the
+whole scene. It was a great experience. Why can't I feel that way about
+the great events that happened down there?"
+
+We were by this time on the height of the Janiculum near the statue of
+Garibaldi. Bagster made a vague gesture toward the city that lay beneath
+us. There seemed to be something in the scene that worried him. "I can't
+make it seem real," he said. "I have continually to say to myself, 'That
+is Rome, Italy, and not Rome, New York.' I can't make the connection
+between the place and the historical personages I have read about. I
+can't realize that the Epistle to the Romans was written to the people
+who lived down there. Just back of that new building is the very spot
+where Romulus would have lived if he had ever existed. On those very
+streets Scipio Africanus walked, and Caesar and Cicero and Paul and
+Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus and Belisarius, and Hildebrand and
+Michelangelo, and at one time or another about every one you ever heard
+of. And how many people came to get emotions they couldn't get anywhere
+else! There was Goethe. How he felt! He took it all in. And there was
+Shelley writing poetry in the Baths of Caracalla. And there was Gibbon."
+
+"But we can't all expect to be Shelleys or even Gibbons," I suggested.
+
+"I know it," said Bagster, ruefully. "But if one has only a little
+vessel, he ought to fill it. But somehow the historical associations
+crowd each other out. When I left home I bought Hare's 'Walks in Rome.'
+I thought I would take a walk a day as long as they lasted. It seemed a
+pleasant way of combining physical and intellectual exercise. But do you
+know, I could not keep up those walks. They were too concentrated for my
+constitution. I wasn't equal to them. Out in California they used to
+make wagers with the stranger that he couldn't eat a broiled quail every
+day for ten days. I don't see why he couldn't, but it seemed that the
+thought of to-morrow's quail, and the feeling that it was compulsory,
+turned him against what otherwise might have been a pleasure. It's so
+with the 'Walks.' It's appalling to think that every morning you have to
+start out for a constitutional, and be confronted with the events of the
+last twenty-five centuries. The events are piled up one on another.
+There they are, and here you are, and what are you going to do about
+them?"
+
+"I suppose that there isn't much that you can do about them," I
+remarked.
+
+"But we ought to do what we can," said Bagster. "When I do have an
+emotion, something immediately turns up to contradict it. It's like
+wandering through a big hotel, looking for your room, when you are on
+the wrong floor. Here you are as likely as not to find yourself in the
+wrong century. In Rome everything turns out, on inquiry, to be something
+else. There's something impressive about a relic if it's the relic of
+one thing. But if it's the relic of a dozen different kinds of things
+it's hard to pick out the appropriate emotion. I find it hard to adjust
+my mind to these composite associations."
+
+"Now just look at this," he said, opening his well-thumbed Baedeker:
+"'Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Pl. D. 4), erected on the ruins of
+Domitian's temple of Minerva, the only mediaeval Gothic church in Rome.
+Begun A.D., 1280; was restored and repainted in 1848-55. It contains
+several admirable works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Christ.'"
+
+"It's that sort of thing that gets on my nerves. The Virgin and Minerva
+and Domitian and Michelangelo are all mixed together, and then
+everything is restored and repainted in 1848. And just round the corner
+from Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the Pantheon. The inscription on the
+porch says that it was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. I
+try to take that in. But when I have partially done that, I learn that
+the building was struck by lightning and entirely rebuilt by the Emperor
+Hadrian.
+
+"That information comes like the call of the conductor to change cars,
+just as one has comfortably settled down on the train. We must forget
+all about Agrippa and Augustus, and remember that this building was
+built by Hadrian. But it turns out that in 609 Boniface turned it into a
+Christian church. Which Boniface? The Pantheon was adorned with bronze
+columns. If you wish to see them you must go to St. Peter's, where they
+are a part of the high altar. So Baedeker says, but I'm told that isn't
+correct either. When you go inside you see that you must let by-gones be
+by-gones. You are confronted with the tomb of Victor Emmanuel and set to
+thinking on the recent glories of the House of Savoy. Really to
+appreciate the Pantheon you must be well-posted in nineteenth-century
+history. You keep up this train of thought till you happen to stumble on
+the tomb of Raphael. That, of course, is what you ought to have come to
+see in the first place.
+
+"When you look at the column of Trajan you naturally think of Trajan,
+you follow the spiral which celebrates his victories, till you come to
+the top of the column; and there stands St. Peter as if it were _his_
+monument. You meditate on the column of Marcus Aurelius, and look up and
+see St. Paul in the place of honor.
+
+"I must confess that I have had difficulty about the ruins. Brick,
+particularly in this climate, doesn't show its age. I find it hard to
+distinguish between a ruin and a building in the course of construction.
+When I got out of the station I saw a huge brick building across the
+street, which had been left unfinished as if the workmen had gone on
+strike. I learned that it was the remains of the Baths of Diocletian.
+Opening a door I found myself in a huge church, which had a long history
+I ought to have known something about, but didn't.
+
+"Now read this, and try to take it in: 'Returning to the Cancelleria, we
+proceed to the Piazza Campo de' Fiori, where the vegetable market is
+held in the morning, and where criminals were formerly executed. The
+bronze statue of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned here as
+a heretic in 1600, was erected in 1889. To the east once lay the Theatre
+of Pompey. Behind it lay the Porticus of Pompey where Caesar was
+murdered, B.C. 44.'
+
+"It economizes space to have the vegetable market and the martyrdom of
+Giordano Bruno and the assassination of Julius Caesar all close together.
+But they are too close. The imagination hasn't room to turn round.
+Especially as the market-women are very much alive and cannot conceive
+that any one would come into the Piazza unless he intended to buy
+vegetables. Somehow the great events you have read about don't seem to
+have impressed themselves on the neighborhood. At any rate, you are
+conscious that you are the only person in the Piazza Campo de' Fiori who
+is thinking about Giordano Bruno or Julius Caesar; while the price of
+vegetables is as intensely interesting as it was in the year 1600 A.D.
+or in 44 B.C.
+
+"How am I to get things in their right perspective? When I left home I
+had a pretty clear and connected idea of history. There was a logical
+sequence. One period followed another. But in these walks in Rome the
+sequence is destroyed. History seems more like geology than like logic,
+and the strata have all been broken up by innumerable convulsions of
+nature. The Middle Ages were not eight or ten centuries ago; they are
+round the next block. A walk from the Quirinal to the Vatican takes you
+from the twentieth century to the twelfth. And one seems as much alive
+as the other. You may go from schools where you have the last word in
+modern education, to the Holy Stairs at the Lateran, where you will see
+the pilgrims mounting on their knees as if Luther and his protest had
+never happened. Or you can, in five minutes, walk from the Renaissance
+period to 400 B.C.
+
+"When I was in the theological seminary I had a very clear idea of the
+difference between Pagan Rome and Christian Rome. When Constantine came,
+Christianity was established. It was a wonderful change and made
+everything different. But when you stroll across from the Arch of Titus
+to the Arch of Constantine you wonder what the difference was. The two
+things look so much alike. And in the Vatican that huge painting of the
+triumph of Constantine over Maxentius doesn't throw much light on the
+subject. Suppose the pagan Maxentius had triumphed over Constantine,
+what difference would it have made in the picture?
+
+"They say that seeing is believing, but here you see so many things that
+are different from what you have always believed. The Past doesn't seem
+to be in the past, but in the present. There is an air of
+contemporaneousness about everything. Do you remember that story of
+Jules Verne about a voyage to the moon? When the voyagers got a certain
+distance from the earth they couldn't any longer drop things out of the
+balloon. The articles they threw out didn't fall down. There wasn't any
+down; everything was round about. Everything they had cast out followed
+them. That's the way Rome makes you feel about history. That which
+happened a thousand years ago is going on still. You can't get rid of
+it. The Roman Republic is a live issue, and so is the Roman Empire, and
+so is the Papacy.
+
+"The other day they found a ruined Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli,
+and began to restore it. New Italy is delighted at this confirmation of
+its claims to sovereignty in North Africa. The newspapers treat Marcus
+Aurelius as only a forerunner of Giolitti. By the way, I never heard of
+Giolitti till I came over here. But it seems that he is a very great
+man. But when ancient and modern history are mixed up it's hard to do
+any clear thinking. And when you do get a clear thought you find out
+that it isn't true. You know Dr. Johnson said something to the effect
+that that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain
+force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose feelings would not grow
+warmer among the ruins of Rome. Marathon is a simple proposition. But
+when one is asked to warm his enthusiasm by means of the Roman
+monuments, he naturally asks, 'Enthusiasm over what?' Of course, I don't
+mean to give up. I'm faint though pursuing. But I'm afraid that Rome is
+not a good place to rest in."
+
+"I'm afraid not," I said, "if you insist on keeping on thinking. It is
+not a good place in which to rest your mind."
+
+
+II
+
+I think Bagster is not the first person who has found intellectual
+difficulty here. Rome exists for the confusion of the sentimental
+traveler. Other cities deal tenderly with our preconceived ideas of
+them. There is one simple impression made upon the mind. Once out of the
+railway station and in a gondola, and we can dream our dream of Venice
+undisturbed. There is no doge at present, but if there were one we
+should know where to place him. The city still furnishes the proper
+setting for his magnificence. And London with all its vastness has, at
+first sight, a familiar seeming. The broad and simple outlines of
+English history make it easy to reconceive the past.
+
+But Rome is disconcerting. The actual refuses to make terms with the
+ideal. It is a vast storehouse of historical material, but the
+imagination is baffled in the attempt to put the material together.
+
+When Scott was in Rome his friend "advised him to wait to see the
+procession of Corpus Domini, and hear the Pope
+
+  Saying the high, high mass
+  All on St. Peter's day.
+
+He smiled and said that these things were more poetical in the
+description than in reality, and that it was all the better for him
+not to have seen it before he wrote about it."
+
+Sir Walter's instinct was a true one. Rome is not favorable to
+historical romance. Its atmosphere is eminently realistic. The
+historical romancer is flying through time as the air-men fly through
+space. But the air-men complain that they sometimes come upon what
+they call "air holes." The atmosphere seems suddenly to give way under
+them. In Rome the element of Time on which the imagination has been
+flying seems to lose its usual density. We drop through a Time-hole,
+and find ourselves in an inglorious anachronism.
+
+I am not sure that Bagster has had a more difficult time than his
+predecessors, who have attempted to assort their historical material.
+For in the days before historical criticism was invented, the history
+of Rome was very luxuriant. "Seeing Rome" was a strenuous undertaking,
+if one tried to be intelligent.
+
+There was an admirable little guide-book published in the twelfth
+century called "Mirabilia Urbis Romae." One can imagine the old-time
+tourist with this mediaeval Baedeker in hand, issuing forth, resolved
+to see Rome in three days. At the end of the first day his courage
+would ooze away as he realized the extent of his ignorance. With a
+hurried look at the guide-book and a glance at the varied assortment
+of ruins, he would try to get his bearings. All the worthies of sacred
+and profane history would be passing by in swift procession.
+
+"After the sons of Noah built the tower of confusion, Noah with all
+his sons came to Italy. And not far from the place where Rome now is
+they founded a city in his name, where he brought his travail and life
+to an end." To come to the city of Noah was worth a long journey. Just
+think of actually standing on the spot where Shem, Ham, and Japhet
+soothed the declining years of their father! It was hard to realize
+it all. And it appears that Japhet, always an enterprising person,
+built a city of his own on the Palatine Hill. There is the Palatine,
+somewhat cluttered up with modern buildings of the Caesars, but
+essentially, in its outlines, as Japhet saw it.
+
+But there were other pioneers to be remembered. "Saturn, being
+shamefully entreated by his son Jupiter," founded a city on the
+Capitoline Hill. One wonders what Shem, Ham, and Japhet thought of
+this, and whether their sympathies were with Jupiter who was seeking
+to get a place in the sun.
+
+It is hard to understand the complicated politics of the day. At any
+rate, a short time after, Hercules came with a band of Argives and
+established a rival civic centre. In the meantime, Janus had become
+mixed up with Roman history and was working manfully for the New
+Italy. On very much the same spot "Tibris, King of the Aborigines"
+built a city, which must be carefully distinguished from those before
+mentioned.
+
+All this happened before Romulus appeared upon the scene. One with a
+clear and comprehensive understanding of this early history might
+enjoy his first morning's walk in Rome. But to the middle-aged pilgrim
+from the West Riding of Yorkshire, who had come to Rome merely to see
+the tomb of St. Peter, it was exhausting.
+
+But perhaps mediaeval tradition did not form a more confusing
+atmosphere than the sentimental admiration of a later day. In the
+early part of the nineteenth century a writer begins a book on Rome in
+this fashion: "I have ventured to hope that this work may be a guide
+to those who visit this wonderful city, which boasts at once the
+noblest remains of antiquity, and the most faultless works of art;
+which possesses more claims to interest than any other city; which has
+in every age stood foremost in the world; which has been the light of
+the earth in ages past, the guiding star through the long night of
+ignorance, the fountain of civilization to the whole Western world,
+and which every nation reverences as the common nurse, preceptor, and
+parent."
+
+This notion of Rome as the venerable parent of civilization, to be
+approached with tenderly reverential feelings, was easier to hold a
+hundred years ago than it is to-day. There was nothing to contradict
+it. One might muse on "the grandeur that was Rome," among picturesque
+ruins covered with flowering weeds. But now a Rome that is obtrusively
+modern claims attention. And it is not merely that the modern world is
+here, but that our view of antiquity is modernized. We see it, not
+through the mists of time, but as a contemporary might.
+
+When Ferrero published his history we were startled by his realistic
+treatment. It was as if we were reading a newspaper and following the
+course of current events. Caesar and Pompey and Cicero were treated as
+if they were New York politicians. Where we had expected to see
+stately figures in togas we were made to see hustling real-estate
+speculators, and millionaires, and labor leaders, and ward
+politicians, who were working for the prosperity of the city and,
+incidentally, for themselves. It was all very different from our
+notions of classic times which we had imbibed from our Latin lessons
+in school. But it is the impression which Rome itself makes upon the
+mind.
+
+One afternoon, among the vast ruins of Hadrian's Villa, I tried to
+picture the villa as it was when its first owner walked among the
+buildings which his whim had created. The moment Hadrian himself
+appeared upon the scene, antiquity seemed an illusion. How
+ultra-modern he was, this man whom his contemporaries called "a
+searcher out of strange things"! These ruins could not by the mere
+process of time become venerable, for they were in their very nature
+novelties. They were the playthings of a very rich man. There they lie
+upon the ground like so many broken toys. They are just such things as
+an enormously rich man would make to-day if he had originality enough
+to think of them. Why should not Hadrian have a Vale of Tempe and a
+Greek theatre and a Valley of Canopus, and ever so many other things
+which he had seen in his travels, reproduced on his estate near
+Tivoli?
+
+An historian of the Empire says: "The character of Hadrian was in the
+highest degree complex, and this presents to the student a series of
+apparently unreconciled contrasts which have proved so hard for many
+modern historians to resolve. A thorough soldier and yet the
+inaugurator of a peace policy, a 'Greekling' as his Roman subjects
+called him, and saturated with Hellenic ideas, and yet a lover of
+Roman antiquity; a poet and an artist, but with a passion for
+business and finance; a voluptuary determined to drain the cup of
+human experience and, at the same time, a ruler who labored
+strenuously for the well-being of his subjects; such were a few of the
+diverse parts which Hadrian played."
+
+It is evident that the difficulty with the historians who find these
+unreconciled contrasts is that they try to treat Hadrian as an
+"ancient" rather than as a modern. The enormously rich men who are at
+present most in the public eye present the same contradictions.
+Hadrian was a thorough man of the world. There was nothing venerable
+about him, though much that was interesting and admirable.
+
+Now what a man of the world is to a simple character like a saint or a
+hero, that Rome has been to cities of the simpler sort. It has been a
+city of the world. It has been cosmopolitan. "Urbs et orbis" suggests
+the historic fact. The fortunes of the city have become inextricably
+involved in the fortunes of the world.
+
+A part of the confusion of the traveler comes from the fact that the
+Roman city and the Roman world are not clearly distinguished one from
+the other. The New Testament writer distinguishes between Jerusalem as
+a geographical fact and Jerusalem as a spiritual ideal. There has
+been, he says, a Jerusalem that belongs to the Jews, but there is also
+Jerusalem which belongs to humanity, which is free, which is "the
+mother of us all."
+
+So there has been a local Rome with its local history. And there has
+been the greater Rome that has impressed itself on the imagination of
+the world. Since the destruction of Carthage the meaning of the word
+"Roman" has been largely allegorical. It has stood for the successive
+ideas of earthly power and spiritual authority.
+
+Rome absorbed the glory of deeds done elsewhere. Battles were fought
+in far-off Asia and Africa. But the battlefield did not become the
+historic spot. The victor must bring his captives to Rome for his
+triumph. Here the pomp of war could be seen, on a carefully arranged
+stage, and before admiring thousands. It was the triumph rather than
+the battle that was remembered. All the interest culminated at this
+dramatic moment. Rome thus became, not the place where history was
+made, but the place where it was celebrated. Here the trumpets of
+fame perpetually sounded.
+
+This process continued after the Empire of the Caesars passed away. The
+continuity of Roman history has been psychological. Humanity has "held
+a thought." Rome became a fixed idea. It exerted an hypnotic influence
+over the barbarians who had overcome all else. The Holy Roman Empire
+was a creation of the Germanic imagination, and yet it was a real
+power. Many a hard-headed Teutonic monarch crossed the Alps at the
+head of his army to demand a higher sanction for his own rule of
+force. When he got himself crowned in the turbulent city on the Tiber
+he felt that something very important had happened. Just how important
+it was he did not fully realize till he was back among his own people
+and saw how much impressed they were by his new dignities.
+
+Hans Christian Andersen begins one of his stories with the assertion,
+"You must know that the Emperor of China is a Chinaman and that all
+whom he has about him are Chinamen also." The assertion is so logical
+in form that we are inclined to accept it without question. Then we
+remember that in Hans Christian Andersen's day, and for a long time
+before, the Emperor of China was not a Chinaman and the great
+grievance was that Chinamen were the very people he would not have
+about him.
+
+When we speak of the Roman Catholic Church, we jump at the conclusion
+that it is the church of the Romans and that the people of Rome have
+had the most to do with its extension. This theory has nothing to
+recommend it but its extreme verbal simplicity. As a matter of fact,
+Rome has never been noted for its pious zeal. Such warmth as it has
+had has been imparted to it by the faithful who have been drawn from
+other lands; as, according to some theorists, the sun's heat is kept
+up by a continuous shower of meteors falling into it.
+
+To-day, the Roman Church is more conscious of its strength in
+Massachusetts than it is near the Vatican. At the period when the
+Papacy was at its height, and kings and emperors trembled before it in
+England and in Germany, the Popes had a precarious hold on their own
+city. Rome was a religious capital rather than a religious centre. It
+did not originate new movements. Missionaries of the faith have not
+gone forth from it, as they went from Ireland. It is not in Rome that
+we find the places where the saints received their spiritual
+illuminations, and fought the good fight, and gathered their
+disciples. Rome was the place to which they came for judgment, as Paul
+did when he appealed to Caesar. Here heretics were condemned, and here
+saints, long dead, were canonized. Neither the doctrines nor the
+institutions of the Catholic Church originated here. Rome was the
+mint, not the mine. That which received the Roman stamp passed current
+throughout the world.
+
+In the political struggle for the New Italy, Rome had the same
+symbolic character. Mazzini was never so eloquent as when portraying
+the glories of the free Rome that was to be recognized, indeed, as the
+mother of us all. The Eternal City, he believed, was to be the
+regenerating influence, not only for Europe but for all the world. All
+the romantic enthusiasm of Garibaldi flamed forth at the sight of
+Rome. All other triumphs signified nothing till Rome was the
+acknowledged capital of Italy. Silently and steadily Cavour worked
+toward the same end. And at last Rome gathered to herself the glory
+of the heroes who were not her own children.
+
+If we recognize the symbolic and representative character of Roman
+history, we can begin to understand the reason for the bewilderment
+which comes to the traveler who attempts to realize it in imagination.
+Roman history is not, like the tariff, a local issue. The most
+important events in that history did not occur here at all, though
+they were here commemorated. So it happens that every nation finds
+here its own, and reinforces its traditions. In the Middle Ages, the
+Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, found much to interest him. In
+Rome were to be found two brazen pillars of Solomon's Temple, and
+there was a crypt where Titus hid the holy vessels taken from
+Jerusalem. There was also a statue of Samson and another of Absalom.
+
+The worthy Benjamin doubtless felt the same thrill that I did when
+looking up at the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. I was
+told that it was gilded with the first gold brought from America. The
+statement, that the church was founded on this spot because of a
+vision that came to Pope Liberius in the year 305 A.D., left me
+unmoved. It was of course a long time ago; but then, I had no mental
+associations with Pope Liberius, and there was no encyclopaedia at hand
+in which I might look him up. Besides, "the church was reerected by
+Sixtus III in the year 432, and was much altered in the twelfth
+century." But the gold on the ceiling was a different matter. That was
+romantically historical. It came from America in the heroic age. I
+thought of the Spanish galleons that brought it over, and of Columbus
+and Cortes and Alvarado. After that, to go into the Church of Santa
+Maria Maggiore was like taking a trip to Mexico.
+
+In the course of my daily walks, I passed the Church of Santa
+Pudenziana, said to be the oldest in Rome, and recently modernized. It
+is on the spot where Pudens, the host of St. Peter, is said to have
+lived with his daughters Praxedis and Pudentiana. This is interesting,
+but the English-speaking traveler is likely to pass by Pudaentiana's
+church, and seek out the church of her sister St. Praxed. And this not
+for the sake of St. Praxed or her father Pudens or even of his guest
+St. Peter, but for the sake of a certain English poet who had visited
+the church once.
+
+Close to the Porta San Paolo is the great tomb of the Roman magnate,
+Gaius Cestius, which was built before the birth of Christ. One can
+hardly miss seeing it, because it is near one of the most sacred
+pilgrimage places of Rome, the grave of John Keats.
+
+Each traveler makes his own Rome; and the memories which he takes away
+are the memories which he brought with him.
+
+
+III
+
+As for my friend Bagster, now that he has come to Rome, I hope he may
+stay long enough to allow it to produce a more tranquilizing effect
+upon him. When he gives up the attempt to take it all in by an
+intellectual and moral effort, he may, as the saying is, "relax."
+
+There is no other place in which one may so readily learn the meaning
+of that misused word "urbanity." Urbanity is the state of mind adapted
+to a city, as rusticity is adapted to the country. In each case the
+perfection of the adaptation is evidenced by a certain ease of manner
+in the presence of the environment. There is an absence of fret and
+worry over what is involved in the situation. A countryman does not
+fret over dust or mud; he knows that they are forms of the good earth
+out of which he makes his living. He may grumble at the weather, but
+he is not surprised at it, and he is ready to make the best of it.
+
+This adaptation to nature is easy for us, for we are rustics by
+inheritance. Our ancestors lived in the open, and kept their flocks
+and were mighty hunters long before towns were ever thought of. So
+when we go into the woods in the spring, our self-consciousness leaves
+us and we speedily make ourselves at home. We take things for granted,
+and are not careful about trifles. A great many things are going on,
+but the multiplicity does not distract us. We do not need to
+understand.
+
+For we have primal sympathies which are very good substitutes for
+intelligence. We do not worry because nature does not get on faster
+with her work. When we go out on the hills on a spring morning, as our
+forbears did ten thousand years ago, it does not fret us to consider
+that things are going on very much as they did then. The sap is
+mounting in the trees; the wild flowers are pushing out of the sod;
+the free citizens of the woods are pursuing their vocations without
+regard to our moralities. A great deal is going on, but nothing has
+come to a dramatic culmination.
+
+Our innate rusticity makes us accept all this in the spirit in which
+it is offered to us. It is nature's way and we like it, because we are
+used to it. We take what is set before us and ask no questions. It is
+spring. We do not stop to inquire as to whether this spring is an
+improvement on last spring or on the spring of the year 400 B.C. There
+is a timelessness about our enjoyment. We are not thinking of events
+set in a chronological order, but of a process which loses nothing by
+reason of repetition.
+
+Our attitude toward a city is usually quite different. We are not at
+our ease. We are querulous and anxious, and our interest takes a
+feverish turn. For the cities of our Western world are new-fangled
+contrivances which we are not used to, and we are worried as we try to
+find out whether they will work. These aggregations of humanity have
+not existed long enough to seem to belong to the nature of things. It
+is exciting to be invited to "see Seattle grow," but the exhibition
+does not yield a "harvest of a quiet eye." If Seattle should cease to
+grow while we are looking at it, what should we do then?
+
+But with Rome it is different. Here is a city which has been so long
+in existence that we look upon it as a part of nature. It is not
+accidental or artificial. Nothing can happen to it but what has
+happened already. It has been burned with fire, it has been ravaged by
+the sword, it has been ruined by luxury, it has been pillaged by
+barbarians and left for dead. And here it is to-day the scene of eager
+life. Pagans, Christians, reformers, priests, artists, soldiers,
+honest workmen, idlers, philosophers, saints, were here centuries ago.
+They are here to-day. They have continuously opposed each other, and
+yet no species has been exterminated. Their combined activities make
+the city.
+
+When one comes to feel the stirring of primal sympathies for the
+manifold life of the city, as he does for the manifold life of the
+woods, Rome ceases to be distracting. The old city is like the
+mountain which has withstood the hurts of time, and remains for us,
+"the grand affirmer of the present tense."
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT
+
+I
+
+
+Stopping at some selected spot on the mountain road, the stage-driver
+will direct the stranger's attention to a projecting mass of rock
+which bears some resemblance to a human countenance. There is the "Old
+Man of the Mountains," or the "Old Woman," as the case may be.
+
+If the stranger be of a docile disposition he will see what he is told
+to see. But he will be content with the vague suggestion and will not
+push the analogy too far. The similitude is strictly confined to the
+locality. It is enough if from a single point the mountain seems
+almost human. From any other point it will seem to be merely
+mountainous.
+
+A similar caution is necessary in regard to the resemblances between a
+nation and an individual. When we talk of a national character or
+temperament, we are using an interesting and bold figure of speech.
+We speak of millions of people as if they were one. Of course, a
+nation is not one kind of person; it is composed of many kinds of
+persons. These persons are diverse in character. All Scotchmen are not
+canny, nor all Irishmen happy-go-lucky. Those who know a great many
+Chinamen are acquainted with those who are idealists with little taste
+for plodding industry. It is only the outsider who is greatly
+impressed by the family resemblance. To the more analytic mind of the
+parent each child is, in a most remarkable degree, different from the
+others.
+
+When we take such typical characters as John Bull and Brother Jonathan
+as representing actual Englishmen or Americans, we put ourselves in
+the way of contradiction. They are not good likenesses. An English
+writer says: "As the English, a particularly quick-witted race, tinged
+with the colors of romance, have long cherished a false pride in their
+reputed stolidity, and have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+figure of John Bull as their national signboard, though he does not
+resemble them, so Americans plume themselves on the thought that they
+are dying of nervous energy."
+
+There is much truth in this. One may stand at Charing Cross and watch
+the hurrying crowds and only now and then catch sight of any one who
+suggests the burly John Bull of tradition. The type is not a common
+one, at least among city dwellers.
+
+But when we attribute a temperament to a nation, we do not necessarily
+mean that all the people are alike. We only mean that there are
+certain ways of thinking and feeling that are common to those who have
+had the same general experience. The national temperament is
+manifested not so much in what the people are as in what they admire
+and instinctively appreciate.
+
+Let us accept the statement that the English are a quick-witted and
+romantic people who have accepted with pleasant equanimity the
+reputation for being quite otherwise. Why should they do this? Why
+should they take pride in their reputed stolidity rather than in their
+actual cleverness. Here is a temperamental peculiarity that is worth
+looking into.
+
+John Bull may be a myth, but Englishmen have been the mythmakers. They
+have for generations delighted in picturing him. He represents a
+combination of qualities which they admire. Dogged, unimaginative,
+well-meaning, honest, full of whimsical prejudices, and full of common
+sense, he is loved and honored by those who are much more brilliant
+than he.
+
+John Bull is not a composite photograph of the inhabitants of the
+British Isles. He is not an average man. He is a totem. When an Indian
+tribe chooses a fox or a bear as a totem, they must not be taken too
+literally. But the symbol has a real meaning. It indicates that there
+are some qualities in these animals that they admire. They have proved
+valuable in the tribal struggle for existence.
+
+Those who belong to the cult of John Bull take him as the symbol of
+that which has been most vital and successful in the island story.
+England has had more than its share of men of genius. It has had its
+artists, its wits, its men of quick imagination. But these have not
+been the builders of the Empire, or those who have sustained it in the
+hours of greatest need. Men of a slower temper, more solid than
+brilliant, have been the nation's main dependence. "It's dogged as
+does it." On many a hard-fought field men of the bull-dog breed have
+with unflinching tenacity held their own. In times of revolution they
+have maintained order, and never yielded to a threat. Had they been
+more sensitive they would have failed. Their foibles have been easily
+forgiven and their virtues have been gratefully recognized.
+
+When we try to form an idea of that which is most distinctive in the
+American temperament, we need not inquire what Americans actually are.
+The answer to that question would be a generalization as wide as
+humanity. They are of all kinds. Among the ninety-odd millions of
+human beings inhabiting the territory of the United States are
+representatives of all the nations of the Old World, and they bring
+with them their ancestral traits.
+
+But we may ask, When these diverse peoples come together on common
+ground, what sort of man do they choose as their symbol? There is a
+typical character understood and appreciated by all. In every
+caricature of Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan we can detect the
+lineaments of the American frontiersman.
+
+James Russell Lowell, gentleman and scholar that he was, describes a
+type of man unknown to the Old World:--
+
+  "This brown-fisted rough, this shirt-sleeved Cid,
+  This backwoods Charlemagne of Empires new.
+  Who meeting Caesar's self would slap his back,
+  Call him 'Old Horse' and challenge to a drink."
+
+Mr. Lowell bore no resemblance to this brown-fisted rough. He would
+not have slapped Caesar on the back, and he would have resented being
+himself greeted in such an unconventional fashion. Nevertheless he was
+an American and was able to understand that a man might be capable of
+such improprieties and at the same time be a pillar of the State. It
+tickled his fancy to think of a fellow citizen meeting the imperial
+Roman on terms of hearty equality.
+
+  "My lungs draw braver air, my breast dilates
+  With ampler manhood, and I face both worlds."
+
+Dickens, with all his boisterous humor and democratic sympathies, could
+not interpret Jefferson Brick and Lafayette Kettle and the other
+expansive patriots whom he met on his travels. Their virtues were as a
+sealed book to him. Their boastful familiarity was simply odious.
+
+To understand Lowell's exhilaration one must enter into the spirit of
+American history. It has been the history of what has been done by
+strong men who owed nothing to the refinements of civilization. The
+interesting events have taken place not at the centre, but on the
+circumference of the country. The centrifugal force has always been the
+strongest. There has been no capital to which ambitious youths went up
+to seek their fortune. In each generation they have gone to the frontier
+where opportunities awaited them. There they encountered, on the rough
+edges of society, rough-and-ready men in whom they recognized their
+natural superiors. These men, rude of speech and of manner, were
+resourceful, bold, far-seeing. They were conscious of their power. They
+were laying the foundations of cities and of states and they knew it.
+They were as boastful as Homeric heroes, and for the same reason. There
+was in them a rude virility that found expression in word as well as in
+deed.
+
+Davy Crockett, coon-hunter, Indian fighter, and Congressman, was a great
+man in his day. It does not detract from his worth that he was well
+aware of the fact. There was no false modesty about this backwoods
+Charlemagne. He wrote of himself, "If General Jackson, Black Hawk, and
+me were to travel through the United States we would bring out, no
+matter what kind of weather, more people to see us than any other three
+people now living among the fifteen millions now inhabiting the United
+States. And what would it be for? As I am one of the persons mentioned I
+would not press the question further. What I am driving at is this. When
+a man rises from a low degree to a place he ain't used to, such a man
+starts the curiosity of the world to know how he got along."
+
+Davy Crockett understood the temper of his fellow citizens. A man who
+rises by his own exertions from a low position to "a place he ain't used
+to" is not only an object of curiosity, but he elicits enthusiastic
+admiration. Any awkwardness which he exhibits in the position which he
+has achieved is overlooked. We are anxious to know how he got along.
+
+Every country has its self-made men, but usually they are made to feel
+very uncomfortable. They are accounted intruders in circles reserved for
+the choicer few. But in America they are assured of a sympathetic
+audience when they tell of the way they have risen in the world. There
+is no need for them to apologize for any lack of early advantages, for
+they are living in a self-made country. We are in the habit of giving
+the place of honor to the beginner rather than to the continuer. For the
+finisher the time is not ripe.
+
+
+II
+
+The most vivid impressions of Americans have always been anticipatory.
+They have felt themselves borne along by a resistless current, and that
+current has, on the whole, been flowing in the right direction. They
+have never been confronted with ruins that tell that the land they
+inhabit has seen better days. Yesterday is vague; To-day may be
+uncertain; To-morrow is alluring; and the Day after to-morrow is
+altogether glorious. George Herbert pictured religion as standing on
+tiptoe waiting to pass to the American strand. Not only religion but
+every other good thing has assumed that attitude of expectant curiosity.
+
+Even Cotton Mather could not avoid a tone of pious boastfulness when he
+narrated the doings of New England. Everything was remarkable. New
+England had the most remarkable providences, the most remarkable painful
+preachers, the most remarkable heresies, the most remarkable witches.
+Even the local devils were in his judgment more enterprising than those
+of the old country. They had to be in order to be a match for the New
+England saints.
+
+The staid Judge Sewall, after a study of the prophecies, was of the
+opinion that America was the only country in which they could be
+adequately fulfilled. Here was a field large enough for those future
+battles between good and evil which enthralled the Puritan imagination.
+To be sure, it would be said, there isn't much just now to attract the
+historian whose mind dwells exclusively on the past. But to one who dips
+into the future it is thrilling. Here is the battlefield of Armageddon.
+Some day we shall see "the spirits of devils working miracles, which go
+forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather
+them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Just _when_ that
+might take place might be uncertain but _where_ it would take place was
+to them more obvious.
+
+In the days of small things the settlers in the wilderness had large
+thoughts. They felt themselves to be historical characters, as indeed
+they were. They were impressed by the magnitude of the country and by
+the importance of their relation to it. Their language took on a cosmic
+breadth.
+
+Ethan Allen could not have assumed a more masterful tone if he had had
+an Empire at his back instead of undisciplined bands of Green Mountain
+Boys. Writing to the Continental Congress, he declares that unless the
+demands of Vermont are complied with "we will retire into the fastnesses
+of our Green Mountains and will wage eternal warfare against Hell, the
+Devil, and Human Nature in general." And Ethan Allen meant it.
+
+The love of the superlative is deeply seated in the American mind. It is
+based on no very careful survey of the existing world. It is a
+conclusion to which it is easy to jump. I remember one week, traveling
+through the Mississippi Valley, stopping every night in some town that
+had something which was advertised as the biggest in the world. On
+Friday I reached a sleepy little village which seemed the picture of
+contented mediocrity. Here, thought I, I shall find no bigness to molest
+me or make me afraid. But when I sat down to write a letter on the hotel
+stationery I was confronted with the statement, "This is the biggest
+little hotel in the State."
+
+When one starts a tune it is safer to start it rather low, so as not to
+come to grief on the upper notes. In discussing the American temperament
+it is better to start modestly. Instead of asking what excellent
+qualities we find in ourselves, we should ask what do other nations most
+dislike in us. We can then have room to rise to better things. There is
+a family resemblance between the worst and the best of any national
+group. Kipling, in his lines "To an American," may set the tune for us.
+It is not too high. His American is boastful, careless, and irrationally
+optimistic.
+
+  "Enslaved, illogical, elate,
+    He greets the embarrassed gods, nor fears
+  To shake the iron hand of Fate
+    Or match with Destiny for beers."
+
+A person who would offer to shake hands with Fate is certainly lacking
+in a fine sense of propriety. His belief in equality makes him
+indifferent to the note of distinction. "He dubs his dreary brethren
+kings." Of course they are not kings, but that makes no difference. It
+makes little difference whether anything corresponds to the name he
+chooses to give to it. For there is
+
+       "A cynic devil in his blood
+  That bids him mock his hurrying soul."
+
+This impression of a mingling of optimism, cynicism, and hurry is one
+which is often made upon those who are suddenly plunged into American
+society. In any company of Americans who are discussing public affairs
+the stranger is struck by what seems the lack of logical connection
+between the statements of facts and the judgments passed upon them. The
+facts may be most distressing and yet nobody seems much distressed,
+still less is any one depressed. The city government is in the hands of
+grafters, the police force is corrupt, the prices of the necessaries of
+life are extortionate, the laws on the statute book are not enforced,
+and new laws are about to be enacted that are foolish in the extreme.
+Vast numbers of undesirable aliens are coming into the country and
+bringing with them ideas that are opposed to the fundamental principles
+of the republic. All this is told with an air of illogical elation. The
+conversation is interspersed with anecdotes of the exploits of
+good-natured rascals. These are received with smiles or tolerant
+laughter. Everyone seems to have perfect confidence that the country is
+a grand and glorious place to live in, and that all will come out well
+in the end.
+
+Is this an evidence of a cynic humor in the blood, or is it a
+manifestation of childish optimism? Let us frankly answer that it may be
+one or the other or both. There are cynics and sentimentalists who are
+the despair of all who are seriously working for better citizenship. But
+the chances are that the men to whom our stranger was listening were
+neither cynics nor sentimentalists, but idealists who had the American
+temperament.
+
+Among those who laughed good-naturedly over the temporary success of the
+clever rascal may have been those who had been giving their energies to
+the work of prevention of just such misdeeds. They are reformers with a
+shrewd twinkle in their eyes. They take a keen intellectual pleasure in
+their work, and are ready to give credit to any natural talent in their
+antagonist. If they are inclined to take a cheerful view of the whole
+situation it is because they are in the habit of looking at the
+situation as a whole. The predominance of force is actually on their
+side and they see no reason to doubt the final result. They have learned
+the meaning of the text, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers." In
+fact the evildoer may not have done so much harm as one might think. Nor
+is he really such a hopeless character. There is good stuff in him, and
+he yet may be used for many good purposes. They laugh best who laugh
+last, and their good-natured laughter was anticipatory. There are forces
+working for righteousness which they have experienced. On the whole
+things are moving in the right direction and they can afford to be
+cheerful.
+
+This is the kind of experience which comes to those who are habitually
+dealing with crude materials rather than with finished products. They
+cannot afford to be fastidious; they learn to take things as they come
+and make the best of them. The doctrine that things are not as they seem
+is a cheerful one, to a person who is accustomed to dealing with things
+which turn out to be better than at first they seemed. The unknown takes
+on a friendly guise and awakens a pleasant curiosity. That is the
+experience of generations of pioneers and prospectors. They have found
+a continent full of resources awaking men of courage and industry. The
+opportunities were there; all that was needed was the ability to
+recognize them when they appeared in disguise.
+
+
+III
+
+And the human problem has been the same as the material one. Europe has
+sent to America not the finished products of her schools and her courts,
+but millions of people for whom she had no room. They were in the rough;
+they had to be made over into a new kind of citizen. This material has
+often been of the most unpromising appearance. It has often seemed to
+superficial observers that little could be made of it. But the attempt
+has been made. And those who have worked with it, putting skill and
+patience into their work, have been agreeably surprised. They have come
+to see the highest possibilities in the commonest lumps of clay.
+
+The satisfaction that is taken in the common man is not in what he
+is at the present moment, but in what he has shown himself capable of
+becoming. Give him a chance and all the graces may be his. The American
+idealist admits that many of his fellow citizens may be rather dreary
+brethren, but so were many of the kings of whom nothing is remembered
+but their names and dates. Only now and then is one seen who is every
+inch a king. But such a person is a proof of what may be accomplished.
+It may take a long time for the rank and file to catch up with their
+leaders. But where the few are to-day the many will be to-morrow; for
+they are all travelling the same road.
+
+The visitor in the United States, especially if he has spent his time in
+the great cities of the East, may go away with the idea that democracy
+is a spent force. He will see great inequalities in wealth and position.
+He will be struck by the fact that autocratic powers are wielded which
+would not be tolerated in many countries of Europe. He will notice that
+it is very difficult to give direct expression to the will of the
+people.
+
+But he will make a mistake if he attributes these things to the growth
+of an aristocratic sentiment. They are a part of an evolution that is
+thoroughly democratic. The distinctive thing in an aristocracy is not
+the fact that certain people enjoy privileges. It lies in the fact that
+these privileged people form a class that is looked upon as superior. An
+aristocratic class must not only take itself seriously; it must be taken
+seriously by others.
+
+In America there are groups of persons more successful than the average.
+They are objects of curiosity, and, if they are well-behaved, of
+respect. Their comings and goings are chronicled in the newspapers, and
+their names are familiar. But it does not occur to the average man that
+they are anything more than fortunate persons who emerged from the
+crowd, and who by and by may be lost in the crowd again. What they have
+done, others may do when their time comes. The inequalities are
+inequalities of circumstance and not of nature.
+
+The commonplace American follows unworthy leaders and has admiration for
+cheap success. But he cherishes no illusions in regard to the objects of
+his admiration. They have done what he would like to do, and what he
+hopes to be able to do sometime. He thinks of the successful men as
+being of the same kind with himself. They are more fortunate, that is
+all.
+
+
+IV
+
+The same temperamental quality is seen in the American idealist.
+His attitude toward his spiritual leaders is seldom that of meek
+discipleship. It is rather that of frank, outspoken comradeship. No
+mysterious barrier separates the great man from the common man. One has
+more, the other has less, that is all.
+
+The men who have cherished the finest ideals have insisted that these
+should be shared by the multitude. In a newspaper of sixty years ago
+there is this contemporary character sketch: "Ralph Waldo Emerson is
+the most erratic and capricious man in America. He is emphatically a
+democrat of the world, and believes that what Plato thought, another man
+may think. What Shakespeare sang, another man may know as well. As for
+emperors, kings, queens, princes, or presidents, he looks upon them as
+children in masquerade. He has no patience with the chicken-hearted who
+refer to mouldy records or old almanacs to ascertain if they may say
+that their souls are their own. Mr. Emerson is a strange compound of
+contradictions. Always right in practice, and sometimes in theory. He is
+a sociable, accessible, republican sort of man, and a great admirer of
+nature."
+
+Could any better description be given of the kind of man whom Americans
+delight to honor? This "sociable, accessible, republican sort of man"
+happened to be endowed with gifts denied in such full measure to his
+countrymen. But they were gifts which they understood and appreciated.
+He was one of them, and expressed and interpreted their habitual
+thought. Luther used to declare that no one who had never had trials and
+temptations could understand the Holy Scriptures. And one might say that
+no one who had never taken part in a town meeting, or listened to the
+talk of neighbors at the country store, or traveled in an "accommodation
+train" in the Middle West, can fully understand Emerson.
+
+Critics have often written of the optimism of Emerson as if he were one
+of those who did not perceive the darker side of things. Nothing could
+be more untrue to his temper of mind. Emerson was cheerful, but he never
+pretended that the world was an altogether cheerful place to live in.
+Indeed, it distinctly needed cheering up, and that, according to him, is
+what we are here for.
+
+It might be possible to make out a list of matters of fact treated by
+Emerson and his friend Carlyle. They would be essentially the same. When
+it came to hard facts, one was as unflinching in his recognition as the
+other. There was nothing smug in Emerson's philosophy. He never took an
+apologetic attitude nor attempted to minimize difficulties. There was no
+attempt to justify the ways of God to man. But while agreeing in regard
+to the facts the friends differed as to their conclusions. In reading
+Carlyle one seems to stand at the end of a world struggle that has
+proved unavailing. Everything has been tried, and everything has failed.
+Alas! Alas!
+
+Emerson sees the same facts, but he seems to be standing at the
+beginning. The moral world is still without form and void, but the
+creative spirit is brooding upon it. "Sweet is the genesis of things."
+Emerson is pleased with the world, not because he thinks its present
+condition is very good, but because he sees so much room for it to
+become better. It is a most promising experiment. It furnishes an
+abundance of the raw materials of righteousness.
+
+Nor does he flatter himself that the task of betterment is an easy one,
+or that the end is in sight. It is not a world where wishes, even good
+wishes, are fulfilled without effort. There are inexorable laws not of
+our making. The whims of good people are not respected.
+
+  "For Destiny never swerves
+     Nor yields to man the helm."
+
+The struggle is stem and unrelenting. It taxes all our energies. And
+yet it is exhilarating. There is a moral quick-wittedness which sees
+the smile behind the threatening mask of Fate. Destiny is after all a
+good comrade for the brave and the self-reliant.
+
+  "He forbids to despair,
+     His cheeks mantle with mirth,
+   And the unimagined good of man
+     Is yeaning at the birth."
+
+The riddle of existence is seen not from the Old World point of view,
+but from that of the new. It is of the nature of a surprise. The Sphinx
+of Emerson is not carved in stone. It is not silent and motionless,
+waiting for answers that do not come.
+
+It is the American Sphinx leading in a game of hide-and-seek. The
+mystery of existence baffles us, not because there is no answer, but
+because there are so many. They are infinite in number, and all of them
+are true. They wait for the mind large enough to harbor them in all
+their variety, and serene enough not to be annoyed because their
+contradictions are not at once reconciled.
+
+The catalogue of ills may be never so long, but it fails to depress one
+who sees everything in the making.
+
+  "I heard a poet answer
+    Aloud and cheerfully,
+  'Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges
+    Are pleasant songs to me.'
+
+       *      *       *       *       *
+
+  "Uprose the merry Sphinx,
+    And crouched no more in stone;
+  She melted into purple cloud.
+    She silvered in the moon."
+
+This conception of the merry Sphinx may seem strange to the dyspeptic
+philosopher pondering on the inscrutableness of the universe. But the
+prospectors in the mining camps of the Far West, and the builders of new
+cities understand what Emerson meant. Their experience of the ups and
+downs of fortune has taught them how to find pleasure in uncertainty.
+You never can tell how anything will turn out till you try. That's the
+fun of it. They are quite ready to believe that the same thing holds
+good in the higher life.
+
+Or take the lines on "Worship." How can Worship be personified?
+Emerson's picture is not that of a patriarch on bended knee; it is that
+of a vigorous youth picking himself up after he has been knocked down by
+his antagonist.
+
+  "This is he, who, felled by foes,
+   Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows."
+
+Religion is a kind of spiritual resilience. It is that which makes a man
+come back with new vigor to his work after his first failure. It is the
+ability to make a new beginning.
+
+In Emerson the American hurry is transformed into something of spiritual
+significance. A new commandment is given to the good man--Be quick! Keep
+moving!
+
+  "Trenchant Time behoves to hurry,
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  O wise man, hearest thou the least part,
+  Seest them the rushing metamorphosis,
+
+  Dissolving all that fixture is,
+  Melts things that be to things that seem."
+
+Morality and religion must be speeded up if they are to do any useful
+work in this swift world.
+
+If the ideals of the saints and reformers were criticized, so were those
+of the scholars. Matthew Arnold's definition of culture was that of a
+man of books. It was the knowledge of the best that had been said and
+known in the past. Emerson's lines entitled "Culture" begin with a
+characteristic question and end with an equally characteristic
+affirmation. The question is--
+
+  "Can rules or tutors educate
+   The semigod whom we await?"
+
+The affirmation is that the man of culture is one who
+
+            "to his native centre fast,
+      Shall into Future fuse the Past,
+  And the world's flowing fates in his own mould recast."
+
+According to this definition Abraham Lincoln, with his slight knowledge
+of the best things of the past, but with the power to fuse such
+knowledge as he had and to recast it in his own mould, was a man of
+culture. And all true Americans would agree with him.
+
+Emerson, like the "sociable, accessible, republican sort of man" that he
+was, was the foe of special privilege. The best things were, in his
+judgment, the property of all. He would take religion from the custody
+of the priests, and culture from the hands of schoolmasters, and restore
+them to their proper place, among the inalienable rights of man. They
+were simply forms of the pursuit of happiness of which the Declaration
+of Independence speaks. It is a right of which no potentates can justly
+deprive the citizen.
+
+Above all, he would protest against everything which tends to deprive
+anyone of the happiness of the forward look. There was a cheerful
+confidence that the great forces are on our side. Now and then the
+clouds gather and obscure the vision, but:
+
+  "There are open hours
+   When God's will sallies free
+   And the dull idiot may see
+   The flowing fortunes of a thousand years."
+
+This is the American doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" spiritually
+discerned.
+
+
+V
+
+But one need not go so far back as Emerson to see the higher reaches of
+the American temperament. Perhaps in no one have they been revealed with
+more distinctness than in William James. There are those who consider it
+dispraise of a philosopher to suggest that his work has local color.
+However that may be, William James thought as an American as certainly
+as Plato thought as a Greek. His way of philosophizing was one that
+belonged to the land of his birth.
+
+He was as distinctly American as was Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone was no
+renegade taking to the woods that he might relapse into savagery. He was
+a civilized man who preferred to be the maker of civilization rather
+than to be its victim. He preferred to blaze his own way through the
+forest. When he saw the smoke of a neighbor's chimney it was time for
+him to move on. So William James was led by instinct from the crowded
+highways to the dim border-lands of human experience. He preferred to
+dwell in the debatable lands. With a quizzical smile he listened to the
+dignitaries of philosophy. He found their completed systems too stuffy.
+He loved the wildernesses of thought where shy wild things hide--half
+hopes, half realities. They are not quite true now,--but they may be by
+and by.
+
+As other men are interested in the actual, so he was interested in the
+possible. The possibilities are not so highly finished as the facts that
+have been proved, but there are a great many more of them, and they are
+much more important. There are more things in the unexplored forest than
+in the clearing at its edge. Truth to him was not a field with metes
+and bounds. It was a continent awaiting settlement. First the bold
+pathfinders must adventure into it. Its vast spaces were infinitely
+inviting, its undeveloped resources were alluring. And not only did
+the path-finder interest him but the path-loser as well. But for his
+heedless audacity the work of exploration would languish. Was ever a
+philosopher so humorously tender to the intellectual vagabonds, the
+waifs and strays of the spiritual world!
+
+Their reports of vague meanderings in the border-land were listened
+to without scorn. They might be ever so absent-minded and yet have
+stumbled upon something which wiser men had missed. No one was more
+keen to criticize the hard-and-fast dogmas of the wise and prudent or
+more willing to learn what might, by chance, have been revealed unto
+babes. The one thing he demanded was space. His universe must not be
+finished or inclosed. After a rational system had been formulated and
+declared to be the Whole, his first instinct was to get away from it.
+He was sure that there must be more outside than there was inside.
+"The 'through-and-through' universe seems to suffocate me with its
+infallible, impeccable all-pervasiveness. Its necessity with no
+possibilities, its relations with no subjects, make me feel as if
+I had entered into a contract with no reserved rights."
+
+Formal philosophy seemed to him to be "too buttoned-up and
+white-chokered and clean-shaven a thing to speak for the vast,
+slow-breathing, unconscious Kosmos with its dread abysses and its
+unknown tides. The freedom we want is not the freedom, with a string
+tied to its leg and warranted not to fly away, of that philosophy. Let
+it fly away, we say, from _us_. What then?"
+
+To this American there must be a true democracy among the faculties of
+the mind. The logical understanding must not be allowed to put on
+priggish airs. The feelings have their rights also. "They may be as
+prophetic and as anticipatory of truth as anything else we have." There
+must be give and take; "what hope is there of squaring and settling
+opinions unless Absolutism will hold parley on this common ground and
+admit that all philosophies are hypotheses, to which all our faculties,
+emotional as well as logical, help us, and the truest of which will in
+the final integration of things be found in possession of the men whose
+faculties on the whole had the best divining power?"
+
+Do not those words give us a glimpse of the American mind in its natural
+working. Its genius is anticipatory. It is searching for a common ground
+on which all may meet. It puts its trust not in the thinker who can put
+his thoughts in the most neat form, but the man whose faculties have _on
+the whole the best divining power_.
+
+To listen to William James was to experience an illogical elation--and
+to feel justified in it. He was an unsparing critic of things as they
+are, but his criticism left us in no mood of depression. Our interest is
+with things as they are going to be. The universe is growing. Let us
+grow with it.
+
+
+
+
+THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE
+
+I
+
+
+When, as a child, I learned the Westminster Catechism by heart I found
+the Ten Commandments easy to remember. There was something
+straightforward in these prohibitions. Once started in the right
+direction one could hardly stray from the path. But I stumbled over the
+question, in regard to certain Commandments, "What are the reasons
+annexed?"
+
+That a commandment should be committed to memory seemed just. I was
+prepared to submit to the severest tests of verbal accuracy. But that
+there should be "reasons annexed," and that these also should be
+remembered, seemed to my youthful understanding a grievance. It made the
+path of the obedient hard. To this day there is a haziness about the
+"reasons" that contrasts with the sharp outlines of the commandments.
+
+I fancy that news-gatherers have the same experience. They are diligent
+in collecting items of news and reporting them to the world, but it is a
+real hardship to them to have to give any rational account of these bits
+of fact. They tell what is done in different parts of the world, but
+they forget to mention "the moving why they did it." The consequence is
+that, in this age of instantaneous communication, we know what is going
+on in other countries, but it seems very irrational. The rational
+elements have been lost in the process of transmission.
+
+There has, for example, been no lack of news cabled across the Atlantic
+in regard to the nominations for President of the United States. The
+European reader is made aware that a great deal of strong feeling has
+been evoked, and strong language used. When a picturesque term of
+reproach has been hurled by one candidate at another it is promptly
+reported to a waiting world. But the "reasons annexed" are calmly
+ignored. The consequence is that the reader is confirmed in his
+exaggerated idea of the nervous irritability of the American people.
+There seems to be a periodicity in their seizures. At intervals of four
+years they indulge in an orgy of mutual recrimination, and then suddenly
+return to their normal state of money-getting. It is all very
+unaccountable. Doubtless the most charitable explanation is the climate.
+
+It was after giving prominence to an unusually vivid bit of political
+vituperation that a conservative London newspaper remarked, "All this is
+characteristically American, but it shocks the unaccustomed ears of
+Europe."
+
+As I read the rebuke I felt positively ashamed of my country and its
+untutored ways. I pictured Europe as a dignified lady of mature years
+listening to the screams issuing from her neighbor's nursery. She had
+not been used to hearing naughty words called out in such a loud tone of
+voice. Instead of discussing their grievances calmly, they were actually
+calling one another names.
+
+It was therefore with a feeling of chastened humility that I turned to
+the columns devoted to the more decorous doings of Europe. Here I should
+find examples worthy of consideration. They are drawn from the homes of
+ancient civility. Would that our rude politicians might be brought under
+these refining influences and learn how to behave!
+
+But alas! When we drop in upon our neighbors, unannounced, things are
+sometimes not so tidy as they are on the days "at home." The hostess is
+flustered and evidently has troubles of her own. So, as ill-luck would
+have it, it is with Dame Europe's household. The visitor from across the
+Atlantic is surprised at the obstreperousness of the more vigorous
+members of the family. Evidently a great many interesting things are
+going on, but the standard of deportment is not high.
+
+While the unaccustomed ears of Europe were shocked at the shrill cries
+from the rival conventions at Chicago and Baltimore, there was equal
+turbulence in the Italian Parliament at Rome. There were shouts and
+catcalls and every sign of uncontrollable violence. What are the
+"reasons annexed" to all this uproar? I do not know. In Budapest such
+unparliamentary expressions as "swine," "liar," "thief," and "assassin"
+were freely used in debate. An honorable member who had been expelled
+for the use of too strong language, returned to "shoot up" the House.
+The chairman, after dodging three shots, declared that he must
+positively insist on better order.
+
+In the German Reichstag a member threatens the Kaiser with the fate of
+Charles the First, if he does not speedily mend his ways. He suggests as
+a fit Imperial residence the castle where the Mad King of Bavaria was
+allowed to exercise his erratic energies without injury to the
+commonweal. At the mention of Charles the First the chamber was in an
+uproar, and amid a tumult of angry voices the session was brought to a
+close.
+
+In Russia, unseemly clamor is kept from the carefully guarded ears of
+the Czar. There art conspires with nature to produce peace. We read of
+the Czar's recent visit to his ancient capital: "The police during the
+previous night made three thousand arrests. The Czar and Czarina drove
+through the city amid the ringing of bells, and with banners flying."
+
+On reading this item the American reader plucks up heart. If, during the
+Chicago convention, the police had made three thousand arrests the
+sessions might have been as quiet as those of the Duma.
+
+Even the proceedings of the British House of Commons are disappointing
+to the pilgrim in search of decorum. The Mother of Parliaments has
+trouble with her unruly brood.
+
+We enter the sacred precincts as a Member rises to a point of order.
+
+"I desire to ask your ruling, Mr. Speaker, as to whether the honorable
+gentleman is entitled to allude to Members of the House as miscreants."
+
+The Speaker: "I do not think the term 'miscreant' is a proper
+Parliamentary expression."
+
+This is very elementary teaching, but it appears that Mr. Speaker is not
+infrequently compelled to repeat his lesson. It is "line upon line and
+precept upon precept."
+
+The records of the doings of the House contain episodes which would be
+considered exciting in Arizona. We read: "For five minutes the Honorable
+George Lansbury defied the Speaker, insulted the Prime Minister, and
+scorned the House of Commons. He raved in an ecstasy of passion;
+challenging, taunting, and defying." The trouble began with a statement
+of Mr. Asquith's. "Then up jumped Mr. Lansbury, his face contorted with
+passion, and his powerful rasping voice dominating the whole House.
+Shouting and waving his arms, he approached the Government Front Bench
+with a curious crouching gait, like a boxer leaving his corner in the
+ring. One or two Liberals on the bench behind Mr. Asquith half rose, but
+the Prime Minister sat stolidly gazing above the heads of the
+opposition, his arms folded, and his lips pursed. Mr. Lansbury had
+worked himself up into a state of frenzy and, facing the Prime Minister,
+he shouted, 'You are beneath my contempt! Call yourself a gentleman! You
+ought to be driven from public life.'"
+
+I cannot remember any scene like this in Disraeli's novels. The House of
+Commons used to be called the best club in Europe. But that, says the
+Conservative critic, was before the members were paid.
+
+
+II
+
+But certain changes, like the increased cost of living, are going on
+everywhere. The fact seems to be that all over the civilized world there
+is a noticeable falling-off in good manners in public discussion. It is
+useless for one country to point the finger of scorn at another, or to
+assume an air of injured politeness. It is more conducive to good
+understanding to join in a general confession of sin. We are all
+miserable offenders, and there is little to choose between us. The
+conventionalities which bind society together are like the patent glue
+we see advertised on the streets. A plate has been broken and then
+joined together. The strength of the adhesive substance is shown by the
+way it holds up a stone of considerable weight attached to it. The plate
+thus mended holds together admirably till it is put in hot water.
+
+I have no doubt but that a conservative Chinese gentleman would tell you
+that since the Republic came in there has been a sad falling-off in the
+observance of the rules of propriety as laid down by Confucius. The
+Conservative newspapers of England bewail the fact that there has been a
+lamentable change since the present Government came in. The arch
+offender is "that political Mahdi, Lloyd George, whose false prophecies
+have made deluded dervishes of hosts of British workmen, and who has
+corrupted the manners of Parliament itself."
+
+This wicked Mahdi, by his appeals to the passions of the populace, has
+destroyed the old English reverence for Law.
+
+I do not know what may be the cause, but the American visitor does
+notice that the English attitude towards the laws of the realm is not so
+devout as he had been led to expect. We have from our earliest youth
+been taught to believe that the law-abidingness of the Englishman was
+innate and impeccable. It was not that, like the good man of whom the
+Psalmist speaks, he meditated on the law day and night. He didn't need
+to. Decent respect for the law was in his blood. He simply could not
+help conforming to it.
+
+And this impression is confirmed by the things which the tourist goes to
+see. The stately mansions embowered in green and guarded by immemorial
+oaks are accepted as symbolic of an ordered life. The multitudinous
+rooks suggest security which comes from triumphant legality. No
+irresponsible person shoots them. When one enters a cathedral close he
+feels that he is in a land that frowns on the crudity of change. Here
+everything is a "thousand years the same." And how decent is the
+demeanor of a verger!
+
+When the pilgrim from Kansas arrives at an ancient English inn he feels
+that he must be on his good behavior. Boots in his green apron is a
+lesson to him. He is not like a Western hotel bell-boy on the way to
+becoming something else. He knows his place. Everybody, he imagines, in
+this country knows his place, and there is no unseemly crowding and
+pushing. And what stronger proof can there be that this is a land where
+law is reverenced than the demeanor of a London policeman. There is no
+truculence about him, no show of physical force. He is so mild-eyed and
+soft of speech that one feels that he has been shielded from rude
+contact with the world. He represents the Law in a land where law is
+sacred. He is instinctively obeyed. He has but to wave his hand and
+traffic stops.
+
+When the traveler is told that in the vicinity of the House of Commons
+traffic is stopped to allow a Member to cross the street, his admiration
+increases. Fancy a Congressman being treated with such respect! But the
+argument which, on the whole, makes the deepest impression is the
+deferential manners of the tradesmen with their habit of saying, "Thank
+you," apropos of nothing at all. It seems an indication of perpetual
+gratitude over the fact that things are as they are.
+
+But when one comes to listen to the talk of the day one is surprised to
+find a surprising lack of docility. I doubt whether the Englishman has
+the veneration for the abstract idea of Law which is common among
+Americans. Indeed, he is accustomed to treat most abstractions with
+scant courtesy. There is nothing quite corresponding to the average
+American's feeling about a decision of the Supreme Court. The Law has
+spoken, let all the land keep silent. It seems like treason to criticize
+it, like anarchy to defy it.
+
+Tennyson's words about "reverence for the laws ourselves have made"
+needs to be interpreted by English history. It is a peculiar kind of
+reverence and has many limitations. A good deal depends on what is meant
+by "ourselves." An act of Parliament does not at once become an object
+of reverence by the members of the opposition party. It was not, they
+feel, made by _them_, it was made by a Government which was violently
+opposed to them and which was bent on ruining the country.
+
+It is only after a sufficient time has elapsed to allow for the partisan
+origin to be forgotten, and for it to become assimilated to the habits
+of thought and manner of life of the people that it is deeply respected.
+The English reverence is not for statute law, but for the common law
+which is the slow accretion of ages. A new enactment is treated like the
+new boy at school. He must submit to a period of severe hazing before he
+is given a place of any honor.
+
+To the American when an act of Congress has been declared
+constitutional, a decent respect for the opinion of mankind seems to
+suggest that verbal criticism should cease. The council of perfection is
+that the law should be obeyed till such time as it can be repealed or
+explained away. If it should become a dead letter, propriety would
+demand that no evil should be spoken of it. Since the days of Andrew
+Jackson the word "nullification" has had an ugly and dangerous sound.
+
+But to the Englishman this attitude seems somewhat superstitious. The
+period of opposition to a measure is not ended when it has passed
+Parliament and received the royal assent. The question is whether it
+will receive the assent of the people. Can it get itself obeyed? If it
+can, then its future is assured for many generations. But it must pass
+through an exciting period of probation.
+
+If it is a matter that arouses much feeling the British way is for some
+one to disobey and take the consequences. Passive resistance--with such
+active measures as may make the life of the enforcers of the law a
+burden to them--is a recognized method of political and religious
+propagandism.
+
+In periods when the national life has run most swiftly this kind of
+resistance to what has been considered the tyranny of lawmakers has
+always been notable. Emerson's "the chambers of the great are jails" was
+literally true of the England of the seventeenth century. Every one who
+made any pretension to moral leadership was intent on going to jail in
+behalf of some principle or another.
+
+John Bunyan goes to jail rather than attend the parish church, George
+Fox goes to jail rather than take off his hat in the presence of the
+magistrate. Why should he do so when there was no Scripture for it? When
+it was said that the Scripture had nothing to say about hats, he was
+ready with his triumphant reference to Daniel III, 21, where it is said
+that the three Hebrew children wore "their coats, their hosen, their
+hats and their other garments" in the fiery furnace. If Shadrach,
+Meshach, and Abed-nego wore their hats before Nebuchadnezzar and kept
+them on even in the fiery furnace, why should a free-born Englishman
+take his hat off in the presence of a petty Justice of the Peace?
+Fervent Fifth Monarchy men were willing to die rather than acknowledge
+any king but King Jesus who was about to come to reign. Non-juring
+bishops were willing to go to jail rather than submit to the judgment of
+Parliament as to who should be king in England. Puritans and Covenanters
+of the more logical sort refused to accept toleration unless it were
+offered on their own terms. They had been a "persecuted remnant" and
+they proposed to remain such or know the reason why.
+
+Beneath his crust of conformity the Briton has an admiration for these
+recalcitrant individuals who will neither bow the knee to Baal nor to
+his betters. He likes a man who is a law unto himself. Though he has
+little enthusiasm for the abstract "rights of man," he is a great
+believer in "the liberty of prophesying." The prophet is not without
+honor, even while he is being stoned.
+
+Just at this time things are moving almost as rapidly as they did in the
+seventeenth century. There is the same clash of opinion and violence of
+party spirit. All sorts of non-conformities struggle for a hearing. One
+is reminded of that most stirring period, which is so delightful to read
+about, and which must have been so trying for quiet people to live
+through.
+
+A host of earnest and wide-awake persons are engaged in the task of
+doing what they are told not to do. Their enthusiasm takes the form of
+resistance to some statute made or proposed.
+
+The conscientious women who throw stones through shop windows, and lay
+violent hands on cabinet ministers, do so, avowedly, to bring certain
+laws into disrepute. They go on hunger-strikes, not in order to be
+released from prison, but in order to be treated as political prisoners.
+They insist that their methods should be recognized as acts of
+legitimate warfare. They may be extreme in their actions, but they are
+not alone in their theory.
+
+The Insurance Law, by which all workers whose wages are below a certain
+sum are compulsorily insured against sickness and the losses that follow
+it, is just going into effect. Its provisions are necessarily
+complicated, and its administration must at first be difficult. The
+Insurance-Law Resisters are organized to nullify the act. Its enormities
+are held up before all eyes, and it is flouted in every possible way.
+According to this law, a lady is compelled to pay three-pence a week
+toward the insurance fund for each servant in her employ. Will she pay
+that three-pence? No! Though twenty acts of Parliament should declare
+that it must be done, she will resist. As for keeping accounts, and
+putting stamps in a book, she will do nothing of the kind. What is it
+about a stamp act that arouses such fierceness of resistance?
+
+High-born ladies declare that they would rather go to jail than obey
+such a law. At a meeting at Albert Hall the Resisters were addressed by
+a duchess who was "supported by a man-servant." What can a mere Act of
+Parliament do when confronted by such a combination as that? Passive
+resistance takes on heroic proportions when a duchess and a man-servant
+confront the Law with haughty immobility.
+
+In the mean time, Mr. Tom Mann goes to jail, amid the applause of
+organized labor, for advising the British soldier not to obey orders
+when he is commanded to fire on British working-men.
+
+Mr. Tom Mann is a labor agitator, while Mr. Bonar Law is the leader of
+the Conservative party; but when it comes to legislation which he does
+not like, Mr. Bonar Law's language is fully as incendiary. He is not
+content with opposing the Irish Home Rule Bill: he gives notice that
+when it has become a law the opposition will be continued in a more
+serious form. The passage of the bill, he declares, will be the signal
+for civil war. Ulster will fight. Parliament may pass the Home Rule
+Bill, but when it does so its troubles will have just begun. Where will
+it find the troops to coerce the province?
+
+One of the most distinguished Unionist Members of Parliament, addressing
+a great meeting at Belfast says, "You are sometimes asked whether you
+propose to resist the English army? I reply that even if this Government
+had the wickedness (which, on the whole, I believe), it is wholly
+lacking in the nerve required to give an order which in my deliberate
+judgment would shatter for years the civilization of these islands." If
+the Government does not have the nerve to employ its troops, "It will be
+for the moon-lighters and the cattle-maimers to conquer Ulster
+themselves, and it will be for you to show whether you are worse men, or
+your enemies better men, than the forefathers of you both. But I note
+with satisfaction that you are preparing yourselves by the practice of
+exercises, and by the submission to discipline, for the struggle which
+is not unlikely to test your determination. The Nationalists are
+determined to rule you. You are determined not to be ruled. A collision
+of wills so sharp may well defy the resources of a peaceful solution....
+On this we are agreed, that the crisis has called into existence one of
+those supreme issues of conscience amid which the ordinary landmarks of
+permissible resistance to technical law are submerged."
+
+When one goes to the Church to escape from these sharp antagonisms, he
+is confronted with huge placards giving notice of meetings to protest
+against "The Robbery of God." The robber in this case is the Government,
+which proposes to disendow, as well as disestablish, the Church in
+Wales. Noble lords denounce the outrage. Mr. Lloyd George replies by
+reminding their lordships that their landed estates were, before the
+dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, Church property. If
+they wish to make restitution of the spoil which their ancestors took,
+well and good. But let them not talk about the robbery of God, while
+their hands are "dripping with the fat of sacrilege."
+
+The retort is effective, but it does not make Mr. Lloyd George beloved
+by the people to whom it is addressed. Twitting on facts has always been
+considered unmannerly.
+
+
+III
+
+When we hear the acrimonious discussions and the threats of violence, it
+is well to consider the reason for it all. I think the reason is one
+that is not discreditable to those concerned. These are not ordinary
+times, and they are not to be judged by ordinary standards. England is
+at the present time passing through a revolution, the issues of which
+are still in doubt. Revolutionary passions have been liberated by the
+rapid course of events. "Every battle of the warrior is with confused
+noise." The confused noise may be disagreeable to persons of sensitive
+nerves, but it is a part of the situation.
+
+When we consider the nature of the changes that have been made in the
+last few years, and the magnitude of those which are proposed, we do not
+wonder at the tone of exasperation which is common to all parties.
+
+It is seldom that a constitutional change, like that which deprived the
+House of Lords of powers exercised for a thousand years, has been made
+without an appeal to arms. But there was no civil war. Perhaps the old
+fashion of sturdy blows would have been less trying to the temper.
+
+A revolution is at the best an unmannerly proceeding. It cannot be
+carried on politely, because it involves not so much a change of ideas
+and methods as a change of masters. A change of ideas may be discussed
+in an amiable and orderly way. The honorable gentlemen who have the
+responsibility for the decision are respectfully asked to revise their
+opinions in the light of new evidence which, by their leave, will be
+presented.
+
+But a change of masters cannot be managed so inoffensively. The
+honorable gentlemen are not asked to revise their opinions. They are
+told that their opinions are no longer important. The matter is severely
+personal. The statement is not, "We do not believe in your ideas"; it
+is, "We do not believe in _you_."
+
+When political discussion takes this turn, then there is an end to the
+amenities suited to a more quiet time. It is no longer a question as to
+which is the better cause, but as to which is the better man.
+
+Mr. Asquith, who has retained in this revolutionary period the manners
+of the old school, recently said in his reply to a delegation of his
+opponents, "When people are on opposite sides of a chasm they may be
+courteous to one another, and regret the impossibility of their shaking
+hands, or doing more than wave a courteous gesture across so wide a
+space."
+
+These are the words of a gentleman in politics, and express a beautiful
+ideal. But they hardly describe the present situation. As to waving a
+courteous salutation to the people on the other side,--that depends on
+who the people are. If you know them and have been long familiar with
+their good qualities, the courteous salutation is natural. They are, as
+you know, much better than their opinions.
+
+But it is different when they are people whom you do not know, and with
+whom you have nothing in common. You suspect their motives, and feel a
+contempt for their abilities. They are not of your set. The word
+"gentleman" is derived from the word _gens_. People of the same _gens_
+learn to treat each other in a considerate way. Even when they differ
+they remember what is due to gentle blood and gentle training.
+
+It is quite evident that the challenge of the new democracy to the old
+ruling classes has everywhere produced exasperation. It is no longer
+easy to wave courteous salutations across the chasms which divide
+parties. Political discussion takes a rude turn. It is no longer
+possible to preserve the proprieties. We may expect the minor moralities
+to suffer while the major moralities are being determined by hard
+knocks.
+
+Good manners depend on the tacit understanding of all parties as to
+their relations to one another. Nothing can be more brutal than for one
+to claim superiority, or more rude than for another to dispute the
+claim. Such differences of station should, if they exist, be taken for
+granted.
+
+Relations which were established by force may, after a time, be made so
+beautiful that their origin is forgotten. There must be no display of
+unnecessary force. The battle having been decided, victor and vanquished
+change parts. It pleases the conqueror to sign himself, "Your obedient
+servant," and to inquire whether certain terms would be agreeable. Of
+course they would be agreeable. So says the disarmed man looking upward
+to his late foe, now become his protector.
+
+And the conqueror with grave good will takes up the burden which
+Providence has imposed upon him. Is not the motto of the true knight,
+_Ich dien_? Such service as he can render shall be given ungrudgingly.
+
+Now, this is not hypocrisy. It may be Christianity and Chivalry and all
+sorts of fine things. It is making the best of an accepted situation.
+When relations which were established by force have been sanctioned by
+custom, and embodied in law, and sanctified by religion, they form a
+soil in which many pleasant things may grow. In the vicinity of Vesuvius
+they will tell you that the best soils are of volcanic origin.
+
+Hodge and Sir Lionel meet in the garden which one owns, and in which the
+other digs with the sweat of his brow. There is kindly interest on the
+one hand, and decent respect on the other. But all this sense of ordered
+righteousness is dependent on one condition. Neither must eat of the
+fruit of the tree of knowledge that grows in the midst of the garden. A
+little knowledge is dangerous, a good deal of knowledge may be even more
+dangerous, to the relations which custom has established.
+
+What right has Sir Lionel to lay down the law for Hodge? Why should not
+Hodge have a right to have his point of view considered? When Hodge
+begins seriously to ponder this question his manners suffer. And when
+Sir Lionel begins to assert his superiority, instead of taking it for
+granted, his behavior lacks its easy charm. It is very hard to explain
+such things in a gentlemanly way.
+
+Now, the exasperation in the tone of political discussion in Great
+Britain, as elsewhere in the world, is largely explained by the fact
+that all sorts of superiorities have been challenged at the same time.
+Everywhere the issue is sharply made. "Who shall rule?"
+
+Shall Ireland any longer submit to be ruled by the English? The Irish
+Nationalists swear by all the saints that, rather than submit, they will
+overthrow the present Government and return to their former methods of
+agitation.
+
+If the Home Rule Bill be enacted into law, will Ulster submit to be
+ruled by a Catholic majority? The men of Ulster call upon the spirits of
+their heroic sires, who triumphed at the Boyne, to bear witness that
+they will never yield.
+
+Will the masses of the people submit any longer to the existing
+inequalities in political representation? No! They demand immediate
+recognition of the principle, "One man, one vote." The many will not
+allow the few to make laws for them.
+
+Will the women of England kindly wait a little till their demands can be
+considered in a dignified way? No! They will not take their place in the
+waiting-line. Others get what they want by pushing; so will they.
+
+Will the Labor party be a little less noisy and insistent in its
+demands? All will come in time, but one Reform must say to another,
+"After you." Hoarse voices cry, "We care nothing for etiquette, we must
+have what we demand, and have it at once. We cannot stand still. If we
+are pushing, we are also pushed from behind. If you do not give us what
+we ask for, the Socialists and the Syndicalists will be upon you." There
+is always the threat of a General Strike. Laborers have hitherto been
+starved into submission. But two can play at that game.
+
+
+IV
+
+This is not the England of Sir Roger de Coverley with its cheerful
+contentment with the actual, and its deference for all sorts of
+dignitaries. It is not, in its present temper, a model of propriety.
+But, in my judgment, it is all the more interesting, and full of hope.
+To say that England is in the midst of a revolution is not to say that
+some dreadful disaster is impending. It only means that this is a time
+when events move very rapidly, and when precedents count for little. But
+it is a time when common sense and courage and energy count for a great
+deal; and there is no evidence that these qualities are lacking. I
+suspect that the alarmists are not so alarmed as their language would
+lead us to suppose. They know their countrymen, and that they have the
+good sense to avoid most of the collisions that they declare to be
+inevitable.
+
+I take comfort in the philosophy which I glean from the top of a London
+motor-bus. From my point of vantage I look down upon pedestrian humanity
+as a Superman might look down upon it. It seems to consist of a vast
+multitude of ignorant folk who are predestined to immediate
+annihilation. As the ungainly machine on which I am seated rushes down
+the street, it seems admirably adapted for its mission of destruction.
+The barricade in front of me, devoted to the praise of BOVRIL, is just
+high enough to prevent my seeing what actually happens, but it gives a
+bloodcurdling view of catastrophes that are imminent. I have an
+impression of a procession of innocent victims rushing heedlessly upon
+destruction. Three yards in front of the onrushing wheels is an old
+gentleman crossing the street. He suddenly stops. There is, humanly
+speaking, no hope for him. Two nursemaids appear in the field of danger.
+A butcher's boy on a bicycle steers directly for the bus. He may be
+given up for lost. I am not able to see what becomes of them, but I am
+prepared for the worst. Still the expected crunch does not come, and the
+bus goes on.
+
+Between Notting Hill Gate and Charing Cross I have seen eighteen persons
+disappear in this mysterious fashion. I could swear that when I last saw
+them it seemed too late for them to escape their doom.
+
+But on sober reflection I come to the conclusion that I should have
+taken a more hopeful view if I had not been so high up; if, for example,
+I had been sitting with the driver where I could have seen what happened
+at the last moment.
+
+There was much comfort in the old couplet:--
+
+  "Betwixt the saddle and the ground,
+  He mercy sought and mercy found."
+
+And betwixt the pedestrian and the motor-bus, there are many chances of
+safety that I could not foresee. The old gentleman was perhaps more spry
+than he looked. The nursemaids and the butcher's boy must assuredly have
+perished unless they happened to have their wits about them. But in all
+probability they did have their wits about them, and so did the driver
+of the motor-bus.
+
+
+
+
+THE TORYISM OF TRAVELERS
+
+I
+
+
+When we think of a thorough-going conservative we are likely to picture
+him as a stay-at-home person, a barnacle fastened to one spot. We take
+for granted that aversion to locomotion and aversion to change are the
+same thing. But in thinking thus we leave out of account the inherent
+instability of human nature. Everybody likes a little change now and
+then. If a person cannot get it in one way, he gets it in another. The
+stay-at-home gratifies his wandering fancy by making little alterations
+in his too-familiar surroundings. Even the Vicar of Wakefield in the
+days of his placid prosperity would occasionally migrate from the blue
+bed to the brown. A life that had such vicissitudes could not be called
+uneventful.
+
+When you read the weekly newspaper published in the quietest hill-town
+in Vermont, you become aware that a great deal is going on. Deacon Pratt
+shingled his barn last week. Miss Maria Jones had new shutters put on
+her house, and it is a great improvement. These revolutions in
+Goshenville are matters of keen interest to those concerned. They
+furnish inexhaustible material for conversation.
+
+The true enemy to innovation is the traveler who sets out to see
+historic lands. His natural love of change is satiated by rapid change
+of locality. But his natural conservatism asserts itself in his
+insistence that the places which he visits shall be true to their own
+reputations. Having journeyed, at considerable expense, to a celebrated
+spot, he wants to see the thing it was celebrated for, and he will
+accept no substitute. From his point of view the present inhabitants are
+merely caretakers who should not be allowed to disturb the remains
+intrusted to their custody. Everything must be kept as it used to be.
+
+The moment any one packs his trunk and puts money in his purse to visit
+lands old in story he becomes a hopeless reactionary. He is sallying
+forth to see things not as they are, but as they were "once upon a
+time." He is attracted to certain localities by something which happened
+long ago. A great many things may have happened since, but these must be
+put out of the way. One period of time must be preserved to satisfy his
+romantic imagination. He loves the good old ways, and he has a curiosity
+to see the bad old ways that may still be preserved. It is only the
+modern that offends him.
+
+The American who, in his own country, is in feverish haste to improve
+conditions, when he sets foot in Europe becomes the fanatical foe to
+progress. The Old World, in his judgment, ought to look old. He longs to
+hear the clatter of wooden shoes. If he had his way he would have laws
+enacted forbidding peasant folk to change their ancient costumes. He
+would preserve every relic of feudalism. He bitterly laments the
+division of great estates. A nobleman's park with its beautiful idle
+acres, its deer, its pheasants, and its scurrying rabbits, is so much
+more pleasant to look at than a succession of market-gardens. Poachers,
+game-keepers, and squires are alike interesting, if only they would
+dress so that he could know them apart. He is enchanted with thatched
+cottages which look damp and picturesque. He detests the model dwellings
+which are built with a too obvious regard for sanitation. He seeks
+narrow and ill-smelling streets where the houses nod at each other, as
+if in the last stages of senility, muttering mysterious reminiscences of
+old tragedies. He frequents scenes of ancient murders, and places where
+bandits once did congregate. He leaves the railway carriage, to cross a
+heath where romantic highwaymen used to ask the traveler to stand and
+deliver. He is indignant to find electric lights and policemen. A heath
+ought to be lonely, and fens ought to be preserved from drainage.
+
+He seeks dungeons and instruments of torture. The dungeons must be
+underground, and only a single ray of light must penetrate. He is much
+troubled to find that the dungeon in the Castle of Chillon is much more
+cheerful than he had supposed it was. The Bridge of Sighs in Venice
+disappoints him in the same way. Indeed, there are few places mentioned
+by Lord Byron that are as gloomy as they are in the poetical
+description.
+
+The traveler is very insistent in his plea for the preservation of
+battlefields. Now, Europe is very rich in battlefields, many of the most
+fertile sections having been fought over many times. But the ravages of
+agriculture are everywhere seen. There is no such leveler as the
+ploughman. Often when one has come to refresh his mind with the events
+of one terrible day, he finds that there is nothing whatever to remind
+him of what happened. For centuries there has been ploughing and
+harvesting. Nature takes so kindly to these peaceful pursuits that one
+is tempted to think of the battle as merely an episode.
+
+Commerce is almost as destructive. Cities that have been noted for their
+sieges often turn out to be surprisingly prosperous. The old walls are
+torn down to give way to parks and boulevards. Massacres which in their
+day were noted leave no trace behind. One can get more of an idea of the
+Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve by reading a book by one's fireside
+than by going to Paris. For all one can see there, there might have been
+no such accident.
+
+Moral considerations have little place in the traveler's mind. The
+progressive ameliorations that have taken place tend to obscure our
+sense of the old conflicts. A reform once accomplished becomes a part of
+our ordinary consciousness. We take it for granted, and find it hard to
+understand what the reformer was so excited about.
+
+As a consequence, the chief object of an historical pilgrimage is to
+discover some place where the old conditions have not been improved
+away. The religious pilgrim does not expect to find the old prophets,
+but he has a pious hope of finding the abuses which the prophets
+denounced.
+
+I have in mind a clergyman who, in his own home, is progressive to a
+fault. He is impatient of any delay. He is all the time seeking out the
+very latest inventions in social and economic reforms. But several years
+ago he made a journey to the Holy Land, and when he came back he
+delivered a lecture on his experiences. A more reactionary attitude
+could not be imagined. Not a word did he say about the progress of
+education or civil-service reform in Palestine. There was not a
+sympathetic reference to sanitation or good roads. The rights of women
+were not mentioned. Representative government seemed to be an
+abomination to him. All his enthusiasm was for the other side. He was
+for Oriental conservatism in all its forms. He was for preserving every
+survival of ancient custom. He told of the delight with which he watched
+the laborious efforts of the peasants ploughing with a forked stick. He
+believed that there had not been a single improvement in agriculture
+since the days of Abraham.
+
+The economic condition of the people had not changed for the better
+since patriarchal times, and one could still have a good idea of a
+famine such as sent the brothers of Joseph down into Egypt. Turkish
+misgovernment furnished him with a much clearer idea of the publicans,
+and the hatred they aroused in the minds of the people, than he had ever
+hoped to obtain. In fact, one could hardly appreciate the term
+"publicans and sinners" without seeing the Oriental tax-gatherers. He
+was very fortunate in being able to visit several villages which had
+been impoverished by their exactions. The rate of wages throws much
+light on the Sunday-School lessons. A penny a day does not seem such an
+insufficient minimum wage to a traveler, as it does to a stay-at-home
+person. On going down from Jerusalem to Jericho he fell among thieves,
+or at least among a group of thievish-looking Bedouins who gave him a
+new appreciation of the parable of the Samaritan. It was a wonderful
+experience. And he found that the animosity between the Jews and the
+Samaritans had not abated. To be sure, there are very few Samaritans
+left, and those few are thoroughly despised.
+
+The good-roads movement has not yet invaded Palestine, and we can still
+experience all the discomforts of the earlier times. Many a time when he
+took his life in his hands and wandered across the Judaean hills, my
+friend repeated to himself the text, "In the days of Shamgar the son of
+Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the people
+walked through by-ways."
+
+To most people Shamgar is a mere name. But after you have walked for
+hours over those rocky by-ways, never knowing at what moment you may be
+attacked by a treacherous robber, you know how Shamgar felt. He becomes
+a real person. You are carried back into the days when "there was no
+king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
+
+The railway between Joppa and Jerusalem is to be regretted, but
+fortunately it is a small affair. There are rumors of commercial
+enterprises which, if successful, would change the appearance of many of
+the towns. Fortunately they are not likely to be successful, at least in
+our day. The brooding spirit of the East can be trusted to defend itself
+against the innovating West. For the present, at least, Palestine is a
+fascinating country to travel in.
+
+A traveler in Ceylon and India writes to a religious paper of his
+journey. He says, "Colombo has little to interest the tourist, yet it is
+a fine city." One who reads between the lines understands that the fact
+that it is a fine city is the cause of its uninterestingness. His
+impression of Madura was more satisfactory. There one can see the
+Juggernaut car drawn through the streets by a thousand men, though it is
+reluctantly admitted that the self-immolation of fanatics under the
+wheels is no longer allowed. "The Shiva temple at Madura is the more
+interesting as its towers are ornamented with six thousand idols."
+
+The writer who rejoiced at the sight of six thousand idols in Madura,
+would have been shocked at the exhibition of a single crucifix in his
+meeting-house at home.
+
+I confess that I have not been able to overcome the Tory prejudice in
+favor of vested interests in historical places. If one has traveled
+to see "the old paths which wicked men have trodden," it is a
+disappointment to find that they are not there. I had such an experience
+in Capri. We had wandered through the vineyards and up the steep, rocky
+way to the Villa of Tiberius. On the top of the cliff are the ruins of
+the pleasure-house which the Emperor in his wicked old age built for
+himself. Was there ever a greater contrast between an earthly paradise
+and abounding sinfulness? Here, indeed, was "spiritual wickedness in
+high places." The marvelously blue sea and all the glories of the Bay of
+Naples ought to have made Tiberius a better man; but apparently they
+didn't. We were prepared for the thrilling moment when we were led to
+the edge of the cliff, and told to look down. Here was the very place
+where Tiberius amused himself by throwing his slaves into the sea to
+feed the fishes. Cruel old monster! But it was a long time ago. Time
+had marvelously softened the atrocity of the act, and heightened its
+picturesque character. If Tiberius must exhibit his colossal inhumanity,
+could he have anywhere in all the world chosen a better spot? Just think
+of his coming to this island and, on this high cliff above the azure
+sea, building this palace! And then to think of him on a night when the
+moon was full, and the nightingales were singing, coming out and hurling
+a shuddering slave into the abyss!
+
+When we returned to the hotel, our friend the Professor, who had made a
+study of the subject, informed us that it was all a mistake. The stories
+of the wicked doings of Tiberius in Capri were malicious slanders. The
+Emperor was an elderly invalid living in dignified retirement. As for
+the slaves, we might set our minds at rest in regard to them. If any of
+them fell over the cliff it was pure accident. We must give up the idea
+that the invalid Emperor pushed them off.
+
+All this was reassuring to my better nature, and yet I cherished a
+grudge against the Professor. For it was a stiff climb to the Villa of
+Tiberius, and I wanted something to show for it. It was difficult to
+adjust one's mind to the fact that nothing had happened there which
+might not have happened in any well-conducted country house.
+
+I like to contrast this with our experience in Algiers. We knew
+beforehand what Algiers was like in the days of its prime. It had been
+the nest of as desperate pirates as ever infested the seas. For
+generations innocent Christians had been carried hither to pine in
+doleful captivity. But the French, we understood, had built a miniature
+Paris in the vicinity and were practicing liberty, fraternity, and
+equality on the spot dedicated to gloomily romantic memories. We feared
+the effect of this civilization. We had our misgivings. Perhaps Algiers
+might be no longer worth visiting.
+
+Luckily our steamer was delayed till sunset. We were carefully
+shepherded, so that we hardly noticed the French city. We were hurried
+through the darkness into old Algiers. Everything was full of sinister
+suggestion. The streets were as narrow and perilous as any which Haroun
+Al Raschid explored on his more perilous nights. Here one could believe
+the worst of his fellow men. Suspicion and revenge were in the air. We
+were not taking a stroll, we were escaping from something. Mysterious
+muffled figures glided by and disappeared through slits in the walls.
+There were dark corners so suggestive of homicide that one could hardly
+think that any one with an Oriental disposition could resist the
+temptation. In crypt-like recesses we could see assassins sharpening
+their daggers or, perhaps, executioners putting the finishing touches on
+their scimitars. There were cavernous rooms where conspirators were
+crouched round a tiny charcoal fire. Groups of truculent young Arabs
+followed us shouting objurgations, and accepting small coins as ransom.
+We had glimpses of a mosque, the outside of a prison, and the inside of
+what once was a harem. On returning to the steamer one gentleman fell
+overboard and, swimming to the shore, was rescued by a swarthy ruffian
+who robbed him of his watch and disappeared in the darkness. When the
+victim of Algerian piracy stood on the deck, dripping and indignant, and
+told his tale of woe, we were delighted. Algiers would always be
+something to remember. It was one of the places that had not been
+spoiled.
+
+I am afraid that the sunlight might have brought disillusion. Some of
+the stealthy figures which gave rise to such thrilling suspicions may
+have turned out to be excellent fathers and husbands returning from
+business. As it is, thanks to the darkness, Algiers remains a city of
+vague atrocities. It does not belong to the commonplace world; it is of
+such stuff as dreams, including nightmares, are made of.
+
+It is not without some compunction of conscience that I recall two
+historical pilgrimages, one to Assisi, the other to Geneva. Assisi I
+found altogether rewarding, while in Geneva I was disappointed. In each
+case my object was purely selfish, and had nothing in common with the
+welfare of the present inhabitants. I wanted to see the city of St.
+Francis and the city of John Calvin.
+
+In Assisi one may read again the Franciscan legends in their proper
+settings. I should like to think that my pleasure in Assisi arose from
+the fact that I saw some one there who reminded me of St. Francis. But
+I was not so fortunate. If one is anxious to come in contact with the
+spirit of St. Francis, freed from its mediaeval limitations, a visit to
+Hull House, Chicago, would be more rewarding.
+
+But it was not the spirit of St. Francis, but his limitations, that we
+were after. Assisi has preserved them all. We see the gray old town on
+the hillside, the narrow streets, the old walls. We are beset by swarms
+of beggars. They are not like the half-starved creatures one may see in
+the slums of northern cities. They are very likable. They are natural
+worshipers of my Lady Poverty. They have not been spoiled by commonplace
+industrialism or scientific philanthropy. One is taken back into the
+days when there was a natural affinity between saints and beggars. The
+saints would joyously give away all that they had, and the beggars would
+as joyously accept it. After the beggars had used up all the saints had
+given them, the saints would go out and beg for more. The community, you
+say, would be none the better. Perhaps not. But the moment you begin to
+talk about the community you introduce ideas that are modern and
+disturbing. One thing is certain, and that is that if Assisi were more
+thrifty, it would be less illuminating historically.
+
+St. Francis might come back to Assisi and take up his work as he left
+it. But I sought in vain for John Calvin in Geneva. The city was too
+prosperous and gay. The cheerful houses, the streets with their
+cosmopolitan crowds, the parks, the schools, the university, the little
+boats skimming over the lake, all bore witness to the well-being of
+to-day. But what of yesterday? The citizens were celebrating the
+anniversary of Jean Jacques Rousseau. I realized that it was not
+yesterday but the day before yesterday that I was seeking. Where was the
+stern little city which Calvin taught and ruled? The place that knew him
+knows him no more.
+
+Disappointed in my search for Calvin, I sought compensation in Servetus.
+I found the stone placed by modern Calvinists to mark the spot where the
+Spanish heretic was burned. On it they had carved an inscription
+expressing their regret for the act of intolerance on the part of the
+reformer, and attributing the blame to the age in which he lived. But
+even this did not satisfy modern Geneva. The inscription had been
+chipped away in order to give place I was told, to something more
+historically accurate.
+
+But whether Calvin was to blame, or the sixteenth century, did not seem
+to matter. The spot was so beautiful that it seemed impossible that
+anything tragical could ever have happened here. A youth and maiden were
+sitting by the stone, engaged in a most absorbing conversation. Of one
+thing I was certain, that the theological differences between Calvin and
+Servetus were nothing to them. They had something more important to
+think about--at least for them.
+
+
+II
+
+After a time one comes to have a certain modesty of expectation. Time
+and Space are different elements, and each has its own laws. At the
+price of a steamship ticket one may be transported to another country,
+but safe passage to another age is not guaranteed. It is enough if some
+slight suggestion is given to the imagination. A walk through a pleasant
+neighborhood is all the pleasanter if one knows that something memorable
+has happened there. If one is wise he will not attempt to realize it to
+the exclusion of the present scene. It is enough to have a slight flavor
+of historicity.
+
+It was this pleasure which I enjoyed in a ramble with a friend through
+the New Forest. The day was fine, and it would have been a joy to be
+under the greenwood trees if no one had been before us. But the New
+Forest had a human interest; for on such a day as this, William Rufus
+rode into it to hunt the red deer, and was found with an arrow through
+his body. And to this day no man knows who killed William Rufus, or why.
+Though, of course, some people have their suspicions.
+
+Many other things may have happened in the New Forest in the centuries
+that have passed, but they have never been brought vividly to my
+attention. So far as I was concerned there were no confusing incidents.
+The Muse of History told one tragic tale and then was silent.
+
+On the other side of the Forest was the Rufus stone marking the spot
+where the Red King's body was found. At Brockenhurst we inquired the
+way, which we carefully avoided. The road itself was an innovation, and
+was infested with motor-cars, machines unknown to the Normans. The Red
+King had plunged into the Forest and quickly lost himself; so would we.
+There were great oaks and wide-spreading beeches and green glades such
+as one finds only in England. It was pleasant to feel that it all
+belonged to the Crown. I could not imagine a county council allowing
+this great stretch of country to remain in its unspoiled beauty through
+these centuries.
+
+We took our frugal lunch under a tree that had looked down on many
+generations. Then we wandered on through a green wilderness. We saw no
+one but some women gathering fagots. I was glad to see that they were
+exercising their ancestral rights in the royal domain. They looked
+contented, though I should have preferred to have their dress more
+antique.
+
+All day we followed William Rufus through the Forest. I began to feel
+that I had a real acquaintance with him, having passed through much the
+same experience. The forest glades have been little changed since the
+day when he hunted the red deer. Nature is the true conservative, and
+repeats herself incessantly.
+
+Toward evening my friend pointed out the hill at the foot of which was
+the Rufus stone. It was still some two miles away. Should we push on to
+it?
+
+What should we see when we got there? The stone was not much. There was
+a railing round it as a protection against relic-hunters. And there was
+an inscription which, of course, was comparatively modern. That settled
+it. We would not go to the stone with its modern inscription. The
+ancient trees brought us much nearer to William Rufus. Besides, there
+was just time, if we walked briskly, to catch the train at Brockenhurst.
+
+
+III
+
+A week which stands out in my memory as one of perfect communion with
+the past was spent with another English friend in Llanthony Abbey, in
+the Vale of Ewyas, in the Black Mountains of Wales. We had gone prepared
+for camping with a tent of ethereal lightness, which was to protect us
+from the weather.
+
+For the first night we were to tarry amid the ruins of the
+twelfth-century abbey, some parts of which had been roofed over and used
+as an inn. When we arrived, the rain was falling in torrents. Soon after
+supper we took our candles and climbed the winding stone stairs to our
+rooms in the tower. The stones were uneven and worn by generations of
+pious feet. Outside we could see the ruined nave of the church, with all
+the surrounding buildings. We were in another age.
+
+Had the sun shined next morning we should have gone on our gypsy
+journey, and Llanthony Abbey would have been only an incident. But for
+five days and five nights the rain descended. We could make valiant
+sallies, but were driven back for shelter. Shut in by "the tumultuous
+privacy of storm," one felt a sense of ownership. Only one book could be
+obtained, the "Life and Letters" of Walter Savage Landor. I had always
+wanted to know more of Landor and here was the opportunity.
+
+A little over a hundred years ago he came to the vale of Ewyas and
+bought this estate, and hither he brought his young bride. They occupied
+our rooms, it appeared. In 1809, Landor writes to Southey, "I am about
+to do what no man hath ever done in England, plant a wood of cedars of
+Lebanon. These trees will look magnificent on the mountains of
+Llanthony." He planted a million of them, so he said. How eloquently he
+growled over those trees! He prophesied that none of them would live.
+
+After reading, I donned my raincoat and started out through the driving
+storm to see how Landor's trees were getting on. It seemed that it was
+only yesterday that they were planted. It was worth going out to see
+what had become of them. They were all gone. I felt that secret
+satisfaction which all right-minded persons feel on being witnesses to
+the fulfilment of prophecy.
+
+And then there was the house which Landor started to build when he and
+his wife were living in our tower. "I hope," he writes, "before the
+close not of the next but of the succeeding summer, to have one room to
+sit in with two or three bedrooms." Then he begins to growl about the
+weather and the carpenters. After a while he writes again of the house:
+"It's not half finished and has cost me two thousand pounds. I think
+seriously of filling it with straw and setting fire to it. Never was
+anything half so ugly."
+
+I inquired about the house and was told that it was not far away on the
+hillside, and was yet unfinished. I was pleased with this, and meant to
+go up and see it when the spell of bad weather of which Landor
+complained had passed by.
+
+Beside Landor there was only one other historic association which one
+could enjoy without getting drenched--that was St. David. In wading
+across the barnyard, I encountered "Boots," an intelligent young man
+though unduly respectful. He informed me that the old building just
+across from the stable was the cell of St. David.
+
+I was not prepared for this. All I knew was that St. David was the
+patron saint of Wales and had a cathedral and a number of other churches
+dedicated to him. Without too grossly admitting my ignorance, I tried to
+draw out from my mentor some further biographical facts that my
+imagination might work on during my stay. He thought that St. David was
+some relation to King Arthur, but just what the relation was, and
+whether he was only a relative by marriage, he didn't know. It wasn't
+very much information, but I was profoundly grateful to him.
+
+I have since read a long article on St. David in the "Cambrian
+Plutarch." The author goes into the question of the family relations
+between King Arthur and St. David with great thoroughness, but what
+conclusion he comes to is not quite evident. He thinks that the people
+are wrong who say that St. David was a nephew, because he was fifty
+years older than Arthur. That would make him more likely his uncle.
+But as he admits that King Arthur may possibly be another name for the
+constellation Ursa Major, it is difficult to fix the dates exactly.
+At any rate, the "Cambrian Plutarch" is sure that King Arthur was a
+Welshman and a credit to the country--and so was St. David. The author
+was as accurate in regard to the dates as the nature of his subject
+would allow. He adds apologetically, "It will appear that the life of
+St. David is rather misplaced with respect to chronological order. But
+as he was contemporary with all those whose lives have already been
+given, the anachronism, if such it may be called, can be of no great
+importance."
+
+That is just the way I feel about it. After living for a whole week
+in such close contact with the residence of St. David, I feel a real
+interest in him. Just who he was and when he lived, if at all, is a
+matter of no great importance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Yet there are limits to the historical imagination. It must have
+something to work on, even though that something may be very vague. We
+must draw the line somewhere in our pursuit of antiquity. A relic may be
+too old to be effective. Instead of gently stimulating the imagination
+it may paralyze it. What we desire is not merely the ancient but the
+familiar. The relic must bring with it the sense of auld lang-syne. The
+Tory squire likes to preserve what has been a long time in his family.
+The traveler has the same feeling for the possessions of the family of
+humanity.
+
+The family-feeling does not go back of a certain point. I draw the line
+at the legendary period when the heroes have names, and more or less
+coherent stories are told of their exploits, People who had a local
+habitation, but not a name, seem to belong to Geology only. For all
+their flint arrow-heads, or bronze instruments, I cannot think of them
+as fellow men.
+
+It was with this feeling that I visited one of the most ancient places
+of worship in Ireland, the tumulus at Newgrange. It was on a day filled
+with historic sight-seeing. We started from Drogheda, the great
+stronghold of the Pale in the Middle Ages, and the scene of Cromwell's
+terrible vengeance in 1649. Three miles up the river is the site of the
+Battle of the Boyne. It was one of the great indecisive battles of the
+world, it being necessary to fight it over again every year. The Boyne
+had overflowed its banks, and in the fields forlorn hay-cocks stood like
+so many little islands. We stopped at the battle monument and read its
+Whiggish inscription, which was scorned by our honest driver. We could
+form some idea of how the field appeared on the eventful day when King
+William and King James confronted each other across the narrow stream.
+Then the scene changed and we found ourselves in Mellefont Abbey, the
+first Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded by St. Malachy, the
+friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. King William and King James were at
+once relegated to their proper places among the moderns, while we went
+back to the ages of faith.
+
+Four miles farther we came to Monasterboice, where stood two great
+Celtic crosses. There are two ruined churches and a round tower. Here
+was an early religious establishment which existed before the times of
+St. Columba.
+
+This would be enough for one day's reminiscence, but my heart leaped up
+at the sight of a long green ridge. "There is the hill of Tara!"
+
+Having traversed the period from King William to the dwellers in the
+Halls of Tara, what more natural than to take a further plunge into the
+past?
+
+We drive into an open field and alight near a rock-strewn hill. Candles
+are given us and we grope our way through narrow passages till we come
+to the centre of the hill. Here is a chamber some twenty feet in height.
+On the great stones which support the roof are mystic emblems. On the
+floor is a large stone hollowed out in the shape of a bowl. It suggests
+human sacrifices. My guide did not encourage this suggestion. There was,
+he thought, no historical evidence for it. But it seemed to me that if
+these people ever practised such sacrifices this was the place for them.
+A gloomier chamber for weird rites could not be imagined.
+
+Who were the worshipers? Druids or pre-Druids? The archaeologists tell us
+that they belonged to the Early Bronze period. Now Early Bronze is a
+good enough term for articles in a museum, but it does not suggest a
+human being. We cannot get on terms of spiritual intimacy with the Early
+Bronze people. We may know what they did, but there is no intimation of
+"the moving why they did it." What spurred them on to their feats of
+prodigious industry? Was it fear or love? First they built their chapel
+of great stones and then piled a huge hill on top of it. Were they still
+under the influence of the glacial period and attempting to imitate the
+wild doings of Nature? The passage of the ages does not make these men
+seem venerable, because their deeds are no longer intelligible.
+Mellefont Abbey is in ruins, but we can easily restore it in
+imagination. We can picture the great buildings as they were before the
+iconoclasts destroyed them. The prehistoric place of worship in the
+middle of the hill is practically unchanged. But the clue to its meaning
+is lost.
+
+I could not make the ancient builders and worshipers seem real. It was
+a relief to come up into the sunshine where people of our own kind had
+walked, the Kings of Tara and their harpers, and St. Patrick and St.
+Malachy and Oliver Cromwell and William III. After the unintelligible
+symbols on the rocks, how familiar and homelike seemed the sculptures on
+the Celtic crosses. They were mostly about people, and people whom we
+had known from earliest childhood. There were Adam and Eve, and Cain
+slaying Abel, and the Magi. They were members of our family.
+
+But between us and the builders of the under-ground chapel there was a
+great gulf. There was no means of spiritual communication across the
+abyss. A scrap of writing, a bit of poetry, a name handed down by
+tradition, would have been worth all the relics discovered by
+archaeologists.
+
+There is justification for the traveler's preference for the things he
+has read about, for these are the things which resist the changes of
+time. Only he must remember that they are better preserved in the book
+than in the places where they happened. The impression which any
+generation makes on the surface of the earth is very slight. It cannot
+give the true story of the brief occupancy. That requires some more
+direct interpretation.
+
+The magic carpet which carries us into any age not our own is woven by
+the poets and historians. Without their aid we may travel through Space,
+but not through Time.
+
+
+
+
+THE OBVIOUSNESS OF DICKENS
+
+
+In the college world it is a point of honor for the successive classes
+to treat each other with contumely. The feud between freshman and
+sophomore goes on automatically. Only when one has become a senior may
+he, without losing caste, recognize a freshman as a youth of promise,
+and admit that a sophomore is not half bad. Such disinterested criticism
+is tolerated because it is evidently the result of the mellowing
+influence of time.
+
+The same tendency is seen in literary and artistic judgments. It is
+never good taste to admit the good taste of the generation that
+immediately precedes us. Its innocent admirations are flouted and its
+standards are condemned as provincial. For we are always emerging from
+the dark ages and contrasting their obscurity with our marvelous light.
+The sixteenth century scorned the fifteenth century for its manifold
+superstitions. Thomas Fuller tells us that his enlightened contempories
+in the seventeenth century treated the enthusiasms of the sixteenth
+century with scant respect. The price of martyrs' ashes rises and falls
+in Smithfield market. At a later period Pope writes,--
+
+  "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow:
+  Our wiser sons, perhaps, will think us so."
+
+He need not have put in the "perhaps."
+
+The nineteenth century had its fling at the artificiality of the
+eighteenth century, and treated it with contempt as the age of
+doctrinaires. And now that the twentieth century is coming to the age of
+discretion, we hear a new term of reproach, Mid-Victorian. It expresses
+the sum of all villainies in taste. For some fifty years in the
+nineteenth century the English-speaking race, as it now appears, was
+under the sway of Mrs. Grundy. It was living in a state of most
+reprehensible respectability, and Art was tied to the apron-strings of
+Morality. Everybody admired what ought not to be admired. We are only
+now beginning to pass judgment on the manifold mediocrity of this era.
+
+All this must, for the time, count against Dickens; for of all the
+Victorians he was the midmost. He flourished in that most absurd period
+of time--the time just before most of us were born. And how he did
+flourish! Grave lord chancellors confessed to weeping over Little Nell.
+A Mid-Victorian bishop relates that after administering consolation to
+a man in his last illness he heard him saying, "At any rate, a new
+'Pickwick Paper' will be out in ten days."
+
+Everywhere there was a wave of hysterical appreciation. Describing his
+reading in Glasgow, Dickens writes: "Such pouring of hundreds into a
+place already full to the throat, such indescribable confusion, such
+rending and tearing of dresses, and yet such a scene of good humor, I
+never saw the slightest approach to.... Fifty frantic men got up in all
+parts of the hall and addressed me all at once. Other frantic men made
+speeches to the wall. The whole B family were borne on the top of a wave
+and landed with their faces against the front of the platform. I read
+with the platform crammed with people. I got them to lie down upon it,
+and it was like some impossible tableau, or gigantic picnic,--one pretty
+girl lying on her side all night, holding on to the legs of my table."
+
+In New York eager seekers after fiction would "lie down on the pavement
+the whole of the night before the tickets were sold, generally taking up
+their position about ten." There would be free fights, and the police
+would be called to quell the riot.
+
+Such astonishing actions on the part of people who were unfortunate
+enough to live in the middle of the nineteenth century put us on our
+guard. It could not have been a serious interest in English literature
+that evoked the mob spirit. Dickens must have been writing the kind of
+books which these people liked to hear read. We remember with some
+misgivings that in the days of our youth we wept over Little Nell, just
+as the lord chancellor did. The question which disturbs us is, Ought we
+to have done so?
+
+Let us by a soft answer turn away the wrath of the critic. Doubtless we
+ought not to have done so. Our excuse is that, at the time, we could not
+help it. We may make the further plea, common to all soft-hearted
+sinners, that if we hadn't wept, other people would, so that no great
+harm was done, after all.
+
+But letting bygones be bygones, and not seeking to justify the
+enthusiasms of the nineteenth century, one may return to Dickens as to
+the home of one's childhood. How do the old scenes affect us? Does the
+charm remain? When thus we return to Dickens, we are compelled to
+confess the justice of the latter-day criticism. In all his writings he
+deals with characters and situations which are wholly obvious; at least
+they are obvious after he deals with them. Not only is he without the
+art which conceals art, but, unlike some novelists of more recent fame,
+he is without the art that conceals the lack of art He produces an
+impression by the crude method of "rubbing it in." There are no
+subtleties to pique our curiosity, no problems left us for discussion,
+no room for difference of opinion. There is no more opportunity for
+speculation than in a one-price clothing store where every article is
+marked in plain figures. To have heartily disliked Mr. Pecksniff and to
+have loved the Cheeryble Brothers indicates no sagacity on our part. The
+author has distinctly and repeatedly told us that the one is an odious
+hypocrite and that the others are benevolent to an unusual degree. Our
+appreciation of Sam Weller does not prove that we have any sense of
+humor save that which is common to man. For Mr. Weller's humor is a
+blessing that is not in disguise. It is a pump which needs no priming.
+There is no denying that the humor, the pathos, and the sentiment of
+Dickens are obvious.
+
+All this, according to certain critics, goes to prove that Dickens lacks
+distinction, and that the writing of his novels was a commonplace
+achievement. This judgment seems to me to arise from a confusion of
+thought. The _perception_ of the obvious is a commonplace achievement;
+the _creation_ of the obvious, and making it interesting, is the work of
+genius. There is no intellectual distinction in the enjoyment of "The
+Pickwick Papers"; to write "The Pickwick Papers" would be another
+matter.
+
+It is only in the last quarter of a century that English literature has
+been accepted not as a recreation, but as a subject of serious study.
+Now, the first necessity for a study is that it should be "hard." Some
+of the best brains in the educational world have been enlisted in the
+work of giving a disciplinary value to what was originally an innocent
+pleasure. It is evident that one cannot give marks for the number of
+smiles or tears evoked by a tale of true love. The novel or the play
+that is to hold its own in the curriculum in competition with
+trigonometry must have some knotty problem which causes the harassed
+reader to knit his brows in anxious thought.
+
+In answer to this demand, the literary craftsman has arisen who takes
+his art with a seriousness which makes the "painful preacher" of the
+Puritan time seem a mere pleasure-seeker. Equipped with instruments of
+precision drawn from the psychological laboratory, he is prepared to
+satisfy our craving for the difficult By the method of suggestion he
+tries to make us believe that we have never seen his characters before,
+and sometimes he succeeds. He deals in descriptions which leave us with
+the impression of an indescribable something which we should recognize
+if we were as clever as he is. As we are not nearly so clever, we are
+left with a chastened sense of our inferiority, which is doubtless good
+for us. And all this groping for the un-obvious is connected with an
+equally insistent demand for realism. The novel must not only be as real
+as life, but it must be more so. For life, as it appears in our ordinary
+consciousness, is full of illusions. When these are stripped off and the
+residuum is compressed into a book, we have that which is at once
+intensely real and painfully unfamiliar.
+
+Now, there is a certain justification for this. A psychologist may show
+us aspects of character which we could not see by ourselves, as the
+X-rays will reveal what is not visible to the naked eye. But if the
+insides of things are real, so also are the outsides. Surfaces and forms
+are not without their importance.
+
+It may be said in extenuation of Dickens that the blemish of obviousness
+is one which he shared with the world he lived in. It would be too much
+to say that all realities are obvious. There is a great deal that we do
+not see at the first glance; but there is a great deal that we do see.
+To reproduce the freshness and wonder of the first view of the obvious
+world is one of the greatest achievements of the imagination.
+
+The reason why the literary artist shuns the obvious is that there is
+too much of it. It is too big for the limited resources of his art. In
+the actual world, realities come in big chunks. Nature continually
+repeats herself. She hammers her facts into our heads with a persistency
+which is often more than a match for our stupidity. If we do not
+recognize a fact to-day, it will hit us in the same place to-morrow.
+
+We are so used to this educational method of reiteration that we make it
+a test of reality. An impression made upon us must be repeated before it
+has validity to our reason. If a thing really happened, we argue that it
+will happen again under the same conditions. That is what we mean by
+saying that we are under the reign of law. There is a great family
+resemblance between happenings.
+
+We make acquaintance with people by the same method. The recognition of
+identity depends upon the ability which most persons have of appearing
+to be remarkably like themselves. The reason why we think that the
+person whom we met to-day is the same person we met yesterday is that he
+_seems_ the same. There are obvious resemblances that strike us at once.
+He looks the same, he acts the same, he has the same mannerisms, the
+same kind of voice, and he answers to the same name. If Proteus, with
+the best intention in the world, but with an unlimited variety of
+self-manifestations, were to call every day, we should greet him always
+as a stranger. We should never feel at home with so versatile a person.
+A character must have a certain degree of monotony about it before we
+can trust it. Unexpectedness is an agreeable element in wit, but not in
+friendship. Our friend must be one who can say with honest Joe Gargery,
+"It were understood, and it are understood, and it ever will be similar,
+according."
+
+But in the use of this effective method of reiteration there is a
+difference between nature and a book. Nature does not care whether she
+bores us or not: she has us by the buttonhole, and we cannot get away.
+Not so with a book. When we are bored, we lay it down, and that brings
+the interview to an end. It is from the fear of our impatience that most
+writers abstain from the natural method of producing an impression.
+
+And they are quite right. It is only now and then that an audience will
+grant an extension of time to a speaker in order that he may make his
+point more clear. They would rather miss the point. And it is still more
+rare for the reader to grant a similar extension in order that the
+author may tell again what he has told before. It is much easier to shut
+up a book than to shut up a speaker.
+
+The criticism of Dickens that his characters repeat themselves quite
+misses the mark. As well object to an actor that he frequently responds
+to an encore. If indicted for the offense, he could at least insist that
+the audience be indicted with him as accessory before the fact.
+
+Dickens tells us that when he read at Harrogate, "There was a remarkably
+good fellow of thirty or so who found something so very ludicrous in
+Toots that he could not compose himself at all, but laughed until he sat
+wiping his eyes with his handkerchief, and whenever he felt Toots coming
+again he began to laugh and wipe his eyes afresh."
+
+"Whenever he felt Toots coming again"--there you have the whole
+philosophy of the matter. The young fellow found Toots amusing when he
+first laid eyes on him. He wanted to see him again, and it must always
+be the same Toots.
+
+It is useless to cavil at an author because of the means by which he
+produces his effects. The important thing is that he does produce an
+effect. That the end justifies the means may be a dangerous doctrine in
+ethics, but much may be said for it in literature. The situation is like
+that of a middle-aged gentleman beset by a small boy on a morning just
+right for snowballing. "Give me leave, mister?" cries the youthful
+sharpshooter. The good-natured citizen gives leave by pulling up his
+coat-collar and quickening his pace. If the small boy can hit him, he is
+forgiven, if he cannot hit him, he is scorned. The fact is that Dickens
+with a method as broad and repetitious as that of Nature herself does
+succeed in hitting our fancy. That is, he succeeds nine times out of
+ten.
+
+It is the minor characters of Dickens that are remembered. And we
+remember them for the same reason that we remember certain faces which
+we have seen in a crowd. There is some salient feature or trick of
+manner which first attracts and then holds our attention. A person must
+have some tag by which he is identified, or, so far as we are concerned,
+he becomes one of the innumerable lost articles. There are persons who
+are like umbrellas, very useful, but always liable to be forgotten. The
+memory is an infirm faculty, and must be humored. It often clings to
+mere trifles. The man with the flamboyant necktie whom you saw on the
+8.40 train may also be the author of a volume of exquisite lyrics; but
+you never saw the lyrics, and you did see the necktie. In the scale of
+being, the necktie may be the least important parcel of this good man's
+life, but it is the only thing about him which attracts your attention.
+When you see it day after day at the same hour you feel that you have a
+real, though perhaps not a deep, acquaintance with the man behind it. It
+is thus we habitually perceive the human world. We see things, and infer
+persons to correspond. One peculiarity attracts us. It is not the whole
+man, but it is all of him that is for us. In all this we are very
+Dickensy.
+
+We may read an acute character study and straightway forget the person
+who was so admirably analyzed; but the lady in the yellow curl-papers is
+unforgettable. We really see very little of her, but she is real, and
+she would not be so real without her yellow curl-papers. A
+yellow-curl-paper-less lady in the Great White Horse Inn would be as
+unthinkable to us as a white-plume-less Henry of Navarre at Ivry.
+
+In ecclesiastical art the saints are recognized by their emblems. Why
+should not the sinners have the same means of identification? Dickens
+has the courage to furnish us these necessary aids to recollection.
+Micawber, Mrs. Gummidge, Barkis, Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep, Betsy Trotwood,
+Dick Swiveiler, Mr. Mantalini, Harold Skimpole, Sairey Gamp, always
+appear with their appropriate insignia. We should remember that it is
+for our sakes.
+
+According to the canons of literary art, a fact should be stated clearly
+once and for all. It would be quite proper to mention the fact that
+Silas Wegg had a wooden leg; but this fact having been made plain, why
+should it be referred to again? There is a sufficient reason based on
+sound psychology. If the statement were not repeated, we should forget
+that Mr. Wegg had a wooden leg, and by and by we should forget Silas
+Wegg himself. He would fade away among the host of literary gentlemen
+who are able to read "The Decline and Fall," but who are not able to
+keep themselves out of the pit of oblivion. But when we repeatedly see
+Mr. Wegg as Mr. Boffin saw him, "the literary gentleman _with_ a wooden
+leg," we feel that we really have the pleasure of his acquaintance.
+There is not only perception of him, but what the pedagogical people
+call apperception. Our idea of Mr. Wegg is inseparably connected with
+our antecedent ideas of general woodenness.
+
+Again, we are introduced to "a large, hard-breathing, middle-aged man,
+with a mouth like a fish, dull, staring eyes, and sandy hair standing
+upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had been choked and had
+at that moment come to." This is Mr. Pumblechook. He does not emerge
+slowly like a ship from below the horizon. We see him all at once, eyes,
+mouth, hair, and character to match. It is a case of falling into
+acquaintance at first sight. We are now ready to hear what Mr.
+Pumblechook says and see what he does. We have a reasonable assurance
+that whatever he says and does it will be just like Mr. Pumblechook.
+
+We enter a respectable house in a shady angle adjoining Portman Square.
+We go out to dinner in solemn procession. We admire the preternatural
+solidity of the furniture and the plate. The hostess is a fine woman,
+"with neck and nostrils like a rocking-horse, hard features and majestic
+headdress." Her husband, large and pompous, with little light-colored
+wings "more like hairbrushes than hair" on the sides of his otherwise
+bald head, begins to discourse on the British Constitution. We now know
+as much of Mr. Podsnap as we shall know at the end of the book. But it
+is a real knowledge conveyed by the method that gives dinner-parties
+their educational value. We forgive Dickens his superfluous discourse on
+Podsnappery in general. For his remarks are precisely of the kind which
+we make when the party is over, and we sit by the fire generalizing and
+allegorizing the people we have met.
+
+That Mr. Thomas Gradgrind was unduly addicted to hard facts might have
+been delicately insinuated in the course of two hundred pages. We might
+have felt a mild pleasure in the discovery which we had made, and then
+have gone our way forgetting what manner of man he was. What is
+Gradgrind to us or we to Gradgrind? Dickens introduces him to us in all
+his uncompromising squareness--"square coat, square legs, square
+shoulders, nay, his very neckcloth is trained to take him by the throat
+with an unaccommodating grasp." We are made at once to see "the square
+wall of a forehead which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes
+found commodious cellarage in the two dark caves overshadowed by the
+wall." Having taken all this in at a glance, there is nothing more to be
+done in the development of the character of Mr. Gradgrind. He takes his
+place among the obvious facts of existence. But in so much as we were
+bound to find him out sometime, shall we quarrel with Dickens because we
+were enabled to do so in the first chapter?
+
+Nor do the obvious exaggerations of Dickens arising from the exuberance
+of his fancy interfere with the sense of reality. A truth is not less
+true because it is in large print. We recognize creatures who are
+prodigiously like ourselves, and we laugh at the difference in scale.
+Did not all Lilliput laugh over the discovery of Gulliver? How they
+rambled over the vast expanse of countenance, recognizing each
+feature--lips, cheek, nose, chin, brow. "How very odd," they would say
+to themselves, "and how very like!"
+
+It is to the wholesome obviousness of Dickens that we owe the atmosphere
+of good cheer that surrounds his characters. No writer has pictured more
+scenes of squalid misery, and yet we are not depressed. There is bad
+weather enough, but we are not "under the weather." There are characters
+created to be hated. It is a pleasure to hate them. As to the others,
+whenever their trials and tribulations abate for an instant, they
+relapse into a state of unabashed contentment.
+
+This is unusual in literature, for most literary men are saddest when
+they write. The fact is that happiness is much more easy to experience
+than to describe, as any one may learn in trying to describe a good time
+he has had. One good time is very much like another good time. Moreover,
+we are shy, and dislike to express our enthusiasm. We wouldn't for the
+world have any one know what simple creatures we are and how little it
+takes to make us happy. So we talk critically about a great many things
+we do not care very much about, and complain of the absence of many
+things which we do not really miss. We feel badly about not being
+invited to a party which we don't want to go to.
+
+We are like a horse that has been trained to be a "high-stepper." By
+prancing over imaginary difficulties and shying at imaginary dangers he
+gives an impression of mettlesomeness which is foreign to his native
+disposition.
+
+The story-teller is on the lookout for these eager attitudes. He cannot
+afford to let his characters be too happy. There is a literary value in
+misery that he cannot afford to lose.
+
+That "the course of true love never did run smooth" is an assertion of
+story-tellers rather than of ordinary lovers. The fact is that nothing
+is so easy as falling in love and staying there. It is a very common
+experience, so common that it attracts little attention. The course of
+true love usually runs so smoothly that there is nothing that causes
+remark. It is not an occasion of gossip. Two good-tempered and healthy
+persons are obviously made for each other. They know it, and everybody
+else knows it, and they keep on knowing it, and act, as Joe Gargery
+would say, "similar, according."
+
+The trouble is that the literary man finds that this does not afford
+exciting material for a best seller. So he must invent hazards to make
+the game interesting to the spectators. In a story the course of true
+love must not run smooth or no one would read it. The old-time romancer
+brought his young people through all sorts of misadventures. When all
+the troubles he could think of were over, he left them abruptly at the
+church door, murmuring feebly to the gentle reader, "they were happy
+ever after."
+
+The present-day novelist is offended at this ending. "How absurd!" he
+says. "They are still in the early twenties. The world is all before
+them, and they have time to fall into all sorts of troubles which the
+romanticist has not thought of. Middle age is just as dangerous a period
+as youth, and matrimony has its pitfalls. Let me take up the story and
+tell you how they didn't live happily ever afterwards, but, on the
+contrary, had a cat-and-dog life of it."
+
+Now I would pardon the novelist if he were perfectly honest and were to
+say, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am trying to interest you. I have not the
+skill to make a story of placid happiness interesting. So I will do the
+next best thing. I will tell you a story of a different kind. It is the
+picture of a kind of life that is easier to make readable."
+
+In making such a confession he would be in good company. Even
+Shakespeare, with all his dramatic genius, confessed that he could not
+avoid monotony in his praise of true love. Its ways were ways of
+pleasantness, but did not afford much incentive to originality.
+
+  "Since all alike my songs and praises be
+  To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
+  Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind,
+  Still constant in a wondrous excellence;
+  Therefore my verse to constancy confined,
+  One thing expressing, leaves out difference.
+  'Fair, kind, and true' is all my argument,
+  'Fair, kind, and true' varying to other words;
+  And in this change is my invention spent."
+
+But the novelist, when he takes himself too seriously as the man who is
+to show us "life as it is," is not content to acknowledge his
+limitations. When he pictures a situation in which there is nothing but
+a succession of problems and misunderstandings, he asks us to admire his
+austere faithfulness. Faithful he may be to his Art, as he understands
+it, but he is not faithful to reality, unless he is able to make us see
+ordinary people in the act of enjoying themselves.
+
+The most obvious thing in life is that people are seldom as unhappy as
+their circumstances would lead us to expect. Nobody is happy all the
+time, and if he were, nobody is enough of a genius to make his
+undeviating felicity interesting. But a great many people are happy most
+of the time, and almost everybody has been happy at some time or other.
+It may have been only a momentary experience, but it was very real, and
+he likes to think about it. He is excessively grateful to any one who
+recalls the feeling. The point is that the aggregate of these good times
+makes a considerable amount of cheerfulness.
+
+Dickens does not attempt the impossible literary feat of showing us one
+person who is happy all the time, but he does what is more obvious, he
+makes us see a great many people who have snatches of good cheer in the
+midst of their humdrum lives. He lets us see another obvious fact, that
+happiness is more a matter of temperament than of circumstance. It is
+not given as a reward of merit or as a mark of distinguished
+consideration. There is one perennial fountain of pleasure. Any one can
+have a good time who can _enjoy himself_. Dickens was not above
+celebrating the kind of happiness which comes to the natural man and the
+natural boy through what we call the "creature comforts." He could
+sympathize with the unadulterated self-satisfaction of little Jack
+Horner when
+
+  "He put in his thumb
+  And pulled out a plum,
+  And said, 'What a great boy am I!'"
+
+The finding of the plum was not a matter of world-wide importance, but
+it was a great pleasure for Jack Horner, and he did not care who knew
+it.
+
+What joy Mr. Micawber gets out of his own eloquence! We cannot begrudge
+him this unearned increment. We sympathize, as, "much affected, but
+still intensely enjoying himself, Mr. Micawber folded up his letter and
+handed it with a bow to my aunt as something she might like to keep."
+
+And R. Wilfer, despite his meagre salary, and despite Mrs. Wilfer,
+enjoys himself whenever he gets a chance. When he goes to Greenwich with
+Bella he finds everything as it should be. "Everything was delightful.
+The Park was delightful; the punch was delightful, the dishes of fish
+were delightful; the wine was delightful." If that was not happiness,
+what was it?
+
+Said R. Wilfer: "Supposing a man to go through life, we won't say with a
+companion, but we will say with a tune. Very good. Supposing the tune
+allotted to him was the 'Dead March' in 'Saul.' Well. It would be a very
+suitable tune for particular occasions--none more so--but it would be
+difficult to keep time with it in the ordinary run of domestic
+transactions."
+
+It is a matter of common observation that those who have allotted to
+them the most solemn music do not always keep time with it. In the
+"ordinary run of domestic transactions" they find many little
+alleviations. In the aggregate these amount to a considerable blessing.
+The world may be rough, and many of its ways may be cruel, but for all
+that it is a joyful sensation to be alive, and the more alive we are,
+the better we like it. All of which is very obvious, and it is what we
+want somebody to point out for us again and again.
+
+
+
+
+THE SPOILED CHILDREN OF CIVILIZATION
+
+
+To spoil a child is no easy task, for Nature is all the time working in
+behalf of the childish virtues and veracities, and is gently correcting
+the abnormalities of education. Still it can be done. The secret of it
+is never to let the child alone, and to insist on doing for him all that
+he would otherwise do for himself--and more.
+
+In that "more" lies the spoiling power. The child must be early made
+acquainted with the feeling of satiety. There must be too much of
+everything. If he were left to himself to any extent, this would be an
+unknown experience. For he is a hungry little creature, with a growing
+appetite, and naturally is busy ministering to his own needs. He is
+always doing something for himself, and enjoys the exercise. The little
+egoist, even when he has "no language but a cry," uses that language to
+make known to the world that he wants something and wants it very much.
+As his wants increase, his exertions increase also. Arms and legs,
+fingers and toes, muscles and nerves and busy brain are all at work to
+get something which he desires. He is a mechanic fashioning his little
+world to his own uses. He is a despot who insists on his divine right to
+rule the subservient creatures around him. He is an inventor devising
+ways and means to secure all the ends which he has the wit to see. That
+these great works on which he has set his heart end in self is obvious
+enough, but we forgive him. Altruism will come in its own time.
+
+In natural play a boy will be a horse or a driver. Either occupation
+gives him plenty to do. But the role of an elderly passenger, given a
+softly cushioned seat and deposited respectfully at the journey's end,
+he rejects with violent expressions of scorn. It is ignominious. He will
+be a policeman or robber or judge or executioner, just as the exigencies
+of the game demand. These are honorable positions worthy of one who
+belongs to the party of action. But do not impose upon him by asking him
+to act the part of the respectable citizen who is robbed and who does
+nothing but telephone for the police. He is not fastidious and will take
+up almost anything that is suggested, if it gives him the opportunity of
+exerting himself. The demand for exertion is the irreducible minimum.
+
+Now to spoil all this fine enthusiasm you must arrange everything in
+such a manner that the eager little worker shall find everything done
+before he has time to put his hand to it. There must be no alluring
+possibilities in his tiny universe. The days of creation, when "the sons
+of God shouted for joy," must be passed before he is ushered in. He must
+be presented only with accomplished facts. There must be nothing left
+for him to make or discover. He must be told everything. All his designs
+must be anticipated, by nurses and parents and teachers. They must give
+him whatever good things they can think of before he has time to desire
+them. From the time when elaborate mechanical toys are put into his
+reluctant hands, it is understood that he is to be amused, and need not
+amuse himself His education is arranged for him. His companions are
+chosen for him. There is nothing for him to do, and if there were, there
+is no incentive for him to do it. In the game of life he is never
+allowed to be the horse. It is his fate to be the passenger.
+
+A child is spoiled when he accepts the position into which fond, foolish
+parents thrust him. Being a passenger on what was presumably intended to
+be a pleasure excursion, he begins to find fault as soon as the journey
+becomes a little wearisome. He must find fault, because that is the only
+thing left for him to find. Having no opportunity to exercise his
+creative faculties, he becomes a petulant critic of a world he can
+neither enjoy nor understand. Taking for granted that everything should
+be done for him, he is angry because it is not done better. His
+ready-made world does not please him--why should it? It never occurs to
+him that if he does not like it he should try and make it better.
+
+Unfortunately, the characteristics of the spoiled child do not vanish
+with childhood or even with adolescence. A university training does not
+necessarily transform petulance into ripe wisdom. Literary ability may
+only give fluent expression to a peevish spirit.
+
+Among the innumerable children of an advanced civilization there are
+those who have been spoiled by the petting to which they have been
+subjected. Life has been made so easy for them that when they come upon
+hard places which demand sturdy endurance they break forth into angry
+complaints. They have been given the results of the complicated
+activities of mankind, without having done their share in the common
+tasks. They have not through personal endeavor learned how much
+everything costs. They are not able, therefore, to pay cheerfully for
+any future good. If it is not given to them at once they feel that they
+have a grievance. For friendly cooeperation they are not prepared. They
+must have their own way or they will not play the game. Their fretful
+complaints are like those of the children in the old-time market-places:
+"We have piped unto you and you have not danced, we have mourned unto
+you and you have not lamented."
+
+There is a fashionable attitude of mind among many who pride themselves
+on their acute intellectualism. It manifests itself in a supercilious
+compassion for the efforts and ambitions of the man of action. He, poor
+fellow, is well-meaning, but unilluminated. He is eager and energetic
+because he imagines that he is accomplishing something. If he were a
+serious thinker he would see that all effort is futile. We are here in
+an unintelligible world, a world of mighty forces, moving we know not
+whither. We are subject to passions and impulses which we cannot resist.
+We are never so helpless as when we are in the midst of human affairs.
+We have great words which we utter proudly. We talk of Civilization,
+Christianity, Democracy, and the like. What miserable failures they all
+are. Civilization has failed to produce contentment. It has failed to
+secure perfect justice between man and man, or to satisfy the hungry
+with bread. Christianity after all these centuries of preaching leaves
+mankind as we see it to-day--an armed camp, nation fighting nation,
+class warring against class. The democratic movement about which we hear
+so much is equally unsuccessful. After its brilliant promises it leaves
+us helpless against the passion and stupidity of the mob. Popular
+education adds to the tribulations of society. It rapidly increases the
+number of the discontented. The half-educated are led astray by quacks
+and demagogues who flourish mightily. The higher technical education
+increases that intellectual proletariat which Bismarck saw to be a
+peril. Science, which once was hailed as a deliverer, is now perceived
+to bring only the disillusioning knowledge of our limitations. The
+bankruptcy of Science follows closely upon the bankruptcy of Faith.
+Mechanical inventions, instead of decreasing the friction of life,
+enormously increase it. We are destined to be dragged along by our own
+machines which are to go faster and faster. Philanthropy increases the
+number of the unfit. The advances of medicine are only apparent, while
+statistics show that tuberculosis, a disease of early life, decreases,
+cancer and diseases of later life increase.
+
+As for the general interest in social amelioration, that is the worst
+sign of all. "Coming events cast their shadows before," and we may see
+the shadow of the coming Revolution. Is there any symptom of decadence
+more sure than when the moral temperature suddenly rises above normal?
+Watch the clinical charts of Empire. In the period of national vigor the
+blood is cool. But the time arrives when the period of growth has
+passed. Then a boding sense comes on. The huge frame of the patient is
+feverish. The social conscience is sensitive. All sorts of soft-hearted
+proposals for helping the masses are proposed. The world rulers become
+too tenderhearted for their business. Then comes the end.
+
+Read again the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. How
+admirable were the efforts of the "good emperors," and how futile!
+Consider again the oft-repeated story of the way the humanitarianism of
+Rousseau ushered in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
+
+With such gloomy forebodings do the over-civilized thinkers and writers
+try to discourage the half-civilized and half-educated workers, who are
+trying to make things better. How shall we answer the prophets of ill?
+
+Not by denying the existence of the evils they see, or the possibility
+of the calamities which they fear. What we object to is the mental
+attitude toward the facts that are discovered. The spoiled child, when
+it discovers something not to its liking, exaggerates the evil, and
+indulges its ill-temper.
+
+The well-trained man faces the evil, studies it, measures it, and then
+sets to work. He is well aware that nothing human is perfect, and that
+to accomplish one thing is only to reveal another thing which needs to
+be done. There must be perpetual readjustment, and reconsideration. What
+was done yesterday must be done over again to-day in a somewhat
+different way. But all this does not prove the futility of effort. It
+only proves that the effort must be unceasing, and that it must be more
+and more wisely directed.
+
+He compares, for example, Christianity as an ideal with Christianity as
+an actual achievement. He places in parallel columns the maxims of
+Jesus, and the policies of Christian nations and the actual state of
+Christian churches. The discrepancy is obvious enough. But it does not
+prove that Christianity is a failure; it only proves that its work is
+unfinished.
+
+A political party may adopt a platform filled with excellent proposals
+which if thoroughly carried out would bring in the millennium. But it is
+too much to expect that it would all be accomplished in four years. At
+the end of that period we should not be surprised if the reformers
+should ask for a further extension of time.
+
+The spoiled children of civilization eliminate from their problem the
+one element which is constant and significant--human effort. They forget
+that from the beginning human life has been a tremendous struggle
+against great odds. Nothing has come without labor, no advance has been
+without daring leadership. New fortunes have always had their hazards.
+
+Forgetting all this, and accepting whatever comforts may have come to
+them as their right, they are depressed and discouraged by their vision
+of the future with its dangers and its difficulties. They habitually
+talk of the civilized world as on the brink of some great catastrophe
+which it is impossible to avoid. This gloomy foreboding is looked upon
+as an indication of wisdom.
+
+It should be dismissed, I think, as an indication of childish unreason,
+unworthy of any one who faces realities. It is still true that "the
+morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the
+day is the evil thereof."
+
+The notion that coming events cast shadows before is a superstition. How
+can they? A shadow must be the shadow of something. The only events that
+can cast a shadow are those which have already taken place. Behind them
+is the light of experience, shining upon actualities which intercept its
+rays.
+
+The shadows which affright us are of our own making. They are
+projections into the future of our own experiences. They are sharply
+denned silhouettes, rather than vague omens. When we look at them
+closely we can recognize familiar features. We are dealing with cause
+and effect. What is done foreshadows what remains to be done. Every act
+implies some further acts as its results. When a principle is recognized
+its practical applications must follow. When men begin to reason from
+new premises they are bound to come to new conclusions.
+
+It is evident that in the last half-century enough discoveries have been
+made to keep us busy for a long time. Every scientific advance upsets
+some custom and interferes with some vested interest. You cannot
+discover the truth about tuberculosis without causing a great deal of
+trouble to the owners of unsanitary dwellings. Some of them are widows
+whose little all is invested in this kind of property. The health
+inspectors make life more difficult for them.
+
+Scholarly research among ancient manuscripts is the cause of destructive
+criticism. The scholar with the most peaceable intentions in the world
+disturbs some one's faith. His discovery perhaps involves the
+reconstruction of a whole system of philosophy.
+
+A law is passed. The people are pleased with it, and then forget all
+about it. But by and by a conscientious executive comes into office who
+thinks it his duty to enforce the law. Such accidents are liable to
+happen in the most good-humored democracy. When he tries to enforce it
+there is a burst of angry surprise. He is treated as a revolutionist who
+is attacking the established order. And yet to the moderately
+philosophic observer the making of the law and its enforcement belong to
+the same process. The difficulty is that though united logically they
+are often widely separated chronologically.
+
+The adjustment to a new theory involves changes in practice. But the
+practical man who has usually little interest in new theories is
+surprised and angry when the changes come. He looks upon them as
+arbitrary interferences with his rights.
+
+Even when it is admitted that when considered in a large way the change
+is for the better, the question arises, Who is to pay for it? The
+discussion on this point is bound to be acrimonious, as we are not
+saints and nobody wants to pay more than his share of the costs of
+progress. Even the price of liberty is something which we grumble over.
+
+You have noticed how it is when a new boulevard is laid in any part of
+the city. There is always a dispute between the municipality and the
+abutters. Should the abutters be assessed for betterments or should they
+sue for damages? Usually both actions are instituted. The cost of such
+litigation should be included in the price which the community pays for
+the improvement.
+
+If people always knew what was good for them and acted accordingly, this
+would be a very different world, though not nearly so interesting. But
+we do not know what is good for us till we try; and human life is spent
+in a series of experiments. The experiments are costly, but there is no
+other way of getting results. All that we can say to a person who
+refuses to interest himself in these experiments, or who looks upon all
+experiments as futile which do not turn out as he wished, is that his
+attitude is childish. The great commandment to the worker or thinker
+is,--Thou shalt not sulk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sulking is no more admirable in those of great reputation than it is in
+the nursery. Thackeray declared that, in his opinion, "love is a higher
+intellectual exercise than hate." And looked at as an exercise of mental
+power courage must always be greater than the most highly
+intellectualized form of fear or despair.
+
+I cannot take with perfect seriousness Matthew Arnold's oft-quoted
+lines:--
+
+  "Achilles ponders in his tent,
+  The kings of modern thought are dumb.
+  Silent they are, though not content,
+  And wait to see the future come.
+  They have the grief men had of yore,
+  But they contend and cry no more."
+
+If that is ever the attitude of the best minds, it is only a momentary
+one of which they are quickly ashamed. Achilles sulked in his tent when
+he was pondering not a big problem, but a small grievance. The kings of
+modern thought who are described seem like kings out of a job. We are
+inclined to turn from them to the intellectual monarchs _de facto_. They
+are the ones who take up the hard job which the representatives of the
+old regime give up as hopeless. For when the king has abdicated and
+contends no more--Long live the King!
+
+The real thinkers of any age do not remain long in a blue funk. They
+always find something important to think about. They always point out
+something worth doing. They cannot passively wait to see the future
+come. They are too busy making it.
+
+Matthew Arnold struck a truer note in Rugby Chapel. The true leaders of
+mankind can never be mere intellectualists. There must be a union of
+intellectual and moral energy like that which he recognized in his
+father. To the fainting, dispirited race,--
+
+  "Ye like angels appear,
+  Radiant with ardour divine,
+  Beacons of hope, ye appear!
+  Languor is not in your heart,
+  Weakness is not in your word,
+  Weariness not on your brow;
+  Ye alight in our van: at your voice
+  Panic, despair, flee away."
+
+When those whom we have looked upon as our intellectual leaders grow
+disheartened, we must remember that a lost leader does not necessarily
+mean a lost cause. When those whom we had called the kings of modern
+thought are dumb, we can find new leadership. "Change kings with us,"
+replied an Irish officer after the panic of the Boyne; "change kings
+with us, and we will fight you again."
+
+
+
+
+ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT
+
+_From a Real-Estate Dealer to a Realistic Novelist_
+
+
+Dear Sir:--
+
+I have been for some time interested in your projects for the
+improvement of literature. When I saw your name in the newspapers, I
+looked you up in "Who's Who," and found that your rating is excellent
+What pleased me was the bold way you attacked the old firms which have
+been living on their reputations. The way you showed up Dickens,
+Thackeray & Co. showed that you know a thing or two. As for W. Scott and
+the other speculators who have been preying on the credulity of the
+public, you gave them something to think about. You showed conclusively
+that instead of dealing in hard facts, they have been handing out
+fiction under the guise of novels.
+
+Our minds run in the same channel: you deal in reality and I deal in
+realty, but the principle is the same. I inclose some of the literature
+which I am sending out. You see, I warn people against investing in
+stocks and bonds. These are mere paper securities, which take to
+themselves wings and fly away. But if you can get hold of a few acres of
+dirt, there you are. When a panic comes along, and Wall Street goes to
+smash, you can sit on your front porch in South Canaan without a care.
+You have your little all in something real.
+
+You followed the same line of argumentation. You showed that there was
+nothing imaginative about your work. You could give a warranty deed for
+every fact which you put on the market. I was so pleased with your
+method that I bought a job lot of your books, so that I could see for
+myself how you conducted your business. Will you allow me, as one in the
+same line, to indulge in a little criticism? I am afraid that you are
+making the same mistake I made when I first went into real estate. I was
+so possessed with the idea of the value of land that I became "land
+poor." It strikes me that a novelist may become reality poor in the same
+way; that is, by investing in a great many realities that are not worth
+what he pays for them.
+
+You see, there is a fact which we do not mention in our circulars. There
+is a great deal of land lying out of doors. _Some_ land is in great
+demand, and the real trick is to find out what that land is. You can't
+go out on the plains of Wyoming and give an acre of land the same value
+which an acre has in the Wall Street district. I speak from experience,
+having tried to convince the public that if the acres are real, the
+values I suggested must be real also. People wouldn't believe me, and I
+lost money.
+
+And the same thing is true about improvements. They must be related to
+the market value of the land on which they are placed. A forty-story
+building at Goshenville Corners would be a mistake. There is no call for
+it.
+
+This is the mistake which I fear you have been making. Your novel is a
+carefully prepared structure, and must have cost a great deal, but it is
+built on ground which is not worth enough to justify the investment. It
+has not what we call "site value." You yourself declare that you have no
+particular interest in the characters you describe at such length. All
+that you have to say for them is that they are real. It is as if I were
+to put up an expensive apartment-house on a vacant lot I have at North
+Ovid. North Ovid is real, and so would be the apartment-house; but what
+of it?
+
+There are ninety millions of people in this country, all with characters
+which might be carefully studied, if we had time. But we haven't the
+time. So we have to choose our intimates. We prefer to know those who
+seem to us most worth knowing. You should remember that the novelist has
+no monopoly on realism. The newspapers are full of all sorts of
+realities. The historian is a keen competitor.
+
+Do you know that when I went to the bookstore to get your works I fell
+in with a book on Garibaldi by a man named Trevelyan. When I got home I
+sat down with it and couldn't let it go. Garibaldi was all the time
+doing things, which you never allow your characters to do because you
+think they would not be real. He was acting in the most romantic and
+heroic manner possible. And his Thousand trooped after him as gayly as
+if they were in a melodrama. And yet I understand that Garibaldi was a
+real person, and that his exploits can be authenticated.
+
+The competition in your line of business is fierce. You try to hold the
+reader's attention to the states of mind of a few futile persons who
+never did anything in particular that would make people want to know
+them exhaustively. And then along comes the historian who tells all
+about some one who does things they are interested in.
+
+You can't wonder at the result. People who ought to be interested in
+fiction are carried away by biography, and the chances are that some of
+them will never come back. When they once get a taste for highly spiced
+intellectual victuals, you can't get them to relish the breakfast food
+you set before them. It seems to them insipid.
+
+I know what you will say about Garibaldi. He was not your kind. You
+wouldn't touch such a character if it was offered to you at a bargain.
+After looking over that expedition to Sicily you would say that there
+was nothing in it for you. The motives weren't complicated enough. It
+was just plain heroics. You don't care so much for passions as for
+problems. You want something to analyze.
+
+Well, what do you say to Cavour? When I was deep in Garibaldi I found I
+couldn't understand what he was driving at without knowing something
+about Cavour who was always mixed up with what was going on in that
+section of the world.
+
+So I took up a Life of Cavour by a man named Thayer. It's the way I
+have; one thing suggests another. Once I went up to Duluth and invested
+in some corner lots on Superior Street. That suggested Superior City,
+just across the river. The two towns were running each other down at a
+great rate just then, so I stopped at West Superior to see what it had
+to say for itself. The upshot of the matter was that I sized up the
+situation about like this. A big city has _got_ to grow up at the head
+of Lake Superior. If Duluth grows as much as it thinks it will, it's
+bound to take in Superior. And if Superior grows as much as it thinks it
+will, it can't help taking in Duluth. So I concluded that the best thing
+for me was to take a flier in both.
+
+When I saw what a big proposition the Unification of Italy was, I knew
+that there was room for the development of some mighty interesting
+characters before they got through with the business. So I plunged into
+the Life of Cavour, and I've never regretted it.
+
+Talk about problems! That hero of yours in your last book--I know you
+don't believe in heroes,--at any rate, the leading man--was an innocent
+child walking with his nurse along Easy Street, when compared with
+Cavour. Cavour had fifty problems at the same time, and all of them were
+insoluble to every one except himself.
+
+His project, as I have just told you, was the unification of Italy. But
+he hadn't any regulated monopoly in the business. A whole bunch of
+unifiers were ahead of him; each one of them was trying to unify Italy
+in his own way. They were all working at cross-purposes.
+
+Now Cavour didn't try, as you might have expected, to reconcile these
+people. He saw that it couldn't be done. He didn't mind their hating one
+another; when they got too peaceable he would make an occasion for them
+to hate him. He kept them all irreconcilably at work, till, in spite of
+themselves, they got to working together. And when they began to do
+that, Cavour would encourage them in it. As long as they were all
+working for Italy he didn't care what they thought of each other or of
+him. He had his eye on the main chance--for Italy.
+
+I notice that in your novel, when your man got into trouble he threw up
+the sponge. That rather turned me against him and I wished I hadn't
+wasted so much time on his affairs. That wasn't the way with Thayer's
+hero. One of the largest deals Cavour ever made was with Napoleon III,
+who at that time had the reputation of being the biggest promoter of
+free institutions in Europe. He was a regular wizard in diplomacy.
+Whatever he said went. You see they hadn't realized then that he was
+doing business on borrowed capital.
+
+Well, Napoleon agreed to underwrite, for Cavour, the whole project of
+Italian Unity. Everybody thought it was going through all right, when
+suddenly Napoleon, from a place called Villafranca, wired that the deal
+was off.
+
+That floored Cavour. He was down and out. He couldn't realize ten cents
+on the dollar on his securities. If he had been like your man, Thayer
+would have had to bring his book to an end with that chapter. He would
+have left the reader plunged in gloom.
+
+Cavour was mad for awhile and went up to Switzerland to cool off. Thayer
+describes the way he went up to a friend's house, near Lake Geneva, with
+his coat on his arm. "Unannounced, he strode into the drawing-room,
+threw himself into an easy-chair, and asked for a glass of iced water."
+
+Then he poured out his wrath over the Villafranca incident, but he
+didn't waste much time over that. In a few moments he was
+enthusiastically telling of the new projects he had formed. "We must not
+look back, but forward," he told his friends. "We have followed one
+road. It is blocked. Very well, we will follow another."
+
+That's the kind of man Cavour was. You forgot that he was a European
+statesman. When you saw him with his coat off, drinking ice-water and
+talking about the future, you felt toward him just as you would toward a
+first-rate American who was of Presidential size.
+
+Now, I'm not saying that there's any more realism to the square inch in
+a Life of Cavour than in a Life of Napoleon III. It would take as much
+labor on the part of a biographer to tell what Napoleon III really was
+as to tell what Cavour really was--perhaps more. But you come up against
+the law of supply and demand. You can't get around that. There isn't
+much inquiry for Napoleon, now that his boom is over.
+
+The way Thayer figured it was, I suppose, something like this. It would
+take eight or ten years to assemble the materials for a first-rate
+biography such as he wished to make. If he chose Napoleon there would be
+steady deterioration in the property, and when the improvements were put
+on there would be no demand. If he put the same work on Cavour, he would
+get the unearned increment. I think he showed his sense.
+
+Of course the biographer has the advantage of you in one important
+particular. He knows how his story is coming out In a way, he's betting
+on a certainty. Now you, as I judge, don't know how your story is coming
+out, and if it doesn't come out, all you have to do is to say that is
+the way you meant it to be. You cut off so many square feet of reality,
+and let it go at that. Now that is very convenient for you, but from the
+reader's point of view, it's unsatisfactory. It mixes him up, and he
+feels a grudge against you whenever he thinks how much better he might
+have spent his time than in following a plot that came to nothing. You
+see you are running up against that same law of supply and demand. There
+are so many failures in the world that the market is overstocked with
+them. There is a demand for successes.
+
+When I was in an old house which I took on the foreclosure of a mortgage
+the other day, I came upon a little old novel, of a hundred years ago.
+It was the sentimental kind that you despise. It was called "Alonzo and
+Melissa," which was enough to condemn it in your eyes. But the preface
+seemed to me to have some sense.
+
+The author says: "It is believed that this story contains no indecorous
+stimulants, nor is it filled with inexplicated incidents imperceptible
+to the understanding. When anxieties have been excited by involved and
+doubtful events, they are afterwards elucidated by their consequences.
+In this the writer believes that he has generally copied Nature."
+
+I have a feeling that those inexplicated incidents in your novel might
+have been elucidated by their consequences if you had chosen a person
+whose actions were of the kind to have some important consequences. In
+tying up to an inconsequential person you lost that chance.
+
+I don't mean to discourage you, because I believe you have it in you to
+make a novel that would be as interesting as half the biographies that
+are written. But you must learn a trick from the successful biographers,
+and not invest in second-rate realities. The best is none too good. You
+have to exercise judgment in your initial investment.
+
+Now, if I were going to build a realistic novel, and had as much skill
+in detail as you have, and as much intellectual capital to invest, I
+would go right down to the business centre, so to speak, and invest in a
+really valuable piece of reality; and then I would develop it. The first
+investment might seem pretty steep, but it would pay in the end. If you
+could get a big man, enthusiastic over a big cause, in conflict with big
+forces, and bring in a lot of worth-while people to back him up, and
+then bring the whole thing to some big conclusion, you would have a
+novel that would be as real as the biographies I have been reading, and
+as interesting. I think it would be worth trying.
+
+Respectfully yours,
+
+R.S. LANDMANN.
+
+P.S. If you don't feel that you can afford to make such a heavy
+investment as I have suggested, why don't you put your material into a
+short story?
+
+
+
+
+TO A CITIZEN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
+
+
+Our talk last night set me to thinking. It was the first time during all
+the years of our acquaintance that I had ever heard you speak in a
+discouraged tone. You have always been healthy to a fault, and your
+good-humor has been contagious. Especially has it been pleasant to hear
+you talk about the country and its Manifest Destiny.
+
+I remember, some years ago, how merrily you used to laugh about the
+"calamity-howler," whose habitat at that time was Kansas. The farmers of
+Kansas were not then as prosperous as they are now. When several bad
+years came together they didn't like it, and began to make complaints.
+Their raucous cries you found very amusing.
+
+The calamity-howler, being ignorant of the laws of political economy and
+of the conditions of progress, did not take his calamities in the spirit
+in which they were offered to him by the rest of the country. He did not
+find satisfaction in the thought that other people were prosperous
+though he was not. Instead of acting reasonably and voting the straight
+ticket from motives of party loyalty, he raised all sorts of irrelevant
+issues. He treated Prosperity as if it were a local issue, instead of a
+plank in the National Platform.
+
+Now, all this was opposed to your good-natured philosophy of progress.
+You were eminently practical, and it was a part of your creed never to
+"go behind the returns." As to Prosperity, it was "first come, first
+served." In this land of opportunity the person who first sees an
+opportunity should take it, asking no questions as to why he came by it.
+It is his by right of discovery.
+
+You were always a great believer in the good old American doctrine of
+Manifest Destiny. This was a big country and destined to grow bigger. To
+you bigness was its own excuse for being. Optimism was as natural as
+breathing. It was manifest destiny that cities and corporations and
+locomotives and armies and navies and national debts and daily
+newspapers, with their Sunday supplements, and bank clearances and
+tariffs and insurance companies and the price of living should go up. It
+was all according to a beautiful natural law, "as fire ascending seeks
+the sun." Besides these things, it was manifest destiny that other
+things not so good should grow bigger also,--graft and slums and foolish
+luxury. They were all involved in the increasing bigness of things.
+
+Sometimes you would grumble about them, but in a good-natured way, as
+one who recognized their inevitability. Just as you said, boys will be
+boys, so you said, politicians will be politicians, and business is
+business. If one is living in a growing country he must not begrudge the
+cost of the incidentals.
+
+In your talk there was a cheerful cynicism which amazed the
+slower-witted foreigner. You talked of the pickings and stealings of
+your elected officers as you would of the pranks of a precocious
+youngster. It was all a part of the day's growth. Yet you were really
+public-spirited. You would have sprung to arms in a moment if you had
+thought that your country was in danger or that its institutions were
+being undermined.
+
+Your good-natured tolerance was a part of your philosophy of life. It
+was bound up in your triumphant Americanism. You were a hero-worshipper,
+and you delighted in "big men." The big men who gained the prizes were
+efficient and unscrupulous and unassuming; that is, they never assumed
+to be better than their neighbors. They looked ahead, they saw how
+things were going, and went with them. And on the whole, things, you
+believed, were going well. Though they were not scrupulously just, these
+big men were generous, and were willing to give away what they had
+acquired. Though grasping, they were not avaricious. They grasped things
+with the strong prehensile grasp of the infant, rather than with the
+clutch of the miser. They took them because they were there, and not
+because they had any well-defined idea as to whether they belonged to
+them or not.
+
+These big men were very likable. They were engrossed in big projects,
+and they were doing necessary work in the development of the country.
+They naturally took the easiest and most direct methods to get at
+results. They would not go out of the way to corrupt a legislature any
+more than they would go out of the way to find a range of mountains. But
+if the mountain stood in the way of the railroad, they would go through
+it regardless of expense. If the legislature was in their way, they
+would deal with it as best they could. They were willing to pay what it
+cost to accomplish a purpose which they believed was good.
+
+Their attitude toward the Public was one which you did not criticize,
+for it seemed to you to be reasonable. The Public was an abstraction,
+like Nature. We are all under the laws of Nature. But Nature doesn't
+mind whether we consciously obey or not. She goes her way, and we go
+ours. We get all she will let us have. So with the Public. The Public
+was not regarded as a person or as an aggregate of persons, it was the
+potentiality of wealth. They never thought of the Public as being
+starved or stunted, or even as being seriously inconvenienced because of
+what they took from it, any more than they thought of Nature being the
+poorer because of the electricity which they induced to run along their
+wires. A public franchise was a plum growing on a convenient tree. A
+wise man would wait till it was ripe and then, when no one was looking,
+would pick it for himself The whole transaction was a trial of wits
+between rival pickers. A special privilege, according to this view,
+involved no special obligations; it was a reward for special abilities.
+Once given, it was property to be enjoyed in perpetuity.
+
+This was the code of ethics which you, in common with multitudes of
+American citizens, accepted. You have yourself prospered. Indeed, things
+had gone so well with you in this best of all countries that any
+fundamental change seemed unthinkable.
+
+But that a change has come seems evident from your conversation last
+night. All that fine optimism which your friends have admired seemed to
+have deserted you. There was a querulous note which was strangely out of
+keeping with your usual disposition. It was what you have been
+accustomed to stigmatize as un-American. When you discussed the present
+state of the country, you talked--you will pardon me for saying it--for
+all the world like a calamity-howler.
+
+The country, you said, is in a bad way, and it must be awakened from its
+lethargy. After a period of unexampled prosperity and marvelous
+development, something has happened. Just what it is you don't really
+know, but it's very alarming. Instead of working together for
+Prosperity, the people are listening to demagogues, and trying all sorts
+of experiments, half of which you are sure are unconstitutional. The
+captains of industry who have made this the biggest country in the world
+are thwarted in their plans for further expansion.
+
+There are people who are criticizing the courts, and there are courts
+which are criticizing business enterprises that they don't understand.
+There are so-called experts--mere college professors--who are tinkering
+the tariff. There are over-zealous executives who are currying favor
+with the crowd by enforcing laws which are well enough on the statute
+books, but which were never meant to go further. As if matters were not
+bad enough already, there are demagogues who are stirring up class
+feeling by proposing new laws. Party loyalty is being undermined, and
+the new generation doesn't half understand the great issues which have
+been settled for all time. It is rashly interested in new issues. For
+the life of you, you say, you can't understand what these issues are.
+
+New and divisive questions which lead only to faction are propounded so
+that the voters are confused. The great principle of Representative
+Government, on which the Republic was founded, is being attacked.
+Instead of choosing experienced men to direct public policy, there is an
+appeal to the passions of the mob. The result of all this agitation is
+an unsettlement that paralyzes business. The United States is in danger
+of losing the race for commercial supremacy. Germany will forge ahead of
+us. Japan will catch us. Socialism and the Yellow Peril will be upon us.
+The Man on Horseback will appear, and what shall we do then?
+
+I did not understand whether you looked for these perils to come
+together, or whether they were to appear in orderly succession. But I
+came to the conclusion that either the country is in a bad way, or you
+are. You will pardon me if I choose the latter alternative, for I too am
+an optimistic American, and I like to choose the lesser of two evils. If
+there is an attack of "hysteria," I should like to think of it as
+somewhat localized, rather than having suddenly attacked the whole
+country.
+
+Now, my opinion is that the American people were never minding their own
+business more good-humoredly and imperturbably than at the present
+moment. They have been slowly and silently making up their minds, and
+now they are beginning to express a deliberate judgment. What you take
+to be the noise of demagogues, I consider to be the sober sense of a
+great people which is just finding adequate expression.
+
+You seem to be afraid of an impending revolution, and picture it as a
+sort of French Revolution, a destructive overturn of all existing
+institutions. But may not the revolution which we are passing through be
+something different,--a great American revolution, which is being
+carried through in the characteristic American fashion?
+
+Walt Whitman expresses the great characteristic of American history:
+"Here is what moves in magnificent masses careless of particulars."
+
+It is this mass movement, slow at first, but swift and irresistible when
+the mass has come to consciousness of its own tendency, which has always
+confounded astute persons who have been interested only in particulars.
+It is a movement like that of the Mississippi at flood-time. The great
+river flows within its banks as long as it can. But the time comes when
+the barriers are too frail to hold back the mighty waters. Then the
+river makes, very quickly, a channel for itself. You cannot understand
+what has happened till you take into account the magnitude of the river
+itself.
+
+Now, the successful man of affairs, who has been intent on the incidents
+of the passing day, is often strangely oblivious of the mass movements.
+You, for example, are disturbed by the unrest which is manifest, and you
+look for some one whom you can blame for the disturbance. But perhaps no
+one is to blame.
+
+I think that what is happening may be traced to a sufficient cause. We
+are approaching the end of one great era in American history and we are
+preparing, as best we may, for a new era. The consciousness of the
+magnitude of the change has come to us rather suddenly. One big job
+which has absorbed the energies and stimulated the ambition of Americans
+for three hundred years is practically finished. Some work still remains
+to be done on it, but it no longer demands the highest ability. The end
+is in sight.
+
+This work has been the settlement of a vast territory, lying between the
+Atlantic and Pacific, with a population of white men. It was a task so
+big in itself that it fired the imagination and developed that peculiar
+type of character which we call American. In its outlines the task was
+so broad and simple that it could be comprehended by the most ordinary
+intelligence. It was so inevitable that it impressed upon all those
+engaged in it the belief in Manifest Destiny.
+
+What has been treated by incompetent critics as mere boastfulness has
+in reality been practical sagacity and foresight. Sam Slick was only
+expressing a truth when he said, "The Yankees see further than most
+folks." This was not because of any innate cleverness but because of
+their advantage in position. Americans have had a more unobstructed view
+of the future than had the people of the overcrowded Old World. The
+settlers on the shores of the Atlantic had behind them a region which
+belonged to them and their children. They soon became aware of the
+riches of this hinterland and of its meaning for the future. This vast
+region must be settled. Roads must be built over the mountains, the
+forests must be felled, mines must be opened up, farms must be brought
+under the plow, great cities must be built by the rivers and lakes,
+there must be schools and churches and markets established where now the
+tribes of Indians roam. The surplus millions of Europe must be
+transported to this wilderness.
+
+It was a big task and yet a simple one. The movement was as obvious as
+that of Niagara--Niagara is wonderful but inevitable. A great deal of
+water flowing over a great deal of rock, that is all there is of it. The
+destiny of America was equally obvious from the beginning. Here was a
+great deal of land which was destined to be inhabited by a great many
+people. It didn't matter very much what kind of people they were so that
+they were healthy and industrious. The greatness of the country was
+assured if only there were enough of them.
+
+From the very first the future greatness of the land was seen by
+open-eyed explorers. They all were able to appreciate it. Captain John
+Smith does not compare Virginia with Great Britain; he compares it to
+the whole of Europe. After mentioning the natural resources of each
+country, he declares that the new land had all these and more, and
+needed only men to develop them. And Captain John Smith's forecast has
+proved to be correct.
+
+In the first half of the last century, a party of twenty young men from
+Cambridge, Massachusetts, started on what at that time was a great
+adventure, the overland journey to Oregon. The preface to Wyeth's
+"Oregon Expedition" throws light on the ideas of those who were not
+statesmen or captains of industry, but only plain American citizens
+sharing the vision which was common.
+
+"The spot where our adventurer was born and grew up had many peculiar
+and desirable advantages over most others in the County of Middlesex.
+Besides rich pasturage, numerous dairies, and profitable orchards, it
+possessed the luxuries of well-cultivated gardens of all sorts of
+culinary vegetables, and all within three miles of Boston Market House,
+and two miles of the largest live-cattle market in New England." Besides
+these blessings there is enumerated "a body of water commonly called
+Fresh Pond."
+
+"But Mr. Wyeth said, 'All this availeth me nothing, so long as I read
+books in which I find that by going only about four thousand miles
+overland, from the shore of our Atlantic to the shore of the Pacific,
+after we have there entrapped and killed the beavers and otters, we
+shall be able, after building vessels for the purpose, to carry our most
+valuable peltry to China and Cochin China, our sealskins to Japan, and
+our superfluous grain to various Asiatic ports, and lumber to the
+Spanish settlements on the Pacific; and to become rich by underworking
+and underselling the people of Hindustan; and, to crown all, to extend
+far and wide the traffic in oil, by killing tame whales on the spot,
+instead of sailing around the stormy region of Cape Horn.'
+
+"All these advantages and more were suggested to divers discontented and
+impatient young men. Talk to them of the great labor, toil, risk, and
+they would turn a deaf ear to you; argue with them and you might as well
+reason with a snowstorm."
+
+If you would understand the driving power of America, you must
+understand "the divers discontented and impatient young men" who in each
+generation have found in the American wilderness an outlet for their
+energies. In the rough contacts with untamed Nature they learned to be
+resourceful. Emerson declared that the country went on most
+satisfactorily, not when it was in the hands of the respectable Whigs,
+but when in the hands of "these rough riders--legislators in
+shirt-sleeves--Hoosier, Sucker, Wolverine, Badger--or whatever hard-head
+Arkansas, Oregon, or Utah sends, half-orator, half-assassin, to
+represent its wrath and cupidity at Washington."
+
+The men who made America had an "excess of virility." "Men of this
+surcharge of arterial blood cannot live on nuts, herb-tea, and elegies;
+cannot read novels and play whist; cannot satisfy all their wants at the
+Thursday Lecture and the Boston Athenaeum. They pine for adventure and
+must go to Pike's Peak; had rather die by the hatchet of the Pawnee than
+sit all day and every day at the counting-room desk. They are made for
+war, for the sea, for mining, hunting, and clearing, and the joy of
+eventful living."
+
+In Emerson's day there was ample scope for all these varied energies on
+the frontier. "There are Oregons, Californias, and Exploring Expeditions
+enough appertaining to America to find them in files to gnaw and
+crocodiles to eat."
+
+But it must have occurred to some one to ask, "What will happen when the
+Oregons and Californias are filled up?" Well, the answer is, "See what
+is happening now." Instead of settling down to herb-tea and elegies,
+Young America, having finished one big job, is looking for another. The
+noises which disturb you are not the cries of an angry proletariat, but
+are the shouts of eager young fellows who are finding new opportunities.
+They have the same desire to do big things, the same joy in eventful
+living, that you had thirty years ago. Only the tasks that challenge
+them have taken a different form.
+
+When you hear the words "Conservation," "Social Service," "Social
+Justice," and the like, you are apt to dismiss them as mere fads. You
+think of the catchwords of ineffective reformers whom you have known
+from your youth. But the fact is that they represent to-day the
+enthusiasms of a new generation. They are big things, with big men
+behind them. They represent the Oregons and Californias toward which
+sturdy pioneers are moving, undeterred by obstacles.
+
+The live questions to-day concern not the material so much as the moral
+development of the nation. For it is seen that the future welfare of the
+people depends on the creation of a finer type of civic life. Is this
+still to be a land of opportunity? Ninety millions of people are already
+here. What shall be done with the next ninety millions? That wealth is
+to increase goes without saying. But how is it to be distributed? Are we
+tending to a Plutocracy, or can a real Democracy hold its own? Powerful
+machinery has been invented. How can this machinery be controlled and
+used for truly human ends? We have learned the economies that result
+from organization. Who is to get the benefit of these economies?
+
+So long as such questions were merely academic, practical persons like
+yourself paid little attention to them. Now they are being asked by
+persons as practical as yourself who are intent on 'getting results.'
+And what is more, they employ the instruments of precision furnished by
+modern science.
+
+You have been pleased over the millions of dollars which have been
+lavished on education. The fruits of this are now being seen. Hosts of
+able young men have been studying Government and Sociology and Economics
+and History. These have been the most popular courses in all our
+colleges. And they have been studied in a new way. The old formulas and
+the old methods have been fearlessly criticized. New standards of
+efficiency have been presented. The scientific method has been extended
+to the sphere of moral relations. It has been demonstrated to these
+young men that the resources of the country may be indefinitely
+increased by the continuous application of trained intelligence to
+definite ends. The old Malthusian doctrine has given way before applied
+science. The population may be doubled and the standard of living
+increased at the same time, if we plan intelligently. The expert can
+serve the public as efficiently as he has served private interests, if
+only the public can be educated to appreciate him, and persuaded to
+employ him.
+
+This is what the "social unrest" means in America. It is not the unrest
+of the weak and the unsuccessful. It is the unrest of the strong and
+ambitious. You cannot still it by talking about prosperity: of course we
+are prosperous, after a fashion, but it is a fashion that no longer
+pleases us. We want something better and we propose to get it. What
+disturbs you is the appearance in force of a generation that has turned
+its attention to a new set of problems, and is attempting to solve them
+by scientific methods. It is believed that there is a Science of
+Government as well as an Art of Politics. The new generation has a
+respect, born of experience, for the expert. It seeks the man who knows
+rather than the clever manager. It demands of public servants not simply
+that they be honest, but that they be efficient.
+
+Its attitude to the political boss is decidedly less respectful than
+that to which you were accustomed. You looked upon him as a remarkably
+astute character, and you attributed to him an uncanny ability to
+forecast the future. These young men have discovered that his ability is
+only a vulgar error. Remove the conditions created by public
+indifference and ignorance, and he vanishes. In restoring power to the
+people, they find that a hundred useful things can be done which the
+political wiseacres declared to be impossible.
+
+When I consider the new and vigorous forces in American life I cannot
+agree with your apprehensions; but there is one thing which you said
+with which I heartily agree. You said that you wished we might settle
+down to sound and constructive work, and get rid of the "muck-raker."
+
+I agree with you that the muck-raker stands in the way of large plans
+for betterment. But it might be well to refresh our minds in regard to
+what is really meant by the man with the muck-rake. He is not the man
+who draws our attention to abuses which can be abolished by determined
+effort. He is the man who apologizes for abuses that are profitable to
+himself. He prefers his petty interests to any ideal good. His character
+was most admirably drawn by Bunyan:--
+
+"The Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room
+where was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck-rake
+in his hand. There stood also one over his head with a celestial crown
+in His hand, and proffered him that crown for his muck-rake, but the man
+did neither look up nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the
+small sticks, and the dust of the floor.
+
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'I persuade myself that I know somewhat the
+meaning of this; for this is the figure of a man of this world, is it
+not, good sir?'
+
+"'Thou hast said right,' said he....
+
+"'Then,' said Christiana, 'O deliver me from this muck-rake.'
+
+"'That prayer,' said the Interpreter, 'has lain by till it is almost
+rusty. "Give me not riches," is scarce the prayer of one in ten
+thousand.'"
+
+The man with the muck-rake, then, is one who can look no way but
+downward, and is so intent on collecting riches for himself that he does
+not see or regard any higher interests. I agree with you that if we are
+to have any constructive work in American society the first thing is to
+get rid of the man with the muck-rake, and to put in his place the Man
+with a Vision.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
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+THE CORNER OF HARLEY STREET
+
+Being some familiar correspondence of PETER HARDING, M.D.
+
+"A fair criticism, a complete defence, and some high praise of the
+doctoring trade."--_London Punch_.
+
+"The book is ripe, well written, thoughtful, piquant and highly human.
+A thread of romance runs happily through it."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald._
+
+"There is nothing upon which the genial Dr. Harding has not something
+to say that is worth listening to."--_-London Daily Mail_,
+"The publishers of 'The Corner of Harley Street' are really justified
+in comparing these critical papers with Dr. Holmes' 'The Autocrat of
+the Breakfast Table'.... They are charmingly discursive, often witty,
+and always full of a genial sympathy with humanity and the significant
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+likewise of rhetorical skill."--_Stone and Webster Public Service
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+
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+       *       *       *       *       *
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+
+ROUTINE AND IDEALS
+
+BY LE BARON R. BRIGGS, _President of Radcliffe College_.
+
+16mo, $1.00, _net_. Postage 9 cents.
+
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+as he ought now to be called, President, Briggs says or writes. The
+genius of sanity, sound judgment, and high aim seems to preside over
+his thought, and he combines in an unusual degree the faculty of
+vision and the power of dealing with real things in a real way."--_The
+Outlook_, New York.
+
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+
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+
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