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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15947-0.txt b/15947-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf99ed6 --- /dev/null +++ b/15947-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3567 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of England, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pleasures of England + Lectures given in Oxford + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: May 30, 2005 [EBook #15947] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + +THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND. + +LECTURES GIVEN IN OXFORD. + +BY + +JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L., LL.D., + +HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF +CORPUS-CHRISTI COLLEGE. + +DURING HIS + +_SECOND TENURE OF THE SLADE PROFESSORSHIP._ + + + +NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY AND SONS. 1888. + + * * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. _Bertha to Osburga_ 5 + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. _Alfred to the Confessor_ 31 + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. _Alfred to CÅ“ur de Lion_ 61 + + +LECTURE IV. + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. _CÅ“ur de Lion to Elizabeth_ 91 + + * * * * * + + + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. + +_BERTHA TO OSBURGA._ + + +In the short review of the present state of English Art, given you +last year, I left necessarily many points untouched, and others +unexplained. The seventh lecture, which I did not think it necessary +to read aloud, furnished you with some of the corrective statements +of which, whether spoken or not, it was extremely desirable that you +should estimate the balancing weight. These I propose in the present +course farther to illustrate, and to arrive with you at, I hope, +a just--you would not wish it to be a flattering--estimate of the +conditions of our English artistic life, past and present, in order +that with due allowance for them we may determine, with some security, +what those of us who have faculty ought to do, and those who have +sensibility, to admire. + +2. In thus rightly doing and feeling, you will find summed a wider +duty, and granted a greater power, than the moral philosophy at this +moment current with you has ever conceived; and a prospect opened to +you besides, of such a Future for England as you may both hopefully +and proudly labour for with your hands, and those of you who are +spared to the ordinary term of human life, even see with your eyes, +when all this tumult of vain avarice and idle pleasure, into which +you have been plunged at birth, shall have passed into its appointed +perdition. + +3. I wish that you would read for introduction to the lectures I have +this year arranged for you, that on the Future of England, which I +gave to the cadets at Woolwich in the first year of my Professorship +here, 1869; and which is now placed as the main conclusion of the +"Crown of Wild Olive": and with it, very attentively, the close of +my inaugural lecture given here; for the matter, no less than the +tenor of which, I was reproved by all my friends, as irrelevant and +ill-judged;--which, nevertheless, is of all the pieces of teaching I +have ever given from this chair, the most pregnant and essential to +whatever studies, whether of Art or Science, you may pursue, in this +place or elsewhere, during your lives. + +The opening words of that passage I will take leave to read to you +again,--for they must still be the ground of whatever help I can give +you, worth your acceptance. + +"There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race: +a race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. +We have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +finally betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in +an inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years +of noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice; so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years +we have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity +which has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. + +"One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be no king in +it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his own +eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon and +Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle; for all the world a source +of light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions--faithful servant of time-tried principles, +under temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and +amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped +in her strange valour, of goodwill towards men?" + +The fifteen years that have passed since I spoke these words must, I +think, have convinced some of my immediate hearers that the need for +such an appeal was more pressing than they then imagined;--while they +have also more and more convinced me myself that the ground I took +for it was secure, and that the youths and girls now entering on the +duties of active life are able to accept and fulfil the hope I then +held out to them. + +In which assurance I ask them to-day to begin the examination with +me, very earnestly, of the question laid before you in that seventh +of my last year's lectures, whether London, as it is now, be indeed +the natural, and therefore the heaven-appointed outgrowth of the +inhabitation, these 1800 years, of the valley of the Thames by a +progressively instructed and disciplined people; or if not, in what +measure and manner the aspect and spirit of the great city may be +possibly altered by your acts and thoughts. + +In my introduction to the Economist of Xenophon I said that every +fairly educated European boy or girl ought to learn the history of +five cities,--Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, and London; that of +London including, or at least compelling in parallel study, knowledge +also of the history of Paris. + +A few words are enough to explain the reasons for this choice. The +history of Athens, rightly told, includes all that need be known of +Greek religion and arts; that of Rome, the victory of Christianity +over Paganism; those of Venice and Florence sum the essential facts +respecting the Christian arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Music; +and that of London, in her sisterhood with Paris, the development of +Christian Chivalry and Philosophy, with their exponent art of Gothic +architecture. + +Without the presumption of forming a distinct design, I yet hoped at +the time when this division of study was suggested, with the help of +my pupils, to give the outlines of their several histories during +my work in Oxford. Variously disappointed and arrested, alike by +difficulties of investigation and failure of strength, I may yet hope +to lay down for you, beginning with your own metropolis, some of the +lines of thought in following out which such a task might be most +effectively accomplished. + +You observe that I speak of architecture as the chief exponent of +the feelings both of the French and English races. Together with +it, however, most important evidence of character is given by the +illumination of manuscripts, and by some forms of jewellery and +metallurgy: and my purpose in this course of lectures is to illustrate +by all these arts the phases of national character which it is +impossible that historians should estimate, or even observe, with +accuracy, unless they are cognizant of excellence in the aforesaid +modes of structural and ornamental craftsmanship. + +In one respect, as indicated by the title chosen for this course, I +have varied the treatment of their subject from that adopted in all +my former books. Hitherto, I have always endeavoured to illustrate the +personal temper and skill of the artist; holding the wishes or taste +of his spectators at small account, and saying of Turner you ought to +like him, and of Salvator, you ought not, etc., etc., without in the +least considering what the genius or instinct of the spectator might +otherwise demand, or approve. But in the now attempted sketch of +Christian history, I have approached every question from the people's +side, and examined the nature, not of the special faculties by which +the work was produced, but of the general instinct by which it was +asked for, and enjoyed. Therefore I thought the proper heading for +these papers should represent them as descriptive of the _Pleasures_ +of England, rather than of its _Arts_. + +And of these pleasures, necessarily, the leading one was that of +Learning, in the sense of receiving instruction;--a pleasure totally +separate from that of finding out things for yourself,--and an +extremely sweet and sacred pleasure, when you know how to seek it, and +receive. + +On which I am the more disposed, and even compelled, here to insist, +because your modern ideas of Development imply that you must all +turn out what you are to be, and find out what you are to know, for +yourselves, by the inevitable operation of your anterior affinities +and inner consciences:--whereas the old idea of education was that the +baby material of you, however accidentally or inevitably born, was +at least to be by external force, and ancestral knowledge, bred; and +treated by its Fathers and Tutors as a plastic vase, to be shaped or +mannered as _they_ chose, not as _it_ chose, and filled, when its form +was well finished and baked, with sweetness of sound doctrine, as with +Hybla honey, or Arabian spikenard. + +Without debating how far these two modes of acquiring +knowledge--finding out, and being told--may severally be good, and +in perfect instruction combined, I have to point out to you that, +broadly, Athens, Rome, and Florence are self-taught, and internally +developed; while all the Gothic races, without any exception, but +especially those of London and Paris, are afterwards taught by these; +and had, therefore, when they chose to accept it, the delight of being +instructed, without trouble or doubt, as fast as they could read or +imitate; and brought forward to the point where their own northern +instincts might wholesomely superimpose or graft some national ideas +upon these sound instructions. Read over what I said on this subject +in the third of my lectures last year (page 79), and simplify that +already brief statement further, by fastening in your mind Carlyle's +general symbol of the best attainments of northern religious +sculpture,--"three whalecubs combined by boiling," and reflecting that +the mental history of all northern European art is the modification +of that graceful type, under the orders of the Athena of Homer and +Phidias. + +And this being quite indisputably the broad fact of the matter, I +greatly marvel that your historians never, so far as I have read, +think of proposing to you the question--what you might have made +of yourselves _without_ the help of Homer and Phidias: what sort of +beings the Saxon and the Celt, the Frank and the Dane, might have been +by this time, untouched by the spear of Pallas, unruled by the rod of +Agricola, and sincerely the native growth, pure of root, and ungrafted +in fruit of the clay of Isis, rock of Dovrefeldt, and sands of Elbe? +Think of it, and think chiefly what form the ideas, and images, +of your natural religion might probably have taken, if no Roman +missionary had ever passed the Alps in charity, and no English king in +pilgrimage. + +I have been of late indebted more than I can express to the friend who +has honoured me by the dedication of his recently published lectures +on 'Older England;' and whose eager enthusiasm and far collected +learning have enabled me for the first time to assign their just +meaning and value to the ritual and imagery of Saxon devotion. But +while every page of Mr. Hodgett's book, and, I may gratefully say +also, every sentence of his teaching, has increased and justified the +respect in which I have always been by my own feeling disposed to +hold the mythologies founded on the love and knowledge of the natural +world, I have also been led by them to conceive, far more forcibly +than hitherto, the power which the story of Christianity possessed, +first heard through the wreaths of that cloudy superstition, in the +substitution, for its vaporescent allegory, of a positive and literal +account of a real Creation, and an instantly present, omnipresent, and +compassionate God. + +Observe, there is no question whatever in examining this influence, +how far Christianity itself is true, or the transcendental doctrines +of it intelligible. Those who brought you the story of it believed it +with all their souls to be true,--and the effect of it on the hearts +of your ancestors was that of an unquestionable, infinitely lucid +message straight from God, doing away with all difficulties, grief, +and fears for those who willingly received it, nor by any, except +wilfully and obstinately vile persons, to be, by any possibility, +denied or refused. + +And it was precisely, observe, the vivacity and joy with which the +main fact of Christ's life was accepted which gave the force and wrath +to the controversies instantly arising about its nature. + +Those controversies vexed and shook, but never undermined, the faith +they strove to purify, and the miraculous presence, errorless precept, +and loving promises of their Lord were alike undoubted, alike rejoiced +in, by every nation that heard the word of Apostles. The Pelagian's +assertion that immortality could be won by man's will, and the +Arian's that Christ possessed no more than man's nature, never for +an instant--or in any country--hindered the advance of the moral law +and intellectual hope of Christianity. Far the contrary; the British +heresy concerning Free Will, though it brought bishop after bishop +into England to extinguish it, remained an extremely healthy and +active element in the British mind down to the days of John Bunyan +and the guide Great Heart, and the calmly Christian justice and simple +human virtue of Theodoric were the very roots and first burgeons +of the regeneration of Italy.[1] But of the degrees in which it was +possible for any barbarous nation to receive during the first five +centuries, either the spiritual power of Christianity itself, or +the instruction in classic art and science which accompanied it, you +cannot rightly judge, without taking the pains, and they will not, I +think, be irksome, of noticing carefully, and fixing permanently in +your minds, the separating characteristics of the greater races, both +in those who learned and those who taught. + +[Footnote 1: Gibbon, in his 37th chapter, makes Ulphilas also an +Arian, but might have forborne, with grace, his own definition of +orthodoxy:--and you are to observe generally that at this time the +teachers who admitted the inferiority of Christ to the Father as +touching his Manhood, were often counted among Arians, but quite +falsely. Christ's own words, "My Father is greater than I," end that +controversy at once. Arianism consists not in asserting the subjection +of the Son to the Father, but in denying the subjected Divinity.] + +Of the Huns and Vandals we need not speak. They are merely forms of +Punishment and Destruction. Put them out of your minds altogether, and +remember only the names of the immortal nations, which abide on their +native rocks, and plough their unconquered plains, at this hour. + +Briefly, in the north,--Briton, Norman, Frank, Saxon, Ostrogoth, +Lombard; briefly, in the south,--Tuscan, Roman, Greek, Syrian, +Egyptian, Arabian. + +Now of these races, the British (I avoid the word Celtic, because you +would expect me to say Keltic; and I don't mean to, lest you should +be wanting me next to call the patroness of music St. Kekilia), the +British, including Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scot, and Pict, are, +I believe, of all the northern races, the one which has deepest love +of external nature;--and the richest inherent gift of pure music and +song, as such; separated from the intellectual gift which raises song +into poetry. They are naturally also religious, and for some centuries +after their own conversion are one of the chief evangelizing powers +in Christendom. But they are neither apprehensive nor receptive;--they +cannot understand the classic races, and learn scarcely anything from +them; perhaps better so, if the classic races had been more careful to +understand _them_. + +Next, the Norman is scarcely more apprehensive than the Celt, but he +is more constructive, and uses to good advantage what he learns from +the Frank. His main characteristic is an energy, which never exhausts +itself in vain anger, desire, or sorrow, but abides and rules, like a +living rock:--where he wanders, he flows like lava, and congeals like +granite. + +Next, I take in this first sketch the Saxon and Frank together, both +pre-eminently apprehensive, both docile exceedingly, imaginative in +the highest, but in life active more than pensive, eager in desire, +swift of invention, keenly sensitive to animal beauty, but with +difficulty rational, and rarely, for the future, wise. Under the +conclusive name of Ostrogoth, you may class whatever tribes are native +to Central Germany, and develope themselves, as time goes on, into +that power of the German Cæsars which still asserts itself as an +empire against the licence and insolence of modern republicanism,--of +which races, though this general name, no description can be given in +rapid terms. + +And lastly, the Lombards, who, at the time we have to deal with, were +sternly indocile, gloomily imaginative,--of almost Norman energy, +and differing from all the other western nations chiefly in this +notable particular, that while the Celt is capable of bright wit and +happy play, and the Norman, Saxon, and Frank all alike delight in +caricature, the Lombards, like the Arabians, never jest. + +These, briefly, are the six barbaric nations who are to be taught: and +of whose native arts and faculties, before they receive any tutorship +from the south, I find no well-sifted account in any history:--but +thus much of them, collecting your own thoughts and knowledge, you +may easily discern--they were all, with the exception of the Scots, +practical workers and builders in wood; and those of them who had +coasts, first rate sea-boat builders, with fine mathematical +instincts and practice in that kind far developed, necessarily good +sail-weaving, and sound fur-stitching, with stout iron-work of nail +and rivet; rich copper and some silver work in decoration--the Celts +developing peculiar gifts in linear design, but wholly incapable +of drawing animals or figures;--the Saxons and Franks having enough +capacity in that kind, but no thought of attempting it; the Normans +and Lombards still farther remote from any such skill. More and more, +it seems to me wonderful that under your British block-temple, grimly +extant on its pastoral plain, or beside the first crosses engraved on +the rock at Whithorn--you English and Scots do not oftener consider +what you might or could have come to, left to yourselves. + +Next, let us form the list of your tutor nations, in whom, it +generally pleases you to look at nothing but the corruptions. If we +could get into the habit of thinking more of our own corruptions and +more of _their_ virtues, we should have a better chance of learning +the true laws alike of art and destiny. But, the safest way of all, is +to assure ourselves that true knowledge of any thing or any creature +is only of the good of it; that its nature and life are in that, and +that what is diseased,--that is to say, unnatural and mortal,--you +must cut away from it in contemplation, as you would in surgery. + +Of the six tutor nations, two, the Tuscan and Arab, have no effect on +early Christian England. But the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +act together from the earliest times; you are to study the influence +of Rome upon England in Agricola, Constantius, St. Benedict, and +St. Gregory; of Greece upon England in the artists of Byzantium and +Ravenna; of Syria and Egypt upon England in St. Jerome, St. Augustine, +St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanase. + +St. Jerome, in central Bethlehem; St. Augustine, Carthaginian by +birth, in truth a converted Tyrian, Athanase, Egyptian, symmetric +and fixed as an Egyptian aisle; Chrysostom, golden mouth of all; +these are, indeed, every one teachers of all the western world, but +St. Augustine especially of lay, as distinguished from monastic, +Christianity to the Franks, and finally to us. His rule, expanded into +the treatise of the City of God, is taken for guide of life and policy +by Charlemagne, and becomes certainly the fountain of Evangelical +Christianity, distinctively so called, (and broadly the lay +Christianity of Europe, since, in the purest form of it, that is +to say, the most merciful, charitable, variously applicable, kindly +wise.) The greatest type of it, as far as I know, St. Martin of Tours, +whose character is sketched, I think in the main rightly, in the Bible +of Amiens; and you may bind together your thoughts of its course +by remembering that Alcuin, born at York, dies in the Abbey of +St. Martin, at Tours; that as St. Augustine was in his writings +Charlemagne's Evangelist in faith, Alcuin was, in living presence, +his master in rhetoric, logic, and astronomy, with the other physical +sciences. + +A hundred years later than St. Augustine, comes the rule of St. +Benedict--the Monastic rule, virtually, of European Christianity, ever +since--and theologically the Law of Works, as distinguished from the +Law of Faith. St. Augustine and all the disciples of St. Augustine +tell Christians what they should feel and think: St. Benedict and all +the disciples of St. Benedict tell Christians what they should say and +do. + +In the briefest, but also the perfectest distinction, the disciples +of St. Augustine are those who open the door to Christ--"If any man +hear my voice"; but the Benedictines those to whom Christ opens the +door--"To him that knocketh it shall be opened." + +Now, note broadly the course and action of this rule, as it combines +with the older one. St. Augustine's, accepted heartily by Clovis, +and, with various degrees of understanding, by the kings and queens +of the Merovingian dynasty, makes seemingly little difference in +their conduct, so that their profession of it remains a scandal to +Christianity to this day; and yet it lives, in the true hearts among +them, down from St. Clotilde to her great grand-daughter Bertha, who +in becoming Queen of Kent, builds under its chalk downs her own little +chapel to St. Martin, and is the first effectively and permanently +useful missionary to the Saxons, the beginner of English +Erudition,--the first laid corner stone of beautiful English +character. + +I think henceforward you will find the memorandum of dates which I +have here set down for my own guidance more simply useful than those +confused by record of unimportant persons and inconsequent events, +which form the indices of common history. + +From the year of the Saxon invasion 449, there are exactly 400 years +to the birth of Alfred, 849. You have no difficulty in remembering +those cardinal years. Then, you have Four great men and great events +to remember, at the close of the fifth century. Clovis, and the +founding of Frank Kingdom; Theodoric and the founding of the Gothic +Kingdom; Justinian and the founding of Civil law; St. Benedict and the +founding of Religious law. + +Of, Justinian, and his work, I am not able myself to form any +opinion--and it is, I think, unnecessary for students of history to +form any, until they are able to estimate clearly the benefits, and +mischief, of the civil law of Europe in its present state. But to +Clovis, Theodoric, and St. Benedict, without any question, we owe more +than any English historian has yet ascribed,--and they are easily held +in mind together, for Clovis ascended the Frank throne in the year of +St. Benedict's birth, 481. Theodoric fought the battle of Verona, and +founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy twelve years later, in 493, +and thereupon married the sister of Clovis. That marriage is always +passed in a casual sentence, as if a merely political one, and while +page after page is spent in following the alternations of furious +crime and fatal chance, in the contests between Fredegonde and +Brunehaut, no historian ever considers whether the great Ostrogoth who +wore in the battle of Verona the dress which his mother had woven for +him, was likely to have chosen a wife without love!--or how far the +perfectness, justice, and temperate wisdom of every ordinance of his +reign was owing to the sympathy and counsel of his Frankish queen. + +You have to recollect, then, thus far, only three cardinal dates:-- + + 449. Saxon invasion. + 481. Clovis reigns and St. Benedict is born. + 493. Theodoric conquers at Verona. + +Then, roughly, a hundred years later, in 590, Ethelbert, the fifth +from Hengist, and Bertha, the third from Clotilde, are king and queen +of Kent. I cannot find the date of their marriage, but the date, 590, +which you must recollect for cardinal, is that of Gregory's accession +to the pontificate, and I believe Bertha was then in middle life, +having persevered in her religion firmly, but inoffensively, and +made herself beloved by her husband and people. She, in England, +Theodolinda in Lombardy, and St. Gregory in Rome:--in their hands, +virtually lay the destiny of Europe. + +Then the period from Bertha to Osburga, 590 to 849--say 250 years--is +passed by the Saxon people in the daily more reverent learning of the +Christian faith, and daily more peaceful and skilful practice of the +humane arts and duties which it invented and inculcated. + +The statement given by Sir Edward Creasy of the result of these 250 +years of lesson is, with one correction, the most simple and just that +I can find. + +"A few years before the close of the sixth century, the country was +little more than a wide battle-field, where gallant but rude warriors +fought with each other, or against the neighbouring Welsh or Scots; +unheeding and unheeded by the rest of Europe, or, if they attracted +casual attention, regarded with dread and disgust as the fiercest of +barbarians and the most untameable of pagans. In the eighth century, +England was looked up to with admiration and gratitude, as superior to +all the other countries of Western Europe in piety and learning, and +as the land whence the most zealous and successful saints and teachers +came forth to convert and enlighten the still barbarous regions of the +continent." + +This statement is broadly true; yet the correction it needs is a very +important one. England,--under her first Alfred of Northumberland, +and under Ina of Wessex, is indeed during these centuries the most +learned, thoughtful, and progressive of European states. But she is +not a missionary power. The missionaries are always to her, not from +her:--for the very reason that she is learning so eagerly, she does +not take to preaching. Ina founds his Saxon school at Rome not to +teach Rome, nor convert the Pope, but to drink at the source of +knowledge, and to receive laws from direct and unquestioned authority. +The missionary power was wholly Scotch and Irish, and that power was +wholly one of zeal and faith, not of learning. I will ask you, in the +course of my next lecture, to regard it attentively; to-day, I must +rapidly draw to the conclusions I would leave with you. + +It is more and more wonderful to me as I think of it, that no effect +whatever was produced on the Saxon, nor on any other healthy race +of the North, either by the luxury of Rome, or by her art, whether +constructive or imitative. The Saxon builds no aqueducts--designs +no roads, rounds no theatres in imitation of her,--envies none of +her vile pleasures,--admires, so far as I can judge, none of her +far-carried realistic art. I suppose that it needs intelligence of +a more advanced kind to see the qualities of complete sculpture: and +that we may think of the Northern intellect as still like that of a +child, who cares to picture its own thoughts in its own way, but does +not care for the thoughts of older people, or attempt to copy what it +feels too difficult. This much at least is certain, that for one cause +or another, everything that now at Paris or London our painters most +care for and try to realize, of ancient Rome, was utterly innocuous +and unattractive to the Saxon: while his mind was frankly open to +the direct teaching of Greece and to the methods of bright decoration +employed in the Byzantine Empire: for these alone seemed to his +fancy suggestive of the glories of the brighter world promised by +Christianity. Jewellery, vessels of gold and silver, beautifully +written books, and music, are the gifts of St. Gregory alike to the +Saxon and Lombard; all these beautiful things being used, not for the +pleasure of the present life, but as the symbols of another; while +the drawings in Saxon manuscripts, in which, better than in any other +remains of their life, we can read the people's character, are rapid +endeavours to express for themselves, and convey to others, some +likeness of the realities of sacred event in which they had been +instructed. They differ from every archaic school of former design +in this evident correspondence with an imagined reality. All previous +archaic art whatsoever is symbolic and decorative--not realistic. The +contest of Herakles with the Hydra on a Greek vase is a mere sign that +such a contest took place, not a picture of it, and in drawing that +sign the potter is always thinking of the effect of the engraved +lines on the curves of his pot, and taking care to keep out of the +way of the handle;--but a Saxon monk would scratch his idea of the +Fall of the angels or the Temptation of Christ over a whole page of +his manuscript in variously explanatory scenes, evidently full of +inexpressible vision, and eager to explain and illustrate all that he +felt or believed. + +Of the progress and arrest of these gifts, I shall have to speak in my +next address; but I must regretfully conclude to-day with some brief +warning against the complacency which might lead you to regard them +as either at that time entirely original in the Saxon race, or at the +present day as signally characteristic of it. That form of complacency +is exhibited in its most amiable but, therefore, most deceptive guise, +in the passage with which the late Dean of Westminster concluded his +lecture at Canterbury in April, 1854, on the subject of the landing of +Augustine. I will not spoil the emphasis of the passage by comment as +I read, but must take leave afterwards to intimate some grounds for +abatement in the fervour of its self-gratulatory ecstasy. + +"Let any one sit on the hill of the little church of St. Martin, and +look on the view which is there spread before his eyes. Immediately +below are the towers of the great abbey of St. Augustine, where +Christian learning and civilization first struck root in the +Anglo-Saxon race; and within which now, after a lapse of many +centuries, a new institution has arisen, intended to carry far and +wide, to countries of which Gregory and Augustine never heard, the +blessings which they gave to us. Carry your view on--and there +rises high above all the magnificent pile of our cathedral, equal +in splendour and state to any, the noblest temple or church that +Augustine could have seen in ancient Rome, rising on the very ground +which derives its consecration from him. And still more than the +grandeur of the outward buildings that rose from the little church +of Augustine and the little palace of Ethelbert have been the +institutions of all kinds of which these were the earliest cradle. +From Canterbury, the first English Christian city,--from Kent, the +first English Christian kingdom--has by degrees arisen the whole +constitution of Church and State in England which now binds together +the whole British Empire. And from the Christianity here established +in England has flowed, by direct consequence, first the Christianity +of Germany; then, after a long interval, of North America; and lastly, +we may trust, in time, of all India and all Australasia. The view from +St. Martin's Church is indeed one of the most inspiriting that can be +found in the world; there is none to which I would more willingly take +any one who doubted whether a small beginning could lead to a great +and lasting good;--none which carries us more vividly back into the +past, or more hopefully forward into the future." + +To this Gregorian canticle in praise of the British constitution, +I grieve, but am compelled, to take these following historical +objections. The first missionary to Germany was Ulphilas, and what she +owes to these islands she owes to Iona, not to Thanet. Our missionary +offices to America as to Africa, consist I believe principally in +the stealing of land, and the extermination of its proprietors by +intoxication. Our rule in India has introduced there, Paisley instead +of Cashmere shawls: in Australasia our Christian aid supplies, I +suppose, the pious farmer with convict labour. And although, when +the Dean wrote the above passage, St. Augustine's and the cathedral +were--I take it on trust from his description--the principal +objects in the prospect from St. Martin's Hill, I believe even the +cheerfullest of my audience would not now think the scene one of +the most inspiriting in the world. For recent progress has entirely +accommodated the architecture of the scene to the convenience of the +missionary workers above enumerated; to the peculiar necessities +of the civilization they have achieved. For the sake of which the +cathedral, the monastery, the temple, and the tomb, of Bertha, +contract themselves in distant or despised subservience under the +colossal walls of the county gaol. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. + +_ALFRED TO THE CONFESSOR._ + + +I was forced in my last lecture to pass by altogether, and to-day +can only with momentary definition notice, the part taken by Scottish +missionaries in the Christianizing of England and Burgundy. I would +pray you therefore, in order to fill the gap which I think it better +to leave distinctly, than close confusedly, to read the histories of +St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Columban, as they are given you by +Montalembert in his 'Moines d'Occident.' You will find in his pages +all the essential facts that are known, encircled with a nimbus of +enthusiastic sympathy which I hope you will like better to see them +through, than distorted by blackening fog of contemptuous rationalism. +But although I ask you thus to make yourselves aware of the greatness +of my omission, I must also certify you that it does not break the +unity of our own immediate subject. The influence of Celtic passion +and art both on Northumbria and the Continent, beneficent in all +respects while it lasted, expired without any permanent share in the +work or emotion of the Saxon and Frank. The book of Kells, and the +bell of St. Patrick, represent sufficiently the peculiar character +of Celtic design; and long since, in the first lecture of the 'Two +Paths,' I explained both the modes of skill, and points of weakness, +which rendered such design unprogressive. Perfect in its peculiar +manner, and exulting in the faultless practice of a narrow skill, it +remained century after century incapable alike of inner growth, or +foreign instruction; inimitable, yet incorrigible; marvellous, yet +despicable, to its death. Despicable, I mean, only in the limitation +of its capacity, not in its quality or nature. If you make a +Christian of a lamb or a squirrel--what can you expect of the lamb +but jumping--what of the squirrel, but pretty spirals, traced with +his tail? He won't steal your nuts any more, and he'll say his prayers +like this--[2]; but you cannot make a Beatrice's griffin, and emblem +of all the Catholic Church, out of him. + +[Footnote 2: Making a sign.] + +You will have observed, also, that the plan of these lectures does +not include any reference to the Roman Period in England; of which +you will find all I think necessary to say, in the part called _Valle +Crucis_ of 'Our Fathers have told us.' But I must here warn you, with +reference to it, of one gravely false prejudice of Montalembert. He is +entirely blind to the conditions of Roman virtue, which existed in the +midst of the corruptions of the Empire, forming the characters of such +Emperors as Pertinax, Carus, Probus, the second Claudius, Aurelian, +and our own Constantius; and he denies, with abusive violence, the +power for good, of Roman Law, over the Gauls and Britons. + +Respecting Roman national character, I will simply beg you to +remember, that both St. Benedict and St. Gregory are Roman patricians, +before they are either monk or pope; respecting its influence on +Britain, I think you may rest content with Shakespeare's estimate of +it. Both Lear and Cymbeline belong to this time, so difficult to our +apprehension, when the Briton accepted both Roman laws and Roman gods. +There is indeed the born Kentish gentleman's protest against them in +Kent's-- + + "Now, by Apollo, king, + Thou swear'st thy gods in vain"; + +but both Cordelia and Imogen are just as thoroughly Roman ladies, as +Virgilia or Calphurnia. + +Of British Christianity and the Arthurian Legends, I shall have a word +or two to say in my lecture on "Fancy," in connection with the similar +romance which surrounds Theodoric and Charlemagne: only the worst of +it is, that while both Dietrich and Karl are themselves more wonderful +than the legends of them, Arthur fades into intangible vision:--this +much, however, remains to this day, of Arthurian blood in us, that +the richest fighting element in the British army and navy is British +native,--that is to say, Highlander, Irish, Welsh, and Cornish. + +Content, therefore, (means being now given you for filling gaps,) +with the estimates given you in the preceding lecture of the sources +of instruction possessed by the Saxon capital, I pursue to-day our +question originally proposed, what London might have been by this +time, if the nature of the flowers, trees, and children, born at the +Thames-side, had been rightly understood and cultivated. + +Many of my hearers can imagine far better than I, the look that London +must have had in Alfred's and Canute's days.[3] I have not, indeed, +the least idea myself what its buildings were like, but certainly +the groups of its shipping must have been superb; small, but +entirely seaworthy vessels, manned by the best seamen in the then +world. Of course, now, at Chatham and Portsmouth we have our +ironclads,--extremely beautiful and beautifully manageable things, no +doubt--to set against this Saxon and Danish shipping; but the Saxon +war-ships lay here at London shore--bright with banner and shield +and dragon prow,--instead of these you may be happier, but are not +handsomer, in having, now, the coal-barge, the penny steamer, and the +wherry full of shop boys and girls. I dwell however for a moment only +on the naval aspect of the tidal waters in the days of Alfred, because +I can refer you for all detail on this part of our subject to the +wonderful opening chapter of Dean Stanley's History of Westminster +Abbey, where you will find the origin of the name of London given as +"The City of Ships." He does not, however, tell you, that there were +built, then and there, the biggest war-ships in the world. I have +often said to friends who praised my own books that I would rather +have written that chapter than any one of them; yet if I _had_ been +able to write the historical part of it, the conclusions drawn would +have been extremely different. The Dean indeed describes with a +poet's joy the River of wells, which rose from those "once consecrated +springs which now lie choked in Holywell and Clerkenwell, and the +rivulet of Ulebrig which crossed the Strand under the Ivy bridge"; +but it is only in the spirit of a modern citizen of Belgravia that he +exults in the fact that "the great arteries of our crowded streets, +the vast sewers which cleanse our habitations, are fed by the +life-blood of those old and living streams; that underneath our tread +the Tyburn, and the Holborn, and the Fleet, and the Wall Brook, are +still pursuing their ceaseless course, still ministering to the good +of man, though in a far different fashion than when Druids drank +of their sacred springs, and Saxons were baptized in their rushing +waters, ages ago." + +[Footnote 3: Here Alfred's Silver Penny was shown and commented on, +thus:--Of what London was like in the days of faith, I can show you +one piece of artistic evidence. It is Alfred's silver penny struck in +London mint. The character of a coinage is quite conclusive evidence +in national history, and there is no great empire in progress, but +tells its story in beautiful coins. Here in Alfred's penny, a round +coin with L.O.N.D.I.N.I.A. struck on it, you have just the same +beauty of design, the same enigmatical arrangement of letters, as in +the early inscription, which it is "the pride of my life" to have +discovered at Venice. This inscription ("the first words that Venice +ever speaks aloud") is, it will be remembered, on the Church of St. +Giacomo di Rialto, and runs, being interpreted--"Around this temple, +let the merchant's law be just, his weights true, and his covenants +faithful."] + +Whatever sympathy you may feel with these eloquent expressions of that +entire complacency in the present, past, and future, which peculiarly +animates Dean Stanley's writings, I must, in this case, pray you +to observe that the transmutation of holy wells into sewers has, +at least, destroyed the charm and utility of the Thames as a salmon +stream, and I must ask you to read with attention the succeeding +portions of the chapter which record the legends of the river +fisheries in their relation to the first Abbey of Westminster; +dedicated by its builders to St. Peter, not merely in his office of +cornerstone of the Church, nor even figuratively as a fisher of men, +but directly as a fisher of fish:--and which maintained themselves, +you will see, in actual ceremony down to 1382, when a fisherman still +annually took his place beside the Prior, after having brought in a +salmon for St. Peter, which was carried in state down the middle of +the refectory. + +But as I refer to this page for the exact word, my eye is caught by +one of the sentences of Londonian[4] thought which constantly pervert +the well-meant books of pious England. "We see also," says the Dean, +"the union of innocent fiction with worldly craft, which marks so +many of the legends both of Pagan and Christian times." I might simply +reply to this insinuation that times which have no legends differ +from the legendary ones merely by uniting guilty, instead of innocent, +fiction, with worldly craft; but I must farther advise you that the +legends of these passionate times are in no wise, and in no sense, +fiction at all; but the true record of impressions made on the minds +of persons in a state of eager spiritual excitement, brought into +bright focus by acting steadily and frankly under its impulses. I +could tell you a great deal more about such things than you would +believe, and therefore, a great deal more than it would do you the +least good to hear;--but this much any who care to use their common +sense modestly, cannot but admit, that unless they choose to try the +rough life of the Christian ages, they cannot understand its practical +consequences. You have all been taught by Lord Macaulay and his school +that because you have Carpets instead of rushes for your feet; and +Feather-beds instead of fern for your backs; and Kickshaws instead +of beef for your eating; and Drains instead of Holy Wells for your +drinking;--that, therefore, you are the Cream of Creation, and +every one of you a seven-headed Solomon. Stay in those pleasant +circumstances and convictions if you please; but don't accuse your +roughly bred and fed fathers of telling lies about the aspect the +earth and sky bore to _them_,--till you have trodden the earth as +they, barefoot, and seen the heavens as they, face to face. If you +care to see and to know for yourselves, you may do it with little +pains; you need not do any great thing, you needn't keep one eye open +and the other shut for ten years over a microscope, nor fight your way +through icebergs and darkness to knowledge of the _celestial_ pole. +Simply, do as much as king after king of the Saxons did,--put rough +shoes on your feet and a rough cloak on your shoulders, and walk to +Rome and back. Sleep by the roadside, when it is fine,--in the first +outhouse you can find, when it is wet; and live on bread and water, +with an onion or two, all the way; and if the experiences which you +will have to relate on your return do not, as may well be, deserve the +name of spiritual; at all events you will not be disposed to let other +people regard them either as Poetry or Fiction. + +[Footnote 4: Not _Londinian_.] + +With this warning, presently to be at greater length insisted on, +I trace for you, in Dean Stanley's words, which cannot be bettered +except in the collection of their more earnest passages from among +his interludes of graceful but dangerous qualification,--I trace, with +only such omission, the story he has told us of the foundation of that +Abbey, which, he tells you, was the Mother of London, and has ever +been the shrine and the throne of English faith and truth. + +"The gradual formation of a monastic body, indicated in the charters +of Offa and Edgar, marks the spread of the Benedictine order +throughout England, under the influence of Dunstan. The 'terror' of +the spot, which had still been its chief characteristic in the charter +of the wild Offa, had, in the days of the more peaceful Edgar, given +way to a dubious 'renown.' Twelve monks is the number traditionally +said to have been established by Dunstan. A few acres further up the +river formed their chief property, and their monastic character was +sufficiently recognized to have given to the old locality of the +'terrible place' the name of the 'Western Monastery,' or 'Minster of +the West.'" + +The Benedictines then--twelve Benedictine monks--thus begin the +building of existent Christian London. You know I told you the +Benedictines are the Doing people, as the disciples of St. Augustine +the Sentimental people. The Benedictines find no terror in their +own thoughts--face the terror of places--change it into beauty of +places,--make this terrible place, a Motherly Place--Mother of London. + +This first Westminster, however, the Dean goes on to say, "seems to +have been overrun by the Danes," and it would have had no further +history but for the combination of circumstances which directed hither +the notice of Edward the Confessor. + +I haven't time to read you all the combination of circumstances. The +last clinching circumstance was this-- + +"There was in the neighbourhood of Worcester, 'far from men in the +wilderness, on the slope of a wood, in a cave deep down in the grey +rock,' a holy hermit 'of great age, living on fruits and roots.' One +night when, after reading in the Scriptures 'how hard are the pains of +hell, and how the enduring life of Heaven is sweet and to be desired,' +he could neither sleep nor repose, St. Peter appeared to him, +'bright and beautiful, like to a clerk,' and warned him to tell the +King that he was released from his vow; that on that very day his +messengers would return from Rome;" (that is the combination of +circumstances--bringing Pope's order to build a church to release +the King from his vow of pilgrimage); "that 'at Thorney, two leagues +from the city,' was the spot marked out where, in an ancient church, +'situated low,' he was to establish a perfect Benedictine monastery, +which should be 'the gate of heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence +those who serve St. Peter there, shall by him be admitted into +Paradise.' The hermit writes the account of the vision on parchment, +seals it with wax, and brings it to the King, who compares it with the +answer of the messengers, just arrived from Rome, and determines on +carrying out the design as the Apostle had ordered. + +"The ancient church, 'situated low,' indicated in this vision the +one whose attached monastery had been destroyed by the Danes, but its +little church remained, and was already dear to the Confessor, not +only from the lovely tradition of its dedication by the spirit of St. +Peter;" (you must read that for yourselves;) "but also because of two +miracles happening there to the King himself. + +"The first was the cure of a cripple, who sat in the road between +the Palace and 'the Chapel of St. Peter,' which was 'near,' and who +explained to the Chamberlain Hugolin that, after six pilgrimages to +Rome in vain, St. Peter had promised his cure if the King would, on +his own royal neck, carry him to the Monastery. The King immediately +consented; and, amidst the scoffs of the court, bore the poor man to +the steps of the High Altar. There the cripple was received by Godric +the sacristan, and walked away on his own restored feet, hanging his +stool on the wall for a trophy. + +"Before that same High Altar was also believed to have been seen +one of the Eucharistical portents, so frequent in the Middle Ages. A +child, 'pure and bright like a spirit,' appeared to the King in the +sacramental elements. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who, with his famous +countess, Godiva, was present, saw it also. + +"Such as these were the motives of Edward. Under their influence +was fixed what has ever since been the local centre of the English +monarchy." + +"Such as these were the _motives_ of Edward," says the Dean. Yes, +certainly; but such as these also, first, were the acts and visions +of Edward. Take care that you don't slip away, by the help of the +glycerine of the word "motives," into fancying that all these tales +are only the after colours and pictorial metaphors of sentimental +piety. They are either plain truth or black lies; take your +choice,--but don't tickle and treat yourselves with the prettiness or +the grotesqueness of them, as if they were Anderssen's fairy tales. +Either the King did carry the beggar on his back, or he didn't; either +Godiva rode through Coventry, or she didn't; either the Earl Leofric +saw the vision of the bright child at the altar--or he lied like a +knave. Judge, as you will; but do not Doubt. + +"The Abbey was fifteen years in building. The King spent upon it +one-tenth of the property of the kingdom. It was to be a marvel of +its kind. As in its origin it bore the traces of the fantastic and +childish" (I must pause, to ask you to substitute for these blameful +terms, 'fantastic and childish,' the better ones of 'imaginative and +pure') "character of the King and of the age; in its architecture +it bore the stamp of the peculiar position which Edward occupied in +English history between Saxon and Norman. By birth he was a Saxon, but +in all else he was a foreigner. Accordingly the Church at Westminster +was a wide-sweeping innovation on all that had been seen before. +'Destroying the old building,' he says in his charter, 'I have built +up a new one from the very foundation.' Its fame as a 'new style of +composition' lingered in the minds of men for generations. It was the +first cruciform church in England, from which all the rest of like +shape were copied--an expression of the increasing hold which, in the +tenth century, the idea of the Crucifixion had laid on the imagination +of Europe. The massive roof and pillars formed a contrast with the +rude wooden rafters and beams of the common Saxon churches. Its very +size--occupying, as it did, almost the whole area of the present +building--was in itself portentous. The deep foundations, of large +square blocks of grey stone, were duly laid; the east end was rounded +into an apse; a tower rose in the centre, crowned by a cupola of wood. +At the western end were erected two smaller towers, with five large +bells. The hard strong stones were richly sculptured; the windows +were filled with stained glass; the roof was covered with lead. The +cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, dormitory, the infirmary, with +its spacious chapel, if not completed by Edward, were all begun, and +finished in the next generation on the same plan. This structure, +venerable as it would be if it had lasted to our time, has almost +entirely vanished. Possibly one vast dark arch in the southern +transept, certainly the substructures of the dormitory, with their +huge pillars, 'grand and regal at the bases and capitals,' the +massive, low-browed passage leading from the great cloister to Little +Dean's Yard, and some portions of the refectory and of the infirmary +chapel, remain as specimens of the work which astonished the last age +of the Anglo-Saxon and the first age of the Norman monarchy." + +Hitherto I have read to you with only supplemental comment. But in +the next following passage, with which I close my series of extracts, +sentence after sentence occurs, at which as I read, I must raise my +hand, to mark it for following deprecation, or denial. + +"In the centre of Westminster Abbey thus lies its Founder, and such is +the story of its foundation. Even apart from the legendary elements +in which it is involved, it is impossible not to be struck by the +fantastic character of all its circumstances. We seem to be in a world +of poetry." (I protest, No.) "Edward is four centuries later than +Ethelbert and Augustine; but the origin of Canterbury is commonplace +and prosaic compared with the origin of Westminster." (Yes, that's +true.) "We can hardly imagine a figure more incongruous to the +soberness of later times than the quaint, irresolute, wayward prince +whose chief characteristics have just been described. His titles of +Confessor and Saint belong not to the general instincts of Christendom +but to the most transitory feelings of the age." (I protest, No.) "His +opinions, his prevailing motives, were such as in no part of modern +Europe would now be shared by any educated teacher or ruler." (That's +true enough.) "But in spite of these irreconcilable differences, +there was a solid ground for the charm which he exercised over his +contemporaries. His childish and eccentric fancies have passed away;" +(I protest, No;) "but his innocent faith and his sympathy with his +people are qualities which, even in our altered times, may still +retain their place in the economy of the world. Westminster Abbey, +so we hear it said, sometimes with a cynical sneer, sometimes with +a timorous scruple, has admitted within its walls many who have been +great without being good, noble with a nobleness of the earth earthy, +worldly with the wisdom of this world. But it is a counterbalancing +reflection, that the central tomb, round which all those famous names +have clustered, contains the ashes of one who, weak and erring as he +was, rests his claims of interment here, not on any act of power or +fame, but only on his artless piety and simple goodness. He, towards +whose dust was attracted the fierce Norman, and the proud Plantagenet, +and the grasping Tudor, and the fickle Stuart, even the Independent +Oliver, the Dutch William, and the Hanoverian George, was one whose +humble graces are within the reach of every man, woman, and child +of every time, if we rightly part the immortal substance from the +perishable form." + +Now I have read you these passages from Dean Stanley as the most +accurately investigatory, the most generously sympathetic, the most +reverently acceptant account of these days, and their people, which +you can yet find in any English history. But consider now, point by +point, where it leaves you. You are told, first, that you are living +in an age of poetry. But the days of poetry are those of Shakespeare +and Milton, not of Bede: nay, for their especial wealth in melodious +theology and beautifully rhythmic and pathetic meditation, perhaps +the days which have given us 'Hiawatha,' 'In Memoriam,' 'The Christian +Year,' and the 'Soul's Diary' of George Macdonald, may be not with +disgrace compared with those of Caedmon. And nothing can be farther +different from the temper, nothing less conscious of the effort, of a +poet, than any finally authentic document to which you can be referred +for the relation of a Saxon miracle. + +I will read you, for a perfectly typical example, an account of one +from Bede's 'Life of St. Cuthbert,' The passage is a favourite one of +my own, but I do not in the least anticipate its producing upon you +the solemnizing effect which I think I could command from reading, +instead, a piece of 'Marmion,' 'Manfred,' or 'Childe Harold.' + +... "He had one day left his cell to give advice to some visitors; and +when he had finished, he said to them, 'I must now go in again, but do +you, as you are inclined to depart, first take food; and when you have +cooked and eaten that goose which is hanging on the wall, go on board +your vessel in God's name and return home.' He then uttered a prayer, +and, having blessed them, went in. But they, as he had bidden them, +took some food; but having enough provisions of their own, which they +had brought with them, they did not touch the goose. + +"But when they had refreshed themselves they tried to go on board +their vessel, but a sudden storm utterly prevented them from putting +to sea. They were thus detained seven days in the island by the +roughness of the waves, and yet they could not call to mind what fault +they had committed. They therefore returned to have an interview with +the holy father, and to lament to him their detention. He exhorted +them to be patient, and on the seventh day came out to console their +sorrow, and to give them pious exhortations. When, however, he had +entered the house in which they were stopping, and saw that the goose +was not eaten, he reproved their disobedience with mild countenance +and in gentle language: 'Have you not left the goose still hanging +in its place? What wonder is it that the storm has prevented your +departure? Put it immediately into the caldron, and boil and eat it, +that the sea may become tranquil, and you may return home.' + +"They immediately did as he commanded; and it happened most +wonderfully that the moment the kettle began to boil the wind began +to cease, and the waves to be still Having finished their repast, and +seeing that the sea was calm, they went on board, and to their great +delight, though with shame for their neglect, reached home with a fair +wind. Now this, as I have related, I did not pick up from any chance +authority, but I had it from one of those who were present, a most +reverend monk and priest of the same monastery, Cynemund, who still +lives, known to many in the neighbourhood for his years and the purity +of his life." + + * * * * * + +I hope that the memory of this story, which, thinking it myself +an extremely pretty one, I have given you, not only for a type of +sincerity and simplicity, but for an illustration of obedience, may +at all events quit you, for good and all, of the notion that the +believers and witnesses of miracle were poetical persons. Saying +no more on the head of that allegation, I proceed to the Dean's +second one, which I cannot but interpret as also intended to be +injurious,--that they were artless and childish ones; and that because +of this rudeness and puerility, their motives and opinions would not +be shared by any statesmen of the present day. + +It is perfectly true that Edward the Confessor was himself in many +respects of really childish temperament; not therefore, perhaps, as I +before suggested to you, less venerable. But the age of which we are +examining the progress, was by no means represented or governed by +men of similar disposition. It was eminently productive of--it was +altogether governed, guided, and instructed by--men of the widest and +most brilliant faculties, whether constructive or speculative, that +the world till then had seen; men whose acts became the romance, whose +thoughts the wisdom, and whose arts the treasure, of a thousand years +of futurity. + +I warned you at the close of last lecture against the too agreeable +vanity of supposing that the Evangelization of the world began at St. +Martin's, Canterbury. Again and again you will indeed find the stream +of the Gospel contracting itself into narrow channels, and appearing, +after long-concealed filtration, through veins of unmeasured rock, +with the bright resilience of a mountain spring. But you will find it +the only candid, and therefore the only wise, way of research, to look +in each era of Christendom for the minds of culminating power in all +its brotherhood of nations; and, careless of local impulse, momentary +zeal, picturesque incident, or vaunted miracle, to fasten your +attention upon the force of character in the men, whom, over each +newly-converted race, Heaven visibly sets for its shepherds and kings, +to bring forth judgment unto victory. Of these I will name to you, as +messengers of God and masters of men, five monks and five kings; in +whose arms during the range of swiftly gainful centuries which we are +following, the life of the world lay as a nursling babe. Remember, +in their successive order,--of monks, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. +Martin, St. Benedict, and St. Gregory; of kings,--and your national +vanity may be surely enough appeased in recognizing two of them for +Saxon,--Theodoric, Charlemagne, Alfred, Canute, and the Confessor. I +will read three passages to you, out of the literal words of three +of these ten men, without saying whose they are, that you may compare +them with the best and most exalted you have read expressing the +philosophy, the religion, and the policy of to-day,--from which I +admit, with Dean Stanley, but with a far different meaning from his, +that they are indeed separate for evermore. I give you first, for an +example of Philosophy, a single sentence, containing all--so far as I +can myself discern--that it is possible for us to know, or well for us +to believe, respecting the world and its laws. + + +"OF GOD'S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE, RULING ALL, AND COMPRISING ALL. + +"Wherefore the great and mighty God; He that made man a reasonable +creature of soul and body, and He that did neither let him pass +unpunished for his sin, nor yet excluded him from mercy; He that gave, +both unto good and bad, essence with the stones, power of production +with the trees, senses with the beasts of the field, and understanding +with the angels; He from whom is all being, beauty, form, and number, +weight, and measure; He from whom all nature, mean and excellent, +all seeds of form, all forms of seed, all motion, both of forms and +seeds, derive and have being; He that gave flesh the original beauty, +strength, propagation, form and shape, health and symmetry; He +that gave the unreasonable soul, sense, memory, and appetite; the +reasonable, besides these, fantasy, understanding, and will; He, +I say, having left neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor man, +no, nor the most base and contemptible creature, neither the bird's +feather, nor the herb's flower, nor the tree's leaf, without the true +harmony of their parts, and peaceful concord of composition:--It is +in no way credible that He would leave the kingdoms of men and their +bondages and freedom loose and uncomprised in the laws of His eternal +providence."[5] + +[Footnote 5: From St. Augustine's 'Citie of God,' Book V., ch. xi. +(English trans., printed by George Eld, 1610.)] + +This for the philosophy.[6] Next, I take for example of the Religion +of our ancestors, a prayer, personally and passionately offered to the +Deity conceived as you have this moment heard. + +[Footnote 6: Here one of the "Stones of Westminster" was shown and +commented on.] + +"O Thou who art the Father of that Son which has awakened us, and +yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and exhorteth us that we +become Thine;" (note you that, for apprehension of what Redemption +means, against your base and cowardly modern notion of 'scaping +whipping. Not to take away the Punishment of Sin, but by His +Resurrection to raise us out of the sleep of sin itself! Compare the +legend at the feet of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in the golden +Gospel of Charles le Chauve[7]:-- + + "HIC LEO SURGENDO PORTAS CONFREGIT AVERNI + QUI NUNQUAM DORMIT, NUSQUAM DORMITAT IN ÆVUM;") + +"to Thee, Lord, I pray, who art the supreme truth; for all the truth +that is, is truth from Thee. Thee I implore, O Lord, who art the +highest wisdom. Through Thee are wise all those that are so. Thou art +the true life, and through Thee are living all those that are so. Thou +art the supreme felicity, and from Thee all have become happy that +are so. Thou art the highest good, and from Thee all beauty springs. +Thou art the intellectual light, and from Thee man derives his +understanding. + +[Footnote 7: At Munich: the leaf has been exquisitely drawn and legend +communicated to me by Professor Westwood. It is written in gold on +purple.] + +"To Thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me, Lord! for Thou art +my God and my Lord; my Father and my Creator; my ruler and my hope; my +wealth and my honour my house, my country, my salvation, and my life! +Hear, hear me, O Lord! Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee. But Thee +alone I _love_,[8] indeed, above all other things. Thee I seek: Thee +I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. Under Thy power I desire to +abide, for Thou alone art the Sovereign of all. I pray Thee to command +me as Thou wilt." + +[Footnote 8: Meaning--not that he is of those few, but that, without +comprehending, at least, as a dog, he can love.] + +You see this prayer is simply the expansion of that clause of the +Lord's Prayer which most men eagerly omit from it,--_Fiat voluntas +tua_. In being so, it sums the Christian prayer of all ages. See now, +in the third place, how far this king's letter I am going to read to +you sums also Christian Policy. + + "Wherefore I render high thanks to Almighty God, for the happy + accomplishment of all the desires which I have set before me, + and for the satisfying of my every wish. + + "Now therefore, be it known to you all, that to Almighty God + Himself I have, on my knees, devoted my life, to the end that + in all things I may do justice, and with justice and rightness + rule the kingdoms and peoples under me; throughout everything + preserving an impartial judgment. If, heretofore, I have, + through being, as young men are, impulsive or careless, done + anything unjust, I mean, with God's help, to lose no time + in remedying my fault. To which end I call to witness my + counsellors, to whom I have entrusted the counsels of the + kingdom, and I charge them that by no means, be it through + fear of me, or the favour of any other powerful personage, to + consent to any injustice, or to suffer any to shoot out in any + part of my kingdom. I charge all my viscounts and those set + over my whole kingdom, as they wish to keep my friendship or + their own safety, to use no unjust force to any man, rich or + poor; let all men, noble and not noble, rich and poor alike, + be able to obtain their rights under the law's justice; and + from that law let there be no deviation, either to favour the + king or any powerful person, nor to raise money for me. I have + no need of money raised by what is unfair. I also would have + you know that I go now to make peace and firm treaty by the + counsels of all my subjects, with those nations and people who + wished, had it been possible for them to do so, which it was + not, to deprive us alike of kingdom and of life. God brought + down their strength to nought: and may He of His benign love + preserve us on our throne and in honour. Lastly, when I have + made peace with the neighbouring nations, and settled and + pacified all my dominions in the East, so that we may nowhere + have any war or enmity to fear, I mean to come to England this + summer, as soon as I can fit out vessels to sail. My reason, + however, in sending this letter first is to let all the people + of my kingdom share in the joy of my welfare: for as you + yourselves know, I have never spared myself or my labour; nor + will I ever do so, where my people are really in want of some + good that I can do them." + +What think you now, in candour and honour, you youth of the latter +days,--what think you of these types of the thought, devotion, and +government, which not in words, but pregnant and perpetual fact, +animated these which you have been accustomed to call the Dark Ages? + +The Philosophy is Augustine's; the Prayer Alfred's; and the Letter +Canute's. + +And, whatever you may feel respecting the beauty or wisdom of these +sayings, be assured of one thing above all, that they are sincere; and +of another, less often observed, that they are joyful. + +Be assured, in the first place, that they are sincere, The ideas of +diplomacy and priestcraft are of recent times. No false knight or +lying priest ever prospered, I believe, in any age, but certainly +not in the dark ones. Men prospered then, only in following +openly-declared purposes, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted +creeds. + +And that they did so prosper, in the degree in which they accepted +and proclaimed the Christian Gospel, may be seen by any of you in your +historical reading, however partial, if only you will admit the idea +that it could be so, and was likely to be so. You are all of you in +the habit of supposing that temporal prosperity is owing either to +worldly chance or to worldly prudence; and is never granted in any +visible relation to states of religious temper. Put that treacherous +doubt away from you, with disdain; take for basis of reasoning +the noble postulate, that the elements of Christian faith are +sound,--instead of the base one, that they are deceptive; reread the +great story of the world in that light, and see what a vividly real, +yet miraculous tenor, it will then bear to you. + +Their faith then, I tell you first, was sincere; I tell you secondly +that it was, in a degree few of us can now conceive, joyful. We +continually hear of the trials, sometimes of the victories, of +Faith,--but scarcely ever of its pleasures. Whereas, at this time, +you will find that the chief delight of all good men was in the +recognition of the goodness and wisdom of the Master, who had come +to dwell with them upon earth. It is almost impossible for you to +conceive the vividness of this sense in them; it is totally impossible +for you to conceive the comfort, peace, and force of it. In everything +that you now do or seek, you expose yourselves to countless miseries +of shame and disappointment, because in your doing you depend on +nothing but your own powers, and in seeking choose only your own +gratification. You cannot for the most part conceive of any work but +for your own interests, or the interests of others about whom you are +anxious in the same faithless way; everything about which passion is +excited in you or skill exerted is some object of material life, and +the idea of doing anything except for your own praise or profit has +narrowed itself into little more than the precentor's invitation to +the company with little voice and less practice to "sing to the praise +and glory of God." + +I have said that you cannot imagine the feeling of the energy of daily +life applied in the real meaning of those words. You cannot imagine +it, but you _can_ prove it. Are any of you willing, simply as a +philosophical experiment in the greatest of sciences, to adopt the +principles and feelings of these men of a thousand years ago for a +given time, say for a year? It cannot possibly do you any harm to try, +and you cannot possibly learn what is true in these things, without +trying. If after a year's experience of such method you find yourself +no happier than before, at least you will be able to support your +present opinions at once with more grace and more modesty; having +conceded the trial it asked for, to the opposite side. Nor in acting +temporarily on a faith you do not see to be reasonable, do you +compromise your own integrity more, than in conducting, under a +chemist's directions, an experiment of which he foretells inexplicable +consequences. And you need not doubt the power you possess over +your own minds to do this. Were faith not voluntary, it could not be +praised, and would not be rewarded. + +If you are minded thus to try, begin each day with Alfred's +prayer,--fiat voluntas tua; resolving that you will stand to it, and +that nothing that happens in the course of the day shall displease +you. Then set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and +purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of +gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that +no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor +regret if it fail. Imagine that the thing is being done through you, +not by you; that the good of it may never be known, but that at least, +unless by your rebellion or foolishness, there can come no evil into +it, nor wrong chance to it. Resolve also with steady industry to do +what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the +honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, +nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you +will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your +own consciences, expressed approval, of God. Live thus, and believe, +and with swiftness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the +trust, most surely the God of hope will fill you with all joy and +peace in believing. + +But, if you will not do this, if you have not courage nor heart enough +to break away the fetters of earth, and take up the sensual bed of +it, and walk; if you say that you are _bound_ to win this thing, and +become the other thing, and that the wishes of your friends,--and +the interests of your family,--and the bias of your genius,--and the +expectations of your college,--and all the rest of the bow-wow-wow +of the wild dog-world, must be attended to, whether you like it +or no,--then, at least, for shame give up talk about being free or +independent creatures; recognize yourselves for slaves in whom the +thoughts are put in ward with their bodies, and their hearts manacled +with their hands: and then at least also, for shame, if you refuse to +believe that ever there were men who gave their souls to God,--know +and confess how surely there are those who sell them to His adversary. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. + +_ALFRED TO CÅ’UR DE LION._ + + +It was my endeavour, in the preceding lecture, to vindicate the +thoughts and arts of our Saxon ancestors from whatever scorn might lie +couched under the terms applied to them by Dean Stanley,--'fantastic' +and 'childish.' To-day my task must be carried forward, first, in +asserting the grace in fantasy, and the force in infancy, of the +English mind, before the Conquest, against the allegations contained +in the final passage of Dean Stanley's description of the first +founded Westminster; a passage which accepts and asserts, more +distinctly than any other equally brief statement I have met with, +the to my mind extremely disputable theory, that the Norman invasion +was in every respect a sanitary, moral, and intellectual blessing to +England, and that the arrow which slew her Harold was indeed the Arrow +of the Lord's deliverance. + +"The Abbey itself," says Dean Stanley,--"the chief work of the +Confessor's life,--was the portent of the mighty future. When Harold +stood beside his sister Edith, on the day of the dedication, and +signed his name with hers as witness to the Charter of the Abbey, he +might have seen that he was sealing his own doom, and preparing for +his own destruction. The solid pillars, the ponderous arches, the huge +edifice, with triple tower and sculptured stones and storied windows, +that arose in the place and in the midst of the humble wooden churches +and wattled tenements of the Saxon period, might have warned the +nobles who were present that the days of their rule were numbered, +and that the _avenging, civilizing, stimulating_ hand of another and a +mightier race was at work, which would change the whole face of their +language, their manners, their Church, and their commonwealth. The +Abbey, so far exceeding the demands of the _dull and stagnant_ minds +of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was founded not only in faith, but in +hope: in the hope that England had yet a glorious career to run; that +the line of her sovereigns would not be broken, even when the race of +Alfred had ceased to reign." + +There must surely be some among my hearers who are startled, if +not offended, at being told in the terms which I emphasized in +this sentence, that the minds of our Saxon fathers were, although +fantastic, dull, and, although childish, stagnant; that farther, in +their fantastic stagnation; they were savage,--and in their innocent +dullness, criminal; so that the future character and fortune of +the race depended on the critical advent of the didactic and +disciplinarian Norman baron, at once to polish them, stimulate, and +chastise. + +Before I venture to say a word in distinct arrest of this judgment, +I will give you a chart, as clear as the facts observed in the two +previous lectures allow, of the state and prospects of the Saxons, +when this violent benediction of conquest happened to them: and +especially I would rescue, in the measure that justice bids, the +memory even of their Pagan religion from the general scorn in +which I used Carlyle's description of the idol of ancient Prussia +as universally exponent of the temper of Northern devotion. That +Triglaph, or Triglyph Idol, (derivation of Triglaph wholly unknown to +me--I use Triglyph only for my own handiest epithet), last set up, on +what is now St. Mary's hill in Brandenburg, in 1023, belonged indeed +to a people wonderfully like the Saxons,--geographically their close +neighbours,--in habits of life, and aspect of native land, scarcely +distinguishable from them,--in Carlyle's words, a "strong-boned, +iracund, herdsman and fisher people, highly averse to be interfered +with, in their religion especially, and inhabiting a moory flat +country, full of lakes and woods, but with plenty also of alluvial +mud, grassy, frugiferous, apt for the plough"--in all things like +the Saxons, except, as I read the matter, in that 'aversion to be +interfered with' which you modern English think an especially Saxon +character in you,--but which is, on the contrary, you will find on +examination, by no means Saxon; but only Wendisch, Czech, Serbic, +Sclavic,--other hard names I could easily find for it among the tribes +of that vehemently heathen old Preussen--"resolutely worshipful +of places of oak trees, of wooden or stone idols, of Bangputtis, +Patkullos, and I know not what diabolic dumb blocks." Your English +"dislike to be interfered with" is in absolute fellowship with these, +but only gathers itself in its places of Stalks, or chimneys, instead +of oak trees, round its idols of iron, instead of wood, diabolically +_vocal_ now; strident, and sibilant, instead of dumb. + +Far other than these, their neighbour Saxons, Jutes and +Angles!--tribes between whom the distinctions are of no moment +whatsoever, except that an English boy or girl may with grace remember +that 'Old England,' exactly and strictly so called, was the small +district in the extreme south of Denmark, totally with its islands +estimable at sixty miles square of dead flat land. Directly south +of it, the definitely so-called Saxons held the western shore of +Holstein, with the estuary of the Elbe, and the sea-mark isle, +Heligoland. But since the principal temple of Saxon worship was close +to Leipsic,[9] we may include under our general term, Saxons, the +inhabitants of the whole level district of North Germany, from the +Gulf of Flensburg to the Hartz; and, eastward, all the country watered +by the Elbe as far as Saxon Switzerland. + +[Footnote 9: Turner, vol. i., p. 223.] + +Of the character of this race I will not here speak at any length: +only note of it this essential point, that their religion was at +once more practical and more imaginative than that of the Norwegian +peninsula; the Norse religion being the conception rather of natural +than moral powers, but the Saxon, primarily of moral, as the lords +of natural--their central divine image, Irminsul,[10] holding the +standard of peace in her right hand, a balance in her left. Such a +religion may degenerate into mere slaughter and rapine; but it has the +making in it of the noblest men. + +[Footnote 10: Properly plural 'Images'--Irminsul and Irminsula.] + +More practical at all events, whether for good or evil, in this trust +in a future reward for courage and purity, than the mere Scandinavian +awe of existing Earth and Cloud, the Saxon religion was also more +imaginative, in its nearer conception of human feeling in divine +creatures. And when this wide hope and high reverence had distinct +objects of worship and prayer, offered to them by Christianity, the +Saxons easily became pure, passionate, and thoughtful Christians; +while the Normans, to the last, had the greatest difficulty in +apprehending the Christian teaching of the Franks, and still deny the +power of Christianity, even when they have become inveterate in its +form. + +Quite the deepest-thoughted creatures of the then animate world, it +seems to me, these Saxon ploughmen of the sand or the sea, with their +worshipped deity of Beauty and Justice, a red rose on her banner, for +best of gifts, and in her right hand, instead of a sword, a balance, +for due doom, without wrath,--of retribution in her left. Far +other than the Wends, though stubborn enough, they too, in battle +rank,--seven times rising from defeat against Charlemagne, and +unsubdued but by death--yet, by no means in that John Bull's manner +of yours, 'averse to be interfered with,' in their opinions, or their +religion. Eagerly docile on the contrary--joyfully reverent--instantly +and gratefully acceptant of whatever better insight or oversight a +stranger could bring them, of the things of God or man. + +And let me here ask you especially to take account of that origin of +the true bearing of the Flag of England, the Red Rose. Her own +madness defiled afterwards alike the white and red, into images of the +paleness, or the crimson, of death; but the Saxon Rose was the symbol +of heavenly beauty and peace. + +I told you in my first lecture that one swift requirement in our +school would be to produce a beautiful map of England, including +old Northumberland, giving the whole country, in its real geography, +between the Frith of Forth and Straits of Dover, and with only +six sites of habitation given, besides those of Edinburgh and +London,--namely, those of Canterbury and Winchester, York and +Lancaster, Holy Island and Melrose; the latter instead of Iona, +because, as we have seen, the influence of St. Columba expires +with the advance of Christianity, while that of Cuthbert of +Melrose connects itself with the most sacred feelings of the entire +Northumbrian kingdom, and Scottish border, down to the days of +Scott--wreathing also into its circle many of the legends of Arthur. +Will you forgive my connecting the personal memory of having once had +a wild rose gathered for me, in the glen of Thomas the Rhymer, by the +daughter of one of the few remaining Catholic houses of Scotland, with +the pleasure I have in reading to you this following true account +of the origin of the name of St. Cuthbert's birthplace;--the rather +because I owe it to friendship of the same date, with Mr. Cockburn +Muir, of Melrose. + +"To those who have eyes to read it," says Mr. Muir, "the name +'Melrose' is written full and fair, on the fair face of all this reach +of the valley. The name is anciently spelt Mailros, and later, Malros, +never Mulros; ('Mul' being the Celtic word taken to mean 'bare'). Ros +is Rose; the forms Meal or Mol imply great quantity or number. Thus +Malros means the place of many roses. + +"This is precisely the notable characteristic of the neighbourhood. +The wild rose is indigenous. There is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor +brae, which is not, in the time of roses, ablaze with their exuberant +loveliness. In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that it +spreads literally like a weed. But it is worth suggestion that the +word may be of the same stock as the Hebrew _rôsh_ (translated rôs +by the Septuagint), meaning _chief_, _principal_, while it is also +the name of _some_ flower; but of _which_ flower is now unknown. +Affinities of _rôsh_ are not far to seek; Sanskrit, _Raj_(a), +_Ra_(ja)_ni_; Latin, _Rex_, _Reg_(ina)." + +I leave it to Professor Max Muller to certify or correct for you the +details of Mr. Cockburn's research,[11]--this main head of it I can +positively confirm, that in old Scotch,--that of Bishop Douglas,--the +word 'Rois' stands alike for King, and Rose. + +[Footnote 11: I had not time to quote it fully in the lecture; and in +my ignorance, alike of Keltic and Hebrew, can only submit it here to +the reader's examination. "The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms +this etymology beyond doubt, with customary heraldic precision. The +shield bears a _Rose_; with a _Maul_, as the exact phonetic equivalent +for the expletive. If the herald had needed to express 'bare +promontory,' quite certainly he would have managed it somehow. +Not only this, the Earls of Haddington were first created Earls +of _Melrose_ (1619); and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for +Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd (fesse wavy between) three _Roses_ gu. + +"Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus +into lingual affinities of wide range. The root _mol_ is clear enough. +It is of the same stock as the Greek _mála_, Latin _mul_(_tum_), and +Hebrew _m'la_. But, _Rose_? We call her Queen of Flowers, and since +before the Persian poets made much of her, she was everywhere _Regina +Florum_. Why should not the name mean simply the Queen, the Chief? +Now, so few who know Keltic know also Hebrew, and so few who know +Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the surprising extent of the +affinity that exists--clear as day--between the Keltic and the Hebrew +vocabularies. That the word _Rose_ may be a case in point is not +hazardously speculative."] + +Summing now the features I have too shortly specified in the Saxon +character,--its imagination, its docility, its love of knowledge, +and its love of beauty, you will be prepared to accept my conclusive +statement, that they gave rise to a form of Christian faith which +appears to me, in the present state of my knowledge, one of the +purest and most intellectual ever attained in Christendom;--never yet +understood, partly because of the extreme rudeness of its expression +in the art of manuscripts, and partly because, on account of its very +purity, it sought no expression in architecture, being a religion +of daily life, and humble lodging. For these two practical reasons, +first;--and for this more weighty third, that the intellectual +character of it is at the same time most truly, as Dean Stanley +told you, childlike; showing itself in swiftness of imaginative +apprehension, and in the fearlessly candid application of great +principles to small things. Its character in this kind may be +instantly felt by any sympathetic and gentle person who will read +carefully the book I have already quoted to you, the Venerable Bede's +life of St. Cuthbert; and the intensity and sincerity of it in the +highest orders of the laity, by simply counting the members of Saxon +Royal families who ended their lives in monasteries. + +Now, at the very moment when this faith, innocence, and ingenuity were +on the point of springing up into their fruitage, comes the Northern +invasion; of the real character of which you can gain a far truer +estimate by studying Alfred's former resolute contest with and victory +over the native Norman in his paganism, than by your utmost endeavours +to conceive the character of the afterwards invading Norman, +disguised, but not changed, by Christianity. The Norman could not, in +the nature of him, become a _Christian_ at all; and he never did;--he +only became, at his best, the enemy of the Saracen. What he was, and +what alone he was capable of being, I will try to-day to explain. + +And here I must advise you that in all points of history relating +to the period between 800 and 1200, you will find M. Viollet le +Duc, incidentally throughout his 'Dictionary of Architecture,' the +best-informed, most intelligent, and most thoughtful of guides. +His knowledge of architecture, carried down into the most minutely +practical details,--(which are often the most significant), and +embracing, over the entire surface of France, the buildings even of +the most secluded villages; his artistic enthusiasm, balanced by the +acutest sagacity, and his patriotism, by the frankest candour, render +his analysis of history during that active and constructive period the +most valuable known to me, and certainly, in its field, exhaustive. +Of the later nationality his account is imperfect, owing to his +professional interest in the mere _science_ of architecture, and +comparative insensibility to the power of sculpture;--but of the +time with which we are now concerned, whatever he tells you must be +regarded with grateful attention. + +I introduce, therefore, the Normans to you, on their first entering +France, under his descriptive terms of them.[12] + +[Footnote 12: Article "Architecture," vol. i., p. 138.] + +"As soon as they were established on the soil, these barbarians became +the most hardy and active builders. Within the space of a century +and a half, they had covered the country on which they had definitely +landed, with religious, monastic, and civil edifices, of an extent and +richness then little common. It is difficult to suppose that they had +brought from Norway the elements of art,[13] but they were possessed +by a persisting and penetrating spirit; their brutal force did not +want for grandeur. Conquerors, they raised castles to assure their +domination; they soon recognized the Moral force of the clergy, and +endowed it richly. Eager always to attain their end, when once they +saw it, they _never left one of their enterprises unfinished_, and +in that they differed completely from the Southern inhabitants of +Gaul. Tenacious extremely, they were perhaps the only ones among the +barbarians established in France who had ideas of order; the only ones +who knew how to preserve their conquests, and compose a state. They +found the remains of the Carthaginian arts on the territory where they +planted themselves, they mingled with those their national genius, +positive, grand, and yet supple." + +[Footnote 13: They _had_ brought some, of a variously Charybdic, +Serpentine, and Diabolic character.--J.R.] + +Supple, 'Delié,'--capable of change and play of the mental muscle, in +the way that savages are not. I do not, myself, grant this suppleness +to the Norman, the less because another sentence of M. le Duc's, +occurring incidentally in his account of the archivolt, is of extreme +counter-significance, and wide application. "The Norman arch," he +says, "is _never derived from traditional classic forms_, but only +from mathematical arrangement of line." Yes; that is true: the Norman +arch is never derived from classic forms. The cathedral,[14] whose +aisles you saw or might have seen, yesterday, interpenetrated +with light, whose vaults you might have heard prolonging the sweet +divisions of majestic sound, would have been built in that stately +symmetry by Norman law, though never an arch at Rome had risen round +her field of blood,--though never her Sublician bridge had been +petrified by her Augustan pontifices. But the _decoration_, though not +the structure of those arches, they owed to another race,[15] whose +words they stole without understanding, though three centuries before, +the Saxon understood, and used, to express the most solemn majesty of +his Kinghood,-- + + "EGO, EDGAR, TOTIVS ALBIONIS"-- + +not Rex, that would have meant the King of Kent or Mercia, not of +England,--no, nor Imperator; that would have meant only the profane +power of Rome, but _BASILEVS_, meaning a King who reigned with sacred +authority given by Heaven and Christ. + +[Footnote 14: Of Oxford, during the afternoon service.] + +[Footnote 15: See the concluding section of the lecture.] + +With far meaner thoughts, both of themselves and their powers, the +Normans set themselves to build impregnable military walls, and +sublime religious ones, in the best possible practical ways; but +they no more made books of their church fronts than of their bastion +flanks; and cared, in the religion they accepted, neither for its +sentiments nor its promises, but only for its immediate results on +national order. + +As I read them, they were men wholly of this world, bent on doing the +most in it, and making the best of it that they could;--men, to their +death, of _Deed_, never pausing, changing, repenting, or anticipating, +more than the completed square, ὰνευ ψογου, of their battle, their +keep, and their cloister. Soldiers before and after everything, they +learned the lockings and bracings of their stones primarily in defence +against the battering-ram and the projectile, and esteemed the pure +circular arch for its distributed and equal strength more than for its +beauty. "I believe again," says M. le Duc,[16] "that the feudal castle +never arrived at its perfectness till after the Norman invasion, +and that this race of the North was the first to apply a defensive +system under unquestionable laws, soon followed by the nobles of the +Continent, after they had, at their own expense, learned their +superiority." + +[Footnote 16: Article "Château," vol. iii, p. 65.] + +The next sentence is a curious one. I pray your attention to it. "The +defensive system of the Norman is born of a profound sentiment of +_distrust_ and _cunning, foreign to the character of the Frank_." +You will find in all my previous notices of the French, continual +insistance upon their natural Franchise, and also, if you take the +least pains in analysis of their literature down to this day, that +the idea of falseness is to them indeed more hateful than to any other +European nation. To take a quite cardinal instance. If you compare +Lucian's and Shakespeare's Timon with Molière's Alceste, you +will find the Greek and English misanthropes dwell only on men's +_ingratitude_ to _themselves_, but Alceste, on their _falsehood to +each other_. + +Now hear M. le Duc farther: + +"The castles built between the tenth and twelfth centuries along the +Loire, Gironde, and Seine, that is to say, along the lines of the +Norman invasions, and in the neighbourhood of their possessions, have +a peculiar and uniform character which one finds neither in central +France, nor in Burgundy, nor can there be any need for us to throw +light on (_faire ressortir_) the superiority of the warrior spirit +of the Normans, during the later times of the Carlovingian epoch, +over the spirit of the chiefs of Frank descent, established on the +Gallo-Roman soil." There's a bit of honesty in a Frenchman for you! + +I have just said that they valued religion chiefly for its influence +of order in the present world: being in this, observe, as nearly as +may be the exact reverse of modern believers, or persons who profess +to be such,--of whom it may be generally alleged, too truly, that they +value religion with respect to their future bliss rather than their +present duty; and are therefore continually careless of its direct +commands, with easy excuse to themselves for disobedience to them. +Whereas the Norman, finding in his own heart an irresistible impulse +to action, and perceiving himself to be set, with entirely strong +body, brain, and will, in the midst of a weak and dissolute confusion +of all things, takes from the Bible instantly into his conscience +every exhortation to Do and to Govern; and becomes, with all his might +and understanding, a blunt and rough servant, knecht, or knight of +God, liable to much misapprehension, of course, as to the services +immediately required of him, but supposing, since the whole make of +him, outside and in, is a soldier's, that God meant him for a soldier, +and that he is to establish, by main force, the Christian faith and +works all over the world so far as he comprehends them; not merely +with the Mahometan indignation against spiritual error, but with a +sound and honest soul's dislike of material error, and resolution to +extinguish _that_, even if perchance found in the spiritual persons to +whom, in their office, he yet rendered total reverence. + +Which force and faith in him I may best illustrate by merely putting +together the broken paragraphs of Sismondi's account of the founding +of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily: virtually contemporary with the +conquest of England. + +"The Normans surpassed all the races of the west in their ardour for +pilgrimages. They would not, to go into the Holy Land, submit to the +monotony[17] of a long sea voyage--the rather that they found not +on the Mediterranean the storms or dangers they had rejoiced to +encounter on their own sea. They traversed by land the whole of +France and Italy, trusting to their swords to procure the necessary +subsistence,[18] if the charity of the faithful did not enough provide +for it with alms. The towns of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, and Bari, held +constant commerce with Syria; and frequent miracles, it was believed, +illustrated the Monte Cassino (St. Benedict again!) on the road of +Naples, and the Mount of Angels (Garganus) above Bari." (Querceta +Gargani--verily, laborant; _now_, et orant.) "The pilgrims wished +to visit during their journey the monasteries built on these two +mountains, and therefore nearly always, either going or returning to +the Holy Land, passed through Magna Græcia. + +[Footnote 17: I give Sismondi's idea as it stands, but there was no +question in the matter of monotony or of danger. The journey was made +on foot because it was the most laborious way, and the most humble.] + +[Footnote 18: See farther on, p. 110, the analogies with English +arrangements of the same kind.] + +"In one of the earliest years of the eleventh century, about forty +of these religious travellers, having returned from the Holy Land, +chanced to have met together in Salerno at the moment when a small +Saracen fleet came to insult the town, and demand of it a military +contribution. The inhabitants of South Italy, at this time, abandoned +to the delights of their enchanted climate, had lost nearly all +military courage. The Salernitani saw with astonishment forty Norman +knights, after having demanded horses and arms from the Prince of +Salerno, order the gates of the town to be opened, charge the Saracens +fearlessly, and put them to flight. The Salernitani followed, however, +the example given them by these brave warriors, and those of the +Mussulmans who escaped their swords were forced to re-embark in all +haste. + +"The Prince of Salerno, Guaimar III., tried in vain to keep the +warrior-pilgrims at his court: but at his solicitation other companies +established themselves on the rocks of Salerno and Amalfi, until, +on Christmas Day, 1041, (exactly a quarter of a century before the +coronation here at Westminster of the Conqueror,) they gathered +their scattered forces at Aversa,[19] twelve groups of them +under twelve chosen counts, and all under the Lombard Ardoin, as +commander-in-chief." Be so good as to note that,--a marvellous +key-note of historical fact about the unjesting Lombards, I cannot +find the total Norman number: the chief contingent, under William +of the Iron Arm, the son of Tancred of Hauteville, was only of three +hundred knights; the Count of Aversa's troop, of the same number, is +named as an important part of the little army--admit it for ten times +Tancred's, three thousand men in all. At Aversa, these three thousand +men form, coolly on Christmas Day, 1041, the design of--well, I told +you they didn't _design_ much, only, now we're here, we may as well, +while we're about it,--overthrow the Greek empire! That was their +little game!--a Christmas mumming to purpose. The following year, the +whole of Apulia was divided among them. + +[Footnote 19: In Lombardy, south of Pavia.] + +I will not spoil, by abstracting, the magnificent following history +of Robert Guiscard, the most wonderful soldier of that or any other +time: I leave you to finish it for yourselves, only asking you to read +together with it, the sketch, in Turner's history of the Anglo-Saxons, +of Alfred's long previous war with the Norman Hasting; pointing out to +you for foci of character in each contest, the culminating incidents +of naval battle. In Guiscard's struggle with the Greeks, he encounters +for their chief naval force the Venetian fleet under the Doge Domenico +Selvo. The Venetians are at this moment undoubted masters in all naval +warfare; the Normans are worsted easily the first day,--the second +day, fighting harder, they are defeated again, and so disastrously +that the Venetian Doge takes no precautions against them on the third +day, thinking them utterly disabled. Guiscard attacks him again on the +third day, with the mere wreck of his own ships, and defeats the tired +and amazed Italians finally! + +The sea-fight between Alfred's ships and those of Hasting, ought to be +still more memorable to us. Alfred, as I noticed in last lecture, had +built war ships nearly twice as long as the Normans', swifter, and +steadier on the waves. Six Norman ships were ravaging the Isle of +Wight; Alfred sent nine of his own to take them. The King's fleet +found the Northmen's embayed, and three of them aground. The three +others _engaged Alfred's nine, twice their size_; two of the Viking +ships were taken, but the third escaped, with only five men! A nation +which verily took its pleasures in its Deeds. + +But before I can illustrate farther either their deeds or their +religion, I must for an instant meet the objection which I suppose the +extreme probity of the nineteenth century must feel acutely against +these men,--that they all lived by thieving. + +Without venturing to allude to the _raison d'être_ of the present +French and English Stock Exchanges, I will merely ask any of you here, +whether of Saxon or Norman blood, to define for himself what he means +by the "possession of India." I have no doubt that you all wish to +keep India in order, and in like manner I have assured you that Duke +William wished to keep England in order. If you will read the lecture +on the life of Sir Herbert Edwardes, which I hope to give in London +after finishing this course,[20] you will see how a Christian British +officer can, and does, verily, and with his whole heart, keep in order +such part of India as may be entrusted to him, and in so doing, secure +our Empire. But the silent feeling and practice of the nation about +India is based on quite other motives than Sir Herbert's. Every +mutiny, every danger, every terror, and every crime, occurring under, +or paralyzing, our Indian legislation, arises directly out of our +national desire to live on the loot of India, and the notion always +entertained by English young gentlemen and ladies of good position, +falling in love with each other without immediate prospect of +establishment in Belgrave Square, that they can find in India, +instantly on landing, a bungalow ready furnished with the +loveliest fans, china, and shawls,--ices and sherbet at +command,--four-and-twenty slaves succeeding each other hourly to +swing the punkah, and a regiment with a beautiful band to "keep order" +outside, all round the house. + +[Footnote 20: This was prevented by the necessity for the +re-arrangement of my terminal Oxford lectures: I am now preparing that +on Sir Herbert for publication in a somewhat expanded form.] + +Entreating your pardon for what may seem rude in these personal +remarks, I will further entreat you to read my account of the death +of CÅ“ur de Lion in the third number of 'Fors Clavigera'--and also the +scenes in 'Ivanhoe' between CÅ“ur de Lion and Locksley; and commending +these few passages to your quiet consideration, I proceed to give you +another anecdote or two of the Normans in Italy, twelve years later +than those given above, and, therefore, only thirteen years before the +battle of Hastings. + +Their division of South Italy among them especially, and their defeat +of Venice, had alarmed everybody considerably,--especially the Pope, +Leo IX., who did not understand this manifestation of their piety. He +sent to Henry III. of Germany, to whom he owed his Popedom, for some +German knights, and got five hundred spears; gathered out of all +Apulia, Campania, and the March of Ancona, what Greek and Latin troops +were to be had, to join his own army of the patrimony of St. Peter; +and the holy Pontiff, with this numerous army, but no general, began +the campaign by a pilgrimage with all his troops to Monte Cassino, in +order to obtain, if it might be, St. Benedict for general. + +Against the Pope's collected masses, with St. Benedict, their +contemplative but at first inactive general, stood the little army of +Normans,--certainly not more than the third of their number--but with +Robert Guiscard for captain, and under him his brother, Humphrey of +Hauteville, and Richard of Aversa. Not in fear, but in devotion, they +prayed the Pope 'avec instance,'--to say on what conditions they could +appease his anger, and live in peace under him. But the Pope would +hear of nothing but their evacuation of Italy. Whereupon, they had to +settle the question in the Norman manner. + +The two armies met in front of Civitella, on Waterloo day, 18th June, +thirteen years, as I said, before the battle of Hastings. The German +knights were the heart of the Pope's army, but they were only five +hundred; the Normans surrounded _them_ first, and slew them, nearly +to a man--and then made extremely short work with the Italians and +Greeks. The Pope, with the wreck of them, fled into Civitella; but the +townspeople dared not defend their walls, and thrust the Pope himself +out of their gates--to meet, alone, the Norman army. + +He met it, _not_ alone, St. Benedict being with him now, when he had +no longer the strength of man to trust in. + +The Normans, as they approached him, threw themselves on their +knees,--covered themselves with dust, and implored his pardon and his +blessing. + +There's a bit of poetry--if you like,--but a piece of steel-clad fact +also, compared to which the battle of Hastings and Waterloo both, were +mere boys' squabbles. + +You don't suppose, you British schoolboys, that _you_ overthrew +Napoleon--_you?_ Your prime Minister folded up the map of Europe at +the thought of him. Not you, but the snows of Heaven, and the hand of +Him who dasheth in pieces with a rod of iron. He casteth forth His ice +like morsels,--who can stand before His cold? + +But, so far as you have indeed the right to trust in the courage of +your own hearts, remember also--it is not in Norman nor Saxon, but in +Celtic race that your real strength lies. The battles both of Waterloo +and Alma were won by Irish and Scots--by the terrible Scots Greys, and +by Sir Colin's Highlanders. Your 'thin red line,' was kept steady at +Alma only by Colonel Yea's swearing at them. + +But the old Pope, alone against a Norman army, wanted nobody to swear +at him. Steady enough he, having somebody to bless him, instead of +swear at him. St. Benedict, namely; whose (memory shall we say?) +helped him now at his pinch in a singular manner,--for the Normans, +having got the old man's forgiveness, vowed themselves his feudal +servants; and for seven centuries afterwards the whole kingdom of +Naples remained a fief of St. Peter,--won for him thus by a single +man, unarmed, against three thousand Norman knights, captained by +Robert Guiscard! + +A day of deeds, gentlemen, to some purpose,--_that_ 18th of June, +anyhow. + +Here, in the historical account of Norman character, I must +unwillingly stop for to-day--because, as you choose to spend your +University money in building ball-rooms instead of lecture-rooms, I +dare not keep you much longer in this black hole, with its nineteenth +century ventilation. I try your patience--and tax your breath--only +for a few minutes more in drawing the necessary corollaries respecting +Norman art.[21] + +[Footnote 21: Given at much greater length in the lecture, with +diagrams from Iffley and Poictiers, without which the text of them +would be unintelligible. The sum of what I said was a strong assertion +of the incapacity of the Normans for any but the rudest and most +grotesque sculpture,--Poictiers being, on the contrary, examined and +praised as Gallic-French--not Norman.] + +How far the existing British nation owes its military prowess to +the blood of Normandy and Anjou, I have never examined its genealogy +enough to tell you;--but this I can tell you positively, that whatever +constitutional order or personal valour the Normans enforced or taught +among the nations they conquered, they did not at first attempt with +their own hands to rival them in any of their finer arts, but used +both Greek and Saxon sculptors, either as slaves, or hired workmen, +and more or less therefore chilled and degraded the hearts of the men +thus set to servile, or at best, hireling, labour. + +In 1874, I went to see Etna, Scylla, Charybdis, and the tombs of the +Norman Kings at Palermo; surprised, as you may imagine, to find that +there wasn't a stroke nor a notion of Norman work in them. They are, +every atom, done by Greeks, and are as pure Greek as the temple of +Ægina; but more rich and refined. I drew with accurate care, and +with measured profile of every moulding, the tomb built for Roger +II. (afterwards Frederick II. was laid in its dark porphyry). And it +is a perfect type of the Greek-Christian form of tomb--temple over +sarcophagus, in which the pediments rise gradually, as time goes on, +into acute angles--get pierced in the gable with foils, and their +sculptures thrown outside on their flanks, and become at last in the +fourteenth century, the tombs of Verona. But what is the meaning of +the Normans employing these Greek slaves for their work in Sicily +(within thirty miles of the field of Himera)? Well, the main meaning +is that though the Normans could build, they couldn't carve, and were +wise enough not to try to, when they couldn't, as you do now all over +this intensely comic and tragic town: but, here in England, they only +employed the Saxon with a grudge, and therefore being more and more +driven to use barren mouldings without sculpture, gradually developed +the structural forms of archivolt, which breaking into the lancet, +brighten and balance themselves into the symmetry of early English +Gothic. + +But even for the first decoration of the archivolt itself, they were +probably indebted to the Greeks in a degree I never apprehended, until +by pure happy chance, a friend gave me the clue to it just as I was +writing the last pages of this lecture. + +In the generalization of ornament attempted in the first volume of +the 'Stones of Venice,' I supposed the Norman _zigzag_ (and with some +practical truth) to be derived from the angular notches with which the +blow of an axe can most easily decorate, or at least vary, the solid +edge of a square fillet. My good friend, and supporter, and for some +time back the single trustee of St. George's Guild, Mr. George Baker, +having come to Oxford on Guild business, I happened to show him the +photographs of the front of Iffley church, which had been collected +for this lecture; and immediately afterwards, in taking him through +the schools, stopped to show him the Athena of Ægina as one of +the most important of the Greek examples lately obtained for us by +Professor Richmond. The statue is (rightly) so placed that in looking +up to it, the plait of hair across the forehead is seen in a steeply +curved arch. "Why," says Mr. Baker, pointing to it, "there's the +Norman arch of Iffley." Sure enough, there it exactly was: and a +moment's reflection showed me how easily, and with what instinctive +fitness, the Norman builders, looking to the Greeks as their absolute +masters in sculpture, and recognizing also, during the Crusades, the +hieroglyphic use of the zigzag, for water, by the Egyptians, might +have adopted this easily attained decoration at once as the sign of +the element over which they reigned, and of the power of the Greek +goddess who ruled both it and them. + +I do not in the least press your acceptance of such a tradition, +nor for the rest, do I care myself whence any method of ornament is +derived, if only, as a stranger, you bid it reverent welcome. But much +probability is added to the conjecture by the indisputable transition +of the Greek egg and arrow moulding into the floral cornices of Saxon +and other twelfth century cathedrals in Central France. These and +other such transitions and exaltations I will give you the materials +to study at your leisure, after illustrating in my next lecture the +forces of religious imagination by which all that was most beautiful +in them was inspired. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +(_NOV. 8, 1884._) + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. + +_CÅ’UR DE LION TO ELIZABETH_ + +(1189 TO 1558). + + +In using the word "Fancy," for the mental faculties of which I am to +speak to-day, I trust you, at your leisure, to read the Introductory +Note to the second volume of 'Modern Painters' in the small new +edition, which gives sufficient reason for practically including +under the single term Fancy, or Fantasy, all the energies of the +Imagination,--in the terms of the last sentence of that preface,--"the +healthy, voluntary, and necessary,[22] action of the highest powers +of the human mind, on subjects properly demanding and justifying their +exertion." + +[Footnote 22: Meaning that all healthy minds possess imagination, and +use it at will, under fixed laws of truthful perception and memory.] + +I must farther ask you to read, in the same volume, the close of the +chapter 'Of Imagination Penetrative,' pp. 120 to 130, of which the +gist, which I must give as the first principle from which we start in +our to-day's inquiry, is that "Imagination, rightly so called, has no +food, no delight, no care, no perception, except of truth; it is for +ever looking under masks, and burning up mists; no fairness of form, +no majesty of seeming, will satisfy it; the first condition of its +existence is incapability of being deceived."[23] In that sentence, +which is a part, and a very valuable part, of the original book, I +still adopted and used unnecessarily the ordinary distinction between +Fancy and Imagination--Fancy concerned with lighter things, creating +fairies or centaurs, and Imagination creating men; and I was in +the habit always of implying by the meaner word Fancy, a voluntary +Fallacy, as Wordsworth does in those lines to his wife, making of her +a mere lay figure for the drapery of his fancy-- + + Such if thou wert, in all men's view + An universal show, + What would my Fancy have to do, + My feelings to bestow. + +But you will at once understand the higher and more universal power +which I now wish you to understand by the Fancy, including all +imaginative energy, correcting these lines of Wordsworth's to a more +worthy description of a true lover's happiness. When a boy falls in +love with a girl, you say he has taken a fancy for her; but if he love +her rightly, that is to say for her noble qualities, you ought to say +he has taken an imagination for her; for then he is endued with the +new light of love which sees and tells of the mind in her,--and this +neither falsely nor vainly. His love does not bestow, it discovers, +what is indeed most precious in his mistress, and most needful for +his own life and happiness. Day by day, as he loves her better, he +discerns her more truly; and it is only the truth of his love that +does so. Falsehood to her, would at once disenchant and blind him. + +[Footnote 23: Vide pp. 124-5.] + +In my first lecture of this year, I pointed out to you with what +extreme simplicity and reality the Christian faith must have presented +itself to the Northern Pagan's mind, in its distinction from +his former confused and monstrous mythology. It was also in that +simplicity and tangible reality of conception, that this Faith became +to them, and to the other savage nations of Europe, Tutress of the +real power of their imagination and it became so, only in so far as +it indeed conveyed to them statements which, however in some respects +mysterious, were yet most literally and brightly _true_, as compared +with their former conceptions. So that while the blind cunning of +the savage had produced only misshapen logs or scrawls; the _seeing_ +imagination of the Christian painters created, for them and for all +the world, the perfect types of the Virgin and of her Son; which +became, indeed, Divine, by being, with the most affectionate truth, +human. + +And the association of this truth in loving conception, with the +general honesty and truth of the character, is again conclusively +shown in the feelings of the lover to his mistress; which we recognize +as first reaching their height in the days of chivalry. The truth and +faith of the lover, and his piety to Heaven, are the foundation, in +his character, of all the joy in imagination which he can receive +from the conception of his lady's--now no more mortal--beauty. She is +indeed transfigured before him; but the truth of the transfiguration +is greater than that of the lightless aspect she bears to others. When +therefore, in my next lecture, I speak of the Pleasures of Truth, +as distinct from those of the Imagination,--if either the limits +or clearness of brief title had permitted me, I should have said, +_untransfigured_ truth;--meaning on the one side, truth which we have +not heart enough to transfigure, and on the other, truth of the lower +kind which is incapable of transfiguration. One may look at a girl +till one believes she is an angel; because, in the best of her, she +_is_ one; but one can't look at a cockchafer till one believes it is a +girl. + +With this warning of the connection which exists between the honest +intellect and the healthy imagination; and using henceforward the +shorter word 'Fancy' for all inventive vision, I proceed to consider +with you the meaning and consequences of the frank and eager exertion +of the fancy on Religious subjects, between the twelfth and sixteenth +centuries. + +Its first, and admittedly most questionable action, the promotion +of the group of martyr saints of the third century to thrones of +uncontested dominion in heaven, had better be distinctly understood, +before we debate of it, either with the Iconoclast or the Rationalist. +This apotheosis by the Imagination is the subject of my present +lecture. To-day I only describe it,--in my next lecture I will discuss +it. + +Observe, however, that in giving such a history of the mental +constitution of nascent Christianity, we have to deal with, and +carefully to distinguish, two entirely different orders in its +accepted hierarchy:--one, scarcely founded at all on personal +characters or acts, but mythic or symbolic; often merely the revival, +the baptized resuscitation of a Pagan deity, or the personified +omnipresence of a Christian virtue;--the other, a senate of Patres +Conscripti of real persons, great in genius, and perfect, humanly +speaking, in holiness; who by their personal force and inspired +wisdom, wrought the plastic body of the Church into such noble form +as in each of their epochs it was able to receive; and on the right +understanding of whose lives, nor less of the affectionate traditions +which magnified and illumined their memories, must absolutely depend +the value of every estimate we form, whether of the nature of the +Christian Church herself, or of the directness of spiritual agency by +which she was guided.[24] + +[Footnote 24: If the reader believes in no spiritual agency, still his +understanding of the first letters in the Alphabet of History depends +on his comprehending rightly the tempers of the people who _did_.] + +An important distinction, therefore, is to be noted at the outset, +in the objects of this Apotheosis, according as they are, or are not, +real persons. + +Of these two great orders of Saints, the first; or mythic, +belongs--speaking broadly--to the southern or Greek Church alone. + +The Gothic Christians, once detached from the worship of Odin and +Thor, abjure from their hearts all trust in the elements, and all +worship of ideas. They will have their Saints in flesh and blood, +their Angels in plume and armour; and nothing incorporeal or +invisible. In all the Religious sculpture beside Loire and Seine, you +will not find either of the great rivers personified; the dress of the +highest seraph is of true steel or sound broadcloth, neither flecked +by hail, nor fringed by thunder; and while the ideal Charity of Giotto +at Padua presents her heart in her hand to God, and tramples at the +same instant on bags of gold, the treasures of the world, and gives +only corn and flowers; that on the west porch of Amiens is content to +clothe a beggar with a piece of the staple manufacture of the town. + +On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to find in the imagery of +the Greek Church, under the former exercise of the Imagination, a +representation either of man or beast which purports to represent +_only_ the person, or the brute. Every mortal creature stands for an +Immortal Intelligence or Influence: a Lamb means an Apostle, a Lion an +Evangelist, an Angel the Eternal justice or benevolence; and the most +historical and indubitable of Saints are compelled to set forth, in +their vulgarly apparent persons, a Platonic myth or an Athanasian +article. + +I therefore take note first of the mythic saints in succession, whom +this treatment of them by the Byzantine Church made afterwards the +favourite idols of all Christendom. + +I. The most mythic is of course St. Sophia; the shade of the Greek +Athena, passing into the 'Wisdom' of the Jewish Proverbs and Psalms, +and the Apocryphal 'Wisdom of Solomon.' She always remains understood +as a personification only; and has no direct influence on the mind +of the unlearned multitude of Western Christendom, except as a +godmother,--in which kindly function she is more and more accepted as +times go on; her healthy influence being perhaps greater over sweet +vicars' daughters in Wakefield--when Wakefield _was_,--than over the +prudentest of the rarely prudent Empresses of Byzantium. + +II. Of St. Catharine of Egypt there are vestiges of personal tradition +which may perhaps permit the supposition of her having really once +existed, as a very lovely, witty, proud, and 'fanciful' girl. She +afterwards becomes the Christian type of the Bride, in the 'Song of +Solomon,' involved with an ideal of all that is purest in the life of +a nun, and brightest in the death of a martyr. It is scarcely possible +to overrate the influence of the conceptions formed of her, in +ennobling the sentiments of Christian women of the higher orders;--to +their practical common sense, as the mistresses of a household or a +nation, her example may have been less conducive. + +III. St. Barbara, also an Egyptian, and St. Catharine's contemporary, +though the most practical of the mythic saints, is also, after St. +Sophia, the least corporeal: she vanishes far away into the 'Inclusa +Danae,' and her "Tunis aenea" becomes a myth of Christian safety, of +which the Scriptural significance may be enough felt by merely looking +out the texts under the word "Tower," in your concordance; and whose +effectual power, in the fortitudes alike of matter and spirit, was in +all probability made impressive enough to all Christendom, both by +the fortifications and persecutions of Diocletian. I have endeavoured +to mark her general relations to St. Sophia in the little imaginary +dialogue between them, given in the eighth lecture of the 'Ethics of +the Dust.' + +Afterwards, as Gothic architecture becomes dominant, and at last +beyond question the most wonderful of all temple-building, St. +Barbara's Tower is, of course, its perfected symbol and utmost +achievement; and whether in the coronets of countless battlements worn +on the brows of the noblest cities, or in the Lombard bell-tower on +the mountains, and the English spire on Sarum plain, the geometric +majesty of the Egyptian maid became glorious in harmony of defence, +and sacred with precision of symbol. + +As the buildings which showed her utmost skill were chiefly exposed +to lightning, she is invoked in defence from it; and our petition +in the Litany, against sudden death, was written originally to her. +The blasphemous corruptions of her into a patroness of cannon and +gunpowder, are among the most ludicrous, (because precisely contrary +to the original tradition,) as well as the most deadly, insolences and +stupidities of Renaissance Art. + +IV. St. Margaret of Antioch was a shepherdess; the St. Geneviève of +the East; the type of feminine gentleness and simplicity. Traditions +of the resurrection of Alcestis perhaps mingle in those of her contest +with the dragon; but at all events, she differs from the other three +great mythic saints, in expressing the soul's victory over temptation +or affliction, by Christ's miraculous help, and without any special +power of its own. She is the saint of the meek and of the poor; her +virtue and her victory are those of all gracious and lowly womanhood; +and her memory is consecrated among the gentle households of Europe; +no other name, except those of Jeanne and Jeanie, seems so gifted with +a baptismal fairy power of giving grace and peace. + +I must be forgiven for thinking, even on this canonical ground, +not only of Jeanie Deans, and Margaret of Branksome; but of +Meg--Merrilies. My readers will, I fear, choose rather to think of the +more doubtful victory over the Dragon, won by the great Margaret of +German literature. + +V. With much more clearness and historic comfort we may approach the +shrine of St. Cecilia; and even on the most prosaic and realistic +minds--such as my own--a visit to her house in Rome has a comforting +and establishing effect, which reminds one of the carter in 'Harry +and Lucy,' who is convinced of the truth of a plaustral catastrophe at +first incredible to him, as soon as he hears the name of the hill on +which it happened. The ruling conception of her is deepened gradually +by the enlarged study of Religious music; and is at its best and +highest in the thirteenth century, when she rather resists than +complies with the already tempting and distracting powers of sound; +and we are told that "cantantibus organis, Cecilia virgo in corde suo +soli Domino decantabat, dicens, 'Fiat, Domine, cor meum et corpus meum +immaculatum, ut non confundar.'" + +("While the instruments played, Cecilia the virgin sang in her +heart only to the Lord, saying, Oh Lord, be my heart and body made +stainless, that I be not confounded.") + +This sentence occurs in my great Service-book of the convent of +Beau-pré, written in 1290, and it is illustrated with a miniature of +Cecilia sitting silent at a banquet, where all manner of musicians are +playing. I need not point out to you how the law, not of sacred music +only, so called, but of _all_ music, is determined by this sentence; +which means in effect that unless music exalt and purify, it is not +under St. Cecilia's ordinance, and it is not, virtually, music at all. + +Her confessed power at last expires amidst a hubbub of odes and +sonatas; and I suppose her presence at a Morning Popular is as little +anticipated as desired. Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints +for ever the greatest; and the child in its nurse's arms, and every +tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify in itself,--as the +eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing,--may still, whether behind the +Temple veil,[25] or at the fireside, and by the wayside, hear Cecilia +sing. + + [Footnote 25:"But, standing in the lowest place, + And mingled with the work-day crowd, + A poor man looks, with lifted face, + And hears the Angels cry aloud. + + "He seeks not how each instant flies, + One moment is Eternity; + His spirit with the Angels cries + To Thee, to Thee, continually. + + "What if, Isaiah-like, he know + His heart be weak, his lips unclean, + His nature vile, his office low, + His dwelling and his people mean? + + "To such the Angels spake of old-- + To such of yore, the glory came; + These altar fires can ne'er grow cold: + Then be it his, that cleansing flame." + +These verses, part of a very lovely poem, "To Thee all Angels cry +aloud," in the 'Monthly Packet' for September 1873, are only signed +'Veritas.' The volume for that year (the 16th) is well worth getting, +for the sake of the admirable papers in it by Miss Sewell, on +questions of the day; by Miss A.C. Owen, on Christian Art; and the +unsigned Cameos from English History.] + +It would delay me too long just now to trace in specialty farther the +functions of the mythic, or, as in another sense they may be truly +called, the universal, Saints: the next greatest of them, St. Ursula, +is essentially British,--and you will find enough about her in +'Fors Clavigera'; the others, I will simply give you in entirely +authoritative order from the St. Louis' Psalter, as he read and +thought of them. + +The proper Service-book of the thirteenth century consists first +of the pure Psalter; then of certain essential passages of the Old +Testament--invariably the Song of Miriam at the Red Sea and the last +song of Moses;--ordinarily also the 12th of Isaiah and the prayer of +Habakkuk; while St. Louis' Psalter has also the prayer of Hannah, +and that of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20); the Song of the Three +Children; then the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. +Then follows the Athanasian Creed; and then, as in all Psalters after +their chosen Scripture passages, the collects to the Virgin, the +Te Deum, and Service to Christ, beginning with the Psalm 'The Lord +reigneth'; and then the collects to the greater individual saints, +closing with the Litany, or constant prayer for mercy to Christ, and +all saints; of whom the order is,--Archangels, Patriarchs, Apostles, +Disciples, Innocents, Martyrs, Confessors, Monks, and Virgins. Of +women the Magdalen _always_ leads; St. Mary of Egypt usually follows, +but _may_ be the last. Then the order varies in every place, and +prayer-book, no recognizable supremacy being traceable; except in +relation to the place, or person, for whom the book was written. In +St. Louis', St. Geneviève (the last saint to whom he prayed on his +death-bed) follows the two Maries; then come--memorable for you best, +as easiest, in this six-foil group,--Saints Catharine, Margaret, and +Scolastica, Agatha, Cecilia, and Agnes; and then ten more, whom +you may learn or not as you like: I note them now only for future +reference,--more lively and easy for your learning,--by their French +names, + +Felicité, + +Colombe, + +Christine, + + * * * * * + +Aurée, Honorine, + + * * * * * + +Radegonde, + +Praxède, + +Euphémie, + + * * * * * + +Bathilde, Eugénie. + +Such was the system of Theology into which the Imaginative Religion of +Europe was crystallized, by the growth of its own best faculties, and +the influence of all accessible and credible authorities, during the +period between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries inclusive. Its +spiritual power is completely represented by the angelic and apostolic +dynasties, and the women-saints in Paradise; for of the men-saints, +beneath the apostles and prophets, none but St. Christopher, St. +Nicholas, St. Anthony, St. James, and St. George, attained anything +like the influence of Catharine or Cecilia; for the very curious +reason, that the men-saints were much more true, real, and numerous. +St. Martin was reverenced all over Europe, but definitely, as a man, +and the Bishop of Tours. So St. Ambrose at Milan, and St. Gregory at +Rome, and hundreds of good men more, all over the world; while the +really good women remained, though not rare, inconspicuous. The +virtues of French Clotilde, and Swiss Berthe, were painfully borne +down in the balance of visible judgment, by the guilt of the Gonerils, +Regans, and Lady Macbeths, whose spectral procession closes only +with the figure of Eleanor in Woodstock maze; and in dearth of +nearer objects, the daily brighter powers of fancy dwelt with +more concentrated devotion on the stainless ideals of the earlier +maid-martyrs. And observe, even the loftier fame of the men-saints +above named, as compared with the rest, depends on precisely the same +character of indefinite personality; and on the representation, by +each of them, of a moral idea which may be embodied and painted in +a miraculous legend; credible, as history, even then, only to the +vulgar; but powerful over them, nevertheless, exactly in proportion +to the degree in which it can be pictured and fancied as a living +creature. Consider even yet in these days of mechanism, how the +dullest John Bull cannot with perfect complacency adore _himself_, +except under the figure of Britannia or the British Lion; and how the +existence of the popular jest-book, which might have seemed secure in +its necessity to our weekly recreation, is yet virtually centred on +the imaginary animation of a puppet, and the imaginary elevation to +reason of a dog. But in the Middle Ages, this action of the Fancy, +now distorted and despised, was the happy and sacred tutress of every +faculty of the body and soul; and the works and thoughts of art, the +joys and toils of men, rose and flowed on in the bright air of it, +with the aspiration of a flame, and the beneficence of a fountain. + +And now, in the rest of my lecture, I had intended to give you a broad +summary of the rise and fall of English art, born under this code of +theology, and this enthusiasm of duty;--of its rise, from the rude +vaults of Westminster, to the finished majesty of Wells;--and of its +fall, from that brief hour of the thirteenth century, through the wars +of the Bolingbroke, and the pride of the Tudor, and the lust of the +Stewart, to expire under the mocking snarl and ruthless blow of the +Puritan. But you know that I have always, in my most serious work, +allowed myself to be influenced by those Chances, as they are now +called,--but to my own feeling and belief, guidances, and even, if +rightly understood, commands,--which, as far as I have read history, +the best and sincerest men think providential. Had this lecture been +on common principles of art, I should have finished it as I intended, +without fear of its being the worse for my consistency. But it deals, +on the contrary, with a subject, respecting which every sentence I +write, or speak, is of importance in its issue; and I allowed, as you +heard, the momentary observation of a friend, to give an entirely new +cast to the close of my last lecture. Much more, I feel it incumbent +upon me in this one, to take advantage of the most opportune help, +though in an unexpected direction, given me by my constant tutor, +Professor Westwood. I went to dine with him, a day or two ago, +mainly--being neither of us, I am thankful to say, blue-ribanded--to +drink his health on his recovery from his recent accident. Whereupon +he gave me a feast of good talk, old wine, and purple manuscripts. And +having had as much of all as I could well carry, just as it came to +the good-night, out he brings, for a finish, this leaf of manuscript +in my hand, which he has lent me to show you,--a leaf of the Bible of +Charles the Bald! + +A leaf of it, at least, as far as you or I could tell, for Professor +Westwood's copy is just as good, in all the parts finished, as the +original: and, for all practical purpose, I show you here in my hand +a leaf of the Bible which your own King Alfred saw with his own bright +eyes, and from which he learned his child-faith in the days of dawning +thought! + +There are few English children who do not know the story of Alfred, +the king, letting the cakes burn, and being chidden by his peasant +hostess. How few English children--nay, how few perhaps of their +educated, not to say learned, elders--reflect upon, if even they know, +the far different scenes through which he had passed when a child! + +Concerning his father, his mother, and his own childhood, suppose you +were to teach your children first these following main facts, before +you come to the toasting of the muffin? + +His father, educated by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, had been +offered the throne of the great Saxon kingdom of Mercia in his early +youth; had refused it, and entered, as a novice under St. Swithin the +monastery at Winchester. From St. Swithin, he received the monastic +habit, and was appointed by Bishop Helmstan one of his sub-deacons! + +"The quiet seclusion which Ethelwulph's slow[26] capacity and meek +temper coveted" was not permitted to him by fate. The death of his +elder brother left him the only living representative of the line of +the West Saxon princes. His accession to the throne became the desire +of the people. He obtained a dispensation from the Pope to leave the +cloister; assumed the crown of Egbert; and retained Egbert's prime +minister, Alstan, Bishop of Sherborne, who was the Minister in peace +and war, the Treasurer, and the Counsellor, of the kings of England, +over a space, from first to last, of fifty years. + +[Footnote 26: Turner, quoting William of Malmesbury, "Crassioris et +hebetis ingenii,"--meaning that he had neither ardour for war, nor +ambition for kinghood.] + +Alfred's mother, Osburga, must have been married for love. She was the +daughter of Oslac, the king's cup-bearer. Extolled for her piety and +understanding, she bore the king four sons; dying before the last, +Alfred, was five years old, but leaving him St. Swithin for his tutor. +How little do any of us think, in idle talk of rain or no rain on St. +Swithin's day, that we speak of the man whom Alfred's father obeyed as +a monk, and whom his mother chose for his guardian! + +Alfred, both to father and mother, was the best beloved of their +children. On his mother's death, his father sent him, being then five +years old, with a great retinue through France and across the Alps +to Rome; and there the Pope anointed him King, (heir-apparent to the +English throne), at the request of his father. + +Think of it, you travellers through the Alps by tunnels, that you +may go to balls at Rome or hells at Monaco. Here is another manner +of journey, another goal for it, appointed for your little king. At +twelve, he was already the best hunter among the Saxon youths. Be sure +he could sit his horse at five. Fancy the child, with his keen genius, +and holy heart, riding with his Saxon chiefs beside him, by the Alpine +flowers under Velan or Sempione, and down among the olives to Pavia, +to Perugia, to Rome; there, like the little fabled Virgin, ascending +the Temple steps, and consecrated to be King of England by the great +Leo, Leo of the Leonine city, the saviour of Rome from the Saracen. + +Two years afterwards, he rode again to Rome beside his father; the +West Saxon king bringing presents to the Pope, a crown of pure gold +weighing four pounds, a sword adorned with pure gold, two golden +images,[27] four Saxon silver dishes; and giving a gift of gold to all +the Roman clergy and nobles,[28] and of silver to the people. + +[Footnote 27: Turner, Book IV.,--not a vestige of hint from the stupid +Englishman, what the Pope wanted with crown, sword, or image! My own +guess would be, that it meant an offering of the entire household +strength, in war and peace, of the Saxon nation,--their crown, their +sword, their household gods, Irminsul and Irminsula, their feasting, +and their robes.] + +[Footnote 28: Again, what does this mean? Gifts of honour to the +Pope's immediate attendants--silver to all Rome? Does the modern +reader think this is buying little Alfred's consecration too dear, or +that Leo is selling the Holy Ghost?] + +No idle sacrifices or symbols, these gifts of courtesy! The Saxon King +rebuilt on the highest hill that is bathed by Tiber, the Saxon street +and school, the Borgo,[29] of whose miraculously arrested burning +Raphael's fresco preserves the story to this day. And further +he obtained from Leo the liberty of all Saxon men from bonds +in penance;--a first phase this of Magna Charta, obtained more +honourably, from a more honourable person, than that document, by +which Englishmen of this day, suppose they live, move, and have being. + +[Footnote 29: "Quæ in eorum lingua Burgus dicitur,--the place +where it was situated was called the Saxon street, Saxonum vicum" +(Anastasius, quoted by Turner). There seems to me some evidence in the +scattered passages I have not time to collate, that at this time the +Saxon Burg, or tower, of a village, included the idea of its school.] + +How far into Alfred's soul, at seven years old, sank any true image of +what Rome was, and had been; of what her Lion Lord was, who had saved +her from the Saracen, and her Lion Lord had been, who had saved her +from the Hun; and what this Spiritual Dominion was, and was to be, +which could make and unmake kings, and save nations, and put armies to +flight; I leave those to say, who have learned to reverence childhood. +This, at least, is sure, that the days of Alfred were bound each to +each, not only by their natural piety, but by the actual presence and +appeal to his heart, of all that was then in the world most noble, +beautiful, and strong against Death. + +In this living Book of God he had learned to read, thus early; and +with perhaps nobler ambition than of getting the prize of a gilded +psalm-book at his mother's knee, as you are commonly told of him. What +sort of psalm-book it was, however, you may see from this leaf in my +hand. For, as his father and he returned from Rome that year, they +stayed again at the Court of Charlemagne's grandson, whose daughter, +the Princess Judith, Ethelwolf was wooing for Queen of England, (not +queen-consort, merely, but crowned queen, of authority equal to his +own.) From whom Alfred was like enough to have had a reading lesson or +two out of her father's Bible; and like enough, the little prince, to +have stayed her hand at this bright leaf of it, the Lion-leaf, bearing +the symbol of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. + +You cannot, of course, see anything but the glittering from where +you sit; nor even if you afterwards look at it near, will you find +a figure the least admirable or impressive to you. It is not like +Landseer's Lions in Trafalgar Square; nor like Tenniel's in 'Punch'; +still less like the real ones in Regent's Park. Neither do I show it +you as admirable in any respect of art, other than that of skilfullest +illumination. I show it you, as the most interesting Gothic type of +the imagination of Lion; which, after the Roman Eagle, possessed the +minds of all European warriors; until, as they themselves grew selfish +and cruel, the symbols which at first meant heaven-sent victory, or +the strength and presence of some Divine spirit, became to them only +the signs of their own pride or rage: the victor raven of Corvus sinks +into the shamed falcon of Marmion, and the lion-heartedness which gave +the glory and the peace of the gods to Leonidas, casts the glory and +the might of kinghood to the dust before Chalus.[30] + +[Footnote 30: 'Fors Clavigera,' March, 1871, p. 19. Yet read the +preceding pages, and learn the truth of the lion heart, while you +mourn its pride. Note especially his absolute law against usury.] + +That death, 6th April, 1199, ended the advance of England begun +by Alfred, under the pure law of Religious Imagination. She began, +already, in the thirteenth century, to be decoratively, instead of +vitally, religious. The history of the Religious Imagination expressed +between Alfred's time and that of CÅ“ur de Lion, in this symbol of the +Lion only, has material in it rather for all my seven lectures than +for the closing section of one; but I must briefly specify to you the +main sections of it. I will keep clear of my favourite number seven, +and ask you to recollect the meaning of only Five, Mythic Lions. + +First of all, in Greek art, remember to keep yourselves clear about +the difference between the Lion and the Gorgon. + +The Gorgon is the power of evil in heaven, conquered by Athena, and +thenceforward becoming her ægis, when she is herself the inflictor of +evil. Her helmet is then the helmet of Orcus. + +But the Lion is the power of death on earth, conquered by Heracles, +and becoming thenceforward both his helmet and ægis. All ordinary +architectural lion sculpture is derived from the Heraclean. + +Then the Christian Lions are, first, the Lion of the Tribe of +Judah--Christ Himself as Captain and Judge: "He shall rule the +nations with a rod of iron," (the opposite power of His adversary, +is rarely intended in sculpture unless in association with the +serpent--"inculcabis supra leonem et aspidem"); secondly, the Lion of +St. Mark, the power of the Gospel going out to conquest; thirdly, the +Lion of St. Jerome, the wrath of the brute creation changed into love +by the kindness of man; and, fourthly, the Lion of the Zodiac, which +is the Lion of Egypt and of the Lombardic pillar-supports in +Italy; these four, if you remember, with the Nemean Greek one, five +altogether, will give you, broadly, interpretation of nearly all +Lion symbolism in great art. How they degenerate into the British +door knocker, I leave you to determine for yourselves, with such +assistances as I may be able to suggest to you in my next lecture; +but, as the grotesqueness of human history plans it, there is actually +a connection between that last degradation of the Leonine symbol, and +its first and noblest significance. + +You see there are letters round this golden Lion of Alfred's +spelling-book, which his princess friend was likely enough to spell +for him. They are two Latin hexameters:-- + + Hic Leo, surgendo, portas confregit Averni + Qui nunquam dormit, nusquam dormitat, in ævum. + (This Lion, rising, burst the gates of Death: + This, who sleeps not, nor shall sleep, for ever.) + +Now here is the Christian change of the Heraclean conquest of Death +into Christ's Resurrection. Samson's bearing away the gates of Gaza is +another like symbol, and to the mind of Alfred, taught, whether by +the Pope Leo for his schoolmaster, or by the great-granddaughter of +Charlemagne for his schoolmistress, it represented, as it did to all +the intelligence of Christendom, Christ in His own first and last, +Alpha and Omega, description of Himself,-- + +"I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, +and _have the keys_ of Hell and of Death." And in His servant St. +John's description of Him-- + +"Who is the Faithful Witness and the First-begotten of the dead, and +the Prince of the kings of the earth." + +All this assuredly, so far as the young child, consecrated like David, +the youngest of his brethren, conceived his own new life in Earth and +Heaven,--he understood already in the Lion symbol. But of all this I +had no thought[31] when I chose the prayer of Alfred as the type of +the Religion of his era, in its dwelling, not on the deliverance from +the punishment of sin, but from the poisonous sleep and death of it. +Will you ever learn that prayer again,--youths who are to be priests, +and knights, and kings of England, in these the latter days? when +the gospel of Eternal Death is preached here in Oxford to you for the +Pride of Truth? and "the mountain of the Lord's House" has become a +Golgotha, and the "new song before the throne" sunk into the rolling +thunder of the death rattle of the Nations, crying, "O Christ, where +is Thy Victory!" + +[Footnote 31: The reference to the Bible of Charles le Chauve was +added to my second lecture (page 54), in correcting the press, +mistakenly put into the text instead of the notes.] + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Five Christmas Days_. (These were drawn out on a large and +conspicuous diagram.) + +These days, as it happens, sum up the History of their Five Centuries. + + Christmas Day, 496. Clovis baptized. + " " 800. Charlemagne crowned. + " " 1041. Vow of the Count of Aversa (Page 80). + " " 1066. The Conqueror crowned. + " " 1130. Roger II. crowned King of the Two Sicilies. + +2. For conclusion of the whole matter two pictures were shown and +commented on--the two most perfect pictures in the world. + +(1) A small piece from Tintoret's Paradiso in the Ducal Palace, +representing the group of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St. +Augustine, and behind St. Augustine his mother watching him, her chief +joy even in Paradise. + +(2) The Arundel Society's reproduction of the Altar-piece by Giorgione +in his native hamlet of Castel Franco. The Arundel Society has done +more for us than we have any notion of. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +JOHN RUSKIN, + +(SEPARATELY AND IN SETS.) + + * * * * * + + + AN INQUIRY INTO SOME OF THE CONDITIONS + AFFECTING "THE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE" IN + OUR SCHOOLS. 12mo, paper. $ 10 + + ARATRA PENTELICI. Six Lectures on the + Elements of Sculpture, given before the University + of Oxford, with cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO, With 21 full-page plates (two colored), + printed separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARIADNE FLORENTINA. Six Lectures on Wood + and Metal Engraving, given before the University + of Oxford, 12mo, cloth. Complete with + Appendix. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO. With 12 full-page plates, printed separately. + 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARROWS OF THE CHACE. A Collection + of Letters from 1840 to 1880. Edited by an Oxford + Pupil. 2 vols. bound in one. Plate. 12mo, cloth. 1 00 + + ART CULTURE. A Hand-Book of Art Technicalities + and Criticisms, selected from the Works of John + Ruskin, and arranged and supplemented by Rev. W.H. + Platt, for the use of the Intelligent Traveler and + Art Student, with a new Glossary of Art Terms and + an Alphabetical and Chronological List of Artists. + With illustrations. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50 + +"Mr. Platt has worked out an idea so striking for its attractiveness +and utility that, perceiving it, we at once go to work wondering that +somebody else had not executed it before him. He has gone over the +vast and superb areas of John Ruskin's Writings, and cutting out one +block here and another there, as it has suited his purpose, has put +all these parts together again into a literary mosaic, constituting a +clear and harmonious system of art principles, wherein Ruskin all the +while is the teacher. He has reduced Ruskin to a code. On the whole, +we see not what this book lacks of being a complete text-book of the +Gospel of Art according to St. John Ruskin."--_Christian Union_. + + ART OF ENGLAND. Lectures given in Oxford + during the second tenure of the Slade Professorship. + Parts I. to VI. complete, 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ART OF ENGLAND. 12mo, cloth extra. 1 00 + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY--PRÆTERITA. + OUTLINES OF SCENES AND THOUGHTS, perhaps + worthy of memory, in MY PAST LIFE. By John Ruskin, LL.D. + + Vol. I. (Chapters 1 to 12.) 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00 + Vol. II. (Chapters 1 to 10.) 8vo, paper, each. 25 + Vol. I. (Chapters 1 to 12.) 12mo, cloth. 1 50 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RUSKIN. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL + LIST, arranged in chronological order of the + published writings in Prose and Verse of John + Ruskin, from 1834 to the present time + (October, 1878.) 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + BIRTHDAY BOOK. A Selection of Thoughts, + Mottoes and Aphorisms for Every Day to the Tear, + from the works of JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D. Collected + and arranged by M.A.B. and G.A. With a new + and fine portrait of Mr. Ruskin. Square 12mo, + cloth, extra beveled boards, gilt edges. 1 50 + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, THE. Three Lectures + on Work, Traffic, and War. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DEUCALION. Collected Studies on the Lapse + of Waves and Life of Stones. Vol. I. (Parts 1 to + 6.) Plates. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 25 + + DITTO. Vol. II. (Parts 7 and 8) Plates. 12mo, + russet cloth. 75 + + EAGLE'S NEST, THE. Ten Lectures on the + Relation of Natural Science to Art, given before + the University of Oxford. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ELEMENTS OF DRAWING, THE. In Three + Letters to Beginners. With illustrations + drawn by the author, 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ELEMENTS OF PERSPECTIVE, THE. + Arranged for the use of Schools, 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ETHICS OF THE DUST, THE. Ten Lectures + to Little Housewives on the Elements of + Crystallization. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + FORS CLAVIGERA. Letters to the Workmen + and Laborers of Great Britain--Complete. + + Vols. 1 and 2.--2 vols. in one. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + Vols. 3 and 4.--2 vols. in one, 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + Vols. 5 and 6.--2 vols. in one. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + Vols. 7 and 8.--2 vols. in one. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + DITTO. 8 vols. in four, 11 full-page plates. 12mo, + russet cloth. 5 00 + + FRONDES AGRESTES. Headings on "Modern + Painters." Chosen at her pleasure by the + author's friend, the Younger Lady of the Thwaite, + Coniston. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER, THE. + Or, The Black Brothers. A Legend of Stiria. A + Fairy Tale. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth extra. 50 + + LAWS OF FESOLE, THE. A Familiar Treatise + on the Elementary Principles and Practice of + Drawing and Painting as determined by the Tuscan + Masters, with numerous plates. Arranged for the + use of Schools. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO, With 12 plates. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING. + Delivered at Edinburgh. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO. With 15 plates, full-page, printed + separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + LECTURES ON ART. Delivered before the + University of Oxford in Hilary Term. 12mo, russet + cloth. 50 + + LETTERS AND ADVICE TO YOUNG GIRLS AND YOUNG + LADIES ON DRESS, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE. THEIR SPHERE, + INFLUENCE, WOMEN'S WORK, WOMEN'S RIGHTS, ETC., ETC. + 12mo, extra gilt, cloth. 50 + + LOVE'S MEINE. Lectures on Greek and English + Birds, given before the University of Oxford. + 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + MISCELLANEA. Containing Catalogue of Turner's + Drawings as revised and cast up into progressive + groups, etc. Notes on some of the Principal Pictures + in Royal Academy--Guide to the Principal Pictures + of the Academy of Venice--Michael Angelo and + Tintoret--Inaugural Address at Cambridge--Opening of + Crystal Palace--Fiction, Fair and Foul--Giotto and + His Works--Pront and Hunt--Studies of Mountain and + Cloud Form--King of Golden River--Sheepfolds. 2 vols. + Russet cloth, each 1 00 + + MODERN PAINTERS. 5 vols. Bound in 4 + vols. Complete with all Plates and Wood Cuts. + + Vol. 1.--Part 1. General Principles. Part 2. Truth. + Vol. 2.--Part 3. Of Ideas of Beauty. + Vol. 3.--Part 4. Of Many Things. + Vol. 4.--Part 5. Of Mountain Beauty, + Vol. 5.--Part 6. Leaf Beauty. Part 7. Of Cloud + Beauty. Part 8. Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Formal. Part 9, Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Spiritual. 4 vols., russet cloth. $6 00 + DITTO. With all the Plates and Woodcuts, in box, + 5 vols., 12mo, extra cloth. 10 00 + DITTO. With all the Plates and Woodcuts, in box, + 5 vols., 12mo, half calf. 17 00 + DITTO. With all the Woodcuts, 5 vols. bound in + 8 vols., 12mo, russet cloth. 3 50 + + MODERN PAINTERS. People's edition. 5 + vols. in 2. Neat blue cloth. 2 00 + + MODERN PAINTERS. EXTRA VOL. + Being the reissue of Volume II. of this work. Revised + and rearranged with critical notes by the + author. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + DITTO. 12mo, extra cloth. 75 + DITTO. 12mo, green cloth. 50 + + MORNINGS IN FLORENCE. Being simple + studies on Christian Art for English Travelers. + Santa Croce--The Golden Gate--Before the Soldan--The + Vaulted Roof--The Strait Gate. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + MUNERA PULVERIS. Six Essays on the Elements + of Political Economy. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS: or, + Visible Churches. (_See Miscellanea_.) + + OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US. + Sketches of the History of Christendom for Boys + and Girls who have been held at its Fonts. Four + full-page plates. Russet cloth, each. 1 00 + + PEARLS FOR YOUNG LADIES. From the + later works of John Ruskin. Selected and arranged + by Louisa C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + DITTO. Extra gilt cloth. 1 25 + + PLEASURES OF ENGLAND. Lectures + given at Oxford by John Ruskin, viz.: Pleasures + of Learning; Pleasures of Faith; Pleasures of + Deed; Pleasures of Fancy. 12mo, boards. 50 + + POEMS, THE OLD WATER WHEEL AND OTHER POEMS. + By John Ruskin, Collected and edited from their + original "Annual" publication. 12mo, russet cloth. $ 50 + DITTO, ditto, with an etched frontispiece. Extra + gilt, cloth. 1 25 + + POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE, THE. + Cottage, Villa, etc., to which is added Suggestions + on Works of Art. With numerous illustrations. + By Kata Phusin. (Nom de Plume of John Ruskin.) + 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART, THE + OR, A JOY FOREVER. Being the substance + of two lectures (with additions) delivered + at Manchester. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS: Moral and Religious. + Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, + A.M. By Mrs. L.C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + DITTO, ditto. Extra gilt, cloth. 1 25 + + PRE-RAPHAELITISM. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + PRAETERITA. See Ruskin's Autobiography. + Vol. 1. 8vo, cloth. 3 00 + + PROSERPINA. Studies of Wayside Flowers + while the air was yet pure among the Alps and in + the Scotland and England which my father knew. + Vol. I. (Parts I to 6.) Plates. 12mo, russet cloth 1 25 + Vol. II. (Parts 7, 8, and 9.) Plates. 12mo, russet + cloth. 1 00 + + QUEEN OF THE AIR, THE. Being a Study of the + Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ST. MARK'S REST. THE HISTORY OF VENICE. + Written for the help of the Few Travelers who still + care for her Monuments. Parts I., II., and III., + with two Supplements. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN + RUSKIN. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + DITTO, ditto. 12mo, extra cloth. 1 00 + + SESAME AND LILIES. Three Lectures (on + Books, Women, etc.) 1. Of Kings' Treasuries. 2. + Of Queens' Gardens. 3. Of the Mystery of Life. + 12mo, blue cloth. 50 + New Edition. 12mo, thick paper, russet cloth. 75 + New Edition. 12mo, thick paper, ex. cloth. 1 00 + + SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE. + With copies of illustrations drawn by the author. + 14 full-page plates, 12mo, ex. cloth. $1 25 + DITTO, ditto. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + DITTO. Cheap edition, without plates. 12mo, + green-cloth. 50 + DITTO. People's edition. Neat blue cloth. 50 + + STONES OF VENICE. Vol. 1. Foundations. + Vol. 2. Sea Stories. Vol. 8. The Fall. 3 vols. in + two. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50 + DITTO, ditto. 3 vols. in two. 54 Plates. 3 00 + 3 vols. in box. Plates, 12mo, ex. cloth. 4 50 + DITTO. 3 vols. Plates, 12mo, ½ calf. 7 50 + DITTO. People's edition. 3 vols. in one. Neat + blue cloth. 1 25 + + STORM CLOUD OF THE 19TH CENTURY. + By John Ruskin. 12mo, bds. 50 + + THE TRUE AND THE BEAUTIFUL IN NATURE. ART, + MORALS AND RELIGION. Selected from the Works + of John Ruskin, A.M. With a notice of the author + by Mrs. L.C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + DITTO, ditto, with Portrait. 12mo, extra cloth. 1 25 + + THE TWO PATHS. Being Lectures on Art, and + its Application to Decoration and Manufacture. + With steel plates and cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + DITTO. Without plates. 50 + + TIME AND TIDE BY WEARE AND TYNE. + Twenty-five Letters to a Workingman of Sunderland + on the Laws of work. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + "UNTO THIS LAST." Four Essays on the First + Principles of Political Economy, 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + VAL D'ARNO. Ten Lectures on the Tuscan + Art directly Antecedent to Florentine year of + Victories. 13 plates. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + + + +RUSKIN'S COMPLETE WORKS. + + + With all the Wood Engravings, and With and Without Plates. + There are 277 FULL PAGE PLATES in the complete edition. + Printed on plate paper. Some of them in colors, as follows: + + RUSKIN'S WORKS. Uniformly bound in 13 volumes. + Elegant style. 223 full-page Plates, colored and + plain, on plate paper. 12mo, extra cloth. $18 00 + DITTO, ditto, with all the plates. 12mo, ½ calf. 36 00 + Ditto, ditto, without plates. 12 vols. 12mo, extra + cloth. 12 00 + + RUSKIN'S WORKS. (Second Series). Additional + Writings, completing his Works. Uniform + in size and binding with the 12-volume edition. + 6 vols., 12mo, cloth extra. 7 50 + 6 vols., with all the plates, 12mo, cloth extra. 10 50 + 6 vols., with all the plates, 12mo, ½ calf, 21 00 + DITTO, including both series. Wood engravings, + 18 vols., extra cloth. 19 50 + DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood + engravings, 18 vols., extra cloth. 28 50 + DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood + engravings. 20 vols., extra cloth. 30 00 + DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood + engravings. 19 vols., ½ calf. 58 00 + DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood + engravings. 20 vols., ½ calf. 60 00 + + * * * * * + +CHOICE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN + + An elegant octavo edition, including Modern Painters, 5 vols., + Stones of Venice, 3 vols., and Seven Lamps, 1 vol. With very + fine copies of all the Plates and Wood engravings of the + earliest London editions. + + 9 vols., 8vo, cloth, 45 00 + 9 vols., ½ calf, 63 00 + 9 vols., full calf, 72 00 + +_SUITABLE FOR PRESENTS._ + +Ruskin's Beauties. + + THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. } 3 vols. + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. } in box. 3 50 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. } ex. clo. + DITTO, 3 vols. in box, ½ calf, 7 50 + +Ruskin's Popular Volumes. + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE. } 4 vols. + SESAME AND LILIES. } in box, + QUEEN OF THE AIR. } extra $8 50 + ETHICS OF THE DUST. } cloth. + +Ruskin on Art. + + LECTURES ON ART. } 4 vols. + TWO PATHS.--PLATES. } in box, + EAGLE'S NEST. } extra 3 50 + POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART. } cloth. + DITTO, 2 vols. in box, ½ calf 7 00 + +Ruskin on Architecture. + + POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE--PLATES. } 4 vols. + SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE--PLATES. } in + LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AND } box, 4 00 + PAINTING--PLATES. } ex. + STONES OF VENICE (Selections.) } cloth. + 2 vols. in box, ½ calf. 7 50 + +Ruskin on Drawing, Etc. + + ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. } 4 vols. + ELEMENTS OF PERSPECTIVE. } in box, + LAWS OF FESOLE--PLATES. } extra 3 50 + FRONDES AGRESTES. } cloth. + 2 vols. in box, ½ calf. 7 00 + +_THE FOLLOWING BEAUTIFUL VOLUMES BEING SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN'S +WORKS._ + +In Neat 12mo. Volumes. Cloth, Gilt Extra. + + ART CULTURE. With Illustrations, cloth extra. 2 50 + LETTERS AND ADVICE TO YOUNG LADIES. Cloth extra. 50 + PEARLS FOR YOUNG LADIES. Cloth extra. 1 25 + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. Cloth extra. 1 25 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. Cloth extra. $ 1 00 + TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. Cloth extra. 1 25 + RUSKIN'S BIRTHDAY BOOK. Cloth extra. 1 50 + RUSKIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (PRAETERITA.) + Vol. 1. Plate, 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00 + +ALSO--WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY. + 30 Full Page Plates. 8vo, cloth extra. 3 50 + RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S STORY OF IDA. + With a Beautiful Portrait. 12mo, cloth extra. 75 + DITTO, Ditto. With Portrait. 4to, cloth extra. 1 50 + +The following volumes are valuable as + +_READING BOOKS,_ + +and are specially recommended for use to HIGH SCHOOLS AND LADIES' +SEMINARIES. + + THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. Selected + from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + ART CULTURE. Selected from Ruskin's + Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50 + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. Selected + from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. Selected from + Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + SESAME AND LILIES. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + LECTURES TO LITTLE HOUSEWIVES. + Ethics of the Dust). 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + +*** _Copies of these volumes will be sent for examination, with +reference to introduction,_ FREE, _by mail, on receipt of two-thirds +of the printed price._ + +ELEGANT 8VO EDITION + +OF + +RUSKIN'S CHOICE WORKS, + +(_BUT FEW COPIES REMAIN OF THIS EDITION._) + + MODERN PAINTERS. By John Ruskin. New and + beautiful edition. Containing fine copies of all + the plates, (87) and wood engravings of the original + London edition. + Vol. 1.--Part 1. General Principles. Part 2. Truth. + Vol. 2.--Part 3. Of Ideas of Beauty. + Vol. 3.--Part 4. Of Many Things. + Vol. 4.--Part 5. Of Mountain Beauty. + Vol. 5.--Part 6. Leaf Beauty. Part 7. Of Cloud + Beauty. Part 8. Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Formal. Part 9. Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Spiritual. + 5 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 30 00 + 6 vols., 8vo, ½ calf. 40 00 + 5 vols., 8vo, full calf. 45 00 + + STONES OF VENICE. By John Ruskin. + New and beautiful edition, Containing fine copies + of all the plates, (54) colored and plain, and wood + engravings of the original London edition. + Vol. 1.--The Foundations. + Vol. 2.--The Sea Stories. + Vol. 3.--The Fall. + 3 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 18 00 + 3 vols., 8vo, ½ calf. 4 00 + 3 vols., 8vo, full calf. 27 00 + PLATES to ditto separately, including fine copies + of all the plates in London edition. (54) colored + and plain. 8vo, extra cloth. 6 00 + + SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE. By John Ruskin. + New and beautiful edition, containing fine copies + of all the plates (14) of the original London + edition. Lamp of Sacrifice. Lamp of Truth. Lamp of + Power. Lamp of Beauty. Lamp of Life. Lamp of + Memory. Lamp of Obedience, + extra cloth. 6 00 + ½ calf. 8 00 + full calf. 9 00 + + MISS ALEXANDER'S WORKS. + + ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY. By Miss Francesca + Alexander, with 20 full page plates, from drawings + of the author. Edited by John Ruskin. + 8vo, cloth extra. 3 50 + DITTO, DITTO. 20 Plates, ½ morocco. 6 50 + + THE STORY OF IDA. EPITAPH ON AN ETRURIAN TOMB. + By Francesca Alexander, with Preface by John Ruskin. + Illustrated, with a Beautiful Portrait. + 12mo, laid paper, cloth extra. 0 75 + 4to, heavy paper, cloth extra. 1 50 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of England, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 15947-0.txt or 15947-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/4/15947/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15947-0.zip b/15947-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94ea8e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/15947-0.zip diff --git a/15947-8.txt b/15947-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35d60cc --- /dev/null +++ b/15947-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3564 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of England, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pleasures of England + Lectures given in Oxford + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: May 30, 2005 [EBook #15947] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + +THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND. + +LECTURES GIVEN IN OXFORD. + +BY + +JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L., LL.D., + +HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF +CORPUS-CHRISTI COLLEGE. + +DURING HIS + +_SECOND TENURE OF THE SLADE PROFESSORSHIP._ + + + +NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY AND SONS. 1888. + + * * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. _Bertha to Osburga_ 5 + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. _Alfred to the Confessor_ 31 + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. _Alfred to Coeur de Lion_ 61 + + +LECTURE IV. + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. _Coeur de Lion to Elizabeth_ 91 + + * * * * * + + + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. + +_BERTHA TO OSBURGA._ + + +In the short review of the present state of English Art, given you +last year, I left necessarily many points untouched, and others +unexplained. The seventh lecture, which I did not think it necessary +to read aloud, furnished you with some of the corrective statements +of which, whether spoken or not, it was extremely desirable that you +should estimate the balancing weight. These I propose in the present +course farther to illustrate, and to arrive with you at, I hope, +a just--you would not wish it to be a flattering--estimate of the +conditions of our English artistic life, past and present, in order +that with due allowance for them we may determine, with some security, +what those of us who have faculty ought to do, and those who have +sensibility, to admire. + +2. In thus rightly doing and feeling, you will find summed a wider +duty, and granted a greater power, than the moral philosophy at this +moment current with you has ever conceived; and a prospect opened to +you besides, of such a Future for England as you may both hopefully +and proudly labour for with your hands, and those of you who are +spared to the ordinary term of human life, even see with your eyes, +when all this tumult of vain avarice and idle pleasure, into which +you have been plunged at birth, shall have passed into its appointed +perdition. + +3. I wish that you would read for introduction to the lectures I have +this year arranged for you, that on the Future of England, which I +gave to the cadets at Woolwich in the first year of my Professorship +here, 1869; and which is now placed as the main conclusion of the +"Crown of Wild Olive": and with it, very attentively, the close of +my inaugural lecture given here; for the matter, no less than the +tenor of which, I was reproved by all my friends, as irrelevant and +ill-judged;--which, nevertheless, is of all the pieces of teaching I +have ever given from this chair, the most pregnant and essential to +whatever studies, whether of Art or Science, you may pursue, in this +place or elsewhere, during your lives. + +The opening words of that passage I will take leave to read to you +again,--for they must still be the ground of whatever help I can give +you, worth your acceptance. + +"There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race: +a race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. +We have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +finally betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in +an inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years +of noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice; so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years +we have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity +which has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. + +"One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be no king in +it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his own +eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon and +Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle; for all the world a source +of light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions--faithful servant of time-tried principles, +under temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and +amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped +in her strange valour, of goodwill towards men?" + +The fifteen years that have passed since I spoke these words must, I +think, have convinced some of my immediate hearers that the need for +such an appeal was more pressing than they then imagined;--while they +have also more and more convinced me myself that the ground I took +for it was secure, and that the youths and girls now entering on the +duties of active life are able to accept and fulfil the hope I then +held out to them. + +In which assurance I ask them to-day to begin the examination with +me, very earnestly, of the question laid before you in that seventh +of my last year's lectures, whether London, as it is now, be indeed +the natural, and therefore the heaven-appointed outgrowth of the +inhabitation, these 1800 years, of the valley of the Thames by a +progressively instructed and disciplined people; or if not, in what +measure and manner the aspect and spirit of the great city may be +possibly altered by your acts and thoughts. + +In my introduction to the Economist of Xenophon I said that every +fairly educated European boy or girl ought to learn the history of +five cities,--Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, and London; that of +London including, or at least compelling in parallel study, knowledge +also of the history of Paris. + +A few words are enough to explain the reasons for this choice. The +history of Athens, rightly told, includes all that need be known of +Greek religion and arts; that of Rome, the victory of Christianity +over Paganism; those of Venice and Florence sum the essential facts +respecting the Christian arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Music; +and that of London, in her sisterhood with Paris, the development of +Christian Chivalry and Philosophy, with their exponent art of Gothic +architecture. + +Without the presumption of forming a distinct design, I yet hoped at +the time when this division of study was suggested, with the help of +my pupils, to give the outlines of their several histories during +my work in Oxford. Variously disappointed and arrested, alike by +difficulties of investigation and failure of strength, I may yet hope +to lay down for you, beginning with your own metropolis, some of the +lines of thought in following out which such a task might be most +effectively accomplished. + +You observe that I speak of architecture as the chief exponent of +the feelings both of the French and English races. Together with +it, however, most important evidence of character is given by the +illumination of manuscripts, and by some forms of jewellery and +metallurgy: and my purpose in this course of lectures is to illustrate +by all these arts the phases of national character which it is +impossible that historians should estimate, or even observe, with +accuracy, unless they are cognizant of excellence in the aforesaid +modes of structural and ornamental craftsmanship. + +In one respect, as indicated by the title chosen for this course, I +have varied the treatment of their subject from that adopted in all +my former books. Hitherto, I have always endeavoured to illustrate the +personal temper and skill of the artist; holding the wishes or taste +of his spectators at small account, and saying of Turner you ought to +like him, and of Salvator, you ought not, etc., etc., without in the +least considering what the genius or instinct of the spectator might +otherwise demand, or approve. But in the now attempted sketch of +Christian history, I have approached every question from the people's +side, and examined the nature, not of the special faculties by which +the work was produced, but of the general instinct by which it was +asked for, and enjoyed. Therefore I thought the proper heading for +these papers should represent them as descriptive of the _Pleasures_ +of England, rather than of its _Arts_. + +And of these pleasures, necessarily, the leading one was that of +Learning, in the sense of receiving instruction;--a pleasure totally +separate from that of finding out things for yourself,--and an +extremely sweet and sacred pleasure, when you know how to seek it, and +receive. + +On which I am the more disposed, and even compelled, here to insist, +because your modern ideas of Development imply that you must all +turn out what you are to be, and find out what you are to know, for +yourselves, by the inevitable operation of your anterior affinities +and inner consciences:--whereas the old idea of education was that the +baby material of you, however accidentally or inevitably born, was +at least to be by external force, and ancestral knowledge, bred; and +treated by its Fathers and Tutors as a plastic vase, to be shaped or +mannered as _they_ chose, not as _it_ chose, and filled, when its form +was well finished and baked, with sweetness of sound doctrine, as with +Hybla honey, or Arabian spikenard. + +Without debating how far these two modes of acquiring +knowledge--finding out, and being told--may severally be good, and +in perfect instruction combined, I have to point out to you that, +broadly, Athens, Rome, and Florence are self-taught, and internally +developed; while all the Gothic races, without any exception, but +especially those of London and Paris, are afterwards taught by these; +and had, therefore, when they chose to accept it, the delight of being +instructed, without trouble or doubt, as fast as they could read or +imitate; and brought forward to the point where their own northern +instincts might wholesomely superimpose or graft some national ideas +upon these sound instructions. Read over what I said on this subject +in the third of my lectures last year (page 79), and simplify that +already brief statement further, by fastening in your mind Carlyle's +general symbol of the best attainments of northern religious +sculpture,--"three whalecubs combined by boiling," and reflecting that +the mental history of all northern European art is the modification +of that graceful type, under the orders of the Athena of Homer and +Phidias. + +And this being quite indisputably the broad fact of the matter, I +greatly marvel that your historians never, so far as I have read, +think of proposing to you the question--what you might have made +of yourselves _without_ the help of Homer and Phidias: what sort of +beings the Saxon and the Celt, the Frank and the Dane, might have been +by this time, untouched by the spear of Pallas, unruled by the rod of +Agricola, and sincerely the native growth, pure of root, and ungrafted +in fruit of the clay of Isis, rock of Dovrefeldt, and sands of Elbe? +Think of it, and think chiefly what form the ideas, and images, +of your natural religion might probably have taken, if no Roman +missionary had ever passed the Alps in charity, and no English king in +pilgrimage. + +I have been of late indebted more than I can express to the friend who +has honoured me by the dedication of his recently published lectures +on 'Older England;' and whose eager enthusiasm and far collected +learning have enabled me for the first time to assign their just +meaning and value to the ritual and imagery of Saxon devotion. But +while every page of Mr. Hodgett's book, and, I may gratefully say +also, every sentence of his teaching, has increased and justified the +respect in which I have always been by my own feeling disposed to +hold the mythologies founded on the love and knowledge of the natural +world, I have also been led by them to conceive, far more forcibly +than hitherto, the power which the story of Christianity possessed, +first heard through the wreaths of that cloudy superstition, in the +substitution, for its vaporescent allegory, of a positive and literal +account of a real Creation, and an instantly present, omnipresent, and +compassionate God. + +Observe, there is no question whatever in examining this influence, +how far Christianity itself is true, or the transcendental doctrines +of it intelligible. Those who brought you the story of it believed it +with all their souls to be true,--and the effect of it on the hearts +of your ancestors was that of an unquestionable, infinitely lucid +message straight from God, doing away with all difficulties, grief, +and fears for those who willingly received it, nor by any, except +wilfully and obstinately vile persons, to be, by any possibility, +denied or refused. + +And it was precisely, observe, the vivacity and joy with which the +main fact of Christ's life was accepted which gave the force and wrath +to the controversies instantly arising about its nature. + +Those controversies vexed and shook, but never undermined, the faith +they strove to purify, and the miraculous presence, errorless precept, +and loving promises of their Lord were alike undoubted, alike rejoiced +in, by every nation that heard the word of Apostles. The Pelagian's +assertion that immortality could be won by man's will, and the +Arian's that Christ possessed no more than man's nature, never for +an instant--or in any country--hindered the advance of the moral law +and intellectual hope of Christianity. Far the contrary; the British +heresy concerning Free Will, though it brought bishop after bishop +into England to extinguish it, remained an extremely healthy and +active element in the British mind down to the days of John Bunyan +and the guide Great Heart, and the calmly Christian justice and simple +human virtue of Theodoric were the very roots and first burgeons +of the regeneration of Italy.[1] But of the degrees in which it was +possible for any barbarous nation to receive during the first five +centuries, either the spiritual power of Christianity itself, or +the instruction in classic art and science which accompanied it, you +cannot rightly judge, without taking the pains, and they will not, I +think, be irksome, of noticing carefully, and fixing permanently in +your minds, the separating characteristics of the greater races, both +in those who learned and those who taught. + +[Footnote 1: Gibbon, in his 37th chapter, makes Ulphilas also an +Arian, but might have forborne, with grace, his own definition of +orthodoxy:--and you are to observe generally that at this time the +teachers who admitted the inferiority of Christ to the Father as +touching his Manhood, were often counted among Arians, but quite +falsely. Christ's own words, "My Father is greater than I," end that +controversy at once. Arianism consists not in asserting the subjection +of the Son to the Father, but in denying the subjected Divinity.] + +Of the Huns and Vandals we need not speak. They are merely forms of +Punishment and Destruction. Put them out of your minds altogether, and +remember only the names of the immortal nations, which abide on their +native rocks, and plough their unconquered plains, at this hour. + +Briefly, in the north,--Briton, Norman, Frank, Saxon, Ostrogoth, +Lombard; briefly, in the south,--Tuscan, Roman, Greek, Syrian, +Egyptian, Arabian. + +Now of these races, the British (I avoid the word Celtic, because you +would expect me to say Keltic; and I don't mean to, lest you should +be wanting me next to call the patroness of music St. Kekilia), the +British, including Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scot, and Pict, are, +I believe, of all the northern races, the one which has deepest love +of external nature;--and the richest inherent gift of pure music and +song, as such; separated from the intellectual gift which raises song +into poetry. They are naturally also religious, and for some centuries +after their own conversion are one of the chief evangelizing powers +in Christendom. But they are neither apprehensive nor receptive;--they +cannot understand the classic races, and learn scarcely anything from +them; perhaps better so, if the classic races had been more careful to +understand _them_. + +Next, the Norman is scarcely more apprehensive than the Celt, but he +is more constructive, and uses to good advantage what he learns from +the Frank. His main characteristic is an energy, which never exhausts +itself in vain anger, desire, or sorrow, but abides and rules, like a +living rock:--where he wanders, he flows like lava, and congeals like +granite. + +Next, I take in this first sketch the Saxon and Frank together, both +pre-eminently apprehensive, both docile exceedingly, imaginative in +the highest, but in life active more than pensive, eager in desire, +swift of invention, keenly sensitive to animal beauty, but with +difficulty rational, and rarely, for the future, wise. Under the +conclusive name of Ostrogoth, you may class whatever tribes are native +to Central Germany, and develope themselves, as time goes on, into +that power of the German Cæsars which still asserts itself as an +empire against the licence and insolence of modern republicanism,--of +which races, though this general name, no description can be given in +rapid terms. + +And lastly, the Lombards, who, at the time we have to deal with, were +sternly indocile, gloomily imaginative,--of almost Norman energy, +and differing from all the other western nations chiefly in this +notable particular, that while the Celt is capable of bright wit and +happy play, and the Norman, Saxon, and Frank all alike delight in +caricature, the Lombards, like the Arabians, never jest. + +These, briefly, are the six barbaric nations who are to be taught: and +of whose native arts and faculties, before they receive any tutorship +from the south, I find no well-sifted account in any history:--but +thus much of them, collecting your own thoughts and knowledge, you +may easily discern--they were all, with the exception of the Scots, +practical workers and builders in wood; and those of them who +had coasts, first rate sea-boat builders, with fine mathematical +instincts and practice in that kind far developed, necessarily good +sail-weaving, and sound fur-stitching, with stout iron-work of nail +and rivet; rich copper and some silver work in decoration--the Celts +developing peculiar gifts in linear design, but wholly incapable +of drawing animals or figures;--the Saxons and Franks having enough +capacity in that kind, but no thought of attempting it; the Normans +and Lombards still farther remote from any such skill. More and more, +it seems to me wonderful that under your British block-temple, grimly +extant on its pastoral plain, or beside the first crosses engraved on +the rock at Whithorn--you English and Scots do not oftener consider +what you might or could have come to, left to yourselves. + +Next, let us form the list of your tutor nations, in whom, it +generally pleases you to look at nothing but the corruptions. If we +could get into the habit of thinking more of our own corruptions and +more of _their_ virtues, we should have a better chance of learning +the true laws alike of art and destiny. But, the safest way of all, is +to assure ourselves that true knowledge of any thing or any creature +is only of the good of it; that its nature and life are in that, and +that what is diseased,--that is to say, unnatural and mortal,--you +must cut away from it in contemplation, as you would in surgery. + +Of the six tutor nations, two, the Tuscan and Arab, have no effect on +early Christian England. But the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +act together from the earliest times; you are to study the influence +of Rome upon England in Agricola, Constantius, St. Benedict, and +St. Gregory; of Greece upon England in the artists of Byzantium and +Ravenna; of Syria and Egypt upon England in St. Jerome, St. Augustine, +St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanase. + +St. Jerome, in central Bethlehem; St. Augustine, Carthaginian by +birth, in truth a converted Tyrian, Athanase, Egyptian, symmetric and +fixed as an Egyptian aisle; Chrysostom, golden mouth of all; these +are, indeed, every one teachers of all the western world, but +St. Augustine especially of lay, as distinguished from monastic, +Christianity to the Franks, and finally to us. His rule, expanded into +the treatise of the City of God, is taken for guide of life and policy +by Charlemagne, and becomes certainly the fountain of Evangelical +Christianity, distinctively so called, (and broadly the lay +Christianity of Europe, since, in the purest form of it, that is +to say, the most merciful, charitable, variously applicable, kindly +wise.) The greatest type of it, as far as I know, St. Martin of Tours, +whose character is sketched, I think in the main rightly, in the +Bible of Amiens; and you may bind together your thoughts of its +course by remembering that Alcuin, born at York, dies in the Abbey +of St. Martin, at Tours; that as St. Augustine was in his writings +Charlemagne's Evangelist in faith, Alcuin was, in living presence, +his master in rhetoric, logic, and astronomy, with the other physical +sciences. + +A hundred years later than St. Augustine, comes the rule of St. +Benedict--the Monastic rule, virtually, of European Christianity, ever +since--and theologically the Law of Works, as distinguished from the +Law of Faith. St. Augustine and all the disciples of St. Augustine +tell Christians what they should feel and think: St. Benedict and all +the disciples of St. Benedict tell Christians what they should say and +do. + +In the briefest, but also the perfectest distinction, the disciples +of St. Augustine are those who open the door to Christ--"If any man +hear my voice"; but the Benedictines those to whom Christ opens the +door--"To him that knocketh it shall be opened." + +Now, note broadly the course and action of this rule, as it combines +with the older one. St. Augustine's, accepted heartily by Clovis, +and, with various degrees of understanding, by the kings and queens +of the Merovingian dynasty, makes seemingly little difference in +their conduct, so that their profession of it remains a scandal to +Christianity to this day; and yet it lives, in the true hearts among +them, down from St. Clotilde to her great grand-daughter Bertha, who +in becoming Queen of Kent, builds under its chalk downs her own little +chapel to St. Martin, and is the first effectively and permanently +useful missionary to the Saxons, the beginner of English +Erudition,--the first laid corner stone of beautiful English +character. + +I think henceforward you will find the memorandum of dates which I +have here set down for my own guidance more simply useful than those +confused by record of unimportant persons and inconsequent events, +which form the indices of common history. + +From the year of the Saxon invasion 449, there are exactly 400 years +to the birth of Alfred, 849. You have no difficulty in remembering +those cardinal years. Then, you have Four great men and great events +to remember, at the close of the fifth century. Clovis, and the +founding of Frank Kingdom; Theodoric and the founding of the Gothic +Kingdom; Justinian and the founding of Civil law; St. Benedict and the +founding of Religious law. + +Of, Justinian, and his work, I am not able myself to form any +opinion--and it is, I think, unnecessary for students of history to +form any, until they are able to estimate clearly the benefits, and +mischief, of the civil law of Europe in its present state. But to +Clovis, Theodoric, and St. Benedict, without any question, we owe more +than any English historian has yet ascribed,--and they are easily held +in mind together, for Clovis ascended the Frank throne in the year of +St. Benedict's birth, 481. Theodoric fought the battle of Verona, and +founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy twelve years later, in 493, +and thereupon married the sister of Clovis. That marriage is always +passed in a casual sentence, as if a merely political one, and while +page after page is spent in following the alternations of furious +crime and fatal chance, in the contests between Fredegonde and +Brunehaut, no historian ever considers whether the great Ostrogoth who +wore in the battle of Verona the dress which his mother had woven for +him, was likely to have chosen a wife without love!--or how far the +perfectness, justice, and temperate wisdom of every ordinance of his +reign was owing to the sympathy and counsel of his Frankish queen. + +You have to recollect, then, thus far, only three cardinal dates:-- + + 449. Saxon invasion. + 481. Clovis reigns and St. Benedict is born. + 493. Theodoric conquers at Verona. + +Then, roughly, a hundred years later, in 590, Ethelbert, the fifth +from Hengist, and Bertha, the third from Clotilde, are king and queen +of Kent. I cannot find the date of their marriage, but the date, 590, +which you must recollect for cardinal, is that of Gregory's accession +to the pontificate, and I believe Bertha was then in middle life, +having persevered in her religion firmly, but inoffensively, and +made herself beloved by her husband and people. She, in England, +Theodolinda in Lombardy, and St. Gregory in Rome:--in their hands, +virtually lay the destiny of Europe. + +Then the period from Bertha to Osburga, 590 to 849--say 250 years--is +passed by the Saxon people in the daily more reverent learning of the +Christian faith, and daily more peaceful and skilful practice of the +humane arts and duties which it invented and inculcated. + +The statement given by Sir Edward Creasy of the result of these 250 +years of lesson is, with one correction, the most simple and just that +I can find. + +"A few years before the close of the sixth century, the country was +little more than a wide battle-field, where gallant but rude warriors +fought with each other, or against the neighbouring Welsh or Scots; +unheeding and unheeded by the rest of Europe, or, if they attracted +casual attention, regarded with dread and disgust as the fiercest of +barbarians and the most untameable of pagans. In the eighth century, +England was looked up to with admiration and gratitude, as superior to +all the other countries of Western Europe in piety and learning, and +as the land whence the most zealous and successful saints and teachers +came forth to convert and enlighten the still barbarous regions of the +continent." + +This statement is broadly true; yet the correction it needs is a very +important one. England,--under her first Alfred of Northumberland, +and under Ina of Wessex, is indeed during these centuries the most +learned, thoughtful, and progressive of European states. But she is +not a missionary power. The missionaries are always to her, not from +her:--for the very reason that she is learning so eagerly, she does +not take to preaching. Ina founds his Saxon school at Rome not to +teach Rome, nor convert the Pope, but to drink at the source of +knowledge, and to receive laws from direct and unquestioned authority. +The missionary power was wholly Scotch and Irish, and that power was +wholly one of zeal and faith, not of learning. I will ask you, in the +course of my next lecture, to regard it attentively; to-day, I must +rapidly draw to the conclusions I would leave with you. + +It is more and more wonderful to me as I think of it, that no effect +whatever was produced on the Saxon, nor on any other healthy race +of the North, either by the luxury of Rome, or by her art, whether +constructive or imitative. The Saxon builds no aqueducts--designs +no roads, rounds no theatres in imitation of her,--envies none of +her vile pleasures,--admires, so far as I can judge, none of her +far-carried realistic art. I suppose that it needs intelligence of +a more advanced kind to see the qualities of complete sculpture: and +that we may think of the Northern intellect as still like that of a +child, who cares to picture its own thoughts in its own way, but does +not care for the thoughts of older people, or attempt to copy what it +feels too difficult. This much at least is certain, that for one cause +or another, everything that now at Paris or London our painters most +care for and try to realize, of ancient Rome, was utterly innocuous +and unattractive to the Saxon: while his mind was frankly open to +the direct teaching of Greece and to the methods of bright decoration +employed in the Byzantine Empire: for these alone seemed to his +fancy suggestive of the glories of the brighter world promised by +Christianity. Jewellery, vessels of gold and silver, beautifully +written books, and music, are the gifts of St. Gregory alike to the +Saxon and Lombard; all these beautiful things being used, not for the +pleasure of the present life, but as the symbols of another; while +the drawings in Saxon manuscripts, in which, better than in any other +remains of their life, we can read the people's character, are rapid +endeavours to express for themselves, and convey to others, some +likeness of the realities of sacred event in which they had been +instructed. They differ from every archaic school of former design +in this evident correspondence with an imagined reality. All previous +archaic art whatsoever is symbolic and decorative--not realistic. The +contest of Herakles with the Hydra on a Greek vase is a mere sign that +such a contest took place, not a picture of it, and in drawing that +sign the potter is always thinking of the effect of the engraved +lines on the curves of his pot, and taking care to keep out of the +way of the handle;--but a Saxon monk would scratch his idea of the +Fall of the angels or the Temptation of Christ over a whole page of +his manuscript in variously explanatory scenes, evidently full of +inexpressible vision, and eager to explain and illustrate all that he +felt or believed. + +Of the progress and arrest of these gifts, I shall have to speak in my +next address; but I must regretfully conclude to-day with some brief +warning against the complacency which might lead you to regard them +as either at that time entirely original in the Saxon race, or at the +present day as signally characteristic of it. That form of complacency +is exhibited in its most amiable but, therefore, most deceptive guise, +in the passage with which the late Dean of Westminster concluded his +lecture at Canterbury in April, 1854, on the subject of the landing of +Augustine. I will not spoil the emphasis of the passage by comment as +I read, but must take leave afterwards to intimate some grounds for +abatement in the fervour of its self-gratulatory ecstasy. + +"Let any one sit on the hill of the little church of St. Martin, and +look on the view which is there spread before his eyes. Immediately +below are the towers of the great abbey of St. Augustine, where +Christian learning and civilization first struck root in the +Anglo-Saxon race; and within which now, after a lapse of many +centuries, a new institution has arisen, intended to carry far and +wide, to countries of which Gregory and Augustine never heard, the +blessings which they gave to us. Carry your view on--and there +rises high above all the magnificent pile of our cathedral, equal +in splendour and state to any, the noblest temple or church that +Augustine could have seen in ancient Rome, rising on the very ground +which derives its consecration from him. And still more than the +grandeur of the outward buildings that rose from the little church +of Augustine and the little palace of Ethelbert have been the +institutions of all kinds of which these were the earliest cradle. +From Canterbury, the first English Christian city,--from Kent, the +first English Christian kingdom--has by degrees arisen the whole +constitution of Church and State in England which now binds together +the whole British Empire. And from the Christianity here established +in England has flowed, by direct consequence, first the Christianity +of Germany; then, after a long interval, of North America; and lastly, +we may trust, in time, of all India and all Australasia. The view from +St. Martin's Church is indeed one of the most inspiriting that can be +found in the world; there is none to which I would more willingly take +any one who doubted whether a small beginning could lead to a great +and lasting good;--none which carries us more vividly back into the +past, or more hopefully forward into the future." + +To this Gregorian canticle in praise of the British constitution, +I grieve, but am compelled, to take these following historical +objections. The first missionary to Germany was Ulphilas, and what she +owes to these islands she owes to Iona, not to Thanet. Our missionary +offices to America as to Africa, consist I believe principally in +the stealing of land, and the extermination of its proprietors by +intoxication. Our rule in India has introduced there, Paisley instead +of Cashmere shawls: in Australasia our Christian aid supplies, I +suppose, the pious farmer with convict labour. And although, when +the Dean wrote the above passage, St. Augustine's and the cathedral +were--I take it on trust from his description--the principal +objects in the prospect from St. Martin's Hill, I believe even the +cheerfullest of my audience would not now think the scene one of +the most inspiriting in the world. For recent progress has entirely +accommodated the architecture of the scene to the convenience of the +missionary workers above enumerated; to the peculiar necessities +of the civilization they have achieved. For the sake of which the +cathedral, the monastery, the temple, and the tomb, of Bertha, +contract themselves in distant or despised subservience under the +colossal walls of the county gaol. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. + +_ALFRED TO THE CONFESSOR._ + + +I was forced in my last lecture to pass by altogether, and to-day +can only with momentary definition notice, the part taken by Scottish +missionaries in the Christianizing of England and Burgundy. I would +pray you therefore, in order to fill the gap which I think it better +to leave distinctly, than close confusedly, to read the histories of +St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Columban, as they are given you by +Montalembert in his 'Moines d'Occident.' You will find in his pages +all the essential facts that are known, encircled with a nimbus of +enthusiastic sympathy which I hope you will like better to see them +through, than distorted by blackening fog of contemptuous rationalism. +But although I ask you thus to make yourselves aware of the greatness +of my omission, I must also certify you that it does not break the +unity of our own immediate subject. The influence of Celtic passion +and art both on Northumbria and the Continent, beneficent in all +respects while it lasted, expired without any permanent share in the +work or emotion of the Saxon and Frank. The book of Kells, and the +bell of St. Patrick, represent sufficiently the peculiar character +of Celtic design; and long since, in the first lecture of the 'Two +Paths,' I explained both the modes of skill, and points of weakness, +which rendered such design unprogressive. Perfect in its peculiar +manner, and exulting in the faultless practice of a narrow skill, it +remained century after century incapable alike of inner growth, or +foreign instruction; inimitable, yet incorrigible; marvellous, yet +despicable, to its death. Despicable, I mean, only in the limitation +of its capacity, not in its quality or nature. If you make a +Christian of a lamb or a squirrel--what can you expect of the lamb +but jumping--what of the squirrel, but pretty spirals, traced with +his tail? He won't steal your nuts any more, and he'll say his prayers +like this--[2]; but you cannot make a Beatrice's griffin, and emblem +of all the Catholic Church, out of him. + +[Footnote 2: Making a sign.] + +You will have observed, also, that the plan of these lectures does +not include any reference to the Roman Period in England; of which +you will find all I think necessary to say, in the part called _Valle +Crucis_ of 'Our Fathers have told us.' But I must here warn you, with +reference to it, of one gravely false prejudice of Montalembert. He is +entirely blind to the conditions of Roman virtue, which existed in the +midst of the corruptions of the Empire, forming the characters of such +Emperors as Pertinax, Carus, Probus, the second Claudius, Aurelian, +and our own Constantius; and he denies, with abusive violence, the +power for good, of Roman Law, over the Gauls and Britons. + +Respecting Roman national character, I will simply beg you to +remember, that both St. Benedict and St. Gregory are Roman patricians, +before they are either monk or pope; respecting its influence on +Britain, I think you may rest content with Shakespeare's estimate of +it. Both Lear and Cymbeline belong to this time, so difficult to our +apprehension, when the Briton accepted both Roman laws and Roman gods. +There is indeed the born Kentish gentleman's protest against them in +Kent's-- + + "Now, by Apollo, king, + Thou swear'st thy gods in vain"; + +but both Cordelia and Imogen are just as thoroughly Roman ladies, as +Virgilia or Calphurnia. + +Of British Christianity and the Arthurian Legends, I shall have a word +or two to say in my lecture on "Fancy," in connection with the similar +romance which surrounds Theodoric and Charlemagne: only the worst of +it is, that while both Dietrich and Karl are themselves more wonderful +than the legends of them, Arthur fades into intangible vision:--this +much, however, remains to this day, of Arthurian blood in us, that +the richest fighting element in the British army and navy is British +native,--that is to say, Highlander, Irish, Welsh, and Cornish. + +Content, therefore, (means being now given you for filling gaps,) +with the estimates given you in the preceding lecture of the sources +of instruction possessed by the Saxon capital, I pursue to-day our +question originally proposed, what London might have been by this +time, if the nature of the flowers, trees, and children, born at the +Thames-side, had been rightly understood and cultivated. + +Many of my hearers can imagine far better than I, the look that London +must have had in Alfred's and Canute's days.[3] I have not, indeed, +the least idea myself what its buildings were like, but certainly +the groups of its shipping must have been superb; small, but +entirely seaworthy vessels, manned by the best seamen in the then +world. Of course, now, at Chatham and Portsmouth we have our +ironclads,--extremely beautiful and beautifully manageable things, no +doubt--to set against this Saxon and Danish shipping; but the Saxon +war-ships lay here at London shore--bright with banner and shield +and dragon prow,--instead of these you may be happier, but are not +handsomer, in having, now, the coal-barge, the penny steamer, and the +wherry full of shop boys and girls. I dwell however for a moment only +on the naval aspect of the tidal waters in the days of Alfred, because +I can refer you for all detail on this part of our subject to the +wonderful opening chapter of Dean Stanley's History of Westminster +Abbey, where you will find the origin of the name of London given as +"The City of Ships." He does not, however, tell you, that there were +built, then and there, the biggest war-ships in the world. I have +often said to friends who praised my own books that I would rather +have written that chapter than any one of them; yet if I _had_ been +able to write the historical part of it, the conclusions drawn would +have been extremely different. The Dean indeed describes with a +poet's joy the River of wells, which rose from those "once consecrated +springs which now lie choked in Holywell and Clerkenwell, and the +rivulet of Ulebrig which crossed the Strand under the Ivy bridge"; +but it is only in the spirit of a modern citizen of Belgravia that he +exults in the fact that "the great arteries of our crowded streets, +the vast sewers which cleanse our habitations, are fed by the +life-blood of those old and living streams; that underneath our tread +the Tyburn, and the Holborn, and the Fleet, and the Wall Brook, are +still pursuing their ceaseless course, still ministering to the good +of man, though in a far different fashion than when Druids drank +of their sacred springs, and Saxons were baptized in their rushing +waters, ages ago." + +[Footnote 3: Here Alfred's Silver Penny was shown and commented on, +thus:--Of what London was like in the days of faith, I can show you +one piece of artistic evidence. It is Alfred's silver penny struck in +London mint. The character of a coinage is quite conclusive evidence +in national history, and there is no great empire in progress, but +tells its story in beautiful coins. Here in Alfred's penny, a round +coin with L.O.N.D.I.N.I.A. struck on it, you have just the same +beauty of design, the same enigmatical arrangement of letters, as in +the early inscription, which it is "the pride of my life" to have +discovered at Venice. This inscription ("the first words that Venice +ever speaks aloud") is, it will be remembered, on the Church of St. +Giacomo di Rialto, and runs, being interpreted--"Around this temple, +let the merchant's law be just, his weights true, and his covenants +faithful."] + +Whatever sympathy you may feel with these eloquent expressions of that +entire complacency in the present, past, and future, which peculiarly +animates Dean Stanley's writings, I must, in this case, pray you +to observe that the transmutation of holy wells into sewers has, +at least, destroyed the charm and utility of the Thames as a salmon +stream, and I must ask you to read with attention the succeeding +portions of the chapter which record the legends of the river +fisheries in their relation to the first Abbey of Westminster; +dedicated by its builders to St. Peter, not merely in his office of +cornerstone of the Church, nor even figuratively as a fisher of men, +but directly as a fisher of fish:--and which maintained themselves, +you will see, in actual ceremony down to 1382, when a fisherman still +annually took his place beside the Prior, after having brought in a +salmon for St. Peter, which was carried in state down the middle of +the refectory. + +But as I refer to this page for the exact word, my eye is caught by +one of the sentences of Londonian[4] thought which constantly pervert +the well-meant books of pious England. "We see also," says the Dean, +"the union of innocent fiction with worldly craft, which marks so +many of the legends both of Pagan and Christian times." I might simply +reply to this insinuation that times which have no legends differ +from the legendary ones merely by uniting guilty, instead of innocent, +fiction, with worldly craft; but I must farther advise you that the +legends of these passionate times are in no wise, and in no sense, +fiction at all; but the true record of impressions made on the minds +of persons in a state of eager spiritual excitement, brought into +bright focus by acting steadily and frankly under its impulses. I +could tell you a great deal more about such things than you would +believe, and therefore, a great deal more than it would do you the +least good to hear;--but this much any who care to use their common +sense modestly, cannot but admit, that unless they choose to try the +rough life of the Christian ages, they cannot understand its practical +consequences. You have all been taught by Lord Macaulay and his school +that because you have Carpets instead of rushes for your feet; and +Feather-beds instead of fern for your backs; and Kickshaws instead +of beef for your eating; and Drains instead of Holy Wells for your +drinking;--that, therefore, you are the Cream of Creation, and +every one of you a seven-headed Solomon. Stay in those pleasant +circumstances and convictions if you please; but don't accuse your +roughly bred and fed fathers of telling lies about the aspect the +earth and sky bore to _them_,--till you have trodden the earth as +they, barefoot, and seen the heavens as they, face to face. If you +care to see and to know for yourselves, you may do it with little +pains; you need not do any great thing, you needn't keep one eye open +and the other shut for ten years over a microscope, nor fight your way +through icebergs and darkness to knowledge of the _celestial_ pole. +Simply, do as much as king after king of the Saxons did,--put rough +shoes on your feet and a rough cloak on your shoulders, and walk to +Rome and back. Sleep by the roadside, when it is fine,--in the first +outhouse you can find, when it is wet; and live on bread and water, +with an onion or two, all the way; and if the experiences which you +will have to relate on your return do not, as may well be, deserve the +name of spiritual; at all events you will not be disposed to let other +people regard them either as Poetry or Fiction. + +[Footnote 4: Not _Londinian_.] + +With this warning, presently to be at greater length insisted on, +I trace for you, in Dean Stanley's words, which cannot be bettered +except in the collection of their more earnest passages from among +his interludes of graceful but dangerous qualification,--I trace, with +only such omission, the story he has told us of the foundation of that +Abbey, which, he tells you, was the Mother of London, and has ever +been the shrine and the throne of English faith and truth. + +"The gradual formation of a monastic body, indicated in the charters +of Offa and Edgar, marks the spread of the Benedictine order +throughout England, under the influence of Dunstan. The 'terror' of +the spot, which had still been its chief characteristic in the charter +of the wild Offa, had, in the days of the more peaceful Edgar, given +way to a dubious 'renown.' Twelve monks is the number traditionally +said to have been established by Dunstan. A few acres further up the +river formed their chief property, and their monastic character was +sufficiently recognized to have given to the old locality of the +'terrible place' the name of the 'Western Monastery,' or 'Minster of +the West.'" + +The Benedictines then--twelve Benedictine monks--thus begin the +building of existent Christian London. You know I told you the +Benedictines are the Doing people, as the disciples of St. Augustine +the Sentimental people. The Benedictines find no terror in their +own thoughts--face the terror of places--change it into beauty of +places,--make this terrible place, a Motherly Place--Mother of London. + +This first Westminster, however, the Dean goes on to say, "seems to +have been overrun by the Danes," and it would have had no further +history but for the combination of circumstances which directed hither +the notice of Edward the Confessor. + +I haven't time to read you all the combination of circumstances. The +last clinching circumstance was this-- + +"There was in the neighbourhood of Worcester, 'far from men in the +wilderness, on the slope of a wood, in a cave deep down in the grey +rock,' a holy hermit 'of great age, living on fruits and roots.' One +night when, after reading in the Scriptures 'how hard are the pains +of hell, and how the enduring life of Heaven is sweet and to be +desired,' he could neither sleep nor repose, St. Peter appeared to +him, 'bright and beautiful, like to a clerk,' and warned him to tell +the King that he was released from his vow; that on that very day +his messengers would return from Rome;" (that is the combination of +circumstances--bringing Pope's order to build a church to release +the King from his vow of pilgrimage); "that 'at Thorney, two leagues +from the city,' was the spot marked out where, in an ancient church, +'situated low,' he was to establish a perfect Benedictine monastery, +which should be 'the gate of heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence +those who serve St. Peter there, shall by him be admitted into +Paradise.' The hermit writes the account of the vision on parchment, +seals it with wax, and brings it to the King, who compares it with the +answer of the messengers, just arrived from Rome, and determines on +carrying out the design as the Apostle had ordered. + +"The ancient church, 'situated low,' indicated in this vision the +one whose attached monastery had been destroyed by the Danes, but its +little church remained, and was already dear to the Confessor, not +only from the lovely tradition of its dedication by the spirit of St. +Peter;" (you must read that for yourselves;) "but also because of two +miracles happening there to the King himself. + +"The first was the cure of a cripple, who sat in the road between +the Palace and 'the Chapel of St. Peter,' which was 'near,' and who +explained to the Chamberlain Hugolin that, after six pilgrimages to +Rome in vain, St. Peter had promised his cure if the King would, on +his own royal neck, carry him to the Monastery. The King immediately +consented; and, amidst the scoffs of the court, bore the poor man to +the steps of the High Altar. There the cripple was received by Godric +the sacristan, and walked away on his own restored feet, hanging his +stool on the wall for a trophy. + +"Before that same High Altar was also believed to have been seen +one of the Eucharistical portents, so frequent in the Middle Ages. A +child, 'pure and bright like a spirit,' appeared to the King in the +sacramental elements. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who, with his famous +countess, Godiva, was present, saw it also. + +"Such as these were the motives of Edward. Under their influence +was fixed what has ever since been the local centre of the English +monarchy." + +"Such as these were the _motives_ of Edward," says the Dean. Yes, +certainly; but such as these also, first, were the acts and visions +of Edward. Take care that you don't slip away, by the help of the +glycerine of the word "motives," into fancying that all these tales +are only the after colours and pictorial metaphors of sentimental +piety. They are either plain truth or black lies; take your +choice,--but don't tickle and treat yourselves with the prettiness or +the grotesqueness of them, as if they were Anderssen's fairy tales. +Either the King did carry the beggar on his back, or he didn't; either +Godiva rode through Coventry, or she didn't; either the Earl Leofric +saw the vision of the bright child at the altar--or he lied like a +knave. Judge, as you will; but do not Doubt. + +"The Abbey was fifteen years in building. The King spent upon it +one-tenth of the property of the kingdom. It was to be a marvel of +its kind. As in its origin it bore the traces of the fantastic and +childish" (I must pause, to ask you to substitute for these blameful +terms, 'fantastic and childish,' the better ones of 'imaginative and +pure') "character of the King and of the age; in its architecture +it bore the stamp of the peculiar position which Edward occupied in +English history between Saxon and Norman. By birth he was a Saxon, but +in all else he was a foreigner. Accordingly the Church at Westminster +was a wide-sweeping innovation on all that had been seen before. +'Destroying the old building,' he says in his charter, 'I have built +up a new one from the very foundation.' Its fame as a 'new style of +composition' lingered in the minds of men for generations. It was the +first cruciform church in England, from which all the rest of like +shape were copied--an expression of the increasing hold which, in the +tenth century, the idea of the Crucifixion had laid on the imagination +of Europe. The massive roof and pillars formed a contrast with the +rude wooden rafters and beams of the common Saxon churches. Its very +size--occupying, as it did, almost the whole area of the present +building--was in itself portentous. The deep foundations, of large +square blocks of grey stone, were duly laid; the east end was rounded +into an apse; a tower rose in the centre, crowned by a cupola of wood. +At the western end were erected two smaller towers, with five large +bells. The hard strong stones were richly sculptured; the windows +were filled with stained glass; the roof was covered with lead. The +cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, dormitory, the infirmary, with +its spacious chapel, if not completed by Edward, were all begun, and +finished in the next generation on the same plan. This structure, +venerable as it would be if it had lasted to our time, has almost +entirely vanished. Possibly one vast dark arch in the southern +transept, certainly the substructures of the dormitory, with their +huge pillars, 'grand and regal at the bases and capitals,' the +massive, low-browed passage leading from the great cloister to Little +Dean's Yard, and some portions of the refectory and of the infirmary +chapel, remain as specimens of the work which astonished the last age +of the Anglo-Saxon and the first age of the Norman monarchy." + +Hitherto I have read to you with only supplemental comment. But in +the next following passage, with which I close my series of extracts, +sentence after sentence occurs, at which as I read, I must raise my +hand, to mark it for following deprecation, or denial. + +"In the centre of Westminster Abbey thus lies its Founder, and such is +the story of its foundation. Even apart from the legendary elements +in which it is involved, it is impossible not to be struck by the +fantastic character of all its circumstances. We seem to be in a world +of poetry." (I protest, No.) "Edward is four centuries later than +Ethelbert and Augustine; but the origin of Canterbury is commonplace +and prosaic compared with the origin of Westminster." (Yes, that's +true.) "We can hardly imagine a figure more incongruous to the +soberness of later times than the quaint, irresolute, wayward prince +whose chief characteristics have just been described. His titles of +Confessor and Saint belong not to the general instincts of Christendom +but to the most transitory feelings of the age." (I protest, No.) "His +opinions, his prevailing motives, were such as in no part of modern +Europe would now be shared by any educated teacher or ruler." (That's +true enough.) "But in spite of these irreconcilable differences, +there was a solid ground for the charm which he exercised over his +contemporaries. His childish and eccentric fancies have passed away;" +(I protest, No;) "but his innocent faith and his sympathy with his +people are qualities which, even in our altered times, may still +retain their place in the economy of the world. Westminster Abbey, +so we hear it said, sometimes with a cynical sneer, sometimes with +a timorous scruple, has admitted within its walls many who have been +great without being good, noble with a nobleness of the earth earthy, +worldly with the wisdom of this world. But it is a counterbalancing +reflection, that the central tomb, round which all those famous names +have clustered, contains the ashes of one who, weak and erring as he +was, rests his claims of interment here, not on any act of power or +fame, but only on his artless piety and simple goodness. He, towards +whose dust was attracted the fierce Norman, and the proud Plantagenet, +and the grasping Tudor, and the fickle Stuart, even the Independent +Oliver, the Dutch William, and the Hanoverian George, was one whose +humble graces are within the reach of every man, woman, and child +of every time, if we rightly part the immortal substance from the +perishable form." + +Now I have read you these passages from Dean Stanley as the most +accurately investigatory, the most generously sympathetic, the most +reverently acceptant account of these days, and their people, which +you can yet find in any English history. But consider now, point by +point, where it leaves you. You are told, first, that you are living +in an age of poetry. But the days of poetry are those of Shakespeare +and Milton, not of Bede: nay, for their especial wealth in melodious +theology and beautifully rhythmic and pathetic meditation, perhaps +the days which have given us 'Hiawatha,' 'In Memoriam,' 'The Christian +Year,' and the 'Soul's Diary' of George Macdonald, may be not with +disgrace compared with those of Caedmon. And nothing can be farther +different from the temper, nothing less conscious of the effort, of a +poet, than any finally authentic document to which you can be referred +for the relation of a Saxon miracle. + +I will read you, for a perfectly typical example, an account of one +from Bede's 'Life of St. Cuthbert,' The passage is a favourite one of +my own, but I do not in the least anticipate its producing upon you +the solemnizing effect which I think I could command from reading, +instead, a piece of 'Marmion,' 'Manfred,' or 'Childe Harold.' + +... "He had one day left his cell to give advice to some visitors; and +when he had finished, he said to them, 'I must now go in again, but do +you, as you are inclined to depart, first take food; and when you have +cooked and eaten that goose which is hanging on the wall, go on board +your vessel in God's name and return home.' He then uttered a prayer, +and, having blessed them, went in. But they, as he had bidden them, +took some food; but having enough provisions of their own, which they +had brought with them, they did not touch the goose. + +"But when they had refreshed themselves they tried to go on board +their vessel, but a sudden storm utterly prevented them from putting +to sea. They were thus detained seven days in the island by the +roughness of the waves, and yet they could not call to mind what fault +they had committed. They therefore returned to have an interview with +the holy father, and to lament to him their detention. He exhorted +them to be patient, and on the seventh day came out to console their +sorrow, and to give them pious exhortations. When, however, he had +entered the house in which they were stopping, and saw that the goose +was not eaten, he reproved their disobedience with mild countenance +and in gentle language: 'Have you not left the goose still hanging +in its place? What wonder is it that the storm has prevented your +departure? Put it immediately into the caldron, and boil and eat it, +that the sea may become tranquil, and you may return home.' + +"They immediately did as he commanded; and it happened most +wonderfully that the moment the kettle began to boil the wind began +to cease, and the waves to be still Having finished their repast, and +seeing that the sea was calm, they went on board, and to their great +delight, though with shame for their neglect, reached home with a fair +wind. Now this, as I have related, I did not pick up from any chance +authority, but I had it from one of those who were present, a most +reverend monk and priest of the same monastery, Cynemund, who still +lives, known to many in the neighbourhood for his years and the purity +of his life." + + * * * * * + +I hope that the memory of this story, which, thinking it myself +an extremely pretty one, I have given you, not only for a type of +sincerity and simplicity, but for an illustration of obedience, may +at all events quit you, for good and all, of the notion that the +believers and witnesses of miracle were poetical persons. Saying +no more on the head of that allegation, I proceed to the Dean's +second one, which I cannot but interpret as also intended to be +injurious,--that they were artless and childish ones; and that because +of this rudeness and puerility, their motives and opinions would not +be shared by any statesmen of the present day. + +It is perfectly true that Edward the Confessor was himself in many +respects of really childish temperament; not therefore, perhaps, as I +before suggested to you, less venerable. But the age of which we are +examining the progress, was by no means represented or governed by +men of similar disposition. It was eminently productive of--it was +altogether governed, guided, and instructed by--men of the widest and +most brilliant faculties, whether constructive or speculative, that +the world till then had seen; men whose acts became the romance, whose +thoughts the wisdom, and whose arts the treasure, of a thousand years +of futurity. + +I warned you at the close of last lecture against the too agreeable +vanity of supposing that the Evangelization of the world began at St. +Martin's, Canterbury. Again and again you will indeed find the stream +of the Gospel contracting itself into narrow channels, and appearing, +after long-concealed filtration, through veins of unmeasured rock, +with the bright resilience of a mountain spring. But you will find it +the only candid, and therefore the only wise, way of research, to look +in each era of Christendom for the minds of culminating power in all +its brotherhood of nations; and, careless of local impulse, momentary +zeal, picturesque incident, or vaunted miracle, to fasten your +attention upon the force of character in the men, whom, over each +newly-converted race, Heaven visibly sets for its shepherds and kings, +to bring forth judgment unto victory. Of these I will name to you, as +messengers of God and masters of men, five monks and five kings; in +whose arms during the range of swiftly gainful centuries which we are +following, the life of the world lay as a nursling babe. Remember, +in their successive order,--of monks, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. +Martin, St. Benedict, and St. Gregory; of kings,--and your national +vanity may be surely enough appeased in recognizing two of them for +Saxon,--Theodoric, Charlemagne, Alfred, Canute, and the Confessor. I +will read three passages to you, out of the literal words of three +of these ten men, without saying whose they are, that you may compare +them with the best and most exalted you have read expressing the +philosophy, the religion, and the policy of to-day,--from which I +admit, with Dean Stanley, but with a far different meaning from his, +that they are indeed separate for evermore. I give you first, for an +example of Philosophy, a single sentence, containing all--so far as I +can myself discern--that it is possible for us to know, or well for us +to believe, respecting the world and its laws. + + +"OF GOD'S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE, RULING ALL, AND COMPRISING ALL. + +"Wherefore the great and mighty God; He that made man a reasonable +creature of soul and body, and He that did neither let him pass +unpunished for his sin, nor yet excluded him from mercy; He that gave, +both unto good and bad, essence with the stones, power of production +with the trees, senses with the beasts of the field, and understanding +with the angels; He from whom is all being, beauty, form, and number, +weight, and measure; He from whom all nature, mean and excellent, +all seeds of form, all forms of seed, all motion, both of forms and +seeds, derive and have being; He that gave flesh the original beauty, +strength, propagation, form and shape, health and symmetry; He +that gave the unreasonable soul, sense, memory, and appetite; the +reasonable, besides these, fantasy, understanding, and will; He, +I say, having left neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor man, +no, nor the most base and contemptible creature, neither the bird's +feather, nor the herb's flower, nor the tree's leaf, without the true +harmony of their parts, and peaceful concord of composition:--It is +in no way credible that He would leave the kingdoms of men and their +bondages and freedom loose and uncomprised in the laws of His eternal +providence."[5] + +[Footnote 5: From St. Augustine's 'Citie of God,' Book V., ch. xi. +(English trans., printed by George Eld, 1610.)] + +This for the philosophy.[6] Next, I take for example of the Religion +of our ancestors, a prayer, personally and passionately offered to the +Deity conceived as you have this moment heard. + +[Footnote 6: Here one of the "Stones of Westminster" was shown and +commented on.] + +"O Thou who art the Father of that Son which has awakened us, and +yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and exhorteth us that we +become Thine;" (note you that, for apprehension of what Redemption +means, against your base and cowardly modern notion of 'scaping +whipping. Not to take away the Punishment of Sin, but by His +Resurrection to raise us out of the sleep of sin itself! Compare the +legend at the feet of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in the golden +Gospel of Charles le Chauve[7]:-- + + "HIC LEO SURGENDO PORTAS CONFREGIT AVERNI + QUI NUNQUAM DORMIT, NUSQUAM DORMITAT IN ÆVUM;") + +"to Thee, Lord, I pray, who art the supreme truth; for all the truth +that is, is truth from Thee. Thee I implore, O Lord, who art the +highest wisdom. Through Thee are wise all those that are so. Thou art +the true life, and through Thee are living all those that are so. Thou +art the supreme felicity, and from Thee all have become happy that +are so. Thou art the highest good, and from Thee all beauty springs. +Thou art the intellectual light, and from Thee man derives his +understanding. + +[Footnote 7: At Munich: the leaf has been exquisitely drawn and legend +communicated to me by Professor Westwood. It is written in gold on +purple.] + +"To Thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me, Lord! for Thou art +my God and my Lord; my Father and my Creator; my ruler and my hope; my +wealth and my honour my house, my country, my salvation, and my life! +Hear, hear me, O Lord! Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee. But Thee +alone I _love_,[8] indeed, above all other things. Thee I seek: Thee +I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. Under Thy power I desire to +abide, for Thou alone art the Sovereign of all. I pray Thee to command +me as Thou wilt." + +[Footnote 8: Meaning--not that he is of those few, but that, without +comprehending, at least, as a dog, he can love.] + +You see this prayer is simply the expansion of that clause of the +Lord's Prayer which most men eagerly omit from it,--_Fiat voluntas +tua_. In being so, it sums the Christian prayer of all ages. See now, +in the third place, how far this king's letter I am going to read to +you sums also Christian Policy. + + "Wherefore I render high thanks to Almighty God, for the happy + accomplishment of all the desires which I have set before me, + and for the satisfying of my every wish. + + "Now therefore, be it known to you all, that to Almighty God + Himself I have, on my knees, devoted my life, to the end that + in all things I may do justice, and with justice and rightness + rule the kingdoms and peoples under me; throughout everything + preserving an impartial judgment. If, heretofore, I have, + through being, as young men are, impulsive or careless, done + anything unjust, I mean, with God's help, to lose no time + in remedying my fault. To which end I call to witness my + counsellors, to whom I have entrusted the counsels of the + kingdom, and I charge them that by no means, be it through + fear of me, or the favour of any other powerful personage, to + consent to any injustice, or to suffer any to shoot out in any + part of my kingdom. I charge all my viscounts and those set + over my whole kingdom, as they wish to keep my friendship or + their own safety, to use no unjust force to any man, rich or + poor; let all men, noble and not noble, rich and poor alike, + be able to obtain their rights under the law's justice; and + from that law let there be no deviation, either to favour the + king or any powerful person, nor to raise money for me. I have + no need of money raised by what is unfair. I also would have + you know that I go now to make peace and firm treaty by the + counsels of all my subjects, with those nations and people who + wished, had it been possible for them to do so, which it was + not, to deprive us alike of kingdom and of life. God brought + down their strength to nought: and may He of His benign love + preserve us on our throne and in honour. Lastly, when I have + made peace with the neighbouring nations, and settled and + pacified all my dominions in the East, so that we may nowhere + have any war or enmity to fear, I mean to come to England this + summer, as soon as I can fit out vessels to sail. My reason, + however, in sending this letter first is to let all the people + of my kingdom share in the joy of my welfare: for as you + yourselves know, I have never spared myself or my labour; nor + will I ever do so, where my people are really in want of some + good that I can do them." + +What think you now, in candour and honour, you youth of the latter +days,--what think you of these types of the thought, devotion, and +government, which not in words, but pregnant and perpetual fact, +animated these which you have been accustomed to call the Dark Ages? + +The Philosophy is Augustine's; the Prayer Alfred's; and the Letter +Canute's. + +And, whatever you may feel respecting the beauty or wisdom of these +sayings, be assured of one thing above all, that they are sincere; and +of another, less often observed, that they are joyful. + +Be assured, in the first place, that they are sincere, The ideas of +diplomacy and priestcraft are of recent times. No false knight or +lying priest ever prospered, I believe, in any age, but certainly +not in the dark ones. Men prospered then, only in following +openly-declared purposes, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted +creeds. + +And that they did so prosper, in the degree in which they accepted +and proclaimed the Christian Gospel, may be seen by any of you in your +historical reading, however partial, if only you will admit the idea +that it could be so, and was likely to be so. You are all of you in +the habit of supposing that temporal prosperity is owing either to +worldly chance or to worldly prudence; and is never granted in any +visible relation to states of religious temper. Put that treacherous +doubt away from you, with disdain; take for basis of reasoning +the noble postulate, that the elements of Christian faith are +sound,--instead of the base one, that they are deceptive; reread the +great story of the world in that light, and see what a vividly real, +yet miraculous tenor, it will then bear to you. + +Their faith then, I tell you first, was sincere; I tell you secondly +that it was, in a degree few of us can now conceive, joyful. We +continually hear of the trials, sometimes of the victories, of +Faith,--but scarcely ever of its pleasures. Whereas, at this time, +you will find that the chief delight of all good men was in the +recognition of the goodness and wisdom of the Master, who had come +to dwell with them upon earth. It is almost impossible for you to +conceive the vividness of this sense in them; it is totally impossible +for you to conceive the comfort, peace, and force of it. In everything +that you now do or seek, you expose yourselves to countless miseries +of shame and disappointment, because in your doing you depend on +nothing but your own powers, and in seeking choose only your own +gratification. You cannot for the most part conceive of any work but +for your own interests, or the interests of others about whom you are +anxious in the same faithless way; everything about which passion is +excited in you or skill exerted is some object of material life, and +the idea of doing anything except for your own praise or profit has +narrowed itself into little more than the precentor's invitation to +the company with little voice and less practice to "sing to the praise +and glory of God." + +I have said that you cannot imagine the feeling of the energy of daily +life applied in the real meaning of those words. You cannot imagine +it, but you _can_ prove it. Are any of you willing, simply as a +philosophical experiment in the greatest of sciences, to adopt the +principles and feelings of these men of a thousand years ago for a +given time, say for a year? It cannot possibly do you any harm to try, +and you cannot possibly learn what is true in these things, without +trying. If after a year's experience of such method you find yourself +no happier than before, at least you will be able to support your +present opinions at once with more grace and more modesty; having +conceded the trial it asked for, to the opposite side. Nor in acting +temporarily on a faith you do not see to be reasonable, do you +compromise your own integrity more, than in conducting, under a +chemist's directions, an experiment of which he foretells inexplicable +consequences. And you need not doubt the power you possess over +your own minds to do this. Were faith not voluntary, it could not be +praised, and would not be rewarded. + +If you are minded thus to try, begin each day with Alfred's +prayer,--fiat voluntas tua; resolving that you will stand to it, and +that nothing that happens in the course of the day shall displease +you. Then set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and +purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of +gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that +no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor +regret if it fail. Imagine that the thing is being done through you, +not by you; that the good of it may never be known, but that at least, +unless by your rebellion or foolishness, there can come no evil into +it, nor wrong chance to it. Resolve also with steady industry to do +what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the +honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, +nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you +will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your +own consciences, expressed approval, of God. Live thus, and believe, +and with swiftness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the +trust, most surely the God of hope will fill you with all joy and +peace in believing. + +But, if you will not do this, if you have not courage nor heart enough +to break away the fetters of earth, and take up the sensual bed of +it, and walk; if you say that you are _bound_ to win this thing, and +become the other thing, and that the wishes of your friends,--and +the interests of your family,--and the bias of your genius,--and the +expectations of your college,--and all the rest of the bow-wow-wow +of the wild dog-world, must be attended to, whether you like it +or no,--then, at least, for shame give up talk about being free or +independent creatures; recognize yourselves for slaves in whom the +thoughts are put in ward with their bodies, and their hearts manacled +with their hands: and then at least also, for shame, if you refuse to +believe that ever there were men who gave their souls to God,--know +and confess how surely there are those who sell them to His adversary. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. + +_ALFRED TO COEUR DE LION._ + + +It was my endeavour, in the preceding lecture, to vindicate the +thoughts and arts of our Saxon ancestors from whatever scorn might lie +couched under the terms applied to them by Dean Stanley,--'fantastic' +and 'childish.' To-day my task must be carried forward, first, in +asserting the grace in fantasy, and the force in infancy, of the +English mind, before the Conquest, against the allegations contained +in the final passage of Dean Stanley's description of the first +founded Westminster; a passage which accepts and asserts, more +distinctly than any other equally brief statement I have met with, +the to my mind extremely disputable theory, that the Norman invasion +was in every respect a sanitary, moral, and intellectual blessing to +England, and that the arrow which slew her Harold was indeed the Arrow +of the Lord's deliverance. + +"The Abbey itself," says Dean Stanley,--"the chief work of the +Confessor's life,--was the portent of the mighty future. When Harold +stood beside his sister Edith, on the day of the dedication, and +signed his name with hers as witness to the Charter of the Abbey, he +might have seen that he was sealing his own doom, and preparing for +his own destruction. The solid pillars, the ponderous arches, the huge +edifice, with triple tower and sculptured stones and storied windows, +that arose in the place and in the midst of the humble wooden churches +and wattled tenements of the Saxon period, might have warned the +nobles who were present that the days of their rule were numbered, +and that the _avenging, civilizing, stimulating_ hand of another and a +mightier race was at work, which would change the whole face of their +language, their manners, their Church, and their commonwealth. The +Abbey, so far exceeding the demands of the _dull and stagnant_ minds +of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was founded not only in faith, but in +hope: in the hope that England had yet a glorious career to run; that +the line of her sovereigns would not be broken, even when the race of +Alfred had ceased to reign." + +There must surely be some among my hearers who are startled, if +not offended, at being told in the terms which I emphasized in +this sentence, that the minds of our Saxon fathers were, although +fantastic, dull, and, although childish, stagnant; that farther, in +their fantastic stagnation; they were savage,--and in their innocent +dullness, criminal; so that the future character and fortune of +the race depended on the critical advent of the didactic and +disciplinarian Norman baron, at once to polish them, stimulate, and +chastise. + +Before I venture to say a word in distinct arrest of this judgment, +I will give you a chart, as clear as the facts observed in the two +previous lectures allow, of the state and prospects of the Saxons, +when this violent benediction of conquest happened to them: and +especially I would rescue, in the measure that justice bids, the +memory even of their Pagan religion from the general scorn in which +I used Carlyle's description of the idol of ancient Prussia as +universally exponent of the temper of Northern devotion. That +Triglaph, or Triglyph Idol, (derivation of Triglaph wholly unknown to +me--I use Triglyph only for my own handiest epithet), last set up, on +what is now St. Mary's hill in Brandenburg, in 1023, belonged indeed +to a people wonderfully like the Saxons,--geographically their close +neighbours,--in habits of life, and aspect of native land, scarcely +distinguishable from them,--in Carlyle's words, a "strong-boned, +iracund, herdsman and fisher people, highly averse to be interfered +with, in their religion especially, and inhabiting a moory flat +country, full of lakes and woods, but with plenty also of alluvial +mud, grassy, frugiferous, apt for the plough"--in all things like +the Saxons, except, as I read the matter, in that 'aversion to be +interfered with' which you modern English think an especially Saxon +character in you,--but which is, on the contrary, you will find on +examination, by no means Saxon; but only Wendisch, Czech, Serbic, +Sclavic,--other hard names I could easily find for it among the tribes +of that vehemently heathen old Preussen--"resolutely worshipful +of places of oak trees, of wooden or stone idols, of Bangputtis, +Patkullos, and I know not what diabolic dumb blocks." Your English +"dislike to be interfered with" is in absolute fellowship with these, +but only gathers itself in its places of Stalks, or chimneys, instead +of oak trees, round its idols of iron, instead of wood, diabolically +_vocal_ now; strident, and sibilant, instead of dumb. + +Far other than these, their neighbour Saxons, Jutes and +Angles!--tribes between whom the distinctions are of no moment +whatsoever, except that an English boy or girl may with grace remember +that 'Old England,' exactly and strictly so called, was the small +district in the extreme south of Denmark, totally with its islands +estimable at sixty miles square of dead flat land. Directly south +of it, the definitely so-called Saxons held the western shore of +Holstein, with the estuary of the Elbe, and the sea-mark isle, +Heligoland. But since the principal temple of Saxon worship was close +to Leipsic,[9] we may include under our general term, Saxons, the +inhabitants of the whole level district of North Germany, from the +Gulf of Flensburg to the Hartz; and, eastward, all the country watered +by the Elbe as far as Saxon Switzerland. + +[Footnote 9: Turner, vol. i., p. 223.] + +Of the character of this race I will not here speak at any length: +only note of it this essential point, that their religion was at +once more practical and more imaginative than that of the Norwegian +peninsula; the Norse religion being the conception rather of natural +than moral powers, but the Saxon, primarily of moral, as the lords +of natural--their central divine image, Irminsul,[10] holding the +standard of peace in her right hand, a balance in her left. Such a +religion may degenerate into mere slaughter and rapine; but it has the +making in it of the noblest men. + +[Footnote 10: Properly plural 'Images'--Irminsul and Irminsula.] + +More practical at all events, whether for good or evil, in this trust +in a future reward for courage and purity, than the mere Scandinavian +awe of existing Earth and Cloud, the Saxon religion was also more +imaginative, in its nearer conception of human feeling in divine +creatures. And when this wide hope and high reverence had distinct +objects of worship and prayer, offered to them by Christianity, the +Saxons easily became pure, passionate, and thoughtful Christians; +while the Normans, to the last, had the greatest difficulty in +apprehending the Christian teaching of the Franks, and still deny the +power of Christianity, even when they have become inveterate in its +form. + +Quite the deepest-thoughted creatures of the then animate world, it +seems to me, these Saxon ploughmen of the sand or the sea, with their +worshipped deity of Beauty and Justice, a red rose on her banner, for +best of gifts, and in her right hand, instead of a sword, a balance, +for due doom, without wrath,--of retribution in her left. Far +other than the Wends, though stubborn enough, they too, in battle +rank,--seven times rising from defeat against Charlemagne, and +unsubdued but by death--yet, by no means in that John Bull's manner +of yours, 'averse to be interfered with,' in their opinions, or their +religion. Eagerly docile on the contrary--joyfully reverent--instantly +and gratefully acceptant of whatever better insight or oversight a +stranger could bring them, of the things of God or man. + +And let me here ask you especially to take account of that origin of +the true bearing of the Flag of England, the Red Rose. Her own +madness defiled afterwards alike the white and red, into images of the +paleness, or the crimson, of death; but the Saxon Rose was the symbol +of heavenly beauty and peace. + +I told you in my first lecture that one swift requirement in our +school would be to produce a beautiful map of England, including +old Northumberland, giving the whole country, in its real geography, +between the Frith of Forth and Straits of Dover, and with only +six sites of habitation given, besides those of Edinburgh and +London,--namely, those of Canterbury and Winchester, York and +Lancaster, Holy Island and Melrose; the latter instead of Iona, +because, as we have seen, the influence of St. Columba expires +with the advance of Christianity, while that of Cuthbert of +Melrose connects itself with the most sacred feelings of the entire +Northumbrian kingdom, and Scottish border, down to the days of +Scott--wreathing also into its circle many of the legends of Arthur. +Will you forgive my connecting the personal memory of having once had +a wild rose gathered for me, in the glen of Thomas the Rhymer, by the +daughter of one of the few remaining Catholic houses of Scotland, with +the pleasure I have in reading to you this following true account +of the origin of the name of St. Cuthbert's birthplace;--the rather +because I owe it to friendship of the same date, with Mr. Cockburn +Muir, of Melrose. + +"To those who have eyes to read it," says Mr. Muir, "the name +'Melrose' is written full and fair, on the fair face of all this reach +of the valley. The name is anciently spelt Mailros, and later, Malros, +never Mulros; ('Mul' being the Celtic word taken to mean 'bare'). Ros +is Rose; the forms Meal or Mol imply great quantity or number. Thus +Malros means the place of many roses. + +"This is precisely the notable characteristic of the neighbourhood. +The wild rose is indigenous. There is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor +brae, which is not, in the time of roses, ablaze with their exuberant +loveliness. In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that it +spreads literally like a weed. But it is worth suggestion that the +word may be of the same stock as the Hebrew _rôsh_ (translated rôs +by the Septuagint), meaning _chief_, _principal_, while it is also +the name of _some_ flower; but of _which_ flower is now unknown. +Affinities of _rôsh_ are not far to seek; Sanskrit, _Raj_(a), +_Ra_(ja)_ni_; Latin, _Rex_, _Reg_(ina)." + +I leave it to Professor Max Muller to certify or correct for you the +details of Mr. Cockburn's research,[11]--this main head of it I can +positively confirm, that in old Scotch,--that of Bishop Douglas,--the +word 'Rois' stands alike for King, and Rose. + +[Footnote 11: I had not time to quote it fully in the lecture; and in +my ignorance, alike of Keltic and Hebrew, can only submit it here to +the reader's examination. "The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms +this etymology beyond doubt, with customary heraldic precision. The +shield bears a _Rose_; with a _Maul_, as the exact phonetic equivalent +for the expletive. If the herald had needed to express 'bare +promontory,' quite certainly he would have managed it somehow. +Not only this, the Earls of Haddington were first created Earls +of _Melrose_ (1619); and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for +Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd (fesse wavy between) three _Roses_ gu. + +"Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus +into lingual affinities of wide range. The root _mol_ is clear enough. +It is of the same stock as the Greek _mála_, Latin _mul_(_tum_), and +Hebrew _m'la_. But, _Rose_? We call her Queen of Flowers, and since +before the Persian poets made much of her, she was everywhere _Regina +Florum_. Why should not the name mean simply the Queen, the Chief? +Now, so few who know Keltic know also Hebrew, and so few who know +Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the surprising extent of the +affinity that exists--clear as day--between the Keltic and the Hebrew +vocabularies. That the word _Rose_ may be a case in point is not +hazardously speculative."] + +Summing now the features I have too shortly specified in the Saxon +character,--its imagination, its docility, its love of knowledge, +and its love of beauty, you will be prepared to accept my conclusive +statement, that they gave rise to a form of Christian faith which +appears to me, in the present state of my knowledge, one of the +purest and most intellectual ever attained in Christendom;--never yet +understood, partly because of the extreme rudeness of its expression +in the art of manuscripts, and partly because, on account of its very +purity, it sought no expression in architecture, being a religion +of daily life, and humble lodging. For these two practical reasons, +first;--and for this more weighty third, that the intellectual +character of it is at the same time most truly, as Dean Stanley +told you, childlike; showing itself in swiftness of imaginative +apprehension, and in the fearlessly candid application of great +principles to small things. Its character in this kind may be +instantly felt by any sympathetic and gentle person who will read +carefully the book I have already quoted to you, the Venerable Bede's +life of St. Cuthbert; and the intensity and sincerity of it in the +highest orders of the laity, by simply counting the members of Saxon +Royal families who ended their lives in monasteries. + +Now, at the very moment when this faith, innocence, and ingenuity were +on the point of springing up into their fruitage, comes the Northern +invasion; of the real character of which you can gain a far truer +estimate by studying Alfred's former resolute contest with and victory +over the native Norman in his paganism, than by your utmost endeavours +to conceive the character of the afterwards invading Norman, +disguised, but not changed, by Christianity. The Norman could not, in +the nature of him, become a _Christian_ at all; and he never did;--he +only became, at his best, the enemy of the Saracen. What he was, and +what alone he was capable of being, I will try to-day to explain. + +And here I must advise you that in all points of history relating +to the period between 800 and 1200, you will find M. Viollet le +Duc, incidentally throughout his 'Dictionary of Architecture,' the +best-informed, most intelligent, and most thoughtful of guides. +His knowledge of architecture, carried down into the most minutely +practical details,--(which are often the most significant), and +embracing, over the entire surface of France, the buildings even of +the most secluded villages; his artistic enthusiasm, balanced by the +acutest sagacity, and his patriotism, by the frankest candour, render +his analysis of history during that active and constructive period the +most valuable known to me, and certainly, in its field, exhaustive. +Of the later nationality his account is imperfect, owing to his +professional interest in the mere _science_ of architecture, and +comparative insensibility to the power of sculpture;--but of the +time with which we are now concerned, whatever he tells you must be +regarded with grateful attention. + +I introduce, therefore, the Normans to you, on their first entering +France, under his descriptive terms of them.[12] + +[Footnote 12: Article "Architecture," vol. i., p. 138.] + +"As soon as they were established on the soil, these barbarians became +the most hardy and active builders. Within the space of a century +and a half, they had covered the country on which they had definitely +landed, with religious, monastic, and civil edifices, of an extent and +richness then little common. It is difficult to suppose that they had +brought from Norway the elements of art,[13] but they were possessed +by a persisting and penetrating spirit; their brutal force did not +want for grandeur. Conquerors, they raised castles to assure their +domination; they soon recognized the Moral force of the clergy, and +endowed it richly. Eager always to attain their end, when once they +saw it, they _never left one of their enterprises unfinished_, and +in that they differed completely from the Southern inhabitants of +Gaul. Tenacious extremely, they were perhaps the only ones among the +barbarians established in France who had ideas of order; the only ones +who knew how to preserve their conquests, and compose a state. They +found the remains of the Carthaginian arts on the territory where they +planted themselves, they mingled with those their national genius, +positive, grand, and yet supple." + +[Footnote 13: They _had_ brought some, of a variously Charybdic, +Serpentine, and Diabolic character.--J.R.] + +Supple, 'Delié,'--capable of change and play of the mental muscle, in +the way that savages are not. I do not, myself, grant this suppleness +to the Norman, the less because another sentence of M. le Duc's, +occurring incidentally in his account of the archivolt, is of extreme +counter-significance, and wide application. "The Norman arch," he +says, "is _never derived from traditional classic forms_, but only +from mathematical arrangement of line." Yes; that is true: the +Norman arch is never derived from classic forms. The cathedral,[14] +whose aisles you saw or might have seen, yesterday, interpenetrated +with light, whose vaults you might have heard prolonging the sweet +divisions of majestic sound, would have been built in that stately +symmetry by Norman law, though never an arch at Rome had risen round +her field of blood,--though never her Sublician bridge had been +petrified by her Augustan pontifices. But the _decoration_, though not +the structure of those arches, they owed to another race,[15] whose +words they stole without understanding, though three centuries before, +the Saxon understood, and used, to express the most solemn majesty of +his Kinghood,-- + + "EGO, EDGAR, TOTIVS ALBIONIS"-- + +not Rex, that would have meant the King of Kent or Mercia, not of +England,--no, nor Imperator; that would have meant only the profane +power of Rome, but _BASILEVS_, meaning a King who reigned with sacred +authority given by Heaven and Christ. + +[Footnote 14: Of Oxford, during the afternoon service.] + +[Footnote 15: See the concluding section of the lecture.] + +With far meaner thoughts, both of themselves and their powers, the +Normans set themselves to build impregnable military walls, and +sublime religious ones, in the best possible practical ways; but +they no more made books of their church fronts than of their bastion +flanks; and cared, in the religion they accepted, neither for its +sentiments nor its promises, but only for its immediate results on +national order. + +As I read them, they were men wholly of this world, bent on doing the +most in it, and making the best of it that they could;--men, to their +death, of _Deed_, never pausing, changing, repenting, or anticipating, +more than the completed square, [Greek: 'aneu psogou], of their +battle, their keep, and their cloister. Soldiers before and after +everything, they learned the lockings and bracings of their stones +primarily in defence against the battering-ram and the projectile, and +esteemed the pure circular arch for its distributed and equal strength +more than for its beauty. "I believe again," says M. le Duc,[16] "that +the feudal castle never arrived at its perfectness till after the +Norman invasion, and that this race of the North was the first to +apply a defensive system under unquestionable laws, soon followed by +the nobles of the Continent, after they had, at their own expense, +learned their superiority." + +[Footnote 16: Article "Château," vol. iii, p. 65.] + +The next sentence is a curious one. I pray your attention to it. "The +defensive system of the Norman is born of a profound sentiment of +_distrust_ and _cunning, foreign to the character of the Frank_." +You will find in all my previous notices of the French, continual +insistance upon their natural Franchise, and also, if you take the +least pains in analysis of their literature down to this day, that +the idea of falseness is to them indeed more hateful than to any other +European nation. To take a quite cardinal instance. If you compare +Lucian's and Shakespeare's Timon with Molière's Alceste, you will find +the Greek and English misanthropes dwell only on men's _ingratitude_ +to _themselves_, but Alceste, on their _falsehood to each other_. + +Now hear M. le Duc farther: + +"The castles built between the tenth and twelfth centuries along the +Loire, Gironde, and Seine, that is to say, along the lines of the +Norman invasions, and in the neighbourhood of their possessions, have +a peculiar and uniform character which one finds neither in central +France, nor in Burgundy, nor can there be any need for us to throw +light on (_faire ressortir_) the superiority of the warrior spirit +of the Normans, during the later times of the Carlovingian epoch, +over the spirit of the chiefs of Frank descent, established on the +Gallo-Roman soil." There's a bit of honesty in a Frenchman for you! + +I have just said that they valued religion chiefly for its influence +of order in the present world: being in this, observe, as nearly as +may be the exact reverse of modern believers, or persons who profess +to be such,--of whom it may be generally alleged, too truly, that they +value religion with respect to their future bliss rather than their +present duty; and are therefore continually careless of its direct +commands, with easy excuse to themselves for disobedience to them. +Whereas the Norman, finding in his own heart an irresistible impulse +to action, and perceiving himself to be set, with entirely strong +body, brain, and will, in the midst of a weak and dissolute confusion +of all things, takes from the Bible instantly into his conscience +every exhortation to Do and to Govern; and becomes, with all his might +and understanding, a blunt and rough servant, knecht, or knight of +God, liable to much misapprehension, of course, as to the services +immediately required of him, but supposing, since the whole make of +him, outside and in, is a soldier's, that God meant him for a soldier, +and that he is to establish, by main force, the Christian faith and +works all over the world so far as he comprehends them; not merely +with the Mahometan indignation against spiritual error, but with a +sound and honest soul's dislike of material error, and resolution to +extinguish _that_, even if perchance found in the spiritual persons to +whom, in their office, he yet rendered total reverence. + +Which force and faith in him I may best illustrate by merely putting +together the broken paragraphs of Sismondi's account of the founding +of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily: virtually contemporary with the +conquest of England. + +"The Normans surpassed all the races of the west in their ardour for +pilgrimages. They would not, to go into the Holy Land, submit to the +monotony[17] of a long sea voyage--the rather that they found not +on the Mediterranean the storms or dangers they had rejoiced to +encounter on their own sea. They traversed by land the whole of +France and Italy, trusting to their swords to procure the necessary +subsistence,[18] if the charity of the faithful did not enough provide +for it with alms. The towns of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, and Bari, held +constant commerce with Syria; and frequent miracles, it was believed, +illustrated the Monte Cassino (St. Benedict again!) on the road of +Naples, and the Mount of Angels (Garganus) above Bari." (Querceta +Gargani--verily, laborant; _now_, et orant.) "The pilgrims wished +to visit during their journey the monasteries built on these two +mountains, and therefore nearly always, either going or returning to +the Holy Land, passed through Magna Græcia. + +[Footnote 17: I give Sismondi's idea as it stands, but there was no +question in the matter of monotony or of danger. The journey was made +on foot because it was the most laborious way, and the most humble.] + +[Footnote 18: See farther on, p. 110, the analogies with English +arrangements of the same kind.] + +"In one of the earliest years of the eleventh century, about forty +of these religious travellers, having returned from the Holy Land, +chanced to have met together in Salerno at the moment when a small +Saracen fleet came to insult the town, and demand of it a military +contribution. The inhabitants of South Italy, at this time, abandoned +to the delights of their enchanted climate, had lost nearly all +military courage. The Salernitani saw with astonishment forty Norman +knights, after having demanded horses and arms from the Prince of +Salerno, order the gates of the town to be opened, charge the Saracens +fearlessly, and put them to flight. The Salernitani followed, however, +the example given them by these brave warriors, and those of the +Mussulmans who escaped their swords were forced to re-embark in all +haste. + +"The Prince of Salerno, Guaimar III., tried in vain to keep the +warrior-pilgrims at his court: but at his solicitation other companies +established themselves on the rocks of Salerno and Amalfi, until, +on Christmas Day, 1041, (exactly a quarter of a century before the +coronation here at Westminster of the Conqueror,) they gathered +their scattered forces at Aversa,[19] twelve groups of them +under twelve chosen counts, and all under the Lombard Ardoin, as +commander-in-chief." Be so good as to note that,--a marvellous +key-note of historical fact about the unjesting Lombards, I cannot +find the total Norman number: the chief contingent, under William +of the Iron Arm, the son of Tancred of Hauteville, was only of three +hundred knights; the Count of Aversa's troop, of the same number, is +named as an important part of the little army--admit it for ten times +Tancred's, three thousand men in all. At Aversa, these three thousand +men form, coolly on Christmas Day, 1041, the design of--well, I told +you they didn't _design_ much, only, now we're here, we may as well, +while we're about it,--overthrow the Greek empire! That was their +little game!--a Christmas mumming to purpose. The following year, the +whole of Apulia was divided among them. + +[Footnote 19: In Lombardy, south of Pavia.] + +I will not spoil, by abstracting, the magnificent following history +of Robert Guiscard, the most wonderful soldier of that or any other +time: I leave you to finish it for yourselves, only asking you to read +together with it, the sketch, in Turner's history of the Anglo-Saxons, +of Alfred's long previous war with the Norman Hasting; pointing out to +you for foci of character in each contest, the culminating incidents +of naval battle. In Guiscard's struggle with the Greeks, he encounters +for their chief naval force the Venetian fleet under the Doge Domenico +Selvo. The Venetians are at this moment undoubted masters in all naval +warfare; the Normans are worsted easily the first day,--the second +day, fighting harder, they are defeated again, and so disastrously +that the Venetian Doge takes no precautions against them on the third +day, thinking them utterly disabled. Guiscard attacks him again on the +third day, with the mere wreck of his own ships, and defeats the tired +and amazed Italians finally! + +The sea-fight between Alfred's ships and those of Hasting, ought to +be still more memorable to us. Alfred, as I noticed in last lecture, +had built war ships nearly twice as long as the Normans', swifter, +and steadier on the waves. Six Norman ships were ravaging the Isle +of Wight; Alfred sent nine of his own to take them. The King's fleet +found the Northmen's embayed, and three of them aground. The three +others _engaged Alfred's nine, twice their size_; two of the Viking +ships were taken, but the third escaped, with only five men! A nation +which verily took its pleasures in its Deeds. + +But before I can illustrate farther either their deeds or their +religion, I must for an instant meet the objection which I suppose the +extreme probity of the nineteenth century must feel acutely against +these men,--that they all lived by thieving. + +Without venturing to allude to the _raison d'être_ of the present +French and English Stock Exchanges, I will merely ask any of you here, +whether of Saxon or Norman blood, to define for himself what he means +by the "possession of India." I have no doubt that you all wish to +keep India in order, and in like manner I have assured you that Duke +William wished to keep England in order. If you will read the lecture +on the life of Sir Herbert Edwardes, which I hope to give in London +after finishing this course,[20] you will see how a Christian British +officer can, and does, verily, and with his whole heart, keep in order +such part of India as may be entrusted to him, and in so doing, secure +our Empire. But the silent feeling and practice of the nation about +India is based on quite other motives than Sir Herbert's. Every +mutiny, every danger, every terror, and every crime, occurring under, +or paralyzing, our Indian legislation, arises directly out of our +national desire to live on the loot of India, and the notion always +entertained by English young gentlemen and ladies of good position, +falling in love with each other without immediate prospect +of establishment in Belgrave Square, that they can find in +India, instantly on landing, a bungalow ready furnished with +the loveliest fans, china, and shawls,--ices and sherbet at +command,--four-and-twenty slaves succeeding each other hourly to +swing the punkah, and a regiment with a beautiful band to "keep order" +outside, all round the house. + +[Footnote 20: This was prevented by the necessity for the +re-arrangement of my terminal Oxford lectures: I am now preparing that +on Sir Herbert for publication in a somewhat expanded form.] + +Entreating your pardon for what may seem rude in these personal +remarks, I will further entreat you to read my account of the death +of Coeur de Lion in the third number of 'Fors Clavigera'--and also the +scenes in 'Ivanhoe' between Coeur de Lion and Locksley; and commending +these few passages to your quiet consideration, I proceed to give you +another anecdote or two of the Normans in Italy, twelve years later +than those given above, and, therefore, only thirteen years before the +battle of Hastings. + +Their division of South Italy among them especially, and their defeat +of Venice, had alarmed everybody considerably,--especially the Pope, +Leo IX., who did not understand this manifestation of their piety. He +sent to Henry III. of Germany, to whom he owed his Popedom, for some +German knights, and got five hundred spears; gathered out of all +Apulia, Campania, and the March of Ancona, what Greek and Latin troops +were to be had, to join his own army of the patrimony of St. Peter; +and the holy Pontiff, with this numerous army, but no general, began +the campaign by a pilgrimage with all his troops to Monte Cassino, in +order to obtain, if it might be, St. Benedict for general. + +Against the Pope's collected masses, with St. Benedict, their +contemplative but at first inactive general, stood the little army of +Normans,--certainly not more than the third of their number--but with +Robert Guiscard for captain, and under him his brother, Humphrey of +Hauteville, and Richard of Aversa. Not in fear, but in devotion, they +prayed the Pope 'avec instance,'--to say on what conditions they could +appease his anger, and live in peace under him. But the Pope would +hear of nothing but their evacuation of Italy. Whereupon, they had to +settle the question in the Norman manner. + +The two armies met in front of Civitella, on Waterloo day, 18th June, +thirteen years, as I said, before the battle of Hastings. The German +knights were the heart of the Pope's army, but they were only five +hundred; the Normans surrounded _them_ first, and slew them, nearly +to a man--and then made extremely short work with the Italians and +Greeks. The Pope, with the wreck of them, fled into Civitella; but the +townspeople dared not defend their walls, and thrust the Pope himself +out of their gates--to meet, alone, the Norman army. + +He met it, _not_ alone, St. Benedict being with him now, when he had +no longer the strength of man to trust in. + +The Normans, as they approached him, threw themselves on their +knees,--covered themselves with dust, and implored his pardon and his +blessing. + +There's a bit of poetry--if you like,--but a piece of steel-clad fact +also, compared to which the battle of Hastings and Waterloo both, were +mere boys' squabbles. + +You don't suppose, you British schoolboys, that _you_ overthrew +Napoleon--_you?_ Your prime Minister folded up the map of Europe at +the thought of him. Not you, but the snows of Heaven, and the hand of +Him who dasheth in pieces with a rod of iron. He casteth forth His ice +like morsels,--who can stand before His cold? + +But, so far as you have indeed the right to trust in the courage of +your own hearts, remember also--it is not in Norman nor Saxon, but in +Celtic race that your real strength lies. The battles both of Waterloo +and Alma were won by Irish and Scots--by the terrible Scots Greys, and +by Sir Colin's Highlanders. Your 'thin red line,' was kept steady at +Alma only by Colonel Yea's swearing at them. + +But the old Pope, alone against a Norman army, wanted nobody to swear +at him. Steady enough he, having somebody to bless him, instead of +swear at him. St. Benedict, namely; whose (memory shall we say?) +helped him now at his pinch in a singular manner,--for the Normans, +having got the old man's forgiveness, vowed themselves his feudal +servants; and for seven centuries afterwards the whole kingdom of +Naples remained a fief of St. Peter,--won for him thus by a single +man, unarmed, against three thousand Norman knights, captained by +Robert Guiscard! + +A day of deeds, gentlemen, to some purpose,--_that_ 18th of June, +anyhow. + +Here, in the historical account of Norman character, I must +unwillingly stop for to-day--because, as you choose to spend your +University money in building ball-rooms instead of lecture-rooms, I +dare not keep you much longer in this black hole, with its nineteenth +century ventilation. I try your patience--and tax your breath--only +for a few minutes more in drawing the necessary corollaries respecting +Norman art.[21] + +[Footnote 21: Given at much greater length in the lecture, with +diagrams from Iffley and Poictiers, without which the text of them +would be unintelligible. The sum of what I said was a strong assertion +of the incapacity of the Normans for any but the rudest and most +grotesque sculpture,--Poictiers being, on the contrary, examined and +praised as Gallic-French--not Norman.] + +How far the existing British nation owes its military prowess to +the blood of Normandy and Anjou, I have never examined its genealogy +enough to tell you;--but this I can tell you positively, that whatever +constitutional order or personal valour the Normans enforced or taught +among the nations they conquered, they did not at first attempt with +their own hands to rival them in any of their finer arts, but used +both Greek and Saxon sculptors, either as slaves, or hired workmen, +and more or less therefore chilled and degraded the hearts of the men +thus set to servile, or at best, hireling, labour. + +In 1874, I went to see Etna, Scylla, Charybdis, and the tombs of the +Norman Kings at Palermo; surprised, as you may imagine, to find that +there wasn't a stroke nor a notion of Norman work in them. They are, +every atom, done by Greeks, and are as pure Greek as the temple of +Ægina; but more rich and refined. I drew with accurate care, and +with measured profile of every moulding, the tomb built for Roger +II. (afterwards Frederick II. was laid in its dark porphyry). And it +is a perfect type of the Greek-Christian form of tomb--temple over +sarcophagus, in which the pediments rise gradually, as time goes on, +into acute angles--get pierced in the gable with foils, and their +sculptures thrown outside on their flanks, and become at last in the +fourteenth century, the tombs of Verona. But what is the meaning of +the Normans employing these Greek slaves for their work in Sicily +(within thirty miles of the field of Himera)? Well, the main meaning +is that though the Normans could build, they couldn't carve, and were +wise enough not to try to, when they couldn't, as you do now all over +this intensely comic and tragic town: but, here in England, they only +employed the Saxon with a grudge, and therefore being more and more +driven to use barren mouldings without sculpture, gradually developed +the structural forms of archivolt, which breaking into the lancet, +brighten and balance themselves into the symmetry of early English +Gothic. + +But even for the first decoration of the archivolt itself, they were +probably indebted to the Greeks in a degree I never apprehended, until +by pure happy chance, a friend gave me the clue to it just as I was +writing the last pages of this lecture. + +In the generalization of ornament attempted in the first volume of +the 'Stones of Venice,' I supposed the Norman _zigzag_ (and with some +practical truth) to be derived from the angular notches with which the +blow of an axe can most easily decorate, or at least vary, the solid +edge of a square fillet. My good friend, and supporter, and for some +time back the single trustee of St. George's Guild, Mr. George Baker, +having come to Oxford on Guild business, I happened to show him the +photographs of the front of Iffley church, which had been collected +for this lecture; and immediately afterwards, in taking him through +the schools, stopped to show him the Athena of Ægina as one of +the most important of the Greek examples lately obtained for us by +Professor Richmond. The statue is (rightly) so placed that in looking +up to it, the plait of hair across the forehead is seen in a steeply +curved arch. "Why," says Mr. Baker, pointing to it, "there's the +Norman arch of Iffley." Sure enough, there it exactly was: and a +moment's reflection showed me how easily, and with what instinctive +fitness, the Norman builders, looking to the Greeks as their absolute +masters in sculpture, and recognizing also, during the Crusades, the +hieroglyphic use of the zigzag, for water, by the Egyptians, might +have adopted this easily attained decoration at once as the sign of +the element over which they reigned, and of the power of the Greek +goddess who ruled both it and them. + +I do not in the least press your acceptance of such a tradition, +nor for the rest, do I care myself whence any method of ornament is +derived, if only, as a stranger, you bid it reverent welcome. But much +probability is added to the conjecture by the indisputable transition +of the Greek egg and arrow moulding into the floral cornices of Saxon +and other twelfth century cathedrals in Central France. These and +other such transitions and exaltations I will give you the materials +to study at your leisure, after illustrating in my next lecture the +forces of religious imagination by which all that was most beautiful +in them was inspired. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +(_NOV. 8, 1884._) + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. + +_COEUR DE LION TO ELIZABETH_ + +(1189 TO 1558). + + +In using the word "Fancy," for the mental faculties of which I am to +speak to-day, I trust you, at your leisure, to read the Introductory +Note to the second volume of 'Modern Painters' in the small new +edition, which gives sufficient reason for practically including +under the single term Fancy, or Fantasy, all the energies of the +Imagination,--in the terms of the last sentence of that preface,--"the +healthy, voluntary, and necessary,[22] action of the highest powers +of the human mind, on subjects properly demanding and justifying their +exertion." + +[Footnote 22: Meaning that all healthy minds possess imagination, and +use it at will, under fixed laws of truthful perception and memory.] + +I must farther ask you to read, in the same volume, the close of the +chapter 'Of Imagination Penetrative,' pp. 120 to 130, of which the +gist, which I must give as the first principle from which we start in +our to-day's inquiry, is that "Imagination, rightly so called, has no +food, no delight, no care, no perception, except of truth; it is for +ever looking under masks, and burning up mists; no fairness of form, +no majesty of seeming, will satisfy it; the first condition of its +existence is incapability of being deceived."[23] In that sentence, +which is a part, and a very valuable part, of the original book, I +still adopted and used unnecessarily the ordinary distinction between +Fancy and Imagination--Fancy concerned with lighter things, creating +fairies or centaurs, and Imagination creating men; and I was in +the habit always of implying by the meaner word Fancy, a voluntary +Fallacy, as Wordsworth does in those lines to his wife, making of her +a mere lay figure for the drapery of his fancy-- + + Such if thou wert, in all men's view + An universal show, + What would my Fancy have to do, + My feelings to bestow. + +But you will at once understand the higher and more universal power +which I now wish you to understand by the Fancy, including all +imaginative energy, correcting these lines of Wordsworth's to a more +worthy description of a true lover's happiness. When a boy falls in +love with a girl, you say he has taken a fancy for her; but if he love +her rightly, that is to say for her noble qualities, you ought to say +he has taken an imagination for her; for then he is endued with the +new light of love which sees and tells of the mind in her,--and this +neither falsely nor vainly. His love does not bestow, it discovers, +what is indeed most precious in his mistress, and most needful for +his own life and happiness. Day by day, as he loves her better, he +discerns her more truly; and it is only the truth of his love that +does so. Falsehood to her, would at once disenchant and blind him. + +[Footnote 23: Vide pp. 124-5.] + +In my first lecture of this year, I pointed out to you with what +extreme simplicity and reality the Christian faith must have presented +itself to the Northern Pagan's mind, in its distinction from +his former confused and monstrous mythology. It was also in that +simplicity and tangible reality of conception, that this Faith became +to them, and to the other savage nations of Europe, Tutress of the +real power of their imagination and it became so, only in so far as +it indeed conveyed to them statements which, however in some respects +mysterious, were yet most literally and brightly _true_, as compared +with their former conceptions. So that while the blind cunning of +the savage had produced only misshapen logs or scrawls; the _seeing_ +imagination of the Christian painters created, for them and for all +the world, the perfect types of the Virgin and of her Son; which +became, indeed, Divine, by being, with the most affectionate truth, +human. + +And the association of this truth in loving conception, with the +general honesty and truth of the character, is again conclusively +shown in the feelings of the lover to his mistress; which we recognize +as first reaching their height in the days of chivalry. The truth and +faith of the lover, and his piety to Heaven, are the foundation, in +his character, of all the joy in imagination which he can receive +from the conception of his lady's--now no more mortal--beauty. She is +indeed transfigured before him; but the truth of the transfiguration +is greater than that of the lightless aspect she bears to others. When +therefore, in my next lecture, I speak of the Pleasures of Truth, +as distinct from those of the Imagination,--if either the limits +or clearness of brief title had permitted me, I should have said, +_untransfigured_ truth;--meaning on the one side, truth which we have +not heart enough to transfigure, and on the other, truth of the lower +kind which is incapable of transfiguration. One may look at a girl +till one believes she is an angel; because, in the best of her, she +_is_ one; but one can't look at a cockchafer till one believes it is a +girl. + +With this warning of the connection which exists between the honest +intellect and the healthy imagination; and using henceforward the +shorter word 'Fancy' for all inventive vision, I proceed to consider +with you the meaning and consequences of the frank and eager exertion +of the fancy on Religious subjects, between the twelfth and sixteenth +centuries. + +Its first, and admittedly most questionable action, the promotion +of the group of martyr saints of the third century to thrones of +uncontested dominion in heaven, had better be distinctly understood, +before we debate of it, either with the Iconoclast or the Rationalist. +This apotheosis by the Imagination is the subject of my present +lecture. To-day I only describe it,--in my next lecture I will discuss +it. + +Observe, however, that in giving such a history of the mental +constitution of nascent Christianity, we have to deal with, and +carefully to distinguish, two entirely different orders in its +accepted hierarchy:--one, scarcely founded at all on personal +characters or acts, but mythic or symbolic; often merely the revival, +the baptized resuscitation of a Pagan deity, or the personified +omnipresence of a Christian virtue;--the other, a senate of Patres +Conscripti of real persons, great in genius, and perfect, humanly +speaking, in holiness; who by their personal force and inspired +wisdom, wrought the plastic body of the Church into such noble form +as in each of their epochs it was able to receive; and on the right +understanding of whose lives, nor less of the affectionate traditions +which magnified and illumined their memories, must absolutely depend +the value of every estimate we form, whether of the nature of the +Christian Church herself, or of the directness of spiritual agency by +which she was guided.[24] + +[Footnote 24: If the reader believes in no spiritual agency, still his +understanding of the first letters in the Alphabet of History depends +on his comprehending rightly the tempers of the people who _did_.] + +An important distinction, therefore, is to be noted at the outset, +in the objects of this Apotheosis, according as they are, or are not, +real persons. + +Of these two great orders of Saints, the first; or mythic, +belongs--speaking broadly--to the southern or Greek Church alone. + +The Gothic Christians, once detached from the worship of Odin and +Thor, abjure from their hearts all trust in the elements, and all +worship of ideas. They will have their Saints in flesh and blood, +their Angels in plume and armour; and nothing incorporeal or +invisible. In all the Religious sculpture beside Loire and Seine, you +will not find either of the great rivers personified; the dress of the +highest seraph is of true steel or sound broadcloth, neither flecked +by hail, nor fringed by thunder; and while the ideal Charity of Giotto +at Padua presents her heart in her hand to God, and tramples at the +same instant on bags of gold, the treasures of the world, and gives +only corn and flowers; that on the west porch of Amiens is content to +clothe a beggar with a piece of the staple manufacture of the town. + +On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to find in the imagery of +the Greek Church, under the former exercise of the Imagination, a +representation either of man or beast which purports to represent +_only_ the person, or the brute. Every mortal creature stands for an +Immortal Intelligence or Influence: a Lamb means an Apostle, a Lion an +Evangelist, an Angel the Eternal justice or benevolence; and the most +historical and indubitable of Saints are compelled to set forth, in +their vulgarly apparent persons, a Platonic myth or an Athanasian +article. + +I therefore take note first of the mythic saints in succession, whom +this treatment of them by the Byzantine Church made afterwards the +favourite idols of all Christendom. + +I. The most mythic is of course St. Sophia; the shade of the Greek +Athena, passing into the 'Wisdom' of the Jewish Proverbs and Psalms, +and the Apocryphal 'Wisdom of Solomon.' She always remains understood +as a personification only; and has no direct influence on the mind +of the unlearned multitude of Western Christendom, except as a +godmother,--in which kindly function she is more and more accepted as +times go on; her healthy influence being perhaps greater over sweet +vicars' daughters in Wakefield--when Wakefield _was_,--than over the +prudentest of the rarely prudent Empresses of Byzantium. + +II. Of St. Catharine of Egypt there are vestiges of personal tradition +which may perhaps permit the supposition of her having really once +existed, as a very lovely, witty, proud, and 'fanciful' girl. She +afterwards becomes the Christian type of the Bride, in the 'Song of +Solomon,' involved with an ideal of all that is purest in the life of +a nun, and brightest in the death of a martyr. It is scarcely possible +to overrate the influence of the conceptions formed of her, in +ennobling the sentiments of Christian women of the higher orders;--to +their practical common sense, as the mistresses of a household or a +nation, her example may have been less conducive. + +III. St. Barbara, also an Egyptian, and St. Catharine's contemporary, +though the most practical of the mythic saints, is also, after St. +Sophia, the least corporeal: she vanishes far away into the 'Inclusa +Danae,' and her "Tunis aenea" becomes a myth of Christian safety, of +which the Scriptural significance may be enough felt by merely looking +out the texts under the word "Tower," in your concordance; and whose +effectual power, in the fortitudes alike of matter and spirit, was in +all probability made impressive enough to all Christendom, both by +the fortifications and persecutions of Diocletian. I have endeavoured +to mark her general relations to St. Sophia in the little imaginary +dialogue between them, given in the eighth lecture of the 'Ethics of +the Dust.' + +Afterwards, as Gothic architecture becomes dominant, and at last +beyond question the most wonderful of all temple-building, St. +Barbara's Tower is, of course, its perfected symbol and utmost +achievement; and whether in the coronets of countless battlements worn +on the brows of the noblest cities, or in the Lombard bell-tower on +the mountains, and the English spire on Sarum plain, the geometric +majesty of the Egyptian maid became glorious in harmony of defence, +and sacred with precision of symbol. + +As the buildings which showed her utmost skill were chiefly exposed +to lightning, she is invoked in defence from it; and our petition +in the Litany, against sudden death, was written originally to her. +The blasphemous corruptions of her into a patroness of cannon and +gunpowder, are among the most ludicrous, (because precisely contrary +to the original tradition,) as well as the most deadly, insolences and +stupidities of Renaissance Art. + +IV. St. Margaret of Antioch was a shepherdess; the St. Geneviève of +the East; the type of feminine gentleness and simplicity. Traditions +of the resurrection of Alcestis perhaps mingle in those of her contest +with the dragon; but at all events, she differs from the other three +great mythic saints, in expressing the soul's victory over temptation +or affliction, by Christ's miraculous help, and without any special +power of its own. She is the saint of the meek and of the poor; her +virtue and her victory are those of all gracious and lowly womanhood; +and her memory is consecrated among the gentle households of Europe; +no other name, except those of Jeanne and Jeanie, seems so gifted with +a baptismal fairy power of giving grace and peace. + +I must be forgiven for thinking, even on this canonical ground, +not only of Jeanie Deans, and Margaret of Branksome; but of +Meg--Merrilies. My readers will, I fear, choose rather to think of the +more doubtful victory over the Dragon, won by the great Margaret of +German literature. + +V. With much more clearness and historic comfort we may approach the +shrine of St. Cecilia; and even on the most prosaic and realistic +minds--such as my own--a visit to her house in Rome has a comforting +and establishing effect, which reminds one of the carter in 'Harry +and Lucy,' who is convinced of the truth of a plaustral catastrophe at +first incredible to him, as soon as he hears the name of the hill on +which it happened. The ruling conception of her is deepened gradually +by the enlarged study of Religious music; and is at its best and +highest in the thirteenth century, when she rather resists than +complies with the already tempting and distracting powers of sound; +and we are told that "cantantibus organis, Cecilia virgo in corde suo +soli Domino decantabat, dicens, 'Fiat, Domine, cor meum et corpus meum +immaculatum, ut non confundar.'" + +("While the instruments played, Cecilia the virgin sang in her +heart only to the Lord, saying, Oh Lord, be my heart and body made +stainless, that I be not confounded.") + +This sentence occurs in my great Service-book of the convent of +Beau-pré, written in 1290, and it is illustrated with a miniature of +Cecilia sitting silent at a banquet, where all manner of musicians are +playing. I need not point out to you how the law, not of sacred music +only, so called, but of _all_ music, is determined by this sentence; +which means in effect that unless music exalt and purify, it is not +under St. Cecilia's ordinance, and it is not, virtually, music at all. + +Her confessed power at last expires amidst a hubbub of odes and +sonatas; and I suppose her presence at a Morning Popular is as little +anticipated as desired. Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints +for ever the greatest; and the child in its nurse's arms, and every +tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify in itself,--as the +eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing,--may still, whether behind the +Temple veil,[25] or at the fireside, and by the wayside, hear Cecilia +sing. + + [Footnote 25:"But, standing in the lowest place, + And mingled with the work-day crowd, + A poor man looks, with lifted face, + And hears the Angels cry aloud. + + "He seeks not how each instant flies, + One moment is Eternity; + His spirit with the Angels cries + To Thee, to Thee, continually. + + "What if, Isaiah-like, he know + His heart be weak, his lips unclean, + His nature vile, his office low, + His dwelling and his people mean? + + "To such the Angels spake of old-- + To such of yore, the glory came; + These altar fires can ne'er grow cold: + Then be it his, that cleansing flame." + +These verses, part of a very lovely poem, "To Thee all Angels cry +aloud," in the 'Monthly Packet' for September 1873, are only signed +'Veritas.' The volume for that year (the 16th) is well worth getting, +for the sake of the admirable papers in it by Miss Sewell, on +questions of the day; by Miss A.C. Owen, on Christian Art; and the +unsigned Cameos from English History.] + +It would delay me too long just now to trace in specialty farther the +functions of the mythic, or, as in another sense they may be truly +called, the universal, Saints: the next greatest of them, St. Ursula, +is essentially British,--and you will find enough about her in +'Fors Clavigera'; the others, I will simply give you in entirely +authoritative order from the St. Louis' Psalter, as he read and +thought of them. + +The proper Service-book of the thirteenth century consists first +of the pure Psalter; then of certain essential passages of the Old +Testament--invariably the Song of Miriam at the Red Sea and the last +song of Moses;--ordinarily also the 12th of Isaiah and the prayer of +Habakkuk; while St. Louis' Psalter has also the prayer of Hannah, +and that of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20); the Song of the Three +Children; then the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. +Then follows the Athanasian Creed; and then, as in all Psalters after +their chosen Scripture passages, the collects to the Virgin, the +Te Deum, and Service to Christ, beginning with the Psalm 'The Lord +reigneth'; and then the collects to the greater individual saints, +closing with the Litany, or constant prayer for mercy to Christ, and +all saints; of whom the order is,--Archangels, Patriarchs, Apostles, +Disciples, Innocents, Martyrs, Confessors, Monks, and Virgins. Of +women the Magdalen _always_ leads; St. Mary of Egypt usually follows, +but _may_ be the last. Then the order varies in every place, and +prayer-book, no recognizable supremacy being traceable; except in +relation to the place, or person, for whom the book was written. In +St. Louis', St. Geneviève (the last saint to whom he prayed on his +death-bed) follows the two Maries; then come--memorable for you best, +as easiest, in this six-foil group,--Saints Catharine, Margaret, and +Scolastica, Agatha, Cecilia, and Agnes; and then ten more, whom +you may learn or not as you like: I note them now only for future +reference,--more lively and easy for your learning,--by their French +names, + +Felicité, + +Colombe, + +Christine, + + * * * * * + +Aurée, Honorine, + + * * * * * + +Radegonde, + +Praxède, + +Euphémie, + + * * * * * + +Bathilde, Eugénie. + +Such was the system of Theology into which the Imaginative Religion of +Europe was crystallized, by the growth of its own best faculties, and +the influence of all accessible and credible authorities, during the +period between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries inclusive. Its +spiritual power is completely represented by the angelic and apostolic +dynasties, and the women-saints in Paradise; for of the men-saints, +beneath the apostles and prophets, none but St. Christopher, St. +Nicholas, St. Anthony, St. James, and St. George, attained anything +like the influence of Catharine or Cecilia; for the very curious +reason, that the men-saints were much more true, real, and numerous. +St. Martin was reverenced all over Europe, but definitely, as a man, +and the Bishop of Tours. So St. Ambrose at Milan, and St. Gregory at +Rome, and hundreds of good men more, all over the world; while the +really good women remained, though not rare, inconspicuous. The +virtues of French Clotilde, and Swiss Berthe, were painfully borne +down in the balance of visible judgment, by the guilt of the Gonerils, +Regans, and Lady Macbeths, whose spectral procession closes only +with the figure of Eleanor in Woodstock maze; and in dearth of +nearer objects, the daily brighter powers of fancy dwelt with +more concentrated devotion on the stainless ideals of the earlier +maid-martyrs. And observe, even the loftier fame of the men-saints +above named, as compared with the rest, depends on precisely the same +character of indefinite personality; and on the representation, by +each of them, of a moral idea which may be embodied and painted in +a miraculous legend; credible, as history, even then, only to the +vulgar; but powerful over them, nevertheless, exactly in proportion +to the degree in which it can be pictured and fancied as a living +creature. Consider even yet in these days of mechanism, how the +dullest John Bull cannot with perfect complacency adore _himself_, +except under the figure of Britannia or the British Lion; and how the +existence of the popular jest-book, which might have seemed secure in +its necessity to our weekly recreation, is yet virtually centred on +the imaginary animation of a puppet, and the imaginary elevation to +reason of a dog. But in the Middle Ages, this action of the Fancy, +now distorted and despised, was the happy and sacred tutress of every +faculty of the body and soul; and the works and thoughts of art, the +joys and toils of men, rose and flowed on in the bright air of it, +with the aspiration of a flame, and the beneficence of a fountain. + +And now, in the rest of my lecture, I had intended to give you a broad +summary of the rise and fall of English art, born under this code of +theology, and this enthusiasm of duty;--of its rise, from the rude +vaults of Westminster, to the finished majesty of Wells;--and of its +fall, from that brief hour of the thirteenth century, through the wars +of the Bolingbroke, and the pride of the Tudor, and the lust of the +Stewart, to expire under the mocking snarl and ruthless blow of the +Puritan. But you know that I have always, in my most serious work, +allowed myself to be influenced by those Chances, as they are now +called,--but to my own feeling and belief, guidances, and even, if +rightly understood, commands,--which, as far as I have read history, +the best and sincerest men think providential. Had this lecture been +on common principles of art, I should have finished it as I intended, +without fear of its being the worse for my consistency. But it deals, +on the contrary, with a subject, respecting which every sentence I +write, or speak, is of importance in its issue; and I allowed, as you +heard, the momentary observation of a friend, to give an entirely new +cast to the close of my last lecture. Much more, I feel it incumbent +upon me in this one, to take advantage of the most opportune help, +though in an unexpected direction, given me by my constant tutor, +Professor Westwood. I went to dine with him, a day or two ago, +mainly--being neither of us, I am thankful to say, blue-ribanded--to +drink his health on his recovery from his recent accident. Whereupon +he gave me a feast of good talk, old wine, and purple manuscripts. And +having had as much of all as I could well carry, just as it came to +the good-night, out he brings, for a finish, this leaf of manuscript +in my hand, which he has lent me to show you,--a leaf of the Bible of +Charles the Bald! + +A leaf of it, at least, as far as you or I could tell, for Professor +Westwood's copy is just as good, in all the parts finished, as the +original: and, for all practical purpose, I show you here in my hand +a leaf of the Bible which your own King Alfred saw with his own bright +eyes, and from which he learned his child-faith in the days of dawning +thought! + +There are few English children who do not know the story of Alfred, +the king, letting the cakes burn, and being chidden by his peasant +hostess. How few English children--nay, how few perhaps of their +educated, not to say learned, elders--reflect upon, if even they know, +the far different scenes through which he had passed when a child! + +Concerning his father, his mother, and his own childhood, suppose you +were to teach your children first these following main facts, before +you come to the toasting of the muffin? + +His father, educated by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, had been +offered the throne of the great Saxon kingdom of Mercia in his early +youth; had refused it, and entered, as a novice under St. Swithin the +monastery at Winchester. From St. Swithin, he received the monastic +habit, and was appointed by Bishop Helmstan one of his sub-deacons! + +"The quiet seclusion which Ethelwulph's slow[26] capacity and meek +temper coveted" was not permitted to him by fate. The death of his +elder brother left him the only living representative of the line of +the West Saxon princes. His accession to the throne became the desire +of the people. He obtained a dispensation from the Pope to leave the +cloister; assumed the crown of Egbert; and retained Egbert's prime +minister, Alstan, Bishop of Sherborne, who was the Minister in peace +and war, the Treasurer, and the Counsellor, of the kings of England, +over a space, from first to last, of fifty years. + +[Footnote 26: Turner, quoting William of Malmesbury, "Crassioris et +hebetis ingenii,"--meaning that he had neither ardour for war, nor +ambition for kinghood.] + +Alfred's mother, Osburga, must have been married for love. She was the +daughter of Oslac, the king's cup-bearer. Extolled for her piety and +understanding, she bore the king four sons; dying before the last, +Alfred, was five years old, but leaving him St. Swithin for his tutor. +How little do any of us think, in idle talk of rain or no rain on St. +Swithin's day, that we speak of the man whom Alfred's father obeyed as +a monk, and whom his mother chose for his guardian! + +Alfred, both to father and mother, was the best beloved of their +children. On his mother's death, his father sent him, being then five +years old, with a great retinue through France and across the Alps +to Rome; and there the Pope anointed him King, (heir-apparent to the +English throne), at the request of his father. + +Think of it, you travellers through the Alps by tunnels, that you +may go to balls at Rome or hells at Monaco. Here is another manner +of journey, another goal for it, appointed for your little king. At +twelve, he was already the best hunter among the Saxon youths. Be sure +he could sit his horse at five. Fancy the child, with his keen genius, +and holy heart, riding with his Saxon chiefs beside him, by the Alpine +flowers under Velan or Sempione, and down among the olives to Pavia, +to Perugia, to Rome; there, like the little fabled Virgin, ascending +the Temple steps, and consecrated to be King of England by the great +Leo, Leo of the Leonine city, the saviour of Rome from the Saracen. + +Two years afterwards, he rode again to Rome beside his father; the +West Saxon king bringing presents to the Pope, a crown of pure gold +weighing four pounds, a sword adorned with pure gold, two golden +images,[27] four Saxon silver dishes; and giving a gift of gold to all +the Roman clergy and nobles,[28] and of silver to the people. + +[Footnote 27: Turner, Book IV.,--not a vestige of hint from the stupid +Englishman, what the Pope wanted with crown, sword, or image! My own +guess would be, that it meant an offering of the entire household +strength, in war and peace, of the Saxon nation,--their crown, their +sword, their household gods, Irminsul and Irminsula, their feasting, +and their robes.] + +[Footnote 28: Again, what does this mean? Gifts of honour to the +Pope's immediate attendants--silver to all Rome? Does the modern +reader think this is buying little Alfred's consecration too dear, or +that Leo is selling the Holy Ghost?] + +No idle sacrifices or symbols, these gifts of courtesy! The Saxon King +rebuilt on the highest hill that is bathed by Tiber, the Saxon street +and school, the Borgo,[29] of whose miraculously arrested burning +Raphael's fresco preserves the story to this day. And further +he obtained from Leo the liberty of all Saxon men from bonds +in penance;--a first phase this of Magna Charta, obtained more +honourably, from a more honourable person, than that document, by +which Englishmen of this day, suppose they live, move, and have being. + +[Footnote 29: "Quæ in eorum lingua Burgus dicitur,--the place where it +was situated was called the Saxon street, Saxonum vicum" (Anastasius, +quoted by Turner). There seems to me some evidence in the scattered +passages I have not time to collate, that at this time the Saxon Burg, +or tower, of a village, included the idea of its school.] + +How far into Alfred's soul, at seven years old, sank any true image of +what Rome was, and had been; of what her Lion Lord was, who had saved +her from the Saracen, and her Lion Lord had been, who had saved her +from the Hun; and what this Spiritual Dominion was, and was to be, +which could make and unmake kings, and save nations, and put armies to +flight; I leave those to say, who have learned to reverence childhood. +This, at least, is sure, that the days of Alfred were bound each to +each, not only by their natural piety, but by the actual presence and +appeal to his heart, of all that was then in the world most noble, +beautiful, and strong against Death. + +In this living Book of God he had learned to read, thus early; and +with perhaps nobler ambition than of getting the prize of a gilded +psalm-book at his mother's knee, as you are commonly told of him. What +sort of psalm-book it was, however, you may see from this leaf in my +hand. For, as his father and he returned from Rome that year, they +stayed again at the Court of Charlemagne's grandson, whose daughter, +the Princess Judith, Ethelwolf was wooing for Queen of England, (not +queen-consort, merely, but crowned queen, of authority equal to his +own.) From whom Alfred was like enough to have had a reading lesson or +two out of her father's Bible; and like enough, the little prince, to +have stayed her hand at this bright leaf of it, the Lion-leaf, bearing +the symbol of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. + +You cannot, of course, see anything but the glittering from where +you sit; nor even if you afterwards look at it near, will you find +a figure the least admirable or impressive to you. It is not like +Landseer's Lions in Trafalgar Square; nor like Tenniel's in 'Punch'; +still less like the real ones in Regent's Park. Neither do I show it +you as admirable in any respect of art, other than that of skilfullest +illumination. I show it you, as the most interesting Gothic type of +the imagination of Lion; which, after the Roman Eagle, possessed the +minds of all European warriors; until, as they themselves grew selfish +and cruel, the symbols which at first meant heaven-sent victory, or +the strength and presence of some Divine spirit, became to them only +the signs of their own pride or rage: the victor raven of Corvus sinks +into the shamed falcon of Marmion, and the lion-heartedness which gave +the glory and the peace of the gods to Leonidas, casts the glory and +the might of kinghood to the dust before Chalus.[30] + +[Footnote 30: 'Fors Clavigera,' March, 1871, p. 19. Yet read the +preceding pages, and learn the truth of the lion heart, while you +mourn its pride. Note especially his absolute law against usury.] + +That death, 6th April, 1199, ended the advance of England begun +by Alfred, under the pure law of Religious Imagination. She began, +already, in the thirteenth century, to be decoratively, instead of +vitally, religious. The history of the Religious Imagination expressed +between Alfred's time and that of Coeur de Lion, in this symbol of the +Lion only, has material in it rather for all my seven lectures than +for the closing section of one; but I must briefly specify to you the +main sections of it. I will keep clear of my favourite number seven, +and ask you to recollect the meaning of only Five, Mythic Lions. + +First of all, in Greek art, remember to keep yourselves clear about +the difference between the Lion and the Gorgon. + +The Gorgon is the power of evil in heaven, conquered by Athena, and +thenceforward becoming her ægis, when she is herself the inflictor of +evil. Her helmet is then the helmet of Orcus. + +But the Lion is the power of death on earth, conquered by Heracles, +and becoming thenceforward both his helmet and ægis. All ordinary +architectural lion sculpture is derived from the Heraclean. + +Then the Christian Lions are, first, the Lion of the Tribe of +Judah--Christ Himself as Captain and Judge: "He shall rule the +nations with a rod of iron," (the opposite power of His adversary, +is rarely intended in sculpture unless in association with the +serpent--"inculcabis supra leonem et aspidem"); secondly, the Lion +of St. Mark, the power of the Gospel going out to conquest; thirdly, +the Lion of St. Jerome, the wrath of the brute creation changed into +love by the kindness of man; and, fourthly, the Lion of the Zodiac, +which is the Lion of Egypt and of the Lombardic pillar-supports in +Italy; these four, if you remember, with the Nemean Greek one, five +altogether, will give you, broadly, interpretation of nearly all +Lion symbolism in great art. How they degenerate into the British +door knocker, I leave you to determine for yourselves, with such +assistances as I may be able to suggest to you in my next lecture; +but, as the grotesqueness of human history plans it, there is actually +a connection between that last degradation of the Leonine symbol, and +its first and noblest significance. + +You see there are letters round this golden Lion of Alfred's +spelling-book, which his princess friend was likely enough to spell +for him. They are two Latin hexameters:-- + + Hic Leo, surgendo, portas confregit Averni + Qui nunquam dormit, nusquam dormitat, in ævum. + (This Lion, rising, burst the gates of Death: + This, who sleeps not, nor shall sleep, for ever.) + +Now here is the Christian change of the Heraclean conquest of Death +into Christ's Resurrection. Samson's bearing away the gates of Gaza +is another like symbol, and to the mind of Alfred, taught, whether by +the Pope Leo for his schoolmaster, or by the great-granddaughter of +Charlemagne for his schoolmistress, it represented, as it did to all +the intelligence of Christendom, Christ in His own first and last, +Alpha and Omega, description of Himself,-- + +"I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, +and _have the keys_ of Hell and of Death." And in His servant St. +John's description of Him-- + +"Who is the Faithful Witness and the First-begotten of the dead, and +the Prince of the kings of the earth." + +All this assuredly, so far as the young child, consecrated like David, +the youngest of his brethren, conceived his own new life in Earth and +Heaven,--he understood already in the Lion symbol. But of all this I +had no thought[31] when I chose the prayer of Alfred as the type of +the Religion of his era, in its dwelling, not on the deliverance from +the punishment of sin, but from the poisonous sleep and death of it. +Will you ever learn that prayer again,--youths who are to be priests, +and knights, and kings of England, in these the latter days? when +the gospel of Eternal Death is preached here in Oxford to you for the +Pride of Truth? and "the mountain of the Lord's House" has become a +Golgotha, and the "new song before the throne" sunk into the rolling +thunder of the death rattle of the Nations, crying, "O Christ, where +is Thy Victory!" + +[Footnote 31: The reference to the Bible of Charles le Chauve was +added to my second lecture (page 54), in correcting the press, +mistakenly put into the text instead of the notes.] + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Five Christmas Days_. (These were drawn out on a large and +conspicuous diagram.) + +These days, as it happens, sum up the History of their Five Centuries. + + Christmas Day, 496. Clovis baptized. + " " 800. Charlemagne crowned. + " " 1041. Vow of the Count of Aversa (Page 80). + " " 1066. The Conqueror crowned. + " " 1130. Roger II. crowned King of the Two Sicilies. + +2. For conclusion of the whole matter two pictures were shown and +commented on--the two most perfect pictures in the world. + +(1) A small piece from Tintoret's Paradiso in the Ducal Palace, +representing the group of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St. +Augustine, and behind St. Augustine his mother watching him, her chief +joy even in Paradise. + +(2) The Arundel Society's reproduction of the Altar-piece by Giorgione +in his native hamlet of Castel Franco. The Arundel Society has done +more for us than we have any notion of. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +JOHN RUSKIN, + +(SEPARATELY AND IN SETS.) + + * * * * * + + AN INQUIRY INTO SOME OF THE CONDITIONS + AFFECTING "THE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE" IN + OUR SCHOOLS. 12mo, paper. $ 10 + + ARATRA PENTELICI. Six Lectures on the + Elements of Sculpture, given before the University + of Oxford, with cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO, With 21 full-page plates (two colored), + printed separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARIADNE FLORENTINA. Six Lectures on Wood + and Metal Engraving, given before the University + of Oxford, 12mo, cloth. Complete with + Appendix. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO. With 12 full-page plates, printed separately. + 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARROWS OF THE CHACE. A Collection + of Letters from 1840 to 1880. Edited by an Oxford + Pupil. 2 vols. bound in one. Plate. 12mo, cloth. 1 00 + + ART CULTURE. A Hand-Book of Art Technicalities + and Criticisms, selected from the Works of John + Ruskin, and arranged and supplemented by Rev. W.H. + Platt, for the use of the Intelligent Traveler and + Art Student, with a new Glossary of Art Terms and + an Alphabetical and Chronological List of Artists. + With illustrations. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50 + +"Mr. Platt has worked out an idea so striking for its attractiveness +and utility that, perceiving it, we at once go to work wondering that +somebody else had not executed it before him. He has gone over the +vast and superb areas of John Ruskin's Writings, and cutting out one +block here and another there, as it has suited his purpose, has put +all these parts together again into a literary mosaic, constituting a +clear and harmonious system of art principles, wherein Ruskin all the +while is the teacher. He has reduced Ruskin to a code. On the whole, +we see not what this book lacks of being a complete text-book of the +Gospel of Art according to St. John Ruskin."--_Christian Union_. + + ART OF ENGLAND. Lectures given in Oxford + during the second tenure of the Slade Professorship. + Parts I. to VI. complete, 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + ART OF ENGLAND. 12mo, cloth extra. 1 00 + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY--PRÆTERITA. + OUTLINES OF SCENES AND THOUGHTS, perhaps + worthy of memory, in MY PAST LIFE. By John Ruskin, LL.D. + + Vol. I. (Chapters 1 to 12.) 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00 + Vol. II. (Chapters 1 to 10.) 8vo, paper, each. 25 + Vol. I. (Chapters 1 to 12.) 12mo, cloth. 1 50 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RUSKIN. A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL + LIST, arranged in chronological order of the + published writings in Prose and Verse of John + Ruskin, from 1834 to the present time + (October, 1878.) 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + BIRTHDAY BOOK. A Selection of Thoughts, + Mottoes and Aphorisms for Every Day to the Tear, + from the works of JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pleasures of England + Lectures given in Oxford + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: May 30, 2005 [EBook #15947] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND.</h1> + +<h3>Lectures given in Oxford.</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L., LL.D.,</h3> + +<h4>HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF +CORPUS-CHRISTI COLLEGE.</h4> + +<h4>DURING HIS</h4> + +<h4><i>SECOND TENURE OF THE SLADE PROFESSORSHIP.</i></h4> + + + +<h4>NEW YORK:<br /> +JOHN WILEY AND SONS. 1888.</h4> + +<hr /> + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<h4>LECTURE I.</h4> + +<p>THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. <i>Bertha to Osburga</i> <a href="#page5">5</a></p> + + +<h4>LECTURE II.</h4> + +<p>THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. <i>Alfred to the Confessor</i> <a href="#page31">31</a></p> + + +<h4>LECTURE III.</h4> + +<p>THE PLEASURES OF DEED. <i>Alfred to CÅ“ur de Lion</i> <a href="#page61">61</a></p> + + +<h4>LECTURE IV.</h4> + +<p>THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. <i>CÅ“ur de Lion to Elizabeth</i> <a href="#page91">91</a></p> + +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span> + + + + +<h2>LECTURE I.</h2> + +<h2>THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING.</h2> + +<h2><i>Bertha to Osburga.</i></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span> + + +<p>In the short review of the present state of English +Art, given you last year, I left necessarily many +points untouched, and others unexplained. The seventh +lecture, which I did not think it necessary to read +aloud, furnished you with some of the corrective statements +of which, whether spoken or not, it was +extremely desirable that you should estimate the balancing +weight. These I propose in the present course +farther to illustrate, and to arrive with you at, I hope, +a just—you would not wish it to be a flattering—estimate +of the conditions of our English artistic life, +past and present, in order that with due allowance for +them we may determine, with some security, what +those of us who have faculty ought to do, and those +who have sensibility, to admire.</p> + +<p>2. In thus rightly doing and feeling, you will find +summed a wider duty, and granted a greater power, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> +than the moral philosophy at this moment current with +you has ever conceived; and a prospect opened to you +besides, of such a Future for England as you may both +hopefully and proudly labour for with your hands, and +those of you who are spared to the ordinary term of +human life, even see with your eyes, when all this +tumult of vain avarice and idle pleasure, into which you +have been plunged at birth, shall have passed into its appointed perdition.</p> + +<p>3. I wish that you would read for introduction to the +lectures I have this year arranged for you, that on the +Future of England, which I gave to the cadets at +Woolwich in the first year of my Professorship here, +1869; and which is now placed as the main conclusion +of the "Crown of Wild Olive": and with it, very +attentively, the close of my inaugural lecture given +here; for the matter, no less than the tenor of which, +I was reproved by all my friends, as irrelevant and ill-judged;—which, +nevertheless, is of all the pieces of +teaching I have ever given from this chair, the most +pregnant and essential to whatever studies, whether of +Art or Science, you may pursue, in this place or elsewhere, during your lives.</p> + +<p>The opening words of that passage I will take leave +to read to you again,—for they must still be the +ground of whatever help I can give you, worth your acceptance.</p> + +<p>"There is a destiny now possible to us—the highest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> +ever set before a nation to be accepted or refused. We +are still undegenerate in race: a race mingled of the +best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in temper, +but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace +to obey. We have been taught a religion of pure +mercy, which we must either now finally betray, or +learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in an +inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a +thousand years of noble history, which it should be our +daily thirst to increase with splendid avarice; so that +Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, should be +the most offending souls alive. Within the last few +years we have had the laws of natural science opened +to us with a rapidity which has been blinding by its +brightness; and means of transit and communication +given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the habitable globe.</p> + +<p>"One kingdom;—but who is to be its king? Is +there to be no king in it, think you, and every man to +do that which is right in his own eyes? Or only kings +of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon and +Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your +country again a royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle; +for all the world a source of light, a centre of peace; +mistress of Learning and of the Arts;—faithful guardian +of great memories in the midst of irreverent and +ephemeral visions—faithful servant of time-tried principles, +under temptation from fond experiments and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> +licentious desires; and amidst the cruel and clamorous +jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange +valour, of goodwill towards men?"</p> + +<p>The fifteen years that have passed since I spoke +these words must, I think, have convinced some of my +immediate hearers that the need for such an appeal +was more pressing than they then imagined;—while +they have also more and more convinced me myself +that the ground I took for it was secure, and that the +youths and girls now entering on the duties of active +life are able to accept and fulfil the hope I then held out to them.</p> + +<p>In which assurance I ask them to-day to begin the +examination with me, very earnestly, of the question +laid before you in that seventh of my last year's lectures, +whether London, as it is now, be indeed the +natural, and therefore the heaven-appointed outgrowth +of the inhabitation, these 1800 years, of the valley of +the Thames by a progressively instructed and disciplined +people; or if not, in what measure and manner +the aspect and spirit of the great city may be possibly +altered by your acts and thoughts.</p> + +<p>In my introduction to the Economist of Xenophon I +said that every fairly educated European boy or girl +ought to learn the history of five cities,—Athens, +Rome, Venice, Florence, and London; that of London +including, or at least compelling in parallel study, +knowledge also of the history of Paris.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> + +<p>A few words are enough to explain the reasons for +this choice. The history of Athens, rightly told, includes +all that need be known of Greek religion and +arts; that of Rome, the victory of Christianity over +Paganism; those of Venice and Florence sum the +essential facts respecting the Christian arts of Painting, +Sculpture, and Music; and that of London, in her +sisterhood with Paris, the development of Christian +Chivalry and Philosophy, with their exponent art of Gothic architecture.</p> + +<p>Without the presumption of forming a distinct design, +I yet hoped at the time when this division of +study was suggested, with the help of my pupils, to +give the outlines of their several histories during my +work in Oxford. Variously disappointed and arrested, +alike by difficulties of investigation and failure of +strength, I may yet hope to lay down for you, beginning +with your own metropolis, some of the lines of +thought in following out which such a task might be +most effectively accomplished.</p> + +<p>You observe that I speak of architecture as the chief +exponent of the feelings both of the French and English +races. Together with it, however, most important +evidence of character is given by the illumination of +manuscripts, and by some forms of jewellery and metallurgy: +and my purpose in this course of lectures is +to illustrate by all these arts the phases of national +character which it is impossible that historians should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> +estimate, or even observe, with accuracy, unless they +are cognizant of excellence in the aforesaid modes of +structural and ornamental craftsmanship.</p> + +<p>In one respect, as indicated by the title chosen for +this course, I have varied the treatment of their subject +from that adopted in all my former books. Hitherto, I +have always endeavoured to illustrate the personal +temper and skill of the artist; holding the wishes or +taste of his spectators at small account, and saying of +Turner you ought to like him, and of Salvator, you +ought not, etc., etc., without in the least considering +what the genius or instinct of the spectator might otherwise +demand, or approve. But in the now attempted +sketch of Christian history, I have approached every +question from the people's side, and examined the nature, +not of the special faculties by which the work +was produced, but of the general instinct by which it +was asked for, and enjoyed. Therefore I thought the +proper heading for these papers should represent them +as descriptive of the <i>Pleasures</i> of England, rather than +of its <i>Arts</i>.</p> + +<p>And of these pleasures, necessarily, the leading one +was that of Learning, in the sense of receiving instruction;—a +pleasure totally separate from that of finding +out things for yourself,—and an extremely sweet and +sacred pleasure, when you know how to seek it, and receive.</p> + +<p>On which I am the more disposed, and even +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> +compelled, here to insist, because your modern ideas of +Development imply that you must all turn out what +you are to be, and find out what you are to know, for +yourselves, by the inevitable operation of your anterior +affinities and inner consciences:—whereas the old idea +of education was that the baby material of you, however +accidentally or inevitably born, was at least to be +by external force, and ancestral knowledge, bred; and +treated by its Fathers and Tutors as a plastic vase, to +be shaped or mannered as <i>they</i> chose, not as <i>it</i> chose, +and filled, when its form was well finished and baked, +with sweetness of sound doctrine, as with Hybla honey, or Arabian spikenard.</p> + +<p>Without debating how far these two modes of acquiring +knowledge—finding out, and being told—may +severally be good, and in perfect instruction combined, +I have to point out to you that, broadly, Athens, Rome, +and Florence are self-taught, and internally developed; +while all the Gothic races, without any exception, but +especially those of London and Paris, are afterwards +taught by these; and had, therefore, when they chose +to accept it, the delight of being instructed, without +trouble or doubt, as fast as they could read or imitate; +and brought forward to the point where their own +northern instincts might wholesomely superimpose or +graft some national ideas upon these sound instructions. +Read over what I said on this subject in the +third of my lectures last year (page 79), and simplify +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> +that already brief statement further, by fastening in +your mind Carlyle's general symbol of the best attainments +of northern religious sculpture,—"three whalecubs +combined by boiling," and reflecting that the +mental history of all northern European art is the +modification of that graceful type, under the orders of +the Athena of Homer and Phidias.</p> + +<p>And this being quite indisputably the broad fact of +the matter, I greatly marvel that your historians never, +so far as I have read, think of proposing to you the +question—what you might have made of yourselves +<i>without</i> the help of Homer and Phidias: what sort of +beings the Saxon and the Celt, the Frank and the +Dane, might have been by this time, untouched by the +spear of Pallas, unruled by the rod of Agricola, and +sincerely the native growth, pure of root, and ungrafted +in fruit of the clay of Isis, rock of Dovrefeldt, and +sands of Elbe? Think of it, and think chiefly what +form the ideas, and images, of your natural religion +might probably have taken, if no Roman missionary +had ever passed the Alps in charity, and no English king in pilgrimage.</p> + +<p>I have been of late indebted more than I can express +to the friend who has honoured me by the dedication +of his recently published lectures on 'Older England;' +and whose eager enthusiasm and far collected learning +have enabled me for the first time to assign their just +meaning and value to the ritual and imagery of Saxon +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> +devotion. But while every page of Mr. Hodgett's +book, and, I may gratefully say also, every sentence of +his teaching, has increased and justified the respect in +which I have always been by my own feeling disposed +to hold the mythologies founded on the love and knowledge +of the natural world, I have also been led by +them to conceive, far more forcibly than hitherto, the +power which the story of Christianity possessed, first +heard through the wreaths of that cloudy superstition, +in the substitution, for its vaporescent allegory, of a +positive and literal account of a real Creation, and an +instantly present, omnipresent, and compassionate God.</p> + +<p>Observe, there is no question whatever in examining +this influence, how far Christianity itself is true, or the +transcendental doctrines of it intelligible. Those who +brought you the story of it believed it with all their +souls to be true,—and the effect of it on the hearts of +your ancestors was that of an unquestionable, infinitely +lucid message straight from God, doing away with all +difficulties, grief, and fears for those who willingly +received it, nor by any, except wilfully and obstinately +vile persons, to be, by any possibility, denied or refused.</p> + +<p>And it was precisely, observe, the vivacity and joy +with which the main fact of Christ's life was accepted +which gave the force and wrath to the controversies +instantly arising about its nature.</p> + +<p>Those controversies vexed and shook, but never +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> +undermined, the faith they strove to purify, and the miraculous +presence, errorless precept, and loving promises +of their Lord were alike undoubted, alike rejoiced in, +by every nation that heard the word of Apostles. The +Pelagian's assertion that immortality could be won by +man's will, and the Arian's that Christ possessed no +more than man's nature, never for an instant—or in +any country—hindered the advance of the moral law +and intellectual hope of Christianity. Far the contrary; +the British heresy concerning Free Will, though +it brought bishop after bishop into England to extinguish +it, remained an extremely healthy and active +element in the British mind down to the days of John +Bunyan and the guide Great Heart, and the calmly +Christian justice and simple human virtue of Theodoric +were the very roots and first burgeons of the regeneration +of Italy.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> But of the degrees in which it was +possible for any barbarous nation to receive during the +first five centuries, either the spiritual power of Christianity +itself, or the instruction in classic art and +science which accompanied it, you cannot rightly judge, +without taking the pains, and they will not, I think, be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> +irksome, of noticing carefully, and fixing permanently in +your minds, the separating characteristics of the greater +races, both in those who learned and those who taught.</p> + +<p>Of the Huns and Vandals we need not speak. They +are merely forms of Punishment and Destruction. Put +them out of your minds altogether, and remember only +the names of the immortal nations, which abide on +their native rocks, and plough their unconquered plains, at this hour.</p> + +<p>Briefly, in the north,—Briton, Norman, Frank, Saxon, +Ostrogoth, Lombard; briefly, in the south,—Tuscan, +Roman, Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, Arabian.</p> + +<p>Now of these races, the British (I avoid the word +Celtic, because you would expect me to say Keltic; and +I don't mean to, lest you should be wanting me next to +call the patroness of music St. Kekilia), the British, +including Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scot, and Pict, +are, I believe, of all the northern races, the one which +has deepest love of external nature;—and the richest +inherent gift of pure music and song, as such; separated +from the intellectual gift which raises song into +poetry. They are naturally also religious, and for some +centuries after their own conversion are one of the +chief evangelizing powers in Christendom. But they +are neither apprehensive nor receptive;—they cannot +understand the classic races, and learn scarcely anything +from them; perhaps better so, if the classic races +had been more careful to understand <i>them</i>.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> + +<p>Next, the Norman is scarcely more apprehensive +than the Celt, but he is more constructive, and uses to +good advantage what he learns from the Frank. His +main characteristic is an energy, which never exhausts +itself in vain anger, desire, or sorrow, but abides and +rules, like a living rock:—where he wanders, he flows +like lava, and congeals like granite.</p> + +<p>Next, I take in this first sketch the Saxon and Frank +together, both pre-eminently apprehensive, both docile +exceedingly, imaginative in the highest, but in life +active more than pensive, eager in desire, swift of +invention, keenly sensitive to animal beauty, but with +difficulty rational, and rarely, for the future, wise. +Under the conclusive name of Ostrogoth, you may +class whatever tribes are native to Central Germany, +and develope themselves, as time goes on, into that +power of the German Cæsars which still asserts itself +as an empire against the licence and insolence of modern +republicanism,—of which races, though this general +name, no description can be given in rapid terms.</p> + +<p>And lastly, the Lombards, who, at the time we have +to deal with, were sternly indocile, gloomily imaginative,—of +almost Norman energy, and differing from +all the other western nations chiefly in this notable +particular, that while the Celt is capable of bright wit +and happy play, and the Norman, Saxon, and Frank all +alike delight in caricature, the Lombards, like the Arabians, never jest.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> + +<p>These, briefly, are the six barbaric nations who are +to be taught: and of whose native arts and faculties, +before they receive any tutorship from the south, I find +no well-sifted account in any history:—but thus much +of them, collecting your own thoughts and knowledge, +you may easily discern—they were all, with the exception +of the Scots, practical workers and builders in +wood; and those of them who had coasts, first rate +sea-boat builders, with fine mathematical instincts and +practice in that kind far developed, necessarily good +sail-weaving, and sound fur-stitching, with stout iron-work +of nail and rivet; rich copper and some silver +work in decoration—the Celts developing peculiar +gifts in linear design, but wholly incapable of drawing +animals or figures;—the Saxons and Franks having +enough capacity in that kind, but no thought of attempting +it; the Normans and Lombards still farther +remote from any such skill. More and more, it seems +to me wonderful that under your British block-temple, +grimly extant on its pastoral plain, or beside the first +crosses engraved on the rock at Whithorn—you English +and Scots do not oftener consider what you might +or could have come to, left to yourselves.</p> + +<p>Next, let us form the list of your tutor nations, in +whom, it generally pleases you to look at nothing but +the corruptions. If we could get into the habit of +thinking more of our own corruptions and more of +<i>their</i> virtues, we should have a better chance of learning +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> +the true laws alike of art and destiny. But, the +safest way of all, is to assure ourselves that true knowledge +of any thing or any creature is only of the good +of it; that its nature and life are in that, and that what +is diseased,—that is to say, unnatural and mortal,—you +must cut away from it in contemplation, as you would in surgery.</p> + +<p>Of the six tutor nations, two, the Tuscan and Arab, +have no effect on early Christian England. But the +Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian act together from +the earliest times; you are to study the influence of +Rome upon England in Agricola, Constantius, St. Benedict, +and St. Gregory; of Greece upon England in +the artists of Byzantium and Ravenna; of Syria and +Egypt upon England in St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. +Chrysostom, and St. Athanase.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome, in central Bethlehem; St. Augustine, +Carthaginian by birth, in truth a converted Tyrian, +Athanase, Egyptian, symmetric and fixed as an Egyptian +aisle; Chrysostom, golden mouth of all; these are, +indeed, every one teachers of all the western world, +but St. Augustine especially of lay, as distinguished +from monastic, Christianity to the Franks, and finally +to us. His rule, expanded into the treatise of the City +of God, is taken for guide of life and policy by Charlemagne, +and becomes certainly the fountain of Evangelical +Christianity, distinctively so called, (and broadly +the lay Christianity of Europe, since, in the purest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> +form of it, that is to say, the most merciful, charitable, +variously applicable, kindly wise.) The greatest type +of it, as far as I know, St. Martin of Tours, whose +character is sketched, I think in the main rightly, in +the Bible of Amiens; and you may bind together your +thoughts of its course by remembering that Alcuin, +born at York, dies in the Abbey of St. Martin, at +Tours; that as St. Augustine was in his writings +Charlemagne's Evangelist in faith, Alcuin was, in +living presence, his master in rhetoric, logic, and astronomy, +with the other physical sciences.</p> + +<p>A hundred years later than St. Augustine, comes the +rule of St. Benedict—the Monastic rule, virtually, of +European Christianity, ever since—and theologically +the Law of Works, as distinguished from the Law of +Faith. St. Augustine and all the disciples of St. +Augustine tell Christians what they should feel and +think: St. Benedict and all the disciples of St. Benedict +tell Christians what they should say and do.</p> + +<p>In the briefest, but also the perfectest distinction, +the disciples of St. Augustine are those who open the +door to Christ—"If any man hear my voice"; but +the Benedictines those to whom Christ opens the door—"To +him that knocketh it shall be opened."</p> + +<p>Now, note broadly the course and action of this rule, +as it combines with the older one. St. Augustine's, +accepted heartily by Clovis, and, with various degrees +of understanding, by the kings and queens of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> +Merovingian dynasty, makes seemingly little difference +in their conduct, so that their profession of it remains +a scandal to Christianity to this day; and yet it lives, +in the true hearts among them, down from St. Clotilde +to her great grand-daughter Bertha, who in becoming +Queen of Kent, builds under its chalk downs her own +little chapel to St. Martin, and is the first effectively +and permanently useful missionary to the Saxons, the +beginner of English Erudition,—the first laid corner +stone of beautiful English character.</p> + +<p>I think henceforward you will find the memorandum +of dates which I have here set down for my own guidance +more simply useful than those confused by record +of unimportant persons and inconsequent events, which +form the indices of common history.</p> + +<p>From the year of the Saxon invasion 449, there are +exactly 400 years to the birth of Alfred, 849. You +have no difficulty in remembering those cardinal years. +Then, you have Four great men and great events to +remember, at the close of the fifth century. Clovis, +and the founding of Frank Kingdom; Theodoric and +the founding of the Gothic Kingdom; Justinian and +the founding of Civil law; St. Benedict and the founding of Religious law.</p> + +<p>Of, Justinian, and his work, I am not able myself to +form any opinion—and it is, I think, unnecessary for +students of history to form any, until they are able to +estimate clearly the benefits, and mischief, of the civil +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> +law of Europe in its present state. But to Clovis, +Theodoric, and St. Benedict, without any question, we +owe more than any English historian has yet ascribed,—and +they are easily held in mind together, for Clovis +ascended the Frank throne in the year of St. Benedict's +birth, 481. Theodoric fought the battle of Verona, +and founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy twelve +years later, in 493, and thereupon married the sister of +Clovis. That marriage is always passed in a casual +sentence, as if a merely political one, and while page +after page is spent in following the alternations of furious +crime and fatal chance, in the contests between +Fredegonde and Brunehaut, no historian ever considers +whether the great Ostrogoth who wore in the battle of +Verona the dress which his mother had woven for him, +was likely to have chosen a wife without love!—or +how far the perfectness, justice, and temperate wisdom +of every ordinance of his reign was owing to the sympathy +and counsel of his Frankish queen.</p> + +<p>You have to recollect, then, thus far, only three cardinal dates:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>449. Saxon invasion.</p> +<p>481. Clovis reigns and St. Benedict is born.</p> +<p>493. Theodoric conquers at Verona.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Then, roughly, a hundred years later, in 590, Ethelbert, +the fifth from Hengist, and Bertha, the third from +Clotilde, are king and queen of Kent. I cannot find +the date of their marriage, but the date, 590, which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> +you must recollect for cardinal, is that of Gregory's +accession to the pontificate, and I believe Bertha was +then in middle life, having persevered in her religion +firmly, but inoffensively, and made herself beloved by +her husband and people. She, in England, Theodolinda +in Lombardy, and St. Gregory in Rome:—in +their hands, virtually lay the destiny of Europe.</p> + +<p>Then the period from Bertha to Osburga, 590 to +849—say 250 years—is passed by the Saxon people +in the daily more reverent learning of the Christian +faith, and daily more peaceful and skilful practice of +the humane arts and duties which it invented and inculcated.</p> + +<p>The statement given by Sir Edward Creasy of the +result of these 250 years of lesson is, with one correction, +the most simple and just that I can find.</p> + +<p>"A few years before the close of the sixth century, +the country was little more than a wide battle-field, +where gallant but rude warriors fought with each +other, or against the neighbouring Welsh or Scots; +unheeding and unheeded by the rest of Europe, or, if +they attracted casual attention, regarded with dread +and disgust as the fiercest of barbarians and the most +untameable of pagans. In the eighth century, England +was looked up to with admiration and gratitude, +as superior to all the other countries of Western Europe +in piety and learning, and as the land whence +the most zealous and successful saints and teachers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> +came forth to convert and enlighten the still barbarous +regions of the continent."</p> + +<p>This statement is broadly true; yet the correction +it needs is a very important one. England,—under +her first Alfred of Northumberland, and under Ina of +Wessex, is indeed during these centuries the most +learned, thoughtful, and progressive of European states. +But she is not a missionary power. The missionaries +are always to her, not from her:—for the very reason +that she is learning so eagerly, she does not take to +preaching. Ina founds his Saxon school at Rome not +to teach Rome, nor convert the Pope, but to drink at +the source of knowledge, and to receive laws from +direct and unquestioned authority. The missionary +power was wholly Scotch and Irish, and that power +was wholly one of zeal and faith, not of learning. I +will ask you, in the course of my next lecture, to regard +it attentively; to-day, I must rapidly draw to the conclusions +I would leave with you.</p> + +<p>It is more and more wonderful to me as I think of +it, that no effect whatever was produced on the Saxon, +nor on any other healthy race of the North, either by +the luxury of Rome, or by her art, whether constructive +or imitative. The Saxon builds no aqueducts—designs +no roads, rounds no theatres in imitation of +her,—envies none of her vile pleasures,—admires, so +far as I can judge, none of her far-carried realistic art. +I suppose that it needs intelligence of a more advanced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> +kind to see the qualities of complete sculpture: and +that we may think of the Northern intellect as still like +that of a child, who cares to picture its own thoughts +in its own way, but does not care for the thoughts of +older people, or attempt to copy what it feels too difficult. +This much at least is certain, that for one cause +or another, everything that now at Paris or London our +painters most care for and try to realize, of ancient +Rome, was utterly innocuous and unattractive to the +Saxon: while his mind was frankly open to the direct +teaching of Greece and to the methods of bright decoration +employed in the Byzantine Empire: for these +alone seemed to his fancy suggestive of the glories +of the brighter world promised by Christianity. Jewellery, +vessels of gold and silver, beautifully written +books, and music, are the gifts of St. Gregory alike to +the Saxon and Lombard; all these beautiful things +being used, not for the pleasure of the present life, +but as the symbols of another; while the drawings in +Saxon manuscripts, in which, better than in any other +remains of their life, we can read the people's character, +are rapid endeavours to express for themselves, +and convey to others, some likeness of the realities of +sacred event in which they had been instructed. They +differ from every archaic school of former design in +this evident correspondence with an imagined reality. +All previous archaic art whatsoever is symbolic and +decorative—not realistic. The contest of Herakles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> +with the Hydra on a Greek vase is a mere sign that +such a contest took place, not a picture of it, and in +drawing that sign the potter is always thinking of the +effect of the engraved lines on the curves of his pot, +and taking care to keep out of the way of the handle;—but +a Saxon monk would scratch his idea of the Fall +of the angels or the Temptation of Christ over a whole +page of his manuscript in variously explanatory scenes, +evidently full of inexpressible vision, and eager to +explain and illustrate all that he felt or believed.</p> + +<p>Of the progress and arrest of these gifts, I shall +have to speak in my next address; but I must regretfully +conclude to-day with some brief warning against +the complacency which might lead you to regard them +as either at that time entirely original in the Saxon +race, or at the present day as signally characteristic of +it. That form of complacency is exhibited in its most +amiable but, therefore, most deceptive guise, in the +passage with which the late Dean of Westminster +concluded his lecture at Canterbury in April, 1854, on +the subject of the landing of Augustine. I will not +spoil the emphasis of the passage by comment as I +read, but must take leave afterwards to intimate some +grounds for abatement in the fervour of its self-gratulatory ecstasy.</p> + +<p>"Let any one sit on the hill of the little church of +St. Martin, and look on the view which is there spread +before his eyes. Immediately below are the towers +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span> +of the great abbey of St. Augustine, where Christian +learning and civilization first struck root in the Anglo-Saxon +race; and within which now, after a lapse of +many centuries, a new institution has arisen, intended to +carry far and wide, to countries of which Gregory and +Augustine never heard, the blessings which they gave +to us. Carry your view on—and there rises high above +all the magnificent pile of our cathedral, equal in splendour +and state to any, the noblest temple or church +that Augustine could have seen in ancient Rome, +rising on the very ground which derives its consecration +from him. And still more than the grandeur of +the outward buildings that rose from the little church +of Augustine and the little palace of Ethelbert have +been the institutions of all kinds of which these were +the earliest cradle. From Canterbury, the first English +Christian city,—from Kent, the first English Christian +kingdom—has by degrees arisen the whole constitution +of Church and State in England which now binds +together the whole British Empire. And from the +Christianity here established in England has flowed, +by direct consequence, first the Christianity of Germany; +then, after a long interval, of North America; +and lastly, we may trust, in time, of all India and all +Australasia. The view from St. Martin's Church is +indeed one of the most inspiriting that can be found +in the world; there is none to which I would more +willingly take any one who doubted whether a small +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> +beginning could lead to a great and lasting good;—none +which carries us more vividly back into the past, +or more hopefully forward into the future."</p> + +<p>To this Gregorian canticle in praise of the British +constitution, I grieve, but am compelled, to take these +following historical objections. The first missionary +to Germany was Ulphilas, and what she owes to these +islands she owes to Iona, not to Thanet. Our missionary +offices to America as to Africa, consist I believe +principally in the stealing of land, and the extermination +of its proprietors by intoxication. Our rule in +India has introduced there, Paisley instead of Cashmere +shawls: in Australasia our Christian aid supplies, +I suppose, the pious farmer with convict labour. And +although, when the Dean wrote the above passage, St. +Augustine's and the cathedral were—I take it on trust +from his description—the principal objects in the +prospect from St. Martin's Hill, I believe even the +cheerfullest of my audience would not now think +the scene one of the most inspiriting in the world. +For recent progress has entirely accommodated the +architecture of the scene to the convenience of the +missionary workers above enumerated; to the peculiar +necessities of the civilization they have achieved. For +the sake of which the cathedral, the monastery, the +temple, and the tomb, of Bertha, contract themselves +in distant or despised subservience under the colossal +walls of the county gaol.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> + + + + +<h2>LECTURE II.</h2> + +<h2>THE PLEASURES OF FAITH.</h2> + +<h2><i>Alfred to the Confessor.</i></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> + + +<p>I was forced in my last lecture to pass by altogether, +and to-day can only with momentary definition +notice, the part taken by Scottish missionaries in +the Christianizing of England and Burgundy. I would +pray you therefore, in order to fill the gap which I +think it better to leave distinctly, than close confusedly, +to read the histories of St. Patrick, St. Columba, and +St. Columban, as they are given you by Montalembert +in his 'Moines d'Occident.' You will find in his pages +all the essential facts that are known, encircled with +a nimbus of enthusiastic sympathy which I hope you +will like better to see them through, than distorted by +blackening fog of contemptuous rationalism. But although +I ask you thus to make yourselves aware of the +greatness of my omission, I must also certify you that +it does not break the unity of our own immediate +subject. The influence of Celtic passion and art both +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> +on Northumbria and the Continent, beneficent in all +respects while it lasted, expired without any permanent +share in the work or emotion of the Saxon and Frank. +The book of Kells, and the bell of St. Patrick, represent +sufficiently the peculiar character of Celtic design; +and long since, in the first lecture of the 'Two Paths,' +I explained both the modes of skill, and points of +weakness, which rendered such design unprogressive. +Perfect in its peculiar manner, and exulting in the +faultless practice of a narrow skill, it remained century +after century incapable alike of inner growth, or +foreign instruction; inimitable, yet incorrigible; marvellous, +yet despicable, to its death. Despicable, I +mean, only in the limitation of its capacity, not in its +quality or nature. If you make a Christian of a lamb +or a squirrel—what can you expect of the lamb +but jumping—what of the squirrel, but pretty spirals, +traced with his tail? He won't steal your nuts any +more, and he'll say his prayers like this—<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a>; but you +cannot make a Beatrice's griffin, and emblem of all the +Catholic Church, out of him.</p> + +<p>You will have observed, also, that the plan of these +lectures does not include any reference to the Roman +Period in England; of which you will find all I think +necessary to say, in the part called <i>Valle Crucis</i> of +'Our Fathers have told us.' But I must here warn +you, with reference to it, of one gravely false prejudice +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> +of Montalembert. He is entirely blind to the conditions +of Roman virtue, which existed in the midst of +the corruptions of the Empire, forming the characters +of such Emperors as Pertinax, Carus, Probus, the second +Claudius, Aurelian, and our own Constantius; and +he denies, with abusive violence, the power for good, +of Roman Law, over the Gauls and Britons.</p> + +<p>Respecting Roman national character, I will simply +beg you to remember, that both St. Benedict and St. +Gregory are Roman patricians, before they are either +monk or pope; respecting its influence on Britain, I +think you may rest content with Shakespeare's estimate +of it. Both Lear and Cymbeline belong to this +time, so difficult to our apprehension, when the Briton +accepted both Roman laws and Roman gods. There +is indeed the born Kentish gentleman's protest against them in Kent's—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i10">"Now, by Apollo, king,</p> +<p>Thou swear'st thy gods in vain";</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>but both Cordelia and Imogen are just as thoroughly +Roman ladies, as Virgilia or Calphurnia.</p> + +<p>Of British Christianity and the Arthurian Legends, +I shall have a word or two to say in my lecture on +"Fancy," in connection with the similar romance +which surrounds Theodoric and Charlemagne: only +the worst of it is, that while both Dietrich and Karl +are themselves more wonderful than the legends of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> +them, Arthur fades into intangible vision:—this much, +however, remains to this day, of Arthurian blood in +us, that the richest fighting element in the British +army and navy is British native,—that is to say, Highlander, +Irish, Welsh, and Cornish.</p> + +<p>Content, therefore, (means being now given you for +filling gaps,) with the estimates given you in the preceding +lecture of the sources of instruction possessed +by the Saxon capital, I pursue to-day our question +originally proposed, what London might have been by +this time, if the nature of the flowers, trees, and children, +born at the Thames-side, had been rightly understood and cultivated.</p> + +<p>Many of my hearers can imagine far better than I, +the look that London must have had in Alfred's and +Canute's days.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> I have not, indeed, the least idea myself +what its buildings were like, but certainly the +groups of its shipping must have been superb; small, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> +but entirely seaworthy vessels, manned by the best +seamen in the then world. Of course, now, at Chatham +and Portsmouth we have our ironclads,—extremely +beautiful and beautifully manageable things, no +doubt—to set against this Saxon and Danish shipping; +but the Saxon war-ships lay here at London shore—bright +with banner and shield and dragon prow,—instead +of these you may be happier, but are not +handsomer, in having, now, the coal-barge, the penny +steamer, and the wherry full of shop boys and girls. +I dwell however for a moment only on the naval aspect +of the tidal waters in the days of Alfred, because I can +refer you for all detail on this part of our subject to +the wonderful opening chapter of Dean Stanley's History +of Westminster Abbey, where you will find the +origin of the name of London given as "The City of +Ships." He does not, however, tell you, that there +were built, then and there, the biggest war-ships in the +world. I have often said to friends who praised my +own books that I would rather have written that chapter +than any one of them; yet if I <i>had</i> been able to +write the historical part of it, the conclusions drawn +would have been extremely different. The Dean indeed +describes with a poet's joy the River of wells, +which rose from those "once consecrated springs which +now lie choked in Holywell and Clerkenwell, and the +rivulet of Ulebrig which crossed the Strand under the +Ivy bridge"; but it is only in the spirit of a modern +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> +citizen of Belgravia that he exults in the fact that +"the great arteries of our crowded streets, the vast +sewers which cleanse our habitations, are fed by the +life-blood of those old and living streams; that underneath +our tread the Tyburn, and the Holborn, and the +Fleet, and the Wall Brook, are still pursuing their +ceaseless course, still ministering to the good of man, +though in a far different fashion than when Druids +drank of their sacred springs, and Saxons were baptized +in their rushing waters, ages ago."</p> + +<p>Whatever sympathy you may feel with these eloquent +expressions of that entire complacency in the +present, past, and future, which peculiarly animates +Dean Stanley's writings, I must, in this case, pray you +to observe that the transmutation of holy wells into +sewers has, at least, destroyed the charm and utility +of the Thames as a salmon stream, and I must ask you +to read with attention the succeeding portions of the +chapter which record the legends of the river fisheries +in their relation to the first Abbey of Westminster; +dedicated by its builders to St. Peter, not merely in his +office of cornerstone of the Church, nor even figuratively +as a fisher of men, but directly as a fisher of +fish:—and which maintained themselves, you will see, +in actual ceremony down to 1382, when a fisherman +still annually took his place beside the Prior, after +having brought in a salmon for St. Peter, which was +carried in state down the middle of the refectory.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> + +<p>But as I refer to this page for the exact word, my +eye is caught by one of the sentences of Londonian<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> +thought which constantly pervert the well-meant books +of pious England. "We see also," says the Dean, +"the union of innocent fiction with worldly craft, which +marks so many of the legends both of Pagan and +Christian times." I might simply reply to this insinuation +that times which have no legends differ from +the legendary ones merely by uniting guilty, instead +of innocent, fiction, with worldly craft; but I must +farther advise you that the legends of these passionate +times are in no wise, and in no sense, fiction at +all; but the true record of impressions made on the +minds of persons in a state of eager spiritual excitement, +brought into bright focus by acting steadily and +frankly under its impulses. I could tell you a great +deal more about such things than you would believe, +and therefore, a great deal more than it would do you +the least good to hear;—but this much any who care +to use their common sense modestly, cannot but admit, +that unless they choose to try the rough life of the +Christian ages, they cannot understand its practical +consequences. You have all been taught by Lord +Macaulay and his school that because you have Carpets +instead of rushes for your feet; and Feather-beds instead +of fern for your backs; and Kickshaws instead of +beef for your eating; and Drains instead of Holy Wells +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> +for your drinking;—that, therefore, you are the Cream +of Creation, and every one of you a seven-headed +Solomon. Stay in those pleasant circumstances and +convictions if you please; but don't accuse your +roughly bred and fed fathers of telling lies about +the aspect the earth and sky bore to <i>them</i>,—till you +have trodden the earth as they, barefoot, and seen the +heavens as they, face to face. If you care to see and +to know for yourselves, you may do it with little pains; +you need not do any great thing, you needn't keep one +eye open and the other shut for ten years over a microscope, +nor fight your way through icebergs and darkness +to knowledge of the <i>celestial</i> pole. Simply, do as +much as king after king of the Saxons did,—put rough +shoes on your feet and a rough cloak on your shoulders, +and walk to Rome and back. Sleep by the +roadside, when it is fine,—in the first outhouse you +can find, when it is wet; and live on bread and water, +with an onion or two, all the way; and if the experiences +which you will have to relate on your return do +not, as may well be, deserve the name of spiritual; at +all events you will not be disposed to let other people +regard them either as Poetry or Fiction.</p> + +<p>With this warning, presently to be at greater length +insisted on, I trace for you, in Dean Stanley's words, +which cannot be bettered except in the collection of +their more earnest passages from among his interludes +of graceful but dangerous qualification,—I trace, with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> +only such omission, the story he has told us of the +foundation of that Abbey, which, he tells you, was the +Mother of London, and has ever been the shrine and +the throne of English faith and truth.</p> + +<p>"The gradual formation of a monastic body, indicated +in the charters of Offa and Edgar, marks the +spread of the Benedictine order throughout England, +under the influence of Dunstan. The 'terror' of the +spot, which had still been its chief characteristic in +the charter of the wild Offa, had, in the days of the +more peaceful Edgar, given way to a dubious 'renown.' +Twelve monks is the number traditionally said to have +been established by Dunstan. A few acres further up +the river formed their chief property, and their monastic +character was sufficiently recognized to have given +to the old locality of the 'terrible place' the name of +the 'Western Monastery,' or 'Minster of the West.'"</p> + +<p>The Benedictines then—twelve Benedictine monks—thus +begin the building of existent Christian London. +You know I told you the Benedictines are the +Doing people, as the disciples of St. Augustine the +Sentimental people. The Benedictines find no terror +in their own thoughts—face the terror of places—change +it into beauty of places,—make this terrible +place, a Motherly Place—Mother of London.</p> + +<p>This first Westminster, however, the Dean goes on +to say, "seems to have been overrun by the Danes," +and it would have had no further history but for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> +combination of circumstances which directed hither the +notice of Edward the Confessor.</p> + +<p>I haven't time to read you all the combination of circumstances. +The last clinching circumstance was this—</p> + +<p>"There was in the neighbourhood of Worcester, 'far +from men in the wilderness, on the slope of a wood, in +a cave deep down in the grey rock,' a holy hermit 'of +great age, living on fruits and roots.' One night when, +after reading in the Scriptures 'how hard are the pains +of hell, and how the enduring life of Heaven is sweet +and to be desired,' he could neither sleep nor repose, +St. Peter appeared to him, 'bright and beautiful, like +to a clerk,' and warned him to tell the King that he +was released from his vow; that on that very day his +messengers would return from Rome;" (that is the +combination of circumstances—bringing Pope's order +to build a church to release the King from his vow of +pilgrimage); "that 'at Thorney, two leagues from the +city,' was the spot marked out where, in an ancient +church, 'situated low,' he was to establish a perfect +Benedictine monastery, which should be 'the gate of +heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence those who serve +St. Peter there, shall by him be admitted into Paradise.' +The hermit writes the account of the vision on +parchment, seals it with wax, and brings it to the King, +who compares it with the answer of the messengers, +just arrived from Rome, and determines on carrying +out the design as the Apostle had ordered.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> + +<p>"The ancient church, 'situated low,' indicated in this +vision the one whose attached monastery had been +destroyed by the Danes, but its little church remained, +and was already dear to the Confessor, not only from +the lovely tradition of its dedication by the spirit of +St. Peter;" (you must read that for yourselves;) "but +also because of two miracles happening there to the King himself.</p> + +<p>"The first was the cure of a cripple, who sat in the +road between the Palace and 'the Chapel of St. Peter,' +which was 'near,' and who explained to the Chamberlain +Hugolin that, after six pilgrimages to Rome in +vain, St. Peter had promised his cure if the King +would, on his own royal neck, carry him to the Monastery. +The King immediately consented; and, amidst +the scoffs of the court, bore the poor man to the steps +of the High Altar. There the cripple was received by +Godric the sacristan, and walked away on his own +restored feet, hanging his stool on the wall for a trophy.</p> + +<p>"Before that same High Altar was also believed to +have been seen one of the Eucharistical portents, so +frequent in the Middle Ages. A child, 'pure and +bright like a spirit,' appeared to the King in the sacramental +elements. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who, with +his famous countess, Godiva, was present, saw it also.</p> + +<p>"Such as these were the motives of Edward. Under +their influence was fixed what has ever since been +the local centre of the English monarchy."</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> + +<p>"Such as these were the <i>motives</i> of Edward," says +the Dean. Yes, certainly; but such as these also, first, +were the acts and visions of Edward. Take care that +you don't slip away, by the help of the glycerine of +the word "motives," into fancying that all these tales +are only the after colours and pictorial metaphors of +sentimental piety. They are either plain truth or black +lies; take your choice,—but don't tickle and treat +yourselves with the prettiness or the grotesqueness of +them, as if they were Anderssen's fairy tales. Either +the King did carry the beggar on his back, or he +didn't; either Godiva rode through Coventry, or she +didn't; either the Earl Leofric saw the vision of the +bright child at the altar—or he lied like a knave. +Judge, as you will; but do not Doubt.</p> + +<p>"The Abbey was fifteen years in building. The +King spent upon it one-tenth of the property of the +kingdom. It was to be a marvel of its kind. As in +its origin it bore the traces of the fantastic and childish" +(I must pause, to ask you to substitute for these +blameful terms, 'fantastic and childish,' the better ones +of 'imaginative and pure') "character of the King +and of the age; in its architecture it bore the stamp +of the peculiar position which Edward occupied in +English history between Saxon and Norman. By birth +he was a Saxon, but in all else he was a foreigner. +Accordingly the Church at Westminster was a wide-sweeping +innovation on all that had been seen before. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> +'Destroying the old building,' he says in his charter, +'I have built up a new one from the very foundation.' +Its fame as a 'new style of composition' lingered in +the minds of men for generations. It was the first +cruciform church in England, from which all the rest of +like shape were copied—an expression of the increasing +hold which, in the tenth century, the idea of the +Crucifixion had laid on the imagination of Europe. +The massive roof and pillars formed a contrast with +the rude wooden rafters and beams of the common +Saxon churches. Its very size—occupying, as it did, +almost the whole area of the present building—was +in itself portentous. The deep foundations, of large +square blocks of grey stone, were duly laid; the east +end was rounded into an apse; a tower rose in the +centre, crowned by a cupola of wood. At the western +end were erected two smaller towers, with five large +bells. The hard strong stones were richly sculptured; +the windows were filled with stained glass; the roof +was covered with lead. The cloisters, chapter-house, +refectory, dormitory, the infirmary, with its spacious +chapel, if not completed by Edward, were all begun, +and finished in the next generation on the same plan. +This structure, venerable as it would be if it had lasted +to our time, has almost entirely vanished. Possibly +one vast dark arch in the southern transept, certainly +the substructures of the dormitory, with their huge +pillars, 'grand and regal at the bases and capitals,' the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> +massive, low-browed passage leading from the great +cloister to Little Dean's Yard, and some portions of +the refectory and of the infirmary chapel, remain as +specimens of the work which astonished the last age +of the Anglo-Saxon and the first age of the Norman monarchy."</p> + +<p>Hitherto I have read to you with only supplemental +comment. But in the next following passage, with +which I close my series of extracts, sentence after sentence +occurs, at which as I read, I must raise my hand, +to mark it for following deprecation, or denial.</p> + +<p>"In the centre of Westminster Abbey thus lies its +Founder, and such is the story of its foundation. Even +apart from the legendary elements in which it is involved, +it is impossible not to be struck by the fantastic +character of all its circumstances. We seem to be in +a world of poetry." (I protest, No.) "Edward is four +centuries later than Ethelbert and Augustine; but the +origin of Canterbury is commonplace and prosaic compared +with the origin of Westminster." (Yes, that's +true.) "We can hardly imagine a figure more incongruous +to the soberness of later times than the quaint, +irresolute, wayward prince whose chief characteristics +have just been described. His titles of Confessor and +Saint belong not to the general instincts of Christendom +but to the most transitory feelings of the age." +(I protest, No.) "His opinions, his prevailing motives, +were such as in no part of modern Europe would now +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> +be shared by any educated teacher or ruler." (That's +true enough.) "But in spite of these irreconcilable +differences, there was a solid ground for the charm +which he exercised over his contemporaries. His +childish and eccentric fancies have passed away;" (I +protest, No;) "but his innocent faith and his sympathy +with his people are qualities which, even in our altered +times, may still retain their place in the economy of +the world. Westminster Abbey, so we hear it said, +sometimes with a cynical sneer, sometimes with a timorous +scruple, has admitted within its walls many who +have been great without being good, noble with a +nobleness of the earth earthy, worldly with the wisdom +of this world. But it is a counterbalancing reflection, +that the central tomb, round which all those famous +names have clustered, contains the ashes of one who, +weak and erring as he was, rests his claims of interment +here, not on any act of power or fame, but only +on his artless piety and simple goodness. He, towards +whose dust was attracted the fierce Norman, and the +proud Plantagenet, and the grasping Tudor, and the +fickle Stuart, even the Independent Oliver, the Dutch +William, and the Hanoverian George, was one whose +humble graces are within the reach of every man, +woman, and child of every time, if we rightly part the +immortal substance from the perishable form."</p> + +<p>Now I have read you these passages from Dean +Stanley as the most accurately investigatory, the most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> +generously sympathetic, the most reverently acceptant +account of these days, and their people, which you can +yet find in any English history. But consider now, +point by point, where it leaves you. You are told, +first, that you are living in an age of poetry. But the +days of poetry are those of Shakespeare and Milton, +not of Bede: nay, for their especial wealth in melodious +theology and beautifully rhythmic and pathetic +meditation, perhaps the days which have given us +'Hiawatha,' 'In Memoriam,' 'The Christian Year,' and +the 'Soul's Diary' of George Macdonald, may be not +with disgrace compared with those of Caedmon. And +nothing can be farther different from the temper, nothing +less conscious of the effort, of a poet, than any +finally authentic document to which you can be referred +for the relation of a Saxon miracle.</p> + +<p>I will read you, for a perfectly typical example, an +account of one from Bede's 'Life of St. Cuthbert,' +The passage is a favourite one of my own, but I do not +in the least anticipate its producing upon you the solemnizing +effect which I think I could command from +reading, instead, a piece of 'Marmion,' 'Manfred,' or 'Childe Harold.'</p> + +<p>... "He had one day left his cell to give advice +to some visitors; and when he had finished, he said to +them, 'I must now go in again, but do you, as you are +inclined to depart, first take food; and when you have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> +cooked and eaten that goose which is hanging on the +wall, go on board your vessel in God's name and return +home.' He then uttered a prayer, and, having blessed +them, went in. But they, as he had bidden them, took +some food; but having enough provisions of their +own, which they had brought with them, they did not touch the goose.</p> + +<p>"But when they had refreshed themselves they tried +to go on board their vessel, but a sudden storm utterly +prevented them from putting to sea. They were thus +detained seven days in the island by the roughness of +the waves, and yet they could not call to mind what +fault they had committed. They therefore returned to +have an interview with the holy father, and to lament +to him their detention. He exhorted them to be patient, +and on the seventh day came out to console their +sorrow, and to give them pious exhortations. When, +however, he had entered the house in which they were +stopping, and saw that the goose was not eaten, he +reproved their disobedience with mild countenance and +in gentle language: 'Have you not left the goose still +hanging in its place? What wonder is it that the +storm has prevented your departure? Put it immediately +into the caldron, and boil and eat it, that the sea +may become tranquil, and you may return home.'</p> + +<p>"They immediately did as he commanded; and it +happened most wonderfully that the moment the kettle +began to boil the wind began to cease, and the waves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span> +to be still Having finished their repast, and seeing +that the sea was calm, they went on board, and to their +great delight, though with shame for their neglect, +reached home with a fair wind. Now this, as I have +related, I did not pick up from any chance authority, +but I had it from one of those who were present, a +most reverend monk and priest of the same monastery, +Cynemund, who still lives, known to many in the +neighbourhood for his years and the purity of his life."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>I hope that the memory of this story, which, thinking +it myself an extremely pretty one, I have given +you, not only for a type of sincerity and simplicity, but +for an illustration of obedience, may at all events quit +you, for good and all, of the notion that the believers +and witnesses of miracle were poetical persons. Saying +no more on the head of that allegation, I proceed +to the Dean's second one, which I cannot but interpret +as also intended to be injurious,—that they were artless +and childish ones; and that because of this rudeness +and puerility, their motives and opinions would +not be shared by any statesmen of the present day.</p> + +<p>It is perfectly true that Edward the Confessor was +himself in many respects of really childish temperament; +not therefore, perhaps, as I before suggested to +you, less venerable. But the age of which we are examining +the progress, was by no means represented or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> +governed by men of similar disposition. It was eminently +productive of—it was altogether governed, +guided, and instructed by—men of the widest and +most brilliant faculties, whether constructive or speculative, +that the world till then had seen; men whose +acts became the romance, whose thoughts the wisdom, +and whose arts the treasure, of a thousand years of futurity.</p> + +<p>I warned you at the close of last lecture against +the too agreeable vanity of supposing that the Evangelization +of the world began at St. Martin's, Canterbury. +Again and again you will indeed find the stream +of the Gospel contracting itself into narrow channels, +and appearing, after long-concealed filtration, through +veins of unmeasured rock, with the bright resilience +of a mountain spring. But you will find it the only +candid, and therefore the only wise, way of research, +to look in each era of Christendom for the minds of +culminating power in all its brotherhood of nations; +and, careless of local impulse, momentary zeal, picturesque +incident, or vaunted miracle, to fasten your attention +upon the force of character in the men, whom, +over each newly-converted race, Heaven visibly sets for +its shepherds and kings, to bring forth judgment unto +victory. Of these I will name to you, as messengers +of God and masters of men, five monks and five kings; +in whose arms during the range of swiftly gainful +centuries which we are following, the life of the world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> +lay as a nursling babe. Remember, in their successive +order,—of monks, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Martin, +St. Benedict, and St. Gregory; of kings,—and +your national vanity may be surely enough appeased in +recognizing two of them for Saxon,—Theodoric, Charlemagne, +Alfred, Canute, and the Confessor. I will +read three passages to you, out of the literal words of +three of these ten men, without saying whose they are, +that you may compare them with the best and most +exalted you have read expressing the philosophy, the +religion, and the policy of to-day,—from which I admit, +with Dean Stanley, but with a far different meaning +from his, that they are indeed separate for evermore. +I give you first, for an example of Philosophy, a +single sentence, containing all—so far as I can myself +discern—that it is possible for us to know, or well for +us to believe, respecting the world and its laws.</p> + + +<p>"OF GOD'S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE, RULING ALL, AND COMPRISING ALL.</p> + +<p>"Wherefore the great and mighty God; He that made +man a reasonable creature of soul and body, and He that did +neither let him pass unpunished for his sin, nor yet excluded +him from mercy; He that gave, both unto good and bad, +essence with the stones, power of production with the trees, +senses with the beasts of the field, and understanding with the +angels; He from whom is all being, beauty, form, and +number, weight, and measure; He from whom all nature, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> +mean and excellent, all seeds of form, all forms of seed, all +motion, both of forms and seeds, derive and have being; He +that gave flesh the original beauty, strength, propagation, form +and shape, health and symmetry; He that gave the unreasonable +soul, sense, memory, and appetite; the reasonable, besides +these, fantasy, understanding, and will; He, I say, +having left neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor man, no, +nor the most base and contemptible creature, neither the bird's +feather, nor the herb's flower, nor the tree's leaf, without the +true harmony of their parts, and peaceful concord of composition:—It +is in no way credible that He would leave the +kingdoms of men and their bondages and freedom loose and +uncomprised in the laws of His eternal providence."<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a></p> + +<p>This for the philosophy.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> Next, I take for example +of the Religion of our ancestors, a prayer, personally +and passionately offered to the Deity conceived as you have this moment heard.</p> + +<p>"O Thou who art the Father of that Son which has awakened +us, and yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and +exhorteth us that we become Thine;" (note you that, for apprehension +of what Redemption means, against your base and +cowardly modern notion of 'scaping whipping. Not to take +away the Punishment of Sin, but by His Resurrection to raise +us out of the sleep of sin itself! Compare the legend at the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> +feet of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in the golden Gospel +of Charles le Chauve<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"HIC LEO SURGENDO PORTAS CONFREGIT AVERNI</p> +<p>QUI NUNQUAM DORMIT, NUSQUAM DORMITAT IN ÆVUM;")</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"to Thee, Lord, I pray, who art the supreme truth; for all the +truth that is, is truth from Thee. Thee I implore, O Lord, +who art the highest wisdom. Through Thee are wise all those +that are so. Thou art the true life, and through Thee are +living all those that are so. Thou art the supreme felicity, +and from Thee all have become happy that are so. Thou art +the highest good, and from Thee all beauty springs. Thou +art the intellectual light, and from Thee man derives his understanding.</p> + +<p>"To Thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me, +Lord! for Thou art my God and my Lord; my Father and +my Creator; my ruler and my hope; my wealth and my honour +my house, my country, my salvation, and my life! Hear, +hear me, O Lord! Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee. +But Thee alone I <i>love</i>,<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> indeed, above all other things. Thee +I seek: Thee I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. Under +Thy power I desire to abide, for Thou alone art the Sovereign +of all. I pray Thee to command me as Thou wilt."</p> + +<p>You see this prayer is simply the expansion of that +clause of the Lord's Prayer which most men eagerly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> +omit from it,—<i>Fiat voluntas tua</i>. In being so, it sums +the Christian prayer of all ages. See now, in the third +place, how far this king's letter I am going to read to +you sums also Christian Policy.</p> + +<blockquote><p> +"Wherefore I render high thanks to Almighty God, for the +happy accomplishment of all the desires which I have set +before me, and for the satisfying of my every wish.</p> + +<p>"Now therefore, be it known to you all, that to Almighty +God Himself I have, on my knees, devoted my life, to the +end that in all things I may do justice, and with justice and +rightness rule the kingdoms and peoples under me; throughout +everything preserving an impartial judgment. If, heretofore, +I have, through being, as young men are, impulsive or +careless, done anything unjust, I mean, with God's help, to +lose no time in remedying my fault. To which end I call +to witness my counsellors, to whom I have entrusted the counsels +of the kingdom, and I charge them that by no means, +be it through fear of me, or the favour of any other powerful +personage, to consent to any injustice, or to suffer any to shoot +out in any part of my kingdom. I charge all my viscounts +and those set over my whole kingdom, as they wish to keep +my friendship or their own safety, to use no unjust force to +any man, rich or poor; let all men, noble and not noble, rich +and poor alike, be able to obtain their rights under the law's +justice; and from that law let there be no deviation, either +to favour the king or any powerful person, nor to raise money +for me. I have no need of money raised by what is unfair. +I also would have you know that I go now to make peace +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> +and firm treaty by the counsels of all my subjects, with those +nations and people who wished, had it been possible for them +to do so, which it was not, to deprive us alike of kingdom +and of life. God brought down their strength to nought: and +may He of His benign love preserve us on our throne and in +honour. Lastly, when I have made peace with the neighbouring +nations, and settled and pacified all my dominions in the +East, so that we may nowhere have any war or enmity to fear, +I mean to come to England this summer, as soon as I can fit +out vessels to sail. My reason, however, in sending this letter +first is to let all the people of my kingdom share in the joy +of my welfare: for as you yourselves know, I have never spared +myself or my labour; nor will I ever do so, where my people +are really in want of some good that I can do them." +</p></blockquote> + +<p>What think you now, in candour and honour, you +youth of the latter days,—what think you of these +types of the thought, devotion, and government, which +not in words, but pregnant and perpetual fact, animated +these which you have been accustomed to call the Dark Ages?</p> + +<p>The Philosophy is Augustine's; the Prayer Alfred's; and the Letter Canute's.</p> + +<p>And, whatever you may feel respecting the beauty +or wisdom of these sayings, be assured of one thing +above all, that they are sincere; and of another, less +often observed, that they are joyful.</p> + +<p>Be assured, in the first place, that they are sincere, +The ideas of diplomacy and priestcraft are of recent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> +times. No false knight or lying priest ever prospered, +I believe, in any age, but certainly not in the dark +ones. Men prospered then, only in following openly-declared +purposes, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.</p> + +<p>And that they did so prosper, in the degree in which +they accepted and proclaimed the Christian Gospel, +may be seen by any of you in your historical reading, +however partial, if only you will admit the idea that it +could be so, and was likely to be so. You are all of +you in the habit of supposing that temporal prosperity +is owing either to worldly chance or to worldly prudence; +and is never granted in any visible relation to +states of religious temper. Put that treacherous doubt +away from you, with disdain; take for basis of reasoning +the noble postulate, that the elements of Christian +faith are sound,—instead of the base one, that they +are deceptive; reread the great story of the world in +that light, and see what a vividly real, yet miraculous +tenor, it will then bear to you.</p> + +<p>Their faith then, I tell you first, was sincere; I tell +you secondly that it was, in a degree few of us can now +conceive, joyful. We continually hear of the trials, +sometimes of the victories, of Faith,—but scarcely +ever of its pleasures. Whereas, at this time, you will +find that the chief delight of all good men was in the +recognition of the goodness and wisdom of the Master, +who had come to dwell with them upon earth. It is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> +almost impossible for you to conceive the vividness of +this sense in them; it is totally impossible for you to +conceive the comfort, peace, and force of it. In everything +that you now do or seek, you expose yourselves +to countless miseries of shame and disappointment, +because in your doing you depend on nothing but your +own powers, and in seeking choose only your own +gratification. You cannot for the most part conceive +of any work but for your own interests, or the interests +of others about whom you are anxious in the same +faithless way; everything about which passion is excited +in you or skill exerted is some object of material +life, and the idea of doing anything except for your +own praise or profit has narrowed itself into little more +than the precentor's invitation to the company with +little voice and less practice to "sing to the praise and glory of God."</p> + +<p>I have said that you cannot imagine the feeling of +the energy of daily life applied in the real meaning of +those words. You cannot imagine it, but you <i>can</i> +prove it. Are any of you willing, simply as a philosophical +experiment in the greatest of sciences, to +adopt the principles and feelings of these men of a +thousand years ago for a given time, say for a year? +It cannot possibly do you any harm to try, and you +cannot possibly learn what is true in these things, +without trying. If after a year's experience of such +method you find yourself no happier than before, at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> +least you will be able to support your present opinions +at once with more grace and more modesty; having +conceded the trial it asked for, to the opposite side. +Nor in acting temporarily on a faith you do not see to +be reasonable, do you compromise your own integrity +more, than in conducting, under a chemist's directions, +an experiment of which he foretells inexplicable consequences. +And you need not doubt the power you +possess over your own minds to do this. Were faith +not voluntary, it could not be praised, and would not be rewarded.</p> + +<p>If you are minded thus to try, begin each day with +Alfred's prayer,—fiat voluntas tua; resolving that you +will stand to it, and that nothing that happens in the +course of the day shall displease you. Then set to any +work you have in hand with the sifted and purified +resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love +of gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed +for you; and that no anxiety shall touch you as to its +issue, nor any impatience nor regret if it fail. Imagine +that the thing is being done through you, not by you; +that the good of it may never be known, but that at +least, unless by your rebellion or foolishness, there can +come no evil into it, nor wrong chance to it. Resolve +also with steady industry to do what you can for the +help of your country and its honour, and the honour of +its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, +nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> +and feel you will look frankly for the immediate help +and direction, and to your own consciences, expressed +approval, of God. Live thus, and believe, and with +swiftness of answer proportioned to the frankness of +the trust, most surely the God of hope will fill you with +all joy and peace in believing.</p> + +<p>But, if you will not do this, if you have not courage +nor heart enough to break away the fetters of earth, +and take up the sensual bed of it, and walk; if you say +that you are <i>bound</i> to win this thing, and become the +other thing, and that the wishes of your friends,—and +the interests of your family,—and the bias of your +genius,—and the expectations of your college,—and +all the rest of the bow-wow-wow of the wild dog-world, +must be attended to, whether you like it or no,—then, +at least, for shame give up talk about being free or +independent creatures; recognize yourselves for slaves +in whom the thoughts are put in ward with their +bodies, and their hearts manacled with their hands: +and then at least also, for shame, if you refuse to believe +that ever there were men who gave their souls to +God,—know and confess how surely there are those +who sell them to His adversary.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> + + + + +<h2>LECTURE III.</h2> + +<h2>THE PLEASURES OF DEED.</h2> + +<h2><i>Alfred to CÅ“ur de Lion.</i></h2> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> + + +<p>It was my endeavour, in the preceding lecture, to +vindicate the thoughts and arts of our Saxon ancestors +from whatever scorn might lie couched under +the terms applied to them by Dean Stanley,—'fantastic' +and 'childish.' To-day my task must be carried +forward, first, in asserting the grace in fantasy, and +the force in infancy, of the English mind, before the +Conquest, against the allegations contained in the +final passage of Dean Stanley's description of the first +founded Westminster; a passage which accepts and +asserts, more distinctly than any other equally brief +statement I have met with, the to my mind extremely +disputable theory, that the Norman invasion was in +every respect a sanitary, moral, and intellectual blessing +to England, and that the arrow which slew her +Harold was indeed the Arrow of the Lord's deliverance.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> + +<p>"The Abbey itself," says Dean Stanley,—"the +chief work of the Confessor's life,—was the portent +of the mighty future. When Harold stood beside his +sister Edith, on the day of the dedication, and signed +his name with hers as witness to the Charter of the +Abbey, he might have seen that he was sealing his +own doom, and preparing for his own destruction. The +solid pillars, the ponderous arches, the huge edifice, +with triple tower and sculptured stones and storied windows, +that arose in the place and in the midst of the +humble wooden churches and wattled tenements of the +Saxon period, might have warned the nobles who were +present that the days of their rule were numbered, +and that the <i>avenging, civilizing, stimulating</i> hand of +another and a mightier race was at work, which would +change the whole face of their language, their manners, +their Church, and their commonwealth. The Abbey, +so far exceeding the demands of the <i>dull and stagnant</i> +minds of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was founded not +only in faith, but in hope: in the hope that England +had yet a glorious career to run; that the line of her +sovereigns would not be broken, even when the race of +Alfred had ceased to reign."</p> + +<p>There must surely be some among my hearers who +are startled, if not offended, at being told in the terms +which I emphasized in this sentence, that the minds +of our Saxon fathers were, although fantastic, dull, +and, although childish, stagnant; that farther, in their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> +fantastic stagnation; they were savage,—and in their +innocent dullness, criminal; so that the future character +and fortune of the race depended on the critical +advent of the didactic and disciplinarian Norman baron, +at once to polish them, stimulate, and chastise.</p> + +<p>Before I venture to say a word in distinct arrest of +this judgment, I will give you a chart, as clear as the +facts observed in the two previous lectures allow, of +the state and prospects of the Saxons, when this violent +benediction of conquest happened to them: and +especially I would rescue, in the measure that justice +bids, the memory even of their Pagan religion from +the general scorn in which I used Carlyle's description +of the idol of ancient Prussia as universally exponent of +the temper of Northern devotion. That Triglaph, or +Triglyph Idol, (derivation of Triglaph wholly unknown +to me—I use Triglyph only for my own handiest epithet), +last set up, on what is now St. Mary's hill in +Brandenburg, in 1023, belonged indeed to a people +wonderfully like the Saxons,—geographically their +close neighbours,—in habits of life, and aspect of +native land, scarcely distinguishable from them,—in +Carlyle's words, a "strong-boned, iracund, herdsman +and fisher people, highly averse to be interfered with, +in their religion especially, and inhabiting a moory flat +country, full of lakes and woods, but with plenty also +of alluvial mud, grassy, frugiferous, apt for the plough"—in +all things like the Saxons, except, as I read the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> +matter, in that 'aversion to be interfered with' which +you modern English think an especially Saxon character +in you,—but which is, on the contrary, you will +find on examination, by no means Saxon; but only +Wendisch, Czech, Serbic, Sclavic,—other hard names +I could easily find for it among the tribes of that vehemently +heathen old Preussen—"resolutely worshipful +of places of oak trees, of wooden or stone idols, of +Bangputtis, Patkullos, and I know not what diabolic +dumb blocks." Your English "dislike to be interfered +with" is in absolute fellowship with these, but only +gathers itself in its places of Stalks, or chimneys, instead +of oak trees, round its idols of iron, instead of +wood, diabolically <i>vocal</i> now; strident, and sibilant, instead of dumb.</p> + +<p>Far other than these, their neighbour Saxons, Jutes +and Angles!—tribes between whom the distinctions +are of no moment whatsoever, except that an English +boy or girl may with grace remember that 'Old England,' +exactly and strictly so called, was the small district +in the extreme south of Denmark, totally with its +islands estimable at sixty miles square of dead flat land. +Directly south of it, the definitely so-called Saxons +held the western shore of Holstein, with the estuary +of the Elbe, and the sea-mark isle, Heligoland. But +since the principal temple of Saxon worship was close +to Leipsic,<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> we may include under our general term, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> +Saxons, the inhabitants of the whole level district of +North Germany, from the Gulf of Flensburg to the +Hartz; and, eastward, all the country watered by the +Elbe as far as Saxon Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Of the character of this race I will not here speak +at any length: only note of it this essential point, that +their religion was at once more practical and more imaginative +than that of the Norwegian peninsula; the +Norse religion being the conception rather of natural +than moral powers, but the Saxon, primarily of moral, +as the lords of natural—their central divine image, +Irminsul,<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> holding the standard of peace in her right +hand, a balance in her left. Such a religion may degenerate +into mere slaughter and rapine; but it has +the making in it of the noblest men.</p> + +<p>More practical at all events, whether for good or +evil, in this trust in a future reward for courage and +purity, than the mere Scandinavian awe of existing +Earth and Cloud, the Saxon religion was also more +imaginative, in its nearer conception of human feeling +in divine creatures. And when this wide hope and +high reverence had distinct objects of worship and +prayer, offered to them by Christianity, the Saxons +easily became pure, passionate, and thoughtful Christians; +while the Normans, to the last, had the greatest +difficulty in apprehending the Christian teaching of the +Franks, and still deny the power of Christianity, even +when they have become inveterate in its form.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> + +<p>Quite the deepest-thoughted creatures of the then +animate world, it seems to me, these Saxon ploughmen +of the sand or the sea, with their worshipped deity of +Beauty and Justice, a red rose on her banner, for best +of gifts, and in her right hand, instead of a sword, a +balance, for due doom, without wrath,—of retribution +in her left. Far other than the Wends, though stubborn +enough, they too, in battle rank,—seven times +rising from defeat against Charlemagne, and unsubdued +but by death—yet, by no means in that John Bull's +manner of yours, 'averse to be interfered with,' in their +opinions, or their religion. Eagerly docile on the +contrary—joyfully reverent—instantly and gratefully +acceptant of whatever better insight or oversight a +stranger could bring them, of the things of God or man.</p> + +<p>And let me here ask you especially to take account +of that origin of the true bearing of the Flag of +England, the Red Rose. Her own madness defiled +afterwards alike the white and red, into images of the +paleness, or the crimson, of death; but the Saxon Rose +was the symbol of heavenly beauty and peace.</p> + +<p>I told you in my first lecture that one swift requirement +in our school would be to produce a beautiful +map of England, including old Northumberland, giving +the whole country, in its real geography, between the +Frith of Forth and Straits of Dover, and with only six +sites of habitation given, besides those of Edinburgh +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> +and London,—namely, those of Canterbury and Winchester, +York and Lancaster, Holy Island and Melrose; +the latter instead of Iona, because, as we have seen, +the influence of St. Columba expires with the advance +of Christianity, while that of Cuthbert of Melrose connects +itself with the most sacred feelings of the entire +Northumbrian kingdom, and Scottish border, down +to the days of Scott—wreathing also into its circle +many of the legends of Arthur. Will you forgive my +connecting the personal memory of having once had +a wild rose gathered for me, in the glen of Thomas the +Rhymer, by the daughter of one of the few remaining +Catholic houses of Scotland, with the pleasure I have +in reading to you this following true account of the +origin of the name of St. Cuthbert's birthplace;—the +rather because I owe it to friendship of the same date, +with Mr. Cockburn Muir, of Melrose.</p> + +<p>"To those who have eyes to read it," says Mr. Muir, +"the name 'Melrose' is written full and fair, on the +fair face of all this reach of the valley. The name is +anciently spelt Mailros, and later, Malros, never Mulros; +('Mul' being the Celtic word taken to mean +'bare'). Ros is Rose; the forms Meal or Mol imply +great quantity or number. Thus Malros means the place of many roses.</p> + +<p>"This is precisely the notable characteristic of the +neighbourhood. The wild rose is indigenous. There +is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor brae, which is not, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> +in the time of roses, ablaze with their exuberant loveliness. +In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that +it spreads literally like a weed. But it is worth suggestion +that the word may be of the same stock as the +Hebrew <i>rôsh</i> (translated rôs by the Septuagint), meaning +<i>chief</i>, <i>principal</i>, while it is also the name of <i>some</i> +flower; but of <i>which</i> flower is now unknown. Affinities +of <i>rôsh</i> are not far to seek; Sanskrit, <i>Raj</i>(a), +<i>Ra</i>(ja)<i>ni</i>; Latin, <i>Rex</i>, <i>Reg</i>(ina)."</p> + +<p>I leave it to Professor Max Muller to certify or correct +for you the details of Mr. Cockburn's research,<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a>—this +main head of it I can positively confirm, that in old +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span> +Scotch,—that of Bishop Douglas,—the word 'Rois' +stands alike for King, and Rose.</p> + +<p>Summing now the features I have too shortly specified +in the Saxon character,—its imagination, its +docility, its love of knowledge, and its love of beauty, +you will be prepared to accept my conclusive statement, +that they gave rise to a form of Christian faith +which appears to me, in the present state of my knowledge, +one of the purest and most intellectual ever attained +in Christendom;—never yet understood, partly +because of the extreme rudeness of its expression in +the art of manuscripts, and partly because, on account +of its very purity, it sought no expression in architecture, +being a religion of daily life, and humble lodging. +For these two practical reasons, first;—and for this +more weighty third, that the intellectual character of it +is at the same time most truly, as Dean Stanley told +you, childlike; showing itself in swiftness of imaginative +apprehension, and in the fearlessly candid application +of great principles to small things. Its character +in this kind may be instantly felt by any sympathetic +and gentle person who will read carefully the book I +have already quoted to you, the Venerable Bede's life +of St. Cuthbert; and the intensity and sincerity of it +in the highest orders of the laity, by simply counting +the members of Saxon Royal families who ended their lives in monasteries.</p> + +<p>Now, at the very moment when this faith, innocence, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> +and ingenuity were on the point of springing up into +their fruitage, comes the Northern invasion; of the +real character of which you can gain a far truer estimate +by studying Alfred's former resolute contest with +and victory over the native Norman in his paganism, +than by your utmost endeavours to conceive the character +of the afterwards invading Norman, disguised, +but not changed, by Christianity. The Norman could +not, in the nature of him, become a <i>Christian</i> at all; +and he never did;—he only became, at his best, the +enemy of the Saracen. What he was, and what alone +he was capable of being, I will try to-day to explain.</p> + +<p>And here I must advise you that in all points of +history relating to the period between 800 and 1200, +you will find M. Viollet le Duc, incidentally throughout +his 'Dictionary of Architecture,' the best-informed, +most intelligent, and most thoughtful of guides. His +knowledge of architecture, carried down into the most +minutely practical details,—(which are often the most +significant), and embracing, over the entire surface of +France, the buildings even of the most secluded villages; +his artistic enthusiasm, balanced by the acutest +sagacity, and his patriotism, by the frankest candour, +render his analysis of history during that active and +constructive period the most valuable known to me, +and certainly, in its field, exhaustive. Of the later +nationality his account is imperfect, owing to his professional +interest in the mere <i>science</i> of architecture, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> +and comparative insensibility to the power of sculpture;—but +of the time with which we are now concerned, +whatever he tells you must be regarded with grateful attention.</p> + +<p>I introduce, therefore, the Normans to you, on their +first entering France, under his descriptive terms of them.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a></p> + +<p>"As soon as they were established on the soil, these +barbarians became the most hardy and active builders. +Within the space of a century and a half, they had +covered the country on which they had definitely +landed, with religious, monastic, and civil edifices, of +an extent and richness then little common. It is difficult +to suppose that they had brought from Norway the +elements of art,<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a> but they were possessed by a persisting +and penetrating spirit; their brutal force did +not want for grandeur. Conquerors, they raised castles +to assure their domination; they soon recognized the +Moral force of the clergy, and endowed it richly. +Eager always to attain their end, when once they saw +it, they <i>never left one of their enterprises unfinished</i>, and +in that they differed completely from the Southern +inhabitants of Gaul. Tenacious extremely, they were +perhaps the only ones among the barbarians established +in France who had ideas of order; the only ones +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> +who knew how to preserve their conquests, and compose +a state. They found the remains of the Carthaginian +arts on the territory where they planted +themselves, they mingled with those their national +genius, positive, grand, and yet supple."</p> + +<p>Supple, 'Delié,'—capable of change and play of the +mental muscle, in the way that savages are not. I do +not, myself, grant this suppleness to the Norman, the +less because another sentence of M. le Duc's, occurring +incidentally in his account of the archivolt, is of +extreme counter-significance, and wide application. +"The Norman arch," he says, "is <i>never derived from +traditional classic forms</i>, but only from mathematical +arrangement of line." Yes; that is true: the Norman +arch is never derived from classic forms. The cathedral,<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a> +whose aisles you saw or might have seen, yesterday, +interpenetrated with light, whose vaults you might +have heard prolonging the sweet divisions of majestic +sound, would have been built in that stately symmetry +by Norman law, though never an arch at Rome had +risen round her field of blood,—though never her +Sublician bridge had been petrified by her Augustan +pontifices. But the <i>decoration</i>, though not the structure +of those arches, they owed to another race,<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> +whose words they stole without understanding, though +three centuries before, the Saxon understood, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> +used, to express the most solemn majesty of his Kinghood,—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"EGO, EDGAR, TOTIVS ALBIONIS"—</p> +</div></div> + +<p>not Rex, that would have meant the King of Kent or +Mercia, not of England,—no, nor Imperator; that +would have meant only the profane power of Rome, +but <i>BASILEVS</i>, meaning a King who reigned with +sacred authority given by Heaven and Christ.</p> + +<p>With far meaner thoughts, both of themselves and +their powers, the Normans set themselves to build +impregnable military walls, and sublime religious ones, +in the best possible practical ways; but they no more +made books of their church fronts than of their bastion +flanks; and cared, in the religion they accepted, neither +for its sentiments nor its promises, but only for +its immediate results on national order.</p> + +<p>As I read them, they were men wholly of this +world, bent on doing the most in it, and making the +best of it that they could;—men, to their death, of +<i>Deed</i>, never pausing, changing, repenting, or anticipating, +more than the completed square, ὰνευ ψογου, of +their battle, their keep, and their cloister. Soldiers +before and after everything, they learned the lockings +and bracings of their stones primarily in defence +against the battering-ram and the projectile, and esteemed +the pure circular arch for its distributed and +equal strength more than for its beauty. "I believe +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> +again," says M. le Duc,<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> "that the feudal castle never +arrived at its perfectness till after the Norman invasion, +and that this race of the North was the first to +apply a defensive system under unquestionable laws, +soon followed by the nobles of the Continent, after +they had, at their own expense, learned their superiority."</p> + +<p>The next sentence is a curious one. I pray your +attention to it. "The defensive system of the Norman +is born of a profound sentiment of <i>distrust</i> and <i>cunning, +foreign to the character of the Frank</i>." You will find in +all my previous notices of the French, continual insistance +upon their natural Franchise, and also, if you take +the least pains in analysis of their literature down to +this day, that the idea of falseness is to them indeed +more hateful than to any other European nation. To +take a quite cardinal instance. If you compare Lucian's +and Shakespeare's Timon with Molière's Alceste, you +will find the Greek and English misanthropes dwell +only on men's <i>ingratitude</i> to <i>themselves</i>, but Alceste, +on their <i>falsehood to each other</i>.</p> + +<p>Now hear M. le Duc farther:</p> + +<p>"The castles built between the tenth and twelfth +centuries along the Loire, Gironde, and Seine, that is +to say, along the lines of the Norman invasions, and +in the neighbourhood of their possessions, have a +peculiar and uniform character which one finds neither +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> +in central France, nor in Burgundy, nor can there be +any need for us to throw light on (<i>faire ressortir</i>) the +superiority of the warrior spirit of the Normans, during +the later times of the Carlovingian epoch, over the +spirit of the chiefs of Frank descent, established on +the Gallo-Roman soil." There's a bit of honesty in a +Frenchman for you!</p> + +<p>I have just said that they valued religion chiefly for +its influence of order in the present world: being in +this, observe, as nearly as may be the exact reverse +of modern believers, or persons who profess to be +such,—of whom it may be generally alleged, too truly, +that they value religion with respect to their future +bliss rather than their present duty; and are therefore +continually careless of its direct commands, with easy +excuse to themselves for disobedience to them. Whereas +the Norman, finding in his own heart an irresistible +impulse to action, and perceiving himself to be set, +with entirely strong body, brain, and will, in the midst +of a weak and dissolute confusion of all things, takes +from the Bible instantly into his conscience every exhortation +to Do and to Govern; and becomes, with all +his might and understanding, a blunt and rough servant, +knecht, or knight of God, liable to much misapprehension, +of course, as to the services immediately +required of him, but supposing, since the whole make +of him, outside and in, is a soldier's, that God meant +him for a soldier, and that he is to establish, by main +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> +force, the Christian faith and works all over the world +so far as he comprehends them; not merely with the +Mahometan indignation against spiritual error, but +with a sound and honest soul's dislike of material error, +and resolution to extinguish <i>that</i>, even if perchance +found in the spiritual persons to whom, in their office, +he yet rendered total reverence.</p> + +<p>Which force and faith in him I may best illustrate +by merely putting together the broken paragraphs of +Sismondi's account of the founding of the Norman +Kingdom of Sicily: virtually contemporary with the conquest of England.</p> + +<p>"The Normans surpassed all the races of the west +in their ardour for pilgrimages. They would not, to +go into the Holy Land, submit to the monotony<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a> of a +long sea voyage—the rather that they found not on +the Mediterranean the storms or dangers they had +rejoiced to encounter on their own sea. They traversed +by land the whole of France and Italy, trusting +to their swords to procure the necessary subsistence,<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> +if the charity of the faithful did not enough provide +for it with alms. The towns of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, +and Bari, held constant commerce with Syria; and frequent +miracles, it was believed, illustrated the Monte +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> +Cassino (St. Benedict again!) on the road of Naples, +and the Mount of Angels (Garganus) above Bari." +(Querceta Gargani—verily, laborant; <i>now</i>, et orant.) +"The pilgrims wished to visit during their journey the +monasteries built on these two mountains, and therefore +nearly always, either going or returning to the +Holy Land, passed through Magna Græcia.</p> + +<p>"In one of the earliest years of the eleventh century, +about forty of these religious travellers, having +returned from the Holy Land, chanced to have met +together in Salerno at the moment when a small Saracen +fleet came to insult the town, and demand of it +a military contribution. The inhabitants of South +Italy, at this time, abandoned to the delights of their +enchanted climate, had lost nearly all military courage. +The Salernitani saw with astonishment forty Norman +knights, after having demanded horses and arms from +the Prince of Salerno, order the gates of the town to +be opened, charge the Saracens fearlessly, and put +them to flight. The Salernitani followed, however, the +example given them by these brave warriors, and those +of the Mussulmans who escaped their swords were +forced to re-embark in all haste.</p> + +<p>"The Prince of Salerno, Guaimar III., tried in vain +to keep the warrior-pilgrims at his court: but at his +solicitation other companies established themselves on +the rocks of Salerno and Amalfi, until, on Christmas +Day, 1041, (exactly a quarter of a century before the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> +coronation here at Westminster of the Conqueror,) +they gathered their scattered forces at Aversa,<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a> twelve +groups of them under twelve chosen counts, and all +under the Lombard Ardoin, as commander-in-chief." +Be so good as to note that,—a marvellous key-note +of historical fact about the unjesting Lombards, I +cannot find the total Norman number: the chief contingent, +under William of the Iron Arm, the son of +Tancred of Hauteville, was only of three hundred +knights; the Count of Aversa's troop, of the same +number, is named as an important part of the little +army—admit it for ten times Tancred's, three thousand +men in all. At Aversa, these three thousand +men form, coolly on Christmas Day, 1041, the design +of—well, I told you they didn't <i>design</i> much, only, +now we're here, we may as well, while we're about it,—overthrow +the Greek empire! That was their little +game!—a Christmas mumming to purpose. The following +year, the whole of Apulia was divided among them.</p> + +<p>I will not spoil, by abstracting, the magnificent following +history of Robert Guiscard, the most wonderful +soldier of that or any other time: I leave you to finish +it for yourselves, only asking you to read together with +it, the sketch, in Turner's history of the Anglo-Saxons, +of Alfred's long previous war with the Norman Hasting; +pointing out to you for foci of character in each +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> +contest, the culminating incidents of naval battle. In +Guiscard's struggle with the Greeks, he encounters for +their chief naval force the Venetian fleet under the +Doge Domenico Selvo. The Venetians are at this +moment undoubted masters in all naval warfare; the +Normans are worsted easily the first day,—the second +day, fighting harder, they are defeated again, and so +disastrously that the Venetian Doge takes no precautions +against them on the third day, thinking them +utterly disabled. Guiscard attacks him again on the +third day, with the mere wreck of his own ships, and +defeats the tired and amazed Italians finally!</p> + +<p>The sea-fight between Alfred's ships and those of +Hasting, ought to be still more memorable to us. +Alfred, as I noticed in last lecture, had built war ships +nearly twice as long as the Normans', swifter, and +steadier on the waves. Six Norman ships were ravaging +the Isle of Wight; Alfred sent nine of his own +to take them. The King's fleet found the Northmen's +embayed, and three of them aground. The three others +<i>engaged Alfred's nine, twice their size</i>; two of the Viking +ships were taken, but the third escaped, with only five +men! A nation which verily took its pleasures in its Deeds.</p> + +<p>But before I can illustrate farther either their deeds +or their religion, I must for an instant meet the objection +which I suppose the extreme probity of the nineteenth +century must feel acutely against these men,—that +they all lived by thieving.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> + +<p>Without venturing to allude to the <i>raison d'être</i> of +the present French and English Stock Exchanges, I +will merely ask any of you here, whether of Saxon or +Norman blood, to define for himself what he means by +the "possession of India." I have no doubt that you +all wish to keep India in order, and in like manner I +have assured you that Duke William wished to keep +England in order. If you will read the lecture on the +life of Sir Herbert Edwardes, which I hope to give in +London after finishing this course,<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a> you will see how a +Christian British officer can, and does, verily, and with +his whole heart, keep in order such part of India as +may be entrusted to him, and in so doing, secure our +Empire. But the silent feeling and practice of the +nation about India is based on quite other motives than +Sir Herbert's. Every mutiny, every danger, every terror, +and every crime, occurring under, or paralyzing, +our Indian legislation, arises directly out of our national +desire to live on the loot of India, and the notion +always entertained by English young gentlemen and +ladies of good position, falling in love with each other +without immediate prospect of establishment in Belgrave +Square, that they can find in India, instantly on +landing, a bungalow ready furnished with the loveliest +fans, china, and shawls,—ices and sherbet at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> +command,—four-and-twenty slaves succeeding each other +hourly to swing the punkah, and a regiment with a +beautiful band to "keep order" outside, all round the house.</p> + +<p>Entreating your pardon for what may seem rude in +these personal remarks, I will further entreat you to +read my account of the death of CÅ“ur de Lion in the +third number of 'Fors Clavigera'—and also the scenes +in 'Ivanhoe' between CÅ“ur de Lion and Locksley; +and commending these few passages to your quiet +consideration, I proceed to give you another anecdote +or two of the Normans in Italy, twelve years later than +those given above, and, therefore, only thirteen years +before the battle of Hastings.</p> + +<p>Their division of South Italy among them especially, +and their defeat of Venice, had alarmed everybody +considerably,—especially the Pope, Leo IX., who did +not understand this manifestation of their piety. He +sent to Henry III. of Germany, to whom he owed his +Popedom, for some German knights, and got five hundred +spears; gathered out of all Apulia, Campania, and +the March of Ancona, what Greek and Latin troops +were to be had, to join his own army of the patrimony +of St. Peter; and the holy Pontiff, with this numerous +army, but no general, began the campaign by a pilgrimage +with all his troops to Monte Cassino, in order +to obtain, if it might be, St. Benedict for general.</p> + +<p>Against the Pope's collected masses, with St. Benedict, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> +their contemplative but at first inactive general, +stood the little army of Normans,—certainly not more +than the third of their number—but with Robert +Guiscard for captain, and under him his brother, +Humphrey of Hauteville, and Richard of Aversa. Not +in fear, but in devotion, they prayed the Pope 'avec +instance,'—to say on what conditions they could appease +his anger, and live in peace under him. But +the Pope would hear of nothing but their evacuation +of Italy. Whereupon, they had to settle the question in the Norman manner.</p> + +<p>The two armies met in front of Civitella, on Waterloo +day, 18th June, thirteen years, as I said, before the +battle of Hastings. The German knights were the +heart of the Pope's army, but they were only five hundred; +the Normans surrounded <i>them</i> first, and slew +them, nearly to a man—and then made extremely +short work with the Italians and Greeks. The Pope, +with the wreck of them, fled into Civitella; but the +townspeople dared not defend their walls, and thrust +the Pope himself out of their gates—to meet, alone, the Norman army.</p> + +<p>He met it, <i>not</i> alone, St. Benedict being with him +now, when he had no longer the strength of man to trust in.</p> + +<p>The Normans, as they approached him, threw themselves +on their knees,—covered themselves with dust, +and implored his pardon and his blessing.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> + +<p>There's a bit of poetry—if you like,—but a piece +of steel-clad fact also, compared to which the battle +of Hastings and Waterloo both, were mere boys' squabbles.</p> + +<p>You don't suppose, you British schoolboys, that <i>you</i> +overthrew Napoleon—<i>you?</i> Your prime Minister +folded up the map of Europe at the thought of him. +Not you, but the snows of Heaven, and the hand of +Him who dasheth in pieces with a rod of iron. He +casteth forth His ice like morsels,—who can stand before His cold?</p> + +<p>But, so far as you have indeed the right to trust in +the courage of your own hearts, remember also—it is +not in Norman nor Saxon, but in Celtic race that your +real strength lies. The battles both of Waterloo and +Alma were won by Irish and Scots—by the terrible +Scots Greys, and by Sir Colin's Highlanders. Your +'thin red line,' was kept steady at Alma only by +Colonel Yea's swearing at them.</p> + +<p>But the old Pope, alone against a Norman army, +wanted nobody to swear at him. Steady enough he, +having somebody to bless him, instead of swear at him. +St. Benedict, namely; whose (memory shall we say?) +helped him now at his pinch in a singular manner,—for +the Normans, having got the old man's forgiveness, +vowed themselves his feudal servants; and for seven +centuries afterwards the whole kingdom of Naples remained +a fief of St. Peter,—won for him thus by a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> +single man, unarmed, against three thousand Norman +knights, captained by Robert Guiscard!</p> + +<p>A day of deeds, gentlemen, to some purpose,—<i>that</i> 18th of June, anyhow.</p> + +<p>Here, in the historical account of Norman character, +I must unwillingly stop for to-day—because, as you +choose to spend your University money in building +ball-rooms instead of lecture-rooms, I dare not keep +you much longer in this black hole, with its nineteenth +century ventilation. I try your patience—and tax +your breath—only for a few minutes more in drawing +the necessary corollaries respecting Norman art.<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a></p> + +<p>How far the existing British nation owes its military +prowess to the blood of Normandy and Anjou, I have +never examined its genealogy enough to tell you;—but +this I can tell you positively, that whatever constitutional +order or personal valour the Normans enforced +or taught among the nations they conquered, they did +not at first attempt with their own hands to rival them +in any of their finer arts, but used both Greek and +Saxon sculptors, either as slaves, or hired workmen, +and more or less therefore chilled and degraded the +hearts of the men thus set to servile, or at best, hireling, labour.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span> + +<p>In 1874, I went to see Etna, Scylla, Charybdis, and +the tombs of the Norman Kings at Palermo; surprised, +as you may imagine, to find that there wasn't a stroke +nor a notion of Norman work in them. They are, +every atom, done by Greeks, and are as pure Greek as +the temple of Ægina; but more rich and refined. I +drew with accurate care, and with measured profile of +every moulding, the tomb built for Roger II. (afterwards +Frederick II. was laid in its dark porphyry). +And it is a perfect type of the Greek-Christian form +of tomb—temple over sarcophagus, in which the pediments +rise gradually, as time goes on, into acute +angles—get pierced in the gable with foils, and their +sculptures thrown outside on their flanks, and become +at last in the fourteenth century, the tombs of Verona. +But what is the meaning of the Normans employing +these Greek slaves for their work in Sicily (within +thirty miles of the field of Himera)? Well, the main +meaning is that though the Normans could build, they +couldn't carve, and were wise enough not to try to, +when they couldn't, as you do now all over this intensely +comic and tragic town: but, here in England, +they only employed the Saxon with a grudge, and +therefore being more and more driven to use barren +mouldings without sculpture, gradually developed the +structural forms of archivolt, which breaking into the +lancet, brighten and balance themselves into the symmetry +of early English Gothic.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> + +<p>But even for the first decoration of the archivolt +itself, they were probably indebted to the Greeks in +a degree I never apprehended, until by pure happy +chance, a friend gave me the clue to it just as I was +writing the last pages of this lecture.</p> + +<p>In the generalization of ornament attempted in the +first volume of the 'Stones of Venice,' I supposed the +Norman <i>zigzag</i> (and with some practical truth) to be +derived from the angular notches with which the blow +of an axe can most easily decorate, or at least vary, +the solid edge of a square fillet. My good friend, and +supporter, and for some time back the single trustee +of St. George's Guild, Mr. George Baker, having come +to Oxford on Guild business, I happened to show him +the photographs of the front of Iffley church, which +had been collected for this lecture; and immediately +afterwards, in taking him through the schools, stopped +to show him the Athena of Ægina as one of the most +important of the Greek examples lately obtained for us +by Professor Richmond. The statue is (rightly) so +placed that in looking up to it, the plait of hair across +the forehead is seen in a steeply curved arch. "Why," +says Mr. Baker, pointing to it, "there's the Norman +arch of Iffley." Sure enough, there it exactly was: +and a moment's reflection showed me how easily, and +with what instinctive fitness, the Norman builders, +looking to the Greeks as their absolute masters in +sculpture, and recognizing also, during the Crusades, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> +the hieroglyphic use of the zigzag, for water, by the +Egyptians, might have adopted this easily attained +decoration at once as the sign of the element over +which they reigned, and of the power of the Greek +goddess who ruled both it and them.</p> + +<p>I do not in the least press your acceptance of such +a tradition, nor for the rest, do I care myself whence +any method of ornament is derived, if only, as a stranger, +you bid it reverent welcome. But much probability +is added to the conjecture by the indisputable +transition of the Greek egg and arrow moulding into +the floral cornices of Saxon and other twelfth century +cathedrals in Central France. These and other such +transitions and exaltations I will give you the materials +to study at your leisure, after illustrating in my next +lecture the forces of religious imagination by which all +that was most beautiful in them was inspired.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> + + + + +<h2>LECTURE IV.</h2> + +<h2>(<i>Nov.</i> 8, 1884.)</h2> + +<h2>THE PLEASURES OF FANCY.</h2> + +<h3><i>CÅ“ur de Lion to Elizabeth</i></h3> + +<h3>(1189 to 1558).</h3> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> + +<p>In using the word "Fancy," for the mental faculties +of which I am to speak to-day, I trust you, at your +leisure, to read the Introductory Note to the second +volume of 'Modern Painters' in the small new edition, +which gives sufficient reason for practically including +under the single term Fancy, or Fantasy, all the energies +of the Imagination,—in the terms of the last sentence +of that preface,—"the healthy, voluntary, and +necessary,<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a> action of the highest powers of the human +mind, on subjects properly demanding and justifying their exertion."</p> + +<p>I must farther ask you to read, in the same volume, +the close of the chapter 'Of Imagination Penetrative,' +pp. 120 to 130, of which the gist, which I must give as +the first principle from which we start in our to-day's +inquiry, is that "Imagination, rightly so called, has no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> +food, no delight, no care, no perception, except of +truth; it is for ever looking under masks, and burning +up mists; no fairness of form, no majesty of seeming, +will satisfy it; the first condition of its existence is +incapability of being deceived."<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> In that sentence, +which is a part, and a very valuable part, of the original +book, I still adopted and used unnecessarily the +ordinary distinction between Fancy and Imagination—Fancy +concerned with lighter things, creating fairies or +centaurs, and Imagination creating men; and I was in +the habit always of implying by the meaner word +Fancy, a voluntary Fallacy, as Wordsworth does in +those lines to his wife, making of her a mere lay figure +for the drapery of his fancy—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>Such if thou wert, in all men's view</p> +<p class="i2">An universal show,</p> +<p>What would my Fancy have to do,</p> +<p class="i2">My feelings to bestow.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>But you will at once understand the higher and more +universal power which I now wish you to understand +by the Fancy, including all imaginative energy, correcting +these lines of Wordsworth's to a more worthy +description of a true lover's happiness. When a boy +falls in love with a girl, you say he has taken a fancy +for her; but if he love her rightly, that is to say for +her noble qualities, you ought to say he has taken an +imagination for her; for then he is endued with the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> +new light of love which sees and tells of the mind in +her,—and this neither falsely nor vainly. His love +does not bestow, it discovers, what is indeed most +precious in his mistress, and most needful for his own +life and happiness. Day by day, as he loves her better, +he discerns her more truly; and it is only the truth +of his love that does so. Falsehood to her, would at +once disenchant and blind him.</p> + +<p>In my first lecture of this year, I pointed out to you +with what extreme simplicity and reality the Christian +faith must have presented itself to the Northern +Pagan's mind, in its distinction from his former confused +and monstrous mythology. It was also in that +simplicity and tangible reality of conception, that this +Faith became to them, and to the other savage nations +of Europe, Tutress of the real power of their imagination +and it became so, only in so far as it indeed conveyed +to them statements which, however in some respects +mysterious, were yet most literally and brightly +<i>true</i>, as compared with their former conceptions. So +that while the blind cunning of the savage had produced +only misshapen logs or scrawls; the <i>seeing</i> imagination +of the Christian painters created, for them and +for all the world, the perfect types of the Virgin and +of her Son; which became, indeed, Divine, by being, +with the most affectionate truth, human.</p> + +<p>And the association of this truth in loving conception, +with the general honesty and truth of the character, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> +is again conclusively shown in the feelings of the +lover to his mistress; which we recognize as first reaching +their height in the days of chivalry. The truth +and faith of the lover, and his piety to Heaven, are +the foundation, in his character, of all the joy in imagination +which he can receive from the conception of +his lady's—now no more mortal—beauty. She is indeed +transfigured before him; but the truth of the +transfiguration is greater than that of the lightless +aspect she bears to others. When therefore, in my +next lecture, I speak of the Pleasures of Truth, as +distinct from those of the Imagination,—if either the +limits or clearness of brief title had permitted me, I +should have said, <i>untransfigured</i> truth;—meaning on +the one side, truth which we have not heart enough to +transfigure, and on the other, truth of the lower kind +which is incapable of transfiguration. One may look +at a girl till one believes she is an angel; because, in +the best of her, she <i>is</i> one; but one can't look at a +cockchafer till one believes it is a girl.</p> + +<p>With this warning of the connection which exists +between the honest intellect and the healthy imagination; +and using henceforward the shorter word +'Fancy' for all inventive vision, I proceed to consider +with you the meaning and consequences of the frank +and eager exertion of the fancy on Religious subjects, +between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>Its first, and admittedly most questionable action, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> +the promotion of the group of martyr saints of the +third century to thrones of uncontested dominion in +heaven, had better be distinctly understood, before we +debate of it, either with the Iconoclast or the Rationalist. +This apotheosis by the Imagination is the subject +of my present lecture. To-day I only describe it,—in +my next lecture I will discuss it.</p> + +<p>Observe, however, that in giving such a history of +the mental constitution of nascent Christianity, we +have to deal with, and carefully to distinguish, two +entirely different orders in its accepted hierarchy:—one, +scarcely founded at all on personal characters or +acts, but mythic or symbolic; often merely the revival, +the baptized resuscitation of a Pagan deity, or the +personified omnipresence of a Christian virtue;—the +other, a senate of Patres Conscripti of real persons, +great in genius, and perfect, humanly speaking, in holiness; +who by their personal force and inspired wisdom, +wrought the plastic body of the Church into such +noble form as in each of their epochs it was able to +receive; and on the right understanding of whose +lives, nor less of the affectionate traditions which magnified +and illumined their memories, must absolutely +depend the value of every estimate we form, whether +of the nature of the Christian Church herself, or of the +directness of spiritual agency by which she was guided.<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a></p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> + +<p>An important distinction, therefore, is to be noted +at the outset, in the objects of this Apotheosis, according +as they are, or are not, real persons.</p> + +<p>Of these two great orders of Saints, the first; or +mythic, belongs—speaking broadly—to the southern or Greek Church alone.</p> + +<p>The Gothic Christians, once detached from the worship +of Odin and Thor, abjure from their hearts all +trust in the elements, and all worship of ideas. They +will have their Saints in flesh and blood, their Angels +in plume and armour; and nothing incorporeal or +invisible. In all the Religious sculpture beside Loire +and Seine, you will not find either of the great rivers +personified; the dress of the highest seraph is of true +steel or sound broadcloth, neither flecked by hail, nor +fringed by thunder; and while the ideal Charity of +Giotto at Padua presents her heart in her hand to God, +and tramples at the same instant on bags of gold, the +treasures of the world, and gives only corn and flowers; +that on the west porch of Amiens is content to +clothe a beggar with a piece of the staple manufacture of the town.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to find in the +imagery of the Greek Church, under the former exercise +of the Imagination, a representation either of man +or beast which purports to represent <i>only</i> the person, +or the brute. Every mortal creature stands for an Immortal +Intelligence or Influence: a Lamb means an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> +Apostle, a Lion an Evangelist, an Angel the Eternal +justice or benevolence; and the most historical and +indubitable of Saints are compelled to set forth, in +their vulgarly apparent persons, a Platonic myth or an Athanasian article.</p> + +<p>I therefore take note first of the mythic saints in +succession, whom this treatment of them by the +Byzantine Church made afterwards the favourite idols of all Christendom.</p> + +<p>I. The most mythic is of course St. Sophia; the +shade of the Greek Athena, passing into the 'Wisdom' +of the Jewish Proverbs and Psalms, and the Apocryphal +'Wisdom of Solomon.' She always remains +understood as a personification only; and has no direct +influence on the mind of the unlearned multitude of +Western Christendom, except as a godmother,—in +which kindly function she is more and more accepted +as times go on; her healthy influence being perhaps +greater over sweet vicars' daughters in Wakefield—when +Wakefield <i>was</i>,—than over the prudentest of the +rarely prudent Empresses of Byzantium.</p> + +<p>II. Of St. Catharine of Egypt there are vestiges of +personal tradition which may perhaps permit the supposition +of her having really once existed, as a very +lovely, witty, proud, and 'fanciful' girl. She afterwards +becomes the Christian type of the Bride, in the +'Song of Solomon,' involved with an ideal of all that is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> +purest in the life of a nun, and brightest in the death +of a martyr. It is scarcely possible to overrate the influence +of the conceptions formed of her, in ennobling +the sentiments of Christian women of the higher +orders;—to their practical common sense, as the mistresses +of a household or a nation, her example may +have been less conducive.</p> + +<p>III. St. Barbara, also an Egyptian, and St. Catharine's +contemporary, though the most practical of the +mythic saints, is also, after St. Sophia, the least corporeal: +she vanishes far away into the 'Inclusa Danae,' +and her "Tunis aenea" becomes a myth of Christian +safety, of which the Scriptural significance may be +enough felt by merely looking out the texts under the +word "Tower," in your concordance; and whose effectual +power, in the fortitudes alike of matter and spirit, +was in all probability made impressive enough to all +Christendom, both by the fortifications and persecutions +of Diocletian. I have endeavoured to mark her +general relations to St. Sophia in the little imaginary +dialogue between them, given in the eighth lecture of +the 'Ethics of the Dust.'</p> + +<p>Afterwards, as Gothic architecture becomes dominant, +and at last beyond question the most wonderful +of all temple-building, St. Barbara's Tower is, of +course, its perfected symbol and utmost achievement; +and whether in the coronets of countless battlements +worn on the brows of the noblest cities, or in the Lombard +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> +bell-tower on the mountains, and the English +spire on Sarum plain, the geometric majesty of the +Egyptian maid became glorious in harmony of +defence, and sacred with precision of symbol.</p> + +<p>As the buildings which showed her utmost skill were +chiefly exposed to lightning, she is invoked in defence +from it; and our petition in the Litany, against sudden +death, was written originally to her. The blasphemous +corruptions of her into a patroness of cannon and gunpowder, +are among the most ludicrous, (because precisely +contrary to the original tradition,) as well as the most +deadly, insolences and stupidities of Renaissance Art.</p> + +<p>IV. St. Margaret of Antioch was a shepherdess; +the St. Geneviève of the East; the type of feminine +gentleness and simplicity. Traditions of the resurrection +of Alcestis perhaps mingle in those of her +contest with the dragon; but at all events, she differs +from the other three great mythic saints, in expressing +the soul's victory over temptation or affliction, +by Christ's miraculous help, and without any special +power of its own. She is the saint of the meek and +of the poor; her virtue and her victory are those of +all gracious and lowly womanhood; and her memory +is consecrated among the gentle households of Europe; +no other name, except those of Jeanne and Jeanie, +seems so gifted with a baptismal fairy power of giving +grace and peace.</p> + +<p>I must be forgiven for thinking, even on this canonical +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> +ground, not only of Jeanie Deans, and Margaret +of Branksome; but of Meg—Merrilies. My readers +will, I fear, choose rather to think of the more doubtful +victory over the Dragon, won by the great Margaret +of German literature.</p> + +<p>V. With much more clearness and historic comfort +we may approach the shrine of St. Cecilia; and even +on the most prosaic and realistic minds—such as my +own—a visit to her house in Rome has a comforting +and establishing effect, which reminds one of the +carter in 'Harry and Lucy,' who is convinced of the +truth of a plaustral catastrophe at first incredible to +him, as soon as he hears the name of the hill on which +it happened. The ruling conception of her is deepened +gradually by the enlarged study of Religious +music; and is at its best and highest in the thirteenth +century, when she rather resists than complies +with the already tempting and distracting powers of +sound; and we are told that "cantantibus organis, +Cecilia virgo in corde suo soli Domino decantabat, +dicens, 'Fiat, Domine, cor meum et corpus meum +immaculatum, ut non confundar.'"</p> + +<p>("While the instruments played, Cecilia the virgin +sang in her heart only to the Lord, saying, Oh Lord, +be my heart and body made stainless, that I be not +confounded.")</p> + +<p>This sentence occurs in my great Service-book of +the convent of Beau-pré, written in 1290, and it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> +illustrated with a miniature of Cecilia sitting silent at +a banquet, where all manner of musicians are playing. +I need not point out to you how the law, not of +sacred music only, so called, but of <i>all</i> music, is determined +by this sentence; which means in effect that +unless music exalt and purify, it is not under St. Cecilia's +ordinance, and it is not, virtually, music at all.</p> + +<p>Her confessed power at last expires amidst a hubbub +of odes and sonatas; and I suppose her presence +at a Morning Popular is as little anticipated as desired. +Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints for ever +the greatest; and the child in its nurse's arms, and +every tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify +in itself,—as the eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing,—may +still, whether behind the Temple veil,<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a> or at +the fireside, and by the wayside, hear Cecilia sing.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> + +<p>It would delay me too long just now to trace in +specialty farther the functions of the mythic, or, as in +another sense they may be truly called, the universal, +Saints: the next greatest of them, St. Ursula, is essentially +British,—and you will find enough about her in +'Fors Clavigera'; the others, I will simply give you in +entirely authoritative order from the St. Louis' Psalter, +as he read and thought of them.</p> + +<p>The proper Service-book of the thirteenth century +consists first of the pure Psalter; then of certain essential +passages of the Old Testament—invariably the +Song of Miriam at the Red Sea and the last song of +Moses;—ordinarily also the 12th of Isaiah and the +prayer of Habakkuk; while St. Louis' Psalter has also +the prayer of Hannah, and that of Hezekiah (Isaiah +xxxviii. 10-20); the Song of the Three Children; then +the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. +Then follows the Athanasian Creed; and then, as in +all Psalters after their chosen Scripture passages, the +collects to the Virgin, the Te Deum, and Service to +Christ, beginning with the Psalm 'The Lord reigneth'; +and then the collects to the greater individual saints, +closing with the Litany, or constant prayer for mercy +to Christ, and all saints; of whom the order is,—Archangels, +Patriarchs, Apostles, Disciples, Innocents, Martyrs, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> +Confessors, Monks, and Virgins. Of women the +Magdalen <i>always</i> leads; St. Mary of Egypt usually +follows, but <i>may</i> be the last. Then the order varies in +every place, and prayer-book, no recognizable supremacy +being traceable; except in relation to the place, +or person, for whom the book was written. In St. +Louis', St. Geneviève (the last saint to whom he +prayed on his death-bed) follows the two Maries; then +come—memorable for you best, as easiest, in this six-foil +group,—Saints Catharine, Margaret, and Scolastica, +Agatha, Cecilia, and Agnes; and then ten more, +whom you may learn or not as you like: I note them +now only for future reference,—more lively and easy +for your learning,—by their French names,</p> + +<center>Felicité,</center> + +<center>Colombe,</center> + +<center>Christine,</center> + +<center>——</center> + +<center>Aurée, Honorine,</center> + +<center>——</center> + +<center>Radegonde,</center> + +<center>Praxède,</center> + +<center>Euphémie,</center> + +<center>——</center> + +<center>Bathilde, Eugénie.</center> + +<p>Such was the system of Theology into which the +Imaginative Religion of Europe was crystallized, by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> +the growth of its own best faculties, and the influence +of all accessible and credible authorities, during the +period between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries +inclusive. Its spiritual power is completely represented +by the angelic and apostolic dynasties, and the +women-saints in Paradise; for of the men-saints, beneath +the apostles and prophets, none but St. Christopher, +St. Nicholas, St. Anthony, St. James, and St. +George, attained anything like the influence of Catharine +or Cecilia; for the very curious reason, that the +men-saints were much more true, real, and numerous. +St. Martin was reverenced all over Europe, but definitely, +as a man, and the Bishop of Tours. So St. +Ambrose at Milan, and St. Gregory at Rome, and hundreds +of good men more, all over the world; while the +really good women remained, though not rare, inconspicuous. +The virtues of French Clotilde, and Swiss +Berthe, were painfully borne down in the balance of +visible judgment, by the guilt of the Gonerils, Regans, +and Lady Macbeths, whose spectral procession closes +only with the figure of Eleanor in Woodstock maze; +and in dearth of nearer objects, the daily brighter +powers of fancy dwelt with more concentrated devotion +on the stainless ideals of the earlier maid-martyrs. +And observe, even the loftier fame of the men-saints +above named, as compared with the rest, depends on +precisely the same character of indefinite personality; +and on the representation, by each of them, of a moral +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> +idea which may be embodied and painted in a miraculous +legend; credible, as history, even then, only to the +vulgar; but powerful over them, nevertheless, exactly +in proportion to the degree in which it can be pictured +and fancied as a living creature. Consider even +yet in these days of mechanism, how the dullest John +Bull cannot with perfect complacency adore <i>himself</i>, +except under the figure of Britannia or the British +Lion; and how the existence of the popular jest-book, +which might have seemed secure in its necessity to +our weekly recreation, is yet virtually centred on the +imaginary animation of a puppet, and the imaginary +elevation to reason of a dog. But in the Middle Ages, +this action of the Fancy, now distorted and despised, +was the happy and sacred tutress of every faculty of +the body and soul; and the works and thoughts +of art, the joys and toils of men, rose and flowed on +in the bright air of it, with the aspiration of a flame, +and the beneficence of a fountain.</p> + +<p>And now, in the rest of my lecture, I had intended +to give you a broad summary of the rise and fall of +English art, born under this code of theology, and this +enthusiasm of duty;—of its rise, from the rude vaults +of Westminster, to the finished majesty of Wells;—and +of its fall, from that brief hour of the thirteenth +century, through the wars of the Bolingbroke, and the +pride of the Tudor, and the lust of the Stewart, to +expire under the mocking snarl and ruthless blow of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> +the Puritan. But you know that I have always, in +my most serious work, allowed myself to be influenced +by those Chances, as they are now called,—but to my +own feeling and belief, guidances, and even, if rightly +understood, commands,—which, as far as I have read +history, the best and sincerest men think providential. +Had this lecture been on common principles of +art, I should have finished it as I intended, without +fear of its being the worse for my consistency. But it +deals, on the contrary, with a subject, respecting +which every sentence I write, or speak, is of importance +in its issue; and I allowed, as you heard, the +momentary observation of a friend, to give an +entirely new cast to the close of my last lecture. +Much more, I feel it incumbent upon me in this +one, to take advantage of the most opportune help, +though in an unexpected direction, given me by my +constant tutor, Professor Westwood. I went to dine +with him, a day or two ago, mainly—being neither of +us, I am thankful to say, blue-ribanded—to drink his +health on his recovery from his recent accident. +Whereupon he gave me a feast of good talk, old +wine, and purple manuscripts. And having had as +much of all as I could well carry, just as it came +to the good-night, out he brings, for a finish, this +leaf of manuscript in my hand, which he has lent +me to show you,—a leaf of the Bible of Charles the Bald!</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> + +<p>A leaf of it, at least, as far as you or I could tell, +for Professor Westwood's copy is just as good, in all +the parts finished, as the original: and, for all practical +purpose, I show you here in my hand a leaf of +the Bible which your own King Alfred saw with his +own bright eyes, and from which he learned his child-faith +in the days of dawning thought!</p> + +<p>There are few English children who do not know +the story of Alfred, the king, letting the cakes burn, +and being chidden by his peasant hostess. How few +English children—nay, how few perhaps of their +educated, not to say learned, elders—reflect upon, if +even they know, the far different scenes through which +he had passed when a child!</p> + +<p>Concerning his father, his mother, and his own +childhood, suppose you were to teach your children +first these following main facts, before you come to +the toasting of the muffin?</p> + +<p>His father, educated by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, +had been offered the throne of the great +Saxon kingdom of Mercia in his early youth; had +refused it, and entered, as a novice under St. Swithin +the monastery at Winchester. From St. Swithin, he +received the monastic habit, and was appointed by +Bishop Helmstan one of his sub-deacons!</p> + +<p>"The quiet seclusion which Ethelwulph's slow<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> +capacity and meek temper coveted" was not permitted +to him by fate. The death of his elder brother left +him the only living representative of the line of the +West Saxon princes. His accession to the throne +became the desire of the people. He obtained a dispensation +from the Pope to leave the cloister; +assumed the crown of Egbert; and retained Egbert's +prime minister, Alstan, Bishop of Sherborne, who was +the Minister in peace and war, the Treasurer, and the +Counsellor, of the kings of England, over a space, from +first to last, of fifty years.</p> + +<p>Alfred's mother, Osburga, must have been married +for love. She was the daughter of Oslac, the king's +cup-bearer. Extolled for her piety and understanding, +she bore the king four sons; dying before the +last, Alfred, was five years old, but leaving him St. +Swithin for his tutor. How little do any of us think, +in idle talk of rain or no rain on St. Swithin's day, that +we speak of the man whom Alfred's father obeyed +as a monk, and whom his mother chose for his guardian!</p> + +<p>Alfred, both to father and mother, was the best +beloved of their children. On his mother's death, his +father sent him, being then five years old, with a great +retinue through France and across the Alps to Rome; +and there the Pope anointed him King, (heir-apparent +to the English throne), at the request of his father.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> + +<p>Think of it, you travellers through the Alps by +tunnels, that you may go to balls at Rome or hells at +Monaco. Here is another manner of journey, another +goal for it, appointed for your little king. At twelve, +he was already the best hunter among the Saxon +youths. Be sure he could sit his horse at five. Fancy +the child, with his keen genius, and holy heart, riding +with his Saxon chiefs beside him, by the Alpine flowers +under Velan or Sempione, and down among the +olives to Pavia, to Perugia, to Rome; there, like the +little fabled Virgin, ascending the Temple steps, and +consecrated to be King of England by the great Leo, +Leo of the Leonine city, the saviour of Rome from the Saracen.</p> + +<p>Two years afterwards, he rode again to Rome +beside his father; the West Saxon king bringing +presents to the Pope, a crown of pure gold weighing +four pounds, a sword adorned with pure gold, two +golden images,<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> four Saxon silver dishes; and giving +a gift of gold to all the Roman clergy and nobles,<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> +and of silver to the people.</p> + +<p>No idle sacrifices or symbols, these gifts of courtesy! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> +The Saxon King rebuilt on the highest hill +that is bathed by Tiber, the Saxon street and school, +the Borgo,<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> of whose miraculously arrested burning +Raphael's fresco preserves the story to this day. And +further he obtained from Leo the liberty of all Saxon +men from bonds in penance;—a first phase this of +Magna Charta, obtained more honourably, from a +more honourable person, than that document, by +which Englishmen of this day, suppose they live, move, and have being.</p> + +<p>How far into Alfred's soul, at seven years old, sank +any true image of what Rome was, and had been; +of what her Lion Lord was, who had saved her from +the Saracen, and her Lion Lord had been, who had +saved her from the Hun; and what this Spiritual +Dominion was, and was to be, which could make and +unmake kings, and save nations, and put armies to +flight; I leave those to say, who have learned to reverence +childhood. This, at least, is sure, that the days +of Alfred were bound each to each, not only by their +natural piety, but by the actual presence and appeal +to his heart, of all that was then in the world most +noble, beautiful, and strong against Death.</p> + +<p>In this living Book of God he had learned to read, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> +thus early; and with perhaps nobler ambition than +of getting the prize of a gilded psalm-book at his +mother's knee, as you are commonly told of him. +What sort of psalm-book it was, however, you may +see from this leaf in my hand. For, as his father +and he returned from Rome that year, they stayed +again at the Court of Charlemagne's grandson, whose +daughter, the Princess Judith, Ethelwolf was wooing +for Queen of England, (not queen-consort, merely, but +crowned queen, of authority equal to his own.) From +whom Alfred was like enough to have had a reading +lesson or two out of her father's Bible; and like +enough, the little prince, to have stayed her hand at +this bright leaf of it, the Lion-leaf, bearing the symbol +of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.</p> + +<p>You cannot, of course, see anything but the glittering +from where you sit; nor even if you afterwards +look at it near, will you find a figure the least admirable +or impressive to you. It is not like Landseer's +Lions in Trafalgar Square; nor like Tenniel's in +'Punch'; still less like the real ones in Regent's +Park. Neither do I show it you as admirable in any +respect of art, other than that of skilfullest illumination. +I show it you, as the most interesting Gothic +type of the imagination of Lion; which, after the +Roman Eagle, possessed the minds of all European +warriors; until, as they themselves grew selfish and +cruel, the symbols which at first meant heaven-sent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> +victory, or the strength and presence of some Divine +spirit, became to them only the signs of their own +pride or rage: the victor raven of Corvus sinks into +the shamed falcon of Marmion, and the lion-heartedness +which gave the glory and the peace of the gods +to Leonidas, casts the glory and the might of kinghood +to the dust before Chalus.<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a></p> + +<p>That death, 6th April, 1199, ended the advance of +England begun by Alfred, under the pure law of Religious +Imagination. She began, already, in the thirteenth +century, to be decoratively, instead of vitally, +religious. The history of the Religious Imagination +expressed between Alfred's time and that of CÅ“ur de +Lion, in this symbol of the Lion only, has material in +it rather for all my seven lectures than for the closing +section of one; but I must briefly specify to you +the main sections of it. I will keep clear of my favourite +number seven, and ask you to recollect the +meaning of only Five, Mythic Lions.</p> + +<p>First of all, in Greek art, remember to keep yourselves +clear about the difference between the Lion and the Gorgon.</p> + +<p>The Gorgon is the power of evil in heaven, conquered +by Athena, and thenceforward becoming her +ægis, when she is herself the inflictor of evil. Her +helmet is then the helmet of Orcus.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> + +<p>But the Lion is the power of death on earth, conquered +by Heracles, and becoming thenceforward both +his helmet and ægis. All ordinary architectural lion +sculpture is derived from the Heraclean.</p> + +<p>Then the Christian Lions are, first, the Lion of the +Tribe of Judah—Christ Himself as Captain and Judge: +"He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron," (the +opposite power of His adversary, is rarely intended +in sculpture unless in association with the serpent—"inculcabis +supra leonem et aspidem"); secondly, +the Lion of St. Mark, the power of the Gospel going +out to conquest; thirdly, the Lion of St. Jerome, the +wrath of the brute creation changed into love by the +kindness of man; and, fourthly, the Lion of the Zodiac, +which is the Lion of Egypt and of the Lombardic +pillar-supports in Italy; these four, if you remember, +with the Nemean Greek one, five altogether, will give +you, broadly, interpretation of nearly all Lion symbolism +in great art. How they degenerate into the +British door knocker, I leave you to determine for +yourselves, with such assistances as I may be able to +suggest to you in my next lecture; but, as the grotesqueness +of human history plans it, there is actually +a connection between that last degradation of the +Leonine symbol, and its first and noblest significance.</p> + +<p>You see there are letters round this golden Lion +of Alfred's spelling-book, which his princess friend was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> +likely enough to spell for him. They are two Latin hexameters:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>Hic Leo, surgendo, portas confregit Averni</p> +<p>Qui nunquam dormit, nusquam dormitat, in ævum.</p> +<p>(This Lion, rising, burst the gates of Death:</p> +<p>This, who sleeps not, nor shall sleep, for ever.)</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Now here is the Christian change of the Heraclean +conquest of Death into Christ's Resurrection. Samson's +bearing away the gates of Gaza is another like +symbol, and to the mind of Alfred, taught, whether +by the Pope Leo for his schoolmaster, or by the great-granddaughter +of Charlemagne for his schoolmistress, +it represented, as it did to all the intelligence of +Christendom, Christ in His own first and last, Alpha +and Omega, description of Himself,—</p> + +<p>"I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I +am alive for evermore, and <i>have the keys</i> of Hell and +of Death." And in His servant St. John's description of Him—</p> + +<p>"Who is the Faithful Witness and the First-begotten +of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth."</p> + +<p>All this assuredly, so far as the young child, consecrated +like David, the youngest of his brethren, conceived +his own new life in Earth and Heaven,—he +understood already in the Lion symbol. But of all +this I had no thought<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> when I chose the prayer of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> +Alfred as the type of the Religion of his era, in its +dwelling, not on the deliverance from the punishment +of sin, but from the poisonous sleep and death of it. +Will you ever learn that prayer again,—youths who +are to be priests, and knights, and kings of England, +in these the latter days? when the gospel of Eternal +Death is preached here in Oxford to you for the +Pride of Truth? and "the mountain of the Lord's +House" has become a Golgotha, and the "new song +before the throne" sunk into the rolling thunder of +the death rattle of the Nations, crying, "O Christ, where is Thy Victory!"</p> + + +<h4>NOTES.</h4> + +<p>1. <i>The Five Christmas Days</i>. (These were drawn out on +a large and conspicuous diagram.)</p> + +<p>These days, as it happens, sum up the History of their Five Centuries.</p> + +<table summary="Five Christmas Days" align="center"> +<tr><td align="center">Christmas</td><td align="center"> Day,</td><td align="right"> 496.</td><td align="left">Clovis baptized.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> " </td><td align="center"> " </td><td align="right"> 800.</td><td align="left">Charlemagne crowned.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> " </td><td align="center"> " </td><td align="right">1041.</td><td align="left">Vow of the Count of Aversa (Page 80).</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> " </td><td align="center"> " </td><td align="right">1066.</td><td align="left">The Conqueror crowned.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"> " </td><td align="center"> " </td><td align="right">1130.</td><td align="left">Roger II. crowned King of the Two Sicilies.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>2. For conclusion of the whole matter two pictures were +shown and commented on—the two most perfect pictures in the world.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> + +<p>(1) A small piece from Tintoret's Paradiso in the Ducal +Palace, representing the group of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, +St. Gregory, St. Augustine, and behind St. Augustine his +mother watching him, her chief joy even in Paradise.</p> + +<p>(2) The Arundel Society's reproduction of the Altar-piece +by Giorgione in his native hamlet of Castel Franco. +The Arundel Society has done more for us than we have any notion of.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES.</h4> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1: </b><a href="#footnotetag1">(return) </a><p> +Gibbon, in his 37th chapter, makes Ulphilas also an Arian, but might have +forborne, with grace, his own definition of orthodoxy:—and you are to observe +generally that at this time the teachers who admitted the inferiority of Christ +to the Father as touching his Manhood, were often counted among Arians, but +quite falsely. Christ's own words, "My Father is greater than I," end that +controversy at once. Arianism consists not in asserting the subjection of the +Son to the Father, but in denying the subjected Divinity.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a><b>Footnote 2: </b><a href="#footnotetag2">(return) </a><p>Making a sign.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a><b>Footnote 3: </b><a href="#footnotetag3">(return) </a><p> +Here Alfred's Silver Penny was shown and commented on, thus:—Of +what London was like in the days of faith, I can show you one piece of artistic +evidence. It is Alfred's silver penny struck in London mint. The character +of a coinage is quite conclusive evidence in national history, and there is no +great empire in progress, but tells its story in beautiful coins. Here in +Alfred's penny, a round coin with L.O.N.D.I.N.I.A. struck on it, you have just the same +beauty of design, the same enigmatical arrangement of letters, as in the early +inscription, which it is "the pride of my life" to have discovered at Venice. +This inscription ("the first words that Venice ever speaks aloud") is, it will +be remembered, on the Church of St. Giacomo di Rialto, and runs, being +interpreted—"Around this temple, let the merchant's law be just, his weights true, +and his covenants faithful."</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a><b>Footnote 4: </b><a href="#footnotetag4">(return) </a><p>Not <i>Londinian</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a><b>Footnote 5: </b><a href="#footnotetag5">(return) </a><p>From St. Augustine's 'Citie of God,' Book V., ch. xi. (English trans., printed by George Eld, 1610.)</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a><b>Footnote 6: </b><a href="#footnotetag6">(return) </a><p>Here one of the "Stones of Westminster" was shown and commented on.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a><b>Footnote 7: </b><a href="#footnotetag7">(return) </a><p> +At Munich: the leaf has been exquisitely drawn and legend communicated +to me by Professor Westwood. It is written in gold on purple.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a><b>Footnote 8: </b><a href="#footnotetag8">(return) </a><p>Meaning—not that he is of those few, but that, without comprehending, at least, as a dog, he can love.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a><b>Footnote 9: </b><a href="#footnotetag9">(return) </a><p>Turner, vol. i., p. 223.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a><b>Footnote 10: </b><a href="#footnotetag10">(return) </a><p>Properly plural 'Images'—Irminsul and Irminsula.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a><b>Footnote 11: </b><a href="#footnotetag11">(return) </a><p> +I had not time to quote it fully in the lecture; and in my ignorance, alike +of Keltic and Hebrew, can only submit it here to the reader's examination. +"The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms this etymology beyond doubt, +with customary heraldic precision. The shield bears a <i>Rose</i>; with a +<i>Maul</i>, as +the exact phonetic equivalent for the expletive. If the herald had needed to +express 'bare promontory,' quite certainly he would have managed it somehow. +Not only this, the Earls of Haddington were first created Earls of +<i>Melrose</i> +(1619); and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd +(fesse +wavy between) three <i>Roses</i> gu.</p> + +<p>"Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus into +lingual affinities of wide range. The root <i>mol</i> is clear enough. It is of +the same +stock as the Greek <i>mála</i>, Latin <i>mul</i>(<i>tum</i>), and Hebrew +<i>m'la</i>. But, <i>Rose</i>? We +call her Queen of Flowers, and since before the Persian poets made much of +her, she was everywhere <i>Regina Florum</i>. Why should not the name mean +simply the Queen, the Chief? Now, so few who know Keltic know also +Hebrew, and so few who know Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the +surprising +extent of the affinity that exists—clear as day—between the Keltic and +the Hebrew vocabularies. That the word <i>Rose</i> may be a case in point is not +hazardously speculative."</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a><b>Footnote 12: </b><a href="#footnotetag12">(return) </a><p>Article "Architecture," vol. i., p. 138.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a><b>Footnote 13: </b><a href="#footnotetag13">(return) </a><p>They <i>had</i> brought some, of a variously Charybdic, Serpentine, and Diabolic character.—J.R.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a><b>Footnote 14: </b><a href="#footnotetag14">(return) </a><p>Of Oxford, during the afternoon service.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a><b>Footnote 15: </b><a href="#footnotetag15">(return) </a><p>See the concluding section of the lecture.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a><b>Footnote 16: </b><a href="#footnotetag16">(return) </a><p>Article "Château," vol. iii, p. 65.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a><b>Footnote 17: </b><a href="#footnotetag17">(return) </a><p> +I give Sismondi's idea as it stands, but there was no question in the matter +of monotony or of danger. The journey was made on foot because it was the +most laborious way, and the most humble.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a><b>Footnote 18: </b><a href="#footnotetag18">(return) </a><p>See farther on, p. 110, the analogies with English arrangements of the same kind.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a><b>Footnote 19: </b><a href="#footnotetag19">(return) </a><p>In Lombardy, south of Pavia.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a><b>Footnote 20: </b><a href="#footnotetag20">(return) </a><p> +This was prevented by the necessity for the re-arrangement of my terminal +Oxford lectures: I am now preparing that on Sir Herbert for publication in a +somewhat expanded form.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a><b>Footnote 21: </b><a href="#footnotetag21">(return) </a><p> +Given at much greater length in the lecture, with diagrams from Iffley +and Poictiers, without which the text of them would be unintelligible. The +sum of what I said was a strong assertion of the incapacity of the Normans +for any but the rudest and most grotesque sculpture,—Poictiers being, on +the contrary, examined and praised as Gallic-French—not Norman.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a><b>Footnote 22: </b><a href="#footnotetag22">(return) </a><p>Meaning that all healthy minds possess imagination, and use it at will, under fixed laws of truthful perception and memory.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a><b>Footnote 23: </b><a href="#footnotetag23">(return) </a><p>Vide pp. 124-5.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a><b>Footnote 24: </b><a href="#footnotetag24">(return) </a><p> +If the reader believes in no spiritual agency, still his understanding of the +first letters in the Alphabet of History depends on his comprehending rightly +the tempers of the people who <i>did</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a><b>Footnote 25: </b><a href="#footnotetag25">(return) </a> +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p>"But, standing in the lowest place,</p> +<p>And mingled with the work-day crowd,</p> +<p>A poor man looks, with lifted face,</p> +<p>And hears the Angels cry aloud.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"He seeks not how each instant flies,</p> +<p>One moment is Eternity;</p> +<p>His spirit with the Angels cries</p> +<p>To Thee, to Thee, continually.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"What if, Isaiah-like, he know</p> +<p>His heart be weak, his lips unclean,</p> +<p>His nature vile, his office low,</p> +<p>His dwelling and his people mean?</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p>"To such the Angels spake of old—</p> +<p>To such of yore, the glory came;</p> +<p>These altar fires can ne'er grow cold:</p> +<p class="i2">Then be it his, that cleansing flame."</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>These verses, part of a very lovely poem, "To Thee all Angels cry aloud," +in the 'Monthly Packet' for September 1873, are only signed 'Veritas.' The +volume for that year (the 16th) is well worth getting, for the sake of the +admirable +papers in it by Miss Sewell, on questions of the day; by Miss A.C. Owen, +on Christian Art; and the unsigned Cameos from English History.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a><b>Footnote 26: </b><a href="#footnotetag26">(return) </a><p>Turner, quoting William of Malmesbury, "Crassioris et hebetis +ingenii,"—meaning +that he had neither ardour for war, nor ambition for kinghood.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a><b>Footnote 27: </b><a href="#footnotetag27">(return) </a><p>Turner, Book IV.,—not a vestige of hint from the stupid +Englishman, what +the Pope wanted with crown, sword, or image! My own guess would be, that +it meant an offering of the entire household strength, in war and peace, of the +Saxon nation,—their crown, their sword, their household gods, Irminsul and +Irminsula, their feasting, and their robes.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a><b>Footnote 28: </b><a href="#footnotetag28">(return) </a><p> +Again, what does this mean? Gifts of honour to the Pope's immediate +attendants—silver to all Rome? Does the modern reader think this is buying +little Alfred's consecration too dear, or that Leo is selling the Holy Ghost?</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a><b>Footnote 29: </b><a href="#footnotetag29">(return) </a><p> +"Quæ in eorum lingua Burgus dicitur,—the place where it was situated +was called the Saxon street, Saxonum vicum" (Anastasius, quoted by Turner). +There seems to me some evidence in the scattered passages I have not time +to collate, that at this time the Saxon Burg, or tower, of a village, included +the idea of its school.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a><b>Footnote 30: </b><a href="#footnotetag30">(return) </a><p>'Fors Clavigera,' March, 1871, p. 19. Yet read the preceding +pages, and +learn the truth of the lion heart, while you mourn its pride. Note especially +his absolute law against usury.</p></blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a><b>Footnote 31: </b><a href="#footnotetag31">(return) </a><p> +The reference to the Bible of Charles le Chauve was added to my second +lecture (page 54), in correcting the press, mistakenly put into the text instead +of the notes.</p></blockquote> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> + + + + +<h3>THE WORKS</h3> + +<h4>OF</h4> + +<h2>JOHN RUSKIN,</h2> + +<h3>(Separately and in Sets.)</h3> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>AN INQUIRY INTO SOME OF THE CONDITIONS +AFFECTING "THE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE" IN +OUR SCHOOLS.</b> 12mo, paper. $ 10</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ARATRA PENTELICI.</b> Six Lectures on the +Elements of Sculpture, given before the University +of Oxford, with cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">DITTO, With 21 full-page plates (two colored), +printed separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ARIADNE FLORENTINA.</b> Six Lectures on Wood +and Metal Engraving, given before the University +of Oxford, 12mo, cloth. 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On +the whole, we see not what this book lacks of +being a complete text-book of the Gospel of Art +according to St. John Ruskin."—<i>Christian Union</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ART OF ENGLAND.</b> Lectures given in Oxford +during the second tenure of the Slade Professorship. +Parts I. to VI. complete, 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ART OF ENGLAND.</b> 12mo, cloth extra. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>AUTOBIOGRAPHY—PRÆTERITA.</b> +OUTLINES OF SCENES AND THOUGHTS, perhaps +worthy of memory, in MY PAST LIFE. By John Ruskin, LL.D.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Vol. I. (Chapters 1 to 12.) 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. II. (Chapters 1 to 10.) 8vo, paper, each. 25</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. I. 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Chosen at her pleasure by the +author's friend, the Younger Lady of the Thwaite, +Coniston. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER, THE.</b> +Or, The Black Brothers. A Legend of Stiria. A +Fairy Tale. Illustrated. 12mo, cloth extra. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>LAWS OF FESOLE, THE.</b> A Familiar Treatise +on the Elementary Principles and Practice of +Drawing and Painting as determined by the Tuscan +Masters, with numerous plates. Arranged for the +use of Schools. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">DITTO, With 12 plates. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING.</b> +Delivered at Edinburgh. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">DITTO. With 15 plates, full-page, printed +separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>LECTURES ON ART.</b> Delivered before the +University of Oxford in Hilary Term. 12mo, russet +cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>LETTERS AND ADVICE TO YOUNG GIRLS AND YOUNG +LADIES ON DRESS, EDUCATION, MARRIAGE. THEIR SPHERE, +INFLUENCE, WOMEN'S WORK, WOMEN'S RIGHTS, Etc., Etc.</b></p> +<p>12mo, extra gilt, cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>LOVE'S MEINE.</b> Lectures on Greek and English +Birds, given before the University of Oxford. +12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MISCELLANEA.</b> Containing Catalogue of Turner's +Drawings as revised and cast up into progressive +groups, etc. Notes on some of the Principal Pictures +in Royal Academy—Guide to the Principal Pictures +of the Academy of Venice—Michael Angelo and +Tintoret—Inaugural Address at Cambridge—Opening of +Crystal Palace—Fiction, Fair and Foul—Giotto and +His Works—Pront and Hunt—Studies of Mountain and +Cloud Form—King of Golden River—Sheepfolds. 2 vols. +Russet cloth, each 1 00</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MODERN PAINTERS.</b> 5 vols. Bound in 4 +vols. Complete with all Plates and Wood Cuts.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 1.—Part 1. General Principles. Part 2. Truth.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 2.—Part 3. Of Ideas of Beauty.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 3.—Part 4. Of Many Things.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 4.—Part 5. Of Mountain Beauty,</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 5.—Part 6. Leaf Beauty. Part 7. Of Cloud</p> +<p class="i4">Beauty. Part 8. Ideas of Relation of Invention,</p> +<p class="i4">Formal. Part 9, Ideas of Relation of Invention,</p> +<p class="i4">Spiritual. 4 vols., russet cloth. $6 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. With all the Plates and Woodcuts, in box, +5 vols., 12mo, extra cloth. 10 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. With all the Plates and Woodcuts, in box, +5 vols., 12mo, half calf. 17 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. With all the Woodcuts, 5 vols. bound in +8 vols., 12mo, russet cloth. 3 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MODERN PAINTERS.</b> People's edition. 5 +vols. in 2. Neat blue cloth. 2 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MODERN PAINTERS.</b> EXTRA VOL. +Being the reissue of Volume II. of this work. Revised +and rearranged with critical notes by the +author. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. 12mo, extra cloth. 75</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. 12mo, green cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MORNINGS IN FLORENCE.</b> Being simple +studies on Christian Art for English Travelers. +Santa Croce—The Golden Gate—Before the Soldan—The +Vaulted Roof—The Strait Gate. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MUNERA PULVERIS.</b> Six Essays on the Elements +of Political Economy. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS:</b> or, +Visible Churches. (<i>See Miscellanea</i>.)</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US.</b> +Sketches of the History of Christendom for Boys +and Girls who have been held at its Fonts. Four +full-page plates. Russet cloth, each. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PEARLS FOR YOUNG LADIES.</b> From the +later works of John Ruskin. Selected and arranged +by Louisa C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. Extra gilt cloth. 1 25</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PLEASURES OF ENGLAND.</b> Lectures +given at Oxford by John Ruskin, viz.: Pleasures +of Learning; Pleasures of Faith; Pleasures of +Deed; Pleasures of Fancy. 12mo, boards. 50</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>POEMS, THE OLD WATER WHEEL AND OTHER POEMS.</b> +By John Ruskin, Collected and edited from their +original "Annual" publication. 12mo, russet cloth. $ 50</p> +<p>DITTO, ditto, with an etched frontispiece. Extra +gilt, cloth. 1 25</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE, THE.</b> +Cottage, Villa, etc., to which is added Suggestions +on Works of Art. With numerous illustrations. +By Kata Phusin. (Nom de Plume of John Ruskin.) +12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART, THE +or, A JOY FOREVER.</b> Being the substance +of two lectures (with additions) delivered +at Manchester. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PRECIOUS THOUGHTS:</b> Moral and Religious. +Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, +A.M. By Mrs. L.C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto. Extra gilt, cloth. 1 25</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PRE-RAPHAELITISM.</b> 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PRAETERITA.</b> See Ruskin's Autobiography. +Vol. 1. 8vo, cloth. 3 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>PROSERPINA.</b> Studies of Wayside Flowers +while the air was yet pure among the Alps and in +the Scotland and England which my father knew.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. I. (Parts I to 6.) Plates. 12mo, russet cloth 1 25</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. II. (Parts 7, 8, and 9.) Plates. 12mo, russet</p> +<p class="i4"> cloth. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>QUEEN OF THE AIR, THE.</b> Being a Study of the +Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ST. MARK'S REST. THE HISTORY OF VENICE.</b> +Written for the help of the Few Travelers who still +care for her Monuments. Parts I., II., and III., +with two Supplements. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN +RUSKIN.</b> 12mo, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto. 12mo, extra cloth. 1 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>SESAME AND LILIES.</b> Three Lectures (on +Books, Women, etc.) 1. Of Kings' Treasuries. 2. +Of Queens' Gardens. 3. Of the Mystery of Life. +12mo, blue cloth. 50</p> +<p class="i2">New Edition. 12mo, thick paper, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p class="i2">New Edition. 12mo, thick paper, ex. cloth. 1 00</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE.</b> +With copies of illustrations drawn by the author. +14 full-page plates, 12mo, ex. cloth. $1 25</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto. 12mo, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. Cheap edition, without plates. 12mo,</p> +<p class="i4">green-cloth. 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. People's edition. Neat blue cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>STONES OF VENICE.</b> Vol. 1. Foundations. +Vol. 2. Sea Stories. Vol. 8. The Fall. 3 vols. in +two. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto. 3 vols. in two. 54 Plates. 3 00</p> +<p class="i4">3 vols. in box. Plates, 12mo, ex. cloth. 4 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. 3 vols. Plates, 12mo, ½ calf. 7 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. People's edition. 3 vols. in one. Neat +blue cloth. 1 25</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>STORM CLOUD OF THE 19th CENTURY.</b> +By John Ruskin. 12mo, bds. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>THE TRUE AND THE BEAUTIFUL IN NATURE. ART, +MORALS AND RELIGION.</b> Selected from the Works +of John Ruskin, A.M. With a notice of the author +by Mrs. L.C. Tuthill. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto, with Portrait. 12mo, extra cloth. 1 25</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>THE TWO PATHS.</b> Being Lectures on Art, and +its Application to Decoration and Manufacture. +With steel plates and cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO. Without plates. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>TIME AND TIDE BY WEARE AND TYNE.</b> +Twenty-five Letters to a Workingman of Sunderland +on the Laws of work. 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>"UNTO THIS LAST."</b> Four Essays on the First +Principles of Political Economy, 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>VAL D'ARNO.</b> Ten Lectures on the Tuscan +Art directly Antecedent to Florentine year of +Victories. 13 plates. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> + + + + +<h3>RUSKIN'S COMPLETE WORKS.</h3> + + +<blockquote><p> +With all the Wood Engravings, and With and Without +Plates. There are 277 FULL PAGE PLATES +in the complete edition. Printed on plate paper. +Some of them in colors, as follows: +</p></blockquote> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S WORKS.</b> Uniformly bound in 13 volumes. +Elegant style. 223 full-page Plates, colored and +plain, on plate paper. 12mo, extra cloth. $18 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, ditto, with all the plates. 12mo, ½ calf. 36 00</p> +<p class="i2">Ditto, ditto, without plates. 12 vols. 12mo, extra +cloth. 12 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S WORKS.</b> (Second Series). Additional +Writings, completing his Works. Uniform +in size and binding with the 12-volume edition.</p> +<p class="i4">6 vols., 12mo, cloth extra. 7 50</p> +<p class="i4">6 vols., with all the plates, 12mo, cloth extra. 10 50</p> +<p class="i4">6 vols., with all the plates, 12mo, ½ calf, 21 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, including both series. Wood engravings, +18 vols., extra cloth. 19 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood +engravings, 18 vols., extra cloth. 28 50</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood +engravings. 20 vols., extra cloth. 30 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood +engravings. 19 vols., ½ calf. 58 00</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, including both series. Plates and Wood +engravings. 20 vols., ½ calf. 60 00</p> + </div> </div> + +<hr /> + +<h3>CHOICE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN</h3> + +<blockquote><p> +An elegant octavo edition, including Modern Painters, +5 vols., Stones of Venice, 3 vols., and Seven +Lamps, 1 vol. With very fine copies of all the +Plates and Wood engravings of the earliest London editions. +</p></blockquote> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">9 vols., 8vo, cloth, 45 00</p> +<p class="i2">9 vols., ½ calf, 63 00</p> +<p class="i2">9 vols., full calf, 72 00</p> + </div> </div> + +<h4><i>SUITABLE FOR PRESENTS.</i></h4> + +<center>Ruskin's Beauties.</center> + +<table summary="prices" align="center" width="85%"> +<tr><td align="left"><b>THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL.</b></td><td align="center" rowspan="3"><big><big><big><big><big>}</big></big></big></big></big> </td><td align="center" rowspan="3"> 3 vols.<br />in box,<br />ex. clo.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>PRECIOUS THOUGHTS.</b> </td><td align="right"> 3 50</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>CHOICE SELECTIONS.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> DITTO, 3 vols. in box, ½ calf, </td><td></td><td></td><td align="right"> 7 50</td></tr> +</table> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> + +<center>Ruskin's Popular Volumes.</center> + +<table summary="prices" align="center" width="85%"> +<tr><td align="left"><b>CROWN OF WILD OLIVE.</b></td><td align="center" rowspan="4"><big><big><big><big><big>}</big></big></big></big></big></td><td align="center" rowspan="4"> 4 vols.<br />in box,<br />extra<br />cloth.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>SESAME AND LILIES.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>QUEEN OF THE AIR.</b> </td><td align="right"> $8 50</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>ETHICS OF THE DUST.</b></td></tr> +</table> + +<center>Ruskin on Art.</center> + +<table summary="prices" align="center" width="85%"> +<tr><td align="left"><b>LECTURES ON ART.</b> </td><td align="center" rowspan="4"><big><big><big><big><big>}</big></big></big></big></big> </td><td align="center" rowspan="4"> 4 vols.<br />in box,<br />extra<br />cloth.</td><td align="right" rowspan="4"> 3 50</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>TWO PATHS.—PLATES.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>EAGLE'S NEST.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> DITTO, 2 vols. in box, ½ calf </td><td></td><td></td><td align="right"> 7 00</td></tr> +</table> + +<center>Ruskin on Architecture.</center> + +<table summary="prices" align="center" width="85%"> +<tr><td align="left"><b>POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE—PLATES.</b> </td><td align="center" rowspan="4"><big><big><big><big><big><big>}</big></big></big></big></big></big></td><td align="center" rowspan="4"> 4<br /> vols.<br />in<br /> box,<br />ex.<br />cloth.</td><td align="right" rowspan="4"> 4 00</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE—PLATES.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING—PLATES.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>STONES OF VENICE</b> (Selections.) </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> 2 vols. in box, ½ calf. </td><td></td><td> </td><td align="right"> 7 50</td></tr> +</table> + +<center>Ruskin on Drawing, Etc.</center> + +<table summary="prices" align="center" width="85%"> +<tr><td align="left"><b>ELEMENTS OF DRAWING.</b> </td><td align="center" valign="middle" rowspan="4"><big><big><big><big><big>}</big></big></big></big></big> </td><td align="center" rowspan="4"> 4 vols.<br />in box,<br />extra<br />cloth.</td><td align="right" rowspan="4">3 50</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>ELEMENTS OF PERSPECTIVE.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>LAWS OF FESOLE—PLATES.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><b>FRONDES AGRESTES.</b> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> 2 vols. in box, ½ calf. </td><td></td><td></td><td align="right"> 7 00</td></tr> +</table> +<br /> +<h4><i>THE FOLLOWING BEAUTIFUL VOLUMES BEING SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN'S WORKS.</i></h4> + +<center>In Neat 12mo. Volumes. Cloth, Gilt Extra.</center> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ART CULTURE.</b> With Illustrations, cloth extra. 2 50</p> +<p><b>LETTERS AND ADVICE TO YOUNG LADIES.</b> Cloth extra. 50</p> +<p><b>PEARLS FOR YOUNG LADIES.</b> Cloth extra. 1 25</p> +<p><b>PRECIOUS THOUGHTS.</b> Cloth extra. 1 25</p> + </div> </div> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>CHOICE SELECTIONS.</b> Cloth extra. $ 1 00</p> +<p><b>TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL.</b> Cloth extra. 1 25</p> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S BIRTHDAY BOOK.</b> Cloth extra. 1 50</p> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (PRAETERITA.)</b></p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 1. Plate, 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00</p> + </div> </div> + +<center>ALSO—WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.</center> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY.</b></p> +<p>30 Full Page Plates. 8vo, cloth extra. 3 50</p> +<p><b>RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S STORY OF IDA.</b></p> +<p>With a Beautiful Portrait. 12mo, cloth extra. 75</p> +<p class="i2">DITTO, Ditto. With Portrait. 4to, cloth extra. 1 50</p> + </div> </div> + +<center>The following volumes are valuable as</center> + +<h4><i>READING BOOKS,</i></h4> + +<p>and are specially recommended for use to HIGH SCHOOLS AND LADIES' SEMINARIES.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL.</b> Selected +from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> +<p><b>ART CULTURE.</b> Selected from Ruskin's +Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50</p> +<p><b>PRECIOUS THOUGHTS.</b> Selected +from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00</p> +<p><b>CHOICE SELECTIONS.</b> Selected from +Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p><b>SESAME AND LILIES.</b> 12mo, russet cloth. 75</p> +<p><b>LECTURES TO LITTLE HOUSEWIVES.</b> +Ethics of the Dust). 12mo, russet cloth. 50</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>*** <i>Copies of these volumes will be sent for examination, +with reference to introduction,</i> FREE, <i>by mail, on receipt of +two-thirds of the printed price.</i></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> + +<h3>Elegant 8vo Edition</h3> + +<h4>OF</h4> + +<h2>RUSKIN'S CHOICE WORKS,</h2> + +<h4>(<i>But few copies remain of this edition.</i>)</h4> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p><b>MODERN PAINTERS.</b> By John Ruskin. +New and beautiful edition. Containing fine copies +of all the plates, (87) and wood engravings of the +original London edition.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 1.—Part 1. General Principles. Part 2. Truth.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 2.—Part 3. Of Ideas of Beauty.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 3.—Part 4. Of Many Things.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 4.—Part 5. Of Mountain Beauty.</p> +<p class="i2">Vol. 5.—Part 6. Leaf Beauty. Part 7. Of Cloud +Beauty. Part 8. Ideas of Relation of Invention, +Formal. Part 9. Ideas of Relation of Invention, Spiritual.</p> +<p class="i6">5 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 30 00</p> +<p class="i6">6 vols., 8vo, ½ calf. 40 00</p> +<p class="i6">5 vols., 8vo, full calf. 45 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>STONES OF VENICE.</b> By John Ruskin. +New and beautiful edition, Containing fine copies +of all the plates, (54) colored and plain, and wood +engravings of the original London edition.</p> +<p class="i4">Vol. 1.—The Foundations.</p> +<p class="i4">Vol. 2.—The Sea Stories.</p> +<p class="i4">Vol. 3.—The Fall.</p> +<p class="i6">3 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 18 00</p> +<p class="i6">3 vols., 8vo, ½ calf. 4 00</p> +<p class="i6">3 vols., 8vo, full calf. 27 00</p> +<p class="i4">PLATES to ditto separately, including fine copies +of all the plates in London edition. (54) colored +and plain. 8vo, extra cloth. 6 00</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE.</b> +By John Ruskin. New and beautiful edition, containing +fine copies of all the plates (14) of the original +London edition. Lamp of Sacrifice. Lamp of Truth. +Lamp of Power. Lamp of Beauty. Lamp of Life. Lamp +of Memory. Lamp of Obedience,</p> +<p class="i6"> extra cloth. 6 00</p> +<p class="i6"> ½ calf. 8 00</p> +<p class="i6"> full calf. 9 00</p> + </div></div> +<h4>MISS ALEXANDER'S WORKS.</h4> + <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY.</b> By +Miss Francesca Alexander, with 20 full page plates, +from drawings of the author. Edited by John Ruskin. +8vo, cloth extra. 3 50</p> +<p class="i6">DITTO, DITTO. 20 Plates, ½ morocco. 6 50</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p><b>THE STORY OF IDA. EPITAPH ON AN ETRURIAN TOMB.</b> +By Francesca Alexander, with Preface by John Ruskin. +Illustrated, with a Beautiful Portrait.</p> +<p class="i6">12mo, laid paper, cloth extra. 0 75</p> +<p class="i6">4to, heavy paper, cloth extra. 1 50</p> + </div> </div> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of England, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 15947-h.htm or 15947-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/4/15947/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pleasures of England + Lectures given in Oxford + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: May 30, 2005 [EBook #15947] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + +THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND. + +LECTURES GIVEN IN OXFORD. + +BY + +JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L., LL.D., + +HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF +CORPUS-CHRISTI COLLEGE. + +DURING HIS + +_SECOND TENURE OF THE SLADE PROFESSORSHIP._ + + + +NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY AND SONS. 1888. + + * * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. _Bertha to Osburga_ 5 + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. _Alfred to the Confessor_ 31 + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. _Alfred to Coeur de Lion_ 61 + + +LECTURE IV. + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. _Coeur de Lion to Elizabeth_ 91 + + * * * * * + + + + +LECTURE I. + +THE PLEASURES OF LEARNING. + +_BERTHA TO OSBURGA._ + + +In the short review of the present state of English Art, given you +last year, I left necessarily many points untouched, and others +unexplained. The seventh lecture, which I did not think it necessary +to read aloud, furnished you with some of the corrective statements +of which, whether spoken or not, it was extremely desirable that you +should estimate the balancing weight. These I propose in the present +course farther to illustrate, and to arrive with you at, I hope, +a just--you would not wish it to be a flattering--estimate of the +conditions of our English artistic life, past and present, in order +that with due allowance for them we may determine, with some security, +what those of us who have faculty ought to do, and those who have +sensibility, to admire. + +2. In thus rightly doing and feeling, you will find summed a wider +duty, and granted a greater power, than the moral philosophy at this +moment current with you has ever conceived; and a prospect opened to +you besides, of such a Future for England as you may both hopefully +and proudly labour for with your hands, and those of you who are +spared to the ordinary term of human life, even see with your eyes, +when all this tumult of vain avarice and idle pleasure, into which +you have been plunged at birth, shall have passed into its appointed +perdition. + +3. I wish that you would read for introduction to the lectures I have +this year arranged for you, that on the Future of England, which I +gave to the cadets at Woolwich in the first year of my Professorship +here, 1869; and which is now placed as the main conclusion of the +"Crown of Wild Olive": and with it, very attentively, the close of +my inaugural lecture given here; for the matter, no less than the +tenor of which, I was reproved by all my friends, as irrelevant and +ill-judged;--which, nevertheless, is of all the pieces of teaching I +have ever given from this chair, the most pregnant and essential to +whatever studies, whether of Art or Science, you may pursue, in this +place or elsewhere, during your lives. + +The opening words of that passage I will take leave to read to you +again,--for they must still be the ground of whatever help I can give +you, worth your acceptance. + +"There is a destiny now possible to us--the highest ever set before a +nation to be accepted or refused. We are still undegenerate in race: +a race mingled of the best northern blood. We are not yet dissolute in +temper, but still have the firmness to govern, and the grace to obey. +We have been taught a religion of pure mercy, which we must either now +finally betray, or learn to defend by fulfilling. And we are rich in +an inheritance of honour, bequeathed to us through a thousand years +of noble history, which it should be our daily thirst to increase with +splendid avarice; so that Englishmen, if it be a sin to covet honour, +should be the most offending souls alive. Within the last few years +we have had the laws of natural science opened to us with a rapidity +which has been blinding by its brightness; and means of transit and +communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the +habitable globe. + +"One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be no king in +it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his own +eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon and +Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a +royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle; for all the world a source +of light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the +Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent +and ephemeral visions--faithful servant of time-tried principles, +under temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and +amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped +in her strange valour, of goodwill towards men?" + +The fifteen years that have passed since I spoke these words must, I +think, have convinced some of my immediate hearers that the need for +such an appeal was more pressing than they then imagined;--while they +have also more and more convinced me myself that the ground I took +for it was secure, and that the youths and girls now entering on the +duties of active life are able to accept and fulfil the hope I then +held out to them. + +In which assurance I ask them to-day to begin the examination with +me, very earnestly, of the question laid before you in that seventh +of my last year's lectures, whether London, as it is now, be indeed +the natural, and therefore the heaven-appointed outgrowth of the +inhabitation, these 1800 years, of the valley of the Thames by a +progressively instructed and disciplined people; or if not, in what +measure and manner the aspect and spirit of the great city may be +possibly altered by your acts and thoughts. + +In my introduction to the Economist of Xenophon I said that every +fairly educated European boy or girl ought to learn the history of +five cities,--Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, and London; that of +London including, or at least compelling in parallel study, knowledge +also of the history of Paris. + +A few words are enough to explain the reasons for this choice. The +history of Athens, rightly told, includes all that need be known of +Greek religion and arts; that of Rome, the victory of Christianity +over Paganism; those of Venice and Florence sum the essential facts +respecting the Christian arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Music; +and that of London, in her sisterhood with Paris, the development of +Christian Chivalry and Philosophy, with their exponent art of Gothic +architecture. + +Without the presumption of forming a distinct design, I yet hoped at +the time when this division of study was suggested, with the help of +my pupils, to give the outlines of their several histories during +my work in Oxford. Variously disappointed and arrested, alike by +difficulties of investigation and failure of strength, I may yet hope +to lay down for you, beginning with your own metropolis, some of the +lines of thought in following out which such a task might be most +effectively accomplished. + +You observe that I speak of architecture as the chief exponent of +the feelings both of the French and English races. Together with +it, however, most important evidence of character is given by the +illumination of manuscripts, and by some forms of jewellery and +metallurgy: and my purpose in this course of lectures is to illustrate +by all these arts the phases of national character which it is +impossible that historians should estimate, or even observe, with +accuracy, unless they are cognizant of excellence in the aforesaid +modes of structural and ornamental craftsmanship. + +In one respect, as indicated by the title chosen for this course, I +have varied the treatment of their subject from that adopted in all +my former books. Hitherto, I have always endeavoured to illustrate the +personal temper and skill of the artist; holding the wishes or taste +of his spectators at small account, and saying of Turner you ought to +like him, and of Salvator, you ought not, etc., etc., without in the +least considering what the genius or instinct of the spectator might +otherwise demand, or approve. But in the now attempted sketch of +Christian history, I have approached every question from the people's +side, and examined the nature, not of the special faculties by which +the work was produced, but of the general instinct by which it was +asked for, and enjoyed. Therefore I thought the proper heading for +these papers should represent them as descriptive of the _Pleasures_ +of England, rather than of its _Arts_. + +And of these pleasures, necessarily, the leading one was that of +Learning, in the sense of receiving instruction;--a pleasure totally +separate from that of finding out things for yourself,--and an +extremely sweet and sacred pleasure, when you know how to seek it, and +receive. + +On which I am the more disposed, and even compelled, here to insist, +because your modern ideas of Development imply that you must all +turn out what you are to be, and find out what you are to know, for +yourselves, by the inevitable operation of your anterior affinities +and inner consciences:--whereas the old idea of education was that the +baby material of you, however accidentally or inevitably born, was +at least to be by external force, and ancestral knowledge, bred; and +treated by its Fathers and Tutors as a plastic vase, to be shaped or +mannered as _they_ chose, not as _it_ chose, and filled, when its form +was well finished and baked, with sweetness of sound doctrine, as with +Hybla honey, or Arabian spikenard. + +Without debating how far these two modes of acquiring +knowledge--finding out, and being told--may severally be good, and +in perfect instruction combined, I have to point out to you that, +broadly, Athens, Rome, and Florence are self-taught, and internally +developed; while all the Gothic races, without any exception, but +especially those of London and Paris, are afterwards taught by these; +and had, therefore, when they chose to accept it, the delight of being +instructed, without trouble or doubt, as fast as they could read or +imitate; and brought forward to the point where their own northern +instincts might wholesomely superimpose or graft some national ideas +upon these sound instructions. Read over what I said on this subject +in the third of my lectures last year (page 79), and simplify that +already brief statement further, by fastening in your mind Carlyle's +general symbol of the best attainments of northern religious +sculpture,--"three whalecubs combined by boiling," and reflecting that +the mental history of all northern European art is the modification +of that graceful type, under the orders of the Athena of Homer and +Phidias. + +And this being quite indisputably the broad fact of the matter, I +greatly marvel that your historians never, so far as I have read, +think of proposing to you the question--what you might have made +of yourselves _without_ the help of Homer and Phidias: what sort of +beings the Saxon and the Celt, the Frank and the Dane, might have been +by this time, untouched by the spear of Pallas, unruled by the rod of +Agricola, and sincerely the native growth, pure of root, and ungrafted +in fruit of the clay of Isis, rock of Dovrefeldt, and sands of Elbe? +Think of it, and think chiefly what form the ideas, and images, +of your natural religion might probably have taken, if no Roman +missionary had ever passed the Alps in charity, and no English king in +pilgrimage. + +I have been of late indebted more than I can express to the friend who +has honoured me by the dedication of his recently published lectures +on 'Older England;' and whose eager enthusiasm and far collected +learning have enabled me for the first time to assign their just +meaning and value to the ritual and imagery of Saxon devotion. But +while every page of Mr. Hodgett's book, and, I may gratefully say +also, every sentence of his teaching, has increased and justified the +respect in which I have always been by my own feeling disposed to +hold the mythologies founded on the love and knowledge of the natural +world, I have also been led by them to conceive, far more forcibly +than hitherto, the power which the story of Christianity possessed, +first heard through the wreaths of that cloudy superstition, in the +substitution, for its vaporescent allegory, of a positive and literal +account of a real Creation, and an instantly present, omnipresent, and +compassionate God. + +Observe, there is no question whatever in examining this influence, +how far Christianity itself is true, or the transcendental doctrines +of it intelligible. Those who brought you the story of it believed it +with all their souls to be true,--and the effect of it on the hearts +of your ancestors was that of an unquestionable, infinitely lucid +message straight from God, doing away with all difficulties, grief, +and fears for those who willingly received it, nor by any, except +wilfully and obstinately vile persons, to be, by any possibility, +denied or refused. + +And it was precisely, observe, the vivacity and joy with which the +main fact of Christ's life was accepted which gave the force and wrath +to the controversies instantly arising about its nature. + +Those controversies vexed and shook, but never undermined, the faith +they strove to purify, and the miraculous presence, errorless precept, +and loving promises of their Lord were alike undoubted, alike rejoiced +in, by every nation that heard the word of Apostles. The Pelagian's +assertion that immortality could be won by man's will, and the +Arian's that Christ possessed no more than man's nature, never for +an instant--or in any country--hindered the advance of the moral law +and intellectual hope of Christianity. Far the contrary; the British +heresy concerning Free Will, though it brought bishop after bishop +into England to extinguish it, remained an extremely healthy and +active element in the British mind down to the days of John Bunyan +and the guide Great Heart, and the calmly Christian justice and simple +human virtue of Theodoric were the very roots and first burgeons +of the regeneration of Italy.[1] But of the degrees in which it was +possible for any barbarous nation to receive during the first five +centuries, either the spiritual power of Christianity itself, or +the instruction in classic art and science which accompanied it, you +cannot rightly judge, without taking the pains, and they will not, I +think, be irksome, of noticing carefully, and fixing permanently in +your minds, the separating characteristics of the greater races, both +in those who learned and those who taught. + +[Footnote 1: Gibbon, in his 37th chapter, makes Ulphilas also an +Arian, but might have forborne, with grace, his own definition of +orthodoxy:--and you are to observe generally that at this time the +teachers who admitted the inferiority of Christ to the Father as +touching his Manhood, were often counted among Arians, but quite +falsely. Christ's own words, "My Father is greater than I," end that +controversy at once. Arianism consists not in asserting the subjection +of the Son to the Father, but in denying the subjected Divinity.] + +Of the Huns and Vandals we need not speak. They are merely forms of +Punishment and Destruction. Put them out of your minds altogether, and +remember only the names of the immortal nations, which abide on their +native rocks, and plough their unconquered plains, at this hour. + +Briefly, in the north,--Briton, Norman, Frank, Saxon, Ostrogoth, +Lombard; briefly, in the south,--Tuscan, Roman, Greek, Syrian, +Egyptian, Arabian. + +Now of these races, the British (I avoid the word Celtic, because you +would expect me to say Keltic; and I don't mean to, lest you should +be wanting me next to call the patroness of music St. Kekilia), the +British, including Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scot, and Pict, are, +I believe, of all the northern races, the one which has deepest love +of external nature;--and the richest inherent gift of pure music and +song, as such; separated from the intellectual gift which raises song +into poetry. They are naturally also religious, and for some centuries +after their own conversion are one of the chief evangelizing powers +in Christendom. But they are neither apprehensive nor receptive;--they +cannot understand the classic races, and learn scarcely anything from +them; perhaps better so, if the classic races had been more careful to +understand _them_. + +Next, the Norman is scarcely more apprehensive than the Celt, but he +is more constructive, and uses to good advantage what he learns from +the Frank. His main characteristic is an energy, which never exhausts +itself in vain anger, desire, or sorrow, but abides and rules, like a +living rock:--where he wanders, he flows like lava, and congeals like +granite. + +Next, I take in this first sketch the Saxon and Frank together, both +pre-eminently apprehensive, both docile exceedingly, imaginative in +the highest, but in life active more than pensive, eager in desire, +swift of invention, keenly sensitive to animal beauty, but with +difficulty rational, and rarely, for the future, wise. Under the +conclusive name of Ostrogoth, you may class whatever tribes are native +to Central Germany, and develope themselves, as time goes on, into +that power of the German Caesars which still asserts itself as an +empire against the licence and insolence of modern republicanism,--of +which races, though this general name, no description can be given in +rapid terms. + +And lastly, the Lombards, who, at the time we have to deal with, were +sternly indocile, gloomily imaginative,--of almost Norman energy, +and differing from all the other western nations chiefly in this +notable particular, that while the Celt is capable of bright wit and +happy play, and the Norman, Saxon, and Frank all alike delight in +caricature, the Lombards, like the Arabians, never jest. + +These, briefly, are the six barbaric nations who are to be taught: and +of whose native arts and faculties, before they receive any tutorship +from the south, I find no well-sifted account in any history:--but +thus much of them, collecting your own thoughts and knowledge, you +may easily discern--they were all, with the exception of the Scots, +practical workers and builders in wood; and those of them who +had coasts, first rate sea-boat builders, with fine mathematical +instincts and practice in that kind far developed, necessarily good +sail-weaving, and sound fur-stitching, with stout iron-work of nail +and rivet; rich copper and some silver work in decoration--the Celts +developing peculiar gifts in linear design, but wholly incapable +of drawing animals or figures;--the Saxons and Franks having enough +capacity in that kind, but no thought of attempting it; the Normans +and Lombards still farther remote from any such skill. More and more, +it seems to me wonderful that under your British block-temple, grimly +extant on its pastoral plain, or beside the first crosses engraved on +the rock at Whithorn--you English and Scots do not oftener consider +what you might or could have come to, left to yourselves. + +Next, let us form the list of your tutor nations, in whom, it +generally pleases you to look at nothing but the corruptions. If we +could get into the habit of thinking more of our own corruptions and +more of _their_ virtues, we should have a better chance of learning +the true laws alike of art and destiny. But, the safest way of all, is +to assure ourselves that true knowledge of any thing or any creature +is only of the good of it; that its nature and life are in that, and +that what is diseased,--that is to say, unnatural and mortal,--you +must cut away from it in contemplation, as you would in surgery. + +Of the six tutor nations, two, the Tuscan and Arab, have no effect on +early Christian England. But the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian +act together from the earliest times; you are to study the influence +of Rome upon England in Agricola, Constantius, St. Benedict, and +St. Gregory; of Greece upon England in the artists of Byzantium and +Ravenna; of Syria and Egypt upon England in St. Jerome, St. Augustine, +St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanase. + +St. Jerome, in central Bethlehem; St. Augustine, Carthaginian by +birth, in truth a converted Tyrian, Athanase, Egyptian, symmetric and +fixed as an Egyptian aisle; Chrysostom, golden mouth of all; these +are, indeed, every one teachers of all the western world, but +St. Augustine especially of lay, as distinguished from monastic, +Christianity to the Franks, and finally to us. His rule, expanded into +the treatise of the City of God, is taken for guide of life and policy +by Charlemagne, and becomes certainly the fountain of Evangelical +Christianity, distinctively so called, (and broadly the lay +Christianity of Europe, since, in the purest form of it, that is +to say, the most merciful, charitable, variously applicable, kindly +wise.) The greatest type of it, as far as I know, St. Martin of Tours, +whose character is sketched, I think in the main rightly, in the +Bible of Amiens; and you may bind together your thoughts of its +course by remembering that Alcuin, born at York, dies in the Abbey +of St. Martin, at Tours; that as St. Augustine was in his writings +Charlemagne's Evangelist in faith, Alcuin was, in living presence, +his master in rhetoric, logic, and astronomy, with the other physical +sciences. + +A hundred years later than St. Augustine, comes the rule of St. +Benedict--the Monastic rule, virtually, of European Christianity, ever +since--and theologically the Law of Works, as distinguished from the +Law of Faith. St. Augustine and all the disciples of St. Augustine +tell Christians what they should feel and think: St. Benedict and all +the disciples of St. Benedict tell Christians what they should say and +do. + +In the briefest, but also the perfectest distinction, the disciples +of St. Augustine are those who open the door to Christ--"If any man +hear my voice"; but the Benedictines those to whom Christ opens the +door--"To him that knocketh it shall be opened." + +Now, note broadly the course and action of this rule, as it combines +with the older one. St. Augustine's, accepted heartily by Clovis, +and, with various degrees of understanding, by the kings and queens +of the Merovingian dynasty, makes seemingly little difference in +their conduct, so that their profession of it remains a scandal to +Christianity to this day; and yet it lives, in the true hearts among +them, down from St. Clotilde to her great grand-daughter Bertha, who +in becoming Queen of Kent, builds under its chalk downs her own little +chapel to St. Martin, and is the first effectively and permanently +useful missionary to the Saxons, the beginner of English +Erudition,--the first laid corner stone of beautiful English +character. + +I think henceforward you will find the memorandum of dates which I +have here set down for my own guidance more simply useful than those +confused by record of unimportant persons and inconsequent events, +which form the indices of common history. + +From the year of the Saxon invasion 449, there are exactly 400 years +to the birth of Alfred, 849. You have no difficulty in remembering +those cardinal years. Then, you have Four great men and great events +to remember, at the close of the fifth century. Clovis, and the +founding of Frank Kingdom; Theodoric and the founding of the Gothic +Kingdom; Justinian and the founding of Civil law; St. Benedict and the +founding of Religious law. + +Of, Justinian, and his work, I am not able myself to form any +opinion--and it is, I think, unnecessary for students of history to +form any, until they are able to estimate clearly the benefits, and +mischief, of the civil law of Europe in its present state. But to +Clovis, Theodoric, and St. Benedict, without any question, we owe more +than any English historian has yet ascribed,--and they are easily held +in mind together, for Clovis ascended the Frank throne in the year of +St. Benedict's birth, 481. Theodoric fought the battle of Verona, and +founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy twelve years later, in 493, +and thereupon married the sister of Clovis. That marriage is always +passed in a casual sentence, as if a merely political one, and while +page after page is spent in following the alternations of furious +crime and fatal chance, in the contests between Fredegonde and +Brunehaut, no historian ever considers whether the great Ostrogoth who +wore in the battle of Verona the dress which his mother had woven for +him, was likely to have chosen a wife without love!--or how far the +perfectness, justice, and temperate wisdom of every ordinance of his +reign was owing to the sympathy and counsel of his Frankish queen. + +You have to recollect, then, thus far, only three cardinal dates:-- + + 449. Saxon invasion. + 481. Clovis reigns and St. Benedict is born. + 493. Theodoric conquers at Verona. + +Then, roughly, a hundred years later, in 590, Ethelbert, the fifth +from Hengist, and Bertha, the third from Clotilde, are king and queen +of Kent. I cannot find the date of their marriage, but the date, 590, +which you must recollect for cardinal, is that of Gregory's accession +to the pontificate, and I believe Bertha was then in middle life, +having persevered in her religion firmly, but inoffensively, and +made herself beloved by her husband and people. She, in England, +Theodolinda in Lombardy, and St. Gregory in Rome:--in their hands, +virtually lay the destiny of Europe. + +Then the period from Bertha to Osburga, 590 to 849--say 250 years--is +passed by the Saxon people in the daily more reverent learning of the +Christian faith, and daily more peaceful and skilful practice of the +humane arts and duties which it invented and inculcated. + +The statement given by Sir Edward Creasy of the result of these 250 +years of lesson is, with one correction, the most simple and just that +I can find. + +"A few years before the close of the sixth century, the country was +little more than a wide battle-field, where gallant but rude warriors +fought with each other, or against the neighbouring Welsh or Scots; +unheeding and unheeded by the rest of Europe, or, if they attracted +casual attention, regarded with dread and disgust as the fiercest of +barbarians and the most untameable of pagans. In the eighth century, +England was looked up to with admiration and gratitude, as superior to +all the other countries of Western Europe in piety and learning, and +as the land whence the most zealous and successful saints and teachers +came forth to convert and enlighten the still barbarous regions of the +continent." + +This statement is broadly true; yet the correction it needs is a very +important one. England,--under her first Alfred of Northumberland, +and under Ina of Wessex, is indeed during these centuries the most +learned, thoughtful, and progressive of European states. But she is +not a missionary power. The missionaries are always to her, not from +her:--for the very reason that she is learning so eagerly, she does +not take to preaching. Ina founds his Saxon school at Rome not to +teach Rome, nor convert the Pope, but to drink at the source of +knowledge, and to receive laws from direct and unquestioned authority. +The missionary power was wholly Scotch and Irish, and that power was +wholly one of zeal and faith, not of learning. I will ask you, in the +course of my next lecture, to regard it attentively; to-day, I must +rapidly draw to the conclusions I would leave with you. + +It is more and more wonderful to me as I think of it, that no effect +whatever was produced on the Saxon, nor on any other healthy race +of the North, either by the luxury of Rome, or by her art, whether +constructive or imitative. The Saxon builds no aqueducts--designs +no roads, rounds no theatres in imitation of her,--envies none of +her vile pleasures,--admires, so far as I can judge, none of her +far-carried realistic art. I suppose that it needs intelligence of +a more advanced kind to see the qualities of complete sculpture: and +that we may think of the Northern intellect as still like that of a +child, who cares to picture its own thoughts in its own way, but does +not care for the thoughts of older people, or attempt to copy what it +feels too difficult. This much at least is certain, that for one cause +or another, everything that now at Paris or London our painters most +care for and try to realize, of ancient Rome, was utterly innocuous +and unattractive to the Saxon: while his mind was frankly open to +the direct teaching of Greece and to the methods of bright decoration +employed in the Byzantine Empire: for these alone seemed to his +fancy suggestive of the glories of the brighter world promised by +Christianity. Jewellery, vessels of gold and silver, beautifully +written books, and music, are the gifts of St. Gregory alike to the +Saxon and Lombard; all these beautiful things being used, not for the +pleasure of the present life, but as the symbols of another; while +the drawings in Saxon manuscripts, in which, better than in any other +remains of their life, we can read the people's character, are rapid +endeavours to express for themselves, and convey to others, some +likeness of the realities of sacred event in which they had been +instructed. They differ from every archaic school of former design +in this evident correspondence with an imagined reality. All previous +archaic art whatsoever is symbolic and decorative--not realistic. The +contest of Herakles with the Hydra on a Greek vase is a mere sign that +such a contest took place, not a picture of it, and in drawing that +sign the potter is always thinking of the effect of the engraved +lines on the curves of his pot, and taking care to keep out of the +way of the handle;--but a Saxon monk would scratch his idea of the +Fall of the angels or the Temptation of Christ over a whole page of +his manuscript in variously explanatory scenes, evidently full of +inexpressible vision, and eager to explain and illustrate all that he +felt or believed. + +Of the progress and arrest of these gifts, I shall have to speak in my +next address; but I must regretfully conclude to-day with some brief +warning against the complacency which might lead you to regard them +as either at that time entirely original in the Saxon race, or at the +present day as signally characteristic of it. That form of complacency +is exhibited in its most amiable but, therefore, most deceptive guise, +in the passage with which the late Dean of Westminster concluded his +lecture at Canterbury in April, 1854, on the subject of the landing of +Augustine. I will not spoil the emphasis of the passage by comment as +I read, but must take leave afterwards to intimate some grounds for +abatement in the fervour of its self-gratulatory ecstasy. + +"Let any one sit on the hill of the little church of St. Martin, and +look on the view which is there spread before his eyes. Immediately +below are the towers of the great abbey of St. Augustine, where +Christian learning and civilization first struck root in the +Anglo-Saxon race; and within which now, after a lapse of many +centuries, a new institution has arisen, intended to carry far and +wide, to countries of which Gregory and Augustine never heard, the +blessings which they gave to us. Carry your view on--and there +rises high above all the magnificent pile of our cathedral, equal +in splendour and state to any, the noblest temple or church that +Augustine could have seen in ancient Rome, rising on the very ground +which derives its consecration from him. And still more than the +grandeur of the outward buildings that rose from the little church +of Augustine and the little palace of Ethelbert have been the +institutions of all kinds of which these were the earliest cradle. +From Canterbury, the first English Christian city,--from Kent, the +first English Christian kingdom--has by degrees arisen the whole +constitution of Church and State in England which now binds together +the whole British Empire. And from the Christianity here established +in England has flowed, by direct consequence, first the Christianity +of Germany; then, after a long interval, of North America; and lastly, +we may trust, in time, of all India and all Australasia. The view from +St. Martin's Church is indeed one of the most inspiriting that can be +found in the world; there is none to which I would more willingly take +any one who doubted whether a small beginning could lead to a great +and lasting good;--none which carries us more vividly back into the +past, or more hopefully forward into the future." + +To this Gregorian canticle in praise of the British constitution, +I grieve, but am compelled, to take these following historical +objections. The first missionary to Germany was Ulphilas, and what she +owes to these islands she owes to Iona, not to Thanet. Our missionary +offices to America as to Africa, consist I believe principally in +the stealing of land, and the extermination of its proprietors by +intoxication. Our rule in India has introduced there, Paisley instead +of Cashmere shawls: in Australasia our Christian aid supplies, I +suppose, the pious farmer with convict labour. And although, when +the Dean wrote the above passage, St. Augustine's and the cathedral +were--I take it on trust from his description--the principal +objects in the prospect from St. Martin's Hill, I believe even the +cheerfullest of my audience would not now think the scene one of +the most inspiriting in the world. For recent progress has entirely +accommodated the architecture of the scene to the convenience of the +missionary workers above enumerated; to the peculiar necessities +of the civilization they have achieved. For the sake of which the +cathedral, the monastery, the temple, and the tomb, of Bertha, +contract themselves in distant or despised subservience under the +colossal walls of the county gaol. + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE PLEASURES OF FAITH. + +_ALFRED TO THE CONFESSOR._ + + +I was forced in my last lecture to pass by altogether, and to-day +can only with momentary definition notice, the part taken by Scottish +missionaries in the Christianizing of England and Burgundy. I would +pray you therefore, in order to fill the gap which I think it better +to leave distinctly, than close confusedly, to read the histories of +St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Columban, as they are given you by +Montalembert in his 'Moines d'Occident.' You will find in his pages +all the essential facts that are known, encircled with a nimbus of +enthusiastic sympathy which I hope you will like better to see them +through, than distorted by blackening fog of contemptuous rationalism. +But although I ask you thus to make yourselves aware of the greatness +of my omission, I must also certify you that it does not break the +unity of our own immediate subject. The influence of Celtic passion +and art both on Northumbria and the Continent, beneficent in all +respects while it lasted, expired without any permanent share in the +work or emotion of the Saxon and Frank. The book of Kells, and the +bell of St. Patrick, represent sufficiently the peculiar character +of Celtic design; and long since, in the first lecture of the 'Two +Paths,' I explained both the modes of skill, and points of weakness, +which rendered such design unprogressive. Perfect in its peculiar +manner, and exulting in the faultless practice of a narrow skill, it +remained century after century incapable alike of inner growth, or +foreign instruction; inimitable, yet incorrigible; marvellous, yet +despicable, to its death. Despicable, I mean, only in the limitation +of its capacity, not in its quality or nature. If you make a +Christian of a lamb or a squirrel--what can you expect of the lamb +but jumping--what of the squirrel, but pretty spirals, traced with +his tail? He won't steal your nuts any more, and he'll say his prayers +like this--[2]; but you cannot make a Beatrice's griffin, and emblem +of all the Catholic Church, out of him. + +[Footnote 2: Making a sign.] + +You will have observed, also, that the plan of these lectures does +not include any reference to the Roman Period in England; of which +you will find all I think necessary to say, in the part called _Valle +Crucis_ of 'Our Fathers have told us.' But I must here warn you, with +reference to it, of one gravely false prejudice of Montalembert. He is +entirely blind to the conditions of Roman virtue, which existed in the +midst of the corruptions of the Empire, forming the characters of such +Emperors as Pertinax, Carus, Probus, the second Claudius, Aurelian, +and our own Constantius; and he denies, with abusive violence, the +power for good, of Roman Law, over the Gauls and Britons. + +Respecting Roman national character, I will simply beg you to +remember, that both St. Benedict and St. Gregory are Roman patricians, +before they are either monk or pope; respecting its influence on +Britain, I think you may rest content with Shakespeare's estimate of +it. Both Lear and Cymbeline belong to this time, so difficult to our +apprehension, when the Briton accepted both Roman laws and Roman gods. +There is indeed the born Kentish gentleman's protest against them in +Kent's-- + + "Now, by Apollo, king, + Thou swear'st thy gods in vain"; + +but both Cordelia and Imogen are just as thoroughly Roman ladies, as +Virgilia or Calphurnia. + +Of British Christianity and the Arthurian Legends, I shall have a word +or two to say in my lecture on "Fancy," in connection with the similar +romance which surrounds Theodoric and Charlemagne: only the worst of +it is, that while both Dietrich and Karl are themselves more wonderful +than the legends of them, Arthur fades into intangible vision:--this +much, however, remains to this day, of Arthurian blood in us, that +the richest fighting element in the British army and navy is British +native,--that is to say, Highlander, Irish, Welsh, and Cornish. + +Content, therefore, (means being now given you for filling gaps,) +with the estimates given you in the preceding lecture of the sources +of instruction possessed by the Saxon capital, I pursue to-day our +question originally proposed, what London might have been by this +time, if the nature of the flowers, trees, and children, born at the +Thames-side, had been rightly understood and cultivated. + +Many of my hearers can imagine far better than I, the look that London +must have had in Alfred's and Canute's days.[3] I have not, indeed, +the least idea myself what its buildings were like, but certainly +the groups of its shipping must have been superb; small, but +entirely seaworthy vessels, manned by the best seamen in the then +world. Of course, now, at Chatham and Portsmouth we have our +ironclads,--extremely beautiful and beautifully manageable things, no +doubt--to set against this Saxon and Danish shipping; but the Saxon +war-ships lay here at London shore--bright with banner and shield +and dragon prow,--instead of these you may be happier, but are not +handsomer, in having, now, the coal-barge, the penny steamer, and the +wherry full of shop boys and girls. I dwell however for a moment only +on the naval aspect of the tidal waters in the days of Alfred, because +I can refer you for all detail on this part of our subject to the +wonderful opening chapter of Dean Stanley's History of Westminster +Abbey, where you will find the origin of the name of London given as +"The City of Ships." He does not, however, tell you, that there were +built, then and there, the biggest war-ships in the world. I have +often said to friends who praised my own books that I would rather +have written that chapter than any one of them; yet if I _had_ been +able to write the historical part of it, the conclusions drawn would +have been extremely different. The Dean indeed describes with a +poet's joy the River of wells, which rose from those "once consecrated +springs which now lie choked in Holywell and Clerkenwell, and the +rivulet of Ulebrig which crossed the Strand under the Ivy bridge"; +but it is only in the spirit of a modern citizen of Belgravia that he +exults in the fact that "the great arteries of our crowded streets, +the vast sewers which cleanse our habitations, are fed by the +life-blood of those old and living streams; that underneath our tread +the Tyburn, and the Holborn, and the Fleet, and the Wall Brook, are +still pursuing their ceaseless course, still ministering to the good +of man, though in a far different fashion than when Druids drank +of their sacred springs, and Saxons were baptized in their rushing +waters, ages ago." + +[Footnote 3: Here Alfred's Silver Penny was shown and commented on, +thus:--Of what London was like in the days of faith, I can show you +one piece of artistic evidence. It is Alfred's silver penny struck in +London mint. The character of a coinage is quite conclusive evidence +in national history, and there is no great empire in progress, but +tells its story in beautiful coins. Here in Alfred's penny, a round +coin with L.O.N.D.I.N.I.A. struck on it, you have just the same +beauty of design, the same enigmatical arrangement of letters, as in +the early inscription, which it is "the pride of my life" to have +discovered at Venice. This inscription ("the first words that Venice +ever speaks aloud") is, it will be remembered, on the Church of St. +Giacomo di Rialto, and runs, being interpreted--"Around this temple, +let the merchant's law be just, his weights true, and his covenants +faithful."] + +Whatever sympathy you may feel with these eloquent expressions of that +entire complacency in the present, past, and future, which peculiarly +animates Dean Stanley's writings, I must, in this case, pray you +to observe that the transmutation of holy wells into sewers has, +at least, destroyed the charm and utility of the Thames as a salmon +stream, and I must ask you to read with attention the succeeding +portions of the chapter which record the legends of the river +fisheries in their relation to the first Abbey of Westminster; +dedicated by its builders to St. Peter, not merely in his office of +cornerstone of the Church, nor even figuratively as a fisher of men, +but directly as a fisher of fish:--and which maintained themselves, +you will see, in actual ceremony down to 1382, when a fisherman still +annually took his place beside the Prior, after having brought in a +salmon for St. Peter, which was carried in state down the middle of +the refectory. + +But as I refer to this page for the exact word, my eye is caught by +one of the sentences of Londonian[4] thought which constantly pervert +the well-meant books of pious England. "We see also," says the Dean, +"the union of innocent fiction with worldly craft, which marks so +many of the legends both of Pagan and Christian times." I might simply +reply to this insinuation that times which have no legends differ +from the legendary ones merely by uniting guilty, instead of innocent, +fiction, with worldly craft; but I must farther advise you that the +legends of these passionate times are in no wise, and in no sense, +fiction at all; but the true record of impressions made on the minds +of persons in a state of eager spiritual excitement, brought into +bright focus by acting steadily and frankly under its impulses. I +could tell you a great deal more about such things than you would +believe, and therefore, a great deal more than it would do you the +least good to hear;--but this much any who care to use their common +sense modestly, cannot but admit, that unless they choose to try the +rough life of the Christian ages, they cannot understand its practical +consequences. You have all been taught by Lord Macaulay and his school +that because you have Carpets instead of rushes for your feet; and +Feather-beds instead of fern for your backs; and Kickshaws instead +of beef for your eating; and Drains instead of Holy Wells for your +drinking;--that, therefore, you are the Cream of Creation, and +every one of you a seven-headed Solomon. Stay in those pleasant +circumstances and convictions if you please; but don't accuse your +roughly bred and fed fathers of telling lies about the aspect the +earth and sky bore to _them_,--till you have trodden the earth as +they, barefoot, and seen the heavens as they, face to face. If you +care to see and to know for yourselves, you may do it with little +pains; you need not do any great thing, you needn't keep one eye open +and the other shut for ten years over a microscope, nor fight your way +through icebergs and darkness to knowledge of the _celestial_ pole. +Simply, do as much as king after king of the Saxons did,--put rough +shoes on your feet and a rough cloak on your shoulders, and walk to +Rome and back. Sleep by the roadside, when it is fine,--in the first +outhouse you can find, when it is wet; and live on bread and water, +with an onion or two, all the way; and if the experiences which you +will have to relate on your return do not, as may well be, deserve the +name of spiritual; at all events you will not be disposed to let other +people regard them either as Poetry or Fiction. + +[Footnote 4: Not _Londinian_.] + +With this warning, presently to be at greater length insisted on, +I trace for you, in Dean Stanley's words, which cannot be bettered +except in the collection of their more earnest passages from among +his interludes of graceful but dangerous qualification,--I trace, with +only such omission, the story he has told us of the foundation of that +Abbey, which, he tells you, was the Mother of London, and has ever +been the shrine and the throne of English faith and truth. + +"The gradual formation of a monastic body, indicated in the charters +of Offa and Edgar, marks the spread of the Benedictine order +throughout England, under the influence of Dunstan. The 'terror' of +the spot, which had still been its chief characteristic in the charter +of the wild Offa, had, in the days of the more peaceful Edgar, given +way to a dubious 'renown.' Twelve monks is the number traditionally +said to have been established by Dunstan. A few acres further up the +river formed their chief property, and their monastic character was +sufficiently recognized to have given to the old locality of the +'terrible place' the name of the 'Western Monastery,' or 'Minster of +the West.'" + +The Benedictines then--twelve Benedictine monks--thus begin the +building of existent Christian London. You know I told you the +Benedictines are the Doing people, as the disciples of St. Augustine +the Sentimental people. The Benedictines find no terror in their +own thoughts--face the terror of places--change it into beauty of +places,--make this terrible place, a Motherly Place--Mother of London. + +This first Westminster, however, the Dean goes on to say, "seems to +have been overrun by the Danes," and it would have had no further +history but for the combination of circumstances which directed hither +the notice of Edward the Confessor. + +I haven't time to read you all the combination of circumstances. The +last clinching circumstance was this-- + +"There was in the neighbourhood of Worcester, 'far from men in the +wilderness, on the slope of a wood, in a cave deep down in the grey +rock,' a holy hermit 'of great age, living on fruits and roots.' One +night when, after reading in the Scriptures 'how hard are the pains +of hell, and how the enduring life of Heaven is sweet and to be +desired,' he could neither sleep nor repose, St. Peter appeared to +him, 'bright and beautiful, like to a clerk,' and warned him to tell +the King that he was released from his vow; that on that very day +his messengers would return from Rome;" (that is the combination of +circumstances--bringing Pope's order to build a church to release +the King from his vow of pilgrimage); "that 'at Thorney, two leagues +from the city,' was the spot marked out where, in an ancient church, +'situated low,' he was to establish a perfect Benedictine monastery, +which should be 'the gate of heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence +those who serve St. Peter there, shall by him be admitted into +Paradise.' The hermit writes the account of the vision on parchment, +seals it with wax, and brings it to the King, who compares it with the +answer of the messengers, just arrived from Rome, and determines on +carrying out the design as the Apostle had ordered. + +"The ancient church, 'situated low,' indicated in this vision the +one whose attached monastery had been destroyed by the Danes, but its +little church remained, and was already dear to the Confessor, not +only from the lovely tradition of its dedication by the spirit of St. +Peter;" (you must read that for yourselves;) "but also because of two +miracles happening there to the King himself. + +"The first was the cure of a cripple, who sat in the road between +the Palace and 'the Chapel of St. Peter,' which was 'near,' and who +explained to the Chamberlain Hugolin that, after six pilgrimages to +Rome in vain, St. Peter had promised his cure if the King would, on +his own royal neck, carry him to the Monastery. The King immediately +consented; and, amidst the scoffs of the court, bore the poor man to +the steps of the High Altar. There the cripple was received by Godric +the sacristan, and walked away on his own restored feet, hanging his +stool on the wall for a trophy. + +"Before that same High Altar was also believed to have been seen +one of the Eucharistical portents, so frequent in the Middle Ages. A +child, 'pure and bright like a spirit,' appeared to the King in the +sacramental elements. Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who, with his famous +countess, Godiva, was present, saw it also. + +"Such as these were the motives of Edward. Under their influence +was fixed what has ever since been the local centre of the English +monarchy." + +"Such as these were the _motives_ of Edward," says the Dean. Yes, +certainly; but such as these also, first, were the acts and visions +of Edward. Take care that you don't slip away, by the help of the +glycerine of the word "motives," into fancying that all these tales +are only the after colours and pictorial metaphors of sentimental +piety. They are either plain truth or black lies; take your +choice,--but don't tickle and treat yourselves with the prettiness or +the grotesqueness of them, as if they were Anderssen's fairy tales. +Either the King did carry the beggar on his back, or he didn't; either +Godiva rode through Coventry, or she didn't; either the Earl Leofric +saw the vision of the bright child at the altar--or he lied like a +knave. Judge, as you will; but do not Doubt. + +"The Abbey was fifteen years in building. The King spent upon it +one-tenth of the property of the kingdom. It was to be a marvel of +its kind. As in its origin it bore the traces of the fantastic and +childish" (I must pause, to ask you to substitute for these blameful +terms, 'fantastic and childish,' the better ones of 'imaginative and +pure') "character of the King and of the age; in its architecture +it bore the stamp of the peculiar position which Edward occupied in +English history between Saxon and Norman. By birth he was a Saxon, but +in all else he was a foreigner. Accordingly the Church at Westminster +was a wide-sweeping innovation on all that had been seen before. +'Destroying the old building,' he says in his charter, 'I have built +up a new one from the very foundation.' Its fame as a 'new style of +composition' lingered in the minds of men for generations. It was the +first cruciform church in England, from which all the rest of like +shape were copied--an expression of the increasing hold which, in the +tenth century, the idea of the Crucifixion had laid on the imagination +of Europe. The massive roof and pillars formed a contrast with the +rude wooden rafters and beams of the common Saxon churches. Its very +size--occupying, as it did, almost the whole area of the present +building--was in itself portentous. The deep foundations, of large +square blocks of grey stone, were duly laid; the east end was rounded +into an apse; a tower rose in the centre, crowned by a cupola of wood. +At the western end were erected two smaller towers, with five large +bells. The hard strong stones were richly sculptured; the windows +were filled with stained glass; the roof was covered with lead. The +cloisters, chapter-house, refectory, dormitory, the infirmary, with +its spacious chapel, if not completed by Edward, were all begun, and +finished in the next generation on the same plan. This structure, +venerable as it would be if it had lasted to our time, has almost +entirely vanished. Possibly one vast dark arch in the southern +transept, certainly the substructures of the dormitory, with their +huge pillars, 'grand and regal at the bases and capitals,' the +massive, low-browed passage leading from the great cloister to Little +Dean's Yard, and some portions of the refectory and of the infirmary +chapel, remain as specimens of the work which astonished the last age +of the Anglo-Saxon and the first age of the Norman monarchy." + +Hitherto I have read to you with only supplemental comment. But in +the next following passage, with which I close my series of extracts, +sentence after sentence occurs, at which as I read, I must raise my +hand, to mark it for following deprecation, or denial. + +"In the centre of Westminster Abbey thus lies its Founder, and such is +the story of its foundation. Even apart from the legendary elements +in which it is involved, it is impossible not to be struck by the +fantastic character of all its circumstances. We seem to be in a world +of poetry." (I protest, No.) "Edward is four centuries later than +Ethelbert and Augustine; but the origin of Canterbury is commonplace +and prosaic compared with the origin of Westminster." (Yes, that's +true.) "We can hardly imagine a figure more incongruous to the +soberness of later times than the quaint, irresolute, wayward prince +whose chief characteristics have just been described. His titles of +Confessor and Saint belong not to the general instincts of Christendom +but to the most transitory feelings of the age." (I protest, No.) "His +opinions, his prevailing motives, were such as in no part of modern +Europe would now be shared by any educated teacher or ruler." (That's +true enough.) "But in spite of these irreconcilable differences, +there was a solid ground for the charm which he exercised over his +contemporaries. His childish and eccentric fancies have passed away;" +(I protest, No;) "but his innocent faith and his sympathy with his +people are qualities which, even in our altered times, may still +retain their place in the economy of the world. Westminster Abbey, +so we hear it said, sometimes with a cynical sneer, sometimes with +a timorous scruple, has admitted within its walls many who have been +great without being good, noble with a nobleness of the earth earthy, +worldly with the wisdom of this world. But it is a counterbalancing +reflection, that the central tomb, round which all those famous names +have clustered, contains the ashes of one who, weak and erring as he +was, rests his claims of interment here, not on any act of power or +fame, but only on his artless piety and simple goodness. He, towards +whose dust was attracted the fierce Norman, and the proud Plantagenet, +and the grasping Tudor, and the fickle Stuart, even the Independent +Oliver, the Dutch William, and the Hanoverian George, was one whose +humble graces are within the reach of every man, woman, and child +of every time, if we rightly part the immortal substance from the +perishable form." + +Now I have read you these passages from Dean Stanley as the most +accurately investigatory, the most generously sympathetic, the most +reverently acceptant account of these days, and their people, which +you can yet find in any English history. But consider now, point by +point, where it leaves you. You are told, first, that you are living +in an age of poetry. But the days of poetry are those of Shakespeare +and Milton, not of Bede: nay, for their especial wealth in melodious +theology and beautifully rhythmic and pathetic meditation, perhaps +the days which have given us 'Hiawatha,' 'In Memoriam,' 'The Christian +Year,' and the 'Soul's Diary' of George Macdonald, may be not with +disgrace compared with those of Caedmon. And nothing can be farther +different from the temper, nothing less conscious of the effort, of a +poet, than any finally authentic document to which you can be referred +for the relation of a Saxon miracle. + +I will read you, for a perfectly typical example, an account of one +from Bede's 'Life of St. Cuthbert,' The passage is a favourite one of +my own, but I do not in the least anticipate its producing upon you +the solemnizing effect which I think I could command from reading, +instead, a piece of 'Marmion,' 'Manfred,' or 'Childe Harold.' + +... "He had one day left his cell to give advice to some visitors; and +when he had finished, he said to them, 'I must now go in again, but do +you, as you are inclined to depart, first take food; and when you have +cooked and eaten that goose which is hanging on the wall, go on board +your vessel in God's name and return home.' He then uttered a prayer, +and, having blessed them, went in. But they, as he had bidden them, +took some food; but having enough provisions of their own, which they +had brought with them, they did not touch the goose. + +"But when they had refreshed themselves they tried to go on board +their vessel, but a sudden storm utterly prevented them from putting +to sea. They were thus detained seven days in the island by the +roughness of the waves, and yet they could not call to mind what fault +they had committed. They therefore returned to have an interview with +the holy father, and to lament to him their detention. He exhorted +them to be patient, and on the seventh day came out to console their +sorrow, and to give them pious exhortations. When, however, he had +entered the house in which they were stopping, and saw that the goose +was not eaten, he reproved their disobedience with mild countenance +and in gentle language: 'Have you not left the goose still hanging +in its place? What wonder is it that the storm has prevented your +departure? Put it immediately into the caldron, and boil and eat it, +that the sea may become tranquil, and you may return home.' + +"They immediately did as he commanded; and it happened most +wonderfully that the moment the kettle began to boil the wind began +to cease, and the waves to be still Having finished their repast, and +seeing that the sea was calm, they went on board, and to their great +delight, though with shame for their neglect, reached home with a fair +wind. Now this, as I have related, I did not pick up from any chance +authority, but I had it from one of those who were present, a most +reverend monk and priest of the same monastery, Cynemund, who still +lives, known to many in the neighbourhood for his years and the purity +of his life." + + * * * * * + +I hope that the memory of this story, which, thinking it myself +an extremely pretty one, I have given you, not only for a type of +sincerity and simplicity, but for an illustration of obedience, may +at all events quit you, for good and all, of the notion that the +believers and witnesses of miracle were poetical persons. Saying +no more on the head of that allegation, I proceed to the Dean's +second one, which I cannot but interpret as also intended to be +injurious,--that they were artless and childish ones; and that because +of this rudeness and puerility, their motives and opinions would not +be shared by any statesmen of the present day. + +It is perfectly true that Edward the Confessor was himself in many +respects of really childish temperament; not therefore, perhaps, as I +before suggested to you, less venerable. But the age of which we are +examining the progress, was by no means represented or governed by +men of similar disposition. It was eminently productive of--it was +altogether governed, guided, and instructed by--men of the widest and +most brilliant faculties, whether constructive or speculative, that +the world till then had seen; men whose acts became the romance, whose +thoughts the wisdom, and whose arts the treasure, of a thousand years +of futurity. + +I warned you at the close of last lecture against the too agreeable +vanity of supposing that the Evangelization of the world began at St. +Martin's, Canterbury. Again and again you will indeed find the stream +of the Gospel contracting itself into narrow channels, and appearing, +after long-concealed filtration, through veins of unmeasured rock, +with the bright resilience of a mountain spring. But you will find it +the only candid, and therefore the only wise, way of research, to look +in each era of Christendom for the minds of culminating power in all +its brotherhood of nations; and, careless of local impulse, momentary +zeal, picturesque incident, or vaunted miracle, to fasten your +attention upon the force of character in the men, whom, over each +newly-converted race, Heaven visibly sets for its shepherds and kings, +to bring forth judgment unto victory. Of these I will name to you, as +messengers of God and masters of men, five monks and five kings; in +whose arms during the range of swiftly gainful centuries which we are +following, the life of the world lay as a nursling babe. Remember, +in their successive order,--of monks, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. +Martin, St. Benedict, and St. Gregory; of kings,--and your national +vanity may be surely enough appeased in recognizing two of them for +Saxon,--Theodoric, Charlemagne, Alfred, Canute, and the Confessor. I +will read three passages to you, out of the literal words of three +of these ten men, without saying whose they are, that you may compare +them with the best and most exalted you have read expressing the +philosophy, the religion, and the policy of to-day,--from which I +admit, with Dean Stanley, but with a far different meaning from his, +that they are indeed separate for evermore. I give you first, for an +example of Philosophy, a single sentence, containing all--so far as I +can myself discern--that it is possible for us to know, or well for us +to believe, respecting the world and its laws. + + +"OF GOD'S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE, RULING ALL, AND COMPRISING ALL. + +"Wherefore the great and mighty God; He that made man a reasonable +creature of soul and body, and He that did neither let him pass +unpunished for his sin, nor yet excluded him from mercy; He that gave, +both unto good and bad, essence with the stones, power of production +with the trees, senses with the beasts of the field, and understanding +with the angels; He from whom is all being, beauty, form, and number, +weight, and measure; He from whom all nature, mean and excellent, +all seeds of form, all forms of seed, all motion, both of forms and +seeds, derive and have being; He that gave flesh the original beauty, +strength, propagation, form and shape, health and symmetry; He +that gave the unreasonable soul, sense, memory, and appetite; the +reasonable, besides these, fantasy, understanding, and will; He, +I say, having left neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor man, +no, nor the most base and contemptible creature, neither the bird's +feather, nor the herb's flower, nor the tree's leaf, without the true +harmony of their parts, and peaceful concord of composition:--It is +in no way credible that He would leave the kingdoms of men and their +bondages and freedom loose and uncomprised in the laws of His eternal +providence."[5] + +[Footnote 5: From St. Augustine's 'Citie of God,' Book V., ch. xi. +(English trans., printed by George Eld, 1610.)] + +This for the philosophy.[6] Next, I take for example of the Religion +of our ancestors, a prayer, personally and passionately offered to the +Deity conceived as you have this moment heard. + +[Footnote 6: Here one of the "Stones of Westminster" was shown and +commented on.] + +"O Thou who art the Father of that Son which has awakened us, and +yet urgeth us out of the sleep of our sins, and exhorteth us that we +become Thine;" (note you that, for apprehension of what Redemption +means, against your base and cowardly modern notion of 'scaping +whipping. Not to take away the Punishment of Sin, but by His +Resurrection to raise us out of the sleep of sin itself! Compare the +legend at the feet of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in the golden +Gospel of Charles le Chauve[7]:-- + + "HIC LEO SURGENDO PORTAS CONFREGIT AVERNI + QUI NUNQUAM DORMIT, NUSQUAM DORMITAT IN AEVUM;") + +"to Thee, Lord, I pray, who art the supreme truth; for all the truth +that is, is truth from Thee. Thee I implore, O Lord, who art the +highest wisdom. Through Thee are wise all those that are so. Thou art +the true life, and through Thee are living all those that are so. Thou +art the supreme felicity, and from Thee all have become happy that +are so. Thou art the highest good, and from Thee all beauty springs. +Thou art the intellectual light, and from Thee man derives his +understanding. + +[Footnote 7: At Munich: the leaf has been exquisitely drawn and legend +communicated to me by Professor Westwood. It is written in gold on +purple.] + +"To Thee, O God, I call and speak. Hear, O hear me, Lord! for Thou art +my God and my Lord; my Father and my Creator; my ruler and my hope; my +wealth and my honour my house, my country, my salvation, and my life! +Hear, hear me, O Lord! Few of Thy servants comprehend Thee. But Thee +alone I _love_,[8] indeed, above all other things. Thee I seek: Thee +I will follow: Thee I am ready to serve. Under Thy power I desire to +abide, for Thou alone art the Sovereign of all. I pray Thee to command +me as Thou wilt." + +[Footnote 8: Meaning--not that he is of those few, but that, without +comprehending, at least, as a dog, he can love.] + +You see this prayer is simply the expansion of that clause of the +Lord's Prayer which most men eagerly omit from it,--_Fiat voluntas +tua_. In being so, it sums the Christian prayer of all ages. See now, +in the third place, how far this king's letter I am going to read to +you sums also Christian Policy. + + "Wherefore I render high thanks to Almighty God, for the happy + accomplishment of all the desires which I have set before me, + and for the satisfying of my every wish. + + "Now therefore, be it known to you all, that to Almighty God + Himself I have, on my knees, devoted my life, to the end that + in all things I may do justice, and with justice and rightness + rule the kingdoms and peoples under me; throughout everything + preserving an impartial judgment. If, heretofore, I have, + through being, as young men are, impulsive or careless, done + anything unjust, I mean, with God's help, to lose no time + in remedying my fault. To which end I call to witness my + counsellors, to whom I have entrusted the counsels of the + kingdom, and I charge them that by no means, be it through + fear of me, or the favour of any other powerful personage, to + consent to any injustice, or to suffer any to shoot out in any + part of my kingdom. I charge all my viscounts and those set + over my whole kingdom, as they wish to keep my friendship or + their own safety, to use no unjust force to any man, rich or + poor; let all men, noble and not noble, rich and poor alike, + be able to obtain their rights under the law's justice; and + from that law let there be no deviation, either to favour the + king or any powerful person, nor to raise money for me. I have + no need of money raised by what is unfair. I also would have + you know that I go now to make peace and firm treaty by the + counsels of all my subjects, with those nations and people who + wished, had it been possible for them to do so, which it was + not, to deprive us alike of kingdom and of life. God brought + down their strength to nought: and may He of His benign love + preserve us on our throne and in honour. Lastly, when I have + made peace with the neighbouring nations, and settled and + pacified all my dominions in the East, so that we may nowhere + have any war or enmity to fear, I mean to come to England this + summer, as soon as I can fit out vessels to sail. My reason, + however, in sending this letter first is to let all the people + of my kingdom share in the joy of my welfare: for as you + yourselves know, I have never spared myself or my labour; nor + will I ever do so, where my people are really in want of some + good that I can do them." + +What think you now, in candour and honour, you youth of the latter +days,--what think you of these types of the thought, devotion, and +government, which not in words, but pregnant and perpetual fact, +animated these which you have been accustomed to call the Dark Ages? + +The Philosophy is Augustine's; the Prayer Alfred's; and the Letter +Canute's. + +And, whatever you may feel respecting the beauty or wisdom of these +sayings, be assured of one thing above all, that they are sincere; and +of another, less often observed, that they are joyful. + +Be assured, in the first place, that they are sincere, The ideas of +diplomacy and priestcraft are of recent times. No false knight or +lying priest ever prospered, I believe, in any age, but certainly +not in the dark ones. Men prospered then, only in following +openly-declared purposes, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted +creeds. + +And that they did so prosper, in the degree in which they accepted +and proclaimed the Christian Gospel, may be seen by any of you in your +historical reading, however partial, if only you will admit the idea +that it could be so, and was likely to be so. You are all of you in +the habit of supposing that temporal prosperity is owing either to +worldly chance or to worldly prudence; and is never granted in any +visible relation to states of religious temper. Put that treacherous +doubt away from you, with disdain; take for basis of reasoning +the noble postulate, that the elements of Christian faith are +sound,--instead of the base one, that they are deceptive; reread the +great story of the world in that light, and see what a vividly real, +yet miraculous tenor, it will then bear to you. + +Their faith then, I tell you first, was sincere; I tell you secondly +that it was, in a degree few of us can now conceive, joyful. We +continually hear of the trials, sometimes of the victories, of +Faith,--but scarcely ever of its pleasures. Whereas, at this time, +you will find that the chief delight of all good men was in the +recognition of the goodness and wisdom of the Master, who had come +to dwell with them upon earth. It is almost impossible for you to +conceive the vividness of this sense in them; it is totally impossible +for you to conceive the comfort, peace, and force of it. In everything +that you now do or seek, you expose yourselves to countless miseries +of shame and disappointment, because in your doing you depend on +nothing but your own powers, and in seeking choose only your own +gratification. You cannot for the most part conceive of any work but +for your own interests, or the interests of others about whom you are +anxious in the same faithless way; everything about which passion is +excited in you or skill exerted is some object of material life, and +the idea of doing anything except for your own praise or profit has +narrowed itself into little more than the precentor's invitation to +the company with little voice and less practice to "sing to the praise +and glory of God." + +I have said that you cannot imagine the feeling of the energy of daily +life applied in the real meaning of those words. You cannot imagine +it, but you _can_ prove it. Are any of you willing, simply as a +philosophical experiment in the greatest of sciences, to adopt the +principles and feelings of these men of a thousand years ago for a +given time, say for a year? It cannot possibly do you any harm to try, +and you cannot possibly learn what is true in these things, without +trying. If after a year's experience of such method you find yourself +no happier than before, at least you will be able to support your +present opinions at once with more grace and more modesty; having +conceded the trial it asked for, to the opposite side. Nor in acting +temporarily on a faith you do not see to be reasonable, do you +compromise your own integrity more, than in conducting, under a +chemist's directions, an experiment of which he foretells inexplicable +consequences. And you need not doubt the power you possess over +your own minds to do this. Were faith not voluntary, it could not be +praised, and would not be rewarded. + +If you are minded thus to try, begin each day with Alfred's +prayer,--fiat voluntas tua; resolving that you will stand to it, and +that nothing that happens in the course of the day shall displease +you. Then set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and +purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of +gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that +no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor +regret if it fail. Imagine that the thing is being done through you, +not by you; that the good of it may never be known, but that at least, +unless by your rebellion or foolishness, there can come no evil into +it, nor wrong chance to it. Resolve also with steady industry to do +what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the +honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, +nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you +will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your +own consciences, expressed approval, of God. Live thus, and believe, +and with swiftness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the +trust, most surely the God of hope will fill you with all joy and +peace in believing. + +But, if you will not do this, if you have not courage nor heart enough +to break away the fetters of earth, and take up the sensual bed of +it, and walk; if you say that you are _bound_ to win this thing, and +become the other thing, and that the wishes of your friends,--and +the interests of your family,--and the bias of your genius,--and the +expectations of your college,--and all the rest of the bow-wow-wow +of the wild dog-world, must be attended to, whether you like it +or no,--then, at least, for shame give up talk about being free or +independent creatures; recognize yourselves for slaves in whom the +thoughts are put in ward with their bodies, and their hearts manacled +with their hands: and then at least also, for shame, if you refuse to +believe that ever there were men who gave their souls to God,--know +and confess how surely there are those who sell them to His adversary. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +THE PLEASURES OF DEED. + +_ALFRED TO COEUR DE LION._ + + +It was my endeavour, in the preceding lecture, to vindicate the +thoughts and arts of our Saxon ancestors from whatever scorn might lie +couched under the terms applied to them by Dean Stanley,--'fantastic' +and 'childish.' To-day my task must be carried forward, first, in +asserting the grace in fantasy, and the force in infancy, of the +English mind, before the Conquest, against the allegations contained +in the final passage of Dean Stanley's description of the first +founded Westminster; a passage which accepts and asserts, more +distinctly than any other equally brief statement I have met with, +the to my mind extremely disputable theory, that the Norman invasion +was in every respect a sanitary, moral, and intellectual blessing to +England, and that the arrow which slew her Harold was indeed the Arrow +of the Lord's deliverance. + +"The Abbey itself," says Dean Stanley,--"the chief work of the +Confessor's life,--was the portent of the mighty future. When Harold +stood beside his sister Edith, on the day of the dedication, and +signed his name with hers as witness to the Charter of the Abbey, he +might have seen that he was sealing his own doom, and preparing for +his own destruction. The solid pillars, the ponderous arches, the huge +edifice, with triple tower and sculptured stones and storied windows, +that arose in the place and in the midst of the humble wooden churches +and wattled tenements of the Saxon period, might have warned the +nobles who were present that the days of their rule were numbered, +and that the _avenging, civilizing, stimulating_ hand of another and a +mightier race was at work, which would change the whole face of their +language, their manners, their Church, and their commonwealth. The +Abbey, so far exceeding the demands of the _dull and stagnant_ minds +of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was founded not only in faith, but in +hope: in the hope that England had yet a glorious career to run; that +the line of her sovereigns would not be broken, even when the race of +Alfred had ceased to reign." + +There must surely be some among my hearers who are startled, if +not offended, at being told in the terms which I emphasized in +this sentence, that the minds of our Saxon fathers were, although +fantastic, dull, and, although childish, stagnant; that farther, in +their fantastic stagnation; they were savage,--and in their innocent +dullness, criminal; so that the future character and fortune of +the race depended on the critical advent of the didactic and +disciplinarian Norman baron, at once to polish them, stimulate, and +chastise. + +Before I venture to say a word in distinct arrest of this judgment, +I will give you a chart, as clear as the facts observed in the two +previous lectures allow, of the state and prospects of the Saxons, +when this violent benediction of conquest happened to them: and +especially I would rescue, in the measure that justice bids, the +memory even of their Pagan religion from the general scorn in which +I used Carlyle's description of the idol of ancient Prussia as +universally exponent of the temper of Northern devotion. That +Triglaph, or Triglyph Idol, (derivation of Triglaph wholly unknown to +me--I use Triglyph only for my own handiest epithet), last set up, on +what is now St. Mary's hill in Brandenburg, in 1023, belonged indeed +to a people wonderfully like the Saxons,--geographically their close +neighbours,--in habits of life, and aspect of native land, scarcely +distinguishable from them,--in Carlyle's words, a "strong-boned, +iracund, herdsman and fisher people, highly averse to be interfered +with, in their religion especially, and inhabiting a moory flat +country, full of lakes and woods, but with plenty also of alluvial +mud, grassy, frugiferous, apt for the plough"--in all things like +the Saxons, except, as I read the matter, in that 'aversion to be +interfered with' which you modern English think an especially Saxon +character in you,--but which is, on the contrary, you will find on +examination, by no means Saxon; but only Wendisch, Czech, Serbic, +Sclavic,--other hard names I could easily find for it among the tribes +of that vehemently heathen old Preussen--"resolutely worshipful +of places of oak trees, of wooden or stone idols, of Bangputtis, +Patkullos, and I know not what diabolic dumb blocks." Your English +"dislike to be interfered with" is in absolute fellowship with these, +but only gathers itself in its places of Stalks, or chimneys, instead +of oak trees, round its idols of iron, instead of wood, diabolically +_vocal_ now; strident, and sibilant, instead of dumb. + +Far other than these, their neighbour Saxons, Jutes and +Angles!--tribes between whom the distinctions are of no moment +whatsoever, except that an English boy or girl may with grace remember +that 'Old England,' exactly and strictly so called, was the small +district in the extreme south of Denmark, totally with its islands +estimable at sixty miles square of dead flat land. Directly south +of it, the definitely so-called Saxons held the western shore of +Holstein, with the estuary of the Elbe, and the sea-mark isle, +Heligoland. But since the principal temple of Saxon worship was close +to Leipsic,[9] we may include under our general term, Saxons, the +inhabitants of the whole level district of North Germany, from the +Gulf of Flensburg to the Hartz; and, eastward, all the country watered +by the Elbe as far as Saxon Switzerland. + +[Footnote 9: Turner, vol. i., p. 223.] + +Of the character of this race I will not here speak at any length: +only note of it this essential point, that their religion was at +once more practical and more imaginative than that of the Norwegian +peninsula; the Norse religion being the conception rather of natural +than moral powers, but the Saxon, primarily of moral, as the lords +of natural--their central divine image, Irminsul,[10] holding the +standard of peace in her right hand, a balance in her left. Such a +religion may degenerate into mere slaughter and rapine; but it has the +making in it of the noblest men. + +[Footnote 10: Properly plural 'Images'--Irminsul and Irminsula.] + +More practical at all events, whether for good or evil, in this trust +in a future reward for courage and purity, than the mere Scandinavian +awe of existing Earth and Cloud, the Saxon religion was also more +imaginative, in its nearer conception of human feeling in divine +creatures. And when this wide hope and high reverence had distinct +objects of worship and prayer, offered to them by Christianity, the +Saxons easily became pure, passionate, and thoughtful Christians; +while the Normans, to the last, had the greatest difficulty in +apprehending the Christian teaching of the Franks, and still deny the +power of Christianity, even when they have become inveterate in its +form. + +Quite the deepest-thoughted creatures of the then animate world, it +seems to me, these Saxon ploughmen of the sand or the sea, with their +worshipped deity of Beauty and Justice, a red rose on her banner, for +best of gifts, and in her right hand, instead of a sword, a balance, +for due doom, without wrath,--of retribution in her left. Far +other than the Wends, though stubborn enough, they too, in battle +rank,--seven times rising from defeat against Charlemagne, and +unsubdued but by death--yet, by no means in that John Bull's manner +of yours, 'averse to be interfered with,' in their opinions, or their +religion. Eagerly docile on the contrary--joyfully reverent--instantly +and gratefully acceptant of whatever better insight or oversight a +stranger could bring them, of the things of God or man. + +And let me here ask you especially to take account of that origin of +the true bearing of the Flag of England, the Red Rose. Her own +madness defiled afterwards alike the white and red, into images of the +paleness, or the crimson, of death; but the Saxon Rose was the symbol +of heavenly beauty and peace. + +I told you in my first lecture that one swift requirement in our +school would be to produce a beautiful map of England, including +old Northumberland, giving the whole country, in its real geography, +between the Frith of Forth and Straits of Dover, and with only +six sites of habitation given, besides those of Edinburgh and +London,--namely, those of Canterbury and Winchester, York and +Lancaster, Holy Island and Melrose; the latter instead of Iona, +because, as we have seen, the influence of St. Columba expires +with the advance of Christianity, while that of Cuthbert of +Melrose connects itself with the most sacred feelings of the entire +Northumbrian kingdom, and Scottish border, down to the days of +Scott--wreathing also into its circle many of the legends of Arthur. +Will you forgive my connecting the personal memory of having once had +a wild rose gathered for me, in the glen of Thomas the Rhymer, by the +daughter of one of the few remaining Catholic houses of Scotland, with +the pleasure I have in reading to you this following true account +of the origin of the name of St. Cuthbert's birthplace;--the rather +because I owe it to friendship of the same date, with Mr. Cockburn +Muir, of Melrose. + +"To those who have eyes to read it," says Mr. Muir, "the name +'Melrose' is written full and fair, on the fair face of all this reach +of the valley. The name is anciently spelt Mailros, and later, Malros, +never Mulros; ('Mul' being the Celtic word taken to mean 'bare'). Ros +is Rose; the forms Meal or Mol imply great quantity or number. Thus +Malros means the place of many roses. + +"This is precisely the notable characteristic of the neighbourhood. +The wild rose is indigenous. There is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor +brae, which is not, in the time of roses, ablaze with their exuberant +loveliness. In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that it +spreads literally like a weed. But it is worth suggestion that the +word may be of the same stock as the Hebrew _rosh_ (translated ros +by the Septuagint), meaning _chief_, _principal_, while it is also +the name of _some_ flower; but of _which_ flower is now unknown. +Affinities of _rosh_ are not far to seek; Sanskrit, _Raj_(a), +_Ra_(ja)_ni_; Latin, _Rex_, _Reg_(ina)." + +I leave it to Professor Max Muller to certify or correct for you the +details of Mr. Cockburn's research,[11]--this main head of it I can +positively confirm, that in old Scotch,--that of Bishop Douglas,--the +word 'Rois' stands alike for King, and Rose. + +[Footnote 11: I had not time to quote it fully in the lecture; and in +my ignorance, alike of Keltic and Hebrew, can only submit it here to +the reader's examination. "The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms +this etymology beyond doubt, with customary heraldic precision. The +shield bears a _Rose_; with a _Maul_, as the exact phonetic equivalent +for the expletive. If the herald had needed to express 'bare +promontory,' quite certainly he would have managed it somehow. +Not only this, the Earls of Haddington were first created Earls +of _Melrose_ (1619); and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for +Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd (fesse wavy between) three _Roses_ gu. + +"Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus +into lingual affinities of wide range. The root _mol_ is clear enough. +It is of the same stock as the Greek _mala_, Latin _mul_(_tum_), and +Hebrew _m'la_. But, _Rose_? We call her Queen of Flowers, and since +before the Persian poets made much of her, she was everywhere _Regina +Florum_. Why should not the name mean simply the Queen, the Chief? +Now, so few who know Keltic know also Hebrew, and so few who know +Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the surprising extent of the +affinity that exists--clear as day--between the Keltic and the Hebrew +vocabularies. That the word _Rose_ may be a case in point is not +hazardously speculative."] + +Summing now the features I have too shortly specified in the Saxon +character,--its imagination, its docility, its love of knowledge, +and its love of beauty, you will be prepared to accept my conclusive +statement, that they gave rise to a form of Christian faith which +appears to me, in the present state of my knowledge, one of the +purest and most intellectual ever attained in Christendom;--never yet +understood, partly because of the extreme rudeness of its expression +in the art of manuscripts, and partly because, on account of its very +purity, it sought no expression in architecture, being a religion +of daily life, and humble lodging. For these two practical reasons, +first;--and for this more weighty third, that the intellectual +character of it is at the same time most truly, as Dean Stanley +told you, childlike; showing itself in swiftness of imaginative +apprehension, and in the fearlessly candid application of great +principles to small things. Its character in this kind may be +instantly felt by any sympathetic and gentle person who will read +carefully the book I have already quoted to you, the Venerable Bede's +life of St. Cuthbert; and the intensity and sincerity of it in the +highest orders of the laity, by simply counting the members of Saxon +Royal families who ended their lives in monasteries. + +Now, at the very moment when this faith, innocence, and ingenuity were +on the point of springing up into their fruitage, comes the Northern +invasion; of the real character of which you can gain a far truer +estimate by studying Alfred's former resolute contest with and victory +over the native Norman in his paganism, than by your utmost endeavours +to conceive the character of the afterwards invading Norman, +disguised, but not changed, by Christianity. The Norman could not, in +the nature of him, become a _Christian_ at all; and he never did;--he +only became, at his best, the enemy of the Saracen. What he was, and +what alone he was capable of being, I will try to-day to explain. + +And here I must advise you that in all points of history relating +to the period between 800 and 1200, you will find M. Viollet le +Duc, incidentally throughout his 'Dictionary of Architecture,' the +best-informed, most intelligent, and most thoughtful of guides. +His knowledge of architecture, carried down into the most minutely +practical details,--(which are often the most significant), and +embracing, over the entire surface of France, the buildings even of +the most secluded villages; his artistic enthusiasm, balanced by the +acutest sagacity, and his patriotism, by the frankest candour, render +his analysis of history during that active and constructive period the +most valuable known to me, and certainly, in its field, exhaustive. +Of the later nationality his account is imperfect, owing to his +professional interest in the mere _science_ of architecture, and +comparative insensibility to the power of sculpture;--but of the +time with which we are now concerned, whatever he tells you must be +regarded with grateful attention. + +I introduce, therefore, the Normans to you, on their first entering +France, under his descriptive terms of them.[12] + +[Footnote 12: Article "Architecture," vol. i., p. 138.] + +"As soon as they were established on the soil, these barbarians became +the most hardy and active builders. Within the space of a century +and a half, they had covered the country on which they had definitely +landed, with religious, monastic, and civil edifices, of an extent and +richness then little common. It is difficult to suppose that they had +brought from Norway the elements of art,[13] but they were possessed +by a persisting and penetrating spirit; their brutal force did not +want for grandeur. Conquerors, they raised castles to assure their +domination; they soon recognized the Moral force of the clergy, and +endowed it richly. Eager always to attain their end, when once they +saw it, they _never left one of their enterprises unfinished_, and +in that they differed completely from the Southern inhabitants of +Gaul. Tenacious extremely, they were perhaps the only ones among the +barbarians established in France who had ideas of order; the only ones +who knew how to preserve their conquests, and compose a state. They +found the remains of the Carthaginian arts on the territory where they +planted themselves, they mingled with those their national genius, +positive, grand, and yet supple." + +[Footnote 13: They _had_ brought some, of a variously Charybdic, +Serpentine, and Diabolic character.--J.R.] + +Supple, 'Delie,'--capable of change and play of the mental muscle, in +the way that savages are not. I do not, myself, grant this suppleness +to the Norman, the less because another sentence of M. le Duc's, +occurring incidentally in his account of the archivolt, is of extreme +counter-significance, and wide application. "The Norman arch," he +says, "is _never derived from traditional classic forms_, but only +from mathematical arrangement of line." Yes; that is true: the +Norman arch is never derived from classic forms. The cathedral,[14] +whose aisles you saw or might have seen, yesterday, interpenetrated +with light, whose vaults you might have heard prolonging the sweet +divisions of majestic sound, would have been built in that stately +symmetry by Norman law, though never an arch at Rome had risen round +her field of blood,--though never her Sublician bridge had been +petrified by her Augustan pontifices. But the _decoration_, though not +the structure of those arches, they owed to another race,[15] whose +words they stole without understanding, though three centuries before, +the Saxon understood, and used, to express the most solemn majesty of +his Kinghood,-- + + "EGO, EDGAR, TOTIVS ALBIONIS"-- + +not Rex, that would have meant the King of Kent or Mercia, not of +England,--no, nor Imperator; that would have meant only the profane +power of Rome, but _BASILEVS_, meaning a King who reigned with sacred +authority given by Heaven and Christ. + +[Footnote 14: Of Oxford, during the afternoon service.] + +[Footnote 15: See the concluding section of the lecture.] + +With far meaner thoughts, both of themselves and their powers, the +Normans set themselves to build impregnable military walls, and +sublime religious ones, in the best possible practical ways; but +they no more made books of their church fronts than of their bastion +flanks; and cared, in the religion they accepted, neither for its +sentiments nor its promises, but only for its immediate results on +national order. + +As I read them, they were men wholly of this world, bent on doing the +most in it, and making the best of it that they could;--men, to their +death, of _Deed_, never pausing, changing, repenting, or anticipating, +more than the completed square, [Greek: 'aneu psogou], of their +battle, their keep, and their cloister. Soldiers before and after +everything, they learned the lockings and bracings of their stones +primarily in defence against the battering-ram and the projectile, and +esteemed the pure circular arch for its distributed and equal strength +more than for its beauty. "I believe again," says M. le Duc,[16] "that +the feudal castle never arrived at its perfectness till after the +Norman invasion, and that this race of the North was the first to +apply a defensive system under unquestionable laws, soon followed by +the nobles of the Continent, after they had, at their own expense, +learned their superiority." + +[Footnote 16: Article "Chateau," vol. iii, p. 65.] + +The next sentence is a curious one. I pray your attention to it. "The +defensive system of the Norman is born of a profound sentiment of +_distrust_ and _cunning, foreign to the character of the Frank_." +You will find in all my previous notices of the French, continual +insistance upon their natural Franchise, and also, if you take the +least pains in analysis of their literature down to this day, that +the idea of falseness is to them indeed more hateful than to any other +European nation. To take a quite cardinal instance. If you compare +Lucian's and Shakespeare's Timon with Moliere's Alceste, you will find +the Greek and English misanthropes dwell only on men's _ingratitude_ +to _themselves_, but Alceste, on their _falsehood to each other_. + +Now hear M. le Duc farther: + +"The castles built between the tenth and twelfth centuries along the +Loire, Gironde, and Seine, that is to say, along the lines of the +Norman invasions, and in the neighbourhood of their possessions, have +a peculiar and uniform character which one finds neither in central +France, nor in Burgundy, nor can there be any need for us to throw +light on (_faire ressortir_) the superiority of the warrior spirit +of the Normans, during the later times of the Carlovingian epoch, +over the spirit of the chiefs of Frank descent, established on the +Gallo-Roman soil." There's a bit of honesty in a Frenchman for you! + +I have just said that they valued religion chiefly for its influence +of order in the present world: being in this, observe, as nearly as +may be the exact reverse of modern believers, or persons who profess +to be such,--of whom it may be generally alleged, too truly, that they +value religion with respect to their future bliss rather than their +present duty; and are therefore continually careless of its direct +commands, with easy excuse to themselves for disobedience to them. +Whereas the Norman, finding in his own heart an irresistible impulse +to action, and perceiving himself to be set, with entirely strong +body, brain, and will, in the midst of a weak and dissolute confusion +of all things, takes from the Bible instantly into his conscience +every exhortation to Do and to Govern; and becomes, with all his might +and understanding, a blunt and rough servant, knecht, or knight of +God, liable to much misapprehension, of course, as to the services +immediately required of him, but supposing, since the whole make of +him, outside and in, is a soldier's, that God meant him for a soldier, +and that he is to establish, by main force, the Christian faith and +works all over the world so far as he comprehends them; not merely +with the Mahometan indignation against spiritual error, but with a +sound and honest soul's dislike of material error, and resolution to +extinguish _that_, even if perchance found in the spiritual persons to +whom, in their office, he yet rendered total reverence. + +Which force and faith in him I may best illustrate by merely putting +together the broken paragraphs of Sismondi's account of the founding +of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily: virtually contemporary with the +conquest of England. + +"The Normans surpassed all the races of the west in their ardour for +pilgrimages. They would not, to go into the Holy Land, submit to the +monotony[17] of a long sea voyage--the rather that they found not +on the Mediterranean the storms or dangers they had rejoiced to +encounter on their own sea. They traversed by land the whole of +France and Italy, trusting to their swords to procure the necessary +subsistence,[18] if the charity of the faithful did not enough provide +for it with alms. The towns of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, and Bari, held +constant commerce with Syria; and frequent miracles, it was believed, +illustrated the Monte Cassino (St. Benedict again!) on the road of +Naples, and the Mount of Angels (Garganus) above Bari." (Querceta +Gargani--verily, laborant; _now_, et orant.) "The pilgrims wished +to visit during their journey the monasteries built on these two +mountains, and therefore nearly always, either going or returning to +the Holy Land, passed through Magna Graecia. + +[Footnote 17: I give Sismondi's idea as it stands, but there was no +question in the matter of monotony or of danger. The journey was made +on foot because it was the most laborious way, and the most humble.] + +[Footnote 18: See farther on, p. 110, the analogies with English +arrangements of the same kind.] + +"In one of the earliest years of the eleventh century, about forty +of these religious travellers, having returned from the Holy Land, +chanced to have met together in Salerno at the moment when a small +Saracen fleet came to insult the town, and demand of it a military +contribution. The inhabitants of South Italy, at this time, abandoned +to the delights of their enchanted climate, had lost nearly all +military courage. The Salernitani saw with astonishment forty Norman +knights, after having demanded horses and arms from the Prince of +Salerno, order the gates of the town to be opened, charge the Saracens +fearlessly, and put them to flight. The Salernitani followed, however, +the example given them by these brave warriors, and those of the +Mussulmans who escaped their swords were forced to re-embark in all +haste. + +"The Prince of Salerno, Guaimar III., tried in vain to keep the +warrior-pilgrims at his court: but at his solicitation other companies +established themselves on the rocks of Salerno and Amalfi, until, +on Christmas Day, 1041, (exactly a quarter of a century before the +coronation here at Westminster of the Conqueror,) they gathered +their scattered forces at Aversa,[19] twelve groups of them +under twelve chosen counts, and all under the Lombard Ardoin, as +commander-in-chief." Be so good as to note that,--a marvellous +key-note of historical fact about the unjesting Lombards, I cannot +find the total Norman number: the chief contingent, under William +of the Iron Arm, the son of Tancred of Hauteville, was only of three +hundred knights; the Count of Aversa's troop, of the same number, is +named as an important part of the little army--admit it for ten times +Tancred's, three thousand men in all. At Aversa, these three thousand +men form, coolly on Christmas Day, 1041, the design of--well, I told +you they didn't _design_ much, only, now we're here, we may as well, +while we're about it,--overthrow the Greek empire! That was their +little game!--a Christmas mumming to purpose. The following year, the +whole of Apulia was divided among them. + +[Footnote 19: In Lombardy, south of Pavia.] + +I will not spoil, by abstracting, the magnificent following history +of Robert Guiscard, the most wonderful soldier of that or any other +time: I leave you to finish it for yourselves, only asking you to read +together with it, the sketch, in Turner's history of the Anglo-Saxons, +of Alfred's long previous war with the Norman Hasting; pointing out to +you for foci of character in each contest, the culminating incidents +of naval battle. In Guiscard's struggle with the Greeks, he encounters +for their chief naval force the Venetian fleet under the Doge Domenico +Selvo. The Venetians are at this moment undoubted masters in all naval +warfare; the Normans are worsted easily the first day,--the second +day, fighting harder, they are defeated again, and so disastrously +that the Venetian Doge takes no precautions against them on the third +day, thinking them utterly disabled. Guiscard attacks him again on the +third day, with the mere wreck of his own ships, and defeats the tired +and amazed Italians finally! + +The sea-fight between Alfred's ships and those of Hasting, ought to +be still more memorable to us. Alfred, as I noticed in last lecture, +had built war ships nearly twice as long as the Normans', swifter, +and steadier on the waves. Six Norman ships were ravaging the Isle +of Wight; Alfred sent nine of his own to take them. The King's fleet +found the Northmen's embayed, and three of them aground. The three +others _engaged Alfred's nine, twice their size_; two of the Viking +ships were taken, but the third escaped, with only five men! A nation +which verily took its pleasures in its Deeds. + +But before I can illustrate farther either their deeds or their +religion, I must for an instant meet the objection which I suppose the +extreme probity of the nineteenth century must feel acutely against +these men,--that they all lived by thieving. + +Without venturing to allude to the _raison d'etre_ of the present +French and English Stock Exchanges, I will merely ask any of you here, +whether of Saxon or Norman blood, to define for himself what he means +by the "possession of India." I have no doubt that you all wish to +keep India in order, and in like manner I have assured you that Duke +William wished to keep England in order. If you will read the lecture +on the life of Sir Herbert Edwardes, which I hope to give in London +after finishing this course,[20] you will see how a Christian British +officer can, and does, verily, and with his whole heart, keep in order +such part of India as may be entrusted to him, and in so doing, secure +our Empire. But the silent feeling and practice of the nation about +India is based on quite other motives than Sir Herbert's. Every +mutiny, every danger, every terror, and every crime, occurring under, +or paralyzing, our Indian legislation, arises directly out of our +national desire to live on the loot of India, and the notion always +entertained by English young gentlemen and ladies of good position, +falling in love with each other without immediate prospect +of establishment in Belgrave Square, that they can find in +India, instantly on landing, a bungalow ready furnished with +the loveliest fans, china, and shawls,--ices and sherbet at +command,--four-and-twenty slaves succeeding each other hourly to +swing the punkah, and a regiment with a beautiful band to "keep order" +outside, all round the house. + +[Footnote 20: This was prevented by the necessity for the +re-arrangement of my terminal Oxford lectures: I am now preparing that +on Sir Herbert for publication in a somewhat expanded form.] + +Entreating your pardon for what may seem rude in these personal +remarks, I will further entreat you to read my account of the death +of Coeur de Lion in the third number of 'Fors Clavigera'--and also the +scenes in 'Ivanhoe' between Coeur de Lion and Locksley; and commending +these few passages to your quiet consideration, I proceed to give you +another anecdote or two of the Normans in Italy, twelve years later +than those given above, and, therefore, only thirteen years before the +battle of Hastings. + +Their division of South Italy among them especially, and their defeat +of Venice, had alarmed everybody considerably,--especially the Pope, +Leo IX., who did not understand this manifestation of their piety. He +sent to Henry III. of Germany, to whom he owed his Popedom, for some +German knights, and got five hundred spears; gathered out of all +Apulia, Campania, and the March of Ancona, what Greek and Latin troops +were to be had, to join his own army of the patrimony of St. Peter; +and the holy Pontiff, with this numerous army, but no general, began +the campaign by a pilgrimage with all his troops to Monte Cassino, in +order to obtain, if it might be, St. Benedict for general. + +Against the Pope's collected masses, with St. Benedict, their +contemplative but at first inactive general, stood the little army of +Normans,--certainly not more than the third of their number--but with +Robert Guiscard for captain, and under him his brother, Humphrey of +Hauteville, and Richard of Aversa. Not in fear, but in devotion, they +prayed the Pope 'avec instance,'--to say on what conditions they could +appease his anger, and live in peace under him. But the Pope would +hear of nothing but their evacuation of Italy. Whereupon, they had to +settle the question in the Norman manner. + +The two armies met in front of Civitella, on Waterloo day, 18th June, +thirteen years, as I said, before the battle of Hastings. The German +knights were the heart of the Pope's army, but they were only five +hundred; the Normans surrounded _them_ first, and slew them, nearly +to a man--and then made extremely short work with the Italians and +Greeks. The Pope, with the wreck of them, fled into Civitella; but the +townspeople dared not defend their walls, and thrust the Pope himself +out of their gates--to meet, alone, the Norman army. + +He met it, _not_ alone, St. Benedict being with him now, when he had +no longer the strength of man to trust in. + +The Normans, as they approached him, threw themselves on their +knees,--covered themselves with dust, and implored his pardon and his +blessing. + +There's a bit of poetry--if you like,--but a piece of steel-clad fact +also, compared to which the battle of Hastings and Waterloo both, were +mere boys' squabbles. + +You don't suppose, you British schoolboys, that _you_ overthrew +Napoleon--_you?_ Your prime Minister folded up the map of Europe at +the thought of him. Not you, but the snows of Heaven, and the hand of +Him who dasheth in pieces with a rod of iron. He casteth forth His ice +like morsels,--who can stand before His cold? + +But, so far as you have indeed the right to trust in the courage of +your own hearts, remember also--it is not in Norman nor Saxon, but in +Celtic race that your real strength lies. The battles both of Waterloo +and Alma were won by Irish and Scots--by the terrible Scots Greys, and +by Sir Colin's Highlanders. Your 'thin red line,' was kept steady at +Alma only by Colonel Yea's swearing at them. + +But the old Pope, alone against a Norman army, wanted nobody to swear +at him. Steady enough he, having somebody to bless him, instead of +swear at him. St. Benedict, namely; whose (memory shall we say?) +helped him now at his pinch in a singular manner,--for the Normans, +having got the old man's forgiveness, vowed themselves his feudal +servants; and for seven centuries afterwards the whole kingdom of +Naples remained a fief of St. Peter,--won for him thus by a single +man, unarmed, against three thousand Norman knights, captained by +Robert Guiscard! + +A day of deeds, gentlemen, to some purpose,--_that_ 18th of June, +anyhow. + +Here, in the historical account of Norman character, I must +unwillingly stop for to-day--because, as you choose to spend your +University money in building ball-rooms instead of lecture-rooms, I +dare not keep you much longer in this black hole, with its nineteenth +century ventilation. I try your patience--and tax your breath--only +for a few minutes more in drawing the necessary corollaries respecting +Norman art.[21] + +[Footnote 21: Given at much greater length in the lecture, with +diagrams from Iffley and Poictiers, without which the text of them +would be unintelligible. The sum of what I said was a strong assertion +of the incapacity of the Normans for any but the rudest and most +grotesque sculpture,--Poictiers being, on the contrary, examined and +praised as Gallic-French--not Norman.] + +How far the existing British nation owes its military prowess to +the blood of Normandy and Anjou, I have never examined its genealogy +enough to tell you;--but this I can tell you positively, that whatever +constitutional order or personal valour the Normans enforced or taught +among the nations they conquered, they did not at first attempt with +their own hands to rival them in any of their finer arts, but used +both Greek and Saxon sculptors, either as slaves, or hired workmen, +and more or less therefore chilled and degraded the hearts of the men +thus set to servile, or at best, hireling, labour. + +In 1874, I went to see Etna, Scylla, Charybdis, and the tombs of the +Norman Kings at Palermo; surprised, as you may imagine, to find that +there wasn't a stroke nor a notion of Norman work in them. They are, +every atom, done by Greeks, and are as pure Greek as the temple of +AEgina; but more rich and refined. I drew with accurate care, and +with measured profile of every moulding, the tomb built for Roger +II. (afterwards Frederick II. was laid in its dark porphyry). And it +is a perfect type of the Greek-Christian form of tomb--temple over +sarcophagus, in which the pediments rise gradually, as time goes on, +into acute angles--get pierced in the gable with foils, and their +sculptures thrown outside on their flanks, and become at last in the +fourteenth century, the tombs of Verona. But what is the meaning of +the Normans employing these Greek slaves for their work in Sicily +(within thirty miles of the field of Himera)? Well, the main meaning +is that though the Normans could build, they couldn't carve, and were +wise enough not to try to, when they couldn't, as you do now all over +this intensely comic and tragic town: but, here in England, they only +employed the Saxon with a grudge, and therefore being more and more +driven to use barren mouldings without sculpture, gradually developed +the structural forms of archivolt, which breaking into the lancet, +brighten and balance themselves into the symmetry of early English +Gothic. + +But even for the first decoration of the archivolt itself, they were +probably indebted to the Greeks in a degree I never apprehended, until +by pure happy chance, a friend gave me the clue to it just as I was +writing the last pages of this lecture. + +In the generalization of ornament attempted in the first volume of +the 'Stones of Venice,' I supposed the Norman _zigzag_ (and with some +practical truth) to be derived from the angular notches with which the +blow of an axe can most easily decorate, or at least vary, the solid +edge of a square fillet. My good friend, and supporter, and for some +time back the single trustee of St. George's Guild, Mr. George Baker, +having come to Oxford on Guild business, I happened to show him the +photographs of the front of Iffley church, which had been collected +for this lecture; and immediately afterwards, in taking him through +the schools, stopped to show him the Athena of AEgina as one of +the most important of the Greek examples lately obtained for us by +Professor Richmond. The statue is (rightly) so placed that in looking +up to it, the plait of hair across the forehead is seen in a steeply +curved arch. "Why," says Mr. Baker, pointing to it, "there's the +Norman arch of Iffley." Sure enough, there it exactly was: and a +moment's reflection showed me how easily, and with what instinctive +fitness, the Norman builders, looking to the Greeks as their absolute +masters in sculpture, and recognizing also, during the Crusades, the +hieroglyphic use of the zigzag, for water, by the Egyptians, might +have adopted this easily attained decoration at once as the sign of +the element over which they reigned, and of the power of the Greek +goddess who ruled both it and them. + +I do not in the least press your acceptance of such a tradition, +nor for the rest, do I care myself whence any method of ornament is +derived, if only, as a stranger, you bid it reverent welcome. But much +probability is added to the conjecture by the indisputable transition +of the Greek egg and arrow moulding into the floral cornices of Saxon +and other twelfth century cathedrals in Central France. These and +other such transitions and exaltations I will give you the materials +to study at your leisure, after illustrating in my next lecture the +forces of religious imagination by which all that was most beautiful +in them was inspired. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +(_NOV. 8, 1884._) + +THE PLEASURES OF FANCY. + +_COEUR DE LION TO ELIZABETH_ + +(1189 TO 1558). + + +In using the word "Fancy," for the mental faculties of which I am to +speak to-day, I trust you, at your leisure, to read the Introductory +Note to the second volume of 'Modern Painters' in the small new +edition, which gives sufficient reason for practically including +under the single term Fancy, or Fantasy, all the energies of the +Imagination,--in the terms of the last sentence of that preface,--"the +healthy, voluntary, and necessary,[22] action of the highest powers +of the human mind, on subjects properly demanding and justifying their +exertion." + +[Footnote 22: Meaning that all healthy minds possess imagination, and +use it at will, under fixed laws of truthful perception and memory.] + +I must farther ask you to read, in the same volume, the close of the +chapter 'Of Imagination Penetrative,' pp. 120 to 130, of which the +gist, which I must give as the first principle from which we start in +our to-day's inquiry, is that "Imagination, rightly so called, has no +food, no delight, no care, no perception, except of truth; it is for +ever looking under masks, and burning up mists; no fairness of form, +no majesty of seeming, will satisfy it; the first condition of its +existence is incapability of being deceived."[23] In that sentence, +which is a part, and a very valuable part, of the original book, I +still adopted and used unnecessarily the ordinary distinction between +Fancy and Imagination--Fancy concerned with lighter things, creating +fairies or centaurs, and Imagination creating men; and I was in +the habit always of implying by the meaner word Fancy, a voluntary +Fallacy, as Wordsworth does in those lines to his wife, making of her +a mere lay figure for the drapery of his fancy-- + + Such if thou wert, in all men's view + An universal show, + What would my Fancy have to do, + My feelings to bestow. + +But you will at once understand the higher and more universal power +which I now wish you to understand by the Fancy, including all +imaginative energy, correcting these lines of Wordsworth's to a more +worthy description of a true lover's happiness. When a boy falls in +love with a girl, you say he has taken a fancy for her; but if he love +her rightly, that is to say for her noble qualities, you ought to say +he has taken an imagination for her; for then he is endued with the +new light of love which sees and tells of the mind in her,--and this +neither falsely nor vainly. His love does not bestow, it discovers, +what is indeed most precious in his mistress, and most needful for +his own life and happiness. Day by day, as he loves her better, he +discerns her more truly; and it is only the truth of his love that +does so. Falsehood to her, would at once disenchant and blind him. + +[Footnote 23: Vide pp. 124-5.] + +In my first lecture of this year, I pointed out to you with what +extreme simplicity and reality the Christian faith must have presented +itself to the Northern Pagan's mind, in its distinction from +his former confused and monstrous mythology. It was also in that +simplicity and tangible reality of conception, that this Faith became +to them, and to the other savage nations of Europe, Tutress of the +real power of their imagination and it became so, only in so far as +it indeed conveyed to them statements which, however in some respects +mysterious, were yet most literally and brightly _true_, as compared +with their former conceptions. So that while the blind cunning of +the savage had produced only misshapen logs or scrawls; the _seeing_ +imagination of the Christian painters created, for them and for all +the world, the perfect types of the Virgin and of her Son; which +became, indeed, Divine, by being, with the most affectionate truth, +human. + +And the association of this truth in loving conception, with the +general honesty and truth of the character, is again conclusively +shown in the feelings of the lover to his mistress; which we recognize +as first reaching their height in the days of chivalry. The truth and +faith of the lover, and his piety to Heaven, are the foundation, in +his character, of all the joy in imagination which he can receive +from the conception of his lady's--now no more mortal--beauty. She is +indeed transfigured before him; but the truth of the transfiguration +is greater than that of the lightless aspect she bears to others. When +therefore, in my next lecture, I speak of the Pleasures of Truth, +as distinct from those of the Imagination,--if either the limits +or clearness of brief title had permitted me, I should have said, +_untransfigured_ truth;--meaning on the one side, truth which we have +not heart enough to transfigure, and on the other, truth of the lower +kind which is incapable of transfiguration. One may look at a girl +till one believes she is an angel; because, in the best of her, she +_is_ one; but one can't look at a cockchafer till one believes it is a +girl. + +With this warning of the connection which exists between the honest +intellect and the healthy imagination; and using henceforward the +shorter word 'Fancy' for all inventive vision, I proceed to consider +with you the meaning and consequences of the frank and eager exertion +of the fancy on Religious subjects, between the twelfth and sixteenth +centuries. + +Its first, and admittedly most questionable action, the promotion +of the group of martyr saints of the third century to thrones of +uncontested dominion in heaven, had better be distinctly understood, +before we debate of it, either with the Iconoclast or the Rationalist. +This apotheosis by the Imagination is the subject of my present +lecture. To-day I only describe it,--in my next lecture I will discuss +it. + +Observe, however, that in giving such a history of the mental +constitution of nascent Christianity, we have to deal with, and +carefully to distinguish, two entirely different orders in its +accepted hierarchy:--one, scarcely founded at all on personal +characters or acts, but mythic or symbolic; often merely the revival, +the baptized resuscitation of a Pagan deity, or the personified +omnipresence of a Christian virtue;--the other, a senate of Patres +Conscripti of real persons, great in genius, and perfect, humanly +speaking, in holiness; who by their personal force and inspired +wisdom, wrought the plastic body of the Church into such noble form +as in each of their epochs it was able to receive; and on the right +understanding of whose lives, nor less of the affectionate traditions +which magnified and illumined their memories, must absolutely depend +the value of every estimate we form, whether of the nature of the +Christian Church herself, or of the directness of spiritual agency by +which she was guided.[24] + +[Footnote 24: If the reader believes in no spiritual agency, still his +understanding of the first letters in the Alphabet of History depends +on his comprehending rightly the tempers of the people who _did_.] + +An important distinction, therefore, is to be noted at the outset, +in the objects of this Apotheosis, according as they are, or are not, +real persons. + +Of these two great orders of Saints, the first; or mythic, +belongs--speaking broadly--to the southern or Greek Church alone. + +The Gothic Christians, once detached from the worship of Odin and +Thor, abjure from their hearts all trust in the elements, and all +worship of ideas. They will have their Saints in flesh and blood, +their Angels in plume and armour; and nothing incorporeal or +invisible. In all the Religious sculpture beside Loire and Seine, you +will not find either of the great rivers personified; the dress of the +highest seraph is of true steel or sound broadcloth, neither flecked +by hail, nor fringed by thunder; and while the ideal Charity of Giotto +at Padua presents her heart in her hand to God, and tramples at the +same instant on bags of gold, the treasures of the world, and gives +only corn and flowers; that on the west porch of Amiens is content to +clothe a beggar with a piece of the staple manufacture of the town. + +On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to find in the imagery of +the Greek Church, under the former exercise of the Imagination, a +representation either of man or beast which purports to represent +_only_ the person, or the brute. Every mortal creature stands for an +Immortal Intelligence or Influence: a Lamb means an Apostle, a Lion an +Evangelist, an Angel the Eternal justice or benevolence; and the most +historical and indubitable of Saints are compelled to set forth, in +their vulgarly apparent persons, a Platonic myth or an Athanasian +article. + +I therefore take note first of the mythic saints in succession, whom +this treatment of them by the Byzantine Church made afterwards the +favourite idols of all Christendom. + +I. The most mythic is of course St. Sophia; the shade of the Greek +Athena, passing into the 'Wisdom' of the Jewish Proverbs and Psalms, +and the Apocryphal 'Wisdom of Solomon.' She always remains understood +as a personification only; and has no direct influence on the mind +of the unlearned multitude of Western Christendom, except as a +godmother,--in which kindly function she is more and more accepted as +times go on; her healthy influence being perhaps greater over sweet +vicars' daughters in Wakefield--when Wakefield _was_,--than over the +prudentest of the rarely prudent Empresses of Byzantium. + +II. Of St. Catharine of Egypt there are vestiges of personal tradition +which may perhaps permit the supposition of her having really once +existed, as a very lovely, witty, proud, and 'fanciful' girl. She +afterwards becomes the Christian type of the Bride, in the 'Song of +Solomon,' involved with an ideal of all that is purest in the life of +a nun, and brightest in the death of a martyr. It is scarcely possible +to overrate the influence of the conceptions formed of her, in +ennobling the sentiments of Christian women of the higher orders;--to +their practical common sense, as the mistresses of a household or a +nation, her example may have been less conducive. + +III. St. Barbara, also an Egyptian, and St. Catharine's contemporary, +though the most practical of the mythic saints, is also, after St. +Sophia, the least corporeal: she vanishes far away into the 'Inclusa +Danae,' and her "Tunis aenea" becomes a myth of Christian safety, of +which the Scriptural significance may be enough felt by merely looking +out the texts under the word "Tower," in your concordance; and whose +effectual power, in the fortitudes alike of matter and spirit, was in +all probability made impressive enough to all Christendom, both by +the fortifications and persecutions of Diocletian. I have endeavoured +to mark her general relations to St. Sophia in the little imaginary +dialogue between them, given in the eighth lecture of the 'Ethics of +the Dust.' + +Afterwards, as Gothic architecture becomes dominant, and at last +beyond question the most wonderful of all temple-building, St. +Barbara's Tower is, of course, its perfected symbol and utmost +achievement; and whether in the coronets of countless battlements worn +on the brows of the noblest cities, or in the Lombard bell-tower on +the mountains, and the English spire on Sarum plain, the geometric +majesty of the Egyptian maid became glorious in harmony of defence, +and sacred with precision of symbol. + +As the buildings which showed her utmost skill were chiefly exposed +to lightning, she is invoked in defence from it; and our petition +in the Litany, against sudden death, was written originally to her. +The blasphemous corruptions of her into a patroness of cannon and +gunpowder, are among the most ludicrous, (because precisely contrary +to the original tradition,) as well as the most deadly, insolences and +stupidities of Renaissance Art. + +IV. St. Margaret of Antioch was a shepherdess; the St. Genevieve of +the East; the type of feminine gentleness and simplicity. Traditions +of the resurrection of Alcestis perhaps mingle in those of her contest +with the dragon; but at all events, she differs from the other three +great mythic saints, in expressing the soul's victory over temptation +or affliction, by Christ's miraculous help, and without any special +power of its own. She is the saint of the meek and of the poor; her +virtue and her victory are those of all gracious and lowly womanhood; +and her memory is consecrated among the gentle households of Europe; +no other name, except those of Jeanne and Jeanie, seems so gifted with +a baptismal fairy power of giving grace and peace. + +I must be forgiven for thinking, even on this canonical ground, +not only of Jeanie Deans, and Margaret of Branksome; but of +Meg--Merrilies. My readers will, I fear, choose rather to think of the +more doubtful victory over the Dragon, won by the great Margaret of +German literature. + +V. With much more clearness and historic comfort we may approach the +shrine of St. Cecilia; and even on the most prosaic and realistic +minds--such as my own--a visit to her house in Rome has a comforting +and establishing effect, which reminds one of the carter in 'Harry +and Lucy,' who is convinced of the truth of a plaustral catastrophe at +first incredible to him, as soon as he hears the name of the hill on +which it happened. The ruling conception of her is deepened gradually +by the enlarged study of Religious music; and is at its best and +highest in the thirteenth century, when she rather resists than +complies with the already tempting and distracting powers of sound; +and we are told that "cantantibus organis, Cecilia virgo in corde suo +soli Domino decantabat, dicens, 'Fiat, Domine, cor meum et corpus meum +immaculatum, ut non confundar.'" + +("While the instruments played, Cecilia the virgin sang in her +heart only to the Lord, saying, Oh Lord, be my heart and body made +stainless, that I be not confounded.") + +This sentence occurs in my great Service-book of the convent of +Beau-pre, written in 1290, and it is illustrated with a miniature of +Cecilia sitting silent at a banquet, where all manner of musicians are +playing. I need not point out to you how the law, not of sacred music +only, so called, but of _all_ music, is determined by this sentence; +which means in effect that unless music exalt and purify, it is not +under St. Cecilia's ordinance, and it is not, virtually, music at all. + +Her confessed power at last expires amidst a hubbub of odes and +sonatas; and I suppose her presence at a Morning Popular is as little +anticipated as desired. Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints +for ever the greatest; and the child in its nurse's arms, and every +tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify in itself,--as the +eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing,--may still, whether behind the +Temple veil,[25] or at the fireside, and by the wayside, hear Cecilia +sing. + + [Footnote 25:"But, standing in the lowest place, + And mingled with the work-day crowd, + A poor man looks, with lifted face, + And hears the Angels cry aloud. + + "He seeks not how each instant flies, + One moment is Eternity; + His spirit with the Angels cries + To Thee, to Thee, continually. + + "What if, Isaiah-like, he know + His heart be weak, his lips unclean, + His nature vile, his office low, + His dwelling and his people mean? + + "To such the Angels spake of old-- + To such of yore, the glory came; + These altar fires can ne'er grow cold: + Then be it his, that cleansing flame." + +These verses, part of a very lovely poem, "To Thee all Angels cry +aloud," in the 'Monthly Packet' for September 1873, are only signed +'Veritas.' The volume for that year (the 16th) is well worth getting, +for the sake of the admirable papers in it by Miss Sewell, on +questions of the day; by Miss A.C. Owen, on Christian Art; and the +unsigned Cameos from English History.] + +It would delay me too long just now to trace in specialty farther the +functions of the mythic, or, as in another sense they may be truly +called, the universal, Saints: the next greatest of them, St. Ursula, +is essentially British,--and you will find enough about her in +'Fors Clavigera'; the others, I will simply give you in entirely +authoritative order from the St. Louis' Psalter, as he read and +thought of them. + +The proper Service-book of the thirteenth century consists first +of the pure Psalter; then of certain essential passages of the Old +Testament--invariably the Song of Miriam at the Red Sea and the last +song of Moses;--ordinarily also the 12th of Isaiah and the prayer of +Habakkuk; while St. Louis' Psalter has also the prayer of Hannah, +and that of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20); the Song of the Three +Children; then the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. +Then follows the Athanasian Creed; and then, as in all Psalters after +their chosen Scripture passages, the collects to the Virgin, the +Te Deum, and Service to Christ, beginning with the Psalm 'The Lord +reigneth'; and then the collects to the greater individual saints, +closing with the Litany, or constant prayer for mercy to Christ, and +all saints; of whom the order is,--Archangels, Patriarchs, Apostles, +Disciples, Innocents, Martyrs, Confessors, Monks, and Virgins. Of +women the Magdalen _always_ leads; St. Mary of Egypt usually follows, +but _may_ be the last. Then the order varies in every place, and +prayer-book, no recognizable supremacy being traceable; except in +relation to the place, or person, for whom the book was written. In +St. Louis', St. Genevieve (the last saint to whom he prayed on his +death-bed) follows the two Maries; then come--memorable for you best, +as easiest, in this six-foil group,--Saints Catharine, Margaret, and +Scolastica, Agatha, Cecilia, and Agnes; and then ten more, whom +you may learn or not as you like: I note them now only for future +reference,--more lively and easy for your learning,--by their French +names, + +Felicite, + +Colombe, + +Christine, + + * * * * * + +Auree, Honorine, + + * * * * * + +Radegonde, + +Praxede, + +Euphemie, + + * * * * * + +Bathilde, Eugenie. + +Such was the system of Theology into which the Imaginative Religion of +Europe was crystallized, by the growth of its own best faculties, and +the influence of all accessible and credible authorities, during the +period between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries inclusive. Its +spiritual power is completely represented by the angelic and apostolic +dynasties, and the women-saints in Paradise; for of the men-saints, +beneath the apostles and prophets, none but St. Christopher, St. +Nicholas, St. Anthony, St. James, and St. George, attained anything +like the influence of Catharine or Cecilia; for the very curious +reason, that the men-saints were much more true, real, and numerous. +St. Martin was reverenced all over Europe, but definitely, as a man, +and the Bishop of Tours. So St. Ambrose at Milan, and St. Gregory at +Rome, and hundreds of good men more, all over the world; while the +really good women remained, though not rare, inconspicuous. The +virtues of French Clotilde, and Swiss Berthe, were painfully borne +down in the balance of visible judgment, by the guilt of the Gonerils, +Regans, and Lady Macbeths, whose spectral procession closes only +with the figure of Eleanor in Woodstock maze; and in dearth of +nearer objects, the daily brighter powers of fancy dwelt with +more concentrated devotion on the stainless ideals of the earlier +maid-martyrs. And observe, even the loftier fame of the men-saints +above named, as compared with the rest, depends on precisely the same +character of indefinite personality; and on the representation, by +each of them, of a moral idea which may be embodied and painted in +a miraculous legend; credible, as history, even then, only to the +vulgar; but powerful over them, nevertheless, exactly in proportion +to the degree in which it can be pictured and fancied as a living +creature. Consider even yet in these days of mechanism, how the +dullest John Bull cannot with perfect complacency adore _himself_, +except under the figure of Britannia or the British Lion; and how the +existence of the popular jest-book, which might have seemed secure in +its necessity to our weekly recreation, is yet virtually centred on +the imaginary animation of a puppet, and the imaginary elevation to +reason of a dog. But in the Middle Ages, this action of the Fancy, +now distorted and despised, was the happy and sacred tutress of every +faculty of the body and soul; and the works and thoughts of art, the +joys and toils of men, rose and flowed on in the bright air of it, +with the aspiration of a flame, and the beneficence of a fountain. + +And now, in the rest of my lecture, I had intended to give you a broad +summary of the rise and fall of English art, born under this code of +theology, and this enthusiasm of duty;--of its rise, from the rude +vaults of Westminster, to the finished majesty of Wells;--and of its +fall, from that brief hour of the thirteenth century, through the wars +of the Bolingbroke, and the pride of the Tudor, and the lust of the +Stewart, to expire under the mocking snarl and ruthless blow of the +Puritan. But you know that I have always, in my most serious work, +allowed myself to be influenced by those Chances, as they are now +called,--but to my own feeling and belief, guidances, and even, if +rightly understood, commands,--which, as far as I have read history, +the best and sincerest men think providential. Had this lecture been +on common principles of art, I should have finished it as I intended, +without fear of its being the worse for my consistency. But it deals, +on the contrary, with a subject, respecting which every sentence I +write, or speak, is of importance in its issue; and I allowed, as you +heard, the momentary observation of a friend, to give an entirely new +cast to the close of my last lecture. Much more, I feel it incumbent +upon me in this one, to take advantage of the most opportune help, +though in an unexpected direction, given me by my constant tutor, +Professor Westwood. I went to dine with him, a day or two ago, +mainly--being neither of us, I am thankful to say, blue-ribanded--to +drink his health on his recovery from his recent accident. Whereupon +he gave me a feast of good talk, old wine, and purple manuscripts. And +having had as much of all as I could well carry, just as it came to +the good-night, out he brings, for a finish, this leaf of manuscript +in my hand, which he has lent me to show you,--a leaf of the Bible of +Charles the Bald! + +A leaf of it, at least, as far as you or I could tell, for Professor +Westwood's copy is just as good, in all the parts finished, as the +original: and, for all practical purpose, I show you here in my hand +a leaf of the Bible which your own King Alfred saw with his own bright +eyes, and from which he learned his child-faith in the days of dawning +thought! + +There are few English children who do not know the story of Alfred, +the king, letting the cakes burn, and being chidden by his peasant +hostess. How few English children--nay, how few perhaps of their +educated, not to say learned, elders--reflect upon, if even they know, +the far different scenes through which he had passed when a child! + +Concerning his father, his mother, and his own childhood, suppose you +were to teach your children first these following main facts, before +you come to the toasting of the muffin? + +His father, educated by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, had been +offered the throne of the great Saxon kingdom of Mercia in his early +youth; had refused it, and entered, as a novice under St. Swithin the +monastery at Winchester. From St. Swithin, he received the monastic +habit, and was appointed by Bishop Helmstan one of his sub-deacons! + +"The quiet seclusion which Ethelwulph's slow[26] capacity and meek +temper coveted" was not permitted to him by fate. The death of his +elder brother left him the only living representative of the line of +the West Saxon princes. His accession to the throne became the desire +of the people. He obtained a dispensation from the Pope to leave the +cloister; assumed the crown of Egbert; and retained Egbert's prime +minister, Alstan, Bishop of Sherborne, who was the Minister in peace +and war, the Treasurer, and the Counsellor, of the kings of England, +over a space, from first to last, of fifty years. + +[Footnote 26: Turner, quoting William of Malmesbury, "Crassioris et +hebetis ingenii,"--meaning that he had neither ardour for war, nor +ambition for kinghood.] + +Alfred's mother, Osburga, must have been married for love. She was the +daughter of Oslac, the king's cup-bearer. Extolled for her piety and +understanding, she bore the king four sons; dying before the last, +Alfred, was five years old, but leaving him St. Swithin for his tutor. +How little do any of us think, in idle talk of rain or no rain on St. +Swithin's day, that we speak of the man whom Alfred's father obeyed as +a monk, and whom his mother chose for his guardian! + +Alfred, both to father and mother, was the best beloved of their +children. On his mother's death, his father sent him, being then five +years old, with a great retinue through France and across the Alps +to Rome; and there the Pope anointed him King, (heir-apparent to the +English throne), at the request of his father. + +Think of it, you travellers through the Alps by tunnels, that you +may go to balls at Rome or hells at Monaco. Here is another manner +of journey, another goal for it, appointed for your little king. At +twelve, he was already the best hunter among the Saxon youths. Be sure +he could sit his horse at five. Fancy the child, with his keen genius, +and holy heart, riding with his Saxon chiefs beside him, by the Alpine +flowers under Velan or Sempione, and down among the olives to Pavia, +to Perugia, to Rome; there, like the little fabled Virgin, ascending +the Temple steps, and consecrated to be King of England by the great +Leo, Leo of the Leonine city, the saviour of Rome from the Saracen. + +Two years afterwards, he rode again to Rome beside his father; the +West Saxon king bringing presents to the Pope, a crown of pure gold +weighing four pounds, a sword adorned with pure gold, two golden +images,[27] four Saxon silver dishes; and giving a gift of gold to all +the Roman clergy and nobles,[28] and of silver to the people. + +[Footnote 27: Turner, Book IV.,--not a vestige of hint from the stupid +Englishman, what the Pope wanted with crown, sword, or image! My own +guess would be, that it meant an offering of the entire household +strength, in war and peace, of the Saxon nation,--their crown, their +sword, their household gods, Irminsul and Irminsula, their feasting, +and their robes.] + +[Footnote 28: Again, what does this mean? Gifts of honour to the +Pope's immediate attendants--silver to all Rome? Does the modern +reader think this is buying little Alfred's consecration too dear, or +that Leo is selling the Holy Ghost?] + +No idle sacrifices or symbols, these gifts of courtesy! The Saxon King +rebuilt on the highest hill that is bathed by Tiber, the Saxon street +and school, the Borgo,[29] of whose miraculously arrested burning +Raphael's fresco preserves the story to this day. And further +he obtained from Leo the liberty of all Saxon men from bonds +in penance;--a first phase this of Magna Charta, obtained more +honourably, from a more honourable person, than that document, by +which Englishmen of this day, suppose they live, move, and have being. + +[Footnote 29: "Quae in eorum lingua Burgus dicitur,--the place where it +was situated was called the Saxon street, Saxonum vicum" (Anastasius, +quoted by Turner). There seems to me some evidence in the scattered +passages I have not time to collate, that at this time the Saxon Burg, +or tower, of a village, included the idea of its school.] + +How far into Alfred's soul, at seven years old, sank any true image of +what Rome was, and had been; of what her Lion Lord was, who had saved +her from the Saracen, and her Lion Lord had been, who had saved her +from the Hun; and what this Spiritual Dominion was, and was to be, +which could make and unmake kings, and save nations, and put armies to +flight; I leave those to say, who have learned to reverence childhood. +This, at least, is sure, that the days of Alfred were bound each to +each, not only by their natural piety, but by the actual presence and +appeal to his heart, of all that was then in the world most noble, +beautiful, and strong against Death. + +In this living Book of God he had learned to read, thus early; and +with perhaps nobler ambition than of getting the prize of a gilded +psalm-book at his mother's knee, as you are commonly told of him. What +sort of psalm-book it was, however, you may see from this leaf in my +hand. For, as his father and he returned from Rome that year, they +stayed again at the Court of Charlemagne's grandson, whose daughter, +the Princess Judith, Ethelwolf was wooing for Queen of England, (not +queen-consort, merely, but crowned queen, of authority equal to his +own.) From whom Alfred was like enough to have had a reading lesson or +two out of her father's Bible; and like enough, the little prince, to +have stayed her hand at this bright leaf of it, the Lion-leaf, bearing +the symbol of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. + +You cannot, of course, see anything but the glittering from where +you sit; nor even if you afterwards look at it near, will you find +a figure the least admirable or impressive to you. It is not like +Landseer's Lions in Trafalgar Square; nor like Tenniel's in 'Punch'; +still less like the real ones in Regent's Park. Neither do I show it +you as admirable in any respect of art, other than that of skilfullest +illumination. I show it you, as the most interesting Gothic type of +the imagination of Lion; which, after the Roman Eagle, possessed the +minds of all European warriors; until, as they themselves grew selfish +and cruel, the symbols which at first meant heaven-sent victory, or +the strength and presence of some Divine spirit, became to them only +the signs of their own pride or rage: the victor raven of Corvus sinks +into the shamed falcon of Marmion, and the lion-heartedness which gave +the glory and the peace of the gods to Leonidas, casts the glory and +the might of kinghood to the dust before Chalus.[30] + +[Footnote 30: 'Fors Clavigera,' March, 1871, p. 19. Yet read the +preceding pages, and learn the truth of the lion heart, while you +mourn its pride. Note especially his absolute law against usury.] + +That death, 6th April, 1199, ended the advance of England begun +by Alfred, under the pure law of Religious Imagination. She began, +already, in the thirteenth century, to be decoratively, instead of +vitally, religious. The history of the Religious Imagination expressed +between Alfred's time and that of Coeur de Lion, in this symbol of the +Lion only, has material in it rather for all my seven lectures than +for the closing section of one; but I must briefly specify to you the +main sections of it. I will keep clear of my favourite number seven, +and ask you to recollect the meaning of only Five, Mythic Lions. + +First of all, in Greek art, remember to keep yourselves clear about +the difference between the Lion and the Gorgon. + +The Gorgon is the power of evil in heaven, conquered by Athena, and +thenceforward becoming her aegis, when she is herself the inflictor of +evil. Her helmet is then the helmet of Orcus. + +But the Lion is the power of death on earth, conquered by Heracles, +and becoming thenceforward both his helmet and aegis. All ordinary +architectural lion sculpture is derived from the Heraclean. + +Then the Christian Lions are, first, the Lion of the Tribe of +Judah--Christ Himself as Captain and Judge: "He shall rule the +nations with a rod of iron," (the opposite power of His adversary, +is rarely intended in sculpture unless in association with the +serpent--"inculcabis supra leonem et aspidem"); secondly, the Lion +of St. Mark, the power of the Gospel going out to conquest; thirdly, +the Lion of St. Jerome, the wrath of the brute creation changed into +love by the kindness of man; and, fourthly, the Lion of the Zodiac, +which is the Lion of Egypt and of the Lombardic pillar-supports in +Italy; these four, if you remember, with the Nemean Greek one, five +altogether, will give you, broadly, interpretation of nearly all +Lion symbolism in great art. How they degenerate into the British +door knocker, I leave you to determine for yourselves, with such +assistances as I may be able to suggest to you in my next lecture; +but, as the grotesqueness of human history plans it, there is actually +a connection between that last degradation of the Leonine symbol, and +its first and noblest significance. + +You see there are letters round this golden Lion of Alfred's +spelling-book, which his princess friend was likely enough to spell +for him. They are two Latin hexameters:-- + + Hic Leo, surgendo, portas confregit Averni + Qui nunquam dormit, nusquam dormitat, in aevum. + (This Lion, rising, burst the gates of Death: + This, who sleeps not, nor shall sleep, for ever.) + +Now here is the Christian change of the Heraclean conquest of Death +into Christ's Resurrection. Samson's bearing away the gates of Gaza +is another like symbol, and to the mind of Alfred, taught, whether by +the Pope Leo for his schoolmaster, or by the great-granddaughter of +Charlemagne for his schoolmistress, it represented, as it did to all +the intelligence of Christendom, Christ in His own first and last, +Alpha and Omega, description of Himself,-- + +"I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, +and _have the keys_ of Hell and of Death." And in His servant St. +John's description of Him-- + +"Who is the Faithful Witness and the First-begotten of the dead, and +the Prince of the kings of the earth." + +All this assuredly, so far as the young child, consecrated like David, +the youngest of his brethren, conceived his own new life in Earth and +Heaven,--he understood already in the Lion symbol. But of all this I +had no thought[31] when I chose the prayer of Alfred as the type of +the Religion of his era, in its dwelling, not on the deliverance from +the punishment of sin, but from the poisonous sleep and death of it. +Will you ever learn that prayer again,--youths who are to be priests, +and knights, and kings of England, in these the latter days? when +the gospel of Eternal Death is preached here in Oxford to you for the +Pride of Truth? and "the mountain of the Lord's House" has become a +Golgotha, and the "new song before the throne" sunk into the rolling +thunder of the death rattle of the Nations, crying, "O Christ, where +is Thy Victory!" + +[Footnote 31: The reference to the Bible of Charles le Chauve was +added to my second lecture (page 54), in correcting the press, +mistakenly put into the text instead of the notes.] + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Five Christmas Days_. (These were drawn out on a large and +conspicuous diagram.) + +These days, as it happens, sum up the History of their Five Centuries. + + Christmas Day, 496. Clovis baptized. + " " 800. Charlemagne crowned. + " " 1041. Vow of the Count of Aversa (Page 80). + " " 1066. The Conqueror crowned. + " " 1130. Roger II. crowned King of the Two Sicilies. + +2. For conclusion of the whole matter two pictures were shown and +commented on--the two most perfect pictures in the world. + +(1) A small piece from Tintoret's Paradiso in the Ducal Palace, +representing the group of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St. +Augustine, and behind St. Augustine his mother watching him, her chief +joy even in Paradise. + +(2) The Arundel Society's reproduction of the Altar-piece by Giorgione +in his native hamlet of Castel Franco. The Arundel Society has done +more for us than we have any notion of. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +JOHN RUSKIN, + +(SEPARATELY AND IN SETS.) + + * * * * * + + AN INQUIRY INTO SOME OF THE CONDITIONS + AFFECTING "THE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE" IN + OUR SCHOOLS. 12mo, paper. $ 10 + + ARATRA PENTELICI. Six Lectures on the + Elements of Sculpture, given before the University + of Oxford, with cuts. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO, With 21 full-page plates (two colored), + printed separately. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARIADNE FLORENTINA. Six Lectures on Wood + and Metal Engraving, given before the University + of Oxford, 12mo, cloth. Complete with + Appendix. 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + + DITTO. With 12 full-page plates, printed separately. + 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + + ARROWS OF THE CHACE. A Collection + of Letters from 1840 to 1880. Edited by an Oxford + Pupil. 2 vols. bound in one. Plate. 12mo, cloth. 1 00 + + ART CULTURE. 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With very fine copies of all the Plates and + Wood engravings of the earliest London editions. + 9 vols., 8vo, cloth, 45 00 + 9 vols., 1/2 calf, 63 00 + 9 vols., full calf, 72 00 + +_SUITABLE FOR PRESENTS._ + +Ruskin's Beauties. + + THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. } 3 vols. + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. } in box. 3 50 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. } ex. clo. + DITTO, 3 vols. in box, 1/2 calf, 7 50 + +Ruskin's Popular Volumes. + + CROWN OF WILD OLIVE. } 4 vols. + SESAME AND LILIES. } in box, + QUEEN OF THE AIR. } extra $8 50 + ETHICS OF THE DUST. } cloth. + +Ruskin on Art. + + LECTURES ON ART. } 4 vols. + TWO PATHS.--PLATES. } in box, + EAGLE'S NEST. } extra 3 50 + POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART. } cloth. + DITTO, 2 vols. in box, 1/2 calf 7 00 + +Ruskin on Architecture. + + POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE--PLATES. } 4 vols. + SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE--PLATES. } in + LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE AND } Box, 4 00 + PAINTING--PLATES. } ex. + STONES OF VENICE (Selections.) } cloth. + 2 vols. in box, 1/2 calf. 7 50 + +Ruskin on Drawing, Etc. + + ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. } 4 vols. + ELEMENTS OF PERSPECTIVE. } in box, + LAWS OF FESOLE--PLATES. } extra 3 50 + FRONDES AGRESTES. } cloth. + 2 vols. in box, 1/2 calf. 7 00 + +_THE FOLLOWING BEAUTIFUL VOLUMES BEING SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN'S +WORKS._ + +In Neat 12mo. Volumes. Cloth, Gilt Extra. + + ART CULTURE. With Illustrations, cloth extra. 2 50 + LETTERS AND ADVICE TO YOUNG LADIES. Cloth extra. 50 + PEARLS FOR YOUNG LADIES. Cloth extra. 1 25 + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. Cloth extra. 1 25 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. Cloth extra. $ 1 00 + TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. Cloth extra. 1 25 + RUSKIN'S BIRTHDAY BOOK. Cloth extra. 1 50 + RUSKIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (PRAETERITA.) + Vol. 1. Plate, 8vo, cloth extra. 3 00 + +ALSO--WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY. + 30 Full Page Plates. 8vo, cloth extra. 3 50 + RUSKIN'S ALEXANDER'S STORY OF IDA. + With a Beautiful Portrait. 12mo, cloth extra. 75 + DITTO, Ditto. With Portrait. 4to, cloth extra. 1 50 + +The following volumes are valuable as + +_READING BOOKS,_ + +and are specially recommended for use to HIGH SCHOOLS AND LADIES' +SEMINARIES. + + THE TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL. Selected + from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + ART CULTURE. Selected from Ruskin's + Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 50 + PRECIOUS THOUGHTS. Selected + from Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 1 00 + CHOICE SELECTIONS. Selected from + Ruskin's Works. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + SESAME AND LILIES. 12mo, russet cloth. 75 + LECTURES TO LITTLE HOUSEWIVES. + Ethics of the Dust). 12mo, russet cloth. 50 + +*** _Copies of these volumes will be sent for examination, with +reference to introduction,_ FREE, _by mail, on receipt of two-thirds +of the printed price._ + +ELEGANT 8VO EDITION + +OF + +RUSKIN'S CHOICE WORKS, + +(_BUT FEW COPIES REMAIN OF THIS EDITION._) + + MODERN PAINTERS. By John Ruskin. + New and beautiful edition. Containing fine copies + of all the plates, (87) and wood engravings of the + original London edition. + Vol. 1.--Part 1. General Principles. Part 2. Truth. + Vol. 2.--Part 3. Of Ideas of Beauty. + Vol. 3.--Part 4. Of Many Things. + Vol. 4.--Part 5. Of Mountain Beauty. + Vol. 5.--Part 6. Leaf Beauty. Part 7. Of Cloud + Beauty. Part 8. Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Formal. Part 9. Ideas of Relation of Invention, + Spiritual. + 5 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 30 00 + 6 vols., 8vo, 1/2 calf. 40 00 + 5 vols., 8vo, full calf. 45 00 + + STONES OF VENICE. By John Ruskin. + New and beautiful edition, Containing fine copies + of all the plates, (54) colored and plain, and wood + engravings of the original London edition. + Vol. 1.--The Foundations. + Vol. 2.--The Sea Stories. + Vol. 3.--The Fall. + 3 vols., 8vo, extra cloth. 18 00 + 3 vols., 8vo, 1/2 calf. 4 00 + 3 vols., 8vo, full calf. 27 00 + PLATES to ditto separately, including fine copies + of all the plates in London edition. (54) colored + and plain. 8vo, extra cloth. 6 00 + + SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE. + By John Ruskin. New and beautiful edition, containing + fine copies of all the plates (14) of the original + London edition. Lamp of Sacrifice. Lamp of Truth. + Lamp of Power. Lamp of Beauty. Lamp of Life. Lamp + of Memory. Lamp of Obedience, + extra cloth. 6 00 + 1/2 calf. 8 00 + full calf. 9 00 + + MISS ALEXANDER'S WORKS. + + ROADSIDE SONGS OF TUSCANY. By + Miss Francesca Alexander, with 20 full page plates, + from drawings of the author. Edited by John Ruskin. + 8vo, cloth extra. 3 50 + DITTO, DITTO. 20 Plates, 1/2 morocco. 6 50 + + THE STORY OF IDA. EPITAPH ON AN ETRURIAN TOMB. + By Francesca Alexander, with Preface by John Ruskin. + Illustrated, with a Beautiful Portrait. + 12mo, laid paper, cloth extra. 0 75 + 4to, heavy paper, cloth extra. 1 50 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pleasures of England, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLEASURES OF ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 15947.txt or 15947.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/9/4/15947/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders +Europe, http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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