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diff --git a/18862-8.txt b/18862-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4705a22 --- /dev/null +++ b/18862-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10027 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de +Quincey--Vol. 1, by Thomas de Quincey + +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 Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey--Vol. 1 + With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg + +Author: Thomas de Quincey + +Editor: James Hogg + +Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18862] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS DE QUINCEY *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Connal, Paul Good and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: Text that was in italics in the original book is +shown between _underscore characters_ and text that was in small caps +is shown as ALL CAPS. Footnotes from the article titles are at the end +of the first paragraph of the article; all others follow the paragraph +in which they are referenced. The variation in the spelling of some +words is maintained from the original.] + + + + +[Illustration: (handwritten) Very truly yours, + Thomas de Quincey.] + + + + + THE UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS + OF + THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + + WITH + A PREFACE AND ANNOTATIONS + BY + JAMES HOGG. + + IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. + + [Illustration] + + LONDON: + SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., + PATERNOSTER SQUARE. + + 1890. + + + + + RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, + + LONDON & BUNGAY. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +'_The last fruit off an old tree!_' This, in the words of WALTER +SAVAGE LANDOR, is what I have now the honour to set before the public +in these hitherto 'UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY.' + +It was my privilege to be associated intimately with the Author some +thirty to forty years ago--from the beginning of 1850 until his death +in 1859.[1] Throughout the whole period during which he was engaged in +preparing for the Press his _Selections Grave and Gay_, I assisted in +the task. + +[Footnote 1: DE QUINCEY, LEIGH HUNT, and MACAULAY all died in that +year.] + +Of the singularly pleasant literary intercourse of that memorable time +I have given some reminiscences in _Harper's Magazine_ for this month. +I may yet combine in a Volume with these some amusing, scholarly +letters in my possession, and a Selection of Papers from the original +sources, which I feel warranted, by the Author's own estimate, in +calling _De Quincey's Choice Works_. Meantime, in dealing with the +various Essays and Stories here gathered together, I limit myself to +such notes as are necessary to point out the special circumstances +under which some of the papers were written; in others the nature of +the evidence I have found as to the indisputable authorship. + +My special opportunities, derived from constant companionship and the +continuous discussion with DE QUINCEY of matters concerning his +writings, gave me the key to some of the admirable papers here +reprinted. It also entitles me to say, that he would have included a +number of them in his Collected Works alongside the _Suspiria de +Profundis_ (Sighs from the Depths), had he lived to continue his +labours. + +When we find that most part of the _Suspiria_--perhaps the highest +reach of his intellect in impassioned power--did not appear in the +_Selections_ at all, the reader will at once understand that, in the +Author's own opinion, the Essays and Stories now first collected, were +neither less dignified in purpose nor less finished in style than +those which had passed under his hand in the fourteen volumes he +nearly completed. Rather like the _Suspiria_, some of these papers +were reserved as material upon the revision of which his energy might +be fitly bestowed when health would permit. + + * * * * * + +The interesting papers which appeared in _Tait's Magazine_ are all +duly vouched for in that periodical. I have not touched any of the +autobiographical matter which appeared in _Tait_,--the Author having +recast that as well as the _Sketches from Childhood_, published in +_The Instructor_ in the 'Autobiographic Sketches' with which he +opened the _Selections_. _The Casuistry of Duelling_, indeed, appeared +in _Tait_ as part of the Autobiographic Series, but, practically, it +stood as an independent paper. The touching personal passage in this +article reveals the misery caused by the unbridled scurrility of +certain notorious publications of the last generation. + +The paper on _The German Language_ appeared in _Tait_ in June 1836, +and the _Brief Appraisal of Greek Literature_ in December 1838 and +June 1839. + + * * * * * + +Two long and valuable papers on _Education; Plans for the Instruction +of Boys in Large Numbers_, which appeared in _The London Magazine_ for +April and May, 1824, were duly authenticated by the following +characteristic letter from DE QUINCEY to CHRISTOPHER NORTH. It appears +in _Professor Wilson's Life_, written by his daughter, MRS. GORDON:-- + +'_London, Thursday, February 24th, 1825._ + +'MY DEAR WILSON, + +'I write to you on the following occasion:--Some time ago, perhaps +nearly two years ago, Mr. Hill, a lawyer, published a book on +Education, detailing a plan on which his brothers had established a +school at Hazlewood, in Warwickshire. This book I reviewed in the +_London Magazine_, and in consequence received a letter of thanks from +the Author, who, on my coming to London about midsummer last year, +called on me. I have since become intimate with him, and, excepting +that he is a sad Jacobin (as I am obliged to tell him once or twice a +month), I have no one fault to find with him, for he is a very clever, +amiable, good creature as ever existed; and in particular directions +his abilities strike me as really very great indeed. Well, his book +has just been reviewed in the last _Edinburgh Review_ (of which some +copies have been in town about a week). This service has been done +him, I suppose, _through_ some of his political friends--(for he is +connected with Brougham, Lord Lansdowne, old Bentham, etc.),--but I +understand _by_ Mr. Jeffrey. Mr. Hill, in common with multitudes in +this Babylon--who will not put their trust in Blackwood as in God +(which, you know, he ought to do)--yet privately adores him as the +Devil; and indeed publicly too, is a great _prôneur_ of Blackwood. +For, in spite of his Jacobinism, he is liberal and inevitably just to +real wit. His fear is--that Blackwood may come as Nemesis, and compel +him to regorge any puffing and cramming which Tiff has put into his +pocket, and is earnest to have a letter addressed in an influential +quarter to prevent this. I alleged to him that I am not quite sure but +it is an affront to a Professor to presume that he has any connection +as contributor, or anything else, to any work which he does not +publicly avow as his organ for communicating with the world of +letters. He answers that it would be so in him,--but that an old +friend may write _sub rosa_. I rejoin that I know not but you may have +cut Blackwood--even as a subscriber--a whole lustrum ago. He rebuts, +by urging a just compliment paid to you, as a supposed contributor, in +the _News of Literature and Fashion_, but a moon or two ago. +Seriously, I have told him that I know not what was the extent of your +connection with Blackwood at _any_ time; and that I conceive the +labours of your Chair in the University must now leave you little +leisure for any but occasional contributions, and therefore for no +regular cognizance of the work as director, etc. However, as all that +he wishes--is simply an interference to save him from any very severe +article, and not an article in his favour, I have ventured to ask of +you if you hear of any such thing, to use such influence as must +naturally belong to you in your general character (whether maintaining +any connection with Blackwood or not) to get it softened. On the +whole, I suppose no such article is likely to appear. But to oblige +Hill I make the application. He has no _direct_ interest in the +prosperity of Hazlewood; he is himself a barrister in considerable +practice, and of some standing, I believe; but he takes a strong +paternal interest in it, all his brothers (who are accomplished young +men, I believe) being engaged in it. They have already had one shock +to stand: a certain Mr. Place, a Jacobin friend of the School till +just now, having taken the pet with it--and removed his sons. Now this +Mr. Place, who was formerly a tailor--leather-breeches maker and +habit-maker,--having made a fortune and finished his studies,--is +become an immense authority as a political and reforming head with +Bentham, etc., as also with the _Westminster Review_, in which quarter +he is supposed to have the weight of nine times nine men; whence, by +the way, in the "circles" of the booksellers, the Review has got the +name of the _Breeches Review_.' ... [The writer then passes on to +details of his own plans and prospects, and thus concludes.] + +'I beg my kind regards to Mrs. Wilson and my young friends, whom I +remember with so much interest as I last saw them at Elleray.--I am, +my dear Wilson, + +'Very affectionately yours, + +'THOMAS DE QUINCEY.' + + * * * * * + +In approaching the consideration of other papers said, in various +quarters (with some show of authority) to have been written by DE +QUINCEY, it was necessary to act with extreme care. One was a +painstaking list on the whole, but very inaccurate as regards certain +contributions attributed to DE QUINCEY in _Blackwood_. I have had the +kind aid of MESSRS. BLACKWOOD in examining the archives of _Maga_ to +settle the points in question. + +I was puzzled by some papers in _The London Magazine_ set down as DE +QUINCEY'S contributions in a memorandum said to have been furnished by +MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY, its Publishers. The _Blackwood_ blunders +made me very sceptical. There was one story in particular--the long +droll one of _Mr. Schnackenberger; or, Two Masters to one Dog_, about +which I remained in doubt. + +I had a faint recollection that one day DE QUINCEY dwelt on the merits +of 'JUNO,' and owned the story when he was discussing 'bull-dogs.' + +By the way, he was rather fond of 'bull-dogs,' and had some good +anecdotes about them. It was a kind of pet-admiration-horror which he +shared with SOUTHEY, on account of the difficulty in making a +well-bred bull-dog relax his grip. Some member of the canine 'fancy' +down at the Lakes had given them a so-called infallible 'tip' for +making a bull-dog let go. I am sorry to say I have quite forgotten +this admirable receipt. To be sure, one ought never to forget such +valuable pieces of information. So I thought one day lately before the +muzzling order came into force, when a bloodthirsty monster,--a big, +white bull-dog, sprang suddenly at me in Cleveland Gardens. Instantly +there flashed the thought--what was it that DE QUINCEY recommended? A +lucky lunge which drove the ferule of my umbrella down the brute's +throat fortunately created a diversion, and allowed a little more time +for the study of the problem. Perhaps I will be pardoned this +digression, as it affords an opportunity of recording the fact that DE +QUINCEY and SOUTHEY both looked up to the bull-dog as an animal of +very decided 'character.' + +I was loth to abandon _Mr. Schnackenberger_, but unwilling to lean +too much on my somewhat hazy remembrance. It seemed almost hopeless to +obtain the necessary evidence. MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY were long +dead, and after groping about like a detective, no one could tell me +what had become of the records of _The London Magazine_. Suddenly +there came light in October last. I ascertained that a son of one of +the Publishers is the ARCHDEACON of MIDDLESEX, the Venerable J. A. +HESSEY, D.C.L. + +I stated the case, and the worthy ARCHDEACON came most kindly and +promptly to my assistance. As a boy he remembered DE QUINCEY at his +father's house, and recollected very well reading _Mr. Schnackenberger_. +He informed me, 'I was greatly interested in the [London] Magazine +generally, so much so, that, at my father's request, I copied from his +private list, and attached to the head of each paper the name of the +Author.... This interesting set came to me at my father's death.' + +DR. HESSEY had subsequently presented the series to his old pupil, MR. +WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT (by whose courtesy I have been able to examine +it)--'the grandson of WILLIAM HAZLITT, who was a frequent writer in +the Magazine, and an old friend of my father. I thought he would like +to possess it, and that it would thus be in fitting hands. I should +not have parted with it in favour of any but a man like MR. HAZLITT, +who was sure to value it.' + +As these valuable annotations of the ARCHDEACON ramify in various +directions--touching as they do the contributions of many brilliant +men of that period--it may not be amiss (as a possible help to others +in the future) to add a few more decisive words by DR. HESSEY:-- + +'If any papers are not marked (he refers only to those volumes +actually published by MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY) it was because they +were anonymous, or because, from some inadvertency, they were not +assigned in my father's list. _So far as the record goes, it may be +depended upon._' + +By its help I was able to fix the authorship by DE QUINCEY of (1) _The +Dog Story_--translated from the German, (2) _Moral Effects of +Revolutions_, (3) _Prefigurations of Remote Events_, (4) _Abstract of +Swedenborgianism by Immanuel Kant_. + + * * * * * + +Another perplexing element was the letter written by DE QUINCEY to his +uncle, COLONEL PENSON, in 1819 (PAGE'S _Life_, vol. i. p. 207), +wherein reference is made to certain contributions to _Blackwood's +Magazine_ and _The Quarterly Review_. + +The archives of _Maga_ I find go back only as far as 1825. As to _The +Quarterly Review_, I have MR. MURRAY'S authority for stating that DE +QUINCEY never wrote a line in it. Whether any contributions were ever +commissioned, paid for, and afterwards suppressed, I have been unable +to ascertain. As a matter of fact, the _Schiller_ Series referred to +in the letter to COLONEL PENSON was never reviewed in _The Quarterly_ +at all. + +DE QUINCEY as a Newspaper Editor forms the subject of a Chapter in +PAGE'S _Life_. Some extracts are there given from cuttings out of _The +Westmorland Gazette_ found amongst the Author's Papers. This +editorship (1818-19) was of short duration, and pursued under hostile +circumstances, such as distance from the Press, &c., which soon led to +DE QUINCEY'S resignation. I had hoped to add some further specimens of +the newspaper work, but have not, as yet, obtained access to a file of +the period. In any future edition I may be able to add this in an +Appendix. + + * * * * * + +_The Love-Charm._--In spite of the marvellous tenacity of DE QUINCEY'S +memory, even as to the very words of a passage in an Author which he +had, perhaps, only _once_ read, there were _blanks_ which confounded +himself. One of these bore on his contributions to KNIGHT'S _Quarterly +Magazine_. MR. FIELDS had been so generally careful in obtaining +sufficient authority for what he published, in the original American +edition, that DE QUINCEY good-humouredly gave the verdict against +himself, and 'supposed he _must_ be wrong' in thinking that some of +these special papers were not from his pen. Still,--he demurred, and +before including them in _The Selections Grave and Gay_, it was +resolved to institute an inquiry. Accordingly, about 1852, I was +deputed to interview MR. CHARLES KNIGHT, and request his aid. My +mission was to obtain, if possible, a correct list of the various +contributions to the _Quarterly Magazine_, including this +_Love-Charm_. + +MR. KNIGHT, MR. RAMSAY (his first lieutenant, as he called him), and +myself all met at Fleet Street, where we had the archives of the old +_Quarterly Magazine_ turned up, and a list checked. I lately found +this particular story also referred to circumstantially in the annexed +paragraph contained in CHARLES KNIGHT'S _Passages of a Working Life_ +(THORNE'S re-issue, vol. I. chap. x. p. 339). + +'DE QUINCEY had written to me in December 1824, in the belief that, as +he expressed it, "many of your friends will rally about you, and urge +you to some new undertaking of the same kind. If that should happen, I +beg to say, that you may count upon me, as one of your men, for any +extent of labour, to the best of my power, which you may choose to +command." He wrote a translation of _The Love-Charm_ of TIECK, with a +notice of the Author. This is not reprinted in his Collected Works, +though perhaps it is the most interesting of his translations from the +German. In this spring and summer DE QUINCEY and I were in intimate +companionship. It was a pleasant time of intellectual intercourse for +me.' + +There is no doubt _The Love-Charm_ would have been reprinted had the +Author lived to carry the _Selections_ farther. + + * * * * * + +The curious little Essay _On Novels_,--written in a Lady's Album, had +passed out of MR. DAVEY'S hands before I became aware of its +existence. The _facsimile_, however, taken for _The Archivist_, by an +expert like MR. NETHERCLIFT, shows that it is, unquestionably, in the +handwriting of DE QUINCEY. I have been unable to trace the 'FAIR +INCOGNITA' to whom it was addressed. + + * * * * * + +The compositions which were written for me when I edited _Titan_, and +which I now place before the public in volume form, after the lapse of +a whole generation (thirty-three years, to speak 'by the card'), +demand some special comment, particularly in their relation to the +_Selections Grave and Gay_. + +_Titan_ was a half-crown monthly Magazine, a continuation in an +enlarged form of _The Instructor_. I had become the acting Editor of +its predecessor, _the New Series_ of _The Instructor_, working in +concert with my Father, the proprietor. In this _New Series_ there +appeared from DE QUINCEY'S pen _The Sphinx's Riddle_, _Judas +Iscariot_, the Series of _Sketches from Childhood_, and other notable +papers. + +At that time I was but a young editor--young and, perhaps, a little +'curly,' as LORD BEACONSFIELD put it. DE QUINCEY, with a truly +paternal solicitude, gave me much good advice and valuable help, both +in the selection of subjects for the Magazine and in the mode of +handling them. The notes on _The Lake Dialect_, _Shakspere's Text and +Suetonius Unravelled_, were written to me in the form of Letters, and +published in _Titan_. + +_Storms in English History_ was a consideration of part of MR. +FROUDE'S well-known book, which on its publication made a great stir +in the literary world, and profoundly impressed DE QUINCEY. + +_How to write English_ was the first of a series projected for _The +Instructor_. It never got beyond this 'Introduction,' but the fragment +contains some matter well worthy of preservation. + +The circumstances attending the composition of the four papers on _The +English in India_ and _The English in China_, I have explained at some +length in the introductory notices attached to them. + +And now for a confession! The 'gentle reader' may, perhaps, feel a +momentary inclination to blame me when I reveal, that I rather stood +in the way of some brilliant articles which were very seriously +considered at this period. + +DE QUINCEY was eager to write them, and I should have been glad indeed +to have had them for _Titan_, but for a fear of allowing the Author to +wander too far from the ever-present and irksome _Works_. Any possible +escape--even through other downright hard work, from this perplexing +labour was joyfully hailed by him as a hopeful chance of obtaining a +prosperous holiday. + +For a little I wavered under the temptation (Reader,--was it not +great?)--the idea of having a little relaxation which would permit +some, at least, of these well-planned papers to be written. But I was +keenly alive to the danger which overtook us at last. We are daily +reminded that 'art is long and life is short.' I had already saved the +_Works_ from being strangled at their birth in a legal tussle with MR. +JOHN TAYLOR.[2] My Father was at my elbow anxiously inquiring about +the progress of the 'copy' for each succeeding volume. There were +eager friends also, on both sides of the Atlantic, pressing resolutely +for it. So--prudence prevailed, and we held as straightly on our way +as the Author's uncertain health would permit. + +[Footnote 2: This incident was a complicated contention, concerning +the copyright of _The Confessions_, in which DE QUINCEY had long +allowed his rights to lie dormant. It was at last happily settled in +an amicable manner.] + +Thus it came to pass, dear Public, that you lost some charming essays, +while you gained the fourteen volumes of the _Selections_ which the +Author all but completed. + +Wherefore, seeing that you may possibly expect it of me to make some +use of my rare opportunities by doing whatever I can in these matters, +'before the night cometh,'--I have prepared this book--_ohne hast, +ohne rast_. + +I cannot close these few pages better than by quoting some strong, +just, sympathetic words which appeared in two great reviews--one +American, the other British. + +_The North American Review_ said:-- + +'In DE QUINCEY we are struck at once by the exquisite refinement of +mind, the subtleness of association, and the extreme tenuity of the +threads of thought, the gossamer filaments yet finally weaving +themselves together, and thickening imperceptibly into a strong and +expanded web. Mingled with this, and perhaps springing from a similar +mental habit, is an occasional dreaminess both in speculation and in +narrative, when the mind seems to move vaguely round in vast returning +circles. The thoughts catch hold of nothing, but are heaved and tossed +like masses of cloud by the wind. An incident of trivial import is +turned and turned to catch the light of every possible consequence, +and so magnified as to become portentous and terrible.' + + * * * * * + +'A barren and trivial fact, under the power of that life-giving hand, +shoots out on all sides into waving branches and green leaves, and +odoriferous flowers. It is not the fact that interests us, but the +mind working upon it, investing it with mock-heroic dignity, or +rendering it illustrative of really serious principles; or, with the +true insight of genius, discovering, in that which a vulgar eye would +despise, the germs of grandeur and beauty; the passions of war in the +contests of the rival factions of schoolboys, the tragedy in every +peasant's death-bed.' + + * * * * * + +'DE QUINCEY constantly amazes us by the amount and diversity of his +learning. Two or three of the minor papers in the collected volumes +are absolutely loaded with the life spoils of their author's +scholarship, yet carry their burden as lightly as our bodies sustain +the weight of the circumambient atmosphere. So perfect is his tact in +finding, or rather making a place for everything, that, while +inviting, he eludes the charge of pedantry.' + + * * * * * + +'It is scarcely to be expected that one who tries his hand at so many +kinds of pencraft should always excel; yet such is the force of DE +QUINCEY'S intellect, the brilliancy of his imagination, and the charm +of his style, that he throws a new and peculiar interest over every +subject which he discusses, while his fictitious narratives in general +rivet the attention of the reader with a power not easily resisted.' + +_The Quarterly Review_ said:-- + +'DE QUINCEY'S style is superb, his powers of reasoning unsurpassed, +his imagination is warm and brilliant, and his humour both masculine +and delicate.' + +The writer continues:-- + +'A great master of English composition, a critic of uncommon delicacy, +an honest and unflinching investigator of received opinions, a +philosophic inquirer--DE QUINCEY has departed from us full of years, +and left no successor to his rank. The exquisite finish of his style, +with the scholastic vigour of his logic, form a combination which +centuries may never reproduce, but which every generation should study +as one of the marvels of English Literature.' + +JAMES HOGG. + +_London, February, 1890_. + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + +PREFACE V + +A BRIEF APPRAISAL OF THE GREEK LITERATURE +IN ITS FOREMOST-PRETENSIONS 23 + +THE GERMAN LANGUAGE, AND PHILOSOPHY OF KANT 91 + +MORAL EFFECTS OF REVOLUTIONS 130 + +PREFIGURATIONS OF REMOTE EVENTS 132 + +MEASURE OF VALUE 134 + +LETTER IN REPLY TO HAZLITT CONCERNING THE +MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE OF POPULATION 141 + +THE SERVICES OF MR. RICARDO TO THE SCIENCE +OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 154 + +EDUCATION, AND CASE OF APPEAL 160 + +ABSTRACT OF SWEDENBORGIANISM 215 + +SKETCH OF PROFESSOR WILSON 225 + +THE LAKE DIALECT 265 + +STORMS IN ENGLISH HISTORY 275 + +THE ENGLISH IN INDIA 298 + +ON NOVELS (WRITTEN IN A LADY'S ALBUM) 354 + +DE QUINCEY'S PORTRAIT 357 + + + + +A BRIEF APPRAISAL OF THE GREEK LITERATURE IN ITS FOREMOST PRETENSIONS: + + _By way of Counsel to Adults who are hesitating as to the + Propriety of Studying the Greek Language with a view to the + Literature; and by way of consolation to those whom + circumstances have obliged to lay aside that plan._ + + +No. I. + +No question has been coming up at intervals for reconsideration more +frequently than that which respects the comparative pretensions of +Pagan (viz. Greek and Roman) Literature on the one side, and Modern +(that is, the Literature of Christendom) on the other. Being brought +uniformly before unjust tribunals--that is, tribunals corrupted and +bribed by their own vanity--it is not wonderful that this great +question should have been stifled and overlaid with peremptory +decrees, dogmatically cutting the knot rather than skilfully untying +it, as often as it has been moved afresh, and put upon the roll for a +re-hearing. It is no mystery to those who are in the secret, and who +can lay A and B together, why it should have happened that the most +interesting of all literary questions, and the most comprehensive +(for it includes most others, and some special to itself), has, in +the first place, never been pleaded in a style of dignity, of +philosophic precision, of feeling, or of research, proportioned to its +own merits, and to the numerous 'issues' (forensically speaking) +depending upon it; nor, in the second place, has ever received such an +adjudication as was satisfactory _even at the moment_. For, be it +remembered, after all, that any provisional adjudication--one growing +out of the fashion or taste of a single era--could not, at any rate, +be binding for a different era. A judgment which met the approbation +of Spenser could hardly have satisfied Dryden; nor another which +satisfied Pope, have been recognised as authentic by us of the year +1838. It is the normal or exemplary condition of the human mind, its +ideal condition, not its abnormal condition, as seen in the transitory +modes and fashions of its taste or its opinions, which only + + 'Can lay great bases for eternity,' + +or give even a colourable permanence to any decision in a matter so +large, so perplexed, so profound, as this great pending suit between +antiquity and ourselves--between the junior men of this earth and +ourselves, the seniors, as Lord Bacon reasonably calls us. Appeals +will be brought _ad infinitum_--we ourselves shall bring appeals, to +set aside any judgment that may be given, until something more is +consulted than individual taste; better evidence brought forward than +the result of individual reading; something higher laid down as the +_grounds_ of judgment, as the very principles of the jurisprudence +which controls the court, than those vague _responsa prudentum_, +countersigned by the great name, perhaps, of Aristotle, but still too +often mere products of local convenience, of inexperience, of +experience too limited and exclusively Grecian, or of absolute +caprice--rules, in short, which are themselves not less truly _sub +judice_ and liable to appeal than that very appeal cause to which they +are applied as decisive. + +We have remarked, that it is no mystery why the decision should have +gone pretty uniformly in favour of the ancients; for here is the +dilemma:--A man, attempting this problem, _is_ or _is not_ a classical +scholar. If he _is_, then he has already received a bias in his +judgment; he is a bribed man, bribed by his vanity; and is liable to +be challenged as one of the judges. If he is _not_, then he is but +imperfectly qualified--imperfectly as respects his knowledge and +powers; whilst, even as respects his will and affections, it may be +alleged that he also is under a bias and a corrupt influence; his +interest being no less obvious to undervalue a literature, which, as +to _him_, is tabooed and under lock and key, than his opponent's is to +put a preposterous value upon that knowledge which very probably is +the one sole advantageous distinction between him and his neighbours. + +We might cite an illustration from the French literary history on this +very point. Every nation in turn has had its rows in this great +quarrel, which is, in fact, co-extensive with the controversies upon +human nature itself. The French, of course, have had _theirs_--solemn +tournaments, single duels, casual 'turn-ups,' and regular 'stand-up' +fights. The most celebrated of these was in the beginning of the last +century, when, amongst others who acted as bottle-holders, umpires, +&c., two champions in particular 'peeled' and fought a considerable +number of rounds, mutually administering severe punishment, and both +coming out of the ring disfigured: these were M. la Motte and Madame +Dacier. But Motte was the favourite at first, and once he got Dacier +'into chancery,' and 'fibbed' her twice round the ropes, so that she +became a truly pitiable and delightful spectacle to the connoisseurs +in fibbing and bloodshed. But here lay the difference: Motte was a +hard hitter; he was a clever man, and (which all clever men are not) a +man of sense; but, like Shakspeare, he had no Greek. On the other +hand, Dacier had nothing _but_ Greek. A certain abbé, at that time, +amused all Paris with his caricatures of this Madame Dacier, 'who,' +said he, 'ought to be cooking her husband's dinner, and darning his +stockings, instead of skirmishing and tilting with Grecian spears; +for, be it known that, after all her _not cooking_ and her _not +darning_, she is as poor a scholar as her injured husband is a good +one.' And _there_ the abbé was right; witness the husband's _Horace_, +in 9 vols., against the wife's _Homer_. However, this was not +generally understood. The lady, it was believed, waded petticoat-deep +in Greek clover; and in any Grecian field of dispute, naturally she +must be in the right, as against one who barely knew his own language +and a little Latin. Motte was, therefore, thought by most people to +have come off second best. For, as soon as ever he opened +thus--'Madame, it seems to me that, agreeably to all common sense or +common decorum, the Greek poet should here'----instantly, without +listening to his argument, the intrepid Amazon replied ([Greek: +hypodra idousa]), 'You foolish man! you remarkably silly man!--_that_ +is because you know no better; and the reason you know no better, is +because you do not understand _ton d'apameibomenos_ as I do.' _Ton +d'apameibomenos_ fell like a hand-grenade amongst Motte's papers, and +blew him up effectually in the opinion of the multitude. No matter +what he might say in reply--no matter how reasonable, how +unanswerable--that one spell of 'No Greek! no Greek!' availed as a +talisman to the lady both for offence and defence; and refuted all +syllogisms and all eloquence as effectually as the cry of _À la +lanterne!_ in the same country some fourscore years after. + +So it will always be. Those who (like Madame Dacier) possess no +accomplishment _but_ Greek, will, of necessity, set a superhuman value +upon that literature in all its parts, to which their own narrow skill +becomes an available key. Besides that, over and above this coarse and +conscious motive for overrating that which reacts with an equal and +answerable overrating upon their own little philological attainments, +there is another agency at work, and quite unconsciously to the +subjects of that agency, in disturbing the sanity of any estimate they +may make of a foreign literature. It is the habit (well known to +psychologists) of transferring to anything created by our own skill, +or which reflects our own skill, as if it lay causatively and +objectively[3] in the reflecting thing itself, that pleasurable power +which in very truth belongs subjectively[3] to the mind of him who +surveys it, from conscious success in the exercise of his own +energies. Hence it is that we see daily without surprise, young ladies +hanging enamoured over the pages of an Italian author, and calling +attention to trivial commonplaces, such as, clothed in plain mother +English, would have been more repulsive to them than the distinctions +of a theologian, or the counsels of a great-grandmother. They mistake +for a pleasure yielded by the author, what is in fact the pleasure +attending their own success in mastering what was lately an +insuperable difficulty. + +[Footnote 3: _Objectively_ and _subjectively_ are terms somewhat too +metaphysical; but they are so indispensable to accurate thinking that +we are inclined to show them some indulgence; and, the more so, in +cases where the mere position and connection of the words are half +sufficient to explain their application.] + +It is indeed a pitiable spectacle to any man of sense and feeling, who +happens to be really familiar with the golden treasures of his own +ancestral literature, and a spectacle which moves alternately scorn +and sorrow, to see young people squandering their time and painful +study upon writers not fit to unloose the shoes' latchets of many +amongst their own compatriots; making painful and remote voyages after +the drossy refuse, when the pure gold lies neglected at their feet. +Too often he is reminded of a case, which is still sometimes to be +witnessed in London. Now and then it will happen that a lover of art, +modern or antique alike, according to its excellence, will find +himself honoured by an invitation from some millionnaire, or some +towering grandee, to 'assist,' as the phrase is, at the opening of a +case newly landed from the Tiber or the Arno, and fraught (as he is +assured) with the very gems of Italian art, inter-mingled besides +with many genuine antiques. He goes: the cases are solemnly disgorged; +adulatory hangers on, calling themselves artists, and, at all events, +so much so as to appreciate the solemn farce enacted, stand by +uttering hollow applauses of my Lord's taste, and endeavouring to play +upon the tinkling cymbals of spurious enthusiasm: whilst every man of +real discernment perceives at a glance the mere refuse and sweeping of +a third-rate _studio_, such as many a native artist would disdain to +turn out of his hands; and antiques such as could be produced, with a +month's notice, by cart-loads, in many an obscure corner of London. +Yet for this rubbish has the great man taken a painful tour; compassed +land and sea; paid away in exchange a king's ransom; and claims now on +their behalf, the very humblest homage of artists who are taxed with +the basest envy if they refuse it, and who, meantime, cannot in +sincerity look upon the trumpery with other feelings than such as the +potter's wheel, if (like Ezekiel's wheels) it were instinct with +spirit, would entertain for the vilest of its own creations;--culinary +or 'post-culinary' mugs and jugs. We, the writers of this paper, are +not artists, are not connected with artists. And yet, upon the general +principle of sympathy with native merit, and of disgust towards all +affectation, we cannot but recall such anecdotes with scorn; and often +we recollect the stories recorded by poor Benvenuto Cellini, that +dissolute but brilliant vagabond, who (like our own British artists) +was sometimes upbraided with the degeneracy of modern art, and, upon +his humbly requesting some evidence, received, by way of practical +answer, a sculptured gem or vase, perhaps with a scornful demand +of--when would he be able to produce anything like that--'eh, Master +Ben? Fancy we must wait a few centuries or so, before you'll be ready +with the fellow of this.' And, lo! on looking into some hidden angle +of the beautiful production, poor Cellini discovered his own private +mark, the supposed antique having been a pure forgery of his own. Such +cases remind one too forcibly of the pretty Horatian tale, where, in a +contest between two men who undertake to mimic a pig's grunting, he +who happens to be the favourite of the audience is applauded to the +echo for his felicitous execution, and repeatedly encored, whilst the +other man is hissed off the stage, and well kicked by a band of +amateurs and cognoscenti, as a poor miserable copyist and impostor; +but, unfortunately for the credit of his exploders, he has just time, +before they have quite kicked him off, for exposing to view the real +pig concealed under his cloak, which pig it was, and not himself, that +had been the artist--forced by pinches into 'mimicry' of his own +porcine music. Of all baffled connoisseurs, surely, these Roman +pig-fanciers must have looked the most confounded. Yet there is no +knowing: and we ourselves have a clever friend, but rather too given +to subtilising, who contends, upon some argument not perfectly +intelligible to us, that Horace was not so conclusive in his logic as +he fancied; that the real pig might not have an 'ideal' or normal +squeak, but a peculiar and non-representative squeak; and that, after +all, the man might deserve the 'threshing' he got. Well, it may be so; +but, however, the Roman audience, wrong or not, for once fancied +themselves in the wrong; and we cannot but regret that our own +ungenerous disparagers of native merit, and _exclusive_ eulogisers of +the dead or the alien--of those only '_quos Libitina sacravit_,' or +whom oceans divide from us--are not now and then open to the same +_palpable_ refutation, as they are certainly guilty of the same mean +error, in prejudging the whole question, and refusing to listen even +to the plain evidence of their own feelings, or, in some cases, to the +voice of their own senses. + +From this preface it is already abundantly clear what side _we_ take +in this dispute about modern literature and the antique.[4] And we now +propose to justify our leaning by a general review of the Pagan +authors, in their elder section--that is, the Grecians. These will be +enough in all conscience, for one essay; and even for them we meditate +a very cursory inquest; not such as would suffice in a grand +ceremonial day of battle--a _justum proelium_, as a Roman would +call it--but in a mere perfunctory skirmish, or (if the reader objects +to that word as pedantic, though, really, it is a highly-favoured word +amongst ancient divines, and with many a + + 'philosopher, + Who has read Alexander Ross over,') + +why, in that case, let us indulge his fastidious taste by calling it +an autoschediastic combat, to which, surely, there can be no such +objection. And as the manner of the combat is autoschediastic or +extemporaneous, and to meet a hurried occasion, so is the reader to +understand that the object of our disputation is not the learned, but +the unlearned student; and our purpose, not so much to discontent the +one with his painful acquisitions, as to console the other under what, +upon the old principle of _omne ignotum pro magnifico_, he is too apt +to imagine his irreparable disadvantages. We set before us, as our +especial auditor, the reasonable man of plain sense but strong +feeling, who wishes to know how much he has lost, and what injury the +gods did him, when, though making him, perhaps, poetical, they cut +short his allowance of Latin, and, as to Greek, gave him not a jot +more than a cow has in her side pocket. + +[Footnote 4: In general usage, '_The antique_' is a phrase limited to +the expression of art; but improperly so. It is quite as legitimately +used to denote the _literature_ of ancient times, in contradistinction +to the modern. As to the term _classical_, though generally employed +as equivalent to Greek and Roman, the reader must not forget this is +quite a false limitation, contradicting the very reason for applying +the word in _any_ sense to literature. For the application arose thus: +The social body of Rome being divided into six classes, of which the +lowest was the sixth, it followed that the highest was the first. +Thence, by a natural process common to most languages, those who +belonged to this highest had no number at all assigned to them. The +very absence of a number, the calling them _classici_, implied that +they belonged to _the_ class emphatically, or _par excellence_. _The +classics_ meant, therefore, the grandees in social consideration; and +thence by analogy in literature. But if this analogy be transferred +from Rome to Greece, where it had no corresponding root in civic +arrangement--then, by parity of reason, to all nations.] + +Let us begin at the beginning--and that, as everybody knows, is Homer. +He is, indeed, so much at the beginning that, for that very reason (if +even there were no other), he is, and will be ever more, supremely +interesting. Is the unlearned reader aware of his age? Upon that point +there are more hypotheses than one or even two. Some there are among +the chronologers who make him eleven hundred years anterior to Christ. +But those who allow him least, place him more than nine--that is, +about two centuries before the establishment of the Grecian Olympiads, +and (which is pretty nearly the same thing as regards time) before +Romulus and Remus. Such an antiquity as this, even on its own account, +is a reasonable object of interest. A poet to whom the great-grandfather +of old Ancus Martius (his grandfather, did we say--that is, avus?--nay, +his _abavus_, his _atavus_, his _tritavus_) looked back as to one in a +line with his remote ancestor--a poet who, if he travelled about as +extensively as some have supposed him to do, or even as his own +countryman Herodotus most certainly did five or six hundred years +afterwards, might have conversed with the very workmen who laid the +foundations of the first temple at Jerusalem--might have bent the knee +before Solomon in all his glory:--Such a poet, were he no better than +the worst of our own old metrical romancers, would--merely for his +antiquity, merely for the sublime fact of having been coeval with the +eldest of those whom the eldest of histories presents to our knowledge; +coeval with the earliest kings of Judah, older than the greatest of the +Judean prophets, older than the separation of the two Jewish crowns and +the revolt of Israel, and, even with regard to Moses and to Joshua, not +in any larger sense junior than as we ourselves are junior to +Chaucer--purely and exclusively with regard to these pretensions, backed +and supported by an antique form of an antique language--the most +comprehensive and the most melodious in the world, would--could--should--ought +to merit a filial attention; and, perhaps with those who had +waggon-loads of time to spare, might plead the benefit, beyond most of +those in whose favour it was enacted, of that Horatian rule-- + + 'vos exemplaria Græca, + Nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurna.' + +In fact, when we recollect that, in round numbers, we ourselves may be +considered as two thousand years in advance of Christ, and that (by +assuming less even than a mean between the different dates assigned to +Homer) he stands a thousand years before Christ, we find between Homer +and ourselves a gulf of three thousand years, or about one clear half +of the total extent which we grant to the present duration of our +planet. This in itself is so sublime a circumstance in the relations +of Homer to our era, and the sense of power is so delightfully +titillated to that man's feeling, who, by means of Greek, and a very +moderate skill in this fine language, is able to grasp the awful span, +the vast arch of which one foot rest upon 1838, and the other almost +upon the war of Troy--the mighty rainbow which, like the archangel in +the Revelation, plants its western limb amongst the carnage and the +magnificence of Waterloo, and the other amidst the vanishing gleams +and the dusty clouds of Agamemnon's rearguard--that we may pardon a +little exultation to the man who can actually mutter to himself, as he +rides home of a summer evening, the very words and vocal music of the +old blind man at whose command + + '----------the Iliad and the Odyssey + Rose to the murmurs of the voiceful sea.' + +But pleasures in this world fortunately are without end. And every +man, after all, has many pleasures peculiar to himself--pleasures +which no man shares with him, even as he is shut out from many of +other men. To renounce one in particular, is no subject for sorrow, so +long as many remain in that very class equal or superior. Elwood the +Quaker had a luxury which none of us will ever have, in hearing the +very voice and utterance of a poet quite as blind as Homer, and by +many a thousand times more sublime. And yet Elwood was not perhaps +much happier for _that_. For now, to proceed, reader--abstract from +his _sublime_ antiquity, and his being the very earliest of authors, +allowance made for one or two Hebrew writers (who, being inspired, are +scarcely to be viewed as human competitors), how much is there in +Homer, _intrinsically_ in Homer, stripped of his fine draperies of +time and circumstance, in the naked Homer, disapparelled of the pride, +pomp, and circumstance of glorious antiquity, to remunerate a man for +his labour in acquiring Greek? Men think very differently about what +_will_ remunerate any given labour. A fool (professional _fool_) in +Shakspeare ascertains, by a natural process of logic, that a +'remuneration' means a _testern_, which is just sixpence; and two +remunerations, therefore, a testoon, or one shilling. But many men +will consider the same service ill paid by a thousand pounds. So, of +the reimbursement for learning a language. Lord Camden is said to have +learned Spanish, merely to enjoy Don Quixote more racily. Cato, the +elder Cato, after abusing Greek throughout his life, sat down in +extreme old age to study it: and wherefore? Mr. Coleridge mentions an +author, in whom, upon opening his pages with other expectations, he +stumbled upon the following fragrant passage--'But from this frivolous +digression upon philosophy and the fine arts, let us return to a +subject too little understood or appreciated in these sceptical +days--the subject of _dung_.' Now, _that_ was precisely the course of +thought with this old censorious Cato: So long as Greek offered, or +seemed to offer, nothing but philosophy or poetry, he was clamorous +against Greek; but he began to thaw and melt a little upon the charms +of Greek--he 'owned the soft impeachment,' when he heard of some +Grecian treatises upon _beans_ and _turnips_; and, finally, he sank +under its voluptuous seductions, when he heard of others upon DUNG. +There are, therefore, as different notions about a 'remuneration' in +this case, as the poor fool had met with it in _his_ case. We, +however, unappalled by the bad names of 'Goth,' 'Vandal,' and so +forth, shall honestly lay before the reader _our_ notions. + +When Dryden wrote his famous, indeed matchless, epigram upon the three +great masters (or reputed masters) of the Epopee, he found himself at +no loss to characterize the last of the triad--no matter what +qualities he imputed to the first and the second, he knew himself safe +in imputing them all to the third. The mighty modern had everything +that his predecessors were ever _thought_ to have, as well as +something beside.[5] So he expressed the surpassing grandeur of +Milton, by saying that in him nature had embodied, by concentration as +in one focus, whatever excellencies she had scattered separately +amongst her earlier favourites. But, in strict regard to the facts, +this is far from being a faithful statement of the relations between +Milton and his elder brothers of the _Epos_: in sublimity, if that is +what Dryden meant by 'loftiness of thought,' it is not so fair to +class Milton with the greatest of poets, as to class him apart, +retired from all others, sequestered, 'sole-sitting by the shores of +old romance.' In other poets, in Dante for example, there may be rays, +gleams, sudden coruscations, casual scintillations, of the sublime; +but for any continuous and sustained blaze of the sublime, it is in +vain to look for it, _except_ in Milton, making allowances (as before) +for the inspired sublimities of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and of the great +Evangelist's Revelations. As to Homer, no critic who writes from +personal and _direct_ knowledge on the one hand, or who understands +the value of words on the other, ever contended in any critical sense +for sublimity, as a quality to which he had the slightest pretensions. +What! not Longinus? If he did, it would have been of little +consequence; for he had no field of comparison, as we, knowing no +literature but one--whereas we have a range of seven or eight. But he +did not: [Greek: To hypsêlon],[6] or the elevated, in the Longinian +sense, expressed all, no matter of what origin, of what tendency, +which gives a character of life and animation to composition--whatever +raises it above the dead level of flat prosaic style. Emphasis, or +what in an artist's sense gives _relief_ to a passage, causing it to +stand forward, and in advance of what surrounds it--that is the +predominating idea in the 'sublime' of Longinus. And this explains +what otherwise has perplexed his modern interpreters--viz. that +amongst the elements of his sublime, he ranks even the pathetic, _i. e._ +(say they) what by connecting itself with the depressing passion +of grief is the very counter-agent to the elevating affection of the +sublime. True, most sapient sirs, my very worthy and approved good +masters: but that very consideration should have taught you to look +back, and reconsider your translation of the capital word [Greek: +hypsos]. It was rather too late in the day, when you had waded +half-seas over in your translation, to find out either that you +yourselves were ignoramuses, or that your principal was an ass. +'Returning were as tedious as go o'er.' And any man might guess how +you would settle such a dilemma. It is, according to you, a little +oversight of your principal: '_humanum aliquid passus est._' We, on +the other hand, affirm that, if an error at all on the part of +Longinus, it is too monstrous for any man to have 'overlooked.' As +long as he could see a pike-staff, he must have seen that. And, +therefore, we revert to _our_ view of the case--viz. that it is +yourselves who have committed the blunder, in translating by the Latin +word _sublimis_[7] at all, but still more after it had received new +determinations under modern usage. + +[Footnote 5: The beauty of this famous epigram lies in the _form_ of +the conception. The first had A; the second had B; and when nature, to +furnish out a third, should have given him C, she found that A and B +had already exhausted her cycle; and that she could distinguish her +third great favourite only by giving him both A and B in combination. +But the filling up of this outline is imperfect: for the A +(_loftiness_) and the B (_majesty_) are one and the same quality, +under different names.] + +[Footnote 6: Because the Latin word _sublimis_ is applied to objects +soaring upwards, or floating aloft, or at an aerial altitude, and +because the word does _sometimes_ correspond to our idea of the +sublime (in which the notion of height is united with the notion of +moral grandeur), and because, in the excessive vagueness and lawless +latitudinarianism of our common Greek Lexicons, the word [Greek: +hypsos] is translated, _inter alia_, by [Greek: to] _sublime_, +_sublimitas_, &c. Hence it has happened that the title of the little +essay ascribed to Longinus, [Greek: Peri hypsous], is usually rendered +into English, _Concerning the sublime_. But the idea of the Sublime, +as defined, circumscribed, and circumstantiated, in English +literature--an idea altogether of English growth--the _sublime byway +of polar antithesis to the Beautiful_, had no existence amongst +ancient critics; consequently it could have no expression. It is a +great thought, a true thought, a demonstrable thought, that the +Sublime, as thus ascertained, and in contraposition to the Beautiful, +grew up on the basis of _sexual_ distinctions, the Sublime +corresponding to the male, the Beautiful, its anti-pole, corresponding +to the female. Behold! we show you a mystery.] + +[Footnote 7: No word has ever given so much trouble to modern critics +as this very word (now under discussion) of the _sublime_. To those +who have little Greek and _no_ Latin, it is necessary in the first +place that we should state what are the most obvious elements of the +word. According to the noble army of etymologists, they are these two +Latin words--_sub_, under, and _limus_, mud. Oh! gemini! who would +have thought of groping for the sublime in such a situation as +that?--unless, indeed, it were that writer cited by Mr. Coleridge, and +just now referred to by ourselves, who complains of frivolous modern +readers, as not being able to raise and sequester their thoughts to +the abstract consideration of dung. Hence it has followed, that most +people have quarrelled with the etymology. "Whereupon the late Dr. +Parr, of pedantic memory, wrote a huge letter to Mr. Dugald Stewart, +but the marrow of which lies in a nutshell, especially being rather +hollow within. The learned doctor, in the first folio, grapples with +the word _sub_, which, says he, comes from the Greek--so much is +clear--but from what Greek, Bezonian? The thoughtless world, says he, +trace it to [Greek: hypo] (hypo), sub, _i. e._ under; but I, Ego, +Samuel Parr, the Birmingham doctor, trace it to [Greek: hyper] +(hyper), super, _i. e._ above; between which the difference is not +less than between a chestnut horse and a horse-chestnut. To this +learned Parrian dissertation on mud, there cannot be much reasonably +to object, except its length in the first place; and, secondly, that +we ourselves exceedingly doubt the common interpretation of _limus_. +Most unquestionably, if the sublime is to be brought into any relation +at all to mud, we shall all be of one mind--that it must be found +_above_. But to us it appears--that when the true modern idea of mud +was in view, _limus_ was not the word used. Cicero, for instance, when +he wishes to call Piso 'filth, mud,' &c. calls him _Cænum_: and, in +general, _limus_ seems to have involved the notion of something +adhesive, and rather to express _plaister_, or artificially prepared +cement, &c., than that of filth or impure depositions. Accordingly, +our own definition differs from the Parrian, or Birmingham definition; +and may, nevertheless, be a Birmingham definition also. Not having +room to defend it, for the present we forbear to state it.] + +Now, therefore, after this explanation, recurring to the Longinian +critiques upon Homer, it will avail any idolator of Homer but little, +it will affect us not much, to mention that Longinus makes frequent +reference to the _Iliad_, as the great source of the sublime-- + + 'A quo, ceu fonte perenni, + Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis'; + +for, as respected Grecian poets, and as respected _his_ sense of the +word, it cannot be denied that Homer was such. He was the great +well-head of inspiration to the Pagan poets of after times, who, +however (_as a body_), moved in the narrowest circle that has ever yet +confined the natural freedom of the poetic mind. But, in conceding +this, let it not be forgotten how much we concede--we concede as much +as Longinus demanded; that is, that Homer furnished an ideal or model +of fluent narration, picturesque description, and the first outlines +of what could be called characteristic delineations of persons. +Accordingly, uninventive Greece--for we maintain loudly that Greece, +in her poets, _was_ uninventive and sterile beyond the example of +other nations--received, as a traditional inheritance, the characters +of the Paladins of the Troad.[8] Achilles is always the +all-accomplished and supreme amongst these Paladins, the Orlando of +ancient romance; Agamemnon, for ever the Charlemagne; Ajax, for ever +the sullen, imperturbable, columnar champion, the Mandricardo, the +_Bergen-op-Zoom_ of his faction, and corresponding to our modern +'Chicken' in the pugilistic ring, who was so called (as the books of +the Fancy say) because he was a 'glutton'; and a 'glutton' in this +sense--that he would take any amount of cramming (_i. e._ any possible +quantum of 'milling,' or 'punishment'). Ulysses, again, is uniformly, +no matter whether in the solemnities of the tragic scene, or the +festivities of the Ovidian romance, the same shy cock, but also sly +cock, with the least thought of a white feather in his plumage; Diomed +is the same unmeaning double of every other hero, just as Rinaldo is +with respect to his greater cousin, Orlando; and so of Teucer, +Meriones, Idomeneus, and the other less-marked characters. The Greek +drama took up these traditional characters, and sometimes deepened, +saddened, exalted the features--as Sophocles, for instance, does with +his 'Ajax Flagellifer'--Ajax the knouter of sheep--where, by the way, +the remorse and penitential grief of Ajax for his own self-degradation, +and the depth of his affliction for the triumph which he had afforded to +his enemies--taken in connection with the tender fears of his wife, +Tecmessa, for the fate to which his gloomy despair was too manifestly +driving him; her own conscious desolation, and the orphan weakness of +her son, in the event which she too fearfully anticipates--the final +suicide of Ajax; the brotherly affection of Teucer to the widow and the +young son of the hero, together with the unlooked-for sympathy of +Ulysses, who, instead of exulting in the ruin of his antagonist, mourns +over it with generous tears--compose a situation, and a succession of +situations, not equalled in the Greek tragedy; and, in that instance, we +see an effort, rare in Grecian poetry, of conquest achieved by +idealisation over a mean incident--viz. the hallucination of brain in +Ajax, by which he mistakes the sheep for his Grecian enemies, ties them +up for flagellation, and scourges them as periodically as if he were a +critical reviewer. But really, in one extremity of this madness, where +he fixes upon an old ram for Agamemnon, as the leader of the flock, the +[Greek: anax andrôn Agamemnôn], there is an extravagance of the +ludicrous against which, though not exhibited scenically, but simply +narrated, no solemnity of pathos could avail; even in narration, the +violation of tragical dignity is insufferable, and is as much worse than +the hyper-tragic horrors of _Titus Andronicus_ (a play which is usually +printed, without reason, amongst those of Shakspeare) as absolute farce +or contradiction of all pathos must inevitably be a worse indecorum than +physical horrors which simply outrage it by excess. Let us not, +therefore, hear of the judgment displayed upon the Grecian stage, when +even Sophocles, the chief master of dramatic economy and scenical +propriety, could thus err by an aberration so far transcending the most +memorable violation of stage decorum which has ever been charged upon +the English drama. + +[Footnote 8: There is a difficulty in assigning any term as +comprehensive enough to describe the Grecian heroes and their +antagonists, who fought at Troy. The seven chieftains against Thebes +are described sufficiently as Theban captains; but, to say _Trojan_ +chieftains, would express only the heroes of one side; _Grecian_, +again, would be liable to that fault equally, and to another far +greater, of being under no limitation as to time. This difficulty must +explain and (if it can) justify our collective phrase of the Paladins +of the Troad.] + +From Homer, therefore, were left, as a bequest to all future poets, +the romantic adventures which grow, as so many collateral +dependencies, + + 'From the tale of Troy divine'; + +and from Homer was derived also the discrimination of the leading +characters, which, after all, were but coarsely and rudely +discriminated; at least, for the majority. In one instance only we +acknowledge an exception. We have heard a great modern poet dwelling +with real and not counterfeit enthusiasm upon the character (or rather +upon the general picture, as made up both of character and position), +which the course of the _Iliad_ assigns gradually to Achilles. The +view which he took of this impersonation of human grandeur, combining +all gifts of intellect and of body, matchless speed, strength, +inevitable eye, courage, and the immortal beauty of a god, being also, +by his birth-right, half-divine, and consecrated to the imagination by +his fatal interweaving with the destinies of Troy, and to the heart by +the early death which to _his own knowledge_[9] impended over his +magnificent career, and so abruptly shut up its vista--the view, we +say, which our friend took of the presiding character throughout the +_Iliad_, who is introduced to us in the very first line, and who is +only eclipsed for seventeen books, to emerge upon us with more awful +lustre;--the view which he took was--that Achilles, and Achilles only, +in the Grecian poetry, was a great idea--an idealised creation; and we +remember that in this respect he compared the Homeric Achilles with +the Angelica of Ariosto. Her only he regarded as an idealisation in +the _Orlando Furioso_. And certainly in the luxury and excess of her +all-conquering beauty, which drew after her from 'ultimate Cathay' to +the camps of the baptised in France, and back again, from the palace +of Charlemagne, drew half the Paladins, and 'half Spain militant,' to +the portals of the rising sun; that sovereign beauty which (to say +nothing of kings and princes withered by her frowns) ruined for a time +the most princely of all the Paladins, the supreme Orlando, crazed him +with scorn, + + 'And robbed him of his noble wits outright'-- + +in all this, we must acknowledge a glorification of power not unlike +that of Achilles:-- + + 'Irresistible Pelides, whom, unarm'd, + No strength of man or wild beast could withstand; + Who tore the lion as the lion tears the kid; + Ran on embattl'd armies clad in iron; + And, weaponless himself, + Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery + Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass, + Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail, + Adamantéan proof; + But safest he who stood aloof, + When insupportably his foot advanced + Spurned them to death by troops. The bold Priamides + Fled from his lion ramp; old warriors turn'd + Their plated backs under his heel, + Or, groveling, soil'd their crested helmets in the dust.' + +These are the words of Milton in describing that 'heroic Nazarete,' +'God's champion'-- + + 'Promis'd by heavenly message twice descending'; + +heralded, like Pelides, + + 'By an angel of his birth, + Who from his father's field + Rode up in flames after his message told'; + +these are the celestial words which describe the celestial prowess of +the Hebrew monomachist, the irresistible Sampson; and are hardly less +applicable to the 'champion paramount' of Greece confederate. + +[Footnote 9: 'To his own knowledge'--see, for proof of this, the +gloomy serenity of his answer to his dying victim, when, predicting +his approaching end:-- + + 'Enough; I know my fate: to die--to see no more + My much-lov'd parents, and my native shore,' &c. &c.] + +This, therefore, this unique conception, with what power they might, +later Greek poets adopted; and the other Homeric characters they +transplanted somewhat monotonously, but at times, we are willing to +admit, and have already admitted, improving and solemnizing the +original epic portraits when brought upon the stage. But all this +extent of obligation amongst later poets of Greece to Homer serves +less to argue his opulence than their penury. And if, quitting the one +great blazing jewel, the Urim and Thummim of the _Iliad_, you descend +to individual passages of poetic effect; and if amongst these a fancy +should seize you of asking for a specimen of the _Sublime_ in +particular, what is it that you are offered by the critics? Nothing +that we remember beyond one single passage, in which the god Neptune +is described in a steeple chase, and 'making play' at a terrific +pace. And certainly enough is exhibited of the old boy's hoofs, and +their spanking qualities, to warrant our backing him against a +railroad for a rump and dozen; but, after all, there is nothing to +grow frisky about, as Longinus does, who gets up the steam of a +blue-stocking enthusiasm, and boils us a regular gallop of ranting, in +which, like the conceited snipe[10] upon the Liverpool railroad, he +thinks himself to run a match with Sampson; and, whilst affecting to +admire Homer, is manifestly squinting at the reader to see how far he +admires his own flourish of admiration; and, in the very agony of his +frosty raptures, is quite at leisure to look out for a little private +traffic of rapture on his own account. But it won't do; this old +critical posture-master (whom, if Aurelian hanged, surely he knew what +he was about) may as well put up his rapture pipes, and (as Lear says) +'not squiny' at us; for let us ask Master Longinus, in what earthly +respect do these great strides of Neptune exceed Jack with his +seven-league boots? Let him answer that, if he can. We hold that Jack +has the advantage. Or, again look at the Koran: does any man but a +foolish Oriental think that passage sublime where Mahomet describes +the divine pen? It is, says he, made of mother-of-pearl; so much for +the 'raw material,' as the economists say. But now for the size: it +can hardly be called a 'portable' pen at all events, for we are told +that it is so tall of its age, that an Arabian 'thoroughbred horse +would require 500 years for galloping down the slit to the nib. Now +this Arabic sublime is _in this instance_ quite a kin brother to the +Homeric. + +[Footnote 10: On the memorable inaugural day of the Liverpool +railroad, when Mr. Huskisson met with so sad a fate, a snipe or a +plover tried a race with Sampson, one of the engines. The race +continued neck and neck for about six miles, after which, the snipe +finding itself likely to come off second best, found it convenient to +wheel off, at a turn of the road, into the solitudes of Chat Moss.] + +However, it is likely that we shall here be reminded of our own +challenge to the Longinian word [Greek: hypsêlon] as not at all +corresponding, or even alluding to the modern word sublime. But in +this instance, the distinction will not much avail that critic--for no +matter by what particular _word_ he may convey his sense of its +quality, clear it is, by his way of illustrating its peculiar merit, +that, in his opinion, these huge strides of Neptune's have something +supernaturally grand about them. But, waiving this solitary instance +in Homer of the sublime, according to his idolatrous critics--of the +pseudo sublime according to ourselves--in all other cases where +Longinus, or any other Greek writer has cited Homer as the great +exemplary model of [Greek: hypsos] in composition, we are to +understand him according to the Grecian sense of that word. He must +then be supposed to praise Homer, not so much for any ideal grandeur +either of thought, image, or situation, as in a general sense for his +animated style of narration, for the variety and spirited effect with +which he relieves the direct formal narration in his own person by +dialogue between the subjects of his narration, thus ventriloquising +and throwing his own voice as often as he can into the surrounding +objects--or again for the similes and allusive pictures by which he +points emphasis to a situation or interest to a person. + +Now then we have it: when you describe Homer, or when you hear him +described as a lively picturesque old boy [by the way, why does +everybody speak of Homer as old?], full of life, and animation, and +movement, then you say (or you hear say) what is true, and not much +more than what is true. Only about that word picturesque we demur a +little: as a chirurgeon, he certainly _is_ picturesque; for Howship +upon gunshot wounds is a joke to him when he lectures upon _traumacy_, +if we may presume to coin that word, or upon traumatic philosophy (as +Mr. M'Culloch says so grandly, Economic Science). But, apart from +this, we cannot allow that simply to say [Greek: Zakunthos nemoessa], +woody Zacynthus, is any better argument of picturesqueness than Stony +Stratford, or Harrow on the Hill. Be assured, reader, that the Homeric +age was not ripe for the picturesque. _Price on the Picturesque_, or, +_Gilpin on Forest Scenery_, would both have been sent post-haste to +Bedlam in those days; or perhaps Homer himself would have tied a +millstone about their necks, and have sunk them as public nuisances by +woody Zante. Besides, it puts almost an extinguisher on any little +twinkling of the picturesque that might have flared up at times from +this or that suggestion, when each individual had his own regular +epithet stereotyped to his name like a brass plate upon a door: +Hector, the tamer of horses; Achilles, the swift of foot; the ox-eyed, +respectable Juno. Some of the 'big uns,' it is true, had a dress and +an undress suit of epithets: as for instance, Hector was also [Greek: +korythaiolos], Hector with the tossing or the variegated plumes. +Achilles again was [Greek: dios] or divine. But still the range was +small, and the monotony was dire. + +And now, if you come in good earnest to picturesqueness, let us +mention a poet in sober truth worth five hundred of Homer, and that is +Chaucer. Show us a piece of Homer's handywork that comes within a +hundred leagues of that divine prologue to the _Canterbury Tales_, or +of 'The Knight's Tale,' of the 'Man of Law's Tale,' or of the 'Tale of +the Patient Griseldis,' or, for intense life of narration and festive +wit, to the 'Wife of Bath's Tale.' Or, passing out of the _Canterbury +Tales_ for the picturesque in human manner and gesture, and play of +countenance, never equalled as yet by Pagan or Christian, go to the +_Troilus and Cresseid_, and, for instance, to the conversation between +Troilus and Pandarus, or, again, between Pandarus and Cresseid. +Rightly did a critic of the 17th century pronounce Chaucer a miracle +of natural genius, as having 'taken into the compass of his +_Canterbury Tales_, the various manners and humours of the whole +English nation in his age; not a single character has escaped him.' +And this critic then proceeds thus--'The matter and manner of these +tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different +educations, humours, and calling, that each of them would be improper +in any other mouth. Even the grave and serious characters are +distinguished by their several sorts of gravity. Even the ribaldry of +the low characters is different. But there is such a variety of game +springing up before me, that I am distracted in my choice, and know +not which to follow. It is sufficient to say, according to the +proverb, that here is God's plenty.' And soon after he goes on to +assert (though Heaven knows in terms far below the whole truth), the +superiority of Chaucer to Boccaccio. And, in the meantime, who was +this eulogist of Chaucer? Why, the man who himself was never equalled +upon this earth, unless by Chaucer, in the art of fine narration: it +is John Dryden whom we have been quoting. + +Between Chaucer and Homer--as to the main art of narration, as to the +picturesque life of the manners, and as to the exquisite delineation +of character--the interval is as wide as between Shakespeare, in +dramatic power, and Nic. Rowe. + +And we might wind up this main chapter, of the comparison between +Grecian and English literature--viz. the chapter on Homer, by this +tight dilemma. You do or you do not use the Longinian word [Greek: +hypsos] in the modern sense of the sublime. If you do not, then of +course you translate it in the Grecian sense, as explained above; and +in that sense, we engage to produce many scores of passages from +Chaucer, not exceeding 50 to 80 lines, which contain more of +picturesque simplicity, more tenderness, more fidelity to nature, more +felicity of sentiment, more animation of narrative, and more truth of +character, than can be matched in all the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_. On +the other hand, if by [Greek: hypsos] you choose absurdly to mean +sublimity in the modern sense, then it will suffice for us that we +challenge _you_ to the production of one instance which truly and +incontestably embodies that quality.[11] The burthen of proof rests +upon you who affirm, not upon us who deny. Meantime, as a kind of +choke-pear, we leave with the Homeric adorer this one brace of +portraits, or hints for such a brace, which we commend to his +comparison, as Hamlet did the portraits of the two brothers to his +besotted mother. We are talking of the sublime: that is our thesis. +Now observe: there is a catalogue in the _Iliad_--there is a catalogue +in the _Paradise Lost_. And, like a river of Macedon and of Monmouth, +the two catalogues agree in that one fact--viz. that they _are_ such. +But as to the rest, we are willing to abide by the issue of that one +comparison, left to the very dullest sensibility, for the decision of +the total question at issue. And what is that? Not, Heaven preserve +us! as to the comparative claims of Milton and Homer in this point of +sublimity--for surely it would be absurd to compare him who has most +with him whom we affirm to have none at all--but whether Homer has the +very smallest pretensions in that point. The result, as we state it, +is this:--The catalogue of the ruined angels in Milton, is, in itself +taken separately, a perfect poem, with the beauty, and the felicity, +and the glory of a dream. The Homeric catalogue of ships is exactly on +a level with the muster-roll of a regiment, the register of a +tax-gatherer, the catalogue of an auctioneer. Nay, some catalogues are +far more interesting, and more alive with meaning. 'But him followed +fifty black ships!'--'But him follow seventy black ships!' Faugh! We +could make a more readable poem out of an Insolvent's Balance Sheet. + +[Footnote 11: The description of Apollo in wrath as [Greek: nukti +eoikô], like night, is a doubtful case. With respect to the shield of +Achilles, it cannot be denied that the general conception has, in +common with all abstractions (as _e. g._ the abstractions of dreams, +of prophetic visions, such as that in the 6th Æneid, that to Macbeth, +that shown by the angel Michael to Adam), something fine and, in its +own nature, let the execution be what it may, sublime. But this part +of the _Iliad_, we firmly believe to be an interpolation of times long +posterior to that of Homer.] + +One other little suggestion we could wish to offer. Those who would +contend against the vast superiority of Chaucer (and him we mention +chiefly because he really has in excess those very qualities of life, +motion, and picturesque simplicity, to which the Homeric +characteristics chiefly tend), ought to bear in mind one startling +fact evidently at war with the _degree_ of what is claimed for Homer. +It is this: Chaucer is carried naturally by the very course of his +tales into the heart of domestic life, and of the scenery most +favourable to the movements of human sensibility. Homer, on the other +hand, is kept out of that sphere, and is imprisoned in the monotonies +of a camp or a battle-field, equally by the necessities of his story, +and by the proprieties of Grecian life (which in fact are pretty +nearly those of Turkish life at this day). Men and women meet only +under rare, hurried, and exclusive circumstances. Hence it is, that +throughout the entire _Iliad_, we have but one scene in which the +finest affections of the human heart can find an opening for display; +of course, everybody knows at once that we are speaking of the scene +between Hector, Andromache, and the young Astyanax. No need for +question here; it is Hobson's choice in Greek literature, when you are +seeking for the poetry of human sensibilities. One such scene there +is, and no more; which, of itself, is some reason for suspecting its +authenticity. And, by the way, at this point, it is worth while +remarking, that a late excellent critic always pronounced the words +applied to Andromache [Greek: dakryoen gelasasa] (_tearfully smiling_, +or, _smiling through_ _her tears_), a mere Alexandrian interpolation. +And why? Now mark the reason. Was it because the circumstance is in +itself vicious, or out of nature? Not at all: nothing more probable or +more interesting under the general situation of peril combined with +the little incident of the infant's alarm at the plumed helmet. But +any just taste feels it to be out of the Homeric key; the barbarism of +the age, not mitigated (as in Chaucer's far less barbarous age) by the +tenderness of Christian sentiment, turned a deaf ear and a repulsive +aspect to such beautiful traits of domestic feeling; to Homer himself +the whole circumstance would have been one of pure effeminacy. Now, we +recommend it to the reader's reflection--and let him weigh well the +condition under which that poetry moves that cannot indulge a tender +sentiment without being justly suspected of adulterous commerce with +some after age. This remark, however, is by the by; having grown out +of the [Greek: dakryoen gelasasa], itself a digression. But, returning +from that to our previous theme, we desire every candid reader to ask +himself what must be the character, what the circumscription, of that +poetry which is limited, by its very subject,[12] to a scene of such +intense uniformity as a battle or a camp; and by the prevailing spirit +of manners to the exclusive society of men. To make bricks without +straw, was the excess even of Egyptian bondage; Homer could not fight +up against the necessities of his age, and the defects of its +manners. And the very apologies which will be urged for him, drawn as +they must be from the spirit of manners prevalent in his era, are +reciprocally but so many reasons for not seeking in him the kind of +poetry which has been ascribed to him by ignorance, or by defective +sensibility, or by the mere self-interest of pedantry. + +[Footnote 12: But the _Odyssey_, at least, it will be said, is not +thus limited: no, not by its subject; because it carries us amongst +cities and princes in a state of peace; but it is equally limited by +the spirit of manners; we are never admitted amongst women, except by +accident (Nausicaa)--by necessity (Penelope)--or by romance (Circe).] + +From Homer, the route stretches thus:--The Grecian drama lies about +six hundred years nearer to the Christian era, and Pindar lies in the +interval. These--_i. e._ the Dramatic and Lyric--are the important +chapters of the Greek poetry; for as to Pastoral poetry, having only +Theocritus surviving, and a very little of Bion and Moschus, and of +these one only being of the least separate importance--we cannot hold +that department entitled to any notice in so cursory a review of the +literature, else we have much to say on this also. Besides that, +Theocritus was not a natural poet, indigenous to Sicily, but an +artificial blue-stocking; as was Callimachus in a different class. + +The drama we may place loosely in the generation next before that of +Alexander the Great. And his era may be best remembered by noting it +as 333 years B. C. Add thirty years to this era--that will be the era +of the Drama. Add a little more than a century, and that will be the +era of Pindar. Him, therefore, we will notice first. + +Now, the chief thing to say as to Pindar is--to show cause, good and +reasonable, why no man of sense should trouble his head about him. +There was in the seventeenth century a notion prevalent about Pindar, +the very contradiction to the truth. It was imagined that he 'had a +demon'; that he was under a burthen of prophetic inspiration; that he +was possessed, like a Hebrew prophet or a Delphic priestess, with +divine fury. Why was this thought?--simply because no mortal read him. +Laughable it is to mention, that Pope, when a very young man, and +writing his _Temple of Fame_ (partly on the model of Chaucer's), when +he came to the great columns and their bas-reliefs in that temple, +each of which is sacred to one honoured name, having but room in all +for six, chose Pindar for one[13] of the six. And the first bas-relief +on Pindar's column is so pretty, that we shall quote it; especially as +it suggested Gray's car for Dryden's 'less presumptuous flight!' + + 'Four swans sustain a car of silver bright, + With heads advanc'd, and pinions stretch'd for flight: + Here, _like some furious prophet_, Pindar rode, + And seem'd to _labour with th' inspiring god_.' + +[Footnote 13: The other five were Homer, Virgil, Horace, Aristotle, +Cicero.] + +Then follow eight lines describing other bas-reliefs, containing 'the +figured games of Greece' (Olympic, Nemean, &c.). But what we spoke of +as laughable in the whole affair is, that Master Pope neither had then +read one line of Pindar, nor ever read one line of Pindar: and reason +good; for at that time he could not read the simple Homeric Greek; +while the Greek of Pindar exceeds all other Greek in difficulty, +excepting, perhaps, a few amongst the tragic choruses, which are +difficult for the very same reason--lyric abruptness, lyric +involution, and lyric obscurity of transition. Not having read Homer, +no wonder that Pope should place, amongst the bas-reliefs illustrating +the _Iliad_, an incident which does not exist in the _Iliad_.[14] Not +having read Pindar, no wonder that Pope should ascribe to Pindar +qualities which are not only imaginary, but in absolute contradiction +to his true ones. A more sober old gentleman does not exist: his +demoniac possession is a mere fable. But there are two sufficient +arguments for not reading him, so long as innumerable books of greater +interest remain unread. First, he writes upon subjects that, to us, +are mean and extinct--race-horses that have been defunct for +twenty-five centuries, chariots that were crazy in his own day, and +contests with which it is impossible for us to sympathise. Then his +digressions about old genealogies are no whit better than his main +theme, nor more amusing than a Welshman's pedigree. The best +translator of any age, Mr. Carey, who translated Dante, has done what +human skill could effect to make the old Theban readable; but, after +all, the man is yet to come who _has_ read Pindar, _will_ read Pindar, +or _can_ read Pindar, except, indeed, a translator in the way of duty. +And the son of Philip himself, though he bade 'spare the house of +Pindarus,' we vehemently suspect, never read the works of Pindarus; +that labour he left to some future Hercules. So much for his subjects: +but a second objection is--his metre: The hexameter, or heroic metre +of the ancient Greeks, is delightful to our modern ears; so is the +Iambic metre fortunately of the stage: but the Lyric metres generally, +and those of Pindar without one exception, are as utterly without +meaning to us, as merely chaotic labyrinths of sound, as Chinese music +or Dutch concertos. Need we say more? + +[Footnote 14: Viz. the supposed dragging of Hector three times round +Troy by Achilles--a mere post-Homeric fable. But it is ludicrous to +add, that, in after years--nay, when nearly at the end of his +translation of the _Iliad_, in 1718--Pope took part in a discussion +upon Homer's reasons for ascribing such conduct to his hero, seriously +arguing the _pro_ and _con_ upon a pure fiction.] + +Next comes the drama. But this is too weighty a theme to be discussed +slightly; and the more so because here only we willingly concede a +strong motive for learning Greek; here, only, we hold the want of a +ready introduction to be a serious misfortune. Our general argument, +therefore, which had for its drift to depreciate Greek, dispenses, in +this case, with our saying anything; since every word we _could_ say +would be hostile to our own purpose. However, we shall, even upon this +field of the Greek literature, deliver one oracular sentence, tending +neither to praise nor dispraise it, but simply to state its relations +to the modern, or, at least, the English drama. In the ancient drama, +to represent it justly, the unlearned reader must imagine grand +situations, impressive groups; in the modern tumultuous movement, a +grand stream of action. In the Greek drama, he must conceive the +presiding power to be _Death_; in the English, _Life_. What +Death?--What Life? That sort of death or of life locked up and frozen +into everlasting slumber, which we see in sculpture; that sort of +life, of tumult, of agitation, of tendency to something beyond, which +we see in painting. The picturesque, in short, domineers over English +tragedy; the sculpturesque, or the statuesque, over the Grecian. + +The moralists, such as Theogins, the miscellaneous or didactic poets, +such as Hesiod, are all alike below any notice in a sketch like this. +The Epigrammatists, or writers of monumental inscriptions, &c., +remain; and they, next after the dramatic poets, present the most +interesting field by far in the Greek literature; but these are too +various to be treated otherwise than _viritim_ and in detail. + +There remains the prose literature; and, with the exception of those +critical writers who have written on rhetoric (such as Hermogenes, +Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Demetrius Phalerius, &c. &c., some of whom +are the best writers extant, on the mere art of constructing +sentences, but could not interest the general reader), the prose +writers may be thus distributed: 1st, the orators; 2nd, the +historians; 3rd, the philosophers; 4th, the literateurs (such as +Plutarch, Lucian, &c.). + +As to the philosophers, of course there are only two who can present +any general interest--Plato and Aristotle; for Xenophon is no more a +philosophic writer than our own Addison. Now, in this department, it +is evident that the matter altogether transcends the manner. No man +will wish to study a profound philosopher, but for some previous +interest in his doctrines; and, if by any means a man has obtained +this, he may pursue this study sufficiently through translations. It +is true that neither Sydenham nor Taylor has done justice to Plato, +for example, as respects the colloquial graces of his style; but, when +the object is purely to pursue a certain course of principles and +inferences, the student cannot complain much that he has lost the +dramatic beauties of the dialogue, or the luxuriance of the style. +These he was not then seeking, by the supposition--what he _did_ seek, +is still left; whereas in poetry, if the golden apparel is lost, if +the music has melted away from the thoughts, all, in fact, is lost. +Old Hobbes, or Ogilbie, is no more Homer than the score of Mozart's +_Don Giovanni_ is Mozart's _Don Giovanni_. + +If, however, Grecian philosophy presents no absolute temptations to +the attainment of Greek, far less does Grecian history. If you except +later historians--such as Diodorus, Plutarch, and those (like Appian, +Dionysius, Dion Cassius) who wrote of Roman things and Roman persons +in Greek, and Polybius, who comes under the same class, at a much +earlier period--and none of whom have any interest of style, excepting +only Plutarch: these dismissed, there are but three who can rank as +classical Greek historians; _three who can lose by translation_. Of +these the eldest, Herodotus, is perhaps of real value. Some call him +the father of history; some call him the father of lies. Time and +Major Rennel have done him ample justice. Yet here, again, see how +little need of Greek for the amplest use of a Greek author. Twenty-two +centuries and more have passed since the fine old man read his history +at the Grecian games of Olympia. One man only has done him right, and +put his enemies under his footstool; _and yet this man had no Greek_. +Major Rennel read Herodotus only in the translation of Beloe. He has +told us so himself. Here, then, is a little fact, my Grecian boys, +that you won't easily get over. The father of history, the eldest of +prose writers, has been first explained, illustrated, justified, +liberated from scandal and disgrace, first had his geography set to +rights, first translated from the region of fabulous romance, and +installed in his cathedral chair, as Dean (or eldest) of historians, +by a military man, who had no more Greek than Shakspeare, or than we +(perhaps you, reader) of the Kalmuck. + +Next comes Thucydides. He is the second in order of time amongst the +Grecian historians who survive, and the first of those (a class which +Mr. Southey, the laureate, always speaks of as the corruptors of +genuine history) who affect to treat it philosophically. If the +philosophic historians are not always so faithless as Mr. Southey +alleges, they are, however, always guilty of dulness. Commend us to +one picturesque, garrulous old fellow, like Froissart, or Philip de +Comines, or Bishop Burnet, before all the philosophic prosers that +ever prosed. These picturesque men will lie a little now and then, for +the sake of effect--but so will the philosophers. Even Bishop Burnet, +who, by the way, was hardly so much a picturesque as an anecdotal +historian, was famous for his gift of lying; so diligently had he +cultivated it. And the Duchess of Portsmouth told a noble lord, when +inquiring into the truth of a particular fact stated by the very +reverend historian, that he was notorious in Charles the Second's +court, and that no man believed a word he said. But now Thucydides, +though writing about his own time, and doubtless embellishing by +fictions not less than his more amusing brethren, is as dull as if he +prided himself on veracity. Nay, he tells us no secret anecdotes of +the times--surely there must have been many; and this proves to us, +that he was a low fellow without political connections, and that he +never had been behind the curtain. Now, what business had such a man +to set himself up for a writer of history and a speculator on +politics? Besides, his history is imperfect; and, suppose it were +not, what is its subject? Why simply one single war; a war which +lasted twenty-seven years; but which, after all, through its whole +course was enlivened by only two events worthy to enter into general +history--viz. the plague of Athens, and the miserable licking which +the Athenian invaders received in Sicily. This dire overthrow dished +Athens out and out; for one generation to come, there was an end of +Athenian domination; and that arrogant state, under the yoke of their +still baser enemies of Sparta, learned experimentally what were the +evils of a foreign conquest. There was therefore, in the domination of +the Thirty Tyrants, something to 'point a moral' in the Peloponnesian +war: it was the judicial reaction of martial tyranny and foreign +oppression, such as we of this generation have beheld in the double +conquest of Paris by insulted and outraged Christendom. But nothing of +all this will be found in Thucydides--he is as cool as a cucumber upon +every act of atrocity; whether it be the bloody abuse of power, or the +bloody retribution from the worm that, being trampled on too long, +turns at last to sting and to exterminate--all alike he enters in his +daybook and his ledger, posts them up to the account of brutal Spartan +or polished Athenian, with no more expression of his feelings (if he +had any) than a merchant making out an invoice of puncheons that are +to steal away men's wits, or of frankincense and myrrh that are to +ascend in devotion to the saints. Herodotus is a fine, old, genial +boy, that, like Froissart or some of the crusading historians, kept +himself in health and jovial spirits by travelling about; nor did he +confine himself to Greece or the Grecian islands; but he went to +Egypt, got bousy in the Pyramid of Cheops, ate a beef-steak in the +hanging-gardens of Babylon, and listened to no sailors' yarns at the +Piræus, which doubtless, before his time, had been the sole authority +for Grecian legends concerning foreign lands. But, as to Thucydides, +our own belief is, that he lived like a monk shut up in his _museum_ +or study; and that, at the very utmost, he may have gone in the +steamboat[15] to Corfu (_i. e._ Corcyra), because _that_ was the +island which occasioned the row of the Peloponnesian war. + +[Footnote 15: 'In the steamboat!' Yes, reader, the steamboat. It is +clear that there _was_ one in Homer's time. See the art. _Phæacian_ in +the _Odyssey_: if it paid then, _à fortiori_ six hundred years after. +The only point unknown about it, is the captain's name and the +state-cabin fares.] + +Xenophon now is quite another sort of man; he could use his pen; but +also he could use his sword; and (when need was) his heels, in running +away. His Grecian history of course is a mere fraction of the general +history; and, moreover, our own belief, founded upon the differences +of the style, is, that the work now received for his must be spurious. +But in this place the question is not worth discussing. Two works +remain, professedly historical, which, beyond a doubt, _are_ his; and +one of them the most interesting prose work by much which Athens has +bequeathed us; though, by the way, Xenophon was living in a sort of +elegant exile at a chateau in Thessaly, and not under Athenian +protection, when he wrote it. Both of his great works relate to a +Persian Cyrus, but to a Cyrus of different centuries. The _Cyropædia_ +is a romance, pretty much on the plan of Fenelon's _Telemaque_, only +(Heaven be praised!) not so furiously apoplectic. It pursues the +great Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, the Cyrus of the +Jewish prophets, from his infancy to his death-bed; and describes +evidently not any real prince, according to any authentic record of +his life, but, upon some basis of hints and vague traditions, improves +the actual Cyrus into an ideal fiction of a sovereign and a military +conqueror, as he _ought_ to be. One thing only we shall say of this +work, though no admirers ourselves of the twaddle which Xenophon +elsewhere gives us as philosophic memorabilia, that the episode of +Abradates and Panthea (especially the behaviour of Panthea after the +death of her beloved hero, and the incident of the dead man's hand +coming away on Cyrus grasping it) exceeds for pathos everything in +Grecian literature, always excepting the Greek drama, and comes +nearest of anything, throughout Pagan literature, to the impassioned +simplicity of Scripture, in its tale of Joseph and his brethren. The +other historical work of Xenophon is the _Anabasis_. The meaning of +the title is _the going-up_ or _ascent_--viz. of Cyrus the younger. +This prince was the younger brother of the reigning king Artaxerxes, +nearly two centuries from Cyrus the Great; and, from opportunity +rather than a better title, and because his mother and his vast +provincial government furnished him with royal treasures able to hire +an army, most of all, because he was richly endowed by nature with +personal gifts--took it into his head that he would dethrone his +brother; and the more so, because he was only his half-brother. His +chance was a good one: he had a Grecian army, and one from the very +_élite_ of Greece; whilst the Persian king had but a small corps of +Grecian auxiliaries, long enfeebled by Persian effeminacy and Persian +intermarriages. Xenophon was personally present in this expedition. +And the catastrophe was most singular, such as does not occur once in +a thousand years. The cavalry of the great King retreated before the +Greeks continually, no doubt from policy and secret orders; so that, +when a pitched battle became inevitable, the foreign invaders found +themselves in the very heart of the land, and close upon the +Euphrates. The battle was fought: the foreigners were victorious: they +were actually singing _Te Deum_ or _Io Pæan_ for their victory, when +it was discovered that their leader, the native prince in whose behalf +they had conquered, was missing; and soon after, that he was dead. +What was to be done? The man who should have improved their victory, +and placed them at his own right hand when on the throne of Persia, +was no more; key they had none to unlock the great fortresses of the +empire, none to unloose the enthusiasm of the native population. Yet +such was the desperation of their circumstances, that a _coup-de-main_ +on the capital seemed their best chance. The whole army was and felt +itself a forlorn hope. To go forward was desperate, but to go back +much more so; for they had a thousand rivers without bridges in their +rear; and, if they set their faces in that direction, they would have +300,000 light cavalry upon their flanks, besides nations innumerable-- + + 'Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath'd'; + +fierce fellows who understood no Greek, and, what was worse, no +joking, but well understood the use of the scymitar. Bad as things +were, they soon became worse; for the chiefs of the Grecian army, +being foolish enough to accept a dinner invitation from the Persian +commander-in-chief, were assassinated; and the words of Milton became +intelligible--that in the lowest deep a lower deep had opened to +destroy them. In this dilemma, Xenophon, the historian of the +expedition, was raised to a principal command; and by admirable skill +he led back the army by a different route to the Black Sea, on the +coast of which he knew that there were Grecian colonies: and from one +of these he obtained shipping, in which he coasted along (when he did +not march by land) to the mouth of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. +This was the famous retreat of the ten thousand; and it shows how much +defect of literary skill there was in those days amongst Grecian +authors, that the title of the book, _The Going Up_, does not apply to +the latter and more interesting seven-eighths of the account. The +Going Up is but the preparation or preface to the Going Down, the +_Anabasis_ to the _Katabasis_, in which latter part it is that +Xenophon plays any conspicuous part. A great political interest, +however, over and above the personal interest, attaches to this +expedition: for there can be no doubt, that to this proof of weakness +in the Persian empire, and perhaps to this, _as recorded by Xenophon_, +was due the expedition of Alexander in the next generation, which +changed the face of the world. + +The literateurs, as we have styled Plutarch and Lucian, though far +removed from the true classical era, being both posterior to +Christianity, are truly interesting. And, for Lucian in particular, +though he is known by reputation only as a humorous and sneering +writer, we can say, upon our personal knowledge, that there are +passages of more terrific effect, more German, and approaching to the +sublime, than anywhere else in Greek literature, out of the tragic +poets. Of Plutarch we need hardly speak; one part of his voluminous +works--viz. his biographies of Greek and Roman leaders in arts[16] and +arms--being so familiar to all nations; and having been selected by +Rousseau as the book for him who should be limited (or, like Collins +the poet, should limit himself) to one book only--a foolish choice +undoubtedly, but still arguing great range of resources in Plutarch, +that he should be thought of after so many myriads of modern books had +widened the range of selection. Meantime, the reader is not to forget +that, whatever may be his powers of amusement, a more inaccurate or +faithless author as to dates, and, indeed, in all matters of research, +does not exist than Plutarch. We make it a rule, whenever we see +_Plut._ at the bottom of a dictionary article, as the authority on +which it rests, to put the better half down as a bouncer. And, in +fact, Joe Miller is quite as good authority for English history as +Plutarch for Roman. + +[Footnote 16: 'In arts,' we say, because great orators are amongst his +heroes; but, after all, it is very questionable whether, simply as +orators, Plutarch would have noticed them. They were also statesmen; +and Mitford always treats Demosthenes as first lord of the treasury +and premier. Plutarch records no poet, no artist, however brilliant.] + +Now remain the orators; and of these we have a right to speak, for we +have read them; and, believe us, reader, not above one or two men in a +generation have. If the Editor would allow us room, we would gladly +contrast them with modern orators; and we could easily show how +prodigious are the advantages of modern orators in every point which +can enter into a comparison. But to what purpose? Even modern orators, +with all the benefit of modern interest, and of allusions everywhere +intelligible, are not read in any generation after their own, pulpit +orators only being excepted. So that, if the gods _had_ made our +reader a Grecian, surely he would never so far misspend his precious +time, and squander his precious intellect upon old dusty quarrels, +never of more value to a philosopher than a tempest in a wash-hand +bason, but now stuffed with obscurities which no man can explain, and +with lies to which no man can bring the counter-statement. But this +would furnish matter for a separate paper. + + +No. II.--THE GREEK ORATORS. + +Now, let us come to the orators. Isocrates, the eldest of those who +have survived, is a mere scholastic rhetorician: for he was a timid +man, and did not dare to confront the terrors of a stormy political +audience; and hence, though he lived about an entire century, he never +once addressed the Athenian citizens. It is true, that, although no +_bonâ fide_ orator--for he never _spoke_ in any usual acceptation of +that word, and, as a consequence, never had an opportunity of +replying, which only can bring forward a man's talents as a +_debater_--still he employed his pen upon real and upon existing +questions of public policy; and did not, as so many generations of +chamber rhetoricians continued to do in Greece, confine his powers to +imaginary cases of political difficulty, or (what were tantamount to +imaginary) cases fetched up from the long-past era of King Priam, or +the still earlier era of the Seven Chiefs warring against the +Seven-gated Thebes of Boeotia, or the half-fabulous era of the +Argonauts. Isocrates was a man of sense--a patriot in a temperate +way--and with something of a feeling for Greece generally, not merely +a champion of Athens. His heart was given to politics: and, in an age +when heavy clouds were gathering over the independence and the civil +grandeur of his country, he had a disinterested anxiety for drawing +off the lightning of the approaching storms by pacific counsels. +Compared, therefore, with the common mercenary orators of the Athenian +forum--who made a regular trade of promoting mischief, by inflaming +the pride, jealousy, vengeance, or the martial instincts of a 'fierce +democracy,' and, generally speaking, with no views, high or low, sound +or unsound, that looked beyond the momentary profit to themselves from +thus pandering to the thoughtless nationality of a most sensitive +people--Isocrates is entitled to our respect. His writings have also a +separate value, as memorials of political transactions from which the +historian has gathered many useful hints; and, perhaps, to a diligent +search, they might yield more. But, considered as an orator--if that +title can be, with any propriety, allowed to one who declaimed only in +his closet--one who, in relation to public affairs, was what, in +England, when speaking of practical jurisprudence, we call a Chamber +Counsel--Isocrates is languid, and with little of anything +characteristic in his manner to justify a separate consideration. It +is remarkable that he, beyond all other rhetoricians of that era, +cultivated the _rhythmus_ of his periods. And to this object he +sacrificed not only an enormity of time, but, I have no doubt, in many +cases, the freedom and natural movement of the thoughts. My reason, +however, for noticing this peculiarity in Isocrates, is by way of +fixing the attention upon the superiority, even artificial ornaments, +of downright practical business and the realities of political strife, +over the torpid atmosphere of a study or a school. Cicero, long after, +had the same passion for _numerositas_, and the full, pompous +rotundity of cadence. But in Cicero, all habits and all faculties were +nursed by the daily practice of life and its impassioned realities, in +the forum or in the senate. What is the consequence? Why this--that, +whereas in the most laboured performance of Isocrates (which cost him, +I think, one whole _decennium_, or period of ten years), few modern +ears are sensible of any striking art, or any great result of harmony; +in Cicero, on the other hand, the fine, sonorous modulations of his +periodic style, are delightful to the dullest ear of any European. +Such are the advantages from real campaigns, from the unsimulated +strife of actual stormy life, over the torpid dreams of what the +Romans called an _umbratic_[17] experience. + +[Footnote 17: 'Umbratic.' I have perhaps elsewhere drawn the attention +of readers to the peculiar effects of climate, in shaping the modes of +our thinking and imaging. A life of _inertia_, which retreats from the +dust and toil of actual experience, we (who represent the idea of +effeminacy more naturally by the image of shrinking from cold) call a +chimney-corner of a fireside experience; but the Romans, to whom the +same effeminacy more easily fell under the idea of shrinking from the +heat of the sun, called it an experience won in the shade; and a mere +scholastic student, they called an _umbraticus doctor_.] + +_Isocrates_ I have noticed as the oldest of the surviving Greek +orators: _Demosthenes_, of course, claims a notice more emphatically, +as, by universal consent of Athens, and afterwards of Rhodes, of Rome, +and other impartial judges, the greatest, or, at least, the most +comprehensively great. For, by the way, it must not be forgotten--though +modern critics _do_ forget this rather important fact in weighing the +reputation of Demosthenes--he was not esteemed, in his own day, as the +greatest in that particular quality of energy and demoniac power +([Greek: deinotês]) which is generally assumed to have been his leading +characteristic and his _forte_; not only by comparison with his own +compatriots, but even with Cicero and the greatest men of the Roman bar. +It was not of Demosthenes that the Athenians were accustomed to say, 'he +thunders and lightens,' but of Pericles, an elder orator; and even +amongst the written oratory of Greece, which still survives (for as to +the speeches ascribed to Pericles by Thucydides, I take it for granted +that, as usual, these were mere forgeries of the historian), there is a +portion which perhaps exceeds Demosthenes in the naked quality of +vehemence. But this, I admit, will not impeach his supremacy; for it is +probable, that wherever an orator is characterised exclusively by +turbulent power, or at least remembered chiefly for that quality, all +the other numerous graces of eloquence were wanting to that man, or +existed only in a degree which made no equipoise to his insulated gift +of Jovian terror. The Gracchi, amongst the Roman orators, were probably +more properly 'sons of thunder' than Crassus or Cicero, or even than +Cæsar himself, whose oratory, by the way, was, in this respect, like his +own character and infinite accomplishments; so that even by Cicero it is +rarely cited without the epithet of splendid, magnificent, &c. We must +suppose, therefore, that neither Cicero nor Demosthenes was held to be +at the head of their respective fields in Rome and Athens, in right of +any absolute pre-eminence in the one leading power of an orator--viz. +native and fervent vigour--but in right of a large comprehensive harmony +of gifts, leaving possibly to some other orators, elder or rival to +themselves, a superiority in each of an orator's talents taken apart, +but claiming the supremacy, nevertheless, upon the whole, by the +systematic union of many qualities tending to one result: pleasing the +taste by the harmonious _coup d'oeil_ from the total assemblage, and +also adapting itself to a far larger variety of situations; for, after +all, the _mere_ son of thunder is disarmed, and apt to become +ridiculous, if you strip him of a passionate cause, of a theme saturated +with human strife, and of an excitable or tempestuous audience. + +Such an audience, however, it will be said that Demosthenes had, and +sometimes (but not very often in those orations which survive) such a +theme. As to his audience, certainly it was all that could be wished +in point of violence and combustible passion; but also it was +something more. A mighty advantage it is, doubtless, to an orator, +when he sees and hears his own kindling passions instantaneously +reflected in the blazing eyes and fiery shouts (the _fremitus_) of +his audience--when he sees a whole people, personally or by +deputation, swayed backwards and forwards, like a field of corn in a +breeze, by the movements of his own appeals. But, unfortunately, in +the Athenian audience, the ignorance, the headstrong violence of +prejudice, the arrogance, and, above all, the levity of the national +mind--presented, to an orator the most favourite, a scene like that of +an ocean always rocking with storms; like a wasp always angry; like a +lunatic, always coming out of a passion or preparing to go into one. +Well might Demosthenes prepare himself by sea-shore practice; in which +I conceive that his purpose must have been, not so much (according to +the common notion) to overcrow the noise of the forum, as to _stand +fire_ (if I may so express it) against the uproarious demonstrations +of mob fury. + +This quality of an Athenian audience must very seriously have +interfered with the intellectual display of an orator. Not a word +could he venture to say in the way of censure towards the public +will--not even hypothetically to insinuate a fault; not a syllable +could he utter even in the way of dissent from the favourite +speculations of the moment. If he did, instantly a roar of menaces +recalled him to a sense even of personal danger. And, again, the mere +vivacity of his audience, requiring perpetual amusement and variety, +compelled a man, as great even as Demosthenes, to curtail his +arguments, and rarely, indeed, to pursue a theme with the requisite +fulness of development or illustration; a point in which the superior +dignity and the far less fluctuating mobility of the Roman mind gave +an immense advantage to Cicero. + +Demosthenes, in spite of all the weaknesses which have been arrayed +against his memory by the hatred of his contemporaries, or by the +anti-republican feelings of such men as Mitford, was a great man and +an honest man. He rose above his countrymen. He despised, in some +measure, his audience; and, at length, in the palmy days of his +influence, he would insist on being heard; he would insist on telling +the truth, however unacceptable; he would not, like the great rout of +venal haranguers, lay any flattering unction to the capital distempers +of the public mind; he would point out their errors, and warn them of +their perils. But this upright character of the man, victorious over +his constitutional timidity, does but the more brightly illustrate the +local law and the tyranny of the public feeling. How often do we find +him, when on the brink of uttering 'odious truth,' obliged to pause, +and to propitiate his audience with deprecatory phrases, entreating +them to give him time for utterance, not to yell him down before they +had heard his sentence to the end. [Greek: Mê thoryzeite]--'Gentlemen +of Athens! for the love of God, do not make an uproar at what I am +going to say! Gentlemen of Athens! humbly I beseech you to let me +finish my sentence!' Such are his continual appeals to the better +feelings of his audience. Now, it is very evident that, in such +circumstances, no man could do justice to any subject. At least, when +speaking not before a tribunal of justice, but before the people in +council assembled--that is, in effect, on his greatest stage of +all--Demosthenes (however bold at times, and restive in a matter which +he held to be paramount) was required to bend, and did bend, to the +local genius of democracy, reinforced by a most mercurial +temperament. The very air of Attica, combined with great political +power, kept its natives in a state of habitual intoxication; and even +wise men would have had some difficulty in mastering, as it affected +themselves, the permanent bias towards caprice and insolence. + +Is this state of things at all taken into account in our modern +critiques upon Demosthenes? The upshot of what I can find in most +modern lecturers upon rhetoric and style, French or English, when +speaking of Demosthenes, is this notable simile, by way of +representing the final effect of his eloquence--'that, like a mountain +torrent, swollen by melting snow, or by rain, it carries all things +before it.' Prodigiously original! and exceedingly discriminative! As +if such an illustration would not equally represent the effect of a +lyrical poem, of Mozart's music, of a stormy chorus, or any other form +whatever of impassioned vehemence. Meantime, I suspect grievously that +not one of these critics has ever read a paragraph of Demosthenes. +Nothing do you ever find quoted but a few notorious passages about +Philip of Macedon, and the too-famous oath, by the manes of those that +died at Marathon. I call it too famous, because (like Addison's +comparison of Marlborough, at Blenheim, to the angel in the storm--of +which a schoolmaster then living said, that nine out of every ten boys +would have hit upon it in a school exercise) it has no peculiar +boldness, and must have occurred to every Athenian, of any +sensibility, every day of his life. Hear, on the other hand, a modern +oath, and (what is most remarkable) an oath sworn in the pulpit. A +dissenting clergyman (I believe, a Baptist), preaching at Cambridge, +and having occasion to affirm or to deny something or other, upon his +general confidence in the grandeur of man's nature, the magnificence +of his conceptions, the immensity of his aspirations, &c., delivered +himself thus:--'By the greatness of human ideals--by the greatness of +human aspirations--by the immortality of human creations--_by the +Iliad_--_by the Odyssey_'--Now, that _was_ bold, startling, sublime. +But, in the other case, neither was the oath invested with any great +pomp of imagery or expression; nor, if it had--which is more to the +purpose--was such an oath at all representative of the peculiar manner +belonging to Demosthenes. It is always a rude and inartificial style +of criticism to cite from an author that which, whether fine or not in +itself, is no fair specimen of his ordinary style. + +What then _is_ the characteristic style of Demosthenes?--It is one +which grew naturally, as did his defects (by which I mean faults of +_omission_, in contradiction to such as are positive), from the +composition of his audience. His audience, comprehending so much +ignorance, and, above all, so much high-spirited impatience, being, in +fact, always on the fret, kept the orator always on the fret. Hence +arose short sentences; hence, the impossibility of the long, +voluminous sweeps of beautiful rhythmus which we find in Cicero; +hence, the animated form of apostrophe and crowded interrogations +addressed to the audience. This gives, undoubtedly, a spirited and +animated character to the style of Demosthenes; but it robs him of a +large variety of structure applied to the logic, or the embellishment, +or the music of his composition. His style is full of life, but not +(like Cicero's) full of pomp and continuous grandeur. On the contrary, +as the necessity of rousing attention, or of sustaining it, obliged +the Attic orator to rely too much on the _personality_ of direct +question to the audience, and to use brief sentences, so also the same +impatient and fretful irritability forbade him to linger much upon an +idea--to theorise, to speculate, or, generally, to quit the direct +business path of the question then under consideration--no matter for +what purpose of beauty, dignity, instruction, or even of _ultimate_ +effect. In all things, the _immediate_--the instant--the _præsens +præsentissimum_, was kept steadily before the eye of the Athenian +orator, by the mere coercion of self-interest. + +And hence, by the way, arises one most important feature of +distinction between Grecian oratory (political oratory at least) on +the one hand, and Roman (to which, in this point, we may add British) +on the other. A Roman lawyer, senator, or demagogue, even, under +proper restrictions--a British member of parliament--or even a +candidate from the hustings--but, most assuredly, and by the evidence +of many a splendid example, an advocate addressing a jury--may +embellish his oration with a wide circuit of historical, or of +antiquarian, nay, even speculative discussion. Every Latin scholar +will remember the leisurely and most facetious, the good-natured and +respectful, yet keenly satiric, picture which the great Roman +barrister draws of the Stoic philosophy, by way of _rowing_ old Cato, +who professed that philosophy with too little indulgence for venial +human errors. The _judices_--that is, in effect, the jury--were +tickled to the soul by seeing the grave Marcus Cato badgered with +this fine razor-like raillery; and there can be no doubt that, by +flattering the self-respect of the jury, in presuming them susceptible +of so much wit from a liberal kind of knowledge, and by really +delighting them with such a display of adroit teasing applied to a man +of scenical gravity, this whole scene, though quite extrajudicial and +travelling out of the record, was highly useful in conciliating the +good-will of Cicero's audience. The same style of liberal _excursus_ +from the more thorny path of the absolute business before the court, +has been often and memorably practised by great English +barristers--as, in the trial of Sacheverel, by many of the managers +for the Commons; by 'the fluent Murray,' on various occasions; in the +great cause of impeachment against our English Verres (or, at least, +our Verres as to the situation, though not the guilt), Mr. Hastings; +in many of Mr. Erskine's addresses to juries, where political rights +were at stake; in Sir James Mackintosh's defence of Peltier for a +libel upon Napoleon, when he went into a history of the press as +applied to politics--(a liberal inquiry, but which, except in the +remotest manner, could not possibly bear upon the mere question of +fact before the jury); and in many other splendid instances, which +have really made _our_ trials and the annals of _our_ criminal +jurisprudence one great fund of information and authority to the +historian. In the senate, I need not say how much farther, and more +frequently, this habit of large generalisation, and of liberal +excursion from perhaps a lifeless theme, has been carried by great +masters; in particular, by Edmund Burke, who carried it, in fact, to +such excess, and to a point which threatened so much to disturb the +movement of public business, that, from that cause more perhaps than +from rude insensibility to the value of his speculations, he put his +audience sometimes in motion for dinner, and acquired (as is +well-known) the surname of the Dinner Bell.[18] + +[Footnote 18: Yet this story has been exaggerated; and, I believe, in +strict truth, the whole case arose out of some fretful expressions of +ill-temper on the part of Burke, and that the name was a retort from a +man of wit, who had been personally stung by a sarcasm of the offended +orator.] + +Now, in the Athenian audience, all this was impossible: neither in +political nor in forensic harangues was there any license by rule, or +any indulgence by usage, or any special privilege by personal favour, +to the least effort at improving an individual case of law or politics +into general views of jurisprudence, of statesmanship, of diplomacy; +no collateral discussions were tolerated--no illustrative details--no +historical parallelisms--still less any philosophical moralisations. +The slightest show of any tendency in these directions was summarily +nipped in the bud: the Athenian gentlemen began to [Greek: thoryzein] +in good earnest if a man showed symptoms of entering upon any +discussion whatever that was not intensely needful and pertinent in +the first place--or which, in the second place, was not of a nature to +be wound up in two sentences when a summons should arise either to +dinner, or to the theatre, or to the succession of some variety +anticipated from another orator. + +Hence, therefore, finally arises one great peculiarity of Greek +eloquence; and a most unfortunate one for its chance of ever +influencing a remote posterity, or, in any substantial sense, of its +ever surviving in the real unaffected admiration of us moderns--that +it embodies no alien, no collateral information as to manners, usages, +modes of feeling--no extrinsic ornament, no side glimpses into Grecian +life, no casual historical details. The cause, and nothing but the +cause--the political question, and nothing but the question--- pealed +for ever in the ears of the terrified orator, always on sufferance, +always on his good behaviour, always afraid, for the sake of his party +or of his client, lest his auditors should become angry, or become +impatient, or become weary. And from that intense fear, trammeling the +freedom of his steps at every turn, and overruling every motion to the +right or to the left, in pure servile anxiety for the mood and +disposition of his tyrannical master, arose the very opposite result +for us of this day--that we, by the very means adopted to prevent +weariness in the immediate auditors, find nothing surviving in Grecian +orations but what _does_ weary us insupportably through its want of +all general interest; and, even amongst private or instant details of +politics or law, presenting us with none that throw light upon the +spirit of manners, or the Grecian peculiarities of feeling. Probably +an Athenian mob would not have cared much at the prospect of such a +result to posterity; and, at any rate, would not have sacrificed one +atom of their ease or pleasure to obviate such a result: but, to an +Athenian orator, this result would have been a sad one to contemplate. +The final consequence is, that whilst all men find, or may find, +infinite amusement, and instruction of the most liberal kind, in that +most accomplished of statesmen and orators, the Roman Cicero--nay, +would doubtless, from the causes assigned, have found, in their +proportion, the same attractions in the speeches of the elder Antony, +of Hortensius, of Crassus, and other contemporaries or immediate +predecessors of Cicero--no person ever reads Demosthenes, still less +any other Athenian orator, with the slightest interest beyond that +which inevitably attaches to the words of one who wrote his own divine +language with probably very superior skill. + +But, from all this, results a further inference--viz. the dire +affectation of those who pretend an enthusiasm in the oratory of +Demosthenes; and also a plenary consolation to all who are obliged, +from ignorance of Greek, to dispense with that novelty. If it be a +luxury at all, it is and can be one for those only who cultivate +verbal researches and the pleasures of philology. + +Even in the oratory of our own times, which oftentimes discusses +questions to the whole growth and motion of which we have been +ourselves parties present, or even accessary--questions which we have +followed in their first emersion and separation from the clouds of +general politics; their advance, slow or rapid, towards a domineering +interest in the public passions; their meridian altitude; and perhaps +their precipitous descent downwards, whether from the consummation of +their objects (as in the questions of the Slave Trade, of Catholic +Emancipation, of East India Monopoly), or from a partial victory and +compromise with the abuse (as in the purification of that Augean +stable, prisons, and, still more, private houses for the insane), or +from the accomplishment of one stage or so in a progress which, by its +nature, is infinite (as in the various steps taken towards the +improvement, and towards the extension of education): even in cases +like these, when the primary and ostensible object of the speaker +already, on its own account, possesses a commanding attraction, yet +will it often happen that the secondary questions, growing out of the +leading one, the great elementary themes suggested to the speaker by +the concrete case before him--as, for instance, the general question +of Test Laws, or the still higher and transcendent question of +Religious Toleration, and the relations between the State and +religious opinions, or the general history of Slavery and the commerce +in the human species, the general principles of economy as applied to +monopolies, the past usages of mankind in their treatment of prisoners +or of lunatics--these comprehensive and transcendent themes are +continually allowed to absorb and throw into the shade, for a time, +the minor but more urgent question of the moment through which they +have gained their interest. The capital and primary interest gives way +for a time to the derivative interest; and it does so by a silent +understanding between the orator and his audience. The orator is well +assured that he will not be taxed with wandering; the audience are +satisfied that, eventually, they will not have lost their time: and +the final result is, to elevate and liberalise the province of +oratory, by exalting mere business (growing originally, perhaps, out +of contingencies of finance, or trade, or local police) into a field +for the higher understanding; and giving to the mere necessities of +our position as a nation the dignity of great problems for civilising +wisdom or philosophic philanthropy. Look back to the superb orations +of Edmund Burke on questions limited enough in themselves, sometimes +merely personal; for instance, that on American Taxation, on the +Reforms in our Household or Official Expenditure, or at that from the +Bristol hustings (by its _primâ facie_ subject, therefore, a mere +electioneering harangue to a mob). With what marvellous skill does he +enrich what is meagre, elevate what is humble, intellectualise what is +purely technical, delocalise what is local, generalise what is +personal! And with what result? Doubtless to the absolute +contemporaries of those speeches, steeped to the very lips in the +passions besetting their topics, even to those whose attention was +sufficiently secured by the domineering interest, friendly or hostile, +to the views of the speaker--even to these I say, that, in so far as +they were at all capable of an intellectual pleasure, those parts +would be most attractive which were least occupied with the present +business and the momentary details. This order of precedency in the +interests of the speech held even for them; but to us, removing at +every annual step we take in the century, to a greater distance from +the mere business and partisan interests of the several cases, this +secondary attraction is not merely the greater of the two--to us it +has become pretty nearly the sole one, pretty nearly the exclusive +attraction. + +As to religious oratory, _that_ stands upon a different footing--the +questions afloat in that province of human speculation being eternal, +or at least essentially the same under new forms, receives a strong +illustration from the annals of the English senate, to which also it +gives a strong and useful illustration. Up to the era of James I., the +eloquence of either House could not, for political reasons, be very +striking, on the very principle which we have been enforcing. +Parliament met only for dispatch of business; and that business was +purely fiscal, or (as at times it happened) judicial. The +constitutional functions of Parliament were narrow; and they were +narrowed still more severely by the jealousy of the executive +government. With the expansion, or rather first growth and development +of a gentry, or third estate, expanded, _pari passu_, the political +field of their jurisdiction and their deliberative functions. This +widening field, as a birth out of new existences, unknown to former +laws or usages, was, of course, not contemplated by those laws or +usages. Constitutional law could not provide for the exercise of +rights by a body of citizens, when, as yet, that body had itself no +existence. A gentry, as the depository of a vast overbalance of +property, real as well as personal, had not matured itself till the +latter years of James I. Consequently the new functions, which the +instinct of their new situation prompted them to assume, were looked +upon by the Crown, most sincerely, as unlawful usurpations. This led, +as we know, to a most fervent and impassioned struggle, the most so of +any struggle which has ever armed the hands of men with the sword. For +the passions take a far profounder sweep when they are supported by +deep thought and high principles. + +This element of fervid strife was already, for itself, an atmosphere +most favourable to political eloquence. Accordingly, the speeches of +that day, though generally too short to attain that large compass and +sweep of movement without which it is difficult to kindle or to +sustain any conscious enthusiasm in an audience, were of a high +quality as to thought and energy of expression, as high as their +circumstantial disadvantages allowed. Lord Strafford's great effort is +deservedly admired to this day, and the latter part of it has been +often pronounced a _chef-d'oeuvre_. A few years before that era, all +the orators of note were, and must have been, judicial orators; and, +amongst these, Lord Bacon, to whom every reader's thoughts will point +as the most memorable, attained the chief object of all oratory, if +what Ben Jonson reports of him be true, that he had his audience +passive to the motions of his will. But Jonson was, perhaps, too +scholastic a judge to be a fair representative judge; and, whatever he +might choose to say or to think, Lord Bacon was certainly too +weighty--too massy with the bullion of original thought--ever to have +realized the idea of a great popular orator--one who + + 'Wielded at will a fierce democracy,' + +and ploughed up the great deeps of sentiment, or party strife, or +national animosities, like a Levanter or a monsoon. In the schools of +Plato, in the _palæstra Stoicorum_, such an orator might be potent; +not _in fæce Romuli_. If he had laboured with no other defect, had he +the gift of tautology? Could he say the same thing three times over in +direct sequence? For, without this talent of iteration--of repeating +the same thought in diversified forms--a man may utter good heads of +an oration, but not an oration. Just as the same illustrious man's +essays are good hints--useful topics--for essays; but no approximation +to what we, in modern days, understand by _essays_: they are, as an +eminent author once happily expressed it to myself, '_seeds, not +plants or shrubs; acorns, that is, oaks in embryo, but not oaks_.' + +Reverting, however, to the oratory of the Senate, from the era of its +proper birth, which we may date from the opening of that our memorable +Long Parliament, brought together in November of 1642,[19] our +Parliamentary eloquence has now, within four years, travelled through +a period of two centuries. A most admirable subject for an essay, or a +Magazine article, as it strikes me, would be a bird's-eye view--or +rather a bird's-wing flight--pursuing rapidly the revolutions of that +memorable oracle (for such it really was to the rest of civilised +Europe), which, through so long a course of years, like the Delphic +oracle to the nations of old, delivered counsels of civil prudence and +of national grandeur, that kept alive for Christendom the +recollections of freedom, and refreshed to the enslaved Continent the +old ideas of Roman patriotism, which, but for our Parliament, would +have uttered themselves by no voices on earth. That this account of +the position occupied by our British Parliament, in relation to the +rest of Europe, at least after the publication of the Debates had been +commenced by Cave, with the aid of Dr. Johnson, is, in no respect, +romantic or overcharged, may be learned from the German novels of the +last century, in which we find the British debates as uniformly the +morning accompaniment of breakfast, at the houses of the rural gentry, +&c., as in any English or Scottish county. Such a sketch would, of +course, collect the characteristics of each age, show in what +connection these characteristics stood with the political aspects of +the time, or with the modes of managing public business (a fatal rock +to our public eloquence in England!), and illustrate the whole by +interesting specimens from the leading orators in each generation: +from Hampden to Pulteney, amongst oppositionists or patriots; from +Pulteney to O'Connell; or, again, amongst Ministers, from Hyde to +Somers, from Lord Sunderland to Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke; and from +the plain, downright Sir Robert Walpole, to the plain, downright Sir +Robert Peel. + +[Footnote 19: There was another Parliament of this same year 1642, +which met in the spring (April, I think), but was summarily dissolved. +A small quarto volume, of not unfrequent occurrence, I believe, +contains some good specimens of the eloquence then prevalent--it was +rich in thought, never wordy--in fact, too parsimonious in words and +illustrations; and it breathed a high tone of religious principle as +well as of pure-minded patriotism; but, for the reason stated +above--its narrow circuit and very limited duration--the general +character of the Parliamentary eloquence was ineffective.] + +Throughout the whole of this review, the same 'moral,' if one might so +call it, would be apparent--viz. that in proportion as the oratory was +high and intellectual, did it travel out into the collateral questions +of less instant necessity, but more durable interest; and that, in +proportion as the Grecian necessity _was_ or was _not_ enforced by the +temper of the House, or by the pressure of public business--the +necessity which cripples the orator, by confining him within the +severe limits of the case before him--in that proportion had or had +not the oratory of past generations a surviving interest for modern +posterity. Nothing, in fact, so utterly effete--not even old law, or +old pharmacy, or old erroneous chemistry--nothing so insufferably dull +as political orations, unless when powerfully animated by that spirit +of generalisation which only gives the breath of life and the salt +which preserves from decay, through every age alike. The very +strongest proof, as well as exemplification of all which has been said +on Grecian oratory, may thus be found in the records of the British +senate. + +And this, by the way, brings us round to an aspect of Grecian oratory +which has been rendered memorable, and forced upon our notice, in the +shape of a problem, by the most popular of our native historians--the +aspect, I mean, of Greek oratory in comparison with English. Hume has +an essay upon the subject; and the true answer to that essay will open +a wide field of truth to us. In this little paper, Hume assumes the +superiority of Grecian eloquence, as a thing admitted on all hands, +and requiring no proof. Not the proof of this point did he propose to +himself as his object; not even the illustration of it. No. All that, +Hume held to be superfluous. His object was, to investigate the causes +of this Grecian superiority; or, if _investigate_ is too pompous a +word for so slight a discussion, more properly, he inquired for the +cause as something that must naturally lie upon the surface. + +What is the answer? First of all, before looking for causes, a man +should be sure of his facts. Now, as to the main fact at issue, I +utterly deny the superiority of Grecian eloquence. And, first of all, +I change the whole field of inquiry by shifting the comparison. The +Greek oratory is all political or judicial: we have those also; but +the best of our eloquence, by immeasurable degrees, the noblest and +richest, is our religious eloquence. Here, of course, all comparison +ceases; for classical Grecian religious eloquence, in Grecian attire, +there is none until three centuries after the Christian era, when we +have three great orators, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil--of which two I +have a very fixed opinion, having read large portions of both--and a +third of whom I know nothing. To our Jeremy Taylor, to our Sir Thomas +Browne, there is no approach made in the Greek eloquence. The +inaugural chapter of the _Holy Dying_, to say nothing of many another +golden passage; or the famous passage in the _Urn Buriall_, +beginning--'Now, since these bones have rested under the drums and +tramplings of three conquests'--have no parallel in literature. The +winding up of the former is more, in its effect, like a great +tempestuous chorus from the _Judas Maccabeus_, or from Spohr's _St. +Paul_, than like human eloquence. + +But, grant that this transfer of the comparison is unfair--still, it +is no less unfair to confine the comparison on our part to the weakest +part of our oratory; but no matter--let issue be joined even here. +Then we may say, at once, that, for the intellectual qualities of +eloquence, in fineness of understanding, in depth and in large compass +of thought, Burke far surpasses any orator, ancient or modern. But, if +the comparison were pushed more widely, very certain I am, that, apart +from classical prejudice, no qualities of just thinking, or fine +expression, or even of artificial ornament, could have been assigned +by Hume, in which the great body of our deliberative and forensic +orators fall short of Grecian models; though I will admit, that, by +comparison with the Roman model of Cicero, there is seldom the same +artful prefiguration of the oration throughout its future course, or +the same sustained rhythmus and oratorial tone. The qualities of art +are nowhere so prominently expressed, nowhere aid the effect so much, +as in the great Roman master. + +But, as to Greece, let us now, in one word, unveil the sole advantage +which the eloquence of the Athenian _assembly_ has over that of the +English senate. It is this--_the public business of Athens was as yet +simple and unencumbered by details_; the dignity of the occasion was +scenically sustained. But, in England, the vast intricacy and complex +interweaving of property, of commerce, of commercial interests, of +details infinite in number, and infinite in littleness, break down and +fritter away into fractions and petty minutiæ, the whole huge +labyrinth of our public affairs. It is scarcely necessary to explain +my meaning. In Athens, the question before the public assembly was, +peace or war--before our House of Commons, perhaps the Exchequer +Bills' Bill; at Athens, a league or no league--in England, the Tithe +of Agistment Commutation-Bills' Renewal Bill; in Athens--shall we +forgive a ruined enemy? in England--shall we cancel the tax on +farthing rushlights? In short, with us, the infinity of details +overlays the simplicity and grandeur of our public deliberations. + +Such was the advantage--a mighty advantage--for Greece. Now, finally, +for the use made of this advantage. To that point I have already +spoken. By the clamorous and undeliberative qualities of the Athenian +political audience, by its fitful impatience, and vehement arrogance, +and fervid partisanship, all wide and general discussion was barred +_in limine_. And thus occurred this singular inversion of +positions--the greatest of Greek orators was obliged to treat these +Catholic questions as mere Athenian questions of business. On the +other hand, the least eloquent of British senators, whether from the +immense advance in knowledge, or from the custom and usage of +Parliament, seldom fails, more or less, to elevate his intense details +of pure technical business into something dignified, either by the +necessities of pursuing the _historical_ relations of the matter in +discussion, or of arguing its merits as a case of general finance, or +as connected with general political economy, or, perhaps, in its +bearings on peace or war. The Grecian was forced, by the composition +of his headstrong auditory, to degrade and personalise his grand +themes; the Englishman is forced, by the difference of his audience, +by old prescription, and by the opposition of a well-informed, hostile +party, into elevating his merely technical and petty themes into great +national questions, involving honour and benefit to tens of millions. + + + + +THE GERMAN LANGUAGE, AND PHILOSOPHY OF KANT. + + +Using a New Testament, of which (in the narrative parts at least) any +one word being given will suggest most of what is immediately +consecutive, you evade the most irksome of the penalties annexed to +the first breaking ground in a new language: you evade the necessity +of hunting up and down a dictionary. Your own memory, and the +inevitable suggestions of the context, furnish a dictionary _pro hac +vice_. And afterwards, upon advancing to other books, where you are +obliged to forego such aids, and to swim without corks, you find +yourself already in possession of the particles for expressing +addition, succession, exception, inference--in short, of all the forms +by which transition or connection is effected (_if_, _but_, _and_, +_therefore_, _however_, _notwithstanding_), together with all those +adverbs for modifying or restraining the extent of a subject or a +predicate, which in all languages alike compose the essential +frame-work or _extra-linear_ machinery of human thought. The +filling-up--the _matter_ (in a scholastic sense)--may differ +infinitely; but the _form_, the periphery, the determining moulds +into which this matter is fused--all this is the same for ever: and so +wonderfully limited in its extent is this frame-work, so narrow and +rapidly revolving is the clock-work of connections among human +thoughts, that a dozen pages of almost any book suffice to exhaust all +the [Greek: epea pteroenta][20] which express them. To have mastered +these [Greek: epea pteroenta] is in effect to have mastered +seven-tenths, at the least, of any language; and the benefit of using +a New Testament, or the familiar parts of an Old Testament, in this +preliminary drill, is, that your own memory is thus made to operate as +a perpetual dictionary or nomenclator. I have heard Mr. Southey say +that, by carrying in his pocket a Dutch, Swedish, or other Testament, +on occasion of a long journey performed in '_muggy_' weather, and in +the inside of some venerable 'old heavy'--such as used to bestow their +tediousness upon our respectable fathers some thirty or forty years +ago--he had more than once turned to so valuable an account the +doziness or the dulness of his fellow-travellers, that whereas he had +'booked' himself at the coach-office utterly [Greek: analphabêtos], +unacquainted with the first rudiments of the given language, he had +made his parting bows to his coach brethren (secretly returning thanks +to them for their stupidity), in a condition for grappling with any +common book in that dialect. One of the polyglot Old or New Testaments +published by Bagster, would be a perfect Encyclopædia, or +_Panorganon_, for such a scheme of coach discipline, upon dull roads +and in dull company. As respects the German language in particular, I +shall give one caution from my own experience, to the self-instructor: +it is a caution which applies to the German language exclusively, or +to that more than to any other, because the embarrassment which it is +meant to meet, grows out of a defect of taste characteristic of the +German mind. It is this: elsewhere, you would naturally, as a +beginner, resort to _prose_ authors, since the license and audacity of +poetic thinking, and the large freedom of a poetic treatment, cannot +fail to superadd difficulties of individual creation to the general +difficulties of a strange dialect. But this rule, good for every other +case, is _not_ good for the literature of Germany. Difficulties there +certainly are, and perhaps in more than the usual proportion, from the +German peculiarities of poetic treatment; but even these are +overbalanced in the result, by the single advantage of being limited +in the extent by the metre, or (as it may happen) by the particular +stanza. To German poetry there is a known, fixed, calculable limit. +Infinity, absolute infinity, is impracticable in any German metre. +Not so with German prose. Style, in any sense, is an inconceivable +idea to a German intellect. Take the word in the limited sense of what +the Greeks called [Greek: Synthesis onomatôn]--_i. e._ the +construction of sentences--I affirm that a German (unless it were here +and there a Lessing) cannot admit such an idea. Books there are in +German, and, in other respects, very good books too, which consist of +one or two enormous sentences. A German sentence describes an arch +between the rising and the setting sun. Take Kant for illustration: he +has actually been complimented by the cloud-spinner, Frederic +Schlegel, who is now in Hades, as a most original artist in the matter +of style. 'Original' Heaven knows he was! His idea of a sentence was +as follows:--We have all seen, or read of, an old family coach, and +the process of packing it for a journey to London some seventy or +eighty years ago. Night and day, for a week at least, sate the +housekeeper, the lady's maid, the butler, the gentleman's gentleman, +&c., packing the huge ark in all its recesses, its 'imperials,' its +'wills,' its 'Salisbury boots,' its 'sword-cases,' its front pockets, +side pockets, rear pockets, its 'hammer-cloth cellars' (which a lady +explains to me as a corruption from _hamper-cloth_, as originally a +cloth for hiding a hamper, stored with _viaticum_), until all the uses +and needs of man, and of human life, savage or civilised, were met +with separate provision by the infinite chaos. Pretty nearly upon the +model of such an old family coach packing, did Kant institute and +pursue the packing and stuffing of one of his regular sentences. +Everything that could ever be needed in the way of explanation, +illustration, restraint, inference, by-clause, or indirect comment, +was to be crammed, according to this German philosopher's taste, into +the front pockets, side pockets, or rear pockets, of the one original +sentence. Hence it is that a sentence will last in reading whilst a +man + + 'Might reap an acre of his neighbour's corn.' + +Nor is this any peculiarity of Kant's. It is common to the whole +family of prose writers of Germany, unless when they happen to have +studied French models, who cultivate the opposite extreme. As a +caution, therefore, practically applied to this particular anomaly in +German prose-writing, I advise all beginners to choose between two +classes of composition--ballad poetry, or comedy--as their earliest +school of exercise; ballad poetry, because the form of the stanza +(usually a quatrain) prescribes a very narrow range to the sentences; +comedy, because the form of dialogue, and the imitation of daily life +in its ordinary tone of conversation, and the spirit of comedy +naturally suggesting a brisk interchange of speech, all tend to short +sentences. These rules I soon drew from my own experience and +observation. And the one sole purpose towards which I either sought or +wished for aid, respected the pronunciation; not so much for attaining +a just one (which I was satisfied could not be realised out of +Germany, or, at least, out of a daily intercourse with Germans) as for +preventing the formation, unawares, of a radically false one. The +guttural and palatine sounds of the _ch_, and some other German +peculiarities, cannot be acquired without constant practice. But the +false Westphalian or Jewish pronunciation of the vowels, diphthongs, +&c., may easily be forestalled, though the true delicacy of Meissen +should happen to be missed. Thus much guidance I purchased, with a +very few guineas, from my young Dresden tutor, who was most anxious +for permission to extend his assistance; but this I would not hear of: +and, in the spirit of fierce (perhaps foolish) independence, which +governed most of my actions at that time of life, I did all the rest +for myself. + + 'It was a banner broad unfurl'd, + The picture of that western world.' + +These, or words like these, in which Wordsworth conveys the sudden +apocalypse, as by an apparition, to an ardent and sympathising spirit, +of the stupendous world of America, rising, at once, like an +exhalation, with all its shadowy forests, its endless savannas, and +its pomp of solitary waters--well and truly might I have applied to my +first launching upon that vast billowy ocean of the German literature. +As a past literature, as a literature of inheritance and tradition, +the German was nothing. Ancestral titles it had none; or none +comparable to those of England, Spain, or even Italy; and there, also, +it resembled America, as contrasted with the ancient world of Asia, +Europe, and North Africa.[21] But, if its inheritance were nothing, +its prospects, and the scale of its present development, were in the +amplest style of American grandeur. _Ten thousand_ new books, we are +assured by Menzel, an author of high reputation--a _literal +myriad_--is considerably below the number annually poured from all +quarters of Germany, into the vast reservoir of Leipsic; spawn +infinite, no doubt, of crazy dotage, of dreaming imbecility, of +wickedness, of frenzy, through every phasis of Babylonian confusion; +yet, also, teeming and heaving with life and the instincts of +truth--of truth hunting and chasing in the broad daylight, or of truth +groping in the chambers of darkness; sometimes seen as it displays its +cornucopia of tropical fruitage; sometimes heard dimly, and in +promise, working its way through diamond mines. Not the tropics, not +the ocean, not life itself, is such a type of variety, of infinite +forms, or of creative power, as the German literature, in its recent +motions (say for the last twenty years), gathering, like the Danube, a +fresh volume of power at every stage of its advance. A banner it was, +indeed, to me of miraculous promise, and suddenly unfurled. It seemed, +in those days, an El Dorado as true and undeceiving as it was +evidently inexhaustible. And the central object in this interminable +wilderness of what then seemed imperishable bloom and verdure--the +very tree of knowledge in the midst of this Eden--was the new or +transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant. + +[Footnote 20: [Greek: Epea pteroenta], literally _winged words_. To +explain the use and origin of this phrase to non-classical readers, it +must be understood that, originally, it was used by Homer to express +the few, rapid, and significant words which conveyed some hasty order, +counsel, or notice, suited to any sudden occasion or emergency: _e. +g._ 'To him flying from the field the hero addressed these winged +words--"Stop, coward, or I will transfix thee with my spear."' But by +Horne Tooke, the phrase was adopted on the title-page of his +_Diversions of Purley_, as a pleasant symbolic expression for all the +non-significant particles, the _articuli_ or joints of language, which +in his well-known theory are resolved into abbreviations or +compendious forms (and therefore rapid, flying, _winged_ forms), +substituted for significant forms of greater length. Thus, _if_ is a +non-significant particle, but it is an abbreviated form of an +imperative in the second person--substituted for gif, or give, or +grant the case--put the case that. All other particles are shown by +Horne Tooke to be equally shorthand (or _winged_) substitutions.] + +[Footnote 21: It has been rather too much forgotten, that Africa, from +the northern margin of Bilidulgerid and the Great Desert, +southwards--everywhere, in short, beyond Egypt, Cyrene, and the modern +Barbary States--belongs, as much as America, to the New World--the +world unknown to the ancients.] + +I have described the gorgeousness of my expectations in those early +days of my prelusive acquaintance with German literature. I have a +little lingered in painting that glad aurora of my first pilgrimage to +the fountains of the Rhine and of the Danube, in order adequately to +shadow out the gloom and blight which soon afterwards settled upon the +hopes of that golden dawn. In Kant, I had been taught to believe, +were the keys of a new and a creative philosophy. Either '_ejus +ductu_,' or '_ejus auspiciis_'--that is, either directly under his +guidance, or indirectly under any influence remotely derived from his +principles--I looked confidingly to see the great vistas and avenues +of truth laid open to the philosophic inquirer. Alas! all was a dream. +Six weeks' study was sufficient to close my hopes in that quarter for +ever. The philosophy of Kant--so famous, so commanding in Germany, +from about the period of the French Revolution--already, in 1805, I +had found to be a philosophy of destruction, and scarcely, in any one +chapter, so much as _tending_ to a philosophy of reconstruction. It +destroys by wholesale, and it substitutes nothing. Perhaps, in the +whole history of man, it is an unexampled case, that such a scheme of +speculation--which offers nothing seducing to human aspirations, +nothing splendid to the human imagination, nothing even positive and +affirmative to the human understanding--should have been able to found +an interest so broad and deep among thirty-five millions of cultivated +men. The English reader who supposes this interest to have been +confined to academic bowers, or the halls of philosophic societies, is +most inadequately alive to the case. Sects, heresies, schisms, by +hundreds, have arisen out of this philosophy--many thousands of books +have been written by way of teaching it, discussing it, extending it, +opposing it. And yet it is a fact, that all its doctrines are +negative--teaching, in no case, what we _are_, but simply what we are +_not_ to believe--and that all its truths are barren. Such being its +unpopular character, I cannot but imagine that the German people have +received it with so much ardour, from profound incomprehension of its +meaning, and utter blindness to its drift--a solution which may seem +extravagant, but is not so; for, even amongst those who have expressly +commented on this philosophy, not one of the many hundreds whom I have +myself read, but has retracted from every attempt to explain its dark +places. In these dark places lies, indeed, the secret of its +attraction. Were light poured into them, it would be seen that they +are _culs-de-sac_, passages that lead to nothing; but, so long as they +continue dark, it is not known whither they lead, how far, in what +direction, and whether, in fact, they may not issue into paths +connected directly with the positive and the infinite. Were it known +that upon every path a barrier faces you insurmountable to human +steps--like the barriers which fence in the Abyssinian valley of +Rasselas--the popularity of this philosophy would expire at once; for +no popular interest can long be sustained by speculations which, in +every aspect, are known to be essentially negative and essentially +finite. Man's nature has something of infinity within itself, which +requires a corresponding infinity in its objects. We are told, indeed, +by Mr. Bulwer, that the Kantian system has ceased to be of any +authority in Germany--that it is defunct, in fact--and that we have +first begun to import it into England, after its root had withered, or +begun to wither, in its native soil. But Mr. Bulwer is mistaken. The +philosophy has never withered in Germany. It cannot even be said that +its fortunes have retrograded: they have oscillated: accidents of +taste and ability in particular professors, or caprices of fashion, +have given a momentary fluctuation to this or that new form of +Kantianism,--an ascendency, for a period, to various, and, in some +respects, conflicting, modifications of the transcendental system; but +all alike have derived their power mediately from Kant. No weapons, +even if employed as hostile weapons, are now forged in any armoury but +that of Kant; and, to repeat a Roman figure which I used above, all +the modern polemic tactics of what is called metaphysics, are trained +and made to move either _ejus ductu_ or _ejus auspiciis_. Not one of +the new systems affects to call back the Leibnitzian philosophy, the +Cartesian, or any other of earlier or later date, as adequate to the +purposes of the intellect in this day, or as capable of yielding even +a sufficient terminology. Let this last fact decide the question of +Kant's vitality. _Qui bene distinguit bene docet._ This is an old +adage. Now, he who imposes new names upon all the acts, the functions, +and the objects of the philosophic understanding, must be presumed to +have distinguished most sharply, and to have ascertained with most +precision, their general relations--_so long as his terminology +continues to be adopted_. This test, applied to Kant, will show that +his spirit yet survives in Germany. Frederic Schlegel, it is true, +twenty years ago, in his lectures upon literature, assures us that +even the disciples of the great philosopher have agreed to abandon his +philosophic nomenclature. But the German philosophic literature, since +that date, tells another tale. Mr. Bulwer is, therefore, wrong; and, +without going to Germany, looking only to France, he will see cause to +revise his sentence. Cousin--the philosophic Cousin, the only great +name in philosophy for modern France--familiar as he is with North +Germany, can hardly be presumed unacquainted with a fact so striking, +if it _were_ a fact, as the extinction of a system once so +triumphantly supreme as that of Kant; and yet Mr. Bulwer, admiring +Cousin as he does, cannot but have noticed his efforts to naturalise +Kant in France. Meantime, if it were even true that transcendentalism +had lost its hold of the public mind in Germany, _primâ facie_, this +would prove little more than the fickleness of that public which must +have been wrong in one of the two cases--either when adopting the +system, or when rejecting it. Whatever there may be of truth and value +in the system, will remain unimpeached by such caprices, whether of an +individual or of a great nation; and England would still be in the +right to import the philosophy, however late in the day, if it were +true even (which I doubt greatly) that she _is_ importing it. + +Both truth and value there certainly _is_ in one part of the Kantian +philosophy; and that part is its foundation. I had intended, at this +point, to introduce an outline of the transcendental philosophy--not, +perhaps, as entering by logical claim of right into any biographical +sketch, but as a very allowable digression in the record of that man's +life to whom, in the way of hope and of profound disappointment, it +had been so memorable an object. For two or three years before I +mastered the language of Kant,[22] it had been a pole-star to my +hopes, and _in hypothesi_ agreeably to the uncertain plans of +uncertain knowledge, the luminous guide to my future life--as a life +dedicated and set apart to philosophy. Such it was some years _before_ +I knew it: for, at least ten long years _after_ I came into a +condition of valueing its true pretensions and measuring its +capacities, this same philosophy shed the gloom of something like +misanthropy upon my views and estimates of human nature; for man was +an abject animal, if the limitations which Kant assigned to the +motions of his speculative reason were as absolute and hopeless as, +under _his_ scheme of the understanding and _his_ genesis of its +powers, too evidently they were. I belonged to a reptile race, if the +wings by which we had sometimes _seemed_ to mount, and the buoyancy +which had _seemed_ to support our flight, were indeed the fantastic +delusions which he represented them. Such, and so deep and so abiding +in its influence upon my life, having been the influence of this +German philosophy, according to all logic of proportions, in selecting +the objects of my notice, I might be excused for setting before the +reader, in its full array, the analysis of its capital sections. +However, in any memorial of a life which professes to keep in view +(though but as a secondary purpose) any regard to popular taste, the +logic of proportions must bend, after all, to the law of the +occasion--to the proprieties of time and place. For the present, +therefore, I shall restrict myself to the few sentences in which it +may be proper to gratify the curiosity of _some_ readers, the two or +three in a hundred, as to the peculiar distinctions of this +philosophy. Even to these two or three out of each hundred, I shall +not venture to ascribe a larger curiosity than with respect to the +most general 'whereabouts' of its position--from what point it +starts--whence and from what aspect it surveys the ground--and by what +links from this starting-point it contrives to connect itself with the +main objects of philosophic inquiry. + +[Footnote 22: I might have mastered the philosophy of Kant, without +waiting for the German language, in which all his capital works are +written; for there is a Latin version of the whole, by Born, and a +most admirable digest of the cardinal work (admirable for its fidelity +and the skill by which that fidelity is attained), in the same +language, by Rhiseldek, a Danish professor. But this fact, such was +the slight knowledge of all things connected with Kant in England, I +did not learn for some years.] + +Immanuel Kant was originally a dogmatist in the school of Leibnitz and +Wolf; that is, according to his trisection of all philosophy into +dogmatic, sceptical, and critical, he was, upon all questions, +disposed to a strong _affirmative_ creed, without courting any +particular examination into the grounds of this creed, or into its +assailable points. From this slumber, as it is called by himself, he +was suddenly aroused by the Humian doctrine of cause and effect. This +celebrated essay on the nature of necessary connection--so thoroughly +misapprehended at the date of its first publication to the world by +its _soi-disant_ opponents, Oswald, Beattie, &c., and so imperfectly +comprehended since then by various _soi-disant_ defenders--became in +effect the 'occasional cause' (in the phrase of the logicians) of the +entire subsequent philosophic scheme of Kant--every section of which +arose upon the accidental opening made to analogical trains of +thought, by this memorable effort of scepticism, applied by Hume to +one capital phenomenon among the necessities of the human +understanding. What is the nature of Hume's scepticism as applied to +this phenomenon? What is the main thesis of his celebrated essay on +cause and effect? For few, indeed, are they who really know anything +about it. If a man really understands it, a very few words will avail +to explain the _nodus_. Let us try. It is a necessity of the _human_ +understanding (very probably not a necessity of a higher order of +intelligences) to connect its experiences by means of the idea of +_cause_ and its correlate, _effect_: and when Beattie, Oswald, Reid, +&c. were exhausting themselves in proofs of the indispensableness of +this idea, they were fighting with shadows; for no man had ever +questioned the practical necessity for such an idea to the coherency +of human thinking. Not the practical necessity, but the internal +consistency of this notion, and the original right to such a notion, +was the point of inquisition. For, attend, courteous reader, and three +separate propositions will set before your eyes the difficulty. _First +Prop._, which, for the sake of greater precision, permit me to throw +into Latin:--_Non datur aliquid_ [A] _quo posito ponitur aliud_ [B] _à +priori_; that is, in other words, You cannot lay your hands upon that +one object or phenomenon [A] in the whole circle of natural +existences, which, being assumed, will entitle you to assume _à +priori_, any other object whatsoever [B] as succeeding it. You could +not, I say, of any object or phenomenon whatever, assume this +succession _à priori_--that is, _previously to experience_. _Second +Prop._ But, if the succession of B to A be made known to you, not _à +priori_ (by the involution of B in the idea of A), but by experience, +then you cannot ascribe _necessity_ to the succession: the connection +between them is not necessary but contingent. For the very widest +experience--an experience which should stretch over all ages, from +the beginning to the end of time--can never establish a _nexus_ having +the least approximation to necessity; no more than a rope of sand +could gain the cohesion of adamant, by repeating its links through a +billion of successions. _Prop. Third._ Hence (_i. e._ from the two +preceding propositions), it appears that no instance or case of +_nexus_ that ever can have been offered to the notice of any human +understanding, has in it, or, by possibility, could have had anything +of necessity. Had the _nexus_ been necessary, you would have seen it +beforehand; whereas, by Prop. I. _Non datur aliquid, quo posito +ponitur aliud à priori._ This being so, now comes the startling fact, +that the notion of a _cause_ includes the notion of necessity. For, if +A (the cause) be connected with B (the effect) only in a casual or +accidental way, you do not feel warranted in calling it a cause. If +heat applied to ice (A) were sometimes followed by a tendency to +liquefaction (B) and sometimes not, you would not consider A connected +with B as a cause, but only as some variable accompaniment of the true +and unknown cause, which might allowably be present or be absent. +This, then, is the startling and mysterious phenomenon of the human +understanding--that, in a certain notion, which is indispensable to +the coherency of our whole experience, indispensable to the +establishing any _nexus_ between the different parts and successions +of our whole train of notices, we include an accessary notion of +necessity, which yet has no justification or warrant, no assignable +derivation from any known or possible case of human experience. We +have one idea at least--viz. the idea of causation--which transcends +our possible experience by one important element, the element of +_necessity_, that never can have been derived from the only source of +ideas recognised by the philosophy of this day. A Lockian never can +find his way out of this dilemma. The experience (whether it be the +experience of sensation or the experience of reflection) which he +adopts for his master-key, never will unlock this case; for the sum +total of human experience, collected from all ages, can avail only to +tell us what _is_, but never what _must be_. The idea of necessity is +absolutely transcendant to experience, _per se_, and must be derived +from some other source. From what source? Could Hume tell us? No: he, +who had started the game so acutely (for with every allowance for the +detection made in Thomas Aquinas, of the original suggestion, as +recorded in the _Biographia Literaria_ of Coleridge, we must still +allow great merit of a secondary kind to Hume for his modern revival +and restatement of the doctrine), this same acute philosopher broke +down confessedly in his attempt to hunt the game down. His solution is +worthless. + +Kant, however, having caught the original scent from Hume, was more +fortunate. He saw, at a glance, that here was a test applied to the +Lockian philosophy, which showed, at the very least, its +_insufficiency_. If it were good even for so much as it +explained--which Burke is disposed to receive as a sufficient warrant +for the favourable reception of a new hypothesis--at any rate, it now +appeared that there was something which it could _not_ explain. But +next, Kant took a large step in advance _proprio morte_. Reflecting +upon the one idea adduced by Hume, as transcending the ordinary +source of ideas, he began to ask himself, whether it were likely that +this idea should stand alone? Were there not other ideas in the same +predicament; other ideas including the same element of necessity, and, +therefore, equally disowning the parentage assigned by Locke? Upon +investigation, he found that there were: he found that there were +eleven others in exactly the same circumstances. The entire twelve he +denominated categories; and the mode by which he ascertained their +number--that there were so many and no more--is of itself so +remarkable as to merit notice in the most superficial sketch. But, in +fact, this one explanation will put the reader in possession of Kant's +system, so far as he could understand it without an express and +toilsome study. With this explanation, therefore, of the famous +categories, I shall close my slight sketch of the system. Has the +reader ever considered the meaning of the term _Category_--a term so +ancient and so venerable from its connection with the most domineering +philosophy that has yet appeared amongst men? The doctrine of the +Categories (or, in its Roman appellation, of the _Predicaments_), is +one of the few wrecks from the Peripatetic philosophy which still +survives as a doctrine taught by public authority in the most ancient +academic institutions of Europe. It continues to form a section in the +code of public instruction; and perhaps under favour of a pure +accident. For though, strictly speaking, a _metaphysical_ speculation, +it has always been prefixed as a sort of preface to the _Organon_ (or +_logical_ treatises) of Aristotle, and has thus accidentally shared in +the immortality conceded to that most perfect of human works. Far +enough were the Categories from meriting such distinction. Kant was +well aware of this: he was aware that the Aristotelian Categories were +a useless piece of scholastic lumber: unsound in their first +conception; and, though illustrated through long centuries by the +schoolmen, and by still earlier Grecian philosophers, never in any one +known instance turned to a profitable account. Why, then, being aware +that even in idea they were false, besides being practically +unsuitable, did Kant adopt or borrow a name laden with this +superfetation of reproach--all that is false in theory superadded to +all that is useless in practice? He did so for a remarkable reason: he +felt, according to his own explanation, that Aristotle had been +_groping_ [the German word expressive of his blind procedure is +_herumtappen_]--groping in the dark, but under a semi-conscious +instinct of truth. Here is a most remarkable case or situation of the +human intellect, happening alike to individuals and to entire +generations--in the situation of yearning or craving, as it were, for +a great idea as yet unknown, but dimly and uneasily prefigured. +Sometimes the very brink, as it may be called, of such an idea is +approached; sometimes it is even imperfectly discovered; but with +marks in the very midst of its imperfections, which serve as +indications to a person coming better armed for ascertaining the +sub-conscious thought which had governed their tentative motions. As +it stands in Aristotle's scheme, the idea of a category is a mere +lifeless abstraction. Rising through a succession of species to +genera, and from these to still higher genera, you arrive finally at a +highest genus--a naked abstraction, beyond which no further regress is +possible. This highest genus, this _genus generalissimum_, is, in +peripatetic language, a category; and no purpose or use has ever been +assigned to any one of these categories, of which ten were enumerated +at first, beyond that of classification--_i. e._ a purpose of mere +convenience. Even for as trivial a purpose as this, it gave room for +suspecting a failure, when it was afterwards found that the original +ten categories did not exhaust the possibilities of the case; that +other supplementary categories (_post-prædicamenti_) became necessary. +And, perhaps, 'more last words' might even yet be added, supplementary +supplements, and so forth, by a hair-splitting intellect. Failures as +gross as these, revisals still open to revision, and amendments +calling for amendments, were at once a broad confession that here +there was no falling in with any great law of nature. The paths of +nature may sometimes be arrived at in a tentative way; but they are +broad and determinate; and, when found, vindicate themselves. Still, +in all this erroneous subtilisation, and these abortive efforts, Kant +perceived a grasping at some real idea--fugitive indeed and coy, which +had for the present absolutely escaped; but he caught glimpses of it +continually in the rear; he felt its necessity to any account of the +human understanding that could be satisfactory to one who had +meditated on Locke's theory as probed and searched by Leibnitz. And in +this uneasy state--half sceptical, half creative, rejecting and +substituting, pulling down and building up--what was in sum and +finally the course which he took for bringing his trials and essays to +a crisis? He states this himself, somewhere in the Introduction to his +_Critik der reinen Vernunft_; and the passage is a memorable one. +Fifteen years at the least have passed since I read it; and, +therefore, I cannot pretend to produce the words; but the substance I +shall give; and I appeal to the candour of all his readers, whether +they have been able to apprehend his meaning. I certainly did not for +years. But, now that I do, the passage places his procedure in a most +striking and edifying light. Astronomers, says Kant, had gone on for +ages, assuming that the earth was the central body of our system; and +insuperable were the difficulties which attended that assumption. At +length, it occurred to try what would result from inverting the +assumption. Let the earth, instead of offering a fixed centre for the +revolving motions of other heavenly bodies, be supposed itself to +revolve about some one of these, as the sun. That supposition was +tried, and gradually all the phenomena which, before, had been +incoherent, anomalous, or contradictory, began to express themselves +as parts of a most harmonious system. 'Something,' he goes on to say, +'analogous to this I have practised with regard to the subject of my +inquiry--the human understanding. All others had sought their central +principle of the intellectual phenomena out of the understanding, in +something external to the mind. I first turned my inquiries upon the +mind itself. I first applied my examination to the very analysis of +the understanding.' In words, not precisely these, but pretty nearly +equivalent to them, does Kant state, by contradistinction, the value +and the nature of his own procedure. He first, according to his own +representation, thought of applying his investigation to the mind +itself. Here was a passage which for years (I may say) continued to +stagger and confound me. What! he, Kant, in the latter end of the 18th +century, about the year 1787--he the first who had investigated the +mind! This was not arrogance so much as it was insanity. Had he +said--I, first, upon just principles, or with a fortunate result, +investigated the human understanding, he would have said no more than +every fresh theorist is bound to suppose, as his preliminary apology +for claiming the attention of a busy world. Indeed, if a writer, on +any part of knowledge, does _not_ hold himself superior to all his +predecessors, we are entitled to say--Then, why do you presume to +trouble us? It may _look_ like modesty, but _is_, in effect, downright +effrontery for you to think yourself no better than other critics; you +were at liberty to think so whilst no claimant of public notice--as +being so, it is most arrogant in you to be modest. This would be the +criticism applied justly to a man who, in Kant's situation, as the +author of a new system, should use a language of unseasonable modesty +or deprecation. To have spoken boldly of himself was a duty; we could +not tolerate his doing otherwise. But to speak of himself in the +exclusive terms I have described, does certainly seem, and for years +did seem to myself, little short of insanity. Of this I am sure that +no student of Kant, having the passage before him, can have known +heretofore what consistent, what rational interpretation to give it; +and, in candour, he ought to own himself my debtor for the light he +will now receive. Yet, so easy is it to imagine, after a meaning is +once pointed out, and the station given from which it shows itself +_as_ the meaning--so easy, under these circumstances, is it to +imagine that one has, or that one could have, found it for one's +self--that I have little expectation of reaping much gratitude for my +explanation. I say this, not as of much importance one way or the +other in a single case of the kind, but because a general +consideration of this nature has sometimes operated to make me more +indifferent or careless as to the publication of commentaries on +difficult systems, when I had found myself able to throw much light on +the difficulties. The very success with which I should have +accomplished the task--the perfect removal of the obstacles in the +student's path--were the very grounds of my assurance-that the service +would be little valued. For I have found what it was occasionally, in +conversation, to be too luminous--to have explained, for instance, too +clearly a dark place in Ricardo. In such a case, I have known a man of +the very greatest powers, mistake the intellectual effort he had put +forth to apprehend my elucidation, and to meet it half way, for his +own unassisted conquest over the difficulties; and, within an hour or +two after, I have had, perhaps, to stand, as an attack upon myself, +arguments entirely and recently furnished by myself. No case is more +possible: even to apprehend a complex explanation, a man cannot be +passive; he must exert considerable energy of mind; and, in the fresh +consciousness of this energy, it is the most natural mistake in the +world for him to feel the argument which he has, by considerable +effort, appropriated to be an argument which he has originated. Kant +is the most unhappy champion of his own doctrines, the most +infelicitous expounder of his own meaning, that has ever existed. +Neither has any other commentator succeeded in throwing a moonlight +radiance upon his philosophy. Yet certain I am, that, were I, or any +man, to disperse all his darkness, exactly in that proportion in which +we did so--exactly in the proportion in which we smoothed all +hindrances--exactly in that proportion would it cease to be known or +felt that there had ever been any hindrances to be smoothed. This, +however, is digression, to which I have been tempted by the +interesting nature of the grievance. In a jesting way, this grievance +is obliquely noticed in the celebrated couplet-- + + 'Had you seen but these roads before they were made, + You'd lift up your hands and bless Marshal Wade.' + +The pleasant bull here committed conceals a most melancholy truth, and +one of large extent. Innumerable are the services to truth, to +justice, or society, which never _can_ be adequately valued by those +who reap their benefits, simply because the transition from the early +and bad state to the final or improved state cannot be retraced or +kept alive before the eyes. The record perishes. The last point gained +is seen; but the starting-point, the points _from_ which it was +gained, is forgotten. And the traveller never _can_ know the true +amount of his obligations to Marshal Wade, because, though seeing the +roads which the Marshal has created, he can only guess at those which +he superseded. Now, returning to this impenetrable passage of Kant, I +will briefly inform the reader that he may read it into sense by +connecting it with a part of Kant's system, from which it is in his +own delivery entirely dislocated. Going forwards some thirty or forty +pages, he will find Kant's development of his own categories. And, by +placing in juxtaposition with that development this blind sentence, he +will find a reciprocal light arising. All philosophers, worthy of that +name, have found it necessary to allow of some great cardinal ideas +that transcended all the Lockian origination--ideas that were larger +in their compass than any possible notices of sense or any reflex +notices of the understanding; and those who have denied such ideas, +will be found invariably to have supported their denial by a _vitium +subreptionis_, and to have deduced their pretended genealogies of such +ideas by means of a _petitio principii_--silently and stealthily +putting _into_ some step of their _leger-de-main_ process everything +that they would pretend to have extracted _from_ it. But, previously +to Kant, it is certain that all philosophers had left the origin of +these higher or transcendent ideas unexplained. Whence came they? In +the systems to which, Locke replies, they had been called _innate_ or +_connate_. These were the Cartesian systems. Cudworth, again, who +maintained certain '_immutable ideas_' of morality, had said nothing +about their origin; and Plato had supposed them to be reminiscences +from some higher mode of existence. Kant first attempted to assign +them an origin within the mind itself, though not in any Lockian +fashion of reflection upon sensible impressions. And this is doubtless +what he means by saying that he first had investigated the mind--that +is, he first for such a purpose. + +Where, then, is it, in what act or function of the mind, that Kant +finds the matrix of these transcendent ideas? Simply in the logical +forms of the understanding. Every power exerts its agency under some +_laws_--that is, in the language of Kant, by certain _forms_. We leap +by certain laws--viz. of equilibrium, of muscular motion, of +gravitation. We dance by certain laws. So also we reason by certain +laws. These laws, or _formal_ principles, under a particular +condition, become the categories. + +Here, then, is a short derivation, in a very few words, of those ideas +transcending sense, which all philosophy, the earliest, has been +unable to dispense with, and yet none could account for. Thus, for +example, every act of reasoning must, in the first place, express +itself in distinct propositions; that is, in such as contain a subject +(or that concerning which you affirm or deny something), a predicate +(that which you affirm or deny), and a copula, which connects them. +These propositions must have what is technically called, in logic, a +certain _quantity_, or compass (viz. must be universal, particular, or +singular); and again they must have what is called _quality_ (that is, +must be affirmative, or negative, or infinite): and thus arises a +ground for certain corresponding ideas, which are Kant's categories of +quantity and quality. + +But, to take an illustration more appropriately from the very idea +which first aroused Kant to the sense of a vast hiatus in the received +philosophies--the idea of _cause_, which had been thrown as an apple +of discord amongst the schools, by Hume. How did Kant deduce this? +Simply thus: it is a doctrine of universal logic, that there are three +varieties of syllogism--viz. 1st, Categoric, or directly declarative +[_A is B_]; 2nd, Hypothetic, or conditionally declarative [_If C is D, +then A is B_]; 3rd, Disjunctive, or declarative, by means of a choice +which exhausts the possible cases [_A is either B, or C, or D; but +not C or D; ergo B_]. Now, the idea of _causation_, or, in Kant's +language, the category of Cause and Effect, is deduced immediately, +and most naturally, as the reader will acknowledge on examination, +from the 2nd or hypothetic form of syllogism, when the relation of +dependency is the same as in the idea of causation, and the +_necessary_ connection a direct type of that which takes place between +a cause and its effect. + +Thus, then, without going one step further, the reader will find +grounds enough for reflection and for reverence towards Kant in these +two great results: 1st, That an order of ideas has been established, +which all deep philosophy has demanded, even when it could not make +good its claim. This postulate is fulfilled. 2ndly, The postulate is +fulfilled without mysticism or Platonic reveries. Ideas, however +indispensable to human needs, and even to the connection of our +thoughts, which came to us from nobody knew whence, must for ever have +been suspicious; and, as in the memorable instance cited from Hume, +must have been liable for ever to a question of validity. But, deduced +as they now are from a matrix within our own minds, they cannot +reasonably fear any assaults of scepticism. + +Here I shall stop. A reader new to these inquiries may think all this +a trifle. But he who reflects a little, will see that, even thus far, +and going no step beyond this point, the Kantian doctrine of the +Categories answers a standing question hanging aloof as a challenge to +human philosophy, fills up a _lacuna_ pointed out from the era of +Plato. It solves a problem which has startled and perplexed every age: +viz. this--that man is in possession, nay, in the hourly exercise, of +ideas larger than he can show any title to. And in another way, the +reader may measure the extent of this doctrine, by reflecting that, +even so far as now stated, it is precisely coextensive with the famous +scheme of Locke. For what is the capital thesis of that scheme? Simply +this--that all necessity for supposing immediate impressions made upon +our understandings by God, or other supernatural, or antenatal, or +connatal, agencies, is idle and romantic; for that, upon examining the +furniture of our minds, nothing will be found there which cannot +adequately be explained out of our daily experience; and, until we +find something that cannot be solved by this explanation, it is +childish to go in quest of higher causes. Thus says Locke: and his +whole work, upon its first plan, is no more than a continual pleading +of this single thesis, pursuing it through all the plausible +objections. Being, therefore, as large in its extent as Locke, the +reader must not complain of the transcendental scheme as too narrow, +even in that limited section of it here brought under his notice. + +For the purpose of repelling it, he must do one of two things: either +he must show that these categories or transcendent notions are not +susceptible of the derivation and genesis here assigned to them--that +is, from the forms of the _logos_ or formal understanding; or, if +content to abide by that derivation, he must allege that there are +other categories besides those enumerated, and unprovided with any +similar parentage. + +Thus much in reply to him who complains of the doctrine here stated; +as, 1st, Too narrow; or, 2nd, As insufficiently established. But, 3rd, +in reply to him who wishes to see it further pursued or applied, I +say that the possible applications are perhaps infinite. With respect +to those made by Kant himself, they are chiefly contained in his main +and elementary work, the _Critik der reinen Vernunft_; and they are of +a nature to make any man melancholy. Indeed, let a man consider merely +this one notion of _causation_; let him reflect on its origin; let him +remember that, agreeably to this origin, it follows that we have no +right to view anything _in rerum naturâ_ as objectively, or in itself +a cause; that when, upon the fullest philosophic proof, we call A the +cause of B, we do in fact only subsume A under the notion of a cause; +we invest it with that function under that relation, that the whole +proceeding is merely with respect to a _human_ understanding, and by +way of indispensable _nexus_ to the several parts of our experience; +finally, that there is the greatest reason to doubt, whether the idea +of _causation_ is at all applicable to any other world than this, or +any other than a human experience. Let a man meditate but a little on +this or other aspects of this transcendental philosophy, and he will +find the steadfast earth itself rocking as it were beneath his feet; a +world about him, which is in some sense a world of deception; and a +world before him, which seems to promise a world of confusion, or '_a +world not realised_.' All this he might deduce for himself without +further aid from Kant. However, the particular purposes to which Kant +applies his philosophy, from the difficulties which beset them, are +unfitted for anything below a regular treatise. Suffice it to say +here, that, difficult as these speculations are from one or two +embarrassing doctrines on the Transcendental Consciousness, and +depressing as they are from their general tendency, they are yet +painfully irritating to the curiosity, and especially so from a sort +of _experimentum crucis_, which they yield in the progress of their +development on behalf of the entire doctrine of Kant--a test which, up +to this hour, has offered defiance to any hostile hand. The test or +defiance which I speak of, takes the shape of certain _antinomies_ (so +they are termed), severe adamantine arguments, affirmative and +negative, on two or three celebrated problems, with no appeal to any +possible decision, but one, which involves the Kantian doctrines. A +_quæstio vexata_ is proposed--for instance, the _infinite divisibility +of matter_; each side of this question, _thesis_ and _antithesis_, is +argued; the logic is irresistible, the links are perfect, and for each +side alternately there is a verdict, thus terminating in the most +triumphant _reductio ad absurdum_--viz. that A, at one and the same +time and in the same sense, is and is not B, from which no escape is +available, but through a Kantian solution. On any other philosophy, it +is demonstrated that this opprobrium of the human understanding, this +scandal of logic, cannot be removed. This celebrated chapter of +_antinomies_ has been of great service to the mere polemics of the +transcendental philosophy: it is a glove or gage of defiance, +constantly lying on the ground, challenging the rights of victory and +supremacy so long as it is _not_ taken up by any antagonist, and +bringing matters to a short decision when it _is_. + +One section, and that the introductory section, of the transcendental +philosophy, I have purposely omitted, though in strictness not to be +insulated or dislocated from the faithful exposition even of that +which I have given. It is the doctrine of Space and Time. These +profound themes, so confounding to the human understanding, are +treated by Kant under two aspects--1st, as Anchauungen, or +_Intuitions_ (so the German word is usually translated for want of a +better); 2ndly, as forms, _à priori_, of all our other intuitions. +Often have I laughed internally at the characteristic exposure of +Kant's style of thinking--that he, a man of so much worldly sagacity, +could think of offering, and of the German scholastic habits, that any +modern nation could think of accepting such cabalistical phrases, such +a true and very '_Ignotium per Ignotius_,' in part payment of an +explanatory account of Time and Space. Kant repeats these words--as a +charm before which all darkness flies; and he supposes continually the +case of a man denying his explanations or demanding proofs of them, +never once the sole imaginable case--viz. of all men demanding an +explanation of these explanations. Deny them! Combat them! How should +a man deny, why should he combat, what might, for anything to the +contrary appearing, contain a promissory note at two months after date +for 100 guineas? No; it will cost a little preliminary work before +_such_ explanations will much avail any scheme of philosophy, either +for the _pro_ or the _con_. And yet I do myself really profess to +understand the dark words; and a great service it would be to sound +philosophy amongst us, if this one word _anschauung_ were adequately +unfolded and naturalised (as naturalised it might be) in the English +philosophic dictionary, by some full Grecian equivalent. Strange that +no man acquainted with German philosophy, should yet have been struck +by the fact--or, being struck, should not have felt it important to +call public attention to the fact of our inevitable feebleness in a +branch of study for which as yet we want the indispensable words. Our +feebleness is at once argued by this want, and partly caused. +Meantime, as respects the Kantian way of viewing space, by much the +most important innovation which it makes upon the old doctrines +is--that it considers space as a _subjective_ not an _objective_ +aliquid; that is, as having its whole available foundation lying +ultimately in ourselves, not in any external or alien tenure. This one +distinction, as applied to space, for ever secures (what nothing else +_can_ secure or explain) the cogency of geometrical evidence. Whatever +is true for any determinations of a space originally included in +ourselves, must be true for such determinations for ever, since they +cannot become objects of consciousness to us but in and by that very +mode of conceiving space, that very form of schematism which +originally presented us with these determinations of space, or any +whatever. In the uniformity of our own space-conceiving faculty, we +have a pledge of the absolute and _necessary_ uniformity (or internal +agreement among themselves) of all future or possible determinations +of space; because they could not otherwise become to us conceivable +forms of space, than by adapting themselves to the known conditions of +our conceiving faculty. Here we have the _necessity_ which is +indispensable to all geometrical demonstration: it is a necessity +founded in our human organ, which cannot admit or conceive a space, +unless as preconforming to these original forms or schematisms. +Whereas, on the contrary, if space were something _objective_, and +consequently being a separate existence, independent of a human organ, +then it is altogether impossible to find any intelligible source of +_obligation_ or cogency in the evidence--such as is indispensable to +the very nature of geometrical demonstration. Thus we will suppose +that a regular demonstration has gradually, from step to step +downwards, through a series of propositions--No. 8 resting upon 7, +that upon 5, 5 upon 3--at length reduced you to the elementary axiom, +that Two straight lines cannot enclose a space. Now, if space be +_subjective_ originally--that is to say, founded (as respects us and +our geometry) in ourselves--then it is impossible that two such lines +can enclose a space, because the possibility of anything whatever +relating to the determinations of space is exactly co-extensive with +(and exactly expressed by) our power to conceive it. Being thus able +to affirm its impossibility universally, we can build a demonstration +upon it. But, on the other hypothesis, of space being _objective_, it +is impossible to guess whence we are to draw our proof of the alleged +inaptitude in two straight lines for enclosing a space. The most we +could say is, that hitherto no instance has been found of an enclosed +space circumscribed by two straight lines. It would not do to allege +our human inability to conceive, or in imagination to draw, such a +circumscription. For, besides that such a mode of argument is exactly +the one supposed to have been rejected, it is liable to this +unanswerable objection, so long as space is assumed to have an +_objective_ existence, viz. that the human inability to conceive such +a possibility, only argues (what in fact is often found in other +cases) that the _objective_ existence of space--_i. e._ the existence +of space in itself, and in its absolute nature--is far larger than its +subjective existence--_i. e._ than its mode of existing _quoad_ some +particular subject. A being more limited than man might be so framed +as to be unable to conceive curve lines; but this subjective +inaptitude for those determinations of space would not affect the +objective reality of curves, or even their subjective reality for a +higher intelligence. Thus, on the hypothesis of an objective existence +for space, we should be thrown upon an ocean of possibilities, without +a test for saying what was--what was not possible. But, on the other +hypothesis, having always in the last resort what is _subjectively_ +possible or impossible (_i. e._ what is conceivable or not by us, what +can or cannot be drawn or circumscribed by a human imagination), we +have the means of demonstration in our power, by having the ultimate +appeals in our power to a known uniform test--viz. a known human +faculty. + +This is no trifling matter, and therefore no trifling advantage on the +side of Kant and his philosophy, to all who are acquainted with the +disagreeable controversies of late years among French geometricians of +the first rank, and sometimes among British ones, on the question of +mathematical evidence. Legendre and Professor Leslie took part in one +such a dispute; and the temper in which it was managed was worthy of +admiration, as contrasted with the angry controversies of elder days, +if, indeed, it did not err in an opposite spirit, by too elaborate and +too calculating a tone of reciprocal flattery. But think as we may of +the discussion in this respect, most assuredly it was painful to +witness so infirm a philosophy applied to an interest so mighty. The +whole aerial superstructure--the heaven-aspiring pyramid of +geometrical synthesis--all tottered under the palsying logic of +evidence, to which these celebrated mathematicians appealed. And +wherefore?--From the want of any philosophic account of space, to +which they might have made a common appeal, and which might have so +far discharged its debt to truth, as at least to reconcile its theory +with the great outstanding phenomena in the most absolute of sciences. +Geometry is the _science_ of space: therefore, in any _philosophy_ of +space, geometry is entitled to be peculiarly considered, and used as a +court of appeal. Geometry has these two further claims to +distinction--that, 1st, It is the most perfect of the sciences, so far +as it has gone; and, 2ndly, That it has gone the farthest. A +philosophy of space, which does not consider and does not reconcile to +its own doctrines the facts of geometry, which, in the two points of +beauty and of vast extent, is more like a work of nature than of man, +is, _primâ facie_, of no value. A philosophy of space _might_ be +false, which should harmonise with the facts of geometry--it _must_ be +false, if it contradict them. Of Kant's philosophy it is a capital +praise, that its very opening section--that section which treats the +question of space, not only quadrates with the facts of geometry, but +also, by the _subjective_ character which it attributes to space, is +the very first philosophic scheme which explains and accounts for the +cogency of geometrical evidence. + +These are the two primary merits of the transcendental theory--1st, +Its harmony with mathematics, and the fact of having first, by its +doctrine of space, applied philosophy to the nature of geometrical +evidence; 2ndly, That it has filled up, by means of its doctrine of +categories, the great _hiatus_ in all schemes of the human +understanding from Plato downwards. All the rest, with a reserve as to +the part which concerns the _practical_ reason (or will), is of more +questionable value, and leads to manifold disputes. But I contend, +that, had transcendentalism done no other service than that of laying +a foundation, sought but not found for ages, to the human +understanding--namely, by showing an intelligible genesis to certain +large and indispensable ideas--it would have claimed the gratitude of +all profound inquiries. To a reader still disposed to undervalue +Kant's service in this respect, I put one parting question--Wherefore +he values Locke? What has _he_ done, even if value is allowed in full +to his pretensions? Has the reader asked himself _that_? He gave a +_negative_ solution at the most. He told his reader that certain +disputed ideas were _not_ deduced thus and thus. Kant, on the other +hand, has given him at the least a _positive_ solution. He teaches +him, in the profoundest revelation, by a discovery in the most +absolute sense on record, and the most entirely a single act--without +parts, or contributions, or stages, or preparations from other +quarters--that these long disputed ideas could not be derived from the +experience assigned by Locke, inasmuch as they are themselves +_previous conditions under which any experience at all is possible_: +he teaches him that these ideas are not mystically originated, but +are, in fact, but another phasis of the functions, or, forms of his +own understanding; and, finally, he gives consistency, validity, and +a charter of authority, to certain modes of _nexus_, without which the +sum total of human experience would be a rope of sand. + +In terminating this slight account of the Kantian philosophy, I may +mention that in or about the year 1818-19, Lord Grenville, when +visiting the lakes of England, observed to Professor Wilson that, +after five years' study of this philosophy, he had not gathered from +it one clear idea. Wilberforce, about the same time, made the same +confession to another friend of my own. + +It is not usual for men to meet with their capital disappointments in +early life, at least not in youth. For, as to disappointments in love, +which are doubtless the most bitter and incapable of comfort, though +otherwise likely to arise in youth, they are in this way made +impossible at a very early age, that no man can be in love to the +whole extent of his capacity, until he is in full possession of all +his faculties, and with the sense of dignified maturity. A perfect +love, such as is necessary to the anguish of a perfect disappointment, +presumes also for its object not a mere girl, but woman, mature both +in person and character, and womanly dignity. This sort of +disappointment, in a degree which could carry its impression through +life, I cannot therefore suppose occurring earlier than at twenty-five +or twenty-seven. My disappointment--the profound shock with which I +was repelled from German philosophy, and which thenceforwards tinged +with cynical disgust towards man in certain aspects, a temper which, +originally, I will presume to consider the most benign that can ever +have been created--occurred when I was yet in my twentieth year. In a +poem under the title of _Saul_, written many years ago by Mr. Sotheby, +and perhaps now forgotten, having never been popular, there occurs a +passage of some pathos, in which Saul is described as keeping amongst +the splendid equipments of a royal wardrobe, that particular pastoral +habit which he had worn in his days of earliest manhood, whilst yet +humble and undistinguished by honour, but also yet innocent and happy. +There, also, with the same care, he preserved his shepherd's crook, +which, in hands of youthful vigour, had been connected with +remembrances of heroic prowess. These memorials, in after times of +trouble or perplexity, when the burthen of royalty, its cares, or its +feverish temptations, pointed his thoughts backwards, for a moment's +relief, to scenes of pastoral gaiety and peace, the heart-wearied +prince would sometimes draw from their repository, and in solitude +would apostrophise them separately, or commune with the bitter-sweet +remembrances which they recalled. In something of the same spirit--but +with a hatred to the German philosopher such as men are represented as +feeling towards the gloomy enchanter, Zamiel or whomsoever, by whose +hateful seductions they have been placed within a circle of malign +influences--did I at times revert to Kant: though for me his power had +been of the very opposite kind; not an enchanter's, but the power of a +disenchanter--and a disenchanter the most profound. As often as I +looked into his works, I exclaimed in my heart, with the widowed queen +of Carthage, using her words in an altered application-- + + 'Quæsivit lucem--_ingemuitque repertâ_.' + +Had the transcendental philosophy corresponded to my expectations, +and had it left important openings for further pursuit, my purpose +then was, to have retired, after a few years spent in Oxford, to the +woods of Lower Canada. I had even marked out the situation for a +cottage and a considerable library, about seventeen miles from Quebec. +I planned nothing so ambitious as a scheme of _Pantisocracy_. My +object was simply profound solitude, such as cannot now be had in any +part of Great Britain--with two accessary advantages, also peculiar to +countries situated in the circumstances and under the climate of +Canada: viz. the exalting presence in an under-consciousness of +forests endless and silent, the everlasting sense of living amongst +forms so ennobling and impressive, together with the pleasure attached +to natural agencies, such as frost, more powerfully manifested than in +English latitudes, and for a much longer period. I hope there is +nothing fanciful in all this. It is certain that, in England, and in +all moderate climates, we are too slightly reminded of nature or the +focus of nature. Great heats, or great colds (and in Canada there are +both), or great hurricanes, as in the West Indian latitudes, recall us +continually to the sense of a powerful presence, investing our paths +on every side; whereas, in England, it is possible to forget that we +live amongst greater agencies than those of men and human +institutions. Man, in fact, 'too much man,' as Timon complained most +reasonably in Athens, was then, and is now, our greatest grievance in +England. Man is a weed everywhere too rank. A strange place must that +be with us, from which the sight of a hundred men is not before us, or +the sound of a thousand about us. + +Nevertheless, being in this hotbed of man inevitably for some years, +no sooner had I dismissed my German philosophy than I relaxed a little +that spirit of German abstraction which it had prompted; and, though +never mixing freely with society, I began to look a little abroad. It +may interest the reader, more than anything else which I can record of +this period, to recall what I saw within the ten first years of the +century, that was at all noticeable or worthy of remembrance amongst +the literati, the philosophers, or the poets of the time. For, though +I am not in my academic period from 1804 to 1808, my knowledge of +literary men--or men distinguished in some way or other, either by +their opinions, their accomplishments, or their position and the +accidents of their lives--began from the first year of the century, +or, more accurately, from the year 1800; which, with some difficulty +and demurs, and with some arguments from the Laureate Pye, the world +was at length persuaded to consider the last year of the eighteenth +century.[23] + +[Footnote 23: Those who look back to the newspapers of 1799 and 1800, +will see that considerable discussion went on at that time upon the +question, whether the year 1800 was entitled to open the 19th century, +or to close the 18th. Mr. Laureate Pye wrote a poem, with a long and +argumentative preface on the point.] + + + + +MORAL EFFECTS OF REVOLUTIONS. + +(_May, 1822._) + + +In revolutionary times, as when a civil war prevails in a country, men +are much worse, as moral beings, than in quiet and untroubled states +of peace. So much is matter of history. The English, under Charles +II., after twenty years' agitation and civil tumults; the Romans after +Sylla and Marius, and the still more bloody proscriptions of the +Triumvirates; the French, after the Wars of the League and the storms +of the Revolution--were much changed for the worse, and exhibited +strange relaxations of the moral principle. But why? What is the +philosophy of the case? Some will think it sufficiently explained by +the necessity of witnessing so much bloodshed--the hearths and the +very graves of their fathers polluted by the slaughter of their +countrymen--the _acharnement_ which characterises civil contests (as +always the quarrels of friends are the fiercest)--and the license of +wrong which is bred by war and the majesties of armies. Doubtless this +is part of the explanation. But is this all? Mr. Coleridge has +referred to this subject in _The friend_; but, to the best of my +remembrance, only noticing it as a fact. Fichte, the celebrated German +philosopher, has given us his view of it (_Idea of War_); and it is +so ingenious, that it deserves mention. It is this--'Times of +revolution force men's minds inwards: hence they are led amongst other +things to meditate on morals with reference to their own conduct. But +to subtilise too much upon this subject must always be ruinous to +morality, with all understandings that are not very powerful, _i. e._ +with the majority, because it terminates naturally in a body of maxims +a specious and covert self-interest. Whereas, when men meditate less, +they are apt to act more from natural feeling, in which the natural +goodness of the heart often interferes to neutralise or even to +overbalance its errors.' + + + + +PREFIGURATIONS OF REMOTE EVENTS.[24] + +(_April, 1823._) + + +With a total disbelief in all the vulgar legends of supernatural +agency, and _that_ upon firmer principles than I fear most people +could assign for their incredulity, I must yet believe that the 'soul +of the world' has in some instances sent forth mysterious types of the +cardinal events, in the great historic drama of our planet. One has +been noticed by a German author, and it is placed beyond the limits of +any rational scepticism; I mean the coincidence between the augury +derived from the flight of the twelve vultures as types of the +duration of the Roman empire, _i. e._ Western Empire, for twelve +centuries, and the actual event. This augury we know to have been +recorded many centuries before its consummation; so that no juggling +or collusion between the prophets and the witnesses to the final event +can be suspected. Some others might be added. At present I shall +notice a coincidence from our own history, which, though not so +important as to come within the class of prefigurations I have been +alluding to, is yet curious enough to deserve mention. The oak of +Boscobel and its history are matter of household knowledge. It is not +equally well known, that in a medal, struck to commemorate the +installation (about 1636) of Charles II., then Prince of Wales, as a +Knight of the Garter, amongst the decorations was introduced an +oak-tree with the legend--'Seris factura nepotibus umbram.' + +[Footnote 24: This is only signed Z in _The London Magazine_, but is +clearly labelled 'DE QUINCEY' in ARCHDEACON HESSEY'S marked copy.--H.] + + + + +MEASURE OF VALUE.[25] + +(_December, 1823._) + +To the reader.--This article was written and printed before the author +heard of the lamented death of Mr. Ricardo. + + +It is remarkable at first sight that Mr. Malthus, to whom Political +Economy is so much indebted in one chapter (viz. the chapter of +Population), should in every other chapter have stumbled at every +step. On a nearer view, however, the wonder ceases. His failures and +his errors have arisen in all cases from the illogical structure of +his understanding; his success was in a path which required no logic. +What is the brief abstract of his success? It is this: _he took an +obvious and familiar truth, which until his time had been a barren +truism, and showed that it teemed with consequences_. Out of this +position--_That in the ground which limited human food lay the ground +which limited human increase_--united with this other position--_That +there is a perpetual nisus in the principle of population to pass +that limit_, he unfolded a body of most important corollaries. I have +remarked in another article on this subject--how entirely these +corollaries had escaped all Mr. Malthus's[26] predecessors in the same +track. Perhaps the most striking instance of this, which I could have +alleged, is that of the celebrated French work--_L'Ami des Hommes, ou +Traité de la Population_ (written about the middle of the last +century), which sets out deliberately from this principle, expressed +almost in the very words of Mr. Malthus,--'_Que la mésure de la +Subsistance est celle de la Population_;'--beats the bushes in every +direction about it; and yet (with the exception of one corollary on +the supposed depopulating tendency of war and famine) deduces from it +none but erroneous and Anti-Malthusian doctrines. That from a truth +apparently so barren any corollaries were deducible--was reserved for +Mr. Malthus to show. _As_ corollaries, it may be supposed that they +imply a logical act of the understanding. In some small degree, no +doubt; but no more than necessarily accompanies every exercise of +reason. Though inferences, they are not remote inferences, but +immediate and proximate; and not dependent upon each other, but +collateral. Not logic but a judicious choice of his ground placed Mr. +Malthus at once in a station from which he commanded the whole truth +at a glance--with a lucky dispensation from all necessity of +continuous logical processes. But such a dispensation is a privilege +indulged to few other parts of Political Economy, and least of all to +that which is the foundation of all Political Economy, viz. the +doctrine of value. Having therefore repeatedly chosen to tamper with +this difficult subject, Mr. Malthus has just made so many exposures of +his intellectual infirmities--which, but for this volunteer display, +we might never have known. Of all the men of talents, whose writings I +have read up to this hour, Mr. Malthus has the most perplexed +understanding. He is not only confused himself, but is the cause that +confusion is in other men. Logical perplexity is shockingly +contagious: and he, who takes Mr. Malthus for his guide through any +tangled question, ought to be able to box the compass very well; or +before he has read ten pages he will find himself (as the Westmorland +guides express it) 'maffled,'--and disposed to sit down and fall a +crying with his guide at the sad bewilderment into which they have +both strayed. It tends much to heighten the sense of Mr. Malthus's +helplessness in this particular point--that of late years he has given +himself the air too much of teasing Mr. Ricardo, one of the 'ugliest +customers' in point of logic that ever entered the ring. Mr. Ricardo +is a most 'dangerous' man; and Mr. Malthus would do well not to meddle +with so 'vicious' a subject, whose arm (like Neate's) gives a blow +like the kick of a horse. He has hitherto contented himself very +good-naturedly with gently laying Mr. Malthus on his back; but, if he +should once turn round with a serious determination to 'take the +conceit' out of him, Mr. Malthus would assuredly be 'put into +chancery,' and suffer a 'punishment' that must distress his +friends.--Amongst those whom Mr. Malthus has perplexed by his logic, I +am not one: in matter of logic, I hold myself impeccable; and, to say +nothing of my sober days, I defy the devil and all the powers of +darkness to get any advantage over me, even on those days when I am +drunk, in relation to 'Barbara, Celarent, Darii, or Ferio.' + +[Footnote 25: MR. JOHN STUART MILL in his _Principles of Political +Economy,_ Book III chaps, i. and ii., makes some interesting and +appreciative remarks on De Quincey's settlement of 'the phraseology of +value;' also, concerning his illustrations of 'demand and supply, in +their relation to value.'] + +[Footnote 26: In a slight article on Mr. Malthus, lately published, I +omitted to take any notice of the recent controversy between this +gentleman--Mr. Godwin--and Mr. Booth; my reason for which was--that I +have not yet found time to read it. But, if Mr. Lowe has rightly +represented this principle of Mr. Booth's argument in his late work on +the Statistics of England, it is a most erroneous one: for Mr. Booth +is there described as alleging against Mr. Malthus that, in his view +of the tendencies of the principle of population, he has relied too +much on the case of the United States--which Mr. Booth will have to be +an extreme case, and not according to the general rule. But of what +consequence is this to Mr. Malthus? And how is he interested in +relying on the case of America rather than that of the oldest European +country? Because he assumes a perpetual nisus in the principle of +human increase to pass a certain limit, he does not therefore hold +that this limit ever _is_ passed either in the new countries or in old +(or only for a moment, and inevitably to be thrown back within it). +Let this limit be placed where it may, it can no more be passed in +America than in Europe; and America is not at all more favourable to +Mr. Malthus's theory than Europe. Births, it must be remembered, are +more in excess in Europe than in America: though they do not make so +much positive addition to the population.] + +'Avoid, old Satanas!' I exclaim, if any man attempts to fling dust in +my eyes by false syllogism, or any mode of dialectic sophism. And in +relation to this particular subject of value, I flatter myself that in +a paper expressly applied to the exposure of Mr. Malthus's blunders in +his Political Economy, I have made it impossible for Mr. Malthus, even +though he should take to his assistance seven worse logicians than +himself, to put down my light with their darkness. Meantime, as a +labour of shorter compass, I will call the reader's attention to the +following blunder, in a later work of Mr. Malthus's--viz. a pamphlet +of eighty pages, entitled, _The Measure of Value, stated and applied_ +(published in the spring of the present year). The question proposed +in this work is the same as that already discussed in his Political +Economy--viz. What is the measure of value? But the answer to it is +different: in the Political Economy, the measure of value was +determined to be a mean between corn and labour; in this pamphlet, Mr. +Malthus retracts that opinion, and (finally, let us hope) settles it +to his own satisfaction that the true measure is labour; not the +quantity of labour, observe, which will produce X, but the quantity +which X will command. Upon these two answers, and the delusions which +lie at their root, I shall here forbear to comment; because I am now +chasing Mr. Malthus's _logical_ blunders; and these delusions are not +so much logical as economic: what I now wish the reader to attend +to--is the blunder involved in the question itself; because that +blunder is not economic, but logical. The question is--what is the +measure of value? I say then that the phrase--'measure of value' is an +equivocal phrase; and, in Mr. Malthus's use of it, means indifferently +that which determines value, in relation to the _principium essendi_, +and that which determines value, in relation to the _principium +cognoscendi_. Here, perhaps, the reader will exclaim--'Avoid, +Satanas!' to me, falsely supposing that I have some design upon his +eyes, and wish to blind them with learned dust. But, if he thinks +_that_, he is in the wrong box: I must and will express scholastic +phrases; but, having once done this, I am then ready to descend into +the arena with no other weapons than plain English can furnish. Let us +therefore translate '_measure of value_' into '_that which determines +value_:' and, in this shape, we shall detect the ambiguity of which I +complain. For I say, that the word _determines_ may be taken +subjectively for what determines X in relation to our knowledge, or +objectively for what determines X in relation to itself. Thus, if I +were to ask--'What determined the length of the racecourse?' and the +answer were--'The convenience of the spectators who could not have +seen the horses at a greater distance,' or 'The choice of the +subscribers,' then it is plain that by the word 'determined,' I was +understood to mean 'determined objectively,' _i. e._ in relation to +the existence of the object; in other words, what _caused_ the +racecourse to be this length rather than another length: but, if the +answer were--'An actual admeasurement,' it would then be plain that by +the word 'determined,' I had been understood to mean 'determined +subjectively,' _i. e._ in relation to our knowledge;--what ascertained +it?--Now, in the objective sense of the phrase, 'determiner of value,' +the measure of value will mean _the ground of value_: in the +subjective sense, it will mean _the criterion of value_. Mr. Malthus +will allege that he is at liberty to use it in which sense he pleases. +Grant that he is, but not therefore in both. Has he then used it in +both? He will, perhaps, deny that he has, and will contend that he has +used it in the latter sense as equivalent to the _ascertainer_ or +_criterion of value_. I answer--No: for, omitting a more particular +examination of his use in this place, I say that his use of any word +is peremptorily and in defiance of his private explanation to be +extorted from the use of the corresponding term in him whom he is +opposing. Now he is opposing Mr. Ricardo: his _labour which X +commands_--is opposed to Mr. Ricardo's _quantity of labour which will +produce X_. Call the first A, the last B. Now, in making B the +determiner of value, Mr. Ricardo means that B is the ground of value: +_i. e._ that B is the answer to the question--what makes this hat of +more value than this pair of shoes? But, if Mr. Malthus means by A the +same thing, when by his own confession he has used the term _measure +of value_ in two senses: on the other hand, if he does not mean the +same thing, but simply the _criterion_ of value, then he has not used +the word in my sense which opposes him to Mr. Ricardo. And yet he +advances the whole on that footing. On either ground, therefore, he is +guilty of a logical error, which implies that, so far from answering +his own question, he did not know what his own question was. + + + + +LETTER IN REPLY TO HAZLITT CONCERNING THE MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE OF +POPULATION. + + +THE LION'S HEAD.[27] + +_To the Editor of the London Magazine._ + +_Westmoreland, November 4, 1823_. + +My dear Sir,--This morning I received your parcel, containing amongst +other inclosures, the two last numbers of your journal. In the first +of these is printed a little paper of mine on Mr. Malthus; and in the +second I observe a letter from Mr. Hazlitt--alleging two passages from +the 403rd and 421st pages of his _Political Essays_ as substantially +anticipating all that I had said. I believe that he _has_ anticipated +me: in the passage relating to the geometric and arithmetic ratios, it +is clear that he has: in the other passage, which objects to Mr. +Malthus's use of the term _perfection_, that he has represented it +under contradictory predicates, it is not equally clear; for I do not +find my own meaning so rigorously expressed as to exclude another[28] +interpretation even now when I know what to look for; and, without +knowing what to look for, I should certainly not have found it: on +the whole, however, I am disposed to think that Mr. Hazlitt's meaning +is the same as my own. So much for the _matter_ of Mr. Hazlitt's +communication: as to the _manner_, I am sorry that it is liable to a +construction which perhaps was not intended. Mr. Hazlitt says--'I do +not wish to bring any charge of plagiarism in this case;' words which +are better fitted to express his own forbearance, than to exonerate me +from the dishonour of such an act. But I am unwilling to suppose that +Mr. Hazlitt has designedly given this negative form to his words. He +says also--'as I have been a good deal abused for my scepticism on +that subject, I do not feel quite disposed that any one else should +run away with the credit of it.' Here again I cannot allow myself to +think that Mr. Hazlitt meant deliberately to bring me before the +reader's mind under the odious image of a person who was 'running +away' with the credit of another. As to 'credit,' Mr. Hazlitt must +permit me to smile when I read that word used in that sense: I can +assure him that not any abstract consideration of credit, but the +abstract idea of a credi_tor_ (often putting on a concrete shape, and +sometimes the odious concrete of a dun) has for some time past been +the animating principle of my labours. Credit therefore, except in the +sense of twelve months' credit where now alas! I have only six, is no +object of my search: in fact I abhor it: for to be a 'noted' man is +the next bad thing to being a 'protested' man. Seriously, however, I +sent you this as the first of four notes which I had written on the +logical blunders of Mr. Malthus (the other three being taken not from +his Essay on Population, but from works more expressly within the +field of Political Economy): not having met with it elsewhere, I +supposed it my own and sent it to complete the series: but the very +first sentence, which parodies the words of Chancellor Oxenstiern--('Go +and see--how _little_ logic is required,' &c.), sufficiently shows that, +so far from arrogating any great merit to myself for this discovery, I +thought it next to miraculous that it should have escaped any previous +reviewer of Mr. Malthus.--I must doubt, by the way, whether Mr. Hazlitt +has been 'a good deal abused' for these specific arguments against Mr. +Malthus; and my reason for doubting is this: about ten or twelve years +ago, happening to be on a visit to Mr. Southey, I remember to have met +with a work of Mr. Hazlitt's on this subject--_not_ that which he +quotes, but another (_Reply to Malthus_) which he refers to as +containing the same opinions (either _totidem verbis_, or in substance). +In Mr. Southey's library, and in competition with Mr. Southey's +conversation, a man may be pardoned for not studying any one book +exclusively: consequently, though I read a good deal of Mr. Hazlitt's +_Reply_, I read it cursorily: but, in all that I _did_ read, I remember +that the arguments were very different from those which he now alleges; +indeed it must be evident that the two logical objections in question +are by no means fitted to fill an octavo volume. My inference therefore +is--that any 'abuse,' which Mr. Hazlitt may have met with, must have +been directed to something else in his _Reply_; and in fact it has +happened to myself on several occasions to hear this book of Mr. +Hazlitt's treated as unworthy of his talents; but never on account of +the two arguments which he now claims. I would not be supposed, in +saying this, to insinuate any doubt that these arguments are really to +be found in the _Reply_; but simply to suggest that they do not come +forward prominently or constitute the main argument of that book: and +consequently, instead of being opposed, have been overlooked by those +who have opposed him as much as they were by myself. + +[Footnote 27: This was the heading under which correspondence appeared +in _The London Magazine_ at that date.--H.] + +[Footnote 28: What other interpretation? An interpretation which makes +Mr. Hazlitt's argument coincide with one frequently urged against Mr. +Malthus--viz. 'that in fact he himself relies practically upon _moral +restraint_ as one great check to Population, though denying that any +great revolution in the moral nature of man is practicable.' But so +long as Mr. Malthus means, by a _great revolution_, a revolution in +the sense which he imputes to Mr. Godwin--to Condorcet, &c. viz. a +revolution amounting to absolute perfection, so long there is no +logical error in all this: Mr. Malthus may consistently rely upon +moral restraint for getting rid, suppose, of ninety cases out of every +hundred which at present tend to produce an excessive population, and +yet maintain that even this tenth of the former excess would be +sufficient, at a certain stage of population, to reproduce famines, +&c., _i. e._ to reproduce as much misery and vice as had been got rid +of. Here there is an absolute increase of moral restraint, but still +insufficient for the purpose of preventing misery, &c. For, as soon as +the maximum of population is attained, even one single birth in excess +(_i. e._ which does more than replace the existing numbers)--_à +fortiori_, then, one-tenth of the present excess (though implying that +the other nine-tenths had been got rid of by moral restraint) would +yet be sufficient to prevent the attainment of a state of perfection. +And, if Mr. Malthus had so shaped his argument, whether wrong or +right--he would not have offended in point of _logic_: his logical +error lies in supposing a state of perfection already existing and yet +as brought to nothing by this excess of births: whereas it is clear +that such an excess may operate to prevent, but cannot operate to +destroy a state of perfection; because in such a state no excess could +ever arise; for, though an excess may co-exist with a vast increase of +moral restraint, it cannot co-exist with entire and perfect moral +restraint; and nothing less than _that_ is involved in the term +'perfection.' A perfect state, which allows the possibility of the +excess here spoken of, is already an imperfect state. Now, if Mr. +Hazlitt says that this is exactly what he means, I answer that I +believe it is; because I can in no other way explain his sixth +sentence--from the words 'but it is shifting the question' to the end +of that sentence. Yet again the seventh sentence (the last) is so +expressed as to be unintelligible to me. And all that precedes the +sixth sentence, though very intelligible, yet seems the precise +objection which I have stated above, and which I think untenable. Nay, +it is still less tenable in Mr. Hazlitt's way of putting it than as +usually put: for to represent Mr. Malthus as saying that, 'if reason +should ever get the mastery over all our actions, we shall then be +governed _entirely_ by our physical appetites' (which are Mr. +Hazlitt's words), would be objected to even by an opponent of Mr. +Malthus: why '_entirely_?' why more than we are at present? The utmost +amount of the objection is this:--That, relying so much upon moral +restraint _practically_, Mr. Malthus was bound to have allowed it more +weight _speculatively_, but it is unreasonable to say that in his +ideal case of perfection Mr. Malthus has allowed no weight at all to +moral restraint: even he, who supposes an increased force to be +inconsistent with Mr. Malthus's theory, has no reason to insist upon +his meaning a diminished force.] + +Finally, Mr. Hazlitt calls the coincidence of my objections with his +own 'striking:' and thus (though unintentionally, I dare say) throws +the reader's attention upon it as a very surprising case. Now in this +there is a misconception which, apart from any personal question +between Mr. Hazlitt and myself, is worth a few words on its own +account for the sake of placing it in a proper light. I affirm then +that, considering its nature, the coincidence is _not_ a striking one, +if by 'striking' be meant surprising: and I affirm also that it would +not have been the more striking if, instead of two, it had extended to +two hundred similar cases. Supposing that a thousand persons were +required severally to propose a riddle, no conditions or limitations +being expressed as to the terms of the riddle, it would be surprising +if any two in the whole thousand should agree: suppose again that the +same thousand persons were required to solve a riddle, it would now be +surprising if any two in the whole thousand should differ. Why? +Because, in the first case, the act of the mind is an act of +synthesis; and there we may readily conceive a thousand different +roads for any one mind; but, in the second case, it is an analytic +act; and there we cannot conceive of more than one road for a thousand +minds. In the case between Mr. Hazlitt and myself there was a double +ground of coincidence for any possible number of writers: first the +object was given; _i. e._ we were not left to an unlimited choice of +the propositions we were to attack; but Mr. Malthus had himself, by +insisting on two in particular (however erroneously) as the capital +propositions of his system, determined our attention to these two as +the assailable points: secondly, not only was the object given--_i. e._ +not only was it predetermined for us where[29] the error must lie, +if there were an error; but the nature of that error, which happened +to be logical, predetermined for us the nature of the solution. Errors +which are such _materialiter_, _i. e._ which offend against our +_knowing_, may admit of many answers--involving more and less of +truth. But errors, which are such logically, _i. e._ which offend +against the form (or internal law) of our _thinking_, admit of only +one answer. Except by failing of any answer at all, Mr. Hazlitt and I +could not _but_ coincide: as long as we had the same propositions to +examine (which were not of our own choice, but pointed out to us _ab +extra_), and as long as we understood those propositions in the same +sense, no variety was possible except in the expression and manner of +our answers; and to that extent a variety exists. Any other must have +arisen from our understanding that proposition in a different sense. + +[Footnote 29: 'Where the error must lie'--_i. e._ to furnish a +sufficient answer _ad hominem_: otherwise it will be seen that I do +not regard either of the two propositions as essential to Mr. +Malthus's theory: and therefore to overthrow those propositions is not +to answer that theory. But still, if an author will insist on +representing something as essential to his theory which is not so, and +challenges opposition to it,--it is allowable to meet him on his own +ground.] + +My answer to Mr. Hazlitt therefore is--that in substance I think his +claim valid; and though it is most true that I was not aware of any +claim prior to my own, I now formally forego any claim on my own part +to the credit of whatsoever kind which shall ever arise from the two +objections to Mr. Malthus's logic in his _Essay on Population_. In +saying this, however, and acknowledging therefore a coincidence with +Mr. Hazlitt in those two arguments, I must be understood to mean a +coincidence only in what really belongs to them; meantime Mr. Hazlitt +has used two expressions in his letter to yourself which seem to +connect with those propositions other opinions from which I dissent: +that I may not therefore be supposed to extend my acquiescence in Mr. +Hazlitt's views to these points, I add two short notes upon them: +which however I have detached from this letter--as forming no proper +part of its business.--Believe me, my dear Sir, your faithful humble +servant. X.Y.Z. + +1. Mr. Hazlitt represents Mr. Malthus's error in regard to the +different ratios of progression as a _mathematical_ error; but the +other error he calls _logical_. This may seem to lead to nothing +important: it is however not for any purpose of verbal cavil that I +object to this distinction, and contend that both errors are logical. +For a little consideration will convince the reader that he, who +thinks the first error mathematical, will inevitably miss the true +point where the error of Mr. Malthus arises; and the consequence of +that will be--that he will never understand the Malthusians, nor ever +make himself understood by them. Mr. Hazlitt says, 'a bushel of wheat +will sow a whole field: the produce of that will sow twenty fields.' +Yes: but this is not the point which Mr. Malthus denies: this he will +willingly grant: neither will he deny that such a progression goes on +by geometrical ratios. If he did, then it is true that his error would +be a mathematical one. But all this he will concede. Where then lies +his error? Simply in this--that he assumes (I do not mean in words, +but it is manifestly latent in all that he says) that the wheat shall +be continually resown on the same area of land: he will not allow of +Mr. Hazlitt's 'twenty fields:' keep to your original field, he will +say. In this lies his error: and the nature of that error is--that he +insists upon shaping the case for the wheat in a way which makes it no +fair analogy to the case which he has shaped for man. That it is +unfair is evident: for Mr. Malthus does not mean to contend that his +men will go on by geometrical progression; or even by arithmetical, +upon the _same_ quantity of food: no! he will himself say the positive +principle of increase must concur with the same sort of increase in +the external (negative) condition, which is food. Upon what sort of +logic therefore does he demand that his wheat shall be thrown upon the +naked power of its positive principle, _not_ concurring with the same +sort of increase in the negative condition, which in this case is +land? It is true that at length we shall come to the end of the land, +because that is limited: but this has nothing to do with the race +between man and his food, so long as the race is possible. The race is +imagined for the sake of trying their several powers: and the terms of +the match must be made equal. But there is no equality in the terms as +they are supposed by Mr. Malthus. The amount therefore is--that the +case which Mr. Malthus everywhere supposes and reasons upon, is a case +of false analogy: that is, it is a logical error. But, setting aside +the unfairness of the case, Mr. Malthus is perfectly right in his +mathematics. If it were fair to demand that the wheat should be +constantly confined to the same space of land, it is undeniable that +it could never yield a produce advancing by a geometrical progression, +but at the utmost by a very slow arithmetical progression. +Consequently, taking the case as Mr. Malthus puts it, he is right in +calling it a case of arithmetical progression: and his error is in +putting that case as a logical counterpart to his other case. + +2. Mr. Hazlitt says--'This, Mr. Editor, is the writer whom "our full +senate call all-in-all sufficient."'--And why not? I ask. Mr. +Hazlitt's inference is--that, because two propositions in Mr. +Malthus's Essay are overthrown, and because these two are propositions +to which Mr. Malthus ascribes a false importance, in relation to his +theory, therefore that theory is overthrown. But, if an architect, +under some fancied weakness of a bridge which is really strong and +self-supported, chooses to apply needless props, I shall not injure +the bridge by showing these to be rotten props and knocking them away. +What is the real strength and the real use of Mr. Malthus's theory of +population, cannot well be shown, except in treating of Political +Economy. But as to the influence of his logical errors upon that +theory, I contend that it is none at all. It is one error to affirm a +different law of increase for man and for his food: it is a second +error to affirm of a perfect state an attribute of imperfection: but +in my judgment it is a third error, as great as either of the others, +to suppose that these two errors can at all affect the Malthusian +doctrine of Population. Let Mr. Malthus say what he will, the first of +those errors is not the true foundation of that doctrine; the second +of those errors does not contain its true application. + +Two private communications on the paper which refuted Mr. Malthus, +both expressed in terms of personal courtesy, for which I am bound to +make my best acknowledgments, have reached me through the Editor of +the _London Magazine_. One of them refers me 'to the number of the +_New Monthly Magazine_ for March or April, 1821, for an article on +Malthus, in which the view' taken by myself 'of his doctrine, as an +answer to Godwin, seems to have been anticipated.' In reply to this I +have only to express my regret that my present situation, which is at +a great distance from any town, has not yet allowed me an opportunity +for making the reference pointed out.--The other letter disputes the +soundness of my arguments--not so much in themselves, as in their +application to Mr. Malthus: 'I know not that I am authorised to speak +of the author by name: his arguments I presume that I am at liberty to +publish: they are as follows:--The first objection appears untenable +for this reason: Mr. Malthus treats of the abstract tendency to +increase in Man, and in the Food of Man, relatively. Whereas you do +not discuss the abstract tendency to increase, but only the _measure_ +of that increase, which is food. To the second objection I thus +answer: Mr. Godwin contends not (I presume) for abstract, essential +perfection; but for perfection relating to, and commensurate with, the +capabilities of an earthly nature and habitation. All this Mr. Malthus +admits _argumenti gratiâ_: and at the same time asserts that Mr. +Godwin's estimate in his own terms is incompatible with our state. 8th +October, 1823.'--To these answers my rejoinder is this:--The first +argument I am not sure that I perfectly understand; and therefore I +will not perplex myself or its author by discussing it. To the second +argument I reply thus: I am aware that whatsoever Mr. Malthus admits +from Mr. Godwin, he admits only _argumenti gratiâ._ But for whatsoever +purpose he admits it, he is bound to remember, that he _has_ admitted +it. Now what is it that he has admitted? A state of perfection. This +term, under any explanation of it, betrays him into the following +dilemma: Either he means _absolute_ perfection, perfection which +allows of no degrees; or he means (in the sense which my friendly +antagonist has supposed) _relative_ perfection, _quoad_ our present +state--_i. e._ a continual approximation to the ideal of absolute +perfection, without ever reaching it. If he means the first, then he +is exposed to the objection (which I have already insisted on +sufficiently) of bringing the idea of perfection under an inconsistent +and destructory predicate. If he means the second, then how has he +overthrown the doctrine of human perfectibility as he professes to +have done? At this moment, though the earth is far from exhausted (and +still less its powers), many countries are, according to Mr. Malthus, +suffering all the evils which they could suffer if population had +reached its maximum: innumerable children are born which the poverty +of their parents (no less fatal to them than the limitation of the +earth) causes to be thrown back prematurely into the grave. Now this +is the precise _kind_ of evil which Mr. Malthus anticipates for the +human species when it shall have reached its numerical maximum. But in +_degree_ the evil may then be much less--even upon Mr. Malthus's own +showing: for he does not fix any limit to the increase of moral +restraint, but only denies that it will ever become absolute and +universal. When the principle of population therefore has done its +worst, we may be suffering the same kind of evil--but, in proportion +to an indefinitely _in_creasing moral restraint, an indefinitely +_de_creasing degree of that evil: _i. e._ we may continually +approximate to the ideal of perfection: _i. e._ if the second sense +of perfection be Mr. Godwin's sense, then Mr. Malthus has not +overthrown Mr. Godwin. + +X. Y. Z. + + * * * * * + +The following admirable letter[30] seems to refer to the observations +on Kant, contained in the Opium Eater's Letters. Perhaps that acute +logician may be able to discover its meaning: or if not, he may think +it worth preserving as an illustration of Shakspeare's profound +knowledge of character displayed in Ancient Pistol. + +[Footnote 30: This is attached by the Editor of _The London +Magazine_.--H.] + + * * * * * + +Can Neptune sleep?--Is Willich dead?--Him who wielded the trident of +Albion! Is it thus you trample on the ashes of my friend? All the +dreadful energies of thought--all the sophistry of fiction and the +triumphs of the human intellect are waving o'er his peaceful grave. +'He understood not Kant.' Peace then to the harmless invincible. I +have long been thinking of presenting the world with a Metaphysical +Dictionary--of elucidating Locke's romance.--I await with impatience +Kant in English. Give me that! Your letter has awakened me to a sense +of your merits. Beware of squabbles; I know the literary infirmities +of man. Scott rammed his nose against mortals--he grasped at death for +fame to chaunt the victory. + +THINE. + +How is the Opium Eater? + + + + +THE SERVICES OF MR. RICARDO TO THE SCIENCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, +BRIEFLY AND PLAINLY STATED.[31] + +(_March, 1824._) + + +I do not remember that any public event of our own times has touched +me so nearly, or so much with the feelings belonging to a private +affliction, as the death of Mr. Ricardo. To me in some sense it _was_ +a private affliction--and no doubt to all others who knew and honoured +his extraordinary talents. For great intellectual merit, wherever it +has been steadily contemplated, cannot but conciliate some personal +regard: and for my own part I acknowledge that, abstracting altogether +from the use to which a man of splendid endowments may apply them--or +even supposing the case that he should deliberately apply them to a +bad one, I could no more on that account withhold my good wishes and +affection from his person--than, under any consideration of their +terrific attributes, I could forbear to admire the power and the +beauty of the serpent or the panther. Simply on its own account, and +without further question, a great intellect challenges, as of right, +not merely an interest of admiration--in common with all other +exhibitions of power and magnificence--but also an interest of human +love, and (where that is necessary) a spirit of tenderness to its +aberrations. Mr. Ricardo however stood in no need of a partial or +indulgent privilege: his privilege of intellect had a comprehensive +sanction from all the purposes to which he applied it in the course of +his public life: in or out of parliament, as a senator--or as an +author, he was known and honoured as a public benefactor. Though +connected myself by private friendship with persons of the political +party hostile to his, I heard amongst them all but one language of +respect for his public conduct. Those, who stood neutral to all +parties, remarked that Mr. Ricardo's voice--though heard too seldom +for the wishes of the enlightened part of the nation--was never raised +with emphasis upon any question lying out of the province in which he +reigned as the paramount authority, except upon such as seemed to +affect some great interest of liberty or religious toleration. And, +wherever a discussion arose which transcended the level of temporary +and local politics (as that for example upon corporal punishments), +the weight of authority--which mere blank ability had obtained for +him in the House of Commons--was sure to be thrown into that view of +the case which upheld the dignity of human nature. Participating most +cordially in these feelings of reverence for Mr. Ricardo's political +character, I had besides a sorrow not unmixed with self-reproach +arising out of some considerations more immediately relating to +myself. In August and September 1821 I wrote _The Confessions of an +English Opium-Eater_: and in the course of this little work I took +occasion to express my obligations, as a student of Political Economy, +to Mr. Ricardo's 'Principles' of that science. For this as for some +other passages I was justly[32] attacked by an able and liberal critic +in the _New Edinburgh Review_--as for so many absurd irrelevancies: in +that situation no doubt they were so; and of this, in spite of the +haste in which I had written the greater part of the book, I was fully +aware. However, as they said no more than was true, I was glad to take +that or any occasion which I could invent for offering my public +testimony of gratitude to Mr. Ricardo. The truth is--I thought that +something might occur to intercept any more appropriate mode of +conveying my homage to Mr. Ricardo's ear, which should else more +naturally have been expressed in a direct work on Political Economy. +This fear was at length realised--not in the way I had apprehended, +viz. by my own death--but by Mr. Ricardo's. And now therefore I felt +happy that, at whatever price of good taste, I had in some imperfect +way made known my sense of his high pretensions--although +unfortunately I had given him no means of judging whether my applause +were of any value. For during the interval between Sept. 1821 and Mr. +Ricardo's death in Sept. 1823 I had found no leisure for completing my +work on Political Economy: on that account I had forborne to use the +means of introduction to Mr. Ricardo which I commanded through my +private connections or simply as a man of letters: and in some measure +therefore I owed it to my own neglect--that I had for ever lost the +opportunity of benefiting by Mr. Ricardo's conversation or bringing +under his review such new speculations of mine in Political Economy as +in any point modified his own doctrines--whether as corrections of +supposed oversights, as derivations of the same truth from a higher +principle, as further illustrations or proofs of anything which he +might have insufficiently developed, or simply in the way of +supplement to his known and voluntary omissions. All this I should +have done with the utmost fearlessness of giving offence, and not for +a moment believing that Mr. Ricardo would have regarded anything in +the light of an undue liberty, which in the remotest degree might +seem to affect the interests of a science so eminently indebted to +himself. In reality candour may be presumed in a man of first-rate +understanding--not merely as a moral quality--but almost as a part of +his intellectual constitution _per se_; a spacious and commanding +intellect being magnanimous in a manner _suo jure_, even though it +should have the misfortune to be allied with a perverse or irritable +temper. On this consideration I would gladly have submitted to the +review of Mr. Ricardo, as indisputably the first of critics in this +department, rather than to any other person, my own review of himself. +That I have forfeited the opportunity of doing this--is a source of +some self-reproach to myself. I regret also that I have forfeited the +opportunity of perhaps giving pleasure to Mr. Ricardo by liberating +him from a few misrepresentations, and placing his vindication upon a +firmer basis even than that which he has chosen. In one respect I +enjoy an advantage for such a service, and in general for the polemic +part of Political Economy, which Mr. Ricardo did not. The course of my +studies has led me to cultivate the scholastic logic. Mr. Ricardo has +obviously neglected it. Confiding in his own conscious strength, and +no doubt participating in the common error of modern times as to the +value of artificial logic, he has taken for granted that the +Aristotelian forms and the exquisite science of distinctions matured +by the subtilty of the schoolmen can achieve nothing in substance +which is beyond the power of mere sound good sense and robust +faculties of reasoning; or at most can only attain the same end with a +little more speed and adroitness. But this is a great error: and it +was an ill day for the human understanding when Lord Bacon gave his +countenance to a notion, which his own exclusive study of one +department in philosophy could alone have suggested. Distinctions +previously examined--probed--and accurately bounded, together with a +terminology previously established, are the crutches on which all +minds--the weakest and the strongest--must alike depend in many cases +of perplexity: from pure neglect of such aids, which are to the +unassisted understanding what weapons are to the unarmed human +strength or tools and machinery to the naked hand of art, do many +branches of knowledge at this day languish amongst those which are +independent of experiment. + +[Footnote 31: MR. J. R. MCCULLOCH in his _Literature of Political +Economy_ makes the following observations concerning DE QUINCEY'S +'Dialogues of Three Templars on Political Economy':--They are +unequalled, perhaps, for brevity, pungency, and force. They not only +bring the Ricardian theory of value into strong relief, but +triumphantly repel, or rather annihilate, the objections urged against +it by Malthus, in the pamphlet now referred to and his Political +Economy, and by Say, and others. They may, indeed, be said to have +exhausted the subject.] + +[Footnote 32: Not so however, let me say in passing, for three +supposed instances of affected doubt; in all of which my doubts were, +and are at this moment, very sincere and unaffected; and, in one of +them at least, I am assured by those of whom I have since inquired +that my reviewer is undoubtedly mistaken. As another point which, if +left unnoticed, might affect something more important to myself than +the credit of my taste or judgment,--let me inform my reviewer that, +when he traces an incident which I have recorded most faithfully about +a Malay--to a tale of Mr. Hogg's, he makes me indebted to a book which +I never saw. In saying this I mean no disrespect to Mr. Hogg; on the +contrary, I am sorry that I have never seen it: for I have a great +admiration of Mr. Hogg's genius; and have had the honour of his +personal acquaintance for the last ten years.] + +As the best consolation to myself for the lost opportunities with +which I have here reproached myself,--and as the best means of doing +honour to the memory of Mr. Ricardo,--I shall now endeavour to spread +the knowledge of what he has performed in Political Economy. To do +this in the plainest and most effectual manner, I shall abstain from +introducing any opinions peculiar to myself, excepting only when they +may be necessary for the defence of Mr. Ricardo against objections +which have obtained currency from the celebrity of their authors--or +in the few cases where they may be called for by the errors (as I +suppose them to be) even of Mr. Ricardo.--In using this language, I do +not fear to be taxed with arrogance: we of this day stand upon the +shoulders of our predecessors; and that I am able to detect any errors +in Mr. Ricardo--I owe, in most instances, to Mr. Ricardo himself. + +X. Y. Z. + + + + +EDUCATION. + +PLANS FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF BOYS IN LARGE NUMBERS.[33] + +(_April and May, 1824._) + + +This is the work of a very ingenious man, and records the most +original experiment in Education which in this country at least has +been attempted since the date of those communicated by the Edgeworths. +We say designedly 'in this country;' because to compare it with some +continental schemes which have been only recently made known to the +English public (and not fully made known even yet) would impose upon +us a minute review of those schemes, which would be, _first_, +disproportionate to our limits--_secondly_, out of its best situation, +because it would be desirable to examine those schemes separately for +the direct purpose of determining their own absolute value, and not +indirectly and incidentally for the purpose of a comparison. The +Madras system, again, is excluded from the comparison--not so much for +the reason alleged (pp. 123-5), by the author before us--as though +that system were _essentially_ different from his own in its purpose +and application: the _purpose_ of the Madras system is not exclusively +economy of expense, but in combination with that purpose a far greater +accuracy (and therefore reality) in the knowledge communicated than +could be obtained on the old systems; on this account therefore the +possible _application_ of the Madras system is not simply to the +education of the poor, though as yet the actual application of it may +have been chiefly to them, but also to the education of the rich; and +in fact it is well known that the Madras system (so far from being +_essentially_ a system for the poor) has been adopted in some of the +great classical schools of the kingdom.[34] The difference is more +logically stated thus--that the Madras system regards singly the +quality of the knowledge given, and (with a view to _that_) the mode +of giving it: whereas the system, which we are going to review, does +not confine its view to _man as a being capable of knowledge_, but +extends it to _man as a being capable of action, moral or prudential_: +it is therefore a much more comprehensive system. The system before us +does not exclude the final purpose of the Madras system: on the +contrary, it is laudably solicitous for the fullest and most accurate +communication of knowledge, and suggests many hints for the attainment +of that end as just and as useful as they are enlightened. But it does +not stop here: it goes further, and contemplates the whole man with a +reference to his total means of usefulness and happiness in life. And +hence, by the way, it seems to us essential--that the whole child +should on this system be surrendered to the school; _i. e._ that there +should be no day-scholars; and this principle we shall further on +endeavour to establish on the evidence of a case related by the author +himself.[35] On the whole therefore we have designedly stated our +general estimate of the author's system with a reference to that of +the Edgeworths; not only because it has the same comprehensiveness of +object, and is in some degree a further expansion of their method and +their principles; but also because the author himself strikingly +resembles the Edgeworths in style and composition of mind; with this +single difference perhaps, that the good sense and perception of +propriety (of what in French would be called _les convenances_), which +in both is the characteristic merit (and, when it comes into conflict +with any higher quality, the characteristic defect),--in him is less +coloured by sarcastic and contemptuous feelings; which in all cases +are unamiable feelings, and argue some defect of wisdom and +magnanimity; but, when directed (as in the Edgeworths they sometimes +are) against principles in human nature which lie far beyond the field +of their limited philosophy, recoil with their whole strength upon +those who utter them. It is upon this consideration of his +intellectual affinity with the Edgeworths that we are the less +disposed to marvel at his estimate of their labours: that, for +instance, at p. 192 he styles their work on education 'inestimable,' +and that at p. 122, though he stops short of proposing 'divine +honours' to Miss Edgeworth, the course of his logic nevertheless binds +him to mean that on Grecian principles such honours are 'due to her.' +So much for the general classification and merits of the author, of +whom we know nothing more than--that, from his use of the +Scotticisms--'succumb,'--'compete,'--and 'in place of' for 'instead +of' he ought to be a Scotchman: now then for his system. + +[Footnote 33: _Plans for the Government and Liberal Instruction of +Boys in large Numbers; Drawn from Experience._ London: 1822. 8vo.] + +[Footnote 34: The distinguishing excellence of the Madras system is +not that it lodges in the pupils themselves the functions which on the +old systems belong to the masters, and thus at the same blow by which +it secures greater accuracy of knowledge gets rid of a great expense +in masters: for this, though a great merit, is a derivative merit: the +condition of the possibility of this advantage lies in a still +greater--viz. in the artificial _mechanism_ of the system by which, +when once established, the system works itself, and thus neutralises +and sets at defiance all difference of ability in the teachers--which +previously determined the whole success of the school. Hence is +obtained this prodigious result--that henceforward the blessing of +education in its elementary parts is made independent of accident, and +as much carried out of the empire of _luck_ as the manufacture of +woollens or cottons. That it is _mechanic_, is no conditional praise +(as alleged by the author before us), but the absolute praise of the +Madras system: neither is there any just ground of fear, as he and +many others have insinuated, that it should injure the freedom of the +human intellect.] + +[Footnote 35: We have since found that we have not room for it; the +case is stated and argued in the Appendix (pp. 220-227); but in our +opinion not fairly argued. The appellant's plea was sound, and ought +not to have been set aside. [At the end of the Paper I have restored +this 'CASE OF APPEAL' from the original work.--H.]] + +Of this we may judge by two criteria--experimentally by its result, or +_à priori_ by its internal aptitude for attaining its ends. Now as to +the result, it must be remembered that--even if the author of any +system could be relied on as an impartial witness to its result--yet, +because the result of a system of education cannot express itself in +any one insulated fact, it will demand as much judgment to abstract +from any limited experience what really _is_ the result as would have +sufficed to determine its merits _à priori_ without waiting for any +result. Consequently, as it would be impossible to exonerate +ourselves from the necessity of an elaborate act of judgment by any +appeal to the practical test of the result--seeing that this result +would again require an act of judgment hardly less elaborate for its +satisfactory settlement than the _à priori_ examination which it had +been meant to supersede,--we may as well do that at first which we +must do in the end; and, relying upon our own understandings, say +boldly that the system is good or bad because on this argument it is +evidently calculated to do good or on that argument to do evil, than +blindly pronounce--it is good or it is bad, because it has +produced--or has failed of producing--such and such effects; even if +those effects were easy to collect. In fact, for any conclusive +purpose of a practical test, the experience is only now beginning to +accumulate: and here we may take occasion to mention that we had +ourselves been misinformed as to the duration of the experiment; for a +period of four years, we were told, a school had existed under the +system here developed: but this must be a mistake, founded perhaps on +a footnote at p. 83 which says--'The plan has now been in operation +more than four years:' but the plan there spoken of is not the general +system, but a single feature of it--viz. the abolition of corporal +punishment: in the text this plan had been represented as an immature +experiment, having then 'had a trial of nine months' only: and +therefore, as more than three years nine months had elapsed from that +time to the publication of the book, a note is properly added +declaring that the experiment had succeeded, and that the author could +'not imagine any motive strong enough to force him back to the old +practice.' The system generally however must have existed now (_i. e._ +November 1823) for nearly eight years at the least: so much is evident +from a note at p. 79, where a main regulation of the system is said to +have been established 'early in 1816.' Now a period of seven or eight +years must have been sufficient to carry many of the senior pupils +into active life, and to carry many of the juniors even into +situations where they would be brought into close comparison with the +pupils of other systems. Consequently, so much experience as is +involved in the fact of the systems outliving such a comparison--and +in the continued approbation of its founder, who is manifestly a very +able and a conscientious man,--so much experience, we say, may be +premised for the satisfaction of those who demand practical tests. For +ourselves, we shall abide rather in our valuation of the system by the +internal evidence of its composition as stated and interpreted by its +author. An abstract of all that is essential in this statement we +shall now lay before our readers. + +What is the characteristic difference, in the fewest possible words, +of this system as opposed to all others? We nowhere find this stated +in a pointed manner: the author has left it rather to be collected +from his general exposition; and therefore we conceive that we shall +be entitled to his thanks by placing it in a logical, if possible in +an antithetic, shape. In order to this, we ask--what is a school? A +school is a body of young persons more or less perfectly +organised--which, by means of a certain constitution or system of +arrangements (A), aims at attaining a certain object (B). Now in all +former schemes of education this A stood to B the positive quantity +sought in the relation of a logical negative (_i. e._ of a _negation_ +of quantity = _0_), or even of a mathematic negative (_i. e._ +of-_x_):--but on this new system of the author before us (whom, for +the want of a better name, we shall call the Experimentalist) A for +the first time bears to B the relation of a positive quantity. The +terms _positive_ and _negative_ are sufficiently opposed to each other +to confer upon our contradistinction of this system from all others a +very marked and antithetic shape; and the only question upon it, which +arises, is this--are these terms justified in their application to +this case? That they are, will appear thus:--Amongst the positive +objects (or B) of every school, even the very worst, we must suppose +the culture of morals to be one: a mere day-school may perhaps +reasonably confine its pretensions to the disallowance of anything +positively bad; because here the presumption is that the parents +undertake the management of their children excepting in what regards +their intellectual education: but, wherever the heads of a school step +into the full duties of a child's natural guardians, they cannot +absolve themselves from a responsibility for his morals. Accordingly, +this must be assumed of course to exist amongst the positive objects +of every boarding-school. Yet so far are the laws and arrangements of +existing schools from at all aiding and promoting this object, that +their very utmost pretension is--that they do not injure it. Much +injustice and oppression, for example, take place in the intercourse +of all boys with each other; and in most schools 'the stern edict +against _bearing tales_,' causes this to go unredressed (p. 78): on +the other hand, in a school where a system of nursery-like +_surveillance_ was adopted, and 'every trifling injury was the subject +of immediate appeal to the supreme power' (p. 80), the case was still +worse. 'The indulgence of this querulousness increased it beyond all +endurance. Before the master had time to examine the justice of one +complaint, his attention was called away to redress another; until, +wearied with investigation into offences which were either too +trifling or too justly provoked for punishment, he treated all +complainants with harshness, heard their accusations with incredulity, +and thus tended, by a first example, to the re-establishment of the +old system.' The issue in any case was--that, apart from what nature +and the education of real life did for the child's morals, the school +education did nothing at all except by the positive moral instruction +which the child might draw from his lessons--_i. e._ from B. But as to +A, _i. e._ the school arrangements, either at best their effect was = +0; or possibly, by capricious interference for the regulation of what +was beyond their power to regulate, they actually disturbed the moral +sense (_i. e._ their effect was =-_x_). Now, on the new system of our +Experimentalist, the very laws and regulations, which are in any case +necessary to the going on of a school, have such an origin and are so +administered as to cultivate the sense of justice and materially to +enlarge the knowledge of justice. These laws emanate from the boys +themselves, and are administered by the boys. That is to say, A (which +on the old system is at best a mere blank, or negation, and sometimes +even an absolute negative with regard to B) thus becomes a positive +agent in relation to B--_i. e._ to one of the main purposes of the +school. Again, to descend to an illustration of a lower order, in most +schools arithmetic is one part of B: now on the new system it is so +contrived that what is technically termed _calling over_, which on any +system is a necessary arrangement for the prevention of mischief, and +which usually terminates there (_i. e._ in an effect = 0), becomes a +positive means of cultivating an elementary rule of arithmetic in the +junior students--and an attention to accuracy in all: _i. e._ here +again, from being simply = 0, A becomes = + _x_ in relation to B. A +school in short, on this system, burns its own smoke: The mere +negative conditions of its daily goings on, the mere waste products of +its machinery, being converted into the positive pabulum of its life +and motion. Such then, we affirm, is the brief abstract--antithetically +expressed--of the characteristic principle by which the system under +review is distinguished from all former systems. In relation to B (which +suppose 20 _x_) A, which heretofore was =-_x_, or at best = 0, now +becomes = + _x_, or + 2 _x_, or 3 _x_, as it may happen. In this lies +the merit of the conception: what remains to be inquired--is in what +degree, and upon what parts of B, it attains this conversion of A into a +positive quantity: and this will determine the merit of the execution. +Let us now therefore turn to the details of the book. + +The book may be properly distributed into two parts: the first of +which from page 1 to page 125 inclusively (comprehending the three +first chapters) unfolds and reviews the system: all that remains from +page 126 to page 218 inclusively (_i. e._ to the end)--comprehending +four chapters--may be considered as a second or miscellaneous part, +treating of some general topics in the business of education, but with +a continual reference to the principles laid down in the first part. +An appendix, of twenty pages, contains a body of illustrative +documents. The first of the three chapters, composing what we have +called the first part, is entitled _Outline of the System_: and, as it +is very brief, we shall extract it nearly entire. + + 'A schoolmaster being a governor as well as a teacher, we + must consider the boys both as a community and as a body of + pupils. The principle of our government is to leave, as much + as possible, all power in the hands of the boys themselves: + To this end we permit them to elect a committee, which + enacts the laws of the school, subject however to the _veto_ + of the head master. We have also courts of justice for the + trial of both civil and criminal causes, and a vigorous + police for the preservation of order. Our rewards consist of + a few prizes given at the end of each half year to those + whose exertions have obtained for them the highest rank in + the school; and certain marks which are gained from time to + time by exertions of talent and industry. These marks are of + two kinds: the most valuable, called premial[36] marks, will + purchase a holiday; the others are received in liquidation + of forfeits. Our punishments[37] are fine and imprisonment. + Impositions, public disgrace, and corporeal pain, have been + for some years discarded among us. To obtain rank is an + object of great ambition among the boys; with us it is + entirely dependent on the state of their acquirements; and + our arrangements according to excellence are so + frequent--that no one is safe, without constant exertion, + from losing his place. The boys learn almost every branch of + study in classes, that the master may have time for copious + explanations; it being an object of great anxiety with us, + that the pupil should be led to reason upon all his + operations. Economy of time is a matter of importance with + us: we look upon all restraint as an evil, and to young + persons as a very serious evil: we are therefore constantly + in search of means for ensuring the effective employment of + every minute which is spent in the school-room, that the + boys may have ample time for exercise in the open air. The + middle state between work and play is extremely unfavourable + to the habits[38] of the pupil: we have succeeded, by great + attention to order and regularity, in reducing it almost to + nothing. We avoid much confusion by accustoming the boys to + march; which they do with great precision, headed by a band + of young performers[39] from their own body.' + +[Footnote 36: '_Premial_ marks:' this designation is vicious in point +of logic: how is it thus distinguished from the less valuable?] + +[Footnote 37: 'Our punishments,' &c. This is inaccurate: by p. 83 +'disability to fill certain offices' is one of the punishments.] + +[Footnote 38: 'Habits!' habits of what?] + +[Footnote 39: 'Performers!' _Musical_ performers, we presume.] + +Such is the outline of the system as sketched by the author himself: +to us however it appears an insufficient outline even for 'the general +reader' to whom it is addressed: without having 'any intention of +reducing the system to practice,' the most general reader, if he asks +for any information at all, will ask for more than this. We shall +endeavour therefore to draw up an account of the plan somewhat less +meagre, by separating the important from the trivial details. For this +purpose we shall begin--1. with the GOVERNMENT of the school; _i. e._ +with an account of the _legislative_, the _executive_, and the +_judicial_ powers, where lodged--held by what tenure--and how +administered. The _legislative power_ is vested in a committee of boys +elected by the boys themselves. The members are elected monthly; the +boy, who ranks highest in the school, electing one member; the _two_ +next in rank another; the _three_ next a third; and so on. The +head-master as well as all the under-masters are members by virtue of +their office. This arrangement might seem likely to throw a dangerous +weight in the deliberations of the 'house' into the hands of the +executive power, especially as the head-master might pursue Queen +Anne's policy under the Tory ministers--and, by introducing the +fencing-master--the dancing-master--the riding-master, &c. under the +unconstitutional equivocation of the word '_teachers_,' carry a +favourite measure in the teeth of the patriotic party. Hitherto +however the reigning sovereign has shown so laudable a desire to +strengthen those checks upon his own authority which make him a +limited monarch--that 'only one teacher has been in the habit of +attending the committee's meetings' (p. 5): and, where any teacher +himself happens to be interested in the question before the house (_e. +g._ in a case of appeal from any decision of his), 'it has lately been +the etiquette' for that one who does attend to decline voting. Thus we +see that the liberty of the subject is on the growth: which is a sure +argument that it has not been abused. In fact, as a fresh proof of the +eternal truth--that in proportion as human beings are honourably +confided in, they will _in the gross_ become worthy of confidence, it +will give pleasure to the reader to be informed that, though this +committee 'has the formation of _all_ the laws and regulations of the +school (excepting such as determine the hours of attendance and the +regular amount of exercises to be performed),' yet 'the master's +assent has never even in a single instance been withheld or even +delayed.' 'I do not remember,' says Sir William Temple in 1683 to his +son, 'ever to have refused anything you have desired of me; which I +take to be a greater compliment to you than to myself; since for a +young man to make none but reasonable desires is yet more +extraordinary than for an old man to think them so.' A good +arrangement has been adopted for the purpose of combining the benefits +of mature deliberation with the vigour and dispatch necessary for +sudden emergencies: by a standing order of the committee a week's +notice must be given before a new law can be introduced for +discussion: in cases of urgency therefore a sort of _orders of +council_ are passed by a sub-committee composed of two principal +officers for the time being: these may of course be intercepted _in +limine_ by the _veto_ of the master; and they may be annulled by the +general committee: in any case they expire in a fortnight: and thus +not only is a present necessity met, but also an opportunity gained +for trying the effect of a law before it is formally proposed. The +_executive_ body, exclusively of its standing members the upper and +lower masters, is composed of a sheriff (whose duties are to levy +fines imposed by the court of justice, and to imprison on +non-payment)--of a magistrate, and of two constables. All these +officers are elected every month by the committee immediately after +its own election. The magistrate is bound, in conjunction with his +constables, to detect all offences committed in the school: petty +cases of dispute he decides himself, and so far becomes a _judicial_ +officer: cases beyond his own jurisdiction he sends to the +attorney-general, directing him to draw an impeachment against the +offending party: he also enforces all penalties below a certain +amount. Of the _judicial_ body we shall speak a little more at length. +The principal officers of the court are the judge who is elected +monthly by the committee, and the attorney-general who is appointed at +the same time by the master. The court assembles every week: and the +jury, consisting of six, is 'chosen by lot from among the whole number +of qualified boys:' disqualifications arise in three ways; on account +of holding a judicial office, on account of conviction by the court +within the preceding month, and on account of youth (or, what we +presume to be tantamount, being 'in certain lower classes'). The jury +choose their own foreman. The attorney-general and the accused party, +if the case be penal, and each disputant, if civil, has a _peremptory_ +challenge of three, and an unlimited right of challenge _for cause_. +The judge decides upon the validity of the objections. Such is the +constitution of the court: its forms of proceeding we cannot state in +fewer words than those of the Experimentalist, which we shall +therefore quote: 'The officers of the court and the jury having taken +their seats, the defendant (when the cause is penal) is called to the +bar by the crier of the court, and placed between the constables. The +clerk of the court then reads the indictment, at the close of which +the defendant is asked if he object to any of the jury--when he may +make his challenges (as before stated). The same question is put to +the attorney-general. A short time is then allowed the defendant to +plead _guilty_, if he be so disposed: he is asked no question however +that he may not be induced to tell a falsehood: but, in order to +encourage an acknowledgment of the fault, when he pleads _guilty_--a +small deduction is made from the penalty appointed by the law for the +offence. The consequence is--that at least five out of six of those +who are justly accused acknowledge the offence in the first instance. +If the defendant be determined to stand his trial, the attorney-general +opens the case and the trial proceeds. The defendant may either plead +his own cause, or employ a school-fellow as counsel--which he sometimes +does. The judge takes notes of the evidence, to assist him in delivering +his charge to the jury: in determining the sentence he is guided by the +regulations enacted by the committee, which affix punishments varying +with the magnitude of the offence and the age of the defendant, but +invest the judge with the power of increasing or diminishing the penalty +to the extent of one-fourth.' A copy of the sentence is laid before the +master, who has of course 'the power of mitigation or pardon.' From the +decision of the court there lies an appeal to the committee, which is +thus not only the legislative body, but also the supreme court of +judicature. Two such appeals however are all that have yet occurred: +both were brought by the attorney-general--of course therefore against +verdicts of acquittal; and both verdicts were reversed. Fresh evidence +however was in both cases laid before the committee in addition to that +which had been heard in the court below; and on this as well on other +grounds there was good reason to acquit the jury of all partiality. +Whilst appeals have thus been so rare from the verdicts of juries, +appeals from the decisions of the magistrate, and even from those of the +teachers, have been frequent: generally indeed the decisions have been +affirmed by the committee; and, when they have been reversed, in all but +two cases the reversal has met with the sanction of the teachers as a +body. Even in these two (where, by the way, the original decision was +only modified and not annulled); the Experimentalist is himself of +opinion (p. 12) that the non-concurrence of the teachers may possibly +have been owing to a partiality on their side. So far indeed as his +experience had then extended, the Experimentalist tells us (p. 79) that +'one solitary instance only' had occurred in which the verdict of the +jury did not coincide with his own opinion. This judgment, deliberately +pronounced by so competent a judge, combined with the entire +acquiescence in the verdict of the jury which is argued by the +non-existence of any appeals except on the side of the crown (and then +only in two instances), is a very striking attestation to the spirit of +conscientious justice developed in the students by this confidence in +their incorruptible integrity. 'Great,' says the Experimentalist, +'great, but of course unexpressed, anxiety has more than once been felt +by us--lest the influence of a leading boy, which in every school must +be considerable, should overcome the virtue of the jury: but our fears +have been uniformly relieved, and the hopes of the offender crushed, by +the voice of the foreman pronouncing, in a shrill but steady tone, the +awful word--Guilty!' Some persons, who hate all innovations, will +pronounce all this '_mummery_,' which is a very compendious piece of +criticism. For ourselves, though we cannot altogether agree with the +Experimentalist, who seems to build too much on an assumption that +nature and increasing intercourse with human life contribute nothing of +themselves without any artificial discipline to the evolution and +culture of the sense of justice and to the power of the understanding +for discovering where justice lies, yet thus much is evident, 1. That +the intellectual faculties must be sharpened by the constant habit of +discriminating the just and the unjust in concrete cases such as a real +experience of life produces; 2. That the moral sense must be deepened, +if it were only by looking back upon so large a body of decisions, and +thus measuring as it were, by the resistance which they had often +overcome arising out of their own immediate interest, the mightiness of +the conscientious power within which had compelled them to such +decisions; 3. That all sorts of forensic ability is thus cherished; and +much ability indeed of larger application: thus the logical faculty of +abstracting the essential from the accidental is involved in the summing +up of the judge; in the pleadings for and against are involved the +rhetorical arts of narrating facts perspicuously--of arranging arguments +in the best order of meeting (therefore of remembering) the +counter-arguments; of solving sophisms; of disentangling +misrepresentations--of weighing the value of probabilities--to say +nothing of elocution and the arts of style and diction which even the +records of the court and the committee (as is urged at p. 105) must tend +to cultivate: 4. (to descend to a humbler use) that in this way the +master is absolved from the grievous waste of time in administering +justice, which on the old system was always imperfect justice that it +might waste but little time, and which yet wasted much time though it +was imperfect justice. The author's own _moral_ of this innovation is as +follows (p. 76); and with this we shall leave the subject: 'We shall be +disappointed if the intelligent reader have not already discovered that +by the establishment of a system of legislation and jurisprudence +wherein the power of the master is bounded by general rules, and the +duties of the scholar accurately defined, and where the boys are called +upon to examine and decide upon the conduct of their fellows, we have +provided a course of instruction in the great code of morality which is +likely to produce far more powerful and lasting effects than any +quantity of mere precept.' + +We now pass to the other characteristics of the new system, which seem +to lie chiefly in what relates to _economy of time_, _rewards and +punishments_, the _motives to exertion_, and _voluntary labour_. For, +as to the _musical performances_ (which occur more than twenty times a +day), we see no practical use in them except that they regulate the +marching; and the marching it is said teaches to measure time: and +measuring time accurately contributes 'to the order and celerity with +which the various evolutions of the school are performed,' and also +the conquest of 'serious impediments of speech.' But the latter case +not occurring (we presume) very frequently, and marching accurately +not being wholly dependant on music,--it appears to us that a +practice, which tends to throw an air of fanciful trifling over the +excellent good sense of the system in other respects, would be better +omitted. _Division into classes_ again, though insisted on by the +Experimentalist (see pp. 290, 291) in a way which would lead us to +suppose it a novelty in his own neighbourhood, is next to universal in +England; and in all the great grammar schools has been established for +ages. All that distinguishes this arrangement in his use of it--is +this, that the classes are variable: that is, the school forms by +different combinations according to the subject of study; the boys, +who study Greek together, are not the same who study arithmetic +together. Dismissing therefore these two arrangements as either not +characteristic or not laudably characteristic, we shall make a brief +exposition of the others. 1. _Economy of Time_:--'We have been +startled at the reflection' (says the Experimentalist)--'that if, by a +faulty arrangement, one minute be lost to sixty of our boys, the +injury sustained would be equal to the waste of an hour by a single +individual.' Hence, as the Experimentalist justly argues, the use of +classes; by means of which ten minutes spent by the tutor in +explaining a difficult point to a class of ten boys become equal to +100 minutes distributed amongst them severally. Great improvement in +the economising of time was on this system derived from exacting 'an +almost superstitious punctuality' of the _monitor_, whose duty it is +to summon the school to all its changes of employment by ringing a +bell. It is worthy of notice, but to us not at all surprising, +that--'when the duty of the monitor was easy, and he had time for +play, the exact moment for ringing the bell was but seldom observed: +but when, as the system grew more complex, he was more constantly in +requisition, it was found that with increased labour came increased +perfection: and the same boy who had complained of the difficulty of +being punctual when he had to ring the bell only ten times in the day, +found his duty comparatively easy when his memory was taxed to a +four-fold amount. It is amusing to see what a living timepiece the +giddiest boy will become during his week of office. The succession of +monitors gradually infuses a habit, and somewhat of a love of +punctuality, into the body scholastic itself. The masters also cannot +think of being absent when the scholars are waiting for them: and thus +the nominal and the real hours of attendance become exactly the +same.'--2. _Motives to Exertion._ 'After furnishing the pupil with the +_opportunity_ of spending his time to the greatest advantage, our next +case was to examine how we had supplied him with _motives_' for so +spending it (p. 92). These are ranged under five heads,--'Love of +knowledge--love of employment--emulation--hope of reward--and fear of +punishment,'--and according to what the Experimentalist rightly thinks +'their order of excellence.' The three last, he alleges, are stimuli; +and of necessity lose their power by constant use. Love of employment, +though a more durable motive, leaves the pupil open to the attractions +of any other employment that may chance to offer itself in competition +with knowledge. Love of knowledge for its own sake therefore is the +mainspring relied on; insomuch that the Experimentalist gives it as +his opinion (p. 96) that 'if it were possible for the pupil to acquire +a love of knowledge, and that only during the time he remained at +school, he would have done more towards insuring a stock of knowledge +in maturer age than if he had been the recipient of as much learning +as ever was infused into the passive school-boy' by any means which +fell short of generating such a principle of exertion. We heartily +agree with him: and we are further of opinion that this love needs not +to be generated as an independent birth previously to our commencing +the labour of tuition, but that every system of tuition in proportion +as it approaches to a good one will inevitably involve the generation +of this love of knowledge concurrently with the generation of +knowledge itself. Most melancholy are the cases which have come under +our immediate notice of good faculties wholly lost to their possessor +and an incurable disgust for literature and knowledge founded to our +certain knowledge solely on the stupidity and false methods of the +teacher, who alike in what he knew or did _not_ know was incapable of +connecting one spark of pleasurable feeling with any science, by +leading his pupils' minds to re-act upon the knowledge he attempted to +convey. Being thus important, how shall a love of knowledge be +created? According to the Experimentalist, first of all (p. 97--to the +word 'zest' in p. 107) by combining the sense of obvious _utility_ +with all the elementary exercises of the intellect:--secondly (from p. +108--to the word 'rock' in p. 114) by matching the difficulties of the +learner exactly with his capacity:--thirdly (from p. 114--to the word +'attention' in p. 117) by connecting with the learner's progress the +sense of continual success:--fourthly (from p. 117--to the word +'co-operation' in p. 121) by communicating clear, vivid and accurate +conceptions. The first means is illustrated by a reference to the art +of learning a language--to arithmetic--to surveying, and to the +writing of 'themes.' Can any boy, for instance, reconcile himself to +the loathsome effort of learning '_Propria quæ maribus_' by any [but] +the dimmest sense of its future utility? No, we answer with the +Experimentalist: and we go farther even than the Experimentalist is +disposed to do (p. 98); for we deny the existence of any future +utility. We, the reviewer of this book, at eight years of age, though +even then passionately fond of study and disdainful of childish +sports, passed some of the most wretched and ungenial days of our life +in 'learning by _heart_,' as it is called (oh! most ironical +misnomer!), _Propria quæ maribus_, '_Quæ genus_,' and '_As in +præsenti_,' a three-headed monster worse than Cerberus: we _did_ learn +them _ad unguem_; and to this hour their accursed barbarisms cling to +our memory as ineradicably as the golden lines of Æschylus or +Shakspeare. And what was our profit from all this loathsome labour, +and the loathsome heap of rubbish thus deposited in the memory? +Attend, if you please, good reader: the first professes to teach the +irregularities of nouns as to gender (_i. e._ which nouns having a +masculine termination are yet feminine, &c.), the second to teach the +irregularities of nouns as to number (_i. e._ which want the singular, +which the plural), the third to teach the irregularities of verbs (_i. e._ +their deviations from the generic forms of the preterite and the +supine): this is what they _profess_ to teach. Suppose then their +professions realised, what is the result? Why that you have +laboriously anticipated a case of anomaly which, if it do actually +occur, could not possibly cost more trouble to explain at the time of +its occurrence than you are thus premising. This is as if a man should +sit down to cull all the difficult cases of action which could ever +occur to him in his relations of son, father, citizen, neighbour, +public functionary, &c. under the plea that he would thus have got +over the labour of discussion before the case itself arrived. +Supposing that this could be accomplished, what would it effect but to +cancel a benevolent arrangement of providence by which the +difficulties of life are distributed with tolerable equality +throughout its whole course, and obstinately to accumulate them all +upon a particular period. Sufficient for the day is its own evil: +dispatch your business as it arises, and every day clears itself: but +suffer a few months of unaudited accounts, or of unanswered letters, +to accumulate; and a mountain of arrears is before you which years +seem insufficient to get rid of. This sort of accumulation arises in +the shape of _arrears_: but any accumulation of trouble out of its +proper place,--_i. e._ of a distributed trouble into a state of +convergement,--no matter whether in the shape of needless anticipation +or needless procrastination, has equally the practical effect of +converting a light trouble (or none at all) into a heavy and hateful +one. The daily experience of books, actual intercourse with Latin +authors, is sufficient to teach all the irregularities of that +language: just as the daily experience of an English child leads him +without trouble into all the anomalies of his own language. And, to +return to the question which we put--'What was our profit from all +this loathsome labour?' In this way it was, viz. in the way of actual +experience that we, the reviewer of this book, did actually in the end +come to the knowledge of those irregularities which the three elegant +poems in question profess to communicate. Mark this, reader: the logic +of what we are saying--is first, that, if they _did_ teach what they +profess, they would attain that end by an artificial means far more +laborious than the natural means: and secondly, that in fact they do +_not_ attain their end. The reason of this--is partly the perplexed +and barbarous texture of the verse, which for metrical purposes, _i. e._ +to keep the promise of metre to the mere technical scansion, is +obliged to abandon all those natural beauties of metre in the fluent +connection of the words, in the rhythmus, cadence, cæsura, &c. which +alone recommend metre as a better or more rememberable form for +conveying knowledge than prose: prose, if it has no music, at any rate +does not compel the most inartificial writer to dislocate, and distort +it into non-intelligibility. Another reason is, that '_As in +præsenti_' and its companions, are not so much adapted to the reading +as to the writing of Latin. For instance, I remember (we will suppose) +this sequence of '_tango tetigi_' from the '_As in P_.' Now, if I am +_reading_ Latin I meet either with the tense '_tango_,' or the tense +'_tetigi_.' In the former case, I have no difficulty; for there is as +yet no irregularity: and therefore it is impertinent to offer +assistance: in the latter case I _do_ find a difficulty, for, +according to the models of verbs which I have learned in my grammar, +there is no possible verb which could yield _tetigi_: for such a verb +as _tetigo_ even ought to yield _tetixi_: here therefore I should be +glad of some assistance; but just here it is that I obtain none: for, +because I remember '_tango tetigi_' in the direct order, it is quite +contrary to the laws of association which govern the memory in such a +case, to suppose that I remember the inverted order of _tetigi +tango_--any more than the forward repetition of the Lord's prayer +ensures its backward repetition. The practical applicability of '_As +in præsenti_' is therefore solely to the act of _writing_ Latin: for, +having occasion to translate the words 'I touched' I search for the +Latin equivalent to the English word _touch_--find that it is _tango_, +and then am reminded (whilst forming the preterite) that _tango_ makes +not _tanxi_ but '_tetigi_.' Such a use therefore I might by +possibility derive from my long labours: meantime even here the +service is in all probability doubly superfluous: for, by the time +that I am called on to write Latin at all, experience will have taught +me that _tango_ makes _tetigi_; or, supposing that I am required to +write Latin as one of the earliest means for gaining experience, even +in that case the very same dictionary which teaches me what is Latin +for '_touch_' teaches me what is the irregular preterite and supine of +_tango_. And thus the 'upshot' (to use a homely word) of the whole +business--is that an effort of memory, so great as to be capable +otherwise directed of mastering a science, and secondly (because +directed to an unnatural composition, viz. an arrangement of metre, +which is at once the rudest and the most elaborately artificial), so +disgusting as that no accession of knowledge could compensate the +injury thus done to the simplicity of the child's understanding, by +connecting pain and a sense of unintelligible mystery with his +earliest steps in knowledge,--all this hyperbolical apparatus and +machinery is worked for no one end or purpose that is not better +answered by a question to his tutor, by consulting his dictionary, or +by the _insensible_ progress of daily experience. Even this argument +derived from its utter uselessness does not however weigh so much with +us as the other argument derived from the want of common-sense, +involved in the wilful forestalling and artificial concentrating into +one long rosary of anomalies, what else the nature of the case has by +good luck dispersed over the whole territory of the Latin language. To +be consistent, a tutor should take the same proleptical course with +regard to the prosody of the Latin language: every Latin +hyperdissyllable is manifestly accentuated according to the following +law: if the penultimate be long, that syllable inevitably claims the +accent; if short, inevitably it rejects it--_i. e._ gives it to the +ante-penultimate. The determining syllable is therefore the +penultimate; and for the due reading of Latin the sole question is +about the quantity of the penultimate. According to the logic +therefore which could ever have introduced '_As in præsenti_,' the +tutor ought to make his pupils commit to memory every individual word +in which the quantity was not predetermined by a mechanical rule--(as +it is _e. g._ in the gen. plural _[=o]rum_, of the second declension, +the _[=e]runt_ of the third per. plurals of the preterite, &c., or the +cases where the vowel is long by position). But what man of sense +would forbear to cry out in such a case--'Leave the poor child to his +daily reading: practice, under correct tuition, will give him +insensibly and without effort all that you would thus endeavour to +communicate through a most Herculean exertion.' Whom has it cost any +trouble to learn the accentuation of his own language? How has he +learned _that_? Simply by copying others--and so much without effort, +that the effort (and a very great effort) would have been _not_ to +copy them. In that way let him learn the quantity of Latin and Greek +penultimates. That Edmund Burke could violate the quantity of the word +'Vectigal' was owing to his tutor's ignorance, who had allowed him so +to read it; that Lord North, and every other Etonian in the house, +knew better--was owing not to any disproportionate effort of memory +directed to that particular word, as though they had committed to +memory a rule enjoining them to place the accent on the penultimate of +the word vectigal: their knowledge no more rested on such an +anticipation by express rules of their own experience, than Burke's +ignorance of the quantity on the want of such anticipation; the +anticipation was needless--coming from a tutor who knew the quantity, +and impossible--coming from a tutor who knew it not. At this moment a +little boy (three years old) is standing by our table, and repeatedly +using the word _mans_ for _men_: his sister (five years old), at his +age, made the very same mistake: but she is now correcting her +brother's grammar, which just at this moment he is stoutly +defending--conceiving his dignity involved in the assertion of his own +impeccability. Now whence came the little girl's error and its +correction? Following blindly the general analogy of the language, she +formed her plural by adding an _s_ to the singular: afterwards +everybody about her became a daily monitor--a living _Propria quæ +maribus_, as she is in her turn to her brother, instructing her that +this particular word '_man_' swerved, as to this one particular point, +from the general analogy of the language. But the result is just as +inevitable from daily intercourse with Latin books, as to the parallel +anomalies in that language. In proportion as any case of anomaly could +escape the practical regulation of such an intercourse, just in that +proportion it must be a rare case, and less important to be known: +whatsoever the future experience will be most like to demand, the past +experience will be most likely to have furnished. All this we urge not +against the Eton grammar in particular: on the contrary, as grammars +go, we admire the Eton grammar;[40] and love it with a filial +partiality from early associations (always excepting, however, the +three lead-mines of the Eton grammar, '_Propria quæ maribus_,' &c. of +which it is not extravagant to say, that the author, though possibly a +good sort of a man in his way, has undoubtedly caused more human +suffering than Nero, Robespierre, or any other enemy of the human +race). Our opposition is to the general principle, which lies at the +root of such treatises as the three we have been considering: it will +be observed that, making a proper allowance for the smallness of the +print, these three bodies of absurd anticipations of exceptions, are +collectively about equal in quantity, and virtually for the effort to +the memory far more than equal, to the whole body of the rules +contained in the Accidence and the Syntax: _i. e._ that which exits on +account of many thousand cases is put on the same level of value and +burthen to the memory, as that which exists on account of itself +alone. Here lies the original sin of grammars, the mortal taint on +which they all demand regeneration: whosoever would show himself a +great artist in the profound but as yet infant art of teaching, should +regard all arbitrary taxes upon the memory with the same superstition +that a wise lawgiver should regard the punishment of death: the +lawgiver, who sets out with little knowledge (and therefore little +veneration) of human nature, is perpetually invoking the thunders of +the law to compensate the internal weakness of his own laws: and the +same spirit of levity disposes inefficient teachers to put in motion +the weightiest machinery of the mind for the most trifling purposes: +but we are convinced that this law should be engraven on the title +page of all elementary books--that the memory is degraded, if it be +called in to deliver any individual fact, or any number of individual +facts, or for any less purpose than that of delivering a comprehensive +law, by means of which the understanding is to _produce_ the +individual cases of knowledge wanted. Wherever exceptions or insulated +cases are noticed, except in notes, which are not designed to be +committed to memory, this rule is violated; and the Scotch expression +for particularising, viz. _condescending upon_, becomes applicable in +a literal sense: when the Eton grammar, _e. g._ notices _Deus_ as +deviating in the vocative case from the general law for that +declension, the memory is summoned to an unreasonable act of +condescension--viz. to load itself almost as heavily for one +particular word in one particular case, as it had done by the whole +type of that declension (_i. e._ the implicit law for all words +contained under it, which are possibly some thousands). But how then +would we have such exceptions learnt, if not by an act of the memory? +Precisely, we answer, as the meanings of all the words in the language +are learned: how are _they_ learned? They are known, and they are +remembered: but how? Not by any act or effort of the memory: they are +_deposited_ in the memory from daily intercourse with them: just as +the daily occurrences of our lives are recorded in our memories: not +through any exertion on our part, or in consequence of previous +determination on our parts that we will remember them: on the +contrary, we take no pains about them, and often would willingly +forget them: but they stay there in spite of us, and are pure +_depositions_, settlings, or sediments, with or without our +concurrence, from the stream of our daily experience.--Returning from +this long excursus on arbitrary taxations of the memory suggested to +us by the mention of '_Propria quæ maribus_,' which the +Experimentalist objects to as disgusting to children before they have +had experience of the cases in which it furnishes assistance (but +which we have objected to as in any case barren of all power to +assist), we resume the course of our analysis. We left the +Experimentalist insisting on the benefit of directing the studies of +children into such channels as that the practical _uses_ of their +labours may become apprehensible to themselves--as the first mode of +producing a love of knowledge. In some cases he admits that the pupil +must pass through 'dark defiles,' confiding blindly in his tutor's +'assurance that he will at last emerge into light:' but still contends +that in many cases it is possible, and where possible--right, that he +should 'catch a glimpse of the promised land.' Thus, for example, to +construe the language he is learning--is an act of 'some +respectability in his eyes' and its uses apparent: meantime the uses +of the grammar are not so apparent until experience has brought him +acquainted with the real cases to which it applies. On this +account,--without laying aside the grammar, let him be advanced to the +dignity of actual translation upon the very _minimum_ of grammatical +knowledge which will admit of it. Again, in arithmetic, it is the +received practice to commence with 'abstract numbers:' but, instead of +risking injury to the child's intellect and to his temper by thus +calling upon him to add together 'long rows of figures' to which no +meaning is attached, he is taught 'to calculate all the various little +problems which may be constructed respecting his tops and marbles, +their price, and their comparative value.' Here the Experimentalist +turns aside for about a page (from 'while,' p. 101--to 'practicable,' +p. 102) to 'acknowledge his obligations to what is called Mental +Arithmetic--that is, calculation without the employment of written +symbols.' Jedediah Buxton's preternatural powers in this way have been +long published to the world, and may now be found recorded in +Encyclopædias: the Experimentalist refers also to the more recent +cases of Porson and the American youth Zerah Colborn: amongst his own +pupils it appears (p. 54) that this exercise is practised in the +morning twilight, which for any other study would not furnish +sufficient light: he does not pretend to any very splendid marvels: +but the following facts, previously recited at pp. 16 and 17, he +thinks may astonish 'those who have not estimated the combined power +of youth, ardour, and practice.' The lower classes calculate, purely +by the mind without any help from pen or pencil, questions respecting +interest; determine whether a given year be bissextile or not, &c. &c. +The upper classes determine the age of the moon at any given time, the +day of the week which corresponds with any day of any month, and year, +and Easter Sunday for a given year. They will square any number not +exceeding a thousand, extract the square root of a number of not more +than five places, determine the space through which a body falls in a +given time, the circumference and areas of circles from their +diameters, and solve many problems in mensuration: they practise also +Mental Algebra, &c. In mental, no less than in written, Arithmetic, +'by assimilating the questions to those which actually occur in the +transactions of life,' the pupil is made sensible that he is rising +into the usefulness and respectability of real business. The imitative +principle of man is thus made to blend with the motive derived from +the sense of utility. The same blended feelings, combined with the +pleasurable influences of open air, are relied upon for creating the +love of knowledge in the practice of surveying. In this operation so +large an aggregate of subsidiary knowledge is demanded,--of +arithmetic, for instance--of mensuration--of trigonometry, together +with 'the manual facility of constructing maps and plans,' that a +sudden revelation is made to the pupils of the uses and +indispensableness of many previous studies which hitherto they had +imperfectly appreciated; they also 'exercise their discretion in +choosing points of observation; they learn expertness in the use, and +care in the preservation of instruments: and, above all,--from this +feeling that they are really _at work_, they acquire that sobriety and +steadiness of conduct in which the elder school-boy is so often +inferior to his less fortunate neighbour, who has been removed at an +early age to the accompting-house.'--The value of the sense of utility +the Experimentalist brings home forcibly to every reader's +recollections, by reminding him of the many cases in which a sudden +desire for self-education breaks out in a few months after the close +of an inefficient education: 'and what,' he asks, 'produces the +change? The experience, however short, of the utility of acquisitions, +which were perhaps lately despised.' Better then 'to spare the future +man many moments of painful retrospection,' by educing this sense of +utility, 'while the time and opportunity of improvement remain +unimpaired.' Finally, the sense of utility is connected with the +peculiar exercises in _composition_; 'a department of education which +we confess' (says the Experimentalist) 'has often caused us +considerable uneasiness;' an uneasiness which we, on our part, look +upon as groundless. For starting ourselves from the same point with +the Experimentalist and the authority he alleges--viz. that the +_matter_ of a good theme or essay altogether transcends the reflective +powers and the opportunities for observing of a raw school-boy,--we +yet come to a very different practical conclusion. The act of +composition cannot, it is true, create thoughts in a boy's head unless +they exist previously. On this consideration, let all questions of +general speculation be dismissed from school exercises: especially +questions of _moral_ speculation, which usually furnish the thesis of +a school-boy's essay: let us have no more themes on Justice--on +Ambition--on Benevolence--on the Love of Fame, &c.: for all theses +such as these, which treat moral qualities as pure abstractions, are +stripped of their _human_ interest: and few adults even could write +endurably upon such subjects in such a shape; though many might have +written very pleasingly and judiciously upon a moral _case_--_i. e._ +on a moral question _in concreto_. Grant that a school-boy has no +independent thoughts of any value; yet every boy has thoughts +dependent upon what he has read--thoughts involved in it--thoughts +derived from it: but these he will (_cæteris paribus_) be more or less +able to express, as he has been more or less accustomed to express +them. The unevolved thoughts which pass through the youngest--the +rudest--the most inexperienced brain, are innumerable; not +detached--voluntary thoughts, but thoughts inherent in what is seen, +talked of, experienced, or read of. To evolve these, to make them +apprehensible by others, and often even to bring them within their own +consciousness, is very difficult to most people; and at times to all +people: and the power, by which this difficulty is conquered, admits +of endless culture: and, amongst the modes of culture, is that of +written composition. The true value of this exercise lies in the +necessity which it imposes of forming distinct ideas--of connecting +them--of disposing them into such an arrangement as that they can be +connected--of clothing them in words--and many more acts of the mind: +both analytic and synthetic. All that is necessary is--to determine +for the young composer his choice of matter: require him therefore to +narrate an interesting story which he has formerly read; to rehearse +the most interesting particulars of a day's excursion: in the case of +more advanced students, let them read one of the English state trials, +where the evidence is of a complex character (as the trials on Titus +Oates's plot), or a critical dissertation on some interesting +question, or anything in short which admits of analysis--of +abstraction--of expansion--or exhibition in an altered shape. Subjects +for all this are innumerable; and, according to the selection made, +more or less opportunity is given for collecting valuable knowledge: +but this purpose is collateral to the one we are speaking of: the +direct purpose is to exercise the mind in unravelling its own +thoughts, which else lie huddled and tangled together in a state unfit +for use, and but dimly developed to the possessor's own +consciousness.--The three other modes of producing a love of +knowledge, which the Experimentalist relies on, viz. the proportioning +the difficulties to the capacity of the learner, the pleasure of +success, and the communication of clear, vivid, and accurate +conceptions, are treated with good sense--but not with any great +originality: the last indeed (to speak scholastically) contains the +other three _eminenter_: for he, who has once arrived at clear +conceptions in relation to the various objects of his study, will not +fail to generate for himself the pleasure of success; and so of the +rest. But the power of communicating 'accurate conceptions' involves +so many other powers, that it is in strictness but another name for +the faculty of teaching in general. We fully agree with the +Experimentalist (at p. 118), that the tutor would do well 'to provide +himself with the various weights commonly spoken of, and the measures +of content and of length; to portion off upon his play-ground a +land-chain, a rood,' &c. to furnish 'maps' tracing 'the routes of +armies;' 'plates exhibiting the costumes' of different nations: and +more especially we agree with him (at p. 135) that in teaching the +classics the tutor should have at hand 'plates or drawings of ships, +temples, houses, altars, domestic and sacred utensils, robes, and of +every object of which they are likely to read.' 'It is,' as he says, +'impossible to calculate the injury which the minds of children suffer +from the habit of receiving imperfect ideas:' and it is discreditable +in the highest degree to the majority of good classical scholars that +they have no accurate knowledge of the Roman calendar, and no +knowledge at all of the classical coinage, &c.: not one out of every +twenty scholars can state the relation of the _sestertius_ to the +_denarius_, of the Roman _denarius_ to the Attic _drachma_, or express +any of them in English money. All such defects are weighty: but they +are not adequate illustrations of the injury which arises from +inaccurate ideas in its most important shape. It is a subject however +which we have here no room to enlarge upon. + +[Footnote 40: Indeed an Etonian must in consistency condemn either the +Latin or the Greek grammar of Eton. For, where is the Greek '_Propria +quæ maribus_'--'_Quæ genus_'--and '_As in præsenti_'? Either the Greek +grammar is defective, or the Latin redundant. We are surprised that it +has never struck the patrons of these three beautiful Idylls, that all +the anomalies of the Greek language are left to be collected from +practice.] + + +REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.--It has already been mentioned that corporal +punishments are entirely abolished;[41] and upon the same principle +all such disgrace as 'would destroy self-respect.' 'Expulsion even has +been resorted to, rather than a boy should be submitted to treatment +which might lead himself and his school-fellows to forget that he was +a gentleman.' In this we think the Experimentalist very wise: and +precisely upon this ground it was that Mr. Coleridge in his lectures +at the Royal Institution attacked Mr. Lancaster's system, which +deviated from the Madras system chiefly in the complexity of the +details, and by pressing so cruelly in its punishments upon the +principle of shame. 'Public disgrace' (as the Experimentalist alleges, +p. 83) 'is painful exactly in proportion to the good feeling of the +offender:' and thus the good are more heavily punished than the bad. +Confinement, and certain disabilities, are the severest punishments: +but the former is 'as rare as possible; both because it is attended +with unavoidable disgrace' (but what punishment is wholly free from +this objection?) 'and because, unlike labour, it is pain without any +utility' (p. 183). The ordinary punishments therefore consist in the +forfeiture of rewards, which are certain counters obtained by various +kinds of merit. These are of two classes, _penal_ (so called from +being received as forfeits) and premial, which are obtained by a +higher degree of merit, and have higher powers attached to them. +Premial counters will purchase _holidays_, and will also purchase +_rank_ (which on this system is of great importance). A conflict is +thus created between pleasure and ambition, which generally terminates +in favour of the latter: 'a boy of fourteen, although constantly in +the possession of marks sufficient to obtain a holiday per week, has +bought but three-quarters of a day's relaxation during the whole of +the last year. The same boy purchased his place on the list by a +sacrifice of marks sufficient to have obtained for him twenty-six +half-holidays.' The purchase of rank, the reader must remember, is no +way objectionable--considering the means by which the purchase-money +is obtained. One chief means is by study during the hours of +leisure--_i. e._ by _voluntary labour_: this is treated of (rather out +of its place) in Chap. VII., which ought to be considered as belonging +to the first part of the work, viz. to the exposition of the system. +Voluntary labour took its rise from the necessity of furnishing those +boys, who had no chance of obtaining rank through their talents, with +some other means of distinguishing themselves: this is accomplished in +two modes: first, by giving rewards for industry exerted out of school +hours, and receiving these rewards as the price of rank; making no +other stipulation than one, in addition to its being 'tolerably well +executed'--viz. that it shall be in a state of completion. The +Experimentalist comments justly at p. 187, on 'the mental dissipation +in which persons of talent often indulge' as being 'destructive beyond +what can readily be imagined' and as leading to 'a life of shreds and +patches.' 'We take care' (says he) 'to reward no boy for fragments, +whatever may be their excellence. We know nothing of his exertions +until they come before us in a state of completion.' Hence, besides +gaining the 'habit of finishing' in early youth, the boy has an +interest also in gaining the habit of measuring his own powers: for he +knows 'that he can receive neither fame nor profit by instalments;' +and therefore 'undertakes nothing which he has not a rational hope of +accomplishing.'[42] A second mode of preventing rank from being +monopolised by talents is by flinging the school into various +arrangements, one of which is founded on 'propriety of manners and +general good conduct.' + +[Footnote 41: On this point there is however an exception made, which +amuses us not a little. 'In a few instances,' says the Experimentalist, +'it has been found or supposed necessary to resent insolence by a blow: +but this may be rather called an assertion of private right, than an +official punishment. In these cases a single blow has _almost_ always +been found sufficient, even the rarity of the infliction rendering +severity unnecessary.' He insists therefore that this punishment (which, +we cannot but think, might have been commuted for a long imprisonment) +shall not be called a punishment, nor entered on the public records as +such: in which case however it becomes a private 'turn-up,' as the +boxers call it, between the boy and his tutor.] + +[Footnote 42: The details of the system in regard to the penal and +premial counters may be found from pp. 23 to 29. We have no room to +extract them: one remark only we must make--that we do not see how it +is possible to ascribe any peculiar and incommunicable privileges to +the premial as opposed to the penal counters, when it appears that +they may be exchanged for each other 'at an established rate.'] + + * * * * * + +We have thus gone through a pretty full analysis, and a very accurate +one, of the new system as contained in the three first chapters. Of +the five miscellaneous chapters, the seventh or last but one (on +_voluntary labour_), has been interwoven with our analysis; and the +eighth, which contains a comparison of public and private education, +we do not purpose to notice; the question is very sensibly discussed; +but it is useless to discuss any question like this, which is a +difficult problem only because it is an unlimited problem. Let the +parent satisfy himself about the object he has in view for his child, +and let him consider the particular means which he has at his disposal +for securing a good private education, and he may then determine it +for himself. As far as the attainment of knowledge is concerned,--it +is always possible to secure a good public education, and not always +possible to secure a good private one. Where either is possible +indifferently, the comparison will proceed upon more equal grounds: +and inquiry may then be made about the child's destination in future +life: for many destinations a public education being much more +eligible than for others. Under a perfect indetermination of +everything relating to the child--the question is as indeterminable +as--whether it is better to go to the Bank through Holborn or through +the Strand: the particular case being given, it may then be possible +to answer the question; previously it is impossible.----Three chapters +therefore remain, viz.--Chap. IV. on Languages; Chap. V. on Elocution; +and Chap. VI. on Penmanship. + +_Chap. IV. On the best method of acquiring Languages._--The +Experimentalist had occasion to observe 'that, in the Welsh towns +which are frequented by the English, even the children speak both +languages with fluency:' this fact, contrasted with the labour and +pain entailed upon the boy who is learning Latin (to say nothing of +the eventual disgust to literature which is too often the remote +consequence), and the drudgery entailed upon the master who teaches +Latin,--and fortified by the consideration, that in the former +instance the child learns to speak a new language, but in the latter +only to read it,--first drew his attention to the _natural_ mode of +learning languages, _i. e._ learning them from daily use. This mode +never fails with living languages: but how is it to be applied to dead +languages? The Experimentalist retorts by asking what is essential to +this mode? Partly the necessity which the pupil is laid under of using +the language daily for the common intercourse of life, and partly his +hearing it spoken by those who thoroughly understand it. 'Stimulus to +exertion then, and good models, are the great advantages of this mode +of instruction:' and these, he thinks, are secured even for a dead +language by his system: the first by the motives to exertion which +have already been unfolded; and the second by the acting of Latin +dramas (which had been previously noticed in his Exposition of the +system). But a third imitation of the _natural_ method he places in +the use of translations, 'which present the student with a dictionary +both of words and phrases arranged in the order in which he wants +them,' and in an abstinence from all use of the grammar, until the +learner himself shall come to feel the want of it; _i. e._ using it +with reference to an experience already accumulated, and not as an +anticipation of an experience yet to come. The ordinary objection to +the use of translations--that they produce indolent habits, he answers +thus: 'We teach by the process of _construing_; and therefore, even +with the translation before him, the scholar will have a task to +perform in matching the English, word by word, with the language which +he is learning.' For this _natural_ method of learning languages he +alleges the authority of Locke, of Ascham, and of Pestalozzi. The best +method, with those who have advanced to some degree of proficiency, he +considers that of double translations--_i. e._ a translation first of +all into the mother tongue of the learner, and a re-translation of +this translation back into the language of the original. These, with +the help of extemporaneous construing, _i. e._ construing any passage +at random with the assistance of a master who supplies the meaning of +the unknown words as they arise (a method practised, it seems, by Le +Febvre the father of Madame Dacier, by others before his time, and by +Condillac since)--compose the chief machinery which he employs for the +communication of dead languages. + +_Chap. V. On Elocution._--In this chapter there is not much which is +very important. To read well, the Experimentalist alleges, presupposes +so much various knowledge, especially of that kind which is best +acquired by private reading, and therefore most spares the labour of +the tutor, that it ought reasonably to bestow high rank in the school. +Private reading is most favourable to the rapid collection of an +author's meaning: but for reading well--this is not sufficient: two +great constituents of that art remain to be acquired--Enunciation and +Inflection. These are best learned by Recitation. Thus far there is no +great novelty: the most interesting part of the chapter is what +relates to Stammering. This defect is held by the Experimentalist to +result from inattention to rhythmus: so much he thinks has been proved +by Mr. Thelwall. Whatsoever therefore compels the pupil to an +efficient perception of time and measure, as for example, marching +and music (p. 32), he resorts to for its correction. Stammerers, he +observes, can all sing: let them be taught to sing therefore, if not +otherwise corrigible: and from this let them descend to _recitative_: +then to the recitation of verses distinguished by the simplicity of +their rhythmus, marching at the same time and marking the accented +syllables by the tread of the foot; from this to the recitation of +more difficult verses; from that to measured prose; thence to ordinary +prose; and lastly to narrative and dialogue. + +_Chap. VI. Of Penmanship._--This is a subject on which we profess no +experience which could warrant us in contradicting a writer who should +rest his innovations solely upon that ground: but the writer before us +does not rely on the practical issue of his own experiment (he does +not even tell us what that issue was), but on certain _à priori_ +arguments, which we conceive to be ill-reasoned. The amount of the +chapter is this--that to write a good running hand is the main object +to be aimed at in the art of caligraphy: we will go farther, and +concede that it is the sole object, unless where the pupil is educated +for a writing-master. Thus far we are agreed; and the question is--as +to the best means of attaining this object. On which question the plan +here proposed differs from those in use by the very natural +error--that what is admitted to be the ultimate object, this plan +would make the immediate object. The author starts from a false theory +of the practice amongst writing-masters: in order that their pupils +may write small and running hands well, writing-masters (as is +well-known) begin by exacting from them a long praxis in large hands. +But the rationale of this praxis escapes the Experimentalist: the +large hand and the small hand stand related to each other, in the +estimate of the masters, as a means to an end; whereas the +Experimentalist supposes them to be viewed in the relation simply of +two co-ordinate or collateral ends: on which false presumption he +grounds what would on his own view be a very sound advice; for justly +conceiving that the small hand is of incomparably more use in life, he +argues in effect thus: let us communicate the main object, and then +(if he has leisure and taste for it) let the pupil direct his +attention to the lower object: 'when the running hand is +accomplished,' says he, 'the pupil may (if it be thought necessary) +learn to write the larger hands according to the received models.' +_When_ it is acquired! 'Aye, but in order that it _may_ be +acquired,'--the writing-master will reply, 'I must first teach the +larger hands.' As well might the professor of dancing hold out as a +tempting innovation to the public--I teach the actual dances, the true +practical synthesis of the steps and movements, as it is in fact +demanded by the usage of the ball-room: let others teach the analytic +elements of the art--the mere useless steps--to those who have time to +waste on superfluities. In either art (as in many others) that, which +is first (or rather sole) in order of importance, is last in the order +of attainment: as an object _per se_, the larger hand is not wanted at +all, either before or after the running hand: if it does really +contribute nothing to the more accurate formation of the letters, by +compelling the pupil to exhibit his aberrations from the _ideal_ +letter more clearly because on a scale of greater magnitude (which +yet in the second sentence of this chapter our Experimentalist himself +admits), then let it be abandoned at once: for not doing this service, +it does nothing at all. On the other hand, if this be its specific +service, then it is clear that, being no object _per se_, but simply a +means to an object, it must have precedency in the order of +communication. And the innovation of our Experimentalist is so far (in +the literal sense of that word) a _preposterous_ inversion of the old +usage: and this being the chief principle of his 'plan' we desire to +know no more of it; and were not sorry that (p. 178) we found him +declining 'to enter into a detail of it.'--The business of the chapter +being finished however, there yet remains some little matter of +curiosity. 1. The Experimentalist affirms that 'Langford's +copper-plate copies, or indeed any other which he has seen, fail' if +tried by a certain test: what test? Why this: that 'the large hand +seen through a diminishing glass, ought to be reduced into the current +hand; and the current hand, magnified, ought to swell into a large +hand.' Whereas, on the contrary, 'the large hands reduced appear very +stiff and cramped; and the magnified running hand'--'appears little +better than a scrawl.' Now to us the result appears in a different +light. It is true that the large hands reduced do not appear good +running hands according to the standard derived from the actual +practice of the world: but why? Simply because they are too good: _i. e._ +they are _ideals_ and in fact are meant to be so; and have nothing +characteristic: they are purely _generic_ hands, and therefore want +_individualisation_: they are abstractions; but to affect us +pleasurably, they should be concrete expressions of some human +qualities, moral or intellectual. Perfect features in a human face +arranged with perfect symmetry, affect us not at all, as is well +known, where there is nothing characteristic; the latency of the +individual in the generic, and of the generic in the individual, is +that which gives to each its power over our human sensibilities. And +this holds of caligraphy no less than other arts. And _that_ is the +most perfect hand-writing which unites the _minimum_ of deviation from +the ideal standard of beauty (as to the form and nexus of the letters) +with the _maximum_ of characteristic expression. It has long been +practically felt, and even expressly affirmed (in some instances even +expanded into a distinct art and professed as such), that it is +possible to determine the human _intellectual_ character as to some of +its features from the hand-writing. Books even have been written on +this art, as _e. g._ the _Ideographia_, or art of knowing the +characters of men from their hand-writings, by _Aldorisius_: and, +though this in common with all other modes of _physiognomy_, as +craniology, Lavaterianism (usually called physiognomy), &c. &c. has +laboured under the reproach of fancifulness,--yet we ought not to +attribute this wholly to the groundlessness of the art as a possible +art--but to these two causes; partly to the precipitation and +imperfect psychology of the professors; who, like the craniologists, +have been over-ready to determine the _indicantia_ before they had +settled according to any tolerable theory the _indicanda_; _i. e._ +have settled what A, what B, what C, shall _indicate_, before they +have inquired what it was presumable upon any systematic development +of human nature would have a right _to be indicated_; and thus have +assigned an external characteristic to a faculty of the third +order--suppose (or perhaps a mere accidental effect of a faculty or a +mere imaginary faculty), whilst a primary faculty went without any +expression at all:--partly, I say, to this cause which is obviously +not merely a subjective but also an accidental cause; and partly also +to the following cause, which is objective (_i. e._ seated in the +inherent imperfections of the art itself, and not removeable therefore +by any future improvements to be anticipated from a more matured +psychology); viz. that the human mind transcends or overflows the +gamut or scale of the art; in other words, that the qualities--intellectual +or moral, which ought to be expressed, are far more in number than the +alphabet of signs or expressions by which they are to be enunciated. +Hence it follows as an inevitable dilemma, that many qualities must go +unrepresented; or else be represented by signs common to them with other +qualities: in the first of which cases we have an art imperfect from +defect, in the other case imperfect from equivocal language. Thus, for +example, determination of character is built in some cases upon mere +energy of the will (a moral cause); and again in other cases upon +capaciousness of judgment and freedom from all logical perplexity (an +intellectual cause). Yet it is possible that either cause will modify +the hand-writing in the same way. + + * * * * * + +From the long analysis which we have thus given of the book recording +this new system of education, it is sufficiently evident that we think +very highly of it. In the hands of its founder we are convinced that +it is calculated to work wonders; and so strong is the impression +which his book conveys, that he is not only a man of very +extraordinary talents for the improvement of the science of education, +but also a very conscientious man--that, for our own parts, we should +confide a child to his care with that spirit of perfect confidence +which he has himself described at p. 74. There is an air of +gentlemanly feeling spread over the book which tends still further to +recommend the author. Meantime two questions arise on the +system,--first, is it a good system? which we have answered:--secondly, +is it a system adapted for general diffusion? This question we dare not +answer in the affirmative, unless we could ensure the talents and energy +of the original inventor in every other superintendent of this +system.--In this we may be wrong: but at all events, it ought not to be +considered as any deduction from the merits of the author--as a very +original thinker on the science of education, that his system is not +(like the Madras system) independent of the teacher's, ability, and +therefore not unconditionally applicable.--Upon some future occasion we +shall perhaps take an opportunity of stating what is in our opinion the +great desideratum which is still to be supplied in the art of education +considered simply in its _intellectual_ purposes--viz. the communication +of knowledge, and the development of the intellectual faculties: +purposes which have not been as yet treated in sufficient insulation +from the _moral_ purposes. For the present we shall conclude by +recommending to the notice of the Experimentalist the German writers on +education. Basedow, who naturalised Rousseau in Germany, was the first +author who called the attention of the German public to this important +subject. Unfortunately Basedow had a silly ambition of being reputed an +infidel, and thus created a great obstacle to his own success: he was +also in many other respects a sciolist and a trifler: but, since his +time, the subject has been much cultivated in Germany: 'Paedogogic' +journals even, have been published periodically, like literary or +philosophic journals: and, as might be anticipated from that love of +children which so honourably distinguishes the Germans as a people, not +without very considerable success. + + * * * * * + +CASE OF APPEAL. + +Our little Courts of Justice not unfrequently furnish cases of +considerable interest; and we are always willing to make the +resemblance between our microcosm and the world at large as close as +possible, at least in every useful point we are trying to collect a +volume of Reports. As all the boys are expected to be present during a +trial, to give importance to the proceeding, the time of such as are +capable of the task must be profitably employed in taking notes. A +useful effect may also be produced upon the parties; and these records +will be valuable acquisitions for those boys who wish to study the +laws, and enable themselves to conduct the jurisprudence of the +school. We shall detail a case which lately occurred, not because it +is the most interesting which could have been selected, but because +there will be nothing in its publication to hurt the feelings of any +person engaged in the transaction. + +It would be vain to attempt any concealment of the fact that our +pupils, like all boys in the full tide of health and spirits, do not +always see the folly of an appeal to the _ultimo ratio regum_ in so +strong a light as that in which it _sometimes_ appears to older eyes; +and resort is now and then had to trial by combat, in preference to +trial by jury. The candid and experienced teacher, who knows the +difficulty and the danger of too rigorously suppressing natural +impulses, will not censure us for endeavouring to regulate this +custom, than to destroy it altogether. In the hope of lessening the +number of those _fracas_ (never very large), a law was proposed, which +the committee adopted, to render it penal for any person, except the +Magistrate and the Constables, to be present at a battle. Six hours' +notice must be given by both parties, and a tax paid in advance. +During the interval, it is the duty of the Magistrate to attempt a +reconciliation. These regulations were intended to give opportunity +for the passions to cool, and to check the inclination for display +which is often the sole cause of the disturbance. + +We consider the effect on the minds of the spectators as the worst +part of the transaction. There is something dreadfully brutalising in +the shouts of incitement and triumph which generally accompany a feat +of pugilism. Neither boys nor men ought ever to witness pain without +sympathy. It is almost needless to say, that, with us, fighting is +anything rather than a source of festivity and amusement. + +To return to our story.--A day-scholar, whose father's grounds adjoin +ours, was discovered by the Magistrate to have witnessed a battle from +a tree which he had climbed for that purpose. The Magistrate fined +him. He appealed, and the question of his liability was argued at some +length before the Committee. + +The ground which the appellant took was, that no day-scholar could be +amenable to the laws of the school, except during the hours of +business, or while on the premises of the school, and that the alleged +offence was committed out of school hours, and on his father's land. + +Public opinion ran in his favour. The plea that he was on his father's +land seemed to have great weight with his schoolfellows. To fine a boy +under such circumstances appeared to them like an attempt to invade +the paternal sanctuary, and the motion for quashing conviction of the +Magistrate, at first received the support of several members of the +Committee. + +The attending Teacher saw that it would be necessary to call the +attention of the Committee to general principles, and proposed as an +amendment to the general motion, the following resolution, 'That it is +desirable that the laws should be obeyed at all times, and in all +places.' In support of this amendment he argued, that as the laws had +the happiness of the school in view, a breach of those laws must +certainly be in some degree destructive of the general good. That to +allow this in certain individuals would be injurious to the great +body, but still more so to the individuals themselves; and that what +was wrong in the schoolroom or on the playground at eleven in the +morning, could not be right in the fields at six in the afternoon. In +conclusion he said, 'Whether or not we have the power to fine a person +for a breach of our laws when he is at a distance from the schools, +is a question which it is not our present business to determine; but I +firmly believe that our laws are calculated to promote in the highest +degree our welfare, and I wish the advantages to be derived from +obeying them to be as widely diffused as possible.' + +The amendment was carried unanimously. + +Having determined 'that it was desirable that the laws should be +obeyed at all times and in all places,' it was necessary in the next +place to ascertain whether it was not a part of our law that such +should be the case. + +With this view an amendment was proposed which declared, that such was +the intention of the law, and in support of it cases were cited in +which day-boys had been punished for offences committed at a distance +from the school. It was also insisted, that in no single instance had +the laws made an exception in favour of the day-boys. They universally +begin by saying, that, if 'any one,' or 'any pupil,' or 'any boy,' +shall commit such and such an offence, etc., and not 'any boarder,' or +'any day-boy then at school.' + +The second amendment was also carried without opposition. + +The question was now confined within very narrow limits. The Committee +had declared that it was 'desirable that the laws should be obeyed at +all times and in all places;' and also, that by law no exception was +made in favour of day-scholars. It only remained therefore for the +Committee to consider, whether the police of the school had the power +to enforce the laws. + +It was argued that in this case they had been enforced, for that the +fine had actually been paid, and that unless the Committee interfered +to prevent it, they would continue to operate as they had done, for +the welfare of the school at large, and for the ultimate advantage +even of the individuals who might at first appear to be injured. + +The amended motion was now put, and the conviction was unanimously +confirmed. + +This detail will furnish the reader with a more correct conception +than we could otherwise give him, of the opportunities with which the +sittings of our little Committees furnish the members for making some +important acquirements. + +In the first place, they study the art of reasoning, and that too +under very favourable circumstances; being fully acquainted with the +facts on which they are called to exercise their judgments, and seeing +them in all their bearings. We believe that intimate acquaintance with +the facts of which we speak to be the first and most important element +in practical logic. Reasoning, strictly speaking, being no more than +the art of tracing analogies and differences. The _reality_ of the +business in which the students are engaged is very valuable, inasmuch +as it furnishes them with strong motives to exert all their powers in +the investigation. The matter at issue 'comes home to their business +and bosoms;' it may deeply affect their interests, and will not pass +unnoticed by their constituents; among whom the question will be again +discussed, and the Committee-men will in conversation have to defend +the opinions they have officially expressed. Thus every argument is +well canvassed in their minds, and the ideas remain under +consideration for a sufficient time to become permanently fixed in +their remembrance. The power of public speaking is also in some degree +acquired, and, we hope, without the countervailing evils which have +been so justly deprecated. The great defects of all artificial methods +of learning the art of debating is, that it is seldom of any real +importance to either speaker or hearer, on which side the question +under discussion is determined; consequently, the speaker is more +anxious to display his own talents, than to convince the audience; +which, on its part, wishes rather for amusement than instruction, or +seeks the latter only by watching the conduct of this mental +fencing-match, in order to learn the most skilful manner of handling +the foils. Every one who addresses the company assembled, feels that +he shall be more applauded for agreeably wandering, than for pointing +out and following the best and straightest road. In short, discussion, +instead of being a means employed to gain an object, is the end +itself. + +The orator, if such a name is to be so degraded, rises not to gain the +votes of his hearers, but to make them laugh and clap their hands; +and, this is most easily done by advancing smart sophisms, and +uttering well-delivered absurdities with mock solemnity, we may +readily conceive how little the powers of investigation can be +exercised and improved by such practice as that of spouting clubs and +debating societies. No doubt there are many exceptions to these +remarks, but the vice we complain of is, we fear, inherent in some +degree in the nature of the institutions, although by care in the +choice of members, and the selection of an audience, it may, in a +great measure, be counteracted. + +We must not forget to state the advantages enjoyed by the Teacher's +attendance on the sittings of our Committees. He becomes most +intimately acquainted with the minds of his pupils. He sees their +difficulties and their errors in a strong light, and is placed in a +situation for addressing himself more completely to the state of their +wants than he could be, unless they were thus induced, and almost +compelled, to disclose all the workings of the mental machine. In +general, nearly every person who knows a boy at all, has an +opportunity of becoming better acquainted with him than his +instructor. No wonder, considering the many painful sensations which +the latter, in his various offices of accuser, witness, judge and +executioner, is compelled to exite. We are happily relieved from these +difficulties, but we still seize with avidity every means by which our +pupils may be induced to develop their minds to our view, feeling that +our acquaintance with their springs of thought and action can never be +too accurate and complete. The votes at the conclusion of the debate +show us the measure of our success. Every influence except that of +mind, is, we trust, out of the question: we do not always carry a +majority with us; and this fact gives us hope, that when we do, a +sincere effect has been wrought on the convictions of the boys. + +To conclude, we must in candour acknowledge, that we search more +industriously for arguments and illustrations to support our opinions, +than we should or _could_ do, under other circumstances. The effect on +the mind of the Master is not a bad test of any method of education. + + + + +ABSTRACT OF SWEDENBORGIANISM: + +BY IMMANUEL KANT. + +(_May, 1824._) + + +----But now to my hero. If many a forgotten writer, or writer destined +to be forgotten, is on that account the more deserving of applause for +having spared no cost of toil and intellectual exertion upon his +works, certainly Swedenborg of all such writers is deserving of the +most. Without doubt his flask in the moon is full; and not at all less +than any of those which Ariosto saw in that planet filled with the +lost wits of men, so thoroughly is his great work emptied of every +drop of common sense. Nevertheless there prevails in every part so +wonderful an agreement with all that the most refined and consistent +sense under the same fantastic delusions could produce on the same +subject, that the reader will pardon me if I here detect the same +curiosities in the caprices of fancy which many other virtuosi have +detected in the caprices of nature; for instance, in variegated +marble, where some have discovered a holy family; or in stalactites +and petrifactions, where others have discovered monks, baptismal +fonts, and organs; or even in frozen window-panes, where our +countryman Liscow, the humourist, discovered the number of the beast +and the triple crown; things which he only is apt to descry, whose +head is preoccupied with thoughts about them. + +The main work of this writer is composed of eight quarto volumes full +of nonsense, which he presented to the world as a new revelation under +the title of _Arcana Coelestia_. In this work his visions are +chiefly directed to the discovery of the secret sense in the two first +books of Moses, and to a similar way of interpreting the whole of the +Scripture. All these fantastic interpretations are nothing to my +present purpose: those who have any curiosity may find some account of +them in the _Bibliotheca Theologica_ of Dr. Ernesti. All that I design +to extract are his _audita et visa_, from the supplements to his +chapters--that which he saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own +ears: for these parts of his dreams it is which are to be considered +as the foundation of all the rest. Swedenborg's style is dull and +mean. His narrations and their whole contexture appear in fact to have +originated in a disorder of his sensitive faculty, and suggest no +reason for suspecting that the speculative delusions of a depraved +intellect have moved him to invent them. Viewed in this light, they +are really of some importance--and deserve to be exhibited in a short +abstract; much more indeed than many a brainless product of fantastic +philosophers who swell our journals with false subtilties; for a +coherent delusion of the senses is always a more remarkable phenomenon +than a delusion of the intellect; inasmuch as the grounds of this +latter delusion are well known, and the delusion itself corrigible +enough by self-exertion and by putting more check upon the rash +precipitation of the judgment; whereas a delusion of the senses +touches the original foundation of all judgment, and where it exists +is radically incapable of all cure from logic. I distinguish therefore +in our author his craziness of sense from his crazy wits; and I pass +over his absurd and distorted reasonings in those parts where he +abandons his visions, for the same reason that in reading a +philosopher we are often obliged to separate his observations from his +arguments: and generally, delusive experiences are more instructive +than delusive grounds of experience in the reason. Whilst I thus rob +the reader of some few moments, which otherwise perhaps he would have +spent with no greater profit in reading works of abstract philosophy +that are often of not less trivial import,--I have at the same time +provided for the delicacy of his taste by the omission of many +chimæras, and by concentrating the essence of the book into a few +drops; and for this I anticipate no less gratitude from him than +(according to the old story) a patient expressed towards his +physicians--who had contented themselves with ordering him to eat the +bark of the quinquina, when it was clearly in their power to have +insisted on his eating up the whole tree. + +Mr. Swedenborg divides his visions into three kinds, of which the +first consists in being liberated from the body--an intermediate state +between waking and sleeping, in which he saw--heard--and felt spirits. +This kind he has experienced three or four times. The second consists +in being carried away by spirits, whilst he continues to walk the +streets (suppose) without losing his way; meantime in spirit he is in +quite other regions, and sees distinctly houses, men, forests, &c.; +and all this for some hours long, until he suddenly finds himself +again in his true place. This has happened to him two or three times. +The third or ordinary kind of visions is that which he has daily when +wide awake; and from this class his narrations are chiefly taken. All +men, according to Swedenborg, stand in an intimate connection with the +spiritual world; only they are not aware of it; and the difference +between himself and others consists simply in this--that his innermost +nature is laid open, of which gift he always speaks with the most +devout spirit of gratitude (Datum mihi est ex divinâ Domini +misericordiâ). From the context it is apparent that this gift consists +in the consciousness of those obscure representations which the soul +receives through its continual connection with the spiritual world. +Accordingly he distinguishes in men between the external and the +internal memory. The former he enjoys as a person who belongs to the +visible world, but the latter in virtue of his intercourse with the +spiritual world. Upon this distinction is grounded also the +distinction between the outer and inner man; and Swedenborg's +prerogative consists in this--that he stands already in this life in +the society of spirits, and is recognised by them as possessing such a +prerogative. In the inner memory is retained whatsoever has vanished +from the outer; and of all which is presented to the consciousness of +man nothing is ever lost. After death the remembrance of all which +ever entered his soul, and even all that had perished to himself, +constitutes the entire book of his life. The presence of spirits, it +is true, strikes only upon his inner sense. Nevertheless this is able +to excite an apparition of these spirits external to himself, and even +to invest them with a human figure. The language of spirits is an +_immediate_ and unsymbolic communication of ideas; notwithstanding +which it is always clothed in the semblance of that language which +Swedenborg himself speaks, and is represented as external to him. One +spirit reads in the memory of another spirit all the representations, +whether images or ideas, which it contains. Thus the spirits see in +Swedenborg all the representations which he has of this world; and +with so clear an intuition that they often deceive themselves and +fancy that they see the objects themselves immediately--which however +is impossible, since no pure spirit has the slightest perception of +the material universe: nay they cannot gain any idea of it through +intercourse with the souls of other living men, because their inner +nature is not opened--_i. e._ their inner sense contains none but +obscure representations. Hence it arises that Mr. Swedenborg is the +true oracle of spirits, which are not at all less curious to read in +him the present condition of the world, than he is to view in their +memory, as in a mirror, the marvels of the spiritual world. Although +these spirits stand in like manner closely connected with all other +souls of living men, by a reciprocal commerce of action and passion, +yet they are as little aware of this as men are aware of it. Spirits +therefore ascribe to themselves as the product of their own minds what +in fact results from the action of human souls upon them; just as men +during their lives imagine that all their thoughts, and the motions of +the will which take place within them, arise from themselves, +although in fact they oftentimes take their origin in the spiritual +world. Meantime every human soul, even in this life, has its place and +station in this spiritual world, and belongs to a certain society +which is always adapted to its inner condition of truth and +goodness,--that is, to the condition of the understanding and the +will. But the places of souls in relation to each other have nothing +in common with the material world; and therefore the soul of a man in +India is often in respect to spiritual situation next neighbour to the +soul of another man in Europe; as on the contrary very often those, +who dwell corporeally under the same roof, are with respect to their +spiritual relations far enough asunder. If a man dies, his soul does +not on that account change its place; but simply feels itself in that +place which in regard to other spirits it already held in this life. +For the rest, although the relation of spirits to each other is no +true relation of space, yet has it to them the appearance of space; +and their affinities or attractions for each other assume the +semblance of proximities, as their repulsions do of distances; just as +spirits themselves are not actually extended, but yet present the +appearance to each other of a human figure. In this imaginary space +there is an undisturbed intercourse of spiritual natures. Mr. +Swedenborg converses with departed souls whenever he chooses, and +reads in their memory (he means to say in their representative +faculty) that very condition in which they contemplate themselves; and +this he sees as clearly as with his bodily eyes. Moreover the enormous +distance of the rational inhabitants of the world is to be accounted +as nothing in relation to the spiritual universe; and to talk with an +inhabitant of Saturn is just as easy to him as to speak with a +departed human soul. All depends upon the relation of their inner +condition in reference to their agreement in truth and goodness: but +those spirits, which have weak affinities for each other, can readily +come into intercourse through the inter-agency of others. On this +account it is not necessary that a man should actually have dwelt on +all the other heavenly bodies in order to know them together with all +their wonders. + +One presiding doctrine in Swedenborg's ravings is this: corporeal +beings have no subsistence of their own, but exist merely by and +through the spiritual world; although each body not by means of one +spirit alone, but of all taken together. Hence the knowledge of +material things has two meanings; an external meaning referring to the +inter-dependencies of the matter upon itself, and an internal meaning +in so far as they denote the powers of the spiritual world which are +their causes. Thus the body of man has a system of parts related to +each other agreeably to material laws: but, in so far as it is +supported by the spirit which lives, its limbs and their functions +have a symbolic value as expressions of those faculties in the soul +from which they derive their form, mode of activity, and power of +enduring. The same law holds with regard to all other things in the +visible universe: they have (as has been said) one meaning as +things--which is trivial, and another as signs--which is far +weightier. Hence by the way arises the source of those new +interpretations of Scripture which Swedenborg has introduced. For the +inner sense,--that is, the symbolic relation of all things there +recorded to the spiritual world,--is, as he conceits, the kernel of +its value; all the rest being only its shell. All spirits represent +themselves to one another under the appearance of extended forms; and +the influences of all these spiritual beings amongst one another raise +to them at the same time appearances of other extended beings, and as +it were of a material world. Swedenborg therefore speaks of +gardens--spacious regions--mansions--galleries--and arcades of +spirits--as of things seen by himself in the clearest light; and he +assures us--that, having many times conversed with all his friends +after their death, he had almost always found in those who had but +lately died--that they could scarcely convince themselves that they +had died, because they saw round about them a world similar to the one +they had quitted. He found also that spiritual societies, which had +the same inner condition, had the same apparition of space and of all +things in space; and that the change of their internal state was +always accompanied by the appearance of a change of place. + +I have already noticed that, according to our author, the various +powers and properties of the soul stand in sympathy with the organs of +the body entrusted to its government. The outer man therefore +corresponds to the whole inner man; and hence, whenever any remarkable +spiritual influence from the invisible world reaches one of these +faculties of the soul, he is sensible also harmonically of the +apparent presence of it in the corresponding members of his outer man. +To this head now he refers a vast variety of sensations in his body +which are uniformly connected with spiritual intuition; but the +absurdity of them is so enormous that I shall not attempt to adduce +even a single instance.----By all this a preparation is made for the +strangest and most fantastic of his notions in which all his ravings +are blended. As different powers and faculties constitute that unity +which is the soul or inner man, so also different spirits (whose +leading characteristics bear the same relation to each other as the +various faculties of a spirit) constitute one society which exhibits +the appearance of one great man; and in this shadowy image every +spirit is seen in that place and in those visible members which are +agreeable to its proper function in such a spiritual body. And all +spiritual societies taken together, and the entire universe of all +these invisible beings, appears again in the form of a hugest and +ultra-enormous man mountain: a monstrous and gigantic fancy, which +perhaps has grown out of the school mode of representing a whole +quarter of the world under the image of a virgin sitting. In this +immeasurable man is an entire and inner commerce of each spirit with +all, and of all with each; and, let the position of men in reference +to each other be what it may, they take quite another position in this +enormous man--a position which they never change, and which is only in +appearance a local position in an immeasurable space, but in fact a +determinate kind of relation and influence. + +But I am weary of transcribing the delirious ravings of a poor +visionary, the craziest that has ever existed, or of pursuing them to +his descriptions of the state after death. I am checked also by other +considerations. For, although in forming a medical museum it is right +to collect specimens not only of natural but also of unnatural +productions and abortions, yet it is necessary to be cautious before +whom you show them: and amongst my readers there may happen to be some +in a crazy condition of nerves; and it would give me pain to think +that I had been the occasion of any mischief to them. Having warned +them however from the beginning, I am not responsible for anything +that may happen; and must desire that no person will lay at my door +the moon-calves which may chance to arise from any teeming fancy +impregnated by Mr. Swedenborg's revelations. + +In conclusion I have to say that I have not interpolated my author's +dreams with any surreptitious ones of my own; but have laid a faithful +abstract before the economic reader, who might not be well pleased to +pay seven pounds sterling for a body of raving. I have indeed omitted +many circumstantial pictures of his intuitions, because they could +only have served to disturb the reader's slumber; and the confused +sense of his revelations I have now and then clothed in a more current +diction. But all the important features of the sketch I have preserved +in their native integrity.--And thus I return with some little shame +from my foolish labours, from which I shall draw this moral: That it +is often a very easy thing to act prudentially; but alas! too often +only after we have toiled to our prudence through a forest of +delusions. + + + + +SKETCH OF PROFESSOR WILSON.[43] + +[_In a Letter to an American Gentleman._] + + +My dear L,--Among the _lions_ whom you missed by one accident or +another on your late travels in Europe, I observe that you recur to +none with so much regret as Professor Wilson; you dwell upon this one +disappointment as a personal misfortune; and perhaps with reason; for, +in the course of my life, I have met with no man of equally varied +accomplishments, or, upon the whole, so well entitled to be ranked +with that order of men distinguished by brilliant versatility and +ambidexterity--of which order we find such eminent models in +Alcibiades, in Cæsar, in Crichton, in that of Servan recorded by +Sully, and in one or two Italians. Pity that you had not earlier +communicated to me the exact route you were bound to, and the +particular succession of your engagements when you visited the English +Lakes; since, in that case, my interest with Professor Wilson +(supposing always that you had declined to rely upon the better +passport of your own merits as a naturalist) would have availed for a +greater thing than at that time stood between you and the introduction +which you coveted. On the day, or the night rather, when you were at +Bowness and Ambleside, I happen to know that Professor Wilson's +business was one which might have been executed by proxy, though it +could not be delayed; and I also know that, apart from the _general_ +courtesy of his nature, he would, at all times, have an especial +pleasure in waiving a claim of business for one of science or letters, +in the person of a foreigner coming from a great distance; and that in +no other instance would he make such a sacrifice so cordially as on +behalf of an able naturalist. Perhaps you already know from your +countryman, Audubon, that the Professor is himself a naturalist, and +of original merit; in fact, worth a score of such meagre bookish +naturalists as are formed in museums and by second-hand acts of +memory; having (like Audubon) built much of his knowledge upon +personal observation. Hence he has two great advantages: one, that his +knowledge is accurate in a very unusual degree; and another, that this +knowledge, having grown up under the inspiration of a real interest +and an unaffected love for its objects,--commencing, indeed, at an age +when no affectation in matters of that nature could exist,--has +settled upon those facts and circumstances which have a true +philosophical value: habits, predominant affections, the direction of +instincts, and the compensatory processes where these happen to be +thwarted,--on all such topics he is learned and full; whilst, on the +science of measurements and proportions, applied to dorsal-fins and +tail-feathers, and on the exact arrangement of colours, &c.--that +petty upholstery of nature, on which books are so tedious and +elaborate,--not uncommonly he is negligent or forgetful. What may have +served in later years to quicken and stimulate his knowledge in this +field, and, at any rate, greatly to extend it, is the conversation of +his youngest brother, Mr. James Wilson, who (as _you_ know much better +than I) is a naturalist _majorum gentium_. He, indeed, whilst a boy of +not more than sixteen or seventeen, was in correspondence (I believe) +with Montague the Ornithologist; and about the same time had skill +enough to pick holes in the coat of Mr. Hüber, the German reformer of +our then erroneous science of bees. + +[Footnote 43: This was written for _The Edinburgh Literary Gazette_, +of which sixty-one numbers appear to have been issued in 1829-30. The +paper is now so scarce, that the American publishers of DE QUINCEY'S +works photographed their 'copy' from that contained in the Advocates' +Library, Edinburgh. There is a file in the British Museum. I have not +been able to authenticate any other contribution from the pen of DE +QUINCEY. This letter deserves attention in various ways, but +particularly for the passage on Elleray--CHRISTOPHER NORTH'S home on +the banks of Windermere. MRS. GORDON in the life of her Father, +PROFESSOR WILSON, remarks:--'For a description of this beautiful spot +I gladly avail myself of the striking picture by Mr. DE QUINCEY.'--H.] + +You see, therefore, that no possible introduction could have stood you +more in stead than your own extensive knowledge of transatlantic +ornithology. Swammerdam passed his life, it is said, in a ditch. +_That_ was a base, earthy solitude,--and a prison. But you and Audubon +have passed _your_ lives in the heavenly solitudes of forests and +savannahs; and such solitude as this is no prison, but infinite +liberty. The knowledge which you have gathered has been answerable to +the character of your school: and no sort of knowledge could have +secured you a better welcome with Professor Wilson. Yet, had it been +otherwise, I repeat that my interest (as I flatter myself) would have +opened the gates of Elleray to you even at midnight; for I am so old +a friend of Mr. Wilson that I take a pride in supposing myself the +oldest; and, barring relations by blood, arrogate the rights of dean +in the chapter of his associates: or at least I know of but one person +whose title can probably date earlier than mine. About this very month +when I am writing, I have known Professor Wilson for a cycle of twenty +years and more, which is just half of his life--and also half of mine; +for we are almost _ad apicem_ of the same age; Wilson being born in +May, and I in August, of the same memorable year. + +My introduction to him--setting apart the introduc_ee_ himself--was +memorable from one sole circumstance, viz. the person of the +introducer. _William Wordsworth_ it was, who in the vale of Grasmere, +if it can interest you to know the place, and in the latter end of +1808, if you can be supposed to care about the time, did me the favour +of making me known to John Wilson, or as I might say (upon the +Scottish fashion of designating men from their territorial +pretensions) to Elleray. I remember the whole scene as circumstantially +as if it belonged to but yesterday. In the vale of Grasmere,--that +peerless little vale which you and Gray the poet and so many others have +joined in admiring as the very Eden of English beauty, peace, and +pastoral solitude,--you may possibly recall, even from that flying +glimpse you had of it, a modern house called Allan Bank, standing under +a low screen of woody rocks which descend from the hill of Silver How, +on the western side of the lake. This house had been then recently built +by a worthy merchant of Liverpool; but for some reason of no importance +to you and me, not being immediately wanted for the family of the +owner, had been let for a term of three years to Mr. Wordsworth. At the +time I speak of, both Mr. Coleridge and myself were on a visit to Mr. +Wordsworth; and one room on the ground floor, designed for a +breakfasting-room, which commands a sublime view of the three +mountains,--Fairfield, Arthur's Chair, and Seat Sandal (the first of +them within about four hundred feet of the highest mountains in Great +Britain), was then occupied by Mr. Coleridge as a study. On this +particular day, the sun having only just set, it naturally happened that +Mr. Coleridge--whose nightly vigils were long--had not yet come down to +breakfast: meantime, and until the epoch of the Coleridgian breakfast +should arrive, his study was lawfully disposable to profaner uses. Here, +therefore, it was, that, opening the door hastily in quest of a book, I +found seated, and in earnest conversation, two gentlemen--one of them my +host, Mr. Wordsworth, at that time about thirty-seven or thirty-eight +years old; the other was a younger man by good sixteen or seventeen +years, in a sailor's dress, manifestly in robust health--_fervidus +juventâ_, and wearing upon his countenance a powerful expression of +ardour and animated intelligence, mixed with much good nature. _'Mr. +Wilson of Elleray'_--delivered, as the formula of introduction, in the +deep tones of Mr. Wordsworth--at once banished the momentary surprise I +felt on finding an unknown stranger where I had expected nobody, and +substituted a surprise of another kind: I now well understood who it was +that I saw; and there was no wonder in his being at Allan Bank, Elleray +standing within nine miles; but (as usually happens in such cases) I +felt a shock of surprise on seeing a person so little corresponding to +the one I had half unconsciously prefigured. + +And here comes the place naturally, if anywhere, for a description of +Mr. Wilson's person and general appearance in carriage, manner, and +deportment; and a word or two I shall certainly say on these points, +simply because I know that I _must_, else my American friends will +complain that I have left out that precise section in my whole account +which it is most impossible for them to supply for themselves by any +acquaintance with his printed works. Yet suffer me, before I comply +with this demand, to enter one word of private protest against the +childish (nay, worse than childish--the _missy_) spirit in which such +demands originate. From my very earliest years,--that is the earliest +years in which I had any sense of what belongs to true dignity of +mind,--I declare to you that I have considered the interest which men, +grown men, take in the personal appearance of each other as one of the +meanest aspects under which human curiosity commonly presents itself. +Certainly I have the same intellectual perception of differences in +such things that other men have; but I connect none of the feelings, +whether of admiration or contempt, liking or disliking, which are +obviously connected with these perceptions by human beings generally. +Such words as 'commanding appearance,' 'prepossessing countenance,' +applied to the figures or faces of the males of the human species, +have no meaning in my ears: no man commands me, no man prepossesses +me, by anything in, on, or about his carcass. What care I for any +man's legs? I laugh at his ridiculous presumption in conceiting that +I shall trouble myself to admire or to respect anything that he can +produce in his _physics_. What! shall I honour Milo for the very +qualities which he has in common with the beastly ox he carries--his +thews and sinews, his ponderous strength and weight, and the quantity +of thumping that his hide will carry? I disclaim and disdain any +participation in such green-girl feelings. I admit that the baby +feelings I am here condemning are found in connection with the highest +intellects: in particular, Mr. Coleridge for instance once said to me, +as a justifying reason for his dislike of a certain celebrated +Scotsman, with an air of infinite disgust,--'that ugh!' (making a +guttural sound as if of execration) 'he (viz. the said Scotsman) was +so chicken-breasted.' I have been assured by the way, that Mr. +Coleridge was mistaken in the mere matter of fact: but supposing that +he were not, what a reason for a philosopher to build a disgust upon! +And Mr. Wordsworth, in or about the year 1820, in expressing the +extremity of his _Nil admirari_ spirit, declared that he would not go +ten yards out of his road to see the finest specimen of man +(intellectually speaking) that Europe had to show: and so far indeed I +do not quarrel with his opinion; but Mr. Wordsworth went on to say +that this indifference did _not_ extend itself to man considered +physically; and that he would still exert himself to a small extent +(suppose a mile or so) for the sake of seeing Belzoni. _That_ was the +case he instanced: and, as I understood him, not by way of a general +illustration for his meaning, but that he really felt an exclusive +interest in this particular man's _physics_. Now Belzoni was certainly +a good tumbler, as I have heard; and hopped well upon one leg, when +surmounted and crested by a pyramid of men and boys; and jumped +capitally through a hoop; and did all sorts of tricks in all sorts of +styles, not at all worse than any monkey, bear, or learned pig, that +ever exhibited in Great Britain. And I would myself have given a +shilling to have seen him fight with that cursed Turk that assaulted +him in the streets of Cairo; and would have given him a crown for +catching the circumcised dog by the throat and effectually taking the +conceit out of his Mahometan carcass: but then _that_ would have been +for the spectacle of the passions, which, in such a case, would have +been let loose: as to the mere animal Belzoni,--who after all was not +to be compared to Topham the Warwickshire man, that drew back by main +force a cart, and its driver, and a strong horse,--as to the mere +animal Belzoni, I say, and his bull neck, I would have much preferred +to see a real bull or the Darlington ox. The sum of the matter is +this: all men, even those who are most manly in their style of +thinking and feeling, in many things retain the childishness of their +childish years: no man thoroughly weeds himself of all. And this +particular mode of childishness is one of the commonest, into which +they fall the more readily from the force of sympathy, and because +they apprehend no reason for directing any vigilance against it. But I +contend that reasonably no feelings of deep interest are justifiable +as applied to any point of external form or feature in human beings, +unless under two reservations: first, that they shall have reference +to women; because women, being lawfully the objects of passions and +tender affections, which can have no existence as applied to men, are +objects also, rationally and consistently, of all other secondary +feelings (such as those derived from their personal appearance) which +have any tendency to promote and support the first. Whereas between +men the highest mode of intercourse is merely intellectual, which is +not of a nature to receive support or strength from any feelings of +pleasure or disgust connected with the accidents of external +appearance: but exactly in the degree in which these have any +influence at all they must warp and disturb by improper biases; and +the single case of exception, where such feelings can be honourable +and laudable amongst the males of the human species, is where they +regard such deformities as are the known products and expressions of +criminal or degrading propensities. All beyond this, I care not by +whom countenanced, is infirmity of mind, and would be baseness if it +were not excused by imbecility. + +Excuse this digression, for which I have a double reason: chiefly I +was anxious to put on record my own opinions, and my contempt for men +generally in this particular; and here I seemed to have a conspicuous +situation for that purpose. Secondly, apart from this purpose of +offence, I was at any rate anxious, merely on a defensive principle, +to screen myself from the obvious misinterpretation incident to the +case: saying anything minute or in detail upon a man's person, I +should necessarily be supposed to do so under the ordinary blind +feelings of interest in that subject which govern most people; +feelings which I disdain. Now, having said all this, and made my +formal protest, _liberavi animam meam_; and I revert to my subject, +and shall say that word or two which I was obliged to promise you on +Professor Wilson's personal appearance. + +Figure to yourself, then, a tall man, about six feet high, within half +an inch or so, built with tolerable appearance of strength; but at the +date of my description (that is, in the very spring-tide and blossom +of youth) wearing, for the predominant character of his person, +lightness and agility, or (in our Westmoreland phrase), _lishness_: he +seemed framed with an express view to gymnastic exercises of every +sort-- + + "[Greek: Alma, podôkeiên, diskon, akonta, palên]" + +In the first of these exercises, indeed, and possibly (but of that I +am not equally certain) in the second, I afterwards came to know that +he was absolutely unrivalled: and the best leapers at that time in the +ring, Richmond the Black and others, on getting 'a taste of his +quality,' under circumstances of considerable disadvantage [viz. after +a walk from Oxford to Moulsey Hurst, which I believe is fifty miles], +declined to undertake him. For this exercise he had two remarkable +advantages: it is recorded of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, that, +though otherwise a handsome man, he offended the connoisseurs in +statuesque proportions by one eminent defect--perhaps the most +obtrusive to which the human figure is liable--viz. a body of length +disproportioned to his legs. In Mr. Wilson the proportions were +fortunately reversed: a short trunk, and remarkably long legs, gave +him one half of his advantages in the noble science of leaping; the +other half was afterwards pointed out to me by an accurate critic in +these matters as lying in the particular conformation of his foot, +the instep of which is arched, and the back of the heel strengthened +in so remarkable a way that it would be worth paying a penny or so for +a sight of them. It is really laughable to think of the coxcombry +which eminent men of letters have displayed in connection with their +powers--real or fancied--in this art. Cardinal du Perron vapoured to +the end of his life upon some remarkable leap that he either _had_ +accomplished, or conceived himself to have accomplished (not, I +presume, in red stockings). Every tenth page of the _Perroniana_ rings +with the echo of this stupendous leap--the length of which, if I +remember rightly, is as obviously fabulous as any feat of Don Belianis +of Greece. Des Cartes also had a lurking conceit that, in some unknown +place, he had perpetrated a leap that ought to immortalise him; and in +one of his letters he repeats and accredits a story of some obscure +person's leap, which + + 'At one light bound high overleaped all bound' + +of reasonable credulity. Many other eminent leapers might be cited, +Pagan and Christian: but the Cardinal, by his own account, appears to +have been the flower of Popish leapers; and, with all deference to his +Eminence, upon a better assurance than that, Professor Wilson may be +rated, at the time I speak of, as the flower of all Protestant +leapers. Not having the Cardinal's foible of connecting any vanity +with this little accomplishment, knowing exactly what could and what +could _not_ be effected in this department of gymnastics, and speaking +with the utmost simplicity and candour of his failures and his +successes alike, he might always be relied upon, and his statements +were constantly in harmony with any collateral testimony that chance +happened to turn up. + +Viewed, therefore, by an eye learned in gymnastic proportions, Mr. +Wilson presented a somewhat striking figure: and by some people he was +pronounced with emphasis a fine looking young man; but others, who +less understood, or less valued these advantages, spoke of him as +nothing extraordinary. Still greater division of voices I have heard +on his pretensions to be thought handsome. In my opinion, and most +certainly in his own, these pretensions were but slender. His +complexion was too florid; hair of a hue quite unsuited to that +complexion; eyes not good, having no apparent depth, but seeming mere +surfaces; and in fine, no one feature that could be called fine, +except the lower region of his face, mouth, chin, and the parts +adjacent, which were then (and perhaps are now) truly elegant and +Ciceronian. Ask in one of your public libraries for that little 4to +edition of the _Rhetorical Works of Cicero_, edited by Schütz (the +same who edited _Æschylus_), and you will there see (as a frontispiece +to the 1st vol.) a reduced whole length of Cicero from the antique; +which in the mouth and chin, and indeed generally, if I do not greatly +forget, will give you a lively representation of the contour and +expression of Professor Wilson's face. Taken as a whole, though not +handsome (as I have already said), when viewed in a quiescent state, +the head and countenance are massy, dignified, and expressive of +tranquil sagacity. + +Thus far of Professor Wilson in his outward man, whom (to gratify you +and yours, and upon the consideration that my letter is to cross the +Atlantic), I have described with an effort and a circumstantiation +that are truly terrific to look back upon. And now, returning to the +course of my narrative, such in personal appearance was the young man +upon whom my eyes suddenly rested, for the first time, upwards of +twenty years ago, in the study of S. T. Coleridge--looking, as I said +before, light as a Mercury to eyes familiar with the British build; +but, with reference to the lengthy model of you Yankees, who spindle +up so tall and narrow, already rather bulky and columnar. Note, +however, that of all this array of personal features, as I have here +described them, I then saw nothing at all, my attention being +altogether occupied with Mr. Wilson's conversation and demeanour, +which were in the highest degree agreeable: the points which chiefly +struck me being the humility and gravity with which he spoke of +himself, his large expansion of heart, and a certain air of noble +frankness which overspread everything he said; he seemed to have an +intense enjoyment of life; indeed, being young, rich, healthy, and +full of intellectual activity, it could not be very wonderful that he +should feel happy and pleased with himself and others; but it was +somewhat unusual to find that so rare an assemblage of endowments had +communicated no tinge of arrogance to his manner, or at all disturbed +the general temperance of his mind. + +Turn we now suddenly, and without preparation,--simply by way of +illustrating the versatile humour of the man,--from this grave and (as +in reality it was) philosophic scene, to another first introduction, +under most different circumstances, to the same Mr. Wilson. Represent +to yourself the earliest dawn of a fine summer morning, time about +half-past two o'clock. A young man, anxious for an introduction to Mr. +Wilson, and as yet pretty nearly a stranger to the country, has taken +up his abode in Grasmere, and has strolled out at this early hour to +that rocky and moorish common (called the White Moss) which overhangs +the Vale of Rydal, dividing it from Grasmere. Looking southwards in +the direction of Rydal, suddenly he becomes aware of a huge beast +advancing at a long trot with the heavy and thundering tread of a +hippopotamus along the public road. The creature is soon arrived +within half a mile of his station; and by the gray light of morning is +at length made out to be a bull apparently flying from some unseen +enemy in his rear. As yet, however, all is mystery; but suddenly three +horsemen double a turn in the road, and come flying into sight with +the speed of a hurricane, manifestly in pursuit of the fugitive bull; +the bull labours to navigate his huge bulk to the moor, which he +reaches, and then pauses, panting and blowing out clouds of smoke from +his nostrils, to look back from his station amongst rocks and slippery +crags upon his hunters. If he had conceited that the rockiness of the +ground had secured his repose, the foolish bull is soon undeceived; +the horsemen, scarcely relaxing their speed, charge up the hill, and +speedily gaining the rear of the bull, drive him at a gallop over the +worst part of that impracticable ground down into the level ground +below. At this point of time the stranger perceives by the increasing +light of the morning that the hunters are armed with immense spears +fourteen feet long. With these the bull is soon dislodged, and +scouring down to the plain below, he and the hunters at his tail take +to the common at the head of the lake, and all, in the madness of the +chase, are soon half engulfed in the swamps of the morass. After +plunging together for ten or fifteen minutes, all suddenly regain the +_terra firma_, and the bull again makes for the rocks. Up to this +moment there had been the silence of ghosts; and the stranger had +doubted whether the spectacle were not a pageant of aërial spectres, +ghostly huntsmen; ghostly lances, and a ghostly bull. But just at this +crisis--a voice (it was the voice of Mr. Wilson) shouted aloud, 'Turn +the villain; turn that villain; or he will take to Cumberland.' The +young stranger did the service required of him; the villain was turned +and fled southwards; the hunters, lance in rest, rushed after him; all +bowed their thanks as they fled past him; the fleet cavalcade again +took the high road; they doubled the cape which shut them out of +sight; and in a moment all had disappeared and left the quiet valley +to its original silence, whilst the young stranger and two grave +Westmoreland statesmen (who by this time had come into sight upon some +accident or other) stood wondering in silence, and saying to +themselves, perhaps,-- + + 'The earth hath bubbles as the water hath; + And these are of them!' + +But they were no bubbles; the bull was a substantial bull; and took no +harm at all from being turned out occasionally at midnight for a chase +of fifteen or eighteen miles. The bull, no doubt, used to wonder at +this nightly visitation; and the owner of the bull must sometimes have +pondered a little on the draggled state in which the swamps would now +and then leave his beast; but no other harm came of it. And so it +happened, and in the very hurly burly of such an unheard-of chase, +that my friend was fortunate enough, by a little service, to recommend +himself to the notice of Mr. Wilson; and so passed the scene of his +_first introduction_. + + * * * * * + +In reading the anecdote of the bull hunt, you must bear in mind the +period of Mr. Wilson's life to which it belongs, else I should here be +unintentionally adding one more to the thousand misrepresentations of +his character, which are already extant in different repositories of +scandal: most of which I presume, unless in the rarer cases where they +have been the pure creations of malice, owe their origin to a little +exaggeration, and a great deal of confusion in dates. Levities and +extravagances, which find a ready excuse at twenty, ten or fifteen +years later are fatal to a man's character for good sense. In such a +case, therefore, to be careless or inaccurate in dates, is a moral +dishonesty. Understand then that the bull-hunting scenes belong to the +time which immediately succeeded my first knowledge of Mr. Wilson. +This particular frolic happened to fall within the earliest period of +my own personal acquaintance with him. Else, and with this one +exception, the era of his wildest (and according to the common +estimate, of his insane) extravagances was already past. All those +stories, therefore, which you question me about with so much +curiosity, of his having joined a company of strolling players, and +himself taken the leading parts both in Tragedy and Comedy--of his +having assumed the garb of a Gipsy, and settled for some time in a +Gipsy encampment, out of admiration for a young Egyptian beauty; with +fifty others of the same class, belong undoubtedly (as many of them as +are not wholly fabulous), to the four years immediately preceding the +time at which my personal knowledge of Mr. Wilson commenced. + +From the latter end of 1803 to the spring of 1808, Mr. Wilson had +studied at the University of Oxford; and it was within that period +that most of his _escapades_ were crowded. He had previously studied +as a mere boy, according to the Scotch fashion, at the University of +Glasgow, chiefly under the tuition of the late Mr. Jardine (the +Professor, I believe, of Logic), and Dr. or Mr. Young (the Professor +of Greek). At both Universities he had greatly distinguished himself; +but at Oxford, where the distribution of prizes and honours of every +kind is to the last degree parsimonious and select, naturally it +follows that such academical distinctions are really _significant_ +distinctions, and proclaim an unequivocal merit in him who has carried +them off from a crowd of 1600 or 2000 co-rivals, to whom the contest +was open; whereas, in the Scotch Universities, as I am told by +Scotchmen, the multiplication of prizes and medals, and the almost +indiscriminate profusion with which they are showered abroad, +neutralises their whole effect and value. At least this was the case +in Mr. Wilson's time; but lately some conspicuous changes have been +introduced by a Royal Commission (not yet, I believe, dissolved) into +one at least of the Scotch Universities, which have greatly improved +it in this respect, by bringing it much nearer to the English model. +When Mr. Wilson gained a prize of fifty guineas for fifty lines of +English verse, without further inquiry it becomes evident, from the +mere rarity of the distinction which, for a university _now_ nearly of +five thousand members, occurs but once a year, and from the great +over-proportion of that peculiar class (the Undergraduates) to whom +the contest is open,--that such a victory was an indisputable +criterion of very conspicuous merit. In fact, never in any place did +Mr. Wilson play off his Proteus variety of character and talent with +so much brilliant effect as at Oxford. In this great University, the +most ancient, and by many degrees the most magnificent in the world, +he found a stage for display, perfectly congenial with the native +elevation of his own character. Perhaps you are not fully aware of the +characteristic differences which separate our two English Universities +of Oxford and Cambridge from those of Scotland and the Continent: for +I have always observed that the best informed foreigners, even after a +week's personal acquaintance with the Oxford system, still adhere to +the inveterate preconceptions which they had brought with them from +the Continent. For instance, they continue obstinately to speak of the +_Professors_ as the persons to whom the students are indebted for +tuition; whereas the majority of these hold their offices as the most +absolute sinecures, and the task of tuition devolves upon the tutors +appointed in each particular college. These tutors are called public +tutors; meaning that they do not confine their instructions to any one +individual; but distribute them amongst all the Undergraduates of the +college to which they belong; and, in addition to these, _private_ +tutors are allowed to any student who chooses to increase his +expenditure in that particular. But the main distinction, which +applies to our immediate subject, is the more than regal provision for +the lodging and accommodation of the students by the system of +_Colleges_. Of these there are in Oxford, neglecting the technical +subdivision of _Halls_, five-and-twenty; and the main use of all, both +colleges and halls, is, not as in Scotland and on the Continent, to +lodge the head of the University with suitable dignity, and to provide +rooms for the library and public business of the University. These +purposes are met by a separate provision, distinct from the colleges; +and the colleges are applied as follows: 1st, and mainly to the +reception of the Fellows, and of the Undergraduate Students; 2ndly, to +the accommodation of the head (known in different colleges by the +several designations of provost, principal, dean, rector, warden, +&c.); 3rdly to the accommodation of the private library attached to +that college, and to the chapel, which is used at least twice every +day for public prayers; 4thly, to the Hall, and the whole +establishment of kitchen, wine vaults, buttery, &c., &c., which may be +supposed necessary for the liberal accommodation, at the public meals +of dinner [and in some colleges supper] of gentlemen and visitors from +the country, or from the Continent; varying (we will suppose) from 25 +to 500 heads. Everywhere else the great mass of the students are +lodged in obscure nooks and corners, which may or may not be +respectable, but are at all events withdrawn from the _surveillance_ +of the University. I shall state both the ground and the effect (or +tendency rather) of this difference. Out of England, universities are +not meant exclusively for professional men; the sons of great +landholders, and a large proportion of the sons of noblemen, either go +through the same academic course as others--or a shorter course +adapted to their particular circumstances. In England, again, the +church is supplied from the rank of gentry--not exclusively, it is +true, but in a much larger proportion than anywhere else, except in +Ireland. The corresponding ranks in Scotland, from their old +connection with France, have adopted (I believe) much more of the +Continental plan for disposing of their sons at this period. At any +rate, it will not be contended by any man, that Scotland throws +anything like the same proportion with England, of her gentry and her +peerage into her universities. Hence, a higher standard of manners and +of habits presides at Oxford and Cambridge; and, consequently, a +demand for much higher accommodations would even _otherwise_ have +arisen, had not such a demand already been supplied by the munificence +of our English princes and peers, both male and female; and, in one +instance at least, of a _Scottish_ Prince (Baliol). The extent of +these vast Caravanseras enables the governors of the various colleges +to furnish every student with a set of two rooms at the least, often +with a _suite_ of three--[I, who lived at Oxford on no more than my +school allowance, had that number]--or in many cases with far more. In +the superior colleges, indeed (superior, I mean, as to their purse and +landed endowments), all these accommodations keep pace with the +refinements of the age; and thus a connection is maintained between +the University and the landed _Noblesse_--upper and lower--of +England, which must be reciprocally beneficial, and which, under other +circumstances, could scarcely have taken place. + +Of these advantages, you may be sure, that Mr. Wilson availed himself +to the utmost extent. Instead of going to _Baliol_ College, he entered +himself at _Magdalen_, in the class of what are called, 'Gentlemen +Commoners.' All of us (you know) in Oxford and Cambridge wear an +Academic dress, which tells at once our Academic rank with all its +modifications. And the term '_Gentlemen Commoner_' implies that he has +more splendid costumes, and more in number; that he is expected to +spend a good deal more money, that he enjoys a few trifling +immunities; and that he has, in particular instances, something like a +King's right of pre-emption, as in the choice of rooms, &c. + +Once launched in this orbit, Mr. Wilson continued to blaze away for +the four successive years, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, I believe without +any intermission. Possibly I myself was the one sole gownsman who had +not then found my attention fixed by his most heterogeneous +reputation. In a similar case, Cicero tells a man that ignorance so +unaccountable of another man's pretensions argued himself to be a +_homo ignorabilis_; or, in the language of the Miltonic Satan, 'Not to +know me, argues thyself unknown.' And _that_ is true; a _homo +ignorabilis_ most certainly I was. And even with that admission it is +still difficult to account for the extent and the duration of my +ignorance. The fact is, that the case well expresses _both_ our +positions; that _he_ should be so conspicuous as to challenge +knowledge from the most sequestered of anchorites expresses _his_ +life; that I should have right to absolute ignorance of him who was +familiar as daylight to all the rest of Oxford--expresses _mine_. +Never indeed before, to judge from what I have since heard upon +inquiry, did a man, by variety of talents and variety of humours, +contrive to place himself as the connecting link between orders of men +so essentially repulsive of each other--as Mr. Wilson in this +instance. + + 'Omnis Aristippum decuit color et status, et res.' + +From the learned president of his college, Dr. Routh, the editor of +parts of _Plato_, and of some _Theological Selections_, with whom +Wilson enjoyed an unlimited favour--from this learned Academic Doctor, +and many others of the same class, Wilson had an infinite gamut of +friends and associates, running through every key; and the diapason +closing full in groom, cobbler, stable-boy, barber's apprentice, with +every shade and hue of blackguard and ruffian. In particular, amongst +this latter kind of worshipful society, there was no man who had any +talents--real or fancied--for thumping or being thumped, but had +experienced some _preeing_ of his merits from Mr. Wilson. All other +pretensions in the gymnastic arts he took a pride in humbling or in +honouring; but chiefly his examinations fell upon pugilism; and not a +man, who could either 'give' or 'take,' but boasted to have punished, +or to have been punished by, _Wilson of Mallens_.[44] + +[Footnote 44: The usual colloquial corruption of _Magdalen_ in Ox. is +_Maudlin_; but amongst the very _lie dupeuple_, it is called +_Mallens_.] + + * * * * * + +A little before the time at which my acquaintance with Mr. Wilson +commenced, he had purchased a beautiful estate on the lake of +Windermere, which bore the ancient name of _Elleray_--a name which, +with his customary good taste, Mr. Wilson has never disturbed. With +the usual latitude of language in such cases, I say _on_ Windermere; +but in fact this charming estate lies far above the lake; and one of +the most interesting of its domestic features is the foreground of the +rich landscape which connects, by the most gentle scale of +declivities, this almost aërial altitude [as, for _habitable_ ground, +it really is] with the sylvan margin of the deep water which rolls a +mile and a half below. When I say a mile and a half, you will +understand me to compute the descent according to the undulations of +the ground; because else the perpendicular elevation above the level +of the lake cannot be above one half of that extent. Seated on such an +eminence, but yet surrounded by foregrounds of such quiet beauty, and +settling downwards towards the lake by such tranquil steps as to take +away every feeling of precipitous or dangerous elevation, Elleray +possesses a double character of beauty, rarely found in connection; +and yet each, by singular good fortune, in this case absolute and +unrivalled in its kind. Within a bow-shot of each other may be found +stations of the deepest seclusion, fenced in by verdurous walls of +insuperable forest heights, and presenting a limited scene of +beauty--deep, solemn, noiseless, severely sequestered--and other +stations of a magnificence so gorgeous as few estates in this island +can boast, and of those few perhaps none in such close connection with +a dwelling-house. Stepping out from the very windows of the +drawing-room, you find yourself on a terrace which gives you the +feeling of a 'specular height,' such as you might expect on Ararat, or +might appropriately conceive on 'Athos seen from Samothrace.' The +whole course of a noble lake, about eleven miles long, lies subject to +your view, with many of its islands, and its two opposite shores so +different in character--the one stern, precipitous, and gloomy; the +other (and luckily the hither one) by the mere bounty of nature and of +accident--by the happy disposition of the ground originally, and by +the fortunate equilibrium between the sylvan tracts, meandering +irregularly through the whole district, and the proportion left to +verdant fields and meadows,--wearing the character of the richest park +scenery; except indeed that this character is here and there a little +modified by a quiet hedge-row or the stealing smoke which betrays the +embowered cottage of a labourer. But the sublime, peculiar, and +not-to-be-forgotten feature of the scene is the great system of +mountains which unite about five miles off at the head of the lake to +lock in and inclose this noble landscape. The several ranges of +mountains which stand at various distances within six or seven miles +of the little town of Ambleside, all separately various in their forms +and all eminently picturesque, when seen from Elleray appear to blend +and group as parts of one connected whole; and when their usual +drapery of clouds happens to take a fortunate arrangement, and the +sunlights are properly broken and thrown from the most suitable +quarter of the heavens,--I cannot recollect any spectacle in England +or Wales, of the many hundreds I have seen, bearing a local, if not a +national reputation for magnificence of prospect, which so much +dilates the heart with a sense of power and aërial sublimity as this +terrace view from Elleray. It is possible that I may have stood on +other mountain terraces commanding as ample a view and as happily +combined; but the difference of effect must always be immense between +a spectacle to which you ascend by half a day's labour, and that upon +which you are launched in a second of time from the breakfast table. +It is of great importance, for the enjoyment of any natural scene, to +be liberated from the necessity of viewing it under circumstances of +haste and anxiety, to have it in one's power to surrender oneself +passively and tranquilly to the influences of the objects as they +gradually reveal themselves, and to be under no summons to crowd one's +whole visual energy and task of examination within a single quarter of +an hour. Having seen Elleray at all times under these favourable +circumstances, it is certainly not impossible that I may unconsciously +have overrated in some degree its pretensions in comparison with some +rival scenes. I may have committed the common error of attributing to +the _objects_ the whole sum of an impression which in part belonged to +the _subjective_ advantages of the contemplator and the benefits of +his station. But, making every allowance in this direction, I am still +of opinion that Elleray has, in connection with the merits common to +all scenes of its class, others peculiar to itself--and such as are +indispensable conditions for the full effect of all the rest. In +particular, I would instance this: To bring any scene upon a level of +competition with Elleray as to range and majesty of prospect, it is +absolutely essential that it should occupy an equal elevation, or one +not conspicuously inferior. Now, it is seldom indeed that eminences so +commanding are not, by that very circumstance, unfitted to the +picturesque aspects of things: in fact I remember no tract of ground +so elevated as Elleray from which the lowest level of the adjacent +country does not take a petty, dotted, and map-like appearance. But +this effect, which is so heavy a price for the sublimities of the +upper regions, at Elleray is entirely intercepted by the exquisite +gradations of descent by which the contiguous grounds begin their fall +to the level of the lake: the moment that this fall in any quarter +becomes accelerated and precipitous, it is concealed by the brows of +this beautiful hanging foreground; and so happily is this remedy +applied, that in every instance where the lowest grounds would, if +seen at all, from their immediate proximity, be seen by the spectator +looking down perpendicularly as into a well, there they are uniformly +hidden; and these lowest levels first emerge to view at a remote +distance--where, being necessarily viewed obliquely, they suffer no +peculiar disadvantage by being viewed from an eminence. In short, to +sum up the whole in one word, the splendours of Elleray, which could +not have been had but at an unusual elevation, are by a rare bounty of +nature obtained without one of those sacrifices for the learned eye +which are usually entailed upon that one single advantage of unusual +elevation. + +The beautiful estate, which I have thus described to you, was +ornamented by no suitable dwelling-house at the time when it was +purchased by Mr. Wilson: there was indeed a rustic cottage, most +picturesquely situated, which, with the addition of a drawing-room +thrown out at one end, was made for the present (and, as it turned +out, for many a year to come) capable of meeting the hospitable system +of life adopted by its owner. But, with a view to more ample and +luxurious accommodations, even at that early period of his possession +(1808), Mr. Wilson began to build a mansion of larger and more elegant +proportions. The shell, and perhaps the greater part of the internal +work, was soon finished; but for some reason, which I never remember +to have inquired into, was not rendered thoroughly habitable (and +consequently not inhabited) till the year 1825. I think it worth while +to mention this house particularly, because it has always appeared to +me a silent commentary on its master's state of mind, and an +exemplification of his character both as it was and as it appeared. At +first sight there was an air of adventurousness, or even of +extravagance about the plan and situation of the building; and yet +upon a considerate examination (and latterly upon a practical trial) +of it, I cannot see that within the same dimensions it would have been +possible to have contrived a more judicious or commodious house. Thus, +for instance, the house is planted upon the boldest and most exposed +point of ground that can be found on the whole estate, consequently +upon that which might have presumed (and I believe was really reputed) +to be the very stormiest: yet, whether from counteracting screens of +wood that have since been reared in fortunate situations, or from what +other cause I know not, but undoubtedly at this day no practical +inconvenience is suffered; though it is true, I believe, that in the +earlier years of its history, the house bore witness occasionally, by +dismal wrecks of roof and windows, to the strength and fury of the +wind on one particular quarter. Again, in the internal arrangements +one room was constructed of such ample proportions, with a view to +dancing, that the length (as I remember) was about seventy feet; the +other dimensions I have forgotten. Now, in this instance most people +saw an evidence of nothing but youthful extravagance, and a most +disproportionate attention directed to one single purpose, which upon +that scale could not probably be of very frequent occurrence in _any_ +family. This by the way was at any rate a sensible extravagance in my +judgment; for our English mode of building tends violently to the +opposite and most unwholesome extravagance of giving to the very +principal room of a house the beggarly proportions of closets. +However, the sequel showed that in providing for one end, Mr. Wilson +had not lost sight of others: for the seventy-feet room was so divided +by strong folding-doors, or temporary partitions, as in its customary +state to exhibit three rooms of ordinary proportions, and unfolded its +full extent only by special and extraordinary mechanism. Other +instances I might give in which the plan seemed to be extravagant or +inconsiderate, and yet really turned out to have been calculated with +the coolest judgment and the nicest foresight of domestic needs. It is +sufficient to say that I do not know a house apparently more +commodiously arranged than this, which was planned and built with +utmost precipitation, and in the very heyday of a most tempestuous +youth. In one thing only, upon a retrospect at this day of the whole +case, there may appear to have been some imprudence, viz. that timber +being then at a most unprecedented high price, it is probable that the +building cost seven or eight hundred pounds more than it would have +done a few years later. Allowing for this one oversight, the principal +house on the Elleray estate, which at the time was looked upon as an +evidence of Mr. Wilson's flightiness of mind, remains at this day a +lasting monument of his good sense and judgment. + +Whilst I justify him, however, on this head, I am obliged to admit +that on another field, at that very time, Mr. Wilson was displaying +the most reckless profusion. A sailing club had been established on +Windermere, by whom I never heard; very probably by Mr. Wilson +himself; at all events, he was the leader and the soul of the +confederation; and he applied annually nothing less than a little +fortune to the maintenance of the many expenses which arose out of it. +Amongst the members of the club there were more than one who had far +larger fortunes than Mr. Wilson could ever have possessed; but he +would permit no one to outshine him on this arena. The number of his +boats was so great as to compose a little fleet; and some of them, of +unusually large dimensions for this lake, had been built at an +enormous expense by regular builders brought over expressly from the +port of Whitehaven (distant from Elleray about forty-five miles), and +kept during the whole progress of their labour at a most expensive +Lakers' hotel. One of these boats in particular, a ten-oared barge, +which you will find specially introduced by name in Professor Wilson's +tale of _The Foresters_ (_vide_ p. 215), was generally believed at +the time to have cost him at the least five hundred pounds. And as the +number of sailors which it required to man these boats was necessarily +very great at particular seasons, and as the majority of these sailors +lived, during the period of their services, with little or no +restraint upon their expenses at the most costly inn in the +neighbourhood,--it may be supposed very readily that about this time +Mr. Wilson's lavish expenditure, added to the demands of architects +and builders, and the recent purchase of Elleray, must have seriously +injured his patrimonial property,--though generally believed to have +been originally considerably more than thirty thousand (many asserted +forty thousand) pounds. In fact, he had never less than three +establishments going on concurrently for some years; one at the town +or village of Bowness (the little port of the lake of Windermere), for +his boatmen; one at the Ambleside Hotel, about five miles distant, for +himself; and a third at Elleray, for his servants, and the occasional +resort of himself and his friends. It is the opinion of some people +that about this time, and during the succeeding two years, Mr. Wilson +dissipated the main bulk of his patrimony in profuse expenditure. But +more considerate people see no ground for that opinion: his expenses, +though great, were never adequate to the dilapidation of so large an +estate as he was reputed to have inherited: and the prevailing opinion +is that some great loss of £20,000 at a blow, by the failure of some +trustee or other, was the true cause of that diminution in his +property which, within a year or two from this time, he is generally +supposed to have suffered. However, as Mr. Wilson himself has always +maintained an obstinate silence on the subject, and as the mere fact +of the loss (however probable) is not more accurately known to me than +its extent, or its particular mode, or its cause,--I shall not allow +myself to make any conjectural speculations on the subject. It can be +interesting to you and me only from one of its consequences, viz. its +leading him afterwards to seek a professorship: for most certain it +is, that, if the splendour of Mr. Wilson's youthful condition as to +pecuniary matters had not been in some remarkable degree overcast, and +suffered some signal eclipse, he would never have surrendered any part +of that perfect liberty which was so dear to him, for all the honours +and rewards that could have been offered by the foremost universities +of Europe. + +You will have heard, no doubt, from some of those with whom you +conversed about Professor Wilson when you were in Europe, or you may +have read it in Peter's Letters, that in very early life (probably +about the age of eighteen) he had formed a scheme for penetrating into +central Africa, visiting the city of Tombuctoo, and solving (if it +were possible) the great outstanding problem of the course of the +Niger. To this scheme he was attracted probably not so much by any +particular interest in the improvement of geographical knowledge, as +by the youthful spirit of romantic adventure, and a very uncommon +craving for whatever was grand--indefinite--and gigantic in +conception, supposing that it required at the same time great physical +powers in the execution. There cannot be a doubt for us at this day, +who look back upon the melancholy list of victims in this perilous +field of discovery which has been furnished by the two or three and +twenty years elapsed since Mr. Wilson's plan was in agitation, that in +that enterprise--had he ever irretrievably embarked himself upon +it--he would infallibly have perished; for, though reasonably strong, +he was not strong upon that heroic scale which an expedition so +Titanic demands; and what was perhaps still more important, if strong +enough--he was not _hardy_ enough, as a gentleman rarely is, more +especially where he has literary habits; because the exposure to open +air, which is the indispensable condition of hardiness, is at any rate +interrupted--even if it were not counteracted--by the luxurious habits +and the relaxing atmosphere of the library and the drawing-room. +Moreover, Mr. Wilson's constitution was irritable and disposed to +fever; his temperament was too much that of a man of genius not to +have furnished a mine of inflammable materials for any tropical +climate; his prudence, as regarded his health, was not remarkable; and +if to all these internal and personal grounds of danger you add the +incalculable hazards of the road itself, every friend of Mr. Wilson's +must have rejoiced on hearing that in 1808, when I first met him, this +Tim-(or Tom-) buctoo scheme was already laid aside. + +Yet, as the stimulus of danger, in one shape or other, was at that +time of life perhaps essential to his comfort, he soon substituted +another scheme, which at this day might be accomplished with ease and +safety enough, but in the year 1809 (under the rancorous system of +Bonaparte) was full of hazard. In this scheme he was so good as to +associate myself as one of his travelling companions, together with an +earlier friend of his own--an Englishman, of a philosophical turn of +mind, with whom he had been a fellow-student at Glasgow; and we were +certainly all three of an age and character to have enjoyed the +expedition in the very highest degree, had the events of the war +allowed us to realise our plan. The plan was as follows: from +Falmouth, by one of the regular packets, we were to have sailed to the +Tagus; and, landing wherever accident should allow us, to purchase +mules--hire Spanish servants--and travel extensively in Spain and +Portugal for eight or nine months; thence, by such of the islands in +the Mediterranean as particularly interested us, we were gradually to +have passed into Greece, and thence to Constantinople. Finally, we +were to have visited the Troad, Syria, Egypt, and perhaps Nubia. I +feel it almost ludicrous to sketch the outline of so extensive a tour, +no part of which was ever executed; such a Barmacide feast is +laughable in the very rehearsal. Yet it is bare justice to ourselves +to say that on our parts there was no slackness or _make-believe_: +what put an extinguisher upon our project was the entrance of Napoleon +into Spain, his immediate advance upon Madrid, and the wretched +catastrophe of the expedition so miserably misconducted under Sir John +Moore. The _prestige_ of French generalship was at that time a +nightmare upon the courage and spirit of hopeful exertion throughout +Europe; and the earliest dawn was only then beginning to arise of that +glorious experience which was for ever to dissolve it. Sir J. Moore, +and through him his gallant but unfortunate army, was the last +conspicuous victim to the mere sound and _humbug_ (if you will excuse +a coarse expression) of the words _Napoleon Bonaparte_. What he fled +from was precisely those two words. And the timid policy, adopted by +Sir John on that memorable occasion, would--among other greater and +national consequences--have had this little collateral interest to us +unfortunate travellers, had our movements been as speedy as we had +anticipated, that it would have cost us our heads. A certain bulletin, +issued by Bonaparte at that time, sufficiently apprised us of that +little truth. In this bulletin Bonaparte proclaimed with a careless +air, but making at the same time somewhat of a boast of it, that +having happened to meet a party of sixteen British travellers--persons +of whom he had ascertained nothing at all but that they did not bear a +military character--he had issued a summary order that they should all +be strung up without loss of time by the neck. In this little +facetious anecdote, as Bonaparte seemed to think it, we read the fate +that we had escaped. Had nothing occurred to retard our departure from +this country, we calculated that the route we had laid down for our +daily motions would have brought us to Guadarama (or what was the name +of the pass?) just in time to be hanged. Having a British general at +our backs with an army of more than thirty thousand effective men, we +should certainly have roamed in advance with perfect reliance upon the +old British policy of fighting, for which we could never have allowed +ourselves to dream of such a substitute as a flight through all the +passes of Gallicia on the principle of '_the D---- take the +hindmost_.' Infallibly also we should have been surprised by the +extraordinary rapidity at that time of the French movements; our +miserable shambling mules, with their accursed tempers, would have +made but a shabby attempt at flight before a squadron of light +cavalry; and in short, as I said before, we should have come just in +time to be hanged. And hanged we should all have been: though _why_, +and upon what principle, it would be difficult to say; and probably +that question would have been left to after consideration in some more +philosophical age. You will suppose naturally that we rejoiced at our +escape; and so undoubtedly we did. Yet for my part I had, among +nineteen-twentieths of joy, just one-twentieth of a lingering regret +that we had missed the picturesque fate that awaited us. The reason +was this: it has been through life an infirmity of Mr. Wilson's (at +least in my judgment an infirmity) to think too indulgently of +Bonaparte, not merely in an intellectual point of view, but even with +reference to his pretensions--hollower, one would think, than the +wind--to moral elevation and magnanimity. Such a mistake, about a man +who could never in any one instance bring himself to speak generously, +or even forbearingly of an enemy, rouses my indignation as often as I +recur to it; and in Professor Wilson, I have long satisfied myself +that it takes its rise from a more comprehensive weakness, the +greatest in fact which besets his mind, viz. a general tendency to +bend to the prevailing opinion of the world, and a constitutional +predisposition, to sympathise with power and whatsoever is triumphant. +Hence, I could not but regret most poignantly the capital opportunity +I had forfeited of throwing in a deep and stinging sarcasm at his +idol, just at the moment when we should have been waiting to be +turned off. I know Professor Wilson well: though a brave man, at +twenty-two he enjoyed life with a rapture that few men have ever +known, and he would have clung to it with awful tenacity. Horribly he +would have abominated the sight of the rope, and ruefully he would +have sighed if I had suggested to him on the gallows any thoughts of +that beautiful and quiet Elleray which he had left behind in England. +Just at that moment I acknowledge that it would have been fiendish, +but yet what a heaven of a luxury it would have been in the way of +revenge--to have stung him with some neat epigram, that I might have +composed in our walk to the gallows, or while the ropes were getting +into tune, on the generosity and magnanimity of Bonaparte! Perhaps, in +a sober estimate, hanging might be too heavy a price for the +refutation of a single error; yet still, at times, when my moral sense +is roused and provoked by the obstinate blindness of Professor Wilson +to the meanness and _parvanimity_[45] of Bonaparte (a blindness which +in him, as in all other worshippers of false idols, is connected at +the moment with intense hatred for those who refuse to partake in it), +a wandering regret comes over me that we should have missed so fine an +opportunity for gathering in our own persons some of those redundant +bounties which the Corsican's 'magnanimity' at that time scattered +from his cornucopia of malice to the English name upon all his +unfortunate prisoners of that nation. + +[Footnote 45: I coin this word _parvanimity_ as an adequate antithesis +to _magnanimity_; for the word _pusillanimity_ has received from usage +such a confined determination to one single idea, viz. the defect of +spirit and courage, that it is wholly unfitted to tie the antipode to +the complex idea of magnanimity.] + +But enough of this; an event soon occurred in Mr. Wilson's life which +made it a duty to dismiss for ever all travelling schemes that were +connected with so much hazard as this. The fierce _acharnement_ of +Bonaparte so pointedly directed to everything English, and the +prostration of the Continent, which had enabled him absolutely to seal +every port of Europe against an Englishman, who could now no longer +venture to stray a mile beyond the range of the ship's guns, which had +brought him to the shore, without the certainty of being arrested as a +spy,--this unheard-of condition of things had at length compelled all +English gentlemen to reconcile themselves for the present to the +bounds of their own island; and, accordingly, in the spring of 1809, +we three unhanged friends had entirely weaned our minds from the +travelling scheme which had so completely occupied our thoughts in +1808. Mr. Wilson in particular gave himself up to the pleasures and +occupations furnished by the neighbourhood of Windermere, which at +that time were many and various; living myself at a distance of nine +miles from Elleray, I did not see much of him through this year 1809; +in 1810 he married a young English lady, greatly admired for her +beauty and the elegance of her manners, who was generally supposed to +have brought him a fortune of about ten thousand pounds. In saying +_that_, I violate no confidence at any time reposed in me, for I rely +only on the public voice--which, in this instance, I have been told by +well-informed persons, was tolerably correct. Be that as it may, +however, in other respects I have the best reasons for believing that +this marriage connection has proved the happiest event of Mr. +Wilson's life; and that the delightful temper and disposition of his +wife have continued to shed a sunshine of peace and quiet happiness +over his domestic establishment, which were well worth all the +fortunes in the world. This lady has brought him a family of two sons +and three daughters, all interesting by their personal appearance and +their manners, and at this time rapidly growing up into young men and +women. + +Here I should close all further notice of Mr. Wilson's life, and +confine myself, through what remains of the space which I have allowed +myself, to a short critical notice (such as it may be proper for a +friend to write) of his literary character and merits; but one single +event remains of a magnitude too conspicuous in any man's life to be +dismissed wholly without mention. I should add, therefore, that, about +eight or nine years after his marriage (for I forget the precise +year[46]), Mr. Wilson offered himself a candidate for the chair of +Moral Philosophy in the University in Edinburgh, which had recently +become vacant by the death of Dr. Thomas Brown, the immediate +successor of Mr. Dugald Stewart. The Scotch, who know just as much +about what they call 'Moral[47] Philosophy' and Metaphysics as the +English do, viz. exactly nothing at all, pride themselves +prodigiously upon these two names of Dugald Stewart and Dr. Brown, and +imagine that they filled the chair with some peculiar brilliance. Upon +that subject a word or two farther on. Meantime this notion made the +contest peculiarly painful and invidious, amongst ungenerous enemies, +for any untried man--no matter though his real merits had been a +thousand times greater than those of his predecessors. This Mr. Wilson +found; he had made himself enemies; whether by any unjustifiable +violences, and wanton provocations on his own part, I have no means of +knowing. In whatever way created, however, these enemies now used the +advantages of the occasion with rancorous malignity, and persecuted +him at every step with unrelenting fury. Very different was the +treatment he met with from his competitor in the contest; in that one +circumstance of the case, the person of his competitor, he had reason +to think himself equally fortunate and unfortunate; fortunate, that he +should be met by the opposition of a man whose opposition was +honour--a man of birth, talents, and high breeding, a good scholar, +and for extensive reading and universal knowledge of books (and +especially of philosophic literature) the Magliabecchi of Scotland; +unfortunate on the other hand that this accomplished opponent, adorned +by so many brilliant gifts that recommended him to the contested +office, should happen to be his early and highly valued friend. The +particular progress of the contest, and its circumstances, I am not +able to state; in general I have heard in Edinburgh that, from +political influences which chiefly governed the course of the +election, the conduct of the partisans (perhaps on both sides) was +intemperate, personal, and unjust; whilst that of the principals and +their immediate friends was full of forbearance and generosity. The +issue was, that Mr. Wilson carried the Professorship,--by what +majority of votes, I am unable to say; and you will be pleased to hear +that any little coolness, which must naturally have succeeded to so +warm a contest, has long since passed away; and the two rival +candidates have been for many years restored to their early feelings +of mutual esteem and regard. + +[Footnote 46: [In July, 1820.]] + +[Footnote 47: Everywhere in the world, except in Scotland, by _moral_ +philosophy is meant the philosophy of the will, as opposed to the +philosophy of the intellect; in Scotland only the word _moral_ is +used, by the strongest abuse, as a comprehensive designation of +whatsoever is not _physical_; so that in the cycle of knowledge, +undertaken by the Edinburgh Professor of Moral Philosophy, are +included logic, metaphysics, ethics, psychology, anthropology,--and, +in one word, almost all human knowledge, with the exception of physics +and mathematics.] + +Here I pause for everything that concerns in the remotest way the +incidents of Professor Wilson's life; one letter I mean to add, as I +have already promised, on the particular position which he occupies in +relation to modern literature; and then I have done. Meantime, let me +hope that you have not so far miscalculated my purpose as to have been +looking out for anecdotes (_i. e._ scandal) about Professor Wilson +throughout the course of this letter; since, if in any case I could +descend to cater for tastes of that description (which I am persuaded, +are naturally no tastes of _your_ family),--you must feel, on +reflection, how peculiarly impossible it is to take that course in +sketching the character of a friend, because the very means, by which +in almost every case one becomes possessed of such private anecdotes, +are the opportunities thrown in one's way by the confiding negligence +of affectionate friendship; opportunities therefore which must be for +ever sacred to every man of honour. + +Yours most faithfully, + +PARMENIDES. + + + + +THE LAKE DIALECT. + +_To the Editor of 'Titan.'_ + + +My Dear Sir,--I send you a few hasty notes upon Mr. Robert Ferguson's +little work (relating to the dialect current at the English +Lakes).[48] Mr. Ferguson's book is learned and seasonable, adapted to +the stage at which such studies have now arrived among us, and adapted +also to a popular use. I am sure that Mr. Ferguson knows a great deal +more about his very interesting theme than _I_ do. Nevertheless, I +presume to sit in judgment upon him; or so it will be inferred from my +assuming the office of his reviewer. But in reality I pretend to no +such ambitious and invidious functions. What I propose to do, in this +hasty and _extempore_ fashion, is--simply to take a seat in Mr. +Ferguson's court as an _amicus curiæ_, and occasionally to suggest a +doubt, by possibility an amendment; but more often to lead astray +judge, jury, and docile audience into matter growing out of the +subject, but very seldom leading back into it, too often, perhaps, +having little to do with it; pleasant by possibility, according to +Foote's judgment in a parallel case, 'pleasant, but wrong.' No great +matter if it should be so. It will be read within the privileged term +of Christmas;[49] during which licensed saturnalia it can be no blame +to any paper, that it is 'pleasant, but wrong.' + +[Footnote 48: _The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland._ By Robert +Ferguson. Carlisle: Steel & Brother. London: Longmans & Co.] + +[Footnote 49: Writing at the moment in Scotland, where Christmas is as +little heard of, or popularly understood or regarded, as the Mahometan +festival of Beyram or the fast of Ramadan, I ought to explain that, as +Christmas Day, by adjournment from Lady Day--namely, March 25--falls +uniformly on December 25, it happens necessarily that _Twelfth_ Day +(the adoration of the Magi at Bethlehem), which is the ceremonial +close of Christmas, falls upon the 5th day of January; seven days in +the old, five in the new, year.] + +I begin with lodging a complaint against Mr. Ferguson, namely, that he +has ignored me--me, that in some measure may be described as having +broken ground originally in this interesting field of research. Me, +the undoubted parent of such studies--_i. e._ the person who first +solemnly proclaimed the Danish language to be the master-key for +unlocking the peculiarities of the Lake dialect--me, has this +undutiful son never noticed, except incidentally, and then only with +some reserve, or even with a distinct scruple, as regards the +particular point of information for which I am cited. Seriously, +however, this very passage, which offers me the affront of utter +exclusion from what I had regarded as my own peculiar territory, my +own Danish ring-fence, shows clearly that no affront had been +designed. Mr. Ferguson had found occasion, at p. 80, to mention that +_Fairfield_, the most distinguished[50] of the Grasmere boundaries, +and 'next neighbour to Helvellyn' (next also in magnitude, being +above three thousand feet high), had, as regarded its name, 'been +derived from the Scandinavian _faar_, sheep, in allusion to the +peculiar fertility of its pastures.' He goes on thus--'This mountain' +(says De Quincey) 'has large, smooth pastoral savannahs, to which the +sheep resort when all its rocky or barren neighbours are left +desolate.' In thus referring to myself for the character of the +mountain, he does not at all suppose that he is referring to the +author of the etymology. On the contrary, the very next sentence +says--'I do not know who is the author of this etymology, which has +been quoted by several writers; but it appears to me to be open to +considerable doubt'; and this for two separate reasons, which he +assigns, and which I will notice a little further on. + +[Footnote 50: + + 'And mighty Fairfield, with its chime + Of echoes, still was keeping time.' + + WORDSWORTH--_The Waggoner_.] + +Meantime I pause, for the sake of saying that the derivation is mine. +Thirty-seven, or it may be thirty-eight, years ago, I first brought +forward my Danish views in a local newspaper--namely, _The Kendal +Gazette_, published every Saturday. The rival (I may truly say--the +hostile) newspaper, published also on Saturday, was called _The +Westmoreland Chronicle_. The exact date of my own communication upon +the dialect of the Lake district I cannot at this moment assign. +Earlier than 1818 it could not have been, nor later than 1820. What +first threw me upon this vein of exploring industry was, the +accidental stumbling suddenly upon an interesting little incident of +Westmoreland rustic life. From a roadside cottage, just as I came +nearly abreast of its door, issued a little child; not old enough to +walk with particular firmness, but old enough for mischief; a laughing +expression of which it bore upon its features. It was clearly in the +act of absconding from home, and was hurrying earnestly to a turn of +the road which it counted upon making available for concealment. But, +before it could reach this point, a young woman, of remarkable beauty, +perhaps twenty years old, ran out in some alarm, which was not +diminished by hearing the sound of carriage-wheels rapidly coming up +from a distance of probably two furlongs. The little rosy thing +stopped and turned on hearing its mother's voice, but hesitated a +little, until she made a gesture of withdrawing her handkerchief from +her bosom, and said, coaxingly, 'Come its ways, then, and get its +_patten_.' Until that reconciling word was uttered, there had been a +shadow of distrust on the baby's face, as if treachery might be in the +wind. But the magic of that one word _patten_ wrought an instant +revolution. Back the little truant ran, and the young mother's manner +made it evident that she would not on _her_ part forget what had +passed between the high contracting parties.[51] What, then, could be +the meaning of this talismanic word _patten_? Accidentally, having +had a naval brother confined amongst the Danes, as a prisoner of war, +for eighteen months, I knew that it meant the female bosom. Soon after +I stumbled upon the meaning of the Danish word _Skyandren_--namely, +what in street phrase amongst ourselves is called giving to any person +a _blowing-up_. This was too remarkable a word, too bristling with +harsh blustering consonants, to baffle the detecting ear, as it might +have done under any masquerading _aura-textilis_, or woven air of +vowels and diphthongs. + +[Footnote 51: It might seem odd to many people that a child able to +run alone should not have been already weaned, a process of early +misery that, in modern improved practice, takes place amongst opulent +families at the age of six months; and, secondly, it might seem +equally odd that, until weaned, any infant could be truly described as +'rosy.' I wish, however, always to be punctiliously accurate; and I +can assure my readers that, generally speaking, the wives of labouring +men (for more reasons than one) suckle their infants for three years, +to the great indignation of medical practitioners, who denounce the +practice as six times too long. Secondly, although unweaned infants +are ordinarily pale, yet, amongst those approaching their eighteenth +or twentieth month, there are often found children as rosy as any one +can meet with.] + +Many scores of times I had heard men threatening to _skiander_ this +person or that when next they should meet. Not by possibility could it +indicate any mode of personal violence; for no race of men could be +more mild and honourably forbearing in their intercourse with each +other than the manly dalesmen of the Lakes. From the context, it had +long been evident that it implied expostulation and _verbal_ reproach. +And now at length I learned that this was its Danish import. The very +mountain at the foot of which my Grasmere cottage stood, and the +little orchard attached to which formed 'the lowest step in that +magnificent staircase' (such was Wordsworth's description of it), +leading upwards to the summits of Helvellyn, reminded me daily of that +Danish language which all around me suggested as being the secret +writing--the seal--the lock that imprisoned ancient records as to +thing or person, and yet again as being the key that should open this +lock; as that which had hidden through many centuries, and yet also as +that which should finally reveal. + +I have thus come round to the name of Fairfield, which seemed to me +some forty years ago as beyond all reasonable doubt the Danish mask +for _Sheep-fell_. But, in using the phrase '_reasonable_ doubt,' I am +far from insinuating that Mr. Ferguson's deliberate doubt is _not_ +reasonable. I will state both sides of the question, for neither is +without some show of argument. To me it seemed next to impossible that +the early Danish settlers could, under the natural pressure of +prominent differences among that circuit of hills which formed the +barriers of Grasmere, have failed to distinguish as the sheep mountain +that sole eminence which offered a pasture ground to their sheep all +the year round. In summer and autumn _all_ the neighbouring fells, +that were not mere rocks, yielded pasture more or less scanty. But +Fairfield showed herself the _alma mater_ of their flocks even in +winter and early spring. So, at least, my local informants asserted. +Mr. Ferguson, however, objects, as an unaccountable singularity, that +on this hypothesis we shall have one mountain, and one only, classed +under the _modern_ Scandinavian term of _field_; all others being +known by the elder name of _fell_. I acknowledge that this anomaly is +perplexing. But, on the other hand, what Mr. Ferguson suggests is +still more perplexing. He supposes that, 'because' the summit of this +mountain is such a peculiarly green and level plain, it might not +inappropriately be called _a fair field_.' Certainly it might; but by +Englishmen of recent generations, and not by Danish immigrants of the +ninth century. To balance the anomaly of what certainly wears a faint +_soupçon_ of anachronism--namely, the _apparent_ anticipation of the +modern Norse word _field_, Mr. Ferguson's conjecture would take a +headlong plunge into good classical English. Now of this there is no +other instance. Even the little swells of ground, that hardly rise to +the dignity of hills, which might be expected to submit readily to +changing appellations, under the changing accidents of ownership, yet +still retain their primitive Scandinavian names--as _Butterlip Howe_, +for example. Nor do I recollect any exceptions to this tendency, +unless in the case of jocose names, such as _Skiddaw's Cub_, for +Lattrig; and into this class, perhaps, falls even the dignified +mountain of _The Old Man_, at the head of Coniston. Mr. Ferguson will +allow that it would be as startling to the dense old Danes of King +Alfred's time, if they had found a mountain of extra pretensions +wearing a modern English name, as it would to the Macedonian +_argyraspides_, if suspecting that, in some coming century, their +mighty leader, 'the great Emathian conqueror,' could by any possible +Dean of St. Patrick, and by any conceivable audacity of legerdemain, +be traced back to _All-eggs-under-the-grate_. If the name really _is_ +good English, in that case a separate and _extra_ labour arises for us +all; there must have been some old Danish name for this most +serviceable of fells; and then we have not merely to explain the +present English name, but also to account for the disappearance of +this archæological Danish name. What I would throw out conjecturally +as a bare possibility is this:--When an ancient dialect (A) is +gradually superseded by a more modern one (E), the flood of innovation +which steals over the old reign, and gradually dispossesses it, does +not rush in simultaneously as a torrent, but supervenes stealthily and +unequally, according to the humouring or thwarting of local +circumstances. Nobody, I am sure, is better aware of this accident, as +besetting the transit of dialects, than Mr. Ferguson. For instance, +many of those words which are imported to us from the American United +States, and often amuse us by their picturesqueness, have originally +been carried to America by our own people; in England they lurked for +ages as provincialisms, localised within some narrow circuit, and to +which some trifling barrier (as a river--rivulet--or even a brook) +offered a retarding force. In supercivilised England, a river, it may +be thought, cannot offer much obstruction to the free current of +words; ages ago it must have been bridged over. Sometimes, however, a +bridge is impossible under the transcendent importance of a free +navigation. For instance, at the Bristol Hotwells, the ready and +fluent intercourse with Long Ashton, and a long line of adjacencies, +is effectually obstructed by the necessity of an open water +communication with the Bristol Channel. At one period (_i. e._ when as +yet Liverpool and Glasgow were fifth-rate ports), all the wealth of +the West Indies flowed into England through this little muddy ditch of +the Bristol Avon, and Rownham Ferry became the exponent and measure of +English intercourse with the northern nook of Somersetshire. A river +is bad; but when a mountain of very toilsome ascent happens to be +interposed, the interruption offered to the popular intercourse, and +the results of this interruption, become much more memorable. An +illustration which I can offer on this point, and which, in fact, I +_did_ offer (as, upon inquiry, Mr. Ferguson will find), thirty-eight +years ago, happens to bear with peculiar force upon our immediate +difficulty of Fairfield. The valleys on the northern side of +Kirkstone--namely, in particular, the three valleys of Patterdale, +Matterdale, and Martindale--are as effectually cut off from +intercourse with the valleys on the southern side--namely, the +Windermere valley, Ryedale, and Grasmere, with all their tributary +nooks and attachments--as though an arm of the sea had rolled between +them. It costs a foot traveller half of a summer's day to effect the +passage to and fro over Kirkstone (what the Greeks so tersely +expressed in the case of a race-course[52] by the one word _diaulos_). +And in _my_ time no innkeeper from the Windermere side of Kirkstone +would carry even a solitary individual across with fewer than four +horses. What has been the result? Why, that the dialect on the +northern side of Kirkstone bears the impress of a more ultra-Danish +influence than that upon the Windermere side. In particular this +remarkable difference occurs: not the nouns and verbs merely are +Danish amongst the trans-Kirkstonians (I speak as a Grasmerian), but +even the particles--the very joints and articulations of language. The +Danish _at_, for instance, is used for _to_; I do not mean for _to_ +the preposition: they do not say, 'Carry this letter at Mr. 'W.'; but +as the sign of the infinitive mood. 'Tell him _at_ put his spurs on, +and _at_ ride off for a surgeon?' Now this illustration carries along +with it a proof that a stronger and a weaker infusion of the Danish +element, possibly an older and a younger infusion, may prevail even in +close adjacencies, provided they are powerfully divided by walls of +rock that happen to be eight miles thick. + +[Footnote 52: I mean that they included the progressive or +outward-bound course, and equally the regressive or homeward-bound +course, within the compass of this one word [Greek: diaulos]. We in +England have a phrase which conventionally has been made to supply the +want of such an idea, but unfortunately with a limitation to the +service of the Post-office. It is the phrase _course of post_. When a +Newcastle man is asked, 'What is the course of post between you and +Liverpool?' he understands, and by a legal decision it has been +settled that he is under an obligation to understand--What is the +_diaulos_, what is the flux and reflux--the to and the fro--the +systole and diastole of the respiration--between you and Liverpool. +What is the number of hours and minutes required for the transit of a +letter from Newcastle to Liverpool, but coupled with the return +transit of the answer? This forward and backward movement constitutes +the _diaulos_: less than this will not satisfy the law as the complex +process understood by the _course of post_. Less than this is only the +half section of a _diaulos_.] + +But the inexorable Press, that waits for few men under the rank of a +king, and not always for _him_ (as I happen to know, by having once +seen a proof-sheet corrected by the royal hand of George IV., which +proof exhibited some disloyal signs of impatience), forces me to +adjourn all the rest to next month.--Yours ever, + +THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + + + + +STORMS IN ENGLISH HISTORY: + +A GLANCE AT THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.[53] + + +What two works are those for which at this moment our national +intellect (or, more rigorously speaking, our _popular_ intellect) is +beginning clamorously to call? They are these: first, a +_Conversations-Lexicon_, obeying (as regards plan and purpose) the +general outline of the German work bearing that title; ministering to +the same elementary necessities; implying, therefore, a somewhat +corresponding stage of progress in our own populace and that of +Germany; but otherwise (as regards the executive details in adapting +such a work to the special service of an English public) moving under +moral restraints sterner by much, and more faithfully upheld, than +could rationally be looked for in any great literary enterprise +resigned to purely German impulses. For over the atmosphere of thought +and feeling in Germany there broods no _public_ conscience. Such a +_Conversations-Lexicon_ is one of the two great works for which the +popular mind of England is waiting and watching in silence. The other +(and not less important) work is--a faithful _History of England_. We +will offer, at some future time, a few words upon the first; but upon +the second--here brought before us so advantageously in the earnest, +thoughtful, and oftentimes eloquent volumes of Mr. Froude--we will +venture to offer three or four pages of critical comment. + +[Footnote 53: _History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death +of Elizabeth._ By James Anthony Froude, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter +College, Oxford. Vols. I. and II. London: Parker & Son, West Strand. +1856.] + +Could the England of the sixteenth century have escaped that great +convulsion which accompanied the dissolution of the monasteries? It is +barely possible that a gentle system of periodic decimations, +distributing this inevitable ruin over an entire century, might have +blunted the edge of the fierce ploughshare: but there were +difficulties in the way of such arrangements, that would too probably +have thwarted the benign purpose. + +Meantime, what was it that had stolen like a canker-worm into the +machinery of these monastic bodies, and insensibly had corroded a +principle originally of admitted purity? The malice of Protestantism +has too readily assumed that Popery was answerable for this corrosion. +But it would be hard to show that Popery in any one of its features, +good or bad, manifested itself conspicuously and operatively: nay, to +say the simple truth, it was through the very opposite agency that the +monastic institutions came to ruin: it was because Popery, that +supreme control to which these monasteries had been confided, shrank +from its responsibilities--weakly, lazily, or even perfidiously, +abandoned that supervisorship in default of which neither right of +inspection, nor duty of inspection, nor power of inspection, was found +to be lodged in any quarter--_there_ it was, precisely in that +dereliction of censorial authority, that all went to ruin. All +corporations grow corrupt, unless habitually kept under the eye of +public inspection, or else officially liable to searching visitations. +Now, who were the regular and official visitors of the English +monasteries? Not the local bishops; for in that case the public +clamour, the very notoriety of the scandals (as we see them reported +by Wicliffe and Chaucer), would have guided the general wrath to some +effectual surgery for the wounds and ulcers of the institutions. +Unhappily the official visitors were the heads of the monastic orders; +these, and these only. A Franciscan body, for example, owed no +obedience except to the representative of St. Francis; and this +representative too uniformly resided somewhere on the Continent. And +thus it was that effectually and virtually English monasteries were +subject to no control. Nay, the very corrections of old abuses by +English parliamentary statutes had greatly strengthened the evil. +Formerly, the monastic funds were drawn upon to excess in defraying +the costs of a transmarine visitation. But that evil, rising into +enormous proportions, was at length radically extirpated by +parliamentary statutes that cut down the costs; so that continental +devotees, finding their visitations no longer profitable in a +pecuniary sense, sometimes even costly to themselves, and costly upon +a scale but dimly intelligible to any continental experience, rapidly +cooled down in their pious enthusiasm against monastic delinquencies. +Hatred, at any rate, and malignant anger the visitor had to face, not +impossibly some risk of assassination, in prosecuting his inquiries +into the secret crimes of monks that were often confederated in a +common interest of resistance to all honest or searching inquiry. +But, if to these evils were superadded others of a pecuniary class, it +was easy to anticipate, under this failure of all regular +inspectorship, a period of plenary indulgence to the excesses of these +potent corporations. Such a period came: no man being charged with the +duty of inspection, no man inspected; but never was the danger more +surely at hand, than when it seemed by all ordinary signs to have +absolutely died out. Already, in the days of Richard II., the doom of +the monasteries might be heard muttering in the chambers of the upper +air. In the angry denunciations of Wicliffe, in the popular merriment +of Chaucer, might be read the same sentence of condemnation awarded +against them. Fierce warnings were given to them at intervals. A +petition against them was addressed by the House of Commons to Henry +IV. The son of this prince, the man of Agincourt, though superstitious +enough, if superstition could have availed them, had in _his_ short +reign (so occupied, one might have thought, with war and foreign +affairs) found time to read them a dreadful warning: more than five +scores of these offending bodies (Priories Alien) were suppressed by +that single monarch, the laughing _Hal_ of Jack Falstaff. One whole +century slipped away between this penal suppression and the ministry +of Wolsey. What effect can we ascribe to this admonitory chastisement +upon the general temper and conduct of the monastic interest? It would +be difficult beyond measure at this day to draw up any adequate report +of the foul abuses prevailing in the majority of religious houses, for +the three following reasons:--First, because the main record of such +abuses, after it had been elaborately compiled under the commission of +Henry VIII., was (at the instigation of his eldest daughter Mary) most +industriously destroyed by Bishop Bonner; secondly, because too +generally the original oath of religious fidelity and secrecy, in +matters interesting to the founder and the foundation, was held to +interfere with frank disclosures; thirdly, because, as to much of the +most crying licentiousness, its full and satisfactory detection too +often depended upon a surprise. Steal upon the delinquents suddenly, +and ten to one they were caught _flagrante delicto_: but upon any +notice transpiring of the hostile approach, all was arranged so as to +evade for the moment--or in the end to baffle finally--search alike +and suspicion. + +The following report, which Mr. Froude views as the liveliest of all +that Bishop Bonner's zeal has spared, offers a picturesque sketch of +such cases, according to the shape which they often assumed. In +Chaucer's tale, told with such unrivalled _vis comica_, of the +_Trompington Miller and the Two Cambridge Scholars_, we have a most +life-like picture of the miller with his 'big bones,' as a 'dangerous' +man for the nonce. Just such a man, just as dangerous, and just as +big-boned, we find in the person of an abbot--defending his abbey, not +by any reputation for sanctity or learning, but solely by his +_dangerousness_ as the wielder of quarter-staff and cudgel. With no +bull-dog or mastiff, and taken by surprise, such an abbot naturally +lost the stakes for which he played. The letter is addressed to the +Secretary of State:--'Please it your goodness to understand, that on +Friday the 22nd of October (1535), I rode back with speed to take an +inventory of Folkstone; and thence I went to Langden. Whereat +immediately descending from my horse, I sent Bartlett, your servant, +with all _my_ servants, to circumsept the abbey [_i. e._ to form a +hedge round about], and surely to keep [guard] all back-doors and +starting holes. I myself went alone to the abbot's lodging--joining +upon the fields and wood.' [This position, the reporter goes on to +insinuate, was no matter of chance: but, like a rabbit-warren, had +been so placed with a view to the advantages for retreat and for cover +in the adjacent woodlands.] 'I was a good space knocking at the +abbot's door; neither did any sound or sensible manifestation of life +betray itself, saving the abbot's little dog, that within his door, +fast locked, bayed and barked. I found a short pole-axe standing +behind the door; and with it I dashed the abbot's door in pieces _ictu +oculi_ [in the twinkling of an eye]; and set one of my men to keep +that door; and about the house I go with that pole-axe in my hand--_ne +forte_ ["_lest by any chance_"[54]--holding in suspense such words as +"_some violence should be offered_"]--for the abbot is a dangerous, +desperate knave, and a hardy. But, for a conclusion, his gentlewoman +bestirred her stumps towards her starting holes; and then Bartlett, +watching the pursuit, took the tender _demoisel_; and, after I had +examined her, to Dover--to the mayor, to set her in some cage or +prison for eight days. And I brought holy father abbot to Canterbury; +and here, in Christ Church, I will leave him in prison.' + +[Footnote 54: '_Ne forte_' is a case of what is learnedly called +_aposiopesis_ or _reticentia_; that is, where (for the sake of effect) +some emphatic words are left to be guessed at: as Virgil's _Quos +ego_----(Whom if I catch, I'll----)] + +This little interlude, offering its several figures in such life-like +attitudes--its big-boned abbot prowling up and down the precincts of +the abbey for the chance of a 'shy' at the intruding commissioner--the +little faithful bow-wow doing its _petit possible_ to warn big-bones +of his danger, thus ending his faithful services by an act of farewell +loyalty--and the unlucky _demoisel_ scuttling away to her +rabbit-warren, only to find all the spiracles and peeping-holes +preoccupied or stopped, and her own 'apparel' unhappily locked up '_in +the abbot his coffer_,' so as to render hopeless all evasion or +subsequent denial of the fact, that ten big-boned 'indusia' (or +shirts) lay interleaved in one and the same 'coffer,' _inter totidem +niveas camisas_[55] (or chemises)--all this framed itself as a little +amusing parenthesis, a sort of family picture amongst the dreadful +reports of ecclesiastical commissioners. + +[Footnote 55: '_Camisas_:' _i. e._ chemises; but at one time the word +_camisa_ was taken indifferently for shirt or chemise. And hence arose +the term _camisado_ for a night-attack, in which the assailants +recognised each other in the dark by their white shirt-sleeves, +sometimes further distinguished by a tight cincture of broad black +riband. The last literal camisado, that I remember, was a nautical +one--a cutting-out enterprise somewhere about 1807-8.] + +No _suppression_ of the religious houses had originally been designed; +nothing more than a searching _visitation_. And at this moment, yes, +at this present midsummer of 1856, waiting and looking forward to the +self-same joyful renewal of leases that then was looked for in +England, but not improbably, alas! summoned to the same ineffable +disappointment as fell more than three centuries back upon our own +England--lies, waiting for her doom, a great kingdom in central +Europe. She, and under the same causes, may chance to be disappointed. +What was it that caused the tragic convulsion in England? Simply this: +regular and healthy visitation having ceased, infinite abuses had +arisen; and these abuses, it was found at last, could not be healed by +any measure less searching than absolute suppression. Austria, as +regards some of her provinces, stands in the same circumstances at +this very moment. Imperfect visitations, that cleansed nothing, should +naturally have left her religious establishments languishing for the +one sole remedy that was found applicable to the England of 1540. And +what was _that_? It was a remedy that carried along with it +revolution. England was found able in those days to stand that fierce +medicine: a more profound revolution has not often been witnessed than +that of our mighty Reformation. Can Austria, considering the awful +contagions amongst which her political relations have entangled her, +hope for the same happy solution of her case? Perhaps a revolution, +that once unlocks the fountains of blood in central Germany, will be +the bloodiest of all revolutions: whereas, in our own chapters of +revolution even the stormiest, those of the Marian Persecution and of +the Parliamentary War, both alike moved under restraints of law and +legislative policy. The very bloodiest promises of English history +have replied but feebly to the clamour and expectations of cruel or +fiery partisans. Different is the prospect for Austria. From her, and +from the auguries of evil which becloud her else smiling atmosphere, +let us turn back to our own history in this sixteenth century, and +for a moment make a brief inquest into the blood that really was +shed--whether justly or not justly. Bloodshed, as an instinct--bloodshed, +as an appetite--raged like a monsoon in the French Revolution, and many +centuries before in the Rome of Sylla and Marius--in the Rome of the +Triumvirate, and generally in the period of Proscriptions. Too fearfully +it is evident that these fits of _acharnement_ were underlaid and fed by +paroxysms of personal cruelty. In England, on the other hand, foul and +hateful as was the Marian butchery, nevertheless it cannot be denied +that this butchery rested entirely upon principle. Homage offered to +anti-Lutheran principles, in a moment disarmed the Popish executioner. +Or if (will be the objection of the reflecting reader)--if there are +exceptions to this rule, these must be looked for amongst the king's +enemies. And the term 'enemies' will fail to represent adequately those +who, not content with ranking themselves wilfully amongst persons +courting objects irreconcilable to the king's interests, sought to +exasperate the displeasure of Henry by special insults, by peculiar +mortifications, and by complex ingratitude. Foremost amongst such cases +stands forward the separate treason of Anne Boleyn, mysterious to this +hour in some of its features, rank with pollutions such as European +prejudice would class with Italian enormities, and by these very +pollutions--literally by and through the very excess of the +guilt--claiming to be incredible. Neither less nor more than this which +follows is the logic put into the mouth of the Lady Anne Boleyn:--From +the mere enormity of the guilt imputed to me, from that very abysmal +stye of incestuous adultery in which now I wallow, I challenge as of +right the presumption that I am innocent; for the very reason that I am +loaded in my impeachment with crimes that are inhuman, I claim to be no +criminal at all. Because my indictment is revolting and monstrous, +therefore is it incredible. The case, taken apart from the person, would +not (unless through its mysteriousness and imperfect circumstantiation) +have attracted the interest which _has_ given it, and _will_ in all time +coming continue to give it, a root in history amongst insoluble or +doubtfully soluble historical problems. The _case_, being painful and +shocking, would by readers generally have long since been dismissed to +darkness. But the _person_, too critically connected with a vast and +immortal revolution, will for ever call back the case before the +tribunals of earth. The mother of Queen Elizabeth, the mother of +Protestantism in England, cannot be suffered--never _will_ be +suffered--to benefit by that shelter of merciful darkness which, upon +any humbler person, or even upon this person in any humbler case, might +be suffered to settle quietly as regards the memory of her acts. Mr. +Froude, a pure-minded man, is the last man to call back into the glare +of a judicial inquest deeds of horror, over which eternal silence should +have brooded, had such an issue been possible. But three centuries of +discussion have made _that_ more and more impossible. And now, +therefore, with a view to the improvement of the dispute, and, perhaps, +in one or two instances, with a chance for the rectification of the +'_issues_' (speaking juridically) into which the question has been +allowed to lapse, Mr. Froude has in some degree re-opened the +discussion. 'The guilt,' he says, 'must rest where it is due. But under +any hypothesis guilt there _was_--dark, mysterious, and most miserable.' + +Tell this story how you may, and the evidence remains of guilt under +_any_ hypothesis--guilt such as in Grecian tragedy was seen thousands +of years ago hanging in clouds of destiny over princely houses, and +reading to them a doom of utter ruin, root and branch, in which, as in +the anarchy of hurricanes, no form or feature was descried +distinctly--nothing but some dim fluctuating phantom, pointing with +recording finger to that one ancestral crime through which the +desolation had been wrought. + +Mr. Froude, through his natural sense of justice, and his deep study +of the case, is unfavourably disposed towards the Lady Anne Boleyn: +nevertheless he retains lingering doubts on her behalf, all of which, +small and great, we have found reason to dismiss. We, for our parts, +are thoroughly convinced of her guilt. Our faith is, that no shadow of +any ground exists for suspending the verdict of the sentence; but at +the same time for mitigating that sentence there arose this strong +argument--namely, that amongst women not formally pronounced idiots, +there never can have been one more pitiably imbecile. + +There is a mystery hanging over her connection with the king which +nobody has attempted to disperse. We will ourselves suggest a few +considerations that may bring a little coherency amongst the scattered +glimpses of her fugitive court life. The very first thought that +presents itself, is a sentiment, that would be pathetic in the case of +a person entitled to more respect, upon the brevity of her public +career. Apparently she lost the king's favour almost in the very +opening of her married life. But in what way? Not, we are persuaded, +through the king's caprice. There was hardly time for caprice to have +operated; and her declension in favour from that cause would have been +gradual. Time there was none for her beauty to decay--neither _had_ it +decayed. We are disposed to think that in a very early stage of her +intercourse with the king, she had irritated the king by one +indication of mental imbecility rarely understood even amongst medical +men--namely, the offensive habit of laughing profusely without the +least sense of anything ludicrous or comic. Oxford, or at least one of +those who shot at the Queen, was signally distinguished by this habit. +Without reason or pretext, he would break out into causeless laughter, +not connected with any impulse that he could explain. With this +infirmity Anne Boleyn was plagued in excess. On the 2nd of May, 1536, +the very first day on which she was made aware of the dreadful +accusations hanging over her good name and her life, on being +committed to the Tower, and taken by Sir William Kingston, the +governor, to the very same chambers in which she had lain at the +period of her coronation, she said, 'It' (meaning the suite of rooms) +'is too good for me; Jesu, have mercy on me;' next she kneeled down, +'weeping a great space.' Such are Sir William's words; immediately +after which he adds, 'and in the same sorrow fell into a great +laughing.' A day or two later than this, she said, 'Master Kingston, +shall I die without justice?'--meaning, it seems, would she be put to +death without any judicial examination of her case; upon which Sir +William replied, 'The poorest subject the king hath, had +justice'--meaning, that previously to such an examination of his case, +he could not by regular course of justice be put to death. Such was +the question of the prisoner--such was the answer of the king's +representative. What occasion was here suggested for rational +laughter? And yet laughter was her sole comment. 'Therewith,' says Sir +William, 'she laughed.' On May 18th, being the day next before that of +her execution, she said, 'Master Kingston, I hear say I shall not die +afore noon; and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought to be dead by +this time, and past my pain.' Upon this Sir William assured her 'it +should be no pain, it was so subtle;' meaning that the stroke of a +sword by a powerful arm, applied to a slender neck, could not meet +resistance enough to cause any serious pain. She replied, 'I heard say +the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck;' after which +she laughed heartily. Sir William so much misunderstood this laughter, +which was doubtless of the same morbid and idiotic character as all +the previous cases, that he supposes her to have had 'much joy and +pleasure in death,' which is a mere misconstruction of the case. Even +in the very act of dying she could not check her smiling, which +assuredly was as morbid in its quality and origin as what of old was +known as '_risus sardonicus_.' + +Carrying along with us, therefore, a remembrance of this repulsive +habit, which argues a silliness so constitutional, and noting also the +obstinate (almost it might be called the brutal) folly with which, +during the last seventeen days of her life, she persisted in +criminating herself, volunteering a continued rehearsal of +conversations the most profligate, under a mere instinct of gossiping, +we shall begin to comprehend the levity which no doubt must have +presided in her conversations with the king. Too evidently in a court +but recently emerging from barbarism, there was a shocking defect of +rules or fixed ceremonial for protecting the dignity of the queen and +of her female attendants. The settlement of any such rules devolved +upon the queen herself, in default of any traditional system; and +unhappily here was a queen without sense, without prudence, without +native and sexual dignity for suggesting or upholding such restraints, +and whose own breeding and experience had been purely French. Strange +it was that the king's good sense, or even his jealousy, had not +peremptorily enjoined, as a caution of mere decency, the constant +presence of some elderly matrons, uniting rank and station with +experience and good sense. But not the simplest guarantees for +ordinary decorum were apparently established in the royal household. +And the shocking spectacle was daily to be seen, of a young woman, +singularly beautiful, atrociously silly, and without common +self-respect, styling herself Queen of England, yet exacting no more +respect or homage than a housemaid, suffering young men, the most +licentious in all England, openly to speculate on the contingency of +her husband's death, to talk of it in language the coarsest, as +'waiting for dead men's shoes,' and bandying to and fro the chances +that this man or that man, according to the whim of the morning, +should 'have her,' or should _not_ 'have her'--that is, have the +reversion of the queen's person as a derelict of the king. All this, +though most injurious to her prospects, was made known by Anne Boleyn +herself to the female companions who were appointed to watch her +revelations in prison. And certainly no chambermaid ever rehearsed her +own colloquies with these vile profligates in a style of thinking more +abject than did at this period the female majesty of England. +Listening to no accuser, but simply to the unsolicited revelations of +the queen herself, as she lay in bed amongst her female attendants in +the Tower, every man of sense becomes aware, that if these +presumptuous young libertines abstained from daily proposals to the +queen of the most criminal nature, _that_ could arise only from the +reserve and suspicion incident to a state of rivalship, and not from +any deference paid to the queen's personal pretensions, or to her +public character. + +Three years, probably one-half of that term, had seen the beginning, +the decay, and the utter extinction of the king's affection for Anne. +It is known now, and at the time it had furnished a theme for +conjecture, that very soon after his marriage the king manifested +uneasiness, and not long after angry suspicions, upon matters +connected with the queen. We have no doubt that she herself, whilst +seeking to amuse the king with fragments of her French experiences, +had, through mere oversight and want of tact, unintentionally betrayed +the risks to which her honour had been at times exposed. Without +presence of mind, without inventive talent or rapidity of artifice, +she would often compromise herself, and overshoot her momentary +purposes of furnishing amusement to the king. He had heard too much. +He believed no longer in her purity. And very soon, as a natural +consequence, she ceased to interest him. The vague wish to get rid of +her would for some time suggest no hopeful devices towards such a +purpose. For some months, apparently, he simply neglected her. This +neglect unhappily it was that threw her unprotected upon the vile +society of young libertines. Two of these--Sir Henry Norris and Sir +Francis Weston--had been privileged friends of the king. But no +restraints of friendship or of duty had checked their designs upon the +queen. Either special words, or special acts, had been noticed and +reported to the king. Thenceforward a systematic watch had been +maintained upon all parties. Discoveries more shocking than anybody +looked for had been made. The guilty parties had been careless: blind +themselves, they thought all others blind; but, during the April of +1536, the Privy Council had been actively engaged in digesting and +arranging the information received. + +On May-day, the most gladsome day in the whole year, according to the +usages of that generation, the dreadful news transpired of the awful +accusations and the impending trials. Smeton, a musician, was the only +person not of gentlemanly rank amongst the accused. He was accused of +adultery with the queen; and he confessed the offence; never +retracting that part of his confession. In discussing the +probabilities of the case, it is necessary to use special and +extraordinary caution. The confession, for instance, of Anne herself +has been treated as hollow and unmeaning; because, it is alleged, the +king's promise of indulgence and favour to her infant daughter was +purchased under the condition of confession. It is clear that such a +traffic would not have been available except in special and +exceptional cases. As to Smeton, he did not at all meet the king's +expectations, except as to the one point of confessing the adultery. +Consequently, as he was quite disinterested, had nothing at all to +gain, and did gain nothing by his confession, _him_ we are obliged to +believe. On the other hand, the _non_-confession of some amongst the +gentlemen, if any there were that steadfastly adhered to this +non-confession, proves nothing at all; since _they_ thought it perfidy +to confess such a case against a woman. Meantime, Constantyne, a known +friend of Sir H. Norris and of Sir W. Brereton, two of the four +gentlemen accused, declares that, for himself, being a Protestant, and +knowing the queen's secret leaning to that party, he and all other +'friends of the gospel' could not bring themselves to believe that the +queen had behaved so abominably. 'As I may be saved before God,' he +says, 'I could not believe it, afore I heard them speak at their +death. But on the scaffold, in a manner _all_ confessed, unless +Norris; and as to _him_, what he said amounted to nothing.' The truth +is, there occurred in the cases of these gentlemen a dreadful +struggle. The dilemma for _them_ was perhaps the most trying upon +record. Gallantry and manly tenderness forbade any man's confessing, +for a certain result of ruin to a woman, any treasonable instances of +love which she had shown to him. Yet, on the other hand, to deny was +to rush into the presence of God with a lie upon their lips. Hence the +unintelligible character of their final declarations. Smeton, as no +gentleman, was hanged. All the other four--Norris, Brereton, Weston, +and Rochford--were beheaded. The four gentlemen and Smeton suffered +all on the same day--namely, Wednesday, the 17th of May. Of all the +five, Sir W. Brereton was the only one whose guilt was doubted. Yet he +was the most emphatic in declaring his own guilt. If he could die a +thousand deaths, he said, all would be deserved. + +But the crime of all the rest seemed pale by the side of Rochford's. +He had been raised to the peerage by Henry, as an expression of his +kindness to the Boleyn family. He was the brother of Anne; and whilst +the others had offended by simple adultery with Anne, _his_ crime was +incestuous adultery; and his dying words appeared (to the _auditors_), +'if not,' says Mr. Froude, 'a confession, yet something too nearly +resembling it.' + +From such dreadful offences, all readers are glad to hurry away; yet +in one respect this awful impeachment has a reconciling effect. No +reader after this wishes for further life to Anne. For her own sake it +is plain that through death must lie the one sole peaceful solution of +her unhappy and erring life. Some people have most falsely supposed +that the case against the brother and sister, whatever might be +pronounced upon the four other cases, laboured under antecedent +improbabilities so great as to vitiate, or to load with suspicion, the +entire case of the Privy Council. But, on the contrary, the shocking +monstrosity of the charge strengthens the anti-Boleyn impeachment. As +a means for getting rid of Anne, the Rochford case was not at all +needed. If it could even in dreams be represented as false, the injury +offered to the Boleyns, whilst quite superfluous for any purpose of +Henry's, would be too atrocious an outrage upon truth and natural +justice for human nature to tolerate. The very stones would mutiny +against such a calumny coming as a crown or crest to other injuries +separately unendurable, if they could once be regarded as injuries at +all. Under these circumstances, what should we think of a call upon +Lord Berkshire, the very father of Anne Boleyn, to sit as one of the +judges upon the cases. Not, indeed, upon the cases of his son and his +daughter; from such Roman trials of fortitude he was excused; but on +the other cases he was required to officiate as one of the judges. +And, in fact, the array of rank and splendour, as exhibited in the +persons of those who composed the court, surpassed anything previously +known in England. On the part of the crown, it was too keenly felt +that the deep personal interest of the king, in obtaining liberty to +form a new marriage connection with Jane Seymour, would triumphantly +outweigh all the justice that ever could be arrayed against the two +Boleyns. Nothing could win a moment's audience for the royal cause, +except an unparalleled and matchless splendour in the composition of +the court. This, therefore, was secured. Pretty nearly the whole +peerage of that period was embattled upon the bench of judges. + +Meantime, the tragedy, so far as the queen is concerned, took a turn +which convicts all parties of a blunder; of a blunder the most +needless and superfluous. This blunder was exposed by Bishop Burnet +about a hundred and fifty years later, but most insufficiently +exposed; and to this hour it has not been satisfactorily cleared up. +Let us pursue the arrears of the case. The four gentlemen, together +with Mark Smeton, were executed (as we have seen) on Wednesday, the +17th of May, 1536. Two days later Queen Anne Boleyn was brought out at +noonday upon the verdant lawn within the Tower, and with very slight +ceremonies she suffered decapitation. A single cannon-shot proclaimed +to London and Westminster the final catastrophe of this unhappy +romance. Anne had offered not one word of self-vindication on this +memorable occasion; and, if her motive to so signal a forbearance were +really consideration for the interests of her infant daughter, it must +be granted that she exhibited, in the farewell act of her life, a +grandeur of self-conquest which no man could have anticipated. For +this act she has never received the homage which she deserved; whilst, +on the other hand, praise most unmerited has been given for three +centuries to the famous letter of self-defence which she is reputed to +have addressed to the king at the opening of her trial. This letter, +beyond all doubt a forgery, was first brought into effectual notice by +the _Spectator_ somewhere about 1710; and, whether authentic or not, +is most injudiciously composed. It consists of five paragraphs, each +one of which is pulling distractedly in contradictory directions. + +Meantime, that or any other act of Anne Boleyn's was superseded by a +fatal discovery, which changed utterly the relations of all parties, +which in effect acquitted Anne of treason, and which summarily +rehabilitated as untainted subjects of the king those five men who had +suffered death in the character of traitors. The marriage of Anne to +the king, it was suddenly discovered, had from the beginning been +void. It is true that we have long ceased to accredit those objections +from precontracts, &c., which in the papal courts would be held to +establish a nullity. But we are to proceed by the laws as then +settled. Grounds of scruple, which would now raise at most a mere case +of irregularity, at that time, unless met _ab initio_ by a papal +dispensation, did legally constitute a flaw such as even a friendly +pope could not effectually cure; far less that angry priest, blazing +up with wrath, and at intervals meditating an interdict, who at +present occupied the chair of St. Peter. Here was a discovery to make, +after so much irreparable injustice had been already perpetrated! If +(which is too certain), under the marriage laws then valid, Anne +Boleyn never had been the lawful wife of Henry, then, as Bishop Burnet +suddenly objected when too late by one hundred and fifty years, what +became of the adultery imputed to Anne, and the five young courtiers? +Not being the king's wife, both _she_ was incapable in law of +committing adultery as against the king, and by an inevitable +consequence _they_ were incapable of participating in a crime which +she was incapable of committing. + +When was this fatal blunder detected? Evidently before any of the +victims had become cold in their graves. And the probability is--that, +when the blunder was first perceived, the dreadful consequences of +that blunder, and the legal relations of those consequences, were not +immediately discerned. What convinces us of this is, that the first +impulse of the king and his advisers, upon discovering through a +secret communication made by Anne the existence of a precontract, and +the consequent vitiation of her marriage with the king, had been, to +charge upon Anne a new and scandalous offence. Not until they had +taken time to review the case, did they become aware of the injustice +that had been perpetrated by their own precipitance: and as this was +past all reparation, probably it was agreed amongst the few who were +parties to the fatal oversight, that the safest course was to lock up +the secret in darkness. But it is singular to watch the fatality of +error which pursued this ill-starred marriage. Every successive +critic, in exposing the errors of his predecessor, has himself +committed some fresh blunder. Bishop Burnet, for instance, first of +all in a Protestant age indicated the bloody mistakes of papal lawyers +in 1536; not meaning at all to describe these mistakes as undetected +by those who were answerable for them. Though hushed up, they were +evidently known to their unhappy authors. Next upon Burnet, down comes +Mr. Froude. Burnet had shaped his criticism thus: 'If,' he says, 'the +queen was not married to the king, there was no adultery.' Certainly +not. But, says Mr. Froude, Burnet forgets that she was condemned for +conspiracy and incest, as well as for adultery. Then thirdly come we, +and reverting to this charge of forgetfulness upon Burnet, we say, +Forgets! but how was he bound to remember? The conspiracy, the incest, +the adultery, all alike vanish from the record exactly as the +character of wife vanishes from Anne. With any or all of these crimes +Henry had no right to intermeddle. They were the crimes of one who +never had borne any legal relation to him; crimes, therefore, against +her own conscience, but not against the king in any character that he +was himself willing permanently to assume. + +On this particular section of Henry's reign, the unhappy episode of +his second wife, Mr. Froude has erred by insufficient rigour of +justice. Inclined to do more justice than is usually done to the king, +and not blind to the dissolute character of Anne, he has yet been +carried, by the pity inalienable from the situation, to concede more +to the pretences of doubt and suspense than is warranted by the +circumstances of the case. Anne Boleyn was too surely guilty up to the +height of Messalina's guilt, and far beyond that height in one +atrocious instance. + +Passing from _that_ to the general pretensions of this very eloquent +and philosophic book, we desire to say--that Mr. Froude is the first +writer (first and sole) who has opened his eyes to comprehend the +grandeur of this tremendous reign. + + + + +THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. + + +In now reproducing the three series of notes on the Indian Mutiny +written by DE QUINCEY for me in _Titan_, I must advert briefly to the +agony of apprehension under which the two earlier chapters were +written. I can never forget the intense anxiety with which he studied +daily the columns of _The Scotsman_ and _The Times_, looking wistfully +for tidings from Roorkhee where his daughter FLORENCE was shut up. The +father's heart was on the rack until news arrived that the little +garrison was saved. + +The following paragraph from a letter written to his daughter EMILY on +Sunday, December 1st, 1857, will give some idea of the tension of that +terrible suspense:-- + +'INDIA.--Up to the last mail but one (or briefly in its Latin form, up +to the penultimate mail), I suffered in my nervous system to an extent +that (except once, in 1812) had not experimentally been made known to +me as a possibility. Every night, oftentimes all night long, I had the +same dream--a vision of children, most of them infants, but not all, +the _first_ rank being girls of five and six years old, who were +standing in the air outside, but so as to touch the window; and I +heard, or perhaps fancied that I heard, always the same dreadful word +_Delhi_, not then knowing that a word even more dreadful--- +Cawnpore--was still in arrear. This fierce shake to my nerves caused +almost from the beginning a new symptom to expose itself (of which +previously I never had the faintest outline), viz. somnambulism; and +now every night, to my great alarm, I wake up to find myself at the +window, which is sixteen feet from the nearest side of the bed. The +horror was unspeakable from the hell-dog Nena or Nana; how if this +fiend should get hold of FLORENCE or her baby (now within seventeen +days of completing her half year)? What first gave me any relief was a +good firm-toned letter, dated _Rourkee_,[56] in the public journals, +from which it was plain that _Rourkee_ had found itself able to act +aggressively.' + +[Footnote 56: Anglo-Indian authorities seem to spell this word in four +different ways.--H.] + +DE QUINCEY had reason to be proud of his son-in-law, COLONEL BAIRD +SMITH, whose varied and brilliant services, culminating at the siege +of Delhi, are written in the pages of SIR JOHN KAYE'S and COLONEL +MALLESON'S _History of the Sepoy War_. + +On that fateful day at Delhi, when so much hung upon the decision as +to whether the British should hold the ground they had won in the +first assault, it is not too much to say that 'the splendid obstinacy' +of BAIRD SMITH practically saved India. + +I throw together a few passages from the thrilling pages where the +story is told--sufficient to enable the reader who comes fresh to the +subject, to understand what manner of man this gallant engineer was +who made his mark on British India. + + * * * * * + +Rúrki (or Roorkhee) was the head-quarters of the Engineering Science +of the country. When the news came of the Delhi massacre, BAIRD SMITH +instantly made 'admirable arrangements for the defence of the great +engineering depot, in which he took such earnest and loving interest. +Officially, he was superintendent of irrigation in the north-western +provinces--a most useful functionary, great in all the arts of peace, +and with a reputation which any man might be proud to possess. But the +man of much science now grew at once into the man of war, and Rúrki +became a garrison under his command. Not an hour was lost.' + + * * * * * + +His timely express to MAJOR CHARLES REID to bring his men on by the +Ganges Canal route instead of by forced marches was an early evidence +of his combination of dash and sound judgment. REID said, that it +saved the place and the lives of the ladies and children. + +From the hour that he made his appearance before Delhi as Chief +Engineer, a succession of incidents stand on record which show his +skill and courage. On the first occasion of BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILSON +consulting him professionally, 'he threw all the earnestness of his +nature into a great remonstrance against the project of withdrawal. He +told the General that to raise the siege would be fatal to our +national interests. 'It is our duty,' he said, 'to retain the grip +which we now have upon Delhi, and to hold on like Grim Death until the +place is our own.' He argued it ably. WILSON listened, and was +convinced. + +In that supreme moment at the storming of Delhi, when the repulse of +two columns, the heavy losses, and the great strength of the place +caused the General to hesitate whether to continue the operations, +England had cause to feel thankful for the tenacity and daring of two +of her sons:-- + +'From this fatal determination GENERAL WILSON was saved by the +splendid obstinacy of BAIRD SMITH, aided by the soldier-like instincts +of NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN.... The General undoubtedly believed that the +safety of the army would be compromised by the retention of the +positions they had gained. Fortunately, BAIRD SMITH was at his elbow. +Appealed to by GENERAL WILSON as to whether he thought it possible for +the army to retain the ground they had won, his answer was short and +decisive, "We _must_ do so!" That was all. But the uncompromising +tone, the resolute manner, the authority of the speaker, combined to +make it a decision against which there was no appeal. GENERAL WILSON +accepted it.... It is not too much to affirm, that a retrograde +movement would, for the time, have lost India.' + + * * * * * + +In spite of the sufferings attendant on a severe wound, the +indomitable spirit of this brave soldier carried him through all +trials until India was practically saved. Then, shattered by his many +exertions, the breathing time came too late. His career is thus summed +up in the following inscription on his tomb in Calcutta Cathedral:-- + +'COLONEL RICHARD BAIRD SMITH of the Bengal Engineers, Master of the +Calcutta Mint, C.B. and A.D.C. to the Queen, whose career, crowded +with brilliant service, cut short at its brightest, was born at +Lasswade on the 31st of December, 1818. He went to India in 1836. +Already distinguished in the two Sikh wars, his conduct on the +outbreak of revolt in 1857 showed what a clear apprehension, a stout +heart, and a hopeful spirit could effect with scanty means in crushing +disorder. Called to Delhi as chief engineer, his bold and ready +judgment, his weighty and tenacious counsels, played a foremost part +in securing the success of the siege and England's supremacy. The +gathered wisdom of many years spent in administering the irrigation of +Upper India, trained him for his crowning service--the survey of the +great famine of 1861, the provision of relief, and the suggestions of +safeguards against such calamities. Broken by accumulated labours, he +died at sea, Dec. 13, 1861, aged scarcely 43 years. At Madras, where +his Indian career began, his body awaits the resurrection.' + +His great work, the _Report on Italian Irrigation_, published with +maps and plans in 1852, remains a monument of his engineering ability. +COLONEL BAIRD SMITH also published:-- + +(1) _Agricultural Resources of the Punjab._ London: +1849. 8vo. + +(2) _The Cauvery, Kistnah, and Godavery; being a +report on the works constructed on these rivers for the +Irrigation of the provinces of Tanjore, Guntoor, +Masulipatam, and Rajahmundry, in the Presidency of +Madras._ London: 1856. 8vo. + +(3) _A Short Account of the Ganges Canal, with a +description of some of the Principal Works._ 40 pp. +Thomason College Press, Roorkee: 1870. 8vo.--H. + + + + +I. + +HURRIED NOTICES OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. + +(_September, 1857._) + + +From the foundations of the earth, no case in human action or +suffering has occurred which could less need or less tolerate the aid +of artificial rhetoric than that tremendous tragedy which now for +three months long has been moving over the plains of Hindostan. What +in Grecian days were called _aporreta_ ([Greek: aporrhêta]), things +not utterable in human language or to human ears--things +ineffable--things to be whispered--things to dream of, not to +tell[57]--these things amongst high-caste Brahmims, and amongst the +Rajapoots, or martial race of heroes; have been the common product of +the passing hour.[58] Is this well? Is this a fitting end for the +mighty religious system that through countless generations has +overshadowed India? Yes, it _is_ well: it _is_ a fitting end for that +man-destroying system, more cruel than the bloody religions of Mexico, +which, for the deification of the individual, made hopeless Helots of +the multitude. Henceforward CASTE _must_ virtually be at an end. Upon +_caste_ has our Bengal army founded a final treason bloodier and +larger than any known to human annals. Now, therefore, mere instincts +of self-preservation--mere shame--mere fiery stress of necessity, will +compel our East India Directory (or whatsoever power may now under +parliamentary appointment inherit their responsibilities) to +proscribe, once and for ever, by steadfast exclusion from all +possibility of a martial career--to ruin by _legal_ degradation and +incapacities, all Hindoo pretensions to places of trust, profit, or +public dignity which found themselves upon high caste, as Brahmins or +Rajapoots. Yes, it _is_ well that the high-_caste_ men, who existed +only for the general degradation of their own Hindoo race in humbler +stations, have themselves severed the links which connected them with +the glory (so unmerited for _them_) of a nobler Western nationality. +Bought though it is by earthly ruin, by torment, many times by +indignities past utterance inflicted upon our dear massacred sisters, +and upon their unoffending infants, yet for that very reason we must +now maintain the great conquest so obtained. There is no man living so +base--no, there is not a felon living amongst us, who could be +persuaded to repeat the act of the Grecian leader Agamemnon--namely, +to sacrifice his innocent daughter, just entering the portals of life +in its most golden stage, on the miserable pretence of winning a +_public_ benefit; masking a diabolical selfishness by the ostentation +of public spirit. Yet if some calamity, or even some atrocity, _had_ +carried off the innocent creature under circumstances which involved +an advantage to her country, or to coming generations, the most loving +father might gradually allow himself to draw consolation from the +happy consequences of a crime which he would have died to prevent. +Even such a mixed necessity of feeling presses upon ourselves at +present. From the bloody graves of our dear martyred sisters, +scattered over the vast plains of India, rises a solemn adjuration to +the spiritual ear of Him that listens with understanding. Audibly this +spiritual voice says: O dear distant England! mighty to save, were it +not that in the dreadful hour of our trial thou wert far away, and +heardest not the screams of thy dying daughters and of their perishing +infants. Behold! for us all is finished! We from our bloody graves, in +which all of us are sleeping to the resurrection, send up united +prayers to thee, that upon the everlasting memory of our hell-born +wrongs, thou, beloved mother, wouldst engraft a counter-memory of +everlasting retribution, inflicted upon the Moloch idolatries of +India. Upon the pride of _caste_ rests for its ultimate root all this +towering tragedy, which now hides the very heavens from India. Grant, +therefore, O distant, avenging England--grant the sole commensurate +return which to us _can_ be granted--us women and children that trod +the fields of carnage alone--grant to our sufferings the virtue and +lasting efficacy of a _lutron_ ([Greek: lutron]), or ransom paid down +on behalf of every creature groaning under the foul idol of caste. +Only by the sufferance of England can that idolatry prosper. Thou, +therefore, England, when Delhi is swept by the ploughshare and sown +with salt, build a solitary monument to us; and on its base inscribe +that the last and worst of the murderous idolatries which plagued and +persecuted the generations of men was by us abolished; and that by +women and children was the pollution of caste cleansed from the earth +for ever! + +[Footnote 57: 'A sight to dream of, not to tell.'--_Coleridge._] + +[Footnote 58: Twenty-three and twenty-eight thousand of these two +orders we have in our Bengal army.] + + * * * * * + +Now let us descend into the circumstantialities of the case, +explaining what may have been obscure to the general reader. By which +term _general reader_ is meant, that reader who has had no reason for +cultivating any acquaintance whatever with India; to whom, therefore, +the whole subject is unbroken ground; and who neither knows, nor +pretends to know, the merest outline of our British connection with +India; what first carried us thither; what accidents of good luck and +of imminent peril raised us from a mere commercial to a political +standing; how we improved this standing by prodigious energy into the +position of a conquering state; prospered rapidly by the opposition +which we met; overthrew even our European competitors, of whom the +deadliest were the French; pursued a difficult war with an able +Mahometan upstart, Hyder Ali--a treacherous and cruel prince; next +with his son, Tippoo Sahib, a still more ferocious scoundrel, who, in +his second war with us, was settled effectually by one thrust of a +bayonet in the hands of an English soldier. This war, and the +consequent division of Tippoo's dominions, closed the eighteenth +century. About 1817 we undertook the great Mahratta war; the +victorious termination of which placed us, after sixty years of +struggle, in the supreme rank amongst Indian potentates. All the rest +of our power and greatness accrued to us by a natural and spontaneous +evolution of consequences, most of which would have followed us as if +by some magnetic attraction, had we ourselves been passive. No +conquering state was ever yet so mild and beneficent in the spirit of +its government, or so free from arrogance in its demeanour. An +impression thoroughly false prevails even amongst ourselves, that we +have pursued a systematic course of usurpations, and have displaced +all the _ancient_ thrones of Hindostan. Unfortunately for this +representation, it happens that all the leading princes of India whose +power and rank brought them naturally into collision with ourselves, +could not be ancient, having been originally official dependants upon +the great Tartar prince, whose throne was usually at Agra or Delhi, +and whom we called sometimes the Emperor, or the Shah, or more often +the _Great Mogul_. During the decay of the Mogul throne throughout the +eighteenth century, these dependent princes had, by continual +encroachments on the weakness of their sovereign, made themselves +independent rulers; but they could not be older than the great Mogul +Shah himself, who had first created them. Now the Mogul throne was +itself a mere modern creation, owing its birth to Baber, the +great-grandson of Tamerlane. But Baber, the eldest of these Tartar +princes, synchronised with our English Henry VIII. In reality, there +was nothing old in India that could be displaced by us; at least +amongst the Mahometan princes. Some ancient Hindoo Rajahs there were +in obscure corners, but without splendour of wealth or military +distinction; and the charge of usurpation was specially absurd, since +we pre-eminently were the king-makers, the king-supporters, the +king-pensioners, in Hindostan; and excepting the obscure princes just +mentioned, almost every Indian prince, at the time of our opening +business in the political line, happened to be a usurper. We ourselves +made the Rajah of Oude into a king; we ourselves more than once saved +the supreme Shah (_i. e._ the Great Mogul) from military ruin, and for +many a year saved _him_ and _his_ from the painful condition of +insolvency. But all this is said in the way of parenthesis. In another +number, a sketch of our Indian Empire, in its growth and early +oscillations, may be presented to the reader, specially adapted to the +use of those whose reading has not lain in that direction. Now let us +return to the great domineering question of the hour--the present +tremendous revolt on the part of seventy or eighty thousand men in our +Bengal Presidency. + +This mutiny we propose to notice briefly but searchingly under three +heads--first, in its relation to the mutineers themselves; next, in +its relation to ourselves; but, subdividing that question, we will +assign the second head to the consideration of its probable bearing on +our political credit and reputation; whilst the third head may be +usefully given to the consideration of its bearing on our pecuniary +interests, and our means of effectual reparation for the ruins left +behind by rebellion, and by the frantic spasms of blind destruction. + +First, then, let us look for a moment at this great tumultuary +movement, as it points more or less obscurely to the ulterior purposes +of the mutineers, and the temper in which they pursue those purposes. +In a newspaper of Saturday, August 15, we observe the following +sentence introductory to a most unsatisfactory discussion of the +Indian revolt:--'The mutiny in India, from the uninterrupted nature of +its progress, and its rapid spread through every considerable station, +shows a power of combination and determination which has never before +been given credit for to the native Indian mind.' This passage is +cited by us, not for anything plausible in its views, but for the +singular felicity of contradiction which fortunately it offers to +every indication of the true disposable ability that is now, or ever +has been, at the service of the insurgents. This, indeed, is rapidly +becoming of very subordinate importance; since the ablest rebel, +without an army, must be contemptible enough. But with a view to the +larger question--What quality of opposition is ever likely to be +brought into play against us, not in merely military displays, but in +the secret organisation of plots and local tumults, propagated over +extensive provinces? Some degree of anxiety is reasonable under any +possible condition of the army; and this being so, it is satisfactory +to observe, now in 1857, the same childishness and defect of plan and +coherent purpose as have ever characterised the oriental mind. No +foresight has been exhibited; no concert between remote points; no +preparation; no tendency towards combined action. And, on the other +hand, it is most justly noticed by a new London paper, of the same +date--namely, the _People_--that it is perfectly dazzling to the mind +to review over the whole face of India, under almost universal +desertion, the attitude of erectness and preparation assumed by the +scattered parties of our noble countrymen--'everywhere' (says the +_People_) 'driven to bay, and everywhere turning upon and scattering +all assailants. From all parts is the same tale. No matter how small +the amount of the British force may be, if it were but a captain's +company, it holds its own.' On the other hand, what single success +have the rebels achieved? Most valiant, no doubt, they have shown +themselves in hacking to pieces poor fugitive women, most intrepid in +charging a column of infants. Else, what have they to show? Delhi is +the solitary post which they have for the moment secured; but even +that through the incomprehensible failure of the authorities at +Meerut, and not through any vigour manifested by themselves. Any +uneasiness which still possesses the minds of close observers fastens +upon these two points--first, upon the disarmings, as distinguished +from the desertions; secondly, upon the amount, and probable +equipment, and supposed route of stragglers. It is now said that the +mutiny has burned itself out from mere defect of fuel; there _can_ be +no more revolts of sepoys, seeing that no sepoys now remain to revolt; +that is, of the Bengal force. But in this general statement a great +distinction is neglected. Regiments once disarmed, if also _stripped +of their private arms_, whether deserters or not, are of slight +account; but the grave question is this--how many of (say seventy) +regiments have gone off _previously_ to the disarming. Even in that +case, the most favourable for _them_ where arms are secured, it is +true that ammunition will very soon fail them; but still their +bayonets will be available; and we believe that the East India +infantry carry swords. A second anxiety connects itself with the vast +number of vagrant marauding soldiers, having power to unite, and to +assail small detached stations or private bungalows. Yet, again, in +cases known specially to ourselves, the inhabitants of such small +insulated stations had rapidly fortified the buildings best fitted for +defence. Already, by the 18th of May, in a station not far from Delhi, +this had been effected; every native servant, male or female, had been +discharged instantly; and perhaps they would be able to strengthen +themselves with artillery. The horrors also of the early murders at +Delhi would be likely to operate beneficially, by preventing what +otherwise is sure to happen--namely, the disposition to relax in +vigilance as first impressions wear off. Considering, upon the whole, +the amount of regiments that may be assumed as absolutely disarmed and +neutralised; and, on the other hand, counting the 5000 and upwards of +troops intercepted on their route to Hong-Kong, and adding these to at +least 25,000 of Queen's troops previously in the country, counting +also the faithful section of the Sikhs, the Ghoorkas, and others that +could be relied on, the upshot must be, that at least 40,000 troops of +the best quality are scattered between the Hoogly and the Sutlege (or, +in other words, between Calcutta and Loodiana[59]). Beyond a few +casual outrages on some small scale, we hope that no more of bloody +tragedies can be _now_ (August 25) apprehended. But we, that have dear +friends in Bengal, must, for weeks to come, feel restless and anxious. +Still, this is a great mitigation of the horror that besieged our +anticipations six weeks ago. + +[Footnote 59: '_Loodiana_:'--The very last station in Bengal, on going +westwards to the Indus. In Runjeet Singh's time this was for many +years the station at which we lodged our Affghan pensioner, the Shah +Soojah--too happy, had he never left his Loodiana lodgings.] + +But, having thrown a glance at the shifting aspects of the danger, now +let us alight for a moment on the cause of this dreadful outbreak. We +have no separate information upon this part of the subject, but we +have the results of our own vigilant observations upon laying this +and that together; and so much we will communicate. From the first, we +have rejected incredulously the immoderate effects ascribed to the +greased cartridges; and not one rational syllable is there in the +pretended rumours about Christianising the army. Not only is it +impossible that folly so gross should maintain itself against the +unremitting evidence of facts, all tending in the opposite direction; +but, moreover, under any such idle solution as this, there would still +remain another point unaccounted for, and _that_ is the frantic hatred +borne towards ourselves by many of the rebellious troops. Some of our +hollow friends in France, Belgium, &c., profess to read in this hatred +an undeniable inference that we must have treated the sepoys harshly, +else how explain an animosity so deadly. To that argument we have a +very brief answer, such as seems decisive. The Bengalese sepoy,[60] +when most of all pressed for some rational explanation of his fury, +never once thought of _this_ complaint; besides which, it is too +notorious that our fault has always lain the other way. Heavily +criminal, in fact, we had been by our lax discipline; and in +particular, the following most scandalous breach of discipline must +have been silently connived at for years by British authorities. +Amongst the outward forms of respect between man and man, there is +none that has so indifferently belonged to all nations, as the act of +rising from a sedentary posture for the purpose of expressing respect. +Most other forms of respect have varied with time and with place. The +ancient Romans, for instance, never bowed; and amongst orientals, you +are thought to offer an insult if you uncover your head. In this +little England of ours, who could fancy two stout men curtseying to +each other? Yet this they did, and so recently as in Shakspere's days. +To use his words, they 'crook'd the pregnant hinges of the knee.' +Sometimes they curtseyed with the right knee singly, sometimes with +both, as did Romeo to the fiery Tybalt. Many and rapid, therefore, +were the changes in ceremonial forms, at least with us, the changeable +men of Christendom; else how could it happen that, two hundred and +fifty years back, men of rank in England should have saluted each +other by forms that now would be thought to indicate lunacy? And yet, +violent as the spirit of change might otherwise be, one thing never +changed--the expression of respect between man and man by rising from +their seats. + + 'Utque viro sancto _chorus assurrexerit_ omnis' + +is a record belonging to the eldest of days; and that it belonged not +to the eldest times only, but also to the highest rank, is involved in +a memorable anecdote from the last days of Julius Cæsar. He, the +mighty dictator-- + + 'Yes, he, the foremost man of all this world'-- + +actually owed his assassination, under one representation, to the +burning resentment of his supposed aristocratic hauteur in a public +neglect of this very form. A deputation of citizens, on a matter of +business, had found him seated, and to their immeasurable disgust, he +had made no effort even to rise. His friends excused him on the +allegation, whether true or not, that at the moment he was physically +incapacitated from rising by a distressing infirmity. It might be so: +as Shakspere elsewhere observes, the black silk patch knows best +whether there is a wound underneath it. But, if it were _not_ so, then +the imperial man paid the full penalty of his offence, supposing the +rancorous remembrance of that one neglect were truly and indeed what +armed the Ides of March against his life. But, were this story as +apocryphal as the legends of our nurseries, still the bare possibility +that 'the laurelled majesty'[61] of that mighty brow should have been +laid low by one frailty of this particular description--this +possibility recalls us clamorously to the treasonable character of +such an insolence, when practised systematically for the last eighteen +months by a Pagan hound, by a sepoy from Lucknow or Benares, towards +his British commanding officer. Shall it have been possible that the +founder of the Roman empire died for having ignored the decencies of +human courtesy, perhaps through momentary inattention, by wandering of +thoughts, or by that collapse of energy which sometimes steps between +our earnest intentions and their fulfilment--this man, so august, +shall he have expiated by a bloody death one fleeting moment of +forgetfulness? and yet, on the other hand, under our Indian +government, the lowest of our servants, a mass of carrion from a +brotherhood of Thugs, shall have had free license to insult the +leaders of the army which finds bread for him and his kindred? That +the reader may understand what it is that we are talking of--not very +long ago, in one of the courts-martial occasioned by some explosions +of tentative insubordination preliminary to the grand revolt, a +British officer, holding the rank of lieutenant, made known to the +court, that through the last twelve or eighteen months he had been +struck and shocked by one alarming phenomenon within the cantonments +of the sepoys: formerly, on his entering the lines, the men had risen +respectfully from their seats as he walked along; but since 1854, or +thereabouts, they had insolently looked him in the face, whilst +doggedly retaining their seats. Now this was a punishable breach of +discipline, which in our navy _would_ be punished without fail. Even a +little middy, fresh from the arms of his sisters or his nurse, and who +does not bear any royal commission, as an ensign or cornet in the +army, is thus supported in the performance of his duty, and made +respectable in the eyes of his men, though checked in all explosions +of childish petulance--even to this child, as an officer in command, +respect is exacted; and on the finest arena of discipline ever +exhibited to the world, it is habitually felt that from open +disrespect to the ruin of all discipline the steps of descent are +rapid. This important fact in evidence as to the demeanour of the +sepoy, throws a new light upon the whole revolt. Manifestly it had +been moulding and preparing itself for the last two years, or more. +And those authorities who had tolerated Colonel Wheler for months, +might consistently tolerate this presumption in the sepoy for a year. + +[Footnote 60: For the sake of readers totally unacquainted with the +subject, it may be as well to make an explanation or two. The East +India regiments generally run to pretty high numbers--1000 or 1200. +The _high_ commissioned officers, as the captain, lieutenant, &c., are +always British; but the _non-commissioned_ officers are always native +Hindoos--that is, sepoys. For instance, the _naïk_, or corporal; the +_havildar_, or serjeant:--even of the _commissioned_ officers, the +_lowest_ are unavoidably native, on account of the native private. +Note that _sepoy_, as colloquially it is called, but _sipahee_, as in +books it is often written, does not mean Hindoo or Hindoo soldier, but +is simply the Hindoo word for _soldier_.] + +[Footnote 61: '_The laurelled majesty_,' &c.:--A flying reference to a +grand expression--_majestas laurea frontis_--which occurs in a Latin +supplement to the _Pharsalia_ by May, an English poet, contemporary +with the latter days of Shakspere.] + + * * * * * + +We had, in reliance upon receiving fuller materials for discussion by +the Eastern mail _arriving_ in the middle of August, promised by +anticipation two heads for our review, which, under the imperfect +explanations received, we are compelled to defer. Meantime, upon each +of these two heads we shall point the attention of our readers to one +or two important facts, First, as regards the sepoy revolt considered +in relation to the future pecuniary burdens on the Bengal exchequer, +it ought to be remembered, that, if (according to a very loose report) +the Company shall finally be found to have lost twenty millions of +rupees, or two millions sterling, by the looting of many local +treasuries, it will, on the other hand, have saved, upon forfeited +pay, and (which is much more important) upon, forfeited pensions, in +coming years, a sum nearly corresponding. Secondly, this _loot_ or +plunder must have served the public interest in a variety of ways. It +must have cramped the otherwise free motions of the rebels; must have +given multiplied temptations to desertion; must have instilled +jealousies of each other, and want of cordial co-operation in regard +to the current plans, and oftentimes murderous animosities in regard +to past transactions--divisions of spoil, or personal competitions. +Thus far, if nothing had been concerned more precious than money, it +is by no means clear that the _public_ service (as distinct from the +interest of private individuals, whose property has been destroyed) +will be found to have very seriously suffered. + +The other head, which concerns the probable relation of this +astonishing revolt to the wisdom of our late Indian administration, +finds us, for the present, enveloped in a mystery the most +impenetrable that history, in any of its darkest chapters, has +offered. We have a war on foot with Southern China, or rather with +Canton; and what may be the Chinese object in that war, is hitherto an +impenetrable mystery. But darker and more unfathomable is the mystery +which invests the sepoy insurrection. Besides the notorious fact that +no grievances, the very slightest, have been alleged, it must also be +remembered that we first and solely made a provision for the invalided +and for the superannuated soldier--a thing unheard of throughout Asia. +And this golden reversion, the poor infatuated savages have _wilfully_ +renounced! The sole _sure_ result, from this most suicidal of revolts, +is--that unpitied myriads of sepoys will be bayonetted, thousands will +be hanged, and nearly all will lose their pensions. + + + + +II. + +PASSING NOTICES OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. + +(_October, 1857._) + + +An English historian--one amongst many--of our British India, having +never happened to visit any part of that vast region, nor, indeed, any +part of the East, founded upon that accident a claim to a very +favourable distinction. It was, Mr. Mill argued, desirable--it was a +splendid advantage--NOT to have seen India. This advantage he singly, +amongst a crowd of coming rivals and precursors, might modestly plead; +and to that extent he pretended to a precedency amongst all his +competitors. + +The whole claim, and the arguments which supported it, wore the aspect +of a paradox; and a paradox it certainly was--but not, therefore, a +falsehood. A paradox, as I have many times explained, or proposition +contradicting the _doxa_ or public opinion, not only may be true, but +often has been the leading truth in capital struggles of opinion. Not +only the true doctrine, but also, in some branches of science, the +very fundamental doctrine, that which at this day furnishes a +foundation to all the rest, originally came forward as a violent and +revolting, paradox.[62] It is possible enough, therefore, that the +Indian historiographer may have been right, and not merely speciously +ingenious. It is something of a parallel case, which we may all have +known through the candid admissions of the Duke of Wellington, that +the battle of Waterloo might by possibility have been reported as +satisfactorily, on the 18th of June, 1815, from the centre of London +smoke, as from the centre of that Belgian smoke which sat in heavy +clouds throughout the day upon the field of battle. Now and then, it +is true, these Belgian clouds drew up in solemn draperies, and +revealed the great tragic spectacle lying behind them for a brief +interval. But they closed up again, and what the spectator saw through +these fugitive openings would have availed him little indeed, unless +in so far as it was extended and interpreted by _information_ issuing +from the British staff. But this information would have been not less +material and effectual towards a history of the mighty battle, if +furnished to a man sitting in a London drawing-room, than if furnished +to a reporter watching as an eye-witness at Hougoumont. + +[Footnote 62: This truth, for the sake of making it more impressive, I +threw long ago into this antithetic form; and I will not scruple, out +of any fear that I may be reproached with repeating myself, to place +it once again on record:--'Not _that_ only is strictly a paradox, +which, being false, is popularly regarded as true;' but that also, and +in a prodigiously greater extent, which, being true, is popularly +regarded as false.] + +This one Waterloo illustration, if thoughtfully applied, might yield a +justification for the paradoxical historian. Much more, therefore, +might it yield a justification for us at home, who, sitting at ten +thousand miles' distance, take upon us to better the Indian reports +written on the spot, to correct their errors of haste, or to improve +them by showing the inferences which they authorise. We, who write +upon the awful scenes of India at far-distant stations, do not so +truly enjoy _unequal_ advantages, as we enjoy varying and _dissimilar_ +advantages. + +According to the old proverb, the bystander sees more of the game than +those who share too closely in its passions. And assuredly, if it were +asked, what it is that we who write upon Indian news aspire to effect, +I may reply frankly, that, if but by a single suggestion any one of us +should add something to the illumination of the great sepoy +conspiracy--whether as to its ultimate purpose, or as to its +machinery, or as to its wailing hopes, or if but by the merest trifle +any one of us should take away something from the load of anxious +terrors haunting the minds of all who have relations in India--that +man will have earned his right to occupy the public ear. For my own +part, I will not lose myself at present, when so much darkness +prevails on many leading questions, in any views too large and +theoretic for our present condition of light. And that I may not be +tempted into doing so, I will proceed without regard to any systematic +order, taking up, exactly as chance or preponderant interest may offer +them, any urgent questions of the hour, before the progress of events +may antiquate them, or time may exhale their flavour. This desultory +and moody want of order has its attractions for many a state of +nervous distraction. Every tenth reader may happen to share in the +distraction, so far as it has an Indian origin. The same deadly +anxiety on behalf of female relatives, separated from their male +protectors in the centre of a howling wilderness, now dedicated as an +altar to the dark Hindoo goddess of murder, may, in the reader also, +as well as in the writer on Indian news, periodically be called on to +submit to the insurmountable aggravation of delay. In such a case, +what is good for one may be good for another. The same inexpressible +terrors, so long as Nena Sahibs and other miscreant sons of hell are +roaming through the infinite darkness, may prompt the same fretfulness +of spirit; the same deadly irritation and restlessness, which cannot +but sharpen the vision of fear, will sharpen also that of watching +hope, and will continually read elements of consolation or trust in +that which to the uninterested eye offers only a barren blank. + + +EUROPEANS. + +I am not sorry that the first topic, which chance brings uppermost, is +one which overflows with the wrath of inexhaustible disgust. What +fiend of foolishness has suggested to our absurd kinsmen in the East, +through the last sixty years, to generalise themselves under the name +of _Europeans_? As if they were ashamed of their British connections, +and precisely at that moment when they are leaving England, they begin +to assume continental airs; when bidding farewell to Europe, they +begin to style themselves _Europeans_, as if it were a greater thing +to take up a visionary connection with the Continent, than to found a +true and indestructible nobility upon their relationship to the one +immortal island of this planet. There is no known spot of earth which +has exerted upon the rest of the planet one-thousandth part of the +influence which this noble island has exercised over the human +race--exercised through the noblest organs; and yet, behold! these +coxcombs of our own blood have no sooner landed on Indian soil, than +they are anxious to disclaim the connection. Such at least is the +_apparent_ construction of their usage. But mark the illogical +consequences which follow. A noble British regiment suddenly, and for +no rational purpose, receives a new baptism, and becomes a European +regiment. The apologist for this folly will say, that a British +regiment does not necessarily exclude Germans, for instance. But I +answer that it _does_. The British Government have, during this very +month of September, 1857, declared at Frankfort (in answer to +obstinate applications from puppies who fancy that we cannot tame our +rebels without _their_ assistance), '_that the British army, by its +constitution, does not admit foreigners_.' But suppose that accidents +of aristocratic patronage have now and then privately introduced a few +Germans or Swedes into a very few regiments, surely this accident, +improbable already, was not _more_ probable when the regiment was +going away for twenty years (the old term of expatriation) to a +half-year's distance from the Rhine and the Danube. The Germanism of +the regiment might altogether evaporate in the East, but could not +possibly increase. Next, observe this; if we must lose our +nationality, and transmute ourselves into Europeans, for the very +admirable reason that we were going away to climates far remote from +Germany, then, at least, we ought not to call our native troops +_sepoys_, but _Asiatics_. In this way only will there be any logical +parity of antithesis. Scripturally, we are the children of Japheth; +and, as all Asiatics are the sons of Shem, then we shall be able to +mortify their conceit, by calling to their knowledge our biblical +prophecy, that the sons of Japheth shall sit down in the tents of +Shem. But, thirdly, even thus we should find ourselves in a dismal +chaos of incoherences; for what is to become of 'Jack'? Must our +sailors be re-baptised? Must Jack also be a _European_? Think of +Admiral Seymour reporting to the Admiralty as a leader of Europeans! +and exulting in having circumvented Yeh by Her Majesty's European +crews! And then, lastly, come the Marines: must they also qualify for +children of Europe? Was there ever such outrageous folly? One is sure, +in the fine picturesque words of Chaucer, that, 'for very filth and +shame,' neither admiral nor the youngest middy would disgrace himself +by such ridiculous finery from the rag-fair of cosmopolitan swindling. +The real origin of so savage an absurdity is this:--Amongst the +commercial bodies of the three presidencies in all the leading cities, +it became a matter of difficulty often to describe special individuals +in any way legally operative. Your wish was to distinguish him from +the native merchant or banker; but to do this by calling him a British +merchant, &c., was possibly not true, and legally, therefore, not +safe. He might be a Dane, a Russian, or a Frenchman; he was described, +therefore, in a more generalising way, as a European. But a case so +narrow as _that_--a case for pawnbrokers and old clothesmen--ought not +to regulate the usage of great nations. Grand and spirit-stirring +(especially in a land far _distant_ from home) are the recollections +of towns or provinces connected with men's nativities. And poisonous +to all such ancestral inspirations are the rascally devices of shroffs +and money-changers. + + +DELHI. + +That man--I suppose we are all agreed--who commanded in Meerut on +Sunday the tenth day of May, in the year of Christ one thousand eight +hundred and fifty-seven, a day which will furnish an epoch for ever to +the records of civilisation--that man who _could_ have stopped the +bloody kennel of hounds, but did _not_, racing in full cry to the +homes of our unsuspecting brothers and sisters in Delhi--it were good +for that man if he had not been born. He had notice such as might have +wakened the dead early in the afternoon (2 or 3 o'clock P.M., I +believe), and yet, at the end of a long summer day, torchlight found +him barely putting his foot into the stirrup. And why into the stirrup +at all? For what end, on what pretence, should he ever have played out +the ridiculous pantomime and mockery of causing the cavalry to mount? +Two missions there were to execute on that fatal night--first, to save +our noble brothers and sisters at Delhi from a ruin that was destined +to be total; secondly, to inflict instant and critical retribution +upon those who had already opened the carnival of outrage, before they +left Meerut. Oh, heaven and earth! heart so timid was there in all +this world, sense of wrong so callous, as not to leap with frenzy of +joy at so sublime a summons to wield the most impassioned functions of +Providence--namely, hell-born destroyers to destroy in the very +instant of their fancied triumph, and suffering innocence to raise +from the dust in the very crisis of its last despairing prostration. +Reader! it is not exaggeration--many a heart will bear witness in +silence that it is _not_--if I should say that men exist, who would +gladly pay down thirty years of life in exchange for powers so +heavenly for redressing earthly wrongs. To the infamous torpor on that +occasion, and the neglect of the fleeting hour that struck the signal +for delivery and vengeance, are due many hundreds of the piteous +outrages that have since polluted Bengal. Do I mean that, if the rebel +capture of Delhi had been prevented, no subsequent outrages would have +followed? By no means. Other horrors would have been perpetrated; but +that first and greatest (always excepting the case of Cawnpore) would +by all likelihood have been intercepted.[63] + +[Footnote 63: Here observe there were 2300 admirable British troops, +and about 700 men of the mutineers, who might then have been attacked +at a great advantage, whilst dispersed on errands of devastation. +Contrast with these proportions the heroic exertions of the noble +Havelock--fighting battle after battle, with perhaps never more than +1700 or 1800 British troops; and having scarcely a gun but what he +captured from the enemy. And what were the numbers of his enemy? Five +thousand in the earlier actions, and 10,000 to 12,000 in the last.] + +But perhaps his military means were inadequate to the crisis? He had +duties to Meerut, not less than duties of vengeance and of sudden +deliverance for Delhi. True: he had so; and he had means for meeting +all these duties. He had a well-mounted establishment of military +force, duly organized in all its arms. Three-and-twenty hundreds he +had of British, suitably proportioned as to infantry, cavalry, and +artillery--a little army that would have faced anything that Delhi +could at that time have put forward. Grant that Delhi could have +mustered 5000 men: these are three propositions having no doubtful +bearing upon such a fact:-- + +1. That cheerfully would this little British force have faced any +Asiatic force of 5000 men, which, indeed, it can hardly be necessary +to say, in the face of so large and so transcendent an experience. + +2. That the Delhi force, could have reached the amount supposed of +5000 only after a junction with the Meerut mutineers; which junction +it was the main business of the Meerut commander to intercept. + +3. That this computation assumes also the whole of the Delhi garrison +to be well affected to the mutineers; an assumption altogether +unwarrantable on the _outside_ of Delhi during the 10th and 11th of +May. + +Such were (1) the _motives_ of the commander at Meerut towards a noble +and energetic resolution; such were (2) his _means_.[64] + +[Footnote 64: Mr. D. B. Jones comes forward to defend the commandant +of Meerut. How? The last sentence only of his letter has any sort of +reference to the public accusation; and this sentence replies, but not +with _any_ mode of argument (sound or unsound), to a charge perfectly +irrelevant, if it had ever existed--namely, an imaginary charge +against the little army assembled on May 10 at Meerut. The short and +summary answer is, that no such imaginary charge, pure and absolute +moonshine, was ever advanced against the gallant force at Meerut. + +Secondly, if it had, such a charge could have no bearing whatever upon +that charge, loudly preferred against the commander of that district. + +Thirdly, the charge has been (I presume) settled as regards its truth, +and any grounds of disputation, this way or that, by the +Governor-General. The newspapers have told us, and have not been +contradicted, that Lord Canning has dismissed this functionary for +'_supineness_.'] + +Thinking of that vile _lacheté_, which surrendered, with a girl's +tameness, absolutely suffered to lapse, without effort, and as if a +bauble, this great arsenal and magazine into the hands of the +revolters, involuntarily we have regarded it all along as a deadly +misfortune; and, upon each periodic mail, the whole nation has +received the news of its non-capture as a capital disappointment. + +But, on steadier consideration, apparently all this must be regarded +as a very great error. Not that it could be any error to have wished +for any course of events involving the safety of our poor slaughtered +compatriots. That event would have been cheap at _any_ price. But that +dismal catastrophe _having_ happened, to intercept that bitter wo +having been already ripened into an impossibility by the 11th and 12th +of May, seven-and-forty days before our thoughts at home began to +settle upon India, thenceforwards it became a very great advantage--a +supreme advantage--that Delhi should have been occupied by the +mutineers. Briefly, then, why? + +First of all, because this movement shut up within one ring fence the +_élite_ of the rebels (according to some calculations, at least +three-and-twenty thousand of well-armed and well-disciplined men), +that would otherwise have been roaming over the whole face of Bengal +as marauders and murderers. These men, left to follow their own +vagrant instincts, would, it is true, in some not inconsiderable +proportion, have fallen victims to those fierce reactions of rustic +vengeance which their own atrocities would very soon have provoked. +But large concentrated masses would still have survived in a condition +rapidly disposable as auxiliary bodies to all those towns invested by +circumstances with a partisan interest, such as Lucknow, Benares, +Cawnpore, Agra, Gwalior, and Allahabad. + +Secondly, Delhi it was that opened the horrors of retribution; mark +what chastisement it was that alighted from the very first upon all +the scoundrels who sought, and fancied they could not fail to find, an +asylum in Delhi. It is probable that hardly one in twenty of the +mutineers came to Delhi without plunder, and for strong reasons this +plunder would universally assume the shape of heavy metallic money. +For the public treasuries in almost every station were rifled; and +unhappily for the comfort of the robbers under the Bengal sun of June +and July, very much of the East Indian money lies in silver--namely, +rupees; of which, in the last generation, eight were sufficient to +make an English pound; but at present ten are required by the evil +destiny of sepoys. Everybody has read an anecdote of the painter +Correggio, that, upon finishing a picture for some monastery, the +malicious monks paid him for it in copper. The day of payment was hot, +and poor Correggio was overweighted; he lay down under his copper +affliction; and whether he died or not, is more than I remember. But +doubtless, to the curious in Correggiosity, Pilkington will tell. For +the sepoys, although _their_ affliction took the shape of silver, and +not of copper, virtually it was not less, considering the far more +blazing sun. Mephistopheles might have arranged the whole affair. One +could almost hear him whispering to each separate sepoy, as he stood +amongst the treasury burglars, the reflection that those _pensions_, +which the kind and munificent English Government granted to their old +age or their infirmities, all over India, raising up memorial trophies +of public gratitude or enlightened pity, never more would be heard of. +All had perished, the justice that gave, the humble merit that +received, the dutiful behaviour that hoped; and henceforwards of them +and of their names, as after the earliest of rebellions, in the book +of life 'was no remembrance.' + +Under these miserable thoughts the vast majority of the sepoys robbed +largely, as opportunities continually opened upon them. Then, and +chiefly _through_ their robberies, commenced their chastisement in +good earnest. Every soldier by every comrade was viewed with hatred +and suspicion; by the common labourer with the scrutiny of deep +self-interest. The popular report of their sudden wealth travelled +rapidly; every road, village, house, whether ahead or on their flanks, +became a place of distrust and anxious jealousy; and Delhi seemed to +offer the only safe asylum. Thither, as to a consecrated sanctuary, +all hurried; and their first introduction to the duties of the new +home they had adopted, would be a harsh and insolent summons to the +chances of a desperate _sortie_ against men in whose presence their +very souls sank. On reviewing the circumstances which _must_ have +surrounded this Delhi life, probably no nearer resemblance to a hell +of apostate spirits has ever existed. Money, carried in weighty +parcels of coin, cannot be concealed. Swathed about the person, it +disfigures the natural symmetries of the figure. The dilemma, +therefore, in which every individual traitor stood was, that, if he +escaped a special notice from every eye, this must have been because +all his crimes had failed to bring him even a momentary gain. Having +no money, he had no swollen trousers. For ever he had forfeited the +pension that was the pledge of comfort and respectability to his +family and his own old age. This he had sacrificed, in exchange +for--nothing at all. But, on the other hand, if his robberies had been +very productive and prosperous, in that proportion he became +advertised to every eye, indicated and betrayed past all concealment +to every ruffian less fortunate as a pillager. Delhi must in several +points have ripened his troubles, and showed them on a magnifying +disk. To have no confidential friend, or adviser, or depositary of a +secret, is an inevitable evil amongst a population constitutionally +treacherous. But now in Delhi this torment takes a more fearful shape. +Every fifth or sixth day, when he is sternly ordered out upon his turn +of duty, what shall he do with his money? He has by possibility 40 +lbs. weight of silver, each pound worth about three guineas. In the +very improbable case of his escaping the gallows, since the British +Government will endeavour to net the whole monstrous crew that have +one and all broken the _sacramentum militare_, for which scourging +with rods and subsequent strangulation is the inevitable penalty, what +will remain to his poor family? His cottage, that once had been his +pride, will now betray him, as soon as ever movable columns are +formed, and horse-patrols begin to inspect the roads. But, as to his +money, in nineteen cases out of twenty, he will find himself obliged +to throw it away in his flight, and will then find that through three +months of intolerable suffering he has only been acting as steward for +some British soldier. + +The private letters and the local newspapers from many parts of India +having now come in, it is possible through the fearful confusion to +read some facts that would cause despair, were it not for two +remembrances: first, what nation it is that supports the struggle; +secondly, that of the six weeks immediately succeeding to the 10th of +September, no two days, no period of forty-eight hours, _can_ pass +without continued successions of reinforcements reaching Calcutta. It +should be known that even the worst sailers among the transports--namely, +exactly those which were despatched from England through the course of +_July_ (not of August)--are all under contract to perform the voyage in +seventy days; whereas many a calculation has proceeded on the old rate +of ninety days. The small detachments of two and three hundreds, +despatched on every successive day of July, are already arriving at +their destination; and the August detachments, generally much stronger +(800 or 900), all sailed in powerful steamers. Lord Elgin arrived at +Calcutta in time to be reported by this mail, with marines (300) and +others (300), most seasonably to meet the dangers and uproars of the +great Mahometan festival. The bad tidings are chiefly these:-- + +1. The failure of a night-attack upon the Dinapore mutineers by +detachments from two of our British regiments, with a loss of '200 +_killed_'; in which, however, there _must_ be a mistake; for the total +number of our attacking party was only 300. On the other hand, there +may have been some call for a consciously desperate effort; and the +enemy, having two regiments, would muster, probably, very nearly 2000 +men; for the sepoy regiments are always strong in numbers, and these +particular regiments had not suffered. + +2. Much more ominous than these reports, is an estimate of our main +force before Delhi at less than 2000 men. This, unhappily, is not +intrinsically improbable. The force was, by many persons, never +reckoned at more than 6000 or 7000 men; and this, when reduced by +three-and-twenty conflicts (perhaps more), in which the enemy had the +advantage of artillery more powerful than ours, and (what is worse) of +trained artillerymen more numerous, might too naturally come down to +the small number stated. + +3. The doubtful condition of Lucknow, Benares, and Agra comes in the +rear of all this to strike a frost into the heart, or would do so, +again I say, if any other nation were concerned. + +4. Worse still, because reluctantly unfolding facts that had +previously been known and kept back, is the state of Bombay. When +retreats on board the shipping are contemplated, or at least talked +of, the mere insulated case of Kolapore becomes insignificant. + +5. I read a depressing record in the very quarter whence all our hopes +arise. In summing up the particular transports throughout July whose +destination was Calcutta, I find that the total of troops ordered to +that port in the thirty-one days of July was just 6500, and no more. +Every place was rapidly becoming of secondary importance in comparison +of the area stretching with a radius of 150 miles in every direction +from the centre of Allahabad. And the one capital danger is too +clearly this--that, being unable to throw in _overwhelming_ succours, +those inadequate succours, matched against the countless resources of +Hindoo vagrant ruffianism, may, at the utmost, enable us to keep a +lingering hold, whilst endless successions of incomparably gallant men +fall before our own rifles, our own guns, and that discipline of a +cowardly race which we ourselves have taught. We are true to +ourselves, and ever shall be so: that is a rock to build upon. Yet, if +it should appear by January next that no deep impression has then been +made upon revolting India, it will probably appear the best course to +send no more rivulets of aid; but to _combine_ measures energetically +with every colony or outpost of the empire; to call up even the +marines and such sections of our naval forces as have often +co-operated with the land forces (in the Chinese war especially); and +to do all this with a perfect disregard of money. Lord Palmerston +explained very sufficiently why it is that any powerful squadrons of +ships, which would else have rendered such overwhelming succour +against the towns along the line of the Ganges and Jumna, were +unhappily disqualified for action, by the shallows and sand-banks on +those great rivers. But this apology does not stand good as regards +flotillas of gunboats or rafts with a very light draught of water; +still less as regards the seamen and marines. + +I conclude with these notices--too painfully entitled to some +attention. Would to heaven they were _not_! + +1. Calcutta itself is not by any means in a state of _security_, +either in the English sense of that word (namely, freedom from +danger), or in its old Latin sense of freedom from the _anxieties_ of +danger. All depends upon the prosperity of our affairs at Delhi, +Lucknow, Agra, Cawnpore, and Allahabad. The possibility of a +fanatical explosion, such as that which occurred recently at Patna, +shows the inefficiency of our precautions and pretended police. I +believe that the _native_ associations formed in Calcutta will be of +little use. Either the members will be sleeping at the moment of +outbreak, or will be separated from their arms. We are noble in our +carelessness; our enemy is base, but his baseness, always in alliance +with cunning and vigilance, tells cruelly against us. + +2. It may be feared that the Governor-General has in the following +point lamentably neglected a great duty of his place. It must have +been remarked with astonishment, as a matter almost inexplicable, how +it has arisen that so many gallant men, at the head of every regiment, +should have suffered themselves to be slaughtered like sheep in a +butcher's shambles. Surely five-and-twenty or thirty men, in youthful +vigour, many of them capital shots, could easily have shot down 150 of +the cowardly sepoys. So much work they could have finished with their +revolvers. More than one amongst the ladies, in this hideous struggle, +have shot down their two brace of black scoundrels apiece. But the +officers, having the advantage of swords, would have accounted for a +few score more. Why, then, have they not done this?--an act of energy +so natural to our countrymen when thus roused to unforgiving +vengeance. Simply because they have held themselves most nobly, and in +defiance of their own individual interest, to be under engagements of +fidelity to the Company, and obligations of forbearance to the dogs +whom they commanded, up to the last moment of possible doubt. Now, +from these engagements of honour the Governor-General should, by one +universal act (applicable to the three Presidencies) have absolved +them. For it cannot be alleged _now_ for an instant, that perhaps the +regiments might mean to continue faithful. If they _do_ mean this, no +harm will come to any party from the official dispensing order; the +sepoys could suffer by it only in the case of treachery. And, in the +meantime, there has emerged amongst them a new policy of treason, +which requires of us to assume, in mere self-defence, that _all_ +sepoys are meditating treason. It is this: they now reserve their +final treason until the critical moment of action in the very crisis +of battle. Ordered to charge the revolters, they discharge their +carbines over their heads; or, if infantry, they blaze away with blank +cartridge. This policy has been played off already eight or nine +times; and by one time, as it happens, too many; for it was tried upon +the stern Havelock, who took away both horses and carbines from the +offenders. Too late it is _now_ for Bengal to baffle this sharper's +trick. But Bombay and Madras, should _their_ turn come after all, +might profit by the experience. + +3. For years it has been our nursery bugbear, to apprehend a Russian +invasion on the Indus. This, by testimony from every quarter (the last +being that of Sir Roderick Murchison, who had travelled over most of +the ground), is an infinitely impossible chimera; or at least until +the Russians have colonized Khiva and Bokhara. Meantime, to those who +have suffered anxiety from such an anticipation, let me suggest one +consolation at least amongst the many horrors of the present scenes in +Bengal--namely, that this perfidy of our troops was not displayed +first in the very agony of conflict with Russia, or some more +probable invader. + +4. A dismal suggestion arises from the present condition of Bengal, +which possibly it is too late now to regard as a warning. Ravaged by +bands of marauders, no village safe from incursion, the usual culture +of the soil must have been dangerously interrupted. Next, therefore, +comes FAMINE (and note that the famines of India have been always +excessive, from want of adequate carriage), and in the train of +famine, inaudibly but surely, comes cholera; and then, perhaps, the +guiltiest of races will pay down an expiation at which centuries will +tremble. For in the grave of famishing nations treason languishes; the +murderer has no escape; and the infant with its mother sleeps at last +in peace. + + * * * * * + +_P.S._--The following memoranda, more or less connected with points +noticed in the preceding paper, but received later, seem to merit +attention:-- + +1. As to the strength of our army before Delhi, it seems, from better +accounts, to be hardly less than 5000 men, of which one-half are +British infantry; and the besieged seem, by the closest inquiries, to +reach at the least 22,000 men. + +2. Colonel Edwardes, so well known in connection with Moultan, has +published an important fact--namely, that the sepoys _did_ rely, in a +very great degree, upon the whole country rising, and that their +disappointment and despair are consequently proportionable. + +3. A great question arises--How it was possible for the +sepoys--unquestionably not harbouring the smallest ill-will to the +British--suddenly and almost universally to assail them with +atrocities arguing the greatest. Even their own countrymen, with all +their childish credulity, would not be made to believe that they +really hated people with whom they had never had any but the kindest +and most indulgent intercourse. I should imagine that the solution +must do sought in two facts--first, in the deadly ennui and _tædium_ +of sepoy life, which disposes them to catch maniacally at any opening +for furious excitement; but, secondly, in the wish to forward the ends +of the conspiracy under Mahometan misleading. Hence, in particular, +the cruelties practised on women and children: for they argued that, +though the British _men_ would face anything in their own persons +before they would relax their hold on India, they would yet be +appalled by the miseries of their female partners and children. + +4. It is most unfair, undoubtedly, to attack any man in our present +imperfect state of information. But some neglects are unsusceptible of +after excuse. One I have noticed, which cannot be denied or varnished, +in Lord Canning. Another is this:--Had he offered 10,000 rupees (£1000 +sterling) for the head of Nena Sahib, he would have got it in ten +days, besides inflicting misery on the hell-kite. + + + + +III. + +SUGGESTIONS UPON THE SECRET OF THE MUTINY. + +(_January, 1858._) + + +The first question arises upon the true originators, proximate and +immediate, of the mutiny--who were they? This question ploughs deeper +than any which moves under an impulse of mere historic curiosity; and +it is practically the main question. Knowing the true, instant, +operative cause, already we know something of the remedy;--having sure +information as to the ringleaders, we are enabled at once to read +their motives in the past, to anticipate their policy in the +future;--having the _persons_ indicated, those who first incited or +encouraged the felonious agents, we can shorten the course of public +vengeance; and in so vast a field of action can give a true direction +from the first to the pursuit headed by our Indian police. For that +should never be laid out of sight--that against rebels whose _least_ +offence is their rebellion, against men who have massacred by torture +women and children, the service of extermination belongs of right to +executioners armed with whips and rods, with the _lassos_ of South +America for noosing them, and, being noosed, with halters to hang +them.[65] It should be made known by proclamation to the sepoys, that +_de jure_, in strict interpretation of the principle concerned, they +are hunted by the hangman; and that the British army, whilst obliged +by the vast scale of the outrages to join in this hangman's chase, +feel themselves dishonoured, and called to a work which properly is +the inheritance of the gallows; and yet, again, become reconciled to +the work, as the purgation of an earth polluted by the blood of the +innocent. + +[Footnote 65: '_To hang them:_'--But with a constant notification +that, _after_ hanging, the criminals would be decapitated: otherwise +the threat loses its sting. It seems to be a superstition universal +amongst Southern Asiatics, unless possibly amongst the Malay race, +that to suffer any dismemberment of the body operates disastrously +upon the fate in the unseen world. And hence, no doubt, it has arisen +that the gallows is not viewed in the light of a degrading punishment. +Immunity from mutilation compensates any ignominy which might else +attend it. Accordingly, we see in China that the innumerable victims +of the present rebellion, captured in the vast province of Quantung by +the cruel Yeh, were all beheaded by the sword in the blood-reeking +privacies of Canton. And two centuries back, when the native dynasty +was overthrown by the last Tartar invasion, the reigning emperor +(having unlimited freedom of choice) ended his career by a halter: +retiring to his orchard, he hanged both himself and his daughter.] + +Who then, again I ask--who are those that, after seven months' +watching of the revolt, appeared, by any plausible construction of +events, to have been the primal movers in this hideous convulsion? +Individual opinions on this question, and such as could plead a weight +of authority in regard to experience, to local advantages for +conjecture, and to official opportunities for overlooking intercepted +letters, there have been many; and at first (say from May 10 to the +end of June), in the absence of any strong counter-arguments, some of +these were entitled to the full benefit of their _personal_ weight +(such weight, I mean, as could be drawn from the position or from the +known character of him who announced the opinion). But now--namely, +on the 15th of December (or, looking to India, say the 10th of +November)--we are entitled to something weightier. And what _is_ there +which generally would be held weightier? First, there are the +confessions of dying criminals;--I mean, that, logically, we must +reserve such a head, as likely to offer itself sooner or later. +Tempers vary as to obduracy, and circumstances vary. All men will not +share in the obstinacy of partisan pride; or not, by many degrees, +equally. And again, some amongst the many thousands who leave families +will have favours to ask. They all know secretly the perfect +trustworthiness of the British Government. And when matters have come +to a case of choice between a wife and children, in the one scale, and +a fraternity consciously criminal, in the other, it may be judged +which is likely to prevail. What through the coercion of mere +circumstances--what through the entreaties of wife and children, +co-operating with such circumstances--or sometimes through weakness of +nature, or through relenting of compunction--it is not to be doubted +that, as the cohesion of party begins rapidly to relax under +approaching ruin, there will be confessions in abundance. For as yet, +under the timid policy of the sepoys--hardly ever venturing out of +cover, either skulking amongst bushy woodlands, or sneaking into +house-shelter, or slinking back within the range of their great +guns--it has naturally happened that our prisoners have been +exceedingly few. But the decisive battle before Lucknow will tell us +another story. There will at last be cavalry to _reap_ the harvest +when our soldiery have won it. The prisoners will begin to accumulate +by thousands; executions will proceed through week after week; and a +large variety of cases will yield us a commensurate crop of +confessions. These, when they come, will tell us, no doubt, most of +what the sepoys can be supposed to know. But, meantime, how much is +_that_? Too probably, except in the case of here and there some +specially intelligent or specially influential sepoy officer, +indispensable as a go-between to the non-military conspirators moving +in darkness behind the rebel army, nothing at all was communicated to +the bulk of the privates, beyond the mere detail of movements required +by the varying circumstantialities of each particular case. But of the +ultimate purpose, of the main strategic policy, or of the transcendent +interests over-riding the narrow counsels that fell under the +knowledge of the illiterate soldier, since no part was requisite to +the fulfilment of each man's separate duty, no part would be +communicated. It is barely possible that so much light as may be won +from confessions, combined with so much further light as may be +supposed to lurk amongst the mass of unexamined papers left behind +them by the rebels at Delhi, might tell us something important. But +any result to be expected from the Delhi papers is a doubtful +contingency. It is uncertain whether they will ever be brought under +the review of zeal united to sagacity sufficient for sustaining a +search purely disinterested. Promising no great triumph for any +literary purpose, proving as little, perhaps, one way or other, as the +mathematician in the old story complained that the _Æneid_ +proved--these papers, unless worked by an enamoured bookworm (or +paperworm), will probably be confiscated to some domestic purpose, of +singeing chickens or lighting fires. + +But, in any case, whether speaking by confessions or by the varied +memoranda (orders to subaltern officers, resolutions adopted by +meetings, records of military councils, petitions, or suggestions on +the public service, addressed to the king, &c.), abandoned in the +palace at Delhi, the soldier can tell no more than he knew, which, +under any theory of the case, must have been very little. Better, +therefore, than all expectations fixed on the vile soldiery, whom, in +every sense, and in all directions, I believe to have been brutally +ignorant, and through their ignorance mainly to have been used as +blind servile instruments--better and easier it would be to examine +narrowly whether, in the whole course and evolution of this stupendous +tragedy, there may not be found some characterising feature or +distinguishing incident, that may secretly report the agency, and +betray, by the style and character of the workmanship, _who_ might be +the particular class of workmen standing at the centre of this +unparalleled conspiracy. I think that we stand in this dilemma: +either, on the one hand, that the miserable sepoys, who were the sole +acting managers, were also the sole contrivers of the plot--in which +case we can look for further light only to the judicial confessions; +or, on the other hand, that an order of agents far higher in rank than +any subaltern members of our army, and who were enabled by this rank +and corresponding wealth to use these soldiers as their dupes and +tools, stood in the background, holding the springs of the machinery +in their hands, with a view to purposes transcending by far any that +could ever suggest themselves to persons of obscure station, having no +prospect of benefiting by their own fullest success. In this case, we +shall learn nothing from the confessions of those who must, upon a +principle of mere self-preservation, have been excluded from all real +knowledge of the dreadful scheme to which they were made parties, +simply as perpetrators of its murders and outrages. Here it is equally +vain to look for revelations from the mercenary workers, who know +nothing, or from the elevated leaders, who know all, but have an +interest of life and death in dissembling their knowledge. Revelations +of any value from those who cannot, and from those who will not, +reveal the ambitious schemes communicated to a very few, are alike +hopeless. In default of these, let us examine if any one incident, or +class of incidents, in the course of these horrors, may not have made +a self-revelation--a silent but significant revelation, pointing the +attention of men to the true authors, and simultaneously to the final +purposes, of this mysterious conspiracy. + +Now, it has not escaped the notice of many people that two most +extraordinary classes of outrages, perpetrated or attempted, have +marked a very large majority of the mutinous explosions; outrages that +were in the last degree unnatural, as out of harmony with the whole +temper and spirit of intercourse generally prevailing between the +sepoys and their British officers. The case is peculiarly striking. No +reproach on the character of their manners was ever alleged against +their British officers by any section or subdivision of the sepoy +soldiery. Indeed, the reproach, where any existed, ran in the very +opposite channel. Too great indulgence to the sepoy, a spirit of +concession too facile to their very whims and caprices, and generally +too relaxed a state of discipline--these features it was of the +British bearing towards the native soldiery which too often, and +reasonably, provoked severe censures from the observing. The very +case[66] which I adduced some months back, where an intelligent +British officer, in the course of his evidence before some +court-martial, mentioned, in illustration of the decaying discipline, +that for some considerable space of time he had noticed a growing +disrespect on the part of the privates; in particular, that, on coming +into the cantonments of his own regiment, the men had ceased to rise +from their seats, and took no notice of his presence--this one +anecdote sufficiently exemplified the quality of the errors prevailing +in the deportment of our countrymen to their native soldiery; and that +it would be ludicrous to charge them with any harshness or severity of +manner. Such being too notoriously the case, whence could possibly +arise the bloody carnage by which, in almost every case, the sepoys +inaugurated, or tried to inaugurate, their emancipation from British +rule? Our continental neighbours at first grossly misinterpreted the +case; and more excusably than in many other misinterpretations. +Certainly it was unavoidable at first to read, in this frenzy of +bloodshed, the vindictive retaliations of men that had suffered +horrible and ineffable indignities at our hands. It was apparently the +old case of African slaves in some West Indian colony--St. Domingo, +for instance--breaking loose from the yoke, and murdering (often with +cruel torments) the whole households of their oppressors. But a month +dissipated these groundless commentaries. The most prejudiced +Frenchman could not fail to observe that no sepoy regiment ever +alluded to any rigour of treatment, or any haughtiness of demeanour. +His complaints centred in the one sole subject of religion; even as to +which he did not generally pretend to any certain knowledge, but +simply to a very strong belief or persuasion that we secretly +meditated, not that we openly avowed or deliberately pursued, a +purpose of coercing him into Christianity. This, were it even true, +though a false and most erroneous policy, could not be taxed with +ill-will. A man's own religion, if it is sincerely such, is that which +he profoundly believes to be the truth. Now, in seeking to inoculate +another with that which sincerely he believes to be eminently the +truth, though proceeding by false methods, a man acts in a spirit of +benignity. So that, on all hands, the hellish fury of the sepoy was +felt to be unnatural, artificially assumed, and, by a reasonable +inference, was held to be a mask for something else that he wished to +conceal. But what? What was that something else which he wished to +conceal? The sepoy simulated, in order that he might dissimulate. He +pretended a wrong sustained, that he might call away attention from a +wrong which he designed. At this point I (and no doubt in company with +multitudes beside that had watched the case) became sensible of an +alien presence secretly intruding into this pretended quarrel of the +native soldier. It was no sepoy that was moving at the centre of this +feud: the objects towards which it ultimately tended were not such as +could by possibility interest the poor, miserable, idolatrous native. +What was _he_ to gain by the overthrow of the British Government? The +poor simpleton, who had been decoyed into this monstrous field of +strife, opened the game by renouncing all the vast advantages which he +and his children to the hundredth generation might draw from the +system of the Company, and entered upon a career towards distant +objects that for _him_ have absolutely no meaning or intelligible +existence. At this point it was that two enigmas, previously +insoluble, suddenly received the fullest explanation:-- + +1. What was the meaning of that hellish fury suddenly developed +towards officers with whom previously the sepoy had lived on terms of +reciprocal amity? + +2. What cause had led to that incomprehensible enmity manifested, in +the process of these ferocious scenes, towards the wives and children +of the officers? Surely, if his wish were to eliminate their families +from the Indian territory, that purpose was sufficiently secured by +the massacre of him whose exertions obtained a livelihood for the rest +of the household. + +[Footnote 66: This case was entirely misapprehended by a journalist +who happened to extract the passage. He understood me to mean that +this particular mode of disrespect to their British officers had +operated as a _cause_ of evil; whereas I alleged it simply as an +evidence and exponent of evil habits criminally tolerated amongst the +very lowest orders of our mercenary troops.] + +It was tolerably certain that the widows and their children would not +remain much longer in the Indian territory, when it no longer offered +them an asylum or a livelihood. Now, since personally, and viewed +apart from their husbands, these ladies could have no interest for +the murdering sepoys, it became more and more unintelligible on what +principle, steady motive, or fugitive impulse, these incarnate demons +could persist in cherishing any feeling whatever to those poor, ruined +women, who, when their anchorage should be cut away by the murder of +their husbands, would become mere waifs and derelicts stranded upon +the Indian shores. + +These had seemed at first two separate mysteries not less hard to +decipher than the primal mystery of the mutiny itself. But now all +became clear; whatsoever might be the composition, or character, or +final objects of that tyranny which had decoyed the sepoys under its +yoke, one thing was certain--namely, that the childishness and levity +of the Hindoo sepoy made it difficult in excess to gain any lasting +hold over his mind, or consequently to count upon his lasting +services. But to this general difficulty there had now supervened one +signal aggravation, in a shape hateful to those who encountered +it--namely, the attractions of the British service, which service +would be no sooner abjured than it would be passionately regretted. +Here lay the rock which threatened the free movement of the +insurrection. It was evidently determined by those who meant to +appropriate the services of the sepoys, that they should have no +retreat, no opening for recovering a false step, in the well-known +mercy of the British Government. For _them_ it was resolved that there +should be no _locus penitentiæ_ left open. In order to close for ever +that avenue to all hope of forgiveness, the misleaders of the soldiery +urged them into those atrocities which every nation upon earth has +heard of with horror. The mere fact of these atrocities indicates at +once the overruling influence of such men as Nena Sahib, determined to +place a bar of everlasting separation between the native army and that +government which might else have reclaimed the erring men, had their +offences lain within the reach of lawful forgiveness. The conspirators +having thus divorced the ruling power, as they idly flattered +themselves, from all martial resources, doubtless assumed the work of +revolution already finished by midsummer-day of this present year. And +this account of the course through which that attempted revolution +travelled--according to which, not the sepoys, who could have had no +ambition such as is implied in that attempt, but Indian princes and +rajahs, standing in the background, were the true originators of the +movement--finds an indirect justification of its own accuracy in the +natural solution which it furnishes to those infernal massacres, which +else, as they must remain for ever without a parallel, will also +remain for ever without an intelligible motive. These atrocities were +exacted from the sepoys by the conclave of princes as tests of their +sincerity. Such doubtless was the argument for this exaction, the +ostensible plea put forward to the miserable reptiles who were seduced +into this treason, by the promise no doubt of sharing in the fruits of +the new and mighty revolution. Such pleas were for the sepoy. But for +himself and his own secret benefit the princely seducer needed all +that he could obtain of such accursed acts, as the means sure and +sudden of making the separation between the soldier and the government +more and more irreparable. + +So much for the massacre of his officers: but a different reason +availed for the more diabolical outrages upon women and their +children. The murder of the _men_ was extorted from the sepoy as a +kind of sacrifice. With _them_ the reptile had lived upon terms of +humanising intercourse; and, vile as he was, in many cases this must +have slowly ripened into some mode of regard and involuntary esteem; +so that, in murdering the man, oftentimes a sepoy was making a real +(if trifling) sacrifice. But for females he cared nothing at all. And +in my opinion they perished on a very different principle. The male +murders were levied as pledges for the benefit of the princes, and +very distinctly understood to be levied _against_ the wishes of the +sepoy. But in the female sacrifice all parties concurred--sepoy and +prince, tempted and tempter alike. I require you to murder this +officer, as a pledge of your real hostility (which else might be a +pure pretence) to the government. But the murder of the officer's wife +and child rested on a motive totally different--namely, +this:--Throughout Hindostan no feature in the moral aspects of the +British nature could have been so conspicuous or so impressive as the +tenacity of purpose, the persistency, and the dogged resolution never +to relax a grasp once taken. Consequently, had the _men_ of our +nation, and they separately from the women, scattered themselves here +and there over the land (as they have long done in China, for +instance), then, perhaps, the natives, when finding themselves in +conflict with this well-known principle of imperishable tenacity, +would be liable to a sentiment of despair, as in a contest with fate. +And that sentiment would paralyse the Hindoos when entering upon a +struggle for unrooting the British from Hindostan. But here suddenly, +Woman steps in to aid the Hindoo. For the Briton, it is notorious, +would never loosen his hold, more than his compatriot the bull-dog. +But that scene which a man had faced steadily upon his own account, he +shrinks from as a husband or a father. Hence the sepoy attacks upon +women and children. + +From hurried writing, it is to be feared that I may have done slight +justice to my own views. Let me conclude this head therefore by +briefly _resuming_. + +The argument for tracing back the great conspiracy to the discontented +rajahs is--that otherwise, and supposing the mutiny raised for objects +specially affecting the sepoys, they would _not_ have massacred their +officers. _They_ must have desired to leave an opening for pardon in +the event of failure. That crime was exacted to compromise the native +army effectually with the government. But this in many ways was sure +to operate ruinously for the sepoy interests, and could therefore have +found a sufficient motive only with the native princes. + +But the _female_ sacrifice was welcome to all parties. For no doubt +they represented the British officer as saying:--So long as the danger +affected only myself, I would never have relaxed my hold on India; but +now, when the war threatens our women and children, India can no +longer be a home for _us_. + +Another urgent question concerns the acts of the Bengal Government. +Many unfounded charges, as in a case of infinite confusion and hourly +pressure, must be aimed at the Governor-General: the probability of +such charges, and the multiplied experience of such charges, makes +reasonable men cautious--in fact, unduly so; and the excess of +caution reacts upon Lord Canning's estimation too advantageously. Lord +Dalhousie is missed; his energy would have shown itself conspicuously +by this time. For surely in such a case as the negotiation with +Bahadoor Jung of Nepaul, as to the Ghoorkas, there can be no doubt _at +present_, though a great doubt, unfairly indulgent to Lord Canning, +was encouraged at first, that most imbecile oscillation governed the +Calcutta counsels. And it is now settled that this oscillation turned +entirely upon a petty personal motive. A subordinate officer had +accepted the Nepaul offer, and by that unauthorised acceptance had +intruded upon the prerogative of Lord Canning. The very same +cause--this jealous punctiliousness of exacting vanity, and not any +wish to enforce the severities of public justice--interfered to set +aside the proclamation of Mr. Colvin at Agra. The insufficiency again +of the steps taken as to Nena Sahib speaks the same language. In this +very journal, full six weeks earlier than in the Calcutta +proclamation, the offer of a large sum[67] for this man's head had +been suggested. That offer was never kept sufficiently before the +public eye. But a grosser neglect than this, as affecting the +condition of many thousands, and not of any single villain, was the +non-employment of the press in pursuing the steps of the mutineers. +Everywhere, as fast as they appeared in any strength, brief handbills +should have been circulated--circumstantially relating their defeats, +exposing their false pretences, and describing their prospects. Once +only the government attempted such a service; and blundered so far as +to urge against the sepoys a reproach which must have been +unintelligible both to them and to all native readers. + +[Footnote 67: And imperfectly as the offer was advertised, it seems to +have had considerable effect. Apparently it has extinguished the +Nena's power to show himself, and to move about with freedom. He is +now distrustful and jealous--often no doubt with very little reason.] + +Again, a question even more practical and instant arises as to the +modes of public vengeance. + +1. If, when finally defeated, and in a military sense destroyed, on +some signal field of battle, the mutineers should fly to the hills in +the great ranges, or the jungle, the main fear would arise not from +_them_, but from the weak compromising government, that would show +itself eager to treat, and make what the Roman law calls a +_transactio_, or half-and-half settlement with any body of sepoys that +showed a considerable strength. But, in such a case, besides that the +rebels, having now no Delhi, will have scanty ammunition, our best +resource would be found in the Spanish bloodhounds of Cuba, which we +British used fifty years back for hunting down the poor negro Maroons +in Jamaica, who were not by a thousand degrees so criminal as the +sepoys. + +2. That no wrong is done to the Bengal Government by this anticipation +of an eventual compromise, may be judged by the assertion (resting +apparently on adequate authority), that even at this hour that +government are making it a subject for deliberation and doubt--whether +the sepoys have forfeited their pensions! Doubtless, the Delhi and +Cawnpore exploits merit good-service pensions for life! + +3. Others by millions, who come to these questions in a far nobler +spirit, fear that at any rate, and with every advantage for a +righteous judgment, too many of the worst sepoys laden with booty may +find means to escape. To these I would suggest that, after all, the +appropriate, worst, and most hellish of punishments for hellish +malefactors, is mortification and utter ruin in every one of their +schemes. What is the thrust of a bayonet or the deepest of sabre-cuts? +These are over in a few moments. And I with others rejoiced therefore +that so many escaped from Delhi for prolonged torment. That torment +will be found in the ever-rankling deadly mortification of knowing +that in all things they and their wicked comrades have failed; and +that in the coming spring, and amongst the resurrections of spring, +when all will be finished, and the mighty storm will have wheeled +away, there remains for the children of hell only this surviving +consciousness--that the total result has been the awakening of our +Indian Government, and the arming it for ever against a hideous peril, +that might else have overwhelmed it unprepared in an hour of +slumbering weakness. Such a game is played but once; and, having +failed, never again can it be repeated. + + + + +ON NOVELS. + +(_Two pages written in a Lady's Album._[68]) + + +A false ridicule has settled upon Novels, and upon Young Ladies as the +readers of novels. Love, we are told authoritatively, has not that +importance in the actual practice of life--nor that extensive +influence upon human affairs--which novel-writers postulate, and which +the interest of novels presumes. Something to this effect has been +said by an eminent writer; and the law is generally laid down upon +these principles by cynical old men, and envious blue-stockings who +have outlived their personal attractions. The sentiment however is +false even for the present condition of society; and it will become +continually _more_ false as society improves. For what is the great +commanding event, the one sole revolution, in a woman's life? +Marriage. Viewing her course from the cradle to the grave in the light +of a drama, I am entitled to say that her wedding-day is its +catastrophe--or, in technical language, its _peripeteia_: whatever +else is important to her in succeeding years has its origin in that +event. So much for _that_ sex. For the other, it is admitted that Love +is not, in the same exclusive sense, the governing principle under +which their lives move: but what then are the concurrent forces, which +sometimes happen to coöperate with that agency--but more frequently +disturb it? They are two; Ambition, and Avarice. Now for the vast +majority of men--Ambition, or the passion for personal distinction, +has too narrow a stage of action, its grounds of hope are too fugitive +and unsteady, to furnish any durable or domineering influence upon the +course of life. Avarice again is so repulsive to the native nobility +of the human heart, that it rarely obtains the dignity of a passion: +great energy of character is requisite to form a consistent and +accomplished miser: and of the mass of men it may be said--that, if +the beneficence of nature has in some measure raised them _above_ +avarice by the necessity of those social instincts which she has +impressed upon their hearts, in some measure also they sink _below_ it +by their deficiencies in that austerity of self-denial and that savage +strength of will which are indispensable qualifications for the _rôle_ +of heroic miser. A perfect miser in fact is a great man, and therefore +a very rare one. Take away then the two forces of Ambition and +Avarice,--what remains even to the male sex as a capital and +overruling influence in life, except the much nobler force of Love? +History confirms this view: the self-devotions and the voluntary +martyrdoms of all other passions collectively have been few by +comparison with those which have been offered at the altar of Love. If +society should ever make any great advance, and man as a species grow +conspicuously nobler, Love also will grow nobler; and a passion, which +at present is possible in any elevated form for one perhaps in a +hundred, will then be coëxtensive with the human heart. + +[Footnote 68: This was published in _facsimile_ from the Original MS. +in _The Archivist and Autograph Review_, edited by S. Davey, +F.R.S.L.--June, 1888. [H.]] + +On this view of the grandeur which belongs to the passion of Sexual +Love in the economy of life, as it is and as it may be, Novels have an +all-sufficient justification; and Novel-readers are obeying a higher +and more philosophic impulse than they are aware of. They seek an +imaginary world where the harsh hindrances, which in the real one too +often fret and disturb the 'course of true love,' may be forced to +bend to the claims of justice and the pleadings of the heart. In +company with the agitations and the dread suspense--the anguish and +the tears, which so often wait upon the uncertainties of earthly love, +they demand at the hands of the Novelist a final event corresponding +to the natural award of celestial wisdom and benignity. What they are +striving after, in short, is--to realize an ideal; and to reproduce +the actual world under more harmonious arrangements. This is the +secret craving of the reader; and Novels are shaped to meet it. With +what success, is a separate and independent question: the execution +cannot prejudice the estimate of their aim and essential purpose. + +Fair and unknown Owner of this Album, whom perhaps I have never +seen--whom perhaps I never _shall_ see, pardon me for wasting two +pages of your elegant manual upon this semi-metaphysical disquisition. +Let the subject plead my excuse. And believe that I am, Fair +Incognita! + +Your faithful servant, + THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + +_Professor Wilson's--Glocester Place, Edinburgh._ + +_Friday night, December 3, 1830._ + + + + +DE QUINCEY'S PORTRAIT. + +The only one which can be considered satisfactory is that of which a +copy is prefixed to these Volumes. It is from a steel engraving by +Frank Croll, taken at Edinburgh from a daguerreotype by Howie in 1850. + +DE QUINCEY'S own opinion of it is expressed to me in the amusing +letter which was published in _The Instructor_ (New Series, vol. vi. +p. 145). + + +TO THE EDITOR OF _THE INSTRUCTOR_. + +_September 21, 1850._ + +My Dear Sir,--I am much obliged to you for communicating to us (that +is, to my daughters and myself) the engraved portrait, enlarged from +the daguerreotype original. The engraver, at least, seems to have done +his part ably. As to one of the earlier artists concerned, viz. the +sun of July, I suppose it is not allowable to complain of _him_, else +my daughters are inclined to upbraid him with having made the mouth +too long. But, of old, it was held audacity to suspect the sun's +veracity:--'Solem quis dicere falsum audeat!' And I remember that, +half a century ago, the _Sun_ newspaper, in London, used to fight +under sanction of that motto. But it was at length discovered by the +learned, that Sun _junior_, viz. the newspaper, _did_ sometimes +indulge in fibbing. The ancient prejudice about the solar truth broke +down, therefore, in that instance; and who knows but Sun _senior_ may +be detected, now that our optical glasses are so much improved, in +similar practices? in which case he may have only been 'keeping his +hand in' when operating upon that one feature of the mouth. The rest +of the portrait, we all agree, does credit to his talents, showing +that he is still wide-awake, and not at all the superannuated old +artist that some speculators in philosophy had dreamed of his +becoming. + +As an accompaniment to this portrait, your wish is that I should +furnish a few brief chronological memoranda of my own life. _That_ +would be hard for me to do, and _when_ done, might not be very +interesting for others to read. Nothing makes such dreary and +monotonous reading as the old hackneyed roll-call, chronologically +arrayed, of inevitable facts in a man's life. One is so certain of the +man's having been born, and also of his having died, that it is dismal +to lie under the necessity of reading it. That the man began by being +a boy--that he went to school--and that, by intense application to his +studies, 'which he took to be _his_ portion in this life,' he rose to +distinction as a robber of orchards, seems so probable, upon the +whole, that I am willing to accept it as a postulate. That he +married--that, in fulness of time, he was hanged, or (being a humble, +unambitious man) that he was content with deserving it--these little +circumstances are so naturally to be looked for, as sown broadcast up +and down the great fields of biography, that any one life becomes, in +this respect, but the echo of thousands. Chronologic successions of +events and dates, such as these, which, belonging to the race, +illustrate nothing in the individual, are as wearisome as they are +useless. + +A better plan will be--to detach some single chapter from the +experiences of childhood, which is likely to offer, at least, this +kind of value--either that it will record some of the deep impressions +under which my childish sensibilities expanded, and the ideas which at +that time brooded continually over my mind, or else will expose the +traits of character that slumbered in those around me. This plan will +have the advantage of not being liable to the suspicion of vanity or +egotism; for, I beg the reader to understand distinctly, that I do not +offer this sketch as deriving any part of what interest it may have +from myself, as the person concerned in it. If the particular +experience selected is really interesting, in virtue of its own +circumstances, then it matters not to _whom_ it happened. Suppose that +a man should record a perilous journey, it will be no fair inference +that he records it as a journey performed by himself. Most sincerely +he may be able to say, that he records it not _for_ that relation to +himself, but _in spite of_ that relation. The incidents, being +absolutely independent, in their power to amuse, of all personal +reference, must be equally interesting [he will say] whether they +occurred to A or to B. That is _my_ case. Let the reader abstract from +_me_ as a person that by accident, or in some partial sense, may have +been previously known to himself. Let him read the sketch as +belonging to one who wishes to be profoundly anonymous. I offer it not +as owing anything to its connection with a particular individual, but +as likely to be amusing separately for itself; and if I make any +mistake in _that_, it is not a mistake of vanity exaggerating the +consequence of what relates to my own childhood, but a simple mistake +of the judgment as to the power of amusement that may attach to a +particular succession of reminiscences. + +Excuse the imperfect development which in some places of the sketch +may have been given to my meaning. I suffer from a most afflicting +derangement of the nervous system, which at times makes it difficult +for me to write at all, and always makes me impatient, in a degree not +easily understood, of recasting what may seem insufficiently, or even +incoherently, expressed.--Believe me, ever yours, + +THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + + +This letter was a preface to 'A Sketch from Childhood,' of which the +first and second parts appeared in that Volume. + +After this came a blank of six months--a whole Volume containing +nothing. In Volume VIII. (January, 1852), 'A Sketch from Childhood' +was resumed with the following whimsical apology. It then ran for five +months consecutively:-- + + +(_January, 1852._) + +I understand that several readers of my _Sketch from Childhood_ have +lodged complaints against me for not having pursued it to what they +can regard as a satisfactory close. Some may have done this in a +gentle tone, as against an irreclaimable procrastinator, amiably +inclined, perhaps, to penitence, though constitutionally incapable of +amendment; but others more clamorously, as against one faithless to +his engagements, and deliberately a defaulter. Themselves they regard +in the light of creditors, and me as a slippery debtor, who, having +been permitted to pay his debts by instalments--three, suppose, or +four:--has paid two, and then absconded in order to evade the rest. +Certainly to this extent I go along with them myself, that, in all +cases of a tale or story moving through the regular stages of a plot, +the writer, by the act of publishing the introductory parts, pledges +himself to unweave the whole tissue to the last. The knot that he has +tied, though it should prove a very Gordian knot, he is bound to +untie. And, if he fails to do so, I doubt whether a reader has not a +right of action against him for having wantonly irritated a curiosity +that was never meant to be gratified--for having trifled with his +feelings--and, possibly, for having distressed and perplexed his moral +sense; as, for instance, by entangling the hero and heroine (two young +people that can be thoroughly recommended for virtue) in an Irish bog +of misfortunes, and there leaving them to their fate--the gentleman up +to his shoulders, and the poor lady, therefore, in all probability up +to her lips. But, in a case like the present, where the whole is +offered as a _sketch_, an action would not lie. A sketch, by its very +name, is understood to be a fragmentary thing: it is a _torso_, which +may want the head, or the feet, or the arms, and still remain a +marketable piece of sculpture. In buying a horse, you may look into +his mouth, but not in buying a _torso_: for, if all his teeth have +been gone for ten centuries, which would certainly operate in the way +of discount upon the price of a horse, very possibly the loss would be +urged as a good ground for an _extra_ premium upon the torso. Besides, +it is hard to see how any proper _end_ could be devised for a paper of +this nature, reciting a few incidents, sad and gay, from the records +of a half-forgotten childhood, unless by putting the child to death; +for which dénouement, unhappily, there was no solid historical +foundation. + +Right or wrong, however, my accusers are entitled to my gratitude; +since in the very fact of their anger is involved a compliment. By +proclaiming their indignation against the procrastinating or +absconding sketcher, they proclaim their interest in the sketch; and, +therefore, if any fierce Peter Peebles should hang upon my skirts, +haling me back to work, and denouncing me to the world as a fugitive +from my public duties, I shall not feel myself called upon to +contradict him. As often as he nails me with the charge of being a +skulker from work _in meditatione fugæ_, I shall turn round and nail +_him_ with the charge of harbouring an intense admiration for me, and +putting a most hyperbolical value upon my services; or else why should +he give himself so much trouble, after so many months are gone by, in +pursuing and recapturing me? On this principle, I shall proceed with +others who may have joined the cry of the accusers, obediently +submitting to their pleasure, doing my best, therefore, to supply a +conclusion which in my own eyes had not seemed absolutely required, +and content to bear the utmost severity of their censure as applied to +myself, the workman, in consideration of the approbation which that +censure carries with it by implication to the work itself. + + +END OF VOLUME I. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de +Quincey--Vol. 1, by Thomas de Quincey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS DE QUINCEY *** + +***** This file should be named 18862-8.txt or 18862-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/6/18862/ + +Produced by Robert Connal, Paul Good and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr) + + +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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