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diff --git a/15866.txt b/15866.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2502a05 --- /dev/null +++ b/15866.txt @@ -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 + + + + + +The Riverside Press + +CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS + +U.S.A. + + * * * * * + + +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 +facts of life."--_The Outlook._ + +$1.25 _net_. Postage 11 cents. + + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + + * * * * * + + +PEOPLE OF POPHAM + +By MARY C.E. 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