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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33933-h.zip b/33933-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ae6df7 --- /dev/null +++ b/33933-h.zip diff --git a/33933-h/33933-h.htm b/33933-h/33933-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85fbd4d --- /dev/null +++ b/33933-h/33933-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1071 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + + +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life-Work of Flaubert, by Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body {font-size: 1em; text-align: justify; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + +h1 span, h2 span, h3 span { display: block; text-align: center; } + + +#idfrom { font-size: smaller; margin-top: 5%; } + +#idby { font-size: x-small; margin-top: 5%; } + +#idGA { font-size: smaller; } + + +p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .5%; margin-bottom: 1%; + } + + +.center {text-align: center; + font-size: 120%; + margin-top: 5%; + margin-bottom: 10%;} + + +.poem { margin-left:20%; + margin-right:20%; + margin-top: 1.5%; + margin-bottom: 2%; + text-align: left; + font-size: 102%; + } + +.poem br {display: none; + } + + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + +.box { text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + font-size: smaller; + margin-top: 10%; + } + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life-Work of Flaubert, by +Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life-Work of Flaubert + From the Russian of Merejowski + +Author: Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky + +Translator: George Augustus Mounsey + +Release Date: October 12, 2010 [EBook #33933] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE-WORK OF FLAUBERT *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1><span>THE LIFE-WORK</span> +<span>OF FLAUBERT</span> +<span id="idfrom">FROM THE RUSSIAN<br /> + OF MEREJKOWSKI</span> +<span id="idby">BY</span> +<span id="idGA">G. A. MOUNSEY</span></h1> + +<div class="center"> +<p class="noindent">ALEXANDER MORING LTD THE DE<br /> + LA MORE PRESS 32 GEORGE STREET<br /> +HANOVER SQUARE LONDON W</p></div> + + + + +<h2><span>FLAUBERT</span> +<span>I</span></h2> + +<p>Balzac in one of his novels gives utterance to the following thought: +"Genius is a terrible disease. Every writer of genius cherishes in his +heart a monster which devours all his emotions as soon as he gives birth +to them. Which is to be the conqueror? Will the disease vanquish the +man, or the man the disease? He must be a great man who can establish a +perfect equilibrium between his genius and his character. Unless the +poet be a giant, unless he be possessed of the shoulders of a Hercules, +he must inevitably remain bereft of heart, or else bereft of talent."</p> + +<p>Here, unfortunately, Balzac breaks off his dissertation, and does not +state what in his opinion is the cause of this disease of genius, why +the development and power of the artistic personality stand in many +respects in inverse ratio to the development and power of the moral +type, or on what fundamental ground depends that primary antagonism +between these two elements which is so often to be observed in the daily +experience of life. Every one knows, for instance, that writers of +talent, artists or musicians, are in the majority of cases men of the +most unpractical nature, that their eccentricities and irresponsibility +verge not uncommonly on complete moral disintegration, that they are bad +fathers of families and bad husbands, and that while expressing great +sensitiveness in the forcible language of their works, they very often +show themselves in real life to be at heart hard and unfeeling egotists. +An enquiry into the origin of the causes responsible for the deep +contrast which exists between the æsthetic and ethical points of view, +between the artist and the man, between genius and character, would +undoubtedly open up one of the most interesting chapters in the history +of creative psychology.</p> + +<p>Let us take, as an illustration of our thesis, the tragic scene of the +destruction of Laocoon, as described in the Æneid. Picture the horror +and anguish with which the citizens of Troy witness the seizure and +suffocation of Laocoon and his children by the gigantic serpents. The +onlookers are filled with terror, grief, and a desire to save the +unfortunate victims. In bringing out the psychic differences of +constitution among the crowd, the crucial moment of action plays a most +important <i>rôle</i>, developing the instinct of self-preservation among the +more timid ones, or the efforts of the more manly to lend their aid. +Then imagine a sculptor moving about in this wavering and undecided +crowd, and studying the terrible tragedy which is being enacted before +his eyes as a fit theme for a future work of art. He alone remains an +unmoved spectator amid the general confusion, lamentation, cries, and +prayers. His moral instincts are all absorbed in an intense æsthetic +curiosity. Tears would hinder his vision, and he keeps them sternly +back, because it is imperatively necessary for him to see every form, +every outline of the muscles distorted under the crushing force of the +snakes' huge coils. Every detail of the picture which in the others +awakens loathing and terror, evokes in him a joy that is outside the ken +of other men. While they weep and waver, the artist rejoices in the +expression of agony on the countenance of Laocoon, rejoices that the +father is unable to bring aid to his children, that the serpents are +compressing their bodies with irresistible force. The next moment, +perchance, the man will have conquered the artist. But the deed is done, +the fact remains, the moment of cruel contemplation has had the power to +brand upon his heart its ineradicable impression.</p> + +<p>A series of similar episodes must sooner or later create in the mind of +the artist the habit of withdrawing himself from life, of regarding it +from one side, from without, from the point of view no longer of a +living human being, but from that of an unmoved observer, who seeks in +all that comes to pass before his eyes only some material for his own +artistic reproduction. And in proportion as his powers of imagination +and observation increase, so in equal measure must his sensitiveness and +the exercise of that power of will which is indispensable for all moral +activity diminish. If nature has neither endowed the mind of the artist +with an adamantine stoicism, nor filled his heart with an inexhaustible +spring of love, his æsthetic qualities will little by little devour his +ethical instincts; genius may, in the words of Balzac, "consume" the +heart. In such a case as this, the categories of good and evil which +people have most to do with in real life, <i>i.e.</i>, the will and the +passions, are confused in the artist's mind with the categories of the +beautiful and the ugly, the characterless and the characteristic, the +artistically interesting and the inane. Wickedness and vice attract the +imagination of the poet, if only they be concealed under forms that are +externally beautiful and attractive; while virtue looks dull and +insignificant unless she can afford some material for a poetical +apotheosis.</p> + +<p>But the artist excels not only in the quality of being able to +contemplate objectively and dispassionately the emotions of others, he +is unique also in this, that he can, as an impartial observer, subject +his own heart to the same hard, æsthetic scrutiny that he applies to the +actions of others. Ordinary people can, or at least believe that they +can, entirely recover from the emotions which may have seized upon them, +be they transports of love or hatred, of joy or sorrow. An honourable +man, when he makes his vow of love to a woman, honestly believes in the +truth of that vow—it never enters his head to inquire whether he really +is as much in love as he says he is. One would on the face of things +expect a poet more than other men to be inclined to give way to emotion, +to be credulous, and to let himself be carried away; but in reality +there always remains in his soul, however deeply it may be swayed by +passion, the power to look into its own depths as into those of a +character in a dream or novel; to follow with attention, even in moments +of complete intoxication, the infinite intangible changes of his +emotions, and to focus upon them the force of his merciless analysis.</p> + +<p>Human emotions are hardly ever simple or unalloyed: in the majority of +cases they are composed of a mixture of parts differing immensely in the +values of their components. And a psychological artist involuntarily +discovers so many contradictions in himself and in others, even in +moments of genuine exaltation, that by degrees he comes to lose all +faith in his own rectitude, as well as in the rectitude of others.</p> + + +<h2><span>II</span></h2> + +<p>The letters of Flaubert, published in two volumes, offer rich material +for the study, from a living example, of the question of the antagonism +which exists between the artistic and moral personality.</p> + +<p>"Art is higher than life"; such is the formula which stands as the +corner-stone of the whole, not only of Flaubert's æsthetic view, but +also of his philosophical view of life. As a young man of thirty he +writes to one of his school friends: "If I did not introduce into the +plot of my poems a French queen of the fifteenth century, I should feel +an utter disgust of life, and long ere this a bullet would have freed me +from this humiliating folly." Within a year's time he is, with half +serious rhetoric and youthful enthusiasm, encouraging the same young +friend to proceed with his own work. "Let us ever devote ourselves to +our art, which, being more powerful than all nations, crowns, or rulers, +holds, in virtue of its glorious diadem, eternal sway over the whole +universe." When over forty years of age, and on the verge of the tomb, +Flaubert repeats with even greater emphasis and audacity the same +device: "<i>L'homme n'est rien; l'œuvre est tout.</i>"—"Man is +nothing; work is everything."</p> + +<p>In the flower of his early manhood, though possessed of beauty, wit, and +talent, he forsook the world for the sake of his art, like an ascetic in +the desert: he immersed himself in his solitude, as the Christian +hermits immured themselves in their caverns. "To bury oneself in one's +art, and spurn all else, is the only way to evade unhappiness," he +writes to his friend. "Pride makes up for all things, if there be only a +broad enough foundation for it.... I certainly lack little; I should no +doubt like to be as generous as the richest, as happy as a lover, as +sensuous as those who give up their lives to pleasure; ... But in the +meanwhile I covet neither riches, nor love, nor pleasures; ... Now, as +for a long time past, I ask only for five or six hours of repose in my +own chamber; in winter a big fire in my fireplace, and at night two +candles on my table." A year later he is advising the same friend: "Do +as I do, break from the outside world, and live like a bear, like a +white bear; send all else to the devil, and yourself as well, +everything except only your thoughts. There is at the present moment +such a great gulf fixed between myself and the rest of the world, that I +oft-times experience a feeling of astonishment when I hear even the most +ordinary and natural things; ... there are certain gestures, certain +intonations of the voice, which fill me with surprise, and there are +certain silly things which nearly make me giddy."</p> + +<p>Even in moments of overwhelming passion, Flaubert places his literary +vocation immeasurably above his personal happiness; and love of woman +strikes him as insignificant by the side of his love of poetry. "No," he +writes to his <i>fiancée</i>, "you had far better love my art and not myself; +for this attachment will never leave you, nor can illness or death +deprive you of it. Worship thought, for in thought alone is truth, +because it is one and imperishable. Can art, the only thing in life that +is true and valuable, be compared with earthly love? Can the adoration +of relative beauty be preferred to an eternal worship? Veneration for +art—that is the best thing that I possess; it is the one thing for +which I respect myself."</p> + +<p>He refuses to see anything relative in poetry, but regards it as +absolutely independent of and entirely cut off from life, and as being +more real than action; he perceives in art "the most self-satisfying +principle imaginable which requires as little external support as a +star." "Like a star," he says, "fixed and glittering in its own heaven, +does art observe the globe of the world revolve; that which is beautiful +will never be utterly destroyed." In the unity of the various portions +of a work, in the every detail, in the harmony of the whole, Flaubert +feels that "there is some inner essence, something in the nature of a +divine force, something like an eternal principle." "For how otherwise +would there exist any relation between the most exact and the most +musical expression of thought?"</p> + +<p>The sceptic who is not bound by any creed, but has spent his whole life +in doubt and hesitation in face of the ideas of God, religion, progress, +and scientific humanity, becomes pious and reverential when face to face +with the question of art. The true poet is, in his opinion, +distinguished from all other people by the divine inspiration of his +ideas, "by the contemplation of the immutable (<i>la contemplation de +l'immuable</i>), that is to say, religion in the highest sense of the +word." He regrets that he was not born in that age when people +worshipped art, when there still existed genuine artists in the world, +"whose life and thoughts were the blind instruments of the instinct of +beauty. They were the organs of God, by means of which He Himself +revealed His true essence to them; for these artists there was no +happiness; no one knew how much they suffered; each night as they lay +down sadly to rest they gazed wearily at the life of men with an +astonished eye, just as we might gaze at an ant-hill."</p> + +<p>To most artists beauty is a more or less abstract quality; to Flaubert +it was as concrete an object of passion as is gold to the miser, power +to the ambitious, or his lady to the lover. His work was like a +deliberate suicide; he gave himself entirely up to it, with the +fanaticism of a man possessed by a mania, with the mystic submission and +enthusiasm of a martyr, with the awe of a priest as he enters the sacred +sanctuary. Thus does he describe his own work: "Sick and irritable at +heart, enduring a thousand times in the day moments of anguish and +despondency, and having neither wife nor any of the joys of life to +distract me, I continue to toil at my weary task, like a good workman +who, with sleeves rolled up and brow streaming with sweat, strikes on +his anvil without fear of rain or hail, of storm or thunder." Here is an +extract from a biography of Flaubert written by Maupassant, one of his +favourite pupils and disciples, which gives an accurate picture of the +gifted writer's energy for work: "His head bowed, his face and brow and +neck bathed in moisture, all his muscles tense, like an athlete at the +height of the contest, he set himself to face the desperate strife with +his ideas and words, rejecting, uniting, or forging them as in an iron +grip by the power of his will, condensing them and gradually with +superhuman strength working out his thought, and confining it, like a +wild beast in a cage, in a definite, indestructible form."</p> + + +<h2><span>III</span></h2> + +<p>Flaubert, more than any other man, has experienced in his own life, the +destructive power of his over-sharpened, analytical disposition. With +the malevolence, which was so strangely mingled in him with the then +fashionable Byronism, and with a confused presentiment of an impending +and inevitable catastrophe, he embarks at the early age of seventeen +upon his work of destruction and internal iconoclasm: "I analyse myself +and others," he writes to a friend; "I am always anatomizing, and +whenever I at last succeed in finding something, which all men consider +pure and beautiful, but which is in reality a putrid spot, a gangrene, I +shake my head and smile. I have come to the firm conclusion that vanity +is the fundamental basis of all things, and that even that which we call +conscience is in fact only a concealed and incipient vanity. You give in +charity, partly, may be, out of compassion, out of pity, or from horror +of suffering and sordidness, but also out of egotism; for the chief +motive of your action is the desire to acquire the right to say to +yourself: I have done good; there are very few people like me; I +respect myself more than other men." Eight years later he writes to his +devoted wife: "I love to analyze; it is an occupation that distracts me. +Although I am not very much inclined to see the humorous side of things, +yet I cannot regard my own personality altogether seriously, because I +see myself how ridiculous I am, ridiculous not in the sense of being +externally comic, but in the inner sense of that inherent irony which, +being present in the life of men, shows itself sometimes even in the +most obviously natural actions, in the most ordinary gestures.... All +this one feels in oneself, but it is hard to explain. You do not +understand it, because in you it is as simple and genuine as in a +beautiful hymn of love and poetry. For I regard myself as a sort of +arabesque or marqueterie work; there are within me pieces of ivory and +of gold and of iron, some of painted paper, others of brilliants, and +others again of lead."</p> + +<p>This life is so rich in visions and imaginings, that they finally +obscure the real world altogether, and receive in passing through this +medium a reflected colouring in addition to their own. "I always see +the antithesis of things; the sight of a child inevitably suggests to my +mind the thought of old age; the sight of a cradle, the idea of the +grave. When I look at my wife, I think of myself as her skeleton. That +is why scenes of happiness sadden me, while sad things leave me +indifferent. I weep so much internally in my own soul, that my tears +cannot flow outwardly as well; things that I read of in a book agitate +me much more than any actually existing sorrows." Here we encounter a +distinguishing trait of the majority of natures that are gifted with +strong artistic temperaments. "The more oppressed I feel, the more +melancholy and highly strung and prone to tears and to give myself over +to a sense of imaginary suffering, so much the more do my real feelings +remain dry and hard and dead within my heart; they are crystallized +within it." This is the mental attitude described by Pushkin:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"In vain did I appeal to the emotions within me,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With unmoved ears I heard the breath of Death,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And all unmoved I gazed on her.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">So that is what I loved with flaming soul,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With such intensity of passion,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With so great anguish and agony of love,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With such torment and unreason!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where is now pain and where is love?</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Alas, for the poor credulous shade in my soul!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For the sweet memory of days for ever passed</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I can now find neither tears nor reproaches."</span> +</div> + +<p>This condition of incomprehensible indifference towards the beloved one, +this despair arising not out of grief, but as a result of his own +coldness, of his lack of commiseration and pity was all too familiar to +Flaubert; and according to his custom, he boldly proceeds to analyse +this trait, which it is the one endeavour of most other artists to +conceal, not only from others, but even from themselves, regarding it +mistakenly as a form of egoism that is entirely in conflict with Nature. +He describes his feelings at the grave of his dearly loved sister: "I +was as cold as the grave-stone, and only terribly bored." What does he +do at the moment when an ordinary man, forgetful of all else, would give +himself up entirely to his grief? With pitiless curiosity, "himself +catching nothing of their emotions," he analyzes them "like an artist." +"This melancholy occupation alleviated my grief remarkably," he writes +to a friend, "perhaps you will regard me as utterly heartless if I +confess to you that my present sorrow" (that is to say the grief +experienced at the death of his sister) "does not strike me as the +heaviest lot that I have ever had to endure. At times when there was +apparently nothing to be sad about, it has been my fate to be much +sadder." A little further on comes a long discourse upon the Infinite, +upon Nirvana,—a discourse in which the author gives utterance to much +inspired poetry, but to very little simple human sorrow.</p> + +<p>In the letter in which Flaubert describes the funeral of a friend of his +childhood, his æsthetic cult of sadness reaches a still higher plane of +meditativeness. "On the body of the departed there appeared the signs of +a terrible transformation; we hid the corpse in a double shroud. So +covered, he looked like an Egyptian mummy enveloped in the bandages of +the tomb, and I cannot describe the feelings of joy and freedom which I +experienced at sight of him at that moment. There was a white mist over +everything, the forest trees stood out against the sky, and the funeral +lights were still shining in the pallor of the dawning day; the birds +were twittering, and I recalled a verse of his poem: 'He flies away +like a winged bird to meet the rising sun in the pine wood,' or, to put +it better, I heard his voice uttering these words and the whole day long +they haunted me with their enchantment. They placed him in the +ante-chamber, the doors were left ajar, and the cool morning air +penetrated into the room, mingled with a refreshing rain, which had just +then begun to fall.... My soul was filled with emotions, till then +unknown, and upon it there flamed forth like summer lightning such +thoughts as I can never repeat again: a thousand recollections of the +dead were wafted to me on the fumes of the incense, in the chords of the +music." ... And here the artist, in the midst of his æsthetic +abstraction, converts his genuine grief into a thing of beauty, so that +in his enlightened view the death of his beloved friend not only causes +him no pang, or suffering, but, on the contrary, gives him a mystic +resignation, incomprehensible to ordinary men, an ecstasy that is +foreign to and removed from life, a joy that is entirely impersonal.</p> + +<p>During his sojourn in Jerusalem, Flaubert paid a visit to the lepers. +Here is the account of his impressions: "This place (that is the plot +of land set aside for those who are afflicted with leprosy) is situated +outside the town, near a marsh, whence a host of crows and vultures +arose and took their flight at our approach. The poor sufferers, both +women and men (in all about a dozen persons) lie all huddled together in +a heap. They have no covering on their heads, and there is no +distinction of sex. Their bodies are covered with putrefying scars, and +they have sombre cavities in place of noses. I was forced to put on my +eye-glasses in order to discover what was hanging to the ends of their +arms. Were they hands, or were they some greenish-looking rags? They +were hands! (<i>There</i> is a prize for colourists!) A sick man was dragging +himself to the water's edge to drink some water. Through his mouth, +which yawned black and empty of the gums, that seemingly had been burned +away, the palate was clearly visible. A rattle sounded in his throat as +he dragged the limbs of his dead-white body towards us. And all around +us reigned tranquil Nature, the ripples of the stream, the green of the +trees, all bubbling over with the abundance of sap and youth, and the +coolness of the shadows beneath the scorching sun." This extract is +taken from no novel, in which a poet might force himself to be +objective, but from a traveller's notes, from a letter to a friend, +wherein the author has no kind of motive for concealing the subjective +character of his emotions. And yet in spite of this, except for the two +rather common-place epithets of "poor wretches" (<i>pauvres misérables</i>), +there is not a single touch of pity, not even a suggestion of +compassion.</p> + + +<h2><span>IV</span></h2> + +<p>"I am not a Christian" (<i>je ne suis pas Chrétien</i>), says Flaubert in a +letter to Georges Sand. The French Revolution was, in his opinion, +unsuccessful, because it was too intimately bound up with the idea of +religious pity. The idea of equality, on which is based the essence of +the democracy of to-day, is a contradiction of all the principles of +equity. See what a preponderating influence is given at this day to +grace. Emotion is everything, justice nothing. "We are degenerating +owing to our superfluity of indulgence and of compassion, and to our +moral drought." "I am convinced," he remarks, "that the poor envy the +rich, and that the rich fear the poor; it will be so for ever—and vain +it is to preach the Gospel of Love."</p> + +<p>Flaubert tries to justify his instinctive antipathy to the idea of +brotherhood by the assertion that this idea is always found to be in +irreconcilable contradiction to the principle of equity. "I hate +democracy (in the sense at least in which the word is accepted in +France), that is to say the magnifying of grace to the detriment of +justice, the negation of right—in a word, the anti-social principle +(<i>l'anti-sociabilité</i>)." "The gift of grace (within the province of +theology) is the negation of justice; what right has a man to demand any +change in the execution of the law?" Yet he hardly believes in this +principle himself, and only enunciates it in order to have an argument +with which to refute the idea of brotherhood. At least this is what he +says, in a moment of complete frankness, in a letter to an old friend: +"Human justice seems to me the most unstable thing in the whole world. +The sight of a man daring to judge his neighbour would send me into +convulsions of laughter if it did not arouse my disgust and pity, and if +I were not at the present moment" (he was at that time engaged in +studying for the law) "obliged to study a system of absurdities, by +virtue of which men consider that they acquire the right to judge. I +know of nothing so absurd as law, except, perhaps, the study of it." In +another letter he confesses that he never could understand the abstract +and dry conception of duty, and that "it did not seem to him to be +inherent in the nature of mankind (<i>il ne me paraît pas inhérent aux +entrailles humaines</i>)." Evidently, then he believes as little in the +idea of justice as he does in that of fraternity. As a matter of fact, +he has no moral ideal.</p> + +<p>"There is only one thing in the world that I really value, and that is +beautiful verse; an elegant, harmonious, melodious style; the warmth of +the sun; a picturesque landscape; moonlight nights; antique statues, and +the character in a profile.... I am a fatalist, in fact, like a +Mahometan, and I believe that all that we do for the progress of +humanity is of no use. As to this idea of progress, I am mentally +incapable of grasping such nebulous and dreary conceptions. All the +nonsense talked on this subject simply bores me beyond endurance.... I +cherish a deep respect for the ancient form of tyranny, for to me it is +the finest expression of humanity that has ever been made manifest." "I +have few convictions," he writes to Georges Sand, "but one of those I +have I cherish firmly—it is the conviction that the masses are always +composed of idiots. And yet one may not consider the masses as stupid, +because within them is concealed the seed of an incalculable fecundity +(<i>d'une fécondité incalculable</i>)."</p> + +<p>Flaubert makes a half-jesting attempt to contrast the doctrines of the +socialists with his own ideas of the political order of the future. "The +only logical conclusion is an administration consisting of mandarins, if +only these mandarins be possessed of some knowledge, and if possible, +even considerable knowledge. The mass of the people will thus always +remain as minors, and will always hold the lowest place in the hierarchy +of the social orders, seeing that it is composed of unlimited +numbers.... In this lawful aristocracy of the present time is our whole +salvation." ... "Humanity represents nothing new. Its irremediable +worthlessness filled my soul even in my early youth with bitterness. And +that is why I now experience no disappointment. I am convinced that the +crowd, the common herd will always be odious.... Until the time comes +when men shall submit to set up mandarins, and shall have substituted +for the Roman Pope an Academy of Sciences, until that time comes, all +politics, and all society even to its deepest roots, must be merely a +collection of revolting lies (<i>de blagues écœurantes</i>.)" +Nevertheless in his novel "Bouvard et Pécuchet" Flaubert makes every +effort to destroy faith even in the strength of the principles of +science, and to prove that modern science is as impermanent a structure, +as contradictory and superstitious a system as was the theology of the +Middle Ages. To his disbelief in science Flaubert, moreover, is +constantly giving utterance: thus, for instance, when he comes upon the +Positivism of Comte, he finds this system "unbearably stupid" (<i>c'est +assommant de bêtise</i>).</p> + + +<h2><span>V</span></h2> + +<p>We have thus seen that Flaubert's attempt to reach a compromise with +regard to the preponderating tendency of the age did not succeed; of his +views respecting the structure of society, the only true one is his +insight into the lower classes of the people. "However well you may feed +the animal man, however thickly you gild his stable, even though you +give him the softest and most luxurious litter, still he will ever +remain a beast. The only progress upon which one can count is the effort +to make the beast less of a cannibal. But as to raising the level of his +ideas, or inspiring the masses with a broader conception of God, I +seriously doubt whether this can ever be achieved."</p> + +<p>In another letter he frankly admits that he has no faith, no principles +of morality, no political ideals, and in this admission, wrung from the +depths of his heart, the note of despair is already struck: "In the +present day there seems to be as little possibility of establishing any +new belief as of obtaining respect for the old faith. And so I seek and +fail to find that one idea upon which all the rest should depend." These +few words throw a clearer light on the attitude of Flaubert during the +latter years of his life than anything else. Formerly he had found this +idea in his art, while now he assumes that there is another and higher +basis, upon which art itself must rest; but to find this principle is +beyond his power. He seeks forgetfulness in work, but work only brings +exhaustion, and he is still more dissatisfied. He realises his +singularity, and it draws him out of his objective attitude into that +incomprehensible existence, the very conception of which he himself +denies.</p> + +<p>The real tragedy of his position lies in the fact that he is alone in +the midst of a strange and unknown world. And little by little his +despair reaches its utmost limits: "Whenever I am without a book in my +hand, or whenever I am not writing, such anguish seizes on me that I +simply find myself on the verge of tears." So he writes in a letter to +Georges Sand. "It seems to me that I have literally turned into a +fossil, and that I am deprived of all connection with the universe +around me." "A feeling of universal destruction and agony possesses me, +and I am deathly sad." "When I am tired out from my work, I grow anxious +about myself. No one remembers me, I belong to another sphere. My +professional friends are so little friendly to me." "I pass whole weeks +without exchanging a word with a single human creature, and at the end +of the week I find it hard to recall any special day or any particular +event during the course of that time. On Sundays I see my mother and +niece, and that is all. A gathering of rats in the attic, that is my +whole society. They make an infernal noise over my head, when the rain +is not roaring, and the wind is not howling. The nights are blacker than +coal, and a silence is all around me, infinite as in the desert. One's +senses are terribly sharpened in such surroundings, and my heart starts +beating at the slightest sound." "I am losing myself in the +reminiscences of my youth, like an old man. Of life I ask nothing more, +save a few sheets of paper that I may scratch ink upon. I feel as though +I were wandering through an endless desert, wandering, not knowing +whither; and that at one and the same time, I am the wanderer, and the +camel, and the desert." "One hope alone sustains me, that soon I shall +be parted from life, and that I shall surely find no other existence +that might be still more painful.... No, no! Enough of misery!"</p> + +<p>All his letters to Georges Sand are one weary restless martyr's +confession of the "disease of genius." Sometimes a simple plaint bursts +from him, and in it, through the impenetrable pride of the fighter, can +be detected something soft and broken, as in the voice of a man who is +over-tired. The fury of his enemies, the calumnies of his friends, the +lack of understanding of his critics, no longer wounded his self-pride; +he merely hated them. "All this avalanche of folly neither disturbs nor +grieves me. Only one would prefer to inspire one's fellow men with +pleasant feelings."</p> + +<p>Then finally, even his last consolation—his art—deserts him. "In vain +I gather my strength; the work will not come, will not come. Everything +disturbs and upsets me. In the presence of others I can still control +myself, but when I am alone I often burst into such senseless, spasmodic +tears that I think I am going to die from them." In his declining +years, when he can no longer turn to the past, and no longer correct his +life, he asks himself the question: what if even that beauty, in the +name of which he has destroyed his faith in God, in life, and in +humanity, is as visionary and delusive as all else? What if his art, for +the sake of which he had given up his life, his youth, and happiness, +and love, should have abandoned him on the very edge of the grave?</p> + +<p>"The Shadow is enveloping me," he says, as he realises that the end is +at hand. This exclamation is as the cry of eternal anguish uttered +before his death by another artist, Michael Angelo, the brother of +Flaubert in his ideals and aims and genius:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0"> "Io parto a mano a mano,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"> Crescemi ognor piu l'ombra, e il sol vien manco,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"> E son presso a cadere, infermo e stanco."</span><br /> +<span class="i2"> "Inch by inch I sink,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"> The shadows lengthen, the sun sinks down,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"> And I am ready to depart,</span><br /> +<span class="i2"> Broken and weary."</span> +</div> + +<p>Death struck him down at his work-table, quite suddenly, like a +thunder-bolt. Dropping his pen from his hand, he sank down lifeless, +killed by his one great, single passion, the love of his art.</p> + +<p>Plato in one of his myths relates how the souls of men travel in +chariots on winged steeds along the heavenly way; to some of whom it is +given after a short time to approach that spot whence is visible the +domain of Ideas; with yearning do they gaze aloft, and a few stray rays +of light fall deep down among them. Then, when these souls are +re-incarnated, to return and suffer on earth, all that is best in the +human heart appeals to them and touches them, as a reflection of some +eternal light, as a confused remembrance of another world, into which it +was granted them to peep for the space of a single moment.</p> + +<p>Surely there must have fallen upon the soul of Flaubert in the glorious +sphere of the imagination a ray of beauty that was perhaps too bright.</p> + +<div class="box"> + +<p><i>Printed by Alexander Moring Ltd. The De La More Press, +32 George Street, Hanover Square, London W</i></p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life-Work of Flaubert, by +Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE-WORK OF FLAUBERT *** + +***** This file should be named 33933-h.htm or 33933-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/9/3/33933/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life-Work of Flaubert + From the Russian of Merejowski + +Author: Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky + +Translator: George Augustus Mounsey + +Release Date: October 12, 2010 [EBook #33933] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE-WORK OF FLAUBERT *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + + + + +THE LIFE-WORK + +OF + +FLAUBERT + + +FROM THE RUSSIAN OF MEREJKOWSKI + +BY G. A. MOUNSEY + + +ALEXANDER MORING LTD + +THE DE LA MORE PRESS + +32 GEORGE STREET + +HANOVER SQUARE + +LONDON W + + + + +FLAUBERT + + + + +I + + +Balzac in one of his novels gives utterance to the following thought: +"Genius is a terrible disease. Every writer of genius cherishes in his +heart a monster which devours all his emotions as soon as he gives birth +to them. Which is to be the conqueror? Will the disease vanquish the +man, or the man the disease? He must be a great man who can establish a +perfect equilibrium between his genius and his character. Unless the +poet be a giant, unless he be possessed of the shoulders of a Hercules, +he must inevitably remain bereft of heart, or else bereft of talent." + +Here, unfortunately, Balzac breaks off his dissertation, and does not +state what in his opinion is the cause of this disease of genius, why +the development and power of the artistic personality stand in many +respects in inverse ratio to the development and power of the moral +type, or on what fundamental ground depends that primary antagonism +between these two elements which is so often to be observed in the daily +experience of life. Every one knows, for instance, that writers of +talent, artists or musicians, are in the majority of cases men of the +most unpractical nature, that their eccentricities and irresponsibility +verge not uncommonly on complete moral disintegration, that they are bad +fathers of families and bad husbands, and that while expressing great +sensitiveness in the forcible language of their works, they very often +show themselves in real life to be at heart hard and unfeeling egotists. +An enquiry into the origin of the causes responsible for the deep +contrast which exists between the aesthetic and ethical points of view, +between the artist and the man, between genius and character, would +undoubtedly open up one of the most interesting chapters in the history +of creative psychology. + +Let us take, as an illustration of our thesis, the tragic scene of the +destruction of Laocoon, as described in the AEneid. Picture the horror +and anguish with which the citizens of Troy witness the seizure and +suffocation of Laocoon and his children by the gigantic serpents. The +onlookers are filled with terror, grief, and a desire to save the +unfortunate victims. In bringing out the psychic differences of +constitution among the crowd, the crucial moment of action plays a most +important _role_, developing the instinct of self-preservation among the +more timid ones, or the efforts of the more manly to lend their aid. +Then imagine a sculptor moving about in this wavering and undecided +crowd, and studying the terrible tragedy which is being enacted before +his eyes as a fit theme for a future work of art. He alone remains an +unmoved spectator amid the general confusion, lamentation, cries, and +prayers. His moral instincts are all absorbed in an intense aesthetic +curiosity. Tears would hinder his vision, and he keeps them sternly +back, because it is imperatively necessary for him to see every form, +every outline of the muscles distorted under the crushing force of the +snakes' huge coils. Every detail of the picture which in the others +awakens loathing and terror, evokes in him a joy that is outside the ken +of other men. While they weep and waver, the artist rejoices in the +expression of agony on the countenance of Laocoon, rejoices that the +father is unable to bring aid to his children, that the serpents are +compressing their bodies with irresistible force. The next moment, +perchance, the man will have conquered the artist. But the deed is done, +the fact remains, the moment of cruel contemplation has had the power to +brand upon his heart its ineradicable impression. + +A series of similar episodes must sooner or later create in the mind of +the artist the habit of withdrawing himself from life, of regarding it +from one side, from without, from the point of view no longer of a +living human being, but from that of an unmoved observer, who seeks in +all that comes to pass before his eyes only some material for his own +artistic reproduction. And in proportion as his powers of imagination +and observation increase, so in equal measure must his sensitiveness and +the exercise of that power of will which is indispensable for all moral +activity diminish. If nature has neither endowed the mind of the artist +with an adamantine stoicism, nor filled his heart with an inexhaustible +spring of love, his aesthetic qualities will little by little devour his +ethical instincts; genius may, in the words of Balzac, "consume" the +heart. In such a case as this, the categories of good and evil which +people have most to do with in real life, _i.e._, the will and the +passions, are confused in the artist's mind with the categories of the +beautiful and the ugly, the characterless and the characteristic, the +artistically interesting and the inane. Wickedness and vice attract the +imagination of the poet, if only they be concealed under forms that are +externally beautiful and attractive; while virtue looks dull and +insignificant unless she can afford some material for a poetical +apotheosis. + +But the artist excels not only in the quality of being able to +contemplate objectively and dispassionately the emotions of others, he +is unique also in this, that he can, as an impartial observer, subject +his own heart to the same hard, aesthetic scrutiny that he applies to the +actions of others. Ordinary people can, or at least believe that they +can, entirely recover from the emotions which may have seized upon them, +be they transports of love or hatred, of joy or sorrow. An honourable +man, when he makes his vow of love to a woman, honestly believes in the +truth of that vow--it never enters his head to inquire whether he really +is as much in love as he says he is. One would on the face of things +expect a poet more than other men to be inclined to give way to emotion, +to be credulous, and to let himself be carried away; but in reality +there always remains in his soul, however deeply it may be swayed by +passion, the power to look into its own depths as into those of a +character in a dream or novel; to follow with attention, even in moments +of complete intoxication, the infinite intangible changes of his +emotions, and to focus upon them the force of his merciless analysis. + +Human emotions are hardly ever simple or unalloyed: in the majority of +cases they are composed of a mixture of parts differing immensely in the +values of their components. And a psychological artist involuntarily +discovers so many contradictions in himself and in others, even in +moments of genuine exaltation, that by degrees he comes to lose all +faith in his own rectitude, as well as in the rectitude of others. + + + + +II + + +The letters of Flaubert, published in two volumes, offer rich material +for the study, from a living example, of the question of the antagonism +which exists between the artistic and moral personality. + +"Art is higher than life"; such is the formula which stands as the +corner-stone of the whole, not only of Flaubert's aesthetic view, but +also of his philosophical view of life. As a young man of thirty he +writes to one of his school friends: "If I did not introduce into the +plot of my poems a French queen of the fifteenth century, I should feel +an utter disgust of life, and long ere this a bullet would have freed me +from this humiliating folly." Within a year's time he is, with half +serious rhetoric and youthful enthusiasm, encouraging the same young +friend to proceed with his own work. "Let us ever devote ourselves to +our art, which, being more powerful than all nations, crowns, or rulers, +holds, in virtue of its glorious diadem, eternal sway over the whole +universe." When over forty years of age, and on the verge of the tomb, +Flaubert repeats with even greater emphasis and audacity the same +device: "_L'homme n'est rien; l'oeuvre est tout._"--"Man is nothing; +work is everything." + +In the flower of his early manhood, though possessed of beauty, wit, and +talent, he forsook the world for the sake of his art, like an ascetic in +the desert: he immersed himself in his solitude, as the Christian +hermits immured themselves in their caverns. "To bury oneself in one's +art, and spurn all else, is the only way to evade unhappiness," he +writes to his friend. "Pride makes up for all things, if there be only a +broad enough foundation for it.... I certainly lack little; I should no +doubt like to be as generous as the richest, as happy as a lover, as +sensuous as those who give up their lives to pleasure; ... But in the +meanwhile I covet neither riches, nor love, nor pleasures; ... Now, as +for a long time past, I ask only for five or six hours of repose in my +own chamber; in winter a big fire in my fireplace, and at night two +candles on my table." A year later he is advising the same friend: "Do +as I do, break from the outside world, and live like a bear, like a +white bear; send all else to the devil, and yourself as well, everything +except only your thoughts. There is at the present moment such a great +gulf fixed between myself and the rest of the world, that I oft-times +experience a feeling of astonishment when I hear even the most ordinary +and natural things; ... there are certain gestures, certain intonations +of the voice, which fill me with surprise, and there are certain silly +things which nearly make me giddy." + +Even in moments of overwhelming passion, Flaubert places his literary +vocation immeasurably above his personal happiness; and love of woman +strikes him as insignificant by the side of his love of poetry. "No," he +writes to his _fiancee_, "you had far better love my art and not myself; +for this attachment will never leave you, nor can illness or death +deprive you of it. Worship thought, for in thought alone is truth, +because it is one and imperishable. Can art, the only thing in life that +is true and valuable, be compared with earthly love? Can the adoration +of relative beauty be preferred to an eternal worship? Veneration for +art--that is the best thing that I possess; it is the one thing for +which I respect myself." + +He refuses to see anything relative in poetry, but regards it as +absolutely independent of and entirely cut off from life, and as being +more real than action; he perceives in art "the most self-satisfying +principle imaginable which requires as little external support as a +star." "Like a star," he says, "fixed and glittering in its own heaven, +does art observe the globe of the world revolve; that which is beautiful +will never be utterly destroyed." In the unity of the various portions +of a work, in the every detail, in the harmony of the whole, Flaubert +feels that "there is some inner essence, something in the nature of a +divine force, something like an eternal principle." "For how otherwise +would there exist any relation between the most exact and the most +musical expression of thought?" + +The sceptic who is not bound by any creed, but has spent his whole life +in doubt and hesitation in face of the ideas of God, religion, progress, +and scientific humanity, becomes pious and reverential when face to face +with the question of art. The true poet is, in his opinion, +distinguished from all other people by the divine inspiration of his +ideas, "by the contemplation of the immutable (_la contemplation de +l'immuable_), that is to say, religion in the highest sense of the +word." He regrets that he was not born in that age when people +worshipped art, when there still existed genuine artists in the world, +"whose life and thoughts were the blind instruments of the instinct of +beauty. They were the organs of God, by means of which He Himself +revealed His true essence to them; for these artists there was no +happiness; no one knew how much they suffered; each night as they lay +down sadly to rest they gazed wearily at the life of men with an +astonished eye, just as we might gaze at an ant-hill." + +To most artists beauty is a more or less abstract quality; to Flaubert +it was as concrete an object of passion as is gold to the miser, power +to the ambitious, or his lady to the lover. His work was like a +deliberate suicide; he gave himself entirely up to it, with the +fanaticism of a man possessed by a mania, with the mystic submission and +enthusiasm of a martyr, with the awe of a priest as he enters the sacred +sanctuary. Thus does he describe his own work: "Sick and irritable at +heart, enduring a thousand times in the day moments of anguish and +despondency, and having neither wife nor any of the joys of life to +distract me, I continue to toil at my weary task, like a good workman +who, with sleeves rolled up and brow streaming with sweat, strikes on +his anvil without fear of rain or hail, of storm or thunder." Here is an +extract from a biography of Flaubert written by Maupassant, one of his +favourite pupils and disciples, which gives an accurate picture of the +gifted writer's energy for work: "His head bowed, his face and brow and +neck bathed in moisture, all his muscles tense, like an athlete at the +height of the contest, he set himself to face the desperate strife with +his ideas and words, rejecting, uniting, or forging them as in an iron +grip by the power of his will, condensing them and gradually with +superhuman strength working out his thought, and confining it, like a +wild beast in a cage, in a definite, indestructible form." + + + + +III + + +Flaubert, more than any other man, has experienced in his own life, the +destructive power of his over-sharpened, analytical disposition. With +the malevolence, which was so strangely mingled in him with the then +fashionable Byronism, and with a confused presentiment of an impending +and inevitable catastrophe, he embarks at the early age of seventeen +upon his work of destruction and internal iconoclasm: "I analyse myself +and others," he writes to a friend; "I am always anatomizing, and +whenever I at last succeed in finding something, which all men consider +pure and beautiful, but which is in reality a putrid spot, a gangrene, I +shake my head and smile. I have come to the firm conclusion that vanity +is the fundamental basis of all things, and that even that which we call +conscience is in fact only a concealed and incipient vanity. You give in +charity, partly, may be, out of compassion, out of pity, or from horror +of suffering and sordidness, but also out of egotism; for the chief +motive of your action is the desire to acquire the right to say to +yourself: I have done good; there are very few people like me; I respect +myself more than other men." Eight years later he writes to his devoted +wife: "I love to analyze; it is an occupation that distracts me. +Although I am not very much inclined to see the humorous side of things, +yet I cannot regard my own personality altogether seriously, because I +see myself how ridiculous I am, ridiculous not in the sense of being +externally comic, but in the inner sense of that inherent irony which, +being present in the life of men, shows itself sometimes even in the +most obviously natural actions, in the most ordinary gestures.... All +this one feels in oneself, but it is hard to explain. You do not +understand it, because in you it is as simple and genuine as in a +beautiful hymn of love and poetry. For I regard myself as a sort of +arabesque or marqueterie work; there are within me pieces of ivory and +of gold and of iron, some of painted paper, others of brilliants, and +others again of lead." + +This life is so rich in visions and imaginings, that they finally +obscure the real world altogether, and receive in passing through this +medium a reflected colouring in addition to their own. "I always see the +antithesis of things; the sight of a child inevitably suggests to my +mind the thought of old age; the sight of a cradle, the idea of the +grave. When I look at my wife, I think of myself as her skeleton. That +is why scenes of happiness sadden me, while sad things leave me +indifferent. I weep so much internally in my own soul, that my tears +cannot flow outwardly as well; things that I read of in a book agitate +me much more than any actually existing sorrows." Here we encounter a +distinguishing trait of the majority of natures that are gifted with +strong artistic temperaments. "The more oppressed I feel, the more +melancholy and highly strung and prone to tears and to give myself over +to a sense of imaginary suffering, so much the more do my real feelings +remain dry and hard and dead within my heart; they are crystallized +within it." This is the mental attitude described by Pushkin: + + "In vain did I appeal to the emotions within me, + With unmoved ears I heard the breath of Death, + And all unmoved I gazed on her. + So that is what I loved with flaming soul, + With such intensity of passion, + With so great anguish and agony of love, + With such torment and unreason! + Where is now pain and where is love? + Alas, for the poor credulous shade in my soul! + For the sweet memory of days for ever passed + I can now find neither tears nor reproaches." + +This condition of incomprehensible indifference towards the beloved one, +this despair arising not out of grief, but as a result of his own +coldness, of his lack of commiseration and pity was all too familiar to +Flaubert; and according to his custom, he boldly proceeds to analyse +this trait, which it is the one endeavour of most other artists to +conceal, not only from others, but even from themselves, regarding it +mistakenly as a form of egotism that is entirely in conflict with Nature. +He describes his feelings at the grave of his dearly loved sister: "I +was as cold as the grave-stone, and only terribly bored." What does he +do at the moment when an ordinary man, forgetful of all else, would give +himself up entirely to his grief? With pitiless curiosity, "himself +catching nothing of their emotions," he analyzes them "like an artist." +"This melancholy occupation alleviated my grief remarkably," he writes +to a friend, "perhaps you will regard me as utterly heartless if I +confess to you that my present sorrow" (that is to say the grief +experienced at the death of his sister) "does not strike me as the +heaviest lot that I have ever had to endure. At times when there was +apparently nothing to be sad about, it has been my fate to be much +sadder." A little further on comes a long discourse upon the Infinite, +upon Nirvana,--a discourse in which the author gives utterance to much +inspired poetry, but to very little simple human sorrow. + +In the letter in which Flaubert describes the funeral of a friend of his +childhood, his aesthetic cult of sadness reaches a still higher plane of +meditativeness. "On the body of the departed there appeared the signs of +a terrible transformation; we hid the corpse in a double shroud. So +covered, he looked like an Egyptian mummy enveloped in the bandages of +the tomb, and I cannot describe the feelings of joy and freedom which I +experienced at sight of him at that moment. There was a white mist over +everything, the forest trees stood out against the sky, and the funeral +lights were still shining in the pallor of the dawning day; the birds +were twittering, and I recalled a verse of his poem: 'He flies away like +a winged bird to meet the rising sun in the pine wood,' or, to put it +better, I heard his voice uttering these words and the whole day long +they haunted me with their enchantment. They placed him in the +ante-chamber, the doors were left ajar, and the cool morning air +penetrated into the room, mingled with a refreshing rain, which had just +then begun to fall.... My soul was filled with emotions, till then +unknown, and upon it there flamed forth like summer lightning such +thoughts as I can never repeat again: a thousand recollections of the +dead were wafted to me on the fumes of the incense, in the chords of the +music." ... And here the artist, in the midst of his aesthetic +abstraction, converts his genuine grief into a thing of beauty, so that +in his enlightened view the death of his beloved friend not only causes +him no pang, or suffering, but, on the contrary, gives him a mystic +resignation, incomprehensible to ordinary men, an ecstasy that is +foreign to and removed from life, a joy that is entirely impersonal. + +During his sojourn in Jerusalem, Flaubert paid a visit to the lepers. +Here is the account of his impressions: "This place (that is the plot of +land set aside for those who are afflicted with leprosy) is situated +outside the town, near a marsh, whence a host of crows and vultures +arose and took their flight at our approach. The poor sufferers, both +women and men (in all about a dozen persons) lie all huddled together in +a heap. They have no covering on their heads, and there is no +distinction of sex. Their bodies are covered with putrefying scars, and +they have sombre cavities in place of noses. I was forced to put on my +eye-glasses in order to discover what was hanging to the ends of their +arms. Were they hands, or were they some greenish-looking rags? They +were hands! (_There_ is a prize for colourists!) A sick man was dragging +himself to the water's edge to drink some water. Through his mouth, +which yawned black and empty of the gums, that seemingly had been burned +away, the palate was clearly visible. A rattle sounded in his throat as +he dragged the limbs of his dead-white body towards us. And all around +us reigned tranquil Nature, the ripples of the stream, the green of the +trees, all bubbling over with the abundance of sap and youth, and the +coolness of the shadows beneath the scorching sun." This extract is +taken from no novel, in which a poet might force himself to be +objective, but from a traveller's notes, from a letter to a friend, +wherein the author has no kind of motive for concealing the subjective +character of his emotions. And yet in spite of this, except for the two +rather common-place epithets of "poor wretches" (_pauvres miserables_), +there is not a single touch of pity, not even a suggestion of +compassion. + + + + +IV + + +"I am not a Christian" (_je ne suis pas Chretien_), says Flaubert in a +letter to Georges Sand. The French Revolution was, in his opinion, +unsuccessful, because it was too intimately bound up with the idea of +religious pity. The idea of equality, on which is based the essence of +the democracy of to-day, is a contradiction of all the principles of +equity. See what a preponderating influence is given at this day to +grace. Emotion is everything, justice nothing. "We are degenerating +owing to our superfluity of indulgence and of compassion, and to our +moral drought." "I am convinced," he remarks, "that the poor envy the +rich, and that the rich fear the poor; it will be so for ever--and vain +it is to preach the Gospel of Love." + +Flaubert tries to justify his instinctive antipathy to the idea of +brotherhood by the assertion that this idea is always found to be in +irreconcilable contradiction to the principle of equity. "I hate +democracy (in the sense at least in which the word is accepted in +France), that is to say the magnifying of grace to the detriment of +justice, the negation of right--in a word, the anti-social principle +(_l'anti-sociabilite_)." "The gift of grace (within the province of +theology) is the negation of justice; what right has a man to demand any +change in the execution of the law?" Yet he hardly believes in this +principle himself, and only enunciates it in order to have an argument +with which to refute the idea of brotherhood. At least this is what he +says, in a moment of complete frankness, in a letter to an old friend: +"Human justice seems to me the most unstable thing in the whole world. +The sight of a man daring to judge his neighbour would send me into +convulsions of laughter if it did not arouse my disgust and pity, and if +I were not at the present moment" (he was at that time engaged in +studying for the law) "obliged to study a system of absurdities, by +virtue of which men consider that they acquire the right to judge. I +know of nothing so absurd as law, except, perhaps, the study of it." In +another letter he confesses that he never could understand the abstract +and dry conception of duty, and that "it did not seem to him to be +inherent in the nature of mankind (_il ne me parait pas inherent aux +entrailles humaines_)." Evidently, then he believes as little in the +idea of justice as he does in that of fraternity. As a matter of fact, +he has no moral ideal. + +"There is only one thing in the world that I really value, and that is +beautiful verse; an elegant, harmonious, melodious style; the warmth of +the sun; a picturesque landscape; moonlight nights; antique statues, and +the character in a profile.... I am a fatalist, in fact, like a +Mahometan, and I believe that all that we do for the progress of +humanity is of no use. As to this idea of progress, I am mentally +incapable of grasping such nebulous and dreary conceptions. All the +nonsense talked on this subject simply bores me beyond endurance.... I +cherish a deep respect for the ancient form of tyranny, for to me it is +the finest expression of humanity that has ever been made manifest." "I +have few convictions," he writes to Georges Sand, "but one of those I +have I cherish firmly--it is the conviction that the masses are always +composed of idiots. And yet one may not consider the masses as stupid, +because within them is concealed the seed of an incalculable fecundity +(_d'une fecondite incalculable_)." + +Flaubert makes a half-jesting attempt to contrast the doctrines of the +socialists with his own ideas of the political order of the future. "The +only logical conclusion is an administration consisting of mandarins, if +only these mandarins be possessed of some knowledge, and if possible, +even considerable knowledge. The mass of the people will thus always +remain as minors, and will always hold the lowest place in the hierarchy +of the social orders, seeing that it is composed of unlimited +numbers.... In this lawful aristocracy of the present time is our whole +salvation." ... "Humanity represents nothing new. Its irremediable +worthlessness filled my soul even in my early youth with bitterness. And +that is why I now experience no disappointment. I am convinced that the +crowd, the common herd will always be odious.... Until the time comes +when men shall submit to set up mandarins, and shall have substituted +for the Roman Pope an Academy of Sciences, until that time comes, all +politics, and all society even to its deepest roots, must be merely a +collection of revolting lies (_de blagues ecoeurantes_.)" Nevertheless +in his novel "Bouvard et Pecuchet" Flaubert makes every effort to +destroy faith even in the strength of the principles of science, and to +prove that modern science is as impermanent a structure, as +contradictory and superstitious a system as was the theology of the +Middle Ages. To his disbelief in science Flaubert, moreover, is +constantly giving utterance: thus, for instance, when he comes upon the +Positivism of Comte, he finds this system "unbearably stupid" (_c'est +assommant de betise_). + + + + +V + + +We have thus seen that Flaubert's attempt to reach a compromise with +regard to the preponderating tendency of the age did not succeed; of his +views respecting the structure of society, the only true one is his +insight into the lower classes of the people. "However well you may feed +the animal man, however thickly you gild his stable, even though you +give him the softest and most luxurious litter, still he will ever +remain a beast. The only progress upon which one can count is the effort +to make the beast less of a cannibal. But as to raising the level of his +ideas, or inspiring the masses with a broader conception of God, I +seriously doubt whether this can ever be achieved." + +In another letter he frankly admits that he has no faith, no principles +of morality, no political ideals, and in this admission, wrung from the +depths of his heart, the note of despair is already struck: "In the +present day there seems to be as little possibility of establishing any +new belief as of obtaining respect for the old faith. And so I seek and +fail to find that one idea upon which all the rest should depend." These +few words throw a clearer light on the attitude of Flaubert during the +latter years of his life than anything else. Formerly he had found this +idea in his art, while now he assumes that there is another and higher +basis, upon which art itself must rest; but to find this principle is +beyond his power. He seeks forgetfulness in work, but work only brings +exhaustion, and he is still more dissatisfied. He realises his +singularity, and it draws him out of his objective attitude into that +incomprehensible existence, the very conception of which he himself +denies. + +The real tragedy of his position lies in the fact that he is alone in +the midst of a strange and unknown world. And little by little his +despair reaches its utmost limits: "Whenever I am without a book in my +hand, or whenever I am not writing, such anguish seizes on me that I +simply find myself on the verge of tears." So he writes in a letter to +Georges Sand. "It seems to me that I have literally turned into a +fossil, and that I am deprived of all connection with the universe +around me." "A feeling of universal destruction and agony possesses me, +and I am deathly sad." "When I am tired out from my work, I grow anxious +about myself. No one remembers me, I belong to another sphere. My +professional friends are so little friendly to me." "I pass whole weeks +without exchanging a word with a single human creature, and at the end +of the week I find it hard to recall any special day or any particular +event during the course of that time. On Sundays I see my mother and +niece, and that is all. A gathering of rats in the attic, that is my +whole society. They make an infernal noise over my head, when the rain +is not roaring, and the wind is not howling. The nights are blacker than +coal, and a silence is all around me, infinite as in the desert. One's +senses are terribly sharpened in such surroundings, and my heart starts +beating at the slightest sound." "I am losing myself in the +reminiscences of my youth, like an old man. Of life I ask nothing more, +save a few sheets of paper that I may scratch ink upon. I feel as though +I were wandering through an endless desert, wandering, not knowing +whither; and that at one and the same time, I am the wanderer, and the +camel, and the desert." "One hope alone sustains me, that soon I shall +be parted from life, and that I shall surely find no other existence +that might be still more painful.... No, no! Enough of misery!" + +All his letters to Georges Sand are one weary restless martyr's +confession of the "disease of genius." Sometimes a simple plaint bursts +from him, and in it, through the impenetrable pride of the fighter, can +be detected something soft and broken, as in the voice of a man who is +over-tired. The fury of his enemies, the calumnies of his friends, the +lack of understanding of his critics, no longer wounded his self-pride; +he merely hated them. "All this avalanche of folly neither disturbs nor +grieves me. Only one would prefer to inspire one's fellow men with +pleasant feelings." + +Then finally, even his last consolation--his art--deserts him. "In vain +I gather my strength; the work will not come, will not come. Everything +disturbs and upsets me. In the presence of others I can still control +myself, but when I am alone I often burst into such senseless, spasmodic +tears that I think I am going to die from them." In his declining years, +when he can no longer turn to the past, and no longer correct his life, +he asks himself the question: what if even that beauty, in the name of +which he has destroyed his faith in God, in life, and in humanity, is as +visionary and delusive as all else? What if his art, for the sake of +which he had given up his life, his youth, and happiness, and love, +should have abandoned him on the very edge of the grave? + +"The Shadow is enveloping me," he says, as he realises that the end is +at hand. This exclamation is as the cry of eternal anguish uttered +before his death by another artist, Michael Angelo, the brother of +Flaubert in his ideals and aims and genius: + + "Io parto a mano a mano, + Crescemi ognor piu l'ombra, e il sol vien manco, + E son presso a cadere, infermo e stanco." + + "Inch by inch I sink, + The shadows lengthen, the sun sinks down, + And I am ready to depart, + Broken and weary." + +Death struck him down at his work-table, quite suddenly, like a +thunder-bolt. Dropping his pen from his hand, he sank down lifeless, +killed by his one great, single passion, the love of his art. + +Plato in one of his myths relates how the souls of men travel in +chariots on winged steeds along the heavenly way; to some of whom it is +given after a short time to approach that spot whence is visible the +domain of Ideas; with yearning do they gaze aloft, and a few stray rays +of light fall deep down among them. Then, when these souls are +re-incarnated, to return and suffer on earth, all that is best in the +human heart appeals to them and touches them, as a reflection of some +eternal light, as a confused remembrance of another world, into which it +was granted them to peep for the space of a single moment. + +Surely there must have fallen upon the soul of Flaubert in the glorious +sphere of the imagination a ray of beauty that was perhaps too bright. + + + + +_Printed by Alexander Moring Ltd._ + +_The De La More Press, 32 George Street,_ + +_Hanover Square, London W_ + + + + +[Transcriber's note: To represent italic font, _underscores_ have been +used.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life-Work of Flaubert, by +Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE-WORK OF FLAUBERT *** + +***** This file should be named 33933.txt or 33933.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/9/3/33933/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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