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diff --git a/30048-0.txt b/30048-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9a3983 --- /dev/null +++ b/30048-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9981 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30048 *** + + THE + CONTEMPORARY + REVIEW + +VOLUME XXXVI. SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1879 + + +[Illustration] + + STRAHAN AND COMPANY LIMITED + 34 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON + 1879 + + + Ballantyne Press + BALLANTYNE AND HANSON, EDINBURGH + CHANDOS STREET, LONDON + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXVI. + + + SEPTEMBER, 1879. + PAGE + The Future of China. By Sir Walter H. Medhurst 1 + + Animals and Plants. By Professor St. George Mivart 13 + + The Artistic Dualism of the Renaissance. By Vernon Lee 44 + + The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte. By Professor Edward + Caird. IV. 66 + + The Problem of the Great Pyramid. By Richard A. Proctor 93 + + Conspiracies in Russia under the Reigning Czar. By Karl Blind 120 + + The First Sin, as Recorded in the Bible and in Ancient Oriental + Tradition. By François Lenormant 148 + + Political and Intellectual Life in Greece. By N. Kasasis 164 + + Contemporary Books:-- + + I. Biblical Literature, under the Direction of the Hon. + and Rev. W. H. Fremantle 182 + + II. Essays, Novels, Poetry, &c. under the Direction of + Matthew Browne 187 + + + OCTOBER, 1879. + + India and Afghanistan. By Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Osborn 193 + + Critical Idealism in France. By Paul Janet 212 + + On the Moral Limits of Beneficial Commerce. By Francis W. Newman 232 + + The Myths of the Sea and the River of Death. By C. F. Keary 243 + + Mr. Macvey Napier and the Edinburgh Reviewers. By Matthew Browne 263 + + The Supreme God in the Indo-European Mythology. By James + Darmesteter 274 + + Lazarus Appeals to Dives. By Henry J. Miller 290 + + The Forms and Colours of Living Creatures. By Professor St. + George Mivart 313 + + Contemporary Life and Thought in Turkey. By an Eastern Statesman 334 + + Contemporary Books:-- + + I. History and Literature of the East, under the Direction + of Professor E. H. Palmer 350 + + II. Classical Literature, under the Direction of Rev. + Prebendary J. Davies 359 + + III. Essays, Novels, Poetry, &c.under the Direction of + Matthew Browne 366 + + NOVEMBER, 1879. + + On Freedom. By Professor Max Müller 369 + + Mr. Gladstone: Two Studies suggested by his "Gleanings of Past + Years." I. By a Liberal.--II. By a Conservative 398 + + The Ancien Régime and the Revolution in France. By Professor + von Sybel 432 + + What is the Actual Condition of Ireland? By Edward Stanley + Robertson 451 + + The Deluge: Its Traditions in Ancient Nations. By François + Lenormant 465 + + Suspended Animation. By Richard A. Proctor 501 + + John Stuart Mill's Philosophy Tested. IV.--Utilitarianism. + By Professor W. Stanley Jevons 521 + + + DECEMBER, 1879. + + The Lord's Prayer and the Church: Letters Addressed to the Clergy. + By John Ruskin, D.C.L. 539 + + India under Lord Lytton. By Lieut.-Colonel R. D. Osborn 553 + + On the Utility to Flowers of their Beauty. By the Hon. + Justice Fry 574 + + Where are we in Art? By Lady Verney 588 + + Life in Constantinople Fifty Years Ago. By an Eastern Statesman 601 + + Miracles, Prayer, and Law. By J. Boyd Kinnear 617 + + What is Rent? By Professor Bonamy Price 630 + + Buddhism and Jainism. By Professor Monier Williams 644 + + Lord Beaconsfield:-- 665 + + I. Why we Follow Him. By a Tory. + + II. Why we Disbelieve in Him. By a Whig. + + Contemporary Life and Thought in France. By Gabriel Monod 697 + + + + +THE FUTURE OF CHINA. + + +The late reconquest by China of some of her former possessions in +Central Asia, and the firm tone in which she is urging her demands upon +Russia, in respect of the _Kuldja_ territory, are giving her a +prominence as a factor in Asiatic politics which she can scarcely be +said to have claimed before. These signs of tenacity of purpose, if not +of actual vitality, acquire an additional interest when viewed in +connection with the recently modified policy of her Government towards +Western States; a policy which, whether induced by an honest intention +to forego the traditional exclusiveness of past ages, or by a shrewd +determination to cope, if possible, with more advanced nations upon the +advantageous footing secured by the cultivation of the progressive Arts +and Sciences, has had the effect of bringing China into diplomatic +relations with the principal Powers of Europe and America, and +introducing her as a recognised element into the political calculations +of the civilized world. The issue of the _Kuldja_ controversy has a +special interest for England, as the mistress of adjacent territory in +India; but a far greater importance attaches to the result of the larger +efforts which China is making to take up a position amongst the nations, +and upon the success of which all her political future must depend. It +is of that future, and of its bearing upon the interests of China's two +great rivals in Asiatic dominion, Russia and Great Britain, that this +paper proposes to treat. + +It cannot be predicated of the Government of China, at any rate at +present, that it is greedy of territory. On the contrary, its +responsibilities are already as serious as it must feel at all competent +to fulfil with credit to itself and satisfaction to its people. But, on +the other hand, it is remarkably tenacious of parting with a single rood +of ground, to which it may claim the right of traditional possession or +more recent conquest. When portions of its territory have been torn +from its grasp by successful rebellion, it has for the moment yielded to +the inevitable. But the earliest opportunity possible has been seized +for reentering upon possession, either by force or craft. The late +recovery of the province of Yunnan in China proper, and of Chinese +Turkestan in Central Asia, after crushing defeats and years of +alienation, affords notable instances of this tenacity of purpose. But +such successful reentries upon lost dominion have only been effected +where the usurping power has partaken of the same or a similar Asiatic +character with that of the Chinese themselves. Where circumstances have +brought the Government into collision with the more energetic and +enterprising people of the West, it has had no alternative but to make +material concessions, and to confirm these by treaties of perpetual +amity and commerce. Russia and England are the only Western Powers that +have thus benefited themselves at the expense of China: Russia, with a +view to the enlargement or rectification of her frontier, which from the +mouth of the Amour to the foot of the _Tien Shan_ is conterminous with +that of China; and England, for the protection and promotion of her +trade, which must have languished, if not perished, under the +constraints of the old _Co-hong_ system. + +Whether the resubjugation of entire provinces by the Imperial Government +may be regarded as a blessing or a curse to the populations concerned, +it is difficult to decide. For them it is unhappily a mere choice +between being at the mercy of unscrupulous adventurers, elated with a +series of successes, and rendered ferocious by a life of rapine, but +utterly unprepared to introduce any serious system of reform; or being +restored to a rule which, although worn out and feeble, has the +advantage of an old-established organization, and can prove, by its +general policy at any rate, that it has the welfare of the governed +seriously at heart. On the whole, setting aside the wholesale cruelty +which has unhappily too often distinguished such governmental triumphs +on the part of the Chinese, and to which, indeed, the unlucky people +seem liable whichever party may happen to gain the ascendency, the +preferable conclusion would seem to be that resubmission to native +authority is perhaps the mildest fate that can be desired for those +subjects of China whose country has unfortunately been the scene of +civil war. But an entirely different result may be looked for when +foreign dominion--that is to say, European--has taken the place of +Chinese. In the case of England, there can be little fear but that, in +spite of the notable mistakes which have at times marked her colonial +administration of Asiatic peoples, the primary object to which she has +always set herself has been the welfare of the governed, and the +development of the resources of the country which they occupy. And even +as regards Russia, however irresponsible her system of government, +selfish and unscrupulous her foreign policy, and corrupt her executive, +may be regarded from an English point of view, still there can be +little question that her assumption of authority over any tract of Asian +territory must be considered preferable in the interests of philanthropy +and general expediency to its restoration to an intrinsically weak and +unpractical Government like that of the Chinese. + +Assuming that the above proposition is a reasonable one, it follows as a +fair inference, that the sooner China or any part of it is brought under +the sway of some strong and progressive Power the better. And really, +looking at the matter from a purely philanthropic and utilitarian point +of view, that is about the best fate that can befall its inhabitants, as +well in their own interest as in that of the world at large. Many things +conspire to show that the days of the ruling dynasty are numbered; and +who can say, when the catastrophe does come, whether the huge but +crumbling fabric will ever be reconstructed? or, if so, whose will be +the head and hand that will accomplish the task? The probability is that +the empire will, in spite of the marvellous homogeneity which +characterizes its people, at once lose its cohesion, and break up into a +number of petty chiefdoms; and one may well imagine the grievous and +protracted misery that must follow upon such a dissolution. It would be +ridiculous, nay wicked, to suggest that this contingency might be +anticipated, and an endeavour made to avert it by the timely absorption +of a portion or of the whole of the Chinese territory. But we are +entitled to express the hope that the course of mundane affairs may so +shape itself as that such a calamity may be indefinitely delayed; or, if +it be inevitable, that it may fall to the lot of some nation to take up +the reins which shall have the will as well as the power to use the +opportunity to the best advantage of the millions concerned. + +The speculation seems here to suggest itself, whether there is a Western +Power at all likely to find itself placed in this position, or which may +be considered a suitable instrument for carrying out the work of +reconstruction. The sphere of selection is limited. England and Russia, +as far as can at present be foreseen, appear to be the only two Powers +whose mission or interest seems likely to impel their influence +Eastwards. Any idea that England will ever deliberately enter upon the +possession of even a part of Chinese territory may at once be dismissed +as unworthy to be entertained. Although her vast trade and world-wide +associations are perpetually landing her in perplexing complications +with Eastern tribes, complications, too, which at times, in despite of +herself, end in conquest or annexation, still her modern policy is +anything but aggressive; and if there be one collision which the English +people would be less inclined to tolerate than another, it would be that +of a little war entered upon for the mere purpose of territorial +acquisition or philanthropic reform. China, moreover, is no mere petty +principality like Abyssinia, Ashantee, or Afghanistan, that she had need +be liable to the risk of annihilation or annexation, even should she +again unhappily venture to take up arms against England on account of a +mere trade dispute. But with Russia the case is materially different. +An acquisitive policy has been traditional with her ever since Peter the +Great, with prophetic foresight, laid down the lines by which her future +conduct was to be guided; and political interest has none the less urged +her on to extend her possessions Asia-wards, and to secure as much +seaboard in any direction as will suit her ambitious designs. Conquests +in Asia, moreover, provide a convenient safety-valve for adventurous, +discontented, or unscrupulous spirits, who might occasion mischief at +home, and who cannot otherwise be readily disposed of; whilst they at +the same time have the effect of furnishing that outlet for a through +trade which has always been the Russian merchant's dream. Russia has +already, as is well known, rectified her frontier on the north and west +of China, seriously to the diminution of the area not so long ago +comprised by the latter, and, by a well-directed combination of courage +and craft, she has within the last twenty years succeeded in conquering +or annexing extensive and fertile tracts of country in Central Asia. +What more likely, therefore, than that, octopus-like, she should +continue to stretch out her huge tentacles further and further, until +they embrace some of the broad and fair provinces of China within their +omnivorous grasp? The advantage of such an acquisition to Russia cannot +be over-estimated. The Russian press, it is true, deprecates the +acquisition of new territory, as being calculated to hinder the +economical development of the people, and seriously to increase the +present difficulties of the empire; and there can be little doubt that +the dominions of the Czar are far too disproportioned to the numerical +sum of his subjects to admit of their having realized, as they might +have done, the immense natural riches of the empire. But with the +acquisition of almost any part of China proper, Russia would gain +territory already thickly peopled to her hand, and possessed of rich +resources of every kind; and, could she approach the sea in any +direction, she would acquire--what is so important to her maritime and +commercial development--a coast-line that would go far towards giving +her the commanding position as a naval Power which has always been one +of her most cherished ambitions. + +And what a glorious field would thereby be afforded her for developing +her political designs! Instead of beating her wings to her own +discomfiture against the bars which England must always throw about her +as long as she persists in her attempts to absorb Turkey, or exercise a +covert influence over the tribes on our Indian frontier, she would, if +she pressed China-wards in preference, find unlimited opportunities for +increasing her resources, enlarging her territory, and extending her +sway, no nation caring, or being called upon, to say her nay. That she +would prove the most suitable Power to be entrusted with so tremendous a +responsibility, is an assertion that few would care to hazard without +large qualification. The pitiless despotism which characterizes the +Russian rule at home, the unrelenting harshness with which she has +treated her Polish subjects, even to the studious stamping out of the +nationalism of the people, and the license which has distinguished the +grasp by Russian officials of civil power in Central Asia, scarcely tend +to render the prospect of the extension of her sway to China very +encouraging. But, as has been already advanced, a Russian administration +is not without its advantages, as compared to a Chinese, and, unless a +radical reform can be looked for in the existing system of government in +China itself, a prospect at best problematical, it may safely be said +that her people might fare worse than pass under the domination of the +Czar. + +For the Chinese concerned, as has been suggested, the loss might be +almost, if not altogether, construed into a gain. They would acquire an +autocratic and despotic Government very similar to their own, only more +powerful and practical in its operation and results; and, if only one +could hope that the rights and prejudices of the people could be +respected, and their general interests consulted, the change would on +the whole prove an advantageous one for the annexed territories +generally. In one respect, at any rate, such a substitution might +certainly be expected to bring about a material amelioration of the +present condition and prospects of the country at large; and that is the +improvement of general communication throughout the empire. Railways +would undoubtedly be forthwith introduced, telegraphs laid down, river +channels cleared and deepened, canals restored and maintained, and the +many obstacles which now clog a might-be flourishing trade permanently +removed. China, in fact, only needs a lion-hearted, capable, and +progressive Government in order to encourage the enterprise of her +people, bring out their many excellent characteristics, and develop the +prolific natural resources which she undoubtedly possesses, in her own +interest and that of the world in general; and, provided always such a +result can be attained, combined with a discreet and paternal care for +the people themselves, no one had need deprecate the substitution of a +foreign for a native yoke. + +It might be objected, Why should not such a thorough reconstruction and +subsequent healthy development be attainable under the present dynasty, +or, at any rate, under a purely native rule? To this we reply that it is +not in the nature of the Chinese to initiate reform or carry it honestly +and steadily out. Neither the rulers nor the ruled appreciate its +necessity; and, could they be enlightened sufficiently to perceive it, +they do not possess the strength of character and fixity of purpose to +follow out implicitly the course pointed out. A curious example of this +lack of interest and resolve was to be observed as regards the +foreign-drilled levies raised at the instance of their foreign advisers +after the treaty of Tientsin. Men and money were readily provided to the +extent suggested, and the men easily learnt the drill. But the foreign +instructors had always to superintend the paying of wages in order to +prevent peculation by the native officers, and, the moment their +vigilant eyes were removed, drill and discipline were voted a nuisance +by officers and men alike, arms and accoutrements ceased to be kept in +order, and the force rapidly assumed its purely Chinese character. +Relics of these levies exist at this moment, but the most unremitting +patience and effort have been needed on the part of the foreign officers +to maintain them in a state of anything like respectable discipline or +effectiveness. A recent writer[1] calls attention to the stupendous +efforts which the Chinese Government has of late been making towards a +reorganization of its naval and military resources upon Western +principles, and to the remarkable success which has in consequence +attended its campaigns in Western China and Central Asia. But these +measures have all owed their conception and execution to foreign energy, +enterprise, and ability; and, as will be presently shown, wherever the +salutary influence of these is weakened or removed, disorganization and +relapse are sure to be the result. Something has, no doubt, been +accomplished within the last twenty years towards opening the eyes of +the Chinese Government to the wisdom of assuming a recognised place in +the comity of nations, and inducing it to introduce various domestic +measures of a useful and progressive nature. But, after all, pressure +from without, and that of the most painstaking and persistent character, +has been needed to effect what little has been done. Let this influence +be removed; let the able customs organization now in vogue be taken out +of alien hands; let foreign Ministers cease to impress upon the State +departments the imperative importance of waking up to international and +domestic responsibilities; let arsenals be deprived of foreign +superintendence; let steamers throw overboard their foreign masters, +mates, and engineers; in a word, let China try to keep afloat without +corks, and what will be the consequence? Corruption would inevitably +fatten on and extinguish foreign trade; foreign representatives would +find Pekin too hot to hold them; arsenals would gradually languish and +cease to work; native-owned steamers would leave off plying the waters; +and the whole country would eventually fall back into a condition of +even more rapid decadence than that in which it was found when England +first interfered to prop it up. What is perhaps more melancholy to +contemplate, there would be few, if any, of her most ardent patriots but +would congratulate themselves on the miserable change. + +China may, perhaps, be saved from an eventual collapse, or from falling +under the sway of all-grasping Russia; but it can only be by a universal +development of the existing system of extraneous aid. What has been done +for her customs revenue must be extended to all departments of the +State, and the employment of foreign heads and hands must be rendered so +general as even to permeate the ramifications of the executive in the +eighteen provinces. But then the difficulty suggests itself. Where is +the _personnel_ needful for such a mighty organization to be found, with +the talent and probity equal to the charge? England has proved it +possible, in the case of India, to produce a corps of administrators who +possess a character for ability, uprightness, and high-minded devotion +to duty, to which the world can show no equal. But, as experience has so +far proved, political balance at Pekin demands that the prizes open to +competition in the Chinese service should be distributed equally amongst +subjects of all nationalities in treaty relations with China; and in +such a huge army of _employés_ as the exigency would require, and most +of whom would probably owe their selection to patronage rather than to +merit, it could not be but that many would find a place who might prove +even greater curses to the governed than the worst type of the Chinese +mandarins themselves. Moreover, such an innovation would practically +amount to placing the entire nation under foreign authority, and it may +be queried whether it would not be more advantageous for the people to +have one uniform foreign rule universally substituted for the native, +than to be at the mercy of an executive formed of such heterogeneous +materials as those we have described. + +It may not be out of place to consider here a suggestion, which has been +thrown out by more than one representative of the English press, as to +the identity of British interests with those of China in resisting the +insidious advances of Russia eastwards, and the expediency of giving the +former our sympathy, if not material support, in her endeavour to +recover _Kuldja_ from Russian cupidity. What British interests comprise +in that quarter of the globe may be summed up in a few words. +Rectification and consolidation of certain portions of the frontier of +British India, the maintenance as far as possible of neutral and +independent Khanates to act as "buffers" between her territories and +those of Russia, and the development of a free and active trade between +the Indian and Central Asian markets. It seems scarcely worth the +trouble of refuting any arguments that could be brought forward to prove +that the concession of a covert or direct support to China in the +_Kuldja_ controversy would be likely to advantage England in any one of +these respects. On the contrary, her interference would more probably +imperil her interests under each head, and would most certainly have the +effect of greatly incensing a Power which, with all its ill-will, has +already shown its desire to conciliate, by withdrawing at our request +the influence which it had been tempted in view of certain contingencies +to use to our disadvantage in Afghanistan; a Power, too, which must and +will pursue its career of acquisition in Central Asia, whatever we may +say or do to the contrary; and with which, in view of its probable +future there, it is manifestly to our interest as holders of India to +live on neighbourly terms. To quote a recent writer on the subject,[2] +"Our object now should be rather to initiate a frank understanding with +Russia as to the aims of our respective policies, to secure her +agreement to definite boundaries to the spheres of influence of both +Powers, and to form, so far as is possible, a union of interests with +her in the future development of Asia." + +Even were China to pledge herself to grant us all the advantages which +we should have to bargain for as a consideration for committing +ourselves to the serious step of affording her aid, it may be doubted +whether she is sufficiently strong to maintain her ground, not merely +against Russia, but against any adventurer like Yakoob Beg or rebels +like the Panthays, who may suddenly rise up and wrest her territory from +her. Then, again, it must be remembered what an alliance with such a +Government as that of China is likely to involve. Her civil +administration, based although it may be on a system excellently well +suited to a people like the Chinese, is so weakened, save in a few +isolated instances, by the incapacity, and so debased by the venality of +its executive, that it has long since forfeited the confidence and +good-will of the masses, and rebellion has only to raise its head to +find a fruitful soil for its speedy growth and development. Her army is +numerically large, and can be recruited without difficulty, and she has +constantly at command any quantity of the most approved war material, so +long as there are foreigners to sell and she has the money to buy; to +say nothing of what she can now to a certain extent manufacture for +herself. But of strategy and the general science of war her officers are +entirely ignorant, and beyond the capability of hurling huge masses of +men at the enemy, irrespective of all consequences, she is in no way +formidable as a military Power in the European sense of the term, nor +could her troops permanently hope to hold their own against those of any +Western State. Even the Japanese, in the little affair with China which +threatened the peaceful relations of the two countries not long ago, +showed themselves quite equal to the occasion, and their sailors and +soldiers pined to exhibit their prowess, and prove the value of their +recent acquirements in the art of war, as against the conservative and +unpractical Chinese. If the rules of civilized warfare are to the +Chinese a sealed book, still less can they be said to appreciate its +humane side. Their officers fail to value the necessity, and indeed do +not seem to possess the power, of protecting their own countrymen from +the general license which marks the march of soldiery through, or the +military occupation of, any peaceable district; and in the wholesale +barbarities which invariably distinguish their triumphs over a conquered +foe, they are scarcely to be surpassed by savages of the lowest type. +Little more can be said in favour of the Chinese in respect of their +relations with England and other Western nations. They have treaties of +peace and commerce with the leading Powers, it is true, and they do not +fail to act up to the strict letter of these engagements as construed by +themselves. But the whole history of their foreign intercourse since +1842 has shown that the Chinese Government has borne with ill grace the +restrictions thus imposed upon it, and has embraced every opportunity to +evade them in spirit, whilst professing to carry them out in the +letter. Trade has been everywhere hampered by vexatious imposts +cunningly introduced on all kinds of pretexts, and as pertinaciously +persisted in, in spite of pointed remonstrances on the part of foreign +representatives. Outrages of a glaring kind have been passed over +without redress, or perhaps with a show of redress so ingeniously +conceded as to evince distinct sympathy with the perpetrators of the +deeds complained of; and the case must be rare, if not unheard of, in +which the initiative has been voluntarily taken by a Chinese official in +righting a wrong suffered by a foreigner at the hands of a Chinese. +Amicable relations prevail between the various foreign communities and +the native population by whom they are surrounded; but these may be +traced rather to the innate good-nature of the people, and the +forbearing conduct of the "strangers from afar," than to any direct +effort on the part of the native authorities to encourage and develop +friendly feeling. The Chinese Court still affects to regard the Emperor +as the Supreme Ruler of all People under Heaven; its recognition of +foreign Ministers accredited to it seems never to have advanced beyond +the not very flattering ceremonial which accorded them a so-called +audience in a body a few years ago; and the relations between the +representatives and the high officials at Pekin cannot as yet be said to +have entered upon a phase which may strictly be styled cordial; and all +this, notwithstanding that Chinese representatives to Western Courts +have been treated with all the ceremony and consideration due to their +official position, and have been received into the highest society of +foreign capitals, not only without demur, but with a warmth and +hospitality which, whilst on the spot, they have themselves been the +first to acknowledge.[3] Under these circumstances, with a civil +administration so effete and corrupt, a military Power so unpractical, +a style of warfare so barbarous, and a Government so wanting in the +honest desire to conciliate, can it be thought politic to go out of our +way in order to further its pretensions, and that to the prejudice of a +Power which, with all its faults, is progressive in its tendencies, and +prepared to acknowledge our international rights, and which more nearly +approaches us in recognising the duty of consulting the material +interests of the people subjected to its sway? The little experience at +any rate which we have had of the results of co-operation with the +Chinese Government has not been such as to encourage us in a repetition +of the experiment. Take, for example, the important aid given by England +in clearing the province of Kiangsu of rebels in 1862-63, and thereby +bringing about the eventual extermination of the Taepings. Such a +service, it might be presumed, would have earned the lasting gratitude +of the nation, and induced a cordiality of sentiment towards their +benefactors which would have exhibited itself in an endeavour on the +part of the Chinese Government to relax the restrictions and remove the +vexations by which mutual relations had up to that time been beset. But +nothing of the kind transpired. No special and national recognition of +the service rendered was ever accorded; and, so far from any improvement +being observable, as a consequence, in British relations with China, +these were marked in the sequel by some of the most trying and difficult +crises with which we have had to deal. More than this, the very moment +of triumph was disgraced by an act of treachery in the deliberate murder +of the surrendered rebel chiefs at Soochow, which must have induced in +the mind of Colonel Gordon, R.E., the keenest regret that he had ever +embarked his honour and expended his labours in the cause of such +allies. The only other instance in which British influence was brought +to bear towards rescuing the Chinese Government from an awkward dilemma +was when the Japanese threatened reprisals for outrages committed +against their subjects, and went the length of sending a considerable +force to occupy the island of Formosa. Hostilities had commenced, and +the war might have proved a protracted if not hazardous one for the +Chinese, had not H.B.M.'s Minister volunteered his services as mediator, +and succeeded in arranging matters to the satisfaction of both parties, +and with as little loss of prestige to the Chinese as they had any +right to expect. Here, again, if any gratitude was felt, there was no +public recognition of the service rendered, and the obligation certainly +left no appreciable trace upon the subsequent policy of the Government; +for, in the very next difficulty with China which occurred not long +after--namely, the official murder of Margary--it needed the pressure of +our demands to the very verge of war, in order to procure the vaguest +attempt at redress, and then we had to rest contented with commercial +concessions as a makeweight for the substantial justice which could not, +or would not, be granted. + +To conclude, China, nationally considered, is in a state of decline. The +very efforts which the more enlightened amongst her statesmen are now +making towards rescuing her from the collapse which threatens show how +desperate they consider her case, and how anxious they are to prevent or +even delay the catastrophe. Her history, it is true, shows that although +she has passed through a series of such periodical lapses, she has ever +exhibited a wonderful power of recuperation more or less effective in +its nature and extent. But these changes have been experienced at times +when she was comparatively isolated from the rest of the world. Her +political crises were never before complicated by the interposition of a +foreign element, such as must be the case in any revolution through +which she may hereafter pass. Mr. Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of +Customs, Joseph-like, has done China good service in reorganizing the +maritime revenue department, and advocating reform generally in the +policy and practice of the State; and did China know her own interest +she would largely develop and extend the advantages of a foreign +admixture in her whole system of executive. But Mr. Hart's efforts must +have a limited result at best, and they can only serve to put off the +evil day. He cannot reform the nature of the Chinese mandarin; and until +there is a radical change in this respect there can be little hope of +reconstruction and progress under purely native guidance. The process +becomes the more embarrassing and futile with aggressive foreign Powers +pressing on all sides with their irresistible influence and exacting +pretensions. China must in time, and as at present constituted, yield to +one or the other, and Russia promises to be the one whose ambition and +interests will probably lead her to turn the opportunity to advantage. +It may not be the best fate that can befall any part of China to be +Russianized, but it will be a better alternative for her people to be +subjected to the sway of a civilized and civilizing Power than to become +the prey to interminable civil wars. It will be better, moreover, for +England and other nations, whose interest in the question is mainly +commercial, that China's millions should be brought under a vigorous and +progressive Government, able and willing to develop the vast trade +resources at their disposal, than that they should decimate themselves +and ruin their country by perpetual internecine strife. Whether it will +be to the interest of England in a political point of view that Russia +should attain the commanding position which the possession of any part +of China would undoubtedly secure her, is an entirely different +question. If it be a danger, it is a danger which she must look in the +face, for everything seems to point to the possibility of such a +consummation. But no consideration of political expediency or +self-preservation can certainly warrant her in interfering as yet; and +it is to be hoped that the time may never come when she shall be called +upon to thwart the ambitious designs of her great rival in Asian +dominion in the extreme East, as she has so long and so successfully +endeavoured to do in countries more directly affecting her political +power and prestige in Europe and India. + + WALTER H. MEDHURST. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Captain C. A. G. Bridge, R.N.: "The Revival of the Warlike Power of +China," _Fraser's Magazine_, June, 1879. + +[2] See _Blackwood's Magazine_, July, 1879, pp. 120, 121. + +[3] Apropos of these remarks it is worth while quoting here a memorial +by the ex-Ambassador Kwo Sung-t'ao, published in the _London and China +Telegraph_ of 7th July, 1879, as the first presented to the Throne on +his return to China, and in which the best that he can say of England, +notwithstanding his cordial reception and marvellous experiences, seems +to be that he was "excessively cast down in a strange country," where, +"had he been put into a ditch, there would have been nobody to cover him +with earth." The very name of the place to which he was accredited +appears to have been beneath mention to his august master. The _Peking +Gazette_ of the 3rd moon, 3rd day, contains the following memorial from +Kwo Sung-t'ao, late Ambassador at the Court of St. James's, to the +Emperor:--"Your servant," he writes, "has suffered from many bodily +infirmities. Relying upon the heavenly (_i.e._, your Majesty's) grace, I +was appointed to go abroad on service of heavy responsibility. I am now +feeble with age, having served at so great a distance; I also deplore my +stupidity, and am extremely apprehensive of my inability in performing +the functions devolving upon me. Since the sixth or seventh moon of the +year before last I have suffered from insomnia. A year ago my spirits +became daily more _abattu_. In the second month of last year I suddenly +experienced phlegm rising in my mouth, and vomited fresh red blood, +without being able to stop it, so that in a trice a basin would get +quite full. I consider that my life has been marked by increasing +afflictions; my respiration is impeded; I am agitated and nervous; +already I have contracted an asthma, and this I certainly had not +formerly. Excessively cast down, in a strange country several tens of +thousands of li away, I thought that if I were put in a ditch there +would be nobody to cover me with earth. Fortunately, by virtue of the +heavenly (_i.e._, Imperial) compassion, having been graciously permitted +to give up my office, all that remains of me, protractedly wearing out +my failing breath, is due to the overflowing grace of the Holy Lord (the +Emperor). During the two years I have been abroad I have passed under +the hands of foreign doctors not a few, who felt my pulse and +administered medicine in a manner very different from native +practitioners. In relieving my indigestion and removing the torpor [of +my liver] they occasionally produced some little effect; but my +constitution became weaker every day, and there was no restoring it. +After casting about this way and that, there seemed but one resource +left to me--to take advantage of a steamer bound for Fu (_i.e._, +Shanghai), and then to return by way of the Yangtsze River to my native +place and put myself under medical advice. Prostrate I implore the +Heavenly Compassion to grant me three months' leave of absence, in order +to establish a complete cure, so that perhaps I may not contract disease +that will prove incurable. After your servant has got home it will be +his duty to report early the day of his arrival, and he earnestly +desires that he may be restored to health. Then I will return to the +capital to resume my functions, and implore that some trifling post may +be given me that I may testify my gratitude by strenuous exertions, like +a dog or a horse. Wherefore I, your humble servant, now beg for leave of +absence on account of my ill-health, and respectfully present the +petition in which my request is lucidly set forth, entreating with +reverence that the sacred glance may rest upon it." + + + + +ANIMALS AND PLANTS. + + +In the first of the present series of Essays it was pointed out[4] that +the number of kinds of living creatures is so prodigious that it would +be a hopeless task for any man to attempt to grasp the leading facts of +their natural history, save with the help of a well-arranged system of +classification. Such a system enables the student to consider the +subjects of his study collectively in masses--masses arranged in a +series of groups, which are successively smaller and more and more +subordinate. By "subordinate groups" are meant groups which are +successively contained one within the other. As an example of such +subordinate grouping we may take the group of familiar objects denoted +by the word "money." This group contains within it the large subordinate +groups, "paper money" and "metallic money;" the latter group again +contains the more subordinate and smaller groups, "gold money," "silver +money," and "copper money," and these respectively contain still more +subordinate and smaller groups. Thus, the group "silver money" contains +the subordinate groups--(1) crowns, (2) half-crowns, (3) florins, (4) +shillings, (5) sixpences, &c.; and any one of these (_e.g._, shillings) +is further divisible into groups of "shillings" of the coinage of +different reigns. + +Reversing the process we may, as another illustration, select the group +of articles of furniture called "chairs," which (with other +_co-ordinate_ groups, such as "tables" and "sofas") is contained within, +and is subordinate to, the larger group of objects, "wooden furniture." +This latter and larger group is again classifiable (together with its +co-ordinate group, "metal furniture") in the yet higher and larger group +of "furniture made of hard material," to which the wooden and metal +groups are both subordinate. Co-ordinate with the group of "hard +material" we have another group (carpets, curtains, &c.) of "furniture +of soft material," and these two groups are again subordinate to the +largest group of all "furniture." + +It was also pointed out in the introductory Essay[5] that there are two +kinds of classification, one artificial, the other natural--the latter +(the kind aimed at in this Essay) being such a system of classification +as leads to the association together in groups, of creatures which are +_really_ alike and which will be found to present a greater and greater +number of common characters the more thoroughly they are examined. + +The system of classification which zoologists and botanists adopt is a +system founded upon the form, structure, number, and relations of the +parts of which each living being consists. It is, therefore, a +morphological system, and rests rather upon the appearances of parts and +organs than upon the offices which such parts and organs fulfil. It +rests, that is to say upon their forms, not upon their functions. + +The mode in which animals have been arranged in zoological grouping +affords an exceptionally good model for classification generally, as has +been noted by the late John Stuart Mill.[6] In fact, the number of +subordinate groups is very great in zoology. Thus, the kingdom of +animals is subdivided into a certain number of very large groups, called +_sub-kingdoms_. Each sub-kingdom is again divided into subordinate +groups termed _classes_. Each class is again divided into still more +subordinate groups called _orders_. Each order is again divisible into +_families_; each family into _genera_, and each genus into _species_, +while a zoological "species" may be provisionally defined as "a group of +animals which differ only by inconstant or sexual characters." + +It could be wished that the reader should pursue his further inquiries +into the natural history of animals and plants, with a knowledge of +biological classification already acquired. But this is, unfortunately, +impossible, since biological classification reposes upon anatomical +facts, and cannot, therefore, be really understood until the main facts +of anatomy have been already mastered. Yet something in the way of a +classification, or at least of a definitely arranged catalogue, must be +even now attempted for the following reason:-- + +In the second of this series of Essays[7] we indicated the lines of +inquiry which must be followed up by any reader who would become +acquainted with the natural history of animals and plants. We saw that +their gross and minute structure, their very varied functions, their +relations to past time, and their geographical relations as well as +their relations to the physical forces and to their fellow organisms, +would all have to be successively considered. Obviously, however, it is +impossible to make known the facts of anatomy, physiology, and +hexicology[8] without constant references to animals and plants which +may be expected to be either altogether unknown, or at least very +incompletely known, to persons as yet unacquainted with zoological and +botanical science. + +References to creatures so unknown or so little known would plainly be +of small profit and less interest, unless the reader was already +furnished with some mental images of such creatures and groups of +creatures--images calculated to sustain his attention and excite his +interest in the various kinds of animals and plants, otherwise unknown, +which will have to be again and again referred to. Accordingly, an +attempt must now be made to set before the reader a rough and general +sketch, or catalogue, of what the creatures and groups of creatures are, +the names of which will have so frequently to appear in the pages which +are to follow. In a word, as the preceding Essay[9] was devoted to +explaining what are the special characters of living beings--_i.e._, +what the phrase "animals and plants" _connotes_; so the present Essay is +intended to explain what that phrase _denotes_. It is not by any means +intended at present to place before the reader a definitive and complete +system of classification--that task must be reserved for the conclusion +of the series, as it will be the expression of all the facts and +inferences which will have been in the meantime brought forward. + +For the purpose now in view it will be well, perhaps, to follow the +suggestion of the great naturalist, Buffon, and begin with creatures +which are amongst the best known and most familiar, and thence proceed +to speak of less and less familiar forms. + +In this Essay assertions will be freely made as to the natural +affinities which the author believes to exist between the creatures to +be enumerated, but no attempt will be made to give the reasons for such +assertions. The justification of such affirmations will, it is believed, +become apparent later, when the organization of living beings shall have +been portrayed as far as the space and the ability at the command of the +writer may enable him to portray them. + +As before said the object now in view is to endeavour to present a +general view of living beings--of animals and plants--in the hope of +fixing in the reader's memory the names of species, and of groups of +species, to which names reference will have to be more or less +frequently hereinafter made. At the least, such a catalogue may serve +for reference whenever the reader may come upon the names of animals or +plants, or of groups of animals or plants, the meanings of which names +may have escaped his recollection. + +The animals most familiar to us, our domestic cattle and our dogs and +cats, all belong to a group of animals technically termed _mammals_, +from the circumstance that the females have milk-glands (or _mammæ_), by +which they nourish their young. The name "beasts" may be set apart for +the brute animals belonging to this group; but they do not altogether +form it, since man himself--the most individually numerous of all the +large animals--is, structurally considered, also a mammal. + +For various reasons, which will appear later, the domestic cat (which is +a member of the genus _Felis_) may serve as an instructive, as it is a +familiar, example of a highly-organized mammal. Allied to the cat, and +formed on so completely the same model as hardly to differ, save in size +and colour, are the lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, +lynxes, and wild-cats of different kinds. What are commonly called +pole-cats are not really cats, but belong to a different "family;" while +civet-cats are not cats in the strict sense of that term. Civet-cats +pertain to a group of beasts called _Viverrines_ (_Viverridæ_), to which +all ichneumons and mongouses (which appear to have been the domestic +cats of the ancient Romans) as well as the bone-eating hyænas also +belong. + +The viverrines and the cats, however, together form one great family to +which the scientific name _Felidæ_ has been assigned. The pole-cats, +together with the ermine, ferret, weasel, marten, sable, skunk, badger, +the otter and the bear, raccoon, coati-mondi, with the kinkajoo, panda, +&c., all belong to another family. Of this family the bears are the +largest in size, and constitute a small group or "genus" called _Ursus_, +whence the whole family bears the designation _Ursidæ_. + +Our dogs (genus _Canis_) are, as every one knows, first cousins to +jackals and wolves and near allies of the different species of fox, the +whole forming a family--_Canidæ_. + +The otter has been already referred to, and it may be thought that +mention of the seals and sea-lions has been unintentionally omitted. But +the seals and sea-lions, in spite of a certain slight resemblance to +otters, due to similarity of habit, are not really near allies of the +latter. They (_i.e._, seals and sea-lions), together with the walrus, +form, indeed, a very distinct family, which is termed _Phocidæ_, because +its type, the common seal, belongs to a subordinate group, or "genus," +named _Phoca_. + +All these families, _Felidæ_, _Ursidæ_, _Canidæ_, and _Phocidæ_ form +together one greater group or "order," to which, of course, these four +families are subordinate. This order is called "_Carnivora_," because it +is made up of carnivorous or flesh-eating beasts. + +The other familiar beasts first referred to--our domestic cattle of all +kinds--form, together with all swine, horses and all asses, deer, +antelopes and camels, another great order of beasts called _Ungulata_, +because the nails of their feet are so large and solid as to form +"hoofs." This order of hoofed-beasts, or ungulates, is a very large +order, and is divided into two sub-orders, and in each sub-order are +various families containing more or fewer genera. + +The two sub-orders are characterized by the structure of the foot. The +toes of the hind foot, which are made use of in progression, are even in +number in one sub-order and are odd-numbered in the other sub-order. + +The sub-order of odd-toed ungulates, or _Perissodactyla_, includes in +our day only the horses, asses, zebras, and quaggas (united together in +the family _Equidæ_); the tapirs, the rhinoceroses, and the little +hyrax--the coney of Scripture. In ancient times, however, this sub-order +was a very large one, but the great majority of the forms belonging to +it, which formerly lived, have now become extinct. + +The sub-order of even-toed ungulates, or _Artiodactyla_, comprises all +oxen, sheep, goats, antelopes, giraffes, deer, chevrotains,[10] llamas, +and camels. All these, from their practice of "chewing the cud," are +called "ruminants," and they are multitudinous in kinds. The great +plains of Southern Africa are the special home of most kinds of +antelope, and the giraffe is exclusively African. Deer have their +head-quarters in Asia, though they exist in South America as well as +throughout the Northern Hemisphere. + +Besides the ruminating artiodactyles there is also an extensive group of +non-ruminating artiodactyles, made up of all the various kinds of swine +(including the American peccaries), together with the hippopotamus, now +found nowhere but in Africa. Distinct as are the ruminating and +non-ruminating artiodactyles now, they were in ancient time connected by +a great number of intermediate forms which have utterly passed away. + +The llamas of South America represent the camels of the Old World, where +the latter are to-day exclusively found. When South America was +discovered by the Spaniards, llamas were the only beasts of burthen +found there, and, indeed, the only cattle of any kind then and there +existing; although horses had formerly abounded and had become extinct +in South America at a long anterior period. + +Somewhat allied to ungulates, but distinct from them, are the elephants, +which form an order (_Proboscidea_) by themselves--an order once rich in +many species widely distributed over the earth. + +Hardly less familiar than our domestic animals, are our hares, rabbits, +mice, squirrels, and their allies, which together form an "order" called +_Rodentia_ from the gnawing habits of its members which nourish +themselves on vegetable substances. This order of rodents is very rich +in species, and consists of many genera grouped in several distinct +families--such, _e.g._, as the family of mice and rats (_Muridæ_), of +squirrels (_Sciuridæ_), of guinea-pigs and spine-bearing porcupines +(_Hystricidæ_), &c. The largest form of rodent is the capybara (or +river-hog of the Rio de la Plata),--which is preyed on by the jaguar. +Though a near ally of the little guinea-pig, it is as large as a hog. +Amongst the more interesting rodents may be mentioned beavers,[11] the +fur-bearing chinchilla, the jerboa (_Dipus_), the musk-rat (_Fiber_), +and the rat-mole (_Spalax_). The jerboa has very long hind legs, and a +habit of jumping, so that it resembles superficially (but not really) a +small kangaroo. The _Spalax_ is quite blind, and has the burrowing +habit, and somewhat the shape of the common mole. Some rodents are +fitted to flit through the air in long jumps, by means of the wide +extensibility of the skin of their flanks, which, when stretched out, +acts as a parachute. Such forms are the flying squirrels, and a curious +rodent called _Anomalurus_, from the exceptional clothing of the base of +its tail, which is furnished with large scales at its under part. + +Another order of beasts may here be referred to, because it affords +interesting examples of the co-existence of external resemblance without +any real affinity. This order includes the insect-eating beasts, or +_Insectivora_, and comprises the moles, hedgehogs, shrew-mice (which are +not really "mice" at all), and their allies. The _Insectivora_ and +_Rodentia_ present us with a singular parallelism in the respective +modifications of structure, which are found in these two very distinct +orders. But the insectivorous forms (as might perhaps be expected from +their less abundant food) are always smaller in size than are the +parallel vegetable-eating groups of rodents. Indeed, one insectivore of +the genus _Sorex_ (the shrew-mouse genus) is the absolutely smallest +mammal which is known to exist. + +As examples of the parallelism referred to may be mentioned the moles +(which resemble the rat-moles), the shrew-mice (which resemble true +mice), the hedgehogs, and the less known spiny tanrec of Madagascar +(which resemble porcupines in their clothing); certain graceful and +active tree-frequenting insectivores of the Indian Archipelago, _Tupaia_ +(which resemble squirrels); an aquatic African form, _Potomogale_ (which +resembles the musk-rat); certain elephant shrews--long-legged, jumping, +African insectivores (which resemble the jerboa amongst rodents); and, +lastly, the so-called flying lemur of the Philippine Islands, or +_Galeopithecus_, which resembles the flying squirrel, and the curious +rodent _Anomalurus_ before referred to. + +The only beasts, however, which _truly_ fly are the bats, which form an +order by themselves, well-named, from the structure of their wings, +_Cheiroptera_. The bats which fly about in the twilight in this country, +or sometimes in the afternoon of a warm day in winter, are all +insect-eating forms. But in the warm regions of the Old World, and of +Australia, there are large fruit-eating kinds, called "flying foxes;" +while in South America there are blood-sucking bats, or vampires, some +of which, as we shall hereafter see, present the most curious and +interesting modifications of structure in harmony with their peculiar +habits. + +The creatures which are in some respects the most interesting to us, +because they are the most like ourselves in form, are the apes. +Moreover, not only are they so like us in form, but they are so widely +marked-off from all other creatures except ourselves, that it seems +impossible they can have any real affinity to one more than to another +group of mammals below man. Apes and man then together form one order, +which as ranking first was named by Linnæus, _Primates_. With the apes +are commonly associated certain animals called Lemurs, which inhabit the +vicinity of the Indian Ocean, especially Madagascar. They have not, +however, any real affinity to apes; and if they are to be placed in the +same order at all, they must be well distinguished from its other +members. It has therefore been proposed[12] to divide the order Primates +into two sub-orders (as the hoofed order is divided into the "odd-toed" +and "even-toed" sub-orders), one of these to include man and apes, and +to be called, from the resemblance to the human form pervading it, +"_Anthropoidea_;" the other sub-order to be termed "_Lemuroidea_." + +The first "sub-order" is divisible into three "families." One of these +(_Hominidæ_) contains man (forming the genus _Homo_), the second +(_Simiadæ_) contains all the apes of the Old World only, while a third +(_Cebidæ_) contains all those of America. + +Amongst the _Simiadæ_ are the orang, the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and +the long-armed apes (or Gibbons), which are the most man-like of all the +apes; and there can be no question but that there is very much less +difference in structure between these four kinds of apes and man, than +there is between them and the lowest of the apes--_i.e._, the marmosets. + +Concerning this resemblance, Buffon has observed, when speaking of the +ape, the most man-like (and so man-like) as to brain:[13] "Il ne pense +pas: y a-t-il une preuve plus évidente que la matière seule, quoique +parfaitement organisée, ne peut produire ni la pensée, ni la parole qui +en est le signe, à moins qu'elle ne soit animée par un principe +supérieur?" + +As to the second sub-order, it contains some very curious forms. The +typical lemurs (which inhabit Madagascar) have long fox-like snouts and +long tails. Certain African forms (the genus _Galago_) are very active +in their movements, and great leapers. A tailless group (the slender +loris) is interesting, as presenting a diminutive quasi-human form, +reflected, as it were, through a Lemurine prism, just as the rat-mole +shows us a mole-form reflected through a rodent prism. + +A little animal, the Tarsier, which is found on the islands of Celebes +and Borneo, is very exceptional in its structure. Still more so is the +aye-aye (_Cheiromys_). This very remarkable species was discovered by +Sonnerat in Madagascar in 1770, and was never again seen till 1844, when +a specimen was forwarded to Paris. It has now, however, become well +known. + +Inhabiting the sea are many beasts, which are, by mistake, popularly +spoken of as "fishes." Such are the whales and the porpoises--animals +which, in spite of their form and habit, suckle their young, and have +hot blood, as all other mammals have. These creatures form an order by +themselves, called _Cetacea_. + +Another order of aquatic beasts is termed _Sirenia_, and the animals +which compose it were long confounded with the _Cetacea_, from which, +however, they are widely divergent in structure, in spite of the +general similarity which exists between them in external appearance. The +order _Sirenia_ contains but two existing genera. One of these is the +now well-known manatee (_Manatus_), the other is the dugong +(_Halicore_)--an animal very similar to the manatee, and found in the +rivers of regions about the Indian Ocean. A third form, the _Rhytina_, +existed in the Aleutian Isles till recent times, but was extirpated +almost as soon as discovered, from its incapacity for flight or defence, +and from its flesh affording a welcome change of diet to hungry sailors. + +The _Cetacea_ and _Sirenia_ are examples of creatures organized for a +completely aquatic life--for never coming to land. + +The forest-regions of South America offer to animal life so enormous a +mass of foliage that it may not unjustly be termed a sea of verdure, and +creatures there exist which are specially organized for a completely +arboreal life--for never coming to the ground. Such creatures are the +sloths, which pass their lives hanging back-downwards, suspended to the +branches by their huge claws. Thus, they sleep without effort (from the +peculiar mechanism of their limbs), and they move slowly from tree to +tree, having no need to hurry after food, since they live suspended in +the midst of a perennial banquet. + +Nearly allied to the sloths were certain huge beasts, now extinct, which +formerly inhabited the same Continent--such as the _Megatherium_ and +_Mylodon_, which rivalled or exceeded our largest rhinoceroses in bulk. +They fed on the same food which nourishes the sloth, but obviously the +branches of no tree could sustain such monsters. They obtained their +leafy pasture, therefore, by a different method. Rearing themselves on +their massive hind legs and powerful tail, as on a tripod, they embraced +the trees with their vigorous arms, and swayed them to and fro, till the +tree embraced was prostrated, and literally fell a prey to their +efforts. These bulky creatures were protected against that danger which +such a mode of life rendered imminent by a specially strong skull +structure, which enabled them to bear a broken head with but little +inconvenience. + +In the same region of the earth are found the ant-eaters and armadillos, +and more or less allied to them are the pangolins (_Manis_) of Africa +and Asia. The horny scales which cover the bodies of the last-named +animals caused them for some time to be associated with reptiles rather +than with beasts, though they are true and perfect mammals. Lastly must +be mentioned the aard-vark (_Orycteropus_) of South Africa. + +All these creatures, from the sloths to the aard-vark, are commonly +associated together in an order which is termed _Edentata_. + +The whole of the orders of mammals yet mentioned agree in certain +important details with respect to their reproductive processes, as well +as in certain smaller anatomical peculiarities, and the whole of the +creatures included within these orders are (and will be) often spoken of +as _Placental Mammals_. + +The only beasts which it yet remains to speak of are grouped in two +other orders. + +The first of these is called the order _Marsupialia_, and comprises all +opossums (_Didelphys_), kangaroos (_Macropus_), phalangers +(_Phalangista_), the Tasmanian wolf (_Thylacinus_), the dasyures +(_Dasyurus_), the bandicoots (_Perameles_), and their allies. With the +exception of the true opossums (_Didelphys_), all the members of the +order are found in Australia or its vicinity, and nowhere else in the +present day; although, as we shall better see hereafter, Europe once +possessed animals closely allied to Australian forms of to-day--notably +to a pretty little quadruped which bears the generic name _Myrmecobius_. + +As last of the class of beasts, we have two extremely exceptional +mammals (both found only in the Australian region), the duck-billed +platypus (_Ornithorhynchus_), and the _Echidna_. The first of these, as +its name implies, has a muzzle quite like the bill of a duck, with a +squat, hairy body, and short limbs. The echidna is covered with strong, +dense spines, and has a long and slender snout. These creatures together +form the order _Monotremata_--an order which differs very much more from +any other Mammalian order than any of the other orders of mammals differ +one from another. + +Thus, that great group which embraces man and beasts, and which group +ranks as a "class"--the _class_ Mammalia--comprises (as we have now +seen) a number of subordinate groups termed "orders," the orders being +made up of families, and these again of genera. + +It would be impossible as yet (when hardly any anatomical facts have +been even referred to) to give the characters of the class _Mammalia_. +It must at present suffice to point out that, in addition to mammary +glands, the creatures have hot blood, and the body bears more or less +hair--at least at some time of life. + +We may now pass to the next class, that of birds--the class _Aves_. In +spite of the great multitude of kinds which ornithologists +enumerate--upwards of ten thousand species--there is very much less +diversity of form amongst birds than there is amongst beasts. + +Starting in the present class as in the preceding one from the most +familiar kinds, we may begin with the domestic fowl. This is one of an +"order" to which belong the peacock, all pheasants and tragopans (three +forms which have their home in Central and Southern Asia), also the +Guinea fowls (African forms), and the turkeys and curassows, which are +American representatives of the order. Besides these may be mentioned +partridges, grouse, black-cock, the capercalzie and quails, and, lastly, +the megapodius or bush-turkey of Australia. This last is the only bird +which hatches its eggs by artificial heat, depositing them in a mound of +earth and decaying vegetable matter, wherein they are hatched +fully-fledged, so that they can fly away immediately on leaving the egg. +All the birds yet mentioned are called gallinaceous birds, or _Gallinæ_, +and sometimes _Rasores_ or "Scratchers." + +More or less allied to them are the doves and pigeons, which form the +order _Columbæ_, in which the curious ground-pigeon _Didunculus_ is +included--a form which presents an interesting resemblance to the +celebrated and extinct dodo of Mauritius, long known only by certain +pictures, and a foot and head preserved, one in the British Museum, and +the other in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. + +Our sparrows, robins, and all our song birds are members of an +exceedingly numerous "order" "_Paseres_." In it are included the crows +(with those gaily-decorated crows, the Birds of Paradise, found only in +New Guinea and the Moluccas), the bower birds and the lyre bird of +Australia; the flycatchers, the pittas (or ground thrushes), the +water-ouzel, the weaver birds, the wrens, the tits, the creepers, the +honey-eaters, those African gems, the sun birds, and also the swallows. + +To another order--the order _Macrochires_--belong those most beautiful +of all birds, the humming birds, found only in America, and long thought +to be allied with the really very different sun birds just mentioned. +With these may be associated the swifts (which have such marvellous +powers of flight) and the wide-gaped goat-suckers or nightjars. + +Woodpeckers are considered to form an order (_Pici_) by themselves, +while the cuckoos are thought to be near relations of the beautiful and +eccentric toncans, the plaintain-eaters, the touracous, the kingfishers, +the hoopoes, the bee-eaters, the hornbills, and the trogons, all, from +the cuckoos to the trogons, being included in the order _Coccyges_. + +The parrots form an isolated group of birds--the order _Psittaci_. Their +most peculiar forms are the macaws on the one hand, and the brush-tailed +loris on the other. The order _Accipitres_ includes all the birds of +prey--that is to say, the eagles, falcons, hawks, buzzards, vultures, +and owls. In this order is included the long-legged secretary bird, +which looks like a cross between a hawk and heron. + +Pelicans, gannets, cormorants (or shags), and darters go together to +constitute the order called _Steganopodes_. The flamingoes are isolated, +and by themselves form the order _Odontoglossæ_. The same is the case +with the penguins, which have the order _Impennes_ assigned exclusively +to them. + +The ducks and geese form alone the order _Lamellirostres_, in which is +included the curious bird _Palamedea_, which is a goose adapted to live +in trees in harmony with its South American forest habitat. + +The rails and coots go with the bustards and cranes to constitute the +order _Alectorides_. Similarly the auks, divers, puffins, terns, and +grebes, noddies, and guillemots may be associated together in one +order--the order _Pygopodes_. The gulls and petrels form another +association--the order _Gaviæ_; while the plovers, snipes, curlews, +peewits, turnstones, &c., constitute the order _Limicolæ_. The order +_Heridiones_ includes the herons, the bitterns, the storks, spoonbill, +ibis, &c. + +All the foregoing birds have a multitude of points in common; indeed, so +close is the similarity of their structure that their subdivision into +orders is a matter of much difficulty and dispute. They are collectively +spoken of as the _Carinatæ_, from the keeled form of their breast-bone. + +Widely apart from them stands another group made up almost entirely of +large birds, which agree not only in having no power of flight, but also +in certain significant structural characters, amongst which may be +mentioned the absence of a keel on the breast-bone. + +This latter group is sometimes spoken of as the order _Struthiones_ from +the ostrich (_Struthio_), which is its typical form. Sometimes these +keelless birds are called _Ratitæ_. Besides the ostrich, the rhea, +cassowary, and emeu are included within the group; also the small and +nocturnal _Apteryx_ of New Zealand and those giants of featherdom, the +huge species of dinornis, all also of New Zealand and all now extinct. + +With this our list of birds might close, but for a bird which anciently +existed in Europe so strangely different from all modern kinds, that it +must certainly be here adverted to. This bird is the _Archeopteryx_, +found in fossil in the Solenhofen States. + +The class Aves, like the class Mammalia, consists of animals with hot +blood, but all birds have feathers and a number of other peculiarities +of structure, as will appear later. + +The next class to be adverted to is the class which includes all +reptiles properly so-called--the class _Reptilia_. + +The reptiles which exist in the world to-day may be classed in four +well-marked sets, each of which has the value of an "order"--(1) +crocodiles, (2) lizards, (3) serpents, and (4) tortoises. The names of +these creatures alone suffice to indicate the fact that the class of +reptiles presents us with an extraordinary amount of diversity of form +as compared with the class of birds with which, nevertheless, reptiles +have, as we shall hereafter see, very close relations. Indeed, in the +diversity of kinds which it contains, the class _Reptilia_ at the least +fully equals the class Mammalia, especially if the extinct kinds are +taken into consideration. The number of species of reptiles, both living +and extinct, much exceeds also the number of living and extinct mammals. + +To begin once more with forms which are the least strange and unknown, +we may start with the little elegant and harmless lizards of our heaths +and commons, which will serve as types of the order to which they +belong--the order _Lacertilia_. That order is an extremely numerous one, +containing many families, differing much in form. Our English lizards +are true lizards, belonging to the typical genus _Lacerta_ and to the +typical family _Lacertidæ_. The rather well-known large American lizard, +_Iguana_, is the type of another and very extensive family (almost +entirely confined to America), while a nearly-allied family (_Agamidæ_) +is an Old World group. Amongst the curious forms found in the latter +family may be mentioned the frilled and moloch lizards of Australia, and +those little harmless lizards of India which go by the formidable name +of "flying dragons" (_Draco_). They are the only existing aërial +reptiles--not that they can truly "fly" at all, but they are enabled to +take prolonged jumps, and to sustain themselves to a considerable extent +in the air by means of the extremely distensible skin of their flanks +which, when extended, is supported by a peculiar solid framework +hereafter to be described. Some of the largest lizards are called +"monitors," and are common in Egypt; they belong to the family +_Monitoridæ_. + +In the warmest period of the year, certain lizards are found in the +South of Europe, called geckos. They have a power of running, not only +up walls, but across ceilings by means of a peculiar structure of their +toes. They are types of a large family (_Geckotidæ_) widely spread over +the world. + +Another large family (_Scincidæ_) has also its type in the South of +Europe in the skink (_Scincus_), which was formerly supposed to possess +much medicinal value. This large family contains a number of species +which exhibit a series of gradations in structure leading to forms which +have the external aspect of serpents. One such form is the perfectly +harmless slow-worm, or blind-worm, of our own country, which in spite of +its scientific name, _Anguis fragilis_[14], is a legless lizard, and no +snake. + +Other lizards of a very different kind forming the family _Amphisbæidæ_ +are also legless, with the single exception of the genus _Chirotes_, +which has a pair of anterior limbs, but no posterior ones. The name of +this family is derived from the similarity of appearance presented by +both ends of the body, so that either end looks as if ready to take the +lead as "head." + +A family of lizards familiar by name to us all from our childhood is the +family of chameleons (_Chameleonidæ_). There are many species of +chameleons, but they are found in the Old World only; they are among the +most exceptional and peculiar of all lizards, but there is one form +which is yet more so. + +This most exceptional of lizards is one found in New Zealand, and named +_Sphenodon_. Its external aspect would not lead the ordinary observer at +all to suspect that it is so remarkable a creature as its anatomy shows +it really to be. + +The order _Crocodilia_ contains, of course, the true crocodiles which +are found both in the Old and New Worlds. It contains besides the +alligators (which are peculiar to America), as well as the long and +slender-snouted gavials which are now found only in India and Australia. +At one time the number of kinds of this order was very much greater than +at present, and interesting structural modifications have taken place in +it during the course of ages, as will be pointed out later. + +On the whole, the order of crocodiles makes a much nearer approach to +mammals and birds--especially (strange as it may seem) to birds, than is +made by any other group of existing reptiles. + +Reptiles, however, once existed have left their remains fossilized (in +the rocks of what is termed the "secondary" or "mesozoic" period), which +reptiles in the structure of their skeleton approach much more closely +to birds, and especially to birds of the ostrich order, than crocodiles +do. Amongst these reptiles may be mentioned the huge Iguanododon (type +of the, extinct order _Dinosauria_), which once roamed over the Weald of +Kent, and has left its remains in the Isle of Wight and elsewhere. Such +remains were collected by its discoverer, the late Dr. Mantell, and are +now preserved in our British Museum. + +The crocodilia and some of the lizards of our own day are aquatic, but +none live constantly in the ocean, as do the cetacea amongst beasts. +This was, however, by no means always the case. In the secondary period +just adverted to, huge marine reptiles (_Ichthyosauria_ and +_Plesiosauria_) lorded it over the other then inhabitants of the deep, +and presented some noteworthy resemblances to the whales and porpoises +which have since succeeded them. + +But other remains preserved in those same secondary rocks show us that +in that period which has been so deservedly called "the age of +reptiles," not only did many huge species of the class stalk over the +land (either browsing on its foliage or preying on their fellows), and +many others swarm in the then existing waters, but it shows us that the +atmosphere also had its reptilian tenants. Flying reptiles which formed +the now extinct order, _Pterosauria_, and which were some of small, some +of very large size, as truly "flew" as do the bats of our own day fly, +and by a very similar mechanism. Moreover, if the _Dinosauria_ present, +as they do present, very noteworthy and interesting resemblances to +birds of the ostrich order, no less noteworthy and interesting are the +resemblances presented by these flying reptiles to ordinary--_i.e._, to +"carinate"--birds. + +The orders of extinct reptiles just referred to are not the only ones +which formerly existed and have now passed away. There were reptiles +with peculiarities in their teeth such as to have caused their order to +be named _Amnodontia_, and it is members of this extinct order that the +lizard _Sphenodon_ more or less resembles, and it is this resemblance +which gives it that special interest before noted. + +We may now return from these very various extinct forms to enumerate +other kinds of reptiles which exist to-day. But before doing so the fact +may be adverted to, that though amongst beasts many forms have become +extinct, yet the proportion borne by the known extinct forms to the +living kinds is much less than amongst reptiles, and that while it is +the most highly-organized reptiles which have ceased to exist, the +highest mammals which are in any way known to us are those which at +present inhabit the earth's surface. + +In passing from the orders of crocodiles and lizards to that of +serpents--_i.e._, to the order _Ophidia_--we might select as first to be +mentioned kinds which much resemble the legless lizards; but such kinds +are not familiar ones in Europe. + +The only serpents met with in England are but of three species--two +harmless snakes and the common viper, which latter is the only really +poisonous reptile in this country. + +Of the harmless snakes, the ringed or collared snake (_Tropidonotus_) is +much the commoner and more widely diffused. It ought to escape +destruction on account of the ease with which it may be discriminated +from the viper by means of the white collar-like mark which appears so +conspicuously just behind its head. + +Our viper is the type of a large and poisonous family, but by no means +all poisonous snakes are vipers. The deadly cobras belong to a different +group, having much more affinity with our own harmless snakes than with +the vipers. The rattle-snakes again form a family (_Crotalidæ_) by +themselves. + +There are such things as true sea-serpents, and they are poisonous. They +are not, however, allies of any "sea serpent," such as every now and +again figures in startling paragraphs in our journals. The true +sea-serpents are snakes of small or moderate size, which have their +tails flattened from side to side, and which inhabit the Indian Ocean. +Of other serpents which are not poisonous, the family of boas and +pythons (which kill by crushing) is tolerably familiar to all who have +visited zoological collections. There are many beautiful and harmless +snakes, such as the families of tree-snakes and whip-snakes, but the +snakes which more or less resemble legless lizards are burrowing forms +which have the habits and more or less the appearance of earth-worms, +such as those which form the families of _Uropeltidæ_ and _Typhlopsidæ_. + +The last existing reptilian order (_Chelonia_) includes, besides the +land tortoises of very various dimensions, a variety of aquatic forms. + +The best known of these in this country, is the marine family +(_Chelonidæ_), to which the edible and tortoise-shell turtles belong. +The best known family in the United States and in the Continent of +Europe, is the _Emydæ_, to which pertain the terrapins or ordinary river +tortoises. Besides these, however, there is a very small family +(_Trionicidæ_) of curious and exceptional forms, called mud-tortoises +(_Trionyx_). + +The creatures which have next to be glanced at are those familiar forms, +the frogs, toads and efts, which, together with their allies, form +another class,--the class _Batrachia_. These animals were long +confounded with reptiles but are really widely distinct from them. They +are arranged in four orders, three of which have living representatives. +The creatures of the first order (the order of tailless Batrachians or +_Anoura_)--frogs and toads--exist over almost all the habitable globe; +and though the number of their kinds is very great, yet they are all +extremely alike in organization. Many kinds (of both frogs and toads) +are found to live in trees, the ends of their fingers and toes being +dilated to enable them to cling to the surfaces of leaves. The most +exceptional species of the whole group are the two tongueless toads, the +_Pipa_ of South America and the _Daclytethra_ of Africa, the last-named +kind being the lowest of all known animals provided with finger nails. + +Closely related to the frogs and toads are the efts so common in our +ponds. These familiar English forms are represented in other countries +of the Northern Hemisphere by creatures, some of which (as we shall +hereafter see) are of very great interest indeed. The whole group +constitutes the second Batrachian order--the order _Urodela_. + +One of the most noteworthy forms of the order is the eft _Proteus_, +which inhabits the dark, subterranean caverns of Carniola and Istria. +Allied to this is the _Menobranchus_ of North America and the Axolotl of +Mexico. Other forms of the order are the American eft-genera _Spelerpes_ +and _Amblystoma_, the _Menopoma_, and the gigantic Salamander +(_Cryptobranchus_) of Japan and China, the eel-like _Amphiuma_--with its +very long body and minute legs--and the two-legged _Siren_ of the United +States. + +The third order of Batrachians is one which contains very few species, +but these are very strange, for though allied to frogs they have the +appearance of snakes, or rather perhaps of worms. With long and slender +bodies (marked by many transverse wrinkles), devoid of every rudiment of +limb, they remind us of the before-noticed _Anguis_, _Typhlops_, and +_Uropeltis_ amongst reptiles. The Batrachians in question (which belong +to the genera _Cæcilia_ and _Siphonops_) form the order _Ophiomorpha_. + +The fourth order of Batrachians is one which has entirely passed away +and become extinct. It is the order _Labyrinthodonta_, and the species +which composed it were, some of them, of large size, with great heads +like those of crocodiles. Others bore more or less resemblance to +enlarged _Ophiomorpha_. + +Every one knows that frogs begin their existence in the water as +tadpoles, which have the habits and mode of life of fishes. Thus, the +class _Batrachia_ naturally conducts us to the class _Pisces_, the class +of true fishes. This class contains a prodigious variety of forms, and +is far more rich in species than any other of the classes before +enumerated--even that of birds. + +The fishes most familiar to us--such as the perch, carp, mackerel, cod, +herring, sole, turbot, salmon, pike, dory, and eel--all belong to one +great order called _Teleostei_, and which is made up of what are called +"bony" fishes, though there are some bony fishes which do not belong to +it. To the same order also belong the Muroena, the electric eel +(_Gymnotus_), the flying fishes (_Exocetus_ and _Dactyloptera_), the +sucking fish (_Remora_), the pipe-fish and sea-horse (_Hippocampus_), +the diodon, the ostracion, the file-fish (_Balistes_), the largest of +all fresh-water fishes (_Sudis gigas_ of South America), with a +multitude of other forms. + +Certain more or less singular Teleosteans are classed together in a +subordinate group of "Siluroids" (of which fish the _Silurus_ is a +type), and which group includes, amongst others, the singular, cuirassed +fish Callichthys. + +A group of fishes, which is now very small, but which at an earlier +period of the world's history was very large, includes within it all +those fishes which will be hereinafter occasionally spoken of as +"Ganoids," as they compose the order _Ganoidei_. Of all the forms of +this order, the sturgeon is that which is least unfamiliar to us. The +Ganoids are mostly fresh-water fishes and consist of the spoonbill-fish +(_Polyodon_), the bony-pike (_Lepidosteus_), the African _Polypterus_, +the mud fish (_Lepidosiren_), and the curious Australian fish +_Ceratodus_, which last is a singular instance of piscine survival. + +Another order, _Elosmobranchii_, is made up of the sharks, together with +the skates (or rays) and the curious _Chimæra_. Amongst the skates may +be mentioned the celebrated torpedo or electric ray. + +The three groups above enumerated contain almost all known fishes, but a +few other kinds, all of lowly organization, constitute two other groups +of very different structure. + +One of these groups is called _Marsipo-branchii_, and contains the +lamprey, the _Myxine_ (or Glutinous Hag), and the _Bdellestoma_. They +are fishes of parasitic habits and of relatively inferior structure. + +Last of all comes a creature of such exceptional build, so widely +different from, and so greatly inferior to, any kind of animal yet +noticed, that it may but doubtfully be reckoned as a fish at all. The +animal referred to is the lancelet (_Amphioxus_), which is a small, +almost worm-like animal, living in the sand on our own coasts, and also +widely distributed over other parts of the world. The _Amphioxus_ has no +distinct head or heart, and its breathing apparatus--its gill +structure--differs so much from that of all other fishes as to give a +name to its "order" (which contains it alone)--the order +_Pharyngobranchii_. + +We have now, then, hastily surveyed no less than five "classes" of +animals--(1) Mammalia, (2) Aves, (3) Reptilia, (4) Batrachia, and (5) +Pisces. + +But, as was said in the first beginning of this Essay,[15] "classes" are +the groups into which "sub-kingdoms" are divided, and which, by their +union, make up such "sub-kingdoms." + +The five classes above-mentioned together constitute the highest of +those sub-kingdoms into which the whole animal kingdom itself is +divided. This highest sub-kingdom is named VERTEBRATA, and is called the +vertebrate sub-kingdom, because every creature which belongs to it +possesses a "spinal column," which is generally built up of bones, each +of which is called a "_Vertebra_." + +We ourselves are members of the genus _Homo_, of the family _Hominidæ_, +of the order _Primates_, of the class _Mammalia_, of the sub-kingdom +_Vertebrata_, and it is desirable to treat this sub-kingdom at +considerable length, both because it is, to us who are members of it, +the most interesting and important, and because, by treating it somewhat +fully, a good example can be once for all given of biological +classification. + +But the number of animal kinds which belong to other sub-kingdoms vastly +exceeds the total number of vertebrate animals, and the structural +contrasts found between different non-vertebrate species is very much +greater than any such contrasts as can be found to exist between any two +members of the highest, or vertebrate sub-kingdom. This is only what we +might expect; for non-vertebrate animals--often spoken of collectively +as "_Invertebrata_"--form several distinct sub-kingdoms, each of which +has a rank approximatively co-ordinate with that sub-kingdom to which we +ourselves belong. Nevertheless, since the members of the invertebrata +sub-kingdoms are, speaking generally, much less known and familiar than +are vertebrate animals, and as the structural differences between them +cannot be pointed out till an initial acquaintance has been made with +comparative anatomy, for these reasons we may treat the various animal +sub-kingdoms which have yet to be noticed at much less length than we +have treated the vertebrata. The details of their peculiarities and the +various degrees of significance and interest which they present will +begin to appear when we proceed to treat of "The Forms of Animals." + +The last class of vertebrates is, as we have seen, constituted by the +fishes, which are fishes properly so called. But there are many animals +which are familiarly and improperly spoken of as "Fishes," but which are +even more below true fishes than whales and porpoises are above them. +Thus, we hear of cuttle-fishes, and a variety of creatures are spoken of +as "shell-fish," which are not in the least related to true fishes. +Indeed, the many so-called "shell-fish" are not even nearly related one +to another. Thus, the oyster and the lobster are both commonly thus +named, but they belong respectively to two altogether distinct +sub-kingdoms of the world of animals. + +The oyster is an animal which belongs to a vast assemblage of species, +with much variety of form and structure, which, on account of their soft +bodies (whether or not enclosed in shells), are called MOLLUSCA or +"Mollusks." This assemblage ranks as a sub-kingdom and contains within +it at least four subordinate great groups, or "classes." All snails and +whelks, with their allies, and also all cuttle-fishes, belong to the +sub-kingdom of "soft animals." + +Amongst the most familiar of mollusks is the common snail, which may +serve as a type of the "class" of mollusks to which it belongs--the +class _Gasteropoda_. The snail, with the slug, are representatives of +land-forms of mollusca, but the bulk of the class and of the whole +sub-kingdom are aquatic animals, such as the whelk (_Buccinum_), +periwinkle (_Littorina_), limpet (_Patella_), &c. The Gasteropods +generally possess spirally coiled shells (like the cowry or whelk), but +some kinds have their shells in the form of simple cones--like a +Chinaman's cap--as, _e.g._, the limpet. There are a few Gasteropods in +which the shell consists of a series of similar segments as is the case +with _Chiton_, while many are altogether naked. In some kinds the soft +body is drawn out into a number of tufted processes, as in Doris and +Eolis, and sometimes the body is almost worm-like, as in _Phylliroë_, or +provided with a pair of ring-like lateral processes and a rudimentary +shell, as in the sea-hare _Aplysia_. + +Next above the Gasteropods comes a group of animals forming the class +_Pteropoda_. These pteropods are small, active, oceanic, +surface-swimming creatures, many of which live in delicate glass-like +shells, and some of which form a large part of the food of the whalebone +whale. They flit through the water by the aid of lateral processes which +much resemble those before-mentioned as existing in the sea-hare. Allied +to these pteropods is a curious little animal, the shell of which +resembles a miniature elephant's tooth and which is named _Dentalium_. + +Highest of all the mollusca stand the cuttle-fishes, forming (with the +_Nautilus_ and many extinct animals, such as ammonites and their allies) +the great class _Cephalopoda_. The Cephalopoda, such as the cuttle-fish +(_Sepia_) and the Poulp (_Octopus_), have now become familiar objects +through our aquaria, where their very eccentric forms and remarkable +movements naturally attract attention. To this group also belongs +_Spirula_, the coiled and chambered shell of which is found so +abundantly, but its soft tenant so very rarely. To it also belongs the +extinct Belemnite, which was provided with a dense, conical internal +shell, specimens of which found in rocks were at one time taken for +thunderbolts. Of a lower grade of organization is the _Nautilus_, sole +existing representative of a great group of Cephalopoda (including the +ammonites and other forms) which has, with the above exception, long +become entirely extinct. + +The oyster is an animal which belongs to a much lower class of +mollusca--namely, to the class called _Lamellibranchiata_, from the +plate-like (or lamellar) structure of the gill. To that class also +belongs the scallop (_Pecten_), the mussel (_Magilus_), the fresh-water +mussel (_Anodon_), the razor-shell (_Solen_), the cockle (_Cardium_), +species with a long fleshy tube such as _Mya_, stone-perforating shells +such as _Pholas_, and the well-known wood-boring "ship-worm" +(_Teredo_)--which is no "worm" at all--with a multitude of other forms. + +Certain other animals (which, like the Lamellibranchs, all have a shell +divided into two valves) form another still lower class called +_Brachiopoda_, a class which we may, at least provisionally, consider as +belonging to the mollusca. These _Brachiopods_ are also called +"Lamp-shells," from a certain resemblance which many of them show to the +form of a classical lamp. They are interesting, because in very ancient +times they seem to have held that place in the world's animal population +which is now held by the Lamellibranchs, by which, as they died out, +they have been gradually replaced till but comparatively few forms +survive. Some of these, however, are of great antiquity, and one of +them, _Lingula_, is, though still living, one of the most ancient of all +known animals. + +We may next pass to a small sub-kingdom which includes the curious and +inert animals before referred to[16] as "Sea-squirts," Tunicaries or +Ascidians, and which constitute the sub-kingdom TUNICATA. These are +marine organisms of very simple but very peculiar structure which +sometimes grow up in compound aggregations. Certain forms (_e.g._, +_Pyrosoma_) are luminous at night and may be seen swimming about in the +ocean like so many red-hot urn-heaters. As we shall hereafter see, the +reproductive processes and the earlier stages of existence of these +creatures possess much interest, and have afforded strong grounds for +regarding them, in spite of their lowly organization, as very close +allies of the highest animals or _Vertebrata_. + +Returning now to the "lobster" (lately mentioned as one of those animals +commonly called "shell-fish") we may regard it as an example of what is +by far the most numerous of all the sub-kingdoms of animals. This +sub-kingdom is made up of animals with jointed feet or "Arthropods," and +the ARTHROPODA are subdivided into four classes--1, _Crustacea_; 2, +_Myriapoda_; 3, _Arachnida_; and 4, _Insecta_; and it is to the first of +these four classes that the lobster belongs. + +The class _Crustacea_ contains, besides the lobster (and its near +allies, hermit-crabs, prawns, shrimps, and cray-fish), all crabs, +including those very quaint-looking animals (now so often seen in our +living collections), the king-crabs (_Limulus_), and a variety of more +or less strangely different forms such as the following:-- + +Certain Crustaceans, of the group called _Ostracods_, have the hard +outer coat of their body so peculiarly modified that they have quite the +appearance of Lamellibranch Mollusks, and this resemblance is even more +than skin deep, as we shall see later. + +Some of another group, called _Copepoda_, become, when adult, so +degraded in structure as to have the appearance of mere worms, as +_Lerneocera_ and _Tracheliastes_, and become strangely unlike the +typical forms (crabs and lobsters) of their class. + +Other animals of the class _Crustacea_, which animals form the order +_Cirripedia_ (barnacles and acorn-shells), bear such an external +resemblance to mollusks that they were actually classed by Cuvier in the +class _Mollusca_. In some of them--the Barnacles which commonly attach +themselves to the bottoms of ships--the head grows from above downwards +to a relatively enormous degree, forming the long stalk or "peduncle," +at the lower end of which the small body with its limbs hangs suspended. + +In another group, _Rhizocephala_, the form of the adult becomes yet more +strange. These creatures are parasitic on other crustacea. Having +attached themselves to the surface of the soft abdomen of the Hermit +crab, the head of the Rhizocephalon grows out into it as so many +root-like processes, from which condition the group has received its +name. + +The numerous and long extinct group of _Trilobites_ also belongs to the +class _Crustacea_. + +The next class, _Myriopoda_, consists of the hundred-legs (centipedes), +and thousand-legs (millipedes), which present us with some of the best +examples of creatures the bodies of which are composed of a longitudinal +series of similar segments. Allied to them is a very exceptional animal +found in Africa and New Zealand, and called _Peripatus_, the anatomy of +which presents many significant peculiarities. + +The third class of Arthropods (_Arachnida_) consists of the scorpions +and spiders with their poor relations, the mites and tics, together with +the very peculiarly-shaped _Pycnogonida_ (which present us with a good +image of "no body"--being all legs and no body), and the singular +worm-like parasite _Linguatula_. Lastly, we come to the most +zoologically important and numerous of all the classes of +Arthropods--namely, to the "class" of insects--_Insecta_. Therein we +meet with the power of flight in its most perfect form--_i.e._, in the +Dragon-flies--and most of the species are aërial in their adult (or +_Imago_) condition. Some, however, are burrowers as, for example, the +mole-cricket--an insect which presents some curious analogies in +structure to the beast referred to in its name. Amongst insects may be +mentioned the most familiar of all, the House-fly (which belongs to the +order _Diptera_), and Beetles of all kinds (which constitute the order +_Coleoptera_), some of which latter are luminous, as is the well-known +glow-worm, and the exotic beetles _Pyrophorus_. Another order +(_Orthoptera_) is made up of the earwigs, cockroaches, crickets, +grass-hoppers, and their allies the locusts, with Bamboo-insects and the +curious walking-leaf (so-called from their resemblance to a Bamboo twig +and a foliage leaf respectively), the praying mantis, and other curious +kinds. + +Bees and Ants, which belong to the order _Hymenoptera_, are, as every +one knows, celebrated for their wonderfully complex instincts and +community-life (which will occupy us later), and to the same order also +belong the Ichneumon insects, which are provided with long appendages at +the hinder ends of their bodies wherewith to pierce the bodies of +animals in order to deposit their eggs within them, or to pierce the +substance of plants, so producing "galls" which are structures of much +interest from several points of view. + +Butterflies and Moths form another order of insects called +_Lepidoptera_, amongst which may be mentioned as (having to be referred +to hereafter) the true butterflies (_Papilio_), and the hawkmoths (some +of which in their flight so much resemble Humming-birds), the clear-wing +moths, and those moths the grubs of which are known as "silk-worms," and +certain moths of the genera _Solenobia_ and _Psyche_. + +The numerous group of bugs is allied to the plant-lice (_Aphides_), +which so often infest our Pelargoniums when kept in dwelling-rooms. +Allied to them, again, are the small creatures the nature of which was +so long disputed, though familiar to commerce as "Cochineal." Really, +they are small, singularly inert, plant-lice, which adhere to the +surface of certain "Cacti." + +The Dragon-flies, before referred to, are the types of the order +_Neuroptere_. + +All the insects above mentioned, save the House-fly, have four wings, or +else none; but that familiar form may serve as the type of the +two-winged order (_Diptera_) to which belong all flies and +gnats--including, of course, the Mosquito--and the numerous "Bots," one +of which (the Tsee-Tsee fly) is so fatal to cattle in Africa. + +Finally, amongst insects may be mentioned the wingless, but active order +of fleas (_Aphaniptera_), the wingless but sluggish lice (_Aptera_), and +the jumping and wingless springtails (_Thysanura_). + +In leaving the class of insects, we leave all the more highly-organized +Invertebrata. But the next group to which we may direct our attention is +one which is exceedingly numerous, and contains a very varied assemblage +of forms. This group is the "sub-kingdom" of Worms, VERMES. First +amongst its contents may be mentioned the higher or true "worms," such +as the earth-worm (_Lumbricus_), the leech (_Hirudo_), the sea-mouse +(_Aphrodite_), and their allies, together with the worms which live in +tubes, which are called _Tubicolous_-"_Annelids_," because the whole +class of these higher worms bears the name _Annelida_. + +In this connexion may be mentioned certain exceptional vermiform +creatures, about the affinities of which naturalists dispute. + +One of these is a marine creature (called _Sagitta_, from the way in +which it shoots like an arrow through the water), which has many +affinities to Arthropods. + +Another is a most remarkable worm, which has been found in the Bay of +Naples, and is called _Balanoglossus_. It is the type of a group called +_Enteropneusta_. To it reference will have again and again to be made on +account of certain singularities in its structure. + +A very distinct class of creatures is termed _Bryozoa_ (or _Polyzoa_), +and is composed of very minute animals which live in compound +aggregations, and often grow up in an arborescent manner. The common +sea-mat (_Flustra_) is one example of the class, and another--a good +type--is called _Plumatella_. The _Bryozoa_ have many affinities with +the _Mollusca_, to which some naturalists consider them to belong. + +Other worms form the class _Nematoidea_, of which many are parasitic and +many not so. Amongst the better known of the former may be mentioned the +worms which tease children (_Ascarides_), the guinea-worm (_Filaria_), +the scourge of Germans who eat raw meat (_Trichina_), the deadly +blood-parasite of the Nile (_Bilharzia_), and many others. + +Another class (_Trematoda_) is made up of parasites called "Flukes," to +some of which (_e.g._, _Monostomum_) reference will have hereafter to be +made with respect to their processes of development. + +The class _Turbellaria_ contains a variety of other worms of a lowly +kind, one or two of which (_e.g._, _Borlesia_) live coiled up in complex +tangles which, if unravelled, would attain a length of forty feet. +Amongst the commoner kinds may be mentioned the worm _Nemertes_, and all +worms called _Planariæ_ (which are mostly fresh-water, though some live +on land), allied to the flukes. + +The class of tape-worms (_Cestoidea_) is one most numerous in its kinds, +which are all completely parasitic in habit. Some of them are so fatal +in their effects that they are estimated to occasion every seventh death +which occurs in Iceland, and they cause mortality amidst our own flocks, +producing in sheep the disease known as the "staggers." + +Certain minute organisms, familiarly known as "Wheel-Animalcules," or +Rotifers, form the "class" _Rotifera_. They have gained their name +through an apparently (though, of course, not really) rotary motion, of +that end of their bodies at which the mouth is situated. Here also may +be mentioned certain curious aquatic worms called _Gasterotricha_, which +are closely allied to the wheel animalcules. + +Finally may be mentioned the class _Gephyrea_, containing animals, +worm-like indeed in form, but which have much apparent affinity to the +group next to be spoken of--the group of star-fishes and their allies. +Amongst the _Gephyrea_ may be mentioned the worms called _Sipunculus_ +and _Priapulus_. + +This leads us to the sub-kingdom containing the star-fishes--the +sub-kingdom ECHINODERMA, which includes, besides the star-fishes (or +_Asteridea_), all sea-eggs or sea-urchins (_Echinidea_), the +brittle-stars _Ophiuridea_, as well as the elongated soft animals called +sea-cucumbers, or _Holothuridea_, some of which latter are known as the +Japanese edible, "Trepang." + +Besides these groups there are still surviving a few creatures +(_Comatula_ and _Pentacrinus_) belonging to the class of "sea-lilies," +or _Crinoidea_, creatures which once lived in countless multitudes, but +have now almost entirely passed away. All these crinoids were like +star-fishes on stalks, and of the existing forms, _Pentacrinus_ still +passes the whole of its life, and _Comatula_ its youth, in a stalked +condition. + +The next great primary division, or sub-kingdom of animals, is +COELENTERA, and a good type of the coelenterates, the sea anemone +(_Actinia_), has now become a familiar object to us in our aquaria. +These animals are plant-animals, or zoophytes, and some of them build up +coral-reefs, or islands, and it is one kind which produces the red coral +of commerce. Forms essentially similar, but the solid supporting +framework of which is of a softer nature, are such as _Alcyonium_ and +_Pennatula_. All these belong to the "class" _Actinozoa_. There are +other coelenterates of an active free-swimming habit, such as _Beröe_ +and _Cydippe_, which are balls of glassy transparency displaying +iridescent hues as they move rapidly through the water by means of their +peculiar locomotive organs. + +Other coelenterates, of the same essential type but of simpler +structure, form the class _Hydrozoa_. Amongst these may be mentioned the +little _Hydra_ of our ponds, which will often come before us in our +survey of animal life. Some compound forms of Hydrozoa simulate the +compound Actinozoa; such are the calcareous millipores, and those with a +softer structure, called "corallines," such as _Eudendrium_ and many +others. The Portuguese man-of-war (_Physalia_) and the various forms of +jelly-fish (_Medusæ_) all belong to the _Hydrozoa_, as also does a very +curious and very elementary form, to which the name _Tetraplatia_ has +been given. + +Next we come to the group of sponges, SPONGIDA, some of which--as the +now well-known _Euplectella_--are of marvellous beauty and delicacy of +structure; while others, as the sponge of commerce, are of much greater +simplicity of form. Simplest of all the sponges is the sponge called +_Ascetta Primordialis_. Some sponges have a horny, some a calcareous, +and some a siliceous skeleton, and (strange as it may appear) some have +a habit of boring into shells, and living in the excavations they make. + +An animal recently discovered, _Dicyema_, may at this initial stage of +our inquiry be left with its place and affinities undetermined. It is a +minute worm-like creature of most exceptionally simple structure, which +lives parasitically within cuttle-fishes. + +We now pass to animals (if so they are really to be considered) which +are the lowest and simplest of all, and which are mostly microscopic in +size, and may be grouped together under the term HYPOZOA, or under the +generally employed name _Protozoa_. With very few exceptions these +animals are aquatic, and if terrestrial they are found in damp +localities. Some are marine, others are fresh-water organisms. + +The highest of the group are the animalcules, which are named +_Infusoria_, most of which are freely swimming organisms, though a +certain number of them live fixed to some supporting body. + +Another group of _Hypozoa_ is that termed _Gregarinida_, a group made up +of very lowly parasites, such as are often found tenanting the +intestines of insects as well as those of higher animals. Finally, we +have the group of _Rhizopoda_, animals which have the faculty of +projecting and retracting (so to say, at will) filamentary or conical +processes of their semi-fluid substance, such processes being the +_Pseudopodia_, which were referred to earlier.[17] + +Amongst the _Rhizopoda_, the most complex and beautiful are the delicate +and symmetrical creatures known as _Radiolaria_,[18] the siliceous +skeletons of which are amongst the most remarkable of microscopic +objects. + +Allied to them are the simpler _Heliozoa_, of which the after-mentioned +_Actinophrys_ may be taken as a type. + +Next come the _Flagellata_, or minute creatures which swim about by +means of one or two whip-like processes, whence the name of the group. + +Last of all is the group of _Foraminifera_, animals which are well +worthy of note, seeing that, though they are each but as it were a +minute particle of structureless jelly, they manage to build most +complexly-formed, generally calcareous, shells, or to pick up from the +sand of the sea minute particles, which they agglutinate around them +with marvellous neatness and precision. Their calcareous shells are +generally pierced by a multitude of minute pores, through which the +little creatures protrude their _pseudopodia_. It is from these pores +(or _foramina_) that the group receives its name. All _Foraminifera_, +however, are not provided with shells. Some, as the _Amoeba_, are +naked, and the simplest of all animals, _Protogenes_ and _Protamoeba_, +consist of but a minute particle of semi-fluid jelly, or protoplasm, +naked and as devoid of every external protection as it is of internal +organization. + +We have thus descended to the bottom of the animal kingdom, and passing +from these rudimentary forms, which are generally reckoned as animals, +we may next survey in ascending order the different organisms which +together compose the kingdom of Plants, a group much less rich in +species than is the animal kingdom. + +At the bottom of that kingdom are very simple creatures, but little +different, to all appearance, from the lowest animals. As an example of +such we may take the minute plant _Protococcus_, which is an humble +member of the great group of _Algæ_, to which all sea-weeds belong. Not +all of this important tribe, however, are marine. Many are found in +fresh water--such as the protococcus itself, and many of the green +vegetable threads known as _Conferræ_. Some even live on land, and draw +their moisture from the atmosphere. The _Algæ_ are exceedingly varied in +their structure; some, like the protococcus, being of extreme +simplicity; others attaining a large size, and presenting the appearance +of a stout stem with branches and leaves. + +The Algæ are divisible into the green-spored[19] (_Chlorospermeæ_), the +rose-spored (_Florideæ_), and the olive-spored (_Melanospermeæ_). + +It is in the first division that the _Protococcus_ may be placed, as +also those microscopic plants called _Diatoms_ and _Desmids_. The +former, the _Diatomaceæ_, are a very numerous group of minute organisms, +some of which are used as test objects for microscopes. They contain in +their outer coat or case a relatively large portion of silex, and their +remains here and there form deposits--vast beds many feet in +thickness--known as "tripoli," and used for polishing. The minute +particle of their protoplasm is contained within the siliceous case. +They may be entirely free, or cohere in aggregations, or be attached to +a supporting surface by a slender stalk, which may ramify and bear a +little siliceous case or "frustule" at the end of each branch. + +The desmids (or _Desmidiaceæ_) are green and devoid of silex, though +their protoplasm is enclosed in hard or flexible cases, often marked +with beautiful and characteristic patterns. + +Both diatoms and desmids may cohere together, forming more complex +masses; but another creature allied to _Protococcus_ is noted for its +mode of cohesion. This is the microscopic plant _Volvox_, the +individuals of which cohere so as to form spheroidal aggregations, which +swim about by the action of filamentary prolongations of their +protoplasm, such prolongations reminding us of the pseudopodia of +radiolarians and other rhizopods. + +Amongst these simplest plants may be also mentioned the curious +thread-like organisms, which, on account of their remarkable and as yet +unexplained movements, are called _Oscillatoriæ_. + +Another curious vegetable organism which may here be mentioned is +_Vaucheria_. It is a green, thread-like plant, which may be several +inches long, and which at one stage of its existence (when it is what is +called a "spore") swims about by pseudopodial prolongations of its +protoplasm. + +Some few of the _Chlorospermeæ_ are large and conspicuous organisms. +Such, _e.g._, is _Caulerpa_, which abounds on warm, sandy coasts, and on +which turtles browse. Though, as we shall hereafter see, it is really as +simple in structure as a particle of yeast, it yet presents a very +complicated external figure. + +Some of the great group of _Algæ_ attain enormous dimensions. Thus, +_Macrocystis_ (one of the _Melanospermæ_), of the Southern Ocean, may be +even 700 feet in length. Another kind, _Lessonia_, forms submarine +forests, with stems like the trunks of trees. + +The group of _Floridiæ_ includes the delicate and elegant sea-weeds, +which are amongst the most admired vegetable productions of our coasts. +They are of interest, on account of various peculiarities in their +reproductive processes. + +Other lowly plants may, at least provisionally, be placed in the great +group to which mushrooms and truffles belong--the group of _Fungi_--a +group the members of which agree in certain exceptional phenomena of +function,[20] as well as of structure and composition--as they are +exceptionally nitrogenous. + +Amongst the lowest which we may for convenience provisionally include in +this group may be mentioned minute _Vibrios_, such as the _Bacteria_ so +much talked of in connexion with spontaneous generation, and the small +plant which by its growth produces fermentation--the yeast-plant +(_Saccharomyces_).[21] Closely allied to the yeast-plant are the +"moulds" which grow on organic matters such as _Penicillium_, _Mucor_, +_Saprolegna_, _Phytophthora_, the last of which is the potato disease. + +A singular group of organisms goes by the name of _Myxomycetes_. These +enigmatical creatures have been classed in turn as animals and as +plants, and, indeed, at one period of their existence they seem to have +more resemblance to the former, while at another stage of their life +history they must unquestionably be ranked as plants. When young, they +are in a semi-fluid condition, and so move that they seem, as it were, +to flow over the body on which they rest. They grow upon the bark of +trees or on leaves and decayed wood. They exhibit movements like those +of the amæbæ and are said to engulph nutritious matters which come in +their way. + +The dry-looking, green, grey, red or yellow vegetable structures which +encrust our rocks, walls, and trees, and which are called _Lichens_, +form a group of plants curiously intermediate between Fungi and _Algæ_. + +Plants somewhat higher in the scale of vegetable life are those which +are termed liverworts (_Hepaticæ_), including the scale-mosses +(_Jungermanniaceæ_) and _Marchantia_. These plants, as we shall see, are +interesting on account of the variations to be found in the forms of +different genera. In many, there is no stem, but only a connected series +of green disk-like expansions, while others have a distinct stem with +leaf-like outgrowths. + +Two genera of aquatic plants (_Chara_ and _Nitella_) constitute another +group of plants called _Characeæ_. These will be hereafter referred to +both on account of peculiarities in their structure and on account of a +peculiar motion of protoplasm which is easily to be seen[22] in them. + +Mosses (_Musci_) are familiar objects to every one in this country, and +allied to them are the so-called "club-mosses" or _Lycopods_, which form +a sort of green sward in so many parts of the warmer regions of the +earth. To one of the lycopods, called _Selaginella_, reference will +hereafter be made in connexion with its very instructive reproductive +process. + +Certain humble plants, in some of which the foliage leaves present a +superficial resemblance to those of a four-leaved clover, are popularly +called pepperworts; by botanists, _Rhizocarpeæ_ or _Marsiliaceæ_. They +are creeping or floating stemless plants which inhabit ditches or +inundated places. They are scattered over both the Old and New Worlds, +but are chiefly found in temperate latitudes. + +The horse-tails (_Equisetaceæ_) are also found in most parts of the +world, though wanting in Australia and New Zealand. They inhabit wet and +sandy places, and sometimes are of a considerable size even in the +present day, but in ancient geological periods they attained the +proportions of trees. + +This group leads us on to their allies the ferns which form a very large +natural group _Filices_ or _Pteridophytes_--a group now familiar to +every one interested in plants. Common as ferns are in our own country, +they are far more abundant and attain to a much greater size in southern +latitudes--notably in New Zealand and various Pacific islands. + +All the plants hitherto enumerated, from the protococcus to the +tree-ferns inclusive, together form what is commonly regarded as one +great primary division or "sub-kingdom" of vegetals called CRYPTOGAMIA. +In no plant belonging to this sub-kingdom--in no single cryptogam--is +any flower ever developed. These form the great group which is often +spoken of as "flowerless plants." + +The other primary division of vegetable organisms consists of all plants +with flowers, and is termed PHANEROGAMIA, and is subdivided into two +sections,[23] very unequally numerous. To the first section of +phanerogams--a section containing comparatively few kinds--belong all +firs, pines, yews, junipers, araucarias, and a most remarkable African +plant, _Welwitschia_, which has never more than two leaves, though these +attain enormous dimensions. All these plants are collectively spoken of +as conifers, or _Coniferæ_. Besides these, certain curious southern +forms called Cycads are also associated in this section. To this +section, thus composed of conifers and cycads, the name GYMNOSPERMS is +given, from the naked mode of development of their young seeds. These +gymnosperms are also characterized by having such peculiar and +inconspicuous flowers that the ordinary observer would hardly apply that +term to denote their floral organs. + +All the plants which yet remain to be noticed, and which belong to the +second and very much larger section of the PHANEROGAMIA are spoken of as +_Angiosperms_. Their seeds are, from their first appearance, in a very +different condition from those of gymnosperms, and their flowers are +generally conspicuous. To this group, therefore, belong all the familiar +ornamental plants of our gardens, and all the brightly coloured natural +ornaments of our fields, as well as a number of herbs and trees, the +flowers of which, though truly flowers, are not commonly recognized as +such. + +This group of Angiospermous flowering plants is divided into a great +number of natural groups or "orders." Of these there are about 275, and +they are grouped in two sets or classes, which are separated one from +another, as we shall hereafter see, by differences as to their modes of +growth, the structure of their seeds, the numbers of the parts of their +flowers, and the course of the veins in their leaves. + +First amongst the Angiospermous flowering plants may be mentioned the +grasses forming the order _Gramineæ_, including under that term the +tree-like bamboos (of multitudinous uses), with the rice plant, and all +the grain-bearing herbs, all of which are grasses. Thus, with much +reason may it be said of man, that "all flesh is grass;" for with the +exception of the piscivorous Esquimaux, the exclusively flesh-eating +Gouchos, the population of Australia, and the people of the Molluccas +who nourish themselves on sago--which is the produce of a palm--with +these and a few more exceptions, the staple food of the human race is +one or another form of grass. It is, indeed, a remarkable fact that men +of such varied races so widely spread should have thus selected as their +food objects so little tempting in appearance, and so small and so +inconspicuous as the seeds of grasses! + +Allied to the grasses are the sedges (forming the order _Cyperaceæ_), +and the rushes (_Juncaceæ_). The apparently insignificant, but really +interesting duckweeds (_Pistiaceæ_) should also be noted with the +bullrushes (_Typheæ_), and the arums (_Aroideæ_). This last-mentioned +order, familiar to us by the kind known as "Lords and Ladies," presents +some climbing forms in tropical countries. Generally acrid, some +species, when in flower, even produce headache and vomiting; at least an +explorer was attacked with these symptoms after gathering forty +specimens of _Arum dracunculus_. The order is also interesting from +experiments as to vegetable heat, which have been made with the flowers +of some of its species. + +The screw-pines (_Pandanaceæ_) are not "pines" at all, any more than +"pine-apples" are pines. They are, indeed, trees or shrubs, which, from +one point of view, may be regarded as gigantic bulrushes. The flowers of +certain species are in some places eaten as the solid equivalent of a +love potion. Allied to the plants of the last-mentioned order are the +palms (_Palmaceæ_), which are the first really large trees we come to +after leaving the tree-ferns and the gymnosperms. Amongst the more +noteworthy palms may be mentioned the palmetto (_Chamærops_) of Southern +Europe (a summer ornament of our public gardens), the date palm, the +areca palm, the sago palm, the cocoa palm, the rattan palm--a natural +cordage--and _Seaforthia_, so remarkable for its graceful and elegant +form. + +Next may be enumerated the great order of lilies (_Liliaceæ_), to which +the homely and useful onion, leek, garlic, chive, and asparagus belong, +no less than a multitude of lovely flowers. + +The New Zealand flax (_Phormium tenax_), and all the magnificent yuccas +and aloes, together with our English butcher's broom (_Ruscus +aculeatus_), which has not a little botanical interest (as being the +only British shrub which belongs to the group called "Monocotyledons") +also belong to this order. Closely allied to the lilies are the +amaryllids (_Amaryllidaceæ_), amongst which are the agaves, with their +gigantic flower stems, sometimes forty feet high, supporting a +multitudinous crop of flowers, the product and termination of a life. + +To these follow the pine-apples (_Bromeliaceæ_) all originally from +America, the useful bananas and plantains (_Musaceæ_), and the +ginger-plants (_Zingiberaceæ_), tropical herbs, generally of great +beauty. + +The underground parts of certain tropical plants (_Dioscoreaceæ_) are +known as "yams." A representative of this order exists in England in the +climbing black bryony (_Tamus_) of our hedges, and to the same group +belongs the very singularly stemmed elephant's foot, or tortoise-tree +(_Testudinaria elephantipes_). The last-named plant is a native of the +Cape of Good Hope, where it has been known as Hottentot's bread, because +the soft interior of its swollen base was at one time eaten by the +natives of that region, who have, however, now abandoned it to the +baboons. + +Lastly, in this connexion may be mentioned the very interesting and +beautiful group of orchids (_Orchidaceæ_), many of which live high up +in the air, supported on the branches of trees, from which their roots +hang freely down. Such orchids are sometimes spoken of as "air-plants." + +All the Angiosperms as yet mentioned, from the grasses to the orchids +inclusively, belong to the lower of the two great groups or classes into +which, as was lately said, the whole mass of Angiosperms is divided. + +This great group is named _Monocotyledones_ (on account of the structure +of the seed), and it is sometimes spoken of as _Endogens_, in reference +to a generally prevalent habit of growth. The members of this whole +class will then hereinafter be spoken of as "Monocotyledons." + +All the plants which yet remain to be enumerated belong to the other and +still greater group of Angiosperms called (also in reference to their +seeds) _Dicotyledons_, a group sometimes spoken of as "_Exogens_," in +reference to the habit of growth prevalent amongst its species. + +All our familiar trees which are not conifers, and most of our flowering +shrubs and herbs, are "Dicotyledons." + +Amongst the many orders which compose the Dicotyledonous group the few +following may be selected for enumeration, either on account of the +general interest they possess, or because they will have to be more or +less referred to hereafter. + +We may thus note the singular order of vegetable parasites, the +_Loranthaceæ_, an order containing some thirty genera with four hundred +species, and including the mistletoe, which is traditionally venerable +in our island. The great group of catkin-bearing trees (_Amentaceæ_), +contains a great assemblage of plants, familiar in England, such as the +hornbeam, hazel, oak, beech, Spanish chestnut, birch, willow, poplar, +&c.[24] + +The largest and one of the most remarkable flowers in the world, +_Rafflesia_--a parasite found in Java and Sumatra by Sir Stamford +Raffles--is the type of the small order _Rafflesiaceæ_. The eccentric +pitcher-bearing plants form the order _Nepenthaceæ_. The English herb +called "Spurge" (with its milky juice), belongs to the order +(_Euphorbiaceæ_), which is a large[25] cosmopolitan group, some species +of the plants belonging to which attain, in hot countries, the size of +trees. Certain African species strangely resemble different kinds of +_Cactus_. The elm order (_Ulmaceæ_) may come next. The hop, the hemp, +the mulberry, the fig, and the dorstenia are all nearly allied, the +first two belonging to the order _Cannabinaceæ_, the last three to the +_Moraceæ_. The bread-fruit of the South-Sea Islands belongs to the same +order (_Artocarpaceæ_) as does the deadly upas-tree of Java. Garments +made of the inner bark of this plant are like the shirt of Nessus, and +will produce intolerable irritation; and even climbing the tree to +obtain its flowers is said to have produced severe effects on the +climber. In proximity to the last-mentioned plant comes appropriately +(as also in its proper botanical order) the group of stinging-nettles +(_Urticaceæ_). The curious Australian plants which delighted the eyes of +Captain Cook's botanical companions belong to the order _Proteaceæ_. +Besides these may be mentioned the dead-nettle order (_Labiatæ_); the +broom-rapes (_Orobanchaceæ_); the order of snap-dragons and foxgloves +(_Scrophularineæ_); the potato group (_Solanaceæ_), which includes the +deadly nightshade and the dulcamara of our hedges; the parasitic order +(_Cuscutaceæ_); the beautiful group of convolvuluses (_Convolvulaceæ_); +the gentians (_Gentianaceæ_); the primrose group (_Primulaceæ_); the +heaths (_Ericaceæ_); the graceful hair-bell and its allies +(_Campanulaceæ_); the very large group to which belong the daisy, +dandelion, and thistle (_Compositæ_); the honeysuckle order +(_Caprifoliaceæ_); the ivy (_Araliaceæ_); the large order containing the +fennel, hemlock, and a multitude of other forms which, though mostly +ranking as herbs, attain gigantic dimensions in some species found in +Africa and Kamskatka (_Umbelliferæ_); the very singularly-shaped group +of cactuses (_Cactaceæ_), with leafless fleshy stems, which sometimes +look like dry columns and sometimes are globular; the begonias +(_Begoniaceæ_); the cucumbers, melons, and vegetable marrows +(_Cucurbitaceæ_); the singularly-formed passion-flowers +(_Passifloraceæ_); the myrtles (_Myrtaceæ_); the carnivorous group +containing the sundew and Venus's flytrap (_Droseracæ_); the fleshy +houseleek and stonecrops (_Crassulaceæ_); the Saxifrages +(_Saxifragaceæ_); the rose group (_Rosaceæ_), which includes within it +most of our fruits, such as the apple, pear, strawberry, cherry, peach, +plum, almond, and others; the very large order which contains the peas, +beans, and their allies (_Leguminoseæ_); the horse-chestnut order +(_Hippocastaneæ_); the maples (_Acerineæ_); the hollies (_Ilicineæ_); +the oranges and citrons (_Aurantiaceæ_); the cranesbills and +pelargoniums (_Geraniaceæ_); the flaxes (_Linaceæ_); the limes +(_Tiliaceæ_), in which the useful jute is included; the mallows +(_Malvaceæ_); the St. John's worts (_Hypericaceæ_); the order of pinks +(_Caryophylleæ_); the pansies (_Violaceæ_); the rock-roses (_Cistaceæ_); +the mignonette group (_Resedaceæ_); the great wall-flower and cabbage +group (_Cruciferæ_); the poppies (_Papaveraceæ_); the water-lilies +(_Nymphaceæ_); the berberries (_Berberideæ_); the custard-apples +(_Anonaceæ_); the magnolias (_Magnoliaceæ_); and, finally, the great +group (_Ranunculaceæ_) containing the anemones, the clematis, hellebore, +monkshood, and the buttercup, which last is of great use to the student +of Botany because it is an excellent type of all flowers. + +The above may serve as a brief enumeration of the more generally known +or more interesting orders of flowering plants, as also of the most +noteworthy forms of cryptogams. The much more numerous and complex +groups of animals have also been catalogued in the earlier and larger +part of this Essay, which may thus, it is hoped, answer the purpose of +an introduction to those multitudinous forms of organic life, the +leading points in the structure and functions of which are hereafter to +occupy us. + +The main groups of Animals and Plants may be provisionally tabulated as +follows:-- + + ANIMALS. + + { _Mammalia_ (Man and Beasts) + (1) VERTEBRATA { _Aves_ (Birds) + (Back-boned { _Reptilia_ (Serpents, Crocodiles, Lizards, &c.) + Animals) { _Batrachia_ (Frogs, Efts, &c.) + { _Pisces_ (Fishes) + + { _Cephalopoda_ (Cuttle Fishes) + (2) MOLLUSCA { _Pteropoda_ + (Soft Animals) { _Gasteropoda_ (Snails, &c.) + { _Lamellibranchiata_ (Oysters, &c.) + { _Brachiopoda_ (Lamp-shells) + + (3) TUNICATA (Ascidians, Tunicaries, or Sea-squirts) + + (4) ARTHROPODA { _Crustacea_ (Crabs, &c.) + (Animals with { _Myriapoda_ (Hundred-legs, &c.) + jointed feet) { _Arachnida_ (Scorpions, Spiders, &c.) + { _Insecta_ + + { _Annelida_ (Earth-worms, Leeches, &c.) + { _Enteropneusta_ (Balanoglossus) + { _Bryozoa_ (Sea-mat, &c.) + { _Nematoidea_ (Thread-worms) + (5) VERMES { _Trematoda_ (Flukes, &c.) + { _Turbellaria_ (Planariæ, &c.) + { _Cestoidea_ (Tape-worms) + { _Rotifera_ (Wheel-animalcules) + { _Gasterotricha_ + { _Gephyrea_ (Sipunculus, &c.) + + (6) ECHINODERMA (Star-fishes, &c.) + + { _Ctenophora_ (Beröe, &c.) + (7) COELENTERA { _Actinozoa_ (Coral animals) + { _Hydrozoa_ (Jelly-fishes, &c.) + + (8) SPONGIDA (Sponges) + + { _Infusoria_ (Animalcules with mouths) + (9) HYPOZOA { _Gregarinida_ + { _Rhizopoda_ (Foraminifers, Radiolarians, + Flagellata, &c.) + + + PLANTS. + + { _Algæ_ (Sea-weeds, Confervæ, &c.) + { _Fungi_ + { _Lichenes_ + (1) CRYPTOGAMIA { _Hepaticæ_ (Liverworts and Scale-mosses) + (Flowerless { _Characeæ_ (Nitella, &c.) + Plants) { _Musci_ (Mosses) + { _Marsiliaceæ_ (Pepperworts) + { _Equisetaceæ_ (Horsetails) + { _Filices_ (Ferns) + + (2) PHANEROGAMIA { A. _Gymnosperms_ (Firs, Yews, Cycads, &c.) + (Flowering { { _Monocotyledones_ (Grasses, Palms, Lilies, + Plants) { B. _Angiosperms_ { Orchids, &c.) + { { _Dicotyledones_ (the great mass of Flowering + { { Plants and Trees). + + ST. GEORGE MIVART. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, May, 1879, p. 261. + +[5] _L. c._ p. 262. + +[6] "A classification of any large portion of the field of Nature, in +conformity to the foregoing principles, has hitherto been found +practicable only in one great instance, that of animals."--_Logic_, +third edition, 1851, vol. i., chap. viii. § 5, page 279. + +[7] CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, July, 1879, pp. 716 and 717. + +[8] _L. c._ p. 717. + +[9] CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, July, 1879: "What are Living Beings?" + +[10] Very small deer, commonly called in error musk-deer. + +[11] The European beavers have abandoned the dam-building habit. They +retained it, however, as late as the thirteenth century. + +[12] By the Author in a Paper read before the Zoological Society in Nov. +1864. See also his "Man and Apes," Hardwicke, 1873; and the article +"Ape" in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," vol. ii. p. 148. + +[13] "Histoire Naturelle," tome xiv. p. 61, 1766. + +[14] For an explanation of the zoological system of nomenclature which +has been adopted since the time of Linnæus, see CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for +May, page 262. + +[15] See ante, p. 14. + +[16] See CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for July, p. 710. + +[17] See CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, July, p. 710. + +[18] For a summary of our knowledge respecting this group, see the +"Linnean Society's Journal," Vol. xiv. (Zoology), p. 136. + +[19] A "spore" is a minute reproductive particle. + +[20] See CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for July, 1879, p. 714. + +[21] Some botanists think that yeast is no true and definite kind of +plant, but that it is only a conglomeration of fungoid spores of divers +sorts. + +[22] This motion is that referred to at the bottom of page 696, in the +CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for July, 1879, as _Cyclosis_. + +[23] Some readers may be startled at the mode here adopted of primarily +dividing the Phanerogams, and may object to it as opposed to usage; but +reasons will be given later for the mode of division here adopted. + +[24] The above-named plants may for our purpose be thus conveniently +grouped together, according to the older fashion of botanists. Strictly +speaking, however, they should be divided amongst several +orders--_e.g._, hazel and hornbeam (_Corylaceæ_), the oak, beech, and +chestnut (_Capuliferæ_), the birches (_Betulaceæ_), the willows +(_Salicaceæ_), &c. + +[25] Containing upwards of 2500 species. + + + + +THE ARTISTIC DUALISM OF THE RENAISSANCE. + + +I. + +Into the holy enclosure which had received the precious shiploads of +earth from Calvary, the Pisans of the thirteenth century carried the +fragments of ancient sculpture brought from Rome and from Greece; and in +the Gothic cloister enclosing the green sward and dark cypresses of the +grave-yard of Pisa, the art of the Middle Ages came for the first time +face to face with the art of antiquity. There, among pagan sarcophagi +turned into Christian tombs, with heraldic devices chiselled on to their +arabesques and vizored helmets surmounting their garlands, the great +unsigned artist of the fourteenth century, be he Sienese or Florentine, +be he Orcagna, Lorenzetti, or Volterra, painted the typical masterpiece +of mediæval art, the great fresco of the Triumph of Death. With +wonderful realization of character and situation he painted the +prosperous of the world, the dapper youths and damsels seated with dogs +and falcons beneath the orchard trees, amusing themselves with +Decameronian tales and sound of lute and psaltery, unconscious of the +gigantic scythe wielded by the gigantic dishevelled Death, and which, in +a second, will descend and mow them to the ground; but the crowd of +beggars, ragged, maimed, paralyzed, leprous, grovelling on their +withered limbs, see and implore Death, and cry stretching forth their +arms, their stumps, and their crutches. Further on, three kings in long +embroidered robes and gold-trimmed shovel caps, Lewis the Emperor, +Uguccione of Pisa, and Castruccio of Lucca, with their retinue of ladies +and squires, and hounds and hawks, are riding quietly through a wood. +Suddenly their horses stop, draw back; the Emperor's bay stretches out +his long neck sniffing the air; the kings strain forward to see, one +holding his nose for the stench of death which meets him; and before +them are three open coffins, in which lie, in three loathsome stages of +corruption, from blue and bloated putrescence to well-nigh fleshless +decay, three crowned corpses. This is the triumph of Death; the grim and +horrible jest of the Middle Ages: equality in decay; kings, emperors, +ladies, knights, beggars, and cripples, this is what we all come to be, +stinking corpses; Death, our lord, our only just and lasting sovereign, +reigns impartially over all. + +But opposite, all along the sides of the painted cloister, the amazons +are wrestling with the youths on the stone of the sarcophagi; the +chariots are dashing forward, the Tritons are splashing in the marble +waves; the Bacchantæ are striking their timbrels in their dance with the +satyrs; the birds are pecking at the grapes, the goats are nibbling at +the vines, all is life, strong and splendid in its marble eternity. And +the mutilated Venus smiles towards the broken Hermes; the stalwart +Hercules, resting against his club, looks on quietly, a smile beneath +his beard; and the gods murmur to each other, as they stand in the +cloister filled with earth from Calvary, where hundreds of men lie +rotting beneath the cypresses, "Death will not triumph for ever; our day +will come." + +We have all seen them opposite to each other, these two arts, the art +born of antiquity and the art born of the Middle Ages; but whether this +meeting was friendly or hostile or merely indifferent, is a question of +constant dispute. To some, mediæval art has appeared being led, +Dante-like, by a magician Virgil through the mysteries of Nature up to a +Christian Beatrice, who alone can guide it to the kingdom of heaven; +others have seen mediæval art, like some strong, chaste knight turning +away resolutely from the treacherous sorceress of antiquity, and +pursuing solitarily the road to the true and the good; for some the +antique has been an impure goddess Venus, seducing and corrupting the +Christian artist; the antique has been for others a glorious Helen, an +unattainable perfection, ever pursued by the mediæval craftsman, but +seized by him only as a phantom. Magician or witch, voluptuous, +destroying Venus or cold and ungrasped Helen, what was the antique to +the art born of the Middle Ages and developed during the Renaissance? +Was the relation between them that of tuition, cool and abstract, or of +fruitful lore, or of deluding and damning example? + +The art which came to maturity in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth +centuries was generated in the early mediæval revival. The seeds may, +indeed, have come down from antiquity, but they remained for nearly a +thousand years hidden in the withered, rotting remains of former +vegetation, and it was not till that vegetation had completely +decomposed and become part of the soil, it was not till putrefaction had +turned into germination, that artistic organism timidly reappeared. The +new art-germ developed with the new civilization which surrounded it. +Manufacture and commerce reappeared: the artisans and merchants formed +into communities; the communities grew into towns, the towns into +cities; in the city arose the cathedral; the Lombard or Byzantine +mouldings and traceries of the cathedral gave birth to figure-sculpture; +its mosaics gave birth to painting; every forward movement of the +civilization unfolded as it were a new form or detail of the art, until, +when mediæval civilization was reaching its moment of consolidation, +when the cathedrals of Lucca and Pisa stood completed, when Niccoto and +Giovanni Pisani had sculptured their pulpits and sepulchres, painting, +in the hands of, Cimabue and Duccio, of Giotto and of Guido da Siena, +freed itself from the tradition of the mosaicists as sculpture had freed +itself from the practice of the stone-masons, and stood forth an +independent and organic art. + +Thus painting was born of a new civilization, and grew by its own vital +force; a thing of the Middle Ages, original and spontaneous. But +contemporaneous with the mediæval revival was the resuscitation of +antiquity; in proportion as the new civilization developed, the old +civilization was exhumed; real Latin began to be studied only when real +Italian began to be written; Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio were at once +the founders of modern literature and the exponents of the literature of +antiquity; the strong young present was to profit by the experience of +the past. + +As it was with literature, so likewise was it with art. The most purely +mediæval sculpture, the sculpture which has, as it were, just detached +itself from the capitals and porches of the cathedral, is the direct +pupil of the antique; and the three great Gothic sculptors, Niccoto, +Giovanni, and Andrea of Pisa, learn from fragments of Greek and Roman +sculpture how to model the figure of the Redeemer and how to chisel the +robe of the Virgin. This spontaneous mediæval sculpture, aided by the +antique, preceded by a full half-century the appearance of mediæval +painting; and it was from the study of the works of the Pisan sculptors, +that Cimabue and Giotto learned to depart from the mummified +monstrosities of the Miratic, Byzantine, and Roman style of Giunta and +Berlinghieri. Thus, through the sculpture of the Pisans the painting of +the school of Giotto received at second-hand the teachings of antiquity. +Sculpture had created painting, painting now belonged to the painters. +In the hands of Giotto it developed within a few years into an art which +seemed almost mature, an art dealing victoriously with its materials, +triumphantly solving its problems, executing as if by miracle all that +was demanded of it. But Giottesque art appeared perfect merely because +it was limited; it did all that was required of it, because that which +was required was little; it was not asked to reproduce the real, nor to +represent the beautiful, it was asked merely to suggest a character, a +situation, a story. + +The artistic development of a nation has its exact parallel in the +artistic development of an individual. The child uses his pencil to tell +a story, satisfied with balls and sticks as body, head, and legs, +provided he and his friends can associate with them the ideas in their +minds: the youth sets himself to copy what he sees, to reproduce forms, +and effects, without any aim beyond the mere pleasure of copying; the +mature artist strives to obtain forms and effects of which he approves, +he seeks for beauty. In the life of Italian painting generations of men +who flourished at the beginning of the sixteenth century are the mature +artists; the men of the fifteenth century are the inexperienced youths; +the Giottesques are the children--children Titanic and seraph-like, but +children nevertheless, and, like all children, learning more perhaps in +their few years than can the youth of the man learn in a lifetime. + +Like the child, the Giottesque painter wished to show a situation or +express a story, and for this purpose the absolute realization of +objects was unnecessary. Giottesque art is not incorrect art, it is +generalized art; it is an art of mere outline. The Giottesques could +draw with great accuracy the hand, the form of the fingers, the bend of +the limb, they could give to perfection its whole gesture and movement, +they could produce a correct and spirited outline, but within this +correct outline marked off in dark paint there is but a vague, uniform +mass of pale colour; the body of the hand is missing, and there remains +only its ghost, visible indeed, but unsubstantial, without weight or +warmth, eluding the grasp. The difference between this spectre hand of +the Giottesques, and the sinewy, muscular hand which can shake and crush +of Masaccio and Signorelli, or the soft hand with throbbing pulse and +warm pressure of Perugino and Bellini,--this difference is typical of +the difference between the art of the fourteenth century and the art of +the fifteenth century; the first suggests, the second realizes; the one +gives impalpable outlines, the other gives tangible bodies; the +Giottesque cares for the figure only, inasmuch as it displays an action, +he reduces it to a semblance, a phantom, to the mere exponent of an +idea; the man of the Renaissance cares for the figure, inasmuch as it is +a living organism, he gives it substance and weight, he makes it stand +out as an animate reality. But despite its early triumphs, the +Giottesque style, by its inherent nature, forbade any progress; it +reached its limits at once, and the followers of Giotto look almost as +if they were his predecessors, for the simple reason that, being unable +to advance, they were forced to retrograde. The limited amount of +artistic realization required to present to the mind of the spectator a +situation or an allegory had been obtained by Giotto himself, and +bequeathed by him to his followers, who, finding it more than sufficient +for their purposes, and having no incentive to further acquisition in +the love of form and reality for their own sake, worked on with their +master's materials, composing and recomposing, but adding nothing of +their own. Giotto had observed Nature with passionate interest, because, +although its representation was only a means to an end, it was a means +which required to be mastered, and as such became in itself a sort of +secondary aim; but the followers of Giotto merely utilized his +observations of Nature, and in so doing gradually conventionalized and +debased these second-hand observations. Giotto's forms are wilfully +incomplete, because they aim at mere suggestion, but they are not +conventional: they are diagrams, not symbols, and thence it is that +Giotto seems nearer to the Renaissance than do his latest followers, not +excepting even Orcagna. Painting, which had made the most prodigious +strides from Giunta to Cimabue, and from Cimabue to Giotto, had got +enclosed within a vicious circle, in which it moved for nearly a century +neither backwards nor forwards: painters were satisfied with suggestion; +and as long as they were satisfied, no progress was possible. + +From this Giottesque treadmill, painting was released by the +intervention of another art. The painters were hopelessly mediocre; +their art was snatched from them by the sculptors. Orcagna himself, +perhaps the only Giottesque who gave painting an onward push, had +modelled and cast one of the bronze gates of the Florence baptistery; +the generation of artists who arose at the beginning of the fifteenth +century, and who opened the period of the Renaissance, were sculptors or +pupils of sculptors. When we see these vigorous lovers of Nature, these +heroic searchers after truth, suddenly pushing aside the decrepit +Giottesque allegory-mongers, we ask ourselves in astonishment whence +they have arisen, and how those broken-down artists of effete art could +have begotten such a generation of giants. Whence do they come? +Certainly not from the studios of the Giottesques; no, they issue out of +the workshops of the stone-mason, of the goldsmith, of the worker in +bronze, of the sculptor. Vasari has preserved the tradition that +Masolino and Paolo Uccello were apprentices of Ghiberti; he has remarked +that their greatest contemporary, Masaccio, "trod in the steps of +Brunelleschi and of Donatello." Pollaiolo and Verrocchio we know to have +been equally excellent as painters and as workers in bronze; sculpture, +at once more naturalistic and more constantly under the influence of the +antique, had for the second time laboured for painting. Itself a +subordinate art, without real vitality, without deep roots in the +civilization, sculpture was destined to remain the unsuccessful pupil of +the antique, and the unsuccessful rival of painting; but sculpture had +for its mission to prepare the road for painting and to prepare painting +for antique influence, and the noblest work of Ghiberti and Donatello +was Masaccio, as the most lasting glory to the Pisani had been Giotto. + +With Masaccio began the study of Nature for its own sake, the desire of +reproducing external objects without any regard to their significance as +symbols or as parts of a story, the passionate wish to arrive at +absolute realization. The merely suggestive outline art of the +Giottesques had come to an end; the suggestion became a matter of +indifference; the realization became a paramount interest; the story was +forgotten in the telling, the religious thought was lost in the search +for the artistic form. The Giottesques had used debased conventionalism +to represent action with wonderful narrative and logical power; the +artists of the early Renaissance became unskilful narrators and foolish +allegorists almost in proportion as they became skilful draughtsmen and +colourists; the Saints had become to Masaccio merely so many lay +figures on to which to cast drapery; for Fra Filippo, the Madonna was a +mere peasant model; for Filippino Lippi and for Ghirlandajo, a miracle +meant merely an opportunity of congregating a number of admirable +portrait figures in the dress of the day; the Baptism for Verrocchio had +significance only as a study of muscular legs and arms; and the +sacrifice of Noah had no importance for Uccello save as a grand +opportunity for foreshortenings. In the hands of the Giottesques, +interested in the subject and indifferent to the representation, +painting had remained stationary for eighty years; for eighty years did +it develop in the hands of the men of the fifteenth century, indifferent +to the subject and passionately interested in the representation. The +unity, the appearance of relative perfection of the art had disappeared +with the limits within which the Giottesques had been satisfied to move; +instead of the intelligible and solemn conventionalism of the +Giottesques, we see only disorder, half-understood ideas and abortive +attempts, confusion which reminds us of those enigmatic sheets on which +Leonardo or Michel Angelo scrawled out their ideas, drawings within +drawings, plans of buildings scratched over Madonna heads, single +flowers upside down next to flayed arms, calculations, monsters, +sonnets, a very chaos of thoughts and of shapes, in which the plan of +the artist is inextricably lost, which mean everything and nothing, but +out of whose unintelligible network of lines and curves have issued +masterpieces, and which only the foolish or the would-be philosophical +would exchange for some intelligible, hopelessly finished and finite +illustration out of a Bible or a book of travels. + +Anatomy, perspective, colour, drapery, effects of light, of water, of +shadow, forms of trees and flowers, converging lines of architecture, +all this at once absorbed and distracted the attention of the artists of +the early Renaissance; and while they studied, copied, and calculated, +another thought began to haunt them, another eager desire began to +pursue them: by the side of Nature, the manifold, the baffling, the +bewildering, there rose up before them another divinity, another sphinx, +mysterious in its very simplicity and serenity--the antique. + +The exhumation of the antique had, as we have seen, been contemporaneous +with the birth of painting; nay, the study of the remains of antique +sculpture had, in contributing to form Niccoto Pisano, indirectly helped +to form Giotto; the very painter of the "Triumph of Death" had inserted +into his terrible fresco two-winged genii, upholding a scroll, copied +without any alteration from some coarse Roman sarcophagus, in which they +may have sustained the usual _Dis Manibus Sacrum_. There had been, on +the part of both sculptors and painters, a constant study of the +antique; but during the Giottesque period this study had been limited to +technicalities, and had in no way affected the conception of art. The +mediæval artists, surrounded by physical deformities, and seeing +sanctity in sickness and dirt, little accustomed to observe the human +figure, were incapable, both as men and as artists, of at all entering +into the spirit of antique art. They could not perceive the superior +beauty of the antique; they could recognize only its superior science +and its superior handicraft, and these they studied to obtain. + +Giovanni Pisano, sculpturing the unfleshed, carved carcases of the +devils who leer, writhe, crunch, and tear on the outside of Orvieto +Cathedral, and the Giottesques painting those terrible green, macerated +Christs, hanging livid and broken from the cross, which abound in +Tuscany and Umbria, the artists who produced these loathsome and +lugubrious works were indubitably students of the antique; but they had +learned from it not a love for beautiful form and noble drapery, but +merely the general shape of the limbs and the general fall of the +garments; the anatomical science and technical processes of antiquity +were being used to produce the most intensely un-antique, the most +intensely mediæval works. Thus matters stood in the time of Giotto. His +followers, who studied only arrangement, probably consulted the antique +as little as they consulted Nature; but the contemporary sculptors were +brought by the very constitution of their art into close contact both +with Nature and with the antique; they studied both with determination, +and handed over the results of their labours to the sculptor-taught +painters of the fifteenth century. + +Here, then, were the two great factors in the art of the +Renaissance--the study of Nature, and the study of the antique; both +understood slowly, imperfectly; the one counteracting the effect of the +other; the study of Nature now scaring away all antique influence; the +study of the antique now distorting all imitation of Nature; rival +forces confusing the artist and marring the work, until, when each could +receive its due, the one corrected the other, and they combined, +producing by this marriage of the living reality with the dead but +immortal beauty, the great art of Michel Angelo, of Raphael, and of +Titian: double like its origin, antique and modern, real and ideal. + +The study of the antique is thus placed opposite to the study of Nature, +the comprehension of the works of antiquity is the momentary antagonist +of the comprehension of Nature. And this may seem strange, when we +consider that antique art was itself due to perfect comprehension of +Nature. But the contradiction is easily explained. The study of Nature, +as it was carried on in the Renaissance, comprised the study of effects +which had remained unnoticed by antiquity; and the study of the statue, +colourless, without light, shade, or perspective, interfered with, and +was interfered with by, the study of colour, of light and shade, of +perspective, and of all that a generation of painters would seek to +learn from Nature. Nor was this all; the influence of the civilization +of the Renaissance, of a civilization directly issued from the Middle +Ages, was entirely at variance with the influence of antique +civilization through the medium of ancient art; the Middle Ages and +antiquity, Christianity and Paganism, were even more opposed to each +other than could be the statue and the easel picture, the fresco and +the bas-relief. + +First, then, we have the hostility between painting and sculpture, +between the _modus operandi_ of the modern and the _modus operandi_ of +the ancient art. Antique art is in the first place purely linear art, +colourless, tintless, without light and shade; next, it is essentially +the art of the isolated figure, without background, grouping, or +perspective. As linear art it could directly affect only that branch of +painting which was itself linear, and as art of the isolated figure it +was ever being contradicted by the constantly developing arts of +perspective and landscape. The antique never directly influenced the +Venetians, not from reasons of geography and culture, but from the fact +that Venetian painting, founded from the earliest times upon a system of +colour, could not be affected by antique sculpture, based upon a system +of modelled, colourless forms; the men who saw form only through the +medium of colour could not learn much from purely linear form; hence it +is that even after a certain amount of antique imitation had passed into +Venetian painting, through the medium of Mantegna, the Venetian painters +display comparatively little antique influence. In Bellini, Carpaccio, +Cima, and other early masters, the features, forms, and dress are mainly +modern and Venetian; and Giorgione, Titian, and even the eclectic +Tintoret were more interested in the bright lights of a steel +breastplate than in the shape of a limb, and preferred in their hearts a +shot brocade of the sixteenth century to the finest drapery modelled by +an ancient. + +The antique influence was naturally strongest among the Tuscan schools; +because the Tuscan schools were essentially schools of drawing, and the +draughtsman only recognized in antique sculpture the highest perfection +of that linear form which was his own domain. The antique not only +appealed most to the linear schools, but even in them it could strongly +influence only the purely linear part; it is strong in the drawings and +weak in the paintings. As long as the artists had only the pencil or +pen, they could reproduce much of the linear perfection of the antique; +they were, so to speak, alone with it; but as soon as they brought in +colour, perspective, and scenery, the linear perfection was lost in +attempts at something new; the antique was put to flight by the modern. +Botticelli's crayon study for his Venus is almost antique, his tempera +picture of Venus, with the pale blue scaly sea, the laurel grove, the +flower-embroidered garments, the wisps of tawny hair, is comparatively +mediæval; Pinturricchio's sketch of fauns and satyrs contrasts strangely +with his frescos in the library of Silena; Mantegna himself, +supernaturally antique in his engravings, becomes almost trivial and +modern in his oil paintings. Do what they might, draw from the antique, +calculate its proportions, the artists of the Renaissance found +themselves baffled as soon as they attempted to apply the result of +their linear studies to coloured pictures; as soon as they tried to +make the antique unite with the modern, one of the two elements was sure +to succumb. In Botticelli, draughtsman and student though he was, the +modern, the mediæval, that part of the art which had arisen in the +Middle Ages, invariably had the upper hand; his Venus has, despite her +forms studied from the antique and her gesture imitated from some +earlier discovered copy of the Medicean Venus, the woe-begone prudery of +a Madonna or of an abbess; she shivers physically and morally in her +unaccustomed nakedness, and the goddess of Spring, who comes skipping up +from beneath the laurel copse, does well to prepare her a mantle, for in +the paled tempera colour, against the dismal background of rippled sea, +this mediæval Venus, at once indecent and prudish, is no pleasing sight. +In the Allegory of Spring in the Academy of Florence, we again have the +antique; goddesses and nymphs whose clinging garments the gentle Sandro +Botticelli has assuredly studied from some old statue of Agrippina or +Faustina; but what strange livid tints are there beneath those +draperies, what eccentric gestures are those of the nymphs, what a +green, ghostlike light illumines the garden of Venus! Are these +goddesses and nymphs immortal women such as the ancients conceived, or +are they not rather fantastic fairies or nixen, Titanias and Undines, +incorporeal daughters of dew and gossamer and mist? + +In Sandro Botticelli the teachings of the statue are forgotten or +distorted when the artist takes up his palette and brushes; in his far +greater contemporary, Andrea Mantegna, the ever-present antique chills +and arrests the vitality of the modern. Mantegna, the pupil of the +ancient marbles of Squarcione's workshop even more than the pupil of +Donatello, studies for his paintings not from Nature, but from +sculpture; his figures are seen in strange projection and +foreshortening, like figures in a high relief seen from below; despite +his mastery of perspective, they seem hewn out of the background; +despite the rich colours which he displays in his Veronese altar-piece, +they look like painted marbles, with their hard clots of stone-like hair +and beard, with their vacant glance and their wonderful draperies, +clinging and weighty like the wet draperies of ancient sculpture. They +are beautiful petrifactions, or vivified statues; Mantegna's +masterpiece, the sepia "Judith" in Florence, is like an exquisite, +pathetically lovely Eurydice, who has stepped unconscious and lifeless +out of a Praxitelian bas-relief. And there are stranger works than even +the Judith; strange statuesque fancies, like the fight of Marine +Monsters and the Bacchanal among Mantegna's engravings. The group of +three wondrous creatures, at once men, fish, and gods, is as grand and +even more fantastic than Leonardo's Battle of the Standard: a Triton, +sturdy and muscular, with sea-weed beard and hair, wheels round his +finned horse, preparing to strike his adversary with a bunch of fish +which he brandishes above him; on him is rushing, careering on an +osseous sea-horse, a strange, lank, sinewy being, fury stretching every +tendon, his long clawed feet striking into the flanks of his steed, his +sharp, reed-crowned head turned fiercely, with clenched teeth, on his +opponent, and stretching forth a truncheon, ready to run down his enemy +as a ship runs down another; and further off a young Triton, with +clotted hair and heavy eyes, seems ready to sink wounded below the +rippling wavelets, with the massive head and marble agony of the dying +Alexander; enigmatic figures, grand and grotesque, lean, haggard, +vehement, and yet, in the midst of violence and monstrosity, +unaccountably antique. The other print, called the Bacchanal, has no +background: half-a-dozen male figures stand separate and naked as in a +bas-relief. Some are leaning against a vine-wreathed tub; a satyr, with +acanthus-leaves growing wondrously out of him, half man, half plant, is +emptying a cup; a heavy Silenus is prone upon the ground; a faun, seated +upon the vat, is supporting in his arms a beautiful sinking youth; +another youth, grand, muscular and grave as a statue, stands on the +further side. Is this really a bacchanal? Yes, for there is the paunchy +Silenus, there are the fauns, there the vat and vine-wreaths and +drinking-horns. And yet it cannot be a bacchanal. Compare with it one of +Rubens's orgies, where the overgrown, rubicund men and women and fauns +tumble about in tumultuous, riotous intoxication: that is a bacchanal; +they have been drinking, those magnificent brutes, there is wine firing +their blood and weighing down their heads. But here all is different, in +this so-called Bacchanal of Mantegna. This heavy Silenus is supine like +a mass of marble; these fauns are shy and mute; these youths are grave +and sombre; there is no wine in the cups, there are no lees in the vat, +there is no life in these magnificent colossal forms; there is no blood +in their grandly bent lips, no light in their wide-opened eyes; it is +not the drowsiness of intoxication which is weighing down the youth +sustained by the faun; it is no grape-juice, which gives that strange, +vague glance. No; they have drunk, but not of any mortal drink; the +grapes are grown in Persephone's garden, the vat contains no fruits that +have ripened beneath our sun. These strange, mute, solemn revellers have +drunk of Lethe, and they are growing cold with the cold of death and of +marble; they are the ghosts of the dead ones of antiquity, revisiting +the artist of the Renaissance, who paints them, thinking he is painting +life, while that which he paints is in reality death. + +This anomaly, this unsatisfactory character of the works of both +Botticelli and Mantegna, is mainly technical; the antique is frustrated +in Botticelli, not so much by the Christian, the mediæval, the modern +mode of feeling, as by the new methods and aims of the new art which +disconcert the methods and aims of the old art; and that which arrests +Mantegna in his development as a painter is not the spirit of paganism +deadening the spirit of Christianity, but the laws of sculpture +hampering painting. But this technical contest between two arts, the one +not yet fully developed, the other not yet fully understood, is as +nothing compared with the contest between the two civilizations, the +antique and the modern; between the habits and tendencies of the +contemporaries of the artists of the Renaissance and of the artists +themselves, and the habits and tendencies of the antique artists and +their contemporaries. We are apt to think of the Renaissance as of a +period closely resembling antiquity, misled by the inevitable similarity +between southern and democratic countries of whatever age; misled still +less pardonably by the Ciceronian pedantries and pseudo-antique +obscurities of a few humanists, and by the pseudo-Corinthian arabesques +and capitals of a few learned architects. But all this was mere +archæological finery borrowed by a civilization in itself entirely +unlike that of ancient Greece. + +The Renaissance, let us remember, was merely the flowering time of that +great mediæval movement which had germinated early in the twelfth +century; it was merely a more advanced stage of the civilization which +had produced Dante and Giotto, of the civilization which was destined to +produce Luther and Rabelais. The fifteenth century was merely the +continuation of the fourteenth century, as the fourteenth had been of +the thirteenth; there had been growth and improvement; development of +the more modern, diminishing of the more mediæval elements; but, despite +growth and the changes due to growth, the Renaissance was part and +parcel of the Middle Ages. The life, thought, aspirations, and habits +were mediæval, opposed to the open-air life, the physical training, and +the materialistic religion of antiquity. The surroundings of Masaccio +and of Signorelli, nay, even of Raphael, were very different from those +of Phidias or Praxiteles. Let us think what were the daily and hourly +impressions given by the Renaissance to its artists. Large towns, in +which thousands of human beings were crowded together, in narrow, gloomy +streets, with but a strip of blue visible between the projecting roofs; +and in these cities an incessant commercial activity, with no relief +save festivals at the churches, brawls at the taverns, and carnival +buffooneries. Men and women pale and meagre for want of air, and light, +and movement; undeveloped, untrained bodies, warped by constant work at +the loom or at the desk, at best with the lumpish freedom of the soldier +and the vulgar nimbleness of the 'prentice. And these men and women +dressed in the dress of the Middle Ages, gorgeous perhaps in colour, but +heavy, miserable, grotesque, nay, sometimes ludicrous in form; citizens +in lumpish robes and long-tailed caps; ladies in stiff and foldless +brocade hoops and stomachers; artisans in striped and close-adhering +hose and egg-shaped padded jerkin; soldiers in lumbering armour-plates, +ill-fitted over ill-fitting leather, a shapeless shell of iron, bulging +out and angular, in which the body was buried as successfully as in the +robes of the magistrates. Thus we see the men and women of the +Renaissance in the works of all its painters; heavy in Ghirlandajo, +vulgarly jaunty in Fillipino, preposterously starched and prim in +Mantegna, ludicrously undignified in Signorelli; and mediæval stiffness, +awkwardness, and absurdity reach their acme perhaps in the little boys, +companions of the Medici children, introduced into Benozzo Gozzoli's +Building of Babel. + +These are the prosperous townsfolk, among whom the Renaissance artist +is but too glad to seek for models; but besides these there are +lamentable sights, mediæval beyond words, at every street corner--dwarfs +and cripples, maimed and diseased beggars of all degrees of +loathsomeness, lepers and epileptics, and infinite numbers of monks, +brown, grey and black, in sack-shaped frocks and pointed hoods, with +shaven crown and cropped beard, emaciated with penance or bloated with +gluttony. And all this the painter sees, daily, hourly; it is his +standard of humanity, and as such finds its way into every picture. It +is the living; but opposite it arises the dead. Let us turn aside from +the crowd of the mediæval city, and look at what the workmen have just +laid bare, or what the merchant has just brought from Rome or from +Greece. Look at this: it is corroded by oxides, battered by ill-usage, +stained with earth: it is not a group, not even a whole statue, it has +neither head nor arms remaining; it is a mere broken fragment of antique +sculpture,--a naked body with a fold or two of drapery; it is not by +Phidias nor by Praxiteles, it may not even be Greek; it may be some +cheap copy, made for a garden or a bath, in the days of Hadrian. But to +the artist of the fifteenth century it is the revelation of a whole +world, a world in itself. We can scarcely realize all this; but let us +look and reflect, and even we may feel as must have felt the man of the +Renaissance in the presence of that mutilated, stained, battered torso. +He sees in that broken stump a grandeur of outline, a magnificence of +osseous structure, a breadth of muscle and sinew, a smooth, firm +covering of flesh, such as he would vainly seek in any of his living +models; he sees a delicate and infinite variety of indentures, of +projections, of creases following the bend of every limb; he sees, where +the surface still exists intact, an elasticity of skin, a buoyancy of +hidden life such as all the colours of his palette are unable to +imitate; and in this piece of drapery, negligently gathered over the +hips or robed upon the arm, he sees a magnificent alternation of large +folds and small creases, of straight lines, and broken lines, and +curves. He sees all this; but he sees more: the broken torso is, as we +have said, not merely a world in itself, but the revelation of a world. + +It is the revelation of antique civilization, of the palæstra and the +stadium, of the sanctification of the body, of the apotheosis of man, of +the religion of life and nature and joy; revealed to the man of the +Middle Ages, who has hitherto seen in the untrained, diseased, despised +body but a deformed piece of baseness, which his priests tell him +belongs to the worms and to Satan; who has been taught that the monk +living in solitude and celibacy, filthy, sick, worn out with fastings +and bleeding with flagellation, is the nearest approach to divinity; who +has seen Divinity itself, pale, emaciated, joyless, hanging bleeding +from the cross; and who is for ever reminded that the kingdom of this +Divinity is not of this world. + +What passes in the mind of that artist? What surprise, what dawning +doubts, what sickening fears, what longings and what remorse are not +the fruit of this sight of antiquity? Is he to yield or to resist? Is he +to forget the saints and Christ and give himself over to Satan and to +antiquity? Only one man boldly said Yes. Mantegna abjured his faith, +abjured the Middle Ages, abjured all that belonged to his time, and in +so doing cast away from him the living art and became the lover, the +worshipper of shadows. And only one man turned completely aside from the +antique as from the demon, and that man was a saint, Fra Angelico da +Fiesoli. And with the antique, Fra Angelico rejected all the other +artistic influences and aims of his time, the time not of Giotto or of +Orcagna, but of Masaccio, of Uccello, of Poliaiolo and Donatitis. For +the mild, meek, angelic monk dreaded the life of his days; dreaded to +leave the cloister where the sunshine was tempered and the noise reduced +to a mere faint hum, and where the flower-beds were tidy and prim; +dreaded to soil or rumple his spotless white robe and his shining black +cowl; a spiritual sybarite, shrinking from the sight of the crowd +seething in the streets, shrinking from the idea of stripping the rags +off the beggar in order to see his tanned and gnarled limbs; shuddering +at the thought of seeking for muscles in the dead, cut-open body; +fearful of every whiff of life that might mingle with the incense +atmosphere of his chapel, of every cry of human passion which might +break through the well-ordered sweetness of his chants. No; the +Renaissance did not exist for him who lived in a world of diaphanous +form, colour, and character; unsubstantial and unruffled, dreaming +feebly and sweetly of transparent-cheeked Madonnas with no limbs beneath +their robes; of smooth-faced saints with well-combed beard and placid, +vacant gaze, seated in well-ordered masses, holy with the purity of +inanity; of divine dolls with pallid flaxen locks, floating between +heaven and earth, playing upon lute and viol and psaltery; raised to +faint visions of angels and blessed, moving noiseless, feelingless, +meaningless, across the flowerets of Paradise; of assemblies of saints +seated, arrayed in pure pink, and blue and lilac, in an atmosphere of +liquid gold, in glory. And thus Fra Angelico worked on, content with the +dearly-purchased science of his masters, placid, beatic, effeminate, in +an æsthetical paradise of his own, a paradise of sloth and sweetness, a +paradise for weak souls, weak hearts, and weak eyes; patiently repeating +the same fleshless angels, the same boneless saints, the same bloodless +virgins; happy in smoothing the unmixed, unshaded tints of the sky, and +earth, and dresses; laying on the gold of the fretted skies, and of the +iridescent wings, embroidering robes, instruments of music, haloes, +flowers, with threads of gold.... Sweet, simple artist saint, reducing +art to something akin to the delicate pearl and silk embroidery of pious +nuns, to the exquisite sweetmeat cookery of pious monks; a something too +delicately gorgeous, too deliciously insipid for human wear or human +food; no, the Renaissance does not exist for thee, either in its study +of the truly existing, or in its study of antique beauty. + +Mantegna, the learned, the archæological, the pagan, who renounces his +times and his faith; and Angelico, the monk, the saint, who shuts and +bolts his monastery doors and sprinkles holy water in the face of the +antique, the two extremes, are both exceptions. The innumerable artists +of the Renaissance remained in hesitation; tried to court both the +antique and the modern, to unite the pagan and the Christian--some, like +Ghirlandajo, in cold indifference to all but mere form, encrusting +marble bacchanals into the walls of the Virgin's paternal house, +bringing together, unthinkingly, antique-draped women carrying baskets +and noble Stroggi and Ruccellai ladies with gloved hands folded over +their gold brocaded skirts; others, with cheerful and child-like +pleasure in both antique and modern, like Benozzo, crowding together +half-naked youths and nymphs treading the grapes and scaling the +trellise with Florentine magnificos in plaited skirts and starched +collars, among the pines and porticos, the sprawling children, barking +dogs, peacocks sunning themselves, and partridges picking up grain, of +his Scripture histories; yet others using the antique as mere pageant +shows, allegorical mummeries destined to amuse some Duke of Ferrara or +Marquis of Mantua, together with hurdle races of Jews, hags, and +riderless donkeys. + +Little by little the antique amalgamates with the modern; the art born +of the Middle Ages absorbs the art born of paganism; but how slowly, and +with what fantastic and ludicrous results at first; as when the +anatomical sculptor Pollaiolo gives scenes of naked Roman prize-fighters +as martyrdoms of St. Sebastian; or when the pious Perugino (pious at +least with his brush) dresses up his sleek, hectic, beardless archangels +as Roman warriors, and makes them stand, straddling beatically on thin +little dapper legs, wistfully gazing from beneath their wondrously +ornamented helmets on the walls of the Cambio at Perugia; when he +masquerades meditative fathers of the Church as Socrates and haggard +anchorites as Numa Pompilius; most ludicrous of all, when he attires in +scantiest of clinging antique drapery his mild and pensive Madonnas, +and, with daintily-pointed toes, places them to throne bashfully on +allegorical chariots as Venus or Diana. + +Long is the period of amalgamation, and little are the results +throughout that long early Renaissance. Mantegna, Piero della Francesca, +Melozzo, Ghirlandajo, Filippino, Botticelli, Verrocchio, have none of +them shown us the perfect fusion of the two elements whose union is to +give us Michel Angelo, Raphael, and all the great perfect artists of the +early sixteenth century; the two elements are for ever ill-combined and +hostile to each other; the modern vulgarizes the antique, the antique +paralyzes the modern. And meanwhile the fifteenth century, the century +of study, of conflict, and of confusion, is rapidly drawing to a close; +eight or ten more years, and it will be gone. Is the new century to find +the antique still dead and the modern still mediæval? + +The antique and the modern had met for the first time and as +irreconcileable enemies in the cloisters of Pisa; and the modern had +triumphed in the great mediæval fresco of the Triumph of Death. By a +strange coincidence, by a sublime jest of accident, the antique and the +modern were destined to meet again, and this time indissolubly united, +in a painting representing the Resurrection. Yes, Signorelli's fresco in +Orvieto Cathedral is indeed a resurrection, the resurrection of human +beauty after the long death-slumber of the Middle Ages. And the artist +would seem to have been dimly conscious of the great allegory he was +painting. Here and there are strewn skulls; skeletons stand leering by, +as if in remembrance of the ghastly past, and as a token of former +death; but magnificent youths are breaking through the crust of the +earth, emerging, taking shape and flesh; arising, strong and proud, +ready to go forth at the bidding of the Titanic angels who announce from +on high with trumpet sound and waving banners that the death of the +world has come to an end, and that humanity has arisen once more in the +youth and beauty of antiquity. + + +II. + +Signorelli's fresceos at Orvieto, at once the latest works of the +fifteenth century, and the latest works of an old man nurtured in the +traditions of Benozzo Gozzoli and of Piero della Francesca, mark the +beginning of the maturity and perfection of Italian art. From them +Michel Angelo learns what he could not be taught even by his master +Ghirlandajo, the grand and cold realist; he learns, and what he has +learned at Orvieto he teaches with doubled force in Rome; and the +ceiling of the Sixtine Chapel, the superb and heroic nudities, the +majestic draperies, the reappearance in the modern art of painting of +the spirit and hand of Phidias, give a new impulse and hasten on +perfection. When the doors of the chapel are at length opened, Raphael +forgets Perugino; Fra Bartolomeo forgets Botticelli; Sodoma forgets +Leonardo; the narrower hesitating styles of the fifteenth century are +abandoned, as the great example is disseminated throughout Italy; and +even the tumult of angels in glory which the Lombard Correggio is to +paint in far-off Parma, and the daringly simple Bacchus and Ariadne with +which Tintoret will decorate the Ducal palace more than fifty years +later, all that is great and bold, all that is a re-incarnation of the +spirit of antiquity, all that marks the culmination of Renaissance art, +seems due to the impulse of Michel Angelo, and, through him, to the +example of Signorelli. From the celestial horseman and bounding avenging +angels of Raphael's Heliodorus, to the St. Sebastian of Sodoma, with +delicate limbs and exquisite head, rich with tendril-like locks against +the brown Umbrian sunset; from the Madonna of Andrea del Sarto seated, +with the head and drapery of a Niobe, on the sack of flour in the +Annunziata cloister, to the voluptuous goddess, with purple mantle half +concealing her body of golden white, who leans against the sculptured +fountain in Titian's "Sacred and Profane Love," with the greenish blue +sky and hazy light of evening behind her; from the most extreme +examples of the most extreme schools of Lombardy and Venetia, to the +most intense examples of the remotest schools of Tuscany and Umbria, +throughout the art of the early sixteenth century, of those thirty years +which were the years of perfection, we see, more or less marked, but +always distinct, the union of the living art born of the Middle Ages +with the dead art left by antiquity, a union producing life and +perfection, the great art of the Renaissance. + +This much is clear and easy of definition; but what is neither clearly +understood nor clearly defined is the nature of this union, the manner +in which the antique and the modern did thus amalgamate. It is easy to +speak of a vague union of spirit, of the antique idea having permeated +the modern; but all this explains but little; art is not a metaphysical +figment, and all its phases and revolutions are concrete, and, so to +speak, physically explicable and definable. The union of the antique +with the modern meant simply the absorption by the art of the +Renaissance of elements of civilization necessary for its perfection, +but not existing in the mediæval civilization of the fifteenth century; +of elements of civilization which gave what the civilization of the +fifteenth century,--which could give colour, perspective, grouping, and +landscape,--could never have afforded: the nude, drapery, and gesture. + +The naked human body, which the Greeks, had trained, studied and +idolized, did not exist in the fifteenth century; in its stead there was +only the undressed body, ill-developed, untrained, pinched, and +distorted by the garments only just cast off, cramped and bent by +sedentary occupations, livid with the plague-spots of the Middle Ages, +scarred by the whip-marks of asceticism. This stripped body, unseen and +unfit to be seen, unaccustomed to the air and to the eyes of others, +shivered and cowered for cold and for shame. The Giottesques ignored its +very existence, conceiving humanity as a bodiless creature, with face +and hands to express emotion, and just enough malformed legs and feet to +be either standing or moving; further, beneath the garments there was +nothing. The realists of the fifteenth century tore off the clothes and +drew the ugly thing beneath, and brought the corpses from the +lazar-houses, and stole them from the gallows, in order to see how bone +fitted into bone, and muscle was stretched over muscle. They learned to +perfection the anatomy of the human frame, but they could not learn its +beauty; they became even reconciled to the ugliness they were accustomed +to see, and, with their minds full of antique examples, Verrocchio, +Donatello, Pollaiolo, and Ghirlandajo, the greatest anatomists of the +fifteenth century, imitated their coarse and ill-made living models when +they imagined that they were imitating antique marbles. + +So much for the nude. Drapery, as the ancients understood it in the +delicate plaits of Greek chiton and tunic, in the grand folds of Roman +toga, the fifteenth century could not show; it knew only the stiff, +scanty raiment of the active classes, the shapeless masses of lined +cloth of the merchants and magistrates, the prudish and ostentatious +starched dress of the women, and the coarse, lumpish garb of the monks. + +The artist of the fifteenth century knew drapery only as an exotic, an +exotic with whose representation the habit of seeing mediæval costume +was for ever interfering; on the stripped, unseemly, indecent body he +places, with the stiffness of artificiality, drapery such as he has +never seen upon any living creature; the result is awkwardness and +rigidity. And what attitude, what gesture, can he expect from this +stripped and artificially draped model? None, for the model scarce knows +how to stand in so unaccustomed a condition of body. The artist must +seek for attitude and gesture among his townsfolk, and among them he can +find only trivial, awkward, often vulgar movement. They have never been +taught how to stand or to move with grace and dignity; the artist must +study attitude and gesture in the marketplace or the bull-baiting +ground, where Ghirlandajo found his jauntily strutting idlers, and +Verrocchio his brutally staggering prize-fighters. Between the +constrained attitudinizing of Byzantine and Giottesque tradition, and +the imitation of the movements of clodhoppers and ragamuffins, the +realist of the fifteenth century would wander hopelessly were it not for +the antique. Genius and science are of no avail; the position of Christ +in baptism in the paintings of Verrocchio and Ghirlandajo is mean and +servile; the movements of the "Thunderstricken" in Signorelli's lunettes +is an inconceivable mixture of the brutish, the melodramatic, and the +comic; the magnificently drawn youth at the door of the prison in +Filippino's "Liberation of St. Peter" is gradually going to sleep and +collapsing in a fashion which is truly ignoble. + +And the same applies to sculptured figures or to figures standing +isolated like statues; no Greek would have ventured upon the swaggering +position, with legs apart and elbows out, of Donatello's "St. George," +or Perugino's "St. Michael;" and a young Athenian who should have +assumed the attitude of Verrocchio's "David," with tripping legs and +hand clapped on his hip, would have been sent away from school as a +saucy little ragamuffin. + +Coarse, nude, stiff drapery, vulgar attitude, was all that the fifteenth +century could offer to its artists; but antiquity could offer more and +very different things--the naked body developed by the most artistic +training, drapery the most natural and refined, and attitude and gesture +regulated by an education the most careful and artistic; and all these +things antiquity gave to the artists of the Renaissance. They did not +copy antique statues as living naked men and women, but they corrected +the faults of their living models by the example of the statues; they +did not copy antique stone draperies in coloured pictures, but they +arranged the robes on their models with the antique folds well in their +memory; they did not give the gestures of statues to living figures, but +they made the living figures move in accordance with those principles of +harmony which they had found exemplified in the statues. + +They did not imitate the antique, they studied it; they obtained through +the fragments of antique sculpture a glimpse into the life of antiquity, +and that glimpse served to correct the vulgarism and distortion of the +mediæval life of the fifteenth century. In the perfection of Italian +painting, the union of antique and modern being consummated, it is +perhaps difficult to disentangle what really is antique from what is +modern; but in the earlier times, when the two elements were still +separate, we can see them opposite each other and compare them in the +works of the greatest artists. Wherever, in the paintings of the early +Renaissance, there is realism, marked by the costume of the times, there +is ugliness of form and vulgarity of movement; where there is idealism, +marked by imitation of the antique, the nude, and drapery, there is +beauty and dignity. We need only compare Filippino's "Scene before the +Proconsul" with his "Raising of the King's Son" in the Brancacci Chapel; +the grand attitude and draperies of Ghirlandajo's "Zachariah" with the +vulgar dress and movements of the Florentine citizens surrounding him; +Benozzo Gozzoli's noble naked figure of Noah with his ungainly, +hideously dressed figure of Cosimo de' Medici; Mantegna's exquisite +Judith with his preposterous Marquis of Mantua; in short all the purely +realistic with all the purely idealistic art of the fifteenth century. +We may give one last instance. In Signorelli's Orvieto frescoes there is +a figure of a young man, with aquiline features, long crisp hair and +strongly developed throat, which reappears unmistakably in all the +frescoes, and in some of them twice and thrice in various positions. His +naked figure is magnificent, his attitudes splendid, his thrown-back +head superb, whether he be slowly and painfully emerging from the earth, +staggered and gasping with his newly-infused life, or sinking oppressed +on the ground, broken and crushed by the sound of the trumpet of +judgment; or whether he be moving forward with ineffable longing towards +the angel about to award him the crown of the blessed; in all these +positions he is heroically beautiful. + +We meet him again, unmistakable, but how different, in the realistic +group of the "Thunderstricken,"--the long, lank youth, with +spindle-shanks and egg-shaped body, bounding forward, with most +grotesque strides, over the uncouth heap of dead bodies, ungainly masses +with soles and nostrils uppermost, lying in beast-like confusion. This +youth, with something of a harlequin in his jumps and in his ridiculous +thin legs and preposterous round body, is evidently the model for the +naked demi-gods of the "Resurrection" and the "Paradise:" he is the +handsome boy as the fifteenth century gave him to Signorelli; opposite, +he is the living youth of the fifteenth century idealized by the study +of ancient sculpture; just as the "Thunderstricken" may be some scene of +street massacre such as Signorelli may have witnessed at Cortona or +Perugia, while the agonies of the "Hell" are the grouped and superb +agonies taught by the antique; just as the two archangels of the "Hell," +in their armour of Baglioni's heavy cavalry, may represent the modern +element, and the same archangels, naked, with magnificent flying +draperies, blowing the trumpets of the Resurrection, may show the +antique element in Renaissance art. The antique influence was not, +indeed, equally strong throughout Italy; it was strongest in the Tuscan +school which, seeking for perfection of linear form, found that +perfection in the antique; it was weakest in the Lombard and Venetian +schools, which sought for what the antique could not give, light and +shade and colour; the antique was most efficacious where it was most +indispensable, and it was more necessary to a Tuscan, strong only with +his charcoal or pencil than to Leonardo da Vinci, who could make an +imperfect figure, smiling mysteriously from out of the gloom, more +fascinating than the finest drawn Florentine Madonna, and could surround +an insignificant childish head with the wondrous sheen and ripple of +hair, as with an aureole of poetry; it was also less necessary to +Giorgione and Titian, who could hide coarse limbs beneath their +draperies of precious ruby, and transfigure, by the liquid gold of their +palettes, a peasant woman into a goddess. + +But even the Lombards, even the Venetians, required the antique +influence. They could not perhaps have obtained it direct like the +Tuscans; the colourists and masters of light and shade might never have +understood the blank lines and faint shadows of the marble: they +received the antique influence, strong but modified by the medium +through which it had passed, from Mantegna; and the relentless +self-sacrifice to antiquity, the self-paralyzation of the great artist, +was not without its use; from Venetian Padua, Mantegna influenced the +Bellini and Giorgione; from Lombard Mantua, he influenced Leonardo; and +Mantegna's influence was that of the antique. + +What would have been the art of the Renaissance without the antique? The +speculation is vain, for the antique had influenced it, had been goading +it on ever since the earliest times; it had been present at its birth, +it had affected Giotto through Niccoto Pisano, and Masaccio through +Ghiberti; the antique influence cannot be conceived as absent in the +history of Italian painting. So far, as a study of the impossible, the +speculation respecting the fate of Renaissance art had it not been +influenced by the antique would be childishly useless. But lest we +forget that this antique influence did exist, lest, grown ungrateful and +blind, we refuse it its immense share in producing Michel Angelo, +Raphael, and Titian, we may do well to turn to an art born and bred like +Italian art, in the Middle Ages; like it, full of strength and power of +self-development, but which, unlike Italian art, was not influenced by +the antique. This art is the great German art of the early sixteenth +century; the art of Martin Schongauer, of Aldegrever, of Graf, of +Wohlgemuth, of Pencz, of Zatzinger, of Kranach, and of the great +Albrecht Dürer, whom they resemble as Pinturricchio, and Lo Spagna +resemble Perugino, as Palma and Pario Bordone resemble Titian. This is +an art born in a civilization less perfect indeed than that of Italy, +narrower, as Nürnberg is narrower than Florence, but resembling it in +habits, dress, religion, above all the main characteristic of being +mediæval; and its masters, as great as their Italian contemporaries in +all the technicalities of the art, and in absolute honesty of endeavour, +may show what the Italian art of the sixteenth century might have been +without the antique. Let us therefore open a portfolio of those +wonderful minute yet grand engravings of the old Germans. They are for +the most part Scriptural scenes or allegories, quite analogous to those +of the Italians, but purely realistic, conscious of no world beyond that +of an Imperial City of the year 1500. Here we have the whole turn-out, +male and female, of a German free town, in the shape of scenes from the +lives of the Virgin and saints; here are short fat burghers, with +enormous blotchy, bloated faces and little eyes set in fat, their huge +stomachs protruding from under their jackets; here are blear-eyed +ladies, tall, thin, wrinkled though not old, with figures like hungry +harpies, stalking about in high headgears and stiff gowns, or sitting by +the side of lean and stunted pages, singing (with dolorous voice) to +lutes; or promenading under trees with long-shanked, high-shouldered +gentlemen, with vacant sickly face and long scraggy hairs and beard, +their bony elbows sticking out of their slashed doublets. These courtly +figures culminate in Dürer's magnificent plate of the wild man of the +woods kissing the hideous, leering Jezebel in her brocade and jewels. +These aristocratic women are terrible; prudish, malicious, licentious, +never modest because they are always ugly. Even the poor Madonnas, +seated in front of village hovels or windmills, smile the smile of +starved, sickly sempstresses. It is a stunted, poverty-stricken, +plague-sick society, this mediæval society of burghers and burghers' +wives; the air seems bad and heavy, and the light wanting physically and +morally, in these old free towns; there is intellectual sickness as well +as bodily in those musty gabled houses; the mediæval spirit blights what +revival of healthiness may exist in these commonwealths. And feudalism +is outside the gates. There are the brutal, leering men-at-arms, in +slashed, puffed doublets and heavy armour, face and dress as unhuman as +possible, standing grimacing at the blood spurting from John the +Baptist's decapitated trunk, as in Kranach's horrible print, while +gaping spectators fill the castle yard; there are the castles high on +rocks amidst woods, with miserable villages below, where the Prodigal +Son wallows among the swine and the tattered boors tumble about in +drunkenness, or rest wearied on their spades. There are the Middle Ages +in full force. But had these Germans of the days of Luther really no +thought beyond their own times and their own country? Had they really +no knowledge of the antique? Not so; they had heard from their learned +men, from Willibald Pirkheimer and Ulrich von Hutten, that the world had +once been peopled with naked gods and goddesses; nay, the very year +perhaps that Raphael handed to the engraver, Marc Antonio, his +magnificent drawing of the Judgment of Paris, Lukas Kranach bethought +him to represent the story of the good Knight Paris giving the apple to +the Lady Venus. So Kranach took up his steady pencil and sharp chisel, +and in strong, clear, minute lines of black and white showed us the +scene. There, on Mount Ida, with a castellated rock in the distance, the +charger of Paris browses beneath some stunted larches; the Trojan +knight's helmet, with its monstrous beak and plume, lies on the ground; +and near it reclines Paris himself, lazy, in complete armour, with +frizzled fashionable beard. To him, all wrinkled and grinning with +brutal lust, comes another bearded knight, with wings to his vizored +helmet, Sir Mercury, leading the three goddesses, short, fat-cheeked +German wenches, housemaids stripped of their clothes, stupid, brazen, +indifferent. And Paris is evidently prepared with his choice: he awards +the apple to the fattest, for among a half-starved, plague-stricken +people like this, the chosen of gods and men must needs be the fattest. + +No, such pagan scenes are mere burlesques, coarse mummeries, such as may +have amused Nürnberg and Augsburg during Shrovetide, when drunken louts +figured as Bacchus and sang drinking songs by Hans Sachs. There is no +reality in all this; there is no belief in pagan gods. If we would see +the haunting divinity of the German Renaissance, we shall find him +prying and prowling in nearly every scene of real life; him, the ever +present, the king of the Middle Ages, whose triumph we have seen on the +cloister wall at Pisa, the lord "Death." His fleshless face peers from +behind a bush at Zatzinger's stunted, fever-stricken lady and imbecile +gentleman; he sits grinning on a tree in Orso Graf's allegory, while the +cynical knights, with haggard, sensual faces, crack dirty jokes with the +fat, brutish woman squatted below; he puts his hand into the basket of +Dürer's tattered pedlar; he leers hideously at the stirrup of Dürer's +armed and stalwart knight. No gods of youth and Nature; no Hercules, no +Hermes, no Venus, have invaded his German territories, as they invaded +even his own palace, the burial-ground at Pisa; the antique has not +perverted Dürer and his fellows, as it perverted Masaccio, and +Signorelli, and Mantegna, from the mediæval worship of Death. + +The Italians had seen the antique and had let themselves be seduced by +it, despite their civilization and their religion. Let us only rejoice +thereat. There are indeed some, and among them the great English critic, +who is irrefutable when he is a poet and irrational when he becomes a +philosopher;--there are some who tell us that in its union with antique +art, the art of the followers of Giotto embraced death, and rotted away +ever after; there are others, more moderate but less logical, who would +teach us that in uniting with the antique, the mediæval art of the +fifteenth century purified and sanctified the beautiful but evil child +of Paganism, that the goddess of Scopas and the athlete of Polyclete +were raised to a higher sphere when Raphael changed the one into a +Madonna, and Michel Angelo metamorphosed the other into a prophet. But +both schools of criticism are wrong. Every civilization has its inherent +evil; antiquity had its' inherent evils, as the Middle Ages had theirs; +antiquity may have bequeathed to the Renaissance the bad with the good, +as the Middle Ages had bequeathed to the Renaissance the good with the +bad. But the art of antiquity was not the evil, it was the good of +antiquity; it was born of its strength and its purity only and it was +the incarnation of its noblest qualities. It could not be purified, +because it was spotless; it could not be sanctified because it was holy. +It could gain nothing from the art of the Middle Ages, alternately +strong in brutal reality, and languid in mystic inanity; the men of the +Renaissance could, if they influenced it at all, influence the antique +only for evil; they belonged to an inferior artistic civilization, and +if we conscientiously seek for the spiritual improvements brought by +them into antique types, we shall see that they consist in spoiling +their perfect proportions, in making necks longer and muscles more +prominent, in rendering more or less flaccid, or meagre, or coarse, the +grand and delicate forms of antique art. And when we have examined into +this purified art of the Renaissance, when we have compared coolly and +equitably, we may perhaps confess that, while the Renaissance added +immense wealth of beauty in colour, perspective, and grouping, it took +away something of the perfection of simple lines and modest light and +shade of the antique; we may admit to ourselves that the grandest saint +by Raphael is meagre and stunted, and the noblest Virgin by Titian is +overblown and sensual by the side of the demi-gods and amazons of +antique sculpture. + +The antique perfected the art of the Renaissance, it did not corrupt it. +The art of the Renaissance fell indeed into shameful degradation soon +after the period of its triumphant union with the antique; and Raphael's +grand gods and goddesses, his exquisite Eros and radiant Psyche of the +Farnesina, are indeed succeeded but too soon by the Olympus of Giulio +Romano, an Olympus of harlots and acrobats, who smirk and mouth and +wriggle and sprawl ignobly on the walls and ceilings of the dismantled +palace which crumbles away among the stunted willows, the stagnant +pools, and rank grass of the marshes of Mantua. But this is no more the +fault of antiquity than it is the fault of the Middle Ages; it is the +fault of that great principle of life and of change which makes all +things organic, be they physical or intellectual, germinate, grow, +attain maturity, and then fade, wither, and rot. The dead art of +antiquity could never have brought the art of the Renaissance to an +untimely end; the art of the Renaissance decayed because it was mature, +and died because it had lived. + + VERNON LEE. + + + + +THE SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION OF COMTE. + + +IV. + +In my last article I considered the subjective synthesis of Comte, or in +other words, his attempt to systematize human knowledge in relation to +the moral life of man. For it is his view, as we have seen, that science +can never yield its highest fruit to man unless it be +systematized--_i.e._, unless its different parts be connected together +and put in their true place as parts of one whole. Scattered lights give +no illumination; it is the _esprit d'ensemble_, the general idea in +which our knowledge begins and ends, that ultimately determines the +scientific value of each special branch of knowledge. But while +synthesis is necessary, it is not necessary, according to Comte, that +the synthesis should be objective. The error of mankind in the past has +been that they supposed themselves able to ascertain the real or +objective principle, which gives unity to the world, and able, +therefore, to make their system of knowledge an ideal repetition of the +system of things without them. Such a system, however, is entirely +beyond our reach. The conditions of our lot, and the weakness of our +intelligence, make it impossible for us to tell what is the real +principle of unity in the world, or even whether such a principle +exists. The attempts to discover it, made by Theology and Metaphysics, +have been nothing more than elaborate anthropomorphisms, in which men +gave to the unknown and unknowable reality, a form which was borrowed +from their own. They saw in the clouds about them an exaggerated and +distorted reflection of themselves, and regarded this Brocken spectre as +the controlling power whose activity was the source and explanation of +everything. Positivism, on the other hand, arises whenever men learn to +recognize the nature of this illusion, and to confine their ambition +within that which is really the limit of their intelligence. All that we +can know is the resemblances and successions of phenomena, and not the +things in themselves that are their causes; and if we seek to find a +principle of unity for these phenomena, we must find it within and not +without. We must organize knowledge with reference to our own wants, +rather than with reference to the nature of things. We must regard +everything as a means to an end, which is determined by some inner +principle in ourselves--not as if we supposed that the world and all +that is in it were made for us, or found its centre in us--but simply +because this is the only point of view from which we can systematize +knowledge, as it is indeed the only point of view from which we need +care to systematize it. + +It may be asked why system is necessary at all, why we should not be +content with a fragmentary consciousness of the world, without +attempting to gather the dispersed lights of science to one central +principle. To critics like J. S. Mill, Comte's effort after system seems +to be the result of an "original mental twist very common in French +thinkers," of "an inordinate desire of unity." "That all perfection +consists in unity, Comte apparently considers to be a maxim which no +sane man thinks of questioning: it never seems to enter into his +conceptions that any one could object _ad initio_, and ask, Why this +universal systematizing, systematizing, systematizing? Why is it +necessary that all human life should point but to one object, and be +cultivated into a system of means to a single end?"[26] To this Mr. +Bridges answers that unity in Comte's sense is "the first and most +obvious condition which all moral and religious renovators, of whatever +time or country, have by the very nature of their office set themselves +to fulfil."[27] In other words, all moral and spiritual life depends +upon the harmony of the individual with himself and with the world. A +divided life is a life of weakness and misery, nor can life be divided +intellectually, without being, or ultimately becoming, divided morally. +Such unity, indeed, does not exclude--and in a being like man who is in +course of development cannot altogether exclude--difference and even +conflict. In the most steadily growing intellectual life there are +pauses of difficulty and doubt; in the most continuous moral progress +there are conflicts with self and others. But such doubts and +difficulties will not greatly weaken or disturb us, so long as they are +partial, so long as they do not affect the central principles of thought +and action, so long as there is still some fixed faith which reaches +beyond the disturbance, some certitude which is untouched by the doubt. +If, however, we once lose the consciousness that there is any such +principle, or if we try to rest on a principle which we at the same time +feel to be inadequate, our spiritual life, in losing its unity or +harmony with itself, must at the same time lose its purity and energy. +It must become fitful and uncertain, the sport of accidental influences +and tendencies; it must lower its moral and intellectual aims. This, in +Comte's view, is what we have seen in the past. The decay of the old +faiths, and of the objective synthesis based upon them, has emancipated +us from many illusions, but it has, as it were, taken the inspiration +out of our lives. It has made knowledge a thing for specialists who have +lost the sense of totality, the sense of the value of their particular +studies in relation to the whole; and it has made action feeble and +wayward by depriving men of the conviction that there is any great +central aim to be achieved by it. And these results would have been +still more obvious, were it not that men are so slow in realizing what +is involved in the change of their beliefs were it not that the habits +and sympathies developed by a creed continue to exist long after the +creed itself has disappeared. In the long run, however, the change of +man's intellectual attitude to the world must bring with it a change of +his whole life. As the creed which reconciled him to the world and bound +him to his fellows ceases to affect him, he must be thrown back upon his +own mere individuality, unless he can find another creed of equal or +greater power to inspire and direct his life. And mere individualism is +nothing, but anarchy. That this is so, was not indeed manifest to those +who first expressed the individualistic principle: on the contrary, they +seemed to themselves to have, in the assertion of individual right, not +only an instrument for destroying the old faith and the old social +order, but also the principle of a better faith, and the means of +reconstructing a better order. But to us who have outlived the period +when it could be supposed that the destruction of old, involves in +itself the construction of new, forms of life and thought, it cannot but +be obvious that the principles of private judgment and individual +liberty are nothing more than negations. For as the real problem of our +intellectual life is how to rise to a judgment which is more than +private judgment, so the real problem of our practical life is how to +realize a liberty that is more than individual license. It is in this +sense that Comte says that the last three centuries have been a period +of the insurrection of the intellect against the heart, a phrase by +which he means to indicate at once the gain and the loss of the +revolutionary movement; its gain, in so far as it emancipated the +intelligence from superstitious illusions, and its loss, in so far as it +destroyed the faith which was the bond of social union, without +substituting any other faith in its room. At the same time, the +expression points to a peculiarity of Comte's Psychology, which affects +his whole view of the history, and especially of the religious history, +of man; and it is therefore necessary to subject it to a careful +examination. + +Is it possible for the intellect to be in insurrection against the +heart? In a sense already indicated this is possible. It is possible, in +short, that the moral and intellectual spirit of a belief may still +control the life of one who, so far as his explicit consciousness is +concerned, has renounced it. Rooted as the individual is in a wider life +than his own, it is often but a small part of himself that he can bring +to distinct consciousness. Further, so little are most men accustomed to +self-analysis; that they are seldom aware what it is that constitutes +the inspiring power of their beliefs. Generally, at least in the first +instance, they take their creed in gross, without distinguishing between +essential and unessential elements. They confuse, in one general +consecration of reverence, its primary principles, and the local and +temporary accidents of the form in which it was first presented to them, +and they are as ready to accept battle _à l'outrance_ for some useless +outwork as for the citadel itself. And, for the same reason, they are +ready to think that the citadel is lost when the outwork is taken; to +suppose, _e.g._, that the spiritual nature of man is a fiction if he was +not directly made by God out of the dust of the earth, or that the +Christian view of life has ceased to be true if a doubt can be thrown on +the possibility of proving miracles. Yet however little the individual +may be able to separate the particulars which are assailed from the +universal with which they are accidentally connected, his whole nature +must rebel against the sacrifice which logical consistency seems in such +a case to demand from him. It is a painful experience when the first +break is made in the implicit unity of early faith, and it is painful +just in proportion to the depth of the spiritual consciousness which +that faith has produced in the individual. Unable to separate that which +he is obliged to doubt from that in which lies the principle of his +moral, and, even of his intellectual, life, he is "in a strait betwixt +two;" and no course seems to be open to him which does not involve the +surrender, either of his intellectual honesty, or of that higher +consciousness which alone "makes life worth living," Such a crisis is +commonly described as a division between the heart and the head, for in +it the articulate or conscious logic is on the side of disbelief, and +the resisting conviction generally takes the form of a feeling, an +impulse, an intuition, which the individual has for himself, but which +he is unable to communicate in the same force to another. And, as such +feelings and intuitions of the individual are necessarily subject to +continual variation of intensity and clearness, so the struggle between +doubt and faith may be long and difficult, the objections, which at one +time seem as nothing, at another time appearing to be almost +irresistible. Not seldom the result is a broken life, in which youth is +given to revolt, and the rest of existence to a faith which vainly +strives to be implicit. There is, indeed, no final and satisfactory +issue from such an endless internal debate and conflict, until the +"heart" has learned to speak the language of the "head,"--_i.e._, until +the permanent principles which underlay and gave strength to faith have +been brought into the light of distinct consciousness, and until it has +been discovered how to separate them from the accidents, with which at +first they were necessarily identified. The hard labour of +distinguishing, in the traditions of the past, between the germinative +principles, out of which the future must spring, and those external +forms and adjuncts, which every day is making more incredible, must be +undertaken by any one who would restore the broken unity of man's life. +We begin our existence under the shadow and influence of a faith which +is given to us, as it were; in our sleep; but in no age, and in this +age less than any other, can man possess a spiritual life as a gift from +the past without reconquering it for himself. + +In this sense, then, we can understand how Comte might speak of an +insurrection of the intelligence against the heart, which must be +quelled ere the normal state of humanity could be restored; for this +would be only another way of saying that, in the modern conflict of +faith and reason, the substantial truth, or at least the most important +truth, had, up to Comte's own time, been on the side of the former. In +this view, the deep unwillingness of those nourished in the Christian or +Catholic faith to yield to the logical battery of the Encyclopædists was +not merely the result of an obscurantist hatred of light; it was also in +great part due to a more or less definite sense of the moral, if not the +intellectual, weakness of the principles which the Encyclopædists +maintained. For, while the insurrection was justified in so far as it +asserted the claims of the special sciences, it was to be condemned in +so far as it involved the denial of all synthesis whatever, and also in +so far as it was blind to the elements of truth in the imperfect +synthesis of the past. It thus tended to destroy the spirit of totality +and the sense of duty (_l'esprit d'ensemble et le sentiment du +devoir_).[28] It practically denied the existence of any universal +principle which could connect the different parts of knowledge with each +other, of any general aim which could give unity to the life of man. Its +analytic spirit was fatal, not only to the fictions of theology, but +also to that growing consciousness of the solidarity of men of which +theology had been the accidental embodiment. The reluctance of religious +men to admit the claims of what appeared to be, and, indeed, to a +certain extent was, light, was thus due to a more or less distinct +perception that their own creed, amid all its partial errors, contained +a central truth more important than all the partial truths of science. +In clinging to the past they were preserving the germ of the future, and +the final victory of science could not come until this germ had been +disengaged from the husk of superstition under which it was hidden. Till +that was done, the logic of the heart in clinging to its superstitions +was better than the logic of the head in rebelling against them. In +other words, the implicit reason of faith was wiser than the explicit +reason of science. + +But this is not all that Comte means. For him the appeal to the heart is +not merely the appeal to feelings and intuitions, which are the result +of the past development of human intelligence, and especially of the +long discipline by which the Christian Church has moulded the modern +spirit; it is an appeal to the altruistic affections as original or +"innate" tendencies in man which are altogether independent of his +intelligence. It is not that the reason of man often speaks through his +feelings, but that feeling and reason have in themselves different, and +even it may be opposite, voices. In this sense, the attempt has often +been made in modern times to stop the invasions of critical reflection +by setting up the heart as an independent authority. From the Lutheran +theologian who said, "_Pectus theologum facit_," down to Mr. Tennyson +who declares that whenever he heard "the voice--Believe no more," + + "A warmth within the breast would melt + The freezing reason's colder part, + And like a man in wrath, the heart + Stood up and answered, 'I have felt:'" + +appeals have constantly been made to the feelings to resist the +intrusion of doubt. Such appeals, however, cannot be regarded as +otherwise than provisional and self-defensive. "The heart knoweth its +own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy;" but +just for that reason it has no general content or independent authority +of its own. Whether the "I feel it" mean little or much, depends upon +the individual who utters it. It may be the concentrated expression of a +long life of culture and discipline, or it may be the loud but empty +voice of untrained passion and prejudice. The "unproved assertions of +the wise and experienced," as Aristotle tells us, have great value, +especially in ethical matters; but it is not because they are unproved +assertions, but because we otherwise know that the speakers are wise and +experienced. To appeal to the heart in general, without saying "whose +heart," either means nothing, or it means an appeal to the natural +man--_i.e._, man as he is before he has been sophisticated by culture +and experience; but of the natural man, in this sense, nothing can be +said. The further we go back in the history of the individual or the +race the more imperfect does their utterance or manifestation become; +and when we reach the beginning, we find that there is no manifestation +or utterance at all. The natural man of Rousseau was simply an ideal +creation, inspired with that intense and even morbid consciousness of +self, and that fixed resolve to submit to no external law, which were +characteristic of Rousseau himself, and which in him were the last +product and quintessence of the individualism of the eighteenth century. +The simplicity of this ideal figure was not the first simplicity of +nature, but the simplicity of a spirit which has returned upon itself +and asserted itself against the world; a kind of simplicity which never +existed, at least in the same form, before the great Protestant revolt. +The unhistorical character of this idea becomes doubly evident when we +find that, as time goes on, and the spirit of the age alters, the +qualities of the natural man are also changed. To St. Simon and Fourier, +as to Rousseau, man is good by nature, and it is bad institutions or bad +external influences which are the source of all the ills that flesh is +heir to. But while with the latter the natural man is a solitary, whose +chief good lies in the preservation of his independence, with the former +he is essentially social, and what is wanted for his perfection and +happiness is only to contrive an outward organization in which his +social sympathies shall have free play. Comte, as we might expect, rises +above these imperfect theories, in so far as he refuses to attribute all +the evils of humanity to its external circumstances; but he does not get +rid of the essential error which was common to them all, the error of +seeking for the explanation of the higher life of humanity in the +feelings of the natural man--feelings which are prior to, and +independent of, the exercise of his reason, and which supply all the +possible motives for that exercise. There are, in his view, two sets of +"innate" feelings or desires, between which man's life is divided--the +egoistic and the altruistic tendencies, each separate from the others as +well as from the intelligence, and having its "organ" in a separate part +of the brain. The egoistic feelings at first exist in man in far greater +strength than the altruistic; but by the reaction of circumstances, and +the influence of men upon each other, the latter have in the past +gradually attained to greater power; and it is the ideal of the future +to make their victory complete. Meanwhile, the intelligence is +necessarily the instrument of desire, and its highest good is to be the +instrument of altruistic as opposed to egoistic desire. For it has at +best only a choice of masters, and the emancipation of the intelligence +from the heart could mean only its becoming a slave of personal vanity. +Comte's appeal, therefore, is still to the natural man, or rather to one +element in him, which, however, as he acknowledges, is never so weak as +it is in man's earliest or most natural state. + +The psychology implied in this theory is substantially that which found +its fullest expression in Hume's Treatise on Human Nature. Hume, with +that tendency to bring things to a distinct issue which is his best +characteristic, declares boldly that "reason is, and ought to be, the +slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to +serve and obey them." The passions or desires are tendencies of a +definite character which exist in man from the first; the awaking +intelligence cannot add to their number, or essentially change their +nature. It can only take account of what they are, and calculate how +best to satisfy them. "We speak not strictly and philosophically when we +talk of the combat of reason and passion," for reason in itself +determines the true and false, but it sets nothing before us as an end +to be pursued and avoided. It does not constitute or transform the +desires, which are given altogether apart from it, and the will is but +the strongest desire. When we say that reason controls the passions what +we mean is simply that a strong but calm tendency of our nature, which +has reference to some remote object, overcomes some violent impulse +towards a present delight; but for intelligence, in the strict sense of +the word, to war with passion is a simple impossibility. + +The modifications which Comte makes in this view of motive are +comparatively trifling. He does not, indeed, like Hume, call reason the +slave of the passions; rather he says that "_l'esprit doit être le +ministre du coeur, mais jamais son esclave_;" but this change of +language does not involve any important modification of Hume's theory. +The intelligence has to give to the heart all kinds of information about +the objects through which it may find satisfaction, but after all the +end itself has to be determined solely by feeling and desire. In Comte's +language the intellect is a "slave," when theology makes it acknowledge +the existence of supernatural beings who are agreeable to our desires, +but who have no reality as objects of experience; it is a "master," when +it pursues its inquiries into the phenomena of the objective world, at +the bidding of an errant curiosity, without reference to the well-being +of man; it is in its true place as a "servant" when it studies the +objective world freely, but only with reference to the end fixed for it +by the affections. "_L'univers doit être étudié non pour lui-même, mais +pour l'homme, ou plutôt pour l'humanité_;" and this, Comte thinks, will +not be done if the intelligence be left to itself, but only if it be +made subordinate to the heart. To say, therefore, that the intelligence +is not to be a slave but a servant, implies merely that it is to be left +free to collect information about the means of satisfying the desires, +without having its judgment anticipated by the imagination or the heart; +but that, on the other hand, it must keep strictly to its position as an +instrument to an end out of itself. For if it once emancipates itself +from the yoke of feeling, it soon becomes altogether lawless, and +disperses its efforts in every direction in the satisfaction of a vain +curiosity. The intelligence, as the scholastic theologians said, is in +itself, or when left to itself, a source of anarchy and confusion; it +must be, not indeed the _serva_, but the _ancilla fidei_, or it defeats +its own ends. The intellectual life, as such, is an unsocial, even a +selfish existence; for, as reason is guided by no definite objective aim +derived from itself, it must find its real motive in the satisfaction of +personal vanity and self-conceit, whenever it is not subjected to the +yoke of the altruistic affections. + +This theory (which, as we shall see, underlies Comte's whole conception +of history) suggests two questions. It leads us to ask, in the first +place, whether the tendencies of the intellectual life are thus +dispersive and opposed to the social tendencies? and, secondly, whether +the social tendencies in the form which they take with man, are not +necessarily determined to be what they are by his intelligence? The +former question really resolves itself into another: Is the intelligence +of man a mere formal power of apprehending what is presented to it from +without, so that when it is left to itself it must lose itself in the +infinite multiplicity of individual objects in the external world? or +does it carry with it any synthetic principle, any idea of the whole, to +which it necessarily and inevitably seeks to bring back the difference +of things? Against Comte's assertion that the natural tendency of the +intelligence is to lose itself in difference without end, we might quote +the well-known saying of Bacon, that the tendency of the "_intellectus +sibi permissus_" is rather towards a premature synthesis. "_Intellectus +humanus ex proprietate sua facile supponit majorem ordinem et +æqualitatem in rebus quam invenit_." Surely, if we may speak of +tendencies of the intellectual life as separated from the life of +feeling, the tendency to unity and the universal belongs to it quite as +much as the tendency to difference and the particular; just as in the +life of feeling the tendency to isolation and self-assertion against +others is combined with the tendency to society and union with others. +From the first moment of intellectual life the world is to us a unity; +_subjectively_ a unity, as all its varied phenomena are gathered up in +the consciousness of one self, and _objectively_ a unity, as every +object and event is definitely placed in relation to the other objects +and events in one space and one time. The development of knowledge is, +no doubt, the continual detection of new differences and distinctions in +things, but the phenomena which are distinguished from other phenomena +are at the same time put in relation to them. Nor can the intelligence +find complete satisfaction until this relation is discovered to be +necessary, and thus difference passes into unity again. Individual +minds, indeed, may be more of the Aristotelian, or more of the +Platonist, order, may tend more to divide what at first is presented as +unity, or to unite what at first is presented as difference. But it is +absurd to talk of either tendency as belonging to the intelligence in +itself, since it is utterly beyond, or rather beneath, the powers of +thought to conceive either of an undifferentiated unity, or of a chaos +of differences without some kind of relation. Descending to particulars, +we may bring Comte as a witness against himself; for while he declares +that the sciences which deal with the inorganic world are mainly +analytic in their tendencies, he at the same time maintains that the +sciences of Biology and, still more, of Sociology and Morals, are +synthetic, since they deal with objects in which the whole is not a mere +aggregation or resultant of the parts, but in which rather the parts can +be understood only in and through the whole. Hence it would seem that +the dispersive tendencies of science are confined to lower steps of the +scientific scale; and that the final science (as was shown more +particularly in a previous article) admits and necessitates a synthesis, +which is not merely subjective, but also objective. For Comte does not +hold that we are to regard other men merely as means, or to seek to +understand them only so far as is necessary for the gratification of +some desire in ourselves as individuals. We are, on the contrary, to +seek to know man in and for himself; and when we do so know him, we find +that he is essentially social, and that the individual, as such, is a +mere "fiction of the metaphysicians." Here, again, therefore, we find +that Comte's system ends in a compromise between opposite tendencies of +thought. His subjective synthesis proved after all to be objective, at +least so far as mankind were concerned; and in like manner his +opposition of the intellect to the heart turns out to be only partial; +for when the intelligence is directed to psychology and sociology, it +gives us an idea of humanity, according to which all men are "members +one of another." The warfare of the heart and the intelligence thus +resolves itself into another expression of that dualism between the +world and man, which we found to be an essential characteristic of +Comte's system. + +The second question--whether the altruistic affections of man do not +imply, or are not necessarily connected with, the development of his +reason or self-consciousness--is even more important. Comte, like Hume, +took all the desires, higher and lower, as tendencies given apart from +the reason, which can only devise the means of satisfying them, and is, +therefore, necessarily their servant. Reason itself on this view does +not essentially affect the character of those tendencies which it obeys. +"_Cupiditas est appetitus cum ejusdem conscientia_," said Spinoza, and +he then went on to speak as if the "_conscientia_" made no change in the +character of the "_appetitus_." But if we think of appetites or +desires--some of them tending to the good of the individual, others to +the good of the species--as existing in an animal which is not conscious +of a self, these appetites will neither be selfish nor unselfish in the +sense in which we apply these terms to man. Where there is no _ego_ +there can be no _alter-ego_, and therefore neither egoism nor altruism. +The idea of the self as a permanent unity to which all the different +tendencies are referred, and the rise in consequence of a new desire of +pleasure, distinct from the desires of particular objects, are essential +to egoism. The idea of an _alter-ego_, _i.e._, of a community with +others which makes their interests our own, and hence the rise of a love +for them,--which is not merely disinterested as the animal appetites are +disinterested, because they tend directly to their objects without any +thought of self, but disinterested in the sense that the thought of self +is conquered or absorbed, is essential to altruism. Each of these +tendencies may in its matter, or rather in its first matter, coincide +with the appetites; viewed from the outside, they may seem to be nothing +higher than hunger or thirst, or sexual or parental impulse, but their +form is different. They are changed as by a chemical solvent, which +dissolves and renews them; nay, as by a new principle of life, whose +first transformation of them is nothing but the beginning of a series of +transformations both of their matter and their form; so that, in the +end, the simple direct tendency to an object--the uneasiness which +sought its cure without reflection either upon itself or upon anything +else--becomes changed, on the one side, into a gigantic ambition and +greed, which would make the whole world tributary to the lust of the +individual, and, on the other, into a love of humanity in which +self-love is altogether transcended or absorbed. Neither of these, +however, nor any lower form of either, is in such wise _external_ to +reason, that we can talk of them as determining it to an end which is +not its own. Both are simply the expression in feeling of that essential +opposition of the self to the not self, and at the same time that +essential unity of the self with the not self, which are the two +opposite, but complementary, aspects of the life of reason. And the +progressive triumph of altruism over egoism, which constitutes the moral +significance of history, is only the result of the fact that an +individual, who is also a conscious self, cannot find his happiness in +his own individual life, but only in the life of the whole to which he +belongs. A selfish life is for him a contradiction. It is a life in +which he is at war with himself as well as with others, for it is the +life of a being who, though essentially social, tries to find +satisfaction in a personal or individual good. The "intelligence" and +the "heart" equally condemn such a life; it is not only a crime but a +blunder. For a spiritual being as such is one who can only save his life +by losing it in a wider life, one who must die to himself in order that +he may live. In the progress of man's spirit, therefore, there is no +necessary or possible schism between the two parts of his being; but, on +the contrary, the development of each is implied in the development of +the other. It is the more comprehensive idea, as well as the higher +social purpose, which always triumphs; and if what is called +intellectual culture sometimes seems to have the worse, it is because it +is a superficial or formal culture, and does not really represent the +most comprehensive idea. + +This leads us to observe that the opposition of the heart to the +intelligence is Comte's key to the whole history of the past, especially +in relation to religion. Theology is to him a system growing out of a +natural, though partially erroneous, hypothesis, a hypothesis which in +its first appearance was well suited to excite the nascent intelligence +and satisfy the primary affections of man, but which, in its further +development, tended to secure moral and social ends at the expense of +truth, and became more and more irrational as it became more and more +useful. Fetichism, the first religion, was the spontaneous result of +man's primitive tendency to exaggerate the likeness of all things to +himself. It is "less distant from Positivity" than any other sort of +theology,[29] for its error is only that it supposes the existence of +life wherever it finds activity--an error which can "easily be brought +to the test of verification" and corrected. "We can show it to be an +error, and so get rid of it." But Polytheism, seeking for greater +generality, refers phenomena to beings who are not identified with them, +to "indirect wills belonging to beings purely imaginary," whose +"existence can no more be decisively disproved than it can be +demonstrated." Further, Polytheism extended to the order of man's life +that kind of explanation which Fetichism necessarily confined to nature, +because the latter sought to explain everything by man, and never +thought of man himself as requiring explanation. But this, while it had +the advantage of bringing human life within the domain of speculation, +at the same time reduced theology into a palpable instance of reasoning +in a circle. For "humanity cannot legitimately be included in the +synthesis of causes, from the very fact that its type is found in +man."[30] Last of all came Monotheism, concentrating still further the +theological explanation of the universe, but rendering it still more +incoherent and irrational, for "the conception of a single God involves +a type of absolute perfection complete in each of the three aspects of +human nature, affection, thought, and action. Now such a conception +unavoidably contradicts itself, for either this all-powerful Being must +be inferior to ourselves, morally or intellectually, or else the world +which he created must be free from those radical imperfections which, in +spite of Monotheistic sophistry, have been always but too evident. And +even were this second alternative admissible, there would remain a yet +deeper inconsistency. Man's moral and mental faculties have for their +object to subserve practical necessities, but an omnipotent Being can +have no occasion either for wisdom or for goodness."[31] + +What reconciles mankind, and especially the leaders of mankind, to these +intellectually unsatisfactory conceptions of God, is their practical +value in extending and strengthening the social bond. Polytheism was +superior to Fetichism, because it lent itself to the formation of that +wider community, which we call the State, whereas Fetichism tended +rather to confine the sympathies of men to the narrower limits of the +family. And Monotheism was the necessary basis of that still wider +society which binds men to each other simply as men, and apart from any +special ties of blood or language. This at least was the case so long as +the truth of the unity of humanity had not yet assumed a scientific +form, and therefore still needed an external support. But when the +sciences of sociology and morals arise, this external scaffolding ceases +to be necessary, and must even become injurious, as, indeed, Theology +was from the first imperfectly adapted to the social end it was made to +subserve. + +This last point deserves special attention. According to Comte, +Theology, and above all Monotheistic Theology, is a system whose direct +influence is altogether unfavourable to the social tendencies, although +indirectly, by the course of history, and through the wise modifications +to which it has been subjected by the leaders and teachers of mankind, +it has become the main instrument in developing altruism. The increasing +generality of theological belief, indeed, was a necessary condition of +the establishment of social unity; but, by directing the eyes of men not +to themselves, but to supernatural beings, by making the event of life +turn on the favour or disfavour of such beings, rather than on the +social action and reaction of men upon each other, and by reducing this +world into a secondary position, so that its concerns were subordinated +to those of another world, Theology tended to dissolve rather than to +knit closer the bonds of society. The relation of the individual to God +isolated him from his fellows. Especially was this the case with the +Christian form of Monotheism, with its tremendous future rewards and +penalties, and the direct relation which it established between the soul +of the individual and the infinite Being. "The immediate effect of +putting personal salvation in the foremost place was to create an +unparalleled selfishness, a selfishness rendering all social influences +nugatory, and thus tending to dissolve public life."[32] "The Christian +type of life was never fully realized except by the hermits of the +Thebaid," who, "by narrowing their wants to the lowest standard, were +able to concentrate their thoughts without remorse or distraction on the +attainment of salvation."[33] What else, indeed, but egoism could be +awakened by the worship of a God who is himself the supreme type of +egoism? For "the desires of an omnipotent Being, being gratified as soon +as formed, can consist in nothing but pure caprices. There can be no +appreciable motive either from within or from without. And above all, +these pure caprices must of necessity be purely personal; so that the +metaphysical formula, To live in self for self, would be alike +applicable to the two extreme grades of the vital scale. The type of +divinity thus approximates to the lowest stage of animality, the only +shape in which life is purely individual, because it is reduced to the +one function of nutrition."[34] The natural result of such a religion +was, therefore, to discourage the altruistic affections, and, indeed, +Monotheism has systematically denied that such affections form part of +the nature of man. + +The alchemy which, according to Comte, turned this poison into an elixir +vitæ, was found in the altruistic affections of the teachers of mankind, +which led them to limit and modify the doctrine they taught, so as to +subserve man's moral improvement. This, however, would not have been +sufficient, if these teachers had not at an early period ceased to be a +theocracy, or, in other words, if the practical government of mankind +had not been wrested from their hand by the military classes. By this +change, which contained in itself the germ of the separation of the +Church from the State, of theory from practice, of counsel from command, +the priests, prophets, or philosophers, who were the intellectual +leaders of men, were reduced to that position of subordination in which +alone they can concentrate their attention upon their proper work. For +the influences of the intellect, like those of the affections, must be +indirect if they are to be pure. "No power, especially if it be +theological, cares to modify the will, unless it finds itself powerless +to control action."[35] But when the theoretic class were subordinated +to the practical class, they became the natural allies of the women, +and, like them, had to substitute counsel for command. At first, indeed, +their subjection was too absolute, for the military aristocracies of +Greece and Rome did not leave to the priesthood sufficient independence, +or at least sufficient authority, to permit even of counsel. But with +the rise of Catholic Monotheism, supported as it was by a new revelation +based upon an incarnation of God, the separation of Church and State +was definitely established, and the intellectual life was put in its +proper relation to the life of action. + +The consequence is that the theological priesthood have continually +sought to counteract the natural influences of their theological +doctrines by making additions which were inconsistent with its +"absolute" principle, but which rendered it better fitted for the +purpose of binding men together. This was especially the case under +Monotheism, where, as we have seen, such counteraction was most +necessary. From this source arose a series of supplementary doctrines, +generally tending to connect God with man, and men with each other. St. +Paul, "the real founder of Christianity," took the first step in +reducing Monotheism into a shape in which it could act as an "organic" +doctrine, and his successors followed steadily in the same path. If the +omnipotence of God raised him above all human sympathy, and tended to +destroy human sympathy in his worshippers, the doctrines of the Trinity +and the Incarnation again brought him near to them, and taught them to +reverence a humanity which was thus raised into unity with God. In the +Feast of the Eucharist all men celebrated and enjoyed their unity with +this exalted and deified humanity. The same influence, in its further +development, led to the adoration of the saints, and above all of the +Virgin Mother, in whom Christian devotion really worshipped humanity, in +its simplest and tenderest affections. Finally, if benevolent sympathies +were denied to nature, St. Paul found a place for them by attributing +them to grace, "which Thomas à Kempis admirably defines as the +equivalent of love--_gratia sive dilectio_--divine inspiration being +substituted for human impulse."[36] And the struggle between egoism and +altruism was expressed in the doctrines of the Fall and Redemption of +mankind.[37] Thus the social passion, which, according to the theory, +could not be found in humanity, was conceived to flow from a divine +influence, and became ennobled, at least as a means of salvation, in the +eyes of those who would otherwise have suppressed it. At the same time, +as Comte also contends, these additions or corrections of the original +doctrine were inconsistent or imperfect in themselves, and inadequate to +the social purpose for which they were destined; and they naturally +disappeared whenever, by the emancipation of the intelligence, the +immense egoism, which Monotheism consecrated in God and favoured in man, +was let loose from the bonds in which the Church had confined it. +Protestantism was the first indication of this change; for Protestantism +is but an organized anarchy, in which the only elements of order are +derived from an instinctive conservatism, clinging to the fragments of a +past doctrinal system, which, in principle, has been abandoned. It +contains no organic elements of its own--no positive contribution to the +progressive life of humanity; it is simply the first imperfect result of +that metaphysical individualism which, in its ultimate form, freed from +all the limits of the Catholic system, expressed itself theoretically +in Rousseau and Voltaire, and practically in the French Revolution. The +hope of mankind, however, lies in the new synthesis of Positivism, which +alone can give due value to the innate altruistic sympathies of man, and +which therefore alone can place on a permanent scientific basis that +social order which the mediæval Church attempted in vain to found on the +essentially egoistic and anarchic doctrine of Monotheism. + +The fundamental conception, then, which underlies Comte's view of +progress is, that every past religion, with the partial exception of +Fetichism, has been an amalgam of two radically inconsistent elements, +one of which only was due to the theological principle itself; while the +other was due, partly to the practical instinct of its priests, which +led them to modify the logical results of that principle in conformity +with the social wants of man; and partly also to their subordinate +position, which obliged them to use the spiritual means of conviction +and persuasion instead of the ruder weapons of material force. To +criticise fully this position would be to re-write Comte's history of +religion. It will be sufficient here to point out that his view of +modern history begins in a false interpretation of Christianity, and +ends in an equally false interpretation of the Protestant Reformation. + +Christianity from its origin has two aspects or elements; and if we +compare it with earlier religions, we may call these its Pantheistic and +its Monotheistic elements. But these elements are not, as Comte asserts, +joined together by a mere external necessity. They are necessarily +connected in the inner logic of the system; nor can we regard one of +them as more or less essential than the other. In the simplest words of +the Gospels we find already expressed a sense of reconciliation with +God, and therefore with the world and self, which is alien to pure +Monotheism, though there is some faint anticipation of it in the later +books of the Old Testament. For a spiritual Monotheism, while it awakens +a consciousness of the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of the +creature, tends to make fear prevail over love, and the sense of +separation over the sense of union. The idea of the unity of the Divine +and the human--an original unity which yet has to be realized by +self-sacrifice--and the corresponding idea that the individual or +natural life must be lost in order to save it, were set before humanity, +as in one great living picture, in the life and death of Christ. And +what was thus directly presented to the heart and the imagination in an +individual, was universalized in the writings of St. Paul and St. John: +in other words, it was liberated from its peculiar national setting, and +used as a key to the general moral history of man. The Messiah of the +Jews was exalted into the Divine Logos, and the Cross became the symbol +of an atonement and reconciliation between God and man, which has been +made "before the foundation of the world," yet which has to be made +again in every human life. The work of the first three centuries was to +give to this idea such logical expression as was then possible, in the +doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity. It is true that this idea +of the unity of man with God was not immediately carried out to any of +the consequences which might seem to be contained in it. It remained for +a time a religion, and a religion only; it did not show itself to be the +principle of a new social or political order of life. Rather it accepted +the old order represented by the Roman Empire, and even consecrated it +as "ordained of God," only demanding for itself that it should be +allowed to purify the inner life of men. Such a separation of the things +of Cæsar and the things of God was then inevitable; for it is impossible +that a new principle can ever be received simply and without alloy into +minds, which are at the same time occupying themselves with its utmost +practical or even theoretical consequences. In this sense there is great +truth in what Comte says about the value of the separation of the +spiritual from the temporal authority. The power of directly realizing a +new religious principle, just because it draws away attention from the +principle itself to the details of its practical application, is likely +to prevent that application being either effective or even a true +expression of the principle. Such practical inferences cannot safely be +drawn by direct logical deduction; they will be made with certainty and +effect only by spirits which the principle has remoulded. The decided +withdrawal of the Christian Church from the sphere of "practical +politics" was, therefore, not merely a necessity forced upon it from +without; it was a condition which its best members gladly accepted, +because without it the inner transformation of man's life by the new +doctrine would have been impossible. If Christianity had raised an +insurrection of slaves, it never could have put an end to slavery. + +But while this withdrawal was necessary, it contained a great danger; +for the inner life cannot be separated from the outer life without +becoming narrowed and distorted. Confined to the sphere of religion and +private morality, the doctrine of unity and reconciliation necessarily +became itself the source of a new dualism. What had been at first merely +neglect of the world was gradually changed into hostility to worldly +interests; and the germs of a positive morality, reconciling the flesh +and the spirit--which appear in the New Testament--were neglected and +overshadowed in the growth of asceticism. Christianity, even in its +first expression, had a negative side towards the natural life of man; +while it lifted man to God, it yet taught that humanity "cannot be +quickened except it die." But the mediæval Church, while it constantly +taught that humanity in its desires and tendencies must die, had almost +forgotten to hope that it could be quickened. Its highest morality--the +morality of the three vows--was the negation of all social obligations; +its science was the interpretation of a fixed dogma received on +authority; its religion tended to become an external service, an _opus +operatum_, a preparation for another world, rather than a principle of +action in this. Its highest act of worship, the Eucharist, in which was +celebrated the revealed unity of men with each other and with God, was +reserved in its fulness for the clergy, and even with them was finally +reduced to an external act by the doctrine of transubstantiation, in +which poetry "became logic," and in becoming logic, ceased to be truth. + +Now, Comte, seeing the working of this negative tendency in mediæval +Catholicism, and regarding it as the natural work of Monotheism, is +obliged to treat all the positive side of Christianity as an external +addition suggested by the practical wisdom of the clergy. St. Paul is +supposed by him to have invented (and Comte's language would ever +suggest that he consciously invented[38]) the doctrine of grace, in +order to reconsecrate those social affections which Monotheism, in its +condemnation of nature, had either denied to exist, or, what is nearer +the truth, had treated as having no moral value. But this only shows how +imperfectly Comte grasped the Pauline conception of the moral change +which religion produces. The idea that the immediate untamed and +undisciplined will of the natural man is not a principle of morality, +and that therefore man must die to live, must rise above himself to be +himself, is one which has in it nothing discordant with the claims of +social feeling. It is the commonplace of every powerful writer on +practical ethics, from the Gospels to Thomas à Kempis, and from Luther +to Goethe. + + "Und so lang du das nicht hast + Dies-es: Stirb und Werde, + Bist du nur ein trüber Gast + Auf der dunkeln Erde." + +St. Paul adds that this death to self is possible only to him in whom +another than his own natural will lives; "so then it is not I that live, +but Christ that liveth in me." Comte would probably accept the sentence +with the substitution of humanity for Christ. But either substitution +involves the negation of the natural tendencies, whether individual or +social, in their immediate natural form; and Comte himself, when he +placed not only the sexual but even the maternal impulse among those +that are merely "personal," virtually acknowledged that the natural or +instinctive basis of the altruistic affections is not in itself +moral.[39] But because he begins with a psychology which treats the +egoistic and altruistic desires, and again the intellect and the heart, +as distinct and independent entities, he is unable to do justice to an +account of moral experience which involves that they are essentially +related elements in one whole, or necessarily connected stages of its +development. + +In the form in which it was first presented, the teaching of +Christianity was undoubtedly ambiguous, as, indeed, every doctrine in +its first general and abstract form must be. We cannot then call it +either social or anti-social, without limitations; it is anti-social and +ascetic, because of its negative relations to the previous forms of life +and culture; it is social and positive in so far as in its primary +doctrine of the unity of the divine and human--of divinity manifested +in man and humanity made perfect through suffering--it contains the +promise and the necessity of a development by which nature and spirit +shall be reconciled. The progressive tendency of Christendom was based +on the fact that from the earliest times the followers of Christ were +placed in the dilemma, either of denying their primary doctrine of +reconciliation between God and man and going back to pure Monotheism, or +of advancing to the reconciliation of all those other antagonisms of +spirit and nature, the world and the Church, which arose out of the +circumstances of its first publication. And modern history is more than +anything else the history of the long process whereby this logical +necessity manifested itself in fact. The negative spirit of the Middle +Age, its asceticism, its dualism, its formalism, its tendency to +transform the moral opposition of natural and spiritual into an external +opposition between two natural worlds, present and future, and thus to +substitute "other-worldliness" for worldliness, instead of substituting +unworldliness for both--all these characteristics were the natural +results of the fact that the idea of Christianity, in its first abstract +form, could not include, and therefore necessarily became opposed to, +the forms of social life and organization with which it came into +contact. But while the early Christians looked for the realization of +the kingdom of Heaven in some immediate earthly future, and the Middle +Age postponed it to another life, Christ had already taught the truth, +which alone can turn either of these hopes into something more than the +expression of an egoistic desire--the truth that "the kingdom of God is +within us." The reaction of the social necessities of mediæval society +on the doctrine--which Comte quite correctly describes as leading to the +gradual elevation of humanity and of human interests--found its main +support in the principles of the doctrine itself, so soon as its lessons +had been absorbed into the mind of the people. The irresistible force of +the movement, whereby the intelligence was emancipated from authority, +and the claims of the family and the State were asserted against the +Church, lay above all in this, that Christianity itself was felt to +involve the consecration of human life in all its interests and +relations. Luther's appeal to the New Testament and to the earliest ages +of Christianity was in some ways unhistorical, but it expressed a truth. +Protestantism was not a return to the Christianity of the first century; +it was an assertion of the relation of the individual to God, which was +itself made possible only by the long work of Latin Catholicism. But the +development of a doctrine, if it has in it any germ of truth which is +capable of development, involves a continual recurrence to its first, +and therefore its most general, expression. The elements successively +developed in the Catholic and the Protestant, the Latin and the Germanic +forms of Christianity, were both present in the original germ, and the +exaggerated prominence given in the former to the _negative_ side of +Christianity could not but lead, in the development of thought, to a +similarly exaggerated manifestation of its _positive_ side. But it is +nearly as absurd to say, as Comte does, that the true logical outcome of +Christianity is to be found in the "life of the hermits of the Thebaid," +as it would be to say that its true logical outcome is to be found in +those vehement assertions of nature--naked and unashamed--as its own +sufficient warrant, which poured almost with the force of inspiration +from the lips of Diderot. Both extremes are equally removed from that +special moral temper and tone of feeling which we can alone call +Christian--the former by its want of sympathy and tenderness, no less +than the latter by its want of purity and self-command. Reassertion of +nature through its negation, or to put it more simply, the purification +of the natural desires by the renunciation of their immediate +gratification, is the idea that is more or less definitely present in +all phases of the history of Christianity; and, though swaying from one +side to the other, the religious life of modern times has never ceased +to present both aspects. Even a St. Augustine recoiled from the +Manichæism by which nature was regarded, not simply as fallen from its +original idea, but as essentially impure. And, on the other hand, even +Rousseau's Savoyard vicar, who has got rid of the negative or ascetic +element, as completely as is possible for any one still retaining any +tincture of Christianity or even of religion, and who insists so +strongly on the text that "the natural is the moral," is yet forced to +recognize that nature has two voices, and that the _raison commune_ has +to overcome and transform the natural inclinations of the individual. In +the life of its Founder, the Christian Church has always had before it +an individual type of that harmony of the spiritual and natural life, +which it is its ideal to realize in all the wider spiritual relations of +man; nor, till that ideal is reached, can it be said that the Christian +idea is exhausted, or that the place is vacant for a new religion, +however great may be the changes of form and expression through which +Christianity must pass under the changed conditions of modern life. + +That Comte was not able to discern this, arose, as we have seen, from +the fact that he held a kind of Manichæism of his own. To him the +egoistic and altruistic desires were two kinds of innate tendencies, +both of which exist in man from the first, though with a great +preponderance on the side of egoism. Moral improvement simply consists +in altering the original proportions in favour of altruism, and moral +perfection would be the complete extinction of egoism (which with Comte +would naturally mean the extinction of all the desires classified as +personal). Hence there is a distinctly ascetic tendency in some of the +precepts of the _Politique Positive_,--_i.e._, asceticism begins to +appear, not simply as a transitionary process through which certain +natural desires are to be purified, but as a deliberate attempt to +extinguish them. A deeper analysis would have shown that the desires in +themselves, as mere natural impulses, are neither egoistic nor +altruistic, neither bad nor good; and that while, as they appear in the +conscious life, they are necessarily at first poisoned with egoism, yet +that the _ego_ is not absolutely opposed to the _alter ego_, but rather +implies it. A spiritual or self-conscious being is one who can find +himself, nay who can find himself only, in the life of others: and when +he does so find himself, there is no natural desire which for itself he +needs to renounce as impure; no natural desire which may not become the +expression of the better self, which is _ego_ and _alter ego_ in one. +But Comte, unable from the limitations of his psychology to see the true +relation of the negative and the positive side of ethics, is obliged to +treat the ascetic tendency of Christianity as involving a denial of the +existence, or the moral value, of the social sympathies; and on the +other hand, to regard the efforts of the Christian Church to cultivate +those sympathies, as the result of an external accommodation. His view +of Christianity, in short, practically coincides with the definition of +virtue given by Paley; it is "doing good to man, in obedience to the +will of God, with a view to eternal happiness." It is the pursuit of a +selfish end by means in themselves unselfish, with the pleasures and +pains of another world introduced as the link of connection; and it must +therefore leave bare selfishness in its place, so soon as doubt is cast +upon these supernatural rewards and punishments. Hence Comte is just +neither to Catholicism nor to Protestantism; considering that the former +was only _indirectly_ social, and that the latter is merely the first +step in a scepticism which, taking away the fears and hopes of another +world, must at the same time take away the last limit upon selfishness. +And, just because he is unable to understand either the negative +tendencies of the former, or the positive tendencies of the latter, +phase of modern life, he has an imperfect appreciation of that social +ideal to which both are leading, and which must combine in itself the +true elements of both. As, however, it is the temptation of writers on +social subjects to be least just to the tendencies of the time which +preceded their own, and against whose errors they have immediately to +contend, so we find that Comte is fairer towards Catholicism than he is +towards Protestantism, or towards that individualism which grew out of +Protestantism, and which he is pleased to call Metaphysics. The latter +he sees solely on their destructive side, as successive stages in the +modern movement of revolt, without appreciating the constructive +elements involved in them. Hence also he is led, in his attitude towards +this great movement, to all but identify himself with Catholic writers +like De Maistre; and his own scheme of the future is essentially +reactionary. The restoration of the spiritual power to its mediæval +position was a natural proposal for one who saw in the Protestant revolt +nothing more than an insurrectionary movement, which might clear the way +for a new social construction, but which in itself was the negation of +all government whatever. + +For what was Protestantism? To the Protestant it seemed to be simply a +return to the original purity of the Christian faith; to the Catholic, +it seemed to be a fatal revolt against the only organization by which +Christianity could be realized. Really it partook of both characters. It +involved at once a dangerous misconception of the social conditions, +under which alone the religious life can be realized and developed, and +a deeper and truer apprehension of that religion, which first recognized +the latent divinity or universal capacity of every spiritual being as +such, and which, therefore, seemed to impose upon every individual man +the right or rather the duty of living by the witness of his own spirit. +Comte saw only the former of these aspects of it. Hence he regarded the +French Revolution as a practical refutation of the individualism which +grew out of the Protestant movement, and not, as it was in truth, a +critical event, which should force men to distinguish and separate its +true and its false elements. And he drew from it the lesson that the +individual has no moral or religious life of his own, but that it is +only in proportion as he transcends his own individuality and lives the +life of humanity, that his own spiritual life can have any depth or +riches in it. Like Burke he could say, "We are afraid to put men to live +and trade each on his own private stock of reason, because we suspect +that the stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do +better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations +and of ages." But because he discerned this, he regarded the effort of +Protestantism to throw individuals back upon themselves as merely +tending to empty their minds of all valuable contents, and to deliver +them over to their own individual caprice. Private judgment and popular +government are to him only other forms of expression for intellectual +and political anarchy; and his remedy for the moral diseases of modern +times is the restoration of that division of the spiritual and temporal +authorities, which existed in the Middle Ages. But there is another +aspect of the Protestant movement and of these apparently anarchical +doctrines, to which Comte pays no attention. Catholicism, as we have +seen, had developed one aspect of Christianity, until, by its exclusive +prominence, the principle of Christianity itself was on the point of +being lost. It had changed the opposition of laity and clergy, world and +Church, from a relative into an absolute one; it had presented its +doctrine, not as something which the spirit of the individual may +ultimately verify for itself, but as something to which it must +permanently submit without any verification. It had made the worship +into an _opus operatum_ instead of a means through which the feelings of +the worshipper could be at once drawn out and expressed. Now, it is as +opposed to these tendencies that the Protestant movement had its highest +importance. It would, no doubt, be intellectual anarchy, for every +individual to claim to judge for himself, on subjects for which he has +not the requisite training or discipline; but it is a slavery scarcely +less corrupting in its effect than anarchy, when he is made to regard +the difference between himself and his teachers as a permanent and +absolute one. In the former case, he has no sufficient feeling of his +want to make him duly submissive to teaching; in the latter, he has no +sufficient consciousness of his capacity to awake a due reaction of his +thought upon the matter received from his teachers. Again, the decline +of the sovereignty of the people would be the negation of all rule, if +it meant that the uninstructed many should govern themselves by their +own insight, and that the instructed few should simply be their servants +and their instruments. But where the people are not recognized as the +ultimate source of power, where their consent is not in any regular way +made necessary to the proceedings of their governors, they are by that +very fact kept in a perpetual tutelage, and cannot possibly feel that +the life of the State is their own life. Now, the most important effect +of the Protestant movement was just this, that it awakened in each +individual the consciousness of his universal nature, in other words the +consciousness that there is no external power or sovereignty, divine or +human, to which he has absolutely and permanently to submit, but that +every outward claim of authority must ultimately be justified by the +inner witness of the spirit. The freedom of man is that his obedience to +the State, to the Church, even to God, is the obedience of his natural +to his spiritual self. The essential truth of the Reformation lay in its +republication of the doctrine that the voice of God speaks within and +not only without us, and indeed that "it is only by the God within that +we can comprehend the God without." And the nations, which had learned +that lesson in religion, soon hastened to apply it to the social and +political order of life. It is undoubtedly a dangerous lesson, as may be +seen, not only in the tendency of many Protestant sects to put the inner +life in opposition to the outer, and so to deprive the former of all +wider contents and interests; but also in the ultimate substitution, by +Rousseau and others, of the assertion of the natural, for the assertion +of the spiritual, man. In such extreme cases we find the mere _capacity_ +of man for a higher life treated as if it were the higher life itself; +forgetting that the capacity is nothing unless it be realized, and that +its realization requires the surrender of individual liberty and private +judgment to the guidance and teaching of those, in whom that realization +has already taken place. But it is not the less true that the +consciousness of the capacity, and the consequent sense of the duty of +becoming, not merely a slave or instrument, but an organ, of the +intellectual and moral life of mankind, is the essential basis of modern +life. "Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not +what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends," is a word of Christ +which scarcely began to be verified till the Reformation. And while its +verification cannot mean the negation of that division of labour upon +which society rests,--cannot mean that each one should _know_ and +_judge_, any more than that each one should _do_, everything for +himself,--it at least means that every power and authority should +henceforth be, in the true sense of the word, spiritual, and rest for +its main support upon the opinion of those who obey it. It is because he +has not appreciated this truth that Comte so decidedly breaks with the +democratic spirit of modern times, and seeks to set up an aristocracy in +the State and a monarchy in the Church. Yet the spirit of the age is, +after all, too strong for him, and while he refuses to the governed any +regular and legitimate way of reacting upon the powers that govern them, +he recognizes that the _ultima ratio_, the final remedy for +misgovernment, lies in their irregular and illegitimate action. As +regards the State, he declares that "the right of insurrection is the +ultimate resource with which no society should allow itself to +dispense."[40] And as regards the Church he says that if "the High +Priest of Humanity, supported by the body of the clergy, should go +wrong, then the only remedy left would be the refusal of co-operation, a +remedy which can never fail, as the priesthood rests solely on +conscience and opinion, and succumbs, therefore, to their adverse +sentence." The civil government, in fact, can bring the spiritual power +to a dead-lock, by "suspending its stipend, for in cases of serious +error, popular subscriptions would not replace it, unless on the +supposition of a fanaticism scarcely compatible with the Positive faith, +where there is enthusiasm for the doctrines, rather than for the +teachers."[41] Comte also desiderates among the proletariate a strong +reactive influence of public opinion, by which the officers, both of +Church and State, are to be kept to their work. But if this is +desirable, why should the proletariate have no regular means of making +their will felt? An "organic" theory of the constitution of society must +surely provide every real force with a legitimate form of expression; if +a social theory embodies the idea of revolution in it, it is +self-condemned. + +Comte's social ideal is in many respects a close reproduction of the +mediæval system, with its _régime dispersif_ of feudalism in secular +politics, and its concentration of Papal authority in the Church. For +him, the growth of national States to their present dimensions, and, on +the other hand, the increasing division of labour in the realm of +thought, are equally steps in the wrong direction. Still more strongly, +if possible, does he reprobate that interference of the State with +spiritual matters, such as the education of the people and its religious +life, which has been the natural consequence of the failure of the +mediæval Church to maintain its old authority. Notwithstanding his +worship of humanity, the idea of a "parliament of man, a federation of +the world," by which all the powers of mankind should be united for the +attainment of the highest material and spiritual good, has no attraction +for him. To reduce the State to the dimensions of a commune, and to +confine it to the care of purely material interests, is his first +political proposal. France, England, and Spain (and we may now add +Germany and Italy) are, in his view, "factitious aggregates without +solid justification," and they will only become "free and durable +States," when they are broken up into fragments, each with a population +of two or three millions, and a territory not exceeding that of Belgium +or Tuscany. The "West" will thus be divided into seventy republics, and +the earth into five hundred, and the main work of the patriciate will be +to direct and regulate the industrial life of the community; each member +of the banker triumvirate, who are to be at the head of the State, +having one of the great industrial departments under his special +superintendence. On the other hand the unity of humanity is to be +represented solely by the spiritual power, in whose hands is to be left +the whole work of extending science, teaching the people, and exercising +a moral censorship over all Governments and individuals. And while this +spiritual power is, for practical purposes, to be strictly organized on +the model of the mediæval Church, it is also, like that Church, to +remain, for scientific purposes, inorganic. In other words, it is to +admit no scientific division of labour, but every one, like a mediæval +doctor, is to profess all science, adding to this the priestly office, +which, with Comte, includes both the cure of souls and of bodies. + +To criticize the details of this scheme seems to be unnecessary after +what has been already said. It is not to be denied that the division of +Church and State in the Middle Age was a most important and even +necessary condition of progress. Christianity could never have been +impressed upon the minds of men, if its concrete application and +development had been too rapid. The essential condition of such +development was that men should not concern themselves too prematurely +with it. For the consequences of a moral and religious principle cannot +be reached by direct logical deductions; it is like a living germ, in +which, by no analysis or dissection, you can discover the lineaments of +the future plant. To know what it really is, or involves, you must plant +it in the minds of men, and let it grow. Hence the mediæval Church was +strong in its weakness, and it was its very victories over the temporal +power that were its greatest danger. It became corrupt and lost its hold +upon the minds of men, just when it seemed to have established its right +to an absolute supremacy. Comte, following De Maistre, attaches great +importance to the position of the Popes as arbiters between the +Sovereigns and nations of mediæval Europe. But he forgets that, in +claiming and maintaining this position the Popes were distinctly ceasing +to be a spiritual power, if it be the function of a spiritual power to +inculcate principles rather than to use them to solve present +difficulties. A power interfering in this way with the immediate +struggle of interests, could not but be invaded by the passions they +excite, and it was the more certain to be corrupted by these passions, +because it conceived them to be evil, and pretended altogether to +renounce them. The mediæval authority of the Church might have its +value, as an anticipation of the peaceful federation of the nations +under one supreme Government, but it was at the same time the first +step towards the erasing of the distinction between the temporal and the +spiritual power. + +The truth seems to be that the distinction, of secular and spiritual +powers, except in the sense already indicated, is essentially +irrational, and that the attempt to realise it in practice must involve, +as it did involve in the Middle Ages, a continual internecine struggle. +To set up two regularly constituted powers face to face with each other, +one claiming man's allegiance in the name of his spiritual, and the +other in the name of his temporal, interests, is to organize anarchy. So +long as man's body and soul are inseparable, it will be impossible to +divide the world between Cæsar and God; for in one point of view all is +Cæsar's, and in another all is God's. In the Middle Ages the conflict of +two despotisms was necessary to the growth of freedom; but, when +government ceases to be despotic, the need for such division of power +passes away. The relative separation between the speculative and the +practical classes--between the scientific and moral teachers of mankind, +on the one hand, and the statesmen or administrators who have to +discover what immediate changes in the organization of life have become +necessary, on the other--is a division of labour which can surely be +attained without breaking up the unity of the social body. It is not +desirable that the philosopher, or priest, or man of science, should be +king--and we may even acknowledge that if he were king he would probably +be a very bad one;--on the other hand, it is desirable that he should +have his due influence, as the teacher of those general truths out of +which all practical improvement must ultimately spring. But the natural +difference of the tastes and capacities of men should, in a +well-organized State, be sufficient to secure due influence to those who +are the natural representatives of man's spiritual interests (whether +they be religious, philosophic, or scientific), without tempting them +from their proper task of discovering and teaching the truth, to the +less appropriate work of determining how much of it comes within "the +sphere of practical politics." Comte, indeed, by organizing them as an +independent power apart from, and outside of, the State, would make such +a perversion extremely probable. A hierarchy of priests, under a +despotic Pope, would soon cease to be, in any sense, a spiritual power; +and this would be only the more certain if, by the Comtist denunciation +of specialism, they were prohibited from any division of labour +according to capacity in their own peculiar sphere of scientific +research. For by this prohibition their attention would be drawn more +and more from the truth of their doctrines to their immediate practical +effects, not to mention that, in the case of all but a few comprehensive +minds, the natural result would be an omniscient superficiality, which +would be the enemy of all real culture. For he who knows one thing well +may find the whole in the part; but he who knows the whole +superficially, inevitably reduces it to the level of something partial +and subjective. Deprived of its natural aim, the Comtist Church of the +future would inevitably throw itself, with all its energy, into the task +of directly influencing the practical life of men, and there it would +find itself in the presence of a number of communal States, none of them +large enough to offer any effective resistance. Positivism must indeed +alter human nature, if such a priesthood would not seek to make itself +despotic, especially if it could wield such a formidable weapon as the +Positivist excommunication is supposed to be.[42] + +The truth is that Comte commits the same error which misled Montesquieu +and his followers, when they supposed that the great security of a free +State lay in the separation of the legislative, executive, and judicial +powers,--_i.e._, in treating the different organs through which the +common life expresses itself as if they were independent organisms. In +doing so, they forgot that, if such a balance of power was realised, the +effect must either be an equilibrium in which all movement must cease, +or a struggle in which the unity of the State would be in danger of +being lost. The true security against the dangers involved, on the one +hand, in the direct application of theory to practice, and, on the other +hand, in the separation of practice from theory, must lie, not in giving +them independent positions as spiritual and temporal powers, but in the +organic unity of the society--communal, national, or, if it may be, +universal--to which the representatives of both belong. And organic +unity, though it does not mean any special form of government, means at +least two things: in the first place, that each great class or interest +should have for itself a definite organ, and should therefore be able to +act on the whole body in a regular and constitutional manner, so as to +show all its force without revolutionary violence; and, in the second +place, that no class or interest should have such an independent +position, that there is no legal or constitutional method of bringing it +into due subordination. But Comte, losing his balance in his jealousy of +the individualistic and democratic movement of modern society, has built +up a social ideal, which fails in both these points of view. And he is +consequently obliged, against his will, to contemplate revolution and +war as necessary resources of the Constitution. + +It would not be fair to conclude these articles, which have necessarily +been devoted in great part to criticism and controversy, without +expressing a sense of the power and insight which are shown in the works +of Comte, especially in the _Politique Positive_. Controversy itself, it +must be remembered, is a kind of homage; for, as Hegel says, "It is only +a great man that condemns us to the task of explaining him." But if we +can sometimes look down upon such men, it becomes us to remember that we +stand upon their shoulders. Comte seems to me to occupy, as a writer, a +position in some degree similar to that of Kant. He stands, or rather +moves, between the old world and the new, and is broken into +inconsistency by the effort of transition. Like Kant, he is embarrassed +to the end by the ideas with which he started, and of which he can +never free himself so as to make a new beginning. Comte had only a small +portion of that power of speculative analysis which characterized his +great predecessor, but he had much of his tenacity of thought, his power +of continuous construction; and he had the same conviction of the +all-importance of morals, and the same determination to make all his +theoretic studies subordinate to the solution of the moral problem. +Also, partly because he lived at a later time, and in the midst of a +society which was in the throes of a social revolution, and partly +because of the keenness and strength of his own social sympathies, he +gives us a kind of insight into the diseases and wants of modern +society, which we could not expect from Kant, and which throws new light +upon the ethical speculations of Kant's idealistic successors. To +believe that his system, as a whole, is inconsistent with itself, that +his theory of historical progress is insufficient, and that his social +ideal is imperfect, need not prevent us from recognizing that there are +many valuable elements in his historical and social theories, and that +no one who would study such subjects can afford to neglect them. A mind +of such power cannot treat any subject without throwing much light upon +it, which is independent of his special system of thought, and, above +all, without doing much to show what are the really important +difficulties in it which need to be solved. And, especially in such +subjects, to discover the right question is to be half-way to the +answer. Further, as Comte himself somewhere says, it is an immense +advantage in studying any complex subject to have before us a distinct +and systematic attempt to explain it; for it is only by criticism upon +criticism that we can expect to reach the truth, in which all its varied +sides and aspects are brought to a unity. + + EDWARD CAIRD. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[26] "Comte and Positivism," p. 140. + +[27] "The Unity of Comte's Life and Doctrine," p. 28. + +[28] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 419. I quote from the translation. + +[29] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 71. + +[30] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 218. + +[31] Ibid. iii. p. 365. + +[32] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 348. + +[33] Ibid. iii. p. 383. + +[34] Ibid. iii. p. 376. + +[35] Ibid. iii. p. 283. + +[36] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 78. + +[37] Ibid. iii. p. 346. + +[38] Pol. Pos. iii. p. 346. + +[39] Ibid. i. p. 562. + +[40] Pol. Pos. i. p. 106. In my first article (CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for +May, p. 211) I inadvertently spoke of the hierarchical arrangement of +society as extending to the proletariate. This is inaccurate, for Comte +rather dwells on their "homogeneity," and seeks to obliterate all +distinctions of rank among them, only allowing to the engineers a kind +of "fraternal ascendancy." Pol. Pos. iv. p. 307. + +[41] Pol. Pos. iv. p. 294. + +[42] Pol. Pos. iv. p. 292. + + + + +THE PROBLEM OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. + + +A few months ago I endeavoured to trace out, in these pages, the +probable origin of the week, as a measure of time, by a method which has +not hitherto, so far as I know, been followed in such cases. I followed +chiefly a line of _à priori_ reasoning, considering how herdsmen and +tillers of the soil would be apt at a very early period to use the moon +as a means of measuring time, and how in endeavouring so to use her they +would almost of necessity be led to employ special methods of +subdividing the period during which she passes through her various +phases. But while each step of the reasoning was thus based on _à +priori_ considerations, its validity was tested by the evidence which +has reached us respecting the various methods employed by different +nations of antiquity for following the moon's motions. It appears to me +that the conclusions to which this method of reasoning led were more +satisfactory, because more trustworthy, than those which have been +reached respecting the week by the mere study of various traditions +which have reached us respecting the early use of this widespread time +measure. + +I now propose to apply a somewhat similar method to a problem which has +always been regarded as at once highly interesting and very difficult, +the question of the purpose for which the pyramids of Egypt, and +especially the pyramids of Ghizeh, were erected. But I do not here take +the full problem under consideration. I have, indeed, elsewhere dealt +with it in a general manner, and have been led to a theory respecting +the pyramids which will be touched on towards the close of the present +paper. Here, however, I intend to deal only with one special part of the +problem, that part to which alone the method I propose to employ is +applicable--the question of the astronomical purpose which the pyramids +were intended to subserve. It will be understood, therefore, why I have +spoken of applying a somewhat similar method, and not a precisely +similar method; to the problem of the pyramids. For whereas in dealing +with the origin of the week, I could from the very beginning of the +inquiry apply the _à priori_ method, I cannot do so in the case of the +pyramids. I do not know of any line of _à priori_ reasoning by which it +could be proved, or even rendered probable, that any race of men, of +whatever proclivities or avocations, would naturally be led to construct +buildings resembling the pyramids. If it could be, of course that line +of reasoning would at the same time indicate what purposes such +buildings were intended to subserve. Failing evidence of this kind, we +must follow at first the _à posteriori_ method; and this method, while +it is clear enough as to the construction of pyramids, for there are the +pyramids themselves to speak unmistakably on this point, is not +altogether so clear as to any one of the purposes for which the pyramids +were built. + +Yet I think that if there is one purpose among possibly many which the +builders of the pyramids had in their thoughts, which can be +unmistakably inferred from the pyramids themselves, independently of all +traditions, it is the purpose of constructing edifices which should +enable men to observe the heavenly bodies in some way not otherwise +obtainable. If the orienting of the faces of the pyramids had been +effected in some such way as the orienting of most of our cathedrals and +churches--_i.e._, in a manner quite sufficiently exact as tested by +ordinary observation, but not capable of bearing astronomical tests,--it +might reasonably enough be inferred that having to erect square +buildings for any purpose whatever, men were likely enough to set them +four-square to the cardinal points, and that, therefore, no stress +whatever can be laid on this feature of the pyramids' construction. But +when we find that the orienting of the pyramids has been effected with +extreme care, that in the case of the great pyramid, which is the +typical edifice of this kind, the orienting bears well the closest +astronomical scrutiny, we cannot doubt that this feature indicates an +astronomical purpose as surely as it indicates the use of astronomical +methods. + +But while we thus start with what is to some degree an assumption, with +what at any rate is not based on _à priori_ considerations, yet +manifestly we may expect to find evidence as we proceed which shall +either strengthen our opinion on this point, or show it to be unsound. +We are going to make this astronomical purpose the starting-point for a +series of _à priori_ considerations, each to be tested by whatever +direct evidence may be available; and it is practically certain that if +we have thus started in an entirely wrong direction, we shall before +long find out our mistake. At least we shall do so, if we start with the +desire to find out as much of the truth as we can, and not with the +determination to see only those facts which point in the direction along +which we have set out, overlooking any which seem to point in a +different direction. We need not necessarily be in the wrong track +because of such seeming indications. If we are on the right track, we +shall see things more clearly as we proceed; and it may be that evidence +which at first seems to accord ill with the idea that we are progressing +towards the truth, may be found among the most satisfactory evidence +obtainable. But we must in any case note such evidence, even at the time +when it seems to suggest that we are on the wrong track. We may push on, +nevertheless, to see how such evidence appears a little later. But we +must by no means forget its existence. So only can we hope to reach the +truth or a portion of the truth, instead of merely making out a good +case for some particular theory. + +We start, then, with the assumption that the great pyramid, called the +Pyramid of Cheops, was built for this purpose, _inter alia_, to enable +men to make certain astronomical observations with great accuracy; and +what we propose to do is to inquire what would be done by men having +this purpose in view, having, as the pyramid builders had, (1) a fine +astronomical site, (2) the command of enormous wealth, (3) practically +exhaustless stores of material, and (4) the means of compelling many +thousands of men to labour for them. + +Watching the celestial bodies hour by hour, day by day, and year by +year, the observer recognizes certain regions of the heavens which +require special attention, and certain noteworthy directions both with +respect to the horizon and to elevation above the horizon. + +For instance, the observer perceives that the stars, which are in many +respects the most conveniently observable bodies, are carried round, as +if they were rigidly attached to a hollow sphere, carried around an axis +passing through the station of the observer (as through a centre) and +directed towards a certain point in the dome of the heavens. That point, +then, is one whose direction must not only be ascertained, but must be +in some way or other indicated. Whatever the nature of an astronomer's +instruments or observatory, whether he have but a few simple +contrivances in a structure of insignificant proportions, or the most +perfect instruments in a noble edifice of most exquisite construction +and of the utmost attainable stability, he must in every case have the +position of the pole of the heavens clearly indicated in some way or +other. Now, the pole of the heavens is a point lying due north, at a +certain definite elevation above the horizon. Thus the first +consideration to be attended to by the builder of any sort of +astronomical observatory, is the determination of the direction of the +true north (or the laying down of a true north-and-south line), while +the second is the determination, and in some way or other the indication +of the angle of elevation above the north point, at which the true pole +of the heavens may lie. + +To get the true north-and-south line, however, the astronomer would be +apt at first, perhaps, rather to make mid-day observations than to +observe the stars at night. It would have been the observation of these +which first called his attention to the existence of a definite point +round which all the stars seem to be carried in parallel circles; but he +would very quickly notice that the sun and the moon, and also the five +planets, are carried round the same polar axis, only differing from the +stars in this: that, besides being thus carried round with the celestial +sphere, they also move upon that sphere, though with a motion which is +very slow compared with that which they derive from the seeming motion +of the sphere itself. Now, among these bodies the sun and moon possess a +distinct advantage over the stars. A body illuminated by either the sun +or the moon throws a shadow, and thus if we place an upright pointed rod +in sunlight or moonlight, and note where the shadow of the point lies, +we know that a straight line from the point to the shadow of the point +is directed exactly towards the sun or the moon, as the case may be. +Leaving the moon aside as in other respects unsuitable, for she only +shines with suitable lustre in one part of each month, we have in the +sun's motions a means of getting the north-and-south line by thus noting +the position of the shadow of a pointed upright. For being carried +around an inclined axis directed northwards, the sun is, of course, +brought to his greatest elevation on any given day when due south. So +that if we note when the shadow of an upright is shortest on any day, we +know that at that moment the sun is at his highest or due south; and the +line joining the centre of the upright's base with the end of the shadow +at that instant lies due north-and-south. + +But though theoretically this method is sufficient, it is open, in +practice, to a serious objection. The sun's elevation, when he is nearly +at his highest, changes very slowly; so that it is difficult to +determine the precise moment when the shadow is shortest. But the +direction of the shadow is steadily changing all the time that we thus +remain in doubt whether the sun's elevation has reached its maximum or +not. We are apt, then, to make an error as to time, which will result in +a noteworthy error as to the direction of the north-and-south line. + +For this reason, it would be better for any one employing this shadow +method to take two epochs on either side of solar noon, when the sun was +at exactly the same elevation, or the shadow of exactly the same +length,--determining this by striking out a circle around the foot of +the upright, and observing where the shadow's point crossed this circle +before noon in drawing nearer to the base, and after noon in passing +away from the base. These two intersections with the circle necessarily +lie at equal distances from the north-and-south line, which can thus be +more exactly determined than by the other method, simply because the end +of the shadow crosses the circle traced on the ground at moments which +can be more exactly determined than the moment when the shadow is +shortest. + +Now, we notice in this description of methods which unquestionably were +followed by the very earliest astronomers, one circumstance which +clearly points to a feature as absolutely essential in every +astronomical observing station. (I do not say "observatory," for I am +speaking just now of observations so elementary that the word would be +out of place.) The observer must have a perfectly flat floor on which to +receive the shadow of the upright pointer. And not only must the floor +be flat, but it must also be perfectly horizontal. At any rate, it must +not slope down either towards the east or towards the west, for then the +shadows on either side of the north-and-south line would be unequal. And +though a slope towards north or south would not affect the equality of +such shadows, and would therefore be admissible, yet it would clearly be +altogether undesirable; since the avoidance of a slope towards east or +west would be made much more difficult if the surface were tilted, +however slightly, towards north or south. Apart from this, several other +circumstances make it extremely desirable that the surface from which +the astronomers make their observations should be perfectly horizontal. +In particular, we shall see presently that the exact determination of +elevations above the eastern and western horizons would be very +necessary even in the earliest and simplest methods of observation, and +for this purpose it would be essential that the observing surface should +be as carefully levelled in a north-and-south as in an east-and-west +direction. + +We should expect to find, then, that when the particular stage of +astronomical progress had been reached, at which men not only perceived +the necessity of well-devised buildings for astronomical observation, +but were able to devote time, labour, and expense to the construction of +such buildings, the first point to which they would direct their +attention would be the formation of a perfectly level surface, on which +eventually they might lay down a north-and-south or true meridional +line. + +Now, of the extreme care with which this preliminary question of level +was considered by the builders of the great pyramid, we have singularly +clear and decisive evidence. For all around the base of the pyramid +there was a pavement, and we find the builders not only so well +acquainted with the position of the true horizontal plane at the level +of this pavement, but so careful to follow it (even as respects this +pavement, which, be it noticed, was only, in all probability, a +subsidiary and quasi-ornamental feature of the building), that the +pavement "was varied in thickness at the rate of about an inch in 100 +feet to make it absolutely level, which the rock was not."[43] + +But now with regard to the true north-and-south direction, although the +shadow method, carried out on a truly level surface, would be +satisfactory enough for a first rough approximation, or even for what +any but astronomers would regard as extreme accuracy, it would be open +to serious objections for really exact work. These objections would +have become known to observers long before the construction of the +pyramid was commenced, and would have been associated with the +difficulties which suggested, I think, the idea itself of constructing +such an edifice. + +Supposing an upright pointed post is set up, and the position of the end +of the shadow upon a perfectly level surface is noted; then whatever use +we intend to make of this observation, it is essential that we should +know the precise position of the centre of the upright's base, and also +that the upright should be truly vertical. Otherwise we have only +exactly obtained the position of one end of the line we want, and to +draw the line properly we ought as exactly to know the position of the +other end. If we want _also_ to know the true position of a line joining +the point of the upright and the shadow of this point, we require to +know the true height of the upright. And even if we have these points +determined, we still have not a _material_ line from the point of the +upright to the place of its shadow. A cord or chain from one point to +the other would be curved, even if tightly stretched, and it would not +be tightly stretched, if long, without either breaking or pulling over +the upright. A straight bar of the required length could not be readily +made or used: if stout enough to lie straight from point to point it +would be unwieldy, if not stout enough so that it bent under its own +weight it would be useless. + +Thus the shadow method, while difficult of application to give a true +north-and-south horizontal line, would fail utterly to give material +indications of the sun's elevation on particular days, without which it +would be impossible to obtain in this manner any material indications of +the position of the celestial pole. + +A natural resource, under these circumstances--at least a natural +resource for astronomers who could afford to adopt the plan--would be to +build up masses of masonry, in which there should be tubular holes or +tunnellings pointing in certain required directions. In one sense the +contrivance would be clumsy, for a tunnelling once constructed, would +not admit of any change of position, nor even allow of any save very +limited changes in the direction of the line of view through them. In +fact, the more effective a tunnelling would be in determining any +particular direction, the less scope, of course, would it afford for any +change in the direction of a line of sight along it. So that the +astronomical architect would have to limit the use of this particular +method to those cases in which great accuracy in obtaining a direction +line and great rigidity in the material indication of that line's +position were essential or at least exceedingly desirable. Again, in +some cases presently to be noticed, he would require, not a tubing +directed to some special fixed point in the sky, but an opening +commanding some special range of view. Yet again it would be manifestly +well for him to retain, whenever possible, the power of using the shadow +method in observing the sun and moon; for this method in the case of +bodies varying their position on the celestial sphere, not merely with +respect to the cardinal points, would be of great value. Its value would +be enhanced if the shadows could be formed by objects and received on +surfaces holding a permanent position. + +We begin to see some of the requirements of an astronomical building +such as we have supposed the earlier observers to plan. + +First, such a building must be large, to give suitable length to the +direction lines, whether along edges of the building or along tubular +passages or tunnellings within it. Secondly, it must be massive in order +that these edges and passages might have the necessary stability and +permanence. Thirdly, it must be of a form contributing to such +stability, and as height above surrounding objects (even hills lying at +considerable distances) would be a desirable feature, it would be proper +to have the mass of masonry growing smaller from the base upwards. +Fourthly, it must have its sides carefully oriented, so that it must +have either a square or oblong base with two sides lying exactly north +and south, and the other two lying exactly east and west. Fifthly, it +must have the direction of the pole of the heavens either actually +indicated by a tunnelling of some sort pointed directly polewards, or +else inferable from a tunnelling pointing upon a suitable star close to +the true pole of the heavens. + +The lower part of a pyramid would fulfil the conditions required for the +stability of such a structure, and a square or oblong form would be +suitable for the base of such a pyramid. We must not overlook the fact +that a complete pyramid would be utterly unsuitable for an astronomical +edifice. Even a pyramid built up of layers of stone and continued so far +upwards that the uppermost layer consisted of a single massive stone, +would be quite useless as an observatory. The notion which has been +entertained by some fanciful persons, that one purpose which the great +pyramid was intended to subserve, was to provide a raised small platform +high above the general level of the soil, in order that astronomers +might climb night after night to that platform, and thence make their +observations on the stars, is altogether untenable. Probably no fancy +respecting the pyramids has done more to discredit the astronomical +theory of these structures than has this ridiculous notion; because even +those who are not astronomers and therefore little familiar with the +requirements of a building intended for astronomical observation, +perceive at once the futility of any such arrangement, and the enormous, +one may almost say the infinite disproportion between the cost at which +the raised small platform would have been obtained, and the small +advantage which astronomers would derive from climbing up to it instead +of observing from the ground level. Yet we have seen this notion not +only gravely advanced by persons who are to some degree acquainted with +astronomical requirements, but elaborately illustrated. Thus, in +Flammariou's "History of the Heavens," there is a picture representing +six astronomers in eastern garb, perched in uncomfortable attitudes on +the uppermost steps of a pyramid, whence they are staring hard at a +comet, naturally without the slightest opportunity of determining its +true position in the sky, since they have no direction lines of any sort +for their guidance. Apart from this, their attention is very properly +directed in great part to the necessity of preserving their equilibrium. +In only one point in fact does this picture accord with à priori +probabilities--namely, in the great muscular development of these +ancient observers. They are perfectly herculean, and well they might be, +if night after night they had to observe the celestial bodies from a +place so hard to reach, and where attitudes so awkward must be +maintained during the long hours of the night. + +It is perfectly clear, and is in fact one of the chief difficulties of +the astronomical theory of the pyramids, that it would only be when +these buildings were as yet incomplete that they could subserve any +useful astronomical purposes; nevertheless we must not on this account +suffer ourselves at this early stage of our inquiry to be diverted from +the astronomical theory by what must be admitted to be a very strong +argument against it. We have seen that there is such decisive and even +demonstrative evidence in favour of the theory that the pyramids were +not oriented in a general, still less in a merely casual, manner, and +this is, in reality, such clear evidence of their astronomical +significance, that we must pass further on upon the line of reasoning +which we have adopted--prepared to turn back indeed if absolutely +convincing evidence should be found against the theory of the +astronomical _purpose_ of the pyramids, but anticipating rather that, on +a close inquiry, a means of obviating this particular objection may +before long be found. + +Let us suppose, then, that astronomers have determined to erect a +massive edifice, on a square or oblong base properly oriented, +constructing within this edifice such tubular openings as would be most +useful for the purpose of indicating the true directions of certain +celestial objects at particular times and seasons. + +Before commencing so costly a structure they would be careful to select +the best possible position for it, not only as respects the nature of +the ground, but also as respects latitude. For it must be remembered +that, from certain parts of the earth, the various points and circles +which the astronomer recognizes in the heavens occupy special positions +and fulfil special relations. + +So far as conditions of the soil, surrounding country, and so forth are +concerned, few positions could surpass that selected for the great +pyramid and its companions. The pyramids of Ghizeh are situated on a +platform of rock, about 150 feet above the level of the desert. The +largest of them, the Pyramid of Cheops, stands on an elevation free all +around, insomuch that less sand has gathered round it than would +otherwise have been the case. How admirably suited these pyramids are +for observing stations is shown by the way in which they are themselves +seen from a distance. It has been remarked by every one who has seen +the pyramids that the sense of sight is deceived in the attempt to +appreciate their distance and magnitude. "Though removed several leagues +from the spectator, they appear to be close at hand; and it is not until +he has travelled some miles in a direct line towards them, that he +becomes sensible of their vast bulk and also of the pure atmosphere +through which they are viewed." + +With regard to their astronomical position, it seems clear that the +builders intended to place the great pyramid precisely in latitude 30°, +or, in other words, in that latitude where the true pole of the heavens +is one-third of the way from the horizon to the point overhead (the +zenith), and where the noon sun at true spring or autumn (when the sun +rises almost exactly in the east, and sets almost exactly in the west) +is two-thirds of the way from the horizon to the point overhead. In an +observatory set exactly in this position, some of the calculations or +geometrical constructions, as the case may be, involved in astronomical +problems, are considerably simplified. The first problem in Euclid, for +example, by which a triangle of three equal sides is made, affords the +means of drawing the proper angle at which the mid-day sun in spring or +autumn is raised above the horizon, and at which the pole of the heavens +is removed from the point overhead. Relations depending on this angle +are also more readily calculated, for the very same reason, in fact, +that the angle itself is more readily drawn. And though the builders of +the great pyramid must have been advanced far beyond the stage at which +any difficulty in dealing directly with other angles would be involved, +yet they would perceive the great advantage of having one among the +angles entering into their problems thus conveniently chosen. In our +time, when by the use of logarithmic and other tables, all calculations +are greatly simplified, and when also astronomers have learned to +recognize that no possible choice of latitude would simplify their +labours (unless an observatory could be set up at the North Pole itself, +which would be in other respects inconvenient), matters of this sort are +no longer worth considering, but to the mathematicians who planned the +great pyramid they would have possessed extreme importance. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1.] + +To set the centre of the pyramid's future base in latitude 30°, two +methods could be used, both already to some degree considered--the +shadow method, and the Pole-star method. If at noon, at the season when +the sun rose due east and set due west, an upright A C were found to +throw a shadow C D, so proportioned to A C that A C D would be one-half +of an equal-sided triangle, then, theoretically, the point where this +upright was placed would be in latitude 30°. As a matter of fact it +would not be, because the air, by bending the sun's rays, throws the sun +apparently somewhat above his true position. Apart from this, at the +time of true spring or autumn, the sun does not seem to rise due east, +or set due west, for he is raised above the horizon by atmospheric +refraction, before he has really reached it in the morning, and he +remains raised above it after he has really passed below--understanding +the word "really" to relate to his actual geometrical direction. Thus, +at true spring and autumn, the sun rises slightly to the north of east, +and sets slightly to the north of west. The atmospheric refraction is +indeed so marked, as respects these parts of the sun's apparent course, +that it must have been quickly recognized. Probably, however, it would +be regarded as a peculiarity only affecting the sun when close to the +horizon, and would be (correctly) associated with his apparent change of +shape when so situated. Astronomers would be prevented in this way from +using the sun's horizontal position at any season to guide them with +respect to the cardinal points, but they would still consider the sun, +when raised high above the horizon, as a suitable astronomical index (so +to speak), and would have no idea that even at a height of sixty degrees +above the horizon, or seen as in direction D A, Fig. 1, he is seen +appreciably above his true position. + +Adopting this method--the shadow method--to fix the latitude of the +pyramid's base, they would conceive the sun was sixty degrees above the +horizon at noon, at true spring or autumn, when in reality he was +somewhat below that elevation. Or, in other words, they would conceive +they were in latitude 30° north, when in reality they were farther north +(the mid-day sun at any season sinking lower and lower as we travel +farther and farther north). The actual amount by which, supposing their +observations exact, they would thus set this station north of its proper +position, would depend on the refractive qualities of the air in Egypt. +But although there is some slight difference in this respect between +Egypt and Greenwich, it is but small; and we can determine from the +Greenwich refraction tables, within a very slight limit of error, the +amount by which the architects of the great pyramid would have set the +centre or the base north of latitude 30°, if they had trusted solely to +the shadow method. The distance would have been as nearly as possible +1125 yards, or say three furlongs. + +Now, if they followed the other method, observing the stars around the +pole, in order to determine the elevation of the true pole of the +heavens, they would be in a similar way exposed to error arising from +the effects of atmospheric refraction. They would proceed probably +somewhat in this wise:--Using any kind of direction lines, they would +take the altitude of their Polar star (1) when passing immediately under +the pole, and (2) when passing immediately above the pole. The mean of +the altitudes thus obtained would be the altitude of the true pole of +the heavens. Now, atmospheric refraction affects the stars in the same +way that it affects the sun, and the nearer a star is to the horizon, +the more it is raised by atmospheric refraction. The Pole-star in both +its positions--that is when passing below the pole, and when passing +above that point--is raised by refraction, rather more when below than +when above; but the estimated position of the pole itself, raised by +about the mean of these two effects, is in effect raised almost exactly +as much as it would be if it were itself directly observed (that is, if +a star occupied the pole itself, instead of merely circling close round +the pole). We may then simplify matters by leaving out of consideration +at present all questions of the actual Pole-star in the time of the +pyramid builders, and simply considering how far they would have set the +pyramid's base in error, if they had determined their latitude by +observing a star occupying the position of the true pole of the heavens. + +They would have endeavoured to determine where the pole appears to be +raised exactly thirty degrees above the horizon. But the effect of +refraction being to raise every celestial object above its true +position, they would have supposed the pole to be raised thirty degrees, +when in reality it was less raised than this. In other words, they would +have supposed they were in latitude 30°, when, in reality, they were in +some lower latitude, for the pole of the heavens rises higher and higher +above the horizon as we pass to higher and higher latitudes. Thus they +would set their station somewhat to the south of latitude 30°, instead +of to the north, as when they were supposed to have used the shadow +method. Here again we can find how far they would set it south of that +latitude. Using the Greenwich refraction table (which is the same as +Bessel's), we find that they would have made a much greater error than +when using the other method, simply because they would be observing a +body at an elevation of about thirty degrees only, whereas in taking the +sun's mid-day altitude in spring or autumn, they would be observing a +body at twice as great an elevation. The error would be, in fact, in +this case, about 1 mile 1512 yards. + +It seems not at all unlikely that astronomers, so skilful and ingenious +as the builders of the pyramid manifestly were, would have employed both +methods. In that case they would certainly have obtained widely +discrepant results, rough as their means and methods must unquestionably +have been, compared with modern instruments and methods. The exact +determination from the shadow plan would have set them 1125 yards to the +north of the true latitude; while the exact determination from the +Pole-star method would have set them 1 mile 1512 yards south of the true +latitude. Whether they would thus have been led to detect the effect of +atmospheric refraction on celestial bodies high above the horizon may be +open to question. But certainly they would have recognized the action of +some cause or other, rendering one or other method, or both methods, +unsatisfactory If so, and we can scarcely doubt that this would actually +happen (for certainly they would recognize the theoretical justice of +both methods, and we can hardly imagine that having two available +methods, they would limit their operations to one method only), they +would scarcely see any better way of proceeding than to take a position +intermediate between the two which they had thus obtained. Such a +position would lie almost exactly 1072 yards south of true latitude 30° +north. + +Whether the architects of the pyramid of Cheops really proceeded in this +way or not, it is certain that they obtained a result corresponding so +well with this that if we assume they really did intend to set the base +of the pyramid in latitude 30°, we find it difficult to persuade +ourselves that they did not follow some such course as I have just +indicated--the coincidence is so close considering the nature of the +observations involved. According to Professor Piazzi Smyth, whose +observational labours in relation to the great pyramid are worthy of all +praise, the centre of the base of this pyramid lies about 1 mile 568 +yards south of the thirtieth parallel of latitude. This is 944 yards +north of the position they would have deduced from the Pole-star method; +1 mile 1693 yards south of the position they would have deduced from the +shadow method; and 1256 yards south of the mean position between the two +last-named. The position of the base seems to prove beyond all +possibility of question that the shadow method was not the method on +which sole or chief reliance was placed, though this method must have +been known to the builders of the pyramid. It does not, however, prove +that the star method was the only method followed. A distance of 944 +yards is so small in a matter of this sort that we might fairly enough +assume that the position of the base was determined by the Pole-star +method. If, however, we supposed the builders of the pyramid to have +been exceedingly skilful in applying the methods available to them, we +might not unreasonably conclude from the position of the pyramid's base +that they used both the shadow method and the Pole-star method, but +that, recognizing the superiority of the latter, they gave greater +weight to the result of employing this method. Supposing, for instance, +they applied the Pole-star method three times as often as the shadow +method, and took the mean of all the results thus obtained, then the +deduced position would lie three times as far from the northern position +obtained by the shadow method as from the southern position obtained by +the Pole-star method. In this case their result, if correctly deduced, +would have been only about 156 yards north of the actual present +position of the centre of the base. + +It is impossible, however, to place the least reliance on any +calculation like that made in the last few lines. By _à posteriori_ +reasoning such as this one can prove almost anything about the pyramids. +For observe, though presented as _à priori_ reasoning, it is in reality +not so, being based on the observed fact, that the true position lies +more than three times as far from the northerly limit as from the +southern one. Now, if in any other way, not open to exception, we knew +that the builders of the pyramid used both the sun method and the star +method, with perfect observational accuracy, but without knowledge of +the laws of atmospheric refraction, we could infer from the observed +position the precise relative weights they attached to the two methods. +But it is altogether unsafe, or, to speak plainly, it is in the logical +sense a perfectly vicious manner of reasoning, to ascertain first such +relative weights on an assumption of this kind, and having so found +them, to assert that the relation thus detected is a probable one in +itself, and that since, when assumed, it accounts precisely for the +observed position of the pyramid, therefore the pyramid was posited in +that way and no other. It has been by unsound reasoning of this kind +that nine-tenths of the absurdities have been established on which +Taylor and Professor Smyth and their followers have established what may +be called the pyramid religion. + +All we can fairly assume as probable from the evidence, in so far as +that evidence bears on the results of _à priori_ considerations, is that +the builders of the great pyramid preferred the Pole-star method to the +shadow method, as a means of determining the true position of latitude +30° north. They seem to have applied this method with great skill +considering the means at their disposal, if we suppose that they took no +account whatever of the influence of refraction. If they took refraction +into account at all they considerably underrated its influence. + +Piazzi Smyth's idea that they knew the _precise_ position of the +thirtieth parallel of latitude, and also the _precise_ position of the +parallel, where, owing to refraction, the Pole-star would appear to be +thirty degrees above the horizon, and deliberately set the base of the +pyramid between these limits (not exactly or nearly exactly half-way, +but somewhere between them), cannot be entertained for a moment by any +one not prepared to regard the whole history of the construction of the +pyramid as supernatural. My argument, let me note in passing, is not +intended for persons who take this particular view of the pyramid, a +view on which reasoning could not very well be brought to bear. + +If the star method had been used to determine the position of the +parallel of 30° north latitude, we may be certain it would be used also +to orient the building. Probably indeed the very structures (temporary, +of course) by which the final observations for the latitude had been +made, would remain available also for the orientation. These structures +would consist of uprights so placed that the line of sight along their +extremities (or along a tube perhaps borne aloft by them in a slanting +position) the Pole-star could be seen when immediately below or +immediately above the pole. Altogether the more convenient direction of +the two would be that towards the Pole-star when below the pole. The +extremities of these uprights, or the axis of the upraised tube, would +lie in a north-and-south line considerably inclined to the horizon, +because the pole itself being thirty degrees above the horizon, the +Pole-star, whatever star this might be, would be high above the horizon +even when exactly under the pole. No star so far from the pole as to +pass close to the horizon would be of use even for the work of +orientation, while for the work of obtaining the latitude it would be +absolutely essential that a star close to the pole should be used. + +A line along the feet of the uprights would run north-and-south. But the +very object for which the great astronomical edifice was being raised, +was that the north-and-south line amongst others should be indicated by +more perfect methods. + +Now at this stage of proceedings, what could be more perfect as a method +of obtaining the true bearing of the pole than to dig a tubular hole +into the solid rock, along which tube the Pole-star at its lower +culmination should be visible? Perfect stability would be thus insured +for this fundamental direction line. It would be easy to obtain the +direction with great accuracy, even though at first starting the borings +were not quite correctly made. And the further the boring was continued +downwards towards the south the greater the accuracy of the direction +line thus obtained. Of course there could be no question whatever in +such underground boring, of the advantage of taking the lower passage of +the Pole-star, not the upper. For a line directly from the star at its +upper passage would slant downwards at an angle of more than thirty +degrees from the horizon, while a line directly from the star at its +lower passage would slant downwards at an angle of less than thirty +degrees; and the smaller this angle the less would be the length, and +the less the depth of the boring required for any given horizontal +range. + +Besides perfect stability, a boring through the solid rock would present +another most important advantage over any other method of orienting the +base of the pyramid. In the case of an inclined direction line above the +level of the horizontal base, there would be the difficulty of +determining the precise position of points under the raised line; for +manifest difficulties would arise in letting fall plumb-lines from +various points along the optical axis of a raised tubing. But nothing +could be simpler than the plan by which the horizontal line +corresponding to the underground tube could be determined. All that +would be necessary would be to allow the tube to terminate in a +tolerably large open space; and from a point in the base vertically +above this, to let fall a plumb-line through a fine vertical boring into +this open space. It would thus be found how far the point from which the +plumb-line was let fall lay, either to the east or to the west of the +optical axis of the underground tunnel, and therefore how far to the +east or to the west of the centre of the open mouth of this tunnel. Thus +the true direction of a north-and-south line from the end of the tube to +the middle of the base would be ascertained. This would be the meridian +line of the pyramid's base, or rather the meridian line corresponding to +the position of the underground passage directed towards the Pole-star +when immediately under the pole. + +A line at right angles to the meridian line thus obtained would lie due +east and west, and the true position of the east-and-west line would +probably be better indicated in this way than by direct observation of +the sun or stars. If direct observation were made at all, it would be +made not on the sun in the horizon near the time of spring and autumn, +for the sun's position is then largely affected by refraction. The sun +might be observed for this purpose during the summer months, at moments +when calculation showed that he should be due east or west, or crossing +what is technically the _prime vertical_. Possibly the so-called azimuth +trenches on the east side of the great pyramid may have been in some way +associated with observations of this sort, as the middle trench is +directed considerably to the north of the east point, and not far from +the direction in which the sun would rise when about thirty degrees (a +favourite angle with the pyramid architects) past the vernal equinox. +But I lay no stress on this point. The meridian line obtained from the +underground passage would have given the builders so ready a means of +determining accurately the east and west lines for the north and south +edges of the pyramid's base, that any other observations for this +purpose can hardly have been more than subsidiary. + +It is, of course, well known that there is precisely such an underground +tunnelling as the considerations I have indicated seem to suggest as a +desirable feature in a proposed astronomical edifice on a very noble +scale. In all the pyramids of Ghizeh, indeed, there is such a tunnelling +as we might expect on almost any theory of the relation of the smaller +pyramids to the great one. But the slant tunnel under the great pyramid +is constructed with far greater skill and care than have been bestowed +on the tunnels under the other pyramids. Its length underground amounts +to more than 350 feet, so that, viewed from the bottom, the mouth, about +four feet across from top to bottom on the square, would give a sky +range of rather less than one-third of a degree, or about one-fourth +more than the moon's apparent diameter. But, of course, there was +nothing to prevent the observers who used this tube from greatly +narrowing these limits by using diaphragms, one covering up all the +mouth of the tube, except a small opening near the centre, and another +correspondingly occupying the lower part of the tube from which the +observation was made. + +It seems satisfactorily made out that the object of the slant tunnel, +which runs 350 feet through the rock on which the pyramid is built, was +to observe the Pole-star of the period at its lower culmination, to +obtain thence the true direction of the north point. The slow motion of +a star very near the pole would cause any error in time, as when this +observation was made, to be of very little importance, though we can +understand that even such observations as these would remind the +builders of the pyramid of the absolute necessity of good +time-measurements and time-observations in astronomical research. + +Finding this point clearly made out, we can fairly use the observed +direction of the inclined passage to determine what was the position of +the Pole-star at the time when the foundations of the great pyramid were +laid, and even what that Pole-star may have been. On this point there +has never been much doubt, though considerable doubt exists as to the +exact epoch when the star occupied the position in question. According +to the observations made by Professor Smyth, the entrance passage has a +slope of about 26° 27', which would have corresponded, when refraction +is taken into account, to the elevation of the star observed through the +passage, at an angle of about 26° 29' above the horizon. The true +latitude of the pyramid being 29° 58' 51", corresponding to an elevation +of the true pole of the heavens, by about 30° 1/2' above the horizon, it +follows that if Professor Smyth obtained the true angle for the entrance +passage, the Pole-star must have been about 3° 31-1/2' from the pole. +Smyth himself considers that we ought to infer the angle for the +entrance passage from that of other internal passages, presently to be +mentioned, which he thinks were manifestly intended to be at the same +angle of inclination, though directed southwards instead of northwards. +Assuming this to be the case, though for my own part I cannot see why we +should do so (most certainly we have no _à priori_ reason for so doing), +we should have 26° 18' as about the required angle of inclination, +whence we should get about 3° 42' for the distance of the Pole-star of +the pyramid's time from the true pole of the heavens. The difference may +seem of very slight importance, and I note that Professor Smyth passes +it over as if it really were unimportant; but in reality it corresponds +to somewhat large time-differences. He quotes Sir J. Herschel's correct +statement, that about the year 2170 B.C. the star Alpha Draconis, when +passing below the pole, was elevated at an angle of about 26° 18' above +the horizon, or was about 3° 42' from the pole of the heavens (I have +before me, as I write, Sir J. Herschel's original statement, which is +not put precisely in this way); and he mentions also that somewhere +about 3440 B.C. the same star was situated at about the same distance +from the pole. But he omits to notice that since, during the long +interval of 1270 years, Alpha Draconis had been first gradually +approaching the pole until it was at its nearest, when it was only about +3-1/2' from that point, and then as gradually receding from the pole +until again 3° 42' from it, it follows that the difference of nine or +ten minutes in the estimated inclination of the entrance passage +corresponds to a very considerable interval in time, certainly to not +less than fifty years. (Exact calculation would be easy, but it would be +time wasted where the data are inexact.) + +Having their base properly oriented, and being about to erect the +building itself, the architects would certainly not have closed the +mouth of the slant tunnel pointing northwards, but would have carried +the passage onwards through the basement layers of the edifice, until +these had reached the height corresponding to the place where the +prolongation of the passage would meet the slanting north face of the +building. I incline to think that at this place they would not be +content to allow the north face to remain in steps, but would fit in +casing stones (not necessarily those which would eventually form the +slant surface of the pyramid, but more probably slanted so as to be +perpendicular to the axis of the ascending passage.) They would probably +cut a square aperture through such slant stones corresponding to the +size of the passage elsewhere, so as to make the four surfaces of the +passage perfectly plane from its greatest depth below the base of the +pyramid to its aperture, close to the surface to be formed eventually by +the casing stones of the pyramid itself. + +Now, in this part of his work, the astronomical architect could scarcely +fail to take into account the circumstance that the inclined passage, +however convenient as bearing upon a bright star near the pole when that +star was due north, was, nevertheless, not coincident in direction with +the true polar axis of the celestial sphere. I cannot but think he would +in some way mark the position of their true polar axis. And the natural +way of marking it would be to indicate where the passage of his +Pole-star _above_ the pole ceased to be visible through the slant tube. +In other words he would mark where a line from the middle of the lowest +face of the inclined passage to the middle of the upper edge of the +mouth was inclined by twice the angle 3° 42' to the axis of the passage. +To an eye placed on the optical axis of the passage, at this distance +from the mouth the middle of the upper edge of the mouth would (_quam +proximé_) show the place of the true pole of the heavens. It certainly +is a singular coincidence that at the part of the tube where this +condition would be fulfilled, there is a peculiarity in the construction +of the entrance passage, which has been indeed otherwise explained, but +I shall leave the reader to determine whether the other explanation is +altogether a likely one. The feature is described by Smyth as "a most +singular portion of the passage--viz., a place where two adjacent +wall-joints, similar, too, on either side of the passage, were vertical +or nearly so; while every other wall-joint, both above and below, was +_rectangular_ to the length of the passage, and, therefore, largely +_inclined_ to the vertical." Now I take the mean of Smyth's +determinations of the transverse height of the entrance passage as 47.23 +inches (the extreme values are 47.14 and 47.32), and I find that, from a +point on the floor of the entrance passage, this transverse height would +subtend an angle of 7° 24' (the range of Alpha Draconis in altitude when +on the meridian) at a distance 363.65 inches from the transverse mouth +of the passage. Taking this distance from Smyth's scale in Plate xvii. +of his work on the pyramid ("Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid"), I +find that, if measured along the base of the entrance passage from the +lowest edge of the vertical stone, it falls exactly upon the spot where +he has marked in the probable outline of the uncased pyramid, while, if +measured from the upper edge of the same stone, it falls just about as +far within the outline of the cased pyramid as we should expect the +outer edge of a sloped end stone to the tunnel to have lain. + +It may be said that from the floor of the entrance passage no star could +have been seen, because no eye could be placed there. But the builders +of the pyramid cannot reasonably be supposed to have been ignorant of +the simple properties of plane mirrors, and by simply placing a thin +piece of polished metal upon the floor at this spot, and noting where +they could see the star and the upper edge of the tunnel's mouth in +contact by reflection in this mirror, they could determine precisely +where the star could be seen touching that edge, by an eye placed (were +that possible) precisely in the plane of the floor. + +I have said there is another explanation of this peculiarity in the +entrance passage, but I should rather have said there is another +explanation of a line marked on the stone next below the vertical one. I +should imagine this line, which is nothing more than a mark such "as +might be ruled with a blunt steel instrument, but by a master hand for +power, evenness, straightness, and still more for rectangularity to the +passage axis," was a mere sign to show where the upright stone was to +come. But Professor Smyth, who gives no explanation of the upright stone +itself, except that it seems, from its upright position, to have had +"something representative of setting up, or preparation for the erecting +of a building," believes that the mark is as many inches from the mouth +of the tunnel as there were years between the dispersal of man and the +building of the pyramid; that thence downwards to the place where an +ascending passage begins, marks in like manner the number of years which +were to follow before the Exodus; thence along the ascending passage to +the beginning of the great gallery the number of years from the Exodus +to the coming of Christ; and thence along the floor of the grand gallery +to its end, the interval between the first coming of Christ and the +second coming or the end of the world, which it appears is to take place +in the year 1881. It is true not one of these intervals accords with the +dates given by those who are considered the best authorities in Biblical +matters,--but so much the worse for the dates. + +To return to the pyramid. + +We have considered how, probably, the architect would plan the +prolongation of the entrance passage to its place of opening out on the +northern face. But as the pyramid rose layer by layer above its +basement, there must be ascending passages of some sort towards the +south, the most important part of the sky in astronomical research. + +The astronomers who planned the pyramid would specially require four +things. First, they must have the ascending passage in the absolutely +true meridian plan; secondly, they would require to have in view, along +a passage as narrow as the entrance tunnel, some conspicuous star, if +possible a star so bright as to be visible by day (along such a tunnel) +as well as by night; thirdly, they must have the means of observing the +sun at solar noon on every day in the year; and fourthly, they must also +have the entire range of the zodiac or planetary highway brought into +view along their chief meridional opening. + +The first of these points is at once the most important and the most +difficult. It is so important, indeed, that we may hope for significant +evidence from the consideration of the methods which would suggest +themselves as available. + +Consider:--The square base has been duly oriented. Therefore, if each +square layer is placed properly, the continually diminishing square +platform will remain always oriented. But if any error is made in this +work the exactness of the orientation will gradually be lost. And this +part of the work cannot be tested by astronomical observations as exact +as those by which the base was laid, unless the vertical boring by which +the middle of the base, or a point near it, was brought into connection +with the entrance passage, is continued upwards through the successive +layers of the pyramidal structure. As the rock rises to a considerable +height within the interior of the pyramid,[44] probably to quite the +height of the opening of the entrance passage on the northern slope, it +would only be found necessary to carry up this vertical boring on the +building itself after this level had been reached. But in any case this +would be but an unsatisfactory way of obtaining the meridian plane when +once the boring had reached a higher level than the opening of the +entrance passage; for only horizontal lines from the boring to the +inclined tunnelling would be of use for exact work, and no such lines +could be drawn when once the level of the upper end of the entrance +passage had been passed by the builders. + +A plan would be available, however (not yet noticed, so far as I know, +by any who have studied the astronomical relations of the great +pyramid), which would have enabled the builders perfectly to overcome +this difficulty. + +Suppose the line of sight down the entrance passage were continued +upwards along an ascending passage, after reflection at a perfectly +horizontal surface--the surface of still water--then by the simplest of +all optical laws, that of the reflection of light, the descending and +ascending lines of sight on either side of the place of reflection, +would lie in the same vertical plane, that, namely, of the entrance +passage, or of the meridian. Moreover, the farther upwards an ascending +passage was carried, along which the reflected visual rays could pass, +the more perfect would be the adjustment of this meridional plane. + +To apply this method, it would be necessary to temporarily plug up the +entrance passage where it passed into the solid rock, to make the +stone-work above it very perfect and close fitting, so that whenever +occasion arose for making one of the observations we are considering, +water might be poured into the entrance passage, and remain long enough +standing at the corner (so to speak) where this passage and the +suggested ascending passage could meet, for Alpha Draconis to be +observed down the ascending passage. Fig. 2 shows what is meant. Here D +C is the descending passage, C A the ascending passage, C the corner +where the water would be placed when Alpha Draconis was about to pass +below the pole. The observer would look down A C, and would see Alpha +Draconis by rays which had passed down D C, and had been reflected by +the water at C. Supposing the building to have been erected, as Lepsius +and other Egyptologists consider, at the rate of one layer in each year, +then only one observation of the kind described need be made per annum. +Indeed, fewer would serve, since three or four layers of stone might be +added without any fresh occasion arising to test the direction of the +passage C A. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.] + +It is hardly necessary to remind those who have given any attention to +the subject of the pyramid that there is precisely such an ascending +passage as C A, and that as yet no explanation of the identity of its +angle of ascent with the angle of descent of the passage D C has ever +been given. Most pyramidalists content themselves by assuming, as Sir E. +Beckett puts it, "that the same angle would probably be used for both +sets of passages, _as there was no reason for varying it_," which is not +exactly an explanation of the relation. Mr. Wacherbarth has suggested +that the passages were so adjusted for the purpose of managing a system +of balance cars united by ropes from one passage to another; but this +explanation is open, as Beckett points out, to the fatal objection that +the passages meet at their lowest point, not at their highest, so that +it would be rather a puzzle "to work out the mechanical idea." The +reflection explanation is not only open to no such objections, but +involves precisely such an application of optical laws as we should +expect from men so ingenious as the pyramid builders certainly were. In +saying this, let me explain, I am not commending myself for ingenuity in +thinking of the method, simply because such methods are quite common and +familiar in the astronomy of modern times. + +While I find this explanation, which occurred to me even while this +paper was in writing, so satisfactory that I feel almost tempted to say, +like Sir G. Airy of his explanation of the Deluge as an overflow of the +Nile, that "I cannot entertain the slightest doubt" of its validity, I +feel that there ought to be some evidence in the descending passage +itself of the use of this method. We might not find any traces of the +plugs used to stop up, once a year or so, the rock part of the +descending passage. For they would be only temporary arrangements. But +we should expect to find the floor of the descending passage constructed +with special care, and very closely fitted, where the water was to be +received. + +Inquiring whether this is so, I find not only that it is, but that +another hitherto unexplained feature of the great pyramid finds its +explanation in this way,--the now celebrated "secret sign." Let us read +Professor Smyth's account of this peculiar feature:-- + + "When measuring the cross-joints in the floor of the + entrance-passage, in 1865, I went on chronicling their angles, each + one proving to be very nearly at right angles to the axis, until + suddenly one came which was _diagonal_; another, and that was + diagonal too; but, after that, the rectangular position was + resumed. Further, the stone material carrying these diagonal joints + was harder and better than elsewhere in the floor, so as to have + saved that part from the monstrous excavations elsewhere + perpetrated by some moderns. Why, then, did the builders change the + rectangular joint angle at that point, and execute such unusual + angles as they chose in place of it, in a better material of stone + than elsewhere; and yet with so little desire to call general + attention to it, that they made the joints fine and close to that + degree that they escaped the attention of all men until 1865 A.D. + The answer came from the diagonal joints themselves, on discovering + that the stone between them was opposite to the butt end of the + portcullis of the first ascending passage, or to the hole whence + the prismatic stone of concealment through 3000 years had dropped + out almost before Al Mamoun's eyes. Here, therefore, was a secret + sign in the pavement of the entrance-passage, appreciable only to a + careful eye and a measurement by angle, but made in such hard + material that it was evidently intended to last to the end of human + time with the great pyramid, and _has_ done so thus far." + +Whether Professor Smyth is right in considering that this +specially-prepared position of the floor was intended not for any +practical purpose, but to escape the notice of the careless, while yet, +when the right men "at last, duly instructed, entered the passage," this +mysterious floor-sign should show them where a ceiling-stone was +movable, on perceiving which they "would have laid bare the beginning of +the whole train of those sub-aërial features of construction which are +the great pyramid's most distinctive glory, and exist in no other +pyramid in Egypt or the world," I leave the reader to judge. I would +remark, only, that, if so, the builders of the pyramid were not +remarkably good prophets, seeing that the event befell otherwise, the +ceiling-stone dropping out a thousand years or so before the floor-sign +was noticed; wherefore we need not feel altogether alarmed at their own +prediction (according to Professor Smyth), that the end of the world is +to come in 1881, even as Mother Shipton also is reported to have +prophesied. For my own part, I am quite content with my own +interpretation of the secret sign; as showing where the floor of the +descending passage was purposely prepared for the reception of water, on +the still surface of which the Pole-star of the day might be mirrored +for one looking down the ascending passage. + +Albeit, I cannot but think that this ascending passage must also have +been so directed as to show some bright star when due south. For if the +passage had only given the meridian plane, but without permitting the +astronomer to observe the southing of any fixed star, it would have +subserved only one-half its purposes as a meridional instrument. It is +to be remembered that, supposing the ascending passage to have its +position determined in the way I have described, there would be nothing +to prevent its being also made to show any fixed star nearly at the same +elevation. For it could readily be enlarged in a vertical direction, the +floor remaining unaltered. Since it is not enlarged until the great +gallery is reached (at a distance of nearly 127 feet from the place +where the ascent begins), it follows, or is at least rendered highly +probable, that some bright star was in view through that ascending +passage. + +Now, taking the date 2170 B.C., which Professor Smyth assigns to the +beginning of the great pyramid, or even taking any date (as we fairly +may), within a century or so on either side of that date, we find no +bright star which would have been visible when due south, through the +ascending passage. I have calculated the position of that circle among +the stars along which lay all the points passing 26° 18' above the +horizon when due south, in the latitude of Ghizeh, 2170 years before the +Christian era; and it does not pass near a single conspicuous star.[45] +There is only one fourth magnitude star which it actually +approaches--namely, Epsilon Ceti; and one fifth magnitude star, Beta of +the Southern Crown. + +When we remember that Egyptologists almost without exception assert that +the date of the builders of the great pyramid _must_ have been more than +a thousand years earlier than 2170 B.C., and that Bunsen has assigned to +Menes the date 3620 B.C., while the date 3300 B.C. has been assigned to +Cheops or Suphis on apparently good authority, we are led to inquire +whether the other epoch when Alpha Draconis was at about the right +distance from the pole of the heavens may not have been the true era of +the commencement of the great pyramid. Now, the year 3300 B.C., though a +little late, would accord fairly well with the time when Alpha Draconis +was at the proper distance 3-2/3° from the pole of the heavens. If the +inclination of the entrance-passage is 26° 27', as Professor Smyth made +it, the exact date for this would be 3390 B.C.; if 26° 40', as others +made it before his measurements, the date would be about 3320 B.C., +which would suit well with the date 3300 B.C., since a century either +way would only carry the star about a third of a degree towards or from +the pole. + +Now, when we inquire whether in the year 3300 B.C. any bright star would +have been visible, at southing, through the ascending passage, we find +that a very bright star indeed, an orb otherwise remarkable as the +nearest of all the stars, the brilliant Alpha Centauri, shone as it +crossed the meridian right down that ascending tube. It is so bright +that, viewed through that tube, it must have been visible to the naked +eye, even when southing in full daylight. + +But thirdly, we must consider how the builders of the pyramid would +arrange for the observation of the sun at noon on every clear day in the +year. + +They would carry up the floor of the ascending passage in an unchanged +direction, as it already pointed south of the lowest place of the noon +sun at mid-winter. They would have to turn the tunnel into a lofty +gallery, to increase the vertical range of view on the meridian. It +seems reasonable to infer that they would prefer so to arrange matters +that the upper end of the gallery would be near the middle of the +platform which would form the top of the pyramidal structure from the +time when it was completed for observational purposes. The height of the +gallery would be so adjusted to its length, that the mid-winter's sun +would not shine further than the lower end of the gallery (that is, to +the upper end of the smaller ascending passage). In fact, as the moon +and planets would have to be observed when due south, through this +meridional gallery, and as they range further from the equator both +north and south than the sun does, it would be necessary that the +gallery should extend lower down than the sun's mid-winter noon rays +would shine. + +As it would be a part of the observer's work to note exactly how far +down the gallery the shadow of its upper southern edge reached, as well +as the moment when the sun's light passed from the western to the +eastern wall of the gallery, and other details of the kind; besides, of +course, taking time-observations of the moment when the sun's edge +seemed to reach the edge of the gallery's southern opening; and as such +observations could not be properly made by men standing on the smooth +slanting floor of the gallery, it would be desirable to have +cross-benches capable of being set at different heights along the +sloping gallery. In some observations, indeed, as where the transits of +several stars southing within short intervals of time had to be +observed, it would be necessary to set some observers at one part of the +gallery, others at another part, and perhaps even to have several sets +of observers along the gallery. And this suggests yet another +consideration. It might be thought desirable, if great importance was +attached (as the whole building shows that great importance must have +been attached) to the exactness of the observations, to have several +observations of each transit of a star across the mouth of the gallery. +In this case, it would be well to have the breadth of the gallery +different at different heights, though its walls must of necessity be +upright throughout--that is, the walls must be upright from the height +where one breadth commences, to the height where the next breadth +commences. With a gallery built in this fashion, it would be possible to +take several observations of the same transit, somewhat in the same way +that the modern observer watches the transit of a star across each of +five, seven, or nine parallel spider threads, in order to obtain a more +correct time for the passage of the star across the middle thread, than +if he noted this passage alone. + +How far the grand gallery corresponds with these requirements can be +judged from the following description given by Professor Greaves in +1638:--"It is," he says, "a very stately piece of work, and not +inferior, either in respect of the curiosity of art, or richness of +materials, to the most sumptuous and magnificent buildings," and a +little further on he says, "this gallery, or corridor, or whatever else +I may call it, is built of white and polished marble (limestone), the +which is very evenly cut in spacious squares or tables. Of such +materials as is the pavement, such is the roof and such are the side +walls that flank it; the coagmentation or knitting of the joints is so +close, that they are scarce discernible to a curious eye; and that which +adds grace to the whole structure, though it makes the passage the more +slippery and difficult, is the acclivity or rising of the ascent. The +height of this gallery is 26 feet" (Professor Smyth's careful +measurements show the true height to be more nearly 28 feet), "the +breadth of 6.870 feet, of which 3.435 feet are to be allowed for the way +in the midst, which is set and bounded on both sides with two banks +(like benches) of sleek and polished stone; each of these hath 1.717 of +a foot in breadth, and as much in depth." These measurements are not +strictly exact. Smyth made the breadth of the gallery above the banks or +ramps as he calls them, 6 feet 10-1/5 inches; the space between the +ramps, 3 feet 6 inches; the ramps nearly about 1 foot 8-1/14 inches +broad, and nearly 1 foot 9 inches high, measured transversely, that is +at right angles to the ascending floor. + +As to arrangements for the convenience of observers in the slippery and +difficult floor of this gallery, we find that upon the top of these +benches or ramps, near the angle where they meet the wall, "there are +little spaces cut in right-angled parallel figures, set on each side +opposite one another, _intended no question for some other end than +ornament_." + +The diversity of width which I have indicated as a desirable feature in +a meridional gallery, is a marked feature of the actual gallery. "In the +casting and ranging of the marbles" (limestone), "in both the side +walls, there is one piece of architecture," says Greaves, "in my +judgment very graceful, and that is that all the courses or stones, +which are but seven (so great are these stones), do set and flag over +one another about three inches; the bottom of the uppermost course +overlapping the top of the next, and so in order, the rest as they +descend." The faces of these stones are exactly vertical, and as the +width of the gallery diminishes upwards by about six inches for each +successive course, it follows that the width at the top is about 3-1/2 +feet less than the width, 6 feet 10-1/5 inches, at the bottom, or agrees +in fact with the width of the space between the benches or ramps. Thus +the shadow of the vertical edges of the gallery at solar noon just +reached to the edges of the ramps, the shadow of the next lower +vertical edges falling three inches from the edges higher up the ramps, +those of the next vertical edges six inches from these edges, still +higher up, and so forth. The true hour of the sun's southing could thus +be most accurately determined by seven sets of observers placed in +different parts of the gallery, and near mid-summer, when the range of +the shadows would be so far shortened, that a smaller number of +observers only could follow the shadows' motions; but in some respects, +the observations in this part of the year could be more readily and +exactly made than in winter, when the shadows' spaces of various width +would range along the entire length of the gallery. + +Similar remarks would apply to observations of the moon, which could +also be directly observed. The planets and stars of course could only be +observed directly. + +The grand gallery could be used for the observation of any celestial +body southing higher than 26° 18' above the horizon; but not very +effectively for objects passing near the zenith. The Pleiades could be +well observed. They southed about 63-2/3° above the horizon in the year +2140 B.C. or thereabouts when they were on the equinoctial colure.[46] +But if I am right in taking the year 3300 B.C. when Alpha Centauri shone +down the smaller ascending passage in southing, the Pleiades were about +58° only above the horizon when southing, and therefore even more +favourably observable from the great meridional gallery. + +In passing I may note that at this time, about 3300 years before our +era, the equinoctial point (that is, the point where the sun passes +north of the equator, and the year begins according to the old manner of +reckoning) was midway between the horns of the Bull. So that then, and +then alone, a poet might truly speak of spring as the time + + "Candidus auratis aperit quum cornibus annum + Taurus." + +as Virgil incorrectly did (repeating doubtless some old tradition) at a +later time. Even Professor Smyth notices the necessity that the pyramid +gallery should correspond in some degree with such a date. "For," says +he, "there have been traditions for long, whence arising I know not, +that the seven overlappings of the grand gallery, so impressively +described by Professor Greaves, had something to do with the Pleiades, +those proverbially seven stars of the primeval world," only that he +considers the pyramid related to _memorial_ not _observing_ astronomy, +"of an earlier date than Virgil's." The Pleiades also, it may be +remarked, were scarcely regarded in old times as belonging to the +constellation of the Bull, but formed a separate asterism. + +The upper end of the great gallery lies very near the vertical axis of +the pyramid. It is equidistant, in fact, from the north and south edges +of the pyramid platform at this level, but lies somewhat to the east of +the true centre of this platform. One can recognise a certain +convenience in this arrangement, for the actual centre of the platform +would be required as a position from whence observation of the whole sky +could be made. Observers stationed there would have the cardinal points +and the points midway between them defined by the edges and angles of +the square platform, which would not be the case if they were displaced +from the centre. Stationed as they would be close to the mouth of the +gallery, they would hear the time signallings given forth by the +observers placed at various parts of the gallery; and no doubt one chief +end of the exact time-observations for which the gallery was manifestly +constructed, would be to enable the platform observers duly to record +the time when various phenomena were noticed in any part of the heavens. + +This corresponds well with the statement made by Proclus, that the +pyramids of Egypt, which, according to Diodorus Siculus, had been in +existence during 3600 years, terminated in a platform upon which the +priests made their celestial observations. The last-named historian +alleges, also (Biblioth. Hist. Lib. I.), that the Egyptians, who claimed +to be the most ancient of men, professed to be acquainted with the +situation of the earth, the risings and settings of stars, to have +arranged the order of days and months, and pretended to be able to +predict future events, with certainty, from their observations of +celestial phenomena. I think that it is in this association of astrology +with astronomy that we find the explanation of what, after all, remains +the great mystery of the pyramid--the fact, namely, that all the +passages, ascending, descending, and horizontal, constructed with such +extreme care, and at the cost of so much labour, in the interior of the +great pyramid, were eventually (perhaps not very long after their +construction) to be closed up. I reject utterly the idea that they could +have been constructed merely as memorials. Sir E. Beckett, who seems +willing to admit this conception, rejects the notion that the builders +of the pyramid recorded "standard measures by hiding them with the +utmost ingenuity." Is it not equally absurd to imagine that they +recorded the date of the great pyramid, by construction, by those most +elaborately concealed passages? Why they should have concealed them +after constructing them so carefully, may not be clear. For my own part, +I regard the theory that the Pyramid of Suphis was built for +astrological observations, relating to the life of that monarch only, as +affording the most satisfactory explanation yet advanced of the +mysterious circumstance that the building was closed up after his death. +Supposing the part of the edifice (fifty layers in all), which includes +the ascending and descending passages, to have been erected during his +lifetime, it may be that some reverential or superstitious feeling +caused his successors, or the priesthood, to regard the building as +sacred after his death--to be closed up therefore and completed as a +perfect pyramid, polished _ad unguem_ from its pointed summit to the +lines along which the four faces met the smooth pavement round its base. +We might thus explain why each monarch required his own astrological +observatory afterwards to become his tomb. Be this as it may, it is +certain that the pyramids were constructed for astronomical +observations; and it would, I conceive, be utterly unreasonable to +imagine that the costly interior fittings and arrangements, "not +inferior, in respect of curiosity of art or richness of materials, to +the most sumptuous and magnificent buildings," were intended to subserve +no other purpose but to be memorials; and that, too, not until, in the +course of thousands of years, the whole mass of the pyramid had begun to +lose the exactness of its original figure. + + R. A. PROCTOR. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] It seems to me not improbable that the level was determined by +simply flooding (though to a very small depth only, of course) the +entire area to be levelled--not only the pavement level, but higher +levels as the pyramid was raised layer by layer. By completing the +outside of each layer first, an enclosed space capable of receiving the +water would be formed (the flooding being required once only for each +layer), and when the level had been taken the water could be allowed to +run off by the interior passages to the well which Piazzi Smyth +considers to be symbolical of the bottomless pit. + +[44] The irregular descending passage long known as the well, which +communicates between the ascending passage and the underground chamber, +enables us to ascertain how high the rock rises into the pyramid at this +particular part of the base. We thus learn that the rock rises in this +place, at any rate, thirty or forty feet above the basal plane. + +[45] There is a statement perfectly startling in its inaccuracy, in a +chapter of Blake's "Astronomical Myths," derived from Mr. Haliburton's +researches, asserting that in the year 2170 B.C. the Pleiades were +"_exactly at that height that they could be seen in the direction of the +Southward-pointing passage of the pyramid_." The italics are not mine. +As this passage pointed 33-2/3°, or thereabouts, below (that is south +of) the equator, and the Pleiades were then some 3-2/3° north of the +equator, the passage certainly did not then point to the Pleiades. Nor +has there been any time since the world began when the Pleiades were +anywhere near the direction of the southward pointing passage. In fact +they have never been more than 20° south of the equator. The statement +follows immediately after another to the surprising effect that in the +year 2170 B.C. "the Pleiades _really_ commenced the spring by their +midnight culmination." The only comment an astronomer can make on this +startling assertion is to repeat with emphasis the word italicized by +Mr. Haliburton (or Mr. Blake?). The Pleiades being then in conjunction +with what is now called the first point of Aries, culminated at noon, +not at midnight, at the time of the vernal equinox. + +[46] This date is sometimes given earlier, but when account is taken of +the proper motion of these stars we get about the date above mentioned. +I cannot understand how Dr. Ball, Astronomer Royal for Ireland, has +obtained the date 2248 B.C., unless he has taken the proper motion of +Alcyone the wrong way. The proper motion of this star during the last +4000 years has been such as to increase the star's distance from the +equinoctial colure; and therefore, of course, the actual interval of +time since the star was on the colure is less than it would be +calculated to be if the proper motion were neglected. + + + + +CONSPIRACIES IN RUSSIA UNDER THE REIGNING CZAR. + + +I. + +Much astonishment has been expressed of late, by those who are too apt +to forget the main facts even of contemporary history, that under "so +benevolent a prince as Alexander II." the most fearful conspiracies +should have become rife. This view of the situation shows a +misconception of the whole system of government in Russia, and more +especially of the character of the ruling Autocrat, as it has been +formed by his education and by the ever-worsening course of his reign. +For the proper understanding of what has occurred within the last twelve +years or so, we must consequently go back for a moment to Alexander's +early training and antecedents. No despotic system can be judged without +a knowledge of personal facts relating to its bearer. A sketch of the +character of Alexander II. and of his strange acts of "benevolence," +will make it clear to the commonest comprehension why his antagonists +should at last have met him by wild deeds of conspiracy. + +Alexander's arbitrary bias may be said to have been inherited in his +blood. A disposition, originally, perhaps, less severe than that of +Nicholas, was darkened and vitiated in him from his early days. Custine +already remarked the expression of deep melancholy in the Grand Duke; +and all those who have seen Alexander II. since have been struck with +his sour and sullen morosity. No smile ever lights up this "humane" +Czar's face. His uneasy glance is that of the misanthrope; his brow +seems overcast as with the lowering shadow of a tragic fate. The harsh +way in which he was brought up by his martinet father, without the +slightest regard for his somewhat delicate health, no doubt laid a +foundation for this pensive sadness, which, under a pernicious Court +atmosphere, and with the terrible recollections crowding about his +family history, gradually changed into the fierceness of the Tyrant. + +Poor royal humanity is sometimes strangely led up to its task in life. +Almost from infancy the sickly boy had to don the soldier's uniform. All +joyous sprightliness was crushed out of the infantine heir of a +barbarous Imperialism. His education by the crowned corporal who +happened to be his parent, appeared to aim mainly at making him +physically and in character as rigid as a ramrod. By nature of a +sensuous bent, he had to undergo all the ordeals of barrack-room +practices, which Nicholas held to be the proper sum and substance of +human life. + +The stern nature and teaching of that typical tyrant came out one day in +a striking manner during the early boyhood of Alexander. Even Imperial +children do not seem to be able to shake off the dark historical +recollections that hang about the Winter Palace. In the manner of +children they will make a ghastly sport of them. Once, when they were in +a specially jocular mood, Alexander, in company with his brother +Constantine and some comrades in play, enacted--as youngsters in their +apishly imitative mood will do--one of the most hideous scenes that +concluded a previous reign. The throttling of the Emperor Paul was the +subject! Alexander, standing for Paul, was assaulted and thrown down by +his brother, who knelt upon his chest. With the aid of the sportive +accomplices, a cord was passed round the victim's throat. It is said +that young Constantine took a malicious pleasure in putting into this +semblance of strangulation rather an unexpected deal of energy. + +"For mercy's sake! For mercy's sake!" Alexander cried, with half-stifled +voice, and at last with a fearful yell. + +Nicholas, hurrying out from his room, beheld the spectacle before him in +deep consternation. When the matter was explained to him, he severely +reproved and actually punished his eldest-born. "It is not worthy of an +Emperor," he said, "to call out for mercy!" + +This well-authenticated anecdote has been told by writers who expressed +the most adulatory sentiments towards the present Czar. It is to be +found in Castille's highly flattering biography of Alexander II., +published about the time of his accession to the throne. The incident, +loathsome as it must appear to every sensitive mind, strikingly paints +both the gloom that always hangs about the Russian Court, and the kind +of education given by Nicholas to his offspring. + +The youthful despotic propensities of Alexander may be seen from an +account given by another of his admiring biographers, Mr. J. G. +Hesekiel. This writer enthusiastically swings the censer before Nicholas +as the "Iron Knight of Legitimacy" and the "Invincible Champion of +Government by the Grace of God." (I may mention in passing that Mr. +Hesekiel has done the life of Prince Bismarck into similar adulatory +prose). At the age of fourteen--he relates--the boy-prince, Alexander, +in going through a state room of the Palace, was respectfully greeted by +the assembled high dignitaries of the Empire, senators, generals, and +so forth. They all rose and bowed before the Heir-Apparent. The boy's +vanity being flattered, he purposely came back several times, expecting +the grey-beards on each occasion to rise and salaam before him. When he +found that they thought they had done their duty by the first +salutation, he angrily complained against them to his father. Nicholas, +however, blamed the son for his unreasonable exaction. This vicious +arrogance of the boy ripened afterwards into the haughtiness of the +despot, being but slightly mitigated by a naturally melancholy +disposition, which sometimes gave the appearance of comparative +softness. + +Of Constantine, the second son of Nicholas, there is a further +characteristic anecdote on record. It is to be found even in +publications otherwise marked by servile feelings towards the Court. We +all know at what a supernaturally early age the purple-born are +appointed to high titular positions in the State Administration or in +the army. In Russia, where the "right divine of kings to govern wrong" +is pushed to its most logical or illogical consequences, this royal +custom flourishes to excess. At the mature age of eight, Alexander was +appointed Chancellor of the University of Finland. His brother +Constantine was nominated in early youth High Admiral of the Fleet. One +day, Constantine, between whom and his elder brother there was little +love lost, had Alexander arrested because he had come on board ship +without special authorization. Something of the sentiment of Franz Moor, +in Schiller's _Robbers_, seems to have animated Constantine in his +youth. He was often heard to utter a malediction against the law of +heredity. He declared that, being born when his father (Nicholas) was +already on the throne, he (Constantine) had a better right of succession +than Alexander, who had been born when Nicholas was only a Grand Duke. +He further said that, after the death of Nicholas, he would contend +against Alexander with the object of partitioning the Empire. + +These may seem trifling occurrences--mere freaks of childhood. They +would certainly be so regarded in countries where the nation practically +possesses self-government and the Crown is mainly an ornamental cipher, +or where the sovereign privilege is at least largely circumscribed by +the parliamentary power. It is different in an Empire like Russia, with +its murderous dynastic antecedents. There, the personal character of the +princely personages is of the utmost importance; for a youthful freak or +hideous trick may point to a coming horrible event. In olden times, +previous to the Tatar dominion, Russia passed through the so-called +Appanage Period of Separate Principalities, when the Empire was actually +partitioned. The feuds which then tore the various branches of the Rurik +family greatly facilitated the Mongol conquest that weighed upon the +country for centuries. With the condition of Russia such as it was until +lately, and still is for that matter, a bold attempt on the part of a +Prince second in birth could not be said to be beyond the range of +possibility. Even now we hear of a deep estrangement between the ruling +Autocrat and the Czarewitch, reaching even to such an extent that for a +moment there was an intention of arresting the latter. + +Nothing has come of the childish threat of the Grand Duke Constantine, +who to this day fills the post of Admiral-General of the Russian Fleet. +Still, the incident alluded to has its value. When a whole nation is +disinherited from political rights, a younger member of the ruling +House, of violent and ambitious temper, may easily take the idea into +his head of altering, by a palace plot, the very basis of the Empire for +his own special benefit. What looks like boyish play may in time to come +turn into a tragedy. These dangers, characteristic of all autocracies, +can only be done away with by the introduction of a settled order of +Constitutional law, conferring the chief power in the State upon +representative bodies. + + +II. + +The death of Nicholas, shortly before the end of the Crimean War, +remains to this day enshrouded in darkness and doubt. + +His proud spirit had been deeply humiliated by a series of defeats. He +who once posed as the arbiter of the destinies of Continental Europe had +been beaten, not only by the Western Allies, but, before that, even by +the Turks single-handed. He wrathfully avowed that "he had been deceived +as to the state of public opinion in England." The messengers of the +Peace Society, the language held by the organs of the Manchester school, +had emboldened him to try to realize the secular dream of Russian +despots,--namely, the conquest of Constantinople. The disenchantment he +experienced gave even his iron frame a terrible shock. Yet his haughty +temper forbade him to entertain offers of, still more to sue for, peace. +Those surrounding him, including his nearest by kinship, were afraid of +angering the ruthless man by unwelcome counsel. + +At the same time vague murmurs were heard in society against the +absolutistic _régime_ which had led Russia to the brink of utter ruin. +From the southern part of the Empire, where opinion, since the days of +Cossack and Ukraine independence, had always been the most advanced, +threatening tales came up of a spirit of rebellion among the peasantry, +upon whom the relay duties and other hardships connected with the war +weighed most heavily. There was a universal feeling that the removal of +Nicholas from this world's stage would be a blessing. + +In the midst of this darkening situation men learnt that the Czar was +slightly indisposed; immediately afterwards, that he was--_dead_. He had +only taken a cold; but the illness--as the manifesto of Alexander II. +afterwards said--"developed itself with incredible rapidity." The +manifesto added:--"Let us bow before the mysterious decrees of +Providence!" + +Was the mystery a real or merely an apparent one? + +Abroad a rumour quickly spread of foul play having once more taken +place in the Winter Palace. In the German and the Danish press--for +instance, in the Copenhagen _Faedrelandet_, and the Berlin _National +Zeitung_ and _Volks-Zeitung_--surmises were openly uttered that the +Russian Emperor had died from poison. Not a few thought he had fallen a +victim to a palace plot in the interest of the maintenance of the +dynasty which was endangered by his obstinacy. In a medical journal of +this country it was shown that the bulletins concerning the course of +his illness were, at all events, quite at variance with well-known +physiological laws. In a lithographed pamphlet--attributed to Dr. Mandt, +the physician-in-ordinary to Nicholas--it was alleged that the Czar, in +a fit of life-weariness, had himself asked for strychnine, and forced +his physician to prepare it for him. A noted Russian writer, Mr. Ivan +Golovin, in a book published at Leipzig about eight years ago,[47] +refers to the statement of this pamphlet. He himself remarks that the +reason for the head of the Emperor having been covered up, when lying in +state, was, that his features were so terribly disfigured by the poison +as to render it advisable to conceal the face. + +It is impossible to unravel the truth. This much can, however, be said +beyond mere probability, that, if Nicholas had not been suddenly taken +away, the contrast between his iron rule at home and his continued +defeats on the field of battle would have roused a spirit of rebellion +and mutiny very similar to that against which he had to contend in the +ensanguined streets of the capital at the beginning of his reign. As it +was, men expected that his successor would prove more pliant. The +prevailing feeling of dissatisfaction did not, therefore, at first +assume a revolutionary shape. + +Perhaps it was a consciousness of being surrounded by men who watched +him closely which made Alexander II. speak out in rather a peremptory +tone in his manifesto of March 2, 1855. Monarchs who fear an attack upon +their sovereign privileges often seek to terrify their would-be +antagonists by bold language. "I hereby declare solemnly," Alexander +said, "that I will remain faithful to all the views of my father, and +_persevere in the line of political principles_ which have served as +guiding maxims both to my uncle, Alexander I., and to him. These +principles are those of the Holy Alliance. If that Alliance no longer +exists, it is certainly not the fault of my august father." The fling +against Austria, which had half taken the side of the Western Allies in +the Crimean War, and the covert reference to Prussia, which had refused +making common military cause with Russia, was unmistakable. + +So far as public opinion existed then, or could make itself heard in the +Czar's Empire, the impression of this manifesto was a highly +unfavourable one. Its allusions to the maintenance of the political +principles of Nicholas and to the maxims of the Holy Alliance were +little relished--all the less so, because there was not a word about +coming reforms. Military preparations were continued. The whole country +seemed to be destined to become a military camp. No prospects were held +out either of the emancipation of the serfs, or of the admission of any +section of the nation to a share in the Government. + +Soon, however, Alexander II. had to alter his tone. The wave of public +discontent rising ever higher, whilst the Russian arms suffered defeat +after defeat, peace had to be concluded, and the full stringency of the +despotic rule could no longer be maintained. Gortschakoff was +substituted for Nesselrode in the Chancellorship. At that time this was +almost considered progress--so unspeakably degrading was the slavery of +the nation, and so apt are men in their despair to catch at a straw. + +Gortschakoff, nevertheless, pronounced the famous saying, "_La Russie ne +boude pas; elle se recueille!_" The old war policy had been scotched, +not killed. Scarcely had the army returned from the campaign, before +Government busied itself with a well-studied plan for a network of +railways, not in the commercial, but in the strategical interest. With +the same object of an ulterior return to the aggressive war policy, +Alexander II. sought an interview with Napoleon III. soon after the +conclusion of the Crimean War. Piedmont, also, was diplomatically +approached in a remarkably friendly manner. England was to be isolated. +Revenge was to be ultimately taken against her. Between all these +significant, though somewhat weak attempts, the new Czar addressed to +the Marshals of the Polish nobility at Warsaw his threatening +words:--"Before all, no dreams, gentlemen!... If need be, I shall know +how to punish with the utmost severity; and with the utmost severity I +mean to punish!" ("_Avant tout, point de rêveries, messieurs!... Au +besoin, je saurai sévir, et je sévirai!_") + +Thus the autocratic vein strongly stood out even in this more sickly +type of a barbarous autocracy. It is the fashion at present, at least +among some who take the name of "philosophical Radicals" in vain when +they curtsy before a Machiavellian tyrant, to dwell with admiring pride +upon the philanthropic character of Alexander the Benevolent. All the +cardinal virtues are his. He is the Liberator of the Serfs, the +Deliverer of Downtrodden Nationalities, the Educator and Friend of the +People--a monstrous paragon of princely perfection. The truth is that +this Czar, albeit lacking the nerve of his sire, has from early youth +shown the full absolutistic bent. Dire necessity only brought him to the +accomplishment of some reforms. But the evidence before us clearly shows +that in this he acted on the well-known lines of despotic calculation, +and that he never did good without the intention of thereby preventing +what to him appeared to be the greater evil for his position as an +irresponsible autocrat, by the so-called "Grace of God." + + +III. + +So deeply shaken was the Empire by the events of 1853-56, that Alexander +did not dare for several years--in fact, not until 1863--to ordain any +fresh recruitment for the army. This necessity greatly diminished the +oppressive power of the Crown. At the same time, public opinion showed +signs of a threatening unrest. An "Underground Literature," as it was +called, began once more to express the ideas of the better-educated, +progressive classes. Among the troops, the "Songs of the Crimean +Soldiers," by Tolstoy, an artillery officer, made a great stir. Count +Orloff, then Minister of the Police, wrote to the Commanding-General in +the South, that he should silence these rebel songs. The General +somewhat bluntly replied, "Please come yourself, and try to silence +them!" + +Among the secret publications then in vogue there were some political +poems of Pushkin, hitherto only known in clandestine manuscript form. +Pushkin is often called, with a great deal of exaggeration, the Russian +Byron, whereas others will only let him pass as a Byron travestied, +wanting in originality, like most of his Russian brother-poets of the +end of the last and the beginning of this century. At all events, one of +Pushkin's utterances containing the words, + + "I hate thee and thy race, + Thou autocratic villain," + +does not lack in allusive clearness. Secretly printed abroad, his +writings were largely propagated at Alexander the Second's accession. +Again, men like Lawroff--who, ten years later, was imprisoned as a +suspect, after Karakasoff's attempt against the life of the Czar--had +celebrated the advent of the successor of Nicholas with such ironically +questionable sentiments as this:-- + + "Be proud, ye Russian men, + Of being the slaves of a Czar!" + +Writers of comedies, novelists, delineators of the life of the people, +ultra-realistic and cynical describers of the criminal classes arose in +rapid succession, whose tendency, one and all, was to show to what a +state of corruption Russian society, from top to bottom, had come under +the famous "Champion of Order," the dreaded Nicholas. That Czar had been +in the habit of speaking of Turkey as the Sick Man. Russia was now shown +to be the Sick Man. Neither did St. Petersburg, Moscow or the other +chief towns, alone serve as a theme for this kind of semi-political +literature. "Provincial Sketches" also came out in a similar strain. +These publications obtained an ever-increasing success among those +classes--few in number, it is true--which were able to read. A whole +"Revelation Literature" sprang up, dealing with cases of governmental +corruption. The censorship could not be upheld any longer against these +writers with the strict severity of the previous reign. A beaten +Absolutism had to do things a little more cautiously; and the watchful +eyes of men hitherto treated like slaves quickly found out, with the +rapid glance and intuition of the oppressed, that it was safe to "dare +it on" a little more than they would have dreamt of doing before the end +of the Crimean War. Truly, those Liberals in this country who now +denounce that war as a mistake and even a crime, do not know, or do not +care to remember, what a relief it brought to Russian Liberals +themselves. + +Soon after the death of Nicholas, desires, until then only muttered, +were publicly expressed for the recall and the amnesty of the Martyrs of +the Conspiracy and the Insurrection of December, 1825. Pestel, Ryleieff, +Bestujeff-Rumin, and the other leaders, had been strung up on the +gallows. Many of those transported to Siberia had died a miserable +felon's death in the lead-mines. Brought up in the lap of luxury, they +ended like galley-slaves, because they had loved freedom more than +wealth and ease. It is reported of one of the political prisoners, a +nobleman, that he died in Kamtschatka with a chain round his neck, +fastened to the wall. Others had been sent to the Caucasus, which in +Russia was long ago said to be "not so much a frontier as a grave-yard." +There they had fallen in a hateful war against brave, independent +mountain tribes, as the unwilling tools of an aggressive tyranny. Still, +some of the sufferers were yet alive--among them men of the foremost +families of the country. They had to be allowed to come back. They +came--mere shadows and ruins of their former selves. But their decrepit +condition was the most telling evidence of the infamy of the Tyrant who +had fortunately passed away. + +In the salons of the upper classes these suffering witnesses of a +terrible past received lavish proofs of admiration. Men would listen +with sympathetic avidity to the tales of horror told by them. All those +present at such a gathering made it a point to be profuse towards the +martyrs with little attentions such as only women ordinarily receive +from the other sex. Thirty years--a long time--had passed since the +armed struggle in the streets of St. Petersburg. Now, all of a sudden, +memories were revived. Political tendencies, which some imagined had +died out, came up afresh among a younger generation, for whom the +"December Conspiracy" was surrounded with a poetical halo. There was +danger in the air for the autocratic principle. + +Count Rostoptchin, the same who ordered the burning of Moscow in 1812, +said in 1825 he could not understand that attempt at a revolution. He +"could understand the French Revolution, because there the ordinary +citizen wished to become an aristocrat, but he could not conceive +aristocrats wishing to become simple burghers." That was the version of +a cynical, though otherwise clever, member of the nobility, who was +unable to comprehend the spirit of self-sacrifice for noble aims showing +itself even among the wealthy and the "noble" by birth. However, had +Count Rostoptchin only been capable of feeling the degradation under +which the Russian aristocracy itself lies in its relations with a +despotic Crown, he might, even from his own point of view as a mere man +of the world, have found a reason for the uprising of independent +characters among men of his own rank. + + +IV. + +The more cultured and wealthier classes again came to the front as +political agitators, at the accession of Alexander. They wanted to throw +down the Chinese Wall which Nicholas had built around them--if it is not +an insult to the Chinese to compare the wall they erected as a +protection against barbarism with the barrier set up by Nicholas against +Western ideas of culture and freedom. At first, Alexander II. did not +hold out any hope of reform. Driven to straits, he busied himself with +throwing a sop to public opinion by various small relaxations in +administrative matters. They were small enough; and they were given with +a niggard hand. + +Anyone taking a survey of the earlier part of the reign of Alexander II. +must see that the main object of his government was to foil the tendency +towards the introduction of parliamentary institutions, which was +sullenly but perceptibly making its way among the better educated +section of the nation; that, with the view of attaining this reactionary +end, he pursued the traditional despotic policy of approaching the lower +classes on the one hand, and engaging the country in fresh warlike +enterprise abroad on the other. Foiled in Europe by England and France, +he throws his armies, after the conclusion of the Peace of Paris, with +renewed fury upon the Tcherkess tribes. They had long barred the way of +Russia towards Asia Minor and Persia, thereby insuring the safety of +India from that side. Now Schamyl, the hoary-headed warrior-prophet, is +compelled to surrender in his last mountain stronghold. From his lofty +Alpine home, which is filled with the renown of his romantic deeds, he +is carried a prisoner to St. Petersburg, there to be stared at by the +crowd of decorated slaves of autocracy. + +With this "pacification" of the Caucasus, the Czar obtained the +unimpeded use of the high-road leading into Asia Minor. He then struck a +blow against the independent tribes on the eastern shore of the Caspian. +With the Court of Teheran he entered into relations calculated to +threaten Turkey with a double danger from the Asiatic side, in case of a +renewal of war. Again, he enlarged his Empire, at the cost of China, by +filching territories as extensive as some of the greatest European +countries. In what once was Independent Turkestan, his armies overran +one Khanate after the other, thus coming nearer and nearer to India from +the north-west. There is a striking war-picture by Vereshagin, with a +pyramid of skulls as its centre--a very Golgotha of the horrors of +massacre; but Russian monarchs, in their ceaseless career of conquest, +out-Tatar the Tatar in the fiendishness of their atrocities. Witness the +order given by General Kaufmann, the pampered tool of Alexander II., in +these Turkestan campaigns:--"_Kill all; spare no age, or sex!_" Witness +also the death-dance that took place when his Majesty, the crowned head +of Holy Russia, the magnanimous Champion of Religion and Humanity, made +his victorious entry into Plevna,[48] carousing there jubilantly, +whilst the Turkish wounded lay unattended in the town for fully two +days--a helpless mass of men, dying in raving agony. + +I have anticipated for a moment the course of events. In glancing at the +reign of Alexander II., the eye involuntarily runs over the full +panorama of tyrannic outrages. From the time of the wholesale +proscription of the Tcherkess and Abchasian tribes to the heart-rending +horrors committed against Toork populations and wounded Ottoman +prisoners of war, there has been, in his career, a perfect climax of +inhumanity. Conferences for the professed humanization of warfare were, +with him, only the hypocritical precursors of fresh barbarities. But it +is not necessary to forestall events. Enough was done in the way of +atrocities even in the earlier years of his rule. + +Between the conquests made in the Caucasus and the annexations on the +Amoor or in Central Asia, Alexander II. bullied, and at last put down, +by unspeakably cruel means,--even as did his predecessor,--the national +aspirations of unhappy Poland. Like Nicholas, he kept the road to +Siberia alive with the wretched convoys of unfortunate exiles. Even in +the Baltic Provinces, whence the Russian Government draws so many able +administrators, diplomatists, and military leaders, whose capacities +might be employed in a better cause, he began a system of persecution +against the German population, of so galling a nature that it +threatened, in course of time, to alienate that very mainstay of the +public administration. The special towns' charters of the Baltic +Provinces were infringed. The German tongue, hitherto possessing full +privileges, was threatened. A process of Russification was attempted; +the superior civilized element being pushed and annoyed by the inferior +and barbarous one. + +These acts of the earliest years of the reign of Alexander II. have to +be kept in mind, in order to understand that humanitarian motives were +not the ruling ones in the final adoption of the Serf Emancipation +measure. On his death-bed, Nicholas is stated to have said to his +son:-- "Thou hast two enemies--the nobility and the Poles. Emancipate +the serfs; and do not allow the Poles any Constitution!" + +It is impossible, with the mystery which envelopes the last days of +Nicholas, to know whether these words are authentic. At all events, +Alexander did not give back to the Poles the Constitution they +possessed until 1830. Nor did he grant a Constitution to the Russians +either. He emancipated the serfs--but not before the principles which +had actuated the Conspirators of 1817-25 once more began to show +themselves among the upper strata of society; and in passing his +measure, he mainly sought to deprive a restive nobility of some of its +influence, and to take the wind out of the sails of those Liberal +agitators who would have made the abolition of bondage the outcome of +the establishment of a freely-chosen Legislature. When, finally, the +Poles, counting upon a corresponding movement in Russia, resolved upon +that heroic, though desperate, rising which by anticipation I alluded to +in the last article, such fresh cruelties were practised by Alexander +II. against the vanquished victims, that every human heart worthy of the +name must shudder at the mere recollection of them. + +From those days, however, the Conspiratory Movement in Russia began to +assume larger proportions. What I have said in the preceding pages, goes +far to explain the violence by which that movement has latterly been +characterized. + + +V. + +Partly from the aggressiveness which is the natural bent of a despotic +military monarchy, partly from the wish to check the home-growth of +Liberal sentiments by frequent blood-letting abroad, the government of +Alexander II. has tried to meet the danger which has been gathering +round the autocratic system by lighting up foreign wars. Central Asia +has served him for that purpose. So has Turkey. The flag of ambition was +flaunted before public opinion as soon as there was a revival of the +Opposition tendency in internal affairs. + +An attempt at opening up the whole Eastern Question was made as early as +1870, when France and Germany were locked together in deadly embrace. +The confidential despatches and cypher telegrams exchanged in 1870 +between Mr. de Novikoff, the Russian Ambassador at Vienna, and Mr. +Ionin, the Russian Consul-General at Ragusa, which fortunately came to +light some years ago, have fully proved that even then Muscovite policy +busied itself with getting up a phantom insurrection in Herzegovina, +preparatory to an attack upon Turkey. Nor is it a secret that a +Bulgarian Committee of Insurrection, affiliated to Russia, had been in +existence at Bucharest for years previous to the late war. All these +propagandistic intrigues were in a measure designed to occupy some of +the more active minds in Russia, who hesitated, between home reform and +Panslavistic ambition. + +The Czar has indulged in his warlike enterprizes, but he has deceived +himself in his calculations as regards home policy. All his frightful +spilling of blood abroad has not been able to prevent the formation and +extension of what is called the Nihilist Conspiracy. Side by side with +his wars, the Secret League has grown apace, overshadowing all his +glory. So extensive have the ramifications of that Conspiracy become +that the liveliest interest is now awakened as to its origin and its +earliest germs. + +In the nature of things it is impossible, at present, to speak with full +certainty on this subject. The Russian revolutionists, being engaged in +a desperate struggle, have neither the leisure necessary for writing +such statements; nor is it their interest to go into details. Judicial +inquiries have lifted, here and there, some corner of the mysterious +winding-sheets in which the secret _Vehme_ is enveloped. But more light +can only be expected after the Conspiracy has been entirely crushed,--in +which case, however, owing to the heroic silence which its adherents +generally maintain, a great deal of knowledge will for ever be buried in +the grave,--or the fuller clearing up will come when, as I would fain +hope, this fierce struggle ends with a triumph, whether complete or +partial, of the cause of freedom. + +Even under the iron rule of Nicholas, there were, many years after the +St. Petersburg insurrection of 1825, still some faint traces of Secret +Societies, in which the spirit of Pestel and Murawieff was continued. +One of these occult Leagues was that of Petrascheski, detected in 1849, +whose members were sentenced to forced labour and to banishment to +Siberia. A nearer approach to the plebeian element than was observable +in the Conspiracies of 1817-25, characterized this later association. +Altogether the more educated classes gradually began to seek closer +contact with the people at large. + +This task was in so far facilitated by the tyrannical Czar-Pope +Nicholas, in that he not only trod under foot that portion of the +nobiliary class which aimed at a Constitutional share of the political +power, but also persecuted the various dissenting sects in the most +barbarous fashion. + +Under an outward gloss of official orthodoxy, Russia is eaten up with a +chaos of sects. The Raskolniks, or Old Believers, profess to be the real +Church; yet the simplest civic rights were always denied to them. +Besides those Old Believers, numerous other sects exist. They in their +turn are surrounded by a strange fringe of "Runners," "Jumpers," +"Flagellants," "Self-Mutilators," and other eccentric or anti-social +pests which crop up most thickly in the dank shadow of an obscurantist +despotism, whose very roots, however, they gradually destroy and +encroach upon. Persecuted men often seek solace in wild hopes and +prophetic beliefs, which, if strongly nurtured by agitation, are apt to +imperil the persecutor. Under Nicholas, the persecutor of all +Dissenters, popular seers occasionally arose, who in their occult +meetings predicted from the book of Esdra that, after the reign of +Nicholas should be over, the Monarchy would fall down under his son and +that "the people then would be happy and free." + +Such a state of feeling in the lower and more backward social strata +rendered it at all events easier for would-be reformers of the +conspirator type to enter into closer contact with the plebeian +element. Though educated men could not have any sympathy with the +mystic views and tone, they found a practical ally in the sullen +dissatisfaction which drove Dissenters to opposition against the +Government. So it was under Nicholas. So it still is under Alexander II. +It may suit the sacerdotal Ritualists, who would fain establish a +connection of High Church Anglicanism with the official orthodoxy of the +East, to promote the aggressive policy of the Czar. But English +Dissenters, who prize their freedom from clerical trammels, might +remember that Autocracy in Russia represents all that is worst in +political as well as in religious fields. Besides upholding the Stuart +doctrine with the means of a Gengis Khan and a Tamerlane, it pretends, +in Church matters, to a Papal authority, crushing the Bible Christian, +the eccentric Mystic, and the religious Rationalist, with an equally +heavy hand--and, if need be, as in the case of the Greek Uniates under +Alexander II., with the Cossack knout. + +In the educated class of Russia, two very different political currents +are observable: the one inclining towards Western Liberalism, whilst the +other cultivates the Nationalist sentiment under rather antiquated +forms. The "Westerners," "Europeans," or "Liberals," are often regarded +by the more stolid adherents of Katkoff as men lacking in patriotism. +Between these two parties--if we could speak of parties in a country +which has no ordered public life--a third group is observable: the +Panslavists, many of whom pursue, under a Liberal mask, aims favourable +to the aggrandizement of Czardom. Not a few of the Panslavists are in +reality mere Government tools. Others, who, like Aksakoff, began as +independent workers in the Panslavist cause, finally yielded to +Government temptation; but after a while even they were found to be too +much imbued with reforming ideas, and consequently were placed under +police surveillance. + +The great mass of the Russian people has nothing to do with Panslavism; +it does not even know what it is. The idea of a Slav brotherhood is +foreign to it. It can be made, by much priestly preaching, to take a +sort of bigoted interest in alleged co-religionists who are said to be +ill-treated by "unbelieving Turks;" but the interest and the +understanding do not go beyond that. Such is the distinct statement made +lately by one of the best observers, Ivan Turgenieff, the novelist, in a +conversation with a German writer. As to the revolutionary party in +Russia, it has more and more become estranged from the Panslavistic +tendency--so much so that at present it stands in direct opposition to +it. + +Alexander Herzen,[49] who favoured the Panslavistic cause, could still +speak, retrospectively, of Russian Czars as being "Robespierres on +horseback"--an expression of so doubtful a value that it rather reminds +us of the pseudo-revolutionary language of Napoleonism than of the purer +Democratic principles. Herzen's idea being that Constantinople should +become the capital of a great Russo-Slav Empire, we can easily +understand that he should have represented Muscovite history under such +a deceptive garb. Bakunin also was a Panslavist for a time, but of a +different type, aiming as he did at a loose Democratic Federation of the +various Slav tribes. The impossibility of this federation all those will +acknowledge who think it equally chimerical to form a Romanic Federation +between nations so dissimilar in origin, history, language, and +aspirations, as are the Italians, the French, the Spaniards, the +Portuguese, the French-speaking section of the Swiss, and the Roumans of +Moldo-Wallachia and Hungary. Or would it be less chimerical to try to +form a Teutonic Federation among Germans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, +Norwegians, Icelanders, German-Swiss, Englishmen, North Americans, and +the various English colonies? + +Nihilism, on its part, has nothing in common with those Panslavist +intrigues which mainly cover an Imperialist ambition. Nihilism, as at +present known, is, in fact, the very negation of such dangerous +ambitious schemes. + +The first Nihilist Society, properly speaking, is said to have been +founded by Russian students about the year 1859. German works on +philosophy and natural science were then much in demand, as forbidden +fruit among the aspiring youths of Russia. The books not being allowed +to pass the frontier, stray copies were smuggled in, and lithographed +translations passed from hand to hand. The Agricultural College of +Petrovski, near Moscow, is considered to have been one of the first +places where young men became imbued with such advanced ideas. In this +neighbourhood the Netchaieff tragedy was enacted. Among literary men, +Tchernitcheffski was one of the first who became a "Nihilist." He +suffered for it by being banished to Siberia. + +The word "Nihilist" is, however, a somewhat misleading one. It was +conferred at first as a nickname. Afterwards it was adopted (like the +name of the _Gueux_) in a kind of dare-devil mood; and has covered, ever +since, a great many varieties of political and social discontent, as +well as of philosophical Radicalism. There are Nihilists who, from the +sheer hopelessness engendered by a tyranny lasting a thousand years, +have come to cultivate a Philosophy of Despair, of Disgust, and of +Destruction, without troubling themselves as to the constitution of the +Future. These are men that profess a wish to do away with all State +organizations, for the sake of a morbid Individualism. Others there are +who, in the semi-revolutionary vein of Comte, incline towards a +socialist Collectivism in a rather utopian, not to say hierarchic, form. +To them the word "Nihilist" is scarcely applicable. + +Strictly speaking, the word "Nihilist" covers, at most, a small group of +persons of a brooding and impracticable temper, such as is sometimes +created under the darkest tyrannies. It may be doubted whether the +majority of those who use the dagger and the revolver without +compunction against the vile _sbirri_ of an intolerable despotism would +call themselves Nihilists, or even Socialists. The greater number of the +members of the secret leagues are believed to hold views not far removed +from those which have found a practical expression in some freely +constituted countries. The violent means employed are, with many, only +the outcome of a feeling of revenge easily to be understood under the +circumstances; or else they are regarded as a dire necessity in +insurrectionary warfare. True, there have been Russians abroad who spoke +of "abolishing the Family and Property." But nothing warrants the +assumption that this is the principle of the Nihilists in Russia itself. + +If either mere anarchy, or a system of barrack Communism, be the object +of the majority of the men and women whose deeds have of late riveted +the attention of all Europe, it is hard to comprehend that these +conspirators should have secured so many friends among classes which by +education and position cannot possibly have any sympathy with mere +destructive or utopian schemes. Of the existence of numerous friends of +the Nihilists in the higher classes there is, however, no doubt. Thus +only can the hold be explained which the occult propaganda of this _hic +et ubique_ conspiracy has obtained upon the commonwealth. + + +VI. + +I have mentioned the participation of women in the present desperate +struggle. Students, lawyers, officers, Government officials, landed +proprietors, merchants, all kinds of men of the more educated or +well-to-do classes, have been found to be mixed up with the "Nihilist" +Conspiracy. By far the most characteristic feature, however, is the +share which women have taken in the late startling events. When women +thus actively and enthusiastically step forth in a revolutionary or +national movement, even to the extent of sacrificing their lives, it is +always a sign of a people's feelings being wrought up to the highest +tension. So great a strain upon the more delicate nature of the fairer +sex cannot be borne very long. It is only at a time of extreme crisis +that the unusual event occurs; and Russia is now at the very acme of +such a crisis. + +We have seen, in succession, Vjera Sassulitch, a captain's daughter; +Sophia Löschern von Herzfeld, a lady of high rank; Nathalie von +Armfeldt, the daughter of an Imperial councillor; Mary Kovalevski, who +also ranks as a noble; Katharina Sarandovitch, the daughter of a +_tchinovnik_, or official; and several more, of equally prominent +position, playing in the revolutionary contest a most remarkable part. +They have suffered imprisonment; they have risked their lives; some of +them have been condemned to hard labour. One of them was sentenced to +be shot--but this latter decision even the Czar, though having to wage +war against women, dared not carry out. This extraordinary mixing of the +female sex in a widely ramified conspiracy is of so phenomenal a +character that a sketch of the educational and emancipatory movement +which led up to it, may well be here in its place. + +By way of contrast, let us first look into times which seem to lie ages +behind us, but which are yet in the recollection of a great many. + +When Gogol wrote his "Dead Souls," not quite forty years ago, the +education of young ladies in Russia was conducted on wonderful +principles of "finishing." Young ladies--said Gogol, with cutting +satire--receive, as is well known, a very good education. Three things +are looked upon, in the establishments to which they are sent, as the +pillars of all human virtues: namely, first, a knowledge of the French +language; secondly, the piano; thirdly, domestic economy, which consists +of the embroidery of purses and other objects of surprise. "Our present +time," he added, "has shown itself most inventive as regards the +perfection of this educational method; for in one establishment they +begin with the piano, and then go on to French, concluding with the +domestic economy alluded to; whereas in another school the embroidering +of purses forms the introduction, upon which French and the piano +follow. It will be seen that there is much difference in the methods." + +Gribojedoff also, in a telling comedy, has some striking sarcasms on the +superficiality and hollow frivolousness of the education of girls of the +upper classes. "We bring up our daughters," he says, "as if they were +destined to be the wives of the dancing-masters and the buffoons to whom +we entrust their instruction." Now and then a reformer started up, but +in a very curious fashion. One of the earliest was Tatjana Passek, the +cousin of Alexander Herzen, of whom a writer, who adopts the signature +of "Borealis," in the Berlin _Gegenwart_, says that in consequence of +the straitened circumstances of her father, she was compelled to open a +Young Ladies' Establishment in a provincial town. Intelligent, but +without any solid knowledge, she herself relates in her memoirs how she +taught ancient history off-hand, chiefly by means of a lively +imagination. She even critically expounded the philosophical systems of +Greece and Rome without knowing or understanding them. Her handbook for +Greek History was "The Travels of Young Anacharsis." There was no system +or connection in what she taught, but the sprightliness of her delivery +made up for the defect. "When we came to the history of Sparta, we +became so enthusiastic for the Lacedæmonian girls that we tried to +imitate their hardened style of life, washing ourselves with cold water, +promenading with bare feet, doing gymnastics, drinking no tea, and +ceasing to cry. When I look back upon these performances, I wonder how +my pupils remained in good health." The same lady reports that the +friends of her youth, disgusted with the hollowness of drawing-room +life, had endeavoured to satisfy their emancipatory inclinations by +donning men's dress, indulging in Amazonian tastes, and secretly +frequenting taverns where, with their aristocratic small hands, they +jubilantly raised the foaming cup. + +So much for girls' education in the higher strata. As to the immense +mass of the Russian population they were left to rot, intellectually, in +utter neglect. The school system in some Western countries--including +central and southern Italy before 1859-60, France, and even England +until a few years ago--was bad enough. In Russia it was simply +nonexistent. The private educational establishments and grammar schools +in a few towns, which were destined for the more well-to-do middle +class, were sorry copies of the few Government institutions. I have +before mentioned how, under the present reign, a movement for a more +Liberal education arose, which, however, soon led to students' tumults +and to severe police measures. In girls' education, too, a progressive +movement was initiated. For a short time it was said that the Empress +herself, whose German origin inclined her to that view, would assume its +protectorate. But soon it was seen that Government mainly busied itself +with bureaucratic regulations, whilst the foundation of the girls' +schools for which these extensive and often harassing regulations were +framed, proceeded with extreme slowness. In fact, the regulations were +there; but in most cases the schools were wanting. + +Meanwhile, the aspiring girlhood of Russia threw itself with avidity +upon the new sources of knowledge, scant as they were, which had at last +been opened to it. The Minister of Public Instruction, Golovnin, who was +in office between 1861-66, promoted, in his quality of an opponent of +the classical method of education, by preference the study of natural +science. Hence a realistic tendency--often verging upon the harsh and +the crude--became the prevailing tone. Girls, sick of the idleness and +the conventional frivolities of social life, eagerly devoted themselves +to scientific pursuits, both as students at the new academies, and as +subscribers to the courses of lectures which were getting into vogue. +The very antagonists of the more extreme "emancipatory" practices +acknowledge that the greater number of these lady-students, who soon +were driven to seek for an opportunity of acquiring knowledge at a +foreign university--that is, at Zurich--distinguished themselves by much +diligence and talent, as well as by a spirit of personal sacrifice in +regard to worldly comforts. + +At the same time it must be averred that some of them, yielding to an +exaltation and eccentricity easily aroused in womankind, mentally +overbalanced themselves as it were, and began to assume hideous mannish +and hermaphrodite ways. The close-cropped hair, the unnecessarily +spectacled face, the short tight jacket, the cigar, and the frequenting +of public-houses were unpleasant outward signs; but far more deplorable +was the cynic tone. These were and are the sad excrescences of an +otherwise laudable aspiration; but it may be hoped that in course of +time the excrescences will disappear. The sooner the better, else the +best friends of the progressive tendency among womankind will turn away +from it in sorrow and anger at the unsexing of the sex, whose tenderer +nature--in Schiller's words, let us hope not quite antiquated--is +destined to "weave wreaths of heavenly roses into the earthly life." + +However, all the odd eccentricities, all the sad contempt of the natural +and recognised forms of beauty, delicacy, or even decency, into which +some may have allowed themselves to be betrayed by their eagerness to +throw off intolerable intellectual fetters, must not render us unjust to +the sounder aspect of the movement. Nor can those vagaries prevent us +from giving a due meed of admiring praise to the heroism displayed by +those nobly aspiring women, with whom the exaggerated manner is more an +outward form, whilst their self-sacrificing deeds in the cause of the +freedom of the nation and the welfare of the neglected masses, show the +true humanity and nobility of their heart. "Dead souls" they are not. +The fire of enthusiasm is within them. + + +VII. + +After this rapid general survey of the condition of mind of the more +advanced women in Russia I come to the tragic story of Vjera Sassulitch. +It is a story typical of the base cruelty of autocratic government; +typical also of the results such a system must needs produce. + +The victim and heroine of that ever-memorable tragedy was not, at first, +a member of any secret organization. Far from it. At the age of +seventeen, Vjera, then a mere school-girl, had made the acquaintance of +another school-girl, whose brother was a student. In the course of this +innocent girlish friendship she was induced to take care of a few +letters destined for the student, Netchaieff, who afterwards played a +part in the revolutionary movement. A "Nihilist" Miss Sassulitch, at +that time, certainly was not. Her whole ambition centred in the wish of +passing her examination to qualify herself for a governess, which she +did "with distinction." + +Netchaieff's democratic connections having been denounced by a traitor, +whom he thereupon slew, the school-girl of seventeen, who had known his +sister, and him through her, was thrown into prison as one "suspected" +of conspiracy. There was not a shadow of proof against her. No +accusation was even formulated against her. Nevertheless she was kept, +_for two long years_, in the Czar's Bastille--an eternity of torture for +a captive uncertain of her fate. These were the words which her counsel, +Mr. Alexandroff, addressed to the jury, when, later on, she was tried +for an attempt upon Trepoff, one of the most hated tools of despotic +profligacy:-- + + "The time between the eighteenth and the twentieth year--these are + the years of youth when childhood ceases; when impressions lasting + for life are most powerful; when life itself appears yet spotless + and pure. For the maiden it is the most beautiful time--the time of + budding love--the time when the girl rises to the fuller + consciousness of womanhood--the time of fanciful reverie and + enthusiasm--the time to which, in later days, as a mother and a + matron, her thoughts will yet fondly turn. Gentlemen of the jury! + you know in the company of what friends Vjera Sassulitch had to + pass her best years. The walls of a casemate were her companions. + For two years she saw neither mother, nor relations, nor friends. + Sometimes she heard that her mother had come and had given a + message of greeting. That was all she was allowed to learn. Locked + up without occupation within the walls of a prison!... Everything + human concentrated in the single person of the turnkey who brings + the food!... The monotonousness only broken, now and then, by the + call of the sentinel, who, peering through the window bars, + asks,--'Prisoner, have you not done any harm to yourself?' or by + the rattling of the locks and door-bolts, the clack of guns + shouldered or grounded, or the dreary striking of the hour in the + fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul.... Far, far away from + everything human!... Nothing there to nourish the feelings of + friendship and love; nothing but the sympathy created by the + knowledge that, to the right and to the left, there are + fellow-sufferers passing their wretched days in the same way.... + Thus it was that, in the depth of her solitude, there arose, in + Vjera Sassulitch, such warm-hearted sympathy for every State + prisoner that every political convict sufferer became for her a + spiritual comrade in her recollections, to whom she assigned a + place in the experience and the impressions of her past life." + +During the two years that Vjera was kept in dungeons under a mere +suspicion, she was twice only subjected to a secret inquiry--"judicial," +if that is a word applicable to these dread Inquisition procedures. At +last she feared she was forgotten. Nothing whatever having come out +against her, she was finally set free, and went back to her heart-broken +mother, only to be suddenly re-arrested ten days afterwards! For a +moment, in spite of a two years' bitter experience, she childishly +thought there was some mistake. But the horrible truth of her situation +soon broke upon her. One morning she was seized in prison, and, without +being allowed to take even a change of dress, or a mantle, transported +by gendarmes to a distant province by way of banishment. One of these +gendarmes threw his own fur over her shivering shoulders, or else she +might have perished on the road. + +I will not go here through the whole "infernal circle" of her sufferings +and involuntary migrations, which I have elsewhere described more fully. +I will not relate how she was "moved on" from one place to the other; +the only variety in her treatment consisting of an occasional return to +prison. Eleven years had thus altogether elapsed when at last, in those +vast dominions of the Czar, and amidst more thrilling events which began +to crowd upon public attention, she seemed to be really forgotten. In +this way she managed clandestinely to go back to the capital, whence +again she started for Pensa. It was there that, by chance, she learnt +from the _Novoje Vremja_ ("New Times,") the infamous treatment of +Bogoljuboff, a political prisoner, by the chief of the police at St. +Petersburg, the vile and universally despised Trepoff, the personal, +intimate, and pampered darling of Alexander II. + +The flogging practices of this tyrannic head of the "Third Section" are +still in every one's recollection. In referring to the knouting applied +to Bogoljuboff, Vjera Sassulitch's counsel gave the following +description:-- + + "The sufferer whose human dignity is to be insulted, knows not why + he is to be punished. He thinks indignation will lend him strength + to resist those who throw themselves upon him. But he is grasped by + the iron grip of jailers' hands; he is dragged down; and in the + midst of the regular counting of the strokes by the leader of the + execution, a deep groan is heard--a groan not arising from mere + physical pain, but from the soul's grief of a down-trodden, + outraged man. At last, silence reigned again. The sacred act was + accomplished!" + +It was the brooding over such disgrace and affront to which a political +prisoner had been subjected in the very capital by an official whose +department is under the Czar's direct control that pressed the weapon of +revenge into the hands of a tender woman--not so much for her own past +miseries as for those of a still suffering fellow-man. + +Trepoff had been attacked by Vjera Sassulitch in his own Cabinet, in the +very midst of his minions. The jury which tried her was composed almost +exclusively of Aulic Councillors and such-like titled dignitaries. +Prince Gortschakoff sat among the audience; so did the pick and flower +of the upper classes of St. Petersburg. Who could doubt, in presence of +the open avowal of the accused, that the verdict would be "Guilty?" + +Strange to say, even among the officially faultless remarks of the +Public Prosecutor there were some curious admissions. "I, for my part," +Mr. Kessel said, "fully believe the statements made by Vjera Sassulitch. +I believe that facts appeared to her in the light in which they have +been placed here; and _I am ready to accept the feelings of Vjera +Sassulitch as facts_. The Court, however, is bound to measure these +feelings, as soon as they are converted into deeds, by the standard of +the law." Through the summing up of the Judge there ran a strong vein of +interpretations favourable to the accused. "An accused person," he +remarked, "could certainly not be looked upon as an infallible +commentator on the event with which he or she was connected. At the same +time it had to be noted that criminals were to be divided into two +groups: those who are led by selfish impulses, and who therefore, in the +majority of cases, try to mask the truth by lying statements; and those +who commit an act from no motive of personal profit, and who entertain +no wish to hide anything of the deed they have done. You, gentlemen of +the jury, are in a position to judge how far the statements of Vjera +Sassulitch merit your confidence, and to which type of transgressors she +most nearly comes up." + +This was a clear hint to any intelligent jury; and the jury of Aulic +Councillors were intelligent men. Going over all the details of the +case, the Judge made a great many more remarks in the same spirit. The +audience, who had frequently cheered the eloquence of counsel to such an +extent that the President of the Tribunal had to warn them, were on the +tip-toe of expectation. When the Foreman brought in the verdict: "No; +she is _not_ guilty!" the Hall of Justice--for justice had for once been +done--rang with enthusiastic applause. Vjera Sassulitch was borne away +in triumph. + +In the streets, however,--and here we come once more upon all the dark +and terrible ways of Autocracy,--there ensued a fearful scene. An attack +was made upon the coach in which Vjera Sassulitch was to be carried +home--apparently with the object of getting her once more into police +clutches. There was a clash of swords and a confused tumult. Gensdarmes +and police broke in upon the mass of people, who wished to protect her. +Shots were fired. A nobleman and relation of Vjera, Grigori Sidorazki, +lay dead in the street. A lady also, Miss Anna Rafailnowna, a medical +student, writhed on the ground, wounded. The victim of so much prolonged +persecution had herself mysteriously disappeared. Afterwards, an order +for her re-arrest, marked "No. 16," and dated from the Secret Department +of the Town, came to light--evidently through information given by an +affiliate of the Revolutionary Committee within the police +administration itself. This occult connection of sundry officials with +the leaders of the Democratic or Nihilist Conspiracy explains why +Government should so often have been hampered in its efforts to suppress +that organization. + +The verdict of "not guilty," in the case of Vjera Sassulitch, has been +followed by several similar ones--a strong proof of the sympathy felt +among the town populations, at least, with the aims of the +revolutionists. Franz von Holtzendorff, a well-known legal authority in +Germany, wrote on the case above detailed:--"Far more significant than +the verdict of the jury is the fact that that verdict, in spite of its +contrast to the existing law, has received the approval, as it appears, +of the whole Russian press, of the whole of the upper classes, and even +of the circles of Russian legists. I have had personal occasion to +convince myself that prominent officials of the Russian Empire gave +their applause to that verdict." Again, Dr. Holtzendorff said:-- + + "In Russia, the feelings of right and justice, which are + systematically and artificially kept down and repressed, and which + have no outlet in public life, concentrate themselves with their + full weight in the verdict of a jury. That which the press had no + liberty of saying during long years, is given vent to in the + debates of a Court of Justice. An accusation is raised on account + of a deed which, though punishable as a crime in itself, has been + produced and nurtured by a system of administrative arbitrariness + and gross ill-treatment that stands morally deep below the deed in + question--a system of corruption which cannot be attacked legally, + nay, which enjoys all the honours the State can award. And who can + help it if an injustice committed day after day, in the name of the + State, without any expiation, weighs more heavily upon the public + conscience than the act of a single person who, boldly risking his + or her own life, rises with a feeling of the deepest indignation + against so rotten a system of Government? It is but too natural, + this wrathful utterance of the popular voice, when it declares that + a high official, who, trusting in the practical approval of the + Imperial favour, ordains corporal punishment according to his + arbitrary caprice against defenceless prisoners, is guilty of a + greater offence than he who feels driven, by a passionate notion of + justice, to constitute himself, of his own free will, an avenger of + the public conscience.... If, in a State afflicted with political + sickness, the institution of the jury had fallen so deep as to work + with the mechanical certainty of a military court, and to heed + nothing but the points of view of jurisprudence, without being + touched by the current of moral aspirations, thus merely + registering, with Byzantine obedience, the paragraphs of a code of + law: such a phenomenon--keeping, as it would, the Government in a + dangerous error as regards public life--would be far more + reprehensible than that verdict of 'not guilty' by which a whole + system of Government was practically condemned." + +The Russian Government system Herr von Holtzendorff, who personally +belongs to a very moderate political party, brands as "a system of +arbitrary police ordinances, and of the virtual sovereignty of the +Adjutants-General of the Czar--a system of administrative deportations, +of despotic arrestations, of press-gagging--a swashbuckler's +government." Another German writer of some distinction, Dr. Henry +Jaques, observes-- + + "Where an absolutist monarch rules in arbitrary manner, without any + limits to his power, the jury becomes the only representative organ + of a people utterly bereft of all political rights. In such a case, + a jury is indeed entitled to speak, before all, the language of the + people, the language of its aspirations towards freedom, which must + be heard before everything else, if the nation is to acquire its + true rights. Even as, in the Iliad, the orphaned Andromache says to + the parting Hector: 'Thou art now father, brother, and dear mother + to me!' so the Russian people may say to its jury: 'You are now + legislators, judges, and the source of mercy at one and the same + time to me! In you there reposes the One and All of my political + hopes, of my political rights!" + +Noble words, but vain hope! First of all, it is not correct to say that +Vjera Sassulitch had been judged by a jury under a political charge. For +political crimes, or accusations, no jury has ever existed under +Alexander II. Vjera Sassulitch was charged with what Government chose to +consider a _common_ crime; hence only she was brought before a jury. For +political offenders, or what Government chooses to regard as political +offenders, packed tribunals have always been assigned. Happily, +Government overreached itself in the case of Vjera Sassulitch, feeling +too secure in the loyalty of its own Aulic Councillors. + +Secondly, no sooner had the trial resulted in a verdict of "not guilty," +than Count Pahlen, the Minister of Justice, who thought the jury were, +of course, quite a safe one, was dismissed. Thirdly, an ukase went +forth, withdrawing from the cognizance of juries even cases of "common +crime," when such crime was directed against one of the Czar's +officials. Fourthly, fresh regulations were framed for a change of the +jury system, as well as for the discipline of lawyers acting for the +defence. Fifthly, in the teeth of the verdict given in favour of Vjera +Sassulitch, a fresh trial was ordered, to be held in a country town, at +Novgorod, as soon as she could be recaptured. Finally, Alexander the +Liberal, seeing that all ordinary procedures were of no avail, +instituted a state of siege and drum-head law for political offenders +over a large portion of his Empire. + +These are the desperate doings of a despotism maddened by an ever-active +host of enemies. It is usually the beginning of the end. + + +VIII. + +If any more proofs were wanted of the "benevolent" character of the +Government of Alexander II., they might be found in the increase, year +by year, of the deportations to Siberia. They are reckoned to be now +four or five times more numerous than under the galling system of +Nicholas. Political banishments have enormously augmented under his +successor. So has the number of the prescribed loose and vagabond class +of ordinary criminals, or suspects, who are frequently whisked off to +Siberia--for the sake of clearing "Society," as it is called--when the +criminals often become mixed up with the political exiles in an +indistinguishable mass. This is the very refinement of torture, applied +by the agents of a brutal despotism against men generously striving for +a reform of the State and of society. + +The arbitrary deportations are decreed by the "Third Section," or Secret +Police, which is under the Emperor's personal direction. Formerly, this +dreaded office had the power of administering corporal punishment, in +secret, to persons of the upper classes, male or female. At the +Sassulitch trial, the counsel for the defence made a dark allusion to +this practice, which created a deep impression in Court. It was a +reference to a whipping-machine once in use, and of which some of those +present--ladies, as well as gentlemen--may have had personal experience. +A correspondent has given the following description:--The suspected +person, who could not be brought to trial, but whom it was intended to +castigate, would be invited to call at the Office of the Secret Police. +After a few moments' conversation with the dread functionary, the floor +would suddenly sink beneath the visitor's feet, and he would find +himself suspended by the waist, all that part of the body below it being +under the floor, and concealed from view. Then invisible hands and +equally invisible rods would rapidly perform their duty--the trap-door +would rise again--and the visitor would be bowed out with great +courtesy, and go home, carrying with him substantial marks to remind him +of his interview. + +Though this more than Oriental custom has been abolished, enough remains +of barbarity to explain why successive chiefs of the hated police +Hermandad--Trepoff, Mesentzoff, and Drentelen--should have been the mark +of the bullet of popular revenge. A Russian writer says:-- + + "A history of the secret doings, of all the horrors and crimes + perpetrated by this disgraceful institution, would fill up many + volumes, before the contents of which the most sensational novels + would appear tame and shallow. There is scarcely any sphere of + public or private life which is exempted from the irresponsible + control of this Inquisition of the nineteenth century. The verdict + of a Court has no value whatever for the Third Section. Not only + acquitted political offenders are as a rule transported, + administratively, to some distant town of the Empire, but even the + judges themselves, when they are considered to have passed too + lenient a verdict, are liable to be forced into resigning their + office, and to be then _exiled in company with the very prisoners + who had stood before them_!" + +Lest this description should appear to be overdrawn, I may quote from +the letter of the St. Petersburg correspondent of an English journal, +which is certainly not unfavourable to the Government of Alexander II. +The letter was written after the recent proclamation of a state of +siege. And the writer says:-- + + "As proofs and instances, not so much of martial law as of the + repressive measures adopted (in many cases by ordinary + administrative agency, without the machinery of martial law), I may + mention that at the present time, as I am well informed, _more than + 600 persons of the privileged classes are under arrest, to be + deported to Siberia without trial_. In one of the temporary + governor-generalships in the south of the Empire (Odessa), sixty + privileged persons have been already sent to Siberia without trial, + and 200 persons of this class are under arrest to be judged. So + great is the number of persons of this category to be escorted that + a practical difficulty is said to have arisen in connection with + their deportation. A noble, or privileged person, who has not been + judicially sentenced, when sent to Siberia by 'administrative + process' (as it is called, _i.e._, by the orders of the Third + Section, or Secret Police), must be escorted by two gensdarmes, it + being against the laws to manacle a privileged person who is + uncondemned. It appears that there are not gensdarmes enough thus + to escort the number of persons to be deported, and the Ministry of + Secret Police has, I understand, proposed to get rid of this + difficulty by sending the privileged persons fettered like ordinary + criminals.... The Third Section, or Secret Police, which is in its + proceedings essentially _extra leges_, claims to act independently + of any other department of the Empire. This institution, which lays + hold of suspected persons, whether justly or unjustly suspected, + and consigns them to Siberia at its pleasure, savours more of + Asiatic lawlessness than of enlightened European rule, such as it + must be the desire of all in authority to see established + throughout the Empire.... I have myself met with respectable, + honourable men, who have been arrested and imprisoned, in some + cases for a few weeks, in other cases during months, _followed by + years of exile in Siberia, without any charge being brought against + them_; and it is the possibility of this recurring to them, or to + others, that constitutes a Reign of Terror." + +The above description is from the correspondent of the _Daily News_. +Clearly it is a very pleasant position to be a "privileged person" in +Russia. It marks its occupant, by preference, as a possible candidate +for exile to Siberia; the more cultivated classes being essentially +those which constitute the active element of political dissatisfaction. + +Of the treatment of political exiles in Siberia, as it has been carried +on for a long time past, I have before me a thrilling description from +the pen of Mr. Robert Lemke, a German writer, who has visited the +various penal establishments of Russia, with an official legitimation. +He had been to Tobolsk; after which he had to make a long, dreary +journey in a wretched car, until a high mountain arose before him. In +its torn and craggy flank the mountain showed a colossal opening similar +to the mouth of a burnt-out crater. Fetid vapours, which almost took +away his breath, ascended from it. + +Pressing the handkerchief upon his lips, Mr. Lemke entered the opening +of the rock, when he found a large watch-house, with a picket of +Cossacks. Having shown his papers of legitimation, he was conducted by a +guide through a long, very dark, and narrow corridor, which, judging +from its sloping descent, led down into some unknown depth. In spite of +his good fur, the visitor felt extremely cold. After a walk of some ten +minutes through the dense obscurity, the ground becoming more and more +soft, a vague shimmer of light became observable. "We are in the mine!" +said the guide, pointing with a significant gesture to the high iron +cross-bars which closed the cavern before them. + +The massive bars were covered with a thick rust. A watchman appeared, +who unlocked the heavy iron gate. Entering a room of considerable +extent, but which was scarcely a man's height, and which was dimly lit +by an oil-lamp, the visitor asked, "Where are we?" "In the sleeping-room +of the condemned! Formerly it was a productive gallery of the mine; now +it serves as a shelter." + +The visitor shuddered. This subterranean sepulchre, lit by neither sun, +nor moon, was called a sleeping-room. Alcove-like cells were hewn into +the rock; here, on a couch of damp, half-rotten straw, covered with a +sackcloth, the unfortunate sufferers were to repose from the day's work. +Over each cell a cramp-iron was fixed, wherewith to lock-up the +prisoners like ferocious dogs. No door, no window anywhere. + +Conducted through another passage, where a few lanterns were placed, and +whose end was also barred by an iron gate, Mr. Lemke came to a large +vault, partly lit. This was the mine. A deafening noise of pickaxes and +hammers. There he saw some hundreds of wretched figures, with shaggy +beards, sickly faces, reddened eyelids; clad in tatters, some of them +barefoot, others in sandals, fettered with heavy foot-chains. No song, +no whistling. Now and then they shyly looked at the visitor and his +companion. The water dripped from the stones; the tatters of the +convicts were thoroughly wet. One of them, a tall man, of suffering +mien, laboured hard with gasping breath, but the strokes of his pickaxe +were not heavy and firm enough to loosen the rock. + +"Why are you here?" Mr. Lemke asked. + +The convict looked confused, with an air almost of consternation, and +silently continued his work. + +"It is forbidden to the prisoners," said the inspector, "to speak of the +cause of their banishment!" + +Entombed alive; forbidden to say why! + +"But who is the convict?" Mr. Lemke asked the guide, with low voice. + +"It is Number 114!" the guide replied, laconically. + +"This I see," answered the visitor; "but what are the man's antecedents? +To what family does he belong?" + +"He is a count," replied the guide; "a well-known conspirator. More, I +regret to say, I cannot tell you about Number 114!" + +The visitor felt as if he were stifled in the grave-like atmosphere--as +if his chest were pressed in by a demoniacal nightmare. He hastily asked +his guide to return with him to the upper world. Meeting there the +commander of the military establishment, he was obligingly asked by that +officer-- + +"Well, what impression did our penal establishment make upon you?" + +Mr. Lemke stiffly bowing in silence, the officer seemed to take this as +a kind of satisfied assent, and went on-- + +"Very industrious people, the men below; are they not?" + +"But with what feelings," Mr. Lemke answered, "must these unfortunates +look forward to the day of rest after the week's toil!" + +"Rest!" said the officer; "convicts must always labour. There is no rest +for them. They are condemned to perpetual forced labour; and he who once +enters the mine never leaves it!" + +"But this is barbarous!" + +The officer shrugged his shoulders, and said, "The exiled work daily for +twelve hours; on Sundays too. They must never pause. But, no; I am +mistaken. Twice a year, though, rest is permitted to them--at +Easter-time, and on the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor." + + +IX. + +Can we wonder, when we see the ultra-Bulgarian atrocities practised in +Russia, that "Terror for Terror!" should at last have become the parole +of the men of the Revolutionary Committee? + +I will not go over the harrowing details of the events of the last seven +or eight months; they are still fresh in every one's remembrance. The +only measures that could stay this destructive contest are +systematically withheld by the Czar, who will not permit the slightest +display of popular sentiments within the lawful domain of Representative +Government. Many years ago a distinguished French writer described the +Russian system as "a tyranny tempered by the dagger." Alexander, too, +himself is fully aware of this tragic concatenation of events. He is +even known to have often, in the very beginning of his reign, expressed +a feeling of fear lest his own end should be a violent one, like that of +so many of his predecessors. The attempts of Karakasoff and Berezowski +have lately been repeated by Solovieff. Whilst strongly condemning the +deed of the latter, even the Conservative _Standard_ felt called upon, +by the dangers of the situation at large, to make the following +comments, which possess a lasting interest:-- + + "It would be well if this painful incident could be disposed of by + a homily upon individual wickedness and individual perverseness. + Unhappily, it is but too certain that not only the deed itself, but + the peculiar circumstances attending it, are closely related with + the existing condition of a considerable section of Russian + society. We are obliged to add that this condition is closely + connected, in turn, with the form of government and the methods of + administration that prevail in that country.... In spite of the + emancipation of the serfs from the condition of territorial + slavery, the Russian people have made little visible progress in + the acquisition of political freedom. The Czar is still an absolute + Sovereign; his Ministers still remain responsible to no will but + his, and their agents have to answer only to their superiors for + the manner in which they exercise authority.... The sanguine youth + of the nation, eager for a career, and burning for activity, finds + itself debarred from any course of distinction save that of arms, + or that official existence which too often places men in Russia in + antagonism to their own countrymen.... The old method of + government--of police supervision, of private espionage, of + imprisonment, of exile, of political silence--has been tried, and + the result is discontent and extensive conspiracy. We fear that + even the confession of sensualistic atheism by Solovieff will not + prevent his memory from being cherished by thousands of his + countrymen. They will forget everything, save his desire to endow + them with more freedom. Whatever his faults, they will consider + that he perished in their cause, and _what they will be most + disposed to blame will be the unsteadiness of his hand and the + uncertainty of his aim_." + +The _Times_ also, whilst pleading for Solovieff's execution, +acknowledged the fact of the sway of Czardom being rotten to the core, +in the following words:--"It cannot be disputed that whole classes in +Russia are penetrated almost to desperation with a sense of social +oppression and wrong.... A social condition like this is the natural +soil in which the brooding temperament which seeks a remedy in +assassination is nourished." + +When all the safety-valves are closed, Nature takes its revenge, and +ever and anon occasions the inevitable outburst. Russia is at present +under a state of siege from St. Petersburg to Moscow and Warsaw, from +Kieff to Kharkoff and Odessa. An Army of Porters, about 15,000 strong, +must watch the streets of the capital, day and night; and policemen are +set to watch the watchers. Under General Gurko, the crosser of the +Balkans, who is now Vice-Emperor, the last lines of legality have also +been crossed--if the word "legality" applies at all to Russian +institutions. He is invested with unlimited powers, in the place of the +disheartened tyrant. The very Grand Dukes are under his orders. Arrests +among officers of the army have been the immediate consequence of +General Gurko's satrap rule. In several cases, compromising letters and +prints were discovered, and executions both of officers, like Lieutenant +Dubrovin, and of privates, have followed. The gallows are in permanent +activity. But perhaps the most significant feature--and a promising one +too--is the order issued, under court-martial law, that in all the +barracks a list of the soldiers' arms is to be drawn up, and to be +handed over to the police! This is the strongest sign of a suspicion +against the army itself; and on the army the whole power of Czardom +reposes. + +When we hear of the arrest of a Senator, of a Director of the Imperial +Bank, of Professors, of the son of the Chancellor of the dreaded "Third +Section," of the wife of the procurator of a Military Court, of the +nephew of the Chief of the Secret Police, and many other such cases, we +are driven to the conclusion that, in spite of its furious acts of +repression, the autocratic system has become untenable--that it must +sooner or later fall. Like the Roman Emperor, Alexander II. might be +glad if revolt had but a single neck. But is it possible for him to +imagine that there exists but one party of malcontents? Do not the very +arrests just mentioned belie such an assertion? + +Conspirators are laid hold of by the Czar's _sbirri_ together with men +who would not think of armed resistance. Despotism is frightened, in +fact, by the very shadows on the wall. Even the Slavophil and Panslavist +parties--still the ready instruments of aggressive policy--have both +become imbued with Constitutional ideas that look like sacrilege in the +eyes of the Pope-Czar. The revolutionists of _Land and Liberty_ ("Zemlja +i Wolja"); the Socialist Jacobins who follow the doctrines of the +_Tocsin_ ("Nabat"); the Nihilists, properly speaking; and the moderate +Constitutionalists, are all alike the enemies of the present form of +Government. In some districts the peasantry have risen; and, remarkable +to say, the first troop of Cossacks that was led against the insurgents, +refused to fight them. These are portents whose gravity cannot be +mistaken. + +Ten years ago, when the Napoleonic Empire still stood erect, I said, in +an article on "The Condition of France," in the _Fortnightly Review_:-- + + "A mighty change is undoubtedly hovering in the air. There may be + short and sharp shocks and counter-shocks for a little while; but, + unless all signs deceive, the great issue cannot be long delayed. + The calmest observer is unable to deny the significance of the + electrical flashes occasionally shooting now across the atmosphere. + It is as if words of doom were traced in lurid streaks, breaking + here and there through the darkened sky. We are strongly reminded + of the similar incidents which marked the summer of 1868 in Spain. + Those incidents were then scarcely understood abroad; yet they + meant the subsequent great event of September. Even so there are + now signs and portents in France--only fraught with a meaning for + Europe at large." + +This was published in December, 1869. In the following year, September, +1870, Bonapartist rule was a thing of the past. + +Czardom, on its part, may play out its last card by embarking upon a +fresh war. It will only thereby hasten its doom. Though in Russia +concentrated action, for the sake of overthrowing a system of +Government, is surrounded with greater difficulties than in France, I +fully expect that the day is not far distant when Autocracy must either +bend by making a concession to the more intelligent popular will, or be +utterly broken and uprooted. "Terror for Terror!" is a war-cry of +despair; but on such a principle a nation's life cannot continue. The +moment may come when the Tyrant will be driven to bay in his own palace. +And loud and hearty will be the shout of freemen when that event +occurs--of the men striving for liberty in the great prison-house of the +Muscovite Empire itself, as well as of all those abroad who have still +some pity left in their hearts for the woes of a host of down-trodden +nations. + + KARL BLIND. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[47] Russland unter Alexander II. Leipzig: 1870. + +[48] "The day and night of the battle passed, and the sufferers received +no food or water, and their festering wounds were undressed. The +following morning the Russians entered and took possession, and made the +day one of rejoicing WITH THE VISIT OF THE CZAR AND THE IMPERIAL STAFF; +but this celebration of the event, however short it may have seemed to +the victors, was a long season of horrible suffering for the wretched, +helpless captives who stretched their skeleton hands in vain towards +heaven, praying for a bit of bread or a drop of water. Neither friend +nor foe was there to alleviate their sufferings, or to give the trifle +needed to save them from a painful death, and they died by hundreds; and +before the morning of the third day the dead crowded the living in every +one of those dirty, dimly-lighted rooms which confined the wounded in a +foul and fetid atmosphere of disease and death. It was only on the +morning of the third day that these wretched, tortured creatures had +been left to their fate, that the Russians began the separation of the +living from the dead."--_Daily News_ Letter from Plevna. + +[49] There is a notion in this country that Herzen, at one time, was +banished to Siberia, and lived as an exile there. The idea is founded on +a book of his, published in German and English, under the title of "My +Exile in Siberia." Herzen, however, was never banished to Siberia, but +only interned for a time at Perm, which is several hundred miles from +the Siberian frontier, and later at Novgorod. There, as a Government +official, he had to sign the passport documents of those who were +transported to Siberia. He left Russia, and lived abroad in voluntary +exile when he wrote his works of Panslavistic propagandism under +Socialist colours. + + + + +THE FIRST SIN, + +AS RECORDED IN THE BIBLE AND IN ANCIENT ORIENTAL TRADITION. + + +The idea of the Paradisiacal happiness of the earliest human beings +constitutes one of the most universal of traditions. According to the +Egyptians, the terrestrial reign of the God Ra, by which the existence +of the world and of humanity was inaugurated, was an age of gold, to +which Egyptians ever recurred regretfully; so that in order to convey +the idea of any given thing transcending imagination, they were in the +habit of affirming that "nothing had ever been seen like unto it since +the days of the God Ra." + +This belief in an age of innocence and bliss, by which the career of +humanity began, is also to be met with amongst all peoples of Aryan or +Japhetic race, and was theirs anterior to their separation, the learned +having long agreed that this is one of the points on which Aryan +traditions are most plainly derivable from one common source with those +of the Semitic race, of which last Genesis affords us the expression. +But with Aryan nations this belief was closely linked with a conception +specially their own--that, namely, of four successive ages of the world; +and we find this conception attain to fullest development in India. +Created things, and among them humanity, are destined to endure for +12,000 divine years, each of which contains 360 years as reckoned by +men. This enormous period of time is divided into four ages or epochs: +the age of perfection, or _Kritayuga_; the age of the threefold +sacrifice--that is, the perfect accomplishment of all religious duties, +or _Trêtayuga_; the age of doubt or of the obscuration of religious +notions, _Dvaparayuga_; finally, the age of perdition, or _Kaliyuga_, +which is the present age, only to be brought to a close by the +destruction of the world.[50] The Works and Days of Hesiod show us that +precisely the same succession of ages was held by the Greeks, but +without their duration being calculated by years, and with the +supposition of a new humanity being produced at the beginning of each; +the gradual degeneracy, however, which marks this succession of ages is +expressed by the metals after which they are named--gold, silver, brass, +and iron. Our present humanity belongs to the age of iron, and is the +worst of all, although it began with the heroes. Zoroastrian Mazdeism +also admits this theory of the four ages, and we find it expressed in +the _Bundehesh_,[51] but under a form less nearly akin to the Indian +conception than was Hesiod's, and without the same spirit of crushing +fatalism. Here the duration of the universe is fixed at 12,000 years, +divided into four periods of 3000. In the first all is pure; the good +God _Ahuramazda_ reigns over his creation, in which as yet evil has not +appeared; in the second, the evil spirit Angromainyus issues from the +darkness in which he had up to this time remained inert, and declares +war against Ahuramazda, and then begins their conflict of 9000 years, +which occupies three of the world's ages. During the first 3000 years +Angromainyus has but little power; during the second, the success of the +two principles remains pretty evenly balanced; finally, during the last +age, which is that of historic times, evil prevails, but this age is to +terminate with the final defeat of Angromainyus, to be followed by the +resurrection of the dead and the beatitude of the risen just. The advent +of the prophet of Iran, of Zarakhustra (Zoroaster) is placed at the +close of the third age, or exactly in the middle of that period of 6000 +years which is assigned to the duration of the human race under their +actual conditions. + +Certain learned authorities--as, for instance, Ewald and M. Maury--have +striven to discover in the general order of Biblical history traces of +this system of the four ages. But impartial criticism must admit that +they have not made out their case; the foundations on which they have +tried to establish their demonstration are so entirely artificial, so +opposed to the spirit of the Scripture narrative, that they break down +of themselves.[52] And, indeed, M. Maury is the first to allow that +there is a fundamental opposition between the Biblical tradition and +the legend of Brahminical India or of Hesiod. In this last, as he +himself remarks, we see "no trace of a predisposition to sin transmitted +by inheritance from the first man to his descendants, no vestige of +original sin." + +No doubt, as Pascal has so eloquently said, "it is in this abyss that +the problem of our condition gathers its complications and intricacies, +so that man is more inconceivable without this mystery than this mystery +is inconceivable to man;" but the truth of the fall and of original sin +is one of those against which human pride has most constantly rebelled, +is, indeed, the one from which it spontaneously seeks to escape. Hence +of all portions of primeval tradition as to the beginnings of humanity +it has been the earliest obliterated. As soon as men felt the sense of +exultation to which the progress of their civilization and their +conquests in the material world gave birth, they repudiated the idea. +Religious philosophers springing up outside the revelation which was +held in trust by the chosen people took no account of the Fall; and, +indeed, how could that doctrine have been made to harmonize with the +dreams of Pantheism and emanation? By rejecting the notion of original +sin, and substituting the doctrine of emanation for that of creation, +most of the peoples of pagan antiquity were led to the melancholy theory +of the four ages, such as we find it in the Sacred Books of India and +the poetry of Hesiod. It was by the law of decadence and continual +deterioration that the ancient world believed itself so heavily laden. +In proportion as time passed and things departed further and further +from their point of emanation, they corrupt themselves and grow ever +worse. This is the effect of an inexorable fate and of the very force of +their development. In this fatal evolution towards decline, there is no +room left for human freedom; the whole revolves in a circle from which +there is no means of escaping. With Hesiod, each age marks a decadence +from the one that preceded it; and, as the poet explicitly declares +regarding the iron age inaugurated by heroes, each of these ages taken +separately follows the same descending scale as does their totality. In +India the conception of the four ages or _Yuga_, by developing itself +and producing its natural consequences, engenders that of the +_Manvantara_. According to this new theory the world, after having +accomplished its four ages of constant degeneration, undergoes +dissolution (_pralaya_), things having reached such a pitch of +corruption as to be no longer capable of subsisting. Then there springs +up a new universe, with a new humanity--doomed to the same cycle of +necessary and fatal evolution, which the four _Yugas_ in turn go +through, till a new dissolution takes place; and so on to infinity. Here +we have, indeed, fatalism under the most cruelly inexorable form, and +also the most destructive of all true morality. For there can be no +responsibility where there is no freedom, nor is there in reality any +good or evil where corruption is the effect of an irresistible law of +evolution. + +How far more consolatory is the Biblical statement, hard though it first +appear to human pride, and how incomparable the prospects it opens out +to the mind! It admits that man, almost as soon as created, fell from +his state of original purity and Edenic bliss. In virtue of the law of +heredity everywhere imprinted on Nature, it was the fault committed by +the first ancestors of humanity in the exercise of their moral freedom +which condemned their descendants to punishment, and by bequeathing to +them an original taint predisposed them to sin. But this predisposition +to sin does not condemn man fatally to its committal; he may escape from +it by the exercise of his free will; and in the same way he may by +personal effort raise himself gradually out of the state of material +decline and misery to which the fault of his ancestors has brought him +down. The pagan conception of the four ages unrolls before us a picture +of constant degeneration, whereas the whole order of Biblical history +from its starting-point in the earliest chapters of Genesis affords the +spectacle of the progressive rise of humanity from the period of its +original fall. On one hand, its course is conceived of as a continual +descent; on the other, as a continual ascent. The Old Testament, which +we must here embrace in one general view, occupies itself but little +indeed with this ever-ascending course as regards the development of +material civilization, of which, however, it cursorily points out the +principal stages with a good deal of exactness. It rather traces for us +the picture of moral progress, and of the more and more definite +development of religious truth, the apprehension of which goes on ever +gaining in spirituality, purity, and breadth amongst the chosen people, +by a series of steps marked by the calling of Abraham, the promulgation +of the Mosaic Law, and, lastly, by the mission of the prophets, who in +their turn announce the last and supreme progress. This is to result +from the coming of the Messiah, and the consequences of this last +providential fact will go on continually developing themselves, and +tending towards a perfection, the term of which lies in the Infinite. +This notion of a rise after the fall, the fruit of man's free effort +assisted by divine grace and working within the limit of his powers +towards the accomplishment of the providential plan, is shown to us by +the Old Testament as existing only in one people, the people of Israel; +but the Christian spirit has extended the view to the universal history +of mankind, and thus has arisen that conception of a law of continual +progress unknown to antiquity, to which our modern society is so +invincibly attached, but which is, we should never forget, an idea due +to Christianity. + +Zoroastrianism was unlike other pagan religions in this, that it could +not fail to admit and preserve the ancient tradition of a first sin. +Rather would it have been forced to construct for itself an analogical +myth, had it not found such in the primitive memories that it bent to +its own doctrines. The tradition squared, indeed, but too well with its +system of a dualism having a spiritual basis, although as yet but +imperfectly freed from confusion between the physical and moral worlds. +It explained quite naturally how man, a creature of the good God, and +consequently originally perfect, should have fallen under the power of +the evil spirit, thus contracting a taint which in the moral order +subjected him to sin, in the material to death, and to all the miseries +that poison earthly existence. Thus the notion of the sin of the first +authors of humanity, the heritage of which weighs constantly on their +descendants, is a fundamental one in Mazdean books. The modification of +legends relative to the first man even resulted in the mythic +conceptions of the later periods of Zoroastrianism, in attaching a +rather singular repetition of this first transgression to several +successive generations in the initial ages of humanity. + +Originally--and this is at present one of the points most solidly +established by science--originally in those legends common to Oriental +Aryans before their separation into two branches, the first man was the +personage that the Iranians call Yima, and the Indians Yama. A son of +Heaven and not of man, Yima united the characteristics that Genesis +divides between Adam and Noah, fathers both, the one of antediluvian, +the other of postdiluvian humanity. Later, he appears as merely the +first king of the Iranians, but a king whose existence, as well as that +of his subjects, is passed in the midst of Edenic beatitude in the +paradise of Airyana-Vædja,[53] the dwelling-place of the earliest men. +But after a time when life was pure and spotless, Yima committed the sin +which weighs on his descendants, and in consequence of that sin, lost +his power, was cast out of Paradise, and given up to the dominion of the +serpent, the evil spirit Angromainyus,[54] who finally brought about +Yima's death by horrible torments.[55] It is an echo of the tradition +about the loss of Paradise ensuing upon a transgression prompted by the +Evil Spirit that we find in what is incontestably one of the oldest +portions of the Sacred Scriptures of Zoroastrianism.[56] "I created the +first and the best of dwelling-places. I who am Ahuramazda: the +Airyana-Vædja is of excellent nature. But against it Angromainyus, the +murderer, created a thing inimical, the serpent out of the river and the +winter, the work of the Doevas."[57] And it is this scourge, caused by +the power of the serpent, which occasions the departure for ever from +the paradisiacal region. + +Later, Yima appears as no longer the first man, or even the first king. +The period of a thousand years assigned to his existence in Eden[58] is +now divided between several successive generations, occupying the same +space of time, from the moment when Gayomaritan, the type of humanity, +began to find himself struggling against the hostility of the Evil +Spirit up to the death of Yima. This is the system adopted by the +Bundehesh. The history of the sin which made Yima lose his primal +happiness, and subjected him to the power of the adversary, still +remains connected with the name of that hero. But this transgression is +no longer the original sin; and in order to be able to attribute it to +the ancestors whence all humanity springs, its story is again told here +(subserving a double purpose) in connection with the first pair whose +existence was completely terrestrial and similar to that of other human +beings--Masha and Mashyâna. "Man was; the father of the world was. +Heaven was destined to be his on condition of his being humble in heart, +and doing with humility the work of the law, of his being pure in +thought, pure in word, pure in deed, and of his never invoking the +Doevas. Under these conditions man and woman were reciprocally to make +each other's happiness. They drew near and became man and wife. At first +they spoke these words: 'It is Ahuramazda who has given the water, the +earth, the trees, the beasts, and the stars, the moon and the sun, and +all the blessings which spring from a pure root and pure fruit.' Later, +falsehood ran through their thoughts, perverted their disposition, and +said to them: 'It is Angromainyus who has given the water, earth, trees, +beasts, and all above-named things.' Thus, it was that in the beginning +Angromainyus deceived them concerning the Doevas, and to the end this +cruel one has only sought to seduce them. By believing this lie, both +became like unto demons, and their souls will be in Hell until the +renewal of bodies." + +"They ate during thirty days; they clothed themselves in black raiment. +After these thirty days they went hunting; a white goat presented +itself; with their mouths they drew milk from her udder, and nourished +themselves with that milk which delighted them.... + +"The Doeva who told the lie, grew more bold, and presented himself a +second time, _and brought them fruits which they ate, and by so doing of +the hundred advantages they enjoyed there remained to them only one_. + +"After thirty days and thirty nights a fat white sheep appeared; they +cut off his left ear. Instructed by the celestial Yazata[59] they +brought fire from the tree Konar, by rubbing it with a piece of wood. +Both set fire to the tree; they blew up the fire with their mouths; they +first burnt the branches of the tree Konar, next of the date-tree, and +the myrtle.... They roasted the sheep, dividing it into three parts.[60] +... Having eaten of the flesh of the dog they covered themselves with +the skin of that animal. Then they gave themselves up to the chase and +made themselves garments of the hair of wild beasts."[61] + +We may here observe that in Genesis also, vegetable food is the only one +made use of by the first man in his state of bliss and purity; the only +one promised him by God. Animal food does not become lawful till after +the Flood. It is also after the Fall that Adam and Havah first clothe +themselves with coats of skin made for them by Yahveh himself. + +The late lamented George Smith believed that amongst the fragments of +the Chaldean Genesis, discovered by him, one might be interpreted as +relating to the fall of the first man, and that it contained the curse +pronounced upon him by the God Ea, after his transgression.[62] But this +was an illusion, which a more profound study of the cuneiform document +has dispelled. Smith's translation, which was too hasty, immature, and, +moreover, hardly intelligible, turns out erroneous from beginning to +end. Since then Mr. Oppert has given us an entirely different version of +the same text,[63] the first possessing a really scientific character, +in which the general meaning becomes tolerably clear, though there are +still many obscure and uncertain details. One thing at least is now +quite established: the fragment has no kind of reference to original sin +and the curse of man. We must therefore leave it entirely outside the +sphere of our present researches; endeavouring, however, to convey a +warning to such as may be tempted, in dependence on the celebrated +Assyriologist, to make use of it in a Commentary on the Bible. + +Thus, then, we have no formal and direct proof that the tradition of the +original transgression, as told in our Holy Scriptures, formed part of +the cycle of the records of Babylon and Chaldea, respecting the origin +of the world and of man. Neither do we find any allusion to the subject +in the fragments of Berosus. But, despite this silence, a similarity +between Chaldean and Hebrew traditions on this point, as upon others, +has so great a probability in its favour as almost to amount to a +certainty. Further on we shall return to certain very valid proofs of +the existence of myths relating to a terrestrial paradise in the sacred +traditions of the lower basin of the Euphrates and Tigris. But it +behoves us to dwell for a few moments on the representations of the +sacred and mysterious plant, guarded by celestial genii, that Assyrian +bas-reliefs so often display. Up to the present time no text has been +found to elucidate the meaning of the symbol, and we have to deplore a +want, that no doubt will one of these days be met by the discovery of +new documents. But the study of these figured monuments alone renders it +impossible to doubt the high importance of this representation of the +sacred plant. Whether it appear alone, or, as sometimes happens, +worshipped by royal figures, or, as I have just said, guarded by genii +in an attitude of adoration, it is incontrovertibly one of the loftiest +of religious emblems; and what places this character beyond doubt is, +that we often see above the plant the symbolic image of the Supreme God, +the winged disc--surmounted or not by a human bust. The cylinders of +Babylonian or Assyrian workmanship present this emblem no less +frequently than the bas-reliefs of Assyrian palaces, and always under +the same conditions, and evidently attributing to it an equal +importance. + +It is very difficult to avoid comparing this mysterious plant, in which +everything points out a religious symbol of the first order, with that +famous tree of life and knowledge which plays so prominent a part in the +narrative of the earliest transgression. All paradisiacal traditions +make mention of it; the tradition in Genesis, which sometimes seems to +admit of two trees, one of life and one of knowledge, sometimes of one +tree only combining both attributes, and standing in the midst of the +garden; the Indian tradition, which supposes four plants on the four +counterforts of Mount Méru; and, lastly, that of the Iranians, which +sometimes treats of a single tree springing from the very middle of the +holy spring of water, Ardvî-çûra, in Airyana-Vædja, and sometimes of +two, corresponding exactly to those of the Biblical Eden. This +similarity is so much the more natural, that we find the Sabians or +Mendaites, an almost pagan sect, dwelling in the environs of Bussorah, +who retain a great number of Babylonian religious traditions, to be also +conversant with the tree of life, which they designate in their +Scriptures as _Setarvan_, "that which shades." The most ancient name of +Babylon in the idiom of the Ante-Semitic population, _Tin-tir-kî_, +signifies "the place of the tree of life." Finally, the representation +of the sacred plant which we assimilate with that of the Edenic +traditions, appears as a symbol of life eternal on those curious +sarcophagi, in enamelled clay, belonging to the latest period of +Chaldean civilization, after Alexander the Great, which have been +discovered at Warkah, the ancient Uruk. + +The manner of representing this sacred plant varies in Assyrian +bas-reliefs and exhibits different degrees of complexity.[64] It is, +however, invariably a plant of moderate size, of pyramidal form, having +a straight stem from which spring numerous branches, and a cluster of +large leaves at its base. In one example only[65] is the plant +represented with sufficient accuracy to enable us to classify it as the +_Asclepias acida_ or _Sarcostemma vinimalis_, the plant known as the +Soma to the Aryans of India, the Haoma to the Iranians, the crushed +branches of which afford the intoxicating liquor offered as a libation +to the gods, and identified with the celestial beverage of life and +immortality. More generally, however, the plant has a conventional and +decorative aspect, not answering exactly to any natural type, and it is +this purely conventional form which the Persians have borrowed from +Assyro-Babylonian art, and which represents the Haoma on gems, cylinders +or cones of Persian workmanship in the era of the Achemenides.[66] +Such an adoption of the most usual shape of the sacred plant of the +Chaldeans and Assyrians by the Persians, in order to represent their own +Haoma--although the conventional bore no similarity to the real +plant--proves that they recognized a certain analogy in the conception +of the two emblems. In point of fact the Persians have shown great +discernment in their borrowing and adapting; and where they took +Chaldeo-Assyrian art for model and for teaching, they only adopted such +of those religious symbols common in the basin of the Euphrates and +Tigris, as might be rendered applicable to their own peculiar doctrines, +and even to a very pure Mazdeism. The adoption of the image of the +divine plant of the Chaldeo-Assyrians in order to represent the Haoma +is, therefore, a conclusive sign that an assimilation of the symbols had +taken place, and we find in it a new proof in support of the close +connection between the plant guarded by genii on Assyrian or Babylonian +monuments and the tree of life of paradisiacal tradition. Indeed, if +Indians vary in opinion as to the nature of the mysterious trees of +their earthly paradise of Mènu, even generally admitting of four +different species, and if the Bundehesh-pehlevi, in bestowing on the +tree of Airyana-Vædja the name of _Khembe_, appears to have had in view +one of the plants placed by Indians on the counterforts of Mèru--_i.e._, +the _Panelea orientalis_, which in Sanscrit is called _Kadamba_; it is +the "white Haoma," the Haoma type that is almost always found in the +sacred books of Mazdeans springing from the middle of the fountain +Ardvî-çûra, and distilling the beverage of immortality. The Aryans of +India connected a similar idea with their Soma, for the fermented liquor +that they produced by pounding its branches in a mortar, and offered as +a libation to their gods, is named by them _Amritam_, "ambrosia draught +that renders immortal." The Haoma and its sacred juice is also called +"that which keeps off death," in the ninth chapter of the _Yaçna_ of the +Zoroastrians. It is for this reason that, both with the Indians and the +Iranians, the personification of the sacred plant and its juice, the god +Soma, or Haoma, prototype of the Greek Dionysius, becomes a lunar +divinity, inasmuch as he is the guardian of the ambrosia stored by the +gods in the moon. And here we have another similarity forced upon us +when we stand before Assyrian bas-reliefs, where the sacred plant is +guarded by winged genii, having heads of eagles or peripterous vultures. +These symbolic beings present, indeed, a singular analogy with the +Garuda, or rather the Garsudas of Indian Aryans, genii, half men, half +eagles. Now, in the Indian myths, more particularly in the beautiful +story of the _Astika-parva_ of the Mahâbhârata, it is Garuda who +reconquers the ambrosia _Amritam_--that is, the sacred juice of the +Soma, used for libations, that had been stolen by demons, and who +restores it to the celestial god, himself remaining its guardian. The +part played by him and by the eagle-headed genii of Assyrian monuments, +with regard to the tree of life, is consequently the same as that which +we find in Genesis assigned to _Kerubin_, armed with flaming swords, +who were placed by God at the gate of Eden, after the expulsion of the +first human pair, to prevent the entrance into Paradise, and to guard +its tree of life. + +In one part at least of Chaldea properly so called, to the south of +Babylon, it appears as though it were no longer the type we have just +been considering that was employed to represent the tree of life. It was +the palm, the tree that furnished the majority of the inhabitants of the +district with food, and with fruit from which they distilled a fermented +and intoxicating liquor, a kind of wine; the tree to which they were +wont to attribute in a popular song as many benefits as there are days +in the year--this palm it was that was there considered the sacred, the +paradisiacal tree. We have the proof of this in cylinders that show us +the palm surmounted by the emblem of the Supreme God, and guarded by two +eagle-headed genii. Moreover, the essential character of the tree of +life lies in its fruits affording an intoxicating juice, the beverage of +immortality; and accordingly the books of the Sabians or Mendaites +associate it with the tree Setarvan, "the perfumed vine," Sam Gufro, +above which hovers "the Supreme Life" in the same way as does the +emblematic image of divinity in its highest and most abstract form above +the plant of life in the monumental representations of Babylon and +Assyria. + +And, further, the fact that in the cosmogonic traditions of the +Chaldeans and Babylonians respecting the tree of life and paradisiacal +fruit, there was contained a dramatic myth, closely resembling in form +the Biblical narrative of the Temptation, appears to be as positively +established as may be in the absence of written texts, by a cylinder of +hard stone preserved in the British Museum.[67] There we actually see a +man and woman, the former wearing on his head the kind of turban +peculiar to Babylonians,[68] seated opposite each other on either side +of a tree, from whose spreading branches two big fruits hang--one in +front of each of the figures who are stretching out their hands to +gather it. A serpent is rearing himself behind the woman. This +representative might serve as a direct illustration of the narrative in +Genesis, nor as M. Friedrich Delitzsch has observed, can it lend itself +to any other interpretation. + +M. Renan has no hesitation in agreeing with ancient commentators in +finding a vestige of the same traditions among the Phenicians in the +fragments of the Book of Sanchoniathon, translated into Greek by Philo +of Byblos. In point of fact it is there told, in connection with the +first human pair, that Aion--which seems a rendering of Havah--"invented +feeding on the fruits of the tree." The learned academician even thinks +he discovers in this passage an echo of some type of Phenician figured +representation, retracing a scene such as that recorded in Genesis, and +visible on the Babylonian cylinder. Certain it is that, at the epoch of +the great influx of Oriental traditions into the classic world, we see a +representation of the kind figure on several Roman sarcophagi, where it +indicates positively the introduction of a legend analogous to the +narrative of Genesis, and associated with the myth of the formation of +man by Prometheus. One famous sarcophagus in the Capitol Museum displays +in the neighbourhood of the Titan, son of Japetos, who is performing his +work as modeller--a pair--man and woman--in the nudity of primeval days, +standing at the foot of a tree, the man's gesture showing that he means +to gather its fruit.[69] We meet with the same group in a bas-relief +built into the wall of the small garden of the Villa Albani in Rome, +only here it is in still closer conformity with the Hebrew tradition, as +a huge serpent is coiled round the trunk of the tree beneath which the +two mortals are standing. It is this plastic type that was imitated and +reproduced by the earliest Christian artists, when they attempted the +representation of the fall of our first parents, which formed so +favourite a subject with them, both in sculpture and painting. + +On the sarcophagus of the Capitol the presence in proximity of +Prometheus of one of the Parcæ drawing the horoscope of the man whom the +Titan is forming, leads us to suspect in these sculptured subjects the +influence of the doctrine of those Chaldean astrologists who had spread +themselves, during the later centuries before the Christian era, +throughout the Greco-Roman world, and had acquired an especial amount of +credit in Rome. Nevertheless, the date of these last monuments renders +it possible to look upon the representation of the first pair beside the +tree of Paradise, of which they are about to eat, as directly borrowed +from the Old Testament itself, as well as from the cosmogony of Chaldea +or Phenicia. But the existence of this tradition in the cycle of the +indigenous legends of the Canaanites seems to me placed beyond doubt by +a curious painted vase of Phenician workmanship of the seventh or sixth +century B.C., discovered by General di Cesnola, in one of the most +ancient sepulchres of Idalia, in the Isle of Cyprus.[70] + +There we actually see a leafy tree, from the branches of which hang two +large clusters of fruit, while a great serpent is advancing with +undulating movements towards the tree, and rearing itself to seize hold +of the fruit.[71] + +Now, we are justified in doubting that in Chaldea, and still more in +Phenicia, a tradition parallel to the Biblical account of the Fall ever +assumed a significance as exclusively spiritual as it does in Genesis, +or that it contained the moral lesson also to be found in the story as +given in the Zoroastrian scriptures. The spirit of grossly materialistic +Pantheism in the religion of those lands rendered this impossible. +Nevertheless, we may remark that among the Chaldeans, and their +disciples the Assyrians, at all events from a given epoch, the notion of +the nature of sin and the necessity of repentance was to be found more +precisely formed than amongst the majority of ancient peoples, and +consequently it is difficult to believe that the Chaldean priesthood did +not, in their profound speculations on religious philosophy, seek for +some solution of the problem of the origin of evil and sin. + +With the foregoing reservation, it is, indeed, probable that the +Chaldean and Phenician legend of the fruit of the tree of Paradise was +nearly akin in spirit to the cycles of ancient myths common to all the +branches of the Aryan race. To the study of these M. Adalbert Kuhn has +contributed a book of the highest interest.[72] He deals with such as +refer to the invention of fire, and to the beverage of life. These are +to be found in their most ancient form in the Vedas, and they then +passed over, more or less modified by the course of time, to the Greeks, +Romans, Slavs, as well as the Iranians and Indians. The fundamental +conception of these myths, which are only to be found complete in their +oldest forms, is of the universe as an immense tree, whose roots embrace +the earth, and whose branches form the vault of heaven.[73] The fruit of +this tree is fire--indispensable to human existence, and the material +symbol of intelligence; and the leaves distil the Elixir of Life. The +gods had reserved to themselves the possession of fire, which sometimes, +indeed, descends on earth in the form of lightning, but which men were +not themselves to produce. He who--like the Prometheus of the +Greeks--discovers the method of artificially kindling a flame, and +communicates this discovery to other men, is impious, has stolen the +forbidden fruit from the sacred tree, is accursed, and the wrath of the +gods pursues him and his race. + +The analogy between these myths and the Bible narrative is striking +indeed. They are, really, one and the same tradition, only bearing a +quite different sense, symbolizing an invention of a material order, +instead of dwelling on the fundamental fact of the moral order, and +disfigured further by the monstrous conception, too frequent in +Paganism, of the Divinity as a formidable and adverse power, jealous of +the happiness and progress of man. The spirit of error among the +Gentiles had distorted the mysterious symbolic memory of the events by +which the fate of humanity was decided. The inspired author of Genesis +took it up under the form that it had evidently retained among the +Hebrews, as among the other nations where it had acquired a material +meaning, but he restored to it its true significance, and made it the +occasion of a solemn lesson. + +Some remarks are still needed regarding the animal form assumed by the +tempter in Bible story, that serpent who, as figured monuments have +shown us, played the same part in the legends of Chaldea and Phenicia. + +The serpent, or, more correctly speaking, different kinds of serpents, +held a very considerable place in the religious symbolism of the peoples +of antiquity. These creatures figure therein with most opposite +meanings, and it would be contrary to the laws of criticism to group +together confusedly, as some learned scholars were once wont to do, the +contradictory notions linked in old myths with different serpents, so as +to form out of them one vast Ophiological system,[74] referred to a +single source, and brought into relation with the narrative in Genesis. +But by the side of divine serpents, essentially benign in character, +protective, prophetic, linked with gods of health, life, and healing, we +do find in all mythologies a gigantic serpent, who personifies a hostile +and nocturnal power, a wicked principle, material darkness, and moral +evil. + +Among the Egyptians we meet with the serpent, Assap, who fights against +the sun and moon, and whom Horus pierces with his weapon. Among the +Chaldeo-Assyrians we find mention made of a great serpent called the +"enemy of the gods," _aiub-ilani_. We need not introduce here the myth +of the great cosmogonic struggle between Tiamat, the personification of +Chaos, and the god Masuduk, related in a portion of the epic fragments, +in cuneiform character, discovered by George Smith. Tiamat assumes the +form of a monster often repeated on monuments, but this form is not that +of the serpent. We are distinctly told that it was from Phenician +mythology that Pherecides of Syros borrowed his account of the Titan +Ophion, the man-serpent precipitated into Tartarus, together with his +companions, by the god Kronos (El), who triumphed over him at the +beginning of things, a story strikingly similar to that of the defeat +of the "old serpent, who is the accuser and Satan," repulsed and +imprisoned in the abyss, which story does not, indeed, occur in the Old +Testament, but existed among the oral traditions of the Hebrews, and +makes its appearance in Chapters xii. and xx. of the Apocalypse of St. +John. + +Mazdeism is the only religion in whose symbolism the serpent never plays +any but an evil part, for even in that of the Bible it sometimes wears a +benign aspect, as, for instance, in the story of the brazen serpent. The +reason is, that in the dualistic conception of Zoroastrianism the animal +itself belonged to the impure and fatal creation of the evil principle. +Thus, it was under the form of a great serpent that Angromainyus, after +having tried to corrupt Heaven, leaped upon the earth; it was under this +form that Mithra, god of the pure sky, fought with him; and, finally, it +is under this form that he is eventually to be conquered and chained for +3000 years, and at the end of the world burned up with molten +metals.[75] + +In these Zoroastrian records, Angromainyus, under the form of a serpent, +is the emblem of evil and personification of the wicked spirit as +definitively as is the serpent of Genesis, and this in an almost equally +spiritual sense. In the Vedas, on the contrary, the same myth of the +conflict with the serpent has a purely naturalistic character, evidently +describing an atmospheric phenomenon. The idea most frequently repeated +in the ancient hymns of the Aryans of India at their primitive epoch, is +that of the struggle between Indra, the god of the bright sky and the +azure, and Ahi, the serpent, or Vritra, the personification of the +storm-cloud that lengthens out crawling in the air. Indra overthrows +Ahi, strikes him with his lightnings, and by tearing him asunder sets +free the fertilizing streams that he contained. Never in the Vedas does +the myth rise above this purely physical reality, never does it pass +from the representation of the warring atmospherical elements to that of +the moral conflict between good and evil, as it does in Mazdeism. + +According to a certain school of modern mythologists, of which M. +Adalbert Khun is the most prominent representative in Germany, this +storm-myth is the pivot on which hinges a universal explanation of all +ancient religions whatever. And in particular the fundamental source, +origin, and true significance of the traditions we have been reviewing, +including the Biblical accounts of the Fall, are all, according to him, +to be looked for in this naturalistic fable of the _Vedas_. No doubt the +allegory which served as starting-point to this myth was not unknown to +the Hebrews. We find it distinctly expressed in a verse of the Book of +Job (chap. xxvi. 13), where it is said of God, "By his Spirit he hath +garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent." Here, +indeed, by the parallelism of the two clauses of the verse, the former +determines the meaning of the latter. But the Vedic myth is only one of +the applications of a symbolic statement, of which the source does not +lie among the Aryans; but must be sought much further back in the +primitive thought of humanity, anterior to the ethnical separation of +the ancestors of Egyptians, Semites, and Aryans, of the three great +races represented by the three sons of Noah; for it is common to all. +The pastoral tribes, whence sprung the Vedic hymns, only connected it +with an idea exclusively naturalistic, almost childish, and specially +drawn from the phenomena that most interested their simple existence, to +which all advanced civilization, whether material or intellectual, was +still foreign. But among the Egyptians the same metaphor appear with a +far more general and elevated significance. The serpent Assap is no +longer the storm-cloud but the personification of darkness, which the +sun, under the form of Ra or Horus, encounters during his nocturnal +passage through the lower hemisphere, and has to triumph over before he +appears in the east. Thus, the conflict between Horus and Assap is daily +renewed at the seventh hour of the night, a little before the rising of +the sun, and the "Book of the Dead" shows that this strife between light +and darkness was taken by the Egyptians as the emblem of the moral +strife between good and evil. Neither is the serpent the mere +storm-cloud in those paradisiac legends of Chaldea and Phoenicia in +which we have been able to discern a relation in form to the record in +Genesis. The aspect of the cloud lengthening out in the sky may, indeed +(I could not positively deny it without more positive certainty) have +furnished the first germ of the idea of constituting the serpent the +visible image of the adverse power, combining the intimately associated +ideas of darkness and of evil--a notion from which, by a confusion of +the physical and moral orders, no ancient religion, not even Mazdeism, +was entirely able to free itself, unless it were that of the Hebrews. +But with all the highly civilized peoples whose traditions we have +scrutinized, the great serpent symbolizes that dark and evil power in +its widest significance. + +But be this as it may, my faith as a Christian finds no difficulty in +admitting that, in order to relate the fall of the first pair, the +inspired compiler of Genesis made use of a narrative which had assumed +an entirely mythical character among neighbouring peoples, and that the +form of a serpent assigned to the tempter may have had for +starting-point an essentially naturalistic symbol. Nothing obliges us to +understand the third chapter of Genesis literally. Without any departure +from orthodoxy we are justified in looking upon it as a figure intended +to convey a fact of a purely moral order. It is not, therefore, the form +of the narrative that signifies here, but rather the dogma that it +expresses, and this dogma of the fall of the human race through the bad +use that its earliest progenitors made of their free will, remains an +eternal truth which is nowhere else brought out with the same precision. +It affords the only solution of the formidable problem which constantly +returns to rear itself before the human mind, and which no religious +philosophy outside of revelation has ever been able to solve. + + FRANÇOIS LENORMANT. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[50] The system is thus expounded in the "Laws of Manu," i. 68-86. For +its ulterior developments see Wilson, Vishnu-Purana, pp. 23-26, and +259-271. + +[51] Theopompus, cited by the author of the treatise "On Isis and +Osiris," attributed to Plutarch (c. 47), already pointed out this +doctrine as existing among the Persians. + +[52] Ewald calculates the four ages of the world which he believes he +has discerned in the Bible as follows:--1. From the Creation to the +Deluge; 2. from the Deluge to Abraham; 3. from Abraham to Moses; 4. from +the Promulgation of the Mosaic Law. Such epochs have scarcely any +resemblance to the Ages of Hesiod or of the Laws of Manu. And, moreover, +it is well to note that wherever we meet simultaneously, as we do with +Indians, Iranians, and Greeks, with the existence of the four ages and +the tradition of the Deluge, these are completely independent of each +other, have no connection whatever, which indicates a difference of +origin, from sources having nothing in common. Nowhere does the Deluge +coincide with the transition between two of these ages. + +Nevertheless, there is a point where a certain approximation may be +established between the theories of India and those of the Bible. The +Laws of Manu say that in the four successive ages of the world the +duration of human life goes on decreasing in the proportion of 4, 3, 2, +1; in the Bible we have the antediluvian patriarchs, with the exception +of Enoch, who was translated to Heaven, living about 900 years. +Subsequently Shem lives 600, and his three first descendants between 430 +and 460; to the four succeeding generations there is assigned a life of +between 200 and 240 years; finally, from the time of Abraham the +existence of the patriarchs comes nearer to normal data, and no longer +reaches a maximum of 200 years. + +[53] "Vendidâd," ii. It is also related how Yima preserved the germs of +men, animals, and plants from the Deluge. See, too, "Yesht," i. 25-27, +ix. 3-12, xv. 15-17. "Bundehesh," xvii. + +[54] "Yesht," xix. 31-38. "Bundehesh," xxiii. and xxxii. "Sad-der," 94. + +[55] "Yesht," xix. 46. + +[56] "Vendidâd," i. 5-8. + +[57] Demons. + +[58] It is rather remarkable that the life of Adam, which, according to +Genesis, was one of 930 years, should so nearly approach this duration. + +[59] Genii. + +[60] In the "Yacna" (xxxii. 8) it is Yima who teaches men to cut meat in +pieces and to eat it. Windeschman has rightly compared this with Genesis +ix. 3. + +[61] "Bundehesh," xv. + +[62] "Chaldean Account of Genesis," p. 83. The original text is given in +Friedrich Delitzsch's "Assyrische Losestücke," 2nd edition, p. 91. + +[63] See E. Ledrain: "Histoire d'Israel," vol. i. p. 416. + +[64] See Rawlinson: "The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World," +2nd edition, vol. ii. p. 7. + +[65] Botta: "Monuments of Nineveh," vol. ii. p. 150. + +[66] This image was also employed for the same purpose in the time of +the Sassanides, and we can trace the history of the curious vicissitudes +which led to its being imitated as a mode of ornamentation, having no +particular significance, first among the Arabs, and next in some western +edifices of the Roman Period. + +[67] Layard: "Cultus of Mithra," xvi. No. 4. G. Smith: "Chaldean Account +of Genesis." The cylinder is of Babylonish workmanship and great +antiquity. + +[68] This head-dress, frequently represented on monuments, is spoken of +as characteristic of the Chaldeans in Ezekiel xxiii. 15. + +[69] Panofka inclines to give to this couple the names of Deucalion and +Pyrrha, the son of Prometheus and daughter of Pandora, progenitors of a +postdiluvian human race. We see no objection to this, provided, however, +that it be admitted that the monument shows the introduction of a legend +similar to that of Adam and Havah, attached to those personages. As the +probable theatre of such an introduction, one might be led to think of +Iconia in Asia Minor, when the formation of men by Prometheus was, by +local tradition, assigned to a period immediately succeeding the deluge +of Deucalion, and told with details singularly akin to those given in +the Bible. + +[70] Cesnola: "Cyprus: its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," p. 101. + +[71] We must limit ourselves, must not be carried away into exaggerated +developments. We will not, therefore, carry these analogies further. But +they might be pursued in a direction that shall be briefly pointed at. +It is difficult to avoid seeing a similarity between the Tree of +Paradise of Asiatic Cosmogonies, and the tree of golden fruit in the +garden of the Hesperides, guarded by the serpents which figured +monuments invariably represent coiled about its trunk. In that myth of +incontestably Phenician origin, according to which Hercules slays the +guardian serpent and secures the golden apples, we have the revenge of +the luminous or solar god reconquering the tree of life from a dark, +jealous, and inimical power, personified by the serpent, which had taken +possession of it in the world's early days. In the same way we have in +the Indian myth the gods regaining the ambrosia from the Asouras or +demons that had stolen it. We may also observe that Hercules, the +conqueror of the dragon of the Hesperides, is also the liberator of +Prometheus, him who first, despite the divine prohibition, gathered +fire, the fruit of the celestial and cosmic tree. + +[72] "Die Herabkunft des Feuers und die Göttertranks." Berlin, 1859. + +[73] On the existence among the Babylonians of the idea of the cosmic +tree, see C. W. Mansell, _Gazette Archéologique_, 1878, p. 138. + +Among the myths borrowed by the philosopher Pherecides, of Syros, from +the Phenician mysteries, was that of the winged-oak ([Greek: hupopteros +drus]), over which Zeus had spread a magnificent veil representing the +constellations, the earth and ocean. Here we manifestly have the cosmic +tree again. + +[74] Mr. Fergusson's work, "Tree and Serpent Worship" (London, 1868), is +not quite free from this defect, the learned author having displayed +more erudition and ingenuity than critical faculty. + +[75] "Bundèhesh," xxxi. The serpent's form is also that given to +different secondary personifications of the evil principle, different +mythological beings created by Angromainyus to ravage the earth, and war +with the good, and with the true faith--such as Azhi-Dahâka (the serpent +that bites), conquered by Thraetaina, and the dragon Cruvara, slain by +the hero Kereçaçpa. + + + + +POLITICAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN GREECE. + + + ATHENS, _August, 1879_. + +If during this latter period of our national existence, which from every +point of view presents one of the most serious crises in our history, +all Europe finds itself agitated by constant commotions, Greece, which +more than any other European nation is interested in the various events +of the Eastern crisis, is truly under the power of a national paroxysm. +The serious modifications which have been accomplished in the state of +affairs in the East were of a nature to exert a great influence on +Greece, threatening each day to swallow up that country in the tempest. +Doubtless, it was impossible for Greece to remain indifferent at a time +when nations, but till lately unknown, were created by caprice or +interest, without themselves having any sentiment of their national +existence, and which now threaten her national and political future in +the East. The armed protests of Crete, of Epirus, of Thessaly, and of +Macedonia, were but the commencement of a general participation of +Hellenism in the struggle between the Slavs and the Turks, and doubtless +of a more serious complication of the Eastern Question, to the great +dismay of European diplomacy, which can not or will not re-establish the +equilibrium between the different national elements which struggle +fiercely with each other in the Balkan Peninsula. It was only the demand +made on Greece by united European diplomacy, at the commencement of the +war in the East, that she should remain neutral, and the promises made +to her that she should not be forgotten in a Congress of the Powers +relative to the improvement of the state of things in the Ottoman +Empire, which induced her to restrain her national aspirations, and to +await that justice from a European Congress, which she was on the point +of claiming by arms. However, the delay which has occurred up to the +present time in the solution of the question of the delimitation of the +Hellenic frontiers--which is still pending between the Greek Government +and the Sublime Porte--is a sad sign of the blindness of the Turkish +Government, and equally hurtful to both peoples, paralyzing their +progress in civilization. For if this question were once settled, they +would be able to turn their attention to another quarter--that, namely, +where the common interests and dangers of the two peoples meet. For not +only the Sublime Porte, but Europe also, should well understand that a +predominance of the Hellenic element in the East has in nowise for its +object to satisfy the ambitious tendencies of a race. Modern +civilization is in danger of being overrun by the furious waves which +threaten to carry away everything in the Russian Empire. Those +fundamental principles of Russian Society, those ideas (extravagant and +anti-social in all points of view) of a Panslavist Cæsarism, and the +principles of Nihilism, and of other social and religious sects, so +absurd and so contrary to human nature, between which there is just now +raging a combat so keen and so barbarous, are symptoms fatal to +civilization and to the peace of Europe, and the forerunners of a +catastrophe near at hand. Slavism, which is as ancient as the Latin and +German nationalities, has not, up to the present time, personified any +civilizing element in European history. Its proper character is +despotism, and in recent times it is anarchy in its most inauspicious +and frightful aspect. Consequently, Europe must open her eyes to the +danger which threatens her. A nationality which, from the very beginning +of its historical activity, represents principles of society and of +civilization in a state of decadence--at a period when it should be full +of youth and of ideality--ought to be seriously studied by those who +direct the destinies of the West. Not only is the preponderance of +Panslavism in the East a menace and a danger for the future and for the +regeneration of Hellenism, but dangers and complications more grave +threaten all Europe, in consequence of such preponderance. The Cossack +in the East, at Constantinople or near it, signifies nothing else but an +entire and immediate overturning of the European equilibrium and of +modern civilization. A man who well knew Russia and the Russians, the +famous author of the "Soirées de Saint Petersbourg," has written these +words:--"We must know how to set bounds to Russian desire, for by its +nature it is without limits." Deeply significant words of Joseph de +Maistre! The history of Russian policy is a development of this idea. +The public conscience of Europe ought to meditate upon and consider that +peril which the Marquis of Salisbury exposed with so much lucidity and +precision in that famous and memorable circular addressed to the Powers +of Continental Europe--that circular which had made us hope, but in +vain, for the advent of a new era in the history of English diplomacy +and in the progress of international morality. But now we must, alas! +repeat the famous saying of M. de Beust: "There is no longer any +Europe!" + +We hoped, in common with the whole of the free and enlightened opinion +of Western Europe, that this circular of the noble Marquis, containing +the exalted traditions of George Canning with respect to the Hellenic +cause, was about to inaugurate a new era in European diplomacy. What, +then, was the motive for the sudden change in British diplomatic policy +during the Berlin Congress? Lord Beaconsfield, on his return from +Berlin, attempted to throw a doubtful light on this mysterious change in +the policy of the Cabinet of St. James's, when he finished his speech +with this vague remark, which has since become so celebrated among us: +"Greece has a future; and if I might be permitted to offer her my +advice, I would say to her, as to every individual who has a future, +Learn to wait." + +We refrain from examining here the motives for this change, because we +believe it is very difficult to lift the veil which covers the mysteries +of the political inconstancy of the Cabinet of St. James's; and leaving +the solution of this enigma to time, that great OEdipus of history, we +will here make only this remark, that English diplomacy has allowed a +favourable opportunity to escape for taking the initiative in all the +great questions which concern the general interests of civilization, and +this notwithstanding the hopes which Lord Salisbury's circular for an +instant caused us to entertain. However, the propitious moment has not +yet passed away. France, which appears at this moment to be holding +aloft the standard of the policy first enunciated by the Marquis of +Salisbury, serves not only the interests of Greece and of Europe, but +also those of England. + +Beware of the North! In the triumph of the Panslavist idea there is not +only the absorption of Hellenism, there is something of still more +general interest, which for some time past should have furnished +European diplomacy with matter for reflection, before the icy blast of +the North, changing our fears into realities, obliges diplomacy to +submit to accomplished facts. + +Europe to-day, in proceeding with the execution of a decision of the +Congress, is not only doing a work of importance, but also a work of +justice in repairing the wrong which she formerly committed in narrowing +the limits of the Greek kingdom, and hindering the physical development +of its people. The political prophets of the time when this new European +State was created--Palmerston, Leopold of Belgium, Metternich--were +unanimous in pointing out how doubtful was the future of this nation, +which had not the elements necessary to a regular life, and which, +consequently, was incapable of fulfilling the exalted mission which +Europe had confided to it in creating it. What was the cause of this +niggardliness of the Powers towards a nation full of youth and activity, +at the very moment of its creation? Mr. Gladstone has already told us in +this REVIEW.[76] + +Greece, which, more than all the other Eastern races, had always the +_pre-eminence_ intellectually and morally, might, in concert with the +West, and making herself, so to speak, the organ of its views in the +East, become a powerful barrier against that torrent of Slavism which +for some time past has threatened to overwhelm the Balkan peninsula. + +In that ethnological pandemonium, which is called the Peninsula of the +Balkans, of which so many nationalities dispute the possession, to the +exclusion of the only possessors whose rights are consecrated by +history, Greece seems to be the only nationality which, better than all +the other races,--most of which lack historic traditions and a true +national consciousness,--is capable of realizing the views of Europe for +the fulfilment of which, on the initiative of England, the European +Congress was convoked at Berlin. It was, doubtless, these principles +which inspired the Congress when, in Article 13 of the Treaty, it +ordered the annexation to Greece of the bordering provinces of Epirus +and Thessaly; this was a reparation of the political fault committed at +the time of the creation of the new kingdom. However, a dishonest policy +on the part of Turkey delays up to this moment the accomplishment of the +Treaty fulfilled by her in its other Articles. She has reaped its +advantages, but she seems not to wish to submit to its sacrifices. We +cannot conceive what benefit the Sublime Porte derives from this vain +delay. It ought to understand that it will not gain anything from this +continual paroxysm with which it finds itself struggling since the last +Eastern crisis. And we see with satisfaction that public opinion in +Turkey has already acknowledged that an enlargement of Greece, even at +the expense of Turkey, is not contrary to the interests of the two +races, whose common peril from the Slavs is indisputable. Turkey must +seek the centre of her activity and power in Asia, where she may play an +important part, and not in Europe, where she has always remained a +stranger, and has never succeeded in creating an indigenous and national +civilization. It will one day depart from Europe, this Mussulman race, +which for five centuries has only encamped in Europe, without leaving +any memorial of civilization or morality, except a few pages of military +history. It can carry European civilization to the nations of Asia, +initiating them into its mysteries, by means of a wiser government and a +more enlightened activity. This is the true and just policy of Turkey in +the future. By the cession of the provinces where the Turkish element is +_nil_ she will gain much more strength than by their retention, which +cannot be of any profit to her. + +We hope that Turkish statesmen, whose enlightenment and intelligence are +well known, will recognize the urgent necessity for a sincere +understanding between the two neighbouring States on the basis of the +cession of the two provinces in accordance with the Berlin Treaty; then +perhaps, later on, a union may be formed in order to oppose the common +enemy. The obsolete policy of _non possumus_, behind which Turkey +persists in sheltering herself has been, on more than one occasion, +hurtful and fatal to her. + +The province of Epirus, without the town and department of Jannina, is +like a body without a head. The town of Jannina, which fills so +glorious a page in the modern history of Hellenism, has been ever since +its foundation the capital of Epirus in every point of view. It is only +the bad faith of the Turkish Government which could take advantage of +the inconceivable patriotism of the Albanians to create all of a sudden +an Albanian nationality. It is true that there does exist an Albanian +race, an insignificant branch of that powerful tree of the Hellenic +family; but this race has never played an important, independent, free +part in history. Once only, in the time of Scanderbeg, does Albania +appear to have fulfilled a separate mission, in fighting against the +Turks for the liberty and independence of her rugged mountains; but the +brilliant star of this memorable and almost unique epoch in the poor +history of Albania, the famous hero of Croia, according to recent +researches into this part of the history of the Middle Ages, was not of +Albanian origin. In those long combats for Hellenic liberty and +independence, when the Albanian race fought with the _ilephtes_ and +_armatoles_ of the national regeneration, it was not an Albanian idea +which inspired those brave champions of our independence: it was the +Greek standard, it was the _sabanum_ of Constantine, under the shadow of +which the tyrant was combated by the Greek patriots, and by those who, +in this time of sophism and paradoxes, plume themselves upon Albanian +nationality, in claiming with incomparable _naïveté_, in documents and +manifestoes in which historical traditions are disfigured, the +independence and liberty of a nation which never existed in history. +These mountaineers, these intrepid combatants in a holy cause, remained, +during all that revolutionary epoch of Greece, in the rear of the +Hellenic idea, which was doubtless their national idea. This idea +impresses its peculiar stamp on the life of the nation, in its material, +moral, and intellectual existence; but such has never existed in the +Albanian race. Unity of history, of language, of religion, all that +constitutes the essence of nationality, is altogether wanting in the +Albanians. This is not the time to discuss all the obsolete and +paradoxical things which have lately been said about the Albanians by +anthropologists, ethnologists, &c. &c. We do not wish, either, to +pronounce against them the death-sentence of the celebrated geographer +Kiepert, who wrote some time ago in the _National Zeitung_ of Berlin, +"We think the total dissolution of this part of an important and very +ancient nation, which always retrogrades" to be very probable, and +useful for European interests. Doubtless, the Albanians have a right of +historical existence; but that history in which is always represented +more or less the famous scientific conception of the great naturalist of +modern times, the _struggle for existence_, is favourable only for those +who know how to work and struggle successfully in the arena of +civilization. Up to this moment, this race has been entirely unknown in +history. A learned German naturalist, Haeckel, has found in this region +of Eastern Europe the rudiments of a savage life exactly resembling as +to manners the state of pre-historic times, especially in Upper Albania, +where this race has a numerical and national preponderance. The +Albanian nationality, then, about which its _soi-disant_ representatives +have made so much noise, has no real existence, and is at this day but a +national Utopia, a _terra incognita_, existing only in the ardent +imagination of certain high functionaries of the Sublime Porte, and +certain religious fanatics of Mussulman Albania. As for the +non-Mussulmans, they still remain supporters and friends of the Hellenic +idea and of the Greeks, with whom they have always made common cause, +and have played a glorious part in our history by their courage and +patriotism. Let the Albanians show by their European culture that there +are among them the elements of a compact race which has the full +consciousness of its individuality; and, what is more important, let +them abstain from declaring to-day against Hellenism, by becoming the +instruments of treacherous movements whose sole aim is their absorption. +The object of the Hellenic idea is not the absorption of the races with +which it is called to live; it is neither fusion nor conquest, as has +been more than once proved in history. It is only in the Greeks that the +Albanians will find their natural friends and allies; it is only with +them that they will not lose their national individuality, because they +are their brothers, retarded in the history of humanity and of +civilization. + +But if the idea of an independent and peculiar Albanian race and +nationality is shown to be false by ethnological research and by +historical documents, it is a still greater error and a ridiculous +pretension to say that the town of Jannina is the centre and the capital +of the Albanian idea and nationality. This argument, which for some time +past has been going the round of Europe, and which has found supporters +in Italy,--in the Italian Government unfortunately,--is truly pitiable, +and unworthy of being seriously debated, in the view of those who are at +all acquainted with the history of modern Greece. But since, in these +times of vain questions and useless and sophistical debates about the +peoples of the East, much has been written and argued on this question +in the European press, we think it may not be out of place to give some +information on the political and intellectual state of Jannina, its +population, and the historical and moral traditions of the town, which +was formerly, prior to the creation of the new kingdom, the intellectual +capital of Hellenism. + +Jannina is, of all the districts of Epirus, that in which the Greek +population is the most numerous and the most compact. Out of 100,000 +inhabitants of this district, there are only 5000 Mussulmans; and these +also are of Greek origin, because they all speak Greek. And in Turkey in +Europe, Jannina is the most Hellenic village, in which there is not one +inhabitant who does not speak the language of the country. It is, +perhaps, an historic curiosity, but still it is a fact which has already +been proved, that the Sublime Porte has no right of conquest over this +town, because Jannina has not been conquered by the Turks, but has only +recognized the Turkish rule by a treaty which guaranteed to it all the +rights of self-government--rights which were afterwards trampled under +foot in consequence of a rising in the unfortunate town. In the +seventeenth century, at the very dawn of the Hellenic revival, Jannina +was already a centre of light which illumined the dark sky of Hellenism; +for a long time this part of Epirus was the mother-country of the +greatest patriots, and the most earnest propagators of national +education. Athens was but a village, known only through history, when +this town was already the central point of the national consciousness; +the capital of the learning of the dispersed nation, which was without a +political official centre. In the famous school of this town, afterwards +called [Greek: Zôsimaia Scholê] (The School of Zosimas), illustrious +professors taught Greek literature; and, according to the testimony of +many travellers, Jannina was the town whose inhabitants spoke the most +correct Greek. Our national historian, M. Papparigopoulos, speaks thus +of it in his French work, already well known and esteemed in +Europe[77]:--"Jannina especially became a true nursery of teachers, who +in their turn were placed successively at the head of other schools in +Peloponnesus, in continental Greece, in Thessaly, in Macedonia, at +Chios, at Smyrna, at Cydones, at Constantinople, at Jassy, at +Bucharest." The intellectual superiority of this town lasted until the +death of Ali Pasha and the creation of the new kingdom, when the centre +of the moral and political activity and work of the nation was +transferred to Athens, the town which, from its grand traditions, was +worthy to become once more the capital of the great Hellenic idea. But +the school of Jannina still remains one of the most renowned and the +most useful centres for the propagation of the learning and literature +of Ottoman Greece. At this day, for the foreigner who visits the capital +of the kingdom of the Hellenes, the first spectacle which will attract +his attention will be that majestic view of national monuments, worthy +to be compared with the most renowned monuments of the European cities: +these are the University, the Academy, the Polytechnic School, the +Arsakion, the Seminary of Rizari, &c., all eloquent witnesses of the +patriotism and self-sacrifice of the nation. Who are the founders of +these monuments? By what means have these brilliant ornaments of the +Hellenic revival been constructed? The greater part of their generous +founders are Epirotes, natives of Jannina itself, that town of which one +of the most illustrious _savants_ of regenerated Greece spoke with so +much appropriateness when he compared its school to a great river which +has given rise to several streams, which in their turn have watered and +fertilized all the other towns of Greece, but which to-day, contrary to +all reason and to historic truth, is represented as the Albanian +capital, and finds for this strange idea supporters who willingly +sacrifice the rights of populations to political interests and +necessities; a sad but eloquent sign of the moral confusion of our +times, and of the bad faith which dominates over the political and +international conceptions of some Governments. + +The political life of Greece has, doubtless, been very stormy of late +years. The state of confusion and uneasiness which followed the +expulsion of King Otho, and, later, the unfortunate issue of the Cretan +rising, acted to some extent as a drag on the peaceful progress of the +new kingdom. Besides this, the adoption of a political Constitution +dissimilar and entirely strange to our customs and political and social +habits, the introduction of what is called in political language the +Constitutional _régime_, transplanted from the cloudy region of England +to the sunny climate of Greece, has not proved the political panacea +which had been hoped for by the enthusiasm of the political ideologists +of our times. Already, and especially during the last fifteen years, the +intellectual life of a young nation full of health and vigour has been +wasted foolishly in a barren struggle about political formalities, while +other questions, more serious and more vital to the national +development, have been neglected. No doubt we may console ourselves with +the thought that we are neither the first nor the last for whom the +fruit of the political wisdom of old Albion has proved so bitter and so +indigestible, and that other nations of the Continent, more advanced +than ourselves in civilization, have committed the same fault of not +taking into account that the Government of a nation is not a mere +question of forms, but that it ought to be the expression of its moral +and social life, that it ought to represent its historical traditions +and political aspirations. Like most of the Continental nations, we also +have the external forms of the English Constitution, without having its +internal essence, which constitutes the real value of its political +institutions,--viz., Self-government. It is true that the political +wisdom of nations does not improvise itself, nor reveal itself all at +once in its fulness, as Minerva of old sprang from the head of Jupiter, +clad in complete armour, but that it develops itself during their +historic progress amidst vicissitude, and by turning to profit the +lessons of trial and experience. It is this that gives us the hope that +in future our nation, enlightened by the painful events of which we are +now reaping the sad fruits, will become more clear-sighted, especially +after the annexation of the new Hellenic provinces, when the need will +be the more felt for a revision of our political system, and the +reconstruction of our new political edifice on a basis more real, more +solid, more durable, and more in conformity with our national character, +with our needs, and with contemporary aspirations. Our political life, +especially during its latter years, instead of adding a page to our +contemporary history, has, on the contrary, consumed and wasted +foolishly many of our intellectual faculties which might have been more +usefully employed. At the moment when vague questions, which were +useless to our national and political development, were being gravely +debated in the Parliament of Athens, Greece might, with a more perfect +political Constitution and military organization, have shown herself +fully in a position to face the storm which still agitates the Balkan +peninsula; might have shown herself to be a respectable Power, capable +of measuring her strength with her enemies. The East was in flames, the +populations of the Balkans in full revolt, only the Government of Athens +had no definite policy. Whilst the Greeks of Turkey were waiting +impatiently, and turning their eyes to the Cabinet of Athens, this +latter, under the presidency of M. Coumoundouros, remained inactive and +irresolute. When the danger became more serious, and all parties, under +the impulse of an obsolete illusion, had united themselves in order to +form that common Government which our press has called the OEcumenical +Government, then was seen in all its obviousness the political +incapacity of those parties who for fifteen years past had governed +Greece, without doing anything, and without thinking of the important +and serious position which Greece might have occupied in the East. This +coalition ministry, without principles and without political aim, was +driven from office, after a period of internal languor, in order to give +place to M. Coumoundouros, the skilful perplexer of our policy, worthy +to be compared in more than one respect with Walpole, whose memory, +doubtless, does not occupy an illustrious and honourable page in English +political history. It is this same uncertainty and confusion which +reigns to this day in the thoughts and in all the actions of the +Government, which under a wiser and more politic direction might and +ought to say the last word in those negotiations, which already have +been going on for a year between the Cabinets of Europe, on the subject +of the new frontiers of Greece. + + * * * * * + +But if our political life cannot call forth the admiration and +enthusiasm, nor win the applause of an impartial judge, the individual +and social progress of the nation, on the contrary, in many points of +view, compensates us to some extent for our political inexperience and +incapacity in these latter times. If the Hellenic State, wearing a dress +which is burdensome and strange to its customs and its free +individuality, cannot advance as it should do, on the other hand society +has in other respects made immense progress. The impulse which has been +given to the active mind of the nation of late years is in every way +remarkable. In its social development Greece does not encounter any +obstacle which hinders the march of its civilization. The ancient +class-divisions of Europe, which are now exciting terrible passions that +threaten the overthrow of the social edifice, have no cause of existence +under the calm and happy sky of regenerate Greece. The social work of +the progress and development of the national forces goes on here without +obstacles, in a perfect accord of all classes of society. We have not +here classes having opposite aspirations, suspected one by the other, +and ready to engage in a deadly struggle. We only want political wisdom, +and then Greece, which has not to-day to expiate past faults, because +she has already expiated many of them, will be capable of becoming a +political society worthy of the nineteenth century. + +We recommend to the readers of this REVIEW two works recently published +in French, in which they will be able to study the progress of Greece +since its regeneration. These are--"La Grèce telle qu'elle est," by M. +Moraitinis; and "La Grèce à l'Exposition universelle de Paris en 1878," +by M. Mansolas, director of the Office of Statistics, in which may be +found a record of the social and intellectual work which in the space of +fifty years has transformed Greece, by changing the uncultivated desert +of former times into a prosperous and vigorous society. The apology of +much-misunderstood and much-decried Hellenism is made by the eloquence +of the figures in this history, which is symbolical of its spirit. The +regenerate country, by comparison with the other provinces which have +remained under the yoke of Turkey, witnesses to the work which has been +accomplished, and which has transformed the aspect of Greece, thanks to +its national and political enfranchisement. + +Fifty years ago Greece emerged from a catastrophe: she had been deprived +of everything and devastated by a long and desperate war; she was +without resources, without agriculture, without commerce, without +manufactures, without the least social or political organization; +everything had perished during her long struggle for independence, +except her genius and her faith in the future. This faith has already +wrought marvels. Agriculture, which is _par excellence_ the basis of the +prosperity of nations, has made considerable progress; its development +goes on day by day in geometrical progression. Thus, in the space of the +last fifteen years there have been taken into cultivation nearly +5,000,000 acres. The number of inhabitants engaged in the cultivation of +the soil, including the shepherds, is, according to the census of 1870, +562,559 out of the 901,387 inhabitants (among the 1,457,894 inhabitants +of the kingdom) whose employment could be stated. Of this number 218,027 +are agriculturists, properly so called. This is the chief industry of +the country. Like agriculture, manufactures have also made considerable +progress of late. We extract from M. Mansolas' book the interesting +description which he gives of the state and progress of manufacturing +industry in Greece:-- + +"Any one returning to Athens after an absence of fifteen years would +certainly be surprised to see, on landing at the Piræus, tall chimneys +by the side of the railway station, and the vast district of industrial +establishments which has been formed, where a few years ago one did not +see a single cottage, a tree, or a blade of grass. + +"When we consider that all these manufacturing establishments which one +sees in Greece are the work of a few years, we shall learn with interest +what progress has been made in so short a space of time, and so much the +more so since all this is due to individual enterprise, to the +association of capital, and to competition, that universal condition of +the progress of nations as of individuals. The various manufactories in +which steam-power is employed, distributed among the different towns in +the kingdom, have been founded since 1863; their saleable value is over +£1,000,000 sterling. They spend £1,600,000 in raw material, about +£100,000 in fuel, and turn out products of the value of nearly +£2,000,000. Seven thousand three hundred and forty-two operatives, male +and female, are employed in these establishments, which, under the +impulse of the national industry, are multiplying and developing +themselves daily with considerable rapidity. Again, it is a Greek, an +Epirote, Evangeli Lappa, at whose cost have been instituted, under the +name of [Greek: Olympia], exhibitions of agriculture, and manufactures +every four years, in which, conformably with the fundamental statutes, +all the products of Hellenic industry are to be represented, and +particularly its manufactures, its agriculture, and cattle-breeding. A +magnificent palace, erected expressly for it at the cost of the generous +founders, is destined to receive, when finished, the fourth exhibition +of the [Greek: Olympia]." + +In common with agriculture and manufactures, trade is likewise making +considerable progress. It is to the commercial spirit of the Greeks, of +which traces are everywhere seen, that we owe the considerable extension +which commerce has undergone in Greece since her national regeneration. +Her general trade shows the following figures:-- + + Year. Imports. Exports. + + 1865 £3,196,403 £1,775,775 + 1874 4,261,870 2,663,662 + +The spirit of association, under every aspect, is the secret of human +progress and development in modern times. In Greece this idea, +essentially human, of association has not yet realized the grand results +in the way of progress which we admire in the rest of Europe. The +poverty of the country, recently delivered from general destruction, is, +doubtless, one of the chief causes of this. However, since the year +1868, a great impetus has been given to our national life in respect of +association. The first company was formed in 1836. From that time to the +present 144 joint-stock companies have been created at different dates. +Of all these companies there remain at this day fifty, witnesses to the +vitality of the country, and to the constant progress of Greece. This +fact is still more clearly affirmed by the operations of the National +Bank of Greece. + +This bank, established in 1842 with a capital of £165,000 divided into +5000 shares, possesses to-day a capital of £600,000. While in the year +following its establishment (1843) the highest amount of its note +circulation only reached £12,500 that of its discounts £85,000 and that +of its advances £6500; in 1877 the note circulation reached £1,500,000, +its discounts £3,800,000, and its commercial advances £1,100,000. The +annual dividend has increased from about £3 per share in 1846 to £8 +6_s._ 6_d._ in 1875. + +It is in the budget more especially that we may ascertain this great +national progress which is manifesting itself under every aspect of +Hellenic life. The revenue of the kingdom, according to the budget for +the year 1879, amounted to over £1,600,000, while at the date of the +establishment of the first monarchy the total of the ordinary public +revenue was £260,000. + +This extension of the vital forces of the nation is, doubtless, a +visible progress. We have not yet arrived at the completion of the +national work necessary to place us on the level of European +civilization. Much has yet to be done; but this does not depend only on +the good-will and the capacity of the inhabitants. The too narrow limits +of the kingdom, the political uncertainty which has weighed upon the +life and upon the future of the country, particularly during recent +years, divert the attention of the Government and of the nation to more +general and more urgent matters. The peaceful labour of the country has +not, however, been entirely suspended during the late period of +agitation and crisis, when the cannon was thundering in close proximity +to us. The material and social progress which has taken place during the +last three years shows the confidence which the nation has in herself, +in her mission, and her future. + +Already, since the creation of the new kingdom, the West, regretting in +some sort what it had just done, had shown itself very severe towards +Greece. After the phil-Hellenic enthusiasm a singular change supervened +in the sentiments of Europe. A calculating and scornful spirit had +succeeded that fever of generosity which produced the day of Navarino. +It was thought that a Liliputian could play the part of a giant. +Impossibilities were asked of a new State, without means, without +resources, scarcely risen from the tomb of oblivion and ruin. If +clear-sighted men of this period had been listened to--Leopold of +Belgium, Palmerston, Metternich even--Greece would have had limits more +natural in order that she might breathe and act more freely. This +youngest child of the European States would to-day be a strong Power, +capable of struggling against the Panslavist spectre in the East, and of +realizing the projects of the West in this country of the Balkans which +appears to be menaced by Muscovite conquest. However, if in a military +point of view Greece cannot to-day be the chief actor, she yet remains +the most important factor of civilization in the East in intellectual, +political, and ethnological respects. It is the indomitable genius of +this nation which in the darkest moments of its historical life has been +able to throw some brilliant flashes over the history of the human race. +It is Greek industry which to-day plays _par excellence_ the most active +part in the propagation of culture in the East. Intermediate between the +West and the East, the Greeks assimilate with an astonishing rapidity +the results of progress; and the ancient East, that unfortunate mummy of +history, begins to be born again, to revive, to breathe, to speak, like +the legendary statue of Memnon, under the breath and at the approach of +the new spirit casting its vivifying rays on the motionless and silent +body of the _alma mater_ of human civilization. + +Here is a country which formerly existed and which lived only in its +past, and which to-day presents itself with promises, aspirations, +claims on the future. It was only an historic tradition, a sad souvenir, +a geographical expression, a land of the dead, where everything was +lacking except the sun, which still shone as a lamp which cast a +mournful light on the tomb of a departed glory. This land has to-day +become quite young again. There are towns now, where formerly the +shepherd led his flock silently among the ruins of a past which he did +not know. Athens, formerly an insignificant village, is to-day the +finest town in the East, and may be compared with the first cities of +the West. She numbers, according to the recent census, more than 70,000 +inhabitants; the Piræus, which contains more than 20,000 of this number, +has latterly become the centre of the industrial activity of the new +State. All the large towns of Greece are now centres of commerce, of +manufactures, of culture. The population which existed at the time of +the creation of the new kingdom has been doubled, in consequence of the +material development of the country, whose prosperity is every day +attracting foreign capital. The credit of Greece is assured in the +money-markets of Europe in consequence of the much desired agreement +which has been come to between the Government and the creditors of the +unfortunate loan of 1824. Already the _Times_ is raising its voice in +favour of the Greek exterior loan recently contracted at Paris. Greece +has, indeed, yet other unworked resources; she lacks only sufficient +means by the aid of which she might continue her civilizing march in +history. + +The disquietude and uncertainty in the condition of Eastern affairs +which have followed upon the war and changed the political condition of +the Balkan peninsula have not been able to completely arrest the +intellectual movement which is a peculiar trait of the Hellenic race. On +the contrary, there has in recent years been observed in the life of the +nation a more active and serious tendency to a radical improvement and a +more complete reorganization of the education of the country, and +particularly of popular instruction. This famous word, which for some +time past has been going the round of Europe, and according to which it +was the German schoolmaster who gained the victory over France, is in +Greece also, as everywhere in Europe, the watchword of the day, which +occupies individuals as well as the Government. The impetus which was at +first given by the _Syllogoi_ on this fundamental question of a more +complete instruction of the nation has been followed by the Government, +which does not ordinarily distinguish itself by taking the initiative in +general questions which do not particularly affect its political +interests. Primary normal schools, on the model of those of Germany, +without, however, losing sight of the character and the individuality of +the Hellenic mind, have been founded in different parts of the kingdom, +and in the Turkish provinces; and we hope that this lively and generous +impulse will produce the most glorious and most useful fruits in the +future of the nation. A thorough and living popular education is always +the fundamental basis of the morality and liberty of nations. It is +always the surest guarantee of their intellectual and national +independence. In modern society, in which, according to the famous +saying of Royer Collard, democracy moves like a ship in full sail, in +which the people, by universal suffrage, take a direct part in the +affairs of the State, popular instruction ought to be always very +extensive and scattered abundantly among the people. We would even say, +quoting from M. Jules Simon, that no citizen who does not know how to +read and write ought to take any part in the concerns of the State. Our +Governments unfortunately do not take the initiative in order to revive +the noble tendencies of the nation. However, there are here individuals, +associations, and societies (_Syllogoi_), who, in a way different from +that which is taking place in other countries, have the preponderance +and make up for the deficiencies of the Government. + +It is to the "Society for the Propagation of Greek Literature" that we +owe this new impetus which has been given to public instruction. Popular +instruction, methodical, practical, according to principles and +experience of modern science, at present occupies all the enlightened +minds in our nation, both in independent Greece and in the Greek +provinces of Turkey. The principal aim of this society is the +instruction of the two sexes, especially in the Greek communities of +Turkey, and the publication of works useful for the young and for the +people generally. It has, according to the latest returns, founded at +Thessalonica a model school similar to those of Germany, in which are +four classes, five masters, and 118 pupils. It has, moreover, +established in the same town a normal school to educate masters for +primary instruction. This same Society has also opened, in several +communes and communities of enslaved Greece, schools for boys and girls. +It has subsidized several schools in the communes of Greece and in the +Greek communities of Turkey concurrently with other Societies, which +have the same end in view, of instructing the people and of maintaining +the patriotic idea in the Greek provinces of Turkey, which the rising +wave of Panslavism to-day threatens to engulf. In order to attain this +object, the Society has, up to the present time, published several works +of instruction, and has expended considerable sums in the purchase and +distribution of books for the use of the people. It has founded at its +own cost, or aided by the liberality of generous fellow-countrymen, +several prize competitions, the most important of which have for their +subjects the Greek language, education in Greece, the mercantile marine +of the country, labour, the improvement and encouragement of +agriculture, manufactured and artistic products, commerce, and the +means of communication and circulation in general. At the present moment +one of our fellow-countrymen, who knows how to put his fortune to the +most noble use, M. Zaphiropoulo, a rich merchant of Marseilles, has +placed at the disposal of the Society the necessary funds for publishing +some geographical maps, in order to give a better knowledge of the +historical geography of Greece. These maps are those of "Ancient +Hellenism," of "Macedonian Hellenism," and of "Hellenism during the +Middle Ages." These maps, taken in conjunction with that which was +recently published at the cost of the same donor, will serve to give the +most exact and complete idea of the historic and national unity of +Hellenism. + +The "Parnassus," a Society of young men connected with literature and +the sciences, has for its object the progress of the nation and general +usefulness. This Society is developing day by day, and will soon become +one of the most active and serviceable agents of the literary education +and the scientific movement of the country. The Parnassus pursues this +aim by the reading during its sessions of articles and memoirs, by the +collecting of documents and materials relating to the language, songs, +and popular legends, as well as by the publication of these works in a +Review which appears under the title of [Greek: Neoellênika Analekta]. +In this collection are published popular songs of modern Greece, +riddles, proverbs, distichs, tales, &c. Under the auspices of this same +Society is published another Review, bearing the name of the _Syllogos_, +which has already won, by its articles so interesting and full of +learning, the first place in the periodical press of Greece. But what +specially indicates the exalted and philanthropic point of view in which +this Society has placed itself is the foundation of a school, almost +unique of its kind, and which does not exist even in Europe--that which +is called the "School for Poor Children." In this school the classes are +held in the evening. They comprise reading, writing, arithmetic, +grammar, physical geography, Greek history, and elements of natural +philosophy and chemistry. It is an interesting sight to see attending +these lessons each evening a number of orphan children, who, by means of +a suitable education, will one day be good citizens and useful members +of society, whose enemies they would probably have become had they +remained without education and without a moral influence on their +character. + +It is perhaps needless for me to enlarge upon other learned societies +and associations having an analogous object in view--such as the +Archæological Society, the Association of Friends of the People, the +League of Instruction, the Musical and Dramatic Society, and other +similar ones, which demonstrate that activity of the Greek mind--always +vigorous, always aspiring after moral victories--which is the +characteristic feature of all its history. + +This movement was manifested in a brilliant manner some time ago, when +the general congress of all the societies and associations assembled +under the initiative of the Parnassus Society. This was a most evident +proof of the intellectual and national unity of Greece. Representatives +from all points wherever Hellenism is scattered--of free Greece, of +enslaved Greece, and of the Greek colonies established in all parts of +Europe--assembled at Athens, that Jerusalem of the dispersed people. The +congress, which lasted a fortnight, discussed several questions touching +the future of Greece and her mission in the East. We are unable at this +moment to say what were the results. What we hope is that from this +moment may commence a new era of work and of activity, greater, more +important, than that which has already preceded our modern history. +Alone, more or less proscribed, finding in the policy of the Western +Powers only a cold indifference, our future depends entirely upon +continual and persevering labour. Greece, though, doubtless, she has not +yet produced men worthy to be compared to the ancients,--those masters +in every branch of science, art, and literature,--is nevertheless the +most active agent in the propagation of Western civilization in the +East. We have seen this phenomenon produced in the Congress of the +_Syllogoi_, where might be seen the representatives of Athens and of +Constantinople, of Macedonia and of Asia Minor, of Alexandria and of the +Greek colonies established in Europe--of all places, in short, where the +beautiful and sonorous Greek tongue makes itself heard--discussing all +the questions which constitute the vital force of Hellenism. The words +of an ancient writer who called Athens "the Greece of Greece" were +brought to my memory when the president, in a parting address to the +members of the congress, called this latter "the organized manifestation +of the public consciousness, and the incarnation of the intellectual +unity of the nation." + +This unity is concentrated in the University of Athens. This is the most +brilliant star, which directs the nation in the ways of civilization and +progress. It exercises a great and salutary influence as well in the +free country as in the neighbouring provinces. Pupils of the University +of Athens become zealous apostles, who propagate in all corners of the +East devotion to the national sentiment, and reawaken the ancient +traditions and hopes of the future. At the doors of the University young +men from all the Hellenic countries, who will form the generations of +the future, meet and mingle, more and more. This fusion of the nation, +fortunately already begun by those great struggles for independence +during which all have passed through the same dangers and kept up the +same combats under the same standard, the University is gradually +completing, by prosecuting unremittingly the double aim which it +proposes to itself,--that is to say, the education and the unity of the +Hellenic race. More than two hundred doctors of every branch of science +go forth from the University annually, and spread themselves throughout +the East, among the Greeks or other nations, carrying with them the +salutary influence of civilization and of the spirit of modern times. +The University, which includes four chief faculties, possesses at the +present time an endowment of nearly £166,000, made up of the donations +of various liberal fellow-countrymen, one of whom, recently deceased, +bequeathed to it £33,000. According to the return of the last rector of +the University, from the foundation to the end of the academical year +1877-78, 8426 students have attended the lectures, of whom 3130 have +obtained diplomas. We think that in these figures, more than in the +whole of our argument, may be seen that vital force of Hellenism which +it exercises on the destinies and the future of the East. + +The character of the intellectual movement in Greece is didactic rather +than scientific, in the widest acceptation of the term. We have not yet +here those strifes and debates which at the present time agitate and +enliven the modern mind in Europe. We teach, and teach. This is our +mission for the present. Debate, which, if I may so express myself, is +the luxury of science,--strife, which betokens a vigorous body trained +by labour for the combat, have not yet disturbed the peace of our +intellectual arena. We do not concern ourselves with philosophical, +theological, or social discussions, and latterly we have abandoned even +political discussions, which a few years ago were the exclusive +occupation of the newspapers and of the professional politicians at +Athens and in the provinces, because the whole attention of the nation +has been turned towards the Eastern Question, the solution of which +concerns alike its present and its future. + +We are in the epoch of translations, but not yet in that of production. +Our printing-offices are every day reproducing the results of Western +science by means of translations, which spread abroad useful information +for the instruction of the nation. + +There have not been many original productions within the last few +months. M. Koumanondis, the distinguished archæologist, the well-known +author of a learned work, [Greek: 'Attikês epigraphai epitymbioi] +(Sepulchral Inscriptions of Attica), frequently publishes in a +Periodical Review of the University, the [Greek: Athênaion], very +interesting papers on the archæological discoveries which are daily +being made in Hellenic soil. M. Anagnostakis, one of the most eminent +professors of our Faculty of Medicine, has recently published two +pamphlets full of interest relating to the archæology of that +science--[Greek: Melitai peri tên optikên tôn archaiôn] (Studies on the +Optics of the Ancients); and another small work in French, "Encore deux +mots sur l'extraction de la Catarracte chez les Anciens." + +But a work by the eloquent Professor of History at the University is +that which is most deserving of particular mention--viz., the [Greek: +Epilogos tês historias tou hellênikou ethnous], which has been published +in French under the title of "Histoire de la Civilisation hellénique." +It is a summary of his large work in five volumes on the history of the +Hellenic nation from the most distant period down to our own time. The +writer has had for his object to establish the idea of Hellenic +civilization and history, so often called in question in the West. We +may boldly affirm that the author has attained the object of his labour. +At a moment when Greece is condemned in Europe unheard, this book has +appeared very opportunely as a defence of Hellenism. It is thus that the +European press characterizes this product of an enlightened patriotism, +in analyzing it in terms as flattering to the author as to the nation +for whose apology this book serves. + +We have here made a rapid sketch of the intellectual work of the last +few months. We do not wish to speak now of other publications and +labours of young men who promise still more than they realize for +science. What we have to say to-day is that Greece, which has taken some +eminent steps in progress and in modern culture, ought to repeat to +Europe with assurance these words of her Archimedes: [Greek: Dos moi pou +stô kai tên gên kinêsô] (Give me a fulcrum, and I will shake the earth). +The narrow horizon within which this small kingdom was enclosed when it +was created does not allow of that intellectual spring and flight which +is necessary for the accomplishment of the views and wishes of those who +see in Greece the most active and enlightened propagator of civilization +among the peoples of the East. Lord Beaconsfield has said of us +recently, that we ought to hope, because _the future belongs to us_. I +know not whether these words are a biting irony of the author of +"Coningsby," or whether they express his sincere opinion on the future +of Greece in the East. Doubtless the future belongs to those who hope +and work; but no nation can produce anything great by struggling on a +soil so small, so barren, and so narrow, just as no individual can work +efficiently if deprived of every resource, and kept without air and +light. + +Such is the position of Greece to-day. She can neither work sufficiently +for her physical and moral development, nor become powerful and capable +of contending against the Panslavist invasion in the East. Europe will, +no doubt, understand this at last; but it will then be too late. + + N. KASASIS. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[76] See CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, December, 1876. + +[77] "Histoire de la Civilisation hellénique," 399, 400. + + + + +CONTEMPORARY BOOKS. + + +I.--BIBLICAL LITERATURE. + +(_Under the Direction of the_ Hon. and Rev. W. H. FREMANTLE.) + +The Bishop of Natal has published his seventh and final volume on the +Pentateuch (_The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically Examined_, by +the Right Rev. J. W. Colenso, D.D., Bishop of Natal. Part VII. Longmans: +1879). In the preface he notices the various works, including the +Speaker's Commentary, the work of Alford on the Pentateuch, and those of +Kalisch, Graf, and Kuenen, which have appeared of late years, together +with the New Table of Lessons, and explains the method of the present +volume. The body of the work consists of an examination of the +Scriptural books from Judges to the Canticles, undertaken with the view +of showing what testimony they yield to the views maintained by the +author in the earlier part of the work. Incidentally, however, the books +themselves come under review, and the opinion of the author on their +age, authorship, and purpose is given. The general results of this +laborious criticism may be given as follows:-- + +It is believed that five persons or sets of persons, at five different +periods, composed or rehandled the Pentateuch and the other historical +books. These are (1) the first Elohist (E), who was Samuel or one of his +scholars; (2) the second Elohist (_E_), who wrote about the end of +Saul's reign or early in that of David; (3) the Jehovist or Jahvist (J), +who wrote towards the end of David's or the beginning of Solomon's +reign, who may be identified with Nathan, and may possibly be the same +with _E_; (4) the Deuteronomist (D), who probably was Jeremiah; and (5) +the Levitical Legislators (LL), who wrote about 250 B.C., or even later. + +The share which each of these is supposed to have had in the six first +books of the Bible is given in the final appendix, a "Synoptical Table +of the Hexateuch." In another appendix, the author explains the changes +in his views of numerous passages, which have led to the more precise +conclusions now put forward, and the task is attempted of giving (1) the +story of E alone in Exodus and Numbers, and (2) the story of _E_ and J +by themselves in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. Thus the author gives +the reader the fullest means of judging of his theory. + +It may be best to give the author's conclusions as to the authorship of +the various books in order:-- + + Genesis, chiefly written by E and J, with some additions by _E_ and D. + + Exodus, mostly by J and D, with a shorter narrative by the earlier + authors. + + Leviticus, a very late work, wholly by LL. + + Numbers, mainly by J and D, but with considerable additions by LL. + + Deuteronomy, almost wholly by D, but with a few verses by J and LL. + + Joshua, shared between all the writers, but in the proportions indicated + by the numbers 1, 1, 4, 4, 7. + + Judges, mostly by E. + + 1 Sam. to 1 Kings xi., by J. + + The rest of the books of Kings, by D. + + The books of Chronicles, Ezra, and half Nehemiah, by LL; a late, + hierarchical, and quite untrustworthy work. + + Esther, a mere romance of a late date. + + Job, written after the Captivity, about 450 B.C. + + Psalms, at various times; great stress is laid on Ps. lxviii., which + is assigned to the age of David, "the golden age of Hebrew + literature," which produced also the Songs of Moses and Deborah. + + Proverbs, written at various times from Solomon till after the Exile. + + Ecclesiastes, in the age of Antiochus. + + Canticles, in the time of Rehoboam II., about 800, and in the Northern + kingdom. + +The Bishop believes that the name Jahveh was originally used by some of +the tribes of Canaan, that it was then merely a name like that of +Chemosh or Milum, but that it was adopted by _E_, the great writer of +the early days of David, as the name of the national deity of Israel, +and inserted by him in his narrative of the Exodus, and under the +influence of the Prophets came gradually to be associated with the noble +ideas of purity and righteousness. + +The criticisms upon the authors of the latest books are severe and +vehement. In the books of Chronicles "the real facts of Jewish history, +as given in Samuel and Kings, have been systematically distorted and +falsified, in order to support the fictions of the LL, and glorify the +priestly and Levitical body, to which the Chronicler himself belonged." +In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, not only the whole narrative (except +part of Nehemiah) but also the decrees of the kings of Persia, the +letters of the governor, and the prayers of Ezra and the Levites are +"pure fictions of the Chronicler;" and the book of Esther is an +unhistorical romance, suggested by a wish to account for the existence +of the Feast of Purim, which was probably no more than the commemoration +of the choosing by lot of the new inhabitants of Jerusalem in the days +of Nehemiah. + +It was said by Dr. Arnold that the Old Testament required a Niebuhr; and +Bishop Colenso is not a Niebuhr. Indeed, it is but fair to him to say +that he is modest enough to disclaim functions such as those of the +great German, and to regard himself as preparing the way for their +future exercise. Many of his criticisms are telling and convincing. But +in his construction he is weak. Even if men can be persuaded that the +employment of fiction in the Old Testament histories is as extensive as +the Bishop supposes, and that at every turn they are to be on the watch, +not only for a Levitical colouring of the narrative but for the most +barefaced invention, yet they will hardly be persuaded that the name of +Moses should be "regarded as merely that of the imaginary leader of the +people out of Egypt, a personage quite as shadowy and unhistorical as +Æneas in the history of Rome or our own King Arthur." Indeed, when even +Kuenen attempts a reconstruction of the earlier history, his narrative +is merely a bald and meagre statement of the events as usually believed. +The impartial reader will close this book with the conviction that the +goal has not been reached, and will await the time when mere criticism +must give way to positive history. + +The work of the Bishop of Natal has extended over eighteen years. It +closes in a different tone and amid different feelings on the subject +from those in which it was begun. It arose in a panic about the doctrine +of inspiration; and it created a panic. In the first volume sound +criticism could hardly see clearly or escape the series of absurdities +on account of the clouds of controversy. In the last volume all this is +changed. The author writes calmly and in the consciousness that many of +the views it propounds are no longer unacceptable. The present state of +theological thought in the English Church (how far brought about by the +work itself each man must judge for himself) is such that any serious +criticism will be weighed quietly and without prejudice. + + * * * * * + +The plan of the New Testament Commentary for English Readers (_A New +Testament Commentary for English Readers_.) By Various Authors. Edited +by C. J. Ellicott, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. Vol. II. +Cassell, Petter and Galpin: 1879 has been given in our notice of the +first volume (CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for August, 1878). The second volume +is in every respect worthy of the first. The Acts of the Apostles and +the Second Epistle to Corinthians are taken by Professor Plumptre; the +Epistles to the Romans and Galatians by Mr. Sanday; the First Epistle to +the Corinthians by Mr. Teignmouth Shore. + +The Acts of the Apostles afford Professor Plumptre a congenial field for +his powers. He considers that the main purpose of the book is "to inform +a Gentile convert of Rome how the Gospel had been brought to him, and +how it gained the width and freedom with which it was actually +presented." He admits, but justifies, the mediating or reconciling +character of the work. This is done successfully, for the most part; but +perhaps his vindication of the omission of the dispute between St. Peter +and St. Paul at Antioch will be felt to be somewhat constrained, both +when he remarks that "there is absolutely no evidence that he (St. Luke) +was acquainted with that fact," and when he says: "Would a writer of +English Church History during the last fifty years think it an +indispensable duty to record such a difference as that which showed +itself between Bishop Thirlwall and Bishop Selwyn at the Pan-Anglican +Conference of 1807?" The introduction, besides the usual dissertations +on the authorship, &c., contains some important and suggestive sections +on the relation of the work to the controversies of the time, to the +Epistles of St. Paul, and to external history, and on the sources from +which St. Luke probably derived his information. It contains also lists +of the coincidences between the Acts and St. Paul's and St. Peter's +Epistles, of their points of contact with the contemporary history of +the outer world, and of the incidents which show the naturalness and +veracity of the narrative. The introduction closes with an excellent +chronological table from A.D. 28 to 100. + +The Book of the Acts is treated throughout as sound history, and this +enables the commentator to find himself at home in all the circumstances +of the contemporary world, both within and without the Church. In the +scene on the Day of Pentecost full scope is allowed to the physical +phenomena, the storm and darkness, the earthquake and the lightning. +Ananias' death is understood as in the familiar phrase "by the +visitation of God." The state of Peter in his deliverance from prison +(xii. 9) is understood by reference to the phenomena of somnambulism. +The "revelation" by which St. Paul went up to the Council at Jerusalem +is explained in harmony with the assertion of the Acts that he was sent +by the Church at Antioch, as "a thought coming into his mind, as by an +inspiration, that this was the right solution of the problem." The +healing of the sick by handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the +body of St. Paul (xix. 12) is likened to that attributed to the relics +of saints. The accounts of Theudas, Judas, Gamaliel (v. 57), of Claudius +(xi. 28), of Herod (xii.), of the early life of St. Paul (vii. 58), of +the numbers composing the first congregation at Jerusalem (iv. 37), are +interesting and suggestive. Under the vivid realizations expressed in +these notes we seem to see the Apostles sitting in permanent conclave +(iv. 35), the daughters of Philip as members of an incipient, "order of +Virgins" (xxi. 9), or the rapacious Felix catching at the words "alms +and offerings" when uttered by St. Paul (xxiv. 26). The extreme +fertility of conjecture which we noticed in the Commentary on the +Gospels is somewhat chastened, and is exercised in a more legitimate +field. The possibility, for instance, of Stephen's having had some +connection with Samaria, as accounting for various statements in his +speech (note on vii. 16), the possibility that the words of St. Paul's +description of God's goodness at Lystra (xiv. 17) may have formed part +of an ancient sacrificial hymn, the conjecture that Apollos may have +been the author of the apocryphal Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, are all +interesting and worthy of consideration. + +Turning to Mr. Sanday's portion of the work, on the Epistles to the +Romans and Galatians, we have in the introduction to the former Epistle +a vigorous and original conception of the object of both Epistles. We +give this in the words of the author:-- + + "The key to the theology of the Apostolic age is its relation to + the Messianic expectation among the Jews. The central point in the + teaching of the Apostles is the fact that with the coming of Christ + was inaugurated the Messianic reign. It was the universal teaching + of the Jewish doctors--a teaching fully adopted and endorsed by the + Apostles--that this reign was to be characterized by + righteousness.... The means by which this state of righteousness is + brought about is naturally that by which the believer obtains + admission into the Messianic kingdom,--in other words, Faith. + Righteousness is the Messianic _condition_, Faith is the Messianic + _conviction_. But by Faith is meant, not merely an acceptance of + the Messiahship of Jesus, but that intense and living adhesion + which such acceptance inspired, and which the life and death of + Jesus were eminently qualified to call out." + +In accordance with this view, Mr. Sanday, in his analysis of the +Epistle, terms it "A treatise on the Christian scheme as a +divinely-appointed means for producing righteousness in man, and so +realizing the Messianic reign." + +The simple view thus indicated, which is also borne out by the "Excursus +on Faith, Righteousness and Imputation," is somewhat impaired by another +Excursus (D), in which Sacrifice is regarded as the infliction of a +penalty. In the notes also this view exercises a weakening influence, +and, combined with some other similar features, produces a sense of +indistinctness. Otherwise, the notes are written with great care, +impartiality, and freedom. There is a devout sense of the greatness of +the subject, and much modesty in the treatment of it, while at the same +time the commentator does not hesitate to treat all the latter part of +Gal. ii. as St. Paul's afterthoughts or comments upon his own words (a +suggestion which has a wide application to other passages both in the +Gospels and in the Epistles); or to speak of words such as those of Gal. +v. 10: "I would that they were even cut off that trouble you," as +"momentary ebullitions" which "are among the very few flaws in a truly +noble and generous character." As regards the curious question suggested +by the MS. discrepancies in the last three chapters of the Epistle to +the Romans--namely, whether the Epistle was sent to the Romans +alone--Mr. Sanday follows Dr. Lightfoot in believing that its original +form was such as we now have it, with the exception of the last three +verses, and that these formed an appendix, added on at the end of +chapter xiv., when, during his captivity at Rome, St. Paul converted the +earlier part into a circular epistle. The interesting view of M. Renan, +who believes it to have been originally a circular epistle, and takes +the four endings (xv. 33, and xvi. 20, 24 and 27) as the endings of the +copies addressed respectively to the Churches of Rome, Asia, Macedonia, +and some other unknown, is rather too curtly discussed with the remark +that it fails when applied in detail. There is one more serious omission +in this part of the commentary. Though honourable mention is made of the +commentaries of Dr. Vaughan and Dr. Lightfoot, of Meyer and Wieseler, +Alford and Wordsworth, not a single allusion is made to that of +Professor Jowett. We can hardly believe that the old theological +prejudice against the author has blinded the present commentator to the +great exegetical and philosophical value of Professor Jowett's labours. +But we cannot account for this strange omission of a work to which all +English students of St. Paul's Epistles are so much indebted. + +The two Epistles to the Corinthians are commented on respectively by Mr. +Teignmouth Shore and Professor Plumptre. It is hardly possible that +anything new or striking should be written on these Epistles, which in +our day have not only passed through the hands of writers like Alford +and Wordsworth, but have been a specially congenial field for the genius +of F. W. Robertson and of Stanley. But Mr. Shore and Dr. Plumptre have +well represented to English readers the sense and spirit of these +Epistles and the Church-life which they reveal to us. Mr. Shore's +judgment is, perhaps, at fault in a few special instances; he still +believes not only in a non-extant Epistle to the Corinthians, but in an +unrecorded visit of St. Paul to them; in which Professor Plumptre +differs from him (conf. p. 285 with note on 2 Cor. xii. 14 and xiv. 1); +he attributes the words, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 +Cor. vii. 1) to St. Paul, not to those who wrote to him; and he thinks +the history of the Last Supper was revealed to the Apostle directly in a +trance--as to which he might be corrected by Professor Plumptre's +explanation of St. Paul's "going up to Jerusalem by revelation" in the +note on Acts xv. 2. But these are comparatively small blots, if they be +blots, in an exposition which is well worthy to take its place in this +most useful of modern Commentaries on the New Testament. + +We are glad to hear that Professor Plumptre's "Commentary on the Acts" +has been reprinted for the use of schools, and we hope that the other +parts of the Commentary may be similarly treated. + + * * * * * + +The translation of Professor Cremer's "Biblico-Theological Lexicon," +from the German, by Mr. Urwick (_Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New +Testament Greek_, by Hermann Cremer, D.D., Professor of Theology in the +University of Griefswald. Translated by W. Urwick, M.A. Edinburgh: T. +and T. Clark), supplies a great want in our helps to the study of the +New Testament. Parkhurst is out of date and limited in his range of +reference. Winer is a Grammar, not a Lexicon. Archbishop Trench's +Synonyms, with all their value, do not cover the whole ground. The +student turns, therefore, with eagerness to such a book as that of +Professor Cremer. And he will not be disappointed. The book is what it +professes to be. The author speaks modestly and truly of his work: "The +work which, after a labour of nine years, I have now brought to +completion is certainly an attempt only, and effort to do, not a result +accomplished; it simply prepares the way for a cleverer hand than mine." +He writes as an earnest believer, a pupil of Tholuck's, whose +commentaries he singles out as alone fully investigating the great +conceptions embodied in particular words of the New Testament Greek. He +seems to have been fired by an expression of Schleiermacher's, which +might be taken as the motto for his work: "A collection of all the +various elements in which the language-moulding power of Christianity +manifests itself would be an adumbration of New Testament doctrine and +ethics." Like so many of Tholuck's pupils, he has tested his theology by +the practical work of the ministry, not, however, neglecting the +student's part, which after many years' toil has issued in the important +work which has won him his professorship. The work has reached a second +edition, and it is from this second edition (which contains an addition +of 120 words) that the present translation is made. + +Some words will, we may hope, be added in future editions. Such a word, +for instance, as [Greek: thrêskeia] (James i.), which is used for +religion itself; or, again, such a word as [Greek: pêroô], with its +compounds, which St. Paul makes the vehicle of so much teaching in +Rom. xi.; or [Greek: areskô], a word which may be said to have been +converted by the language-forming power of Christianity, and others of +equal or greater importance, have as yet no part in this Lexicon. The +classical use of the words is fully noticed; it is, he says, in many +cases "a vessel prepared to receive the Christian thought." The use of +Greek words in the Septuagint is also worked out, though the author +laments that the helps for this are so few. Of the Rabbinical or +Post-Biblical writings use is also made, and of some of the earlier +Fathers of the Church. But we miss the wide range of varied illustration +from mediæval and modern literature which charms us in the work of +Archbishop Trench. One source of illustration is deliberately put aside. +"The works of Philo and Josephus," he says, "afford little help, because +of their endeavour to import Greek ideas and Greek philosophy into +Judaistic thought." Most students will be surprised to find that, even +in reference to the conception of the [Greek: Logos], Professor Cremer +considers that Philo's use of the word has no bearing on its use by St. +John, which he considers to be simply an adaptation of the "Word of the +Lord," as commonly used in the Old Testament and the Rabbinical writers. +The object of the work is to discover the conceptions or ideas of the +New Testament (or, as the writer expresses it with Rothe, "the language +of the Holy Ghost"), by bringing together the passages in which the +words are used. Whether he has always succeeded in this, or whether, as +in the case of [Greek: aiôn] (where he says that [Greek: O aiôn mellôn] +is even in Matt. xiii. and xxiv. the new age of the world inaugurated by +the resurrection of the dead and the second coming of Christ), or as in +the case of [Greek: sôma] (where he does not even refer to the apparent +use of the word by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xv. and otherwise elsewhere as +implying hardly more than personality), he has not at times been +dominated by conventional views, each reader must judge. But every +student will find in the careful enumeration of passages, and the +discriminating and decided but not dogmatic judgment pronounced upon +them, materials which will assist him in working out (as each man must +do) his own theological conceptions. + + * * * * * + +An edition of the Septuagint, with a literal translation into English +(_The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament_; with an English +Translation, and with various Readings and Critical Notes: Samuel +Bagster and Sons), is a work attempted by no one, we believe, before Mr. +Bagster, and will be welcomed by the increasing number of thoughtful +students of the Bible. There is a short introduction, stating all that +is known of the origin of the Septuagint; the Greek text and English +translations are given in parallel columns, in neat and small type, +which enables the whole work to be comprised in a moderate quarto +volume; and short notes are added which notice variations of readings, +alternative translations, and the additions made by the Hebrew original, +and direct attention to the passages quoted from the Septuagint in the +New Testament. There is also an Appendix noticing a very few words as to +which some difficulty arises, and a few passages which are supplied from +the Alexandrine text. No mention is made of the Apocrypha. + +The translation is for the most part exact and literal, yet made to read +fluently, where this was possible--perhaps more fluently than the Greek +text. The following passage from Isaiah ix. 1-5, is a good specimen of +the translation, and, being well known as the Lesson for Christmas Day, +will enable the reader to appreciate the singular discrepancies often +existing between the Septuagint and the original text as it stands in +our Bible. The passage begins in the English version with the words, +"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation." In +the translation of the Septuagint it stands thus-- + + "Drink this first. Act quickly, O land of Zabulon, land of + Niphthalim, and the rest _inhabiting_ the seacoast and _the land_ + beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. + + "O people walking in darkness, behold a great light: ye that dwell + in the region _and_ shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you. + The multitude of the people which thou hast brought down in thy + joy, they shall even rejoice before thee as they that rejoice in + harvest, and as they that divide the spoil. Because the yoke that + was laid upon them has been taken away, and the rod that was on + their neck; for he has broken the rod of the exacters as in the day + of Midian. For they shall compensate for every garment that has + been acquired by deceit, and _all_ raiment with restitution; and + they shall be willing, even if they were burnt with fire. + + "For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose + government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called the + Messenger of great counsel; for I will bring peace upon the + princes, and health to him." + + +II.--ESSAYS, NOVELS, POETRY, &c. + +(_Under the Direction of_ MATTHEW BROWNE.) + +There is something very winning about Mr. Peter Bayne, who, by-the-by, +has just received a Doctor's degree from his University, and read +whatever you will of his, you quit the page with respect and liking for +the author. You will, indeed, go far to find books or articles which +more plainly bear the stamp of manliness, kindliness, intelligence, and +wide reading. These are some of the most necessary qualities of a +critic, whether of life or literature, and most of them are of especial +value in historical criticism. _That_ has lately taken up with +principles and methods not very favourable to the just appreciation of +such a book as Mr. Bayne's last, "The Chief Actors in the Puritan +Revolution;" and it struck some of us that the best points in that work +were missed by too many of its reviewers. A venture of a very different +kind is _Lessons from my Masters: Carlyle, Tennyson, and Ruskin_ (James +Clarke & Co.). This large volume has grown out of articles which were +originally published in the _Literary World_, but these have now been +much elaborated by Dr. Bayne, and have received considerable additions. +The essay on Carlyle is beyond dispute the most valuable of the three +studies, but they all belong to a class of writing which is sure of a +welcome. We feel quite certain, however, that Dr. Bayne imposed upon +himself a little, or more than a little, when he undertook his task. He +tells the reader plainly he found, as he went on with it, that he could +not maintain the attitude of mere pupil, as he had fancied he might. Of +coarse not; and he need not have apologized even indirectly for the +freedom of his criticisms, which might well have been much bolder. The +real attraction of the work he undertook was, that it _would_ give him +scope for widely-ranging comment; and it is the inevitable, by no means +inartistic or unhealthy discursiveness of the treatment which makes it +difficult to do justice to it. But we will venture upon a point or two +nearly at random. + +In discussing "Model Prisons," or rather the assumptions of that +Latter-day Pamphlet, Mr. Bayne takes a view of our duty to criminals +with which we agree, and he quotes the fact that the majority of those +who belong to the criminal class are found to have abnormal brains and +often diseased bodies. He also treats just in the way we might expect +the _dictum_ that stupidity means badness. The last meaning of that, we +almost fear, Mr. Bayne has not quite caught; as John Bunyan meant it, +and as Carlyle means it, it is surely true. Again, it seems doubtful if +Mr. Bayne, in taking up Kant's complaint that, while there is so much +kindness in the world, there is so little justice, has put the complaint +in the right place. It is awfull true, and not to be hidden from any +honest and acute observer, that the love of justice and truth is very +weak in most human beings; while the instinct of kindness is +comparatively strong. Again, Dr. Bayne nearly surprises us by adopting +the commonplace that great talents bring with them an increase of moral +responsibility. Well, we all know the insuperable difficulties of the +subject, how they all run up at last into one final problem of which the +most plausible-looking solutions turn out to be only paradoxes. But, +after all, can it be maintained that there is really any final +difference in the degree of moral responsibility to be assigned to a man +with a constitution like Byron's or Edgar Poe's, and that which is to be +assigned to one of those criminals with abnormal brains? Shelley's +grandfather was crazed; the father, Sir Timothy, was _half_-crazed; what +Shelley was we know. And can we consistently say that his faults (we do +not speak of any particular act) were one shade less the natural result +of the constitution of his brain than are those of any of Mr. Carlyle's +"dog-faced" criminals? Is there any sense in suggesting that the +splendid powers of such a man ought to be expected to act as breakwaters +against the force of his special temptations? Of course we know how the +enlightened British juryman would answer such a question, and equally of +course there are rocks ahead answer it as you may; but we must pause a +little longer on it than Dr. Bayne does (page 89) over the question +"What is justice?" + +Passing over other things, we now come to smoother water--the Essay on +Tennyson. Here there is, of course, much to say "on both sides." Many of +us would have liked a little less poet-worship, and a little more +scrutiny. "The Princess" is dismissed with a line or two of +apology--but it is far more, for Dr. Bayne's purpose, than "a +serio-comic poem,"--it contains, indirectly, a great deal of +self-disclosure. There is something very wrong about M. Taine's way of +looking at Mr. Tennyson's domestic sweetness, but he has a glimpse of a +truth about the poet and his work. Whatever the worshippers of Mr. +Tennyson may say, his poetry contains more feeling after human passion +if haply he may find it, than of passion itself; and he _is_ +conventional. He has never been right out and away into the +wilderness. His poetry wants largeness, boldness, and breadth of +atmosphere. We find no fault--being profoundly grateful for what this +exquisite singer has given us; and knowing better than to expect +contradictory qualities from the same harp; and certainly M. Taine has +made a great blunder in setting up Alfred de Musset on the other side of +his antithesis--but it is a fact that Mr. Tennyson has shown in his +writings a tendency (or sub-tendency, if the phrase may pass) to please +Mrs. Grundy, as well as the higher Pallas--a tendency which does a +little to excuse those who insult the poor old soul without occasion; +and who, indeed, are sometimes thought to be grimacing at the Divine +Wisdom, when they are only teasing the old lady. + +The subject of "Emendations" interests Mr. Bayne more than it does us, +and we decidedly disagree with him in his general apology for the +digging up of early writings which the writers may be presumed to wish +kept dark. The alteration in the words of Iphigenia in the "Dream of +Fair Women" is not as good as it might be, and Mr. Bayne most justly +condemns "the bright death," but it is quite clear that the lines as +they originally stood-- + + "One drew a sharp knife through my tender throat + Slowly--and nothing more--" + +did not, grammatically considered, express the poet's meaning; and are +certainly open to ridicule on other grounds. The words, "And _I knew_ no +more," _do_ express the meaning. + +The alterations and additions in "Maud" appear to us to be about as bad +as they could be. Explanatory additions were wanted, but not those flat +prosaic lines, though Mr. Bayne appears to like them. On the other hand, +the verse-- + + "I kissed her slender hand, + She took the kiss sedately, + Maud is not seventeen, + But she is tall and stately," + +which our intelligent critic does not like, appears to us perfect--in +its place. Sweeter love-poetry than the finest parts of "Maud" is not to +be found in the language; the remark being confined to the more +superficial kinds of love. For the "tender passion" of the poem is, +after all, superficial and thin: the strongest parts being the cynical. +It has always been a grief to us that so much exquisite poetry (Cantos +XII., XVIII., XXII., in Part I; and IV. in Part II.) should have been +framed in what is really nothing but a very poor "sensation" novel, with +a moral or lesson which is poorer still. Poetry is not bound to be +unintermittingly poetic; there must be flat passages,--but such +second-hand phrasing as "a war in defence of the right"--"that an iron +tyranny now should bend or cease"--"a cause that I felt to be pure and +true"--"a giant liar"--is intolerable in a poem of which the climax is +so high-pitched. Better the merest conversational familiarity, than this +rhetorical magniloquence. + +Before passing from Tennyson's poems, we cannot help noting a curious +example of Dr. Bayne's tendency to excessive praise and admiration. In +that very poor poem, "Sea-Dreams," the city clerk's wife induces her +husband to forgive the just-dead man who has robbed them of their +savings. Upon which Dr. Bayne remarks; "There is not a nobler heroine in +literature than this wife of a city clerk, and I see no reason to +believe that there are not many such to be found in London." Nor do +we--six women out of ten exhibit every week of their lives "heroism" +just as "noble." It is perfectly commonplace; and it is the critic's +warm-heartedness which betrays him into these extravagancies of +language. + +The Essay on Ruskin has been nearly all rewritten, and it is a fine +specimen of studious candour, and something more. All we will add is, +that we hope Mr. Bayne holds, along with Mr. Ruskin--though it hardly +looks as if he did--that "the destruction of beauty is a sacrilege and a +sin." This is undoubtedly a fair account of what Mr. Ruskin means in +certain portions of his writings, and he is not the only one who has +suffered "anguish," little short of despair, at certain "works of +profanation." Mr. Bayne quotes Mr. Ruskin's passionate words about the +befouling and desecration of the "pools and streams" around Carshalton. +Now, it would not be easy, perhaps, to prove that God made those "pools +and streams," still lovely in their degradation, in a sense in which he +did _not_ make the human beings who have "insolently defiled" them; but +we may at least say that the human will was concerned not only in the +"defiling" but in the production of the defilers, while it was _not_ +concerned in the production of those "pools and streams." And we may +conjecture that if Mr. Ruskin had been asked to decide whether the +"pools and streams" should retain their original clearness and beauty, +and the human beings remain unproduced, or whether the latter should +come into existence and the "pools and streams" be defiled--he would +have stood for the first alternative. But if he afterwards followed out +his decision to its consequence, it would make an end of what Mr. Bayne +rightly calls the "communistic" element in his writings. It is painfully +certain that if Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth had been disgusted by "people +from Birthwaite" before the "Excursion" was written, that poem would +have been very different here and there. + + * * * * * + +Mr. John Addington Symonds writes much, and he writes with absorbing +pains. When he called his new book _Sketches and Studies in Italy_ +(Smith, Elder, & Co.), had he forgotten a previous title of his, +_Sketches in Italy and Greece_? In any case there is a wide difference +between the two volumes; in the former we had more of the traveller, in +the latter we have more of the scholar, though the traveller is still +present; for instance, in the Essay, "Amalfi, Pæstum, Capri," and in the +"Lombard Vignettes." In the Essay on the "Orfeo" of Poliziano, and that +on the "Popular Italian Poetry of the Renaissance," we are again glad to +recognize the author's masterly power in certain kinds of translation; +and those the kinds in which the labourers are few, though the harvest +is so large. In about seventy pages, close pages it is true, Mr. Symonds +presents us with a sketch of Florentine history, the like of which, for +compactness and minuteness of information, one knows not where to seek. +Mr. Symonds is a striking example of the modern school of +"culture"--using that word in its more special sense. Unwearied in the +pursuit of detail, it occasionally tires the reader. There is a want of +emphasis--not to say a shamefaced avoidance of it; there is the want of +grasp which comes of the absence of hearty controlling emotion, or of +any purpose beyond what may belong to the monograph before you. There is +too much colour, and too little motion--the reader would even be glad of +a jolt now and then; almost anything rather than this eternally grave +gliding manner, in which the end is like the beginning, the beginning +like the middle, and the _quorsum hæc?_ seldom answered with anything +like energy. If we take an Essay like that on "Lucretius," we become +conscious, indeed, of an effort, but it seems rather an effort to lift a +weight, than the effort of a living mind in free movement over a large +subject. Inevitably we have much that is true, very much of refinement +and accomplishment, and of course a good aperçu now and then; but such +interest as there is appears a little forced, as if the author only +half-believed in his own points, and too often endeavoured to give an +air of breadth to literary stippling by mere largeness of phrase. These +hints apply (in our opinion) with peculiar force to the paper on +"Lucretius;" but they are not wholly inapplicable to that entitled +"Antinous," which does not fall far short of being tedious. But no +apology was necessary for reprinting the essays on blank verse, &c., +which are contained in the Appendix, though in those also there seems an +excessive tendency to make small "points," and force large meanings on +trifles. The volume has a finely-executed steel engraving of the +Ildefonso group (Antinous) in the museum at Madrid. + + * * * * * + +There is nothing rude, we trust, in wondering aloud how many readers +will know quite off-hand, without glancing lower down, who wrote this +exquisite little poem, though scarcely any one will read it without a +sob, and none will ever forget it:-- + + "My little son, who looked from thoughtful eyes, + And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise, + Having my law the seventh time disobey'd, + I struck him and dismiss'd + With hard words and unkiss'd, + His mother, who was patient, being dead. + Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep, + I visited his bed, + But found him slumbering deep, + With darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet + From his late sobbing wet. + And I, with moan, + Kissing away his tears, left others of my own; + For, on a table drawn beside his head, + He had put, within his reach, + A box of counters and a red-veined stone, + A piece of glass abraded by the beach, + And six or seven shells, + A bottle with bluebells, + And two French copper coins ranged there with careful art, + To comfort his sad heart. + So, when that night I pray'd + To God, I wept and said: + Ah, when at last we lie with trancèd breath, + Not vexing Thee in death, + And Thou rememberest of what toys + We made our joys, + How weakly understood + Thy great commanded good, + Then, fatherly not less + Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay, + Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say, + 'I will be sorry for their childishness.'" + +Only we hope the number of those who can readily assign the poem to its +author is after all, considerable: for it would be an ill omen if "The +Angel in the House," "Faithful for Ever," the "Unknown Eros," and their +companion poems did not find a fairly large, as well as a choice public. +"The Unknown Eros, and other Odes," was published in 1877. Though it +contained the little poem we have just quoted, and a few others of the +most pellucid simplicity and the most homely sweetness, these were found +in the company of "odes" in which the theme was as high-strung as the +title, and a few in which the author's peculiarities were stretched to +the utmost. On the whole that volume could hardly be supposed to appeal +to any but a few. Several years ago, there was a very cheap edition of +"Tamerton Church Tower," and most of the other poems (including the +"Angel in the House"), and we should conjecture that it sold well--but +it is now out of print, we are told. We have now, published by Messrs. +George Bell & Sons, a selection from Mr. Patmore's poems, made by Mr. +Richard Garnett (himself a poet) and entitled _Florilegium Amantis_. It +makes 230 pages in a very handy little volume, and contains some of the +most exquisite things Mr. Patmore has printed; along with a few that are +new to us. We are not sure that we miss many of the very best (or +best-loved) pieces; but judging, as we are at the moment compelled to +do, from the earlier editions of the poems, we fancy there has been some +"cooking,"--the sort of thing which an affectionate reader who gets his +poet by heart always resents a little. The "Wedding Sermon," as we have +it here, looks like an extension of Dean Churchill's letter to Frederick +in "Faithful for Ever"--though we note some changes in the old familiar +lines. Some very charming touches are omitted in "The Rosy Bosom'd +Hours;" but we are not surprised, for we had them struck out once by an +editor! The first four lines, about the curtained and locked "coupé" in +the train, were, we presume, looked upon as sure to set the hogs +snorting over any such touch as "the isthmus of your waist." Some +portions of "The Victories of Love" seem to have been worked into +"Amelia." The piece entitled "Alexander and Lycon" does not strike us as +being good enough for its company. But certainly we know of no such +"lover's garland" as this, and do not well see how there can be such +another. This must not be taken to imply that Mr. Patmore will seem to +every thoughtful reader consistent in his presentation of the ethics of +his topic. For example, Dean Churchill's Sermon will not hang together +with Mrs. Graham's beautiful letter to Frederick upon the difficulties +of married life. + +If there is any real defect in this nosegay, it is, perhaps, that we do +not see a little more of Lady Clitheroe, with her ever-delightful +humour. But perhaps Mr. Garnett--or Mr. Patmore, looking over his +shoulder--remembered Mr. Shandy's advice to my Uncle Toby, to eschew +mirth while paying his addresses to Widow Wadman. We, however, are under +no restraint in this respect, and recommend everybody who takes up Mr. +Patmore to make the most of Lady Clitheroe, and not to pass +thoughtlessly over her most playful sayings; for they are usually quite +as wise and good as the serious passage which we now extract from her +letter to a newly-married couple:-- + + "Age has romance almost as sweet, + And much more generous than this + Of your's and John's. With all the bliss + Of the evenings when you coo'd with him, + And upset home for your sole whim, + You might have envied, were you wise, + The tears within your mother's eyes + Which, I dare say you did not see. + But let that pass! Yours yet will be + I hope, as happy, kind, and true + As lives which now seem void to you. + Have you not seen shop-painters paste + Their gold in sheets, then rub to waste + Full half, and, lo, you read the name? + Well, Time, my dear, does much the same + With this unmeaning glare of love." + +These are the last words of the book, and, having read them, the worst +enemy of lovers' garlands will not accuse Mr. Patmore of "putting stuff +and nonsense into people's heads" about love and marriage. + +Two more slight but perhaps not uninteresting remarks. It may be from +our ignorance, but we have never been able perfectly to enjoy the +lines-- + + "It was as if a harp _with wires_, + Was traversed by the breath I drew." + +The force of the "harp" suggestion is plain, and it is good, but why "a +harp _with wires_?" The other small matter is amusing. The piece in +praise of England (p. 76), reproduced from "Faithful for Ever," is dated +1856, and this is the only date given in the volume. What does it mean? +We conjecture that Mr. Patmore has an almost savage wish to make it +clear that since what he has elsewhere called "the year of the great +crime, when the false English nobles, with their Jew, slew their trust," +he thinks this beautiful description has become inapplicable to his +country:-- + + "Remnant of Honour, brooding in the dark, + Over your bitter cark, + Staring, as Rizpah stared, astonied seven days, + Upon the corpses of so many sons + Who loved her once, + _Dead in the dim and lion-haunted ways_, + Who could have dreamt + That times should come like these?" + +Those are a few of the bitter lines about England which abound in "The +Unknown Eros, and other Odes." + + * * * * * + +Among books to possess--books to be bought, begged, or stolen, pleasant +to look at, pleasant to dip into, and useful to refer to, we give a +place in the front rank to _Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect_, +by William Barnes (C. Kegan Paul & Co.), and nobody will dispute this +award. Many of these poems are familiar upon the tongue, or laid up +silent-sweet in the memory of hundreds of world-weary Cockneys, who +never set eyes on a Dorset vale, and probably never will. Mr. Barnes +writes a modest and characteristic preface explaining that two of these +three Collections of rural poems had long been out of print (we are glad +to hear it), and also calling attention to the glossary at the end of +the volume, "with some hints on Dorset word-shapes." Mr. Barnes is past +reviewing, and we will only add that this complete collection (467 +pages) forms a handsome and well-printed volume, and is altogether a +thing to be delightedly thankful for. + + * * * * * + +Titles often prove misleading things, and it is not often that the +outside of any book gives the faintest hint of its quality, unless it +tells you, or nearly tells you, the publisher's name, for of course +there are publishers who very rarely issue bad, or even weak books. +_Memories: a Life's Epilogue. New Edition. With a Lament for Princess +Alice._ This is so very unpromising a title-page that if it had not been +for the names, Longmans, Green & Co. at the foot of it, we might well +have begun to turn over the leaves with some prejudice against the +anonymous author. But a very casual glance informs the reader, in this +case, that he has to deal with a highly intelligent man of the old +school, with plenty of caustic humour in him. The author appears to be a +gentleman advanced in years, and the "Memoirs" consist of recollections +of incidents in his father's life and his own, going back at least as +far as the days of Cribb and Molyneux, and taking in some pleasant +scenes of Continental travel. There is something exceedingly quaint, +almost ludicrous, in the author's way of employing the Spenserian +stanza, and as it is not always clear that he is conscious of the humour +there is in it, the reader's attention is kept on the alert in the very +last way that would commend itself to a critic:-- + + "The matron of the house obligingly + Led him to two large rooms on the first floor, + Where he would have more light and liberty, + With a good walk along the corridor; + Besides which, they expected one or more + Nice gentlemen to-morrow afternoon. + The gentleman who left the day before-- + Poor man! he had a cough would kill him soon-- + Ten months he had been with them on the twelfth of June." + +This is certainly odd, and the puzzle is that though the author, as we +have said, has true and biting humour in him, he never drives his stanza +with the conscious _lilt_ that you find in, for example, Byron's use of +a substantially kindred measure in "Beppo," or "Morgante Maggiore." Take +the first lines that occur to one's mind in the latter:-- + + "There being a want of water in the place, + Orlando, like a trusty brother, said, + Morgante, I could wish you in this case + To go for water. You shall be obeyed," &c. + +Here Byron is making the flat prose of the metre (so to speak), a source +of humour in itself: but we cannot find that the author of these +"Memories" intends anything of the kind. We agree with some of our +brethren in finding the occasional lyrics good, and the opening lines of +the seventh canto contain hints of genuine poetic quality. Altogether +the book is a noticeable budget of gossip in verse, with not a few +strong, pointed passages to relieve the effect of the flat or weak +pages; which latter are, to speak the truth, too numerous. We should +guess the author to be a very "clubable man." + + * * * * * + +This is a very pleasant title, at all events, _A Nook in the Appennines, +or a Summer Beneath the Chestnuts_, by Leader Scott, author of "The +Painter's Ordeal," &c., &c. With twenty-seven Illustrations, chiefly +from Original Sketches (C. Kegan Paul & Co.), and the book is pleasant +too. Finding the heat at Florence, on the 11th of June--not _last_ +June--too much for them, it being 96° in the shade, an English family +flee to a nook in the mountains, where an old villa has been got ready +for them; and there they sit, "at the receipt of coolness," like Lamb's +"gentle giantess," till September. The villa on the Apennines is 2220 +feet above the level of the sea, and the thermometer stands only at 70° +in the open air. Now 70° is ordinary agreeable summer heat for England; +though it is many degrees higher than anything we have seen (up to the +middle of July) in England this dreadful year. The illustrations are +helpful, and, without being obtrusively antiquarian, have most of them a +retrospective or historical interest, as well as the more obvious one +which is common to illustrations. The forty short chapters of which the +book consists are filled with sketches of the life our English friends +lived in the mountain nook, and of the manners and daily lives of the +peasantry by whom they were surrounded--and these will be more +instructive to a reader who knows a little about the Etruscans than to +one who knows nothing of them. The interest of the narrative is never +strong, but it is strong enough to carry the attention equably forward +to the end, and there is no affectation; but it is a great mistake, and +an unkindness to the reader, to omit, in a case of this sort, giving a +sufficiently full, complete, and picturesque account of the travelling +party themselves. We ought to be told how many there were, their ages, +relationships, &c., and something of their previous travelling +experience, if any. + + * * * * * + +Of course it is a good thing when a first-rate French, German, or +Scandinavian novel is translated into English, and this is pretty sure +to happen, when it does happen, through the agency of high-class +publishers. But it is a very different thing when translations of +foreign novels are thrown at our heads by the score, by writers or +publishers whose chief object is to pander to certain questionable +tastes. We fear that this evil is upon us, or not far off. But a word of +pleasant, if qualified, welcome is due to _A Distinguished Man: a +Humorous Romance_, by A. Von Winterfeld, translated by W. Laird-Clowes, +(C. Kegan Paul & Co. 3 vols.). The chief thing to _qualify_ the welcome +is the fact that the author is too fond of hinting at the skeleton in +the cupboard of what people call "modern thought." But apart from this, +the book is amusing, and often more than amusing. It belongs to a type +which is very rare in English literature--a sort of child-like farce, +that is exceedingly difficult to describe; but it must be a very +saturnine reader that can help a good laugh at some of the wild +adventures of the German schoolmaster and German doctor upon English +ground. These two men are rivals in love, and have both sought the hand +of a German butcher's daughter. In the fulfilment of a certain ordeal, +or test, which he imposes, they have to travel by way of Ostend to +London, and thence to Edinburgh; the one who is first at certain marked +points in a given route, to be the winner of the fair prize. Make up +your mind that you are going to read some nonsense, and you will enjoy +the book. The accuracy of the German in guide-book matters, in spelling, +and in just those matters in which a French author always fails, is very +striking. But we fear he is a little off the line once or twice. Is +there in London any teacher of mathematics who keeps a man-servant, and +covers his floor with carpets of velvet pile? + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, +September 1879, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30048 *** |